"Ow… why does my head hurt…" She said as she blearily rolled over. "Turn off the suuuun." She groaned- and realized she was not laying in her bed, but on the ground.
Immediately she was made alert as she sat up and opened her eyes, looking around.
She was in an alleyway.
"...What?" She asked. There was something wrong, too, but she couldn't place it, but she was not in her bed like she'd been when she went to sleep, and she had never seen this alleyway in her life. "Seriously what the fuck?"
Wait.
"Wait a minute." She said, holding her hands up in the appropriate gesture, as if telling the world itself to stop for a moment. "Why is my voice… ugh, did I hit my hea-"
She stopped as she looked at her hands.
It suddenly occurred to her what was wrong.
Her skin was blue.
Her nose was blue.
Her hands were blue.
As she looked down at herself, she saw the rest of her was blue, too. At least the visible parts, because she was fully dressed in her favorite hoodie, a pair of shorts, white knee socks that contrasted heavily with her blue skin now, and her good sneakers.
"What the fuck?" She repeated as she stared at herself, standing up to try and get a hold of her situation better. "Okay, okay, I'm blue now. That's cool. That's cool. Voice is...higher? Wait." She surreptitiously pulled at the front of her waistband. "...Oh, okay, nevermind this is cool, alright, sick." She said, suddenly invigorated.
Still weirded out beyond all belief and confused as fuck, but not upset.
"O-kay, now where the fuck am I?" She said, looking around the alley, before hearing movement from over on a dumpster nearby. "Hello?"
"Urgh, who is making so much noise so early in the morning, stupid neighbours," Came a dude's voice from on top of the dumpster.
"Uh, no, I'm not a neighbor, uh, sorry for disturbing you Mister Homeless Guy." She apologized.
"I am not fuckign homeless," The guy responded as she saw him sit up on the dumpster, and she saw a teen with a very angular face, pitch-black hair, and light-blue eyes that looked to be almost glowing. And he was dressed in a simple white t-shirt with a black jacket on top and black jeans. "...Where the fuck am I and why is there a demon chick cosplayer in front of me," And he sounded a bit out of it still.
"Cosplayer?" She asked, looking behind and around. "Do you mean me?" She asked, pointing at herself in confusion.
"Who else?" He asked as he continued to look around. "How the fuck did I end up here? Did I get mugged and knocked out?"
"Hey, that's what I'm trying to figure out too!" She said, noticing his voice sounded rather familiar. "Do I know you?"
"No, I don't think so, I know nobody who looks or dresses in full body make-up like that," He said as he left the top of the dumpster. "Yeah, definitely mugged, phone and wallet gone." He said as he seemed to reach for an object at his side that wasn't there. "My keys too…"
She gasped and checked her own pockets, on her shorts and hoodie, only to find nothing in either, and then worriedly checked her neck- "Oh, thank god, it's still there." She said in relief as she grasped at the silver cross on a chain necklace. "I don't think I was mugged, I don't know about you but I think I've been Isekai'd, dude."
"No you haven't this is earth, Denmark specifically," The dead tired-looking dude said. Sounding like he did not wanna deal with this crazy chick.
"I went to bed in Pennsylvania in America, so I think something's up here dude." She said. "Wait, Denmark…?"
Before she could formulate that thought any more, something that could only be a ghost flew through one wall of the alleyway and into the other.
It was quick.
Barely there for more than a few seconds.
But unmistakably, that was a ghost.
"D-did you see that?" The dude whose height actually almost matched her's asked as he pointed at the wall the ghost had went through.
"G-Ghost?!" She said intelligently as she pointed at both walls. "Wh?"
"Unless we both just went insane and started hallucinating the exact same scenario, then, then I think we both got Isekai'd. For ghosts don't exist in the real world," He said with a tone that rang of disbelief.
"Yeah, yeah that tracks." She said. "I mean, I definitely wasn't blue when I went to sleep."
A moment passed in silence between them as they both processed their situations.
"So, uh, hey what's your name?" She asked. "Since obviously, if we both got Isekai'd we must be linked somehow. Maybe we knew each other?"
"Er my name is []," He answered, somehow audibly pronouncing silence.
Somehow.
"How did you say that with your mouth?!" She asked, impressed.
"I just said my name?" He said in confusion, but he then blinked. "[], oh my god I can't hear my name."
"Did that happen with me too?" She asked. "[]. []! I'm []! Oh that's weird." She declared.
"Okay, Isekai confirmed and the price was our name," He said. "Well if that is the case call me Anders, Anders S. Viking, haha, online name works!"
"...What." She said. "Like, []-dammit, I can't say it either, which actually confirms it holy shit, StreamingViking? That Anders S. Viking?"
"Yeah that's me?" He answered with blinking eyes. "Are you a reader of mine? Wait that voice..." Anders said as things started to click inside of his head.
"Yeah, it's a little higher pitched from normal, but it's me, ya goiyrl, Passive." She said in her distinct manner of talking.
"Oh my god… you're a Smurf?"
"Bitch no." She denied. "You ever seen a Smurf this big?"
"Bigmouth Smurf? And yes that is an actual thing," Anders said.
"...Huh. Okay."
"I am just joking, with the horns you're closer to being an Oni," He said afterward.
"...Horns?" She asked, looking up to try to see them as she put her hands to her forehead, feeling two slightly curved, thick, bony protrusions coming from her head, which when she grabbed felt like hitting her funny bone, but were long enough she could rest her thumb on the tip when grabbing the whole thing. "Oh my god I'm a demon?!"
"Maybe?" Anders asked. "Let's find out where we are actually, before we make any conclusions, I definitely think urban fantasy with the ghost that just passed through."
"Yeah, yeah that sounds like a good idea…" She said as she looked around. "Uh, guess we should start by getting out of this alley."
