Hey guys! It is I, the Phoenix, back with a new Story!

Well, not exactly a new story. It's kind of in the same boat as Chains of Heaven; a One-Shot that'll be turned into a real story if people want it to and if I have the time for it. Well, more of the former than the latter considering I NEVER have enough time thanks to college consuming every waking moment of my life. That's something that isn't going to change anytime soon, and I know it.

Now, to provide some context;

Reincarnated As A Sword is one of those underrated LNs that tends to slip through the cracks, and despite my own apprehensions about the franchise once I saw the title, I actually find myself enjoying it. I went into the franchise expecting a Reincarnated As A Slime ripoff, but what I found was something much more wholesome and substantial than I'd expected. In an age where fewer and fewer stories seem to have any real depth to them, it was quite the pleasant surprise.

I wouldn't call it my MOST FAVORITE LN series, that honor goes to Infinite Dendrogram, but it manages to stand out and make itself unique with a premise that has been overdone in recent times, and that speaks for itself regarding its quality as a series. I mean, a fantasy World with Gamer aspects? That's basically 90% of Isekai nowadays. The fact that it's clearly memorable in my mind despite also being extremely similar in setting to other franchises like Shield Hero, Overlord or even the beforementioned Reincarnated As A Slime means two things; one, that the author tried to go for something unique instead of completely piggybacking off of other works, and two, that the story does a good job with Worldbuilding, which is something every good story needs, especially fantasies.

One of the biggest plus points about this series is the principle of "freedom", which considering how much I love Infinite Dendrogram, is something I definitely appreciate. This is actually something that a lot of Isekais actually lack, as surprising as that sounds. You rarely feel as if you're following a main character who is just exploring another World with their friends; there's always some forced role that the MC has to play. If you've watched/read any of the franchises I've mentioned above, you know what I mean. Fran and Teacher, the main characters of Reincarnated As A Sword, feel like they're moving through the World like actual RPG players, having fun, meeting new people and experiencing dangerous adventures. They go with the wind, having no clear goal except to get stronger, and that's okay because they have plenty of character development to make up for that. They're obligated to no one, answer to no one, and do what they wish, exploring a World packed with mysteries and threats, and at the same time aren't pretentious assholes who feel like they're above everyone else (like most SI fics or OP curbstomp franchises). They learn from their defeats, celebrate their victories, and move on to the next great adventure. While the story is pretty simple and a good deal of the side cast is pretty forgettable (the exact opposite of Infinite Dendrogram in this regard, which has literally everyone but the main character be extremely complex and quirky characters), the main characters are developed pretty well and you actually get the feel that they're real people. I really can't ask for more than that from a franchise that I never expected to like in the first place.

Anyways, just like Infinite Dendrogram, which I keep comparing it to for some reason (mainly because they're both highly underrated LNs that people gloss over), I found out that there are almost no fanfics for this franchise. There are only two that I know of, and both of them were written by the same author; A Dyslexic Writer. They were both pretty good, and I wanted to throw in my own contribution to yet another franchise that doesn't get the attention it deserves.

Of course, to get it more out there, I made it a crossover. Since Shield Hero and Fate were more or less already taken, I decided to go for MHA instead, mainly because the idea of Izuku getting reincarnated as a sword and gaming the system was too good for me to pass up. I'll be real; because of his absurdly high analytical skills, Izuku being crossed into one of those Gamer fantasy Worlds is always a treat to see. Blessed With a Hero's Heart is probably the best fanfic I've seen in this regard, which put his intelligence to use. I hope to replicate that property in this story as well, and of course with A Supreme Hero, which I'm currently working on Chapter 3 for.

Now that this is out of the way, I'd like to thank Austin S, Nico M, Chris D, ReedRacer, Dakota A, Q-dog-97, captain GIGN, Riot Bringer and Darkblader663 for being Patrons. These are tough times, so your support is something I'm very grateful for. If anyone wishes to support me, which I'd really appreciate, just type in P.A.T.R.E.O.N's website URL and then add a "/SpatialPhoenix" to find my page. Every little bit of generosity from you guys counts, and means the World to me.

With that aside, let's get on with the story!

P.S. - Sorry if the thumbnail seems kinda lewd, but this is the only good art of Fran I could find online.

Chapter 1 - The Sword In The Stone

Izuku Midoriya had always heard of people being at 'the lowest point in their lives', but he had never truly understood what that phrase meant.

Well, until he'd experienced it himself first-hand.

"Pro Heroes are always having to risk their lives. Some Villains simply cannot be defeated without a Quirk..."

