In a small room, two individuals were sitting on chairs.
A desk separated them. One faced the window, the other the door.
The one by the window had a taller chair—the kind that said 'this is my office.'
Calling him a person was generous. He looked like a hybrid—part animal, part intellect.
A boy, seemingly in his early teens, sat across from him.
At first glance, the room was simple. A second glance revealed the lie—hidden high-tech equipment everywhere.
"It's my honour to meet one of the smartest creatures on this planet," The boy said, grinning.
He was practically vibrating in his seat.
His excitement was justified—he was in Nezu's presence.
The name alone commanded recognition among the masses.
"A pleasure to meet a bright young man like you. Your new solution for improving the efficiency of LLMs was... fascinating."
He liked that the boy had done this feat without having an intelligence-related quirk.
"Just lucky," The boy said modestly.
"I won't say that it's luck, after all, it's quite rare to find multi-talented people like you."
"What do you mean multi-talented?" The boy tilted his head.
"It's rare for a boy your age to shake up the tech world—rarer for the same boy to be part-time as a vigilante."
The boy's smile twitched.
Just for a second.
"Am I correct? Shigure, or should I say Mr Infinity?"
His eyes sharpened.
How? That was the question screaming behind his smile.
'Apart from Him, nobody should have known about my identity. Not even Aizawa had seen this face, so how?'
He'd been careful.
In fact, too careful.
Yet here sat Nezu—pulling his identity out of thin air.
His thoughts spiralled, but his body didn't flinch.
If anything, his eyes gleamed brighter.
Amused. Intrigued.
Almost... thrilled.
As if being cornered like this was part of some twisted game.
His mind started tracing back—digging through his past, searching for the crack in his perfect silence.
10 years ago.
"Are we really going to do this?"
"Hehe, getting cold feet now? That's quite rare, you know. I have known you for nearly one year, and weren't you the only one who repeatedly said at the start that you always wanted to try this? So don't back away now you sissy."
"Shut up you asshole! I never said I am going to back away."
Two people were present in a locked, dimly lit room.
They were both sitting on identical chairs and looking at a bottle present on the table.
It was a wine bottle.
"Did you bring glasses or something? Or are we going to take a swig from it directly?" The black-haired boy said.
"Obviously, I did. See, I even brought the transparent ones for this occasion." The blue-haired individual said with a grin while taking out two glasses.
"Wait, why did you do that? How much did it cost? Why do you always go with unnecessary expenses?" The ravenette had a frown on his face.
"Jeez, you and your stingy nature. Don't worry, I bought the wine with our collective funds, the glasses are on me." The blue-haired person poured the wine into both glasses.
The aroma of it filled the room, momentarily making the raven head to pause.
"Wait, I can't let yo-"
"Just shut it, James. You are ruining the mood. Let's try it before it gets warm." The man glared at his friend while shoving him with the glass.
They both had reached adulthood this year, and now, it is the last days of their second semester before the vacation starts.
It was the perfect time to do something right under the nose of the ever-strict warden.
"Tch, we are definitely having that talk later." The black-haired individual, James said, before taking the glass in his hand.
He looked at the reddish-purplish liquid for a few moments.
"Here goes nothing."
He took one sip, then another and then another.
"The taste is weird." James blinked.
He furrowed his eyebrow at the scene in front of him.
His friend, Tony, was drinking and talking to him. However, Tony's movements were quite quick.
'It's almost like I am watching a trashy anime at 5x or faster. Last time I did that for an anime made me question my moral decisions. I wonder how I would have fared if I had watched it on 1x.' James recalled his experience with that disturbing show.
Soon, the surroundings turned entirely black.
'Did I fall asleep? Or maybe this is a dream? A lucid dream, perhaps?' That thought brought a determined glint to James' face.
He willed the world into a different scene, but nothing happened.
He did that multiple times... only for nothing to happen.
'Tch, guess my luck is not that good for it to be true.' James was disappointed, especially after thinking of the list of fantasies he wanted to try in a lucid dream.
The black surroundings faded, and the scenery changed.
'A woman?' James saw a woman who was pretty close to him.
Everything was sped up, so he saw a few more children around and was put... in a cradle?
'Orphanage? Wait, what?' His hypothesis was spot on, confirming it some time later.
He watched the boy's life speed past in a blur—and felt every second of it.
A very sped-up movie, and despite that, he understood everything.
He didn't know how much time passed, but he figured out some things after seeing the heroes shown on Television and a particular blonde male with a giga-chad-like build posing in a scene.
'I am in My Hero Academia world... No, I mean this dream is based on this.' James reminded himself.
The line between his reality and this dream had blurred while looking at the boy's point of view for so long.
To James, this dream was quite weird.
He was having doubts about whether this was a dream or not.
'I learned Japanese unintentionally and even influenced some of the boys' decisions. If this is a dream, it's getting creepy with time. I think it would be a perfect time to wake up.'
