Armored Hero: Hagane

by Mikatsuki Augus

By now you know how it goes right? You die, reincarnate and somehow turn into some kind of op character in a differnt world, much like in any other Isekai, excepet it wasn't the same for me! I was literally born without powers in a world where everyone (almost) has them, even the most useless! Well, I had to merge brain to find an alternative path and become a Hero.

2. Not exactly the day I expected

Finally Chapter 2 is here ! And no, I'm not dead, but WhiteDragonSky has been too busy with the university to translate so it took a long time, sorry! Ah, for those who do not follow me or have not read Rda, my other fiction, WhiteDragonSky is a friend who was kind enough to translate all my ideas, even the most stupid, so thanks for him are a must. that has been putting up with me for almost two years now ^^

That said, Chapter 2 will give an overview of the world Raiden fell into, so it might get boring, but I've decided to be clear on what's present since I doubt and hope I haven't messed up like I usually do. Obviously I don't download everything there is to know at once, otherwise what's the point? However I have a little warning to do that I think is a must: in this fic I decided to put a lot of lime and lemon that will start from chapter 6 (the fact that they lengthen the chapters is a considerable bonus. You have any idea how much it is difficult to write when trying to reach at least a certain length, but just can't? it's downright frustrating). Gamer of the void was a real inspiration from that point of view. I decided to warn right away because in the other fic several people complained about the explicit content present in the chapters, so please don't write me privately when the time comes for this reason.

Before starting, I also warn you that I have made some changes to chapter 1 (again), however this time it is just minor things, like the age of the protagonist and a few other details. Nothing too exaggerated, however check it out if you want and tell me what you think of both chapters with a review. Happy reading ^^

---

Midoriya Izumi could say she had been better. She had fainted from the shock caused by the fact that she had practically destroyed three of her limbs. She had never fainted from pain before as she was very used to it, so it was yet another unpleasant experience in the long list she was familiar with. Then again, in her constant misadventures, pain seemed to be really the only thing that seemed to follow her wherever she went. Ever since she was diagnosed without Quirk when she was four years old, everything went steadily downhill. First her father divorced her mother for giving birth to a child he felt could not be his daughter, then her best friend became her worst bully for no apparent explanation, and shortly afterwards everyone she knew did the same. She was constantly picked on, insulted and taunted by boys and girls at her school, along with some teachers who not only never acted despite her mother's complaints and charges to the school, but were sometimes even willing to instigate their 'hobbies'. It got worse over the years as Aldera runs sections for kindergarten, primary and secondary school, being the closest public school and unable to afford a private education. She tried to change schools, really tried, but almost all her applications were rejected and Inko did not trust them enough to send her to other public schools that could be even worse.

Her only friend was Aika Kiryuu, who in spite of being Quirk-less was the only person who actually treated her like a human being other than her mother, albeit staying with the latter was at times hurtful both physically and emotionally. Inko...she couldn't put it into words, yet she had no faith in her dream, no faith in her daughter. She did not have the courage or the will to express the words she needed to hear when she had to. Growing up was a constant source of stress that made her gain weight over the years, and she became so overprotective and nervous that when she hugged her sometimes she would pull too much force and more than once left bruises.

Then, 10 months earlier, luck finally started to turn her way too. She met All Might, her idol! Of course, the situation wasn't the best since he had to save her from a rather harassing muddy Villan who tried to kill her, but still! At first he didn't believe in her either, and that day after her dreams were crushed for the umpteenth time by the one person she expected to smile and encourage her, she actually pondered whether or not it was time to end it all. In the end, she chose not to throw herself off that building. It would have been yet another blow to the life she ruined for her mother by merely existing, thus she was not going to do something that could potentially tear her apart for the rest of her life.

She had decided to take the advice All Might had given her and stop following an impossible dream. Then she unwittingly arrived at the scene of a crime, and her good intentions went out the window when she nearly got herself killed, again, by the same muddy Villan she had dropped from the peace symbol's pocket when she caught him. Her stupidity almost killed another person, and when she saw Katsuki Bakugo's eyes pleading for help, before she realised what she was doing, she had already sprinted forward and temporarily blinded the Villan by throwing her backpack full of stuff at him. Needless to say, her rescue attempt was unsuccessful.

