Sunlight streamed through the window, harsh and unforgiving, like the glare of a judgmental god.
Izuku groaned, rolling over to shield his eyes, but the light was relentless. He blinked groggily, his mind a thick fog of half-remembered screams and the smell of ozone. As he sat up, the room began to resolve around him.
He was home.
"What the hell?" he whispered, his voice sounding like gravel in a blender. "Wasn't I… wasn't I in the alleyway? Why aren't I dead?"
He looked around the small space. It was a tomb of his former self. The face of All Might was everywhere—posters, action figures, bedsheets—the fixed, plastic smiles of the man who had left him to die now felt like a thousand mocking witnesses.
"What happened to me? The last thing I remember was the roof… and the fall."
He looked down at his body, and the breath hitched in his throat. He was still wearing his school uniform. It was a ruin of scorched fabric, caked in dried, blackened blood and the filth of the sewer. The jagged tears in the sleeve showed where his arm had been mangled, but beneath the cloth, the skin was flawless. No scars. No bruises. Just a strange, new density to his frame that hadn't been there yesterday.
The silence of the apartment was heavy, broken only by the hum of the refrigerator in the next room. He felt… different. His heart wasn't fluttering with the usual anxiety of a "Deku." It was beating with a slow, rhythmic power, like a drum in a distant war camp.
"How did I get home?" he asked as he looked around his room, unsure of how his body got to his apartment—especially past his watchful mother.
That was one of the many questions he had. The next one was even more confusing: "And what in the world is this?"
As he spoke, a screen manifested in the air, shimmering with a strange mix of violet, gold, and grey.
Ω—————————————————————Ω
| ♢-NOTIFICATION.
|
| You have a messages My Warlord
|
Ω—————————————————————Ω
"Now just what are you?" he asked himself. The memories of what happened after he hit the ground were fuzzy, like shadows flickering in a dark room, hard to grasp no matter how much he reached for them.
"Are you my Quirk?" he asked out loud. Suddenly, a rush of transparent memory flooded his mind—leaving as quickly as it came. He saw flashes of the same images from the previous day:
Ω━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Ω
» 𝓓𝓲𝓮 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓭𝓲𝓻𝓽 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓪𝓫𝓮𝓰𝓰𝓪𝓻? «
» 𝓞𝓻 𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓬𝓵𝓪𝓲𝓶 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓓𝓸𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓲𝓸𝓷? « Ω━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Ω
[ ⚔️ 𝓐𝓬𝓬𝓮𝓹𝓽 ] ㅤㅤㅤ [ ☠️ 𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓱 ]
"Wait... I remember seeing this before everything went dark," he whispered, staring at the screen. He reached out to touch it, but the interface glitched, the violet gold flickering like dying embers. It didn't change.
Ω—————————————————————Ω
| ♢-NOTIFICATION.
|
| You have a messages My Warlord
|
Ω—————————————————————Ω
"So, it's not a touchscreen. I didn't even feel it when my finger passed through." He couldn't take his eyes off it. He moved to his desk, grabbed an empty journal, and frantically jotted down the screen's appearance.
"IZUKU! ARE YOU UP? HURRY OR YOUR BREAKFAST WILL GET COLD AND YOU'LL MISS THE TRAIN!" his mother shouted from the kitchen.
"UH—YEAH! I'M UP, MOM! JUST GIVE ME A SECOND!" he yelled back.
Ignoring the screen for a moment, he stripped his ruined clothes. He applied deodorant to mask the faint, metallic scent of blood and pulled on a spare Aldera uniform. He hurried to the hallway bathroom and splashed cold water on his face, washing away the remnants of the day before.
Questions swam like sharks in his mind. What is going on here? The screen remained visible, floating in his peripheral vision, following his every move.
He had to test something. He walked into the kitchen to find Inko Midoriya at the sink, scrubbing a pan. She wore a blue apron and a wide smile. On the table sat a small stack of pancakes, eggs over rice, and a small plate of Katsudon.
Inko was a saint in living flesh—kind, loving, perhaps the greatest mother to walk the earth since Mary. Izuku loved her, but he hated how they struggled. His father, Hisashi, was still overseas, sending back checks while living on company property. He loved his parents, but the cost of living in this world was too high for those of the low caste. That was why he had wanted to be a hero: to give them the life they deserved, so they wouldn't have to break their spirits just to make ends meet.
"Hey, Mom," he said in a casual morning greeting.
She wiped her hands on her apron and turned around. Moment of truth, Izuku thought.
She smiled at her baby boy—it was clear where he'd inherited his own smile. "Hello, my sweet boy," she said, pulling him into a hug.
There was no freak-out over the floating text. No burst of tears. Nothing.
So, only I can see it, he thought, hugging her back while staring at the violet screen hovering right in front of them.
He sat down and quickly ate his food before kissing his mother on the cheek and heading out the door. As he walked toward the train station, the screen followed him like a loyal, silent shadow.
So, I have messages, but it doesn't open with touch, and thought doesn't seem to work. Maybe it's verbal, he mused, keeping his eyes on the violet-gold interface while navigating the morning crowd.