"Yeah, let's do that before the smell of trash completely seeps in," Anders said as he dusted his clothes off. "Huh?"
"Huh what?"
"Is it me or am I taller?" He asked.
"You're probably taller." She concurred. "Cause, uh, I'm definitely the same size, but there's also definitely been some changes if you know what I mean."
"I mean the blue and the horns are obvious, and the eyes too, and the inside of your mouth," Anders said, listing off the changes he could see as they walked out of the alley.
"Wait, what's wrong with my mouth?" She asked, worried, unable to see it.
"It looks like it's glowing orange inside, and your lips too but the effect is less there," He answered.
Curiously, she pulled at her bottom lip to see-and it really was a faintly glowing orange. "Oh mah gahd." She said, still staring. "Is my tongue…?" It was, in fact, also orange, and maybe a bit longer. "Well, uh, for you… you look like you got an emo glow-up."
"Well, that is not the worst," Anders answered as they finally exited the alley and walked onto the main street. And it became very obvious where they were.
Because literally no one was looking at them weird.
Because the signs and everything around was in Japanese- which, thankfully, she could somehow understand.
Because the people walking around going about their day looked about as weird as she did. Well about a fourth to a fifth of them.
"Heroaca." She said breathily. "Holy shit."
"Wait, then what was up with that?" He asked, as he pointed back at the alley where they had seen the ghost.
"Well, obviously that was someone's Quirk." She stated. "So hopefully that was someone breaking the law to run away from something and not some super criminal phantom thief-type villain."
"Yeah that makes sense, or somebody just has an astral projection quirk and being a perv," Anders suggested. "...So obviously you've got a Mutant Quirk?"
"Probably?" She agreed. "That or leftovers like Bird-head."
"Tokiyama, that is just rude," Anders said.
"Tokoyami, like darkness, and funnily enough not the word for bird." She corrected, reveling in one of the few times she was able to correct someone else's pronunciation. "I was just saying that for emphasis."
"Ah, been a bit, also so similar," Anders defended himself. "Wonder if I got one now?"
"I mean, probably." She said. "It'd be pretty shitty if both of us got isekai'd and only one of us had a Quirk." She paused. "Unless you get OfA."
"No that is Izuku's, the self-destructive broccoli deserves it," Anders said. "But the fuck we do now?"
"Uhhhh, I dunno, be heroes or something?" She suggested. "Wait, before that, I need a name, I just realized I don't have a name."
"What about Douji? Since you look like Ibaraki's blue sister?" Anders suggested.
"Ooh, Douji could be good, but that's not a first name, so how about…" She looked at her hands as her brain did some word associations. "...Sora. Sora-doji. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good." Sora-doji said.
"Sora Douji it is," Anders said in confirmation.
"Yeah!" Sora agreed.
And then the building behind them exploded.
xxx
"What the fuck!?" Sora asked as she tumbled forward, looking back and up at the building -what used to be a mall, maybe?- which was now on fire, as people panicked and ran about like chickens with their heads chopped off.
"Villain attack?" Anders asked as he went back up on his legs after having been blasted to the ground by the shock wave, thankfully his eardrums didn't blow.
"Villain or Terrorist, if there's a difference." Sora agreed as she got to her feet. "...We're running, right?"
"YES LEAVING WOULD BE THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION! BUT DO NOT FEAR, FOR I AM HERE!" Said the booming but not actually loud voice of All Might as he walked past them.
Even from behind, his image was awe inspiring.
This man definitely deserved to be called the greatest hero alive, and in Anders opinion the only one who even existed in the realm as heroism as Superman did.
But what pulled next at Ander's attention was not All Might's next action but rather the words of the see through female figure that floated right behind him.
"Better be quick Toshi the fire looks bad," Said Nana Shimura, the person who was supposed to be dead.
Or maybe they were just really early in the timeline?
But there was one, tiny little issue with that idea.
"THIS FIRE LOOKS PRETTY BAD, BUT WORRY NOT! IDAHO SMASH!" All Might said, before punching the air, creating a vortex that seemed to drag the fire out of the building and out of existence.
Sora felt her hair whipping back from the backlash as she covered her eyes, barely staying on her feet, but she did see that somehow, Nana's cape stayed perfectly still.
Before the windstorm even finished clearing, All Might was rushing into the building. "WORRY NOT! I AM HERE!" He declared.
But out of pure instinct Anders reached out and took hold of Nana Shimura's cape.
"What?" She asked in confusion as she turned around to look at Anders with wide eyes.
"Dude why are you stopping her, she needs to go save people!" Sora said. "I'm really sorry ma'am."
"You can see me?" Nana asked in genuine confusion and disbelief.
"Uhhh, yeah?" Sora asked, not comprehending. "Should we… not be able to?"
"Sora… she is see-through, like that dude before," Anders said as he looked at the seventh wielder of One for All.
"Wh?" Sora said as she looked back at Nana and finally took in that yes, she was see-through, and as she looked down at Nana's legs the ends seemed to fade into a stereotypical ghostly trail. "Oh my god."
"Oh my god!" Nana repeated. "You, you are alive? And can see and touch me?" She asked. "How?"
"Urgh...Quirk?" Anders asked.
"Wait, no, that doesn't make sense, because I can see her too!" Sora said. "Unless your Quirk let's me see."
"I don't think so, or All Might would have reacted," Anders said as he let go of Nana's cape now that her attention was fully on the two of them.
"Oh, shit, you're right. Then… why…?" Sora asked, looking between Anders and Nana. "Uh, you wouldn't happen to know what's going on, would you ma'am?"
"No," She answered. "I... I have never run into any living person that could interact with a ghost," Nana said. "Wow, I am actually talking to somebody who isn't also dead?" She said with a bit of tears leaving her eyes as she was overcome with emotion.
