In the early 21st century, a miracle occurred. In Italy, a boy was found who could grow drastically bigger and stronger by eating mushrooms. It was a phenomenon that was completely against so-called 'common sense', and could only be described as a superpower.

Over the years, more and more people began to exhibit similar abilities, and it soon became obvious, after much denial by authorities, that a pattern was emerging.

All superpowers were in some way related to videogames. Because of this, people with special powers eventually became known as Gamers.

This emergence, which came to be known as the New Game Plus, changed the world forever. The world has become a superhuman society, and about 80% of the world's population now possesses some kind of special game-related trait. In this new world, the profession that everyone once dreamed about and admired came to the fore. Heroic Gamers fighting griefers, trolls, scrubs and villains, saving people from distress.

This is the story of a world of heroes!

….

My Gamer Academia

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Chapter 1: Loading…

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story. The story itself is parody and folklore, and protected speech.

….

Gamer (plural Gamers): literally, a person who plays games; figuratively, a superhuman in possession of powers tangentially, thematically or explicitly based on a videogame genre, franchise, character, mechanic or theme. Synonyms: hero, mask, cape, super, superhero, yuusha, brave, rider, ranger, sailor, power. Connotations: 'Gamer' is used as both a familiar and derogatory term for both people in possession of superpowers and people who play videogames in general, who often casually and proudly refer to themselves as Gamers but generally consider it a demeaning term when applied to them by the press, figures in authority, government officials and people without powers. See: Normie.

– Gamefaq's Guide to Gamers

….

It was a beautiful, perfectly average day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the public BGM was playing the area's boring but non-offensive melody over the morning stillness of the residential housing community, and Itsuka Shidou and his little sister Kotori locked up the house as they left for school.

"Remember onii-chan, we're meeting at the family restaurant after school okay? The family restaurant! Remember it, it's important! It's so important I said it twice!" Kotori said in the Japanese they spoke at home.

"Yes, yes," Shidou said. "It was my idea Kotori, I'm not likely to forget. Be there on time, okay? If you're going to me late, message me."

"Yeah, yeah," Kotori said, turning to run towards where she was going to be meeting her friends to go to the middleschool she attended. "See you later onii-chan!"

"And be careful!" Shidou cried after her before he sighed and turned to head towards his own school.

Itsuka Shidou was a perfectly ordinary first year highschool student, of the sort to be found anywhere. He had the kind of bland, generic good looks that were a nameless, voiceless videogame main character staple, and thus was currently a very popular and manly look, the way greased hair, the mullet, the samurai topknot and the afro used to be. He was a student at Gamer Academy, the premiere founding branch of the premiere international school for Gamers aspiring to be heroes in the world (or so they said. Many schools in the world tried to make similar claims).

Given that the competition to get into GA was fierce (though not as fierce, his parents had often told him, as trying to get into a school back in the old country), Shidou had been accepted on the basis of his adequate grades, his high scores in Applied Moral and Ethics, adequate entrance test results, and most especially his sterling psychological test results, which identified him as 'basically vanilla, with no entitlement issues, arrogance, delusions of grandeur, desires for vengeance or extreme fetishes, and a strong sense of heroism, with mild self-sacrificing tendencies'.

Gamer Academy, unlike many schools, considered that having the right attitude was more important than grades or the old cliché of having the overall highest score on the entrance exam. Other schools disagreed. GA considered that their problem.

This being the first day of school, Shidou had taken care to get up extra early. Although he'd often seen and passed by the GA before, this was the first time he was actually going there as a student. He passed by Cafe Adolescenza, the coffee shop run by his friend and his mother, but it was still closed, and it looked like Souji had already left. Shidou made his way alone.

The train to the part of Arcadia City where the Academy was located was crowded as expected. Student's, businessmen and Gamers in their assorted uniforms– as opposed to costumes, which were what cosplayers wore– crowded in as they made their way towards the day's work. Even the women's car was full, and in fact seemed to be more crowded than the other train cars. Shidou hoped there were no Eroge-types or common perverts around.

When they reached the stop for the Academy, there was a nigh-literal flood of humanity as students and other passengers rushed out, the uniformed students heading for the special Academy station exit which accepted only student IDs. Such as the one in Shidou's pocket.

