Not even a week has passed, and already over 20 followers? That's not something I usually receive...
Finished writing this, and my Beta approves! Thus, Chapter 1 gets posted today!
As usual, thanks to Hybrid Theory, matrience, RoboVolcano14, and Scriptgenius12 for their help!
[5 Months since Arrival]
[Michi]
The white ceiling in the apartment is the first thing I notice after I wake. I start to wiggle my body instinctively as much as possible, in an attempt to potentially stave off the incoming drowsiness that will inevitably hit me soon enough.
Being a baby sucked.
That little nagging voice that was my subconscious has started to become much quieter the more time I spent in this new world, something I was ever so grateful for.
The first few nights of my stay in my new home hadn't been very appealing to me at first, as I didn't have a good control over my emotions at the time to not start bawling in sporadic intervals. The feeling of helplessness that had overtaken me about my situation had honestly been hard to deal with, leading to many an incident where I would start wailing and blubbering like a baby.
...except I am one.
Correction: wailing and blubbering when I had the mentality of a baby.
Gotta always be correct, even in a situation like the one I am in at the moment!
After the… incident at the hospital (something I swore to never do again after the umpteenth time), life had passed by quickly with me having barely any control over my own schedule. I was pretty much stuck in a period of waking up and falling asleep not long after, with the occasional period of me getting fed baby formula every once in a while.
Of course, I did make an attempt to try to get a feeling of where I was reborn in (A lesson I have learned over many months of reading SI-based fanfiction. Who could have thought that such a thing was possible?) but it was unfortunately riddled with not too much success. The only things I did understand was:
1. I was in Japan.
2. I had been reborn as a toddler.
3. I was going to have to learn Japanese the hard way.
4. The particular franchise I had been reincarnated in was one of the ones I had the good fortune of not reading entirely. Oh, why didn't I go along with the My Hero Academia craze when my friends were still yapping about it…?
Not to mention, my perception of time was all sorts of fucked up right now, so I couldn't even tell how many days had passed ever since I had been born. Or should it be 'reborn?'
Meh, it's all the same. And it's not like it really even mattered at this point.
This was my new life now.
'And it's just all sorts of boring.' I mentally drawl as I wiggle my stubby little arms into the air. 'I wonder when he is coming back? I'm hungry.'
All my life has been up to now was just 'eat, sleep, and poop,' not all necessarily in that order. If it weren't for the fact that I couldn't consume any solid foods in my current state, I would have been perfectly fine with my current situation.
Ugh… what I wouldn't do for a cup of coffee right now...
Being a baby again with my mentality wasn't so terrifying so much as it was amazing, as soon as I established myself into my situation.
I mean, it really was a bit disorienting and annoying to not have the same level of reflex as I used to in my old life, but the simple act of seeing everything from the perspective of an infant really was intriguing for me. It truly made me understand why most people were awed by something which towered over them in spades.
Minus the occasional instance of females, and the somewhat rare male, cooing over how 'adorable' and 'cute' I was. No matter how much I frowned at them, they would simply just coo even louder, as if they couldn't take a hint that the baby glaring at them didn't appreciate the excess noises which were disrupting his naptime. Even the legendary 'stink-eye' I was utilizing more and more often didn't even seem to lay a dent on the cuddling, actually being a detriment and making the cuddling even worse.
Why do girls, in both real life and anime, can't resist the urge to gaggle over cute things?! Is it some sort of universal concept that all females (and the occasional male) are obligated to follow?! Why did you have to make my life like this, Horikoshi-sama!
My stomach gives off a loud 'GURGLE' and interrupts my musings, reminding me that I needed food as soon as possible. A quick glance towards the door confirms that my caretaker (father?) has not arrived yet, making my irritation from my hunger pangs rise only even higher.
What was taking him so long? You would think that a person of his ability would be able to run to the supermarket and back in little less than a minute, but it has already been three!
Then again, he is pretty famous around the area- oh who am I kidding, his blonde mug is probably EVERYWHERE in Japan right now. It shouldn't have been too long ever since he made his debut, right?
Regardless of any possible excuses, he was late! That AND the knawing in my stomach is really starting to get irritating. It may have been only a few minutes since I last ate, but my body needed grub to grow!
Maybe he might come quicker if I started to wail-
"I AM-"
-oh, speak of the devil. He's here.
The door to my nursery abruptly swung open in an instant, revealing the chiseled, buff, blonde muscleman in his muscular glory holding what appeared to be a white bottle - ofmygoshit'sfoodgimmegimmepleasefeedme!