Those words, echoing through his head, only increased the numbness he felt, the cold gnawing of despair creeping up from the back of his mind.

"So no, I honestly don't think you can become a Hero without a Quirk."

He'd heard those words a million times before, delivered from people ranging from the mailman to his middle school teachers. It had always hurt hearing that, but not as much as the unbearable agony he felt at that moment.

"It's not bad to have a dream, young man. Just... make sure your dreams are realistic and attainable, you understand?"

Because they came from the mouth of the man who had inspired him to become a Hero. The man who had started it all, the one he had admired more than anyone else in the World; All Might, the Symbol of Peace, the undisputed greatest Hero in history. That same person, the one who had sparked his dream of saving people with a smile, was ironically the one who told him that it was impossible, hitting the final nail on the coffin. The coffin that held his hopes and dreams.

He flipped idly through his notebook, though the action wasn't conscious, resembling a reflex more than anything else. His eyes registered the pictures of Kamui Woods and Mount Lady, but neither his heart not his mind were in it.

"You always knew, didn't you..." he said to himself despondently. "You just tried to delude yourself, to ignore reality..."

And that was the gist of it.

Nothing had been easy for him, his entire life, simply because he wasn't born with a superpower like everyone else.

He was looked at like a Monster, a lesser being, and the general consensus was that it was okay to beat him up, abuse him both mentally and emotionally, and destroy any attempt of his to attain happiness, just because of the way he was born.

He was lucky enough to get parents who cared for him, but that was about where his luck ended.

But did that really matter anymore? His whole life, he had been hoping for only one thing; acknowledgement. Even if he never actually managed to become a Hero, he would have been content if someone had actually believed he could do it in the first place.

What a fool he was. Where did he get off to, deluding himself like that?

No wonder Kaachan was always so pissed at him whenever he brought up his dream; it was stupid and delusional, as even All Might himself had attested to, even if he said it in a much more polite way to avoid hurting his feelings.

He should have been angry, furious even, that the same person who constantly said "anyone can be a Hero" didn't believe in his dream, but all he could feel, walking away from the building where his dreams had finally been ground to dust, was a cold emptiness that seemed to sap him of all other emotion.

Why did he even bother? It was clear that his delusions weren't strong enough to affect his unfortunate reality of being one of the sole losers of the genetic lottery in his generation; if that wasn't blatantly obvious by that point, then nothing was.

The fact of the matter was that he was Quirkless. And despite how much he wanted to pretend it didn't matter, that meant he was a lesser being, incapable of anything, born to be put down by those with power, who suffered no consequences for their actions. That was what society believed, from the smallest child to the great All Might himself.

So deeply absorbed in his increasingly self-destructive thoughts, Izuku barely noticed that he had arrived in an unfamiliar new location, his body heading towards danger almost instinctively.

The sound of an explosion drew him out of his thoughts, and his eyes were drawn to the scene of the crime, where an all too familiar Villain had an all too familiar Bully in his grasp.

The eyes of the Powerless and the Mighty met, as for a moment, their roles were reversed.

And Izuku Midoriya's body moved on its own.

The first thing that came to mind when Izuku opened his eyes again was that it was that it was pretty damn dark.

"Is it night? I can't see anything!"

The moment that thought went through his head, a bright light lit shone from his left, immediately drawing his attention. What greeted him was an incredible sight; an infinite vista extending as far as the eye could see, with something resembling a bright halo around the edges. The ascending light gleamed like a rainbow, and the boy couldn't marvel at the beauty of it, which was indescribable by words.

Then he wondered what was on the other side, and turned to see the moon setting, only a bit of the lunar body remaining in sight, although that did little to diminish its magnitude. The breathtaking sight was something he hadn't seen in his fourteen years of living.

He couldn't help but remained transfixed in awe at the magnificent sight, though he found it odd that he wasn't straight up crying from the emotions that it evoked in his heart. Izuku had never truly been one to admire nature, being way more focused on anything and everything to do with Heroes, but now he couldn't help but wonder if he had been missing out on something.

That was when a sudden thought struck him as his mind returned to reality.

"What happened to me?"

The last thing he remembered was nailing the sludge villain in the eye, causing him to loose his grip on Bakugo and preventing the blond teenager from suffocating. After that, all he remembered was a blast of concussive force, and then everything going black.

Izuku couldn't help but swallow nervously as he pieced together what must have happened, though the sensation felt odd, almost as if he didn't have a throat anymore, something he didn't quite notice as his mind was occupied by a sudden realization.

"Did I... die?" he wondered out loud, filled with dread.

"Hey there, kiddo. Are you finally awake?"

"W-Who's there?!"

