A/N: My first fic in like, several years lol. Initial chapters will be kinda fast paced since it's just a segway from solo leveling's final chapters into the my hero world. And once again for those that didn't notice before, this will have massive spoilers for people who only read the solo levelling manga/manhwa, as it takes place after the final events in the web novel. I don't own either series.
Sung jin-woo layed there, contemplating his options. On one hand, was he sure he could do such a monumental feat? Stopping everything before it happens? Antares alone brought him to the edge of death, who knows what fighting all monarchs at once would do to him. How long it would take...but again, that was something worth fighting for in his mind. For everyone who lost their life, his family, his father.
Shaking any lingering fears from his mind, he adopted a new look on his face, one of pure conviction. The cup of reanimation would have to be put to use one last time. Opening his mouth to make the request, his body was suddenly blown back a good 10 feet. Too injured and exhausted to react, He fought every screaming nerve to force himself to his feet, flabbergasted that there was still an enemy amongst them.
"Not yet."
Jin-woo's eyes widened, and his jaw fell slightly,
'there's no way! Still alive! But still, the rulers will-'
His thoughts came to a halt, Antares held the cup of reanimation in his hands, its overwhelming magic pushing back the angelic beings from pure wind force alone.
"You bastard!" Cried out one of the winged knights.
"No, let him. This is what I wanted anyway."
'I made my mind, this is just the worlds way of saying there's no going back'
"Hahaha! Fools! You really think i'm simply going to turn back time!?"
Thatmanaged to unnerve him, what was he going to do now?
"If i'm going to die here, i'll be damned if im going to let you live out the rest of your life in peace. Have fun in temporal oblivion! And don't forget to wave goodbye to everything you hold dear!"
"No, NO!" Jin-woo could not even move, collapsing onto his knees, the growing light from the divine cup engulfed everything around it, until silence alone reigned.
'Am I dead?...wait, no that's a dumb question. If he truly overloaded the cup of reanimation...is this the beginning of the universe? There doesn't seem to be anything here'
The shadow monarch, lay drifting in an unknown void, was as paralyzed as a rock. He lost track of time, perhaps there was no time. An endless pit of temporal nothing. Shadow exchange didn't work, and while he felt their presence in him, there was no response to his beck and call. He wondered if this was his fate, the acceptance of this hell growing in his mind, until a single bright light appeared in the distance.
'This is- I, I can remember. But, these aren't my memories.'
As the light grew brighter and brighter, closer, and warmer, more memories filled his head. Knowledge of people and places that should be foreign to him. Names and faces.
'Hunters?...no, heroes. He looks like Thomas Andre, no...All might? No...I won't forget them. I won't! Mom, Jin-ah, father!'
As he gained the smallest hint of movement, the silence that engulfed him before was broken by his blood curdling, oddly high pitched, screams.
"Jin-woo! Baby!?"
An older woman burst into the room. He felt sick, his vision too blurry to make them out, but her voice was enough to calm him down..as it always did.
'Mom'
"Shhh, it's ok, it was just a bad dream. Mom's here ok honey?"
Blinking a few times to get his vision under control, he appeared to be in a bedroom, one foreign yet familiare at the same time. All over was posters of different heroes, Figurines, other random merchandise. Yes, now that he got his bearings, these were part of those new memories. But to his delight, it was his same mom, her long black hair and...no scar.
'Didn't happen in this world yet, huh?'
Resting in his mothers arms, he could run through what happened with a calm mind. He was no idiot, and knew better than to question the why of it.
'Antares, he was trying to erase time itself, probably already too close to death. Didn't have enough power to complete the process. Instead it looks like I was blasted to another timeline entirely, I can't feel the presence of the monarchs. And it doesn't seem like I have access to the chaos world here. Does that mean there are no rulers either?'
His mind raced with questions about the current state of things. If this was a world with no rulers, no monarchs, and no portals, maybe it wouldn't be so bad afterall.