"Uh, yeah?" Sora said, reaching out and gently, curiously, testingly, patted her on the shoulder, and much to Sora's surprise it felt a lot like touching a normal person. "We're talkin to ya, ma'am. As crazy as that is."
"Yeah, holy shit…" Anders said. "Was not expecting our day to go like this, first I get Isekai'd, now I am talking to freaking Nana's ghost," His words were whispers but Nana very much heard them, though before she could say anything to that a nearby part of the building collapsed.
"You two should get away from here," Nana said immediately going into hero mode.
"R-right, running." Sora said, turning and doing just that, Anders following behind, as they headed for the emergency services cordon.
"Hey, you kids-over here!" Said an older EMT looking fellow. "Are you injured?"
"No, we're good." Sora said, since she didn't feel road burn was the kind of burn needing to be treated at the moment.
Anders just nodded in agreement.
"Alright, get past the line, we'll get you checked over for concussions…"
Soon, they were caught up in the whir of medical procedures, All Might coming by a few times carrying an absurd amount of injured people, catching glimpses of Nana hovering by his side when he did.
However, it was when the police started asking questions that problems began to arise.
"Names?"
"Sora-doji."
"Anders S. Viking."
"Mhm hmm. Quirks?"
"Uh, Oni." Sora said, making it up on the spot, and lying further just in case. "It doesn't actually do anything useful, just makes me look like this."
Anders blinked a bit as he knew he might have one but, at this moment he had no idea what it was so he wondered if he should just say he was Quirkless.
"You okay there son?" The officer asked.
"Oh, he's Quirkless." Sora quickly said, covering for his silence. "He doesn't like talking about it. And he's visiting from Denmark, his Japanese isn't very good."
The officer looked at him curiously, so Anders smiled nervously back. "Ja."
"I see." The officer said, marking that down. "And what were you two doing when the explosion occurred?"
"We were just walking and enjoying the sights, sir." Sora said. "We like going for walks."
"Alright. And did you see anything suspicious on your walk?"
"No sir, we were just walking and then ka-boom, explosion, then All Might showed up, and then we ran here." Sora explained relatively truthfully.
"Okay, that should do it. As long as you two are alright, you should be able to go along now." The officer said, closing his notebook as he went to do whatever cops did around here.
Once he was out of earshot, they both let out a big sigh. "Oh, god, I'm so happy he didn't ask where we live." Sora said under her breath.
"Me too, I have never been so nervous in my life, not even finals were so nerve wracking," Anders said.
"Some of mine were worse, but I know what you mean." Sora agreed. "...Where do we go now, though?"
"No idea, but let's just leave the area first," Anders said.
"Yes, and then continue your talk with me," Came the voice of Nana Shimura, and the two other worlders turned their heads to see the ghost floating to their right.
"Oh, uh, hi?" Sora greeted. "Yooou came back."
"Of course, for I heard your friend here say something that piqued my interest," Nana said as she stared at Anders. Who was now looking very sheepish as he realised what she was talking about and he realised he had not used his mental voice when he had said that.
"Well, you are a hero, Ma'am." Sora said, figuring what she was talking about.
"My name was not public and that was almost forty years ago, no kids your age would recognize me on the spot like that," Nana said. "So let's go somewhere, where no one can hear you talk."
"Hmm, yeah we probably should do that," Anders said.
So they did.
Specifically, they walked away from the area and eventually found a store with a single-person bathroom, which they headed into and locked the door.
"Alright, this should be private enough, right?" Sora asked after taking a quick look at herself in the mirror-her hair was pink now, which was cool, but she had to focus. She could do her Narcissus impression later.
"It will suffice," Nana said. "So how do you know who I am? Initially assumed you were with him, but you said you got sent to another world… did you mean that literally?"
"Should we give her the full rundown? It's not like she can talk to anyone important about it?" Anders asked Sora.
"I mean… yeah that makes sense." Sora agreed. "So, basically, we're from a universe where the adventures of a specific class from UA that All Might ends up teaching is followed closely in a really popular manga that turned into an even more popular anime. So, it kinda touched on you and your Quirks, too."
"You know about… Wait, are you saying I am fiction?" Nana asked.
"Nono," Anders said. "Multiverse Theory, what is 'real' in one reality can be 'fiction' in another. Like if you had a favorite book series it would exist as another universe somewhere in the vast cosmos of the Omniverse."
"That does make sense, Isekai is a genre for a reason," Nana said as she massaged her temples.
"Yeah, exactly." Sora agreed. "So, we're not actually sure how or why we're suddenly here, or why I suddenly look like this, or how we can see you, or anything that's going on actually."
"Yeah that is a conundrum," Nana said. "I've heard of quirks that can do some dimensional stuff but what you've experienced is far beyond anything even he is capable of."
"We know about him too." Sora said. "...Which would actually explain why I have a Quirk now." She said, enthusiasm dropping.
"Hmm, I don't think so, I don't hope so," Anders said with a bit of a shiver.
"Yeah, that is an understandable reaction regarding anything with that monster," Nana said. "So with you just getting transported here… That means you have no money and nowhere to live."
"...Fuck." Anders said in realization.
"Fack." Sora agreed. "...Hey, uh, Shimura-san, do you think we could maybe convince your protege to help us out by letting you two communicate through us as payment?"
"No, I don't want to, not now. Him knowing I continued to stay with him for all these years, and I am not ready to talk to him…" Nana trampled the proposal, having seemingly not realised the option herself and was now just coming up with excuses to not talk directly to All Might. "What about my friend Torino instead?"
Sora quacked.
"Is she okay?" Nana asked at the sudden sound from Sora.
"Ehh," Was all Anders said in response.