For a moment, Shidou took a moment to stop and stare at his ID. Above the usual information of his name, classroom and picture was the logo of Gamer Academy, a heraldic shield with two vertical lines and a circle depicted as bouncing between them. Beneath that were written the motto of the Academy in simple a pixel-faced font: "Lvl Up!"

Standing there, looking at the ID card in his hand and staring at the logo also emblazoned over the Academy station exit, Itsuka Shidou could feel the world seeming to come together. All the tests, all the work, all the carefully internalized lessons on morality and ethics and what was an wasn't acceptable behavior, all his dreams of becoming not just a gamer, but a Gamer, it all lead to this moment, and–

Someone bumped into him from behind.

With an aborted yelped, Shidou stumbled a foot forward, only a little unbalanced, and turned around to see who had run into him.

By all the logic in the universe, it should have been a generically cute, clumsy girl, perhaps with some breakfast foodstuff in her mouth, sitting painfully on her ass while unconsciously flashing her panties at him and anyone in his general direction. Well, maybe not that last one, since the Gamer Academy uniforms were unisex and required pants for all genders, but the rest should have held.

Instead, Shidou found himself facing a boy with glasses about his own age sitting painfully on his ass, both hands held over his head. In his hands was a gaming unit, one of the latest models. He was holding it like it was a baby he was trying to keep from hitting the ground.

"Safe," the boy said, voice flat, bland and seemingly only a little pained. "My saves are okay."

"Ah, sorry," Shidou said in English, holding out his hand to help the other boy up. "I shouldn't have just been standing around like that. It's my fault."

The other boy seemed to pause a moment before accepting the hand, settling his bag, and bending his head back to his game. "Apology accepted," the boy said, sounding as if he'd already dismissed the matter, and Shidou, from his mind. "Don't do it again." He walked past Shidou towards the Academy station.

For a moment, Shidou stood there, a little confused. That had been… well, kinda rude. Brusque, at the very least. Didn't most people usually apologize too?

Turning, he began to follow the other boy. He didn't really have any particular course of action in mind, he just… well, he wanted to find out who the boy was and why he'd been so brusque. Maybe he was in a hurry? But that didn't really excuse him, they were all in a hurry. But maybe it was some kind of emergency? Had he been called in early to meet with a teacher or something? Perhaps he had paperwork that still needed to be processed? That would explain…

As Shidou became an apologist for the boy he was theoretically intending to call out for being brusque (in a completely polite and non-accusatory manner), he swiped his student ID over the scanner and passed through the turnstile, coming to a large, glassy hall that was brightly illuminated by the morning sunlight. To the right was an open area roped off by distinctive orange waypoint markers. Every few minutes there would be some SFX– a ring of light, a flash, a misting effect, a cloud of darkness, whatever– and a student, or rarely a group of students, would appear using some sort ability.

To his left was a golden mural of the Party of Legendary Gamers, heroically depicting the historic scene when they had founded Arcadia from what had once been North Korea. The Harem King, Negi Springfield, surrounded by smaller depictions of some of his more famous followers. The Goddess, Najimi Ajimu, said to be the most Broken person in the world, with over twelve quadrillion (specifically, 12,858,051,967,633,865) abilities. The Heavy Wind and the Paladin, both clad in seemingly full plate armor and armed with swords, the former a veritable unstoppable tornado, the latter a protective guardian who had guarded and healed fleeing refugees. The Wizard, who had stood in shadow and who was whispered to secretly be the true leader of the Party. And The Gamer, Han Ji-Han, the leader of the group, who still ran Arcadia as its benevolent emperor, commander in chief and international civil rights figure who had been internationally pivotal improving the legal and social standing of Gamers before it they had become a majority.

Shidou didn't give the mural much thought, though he saw a passing pink-haired girl admiring the depiction of the Heavy Wind. They were ancient history from before he was born, back when the world was a messy place full of conflict, when so-called 'normal' people stupidly tried to discriminate against gamers with powers. No wonder there were so few normies now.

