Chapter Text
I stood, looking up at the gates of UA.
I still couldn't believe I was actually here. About to take the entrance exam.
‘This is it.’ I thought to myself. ‘The culmination of years of work and preparation… all that time strategizing, training…’
I heard a yelp, and just sighed as I saw my friend Izuku floating in midair, apparently mid trip.
A round faced girl was standing nearby, having obviously just used her quirk on him. He fell back to earth, thankfully on his feet, as she touched her hands together to cancel her antigravity.
‘Ah, right, Ochaco. Knew I still was forgetting about something today.’
From his spot on my shoulder, Eevee just let out a huff of amusement, as if he could read my mind.
I still wasn't entirely sure if he could or not.
…..
Maybe I should back up a little bit?
My name is…well, my *current* name is Alexander Oak. I don't actually remember what it was before I ended up here.
There's a lot I don't remember, actually, which at times has definitely come back to bite me in the ass. Or bite those around me in the ass.
And part of me still isn't sure if… I usually call the other guy Red since I don't remember my old name. But I'm still not sure if Red ended up in Alexander’s body, or if Alexander suddenly got some of Red’s memories along with my quirk.
Yeah, that's right, quirk.
I remember enough to know that in another universe, this world was an Anime/manga, called My Hero Academia- at least in English.
I didn't inherit all the details or plot outline though, which, like I said, has had its upsides and downsides over the years.
I also remember that in that other universe, a major franchise existed called Pokemon. In fact, it was the biggest IP of all time.
Yet that franchise doesn't exist in this world.
The only echo is my own quirk.
Maybe that's the best place to start actually- the day I got my quirk, the day I was set on a path to become a hero…
“Wake up Alex, or we’ll be late! This is your first day, you want to make a good impression!”
I groggily rubbed my eyes as I sat up, and froze as I did so.
My hands felt… too small. All of me did, despite another part of me knowing that I was exactly the same size I'd been when I went to sleep last night.
That first part of me was freaking out, for it knew just as strongly I hadn't been a child yesterday.
It was a lot for a kid to process. Or a kid's brain at least.
But then, another thought cut through the panic. 'What if this is part of getting my quirk finally?'
I looked down at my feet, wiggling my toes, specifically the pinky toe. I didn't have the extra joint, the doctors had already checked, so I knew it had to be coming in any day now.
Before moving to Japan, I'd been the last kid in my class without a quirk.
“Do you need help getting dressed?”
“Mom! I'm old enough to get dressed by myself!” I shouted back, pouting as I grabbed my clothes from where they were set out nearby.
‘At least Izuku doesn't have one yet either, so that'll be something to kinda bond over.’
I froze at the thought in the middle of swapping out of my pajamas. I didn't know how I knew that.
I could clearly picture his face in my mind, but also knew I'd never met him before in my life. I also didn't know why I'd specifically thought ‘yet’.
I was shaking a little as I walked downstairs into the dining room. That at least felt unfamiliar to all of me, since the move was still recent.
“Uh, mom?” I asked as she looked up from her tablet, already dressed in scrubs. “Remind me what your quirk is called again?”
She sighed good naturedly. “Sweetie, I know you're worried about your quirk coming in, but it'll happen when it's meant to happen.”
“I know, it's just… I kinda feel… weird this morning.” I frowned a little, my own words sounding odd to me for some reason too.
“Do you feel sick?” She asked, in English instead of Japanese.
I belatedly realized that was why I had sounded weird. Which also felt weird, because although I didn't speak it quite as well as I did English, I'd still been speaking it for almost a year and half by now. …Hadn't I?
“I don't know. My tummy doesn't hurt, but my brain feels… funny.”
“Do you need some Tylenol?” She knelt down and pressed a hand to my forehead. “You don't seem to have a fever.”
I didn't answer, too busy looking at her face. A face that was simultaneously one I had known for my entire life, and one that was completely unfamiliar to me.
She had brown hair, and a soft smile, but it was her eyes that held my attention. The Irises were pink, a color that part of me saw as completely normal, and set off a response another part of me somehow called the uncanny valley. It was a shade that wouldn't have been normal, couldn't have been normal for a human in the era before quirks.
I suddenly realized I hadn't looked in the mirror that morning, and the thought made my stomach twist with anxiety.
“I think you may just be nervous about starting at a new school.” She finally reassured me, apparently misunderstanding my silence. “Why don't you go ahead and get some breakfast?” She continued, switching back to Japanese.
I didn't respond, simply nodding. Even though I had no proof, I was entirely sure whatever was happening was part of my quirk.
'But what is my quirk?'
I pondered that all the way on the drive to school, and as my mom dropped me off.
But then I saw *him.* The kid whose face I already knew.
And another that was… strangely familiar too, but the expression on it wasn't. He actually looked… happy, to be walking with the other kid.
‘Because he still thinks Izuku will eventually get a quirk, and he doesn't exclusively call him Deku quite yet.’
I shook away the thought. ‘Am I able to see the future?! Is that my quirk?’