A voice echoed from the darkness, though Izuku couldn't feel anyone there. Rather, it felt like the voice came from inside his own head.

"You're in for a rough ride. Better strap yourself in."

"W-Wait! W-Who are you, and what do you mean?!" he called desperately, trying to get an answer from the mysterious speaker.

"See you around, kid." replied the voice, before going silent.

"H-Hello!" Izuku cried out again, but to no avail. The voice had disappeared as fast as it had appeared. Had it been a hallucination? He didn't think so, because he didn't know anyone who sounded like that, not to mention that the voice was incredibly clear, as if the speaker was right next to him.

The Quirkless teenager stirred in an effort to get a better view of things and hopefully catch sight of the person who had talked to him, and then realized something very important.

He couldn't move his body.

"What's going on?!"

Izuku thought he was tied up at first, but the way he was feeling did away with that theory pretty quickly. His whole body felt weird, now that he really put his attention onto it. He couldn't feel his arms and legs, and the rest of his body felt... off, for lack of a better word. He couldn't feel his eyelids or his eyeballs for that matter, which begged the question of how exactly he was able to see things. Feeling no other option, he looked down, realizing that he could move his vision to some degree.

However, what he saw left him speechless.

His eyes found an ornate sword, vertically rising from a pedestal, painting a scene right out of a fairy tale. Somehow though, Izuku knew that it was more than just a sword.

It was in fact his own body.

As impossible as it may have been to understand let alone explain, Izuku knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the sword was him, and he was the sword. It was something that felt like a fundamental truth in his mind, right up there with being Quirkless. His "eye", or at least what seemed to functionally act as an eye, was located at the hilt of the sword, somewhere between the guard and the blade. It didn't make any sense. How could he see despite having a sword for a body?

Could it be possible that this was... a Quirk of some kind?

Quirks that replaced a part of a person or turned a person completely into an inanimate object were pretty rare, but far from unheard of. The sludge Villain he had encountered merely moments ago (from his perspective) was a good example of that, his body being made out of sludge instead of flesh and bone. Then there was the Iida Family, who all had Quirks that replaced parts of their bodies with literal engines.

Could he have suddenly manifested a Quirk of that kind, one that turned him into a sword?

No, that was impossible. While there were cases of people not knowing they had Quirks till later on in their lives, that was usually the case with Emitter or Transformation Quirks that had unique activation conditions, like Sir Nighteye's Foresight, not Mutant Type Quirks, which he was pretty sure being a living sword would fall under the banner of. Another reason this probably wasn't a Quirk had to do with genetics; his mother had a weak telekinetic Quirk, while his father could breathe fire. Becoming a living sword was about the furthest thing from either of those Quirks. While it was possible for children to have a Quirk unrelated to either of their parents, that was extremely rare; even rarer than a Quirkless child like him being born in the current generation. Also, Mutation Quirks were the only category of Quirks that manifested at birth instead of around the age of 4, as unlike normal Quirks they made drastic changes to human physiology.

So yeah, as much as he desperately wished this was some kind of freak Quirk manifestation, after what All Might had told him on that rooftop, he wasn't in the mood to delude himself anymore. He'd wasted a decade of his life chasing after a goal he never could have reached simply because couldn't accept reality, and Izuku refused to do that again. The only thing worse than making a mistake was not learning from it, as his mother would say.

No, what he needed to do right now was focus on the cold, hard facts instead of trying to speculate or theorize.

So he was a sword now, an honest to god sword. The sensory information he was getting from... whatever acted as his brain now proved this beyond the shadow of a doubt. He had something akin to... skin, he guessed? Part of his blade was buried into the pedestal, and he could feel that somehow. It felt... kind of nice actually, like he was tucked into a comfortable blanket. Although Izuku still wasn't sure how it was possible in the first place, his transformation was permanent. This was another thing that he seemed to know instinctively, just like how he knew he was a sword. This wasn't a Transformation Quirk that allowed him to switch between a human form and that of a blade. He was stuck this way for the foreseeable future.

To sum it all up; he had been... at the very least, injured when he went to save Bakugo from the sludge Villain, and then woke up as a sword stuck into a pedestal. It was a situation that was like something out of a Light Novel. The more he thought about it, the less sense it made. He had already ruled out the possibility of it being a sudden manifestation of his own Quirk, but even if it was the result of someone else's Quirk that turned him into a sword, that didn't explain why he was just left on a pedestal in the middle of nowhere. If he had been turned by a Villain, then he would've been used as a weapon, while if he had been turned by a Hero or a bystander, there would likely have been someone offering him an explanation as to what had happened.

