"Oh Luffy…" he didn't look up, barely registering the feeling of hands both burning hot and freezing cold cupping his face, continuing to stare numbly at the bodies littering the ground beneath him. The bodies of his friends. His crew.

They were dead. All of them. Even Brook. How? Why couldn't he remember?

The hands turned his head, tearing his gaze away from the bodies (What happened, why couldn't he remember, why won't you let me remember?) and into a white face with completely black eyes. He knew that face. It was…

"Mom," was that his voice? It didn't sound like it. It was too quiet, too small, too far away. "What happened?"

His mother, his loving and powerful mother who should have stopped this from happening smiled, her burning black eyes showing none of the sadness her face portrayed. "They died, my dear Luffy," she told him, bringing his body to hers with ease no-one but Torao had been able to do in a long time. "They all did, except for you. Do you wish to die, Dear Son?"

There it was. That phrase. The words she always spoke after his world shattered. When he thought Sabo died, when Ace died, when he thought Torao was going to die… always that phrase. Before, he had said no…

Now, he wanted to say yes.

"Torao," he finally choked out, lifting his head to stare into black eyes. "Is he…?"

"Not quite," his mother hummed, shifting him in her lap and bringing his head to her shoulder again. "Your Chosen is stubborn, Dear Son. He refuses to leave until he has spoken to you."

The image of a dying Torao glaring defiantly at his mother appeared in his head and made him give a broken laugh in spite of the circumstance. "Can you take me to him?" he whispered, already knowing the answer.

His mother smiled softly, her black eyes shining with love she never failed to convince him was real, no matter how many times she took away those he loved. "Of course, Dear Son," she answered, and the world became a blur of colours as she moved the both of them with speed any user of Soru would envy. But then they stopped and he looked up and oh god.

He couldn't stop the choked sob that came from him as soon as he laid eyes on Torao. His wonderful, strong, cocky Torao…

Blood oozed sluggishly from multiple bullet wounds, both of his legs mangled, one arm shredded and the other ripped off, leaving pieces of flesh hanging from what was left of his shoulder, pure white hat stained red with his own blood, every breath bringing a small cloud of blood and a pained wheeze…

Oh, God.

"Torao!" he choked, flinging himself off his mother and to his Chosen, being careful to not land on him and give him even more pain. "Stupid Torao, why didn't you let Mom take you!?" he shouted hoarsely, desperately trying to hold back his tears.

"Lu...ffy?" Torao breathed, blood flowing from his mouth as he tried to pry open his eyes. He choked again, tightening his grip slightly. "Yeah," he called, one hand moving up to run through his Chosen's blood smeared hair. "I'm here."

"Good…" Torao coughed wetly and his heart broke just a little at the sight. "Wanted… to see you… one last time…"

"Stupid Torao," he said, letting the tears fall and land on a bloody cheek. "This isn't the last time."

"Heh…" Torao huffed, weakly moving his head to lay in his lap. "Of course it isn't… you impossible idiot…"

He giggled wetly, hugging Torao's head lightly. "You love it," he stated, trying to distract himself from the gradually slowing beating of the heart beneath him.

"Yeah… I do…" Torao admitted fondly, before turning his head towards his mother. "Oi… make sure… I don't end up in some loser…"

His mother smiled in amusement, white fingers wrapped around her black scythe. "Is this what you want, Dear Son? After all, I cannot promise that anyone, but you and your Chosen will be affected."

He gave a shaky breath as Torao's heart slowed even more, tears moving freely down his cheeks. "Yeah," he whispered to the final beat of his Chosen's heart. "I'm sure."

His mother nodded, face light, as if she was reading a book and not raising her hand to kill her own son. "Then farewell, Dear Son," she said, swinging the deadly weapon at him and the dead man in his lap. "And may your next life be better then this one."

Monkey D. Luffy closed his eyes and waited, the blade mere inches from his face…

...And Izuku Midoriya woke up with a soundless scream as memorise of a life he had once lived flashed behind his eyes.

And as he laid there in bed, panting as his mind tried to reorganise itself, all he could think was: 'Torao?'

In the modern world, people with amazing abilities perform great feats and great horrors. This all started two hundred years ago when Quirks appeared. These powers changed society. In the chaos of the early years, people with these abilities would use them for their own selfish desires. Panic gripped the streets as the laws failed to adapt. In this brave men and women stood up and used their own Quirks to stand up and stop those who used their Quirks for their own ends.

Soon being a hero was recognised as an actual Profession. With it, fame and money came as people began to celebrate their actions. Soon life became something out of a comic book. In the modern society at least eighty percent have a Quirk. Of that number, the majority had something of a mundane Quirk. Many of which didn't grow for generations.

But, with the rise of Quirks, something else came to light. Something that had been hidden from the world since long before the time of Quirks. Or rather, someone. A pair of someones, one a man, the other a woman. The first time anyone ever saw one of these people, these beings, was when the woman, shrouded in a silver cloak, walked straight up to a dying hero, unbothered by the fight raging around her, and offered him her hand. She waiting patiently for him to take it and then, just as the hero's shaking fingers touched hers, his hand fell through her to the ground and he stopped moving. He was dead.

That was the day people slowly started to realise that those old fairy tales about Death walking the earth, might not be fairy tales after all.