Before he knew it, the boy was taken to a hospital to get his quirk checked, a few days before his 4th birthday.
It was July, and the hospital bustled with children for similar reasons.
"You must be Hatsune Shigure, right?"
"Huh?" The boy had a shocked expression.
"Hmm, is something wrong?" The doctor furrowed his brows.
"No, I was just entranced by your bald head for a second."
"Shigure!" The matron, who was escorting Shigure, said in a reapproaching tone.
"Hmm?" The boy turned his head to the woman and showed a confused expression.
He didn't know the weight of his actions.
"Please forgive him, doctor, he is just a kid." The matron ignored him and apologised to the doctor.
"Hahaha, it's completely fine. If kids don't act like kids, then who would?" The doctor said with a smile.
He was unbothered about the kid's unintentional insult.
'What the fuck happened? Wasn't this like a movie? Why did everything become slow? It's as if I am living here...' The boy's eyes widened as he realised his situation.
'I have fucking transmigrated... no, reborn would be a better word as I was able to experience everything and take decisions.' The boy sighed as he looked at the doctor, who started typing on his computer while asking questions to the matron.
"So, have you observed anything unusual happening to you recently?" The doctor asked Shigure, who was snapped from his musings.
"No doctor." The little boy shook his head.
"Doctor, could it be that he is..." The matron didn't complete her words, but her uneasy tone was enough to make it clear that she was pointing out the possibility of Shigeru being quirkless.
"Don't worry, Miss. He doesn't show any signs pointing toward it." He reassured her.
"Unless he is one in a million or a rarer case, I am sure he has it." The doctor joked as he shifted his attention to Shigeru.
Neither used the word "quirkless," avoiding needless worry.
"Shig-chan, your case is pretty special as it's rare for a kid to not discover their quirk till this age. But worry not, by the end of today, we will be able to identify your quirk." The doctor said with a smile.
To the doctor, the case was that Shigeru had awakened his quirk but hadn't identified it. This is quite common for kids his age, but they generally find their quirks long before Shigeru did.
"During the process, if you feel something unusual, immediately tell me."
Shigeru just nodded.
Firstly, he was given multiple logical puzzles and things alike to check if he had an intelligence-like quirk.
"Though you don't have an intelligence-related quirk, as I didn't see any energy fluctuation, there's a possibility that it's a secondary effect of your quirk... Or maybe you are just unusually smart. That is also a highly likely possibility." The doctor noted some things on a tablet before moving on to the next test.
Shigeru found himself lying in a pod with his eyes closed. His whole body was being scanned and probed with some things.
'This feels quite weird. Anyway, this world's technology is quite advanced compared to my previous world. Though it should have been quite obvious when U.A. entrance exams had robots in their test, but still, it's application in different things.'
Shigeru was amazed by the many complicated machines and their application with voice, or how AI was integrated into the workflow.
It was as if he were looking at the future of his previous world in terms of technology.
He had asked multiple questions about such things, and the bald doctor had even entertained him with many of his questions.
He must have looked like a country bumpkin... or worst, a kid... which he was now.
"Okay, I think I have an idea of what your quirk is; this last test should clarify it, just go into this room." The doctor said, his words shocking Shigeru.
'Wait, he has an idea? Why do I have no idea then?' Despite his confusion, Shigeru compiled and went into the room.
On entering the empty room, he first found nothing unusual.
He just stood alone in the room.
However, soon, he furrowed his eyebrows as he realised that he had heard a sound.
He focused on his hearing and realised that sound... was of his beating heart.
His heart was beating rapidly.
Before he knew it, he found sweat covering his entire body.
'Why am I so hot?'
He then suddenly felt something subtly changing in his body.
Shigeru found the world slowing down in his perspective...before it returned to normal.
"Doctor! I think I found my quirk." Shigeru said as he activated his quirk again.
The phenomenon repeated.
He knew exactly how to activate it.
It was like he had a new muscle or something.
The doctor asked him multiple questions, and a few more tests occurred before a comprehensive report was made.
Shigeru had asked about what exactly happened in the room.
The doctor had gone on a rant on how electromagnetic fields, temperature, pressure and some more things were changed to make him feel stress and other physiological responses to get a reaction out of his quirk.
"Well, here is the report on your quirk." The doctor's tone was calm and measured, yet a tinge of disappointment was present in his voice.
Shigeru looked at the hologram in front of him.
Name- Shigeru Hatsune
Quirk Name- Blink
Ability- A barely perceptible shift in personal perception. When activated, the user experiences a brief "lag" or "flicker" in time.
Visual Cue: A subtle, almost transient white glimmer around his blue eyes.
Scope: Limited to himself; can delay his reaction by a second or two.
Limitations: Range exclusive to him and has high energy costs, making it inefficient. Training could possibly lower the energy costs.
Estimated Tier: Tier 5
***
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