"-WALKING INTO THE ROOM WITH BREAKFAST!" The dazzling pearly white grin he gave made me almost want to give a baby grin of my own, while the way he walked towards my jail- I mean crib, felt like I had been rescued like one of the many people he saved in his hero career. "AND NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON!"
Any and all hero worship I would have given him in that one moment dissipated in an instant.
Maybe I should have been swooning in his presence. Maybe I should have raised my fist in order to give him a mini 'Plus Ultra!' just to appease him. Maybe I even should have gone 'goo-goo' and 'ga-ga,' all while laughing in the maniacal way that toddlers always do whenever something hilarious happened (which was literally the smallest of things. The number of peek-a-boos I have suffered is reaching the hundreds.).
Do I look like a (normal) toddler to you? Of course not! As a result, I would never do such a thing!
In the end, with as much dignity I could muster... I gave him a stink-eye.
A good-for-honest, 'why are you so late?' type of baby glare, something he was very quick in noticing.
Even as sweat comically poured from his brow and his grin looking a bit less inspiring, I pointed at my frowning mouth expectantly, all while trying to express as much of my message to him without showing off too much of my irritation. Keywords being 'too much,' but I was practically glaring lasers into both of his eyes.
(Do Quirks for random SI'ers work like that? Do we get them based off of our mindsets? Am I going to be like Cyclops in the future?)
If anyone says that I was being unreasonable, then I would wholeheartedly agree with their statement. Just try ignoring the feeling of your stomach trying to eat itself for a few minutes while being unable to do anything about it, and your pizza boy comes in two hours after you order.
Yes, I'm sure that's manageable.
Call me a prick if you must, but I stand by my case. That, and you're never you when you are hungry, or so that Snickers commercial always used to say.
After a few awkward moments, All Might scratched the back of his head sheepishly, One for All turning off and reducing the bulk of his muscle mass in an instant.
"Erm...I am here?"
After living with him for a few months, I can safely say that I have determined one indomitable fact about my Dad 2.0:
Yagi Toshinori sucked at parenting.
[Yagi Pov]
Shinozaki Michi is a very peculiar child.
Not that it was bad or anything, no. It was just, he seemed so… different, in comparison with what babies were usually like. (Considering that the total number of infants who he interacted with on a normal basis until now was zero, Toshinori knew he had no right to say anything about his knowledge on the matter.)
When he had first seen little Michi through the glass partition in the hospital nursery, he thought he looked so tiny. Something so small and yet so bright with life, innocent to the hardships of the outside world.
When he had brought little Michi to his home, he noted that the little one was very observant of his surroundings, making attempts (while failing pretty badly) to look around through the bars of his crib.
It was only when Yagi had looked into Michi's eyes did he find something strange about the baby, the little ones green eyes practically sparkling with intelligence as he stared back. It was then that Michi's once disinterested expression shifted into a stoic-ness, incredulity, and then complete and utter shock.
He could even have sworn that Michi had silently mouthed 'oh my God' for a moment there but played it as his hero work catching up with him.
Toshinori had only started panicking after Michi abruptly burst into tears, first trying to cradle the baby in his arms, before moving onto making silly expressions to try to amuse the child. He even utilized One For All to try to get Michi to laugh, but it was to no avail as the child had only started to cry even harder.
It was at that moment that Toshinori had made up his mind to call Chiyo-san to try to help him, as it was pretty obvious that he knew zilch about how to care for a baby.
For the short while, while she was there, Toshinori made sure to let her know of Michi's peculiarities, things which she did find very interesting as he listed everything out. After a while, she had told him that Michi might have been developing far faster than normal, a possible byproduct of his latent Quirk. What the Quirk was, however, would be a complete unknown until Michi was of age to get himself checked out for one.
Since that particular incident, he had somehow managed to juggle both his babysitting duties and hero work with varying levels of success, something that little Michi didn't seem to really care all too much about. That, or the various (adorable) glares he had been subjected to meant something else entirely, but he didn't know if it meant that Michi was angry (something he found highly probable), or he that he was simply irritated that Toshinori brought his food in late (not very probable).
That observant nature Michi had was truly something in itself.
There was not a moment when the brown-haired toddler wasn't scrutinizing or trying to analyze him whenever he got back home from his hero work, something that honestly made Toshinori feel as if he was missing something. Michi would always clap excitedly whenever Toshinori would show up as 'All Might,' (with the few exceptions being whenever he was slightly late in feeding him) at one point going as far to speak his very first words to try to 'encourage' All Might out.