She was chewed out by the heroes for her stupidity (nothing new) when the number 1 hero saved the day again, and Kacchan then chased her down to rant at her as he always does (again no surprise) but the real shock was her third encounter with All Might, after he ran away from the reporters.

It was odd even now to see him in his lanky form. Seriously, who expected that the strongest man in the world who was a mass of muscle over two metres tall, capable of generating or stopping natural disasters by moving, was actually a malnourished skeleton with some organs missing? Uncovering it had been just yet another crappy piece of news in a crappy life.

Surprisingly though, it came with an offer. He wanted her to inherit his Quirk. Of all the possible Quirks, she certainly hadn't expected to have One for all on her hands, yet she didn't care. The man she most admired had come to her, with the offer she didn't think anyone would ever make her, giving her what she wanted to hear in her hardest time, after the second worst day of her life.

The world, however, had other plans.

Ten months of hellish training after finally getting a Quirk, she was struck down by a fallen Angel. Under the supervision of All Might, she had completely cleaned up a beach that had been turned into an illegal dump containing literally mountains of rubbish and finished two days ahead of schedule. She received the Quirk but before she could even familiarise herself Yuma Amano appeared. In her naivety Izumi thought it was someone who wanted to be her friend. But when that fallen angel revealed her colours she was stabbed in the stomach, leaving her to suffer in the pool of her own blood.

Fortunately, she was revived by her new mistress Rias Gremory, who apparently found her near death while investigating a series of murders caused by a stray devil and was still unaware of the fallen one's arrival. According to her, she had a sacred gear so powerful that it took all eight pawns to revive her. So to her umpteenth surprise she discovered the existence of the supernatural, which her mentor also knows very well. He wasn't happy at all, in fact he was furious when he found out she was killed, but he was nevertheless relieved that she was still alive and under the protection of the Gremorys. Apparently he is acquainted with Rias's brother very well, but she didn't ask since her new mistress was very uncomfortable when he was mentioned, nor to her mentor because he didn't have the time.

Apparently, the aforementioned brother also called All Might to personally apologise for allowing his little sister to let casualties take the lives of civilians in the territory where she was theoretically supposed to be guarding along with another person.

Shocking revelations aside, the day of the exam had finally arrived! Which, however, she failed miserably, as she tends to do in pretty much everything apparently...

"All this self-pity is getting old, Partner."

Izumi suddenly opens her eyes and sees red. A large red dragon surrounded by flames. She couldn't see his entire figure though. The sea of fire covered the entire underside of his body, she could see part of his torso up, with part of his wings folded over his back.

"Huh?" she replied dumbly, as she surveyed the empty and seemingly endless place where the flames burst forth like waves in a sea, above which she was apparently floating.

"Finally we can talk" hearing the deep voice booming again, stiff as a board, the freckled girl lifts her head in an almost robotic manner towards Ddraig "No need to be so scared little one, I won't eat you...not that I can anyway, even if I wanted to"

The dragon's words puzzled her.

"Am I dreaming or hallucinating? Were the wounds really that bad?" the recently reincarnated devil asks distractedly.

"Yes and no" replies the dragon almost amused "We are talking in the mind space inside the Booster Gear"

"Booster Gear?" asks Izumi, as her vision began to distort "W-what's going on?!"

"You seem to be waking up" replied the dragon with a frown as their first meeting was interrupted almost immediately "Well, we'll continue our talk later, you have visitors now"

Before she could ask for further explanation of what was happening to her, everything goes black.

And then she opens the eyes she didn't know she had closed, groggy and sweating slightly cold.

"Moshi, moshi~"

She turns her head to see a handsome boy calling her name.

---

I watched as Izumi, groggy, stands up and stares at me like a dazzled deer.

"Are you alright?" I ask after a moment, getting no answer "Midoriya? Wake up" I shocked my fingers in front of her eyes a couple of times, snapping her out of her state of trance.