Speaking of which, where was he? Perhaps his location could answer a question or two. Slowly adjusting to his new mode of vision, Izuku angled his field of sight to rotate around him as much as he could, and only became more confused thanks to what he saw. He seemed to be standing in the middle of some ancient ruins. There was no roof over his head, and the pedestal he was placed in lay in the middle of the ruins like a prize. Surrounding the pedestal were small shrines, which made it seem like an object of worship. It was clear it hadn't been touched by sentient life for a long time, because it was covered in moss and looked extremely neglected; hell, there was even a tree sprouting out through a crack in the roof of one of the small shrines.

All in all, it was like something out of a fantasy novel, and his own appearance complemented that aesthetic as well. His blade was made from a metal he actually couldn't recognize, which was strange considering he knew all the widely used alloys of metal thanks to his research into Support Items. It glowed white with three green lines running down it, the same color as his eyes, back when he had them anyways. He may have been flattering himself, but his sword body looked like a weapon of legend, like the All Might of blades, because it certainly wasn't anything cheap or mass produced. His sword guard was of a subdued golden color, and a carving of a gallant wolf decorated it, along with green twine. The string was a lattice of green and white braided into one. If this were an RPG, it was likely the blade would have been one of the strongest weapons in the game, because it certainly fit the part in terms of looks.

Finally, after inspecting himself and his immediate surroundings a little more to see if there was anything else he could glean, Izuku turned his attention upwards, only to blanch immediately in shock.

There were six moons in the sky; red, blue, green, yellow, purple and pink in color, all adorning the night sky with their dim glow. And that meant only one thing; he was no longer on Earth. That was the only logical conclusion that could be reached from what he had observed.

Which also meant...

"I... really died, didn't I?" he said to no one, his vision still on the moons.

The despair from his realization occupied him until the sun rose the next day.

When the golden orb finally began to rise into the sky, Izuku finally felt like he'd spent enough time wallowing in self pity.

His nonexistent heart still ached with the knowledge that he would never see his parents or his home again, that he would never be able to apologize to All Might for asking him such a difficult question when he already had so much on his plate, or to his mother for putting her through so much stress by constantly chasing a dream that they both knew was impossible.

However, wallowing in despair wouldn't help him. After all, he spent the last ten years of his life doing just that, and it hadn't led him anywhere. In fact, it had actively crippled him, keeping him from doing anything truly productive with his life.

Besides, he had been incredibly lucky. He was supposed to die from that explosion, yet he was still conscious. It's true that he hadn't exactly been reincarnated as a person, per se, but becoming a sword was preferable to being dead. Izuku resolved to make the most of the opportunity he had been given, the small bone that had been thrown his way after a lifetime of suffering.

But what exactly did that mean, now that he was a sword? He had dreamed of being a Hero, but that was pretty much impossible now if it hadn't already been before; who had ever heard of a sword being a Hero? He was more of a Support Item, a tool meant to help someone else become a Hero. Honestly speaking, that fact didn't bother Izuku as much as it should have. If he could indirectly help others in the hands of someone else, then that was good enough in his book. Besides, the thought of being wielded by a Hero really appealed to him for a reason he couldn't quite place his finger on; it just felt right. Yes, that's what he would do; he would find a great Hero to use him in battle, preferably someone like All Might, with a strong sense of justice. That formula seemed to work for other swords like Caliburn, so it would have to do.

Only one problem with that though; how was anyone supposed to even find him, much less use him in battle? He had no idea where he was, except that he was clearly in another World unless Earth spontaneously gained some extra multicolored moons overnight. The ruins his pedestal was at the center of practically screamed that they were a hidden area that wasn't accessible to normal people. If someone told him he was behind the Boss Room of a Dungeon, he would believe them.

So what was he supposed to do? Just wait there until someone came along? The thought alone made him cringe. Perhaps, if he had truly been a sword he wouldn't have minded, but Izuku's mind was human, and he couldn't bear the idea of just sitting in place for god knows how long, doing nothing.

If only he could move somehow...

Izuku's thoughts ground to a halt as his blade rattled slightly in response to his desire.

"Was that...?"

The former human focused again, this time with more intent, and envisioned his body rising out of the pedestal. He felt himself get lighter as the tip of his blade left the stone, and he floated in the air under his own powers, gasping in shock.

"Telekinesis?!"

It seemed incredible, but the proof was right in front of him. But how did he have telekinesis? He was a literal sword for crying out loud! If things hadn't been making sense before, then any hope of a rational explanation just flew out the window.

