Chapter 1: Waking Up is Hard To Do
"Ugh… my head."
That was, like, the first thought I had. Not exactly profound, I know. Not some super-philosophical musing about the nature of existence or the afterlife. Nope. Just a good ol' fashioned headache. It felt like someone had taken a jackhammer to my skull. A really enthusiastic jackhammer operator.
I tried to open my eyes, but it was like they were glued shut. Seriously, what was up with that? I pried them open eventually, blinking against the too-bright light. Everything was blurry at first, all soft edges and indistinct colors. Gradually, though, things started to sharpen.
Okay, so, not my bedroom. That was immediately obvious. My bedroom back… wherever… was a disaster zone. Clothes strewn everywhere, posters peeling off the walls, a half-eaten bag of chips precariously balanced on my desk. This? This was… pristine. White walls, minimalist furniture, sunlight streaming through a ridiculously clean window. Seriously, had a cleaning service been through here? And if so, who hired them? Because I definitely couldn't afford it.
I tried to sit up, and that's when things got weird. Really weird.
First of all, my body felt… different. Lighter, somehow. More… agile? And definitely smaller. I mean, I wasn't exactly a giant before, but I wasn't this… compact. I sat up, a wave of dizziness washing over me. Okay, new body, probably not used to sitting up so fast. Fair enough. Definitely smaller. I glanced down at my hands. Small, chubby hands. Hands that definitely didn't belong to my twenty year old self.
Okay, panic was starting to set in. I mean, being kidnapped was a legitimate concern, right? Especially since the last thing I remembered was… well, that's the thing. I couldn't remember. It was all fuzzy and indistinct, like trying to recall a dream from a week ago. I knew I had a life, a home, friends… maybe? But the specifics? Gone. Vanished. Poof.
"Hello?" I croaked, my voice sounding unfamiliar. Higher pitched than I remembered, too. Definitely not my voice. "Is anyone there?"
Silence.
Great. Just great.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed, wincing as my head protested with another wave of throbbing pain. Still, gotta move. Gotta figure out what the heck was going on.
The floor was cool beneath my bare feet. I stood up, feeling a little unsteady, and took a tentative step. Then another. Okay, walking seemed to work. So far, so good.
I made my way to the window, pulling back the curtain to get a better look at the world outside. And that's when my brain officially short-circuited.
Because what I saw wasn't anything I recognized.
Towering skyscrapers pierced the sky, their surfaces gleaming in the sunlight. And the people! Oh god, the people. Some of them had… things. Like, actual things that weren't normal. One guy had what looked like metal wings sprouting from his back. Another was surrounded by floating rocks. And was that woman walking around with a literal plant growing out of her head?
"What… the… actual…," I muttered, my voice trailing off into stunned silence.
This wasn't Earth. At least, not the Earth I knew. Unless… unless I'd somehow stumbled into some weird, hyper-advanced, cosplay convention on steroids. But even that seemed unlikely.
I stumbled back from the window, my mind reeling. This had to be a dream, right? A really, really vivid and unsettling dream. I pinched myself. Hard.
Ouch.
Okay, not a dream.
Then what? Kidnapped and drugged? Transported to another dimension? (Please, no.) Or… could it be…?
No. No way. That was just crazy talk. Fanfiction fodder. Pure, unadulterated, geeky wish fulfillment.
But… what if?
I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart. Okay, think. Think logically. What were the possibilities? And what was the most… entertaining possibility? (Hey, if I was going to be stuck in some bizarre situation, I might as well try to enjoy it, right?)
I surveyed the room again, searching for clues. Anything that could give me a hint as to where I was, or how I got here. My eyes landed on a desk in the corner. On it sat a small stack of papers, a pen, and… a mirror.
I walked over to the mirror, my heart pounding in my chest. This was it. This was the moment of truth.
I looked into the mirror. And stared back at a face I didn't recognize. What stared back at me was… not me. At least, not the me I remembered.
It was a kid. Maybe four or five years old? Short, spiky black hair, dark eyes, and round chubby face. He wasn't ugly, exactly, but he definitely wasn't me. I was a mess. A complete and utter disaster zone. This kid looked… well, he looked like he had potential. stared back at me, wide with confusion and a healthy dose of… terror?
Nope. This was officially beyond weird. This was full-blown, reality-bending, what-the-heck-is-going-on territory.
"Oh… my… god," I whispered, my voice trembling. "I've been… reincarnated."
Okay, so maybe "reincarnated" wasn't the right word. Maybe it was "transmigrated" or "isekai'd" or some other equally geeky term. But the point was, I was in a different body, in a different world. And judging by the winged guy and the floating rocks, it was a world with… powers.
Superpowers??
