[A/N:
I'm coming out of the gate to say this now, this story is 70% plot, 30% "PLOT".
The reasoning is simple, real relationships have sex, it's how you and I got here, and in a world where people can have animalistic traits, I don't see why herding, heat, harems and so on wouldn't be a thing or, at the very least, accepted by society with a few laws.
I mean, you could be born with a box for a head or have toasters for hands in MHA, hell what if your Quirk required or influenced you to have multiple partners?
What then?
Anyways, I wrote this because there is a severe lack of pre-canon fics when compared to something like naruto that has so many I lost count. Of course, there is a lot more to work with in Naruto, that plus interesting lore but my point still stands , I find myself interested in pre-canon dynamics and also the waifus that are offered.
Honestly, I may be way in over my head, but oh well, let's hope I don't burn what I'm cooking.
Moving on….
This starts slow, there is a heavy focus on character development, relationship development, world development, and Quirk development. Strong to stronger to OP will happen, but it won't be immediate.
There will be real stakes, the darker parts of the world will be explored, people will die, the MC will kill.
It's still a feel-good story in the end though, kind of…
I hope you enjoy reading. I have the entire first arc typed out and will release it in two chapters a week, then there will most likely be one long chapter a week, maybe more if this picks up steam.
Also, I have to ask if genderbending some characters to make things interesting and spice things up would be cool, so go ahead and vote below, I don't mind either way. The decision will be made when the first mini arc is over.
Choice 1: Yes, we are tapping Fem! All Might!!
Choice 2: No brother, has the gooning got to your head that much? We must stay the course!
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I was tired.
Tired of the fake smiles, the handshakes with people I barely cared about, the constant need to evaluate every action I took or make sure my words matched perfectly with what the company needed, and I was tired of the small talk.
God, if there was one thing I hated more than anything, it was small talk.
Sorry Julia, I will and would never care about how your daughter was doing, no matter how many times you told me.
And honestly, right after that, it would be money.
Although, let it be known that it could indeed buy happiness, but the only way to keep said happiness was if you could continue to afford it.
The lavish cars, the repairs of said super cars that seemed to break at any strong gust of wind, the parties I threw for another record year, the women I would shower in gifts to keep me company on lonely nights spent within a house big enough to fit my ego, countless debts from my own errant expenditures clawing at my bank accounts, and the image curated over most of my life I had to always keep relevant with market trends.
Exhausting, all of it, and despite my underlying hate for money, I was more than smart enough to know I couldn't live without it.
Just, it felt like my life had become a play, one I was already too deep in to revise the script. Forced to dance along for a crowd of strangers until I died from exhaustion, just for yet another hopeful and power hungry actor to take my place.
Truthfully, and no matter how harsh it sounded, I had never been happier in my life when I started hydroplaning.
Of course, in the moment I was panicking, hands gripping hard on a steering wheel that fought me tooth and nail for every ounce of control. Whatever super car I had been driving for the day whipping sideways as the metal railing of a bridge came blurring closer in mere moments I was able to see it.
Then it hit, and because I had been going well over the speed limit, I also went right past it as the metal coffin I was in grew weightless after I sailed over the edge.
I knew the water below was fast approaching, but I didn't scream or close my eyes in horror.
Instead, my shoulders relaxed, and I relished in the feeling of the seat belt tightening around my chest as I floated up from the free fall.
My eyes settled on the raging storm clouds above, not finding anger and scorn at the very thing that had played a part in my current demise.
There was beauty in its violence, the strike of purple and blue lighting across the sky and the drums of hard rain mesmerizing for the few seconds I had left.
Surprisingly, a genuine smile spread across my face, a passing thought wondering if in my next life I could find joy in things not bought, have friends not by my side to shower me in compliments but spewed lies and baseless rumors behind my back the next.
And maybe, just maybe, a wife that I wouldn't have to fear loved me only for my money and name.
Well, I could only hope, but I was never the selfless type, so my odds of gaining such an opportunity were next to null.
I had done plenty of unsavory things to vye for even a few scant seconds at the top of the mountain, had suffered snow storm after snow storm, not caring of the sunken and frozen corpses I had brought along with me to keep warm before tossing them aside; all for that view, to sit at the pinnacle to satisfy my ambition.
I had…I had killed people, inadvertently and with enough distance from the transaction that my name was as squeaky clean as a newly minted coin, but in the end, it still two faced all the same.