Slowly starting to get a grasp on how his telekinesis worked, Izuku slowly rotated, taking in more of his surroundings. Strangely enough, his theory about being some sort of Dungeon loot was proven false as the area outside of the ruins was simply composed of grasslands and shrubbery, with not a tree in sight as far as the eye could see. Straining whatever counted as his eyes, he could barely make out a few shapes moving around in the distance, but they didn't look human. Probably some kind of animal? He couldn't say, because the maybe-animals were too far away for him to properly make out.

After a few more minutes of observing, Izuku suddenly started to feel tired, a pulse of weakness spreading through his body. Realizing that whatever telekinetic power he possessed had reached its limit, he gently lowered himself back into the pedestal. The analytical part of his brain filed away the information that he had been floating for about 3 minutes before his body had started to give out on him.

A sense of frustration spread throughout his being, even as he tried to shake off the sudden listlessness that seemed to reduce his mental faculties to tar. The frustration was born from the fact that he had no idea what was going on, and no way of knowing what exactly he could do. The weak telekinetic ability he possessed (he didn't call it a Quirk because he wasn't on Earth anymore, and this likely was far from the likes of the genetic abilities in his own World) had caught him completely by surprise, and the only thing he had been able to infer about it from his brief stint using it was that it seemed to run off some sort of internal energy source. He had come to this conclusion when he noticed that his exhausted body had begun to draw some kind of energy from his surroundings, which began to slowly but steadily cause his fatigue to recede.

If only he had some method of Identify-

'Name: Unknown

Owner: None

Race: Intelligent Weapon

Attack: 132, MP: 10/200, Durability: 100/100

Evolution: [Rank 1]

Skills: Identify 6, Self-Repair, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Status +, Recovery Rate +, Skill Sharing, Mage, Essence of Heroism 3'

Izuku was pretty sure he spent a few precious minutes just staring in shock before the gears in his metaphorical brain began spinning at the speed of a fighter jet, and he began to greedily devour the information available to him like a dying man in the desert finding water. Now, he may not have been much of a media enjoyer outside of Hero-related programs, but he did know what RPGs were. He had spent a lot of time playing a lot of Hero-related ones online, which was why the way the Status Screen was written immediately sparked recognition from him; it was nearly identical to the Weapon Descriptions one could find in basically all the games from that genre, containing information like his Attack Power and what Skills he had. He decided not to think too hard on the "how is this even possible", because he was already getting pretty tired of asking that question.

The first thing he noticed was that his MP, which likely stood for "Mana Points", was close to empty; this meant that his Telekinesis Skill, which was likely what he had used to float earlier, required them as fuel. It made sense; Active-Type Skills usually had some kind of cost from his experience.

On the topic of Skills, Izuku found that he could check out the individual descriptions of them separately as well, which was exactly what he proceeded to do.

'Identify 6: Displays information of surrounding objects.

Self-Repair: Automatically restores weapon durability unless completely destroyed.

Telekinesis: Use magic to effect surrounding physical objects.

Telepathy: Use magic to speak directly into the minds of others.

Status +: Slightly increase all Owner stats.

Recovery Rate +: Slightly increase Owner's health and magic recovery rate.

Skill Sharing: Grants Owner access to all Set Skills.

Mage: Ability to feel the flow of magic. The mark of a mage.

Essence of Heroism 3: Grants the ability to sense individuals in need of saving within the User's general vicinity. Increases all parameters when protecting others. Combat abilities are significantly enhanced against Fiends and other beings related to the Evil One. Prevents User from performing villainous acts. A Unique Skill given to one who embodies the Principle of Heroism.'

If he had any lingering doubts that he was an ordinary sword, they were certainly gone now. Izuku couldn't claim to be an expert on swords by any means, but he was fairly certain that no normal blade had an assortment of abilities like the ones he had.

The ability to automatically repair himself, use telekinesis as well as communicate telepathically, boost the power of his Owner, feel magic and even share Skills? He didn't mean to toot his own horn, but back on Earth a weapon like that would be a National Treasure, something that countries would fight wars over. Of course, he couldn't be sure that his powers were all that grand, because he had no one else to compare himself to, but Izuku still couldn't help but feel slightly giddy.

In his first life, he had gotten the short end of the stick. In a generation where 99.9% of the children born had a superpower of some kind, the boy had been born lacking, and the World made sure to remind him of that fact at every opportunity. This time around, not only did he have multiple powers, ones with a lot of potential at that, but it was possible he was actually extraordinary compared to his peers. Of course, the sensation of happiness was muddled by the fact that it took him dying and literally losing his humanity in order for him to finally get a leg up in life, but Izuku ultimately had no complaints with his current situation. Even if he wished he were still human.