Oh. My. God.
Actual Superpowers!!.
I burst out laughing, a hysterical, slightly unhinged sound that echoed in the empty room. This was insane! Absolutely, utterly, ridiculously insane! And… kind of awesome.
I mean, sure, being ripped away from my old life (whatever that was) sucked. And the whole memory loss thing was a major bummer. But… superpowers! Heroes! Villains! This was the stuff of dreams! (Or, you know, fanfiction.)
I took another deep breath, trying to get my bearings. Okay, new body, new world, new… everything. Time to figure out the lay of the land.
I turned back to the desk and grabbed the stack of papers. They were… some kind of school documents? In Japanese, of course. Which, thankfully, I could somehow read. Guess that was part of the reincarnation package. Instant language acquisition. Not bad.
I scanned the papers, piecing together bits of information. My new name was… Kenjiro Ito. I was apparently a student at… some kind of Kindergarten? And I lived with… my parents? I flipped through the papers, until i cme across something called a Quirk. But there was nothing. Nada. Zilch.Blank
"Great," I muttered. "Just great. I'm stuck in a new world that i don't know about, in the body of a random kid. This is going to be fun."
Suddenly, a loud knock echoed from the door. I froze, my heart leaping into my throat.
"Kenjiro? Are you awake? Breakfast is ready!" A woman's voice called out from the other side.
My… mother?
Okay, deep breaths. Time to play it cool. Act normal. (Or, you know, as normal as you can act when you've been reincarnated into a superhero universe.)
"Uh… yeah! Just a minute!" I called back, trying to sound like a normal, non-reincarnated kid.
I took one last look in the mirror, smoothed down my hair, and plastered a (hopefully) convincing smile on my face.
"Here we go," I whispered to myself. "Showtime."
I opened the door and stepped out into the unknown.
The breakfast was… interesting. My "mother" was a kind-looking woman with warm eyes and a gentle smile. She bustled around the kitchen, making small talk about school and the weather, while I tried my best to nod and smile and pretend like I knew what she was talking about.
The food was… different. Not bad, exactly, but definitely not what I was used to. Rice, miso soup, some kind of pickled vegetables… it was all very… Japanese.
My "father" was a more reserved man, with a serious expression and a quiet demeanor. He mostly just ate his breakfast and read the newspaper, occasionally grunting in response to something my "mother" said.
The whole scene felt… surreal. Like I was watching a movie, or reading a book. It wasn't my life. It was someone else's. And yet, here I was, living it.
"So, Kenjiro," my "mother" said, breaking the silence. "Are you excited about the Quirk assessment today?"
My heart skipped a beat. The Quirk assessment? Is it what they call powers in this world? Kids got their Quirks??(i guess) evaluated at a certain age to see what they could do.
"Uh… yeah!" I said, a little too enthusiastically. "Super excited!"
"Don't get too worked up," my "father" grunted, without looking up from his paper. "It's just a test. Doesn't mean anything."
"Now, now, Hiroki," my "mother" chided. "Don't discourage him. He might have a wonderful Quirk!"
"Or he might have a useless one," my "father" retorted. "Like mine."
Okay, that was… interesting. So my "father" had a Quirk that he considered useless? That could be… problematic. Especially if I ended up with a similar Quirk.
I finished my breakfast in silence, my mind racing. The Quirk assessment was today. That meant I had to figure out what my Quirk was. And fast.
After breakfast, I went back to my room and locked the door. Time for some serious experimentation.
I started with the basics. Trying to move things with my mind. Nothing. Trying to shoot lasers out of my eyes. Also nothing. Trying to… well, you get the idea. I tried everything I could think of, from super strength to telekinesis to elemental manipulation. But no matter what I did, nothing happened.
"Come on, come on," I muttered, frustration building. "There has to be something!"
I paced around the room, racking my brain. What kind of Quirk would a kid like Kenjiro Ito have? What kind of Quirk would be useful in this world? What kind of Quirk would…
My head started to spin again. I needed to sit down. I needed a plan. I needed… coffee.
Okay, scratch that last one. Coffee was probably out of the question for a five-year-old. Maybe juice?
Phhheww
(Slap Slap)
Let's just relax for a bit a figure out
I focused my attention on my hands, trying to feel… something. Anything. And then..... Nothing, absolutely nothing. Guess i'll just wait for the assesment then, maybe i gotta do that before i activate my quirk?
But first i gotta find out what kind of world i am.
I knew that if I wanted to survive in this world, I needed to be prepared. And that meant knowing everything I could about the challenges that lay ahead.
The Quirk assessment was in a few hours. Time to get ready to show the world what Kenjiro Ito could do.
Or, you know, what I could do.
This was going to be interesting.