Author's Note: You, it's Ren here back from a long ass hiatus and finally writing again. Recently started taking medicine again and it's help me greatly, enough that I finally have motivation to get back into writing. This is a story that was burning a hole in my brain so badly that I wrote nearly 40,000 words in three days. I actually have 5 normal chapters and 2 Interlude chapters all ready to go so except some very speedy updates for a bit.
For anyone wondering if I'll continue writing my other stories the answer is, they are all done for except A Distorted Wizard's Dream which I'll be fixing the first few chapters up a bit before posting the next one. I lost interest in the stories or feel like I'd need to completely restructure everything I had on them to continue again, in which case I might as well make a new story. If anyone wants to use the idea for any of my now dead stories they are free to do so. I feel like my writing has improved a lot since I made my first fanfic (that I quite quickly abandoned =/) which also helps on the motivation front but it is also the reason for my dislike of my other stories.
As for this story in particular. I'd thought I'd try my hand at a SI/OC fic. It will have multi-crossover elements and a gamer-like system involved. Kind of cliche I know but It's what fueled my fire. That being said this fic will be extremely dark in places just to warn you now. Take the M rating very seriously.
Well that's all from me, enjoy the first chapter.
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The first I knew something was wrong, that something was different, was when I heard a woman crying somewhere nearby. While that isn't an uncommon occurrence depending on the location the problem was, I didn't live with anyone and I had no female neighbors, which made the crying woman odd. What was even odder was that my eyesight was extremely blurry, almost like I needed glasses when I knew for a fact I had 20/20 vision. That was when the ultimate shocking revelation came in, my body was wrong. I wasn't me, at least not anymore. Where once I was a slightly above average looking twenty-six-year-old 6' Caucasian male now I was…a baby. And that was about all I could figure out.
I wanted to freak out at that point, I truly did but my mind remained fully, horribly sane even though my new infant body responded to my distress by crying. What had happened to me? Why had it happened to me? Were Buddhists right about the afterlife and you get reincarnated when you die? Speaking of, did I die?
An endless parade of questions circled through my mind and I found myself unable to answer any of them let alone stop them. What was worse was that those questions spawned other questions and pretty soon I had realized that I had forgotten my name somehow. Not only that but I had forgotten my birthday and what my face looked like as well. Again though something prevented me from having a mental breakdown and I cursed it from the very depths of my being.
It was then that the most wonderful thing happened to me. Someone picked me up. Mom. The singular thought of that word, that the person holding me was my mother, halted my rampaging mind in its tracks. Then came the warmth. More than body heat, more than getting covered by a blanket, the woman holding me just radiated warmth. The warmth of a single sunbeam flickering through the drapes while you take a nap near the window. The warmth of a home cooked meal after coming home from a hard day of work. The warmth of a campfire full of roasting marshmallows when snow is falling gently around you.
My crying stopped instantly. My body unconsciously nuzzled closer to that feeling of warm while my mind continued to echo the singular thought of Mom. She spoke words to me at that point, kind words, soft words, warm words, but I couldn't understand them. It didn't matter, all that mattered was that mom was saying them. Subconsciously my mind burned this memory into my mind in perfect detail, so that I could never, ever forget it. It was after this pledge that slowly, ever so slowly, I fell asleep, lulled into peaceful dreams knowing that mom was here and that she would protect me, that she would love me.
The next time I woke up things had changed, mom wasn't there at the moment and I could actually see things. More than that however I had grown. No longer was I a baby, instead I looked to be around 1 years old. With my eyes working and my mind not instantly going into a panic attack I was free to finally observe my new body. I might have been in shock seeing as how I had so easily accepted everything I had previously freaked out over, or maybe the something that had been preventing me from going insane was the cause. Either way I was now able to both see the new me and not freak out over the fact that my new body came equipped with a small fluffy tail and an extra pair of ears (also fluffy) on my head. Was I some sort of cat person? Dog person? Did that mean I wasn't on Earth anymore? Oddly, the thought didn't bother me. Not in the same way as my new situation didn't however, more like I didn't particularly care that I had left my home behind.
