The phone buzzed in my hand, and for a second, I thought it was another mundane notification. But when I flipped it open, the screen glared red, almost burning into my eyes.
There was a new message...
"Hello world, if you're reading this, that means you have fully reached it… You are right now 776 hours away from when the real plot starts… You do have a quirk despite what your memories might tell you… It's called 'Eternal Steal.' It does what it says; you can pretty much steal any person's quirk, you just have to be closer than 10 feet to the person you want to steal the quirk from… but you only have one use; you can only steal one any quirk, even One for All… Anyway, I wish you luck on behalf of your state right now being troublesome."
I stared at the glowing words, my thumb frozen over the keypad. The letters weren't just words. They burned. My chest tightened, like the message had crawled past my eyes and branded itself into my bones.
"What the… hell?" I whispered.
There was no sender. No number. No trace of anything. The message didn't belong here. It was like the phone itself had spat it out just for me.
And yet, instead of breaking down, my brain flipped a switch. The sobbing and the panic from earlier—it drained out of me, leaving behind something cold, sharp, and fast.
'776 hours… that's about 32 days. A month. Whoever wrote this knows something about what's coming. Knows me. Knows this world. Or maybe… they're the reason I'm here.'
I felt the gears in my mind grind harder than they ever had.
'Numbers are so clinical and detached, like they've already mapped everything out. Luck on behalf of my "state"? That means they're responsible for dumping me into this body. Responsible for Ryuga. For me being… here.'
My lips pressed tight. My heart raced, but my thoughts only got sharper.
'Who is it? God? Some higher being? Or just… some asshole with a god complex? No, think logically. If they could bring me here, they don't have to be divine—the devil? Santa Claus?! or the cat, which I used to call Red Rat!? It could be anyone?! No, no, focus. What the shit am I thinking about? Ugh, there are too many possibilities...'
I paced the room, gripping the flip phone so tight it creaked.
'What if it's a prank? What if I'm in a coma and this is all some delusion? No… no, this is too structured for a dream. Too sharp, too detailed. My head hurts from thinking, but I know this is real. I wouldn't imagine this much nonsense on my own.'
I shut the phone, teeth grinding. "Goddamn it… I hate not knowing something."
The room felt smaller by the second. I needed space. I pushed into the bathroom again and caught my reflection in the mirror.
The pale-haired boy stared back at me, eyes dull, skin soft, face fattened by childhood. Not me. Not who I remembered being.
I scoffed. "Ryuga… what a cool name for such a loser."
I ran a hand down my face, trying to feel something familiar, but all I felt was a stranger's skin.
"And yet… this loser actually does have a quirk, huh?" My lips twisted into something between a grin and a grimace.
Eternal Steel.
A quirk that let me take anything. Anything. But only once. A loaded gun with one bullet.
"Hell, the kid probably never knew he had it. How could he? It's not flashy, not obvious; it's one of those quirks that you'd live your whole life thinking you're quirkless until one day, you weren't."
I leaned against the sink, water running as I splashed my face. Cold drops slid down my cheeks. I stared at the ripples and muttered, "Eternal Steal… but who the hell should I use it on? Someone from the main cast? One for All? All for One? Christ, do the movies even count as canon in this world?!"
My laugh was harsh, bouncing off the walls. "You could've at least given me more info, you bastard, whoever you are!"
The water stopped. My hands gripped the sink. My eyes locked on the face in the mirror.
My mind unraveled the world of My Hero Academia, dragging memories out of my brain like loose wires.
'Ugh, it's such a shit show when you think about it… The ending? A straight-up war arc. Brute force everywhere. Technology? Nonexistent. Strategy? Barely worth shit. The smart characters were there, sure, but they were all starved of information.
It wasn't stupidity—it was blindness. If Nezu or anyone half as smart had been given the truth, half of those tragedies could've been prevented. But no. Instead, the whole world kept stumbling forward with scraps of knowledge. In a modern world, a world with quirks and chaos, the biggest problem wasn't power—it was ignorance.'
I tilted my head back and laughed again, bitterly. "Pathetic. Honestly pathetic. In a world where information should spread faster than the common cold, no one could find All for One… No one could stop any of the villains' plans… Fuck, no one even saw it happening… Hell, no one even caught the traitor in UA until the traitor himself just gave up…"
My throat burned. I wiped my face with the nearest towel and stepped out of the bathroom. My body still felt weak and unsteady, but my mind… my mind was moving like a machine on fire.
I sat down on the bed, phone beside me, and closed my eyes. Deep breaths in and out. I needed control. Needed clarity.
Crack.
The sound made my eyes snap open.
The door creaked as it opened, slow and deliberate.
A woman's figure stood in the frame, her head tilted low. Her voice was soft, careful, and almost trembling.
"Um… dinner is ready…"
And just as quickly, the door clicked shut again.
I froze.
I knew her. I the memories flooded out…
Emiko Sakamoto. Ryuga's mother.
The phone on the desk sat dark and silent. My reflection lingered in my head. My pulse thudded in my ears.
'What the fuck…'