And he'd lost track of the boy he was following. Shidou slowed, before remembering what had started this in the first place and resumed his pace, heading for the exit. Ahead, helpful sign, direction and maps had been set up to guide freshmen like himself. Shidou stopped and located where his classroom was on the map, wincing as he saw what floor it was on. Then he remembered he was in highschool now, and more importantly, the highschool was Gamer Academy.

The rules were different here.

Checking the map one last time, he headed out of the station and into the campus proper, looking up at the tall, skyscraper-like highschool building. All around him, some students were jumping, floating, gliding, running up walls and even taking flight as if they'd never done so before. Grinning suddenly, he activated his Gamer ability.

"Let's Date!" he said. "Princess!" He rose into the air, brusque people and petty concerns like finding his classroom momentarily forgotten in the absolute freedom to be found in telling gravity to leave him alone.

After all, a school where one learned to use one's Gamer ability to the fullest was sort of pointless if it didn't let you use your Gamer ability.

Shidou shot into the air, laughing.

….

There was a mad rush down the hallways and up the stairs as panicking freshmen who'd lost track of the time frantically tried to use every power at their disposal to get to their assigned classrooms as soon as possible before attendance, homeroom, and the Freshmen Tutorial began. Fortunately for Shidou, his classroom, 1-G, was only on the second floor, and right next to the stairs at that.

It was kind of reassuring that he wasn't the only one who rushed wildly into the class room with only minutes to spare. There were much panting and trying to find a chair they liked that wasn't already occupied. Looking, Shidou spotted a familiar red-headed face and smiled. "Souji," he said, waving at his friend.

"Hey Shidou-kun," Mitsuka Souji greeted back. In English, Shidou noted. "I saved you a seat."

Souji sat in the middle left, which was a bit more forward than Shidou would have preferred, but he sat down anyway since it was next to his friend. The girl next to Souji, Shidou was not surprised to see, wore her light-green hair in twintails.

Souji made the introductions. "Einhart, this is Itsuka Shidou-kun, my childhood friend, but-definitely-not-in-that-way," Souji said, the last falling into place with the ease of long practice. "Shidou, this is Einhart Stratos."

Shidou gave a nod of greeting. "How do you do, Miss Stratos," he said.

Stratos nodded, looking a bit awkwardly and casting wary glances at Souji.

Fortunately, she was saved by the bell, literally, as it rang to announce the beginning of the school day. As other freshmen scrambled to find seats that weren't in the front or center column, Shidou remembered to set his phone on silent just as the teacher entered the room.

He was a fit but slightly balding man with square-rimmed glasses. There was a fatherly air about him that made Shidou feel relaxed. "Settle down," he said firmly, and surprisingly everyone did. Shidou wondered if mind control was to be suspected.

"I'm Phil Coulson, and starting today I will be your homeroom teacher, and no, I don't have mind control," he said, seemingly making eye contact with Shidou as he said it. "Or mindreading. I'm not a GM class or a Hacker class. I've simply been a teacher longer than most of you have been alive. That means I've heard every excuse in the book, I've run into every unique, world-ending, only-I-can-understand personal problem at least five times, and if I haven't seen it all, I've seen enough to cope with the rest."

He gave them a moment to take that in. "I feel I should also inform you that I'm a normie," Coulson said, and smiled at the awkwardly looks that resulted, Shidou's included. "Don't worry, we're allowed to say it. I don't have an ability. Never have. If you're uncomfortable with this, come see me after school and I'll help you arrange a transfer to a different class. No prejudice. I wouldn't want you to feel uncomfortable or unable to respect me while you're here." He smiled reassuringly, as if that wasn't some kind of trap at all. "All right then. A quick attendance, and then we'll head for the entrance ceremony. Shout out when I say your name." He raised a sheet of paper and called out. "Lilith Aensland?"

"Present!" a cheerful girl with batwings in her hair called out.

"Akemi Homura?"

A stoic girl raised her hand. "Sir," she said, barely aubible.

"Jaune Arc?"

"Here," nervous-looking blond boy said.

"Ramza Beolve?"

"Here."

"Molly Carpenter?"

"Present," a girl with multicolored hair and many ear piercings said.

"Hope Corrigan?"

"Here, sir," a small blonde said.

"Bell Cranel?"

"H-h-here sir!" a pale-haired boy nervously cried out.

