Welcome back everyone to the next chapter of Awaken the Light. Picking up from where we left off at the end of last chapter, it seems that secrets are about to be revealed, but to what extent and by whom, we'll just have to wait and see. So in between the last chapter and this one, I've commissioned some art for this story, primarily Sora in the U.A. High Uniform/Gym Uniform/Hero Costume. Once I get these, I will be updating the cover image for the story.
Big thanks to Zephyr47, Gamelover41592, hcbnc, SnowTrue, Blazer777, Finalcool720, and NostalgiaIsHere for the reviews. And a big shoutout to everyone whose followed and favorited the story thus far, there are far too many names to go through for that, but I appreciate all of you.
Without further ado, let's dive right in.
Sora's eyes widened as All Might said those words, with the pro hero taking a seat near Sora's bed, that smile still on his face. They found something that didn't match his answers, oh god he was gonna be in trouble. Donald would never let him hear the end of this once he found out. An awkward chuckle came from him, a desperate attempt to play it off. "What do you mean? I mean, you just said my name."
All Might's smile didn't falter at the joke, in fact, the older man seemed to be having to repress a laugh. But, he needed to keep his composure up, if only so they could figure out the truth of what was going on. "Yes, well, Detective Naomasa just got in contact with me about the information you provided us earlier. And we found something rather concerning.
Or rather, I should say the lack of what we found is what concerns us. No Sora Haruki in any public records, no Quirk registration that fits what you displayed, and no group of islands called Destiny Islands. According to official records, you, your home, and your Quirk don't exist. Now you don't seem like a bad kid at all, but after the condition you were found in, we're concerned for your safety. And the safety for everyone in this country."
Sora looked down in guilt as All Might explained their concerns, so they were able to figure out that he was lying. Or at least what he had provided them earlier didn't match up with what they knew. He figured it would've happened eventually given he didn't know how long he would be in this world, but for it to happen this soon? And only after being awake for just a few hours? That had to be some kind of record for breaking the world order, at least unintentionally.
Before Sora could speak up in his defense though, All Might continued. "Now, we know you were telling us the truth about where you were from. Truthfully, you're not a very good liar, but that's not a bad thing. Honesty is a good trait for a hero after all!" The pro hero could certainly see potential in Sora, sure there were questions that needed answering, but his instincts told him that Sora would be a great hero if he chose that path. First though, they needed the truth.
"Young Haruki, I am not sure what happened to you before we found you, but your body was on the brink of collapse. While on the surface, injuries weren't too bad, you barely had a pulse and you were severely dehydrated. From what we could best surmise, you were attacked by a villain and they were trying to dispose of your body after the fact. If I had not already been at Dagobah Beach on some...personal matters, you would have likely drowned after you went into the water. In order to best help you, I need to know what happened. If it's too painful to talk about, I completely understand and I will do whatever I can to help you regardless of what you choose to tell me."
Sora had to resist gasping at those words, not having expected the conversation to go that way. He had thought that All Might would have been more forceful with his questions, especially given how out of place he must've seemed to him and the Detective. But he was still being considerate of his feelings, still assuring him that everything would be alright despite how sketchy he must have seemed. He knew that not everyone was like that, that some people would simply ignore how someone else was feeling in order to protect others.
"All Might...I…" Sora bit his lip as he looked up at the hero, that smile still on his face despite his hesitation to tell him anything. The young man let out a shaky breath as he forced himself to sit up in his bed. "I'm sorry. I'm not normally supposed to talk about this stuff. Where I come from, talking about it is...well, basically taboo. And just...I know you wanna help, but I don't know if I can talk about what happened. I don't want to get in trouble if I ever make it back home…"
Not when, Sora realized after he said that, but if. Was he really doubting himself that much that he would make it home someday? Without his friends there with him, without his connections that he'd spent so long developing, could he really do this on his own? He knew he didn't believe that, but no one was there to reassure him this time. Well no one in his circle of friends, this was like the Keyblade Graveyard all over again. And yet, this wasn't a life or death situation, why was he freaking out so much?!
His breathing was starting to get a bit faster without him realizing it, his brain was running a marathon as his mind kept spiralling towards the worst case scenarios. He hadn't realized it yet, but he was currently having a panic attack, something that All Might was quick to catch onto. He quickly walked over to Sora and gently put a hand on his shoulder. "Young Haruki, try to take a deep breath for me. In…" All Might holds his breath for a few moments. "And out."
