This fanfic is a self-insert and I'm expecting it to be terrible. I was initially thinking of making this a parallel to my current what-if, but I decided against it and decided to try this instead.

Anyway, enjoy!

Once upon a time…

I died

Great start to a story, I know. The last thing I remember was crossing a road, then nothing. I opened my eyes to find myself… floating? Is this what the afterlife looks like? I glanced to my left and saw a gargantuan figure slowly approaching me "H-huh?" I stuttered in confusion. "Who are you? Am I dead?"

The figure chuckled and said, "You are indeed dead, quite a shame too, so much wasted potential. I suppose you could call me God"

"Where am I?" I asked

"Where are you? Where are you indeed. This is a strange place, not heaven, nor hell. This is a place I don't use often but made an exception for you. This is the land for reincarnation."

"R-reincarnation"

"Yes. I have observed your life, and you lived an incredible one. Such a shame humans can be reckless like that. If that driver knew what a life they had ended," The figure said as he shook his head. "Anyway, since you had a future full of potential, I've decided to send you to another world, full of potential."

He raised his hand and conjured a transparent orb; I gazed into it and saw a school reminiscent of…

"Wait… no way," I said, a smile growing on my face. The figure nodded.

"Yep, I'll be sending you to the world of My Hero Academia"

"This… is like a dream. What's my quirk going to be?"

The figure chuckled, "I should probably keep that a secret, but I'll just tell you. I also noticed you liked Dragon Ball"

"Wait, you're making me a Saiyan quirk?"

"No, I'm giving you a quirk called spiritual manifestation, or as you might know it, ki control."

I gaped, speechless. "I… I don't know what to say."

"Clearly," The figure responded, "Time to send you off."

"Wait wha?" I stuttered before feeling a strong force pulling me away from the figure.

"Good Luck!" He called before I was swept into the darkness.

•••

The next thing I knew, dazzling lights filled my vision and blinded me. I felt a sudden urge to try to call out, "Waa! Waa!" Ah crap, I forgot I couldn't speak yet. I heard something that seemed like gibberish from above me and I noticed a young woman, in her late 20s. She had hair and eyes resembling a night sky; dark and mysterious, yet seemed to twinkle and shine. In short, she was very pretty. She looked up and smiled at the nurse before speaking in what I now recognised as Japanese. Double crap. I was forced to become bilingual… if coding languages didn't count.

After being whisked home after a week or so, I slowly became accustomed to my new home. After listening to a few conversations directed at me, I figured out my name was Aki Hitoshi, which was a somewhat decent name. My mother's name was Nishi and my father's Ohata. I had an older sister named Mizuno who was curiously wandering around and poking me, as 2-year-olds do. And everyone in my family had the same ebony black hair and eyes, and it fits them so well.

My family's quirks were strange but amazing. Nishi could create bright lights from her fingertips and used them to entertain me and my sister. Ohata could compress and expand/change the density of non-living objects, which made fitting things into odd places much easier.

When my sister's quirk was discovered, it appeared she had a shrinking quirk that reduced her to about 1/12 of her normal size. Sadly, it could only affect her, and not anything around her. So when it first activated, she had an embarrassing situation, to say the least…

I tried picking up Japanese as fast as possible and achieved the baby, half-assembled fluency that 2 year-olds tend to have. I was able to blabber out words such as "father", "mother", "sister", and "hungry", which I deemed most useful. Such a change from crying!

After an uneventful first 3 years of my life, I was stuffed into a "nursery school" as they called it, in which I did nothing but sit around and play with something that resembled Lego blocks. I did manage to score myself a friend who I made the traditional way, "do you want to be my friend?". His name was Saito Tadao and he stuck around me because apparently, I was "cool"

When I was 4, children started unlocking their various quirks, which gave me a sudden burst of excitement. I remembered what that weird God person told me, and what quirk I would receive. Tadao got a paper manipulation quirk, and he spent the first few days with it learning origami. Thank God he got over how cool it was, I would have been suffocated to death by chatterboxes.

Then came the day when I got my quirk. I was running around, and life decided to get a laugh out of me. I tripped over a stray branch. "Oh no," I thought, "This is going to hurt." I prepared myself for the landing and screamed in fear. Suddenly, a white aura burst out from me and launched me a few meters into the air.

"Ha!" I thought, "I got my quirk!" The next thought that came to mind was, "Wait, I'm 5 meters in the air and falling fast." I turned and tried to activate my quirk again. Fortunately, the white aura returned and I envisioned pushing it toward the ground to slow my fall. The white aura intensified under me and I gently touched down.

"Woah! Hitoshi got his quirk!" I heard a couple of kids around me yell. "It's so cool!"

I smiled as I dusted myself off. Tadao ran over to me, excited. "Wow! Your quirk is so pretty and powerful!"