Sora quacked again, before clearing her throat. "Sorry, um, that'd be great!" She said, voice cracking. "As long you make sure he doesn't, uh, train us. I prefer to have my bones unbroken, thank you."
Nana just rolled her eyes. "He is not that rough, and besides you're not Pro Hero material to get more than basic self-defence."
"Heeyy!" Sora whined defensively. "I mean you're right, but hey!"
"Fair enough," Anders said as he didn't even know if he had a Quirk yet, and seeing ghosts wasn't a very herory power.
"Then let me get you to him and convince him that you're legit, so I can get back to Toshi to make sure he hasn't done anything stupid in the meantime," She said speaking like the motherhen she was about him.
"Okay, how do we get there?" Sora asked. "Because if you were gonna say we should take the train… we don't have any money to do that. And I, personally, do not want to beg for spare change unless necessary."
"No need for that, his apartment is relatively close by," Nana said. "Should only be like an hour of walking."
"Ugh, that's a long one." Sora groaned.
"That is not that long?" Anders said. "That is the bare minimum you should move each day."
"No, I mean, cause like, we're in Japan, in an alternate future, filled with people with superpowers, and apparently ghosts." Sora said with a nod towards Nana. "The longer we go doing 'boring' stuff the higher the chances of us getting attacked is."
"That's ridiculous, villain attacks do not occur that often," Nana said.
"Nah, I agree with her on that one, because we're Isekai, that means shit is going to happen," Anders said. "But for now let's leave this bathroom stall."
"Yeah, yeah yeah yeah." Sora agreed as she got a paper towel and opened the door.
"I think it's cleaned regularly dude," Anders said as they exited.
"Yeah, but it's like noon, they usually clean in the mornings and at night." Sora rebutted. "...But this is another country and also the… Ma'am what year is it?" She asked, realizing she had no idea what the actual date was, she just assumed it was the future.
"It's currently 2121," Nana answered. "August 13th."
"Damn, okay, yeah, hundred years in the future." Sora said. "So yeah, stranger in a strange land, so I'm just worried how things'll go."
"Damn, well at least we missed 20 v2, electric boogaloo," Anders joked.
"Oh god, don't even joke about that." Sora said, lightly punching him on the arm. "Just-don't, oh god…"
"What are you two talking about?" Nana asked as they began to walk down the street.
"We had a pandemic from 2019 onwards." Sora said. "Which from how you're talking is either ancient history or didn't happen."
"There were a few pandemics, but nothing in 2019, from what I know, if there was one it was overshadowed by Quirks starting to really appear," Nana said.
"A." Sora said.
"A." Anders said as well.
"A." Sora said again, this time showing off the sharpened teeth she'd been feeling with her tongue as she talked.
"Shaark!" Anders said.
"Shaaaak." Sora replied.
"...Why me?" Nana asked whatever deity that was willing to listen.
Xxx
"Wow," Anders said as they stood in front of the building that Gran Torino lived in, looking like the one shown in the manga.
"It looks like it's condemned." Sora noted.
"More like ancient," Anders commented. Trying not to really look at his friend, as there was a bit of uncanny valley with her due to being blue and horned now.
"Eh, same dif." She said with a shrug.
"Yeah, just as old as Torino is, used to be his Agency Building when he was active as a Pro-Hero," Nana said. "Now he is the only person living here. Probably going to die with the place."
"Should you really be saying that?" Sora asked, voice rising in pitch in a familiar way to Anders that helped remind him this was still his friend.
"What?" Nana asked. "It's the truth. He is stubborn like that."
"So how do we actually go about this?" Anders asked, bringing the topic to the situation at hand. "Do we just knock and tell him that your ghost is here in a way that avoids him pounding us into the ground?"
"I mean, we can just say it's your Quirk." Sora pointed out.
"Well, it is a quirk of me," Anders said.
"I mean... you're not wrong." Sora admitted.
And Nana chuckled in response. "Ah that word play never gets old. Well you can probably convince him that I am here by saying the name of my son. I assume you know who he is? If you know stuff about me in addition to One for All?"
Anders mulled it over, but he winced internally as he still had yet to tell Nana that he was dead and All for One had her grandson and was molding him into his perfect vessel.
"Well, saying stuff only you, and him would know would definitely do the trick, and we know about him but the name is a bit fuzzy at the moment," Anders said.
"I just straight-up don't know it, actually." Sora said.
"It's Kotaro," Nana said with a bit of a pained tone of voice.
"Alright so let's knock and hope that he is home," Anders said as he went over to the door and hit the bell.
"If you're that government person again, I told you, I will not go to an old folks home," The gruff voice of Gran Torino said from the other side of the door, and Anders heard the sound of it being unlocked and a second later it opened up. And standing in the door was the diminutive form of Torino dressed in civilian clothes.
"Um, excuse us sir, but we heard there was a retired hero here who may be able to help us?" Sora asked, seeming to shrink on herself as she spoke demurely- actually, did she actually shrink? Her horns were only level with his eyes now, but he swore she was still a head taller than him when they started. Or maybe he just hadn't actually noticed?
"Help you with what, and who sent you kids?" Torino asked.
"I know that it might sound crazy but it was the ghost of Nana Shimura that did," Anders said- and he felt a shiver run down his spine at the glare the older man was giving him now.
"Kid you have five seconds to leave before I make you do so," The man said threateningly.
"It's the truth Sir, she is floating right besides us now, and to prove it… Her son's name is Kotaro and she had to give him up to protect him from All for One, she was the Seventh user of One for All got it from the hero En, and gave it to Toshinori making him the eighth user," Anders said rapidly to the old Pro Hero.
"Torino, he is telling the truth I am right here," Nana said knowing that her friend could neither see nor hear her.
"Get in," Gran Torino hissed at them. "Now!"