Thankfully for All Might, Sora was quick to respond, following All Might's lead to try and calm down, his shaking coming to a crawl as his eyes were now watering up. He felt so weak, so useless right now, it had been years since he had lost his composure like this. There had been times of weakness where he had despaired, but he was normally able to pick himself back up. Right now though, it seemed like a monumental task.
"S-Sorry, I don't know what came over me." And he meant it, there had been times where he had gotten down sure, but never to the point where he broke down like that...well, that wasn't true anymore, not after the final battle at the Keyblade Graveyard. The first had been when all of his friends were consumed by the darkness, the only one left had been Riku and even he had been consumed. He had never felt so hopeless in his life before that moment.
And then Xehanort struck Kairi down, all to motivate him into triggering the final clash between light and darkness. Yes, he had been able to save her at the cost of his own existence, but the thought that Kairi could've been gone forever. That he would never see her smile or hear her laugh again, the thought that nearly pushed him to a place he didn't want to think about again.
"It's quite alright Young Haruki, I know you've been through quite a lot and I understand your reluctance to speak of it. However, I will assure you that whatever you tell me will remain confidential between the two of us. Once we get you home, no one has to know that you told me about whatever happened." All Might looked at Sora with that smile still on his face, while his mind was processing that a kid was having to deal with something that had caused a panic attack and who knows what kind of trauma. If he ever met who did this to Young Hikari, they would certainly get what was coming to them and face justice.
And he certainly meant what he said about keeping things between him and Sora confidential...to a point at least. While none of Sora's relatives or family needed to know about what they would discuss, if the villain responsible for this was still at large, the pro heroes would certainly need to be made aware to launch an investigation. Not too mention finding a place for Sora to stay until they could get him home. Wherever home was for him, assuming he still had a home to go back to. He couldn't really come up with a plan until Young Hikari told him his story.
"I...thank you All Might, I appreciate it. Let's see, where to start then…" Sora tilted his head and crossed his arms, trying to think of where to start. He easily had enough to tell where it would last for hours, if not longer if he started from his first journey. After a couple of minutes of thinking, Sora's eyes widened a bit as he remembered something. "All Might, did they find anything with my clothes after you rescued me?" If his Gummiphone had made it with him, that would make things much easier to explain.
"If they did, it should be in one of the drawers here. Let me check." All Might began to overdramatically go through each drawer, pulling it out further than what was really necessary to check to see if there was anything inside each one. Sora felt a tinge of sweat roll down his forehead at the sight of that. Maybe Donald had been right when he ranted about how he opened some of the larger treasure chests they found too dramatically. Especially since he'd be doing the same as All Might right now if he was able to get out of bed.
After a couple of minutes, All Might made a noise of acknowledgement as he pulled out two items from one of the drawers. One was an odd shaped phone and the other was some form of playing card. The rest of the items were all clothing or clothing accessories that Sora had been rescued in, now washed, dried and repaired from any wear and tear. The fabric had certainly been easy to work with.
"Ah yes, aside from your clothes, these were the two things that we found on your person. No one was able to make sense of your phone or get access to it so your privacy is secure. As for the card...I must say, I'm intrigued that you'd carry a blank card on you, but I'm not one to judge habits." All Might walked over to Sora's bed and held out the two objects for the young man to grab, with Sora only taking his Gummiphone. Well, at least it had managed to make the trip with him. At least this way he would have memories and pictures of his friends until he got back home.
"Yeah, I'm not entirely surprised at that. This...well, it's kind of a unique model, only a dozen or so were made." Sora smiled a bit as he powered on the Gummiphone, thank god this thing didn't ever run out of battery. Something about the materials used to make the phone were the same as the Gummi Ship so as long as he kept a happy face, he'd be able to power the phone on. Once the device finished booting up, Sora entered his password and smiled as the various folders popped up on screen. Tapping on the Journal button, Sora pulled up all the records from his past adventures.
"Alright, well, this is gonna be a bit of a long story, so you might wanna get comfortable." Sora needed to tell All Might...well, just about everything that had happened. If not to have All Might believe his story, then to honestly get this off of his chest. Maybe talking about it, even if it's too a complete stranger, would help get his mind off of it.
"Of course, take all the time that you need young man. I'm not going anywhere." The pro hero had only used about thirty minutes of his time today, so assuming that this would only take an hour at most, he would have plenty of time left in his muscle form to be able to leave the hospital without drawing suspicion.
Unfortunately, the Number One Hero had severely underestimated how much Sora was going to tell him and he had lost track of time as he listened to the young man recount his story. From how he had started as...well, Quirkless wasn't right anymore, if Sora being from another world was to be believed, but all of the evidence so far was pointing to that being true. Would this world had followed a similar route and been exploring other worlds had Quirks not developed generations ago?