While his memory only went back about a year, he could discern a few things about this new earth.
There was no portals or hunters, instead, a society built upon heroes, fashioning themselves much like those found in comics.
His only friend was a brash little boy named Katsuki Bakugo.
His father was still alive, but worked across seas.
Unlike his world, the heroes here, no matter how strong, fall directly under government jurisdiction, and act as an extension of them. Meaning not just anyone can use their powers if they wish to stay out of trouble.
Quirks are what those powers of this age are called. Ranging from near useless tricks to abilities you'd see higher ranked hunters wield.
Everyone attains a quirk at around age 5. Which left him guessing, would he have a quirk? Or is shadow monarch abilities all he would have. Speaking of which…
After his mom had left him to his room again, he attempted to open a portal to the chaos world...only it didn't work. There was no connection, as if it straight up ceased to exist. His feeling was right afterall, no chaos world, no portals. No monarchs. Which left one last thing to confirm.
"Arise."
And before him, from his own shadow, rose an absolute monstrosity of a figure. Insect like, with an ants head, and a dark ghostly exoskeleton.
"It appears we are in a new world...my liege." The figure knelt down in submission.
A grin was all the small boy could muster as a response.
"Although, you appeared to have devolved into a child."
"...hmm, in that case. Let's try this." With only a thought, shadows consumed his tiny form, and grew, dispelling itself to reveal a far more familiare form.
"Amazing, my King."
"Monarchs aren't corporeal beings. I can manipulate my age all I want...but, I think for for the sake of things, maybe I should grow the old fashion way."
"Hm? But my liege, surely you've sensed it. This world is full of weaklings. And if your memories are to be believed, it's a chaotic and vile world...no, something is different with us as well, with you."
'He could see my memories too? Regardless, he's not wrong, so far, sensing everything around me, theres probably only a handful of beings who reach S rank level. But for some reason, the amazing power I had before, I don't feel it anymore, has that had an adverse effect on my shadows?'
"No, I could have done the same with my old world if things went the way I wanted them to. But maybe, we don't need to be as strong as before. This world probably has other ways of letting someone rise to power. I say we just live a normal life, I think that's what mom would have wanted anyway."
Closing his eyes, he breathed in and out a few times and focused his aura. Getting a feeling for everything he, at the very least, SHOULD have. And as he went through the list, it seemed he had every ability and summon he collected thus far.
'As I thought, Bellion, Beru, Igris, all of my shadows have been completely depowered somehow'
Not just his army, his base stats, were par for the course for a 4 year old, which meant only one thing: Time to level up.
Time passed by like a sprinter in a race, He got to see his dad on a vacation once...his sister was born months later. When he was 5, he decided to start small, shocking his entire school with a summoned shadow warrior. He still remembers the look on their faces, if only they knew. That the weakest of his shadows were mostly used for mining and other odd jobs. Even at his current level, a higher tiered summon like Beru or Igris could hold their own against actual pros.
Growing up, he and Bakugo grew apart, the latter's personality becoming more and more volatile by the day. And after single handedly beating him and his two lackeys up for bullying another child, they rarely spoke at all. They'd have similar confrontations throughout school, each one further driving an insurmountable wedge between them.
Also unlike most of his peers, he never flaunted his power, never saw a reason to. He would never half ass a test or competition, but that didn't mean using his otherworldly abilities when they were essentially illegal. As the end of junior high came, the time for actually showing the world what he could do was just around the corner.
Last day of school. Jin-woo did what he usually did during class, tune out virtually everything being said. He had to admit, leaving the world saving to others was...really boring. But he did make a promise to play by the rules. He would do some nightly sneaking around the country to watch, get a sense of how things were. Learning that there were villains out there that, while fairly weak back in his old world, would give him a run for his money here. Going around trying to play ultimate saviour would attract too much attention, something he didn't need on his family, and thus the boring life it was. Although living the life of a school kid again wasn't too bad. Gave him a lot of time to plan out what kind of future he had for this world.