"Chrono Harlaown?"

"Sir," a dark-haired boy said, raising his hand.

"Pidge Holt?"

"Present, sir," a brown-haired boy with glasses said.

"Itsuka Shidou?"

"Present," Shidou said.

"Kagurazaka Asuna?"

"Hai, Coulson-sensei!" a girl with bells in her hair said.

"In English next time please, Miss Kagurazaka," Coulson said. "Katsuragi Keima?"

At the name, Shidou glanced up, as did several other people. Of course they would. Everyone knew that name, even if this was only coincidental.

Katsuragi Keima, the physically reclusive internet celebrity known as the God of Conquest of which no pictures existed. A Hacker Class Meta Type, who was famous for his flawless strategy, precognition and discernment, able to reconstruct and even predict scenarios with almost perfectly. He gave advice that allowed Gamers to get stronger, and several had proclaimed that their reclassification to a higher Power Class was all thanks to his advice, gleamed from his Ability, The World God Only Knows, said to be the precognitive ability to see the so-called 'Golden Ending'.

"Here," a head bent over playing a game unit said. With a start, Shidou recognized the boy that had bumped into it at the station.

Coulson seemed to ignore the breach in classroom etiquette, merely continuing on with the list. "Kim Yoo-Jin?"

"Present," a bespectacled girl with a 'class president-ly' air to her said.

"Kirigaya Kazuto?"

"Sir," a dark-haired boy with bland, generic good looks said.

"Gudako Kyrielite?"

"Here, here, here!" a red-haired girl cried energetically, waving her arm hard.

"Mitsuka Souji?"

"Present," Souji said next to Shidou.

"Narukami Yu?"

"Present," a bland-faced, pale-haired boy with bland, generic good looks said, raising his hand.

"Ruby Rose?"

"Oh, here, here!" another red-haired girl in a darker shade of red cried energetically, waving her hand with slightly more restraint.

"Neptune Sega?"

"The Nepster is present!" a girl with pale purple hair said.

"Quite. Shin Sun-Il?"

"Sir," a fit-looking boy next to the window said.

"Einhart Stratos?"

"Present," the girl next to Souji said.

"Sari Sumdac?"

"Present," a dark-skinned redhead said.

"Takamachi Nanoha?"

"Here, sir!" a girl in the front said.

"Tsunetsuki Matoi?"

A girl with bob-cut hair raised a slim arm. "Present," she said.

"Louise Valliere?"

"Present, sir!" a pink-haired girl said, eyes glowing faintly pinkish-yellow.

"Wally West?"

"Present," a pale, red-headed young man said.

"Yuuki Asuna?"

"Present!" a chestnut-haired girl replied.

"Yuki Makoto?"

"Present!" replied a girl with earphones hanging around her neck.

Coulson nodded, clearly having reached the end of his list. "All right. Everyone get ready to file out and follow me to the entrance ceremony." He stood, then paused. A slightly mischievous look came over his face. "You guys might want to bring something to do. This is probably going to be a long one." He winked, and stepped out of the room.

Everyone looked nonplussed for a moment, before hesitantly filing out of the room, some grabbing books and manga from bags. Shidou, after a moment's hesitation, grabbed his phone.

There was, he saw, a message on it from an unfamiliar number. Resisting the comical urge to glance nervously around, he opened the message.

Ara ara, Shidou-kun. Congratulations on getting into Gamer Gakuen. I do so look forward to seeing how much you learn.

-TK

Shidou sighed. Now he was going to be late meeting with Kotori at the restaurant. Holding back another sigh, Shidou resigned himself to having to go to the police station after school to report he'd received yet another message from a known terrorist.

Damn it Kurumi!

….

- To be continued…

….

Name: Itsuka Shidou

Power Type: Galge Type

Power Class: Main Character Class

Ability Name: Date A Live

Ability Description: By building relationship points with girls (and, theoretically, boys) to a high degree of affection such that a voluntary mutual kiss occurs, Shidou is capable of utilizing a limited copy of that person's abilities. The higher the relationship points, the closer it becomes to a perfect copy of the ability in question, even if the ability is of a higher Power Class. The ability is activated declaring "Let's Date" and the name of the copied ability to be utilized. In emergency situations, there is a high probability of the automatic activation of the ability set that will most likely prevent death.