As callous as it sounded, he wasn't as attached to his home World as one his age might have been. He had no friends, his dreams were impossible by the rules of the society he lived in, the same society which mercilessly stomped on him by the way, and the only people to show him kindness were his parents. He would miss them; he missed them something fierce already, and it hadn't even been a day since he had woken up. That pain would always be there, but Izuku couldn't afford to let that stop him from moving on.

And he would move on; after all, he had a new dream now, one that had risen from the ashes of his old one. To find a Hero to wield him in battle and through them, save as many people as he could. While he could probably make it on his own thanks to his Telekinesis Skill, not only would it leave him utterly helpless when his MP ran out (and earlier experience proved that he didn't have very much of it), but people likely would be terrified of a flying sword no matter what he did. For example, there were still plenty of people that were scared of Gang Orca, who had been an established Pro Hero for a long time. A flying sword perhaps wasn't as terrifying as a humanoid killer whale, but it was still pretty high on the list, which kind of went against his wish to inspire hope in people. Besides the niggling feeling that made it just feel right for him to have an Owner, it simply wasn't practical for him to go without one for long.

One thing of note was that this World seemed to really lean heavily into the realm of fantasy. Apart from the bombshell of magic being a real thing, something that really wasn't as surprising as it should have been considering literally everything else that had already happened, or the fact that there was some kind of RPG System available to everyone, it was the description of his final skill, Essence of Heroism, that really cinched it. Regardless of the warm feeling in his core, the sense of finally being acknowledged, that arose when he learned that the Skill was only given to someone with the heart of a Hero, he was more interested in the fact that it increased his combat abilities against beings known as 'Fiends', who were apparently aspects of something called the 'Evil One'.

The word 'Fiend' was another name used for denoting Demons, so the 'Evil One' was probably the equivalent of a Demon Lord, who had to be the biggest Villain around if his estimate about the setting and society of this World was on the mark. That gave him a clear path forward; after all, he could help the most people by becoming the trusty weapon of a Hero out to slay the Evil One.

But there was still a long way for him to go to reach that level; to achieve his goal, he had to train, to get stronger, and to become one of the strongest weapons in the World; after all, it wasn't only up to him. Even if he chose a good Owner, it would mean nothing if he wasn't strong enough for his Owner to prefer using him in the first place. However, this only gave birth to a sense of excitement that was tempered by determination. For once, he was on a level playing field, and his dream hadn't been sabotaged before he could start walking towards it. He wouldn't let this opportunity escape his grasp.

So, under the light of a foreign sun, Izuku began to experiment with his powers, calculations and theories beginning to brew in his mind, as he began to reach for a brighter future that had once seemed lost to him.

Around a day later, Izuku felt like he could confidently say he had thoroughly explored his new abilities.

Honestly, it should have taken a lot less time than that, but he had the bad habit of going off on tangents when he thought of something interesting, so much time was spent that way. There were also hours where he sat in contemplative silence, thinking about his old life, what he could have done better, about Heroes, and about whether his parents were able to move on from his death.

Anyways, there were a lot of interesting observations he made regarding his Skills; in fact, he had started unconsciously carving notes into the surrounding ruins with the tip of his blade out of excitement once he had started coming up with new ideas and possible uses for them. Needless to say, the once rustic-looking ruins were now a mess of sloppily carved kanji. If someone were to look at it now, they would have thought a wild animal had torn up the place in a fit of fury. But in his opinion, his discoveries were very well worth the mess.

One of the earliest realizations that Izuku came to was that his MP was his lifeline. Without his Mana Points, he couldn't use his Telekinesis Skill; the only thing that allowed him to function autonomously. Unfortunately, he didn't have very much of it, and its efficiency was also pretty poor. His total MP pool was 200 points, and each point took exactly one minute in order to regenerate; however, each second he spent using Telekinesis cost 1 MP. With the cost of Telekinesis effectively being 60 times his MP regeneration, that meant he would only be able to move autonomously in short bursts of a few minutes at a time with a 3 hour break in between each burst.

It was probably his biggest roadblock at the moment, which made sense considering swords weren't exactly made to wield themselves. At the moment, Izuku had no way of increasing his Mana Pool or decreasing the cost of Telekinesis. He had tried using Telekinesis a bunch after seeing that Skills like his Identify and Essence of Heroism had Levels, which were the numbers next to their name, but it looked like that principle didn't apply to ALL Skills, because his Telekinesis had shown no sign of improvement.