I had no family that was alive back home, no partner, few friends and a job that, while I liked, wasn't something I couldn't live without. The only thing I would miss would be my pets, which I hoped someone would help before they starved. Unless I had refilled their dispensers before I left? Honestly not being able to remember what was either my death or my forceful transmigration was rather irritating. Anyways the point is that I could take or leave Earth. The creature comforts would be difficult to do without but, judging by the room I was in, it didn't look I would have to. Either this world was around the same technologically as Earth or this was Earth, and I just had animal traits now.
Back to my new appearance, without access to a mirror all that I could determine about myself was that I was White (again) that my hair was, oddly enough, also white (including my tail) and that my incisors felt like they were longer, and sharper than they should be. Which would make sense if I was part animal. As for my room it was a fairly typical room for a very young child bar the fact that it was small and the walls looked severely chipped and worn down. Either this was an old house or my new family wasn't the most well off.
The thought of family brought my thoughts back to my previous encounter with the waking world. Mom. The thought filled me with warmth and peace. I had a mother now. I had a mother in my past life, I knew that much. but I also knew that she had died when I was very young as well. So young that my memories of time with her were all gone beyond vague impressions and ghosts in my dreams. I felt a slight pang of guilt at my being so excited about having a mother, feeling like it was almost a betrayal of my previous one. But it didn't last long, I had no real memories to anchor my emotional attachment to her, as sad as that was, so it couldn't compare with the memory that lit up my mind whenever I so much as thought of the word family, mom or safe.
As if drawn by my thoughts of her my new mother, or at least who I assumed to be my new mother, chose that moment to open the door to my room. The very first thing that I noticed about her was that she looked tired. So very, very tired. My heart clenched painfully at the sight of her. It was clear to me that she was under a lot of stress and likely wasn't sleeping well. Unconsciously I called out to her, my mouth making nothing but an unintelligible whimpering sound. Despite that it got my mother's (and I knew for certain that she was my mother at this point) attention and I watched as if life itself seemingly infused her body with vitality when she looked at me. Gone was any and all impression that she was tired, that her life was a hardship. Instead all I could see was a lively, young woman who, even though I couldn't understand a word she said, excitedly talked at me while making cute, funny faces at me. It broke my heart even more.
Still, there was nothing I could do about whatever was troubling her, which was likely financial issues if I had to guess, as I was now. Instead all I could do was try and comfort this woman as she did the same for me. As such I responded eagerly to her silly antics. Clapping my little hands in excitement, making happy cooing noises and even wagging my small tail. Each and every one of them seemingly bolstering this young woman so that all the weight pressing down on her seemed just that little bit lighter.
The interaction between mother and son didn't end, even as my mother picked me up and held me close as we walked down the short hallway to the combination kitchen/dining room/washing room. Even as I continued to play with my mother my mind took in everything it saw and broke it down into a simple synopsis of my current situation. It painted a pretty bleak picture. There were only two other rooms besides mine and the room we had just entered, those being the bathroom and my mother's room. A room that was not only smaller than mine but more worn down as well. Included in this observation was that there were no other occupants in the cheap apartment. To put it simply my dad wasn't in the picture, for whatever reason, and my mom was raising me by herself.
Again there was nothing I could do to fix that at the moment so I forced myself to stop thinking about it and instead focus on the fact that apparently off-brand cheap baby food tasted just as appealing as it sounded. I didn't do anything beyond scrunch my face up as I choked it down though. As much as I didn't like the taste it was not only what the only type we could apparently afford but my mother had likely worked herself to the bone too afford it. Simply put I wasn't going to waste any of it, especially when I saw the flicker of sadness and guilt in my mother's eyes when she fed me it.