"Ummm... Open Messages?" he said, his voice barely a whisper.
The screen blinked, the static clearing into a new display.
Ω—————————————————————Ω
| ♢-NOTIFICATION.
| •[You've Become the Triads Chosen.]
| •[Daily Quest:Trials of Strength]
| •[Inventory Unlocked]
Ω—————————————————————Ω
"Huh. That actually worked," he muttered, stunned.
As he reached the train station, the first screen dissolved, replaced instantly by four others that stacked in his field of vision like a deck of glowing cards.
Ω—————————————————————Ω
| ♢-NOTIFICATION.
| •[This system is designed to help the
| Chosen of the Triads]
|
|
Ω—————————————————————Ω
Ω—————————————————————Ω
| ♢-NOTIFICATION.
| •[Failure to comply with the system
| May result in a penalty]
|
|
Ω—————————————————————Ω
Ω—————————————————————Ω
| ♢-NOTIFICATION.
| •[Rewards have Arrived to the
| Chosen of the Triads]
|
|
Ω—————————————————————Ω
Ω—————————————————————Ω
| ♢-NOTIFICATION.
| •[Daily Quest: Trails of Strength
| has arrived]
|
|
Ω—————————————————————Ω
"Trials of Strength... what exactly is that?" Izuku wondered lowly as he boarded the train. If the system is designed to help me, then this must be some form of training. I wonder what kind.
The train was crowded with the usual salarymen and students. He found a spot to stand, clutching the overhead strap.
"Confirm," he said out loud.
A few nearby passengers glanced at him, then quickly looked away, dismissing him as just another eccentric kid talking to himself in the morning rush. They had no idea they were standing next to a boy who had just been threatened with a "Penalty" by the gods of another realm.
Ω—————————————————————Ω
| ♢-NOTIFICATION.
| •[Daily Quest: Trails of Strength
| has arrived]
| Goal
| Iron Will of Crom
| Push Ups: {0/100}
| Situps: {0/100}
| Squats: {0/100}
| Vertical Slash: {0/100}
| Horizontal Slash: {0/100}
| Razor Of Slaanesh
| Track At Least Ten People {0/60M}
| The Crown Of Lilith
| Break The Gaze Of a Challenger {0/1}
| Time Remaining
| 24:59:58
Ω—————————————————————Ω
"Wow, that's a lot to do," he said to himself. He clenched his fist, his teeth grinding together. But if I'm going to get stronger in the ten months until my birthday and get into U.A., I have to do this. First things first: I'm going to apply for the school.
U.A. was the undisputed peak of Japan, the #1 academy where the likes of All Might and Endeavor were forged. If Izuku wanted to fix this broken system, he had to be the best. There was no other choice. But one man stood in his way: the school principal. Miraculously, every U.A. application Izuku submitted seemed to just... disappear.
Izuku knew the principal was behind it. But with the power now in his hands, nothing was going to stop him. Anyone who tried would either fall or be forced out of the way.
As Izuku stepped off the train, he walked differently. There was a new aggression in his stride, a heavy aura rolling off him like a dark cloak. People noticed—especially the bullies. Their faces twisted with rage. How dare he? How dare that weak worm walk like that? Mitsuki, one of Bakugo's lapdogs, strode out to block his path.
Izuku felt a flicker of the old fear. Even with his new hope, the thought stayed in the back of his mind: I'm too weak.
"What's going on, Deku?" the boy asked. Usually, Izuku would look at the dirt and shake. This time, he steeled his nerves and looked the bully dead in the eye.
In life, the weak often fear their oppressors, but there comes a time when they rise. From the pits of ancient Rome to the revolutions of history, the defenseless eventually challenge the powers that be. History would remember this moment: the second Izuku stood up.
"My name is Izuku," he said, his voice shaky but firm.
"Oh? Did I hit you too hard yesterday? Rattled your brain?" Mitsuki mocked. "Your name is Deku. Say it."
Izuku stared at him. He didn't look for hope—he looked for the small embers of his confidence and tossed them into the roaring bonfire of his hidden rage. He looked at the boy. Years of bullying, the cold indifference of the teachers, and the neglect of the police had built a vault of fury in his heart. He wasn't just cracking it; he was throwing the doors wide open. The scales had tipped, and for the first time, they were in his favor.
The look on Izuku's face made Mitsuki recoil. It was a gaze of pure, dark rage—the kind of look that promised to tear down the world and piss on the ashes. It made Mitsuki look away for a split second, and that was all Izuku needed. He walked past him, stopping just at the boy's shoulder.
"I said my name is Izuku Midoriya. Not Deku. Not anymore."
He kept walking, leaving a stunned silence in his wake. Students and teachers alike watched him move, one question on their minds: "What in the hell was that?"
Izuku smiled as he heard the school bell ring, followed by the sharp chime of his system as he entered the building. Behind him, Bakugo watched with a furrowed brow and a look of pure rage.
"What the fuck is going on with that Deku?" he growled, heading toward class.