Maybe this was punishment, divine or happenstance, but either way, the water below was getting closer.
Predictably though, leave it to my own arrogance to try and understand the laws of things beyond human comprehension, because when I finally impacted water at a velocity that made it hard as concrete, cried in pain as most of my body broke, and finally drowned on the gallons of liquid that rushed into the vehicle to embrace me; I hadn't really expected to ever open my eyes again.
I was partially right in a sense, as in the faintness of my consciousness fading, I heard it before I actually saw it.
Beeping, dull rhythmic beats that tingled my ears, rousing me from whatever darkness had temporarily consumed me.
Blinking away the spots in my vision, I sat up, taking one long sweep of my immediate surroundings in hopes of figuring out what my version of Hell was going to look like.
I expected to see my office, because having to be in it for eternity sounded like the truest sense of torture.
I also believed the devil would have a sense of humor, maybe manifesting it by always making sure the coffee the new intern brought was always cold.
Yet, bizarrely and in all its glory, was a small room that clearly belonged to a child with its bright yellow painted walls, a stark red door with a smiley face on it, horribly drawn stick figures on paper taped to a board, posters about treating people as equals here and there, and even a carpet that looked like a race car track taking up the majority of the floor.
I glanced down at myself, surprised to see I was tucked into a small twin bed with a cover that depicted all the planets, the cloth pulled so tight to the point it was almost suffocating.
I swallowed hard, forgetting if the devil did indeed have a pension for laughs, it was going to be twisted.
Struggling a bit, I managed to pull my arms free, noticing almost immediately the pure exhaustion that gripped me from the small action, my breathing already labored as I grabbed at the edges of my blanket and yanked.
I was too weak, so I stopped, simply content to catch my breath while letting my foggy consciousness slowly clear.
I reached up to my temple, surprised to not feel any sign of an injury, not even a scar, but it was also while feeling for it that I brushed against the tips of my hair.
Furrowing my brow, I slowly pulled a lock down, eyes growing wide as I saw pure white hair, not the blonde it should have been.
My heart began to race, and before my panic attack could grip me in full, a small click grabbed my attention.
I turned to the red door that opened, rendered speechless as a jacked man wearing a sunflower mask for a head and a pink apron stepped in.
He had a metal stand, some medical equipment, and an IV bag.
I watched closely as he hummed the tune of twinkle twinkle little star, his beady black eyes completely focused on what he was holding.
"E-excuse me?"
I froze, immediately bringing a hand up to my throat, haunted to hear it was entirely different, and in a language I had no right understanding; let alone speaking.
Japanese.
"Oh dear…"
The sunflower masked man was looking at me now, surprise clearly evident on those beady black eyes that looked real, some part of me understanding it clearly not a mask.
A wave of deja vu suddenly gripped me, and I somehow understood I had seen this guy before.
"You weren't supposed to wake up. A little surprising I must say."
The smile that stretched across his—its— face made goosebumps run down my spine, and I started looking around for a weapon I might have to use.
I didn't get much time to even do that, the creature clapping with its bulging arms to create a sound that made me wince from how loud it was.
"I must tell Master little one, you have caught his eye and he has been looking forward to seeing you." The creature stalked over, getting on one knee and reaching out one of its giant hands to pat my head. "You can call me Caretaker-san or Haruaki-san, I have kept you clean, fed you, and kept you healthy for a very very long time."
I swallowed hard, sweat already forming as I slowly nodded, not at all feeling good about this abomination touching me in the slightest.
'But what does it mean a very long time, what the hell is it talking about?'
I tried to form my best smile, "How long was I out for um… Caretaker-san?"
The utter joy emitting from its face was disgusting, but I kept my true feelings hidden as I continued to smile.
"Seven years, but we will speak more on it later. Now get ready to meet Master, I am sure he already knows you are awake." Caretaker-san put a heavy hand on my shoulder. "There is a bathroom down the hall, the big pretty blue one, go freshen up."
My entire body froze when his grip tightened, "Okay?"
I nodded, still shocked by what the hell was going on to refuse right now.
Thankfully, Caretaker-san nodded once and turned, leaving without another word and the door clicking shut.
I finally breathed, my mind going a hundred miles a second as thought after thought came to me.
Why was I alive?
I knew I died, drowning with a punctured lung and broken limbs to such an excruciating degree of pain didn't simply fade away.