After my meal, I couldn't tell if it was breakfast lunch or dinner as there was only one, heavily covered, window in the apartment so I couldn't tell the time. There were no clocks on the microwave or oven either, nor on any of the walls. Not really an important issue, that I couldn't tell the time, but one that added to the pile of evidence pointing out to the shitty situation my family was in. Anyways after my meal came story time as my mother read to me a very ratty children's book that she likely had already read to me hundreds of time by now. I patiently, and contently, listened to her all the same and not just because it helped me learn the language either. It was just nice to her my mother's voice.
After another couple of stories, the only two other children's books we had by the looks of it, it was play time. My toys were simple things, like a train and crude army men, that you could likely buy in bulk for little more than a dollar or two or safely fish out of the garbage to clean. Again I didn't let myself act the way my adult thoughts should have dictated me to in this situation. It was an activity with my mother and my acting happy made her happy, which was enough to throw away any and all pride I had.
At some point during my play I had apparently fallen asleep as the next thing I knew I was back in my room. I was alone and I hadn't seemed to age like I had last time I went to sleep so I figured it was still the same day and thus took this moment to think and simply process my situation. Most of it was just a rehash of my prior observations really but it was something I felt I needed to due in order to determine what I was going to do from here. The first step, without question, was simply learning how to understand, and speak, the local language. I had gotten a bit of a start on that with the picture book story time the day (night?) before but I wanted to learn as soon as possible as nothing could start before that was accomplished.
The second thing on the list was to figure out where (when?) I was and (hopefully) find an explanation for how I got here. Some of the stories my mother showed/read me seemed similar to those on Earth in style so I hadn't ruled out the possibility of time travel (both forward and backward) as an answer to my location. The new body didn't quite fit into that but that wasn't really the point. The point was I wanted to figure out my new life and, more specifically, what I could do to improve it. Part of the motivation was, obviously, selfish but mostly I just wanted my mother to not look like the world was slowly crushing her one day at a time.
I figured that with the additional appendages both my mother and I possessed that this world was magical in some way as, while I had no basis but intuition to base my guess on, I didn't believe that this was my Earth, time travel theory or not. That being the case I figured that, like any magical world, there would be something like an adventurers' guild in which I could possibly earn some quick money. The obvious signs of modern (if old and cheap) technology seemed to indicate my magical world theory wrong but I prayed for that not to be the case as, if it was, I only had one other option. Well technically I had two options but the first, simply not doing anything and letting my mother suffer, wasn't something I'd do. So I was left with the other option, that of crime.
I was a morally ambiguous enough person that the thought of committing crime like theft didn't bother me, and it was even something I had experience in unfortunately. So I wasn't praying for the first option because I felt guilty but rather because I knew that being a criminal would not be an easy way to live. Not only would my mother, most likely, not approve if she found out but she'd likely feel like it was her fault for not being able to provide for me. Something I obviously didn't want. Then there was the fact that, inevitably, I would get caught. It was basic math that, eventually, no matter how lucky or skilled I was, that the odds of getting caught would finally catch up to me. Something that wouldn't only make my later years harder, even if I was fine with such a price, but again it would, most likely, hurt my mother.
There was always the possibility that things would improve by the time I was both able to speak but move under my own power as well, even if it was unlikely. I had tried standing up and, while I had gotten halfway there with the help of the crib's bars, I couldn't do it in the end. Theft, whether it be pickpocketing or grab and dashing, required a certain amount of maneuverability to pull off after all and walking was just a basic prerequisite.
Still, that was all for the future. For now, I wanted to concentrate on two things. First, was seeing how elastic a child's mind really is, as well as its ability to absorb information and second, to see how far I can improve my body. I wasn't a training fanatic in my past life, nor was I a super martial artists or hitman or anything else like that and, as such, didn't know the best ways to go about doing that though. I had been a simple beat cop that exercised regularly and, while I knew a bit about martial arts and fighting, I wasn't really talented in the field. Still, beyond simple curiosity, I would need a strong body regardless of what the world was like, and which course of action I would need to take as a result.