"Yes sir!" They said in unison as they quickly were ushered inside.
It looked exactly like how it did in the anime.
"This is a nice place you have here." Sora said awkwardly as the old man locked the door behind them. "Very homey."
"Sit."
And they immediately sat down on the sofa that was in the room.
Nana floated behind them and Anders swore he could feel amusement from the ghost.
"Now, who are you two?" Torino asked with the glare still on.
"I'm Sora-doji." Sora said. "He's Anders S. Viking. And he can apparently see dead people."
"We," Anders corrected, as he had mulled it over as it seemed it would just backfire calling it his Quirk and then finding out he had an actual one.
"Oh, so we're telling the whole truth?" Sora asked.
"Most, I just figured calling it my Quirk was going to backfire, anyway yeah we can see ghosts and we ended up running into Nana here," Anders said as he turned his body a bit to press his hand up against Nana's extremely muscular arm, showing to Gran Torino that he was actually touching something.
"Yeah, we can like, physically interact with her." Sora said, squeezing Anders hand a bit and showing the invisible force between her hand and his. "It's weird."
"That it is," Nana said in agreement. "Oh boy, I thought I actually couldn't feel anything anymore."
"She is actually here?" Torino asked with wide eyes as he looked at the spot where Nana was.
"I know you can't hear me, but hey Torino been a bit since I last visited," Nana said.
"She says hey, and apologises for not having visited in a bit," Anders said.
"I… So even if you can talk to Nana, why did you come here? And how do you know all of that? For even if you can interact with her, she would never tell that stuff to a pair of brats she doesn't know," Torino said.
"So." Sora clapped her hands together. "Do you know multiverse theory?"
"...Are you implying what I think you're implying?" Torino asked, eyes narrowing skeptically.
"Yes." Sora said.
"A hundred percent, we basically got Isekai'd to this universe, how or why we don't know, but we're here, with no identity and no money," Anders said.
"Well that is expected if you're telling the truth, and you probably are, as nobody would lie about such a stupid thing in this day and age," Torino said. "But how do you know?"
"Multiverse theory." Sora repeated. "What's reality in one universe, can be fiction in another. We're from one where a specific class taught by All Might-"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Torino suddenly started laughing hysterically. "Toshinori teaching?" He asked, with Nana slightly chuckling as well as she found the scenario so unlikely hilarious. "Are you serious?"
"Yep," Anders said.
"Ayup." Sora seconded. "Basically, he realizes he's getting old, so he teaches at UA to find a successor. It's not for a bit yet, I don't think."
"...Wow that is actually smart of him," Torino said. "How was he?"
"Uhhhm." Sora stalled at high pitch.
"Shit," Anders answered. "Only prepared for like a year to be able to teach."
"Well, it seems I'll have to take my old student back under my tutelage and properly train him to be able to handle a class of brats," Torino said.
-
Halfway across Japan, All Might felt a chill go up his spine as he soared through the air. "...Why do I feel like something horrible just happened?" He asked himself.
There was a loud bang from below.
"Ah, that's why." He said as he corrected his flight path by lightly punching the air above him. "WORRY NOT CITIZENS! FOR I, AM HERE!"
-
"Oh boy, poor Toshi," Nana commented.
"Well, anyway I assume it also went into detail about One for All and All for One?" Torino asked.
"Yeah, when we left the manga had just made a chapter about a few of the previous users," Anders said.
"Before that, basically the only one we knew about for sure was Shimura-san." Sora noted. "For… obvious reasons."
"And the first," Anders added.
"And the first." Sora agreed. "But we still didn't know his name or anything about him as a person. Just the history."
"Yeah, I don't much either, he only gave me an apology when All for One killed me," Nana said with a slight growl.
"Yeah," Anders said. "And we told Nana the same thing, which is why she guided us here. As you were the only person besides All Might she could trust with this."
"We have literally nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to." Sora added. Was she even smaller now, or was that because she was sitting?
"Yeah, we are straight up homeless," Anders said which was a thing he never thought he would experience, as it was pretty fucking hard to be homlesss back home and most that there were did it by choice.
"Well the two of you can stay here until we can get you sorted out, as I have plenty of room," Torino said, as while he was an old grumpy man he was not a heartless bastard that sends two kids who obviously needs help out on the street.
"Thank you Sir," Anders said with a quick bow in response to the gift that had just been given them.
"Thank you very much, Sir." Sora said with a deeper bow.
"In return you just have to help with cleaning, food and give me information, for while it might not end up being accurate it could still prove useful," Torino said.
"Of course, Sir." Sora agreed immediately.
"Huh, still a softie for kids aren't you Torino," Nana said with an audible smile.
Anders did not react to Nana's words so he just focused on the old hero. "Of course we didn't expect the stay to be free."
"Well, you can tell me about minor details later, but if you know future stuff, are there big events we have to prepare for?" Torino asked.
"Uhhh…" Sora said, looking at Anders with her magenta eyes.
"Uhhh…" He said back as his monkey brain got weirded out by the weird eye color.
"Well…" Sora mouthed 'Tomura?' to him.
"There is stuff," Anders said as he gave her an expression that said 'I don't know.'
'Go for it' she mouthed back at him.
"Well, if it hasn't happened yet… All Might is going to get into a big fight with All for One, that results in him thinking he killed him. But he survived with the help of an accomplice. Which is what makes him want to make a person named Tomura Shigaraki his successor," Anders said, not mentioning that Tomura was Tenko at the moment as he really didn't want to possibly crush Nana's heart and turn her into a Vengeful Spirit or something.
"And that accomplice is Kyudai Garaki, aka Daruma Ujiko, who uses All For One's abilities to make horrible, genetically engineered monsters out of human corpses fitted with multiple quirks and bodies able to rival All Might's strength." Sora added.