No, it just had happened seconds ago, and I found my arms wrapping around me in a hug, hoping to banish the chill of water that I knew wasn't there.
It was stuck underneath my skin, and if I hadn't had the flight or flight responses firing on all cylinders, I might have tried to tear it out.
Calm down.
I needed to breathe, focus on getting a picture of my new reality.
I had to adapt, because this place was not familiar. Sure, everything in it was, but once I slowly traced over details with my eyes, each building block scattered on the ground, up and down each yellow striped bar on the wall, around the red door, and across my arms that clearly weren't mine.
I realized this was real.
Depressing, because I was looking forward to trying to think my way out of hell, or relish in having my soul grinded to primordial dust.
I never get what I wish for huh. It really is the pattern of my life, and when I am the only constant, what's to blame?
Self doubt was new—no, an old familiar friend—but welcome, because it always spurred me on to squash it.
Although, my head still felt like it was in a pool of molasses, though I guess it was better from when I first woke up, and any progress was good.
So I'm in some child area?
Maybe it was a school, but then again why would they keep me here for seven years?
"Seven fucking years…" I winced when I spoke aloud in a voice that wasn't mine, but I fought through the unnatural feeling to ground myself. "It's okay, you've been in worse situations, you got this."
I haven't. I pushed papers, made decisions without thinking ahead, lorded over people doing the grunt work, and was just a pretty face with some intelligence.
Just one step at a time.
Where do those steps lead?
Keep calm and think logically.
What's logical about waking up in a different body?
"Shut up." I growled, done with the doubt clawing at every thought I had.
Fine.
No more thinking.
Do.
I grit my teeth, grabbing the blanket that was practically holding me down like chains, pulling with all the strength I could muster.
A few seconds later, and with a giant tug, I was finally free.
Exhaustion clawed at me, but I couldn't sit still without first finding a mirror, to see who the hell I got my soul shoved into.
It took longer than I liked, but on wobbly legs I made my way over to the red door, opening it and peeking my head out, eyes scanning a long hallway of similar red doors.
Everything was just so normal. Yellow striped wallpaper, wood tiled floors, lights that mimicked the phases of the moon on the ceiling.
I turned, seeing to my left a set of two double doors. One pink, the other blue, which I could only assume were gendered bathrooms.
Cautiously, I made my way down the hallway, ears straining to listen to faintest noises, and some part of me feared if Caretaker-san would come lumbering around the corner any second.
Fortunately, it didn't, and while I was breathing hard from the simple exertion of walking, I pulled open the blue door, seeing a bathroom clearly meant for kids.
However, I didn't get to make out much details, my gaze locking onto my reflection in the big mirror with a gold trim of sculpted dolphins.
I didn't know the face staring back at me.
Slowly, step by step, I walked forward, eyes unable to leave my reflection.
Long white hair that brushed against his—my shoulders, dark blue eyes filled with swirling emotions, a mix between a race with soft features, perhaps Korean, and a strong foundation of German.
Dragging my eyes down, I saw that I was skinny, not malnourished outright but I had barely any muscle. I was tall, taller than my original body at that.
Something boiled in my gut at the latter, but when I was staring at my new face, one so alien, so foreign, so different.
Well, I found myself calm, practically numb as I explored more of my new body, noticing that I had scars running along my arms, torso, and legs.
They were thin, barely noticeable from a distance, but still visible.
I quietly watched my reflection for another few moments.
It hit me like a sledgehammer to a cake.
I was in another body, a teenager on the cusp of adulthood, perhaps seventeen or eighteen. My hair was stark white, an impossibility, but here I was puppetering another body.
No, it's mine now.
If the dots I was connecting were right, I had a pretty good picture of my new reality. I had crashed, drowned, and lay at the bottom of the ocean.
I had my thoughts, still narcissistic, steady, cynical, and sharp as ever.
I was still me, just within a different vessel, with a new face.
How… interesting.
Possibilities floated in my mind, but without knowing if I was in my own world, nothing was concrete.
Swallowing hard, I tore my gaze away from the mirror, my eyes roving over my surroundings carefully, and eventually my heart sank to my stomach when it landed on a black orb on the ceiling.
A camera.
I was being watched, probably from the moment I woke up.
Someone was watching, Someone was aware I was awake, and Caretaker-san said I was going to talk to Master.