So far, Shidou has copies of the abilities of the following people:

Name: Yatogami Tohka; Power Type: Musou Type; Power Class: Main Character; Ability Name: Princess

Name: Takamiya Yoshino; Power Type: Summoner Type; Power Class: Main Character Class; Ability Name: Hermit

Name: Tokisaki Kurumi; Power Type: Action/RTStrategy/Meta Type; Power Class: Hacker Class; Ability Name: Nightmare

Name: Itsuka Kotori; Power Type: Musou Type; Power Class: Main Character Class; Ability Name: Efreet

Name: Yamai Kaguya; Power Type: Musou Type; Power Class: Main Character Class; Ability Name: Berserk Lance

Name: Yamai Yuzuru; Power Type: Musou Type; Power Class: Main Character Class; Ability Name: Berserk Chain

Name: Izayoi Miku; Power Type: RTStrategy/Music Type; Power Class: GM Class; Ability Name: Diva

Name: Tobiichi Origami; Power Type: Final Boss Type; Power Class: Main Character Class; Ability Name: Devil Angel

Name: Amamiya Mayuri; Power Type: Musou Type; Power Class: Main Character; Ability Name: Judgement

….

A Note On Power Class

Power Class is a relative measure on an ability's capacity to affect the world, especially other Gamers. Note that this measure does not take into account whether or not, and if so, how strongly, an ability violates physical laws like thermodynamics and conservation of energy. The Power Classes are:

Background Class: an ability that is a purely aesthetic, ranging from bestowing a color of hair or skin that did not naturally exist before the New Game Plus to small, non-functional and purely cosmetic anatomical changes like vestigial horns, tails, non-flight capable wings, glowing eyes and other small changes. Those who possess Background Class abilities are near indistinguishable from prime humans who do not possess abilities whatsoever in regards to physical and mental capabilities. Consists of approximately 35% of the Gamer population and 28% of the total world population.

Timesink Class: an ability of limited complexity, narrow scope, is only perceivable by only the party in possession of it, by only one other party besides the one in possession of it at a time, is only able to reproduce single basic animal responses to stimuli, only minutely violates the laws of physics, is otherwise comparable to an analog party game or toy, or some combination of the above. Examples range from the ability to remotely control playing cards only for the purpose of playing solitaire or some other card game, being able to project and play a non-corporeal monochrome simple game in the air, creating non-animal phenomenon that grow in real time, having a sound effect play when you correctly spell a word or perform basic arithmetic, and having a virtual girlfriend that only you can physically interact with. Consists of approximately 30% of the Gamer population and 24% of the total world population.

NPC Class: an ability that, in addition to the capabilities of Timesink class abilities, is capable of great complexity, wide scope, perceivable to multiple parties, is able to independently reproduce multiple basic animal and emotional responses to stimuli, able to produce single basic near human-like intelligent and emotional responses to stimuli, capable of limited linear growth, clearly violates the laws of physics, able to physically affect the world on a scale equal to its physical manifestation, conveys limited faculty or skill within a limited area of expertise, creates low levels of limited dimensional distortion, allows for the basic to fine manipulation, manufacture and alteration of basic periodic element materials, and creating organic phenomena that grow at an accelerated rate. A general guideline of NPC class abilities is that they allow one to perform tasks that one would theoretically normally be able to do, but at greater speed, without or fewer requisite materials, to a greater degree or with greater convenience. Examples include the manifestation of near-human intelligence entities (Vocaloid Type, Eroge Type, Summon Type Abilities), the creation semi-randomized creation of multiple semi-autonomous physical manifestations of animal intelligence entities (Summon Type, Mon Type), the manufacture of products (Crafting Type), the storage of large or numerous small object in personalized dimensional distortions, limited healing, the automatic recording, sorting and classification of information, and having a limited selection of available background music. Consists of approximately 13% of the Gamer population and 10% of the total world population.

