"Death is a hell of a thing. But waking up as a teenager in another universe? That's somehow worse."
Tony Stark opened his eyes and immediately regretted it. The ceiling above him was dull and cracked. The smell—dust and old tatami mats. The mattress beneath his back? Lumpy as hell. And the room was filled with a ridiculous number of All Might posters.
He blinked.
"Okay… No champagne. No suits. Definitely not Malibu."
He sat up slowly, glancing around the cramped, cluttered room. It screamed teenage obsession and secondhand ambition.
"This isn't my place. Not my bed. Not even my face."
He looked down at his hands—smaller, thinner. No ARC reactor. No scars from solder burns or shrapnel. He stumbled over to the cracked phone on the desk and angled it toward his face.
Green hair. Freckles. Big eyes.
"What the hell?"
He touched his cheek, blinking slowly. A name came with it—like a flood gate cracking open.
Izuku Midoriya. Age 14. Quirkless. Total cinnamon roll. Class 3-B, Aldera Junior High. No friends. Massive All Might simp.
Tony swayed and grabbed the edge of the desk.
"Midoriya… "
He let out a short, humorless laugh.
"Well, I always said I wanted a fresh start. Should've been more specific."
—
The memories came in waves—sharp, jagged, and loaded with emotion. A life filled with rejection, quiet pain, and relentless analysis. A boy who was ignored, mocked, and beaten down by a world that defined worth by power.
Tony pressed his fingers to his temple, taking deep breaths.
"Okay, focus. This isn't some twisted AI upload. I'm not in the Soul Stone. I'm not hallucinating. This is real."
He sat down again. There was a slight tremble in his legs. Not from fear—well, maybe a little—but mostly from the reality sinking in.
"No suit. No lab. No JARVIS. No Happy. No Pepper."
He stared at his reflection again.
"You're 14. You have a single mom. You're living in a Quirk-based society. And you're broke. Fantastic."
But even as despair scratched at the edge of his thoughts, something else rose with it.
A challenge.
A familiar fire.
"No. I've faced worse. I am worse. I came back from a cave in Afghanistan with a box of scraps."
Tony stood, brushing off the wrinkled green pajamas that Midoriya had apparently passed off as loungewear.
"If I'm stuck here, I'm going to play the game. But I'll do it my way."
He looked at the All Might poster above the desk.
"Step one: burn that."