"Thank you couldn't remember the name of the doctor," Anders said.
"Yeah, I remember it because of the whole naming controversy." Sora said.
"Thanks for that information," Torino said. "Naming controversy?"
"Uh, it's probably just another pseudonym here, but originally his name was printed as Maruta Shiga." Sora explained.
"Maruta Shiga?" Nana asked, seemingly wondering why that name would be controversial.
"Oh yeah, that would be a controversial name," Torino agreed.
"Yeah, so… yeah." Sora said, before looking around the room in confusion. "Did the room get bigger?"
"No you have been literally shrinking," Anders said.
Sora looked down at herself, at her sleeves in particular, which were now significantly more baggy, before patting her chest. "Oh, yeah, I'm… huh. I guess my Quirk let's me shrink? Or, get younger, maybe?"
"I don't know," Anders answered.
"You didn't know what your Quirk was?" Torino asked in surprise.
"Oh yeah, we forgot to mention, our world doesn't have Quirks, at least not that we're aware of. It's, like, a solid century in the past from your perspective, so they just might not be common knowledge yet." Sora said with a shrug. "We woke up… changed."
"Did he get a hold of you before you did?" Torino asked.
"Doubtful," They said at the same time.
"Otherwise, why let us come here?" Sora asked. "When we know the future."
"Yeah if you just appeared in front of him, he would never let you go," Torino said.
"Yeah, we really lucked out in finding Nana as quickly as we did," Anders said.
"Heh, guess I can still do some good despite being dead," Nana said.
"Hey, don't be like that. You're doing the best good you're doing by sticking to All Might," Anders told the ghost. "His mind might not be able to hear your words, but I am sure his soul does and it continues to push him forward to be the best hero he can be."
"...Thank you for those words Anders," Nana responded to the words of encouragement. "Well, now that you're all set up with Torino I am going to go and make sure Toshi didn't jump into the stratosphere again. I see you again in a few days. See you later kids, see you later Torino." Nana said as she left the way she came.
"Uh, she's leaving and said bye, sir." Sora quickly translated for her, snapped out of staring at her smaller form.
"She left?" Torino asked.
"She is leaving, she said she would be back in a few days," Anders said.
"Then come back when you can Nana, even if I can't see or hear you, your presence is always welcome," Torino said to the air, hoping the ghost of his friend heard him.
And Anders just saw her give a thumbs up in response, which Sora mimicked-which, he noted, looked kind of ridiculous, as she seemed to have shrunken to about the same size as Torino, maybe a bit bigger, and her hoodie now looked massive on her.
"Well, it is starting to get late, so we should go out and buy some more food for you two, if you are going to stay here for a time," Torino said.
"Okay!" Sora said,-and Anders noted she also sounded much younger, or at least higher pitched- standing up- immediately, her shorts fell to the ground, but the hoodie went past her knees so that was of little issue as her face turned orange -well, more orange, there was that light dusting of it on her cheeks at all times, he noticed- in embarrassment as she quickly pulled them up and held them there. "Uh. Lemme figure out how to go back to normal first?"
"Hrgh," Came the sound of chocked laughter from Anders as he saw his friend's predicament.
"I will Ant-Man you." She threatened as she began to slowly grow before their eyes, getting taller- and noticeably bigger in other proportions, too. It seemed like she lost mass when she shrunk, somehow.
"So you've got a Quirk to son?" Torino asked.
"I don't know, hopefully, for the ghost thing is definitely not one as Sora can too and she can do that height thing," Anders said.
"Well, if that is the case we just have to try and find out what it is," Torino said with a smile, and Anders did not like that smile as it promised pain.
"You don't have to help Sir, I can figure it out on my own," Anders said.
"Oh no, I insist, I have to brush up on my teaching skills if I have to tutor Toshinori once more," Torino said and Anders swallowed a heavy lump in his throat at that statement.
"A-ha, I've got it." Sora said, once more at her prodigious height, before she looked up at them. "What're you guys talking about?"
"Oh just talking about teaching this young lad so that he might bring out his Quirk," Torino said.
"Oh, sick, I want in on that later then." Sora said. "...Hey would you be willing to buy me clothes that work with shrinking powers, sir?"
"Those have to be custom ordered," Torino said. "But yes I can, and well you two should definitely get some self defense lessons."
"Yeah, I could brush up on my tae-kwon-do." Sora agreed.
All the while Anders felt dread.
xxx
So, as Sora had discovered in the two weeks they'd been in Heroaca so far, she didn't just shrink, she could also grow!
...About two feet in either direction.
She also seemed to get stronger or weaker as she grew and shrunk, respectively. She wasn't weak-weak, not really, but in her smallest form she could deadlift about half of what she could bench in her normal one, and vice versa in her biggest.
And she seemed to get younger when she shrunk, which was weird. It might not actually be that, just the combination of smaller body, smaller horns (her horns matched her height for some reason?) and smaller vocal chords (meaning a higher pitched voice), especially since when she grew her voice dropped a few octaves, her horns got bigger, her muscles got bigger, her boobs got bigger, it honestly felt like hulking out (but mercifully didn't look like that, she still had normal human-style proportions, so more like She-Hulk, though her already wide shoulders did get a bit wider…).
Still, being able to alter her height like that was basically a dream come true for Sora, since it finally let her fulfill her conflicting desires to be shorter, taller, and stay the same, all at once. She was still thinking of a good name for it. Mari-Oh or Mari-Oni, probably, with the 'Mari' for 'long distance', and 'Oh' for 'king'. Oni being oni, obviously.
Anders, meanwhile, apparently had an inventory.
Specifically, when they'd been cooking dinner one night, Sora had (like the klutz she was) dropped one of the pans because the handle was just a little slicker than expected.
