Warnings: talking to people (my greatest fear tbh), Ichido's finally getting described for once, cutesy nicknames, another OC, puns, and NO MORE JAPANESE.
Yes, I'M SERIOUS. Ichido actually learns to speak in this chapter, so the Japanese translations are OFFICIALLY over.
Disclaimer: I am a trash can. Trash cans can't own manga or anime. Thus I don't own the manga or anime.
Also important, here's a little information on the way Japanese names are presented and on honorifics. '-san' is the equivalent of say Mr/Mrs/Ms. The Japanese write names like so "Last Name, First Name". They also introduce themselves in the same manner. Just remember this little tidbit of info for the chapter.
Edited as of 3-8-18
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Text Key:
Italics = Emphasized thoughts/text/dialogue
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If it wasn't already incredibly obvious, I was not a social butterfly in my previous life.
I mean, I could definitely be an interesting person if you knew me for years, but I could not be the same around strangers or people I didn't know well. It was because of this shyness that I didn't have many close friends and had a difficult time making completely new ones. I would usually restrict myself to a small group of people, no more, no less.
It was due to my severe lacking of social abilities that I feared going to College and getting a job; I knew I would have a hard time adjusting to the new environment and making new friends. Although I never got to see either of those things happen, I had gotten thrust into an equally foreign situation.
And now, I am forced to make friends with my fellow infant. In all honesty, it is way easier to connect with people that didn't have the ability to judge you for your interests or your dislikes, but there was also the matter of gaining my Quirk.
I knew from the manga that Izuku used to be friends with Katsuki before he was deemed Quirkless, albeit a not very friendly 'friendship'. As soon as he was pronounced Quirkless, Katsuki dropped him like a hot potato, mostly ignoring him or bullying him until they both got accepted into UA.
It was because of my brother's horrible experience with being Quirkless that I held a tiny ball of fear in the back of mind that I would become Quirkless too. Although my brother was destined to be Quirkless, my Quirk (or potential Quirkless-ness) all depended on a random genetic dice-roll between Firebreathing, which was Otou-san's Quirk, Attraction of Small Objects, which was Oka-san's Quirk, or a potential combination or mutation of the two. Not to mention, I could also get a completely different Quirk from theirs due to spontaneous mutation or not even receive one at all due to genetic incompatibility.
The possibilities were pretty much endless, which only increased my fear that I would get a bad dice-roll. In this day and age, your entire livelihood would be affected by the Quirk you were born with. If it was strong enough, you could potentially become a Hero. Although, more than often, people received Quirks that were completely useless to the Hero-field, like Oka-san's Quirk or Mitsuki Bakugou's Quirk. Constantly emitting glycerin from your skin was nice, but not very practical on the battlefield.
I was basically in the dark on what my Quirk would be for the first two years of my life. Quirks normally came around the age of three or four, except in the case of the Quirkless and people with Mutant-category Quirks. If there was one thing I was sure of, I definitely did not have a Mutant-Quirk; my body did not feel any different nor look any less human than the body from my last life.
As much as I wanted to be a hero, I couldn't start making plans for the future until I got my Quirk. This meant that I would simply have to learn valuable information in the meantime, however long that may last.
I decided after my first few words that I would shamble a loose plan for the time being, being conscious of the fact that my Quirk could easily change the whole thing.
I concluded that my main priority would be to learn Japanese to the best extent that I could. It was just a matter of how I would get the resources to do so...
Of course, that was quite a challenge.
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Izuku and I were about one and a half years old when Otou-san first decided to take us to the local library.
The both of us were practically in the toddler stage, being able to walk steadily for a decent amount of time and consume solids as the majority of our diets, so Otou-san and Oka-san thought it was about time that they started to teach us to speak, write, and read fluently. Not to mention, they also wanted to give us a head start on the subjects that we would start learning about in what I would call the equivalent of American Daycare or Preschool.
It was for all these reasons that Otou-san decided that it was the perfect occasion to take the two of us to the library. He left the apartment equipped with two toddlers, an empty backpack, and a long list of books tucked in his pocket.
The Musutafu City Public Library wasn't much to behold at sight; it was an old building composed of only brick and glass for the windows. It turns out that the structure was built pre-Quirk era, a product of my own time.
Although the exterior was less than amazing, the inside was a great deal more interesting. This was mostly because of what it had to offer: books.
The innards of the building were filled with rows upon rows of bookcases, all stuffed to the brim with books and organized by a strict system. There seemed to be only one gigantic room consuming the space of the entire edifice. To the direct left of the entrance was a rather large desk that had a plaque that had gibberish written on it, I still could not read at the time, attached to the front of it. A young man with stark black hair in a ruffled, unkempt style and rimless glasses seemed to be manning the station, but he seemed more interested in the unusually thick textbook he was reading.