A chuckle of helplessness escaped my lips, but with it came clarity, a calmness that grounded me further.
My story was supposed to be over, yet here stands the oh so benevolent and handsome Jason Holdwell, in the flesh, just that of an malnourished edgy looking teenager.
Guess someone didn't want me dead huh?
I laughed, because leave it to me to be sarcastic in this situation.
So what to do?
I glanced back up at the camera one last time, the device cementing everything that I had seen since waking up.
I needed a plan.
Step one, I had to figure out more about my environment. How twisted would a place be to have cameras in a bathroom children used?
Step two, learn if the old me had a personality, habits, dislikes, something to mimic to the best of my ability. If not feasible, or that danger threatens me, survive first and deal with the ripples later.
Step three?
Profit?
I'd figure step three out later, it was overrated anyways.
Step zero though, was using the restroom.
I didn't really have a choice, they probably had hidden cameras to monitor me even if I faced away from the obvious ones.
It wasn't like it was my dick anyways, a small mercy that made me feel better for the few moments it didn't register that it was actually mine now.
Oddly enough, for the first time in a long time, a genuine smile graced my face at how stupid the previous train of thought was. It just took practically killing myself and waking up in another person's body to do it.
Jason Holdwell went against the grain.
He stood atop the box while looking.
He winked at the abyss.
He….
You're still the same mistake.
I exhaled, promising myself I was going to make something of this situation, partly in spite of whoever put me here, and partly because I wanted to hope again.
To hope that something in life was worth it, not just money, women, and material things like in my old life.
I had settled for wearing the perfect mask before, not again. This was my chance to change that, to be genuine, to just be Jason.
First though, I needed answers.
Even if it came in the form of Caretaker-san standing before me once I left the bathroom.
"Feeling better?" It asked in that lullaby-ish tone nightmares were made out of.
I nodded, knowing that saying anything could jeopardize whatever label this body held. I had been here seven years, most likely comatose, but it wasn't a hard fact I had personally confirmed.
Some part of me refused to believe Caretaker-san was giving me truths, I could then easier demonize this abomination then if he wasn't.
Thankfully, it didn't pry further, singing a "Come along now, Master wishes to speak to you." and hulking down the hallway it barely fit through.
My eyes never stopped moving, but I kept my head angled down so the cameras dotted in every corner had a harder time reading my expression.
I followed Caretaker-san down three hallways, one right turn and two left, noting the windows and opened doors that showed an indoor park with children, a cafeteria with no one in it, a reading room with a set of twins with purple hair, and a few offices with workers typing away like normal.
Completely enclosed, not a single view of the outside.
As if to mock me, any windows that faced outwards were horribly painted pictures on the wall, each one clearly touched by a young mind's creativity.
Though, the smiley-faced sun was a constant.
"In here Kaiten-chan."
I schooled my features, mind burning what Caretaker-san called me into my memory.
Kaiten.
I had forgotten to notice the obvious. I realized that the language I spoke and understood was Japanese. It didn't make it finite, but gave a pretty good ballpark to place me in.
The land of the rising sun.
I had taken trips there on many occasions, but some instinct was whispering in my head that I might find out it wasn't my Japan.
My instinct was only ever wrong when it came to women.
Not with shares, not with business, not with men, nor in unknown environments.
"Hello Kaiten Aragaki,"
I hated when it was right.
I knew that voice well from the time spent between meetings watching a certain anime.
My Hero Academia.
It was one of the few shows I enjoyed. Especially as my lifestyle did not grant me much free time, so I had always been picky, scouring spoiler free forums and looking at reviews before diving in.
I had picked My Hero Academia to cleanse my palate, having read Berserk, watched Erased, and then Angel Beats beforehand.
I had simply wanted something honest, light, and joyful to help stave off the depression the latter works gave me, and who would have thought it would be the show about a random kid who had destiny dropped in his lap after being powerless and bullied in a world of superhumans that resonated with me the most.
And now here I stood, in a small office that clearly belonged to the monster—no, the man with a mutated Quirk—next to me, talking to the Dark Lord himself.
All for One.
"I know it must feel strange, to wake up to nothing familiar, but you are safe now Kai, is it okay if I call you that?"
That tactic, to shorten someone's name into a nickname to breed a sense of familiarity, of closeness in someone's mind.