She remembered flinching and waiting for the inevitable crash of metal hitting tile.
And waiting.
And waiting.
And then looking at Anders, who was looking at his shadow in confusion, where the pan had fallen in.
Which, as they soon discovered, was extremely literal.
He could literally put things in his shadow, and pull them back out.
How cool was that?!
Extremely cool, in Sora's opinion.
She'd made sure to try it with most of her (meager) worldly possessions, to help test his limits; they hadn't really found it yet, and Torino had been averse to trying to fit furniture in. He even got this super cool shadowy aura around him whenever he used it, which just made it like, 20 times cooler.
Sora sighed as she thought about it, walking through the store.
Her quirk was pretty neat too, she had to admit, but Anders' was just cool.
Gran Torino had thankfully been pretty quick on the draw with getting her clothes (and far more importantly, shoes, she was so mad when she grew and busted up her good sneakers, those things had been expensive! And custom!) that would adjust with her height, which was nice. Still Sketchers, funnily enough, but mostly pink now.
Torino'd also sent her for her first 'solo mission' as she'd been thinking of it, out to get groceries from the list he'd given, with implicit instructions to use the cash she was given but hunt for any and all deals and sales possible.
Sora had to resist chuckling at that.
As if she wouldn't do that already.
At the moment, she was getting what Torino had dubbed the most important grocery on the list: Microwave takoyaki.
They had been eating quite a lot of it, and Sora thought it was pretty unique, but she was already starting to get kind of sick of it. Maybe because they were all the same flavor?
"Takoyaki, takoyaki, where is the takoyaki?" She sang quietly under breath as she looked through the aisle they'd been through the first night when they'd gone food shopping.
And lo, there was, in fact, Takoyaki.
It was kind of weird, in her opinion, that this little corner store had so much variety, but then she remembered it was A. In Japan and B. In Heroaca Japan, meaning the variation in dietary needs must have been huge.
As she looked at different Takoyaki flavors, she wondered which ones would actually taste good.
And wondered how she was able to read Japanese.
It was nice, of course, suddenly being fluent in a new language, but the weird thing was that everything felt like it was being auto-translated, which didn't feel right, in her opinion.
It was like…
It was like wearing glasses.
There was the truth of what was in front of you.
There was the 'filter' between perception and reality that let you see that truth.
There was the gobbledygook you could see without the glasses, which made no sense and was kind of blurry.
Considering she thankfully no longer needed glasses in this body (which had been a shock when she'd realized, but yet another happy one), it somehow felt invasive to have what she would consider a pair of glasses on her brain translating.
She wasn't complaining about it, not by any means, but she was definitely weirded out by it every time she thought about it.
Sora sighed as she decided on getting two of each flavor of the Takoyaki, since Torino hadn't specified which kind to get, deciding to just try them all later as she put them in the basket and continued on to the next item: rice.
And, honestly, Sora was insanely grateful they were in Japan, since if there was one thing that was plentiful, it was rice. It was practically its own entire food group.
It was only a step or two down from being in a place where 'pizza' was considered a main food group, aka paradise.
Really, there was only one, single aspect about this whole situation she wasn't completely and utterly down with so far.
She idly fiddled with the cross necklace around her neck as she thought of home.
How was her family doing?
And why did she feel like it wasn't that big of a deal?
Was she a bad person for not feeling bad?
Sora had been dreaming of being isekai'd, of being whisked away to another world, and have fantastical adventures with friends, for years and years, ever since she was little.
She'd been preparing for it, too. Learning as much obscure trivia and weird facts as possible, learning the operation and construction of basic machines taken for granted in the modern day that could revolutionize a magical world, or skills that would just be useful in general for survival in just about any situation.
Sora had been waiting for that special day, when she'd get a letter delivered by an owl, where she'd fall into a magic portal, where she'd be summoned into another world.
She wanted to be special.
And now, she was.
But in a world where everyone was special, was anyone truly special?
Sora thought about that quote a lot, especially since she'd learned where her and Anders had ended up.
And Anders…
He wasn't who she had dreamed of going on these types of adventures with growing up, but she was glad he was here. He was one of the three people she'd be willing to commit murder and/or suicide for that weren't family.
Or, as most people would call them, 'best friends'.
Sora sighed again as she turned through the aisle, before a figure in a dark hoodie caught her eye approaching the counter.
Normally, she wouldn't have thought twice about it. Sora was also a proponent for dark colored hoodies.
The strange thing was the nervous way the figure had been walking towards the counter, fidgeting with something in their front pocket.
Considering what world they were in…
Sora found it prudent to shrink down to her minimum, set down her basket, and peak around the side of the aisle at the counter.
Just in time to see him pull a gun and point it at the cashier.
I knew it, she thought, watching as the robber got to work.
"G-give me a-all the cash in the r-register!" He said, holding out an unzipped backpack. He seemed nervous. And young. Sora felt bad, he was probably just down on his luck, but that didn't excuse pointing a real-ass gun at someone's face.
"Alright, sir, just let me open the register…" The clerk, an older looking woman with leaf-like hair (or hair-like leaves?) on her head, seemed entirely nonplussed and calm, as if she'd been through this a thousand times.
"Just hurry up and put the money in the bag!" The robber said.
Dammit, Sora thought, nervously clutching her cross necklace tightly in one hand. Dammit, why do I have to be so useless right now? I definitely can't take a bullet, so rushing in's a bad idea, and he's too far away for anything I know to actually work...fuck.
Sora watched silently, nervously, as the cashier continued to calmly empty money into the robber's bag.
She thought long and hard about how she could possibly stop him.
Call Gran Torino? No, the cheap phone he'd gotten her made some pretty loud clacks when she typed, that wasn't an option with how jittery this guy seemed.