"E-eh? Sorry, I was staring at you!" she bowed her head for a few seconds, increasing my confusion, before she started looking around "How do you know my name though? I'm sure I've never met you...and where are we?"

"In the UA infirmary" I reply after blinking for a moment. Effectively, I hadn't shown him my face before "Besides, we met at Ground Beta a few hours ago actually"

"Huh?"

"You know, the guy with the armour, that was me" at my words her eyes widen.

"HUH?! Really?! You're Sakurajima-kun?!" she asks shocked.

I raise an eyebrow at the exaggerated reaction.

"Does that look so strange?" I ask puzzled and she shakes her head rather animatedly.

"N-no! You're handsome! Err-I mean, I didn't know you looked like that! Wait, that sounds weird, I-"

"I get it, I get it, there's no need for you to get so worked up" I interrupt her anxious rant "Anyway, I used your phone to tell your mother that you were passed out in the nurse's office, I hope you don't mind"

Unlocking it is incredibly easy when you have an AI doing the work if you don't feel like doing it. Not that I couldn't have done it without it anyway. I was just annoyed that her phone kept buzzing like a vibrator, so I did it.

"A-ah..." my statement seemed to make her incredibly uncomfortable.

"You can rest assured, I didn't look at any messages or apps you use. I unblocked it to contact your mother after the 40th missed call to give her my number, since using yours without asking would have been rude...though I did for a few seconds. Then again, she was in a panic since she hadn't received any response from you at the end of the exam as you had promised her,' I finally say, thinking back to the fact that indeed, I used Izumi's phone and to her I'm a stranger, 'She almost had a heart attack when she heard my voice. She thought I kidnapped you or something."

She giggles nervously at this.

" Y-yeah, that sounds just like Okaa-san..." she admits, before her stomach rumbles loudly. She blushes heavily as she rubs her stomach with no small amount of discomfort.

This must be the side effect of Recovery Girl's Quirk.

"I'll go get you something to eat. Do you have any preferences?" I ask as I get up from the chair beside the cot.

She fidgets again.

"N-no need! I-can-"

"It would be best to do a checkup before anything else considering the condition I found you in. Just to make sure there's nothing out of place," an elderly voice interrupts us. We turn to look at the nurse in question "So young man, go ahead and get something for Midoriya-chan while I check her. Lunch Rush is still in the canteen as it's not uncommon for someone to get hurt during an exam and need a rest in the infirmary and a snack to get their strength back before going home"

I bring my gaze back to the uncomfortable girl, who seems really conflicted about what to do.

"Anything in particular?" I ask again.

"K-katsudon, p-please..."

"Alright, I'll be back in a bit" with that I walk out and leave the girl with the older nurse.

Honestly I wasn't too worried about Izumi's health, since we're at UA and with Recovery Girl keeping an eye on the patients I was sure she would be perfectly fine by evening at the latest. I planned to stay because of her DNA. I had spent all afternoon with my enhanced vision analysing her and discovered that something external had changed her. In fact, it's still mutating. It happened twice, both two days ago and they operate as two separate parts. In Izumi's DNA there was the Plus Alpha element that makes a Quirk develop, but not enough to cause a mutation. In her case, it was more like a few strings of DNA that in the whole structure changed absolutely nothing despite its presence, which is strange, never the less, with Quirks some things in genetics have been completely twisted and even now some things remain unexplained.

I speak of it in the past tense because it was devoured by an external agent. Something that, judging by today's practical test, was definitely One for all. It entered her body, consumed the Plus Alpha element and bound itself to her DNA, changing her genetic code. In fact it's currently undertaking this as well, but I've noticed that a second external agent has entered the scene, eight of them to be exact, who are doing something similar. It doesn't seem... harmful, but I didn't recognise the foreign DNA after comparing it with all kinds of creatures and mutations known since the Quirk developed, and I found utterly nothing. The next thing I know is that it was inserted later and created strings of its own that bonded with the ones that were already there, altering others as they joined. Again, the alteration is around 36% of its structure, and it did slow down its invasion to modify itself and readapt to the foreign DNA.