I grinned at him and said back, "Your quirk's pretty cool as well." We fist bumped and continued whatever game we were playing.

When I got home, I tried to resummon the aura to show my family. However, when I did manage to, the exhaustion from pushing my quirk earlier in the day took its toll on me and I nearly fainted. I mentally facepalmed. Of course, my quirk was manipulating my inner "ki". I shouldn't keep flaunting it about otherwise I'll run out of stamina and possibly injure myself.

"Wait… ki control…" I thought of all the possibilities as my parents leaned me against the nearest sofa and got me a glass of water.

•••

The next day, I found myself occupying a chair in a waiting room. I couldn't exactly read, but I'm pretty sure we were at a quirk doctor. While waiting, I tried feeling the ki within me and focusing it into a sphere, like how dragon ball characters did it. After a few tries, I managed to pool enough energy into my hands to form a bright ball of light which I dissipated to prevent fainting. "That's very pretty," my mother commented.

Eventually, it was my turn, and I entered the doctor's analysis room. "Hello, Aki and Nishi Hitoshi right?" The doctor greeted, "I'm Higa Shoji, your quirk doctor for today". We took a seat and a clipboard and pen materialised in front of the doctor. "Pocket dimension quirk," he said, "Very handy as a doctor. Anyway, can you show me what your quirk does?"

I proceeded to show him the ki aura and the ki ball. "Can I try throw this at something?" I asked him. He nodded and showed me to a large metal room with a target in the middle. "Go ahead and try your best. The room won't break" Shoji reassured me. I concentrated to form the ki ball again and flung it as hard as I could towards the target, willing for it to fly out of my hands as I went. It collided with the target and exploded in a spectacular mess of leather and light.

"Woah!" The doctor said, "That's some quirk you have kid." I was panting, my head swimming. "I'm… tired," I gasped. The doctor quickly wrote down some notes on his clipboard before guiding me to a chair. After a few more tests, the doctor told us the report.

"Okay, so from what I've gathered, your quirk pulls stamina from inside your body and manifests it into external forms of energy, such as heat and light. I'm not sure how much potential this quirk has, and I'm not too sure about what it can do eventually, but I'm sure you can become a great hero with this." He said.

Me and my mother thanked him before heading home, many ideas formulating in my head.

•••

The next few years of my education were a breeze, the only true challenge was learning Japanese. Thank whoever reincarnated me my brain and some muscle memory transferred over from my previous body. Over these three years, I started to subject myself to a light training regimen to strengthen my body and quirk. I would have to do this should I wish to become a hero.

I could now hold a solid "ki aura" as I called it for around 5 minutes before running out of stamina. So far, it did nothing but light up a bit and scare people. I had also developed my projectile attacks and made a small laser attack which I dubbed "energy laser." Very creative, I know.

Once, when I was heading home from school as fast as my 7-year-old legs could take me, I came across a poster advertising martial arts. I stared at it for a while, smiling. This could be fun. I pull out a notebook and write down the phone number along with the location before continuing my journey home.

I dashed through the front door of my house. "Mum! Mum! Look!" I yelled. My mum peeked her head out of her bedroom door. "What is it honey?" she said.

"I've found something I want to do!"

She walked over to me and glanced at the notebook in my hand. "Martial… arts?" She asked, confused. "Why do you want to learn to fight?"

"It's so I can be a great hero in the future!"

She chuckled. "My baby is already planning. I should show Mizuno this as well, she was looking for a way to improve her strength."

"Should I invite Tadao-kun as well?"

"Yes, go ahead. I'll speak to his mother about it. Go tell your sister about this"

I leapt in excitement and ran to Mizuno's room.

"Mizuno! I have something to tell you!" I yelled.

"Yeesh Aki, I'm right here. You don't have to shout." I heard from beside me

I looked onto the table beside the door and saw Mizuno, 3 inches tall, building what looked to be a doll house. "Mum is signing us up for martial arts classes!" I said enthusiastically

"Really?" She leapt down and expanded right before my eyes. The jumpsuit she was wearing was made to stretch and compress as she shifted sizes. She bolted out of the room and yelled, "Mum? Is this true?"

I smiled and went back into my room to finish my homework.

•••

After a week or so, me and Mizuno were standing outside "Musutafu Fight School"

"Don't get hurt! Be safe!" I heard my mum yell.

"We will!" I yelled back and my sister nodded before we headed inside. We stepped through the doors and observed the large number of kids doing drills with masters, sparring, doing workouts, etc. "Ah! You must be Mizuno and Aki Hitoshi" A large, hulking man stomped over to us, he grinned and offered us a fist bump. "I'm Tao Tamotsu, but I insist you call me Tao. I'll be your master for the duration you're here, along with some other kids." He motioned for us to follow him

He lead us to a large bamboo-framed room and sat us inside. I looked around and found our group was made up of 5 kids. A very spiky-looking kid with spiky red hair to match, a girl with sky-blue hair and eyes and Tadao.