"Hahahahah! You're all a bunch of side characters anyway! You're not even worth it as valuable stepping stones!"
"Oh yeah, UA, isn't Sung applying there as well?"
"..."
"Ooooo-" The class couldn't have calmed down faster if they wanted to.
All eyes engaged on the two "rivals". Titles that were given after Bakugo challenged him to a fight in 7th grade, with the help of 2 smaller knights, Jin-woo edged out a solid victory, shocking the entire school in the progress. It all only served to drive the blonde to harsher training than he ever could have imagined since. As for Jin-woo, he was just annoyed to be dragged into drama he found so child like.
Turning around to look the korean in the eye, his eyes lost their pride and superiority, and attempted to burn into his rival with conviction and anger.
"If this edge lord thinks he's gonna be a hero he's kidding himself. No one wants to see a boring, unsocial creep at number one, he can't even fight without the help of his shaaadooows. Give me a break!"
"Eh? Did you say something?"
"You bastard!"
"Now now students, calm down, you'll have plenty of time to prove yourself in the future. For now, let's continue on shall we?"
Jin-woo never played his games or insulted him back. He could sense dark emotions, killing intent, all that. And despite his volume and foul mouth, he knew there was more underneath that wasn't all bad.
The rest of the day went on without anything special. Though he did stay back a bit to read the news, more villain attacks have been sprouting up recently. It was the reason he always kept a shadow on mom and Jin-ah. However unlike before, villains won't just break into schools and start killing students left and right without a care in the world, so he should have nothing to worry about.
Walking home was always a nice part of his day, allowed him to really get the thoughts going. Like when you shower, you can't get focus like that sitting in a chair or laying in bed. Though this was a special treat, he felt something moving under the ground. As he attempted to walk through an overpass, a gush of slimy liquid began oozing out of a sewer grate. Until it morphed into something disgusting.
'Indistinguishable from monsters at this point'
He couldn't stop himself from the slightest of smiles. It's been about a decade since he's gotten to actually fight something hostile, and not just some schoolyard bully with something to prove, but an actual villain! Finally, a real test.
"Perfect, a human disguise, with you, i'll be able to hide from that guy just fine!"
"Try it."
"Oh I will! You're mine! GH-" A feeling in that watery gut, told him a moment too late he would regret his action, as the moment he crashed his body over the brat, he was filled with a sensation of pure fear. As if he was going to truly die.
'Critical hit'
In the blink of an eye, Jin-woo was on the other side of the overpass, and the slime villain was essentially blown into millions of droplets. He let out a breath, and despawned his daggers.
'...did I kill him?...is that legal?'
Turning a shade of red from the confusion of what he should do, the answer came from the sky itself. And a large, ground shaking thud.
'Hold on, isn't that?'
"Do not worry! for I- well how about that! I was just on my way to put this villain down for the count, and here you are! Looks like you handled things nicely young man!"
"Uh, yeah." 'I can't believe All might is here. His strength is off the charts compared to your average hero. I'm not confident I could beat him without losing a limb'
"I'm glad you're unharmed, it seems you have some real power kid! Though I want you to remember to keep that for self defence only! I can already see you're a budding hero aren't you!?"
'This guy, he talks like this even in casual conversations? Why is he saying each word in such a grand manner?'
"Well, yeah."
"Then you have nothing to worry about! Your time to serve justice will come soon. Thanks again for the help!"
'Is this what Bakugo was talking about earlier? Cause there's no way in hell am I acting like that if i'm a hero'
Jin-woo decided not to stick around as All Might packaged all the leftover water into a soda bottle, and thus said his goodbyes and went home. While he felt a bit awkward during their chance meeting, he got all he needed.
'His personality betrays his power. He's definitely on the level of the S ranks...no, the national level hunters. But there's something more to him. The same way my shadows travel within me, I can feel other presences in him too'