As soon as Otou-san walked us through the double door entrance, the man nodded at us and promptly returned to his captivating textbook, muttering something under his breath about 'children' that I could barely make out. After having a brief conversation with the desk-man, with words too difficult for my unenlightened brain, and leaving us in his care, Otou-san made a beeline towards one of the bookcases near the back of the large, large room.
The man sighed, pulled out two kiddie-chairs from under his desk, leaned over the structure, and finally plopped the two green colored seats on the ground. It was when he turned around to get something from behind the desk that I noticed the odd part about the man; he was two-dimensional.
The instant he turned sideways, his visible body became the size of a sliver of paper. As he approached the 360-degree mark in turning, his body was fully visible again, the backside of his plaid dress-shirt facing our still-standing figures as he dug through a bin he had on the floor. He turned around to face us again, becoming nearly invisible and then visible like earlier, and dropped a few puzzle blocks on the floor for us to play with. He speedily returned to the sitting position he had earlier and stuck his face nose-deep into the scarily thick textbook from earlier.
I could only assume that he was used to parents leaving their children at the front while they searched for books and that he hated when he had to do so.
Regardless, I couldn't really play with puzzle blocks, unlike Izuku who was going to town on that blue cube block, and I wanted to test my language-understanding and speaking capabilities, so I did the only thing that I could do.
I talked to the librarian.
"U-Um..." I started, trying to sound out the syllables of each word to keep the sentence moving. I continued on with my cringe-inducing pronunciation, "What is book reading?"
I winced slightly at my sentence structure, I was sure that I had messed up somewhere, but I wasn't quite sure where I had messed up. The young librarian was startled out of his reading-reverie and then proceeded to lean over the counter to look at me. He pulled on an overly-friendly smile and proceeded to speak:
"I'm reading a book about science, little lady," he said in the sweetest tone he could muster, really emphasizing that 'baby-tone' that most people dish out when they're speaking to young children, "My name is Bakku Youshi, what's your name?"
"Mido-riya," I stressed each syllable individually, trying to master the art of Japanese pronunciation, "Ichi-do."
"Nice to meet you, Midoriya-chan," the librarian chuckled. He then proceeded to do an exaggerated bow, the upper half of his body becoming paper thin while his legs were still completely visible. It made for quite the sight. The man quickly returned to his upright position and sat down once more, proceeding to dive back into the textbook from earlier with a residing smile on his face from our little interaction.
It seems like my attempt at conversation got cut off short.
"What kind of science?" I asked, trying to mimic the same word he used for 'science' from earlier. The reaction I got from the question was extremely unexpected.
The librarian suddenly slammed the textbook on the desk, causing all the little pencils, paper clips, and papers littered on the top to quickly bounce up and land back on the desk. The man slowly rose from his chair, both hands placed firmly on the wooden desk.
"I'm sooo glad you asked," the librarian wore an unsettlingly intense gaze, his honey-brown eyes shining with passion through the transparent glass lenses. The man launched into a long series of explanations, making wild arm gestures and even spinning around a few times when he got really excited. At first, I was extremely startled by the pace that he could speak at, but I grew slightly guilty as he kept going due to the fact that I couldn't understand a single word he was saying. Even Izuku seemed slightly confused, occasionally staring at the man and then returning to the puzzle blocks with a puzzled expression plastered on his face.
"–and that's how life started on Earth!" Bakku-san finished after a good five minutes, heavily panting from the incredibly intense speech which was apparently about the origin of life. He sat back down with a deep exhale and asked, "Doesn't it sound fun to learn science?"
I could only absently nod after witnessing his ardent lecture about the beginning of life. Oh boy, if this is what all people in this world are like, then I shouldn't have insecurities anymore.
Almost simultaneous with the moment I stopped nodding, Otou-san came speed-walking towards Bakku-san's desk, an armful of books and textbooks in tow.
"Ichido, Izuku," our Father addressed us quickly, seemingly struggling under the intense weight of the large stack of books in his arms, "Up, stand up."
The two of us got up from the waiting chairs, Izuku taking a moment to place the puzzle game on the chair and give it a reassuring pat. Otou-san hastily dropped the immense volume of books on the table and took off his backpack, zipping it open. Otou-san handed Bakku-san a small plastic card and the librarian quickly scanned each and every book at break-neck speed. After the entire pile was checked out, Otou-san managed to fit all of the books inside his large backpack and proceeded grabbed both Izuku and me by the hands.
I felt myself being dragged out of the library, Otou-san in a haste to get home as quickly as possible. I gave a tiny wave goodbye to Bakku-san, which the kind man promptly returned with his papery arm, and was rushed home.