It was both fascinating and extremely disturbing to watch. I have seen many viruses and Quirks affecting human bodies and mutating them in the last 5 years or so, but never in the way those two did. There are however... flaws in the second foreign agent. There are traits it failed to influence, both within One for all and in Izumi's own DNA, but even those I couldn't link back to anything I've ever seen before. Maybe, and it's a very big maybe, she is remotely related to Ryukyu since her Quirk has similar small DNA snippets, but beyond that no clue.

Also, while she was unconscious, I had the impression that I saw her left hand flash green a couple of times. I truly don't know what I saw though. I'm sure it's not an alien parasite like the ones in Kiseiju, otherwise I would have noticed immediately if something was trying to devour her from the inside and I'm... 98% sure it shouldn't be flashing the way it did before.

I do wonder how those changes in DNA will affect her however?

Before I realized it, I made it to the large, rather empty cafeteria. There were a few groups of teenagers here and there who were eating and just as few adults, probably from the faculty who were chatting at the tables. Normal I guess, the sun had been setting for a while and it was going to get dark soon.

I went to the till to place my order, and was confronted by a skinny man.

"All Might...?" I wondered in a low voice, seeing a familiar skeleton.

"WHERE?!" the aforementioned screams in shock as he turns around, spewing a geyser of blood.

"Woah?!"I shifted to avoid being soiled 'Shit, he heard me!'

In the distance, a caretaker screams as he pulls out his hair as blood soils the spotless floor left by the spray.

Lunch Rush who was at the till with All Might, stiffened with the takeaway lunch in his hand, probably about to hand it to her.

Just awesome. Me and my fucking habit of talking outloud.

"You've got the wrong guy, I'm not All Might" Toshinori says quickly, completely ignoring that the amount of blood he spat would have killed a normal person by blood loss.

"...Yeah, I can see that" I reply after a moment, bringing my attention from the drop of blood on the floor to the hero pro.

He narrows his gaze though, unconvinced by my words.

"Really?" he insists, staring into my eyes "Because you don't seem convinced at all."

'think fast think fast think-' then again, how do you fool someone someone like him? Simple, either you're All For One or you can, and I couldn't. This person had seen all sorts of shit in his almost forty years in the business, there was no way I could lie to him and get away clean, despite his good-natured personality. So I opted to take advantage of the situation "Well, actually I know you're him because of these" I whisper taking out one of my contact lenses and showing it to him.

I eventually learned one thing while studying structural analysis and reinforcement, my eyes glow whenever I use prana. Sooner or later such a thing might attract attention hence I created the lenses in order to cover it up.

"...contact lenses?"

"Contact lenses customised and gauged to me, attached to my armour and AI. Thanks to them, I can see the information I require. They have night vision, thermal and X-ray built in-" which technically isn't a lie. I have a set of contact lenses for each function mentioned above and patented by me. I usually make them at the request of special forces or pro heroes, but since I don't advertise myself few people know about them, so my main customers are from special forces, Underground heroes or people with special Quirks who need them "That's why I recognised you" I say putting it back in my eye "last year I saw you in action, and as I was scanning you from afar to fully understand what your Quirk was, I noticed that you were missing both a lung and your stomach. My AI indicated to me that your DNA was a 100% match, so it took me by surprise."

He stares at me intently while I try to look as plain as possible putting the lens back on. Even Lunch Rush looks baffled now. After a few seconds, All Might turns around, lays some money on the counter and picks up the lunch bag.

"I can't believe two teenagers discovered my identity in less than a year when no one has managed it for a lifetime" he grumbles in frustration "Come with me, we need to talk"

I nodded mechanically as I followed the skeleton.

Honestly, the silence while walking or in the corridors was uncomfortable so I decided to break the ice at some point.

"So why are we going to the infirmary? Do you want to check on Midoriya?" I ask, prompting him to stop.

"What makes you think that?" he inquires defensively.

