AU (Author Universe) Prime Universe,
Earth-616,
United States, New York,
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
Feeling returned to his body, not slowly, not step by step, but so sudden that it was unnerving. He jerked up from the bed instantly.
"Fuck, wasn't I like bombed? Did I get isekai'd?" He looked to his left but felt fabric over his eyes, pulling it up his hands paused halfway as he found himself staring back at the face of Satoru Gojo. Lost for words he found himself saying the only words that came to mind "Fuck".
His thoughts were interrupted by a striking voice, laced with a crisp British accent. "I wasn't expecting such words from our guest, but I guess it's not every day you come across someone with as much lingual restraint as Logan.
The young man jerked up at the sound of the voice the blindfolds slipping off his hands and tumbling to the floor. Turning to the source of the voice, he faces a bald man possibly middle-aged sitting on a wheelchair. Standing to his left was another man with sideburns and a face that literally said, 'leave me alone', to his right was a redhead with striking green eyes staring back at him.
"I…uhm…" the young man stammered as he tried to process the sight before him. "Charles Fucking Xavier" "Interesting…No irises" They both spoke at the same time.
"Wait…what?" "You know me?" They spoke again. "Okay you go first, let's know where we stand. Do you know me?"
"Of course I know you; you're like the third most famous mutant of all times. Like hell I wouldn't know you, now your turn."
Xavier sighed as he tried to adjust his focus to the important words. "Okay are you blind because you don't have irises."
The young man's eyes widened, he turned to face the mirror looked at his sky-blue0 irises and turned back to look at the professor again "Say what? You can't see them? I have sky blue irises; don't you see them?"
"No, I don't" Xavier replied
[HOST EYES CAN'T BE SEEN BY OTHERS TILL YOU UNLOCK THE SIX EYES]
Inwardly he swore 'fuck' "Okay so what year is this?" Xavier replies "This is 2005."
"No way. I got isekai'd into Marvel? I was aiming for One Piece." Logan narrowed his eyes. "Kid just woke up and already talking nonsense."
"I'm not talking nonsense," he said, rubbing his face. "I'm narrating. It's a coping mechanism."
Then came the chime.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING…]
He grinned. "There it is."
"What is?" Xavier asked, "Plot armor. "He grinned "because years of marvel has taught me that in this world plot armor solves 99 out of 100 problems"
He turned his view wanting to focus on the system screen but remembered the professor. "Uhm...professor, I kind of have a lot of stuff to go through and I don't wanna focus when you're here, so can you give me time to focus on settling down? I'm basically harmless right now" he said as he looked down at his arms as he muttered "Disgusting"
"Now that's a normal reaction" Logan smirked. Xavier sighed "As you wish. Ill be back tomorrow" he turned and wheeled his chair out of the room as logan and jean followed.
As they reached the door the young man called out to the professor. "Oh, and please don't assume every super-powered individual you meet is a mutant. there are three other meta-human races on earth, or it'll cause trouble for you."
Xavier's wheelchair halted as he turned back to face him. "Oh? What trouble do you speak of?"
The young man sighed as he saw the clear doubt etched on their faces. "You guys have a tendency to believe that all people with abilities are mutants and even insisting, well that could cause a lot of trouble as these races have pride in their races and they don't take nicely to people insisting on another identity for them."
The redhead telepath, Jean Grey stepped up and asked with slight disdain in her tone "Which races? You claim there are other races so can you name them?"
'Fuck' the young man muttered inwardly 'She doesn't like me, I guess'
Yoshinobu Jin took a breath, and in that moment of silence, he could practically feel Jean Grey's telepathic probe bouncing off the walls of his barricaded mind like a persistent butterfly against a window. Good luck with that, Red, he thought with an inward smirk. This fortress isn't opening for anyone.
He turned his gaze to the redhead, meeting those striking green eyes with his own sky-blue ones—the ones no one could apparently see. Ironic, he mused. I can see perfectly fine, but I'm invisible. Story of my life.
"Right," he said, pushing himself up from the bed with more care this time, testing his limbs. The body felt good. Strong. Almost suspiciously strong. Gojo's genetics are no joke, he noted absently. "So, the meta-human races on Earth. Let's see... where do I even start with this?"
Logan was still lingering by the door, arms crossed, that perpetual scowl deepening. "Kid, you're rambling."
"I know, I know. Bad habit." Jin ran a hand through his white-silver hair, still getting used to how it felt. "Okay, so first there's you guys—Mutants. Homo superior. Natural evolution, X-gene, the whole package. Then you've got Atlanteans."
Xavier wheeled himself back into the room, curiosity apparently overriding his earlier decision to leave. Of course he came back. What else would a genius telepath do? "Atlanteans?"
"Ocean people," Jin continued. "Advanced civilization under the sea. They've got technology that would make your head spin, politics that would rival the UN, and they absolutely do not appreciate being called mutants. Last time I checked, they took that shit personally enough to..." He trailed off, realizing what he was about to say.
"To what?" Jean asked, that sharp curiosity in her voice.
Fuck it. "To destroy the world. Well, attempt to. Multiple times. They're territorial, they're powerful, and they don't forgive easily."
Logan's eyebrow shot up. "Kid, you talk like you've got a history book in your head."
"More or less," Jin admitted, which was technically true if you counted the fact that his brain was apparently a repository of multiversal knowledge he couldn't fully access. "But they're not the only ones. There are the Eternals."
"Eternals," Xavier repeated. "I'm not familiar with—"
"Because they're not exactly public knowledge," Jin interrupted, then caught himself. Be respectful to the professor, asshole. He's letting you stay. "Sorry, Professor. But yeah, Eternals are... they're synthetic beings. Created by the Celestials—these cosmic entities that are basically gods, ancient beyond measure, they literally shaped civilizations like we shape sandcastles."