However, he wasn't going to allow that to stop him. One of the first things he had learned after throwing himself into studying Quirks was that they weren't made for battle. That might have seemed pretty strange to hear considering that Quirk-based violence was very much a thing, but it was true. Sure, lots of Quirks had the capacity to be extremely destructive; Bakugo's produced literal explosions from his sweat. However, if Bakugo hadn't learned to use hand movements and aerodynamics to direct his blasts, even a Quirk like that would have been nothing more than fireworks in a real fight. The honest truth that few people truly understood was that the manipulation of Quirks was the true measure of its value, not what they could do on a baseline level. Best Jeanist, the Number 4 Hero in Japan, was a great example of this. According to the research Izuku had done, his Quirk had been pretty much useless when it had first manifested, only allowing him to make his jeans flutter a bit. However, through decades of intense training as well as ingenuity, he had not only improved his Quirk but also made even an ability that would never be useful in a conventional fight something to be feared.

From this, Izuku knew one thing for sure; if his powers wouldn't allow him to move around properly in their basic state, then he would need to put his mind to work and find a way to exploit the abilities he had in order to do it. Towards that end, the first thing he did was turn to Magic. Izuku's idea was to try and find a way to use Wind Magic in order to propel himself through the air using short gusts of wind. While that would also likely cost MP, there was a high chance that it would be more efficient; he could probably move faster using Wind Magic as a launching mechanism while subtly applying telekinesis from time to time in order to steer himself in the right direction.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. Despite having a Skill that was literally called Mage, it turned out he actually had no way to use Magic. He could feel the Magic in the air, especially when he was regenerating his MP, but for some reason he wasn't able to manipulate it. He got the sense that there was something he was missing, but he wasn't sure what that was. His best guess was that there was some other Skill he needed in order to be able to actually use Magic, while the Mage Skill he had was a purely sensory ability. Regardless, it led to a dead end. No matter what he tried, he simply couldn't use Magic.

So he turned back to Telekinesis, and after a few hours of experimentation, he had a breakthrough. Instead of using Telekinesis to just make himself move in a certain direction, Izuku decided that it would be more advantageous to instead use it to catapult his body into the sky with as much force as he could muster. It was pretty similar to his idea with Wind Magic, but the founding principal was different. His Telekinesis Skill, while it did have limits to its raw power, only cost MP depending on the amount of time it was used as opposed to how intensive his action was. This meant that pushing the Skill to its limit for a few seconds was way more cost efficient than using the Skill at a lower intensity for a long period of time.

While his MP had regenerated, Izuku crunched the numbers in his head, and realized that by pushing his power to its limits, he could catapult himself around half a kilometer at best if the wind speed and direction were in his favor. After revising the calculations a couple more times, he realized that the only thing left to do was actually test it, something he was simultaneously excited and nervous about.

That was how he found himself in his current position; on top of the tallest of the shrines around his pedestal, mentally preparing to launch himself into the sky.

Using his tassel to measure the properties of the present air currents, Izuku waited for a few seconds before clearing his mind. Slowly and meticulously, he imagined himself being pulled back against an imaginary band, and once he was certain he had pushed his Telekinesis to its limits, he mentally let go. Less than a second later, the boy-turned-sword shot off into the sky like a bullet, his tassel trailing behind him as he screamed in terror.

"MAYBE THIS WASN'T SUCH A GOOD IDEA!" he cried, as his body was buffeted by the air resistance to the point where he was tumbling through the air like a thrown axe instead of a majestically flying sword (like he had envisioned).

After a few more seconds of terrified screaming, Izuku finally managed to get a grip on himself, driving out his panic and quickly activating Telekinesis as his altitude began to drop, having crossed the apex of his flight. With the Skill's assistance, Izuku tried to correct his course, but to his horror found out that he had made a major miscalculation regarding the stunt he had pulled; he hadn't calculated if the strength of his telekinesis was enough to stop his descent.

And as it turned out... it wasn't.

He slammed into the dirt blade-first, carving a trench several meters long as he skidded to a stop, still lodged in the ground. His metaphorical head was spinning, and if he had still been human, Izuku was sure he would have thrown up. That is, if he had survived the fall in the first place. Fortunately, he was able to regain his bearings much quicker than he would've in an organic body since a sword didn't exactly have a nervous system, though it didn't quite remove the sting of losing a quarter of his Durability thanks to a stupid mistake, even if it was healing rapidly thanks to his Self-Repair Skill.

Unfortunately, in the few seconds he had been distracted, he had missed the other presence in the clearing where he had landed.

"Gya Gyu?" said a voice that was most definitely not his.