I had done that myself, countless times, this man, this villain, wasn't going to hold back.
Yet, my ace came in the fact he didn't know I was not the Kaiten Aragaki of before, but a thirty eight year old vindictive man who had just died.
He never would, actually no one would know, or at least nobody would live long enough to ruminate on it.
Mind whirring with such world shattering realizations, I somehow managed to have enough sense of mind to slowly lift my gaze up at the laptop with the words SOUND ON showing on a black screen.
I didn't feel much when the mask slid on.
"What happened, where am I, who are you. My head feels fuzzy, I can't think right, please sir what's going on?"
Childlike, the questions anyone would ask, and with what I knew of my new reality, to see if All for One intended to answer them.
"You were forsaken by heroes, left bleeding and burned within your own home, I saved you Kai."
Some part of me was disgusted at potentially being lied to so blatantly, but I wasn't stupid, so on my face I showed surprise.
In my own head though, I was connecting the pieces to the puzzle.
I was in a world once thought fictional, in My Hero fucking Academia, and this place was more than familiar.
I had seen it in the anime.
An orphanage with potential back ups for Shigarak if he didn't pan out, which with having read the manga to its end, I more than knew he would.
"What happened to them," I asked, leaving the question vague on purpose.
"Your Mother, your Father, your sister, they didn't make it. The Villain Annihilate was holding them hostage, his Quirk allowed him to store kinetic energy and release it as fire."
The screen flickered, and I saw a security camera from inside a home, pointed at the door to most likely film the entrance in case of a break in.
I saw the situation pan out as All for one described, a clearly younger version of me cowering next to my body's Mother, my Father in front with my sister behind him on his knees.
He was begging.
The man before him was eight feet tall, hunched over and had skin the same pattern as damascus. He was otherworldly to me, but I knew in this word he was just another person with an odd mutation.
I watched and listened to how All for One told me he managed to hack the local heroes 'Guardian', whatever that meant, and get audio of what they were saying.
"We need to make him expand his energy now, keep him away from busy streets, maybe kite him so that evacuated building where most of the destruction will be localized." A male voice clearly high strung with anxiety.
"He is holding them hostage," A female voice breathing hard from exhaustion. " Either he blows now, or we let him go and track him to a more populated area, we need to get him onto the street, coax him out with promises of negation."
I blinked slowly, listening to something so out of touch to me, of a moment in a world not of my own, of the history of what led my body to be snatched by All for One.
The heroes continued to coordinate, and then a female hero—mentioned previously as Snow Owl— spoke words that made everything go quiet.
"He can only hold a charge for three minutes, its his hard limit, if we…" I could hear the agony in her voice. "If we just stay back and let his timer run out, this will all be over."
The silence was heavy.
I didn't have it in me to make a mentally snarky comment.
Time ticked, a minute passed, fire engulfed the home of Kaiten Aragaki.
The video shut off.
"Here."
Caretaker-san handed me a halfway melted toy, one that depicted a beautiful white haired woman in a blue parka, posing with snow crystals flowing around her.
The Frosty Hero: Snow Owl.
"That was all we managed to salvage, I am sorry." All for One sounded so genuine it actually caught me off guard.
However, I knew what he wanted from me. To hate, to want revenge, to become another Dabi, Shigaraki, or Himiko.
It was all an elaborate set up to make me hate heroes.
I stayed silent, though I noticed Caretaker-san kneel down and put one of his heavy hands on my back, "It will all be okay, we will give you some time to come to terms, you are just a boy, this must be hard."
It was hard, but not for the reasons they assumed.
All for One had his sights set on me, and that meant scrutiny. Kaiten didn't look like any character in the show, that meant more unknowns, bigger severity with any misstep.
For now, I played the shell shocked child, giving only a simple nod as Caretaker-san led me outside the room, Snow Owl's action figure still in my grip.
Great.
My first hour into my second life, and I had met the big bad already, things were definitely looking up.
"Touya's awake!"
A shout from behind drew my attention, and a flock of kids came parading down the hallway, clearly excited.
Another familiar name.
Touya, Touya Todorki, and soon to be Dabi.
That puts a lot of things in perspective.
Where in the timeline I was more importantly, and also that I had a way out, an avenue to get the hell out of this place.
I donned the lost but interested child look that new hires always had, looking up at Caretaker-san and asking a question that was my ticket out of here.
"Who's Touya?"