Toshinori had felt a degree of pride and confusion when Michi had said (in slightly broken Japanese) 'Yagi, again' sometime during his fifth month, something that Toshinori could have sworn was NOT normal for a regular baby. Did infants even talk at that age?
Regardless of this, the pride that her- his son now, had managed to speak at such a young age completely snuffed any doubts that he had on the matter.
'He's growing well, big sis Yuka. Slowly looking more like you every single day. If you were here, you would surely be proud…'
He was knocked out of his musings when Michi gave a little 'burp' after he finished drinking his milk, his eyes lazily closing shut once more as he started to go back to sleep. Toshinori couldn't help but give a smile to the drowsy toddler.
No matter how strange Michi might be or what unique quirks he might have, Toshinori wouldn't look at him any differently.
He was family after all.
And in the end, that's all that really mattered, did it not?
[1 Year after Arrival]
"Are you serious?" Toshinori gave a cautious look at Michi, who was curiously waving at the various colorful streamers and the balloons reading 'Happy Birthday,' before turning back to his phone. "You need me there today?"
Upon confirmation from the other side of the line, Toshinori wearily gave his word that he would be present before hanging up. Turmoil whirled inside his head as he turned towards Michi with a soft look, silently pondering over what to do now.
His agency had called with an urgent order not too long ago regarding a yakuza uprising that was practically boiling in Shinjuku, and he was selected as one of the members to mitigate and reduce any potential collateral damage that might spill over to the civilian sectors of the city. While he would usually have no problem with this on any other day, today was definitely not the right time.
It was Michi's first birthday, and Toshinori wanted to make it special for him. He had hero work...but it was his adoptive son's first birthday. That meant something.
'What to do, what to do…' The World's Symbol of Peace sat on the couch, exchanging glances towards the door and the little tot trying to reach for one of the colorful streamers. 'I can't just leave him here, not to mention I don't know anyone available who would be competent enough to take care of him..."
He ruffled his hair in frustration at the lack of solutions appearing into the forefront of his mind, before giving Michi another look. It would be completely terrible of him to even leave on Michi's birthday, and definitely something!
But then there was hero work. And people out there needed his help.
'I wonder,' he tentatively toyed with the forbidden idea that had risen up in his mind. 'Couldn't a hero be selfish for once…do what he wanted…'
Toshinori abruptly grimaced at the dangerous thought before completely banishing the idea.
He couldn't do that! He was the goddamn Symbol of Peace! He couldn't just abandon people on need on a whim! If he did that, then he wouldn't even be practicing what he kept on preaching to others!
"C'mon...get your priorities straight, All Might! This is no time to be thinking of things like that!" Toshinori muttered angrily towards himself, before looking back at Michi again. He abruptly sighed in resignation, before thinking of how he was going to fix the next problem.
He couldn't leave Michi alone in the house by himself, and he definitely couldn't refrain from assisting in the containment of the inevitable conflict. If only there were somewhere that he could leave Michi, someplace that was able to hold small children- wait.
An idea came, and Toshinori abruptly brightened up. There was a place he could take him...
[Michi]
'I can't believe this,' I silently grumbled to myself as I looked at the literal herd of pudgy toddlers crawling on the other side of the playpen. 'The prick! He went and did it! He actually did it!'
'Today, of all the days!?'
Birthdays are a special occasion to be celebrated, no matter the situation at hand. Whether it be rain or shine, these sacred events are something that no family should ever forget, a belief I hold to the highest of standards. Celebrating the day when one was born wasn't something that should be left lightly, no matter who or what the person in question is.
Why am I blabbering on about this?
Well, when my adoptive father decided to drop me off at the nearest daycare without any warning, it was safe to say that I was not pleased. Well, okay, a normal baby wouldn't have really given a crap about this.
However, that's where the problem comes in: I'm a grown-ass man in a baby's body. I actually have feelings that could be hurt.
And today was my special day. Cue happy Michi evolving into sulky Michi.
'He has hero work. Your life isn't something he has to circulate around all the time. Give Yagi a break you baby.' my inner consciousness tried to appease my boiling wrath to no avail.
'Yes, yes, I can completely forgive him-
BUT HELL NO! NOT RIGHT NOW! NOT AFTER I JUST GOT DITCHED!'
That, and the fact that there wasn't any cake. Something I had been craving in order to wipe off the taste of spinach baby food from my mouth.
Yagi had better make up for this. Else, sulky Michi was going to evolve into annoying Michi.
Looking back at this event would make me feel foolish for what I had been thinking about during that time, and the pure ridiculousness of the selfish emotions which were running rampant throughout my head. But at the moment, I honestly could have cared less.