Deuteragonist Class: an ability that, in addition to the capabilities of NPC class abilities, is capable of limitless linear growth, enhanced physical, mental and cognitive abilities, able to independently reproduce multiple basic near human-like intelligent and emotional responses to stimuli and limited ability roughly equivalent to Deuteragonist class, individual physical manifestation of single instances of basic animal and emotional responses to stimuli capable of ability manifestation roughly equivalent to GM class, energy projection, spontaneous generation of physical matter within a narrow scope, flight, healing, spontaneously acquired skills within a limited scope or theme, high speed movement, spontaneous weapon generation, physical appearance manipulation and cessation of aging. Due to the wide breadth and range of abilities possible at Deuteragonist class, it is considered a minimum standard level. If the ability is more versatile than NPC class, or exhibits the capacities of multiple NPC class abilities simultaneously, the ability is classified at minimum to be Deuteragonist class. 12% of the Gamer population and 9.6% of the total world population are believed to be Dueteragonist class, though due to the similar ranges of Deuteragonist and Main Character class abilities, as well as aspects of abilities that are overlooked in standardized testing or remain unregistered upon discovery, the ratio might be much lower, with an accompanying increase in the percentage of Main Character class abilities.

Main Character Class: an ability that, in addition to the capabilities of Deuteragonist class abilities, is capable of the generation of multiple instances of human-equivalent intelligent entities capable of independent thought, action, reasoning and ability manifestation roughly equivalent to GM class; generation of multiple instances of animal-equivalent intelligent entities capable of animal-like intelligent and emotional responses to stimuli and limited ability manifestation roughly equivalent to Hacker class, limited discernment of personal information, limited agelessness, spontaneous skill acquisition in the presence of relevant stimuli, extreme mechanical alteration of vehicles, creation of high technology objections function using previously unknown principles, ability mimicry and simulation, etc. Due to the wide breadth and range of abilities possible at Main Character class, it is usually defined by a lack of capacity found in GM class abilities. Consists of approximately 10% of the Gamer population and 7.92% of the total world population.

GM Class: an ability that, in addition to the capabilities of Main Character class abilities, can affect the functioning of other abilities to a basic degree for a limited length of time (ranging from one hour to one week), whether positively ("buff") or detrimentally ("debuff"). This class of ability also allows for temporary large-area, basic alterations to the world, or limited area, major alterations of the world for extended lengths of time. Abilities of this class are also usually capable of narrow and limited intrusive information acquisition usually limited to abilities, generation and access of information that the gamer has not yet encountered, limited exponential growth, limited spontaneous resurrection, and limited temporary physical alteration of non-ability capabilities. The ability most commonly used as a baseline for this class is the Meta Type ability commonly known as "Ban Hammer" (use, application and methodology need not involve hammers), which can externally deactivate abilities of Deuteragonist Class with nearly absolute certainty, most abilities Main Character class with reasonable certainty, some abilities of GM class with some certainty (including other instances of Ban Hammer), and a few abilities of Hacker Class depending on statistical improbability. Attempts to use Ban Hammer on Coder Class abilities is met with ridicule. All abilities that can compromise another's free will are automatically recognized as GM class. Consists of approximately 0.1% of the Gamer population and 0.08% of the total world population.

Hacker Class: an ability that can affect the functioning of other abilities to a complex degree for an extended length of time (ranging from one year to indefinitely), whether positively ("buff") or detrimentally ("debuff"). This class of ability also allows for large-area, major alterations to the world, or limited area, permanent alterations of the world for indefinite lengths of time. Abilities of this label may remove, install, modify, and theoretically copy and pirate lower class abilities, as well as intrusive information acquisition. All abilities with controllable and targeted information penetration and acquisition capabilities are automatically recognized as Hacker class abilities. Consists of an estimated 0.0015% of the Gamer population and 0.0018% of the total world population.

Coder Class: a godlike, broken, cheaty, are-you-fucking-kidding-me ability. Only a single instance of such an ability (Power Type: Meta; Ability Name: "Gameshark") is known to exist, in the possession of Najimi Ajimu ("The Goddess"), though she has stated that 6 other instances like it exist in the world. This claim is currently unsubstantiated. There is no Power Class higher than Coder.

Note that Power Classes are usually assigned relative other classes within the same Power Type.

….

Please review, C&C and Tvtropes pages welcome.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.