Jean's expression shifted slightly. "Synthetic?"
"More like engineered," Jin tried to explain, searching for words that wouldn't make him sound completely unhinged. "The Celestials created the Eternals to be their perfect creations, immortal, beautiful, powerful. And then they also created the Deviants as basically the opposite—flawed, unpredictable, destructive. Failed experiments, honestly. The Deviants are to the Eternals what... I dunno, what chaos is to order. They show up every few thousand years and try to wreck things."
Logan grunted. "So you've got ocean people and failed cosmic experiments. Anything else we should know about?"
"Oh, plenty," Jin said, and he could feel his mouth running away with itself again. Control yourself, Jin. "There are the Inhumans—they're like mutants but different origin story, they were genetically modified by ancient aliens called the Kree, and they've got a whole hidden city somewhere. Then there are the Asgardians, which are technically aliens but they call themselves gods because of how long they've been around and how powerful they are. Norse mythology, except it's all real and they're actually extraterrestrials who inspired the myths."
Xavier's fingers steepled. "You're listing these with remarkable specificity."
Here comes the hard part, Jin thought, feeling that mental probe from Jean intensify. "Yeah, well. There are also sorcerers—people who practice actual magic, not the mutant kind, the real deal. Then you've got various demon races, fae beings if you believe in that sort of thing, and a whole bunch of other species that have either evolved on Earth or immigrated here at some point. It's more crowded than people realize."
"And you know all of this because..." Xavier let the question hang.
Jin rubbed his face. This was the moment. This was where he either told the truth or crafted a convincing lie, and honestly, he was too tired to think of anything better than the truth. "Because my mind is literally locked down to keep me from saying anything that would cause another end of the universe."
The room went quiet.
"Another," Jean said slowly, testing the word.
"Yeah," Jin continued, and there was no humor in his voice now. "Another. The universe has been destroyed before. Twice. Last time I checked." He didn't elaborate on when he'd checked or how many times he'd actually witnessed it, because that path led to places even he wasn't sure about. "The knowledge in my head—some of it, anyway—is dangerous. Like, civilization-ending dangerous. Reality-restructuring dangerous. Which is why my brain put up walls."
"Your brain?" Xavier leaned forward slightly. "You're suggesting your mind self-imposed these barriers?"
"Honestly, Professor, I have no fucking idea," Jin said, and he meant it with every fiber of his being. "Could be my brain. Could be something else entirely. Could be that my consciousness recognized it was carrying information that shouldn't exist and locked it down on instinct. All I know is that parts of me are off-limits, and probably for good reason."
Jean was staring at him with renewed intensity, but it wasn't disdain anymore. It was something closer to concern, or maybe respect. She's trying to figure out if I'm a threat, Jin realized. Smart woman.
"This knowledge you speak of," Xavier began carefully, "involves these races destroying the world?"
"Involves a lot of things," Jin said, choosing his words with the precision of someone walking through a minefield. "But yeah, that's part of it. The Atlanteans specifically—they have the capability and the motivation. They've done it before, or come close enough that it counts. There are also these beings called the TVA that monitor timelines, and if I say too much about them or their purpose, things get complicated in ways that are very hard to fix."
"The TVA," Xavier mused. "And what are they?"
"A problem you don't want to create," Jin said firmly. "So we're just not going to go there. Trust me on this one."
Logan crossed his arms. "Kid, you're asking a lot of trust for someone who just woke up."
"I know," Jin admitted. "And I'm not asking for blind faith or anything. I'm just asking that we not discuss certain topics too loudly or too publicly, because there are consequences that make my presence here look like a casual Tuesday."
Xavier was quiet for a long moment, his fingers still steepled, his mind clearly working through the implications. "We'll revisit this conversation after the medical evaluations. For now, I think rest would be advisable."
"Yeah," Jin agreed, realizing how much the conversation had actually drained him. Maybe it's the awakening. Maybe it's the mental barriers working overtime. Either way, sleep sounds good.
Logan gestured toward the door. "Come on, kid. I'll show you where you're sleeping."
Jin stood, and that's when he caught sight of himself in the mirror across the room. His arms hung at his sides, slender and pale—not Gojo's natural lean frame, but actually thin. Skinny in a way that suggested a body that hadn't seen proper nutrition in... however long he'd been unconscious.
"Disgusting," he muttered, staring at his reflection with open disdain.
Jean noticed. "What is?"
"This," he said, lifting one arm and watching the lack of muscle with something approaching horror. "I'm like a pencil. A very pretty pencil, but still a pencil." He turned back to Xavier. "Professor, is there a gym somewhere in this place? Because I'm going to need it."
"Third floor," Xavier said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "The facilities are quite comprehensive."
"Good," Jin said, making a mental note. One month. Give me one month and I'll have some actual mass back. The thought was grim, determined. He'd spent however long he'd been unconscious in this pathetic state. That was ending now.
"Come on," Logan said, already moving into the hallway. "Before the Professor decides you need psychiatric evaluations too."
As Jin followed him out, he didn't miss the look Jean threw at him—something between curiosity and sympathy. She thinks I'm broken, he realized. And honestly? She's probably not wrong.
The hallway stretched out before them, Xavier's voice fading behind them as they walked. Jin's mind was already spinning again, already cataloging escape routes, already running scenarios, already trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do with knowledge that could destroy the world and a body that looked like it had just gotten out of a hospital bed.
One month, he reminded himself. Get strong. Get answers. Try not to accidentally trigger another apocalypse.
Standard Tuesday