Thankfully, while I wasn't super smart or a genius, I was both smart enough and had enough common sense to not start trying to do a bunch of pushups or sit ups right away. Those kinds of exercise needed to wait at least a year to be performed otherwise terrible things might happen to my body. I could, however, stretch. While for an average healthy adult stretching was little more than an annoying, and often skipped, warm up for true exercise, for a young child like me it was anything but. I wasn't just making myself more flexible by stretching I was actually working out my barely developed muscles as well. After that I moved on to simple dexterity/hand-eye coordination drills. I wanted to improve my fingers' dexterity the most but, without a coin or something similar, I didn't know how. So I simply resorted to wriggling them as much, and in as many varying ways, as possible.
Something I hadn't foreseen, that I really should have, was that all this heavy (for a toddler) working out would make me very, very hungry. I'm not ashamed, though I am mildly embarrassed, to say that my body's instincts took over at that point and I started bawling like a…well like a baby. Thankfully mom was quick with her response and soon enough I was in her arms and once more being spoon fed that terrible, terrible mush calling itself baby food. While my body went on auto pilot as I tried not to taste the food I was choking down my mind wandered towards my mother.
Idly, even as I harshly berated myself for it, I couldn't help but think how cliché having my mother be a stripper (if her appearance and the flyer I saw peeking out of the trash were any indication) was in this kind of situation. As terrible as it was to react so blandly at first my brain did have a point, though one that I wouldn't pay any further attention to for a few more years after I buried the thought deep in the recesses of my mind.
Something also quite terrible to think was how attractive my mother was. With her stunning white hair, slitted silver eyes, pale skin and the way her soft dog (or possibly wolf) ears and tail visually expressed her emotions was quite charming. The fact that she was petite (barely 5'2" if I had to guess) but still possessed good curves also helped. The only things detracting from her appearance were the excessive make up (and glitter) she wore, her clothing, and the bags under her eyes in my opinion. Thankfully (for my sanity) while I noted she was attractive, that was it. It was just a simple acknowledgement of fact and I was not attracted to her in any way, which was surprising considering in my past life I would have actually tried to date someone who looked like that. Thank you, biology, whatever kept fucking with my mind, god or all the above for that fact.
I didn't really have an issue with the whole incest thing, so long as it was consensual and no children were made (simply because of genetic defects), but that didn't mean I was into it or had those inclinations. Then again it wasn't like I really had a family in my past life either, which was why I was so neutral about the topic...
Moving on before I went too deep and had to bleach my brain I noticed that I had finished my food. My mother picked me up again as this point while talking at me and I finally discovered what my new name was. Well at least the cutesy babyfied version of it anyways. At least I hoped so as "Siegy" was not the greatest of names in my opinion. Oh well, even if that was my real full name there wasn't anything I could do about it. At least nothing I was willing to do. I would never change the name, any name, that my mother gave me. I'd simply go by a nickname instead.
My mind was pulled back to the here and now as my mother walked out the door of the apartment, with me in her arms. I was going to see the outside world for the first time, at least the first that I could remember. I just wish it wasn't because my mother was taking me with her to work. I knew the reason why she was doing that of course, but that didn't mean I liked it. Even if I was normal, which I wasn't, when it came to the topic of nudity and sex it wasn't like I could do anything, or react in any way. Even if I could the thought of my mother being out there would see any such thoughts sour instantly.
Anyways my first impression of the world was that it looked like the kind of shitty rundown neighborhood I grew up in during my last life. Disappointing and more than a little disheartening but at least it was familiar. At least the people were different even if they dressed and acted the same. Even the whole cliché clique of gang members sitting on the staircase into an apartment was new and interesting when one of them had a snake for an arm and another was playing with fire that sprouted from lighters which seemingly replaced both his thumbs. What kind of world was this? A vague feeling at the back of mind made me feel as if it was familiar and should know that answer, but when I tried to zero in on why the feeling went away.
