The rain wouldn't stop pouring down on the busy pavement on a dreary winter morning. The cold was nipping at Adrien's exposed skin, clouds of condensed breath billowing out from through his woollen scarf, hand made by one of his exes, another of his distant memories of when he was still in university.
The sounds of the busy road overflowing with vehicles not meant for the busy roads of a city centre. The crowding of the early morning commuters walking past each other occasionally barging into each other. Adrian focused on his mission to get to work on time.
The mundane monotony of his "mission" swam through his mind, the same presentation being rehearsed in his mind, the same annoying conversations with annoying colleagues, and the important deadlines coming up. Drowning in anxiety, until.
The blare of a horn, jarringly loud, ripped him from his focus. It wasn't the polite beep of a car annoyed at his jaywalking; it was the panicked, metallic screech of something massive and out of control. He snapped his head to look, his white scarf whipping around his face, and time seemed to stretch for a horrifying moment.
Impossibly long, impossibly still.
The truck, its grille like a metal maw, skidding towards him as if to swallow him whole, filled his vision. There was no time to react, not time to even process what had happened. The world had turned upside down. The cacophony of shattering glass, crushing metal, and the screams of people around him, downed out by his haggard breath pained and slow, his eyes drooping as the light dimmed from his eyes. His last breath passed through his now red scarf leaving his body alongside his soul.
The cold of the tarmac, the metal, and the rain now replaced by a different cold. The absolute void-like cold of nothingness.
Adrian opened his eyes to see nothing. An empty nothing, yet not so empty. He was in a room so large that it was too big to be a room but yet he could distinguish what seemed like a floor, walls, and a ceiling. And in all of it a comically human sized desk with a plush chair with a scarf on it.
He tentatively walked up the chair just for him to jump back as the scarf now materialised into an ethereal figure.
"I am ROB and I have been tasked to give you reparation on behalf of the higher level being that has smithed you …" looking down on his clipboard that also magically materialised in his hands " by truck-kun.".
Adrian, a somewhat cultured person, knew what was about to happen before ROB even asked and he answered.
"I would like to be transmigrated into the world of My Hero Academia."
"WOAH, hold on there little buddy, I must inform you that, that judgement is neither yours nor mine to make. It is up to the WHEEL OF ISEKAI."
As soon as he said that a massive wheel dwarfing any Ferris wheel, Adrian had ever seen in his life materialised with sections so detailed and miniscule that he had a hard time reading them even if they were bigger that most apartment buildings.
"And a 1, and a 2, and a 3, and here we go."
The ROB said as he go more and more giant then fading into the room as if he turned into mist, as Adrian mused over the physics of this entity, the ticking sound of the wheel jolted him awake as it rolled past "Beserk" then into "Attack on Titans" and then finally onto "Avatar the Last Airbender".
"Welllll, eh, you got lucky there little buddy!"
Adrian is still speechless on what could have happened. On the sheer fuckery that he had just lucked out of. Imaginary sweat dripping, he confessed.
"Yeah dodged a bullet"
"Well, you now get to choose 5 wishes"
Shellshocked from the vague memories of what happened to the main character of berserk in the very first chapter of the show.
"Wait, I get 5 wishes, I thought every one gets 3."
"Welll, yes but I like the way you were composed and adaptable you were in the situation, and because I will limit you wishing capabilities"
"Ehhh… Thanks, but kinda limits"
"Yes, Yes, limits like they have to fit in the universe of Avatar"
"Hmmmm…"
Adrian, not a die hard fan of the show, knows that he lacks the proper knowledge to survive, but everyone knows that.
'Knowledge is king', He thinks to himself.
"So for my first wish, I want the knowledge of the Entire Avatar Universe"
"Nope!"
"OK"
'If I cannot have all the knowledge then at least I can have some of the knowledge'
"I wish for the entire knowledge of bending in the Avatar universe"
"Still no"
"What kinda knowledge can I have?"
"It wouldn't be fun if you had all the answers to everything now, would it?"
As a lightbulb pops into his head, 'If I can't ask for knowledge then I have to wish for something that can get me knowledge and this might get two birds with one stone'
"I wish to be reborn in the family of the elites in the fire nation!"
"Done!"
'He agreed too quickly what if there is a catch'.
"Is there a catch?"
"Is there?" The entity says with barely hidden hysteria.
'What could the catch possibly be?' Then it hits him.
"I wish to transmigrate with all my memories intact."
"Hahahah, I knew you were one of the smart ones!"
"Now then hurry it up your other 3 wishes"
"I want the ultimate fire bending talent the maximum the wish can grant."
"For my penultimate with I want to be able to perform any form of sub-bending"
"Smart keeping it vague, might help you on the long run"
"And lastly I want to have the maximum amount of chi that a human can have!"
"Nice, that is all your wishes done now choose what you will look like in your next life then be on your merry way!".
He vanished away giggling as if he pulled a fast one on an unsuspecting individual. A diabolical prank.
But Adrian was none the wiser as he got to design his person from scratch. And of course he is going to choose the best of the best. First on the list is little Adrian, as respectable as little Adrian was in his past life, it did not come close to this. >:]
Glossy jet black hair, hair that cascades down to his back as if the fabric of the universe itself is wrapping around him. His eyes are a mix of warm amber, hot chocolate, molten ruby, and burning excitement at what can be. His body is pale and devoid of any blemishes and the color of swan feathers.
Happy with his creation he moves back and admires his work, a body sculpted by divinity and tailored to his tastes, perfect in every way. Just as he is about to lose himself in his own eyes he is reminded by ROB.
"How much longer are you going to take, it's nearing my lunch break".
"Yeah just finished, where to now?"
As soon as he uttered his words ROB snapped his fingers and the fluorescent white world turned into utter darkness. Adrian fell adrift in his mind, being kicked out of the aether his mind swam with a kaleidoscope of shapes, sounds and tastes.
A roaring oppressive heat seared his lungs with every gasped breath. The sound of the quiet hum of the aether, replaced by the crackling, raging fire, and a scream of a woman. Adrian's eyes flew open, blurred, disoriented. He was lying on his back. An unnatural orange glow flickered against his skin, as flames threatened to lick his skin, the black smoke blotting out the stars.
A sharp shout and a hissing pain assaulted him.
"Zei!"