But Sora had gone from being what this world would consider to be Quirkless and destined for nothing, to becoming one of the greatest champions of peace. From travelling to various worlds and helping complete strangers that he kept meeting, to fighting against vast forces of darkness that would hold nothing back, to be able to keep smiling after all of that had certainly earned of his respect. If it weren't for the laws here, he was sure Sora would easily be able to get a Hero License and would likely become a Top 10 Hero in just a couple of years.
However, despite his amazement, All Might was fuming on the inside, having to maintain his composure at everything that Sora had to endure. From constantly losing his friends, to nearly losing his life at multiple points, to losing all his power multiple times, it infuriated him. No one at this child's age should've had to endure such trials and hardships, no matter what circumstances were behind it. And to hear that so many people had suffered, despite all this being in the past, he wished he could've done something to help.
And that villain, the one called Xehanort, his manipulations and skill seemed to be at the same capacity as All for One. While he couldn't steal and give power like All for One, his accomplishments that Sora was aware of certainly put the now deceased villain at a dangerous level. Someone who had been willing to throw aside so many innocent lives, destroy so much life, to achieve his own views on how the world should've been forged? He was thankful that this Xehanort was dead, it would have been a nightmare had those two managed to meet each other and team up.
Especially if All for One was given access to these various worlds. He didn't want to imagine the damage that would be caused if that man was able to steal the abilities found in these various worlds, if they would be integrated as Quirks into his being. Even more dangerous if All for One would be capable of stealing Sora's power now that he was here in their world. The idea of that man being given something as dangerous as a Keyblade would certainly spill about the end of heroes.
"...but I don't think I still have my normal power now. What I showed you earlier was me trying to summon my Keyblade and while the shape was familiar, it wasn't the same thing. That voice in the Final World said that my power would've been converted so what was left could be saved and preserved. Honestly, entering another world has never affected my power like this, but I must've been so weakened that what was left in me got converted into a...what did ya call it again, a Quirk?"
All Might's internal musings were cut off as he heard Sora's question, having merely been giving nods and short responses when he had been asked if he was having trouble keeping up. This was certainly a lot to take in and he hoped Sora would allow him to borrow the Gummiphone for when he went to his friend and then the staff at U.A. High School to discuss these developments with Principal Nezu. He was one of the most intelligent heroes in all of Japan and he would be able to figure out how to best handle this. This information certainly couldn't be given to the public, which would mean they'd need to come up with a cover story.
"Ah, yes, that's right. To be honest, with only one display of your Quirk so far, I'm not entirely sure what your power exactly entails now. It definitely seems to be light based given your weapon from before was made out of it, but aside from that, we'd need to run some Quirk evaluations to determine the full extent of it now." There were several other things that would need to be addressed and he didn't want to overwhelm Sora all at once, especially since he was still recovering and adjusting.
"Right, it'll be good to see where I stand now so I can see how far I have to go before I can try and get back home." All Might flinched a bit at that, Sora's tone had become a bit melancholy as he had reached the end of his story, the last few weeks clearly having been rough on both him in body and spirit. The brief panic attack from earlier was likely the tip of the iceberg in that regard and whoever ended up taking care of Sora would need to be prepared for that.
The pro hero bowed his head at Sora, standing up from his seat. "Young Haruki, while I know we have only known each other for a short time, I would like to offer my deepest apologies for all of the hardships that you have been forced to endure. You have endured many things that would have broken most heroes and have managed to make it to now. No one should have to go through so much at such a young age and I promise I will do what I can to ensure you do not have to endure more hardships until you are able to return home."
Sora looked at All Might and smiled a bit, chuckling a bit as he was touched at the sincerity of his words. If he could make friends with people closer to his age that were like All Might, then he knew he'd be alright while he was here. He laughed a bit as a thought crossed his mind. "I appreciate that All Might, thank you. But...given my track record for meddling, I don't know if you should make promises like that."
All Might laughed at that, smiling a bit as he knew one of the things that they would need to do aside from a Quirk Evaluation is get Sora up to speed on the regulations that their society had on Quirks and their usage for non heroes. He knew that Sora had good intentions, but he didn't want to see the boy get in trouble with the law and not know what he did wrong. "Well, I'm sure we can manage to keep you out of trouble-"
The pro hero cut himself off as his body began to ache all over, steam beginning to emit from his body as his eyes widened in realization. 'Crap, did I seriously use up all of my time already?! I didn't realize that we had been talking for this long.'