Still, the feeling left me with a lot to think about, or at least to try and think about during the four block and 5 bus stop trek to the strip club my mother worked at. I continued to observe my surroundings, and the wide variety of unique people we passed, despite my deep thinking however. It was odd how so many diverse people there were. People with animal heads in the place of a human one, and no other animal trait besides that. People with metallic or technological devices were a body part should be, or in addition to them. People casually playing with various elements. People with more arms than they should have. All that and more. It was so… quirky.
That thought, and the odd way I subconsciously phrased it, triggered that feeling of familiarity once again only this time, it was even stronger. I felt like the name of this world, my new reality, was on the tip of my tongue but something just wasn't clicking. It wasn't until we entered the strip clubs' changing rooms and I saw a single picture kept in my mother's locker that I found that missing puzzle piece. Said piece was a poster of All Might, in his fully muscular and costumed glory with the words Plus Ultra written in English beneath him.
I was in the world of My Hero Academia. How? It was fictional. Made up. It wasn't real. But that was the only explanation that made sense. I wasn't deluded enough to think that someone could set up a hoax of this scale. Nor did I think I was crazy enough to simply hallucinate my current existence. But that just left the option of this being real. How was that possible? More importantly however was why was I here? Again I wasn't sure if I died, was abducted or something else but regardless the question remained. Why me? And why here? Those were questions I couldn't answer. That I doubted anyone could answer even with how wide a range of powers Quirks could give.
Speaking of quirks did that mean that mine, and my mother's, dog/wolf traits were our Quirk then? That would be a bit disappointing not going to lie. Not to mention how such a weak Quirk would also make my ideas of supplementing the family income through crime incredibly difficult now that I knew what the world was vaguely like. That was even without factoring in the existence of Hero's. I felt like crying in frustration, something my body picked up on unfortunately.
My mom had left me alone with some of her coworkers at this point, likely so she could work her job, and my distress quickly caught the attention of all the scantily clad women. I barely held back my instinctive reaction to jerk away from all the hands that either tried to tickle me or pet my ears. I did not like being touched, at all. The exception to that was people I was (emotionally) close to and even then only my mother, my current one that is, had managed to avoid making me flinch at all. I grit my, surprisingly sharp, teeth however and simply let them do as they please. I couldn't stop them, either verbally or physically for obvious reasons, and I wasn't sure what my body's reaction had been to such things when "I" had been unconscious. It wouldn't be odd for a young toddler to change quickly but with all the other things I would end up doing that it was best to avoid sticking out too much where I could.
Thankfully the women stopped once I showed I wasn't crying anymore, though one particularly bubbly woman with what looked like a snake's tongue for a Quirk continued to pet me for a couple minutes after the others had already stopped. Apparently she either liked cute things or…well that was about it really considering it took a couple of the other woman to pull her off me when I was apparently her time to go on stage.
I blanked out the rest of the night at that point, both as a way to avoid any discomfort and so I could deal with knowing I was in a (former?) anime world. Surprisingly enough it wasn't too difficult to get over it. It wasn't like everyone looked like a manga drawing or animation and all my sense worked normally, even if my hearing and sense of smell were much stronger than I remembered (definitely a wolf or dog Quirk). Thus my situation wasn't any different than if I had gone to any other kind of world or reality. Well that wasn't true. I actually possessed knowledge, shallow as it might be, of this world so I wasn't going in completely blind. Of course I needed to figure out the date, and how that related to the events of the series, to make use of most of it but it was still something.
Something else the realization of what world I was in did was give me extra motivation to continue with my original plan of improving my body and absorbing as much knowledge as I could, as quickly as I could. After all, in a world of Heroes and Villains, it was very easy to become a simple unavoidable casualty if you weren't careful. Hopefully it would be enough, I didn't want to think about the possibility of my mother getting hurt let alone dying to a Villain or as collateral damage in a Hero fight. This wasn't an anime anymore, this was reality, and I figured with that fact came a dose of realism to the world. Whether that fact would be in my favor or against it was something for the future to decide.