"Hey, Hitoshi-kun!" He greeted,

"So you did end up coming," I replied and he nodded furiously.

"Alright, kids!" Tao said, "All of you put down you had limited or no knowledge of martial arts, so we'll be starting with the basics today!"

He brought us into the main dojo and taught us how to take the ready stance and make a simple jab.

"Alright! You guys are getting the hang of it! Aki, try hitting me."

"Hit you?"

"Yep! A simple jab as hard as you can"

I got into a ready stance and jabbed, only for his arm to expand into a large shield-like structure and block it.

"Nice! Harder!"

I jabbed harder.

"Even harder! Put more strength into it!"

I pulled my arm back and a strange feeling bubbled up within me, giving me strength. The familiar Ki aura engulfed me and I threw my hand forward, with twice as much speed as before. Tao, surprised, staggered back a bit.

"Woah, kid! That's some quirk you got there!"

"I- what?" I stuttered, "How did I do that?"

I sat down and the spiky red hair kid stood up. "Since that kid used his quirk, I suppose we can all try using our quirks if we want to," Tao said as the spiky hair kid got into his ready stance. He turned his arms into what looked like rocks as he swung forward.

"Nice!" Tao complimented.

After we all had a go, the other three deeming they did not have quirks suited for this, we went home. I laid in bed, contemplating what that strange power was. I could try to replicate it, I should try to replicate it.

•••

I stood out in the backyard, opposite a tree that looked as if it was going to disintegrate at any moment. I got into a ready stance and powered up my Ki aura. I tried to feel the Ki flowing through me and threw a punch. Nothing happened. I tried again, but nothing. I sat down and leaned against the tree, staring blankly, searching for inspiration. My mind happened to drift to a familiar anime I had watched in my previous life…

"Oh... it's the Kaio-ken attack. It's like a massive upsurge of energy. Everything is heightened: power, speed, even hearing and vision improve dramatically. You sort of become a super-self. But it can only be sustained for a short time, so you have to get the job done quickly."

"You sort of amplify your Ki, and suddenly, you go zoom."

"Aha!" I yelled in triumph. I got back up and into my ready stance. I felt the Ki flow through me and focused it into my muscles. I imagined the power flowing into my muscles and them growing and getting stronger. I felt a ki aura burst out from me as my muscles started to strain. I opened my eyes and smirked. "Kaio-ken times 2!" I threw my fist forward. The tree rattled and shook, breaking off many of the dead branches. I powered down and felt my muscles ache from exhaustion. "Dang, I have to train that more…" I thought as I trudged back into the house.

•••

I walked into school, flaring my kaio-ken aura. I had somehow managed to score myself a training licence for my quirk after a month, which I kept in my pocket. I had taken inspiration from Goku's mastery of the Super Saiyan form which consisted of keeping the form active for long periods. Kaio-ken was a bit different, as it over-strained the muscles after extended periods of use, but I figured it would help the growth of my muscles as well as keep my endurance training up.

A teacher walked up to me and opened her mouth to reprimand me for using my quirk, but I showed her the licence, to which she quickly closed it again. I sat down and patiently waited for class to begin, flipping through a Japanese book to try to get a better grasp of the language. "Hitoshi-kun!" I heard Tadao yell. I looked up and smiled.

"Hey, Tadao!" I said back before a paper shuriken hit me square in the nose.

"Check that one out! Pretty clean isn't it?" He said.

I sighed and observed it. Every day, Tadao would show me some of his origami handiwork, which he made without touching the paper. "Wow, this one is pretty good!" I commented, turning it before flinging it back.

"Hehe!" he chuckled, "did you get that training thingy that allowed your quirk to be used?" He asked.

"Yeah," I said, "My dad filed all the paperwork when I said it was for my hero training. When I got it, they just said show it to anyone who tries to stop you."

"Nice! And you're training now?"

"Yep, trying to maintain a kaio-ken aura for as long as I can"

"Kaio-what?"

"It's an aura that multiplies your strength, vision, hearing, everything. It's supposed to be used for bursts, but I'm trying to just make it normal."

"Ah, ok. Do you want to go outside and play?"

"Sure!" I said. I stood up, and my legs gave out under me. Tadao yelped in surprise and attempted to slow my fall by pushing the paper shuriken against my chest. "Owch," I said, "Kaio-ken is more tiring than I thought."

Tadao gave me a worried smile before helping me to my feet and leading me outside.

And that's a wrap! Part one of the "childhood" arc. Don't be afraid to post your feedback in the reviews section, I do want to know if I'm writing this well. I'm going to be updating this sporadically along with my Energy Manipulation story with Izuku, no frequent nor scheduled updates sorry! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!