Okay, in the spirit of the "return to the past/players of a sadistic game" trope I've gotten hooked into, I've decided to try my hand on this.
Also, if you have any good manga or light novels that fit this genre, feel free to share them with me! I'm already reading "The Gamer", "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint", "Solo Leveling/I Alone Level Up", "Kill the Hero" and "Return to Player".
Flat green eyes stared out into the desolate landscape, almost unseeing. There was a sword against their chest, held almost lovingly. It wasn't a standard katana, and had an almost ominous black lacquer on the sheath. It seemed to suck in all light, leaving only a darkness from which there was no escape. The hilt was even decorated in flowers, all of which seemed to be some form of lily.
It was a work of art, and closer inspection revealed it to be a divine level weapon.
Her name was the Black Lily, one of the few women to make it to this point and receive a divine title after her rather thorough defeat of the Japanese goddess Izanami.
"Are you prepared for this?" asked a figure. "Once we begin, there will be no going back."
"What is there left to go back to? If we don't succeed then our world is doomed and humanity with it," she replied. "Our dependence on quirks and heroes is what screwed us over."
The irony of it all was that the girl before him was quirkless. A girl deemed worthless by society because she had no fancy ability, yet she turned out to be the most capable of all the players out there, beating a goddess solo. More importantly she had defeated a literal death goddess on her own turf.
Everyone took notice of her after that.
She could barely remember what her name used to be, before all this. Before she essentially had to kill her own humanity just to survive, to make it this far. She couldn't remember her own mother's name, let alone her voice or what she looked like. And the less said about her obsession with a hero that at least had the dignity to die while protecting others from the monsters, the better.
"Is everything ready?"
"Kronos will fall. The only question will be who will be chosen to return. He is the only one left with the ability we need."
The gods of time were tricky, but not impossible to kill. At this point, the players who had survived were stronger than them, and craftier. They had nothing to lose, and even the gods had realized their mistake near the end. However they refused to help humanity and admit their error.
Which was why they were going to force the issue, and fix things.
She got up, and they headed into the den of the last god of time. For some reason even though the others had fallen, and had dropped an item that would allow them the ability to traverse the boundaries of time and space, those that used the items were killed instantly. In horrifying and terrible ways. They couldn't figure out what the problem was, and this was their last chance.
The fight was long and brutal. However Kronos died not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Her comrade picked up the item and was about to use it, when his expression changed to one of realization.
"It's the Devil Fruit Paradox!" he said, before he was suddenly killed by the item.
The others were baffled by his last words and they tried to use the item themselves. They were the last of the players who had gained the abilities of the highest ranking gods. If they fell, then it would end in mutual self-destruction for both sides.
Black Lily picked up the item...and suddenly knew what the cryptic words of their leader had meant.
Using the item would allow one to take the place of Kronos as a god of time.
Except by this point all those who survived and managed to live past a raid had already obtained the title of a god.
She didn't know why, but she started laughing. Of all the absurd things to pull, the time gods would attempt this?
She refused the position of Kronos...she was happy with her current powers and wanted no part in learning how to use new ones. Besides that would almost certainly mean replacing her sword and she was quite fond of her Kuroyuri, which had ironically enough given her the moniker everyone knew her as.
The item drained her energy, and even went into her life force. She could tell something was happening, and since she wasn't dead yet she could only hope it was working.
That would be the last thought she had before blacking out.
"Midoriya. Miss Midoriya!" said a loud, irritated voice to her left. It took all her instincts to avoid punching them.
When she opened her eyes, it was to a sight that downright bewildered her and made her wonder if she was hallucinating.
She was in a classroom, with children about thirteen or so, sitting next to a boy she hadn't even thought about in almost two decades since his demise before the game even started.
Bakugo Katsuki, a brash idiot with a flashy quirk and no issue with using it against others. Had he survived, the initial rounds might not have turned out so badly...his quirk would have proven useful at least.
Midoriya Ichigo was having a very surreal day...but the thing that tipped her over the edge was seeing her mother's face again. She had long since forgotten Inko's voice and appearance, and the surreptitious methods she had been using to dispel illusions had told her that this was real. That she had really come back to her past.
The first thing she did however was to check a few things. Since the game had not yet started, her abilities would likely be limited...and the less said about the appalling condition of her body, the better. She wasn't out of shape for someone her age, but for someone who spent the better half of her life fighting against actual gods in their own turf she was horribly outclassed. There was no way she'd survive the later rounds like this, though she'd be better prepared for the initial assault.
She stared at her body with some dismay...it was going to be a pain to get into anything close to the body shape that she deemed acceptable.
A quick test revealed that she had kept her abilities, and that Kuroyuri was present as well. Even more surprising, her item box was still there as well...with everything she had in it.
There was just one problem...her level was set at one, and she couldn't exactly target villains with her body being this weak and without drawing attention to her full capabilities.
Because right there on her status page under title was "Successor of Izanami". The same title she had gotten when she killed the goddess and took her place.
Now any ranking player learned how to cover up their status page, since that sort of information could and did get the better players killed. Fortunately, Ichigo had no issue being a false ranker.
For now though...now she had to get back into what she considered 'in shape' and spend some much needed time with her mother. She needed to find someone who could help her grow discreetly before the dungeons started appearing.
There was one small thing though...
The next afternoon...
A few carefully placed words was all it took. Bakugo, always so eager to display his superiority and to remind his 'friend' that she would never be better than him, took the bait like the child he still was.
The second he got in close, Ichigo moved.
