I wake to antiseptic air, a too-white ceiling, and someone else's hands.
They're mine—calloused, slimmer than I remember—but not the hands that scrolled through fan theories at 3 a.m. A softly beeping heart monitor keeps time with the fog in my head until a blue notification slices it in half.
[Sentai System Online]
User: Sato Renji
Vital Status: Stable
Starter Morph Unlocked: Crimson Vanguard
Directive: Be the hero you wanted someone else to be.
…Okay. Dream? Delirium? Elaborate prank show?
The floor trembles. A boom thunders from below; screams rise like a flock of birds. The window shows a street split by panic—smoke, flashing lights, and a serpent-thin villain made of glistening black sludge whipping a tendril through a crushed taxi.
"Villain attack! Everybody away from the windows!" a nurse yells, yanking my curtain aside. She freezes when she sees I'm already halfway out of bed, IV dangling like a tail.
"Sir, you can't—"
The sludge villain slaps a tendril against the hospital wall. Glass fractures with a spiderweb crack.
I don't think. The word crawls up my throat, equal parts memory and instinct.
"…It's Morphin Time."
My right hand curls around nothing—and finds a weight. A red, angular device—half wristband, half phone—slides into place like it's always belonged.
[Morpher: Online]
Call Sign: Crimson Vanguard
Morph Sequence: Affirmed
A scarlet circuit races across my skin. The world tilts; a blazing wash of red armor folds over me—breastplate snapping shut, visor sealing with a soft hiss. For one bright second I am every Saturday morning I ever loved.
Strength floods my muscles. Noise sharpens. Fear becomes geometry.
I vault the bed, kick the window out in a hail of glittering glass, and land in the street three stories below like I meant to. People flee around me. The sludge villain swivels, eye sockets bubbling.
"A costume hero…? Never seen your face. Fresh meat."
"New menu," I say, and the suit answers my thought. A crimson sword forms out of light, humming with a chord I feel in my ribs.
He lunges. I step, cut, pivot. The blade carves a clean arc; the tendril thunks to the asphalt and melts into oily puddle. A fire hydrant hisses steam where a car's hood used to be. My HUD measures angles and force distribution automatically—like a rhythm game taped over reality.
A lanky kid with messy green hair and a hero-analysis notebook stares at me from behind a lamppost, eyes wide. Midoriya Izuku. My skull rings like a bell. MHA. This is that world. And I have—what—the Morphin Grid?
Focus.
The villain splits into three snakes and lashes. I call the move before I make it. "Crimson Cutback."
The sword sings. My suit auto-stabilizes; red linework on the blade flares, and the arc becomes a crescent that slices through all three tendrils, scattering sludge like jelly confetti.
Sirens approach. The villain tries to slip into a sewer grate. "Oh no you don't."
I jam the sword downward. "Crimson Lock!"
The blade's tip blooms with a grapple of hardlight, clamping the grate shut. The villain hammers the bars from below and finds no give.
A pro hero with a cement motif—Cementoss—arrives with police, walls up the street with a quick wave. "Nice containment," he says, giving me a assessing look. "New agency?"
"Freelance," I say, because the truth is a headache I'm not ready to have. "Temporary gig."
By the time reporters arrive, the suit demorphs on its own, red light peeling away. I'm left in a hospital gown and slippers, holding a sword that dissolves into dust like a dream.
The green-haired kid steps forward, trembling. "That was… incredible. Your Quirk—are you—"
The words come out before doubt can. "Sentai."
He blinks. "Like… Super Sentai?"
"Something like that." I scratch my cheek and try for a reassuring smile. "You'll make it too."
"Make… what?"
"UA."
He goes very still. Then very red. "I—uh—I—thank you!"
He runs. He'll tell no one. Not yet. Good.
I look up at the broken hospital window and feel the timeline shift under my feet like sand.
[Sentai System Update]
Threat Contained: Sludge Class D
Sync Progress: 7%
Skill Tree Node Available: Crimson Vanguard — "Cutback Refinement I"
Side Effect Discovered: Color Strain (Red): Elevated aggression; monitor heart rate.
"Color Strain?" I mutter. The nurse from earlier has the same expression as the pro hero: curious and ninety percent annoyed.
"Back to bed," she says. "Hero or not, you're getting discharged properly."
I sigh and follow, hands that aren't mine in pockets that aren't mine, a grin I can't help biting back.
Be the hero you wanted someone else to be, huh?
Deal.