Here I was, in a children's daycare, surrounded by a mob of runny-nosed, gaggling brats, in the body of a runny-nosed brat. 'Why did this happen' was a question I was still trying to answer.
Ultimately, I was failing pretty badly.
"Ah, SHUT UP!" I practically roared at the gaggling flock of infants. They all abruptly stopped what they were doing, before turning towards me with wide (adorable) eyes.
Thank god that was over. Now, silence reigns once more in this peaceful- why the hell are they staring at me?
I could literally hear a pin drop when the first of the babies started to crawl towards me.
Oh God...don't tell me that-
Suddenly, I was being charged at by a literal horde of drooling monstrosities giggling at the top of their lungs. I didn't have any time to even react, and the satisfaction that had once existed turned into full-blown panic.
'DEFCON 1! DEFCON 1! Abort the mission! ABORT ABORT ABOR-'
At that moment, I was utterly swarmed on all sides by little drooling infants, pandemonium completely ruining any sense of direction as the little zerglings all tried to rip a bloody piece of me-
Okay, that was a bit extreme. Nevertheless, what had once been a brief reprieve of silence had transformed into a full-out session of 'Dogpile Michi,' with yours truly being the unfortunate subject of the horde's game.
If this is what being subjected to a zombie apocalypse felt like, then I was going to do my damned hardest to prevent anyone else from suffering the same fate as myself. This anime world will never have to become a Highschool of the Dead-Expy so long as I am alive!
(Somehow I don't feel too confident in my belief, as if I was forgetting something important. Something about a Quirk which could transform people into walking wraiths? Penguins with abnormal amounts of muscle mass? Ah, screw it. Another problem for future me...)
But until then, I was reduced to a screeching, blubbering mess until someone got the right idea of prying the little demons off of me. That or until my assailants got tired of playing with me like a piece of meat, something that I very much doubted greatly.
I once thought that having a second life would be awesome. Right now, I would like to rescind my statement and slap my past self in the noggin for ever thinking about such a dumb thing.
'Fuck my life.'
[Yagi POV]
When Toshinori arrived at the daycare to pick Michi up, he was abruptly surprised when the baby started to bawl right then and there. He froze up at first, not expecting any of this considering that Michi practically never cried ever-
But now was the time to act!
"Please don't cry, please don't cry…" Michi just wailed even louder at Yagi's failed attempts at calming him down, making the panicking Symbol of Peace panic even more.
Upon the disapproving looks from the pedestrians nearby, Toshinori picked Michi up and hurried along, trying his best to comfort the little child the best that he could, all the while wondering how he was going to deal with the snickering baby-
Wait what.
Michi was silently giggling at the gaping expression Toshinori was making at him, before exploding in childish laughter when the once panicking Symbol of Peace was now leveling an unamused yet light glare at him.
Truly this kid…
"You're a lot more perceptive than I thought, making me go through all of that earlier. Let me guess, that was revenge for me leaving you at a moment's notice?"
"Da."
"And judging by how you've been acting around me and peering at the bag in my hand, you also understand that I brought cake?"
"Da bu!"
Toshinori rubbed his eyebrows as he leaned his head back, letting out a bemused sigh at the way Michi had managed to drag him around. He was definitely his mother's child if the way he managed to play out this situation so well spoke of anything.
"Truly, Yuka-nee would have been so proud of you…"
Michi seemingly froze upon hearing that but resumed pawing at the V on his head, as if he had never heard of anything. Babies definitely didn't develop this fast so quickly, and Toshinori didn't need to be an expert to know that much. Perhaps it was time to schedule that appointment a bit earlier than before…
"Yagi! Yagi! Cake!" The black-haired child tugged on the lapels of Toshinori's suit, as if trying to get him to move home faster so that he could have his pastry.
"Yes, yes. I'll give you a small slice when we get home, alright?"
He couldn't help the smile that formed from hearing that cheerful laugh. Even the smallest things had a great deal of worth, didn't they?
[Age 2]
{Requirements met. Sufficient storage capacity for foundations.}
{Loading… complete.}
{Load PR4E70R: Protocol. . . complete.}
{It's time to wake up, Mr. Stark.}
As soon as the last word was spoken, I jolted awake in my crib. Confusion and befuddlement circulated throughout my head as I tried to process what I thought I heard.
What the hell was that? Some sort of alarm Yagi bought? Meh, doesn't matter…
I returned back to sleep, blissfully unaware that my life was only beginning to get so much worse.