It took the brats several moments to register the fact that Bakugo was on the floor, groaning in agony from a pain that any man would know if hit as hard as he was in that spot...while Midoriya was calmly lowering her leg from where her knee slammed into him.
"Fun fact...little yapper dogs like you are always the first to die in a real fight. Come back when you become worth my time. Or die like the dog you are now," said Midoriya coldly, her eyes like ice. "If you're really destined to become a hero like you claim to be, then let's see whether or not you can handle the pressure."
Something about her discouraged immediate retaliation. This wasn't the useless Deku they had harassed for years...this was someone far more dangerous.
Ichigo snorted when she got called into the office for her 'attack' on Bakugo.
Inko was very upset, but Bakugo was livid that she had the 'audacity' to retaliate.
No one expected her to show up with a lawyer, who was already looking entirely too smug.
"What is the meaning of this, Miss Midoriya?" demanded the principal. From the expression of her mother, it was clear she had been left out of this particular loop.
"It's called a lawsuit," said the lawyer. "And from what I've seen, my client had more than enough grounds to sue you, the school and a good chunk of her teachers."
"Ichigo?" said her mother.
Ichigo couldn't look at her mother. This wasn't because of some misplaced sense of revenge on people she had long since dismissed. No, this was entirely to get her out of the school and to get some much needed funds from this time period, since the old money was made defunct once the game really started.
She would need the cash to get things rolling for later. And to pay for the training she would need.
Besides, the petty satisfaction she'd get from getting back at these assholes was a nice bonus.
Her mother was deeply confused, but the horrified look on her face learning how bad things had been from her daughter did make Ichigo feel rather guilty. To be fair, she had suffered in silence for a long time before the game started.
She was tired of hiding. She needed to prepare for what would happen in two years. While she was a bit annoyed she overshot her mark so badly, it could actually be to her benefit if she played it right.
Seaside Park, before dawn...
What used to be a pristine beach was now an unofficial illegal dumpsite.
"What a waste. Still, this is more than useful for what I need it for," she said to herself.
She had debated on whether to register her Kuroyuri's abilities as her quirk. Soul bonded weapons were so rare they were automatically classed as 'legendary' even if their ability was weak. The reason for this was that they could only be used by one owner, and they always had a growth rate comparable to their users.
If a user was weak, their power remained weak...though still superior to most weapons forged by players. But if the user was a ranker of great skill and sufficient will...then things changed dramatically.
Kuroyuri's ability was directly tied to the legend of Izanami, with a few tweaks. Izanami wasn't originally a goddess of death...she merely resided there and developed the same base skills all gods did when in the lands of the dead. No, Izanami's real "power" lay in her ability to create.
Right now, she needed to regain the lost muscle memory she had to fight with her sword. Her mind might remember the movements, but her body was too weak to use them correctly.
She intended to fix that.
Every day like clockwork, she would come to the beach and practice with the cheap sword she had in her inventory. Slowly, steadily she began to regain her old reflexes.
Due to the lawsuit, she had been pulled from her old school while the investigation was ongoing, for safety reasons. She might have felt some guilt towards inflicting this on her mother, but she couldn't be tied down by the frivolous life she once had. She had changed too much.
The best part of all this mess was that she had a ready-made excuse for her drastic change in behavior. It was well known that some quirks caused...side effects...in a person's behavior and could even change their personality. Case in point, Bakugo's explosive behavior, which had only gotten worse when he gained his quirk.
Ichigo would fully blame to be a late-bloomer and would use some of Kuroyuri's lesser abilities to explain her quirk. Any differences in her attitude and behavior would be blamed on that, thus liberating her from having to explain anything.
She knew there was someone observing her, but she had little time to care about them. She had things to do, and they seemed content to observe for now.
Several months later...
Unsurprisingly, they won the case in a major landslide victory. Things were so bad the school was shut down pending a major overhaul, several of the worst offenders were given some rather unpleasant black marks on their record for quirk misuse, and most importantly Bakugo was forced to attend a quirk counselor if he even wanted to try for UA and several marks were made on his record regarding his behavior.
Not only did she have a healthy chunk of cash in her new account...courtesy of the lawsuit and a settlement made so she wouldn't go after them further...but she had transferred to an online schooling to better focus on her training. So long as she tested in an accredited facility, she had plenty of free time to do whatever she wanted.
She was back again, using what looked like a practice sword with an unusual level of skill. Every time she reduced the garbage to an unrecognizable mass, she would move onto a different one and continue.
If he hadn't gotten those strange memories, he never would have paid the girl much attention.
Seeing the girl's movements brought a strange sense of nostalgia and fondness to his mind.
Well, far be it for him to just stay there and watch. Something told him that she might have answers.
The mystery girl slid into a defensive stance the second he made his presence known.
Her expression turned from guarded to open surprise.
"Touya?" she said in disbelief.
Now he knew something was up. He hadn't gone by that name in years.
"Who are you? Why do I feel like I should know you?" he asked.
Her expression went calm, like a deep lake.
"You are Kagutsuchi, the Dragon of Divine Fire," she said quietly.
The name resonated so deeply in his soul that he had to let out a gasp as memories flooded into him. Memories of another time, another world.
"Izanami. Goddess of Dark Creation," he said, once the memories settled enough that he could think.
She smiled, and his heart beat a little faster.
He would need time to deal with the influx of memories. After all, dealing with an info dump of almost two decades worth of fighting and information was a lot to handle all at once.
Touya would confirm later that no, it wasn't a dream or a hallucination. The bangles around his wrists and ankles were too real to ignore. Which meant Ichigo wasn't the only one who needed to prepare.