Izuku froze, his self-reproachful thoughts grinding to a halt. Thankful that remaining motionless was so much easier when one was a sword instead of a person, he played dead, cursing the fact that the other person was standing in the one blind spot in his field of vision. He heard the sound of shuffling behind him, and realized that whoever was there with him had to be looking for who they thought had thrown him, since by standard logical reasoning swords didn't throw themselves.

He tried to cast Identify while the presence behind him continued to search for an aggressor that existed only in their mind, but to his dismay Izuku realized quite glumly that he could only use the Skill on people he could actually SEE, and not just on anything he could sense. That didn't make any sense considering he didn't have actual eyes, but there was no point in complaining about that particular inconvenience. All he could do know was just wait and hope that whatever was behind him didn't just attack him for no reason. Why someone would possibly try to destroy a random sword was beyond him, but for all he knew it could still happen.

Thankfully however, it didn't, but after a few minutes he sensed the presence coming closer to him, seemingly satisfied that no one else was around them.

"Gruhaa!"

Just what exactly was behind him? The strange cries it made sounded animalistic, but the actual sound was disturbingly closer to a human than a beast. Izuku cringed as his question was answered for him; hard, calloused hands wrapped around his hilt and pulled him out of the ground. A wave of revulsion rolled over his body, the touch of the strange being evoking a feeling of disgust that was quite unlike anything he had ever felt before. Surprised by the foreign sensation, the living sword didn't show any resistance and allowed himself to be pulled out, just so he could get a better look at what exactly was causing him to feel that way.

Seconds later, he really wished he hadn't.

The creature holding him could only be called repulsive. It had green skin with a face that looked more brutal than a gorilla's, complimented by a pair of horns that rose out of its head. He wore a fur pelt and basically nothing else, looking like some sort of horribly deformed caveman.

'Oh no...'

Izuku knew what it was at a glance, considering how its kind was basically a staple in popular culture.

A Goblin.

If he hadn't been sure that he was in some kind of fantasy World before, there was definitely no doubt about it now. The presence of multiple moons in the sky had been enough of a sign, to be frank, but the living, breathing proof in front of his eyes drove away the last specks of uncertainty in his mind with the same finality as All Might's words to him on that rooftop.

However, the pangs of foreboding Izuku felt were nothing compared to the grim realization that no matter how much he tried to stay positive about it and play it off, nothing he knew would ever be the same again.

And that's a wrap!

Of course, since this is just the initial chapter, there isn't too much except for setup and Worldbuilding going on, but that's okay. This was always just meant to be a concept.

Since many people reading this story will likely not know much about Reincarnated As A Sword, I've made this first chapter very similar to that from the LN's first chapter, mainly because the first Volume establishes some key details about the setting that can't be ignored and are important for the story. However, those of you who HAVE read the LNs or the Manga have probably noticed a key difference, that is, apart from the fact that Izuku's the one being reincarnated into that sword.

Essence of Heroism. Now, some of you may be disappointed that One For All isn't in this story, but if I'm being real, adding One For All really takes away from these kinds of stories. Having access to it would make this story a cakewalk, considering one of Izuku's main problems in using the Quirk is his own lack of durability, which is kind of moot when you're a sentient sword. And that's not even including the other Quirks embedded in it. Hell, in a fantasy World, considering it stockpiles energy at a rate that makes it grow exponentially larger, it's basically akin to a miniature Nasuverse Holy Grail. However, to make up for taking away OFA from this story, I've added a Skill unique to Izuku; Essence of Heroism. The representation of his character. This Skill has a lot of hidden abilities that are simply waiting to be used, so I hope you guys wait to see it in action before casting judgement.

And if it wasn't obvious already, I wanted to clarify something. Yes, his reincarnation into a sword has affected Izuku's mentality. This is more subtle in this chapter, but will be far more prominent in the next. This is something canonical, as Teacher affirms pretty quickly into the series, so it'll be interesting to see how Izuku deals with it. Teacher was always more flexible than someone like him, but Izuku won't be able to let something like that go so easily.

Anyways, that's basically all I wanted to address in this chapter since there's basically not much going on. I wanted to write more than this for Chapter 1, but I felt like that would make it too long. Chapter 2 would be where things really kicked off, just like with A Supreme Hero. That's just my luck when it comes to these sort of things, I suppose. My first chapters tend to be pretty weak.

Also, I've been hearing that this new COVID variant that's going around's even worse than its forefathers, so keep yourselves safe. I'll certainly try my best on this end, though considering I literally study at an active hospital, that's easier said than done...

Spatialphoenix here, burning to ashes.

P.S. - For those of you who read my other stories, I'm probably going to be publishing Chapter 2 of Multiplayer before focusing exclusively on rewriting a bunch of my stories and cleaning house.