Call 911? Wait, shit, what was it in Japan again? 119? But that wasn't the one for Heroes, there was a separate number, what was it… Shit, I can't remember! Curse you, habitual inability to remember numbers!
Call Anders? No, same problem with the others, too much noise. And it wasn't like there was much he could actually do in this situation.
Try to take down the guy herself?
Sora supposed that could work, she was pretty strong in her max size, but she'd already shrunk to her minimum size, so that would take a few minutes to get back to it.
She'd definitely gotten a better handle of shrinking than growing. Maybe because the desire to be small was bigger than the one to be tall? She didn't know.
She just knew she wanted to stop this guy.
The cross, gripped tightly in her hand, felt warm.
Warmer and warmer, as she tried to think of some way, any way to stop him, her instincts telling her to stop this.
So, she decided to trust those instincts for a moment, as she held out her other hand.
And a golden cross formed in front of it, before launching towards the robber, hitting him in the side and knocking him off his feet with a scream.
The cashier immediately ducked behind the counter as the robber looked over at her, fear and rage and pain in his eyes, as she froze there, hand still outstretched, as time slowed to a standstill, and the loudest noise Sora ever heard went off.
Sora could almost see the bullet heading straight for her forehead in slow motion, but she couldn't do anything about it, no matter how hard she tried to move her body.
She took solace in the idea that she had at least, maybe, saved a life, before she died.
…
Oh no. She thought. What about And-
Xxx
"So how have things changed since I last visited?" Nana asked as she sat down besides Anders the two of them were currently the only ones in the house with Sora out shopping and Torino was currently having a talk with All Might giving him the information they had been telling him.
He of course presented it as an anonymous source.
"Nothing much really, just improved my abilities to defend myself," Ander said as he rubbed at one of the many bruises Sora had given him in their spar earlier today. It had only been two weeks but combat seemed to come naturally to him, and he knew how to at least throw a proper punch and kick.
Sora, meanwhile, was a black belt, which she had been quick to remind him of.
"That is good to hear Anders, so what about your Quirk figured out anything else about it?" Nana asked, he and the deceased hero had gotten a lot closer over the last two weeks, as he and Sora were the only people that could interact with her.
"Only a name for it, Shadow of Holding," Anders replied, which was a fitting name as his shadow was basically a bag of holding able to carry a lot of stuff. "Haven't discovered any other function but it might develop into something more, or I discover a trick with the Shadow Aura."
"Well, what about things regarding me and other ghosts?" Nana asked.
"No such luck on that part, I have basically been cooped up in here for the past two weeks, so I have seen no other ghosts, but now that you are here. What did you say to some ghost experimentation?" Anders asked the former Pro-hero.
"You know what? Sure why not, I trust you enough with this kid," Nana's smile was infectious.
"Dammit, I am not a kid, I am twenty-three," Anders said, a line he had said many times to both her and Gran Torino.
Anders really disliked being called a kid, but he kinda was in comparison to Nana, and Torino.
"Hahaha, so what do you want to try to do?" Nana asked.
"Well, I have to ask, have you ever tried to possess a person?" Anders asked.
"...I actually have," She said after a few seconds of silence. "I tried with a few people so that I could apologize but it never worked."
"Well, let's try with me, as Sora and I might be something like a spiritual medium," Anders said. "So take my hand Nana and see if you can move into my body?" Anders suggested as he held it out and Nana took the much smaller hand into her own much larger one. She was a very beefy woman in person, Amazonian really. The gloves probably made them seem bigger too.
"Even if it doesn't work, thank you for making me able to experience physical senses Anders," Nana thanked him.
"You're welcome Nana," Anders said as he looked at the see-through but physical hand. "Maybe I can make it so you can pass through me, or…" Anders said as he kept holding Nana's hand. "...Maybe," He continued as he tried to put his desire onto Nana's ghost body as this was metaphysical bullshit, so maybe the best way to affect it was with the metaphysical bullshit.
And then Nana's body shrank and it became a small black ball with eyes, mouth, a ghostly trail and a white cape attached to it. An outline of her hair in the same black color as the ball.
"Huh Anders?" Nana asked as she looked up at him with wide eyes. "What just happened? Why are you so big?"
"I think you shrunk," Anders replied and then it clicked in his head, as he recognized the type of ethereal body that Nana had become. There was only one franchise where ghosts became like this. "Oh my god! I am Shaman? We're fucking Shamans!" Anders yelled in realization, Nana still in his hand.
"Shaman? Is that how you two can see me?" Nana asked.
"Yep, Shamans can interact with ghosts and do all kinds of stuff," Anders said as an idea came to his mind. "Nana, where is your costume? Specifically your cape?"
"Why do you want to know?" She asked.
"Because Shamans can use various mediums to put spirits in and create something called an Over Soul, the better the effect the closer of a conceptual connection the Spirit has with the medium. I think with it, I can actually get you close to some corporealness," Anders and now he had Nana's full attention. Being a filthy fucking weeb was finally paying off.
"It's in a box on the top floor," Nana said. "I always kept a spare outfit here in case I needed to change while I was visiting. Should still be here, as Torino would never have removed it."
"Great," Anders said as he ran up the stairs and after a few minutes he managed to dig out the box with Nana's help still in ball form by Anders' will.
"There it is," Nana said after Anders finally dug out the box they needed. "Wow it is still in excellent condition… What am I saying? Of course it is, it's made by Mode."
Anders wanted to ask if the ghost was talking about Edna Mode. But he saved that question for later.
"So how do you do that Over Soul thing?" Nana asked.
"Well I just put you in it," Anders said as he held up Nana in one hand and the cape in the other. "And just make it with my spiritual energy."
Though before he did such an act Anders saw his vision go dark.
xxx
"Well, that was quicker than expected."
…
"Hmph. Off to the next one, then."