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The moment we entered our apartment, Otou-san dropped the bag on the floor, which landed on it with an extremely strong thud. The floor groaned under the weight, begging for its sweet release. Otou-san then dragged us into the living room and let go of us. He then proceeded to practically melt onto the couch.
I can say that it took a good two minutes for him to start snoring lightly and another three minutes for him to curl up into a ball in the corner of the couch, snoring even heavier than before. Izuku figured that it was a good time to play, so he waltzed over to the toy chest in our room and returned with his trademark All Might action figure and a Snipe action figure, which happened to be his second favorite hero.
In fact, any hero other than All Might was basically his second favorite hero.
He stumbled towards me, I was still standing in front of Otou-san, trying to wake him up, and shoved the Snipe figurine in my hand. He, of course, kept his favorite toy.
"Play please," he pleaded, his little fists balled up in excitement. That All Might toy was probably suffocating from his grip.
"No now, 'kay?" I politely pushed the Snipe action figure back at him, trying to wake Otou-san from his snoring state. I needed to learn the Japanese language goddamnit.
Izuku frowned at me, little tears forming in the corners of his eyes and threatening to stream down his face.
"Tou-san nap," he pointed at our still slumbering father and hugged Toy All Might and Toy Snipe against his T-shirt, "Play now, learn later. 'kay?"
I started considering the offer, absently rubbing my cheek in deep thought. On one hand, it would be best to wake Otou-san up as quickly as possible and get him to start teaching us, but there was also a Golden Opportunity to enjoy my toddler-hood once more. One choice would benefit me in the future while the other would provide some level of a redeeming childhood...
Well, fuck it. I had a lot of time to focus on the future, but I shouldn't burn away my childhood planning for it.
I took the Snipe action figure from his held out arm. Izuku first looked surprised at me for changing my mind, everyone in the house knew how damn bullheaded I could be, but swiftly took on an excited expression.
"Oh no!" he fake gasped, his mouth in the shape of an 'o', "A house on fire! All Might is here to save the day!"
He made All Might fly around the living room, occasionally zipping into the kitchen and both our bedroom and our parent's bedroom. He finally settled on the TV being the "burning house" and made All Might land in front of the object. Pausing for a short moment, he looked at me and gestured for me to join.
I chuckled and lifted the plastic Snipe in my hand, "And Snipe too."
We played for a solid thirty minutes until Otou-san woke from his trip-induced nap. We both ended up tackling him the moment the poor man got up.
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A few months passed since our first visit to the library, and it definitely paid off going.
Izuku and I were able to speak much more coherently than the first time Otou-san used textbooks to teach us, as to be expected by two-year-olds. After the entire learning process, I had a new respect for non-reincarnated people. While I had the entire English language to think in and compare to the Japanese language, Izuku was able to catch on quicker due to his lack of another language as well as his undeveloped psyche. I remember hearing once in my old life that the younger a child is taught something, like fundamental mathematics as well as domestic and national languages, the more likely they are to understand and retain that knowledge.
Since I was speaking from a 16-year-old viewpoint, I was way past the mental age that let me easily catch onto a new language. I found that the best way to fix the issue of constantly using English was to think in Japanese, trying to make the language my primary tongue instead of English. It kind of works, but I find myself switching to English when I encounter new words or phrases to read, write, or say.
Otou-san continued to take us to the library every week or so, usually bringing in and coming out with a large number of books on hand. Bakku-san grew accustomed to our company and usually had little chats with us, sometimes on Otou-san's request so that he could test our language skills. There was this one time when Izuku made the same mistake of asking what Bakku-san was reading and the man launched into a twenty-minute rant about the strategic mistakes of the Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae. I guess not wearing chest armor kind of makes you vulnerable. Kind of.
Bakku-san was really just an awkwardly sweet man who had a burning passion for reading and learning new things. In retrospect, it was probably one of the main reasons why he grew up to become a librarian, for the books. The man once told me himself that his goal was to read every single nonfiction book in the library. I figured he could do it, simply because he was in his early twenties and he had already sat through a few hundred books. I honestly wondered if he kept a log at home for each book he read, given that the man had an unhealthy obsession with reading.
Regardless, the visits to the library were usually short, much to my dismay, and Otou-san always came rushing home to dump the increasingly heavy backpack that he always used on the tortured apartment floor. The load of books just seemed to get bigger and bigger as our parents decided to teach us more and more. Eventually, we had managed to cover most basic material that is taught in pre-K and Kindergarten all in the span of a few months, given that we spent most of each day learning instead of goofing off.