Sora looked at All Might as he seemed to be tensing up in pain, looking rather concerned for the older man. "A-Are you okay All Might?"
All Might kept his smile up as he knew he had about thirty seconds left in this form. 'Sora, you have entrusted so much to me despite us having just met and only having one conversation before now. I believe it is my duty to return that trust. Besides, at this point, I don't think I could get out of here without making a scene.'
With that line of thought finished, All Might released his muscle form, going from a buff hero to a skeleton of a man. Sora's eyes widened as he raised and pointed a finger at the hero. "WHAAAAAAAAT?! All Might, what happened?!"
"Ssshhhh, not so loud! I'll explain what's going on, but you need to keep it down. Much like your own story, what I'm about to tell you is a closely guarded secret that only a few people know about." All Might breathed a sigh of relief as Sora nodded in understanding as Yagi got up and locked the door to the room. He didn't want someone walking in right now while they were talking.
"To start, my name is Yagi Toshinori, All Might is simply my Hero Name. The me that you saw before was due to my Quirk." Yagi raised his shirt and Sora's eyes widened at the horrific wound that he saw. "Five years ago, I sustained this wound against an incredibly terrifying villain and it was a miracle that the doctors managed to restore my health to the point that they did.
As a result of this injury, the time I can use my Quirk has been reduced to three hours a day. The knowledge of this battle and the injuries I suffered are not known to the public and only to a few select people. So if you could please refrain from telling anyone else about this, that would be good."
"Yeah, of course." Sora nodded as Yagi pulled down his shirt, covering the wound again. 'So, we're alike in that regard, both of us suffered injuries or had circumstances that caused us to lose our power.'
"Now Young Haruki, I feel it is only fair that I let you know what our next steps are in regards to your case. I will be sharing this information only with Detective Naomasa and a few trusted colleagues at U.A. High School. After all, if we are going to intergrate you with our world while you're here, then the public will need to know something, obviously not the truth though. In addition, I'm hoping one of the staff members will be able to accommodate you in their home. I'd rather not see you placed into the foster system.
All of that should take around a day or so to get squared away, hopefully by tomorrow you'll be cleared for release, unless the doctors want to keep you for further observation. Once you're released and I've met with the U.A. faculty, we can figure out what you'll be doing next."
Sora remained silent for a few minutes after All Might finished explaining what he would be doing, as he thought about everything that he knew so far, crossing his arms a bit. There was so much he didn't know about this world, but already he admired the heroes here thanks to the impression that All Might had left on him. 'Even if I shouldn't get involved and focus on finding my way home, I don't know how long that will take. Plus, there's the matter of how I'd get my strength back to begin with. Right now, this is my best way forward, no matter how long it takes to get to where I'm going.'
Sora looked at All Might with resolve in his eyes, smiling at the pro hero. His heart was made up on what he wanted to do now. If he was going to be stuck here for the foreseeable future, best to make the most out of it. "All Might, what do I have to do to become a hero here?"
And that's all for this chapter of Awaken the Light!
Sora has now told All Might everything about his adventures and he has responded in kind by revealing some of his truths. A lot of this chapter was exposition and things will be moving a bit slowly until we timeskip to the U.A. Entrance Exam. Now onto Questions.
From Gamelover41592
As it turns out, Sora couldn't keep the secret for very long with All Might. He will be much better about this as the story goes on, but at the moment Sora is not in a good place mentally and him confiding in All Might was the first step in Sora trying to recover.
From Blazer777
From best I could find in my research on the timeline itself, it seems the general consensus is that the U.A. Entrance Exam is on February 26th and since Sora arrived 9 months before the entrance exam, that would place him around June. And since Nomura has confirmed that Sora's birthday is on March 28th, Sora won't be turning 16 until after the entrance exam.
As for Sora's Quirk, I am going to explain some of that here since it won't be fully answered in story for a long time. Had Sora not been on the verge of fading entirely and had traveled to this world normally, he would have his power as normal. However, since he lost most of his power in the aftermath of fighting Yozora and what small fragments he had left were close to being lost completely, when he was sent to this world, his body was forced to adapt, his remaining power being converted into a Quirk to ensure he didn't lose it entirely.
As for why he doesn't have his magic now, it was shown very clearly in the boss fight with Yozora that when he stole Sora's keyblade for a time during the fight, Sora was unable to use any of his magic. While Sora has lost a lot of his potential due to the circumstances surrounding this, I think once we see him learn the extent of his Quirk and start training to adapt to it, the loss won't be as severe as it seems to be.
That's all the questions I received in the reviews for this chapter, so until next time. Take care!