Something about it didn't quite feel right though. And I didn't know what that meant either.
I tried to be casual as I walked closer, like it was just the fact we were going into the same classroom.
Izuku and Katsuki both glanced at me as I got closer, and I gave an awkward smile and wave, half to distract myself from the fact I somehow knew their names already.
How I already knew the greenette was quirkless, or that the blonde already had his explosive quirk that would make teachers praise him.
“Oh, you must be that new transfer student from America.” Izuku realized with a smile.
I nodded, deciding to go along with it. It made as much sense as anything else about today. Them knowing that much about me was certainly less weird than what I somehow knew about either of them.
“So what's your quirk?” Bakago blurted out, eyeing me with a mix of curiosity and challenge.
“I'm… not sure how to say it in this language.” I answered carefully. “And shouldn't you at least be asking my name first?”
“Kacchan is just like that.” Izuku said, sounding apologetic.
“Oh, nice to meet you Kacchan.” I deliberately addressed him as such, and that foreknowing part of me made the decision to only call him that when I saw how much it annoyed him.
Bakugo’s face looked like he'd eaten a lemon, but Izuku introduced himself before he could correct the nickname.
“I'm… I guess it's Oak Alexander since that's the order here?”
But the fact I'd known both their names already just felt that much weirder. ‘On the one hand, proof I'm not just crazy. On the other…’
I started looking around at the other kids as they filtered in, but none of them triggered the same weird sensation. A kid with wings growing out of his back gave me a minor case of deja vu, but not to the same degree.
Nor did the kid with extendable fingers that greeted Bakugo.
Strangest was when a window accidentally gave me my first view of my face since everything started.
I ran my fingers through my hair like I was fixing it, hoping that would be a good enough excuse for staring at myself like I was.
That new uncomfortable part of me had expected my eyes to be pink like my mother's, but instead the irises were red around the top of the pupil, and a pale silver around the bottom half. It actually made her eyes seem normal by comparison.
My hair was also light brown like hers, but had a crimson stripe running down through my bangs.
The face was familiar- but also not. That new part of my mind recognized it, but as a younger version, more well known through photos than memories.
‘So maybe my quirk actually sent my own mind back in time?’ I thought to myself. ‘Except… no. The hair shouldn't have the stripe, and my eyes should be brown instead of…multicolored.’
I tried to put it out of my mind, just trying to focus on getting through the day.
But then around lunchtime, I noticed my hand was starting to itch, especially the palm. And my eyes widened when I looked at it.
It was like it had been suddenly tattooed. It was a circle, half red and half white, with a black line dividing them, also surrounding a smaller circle in the center. The same half and half as my own eyes, but the middle was white rather than having the black pupil.
‘A Pokeball?!... Wait, what is a Pokeball, and how do I know that that is what's on my hand right now?’
“Uh, are you okay?”
I looked up to see Izuku staring at me with concern.
“I just um, noticed you don't look well and you also were staring at yourself, and-”
Before I could cut off his muttering storm, the skin of my palm suddenly started swelling and stretching. It was bizarre, almost like an itch combined with a numbness, and yet it also wasn't painful. In mere seconds, I was holding a three dimensional copy of the image on my palm.
And as I shifted it in my hand to look at it, the orb tripled in size.
“...that's new.” I said numbly, both halves in total agreement this time.
“Whoa, you mean you just got your quirk?!”
I nodded, not quite trusting myself to speak.
“You can summon little ball things?” Bakugo came over, his future cronies following him. “Pssh, what sorta lame quirk is that?”
I gave him an annoyed look, ignoring the fact that I wasn't entirely sure either.
But something about it…it gave me that same odd familiarity. I used my left hand to brush the bangs out of my face, then brought my right foot back.
Words sprang to my lips, unbidden, instinctive. “I choose you!”
The other kids watched the ball fly, watched it pop open in midair and watched the red energy that shot out of it.
They watched the red energy take shape, watched as it take on a form I somehow already knew.
A handful watched the way the empty ball bounced off the ground and the way my hand snapped up to catch it with a reflex beyond human norms.
But my own eyes were locked on the creature that appeared as the red light faded, blinking and shaking itself awake, looking around curiously.
It was clearly mammalian, but it was hard to tell if it was a dog, a cat, a fox, or something else entirely. It was mostly brown, with a bushy tail tipped in white, and a fluffy collar of the same lighter fur around its chest and neck. It had large, expressive ears, and oversized, adorable eyes.
“Eevee?” It cocked its head, looking at me.
I stared back at the Pokemon I'd somehow just… created. ‘My favorite Pokemon too…at least, it was my favorite, but it also didn't exist before. But neither did Deku, or All Might, or quirks.’
‘Oh, that's why my brain is so all over the place today. I got isekaied.’
I wondered why I couldn't actually see anything else but the Eevee, before realizing my vision was going black because I was fainting.
‘Yep, that seems like the logical response right now.’ was my last thought before I hit the ground, and my last sight was seeing my concerned Pokemon rushing towards me.