It was soon decided that we knew enough to start attending a Daycare, just so Oka-san and Otou-san could work more and save up some yen for the future. Up until now, they had been taking alternating shifts at their workplace and shifting between a day off and a day at work. I respected their decision, it was for the financial well-being of our family, but it didn't make it any less intimidating to be stuffed into a building with a large group of toddlers.
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"I don't wanna go," Izuku huffed, sitting down in the frame of our bedroom door with his arms crossed.
It was the first day of Daycare and my ten-minutes-younger-brother was unwilling to budge from his spot. The little boy had been stubborn about it all morning, refusing to even think about walking out of our shared bedroom without some sort of compensation.
Unfortunately, the only compensation he could settle for was not going to the Daycare at all. As soon as Oka-san explained the concept of a Daycare to him, he immediately rejected the idea and wanted to stay at home. I guess we both had the same horrible trait: the ability to be infuriatingly stubborn at will.
"Why?" Oka-san cried, massaging her scalp roughly with her hands. The poor woman, suffering from stress so early. She queried, "Why don't you want to go to Daycare with Ichan?"
I cringed at the nickname that Izuku had dubbed me, finding it too cutesy for my rather sardonic and rough personality. The little boy had decided that the name "Ichan", very similar to "Kacchan" in its cutesy nature, was very fitting (in his damned opinion) and was a lot easier to say than Ichido. He was just learning how to speak at the time he came up with the name, so I gave him a pass.
It was unfortunate that the name stuck, however. At least Otou-san had the decency to call me Ichido, unlike Oka-san and my dear little brother.
"What if all the other kids don't wanna play with me like Ichan?" Izuku whined, still holding his ground. The boy suddenly gasped, undergoing a fantastical revelation, "What if they don't like the heroes I like!?"
Oka-san and I made eye-contact for a brief second before bursting into laughter, Izuku looking at the both of us like we were madmen for underestimating the extreme scenario he thought up.
"Izuku," I said between snickers, "I don't think there's any kid out there who doesn't like All Might."
He only frowned in response, still thinking that the scenario he thought of was very likely to happen. Nevertheless, he did stand up from his spot in the doorframe and took Oka-san's hand. The boy still had faith that his absolutely horrific predictions could come true, but he trusted that everyone likes All Might.
I mean, who doesn't like All Might? Well... other than Endeavor, and Shigaraki... and All for One... okay, well, a lot of people don't like him I guess, but almost every kid liked him at some point. I still hold my opinion that it would be really difficult to find a child that did not like the number one hero.
Oka-san started rushing to get us ready for our first day, changing the two of us out of our footie pajamas (even though they were comfortable and adorable, they still damaged my self-esteem) and into plain tee-shirts and shorts. She then fed us mashed potatoes, which were one of the better foods they decided to feed me, and then cleaned us up.
Oka-san let Izuku go off for a bit while keeping me hostage, heading to the bathroom with me in her grasp and grabbing a hairbrush on the way. She walked into the room, closing the door on the way in, and placed me on the vanity so that I could see her brush my hair. The brush moved erratically through my sable, curly hair, running into the knots that were extremely common on Otou-san's side. I winced every once in a while was the instrument of torture continuously pulled at my hair strands.
I looked into the mirror in the meantime, letting my appearance sink in. Black irises and a bunch of freckles stared me back in the face. It was still really hard to get used to, having a new appearance and all. Sometimes, when Oka-san or Otou-san took me near a mirror, I still expected to see my old figure in the reflection.
It was always an odd feeling when the foreign face showed up.
It took about ten minutes, given that my hair was a lot longer than a few months ago, and Oka-san then put my hair into her favorite style: a bun. My hair was not compliant, so some of it stuck out in an unruly manner, seeming a lot like curly bangs. It was adorable in a way but also held the same ruggedness that Otou-san and Izuku had.
After I gave a brief nod of confirmation to the hairstyle, Oka-san lifted me off the bathroom vanity and softly placed me on the floor. I made my way to the door where Izuku was waiting and began to put on the tiny pair of sneakers that my parents had gotten me.
Oka-san took a few minutes before meeting us at the door and then took the both of us by the hand, opening the door and leading us out of the building. The walk to the Daycare was very short, only taking about fifteen minutes to actually get there.
Finally, the three of us stood in front of the building, arms linked to Oka-san. The building itself was rather uninteresting, being what you'd normally expect for a facility for children and containing a playground on the side of the structure.
"Excited?" Oka-san asked after a short period of silence, looking at the both of us.
Izuku shrugged and I shared his sentiment. Like it or not, I was going to go in there.
I nodded as I took my first step, knowing that it would be my very first achievement on the road to becoming a Hero.
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Just saying, Bakku-san's name is EXTREMELY ironic given that he likes reading textbooks.