"Besides the fact that you didn't deny it, you act like you've known her for a while" I add, eliciting surprise in his eyes when I pointed out his mistake "Same reason. I analysed her DNA since her strength reminded me of yours, and your plus alpha gene is attached to her DNA. She inherited it from you, so I thought you wanted to control your daughter."

Which is good for me. This crazy situation that I thought I wasn't ready enough for after years of preparation is saving me a lot of time and shit.

He blinks, taken a little aback by my words.

"She's not my daughter" he says after a moment, confused by how I'd come to that conclusion, and maybe the rest "I...look, I'll give you some minimal context once we get to Midoriya-shojo, so let's wait for that conversation"

"I see..."

The walk to the infirmary continued for in the same silence, though more tense than before. I could feel hero number 1 giving me furtive glances when he thought I wasn't looking, but I wasn't bothered and continued to kill those uncomfortable minutes on the phone, checking random posts on Twitter or Facebook threads of artists I follow

After almost 10 minutes we arrived at our destination.

"Ah, before I forget, what should I call you?" I ask causing him to raise an eyebrow as he was about to knock.

"What do you mean?" he asks puzzled.

"I can't call you 'All Might' in this form, especially if there are other people, right? So what should I call you if I meet you like this and we hypothetically talk?" I clarify the question.

He seems to want to answer one way, but he thinks about it for a moment first, probably rethinking the mistake of not carefully planning the words to use earlier.

"My real name is Yagi Toshinori" and with that he knocks on the door.

Of course All Might is really weird out of character, especially in presence.

" E-enter" Izumi's voice gives the okay to step inside and that's what we do.

She is now wearing her gakuin uniform, with a skirt instead of trousers and long black stockings. Her shape is quite...visible under the uniform. I'm beginning to wonder what size she wears now. Does she even look like a D? Gosh, I have yet to adjust to the gender change, and it's weird to make these type of thoughts of someone who's supposed to be Izuku.

I noticed her iconic semi-open yellow backpack. Had she just finished changing?

"Sakurajima-kun? And... Emh..." she froze, looking at All Might who sighed heavily.

"He found out my identity" he 'reassures' her, causing her to freeze though.

"Ah..." the girl simply says, not knowing how to respond.

There is a slight awkward silence as the two look at each other. I clear my throat to jolt the two.

"Right, I brought you lunch. It's Katsudon" says All Might handing the bento to the girl whose mouth was watering at the mention of it.

She practically snatched the bento out of his hand and started devouring the pork chops at record speed while sitting on the cot, leaving the number 1 hero somewhat baffled, who after the initial surprise chuckles good-naturedly as he shakes his head.

"So, speaking of explanations, what did you have to tell me?" I say drawing the blond's attention to me.

"I wanted to ask you not to post anything on social media about what you just found out."

Ah, he wants to give me that speech.

"Ignoring the fact that I've known for over a year, what idiot would do that?" I ask with a raised eyebrow, was about to answer but I held up a hand "That was rhetorical. I completely understand the chaos that would spread if someone hypothetically uploaded something about it, believe me."

Hearing this, Izumi who had somehow already finished her bento, started to pay attention.

...Shonen stomach logic?

"Um...well. Honestly, I thought I had to give you a talk about responsibility to convince you" All Might admitted a bit awkwardly, massaging his neck, displaced by how quickly the conversation about his injury ended.

"I'm young, not stupid. I'd end up at the centre of a media shitstorm that would never end if they actively start trying to kill you for what I said. Not to mention I don't really have a reason to spread the word" I reply impassively.

"Usually most people would upload anything that could make them famous that relates back to me"

"Most of society is made up of idiots who hail you for just breathing, what do you expect?"

There are an alarming amount of morons around. Not that it is wrong to praise All Might for the titanic work he has done so far of course, but too many have taken this fanaticism to the extreme.

Although I disagree with his view of responsibility as a 'symbol'.

"It's not as bad as it sounds" the blond defends them uneasy. I watched him stiffen uncomfortably when I showed how much I was not of the same opinion.

'Do you remember the clothes you were wearing during the incident with the muddy Villan? When you were seen in civilian clothes in your hero form? The little shop you bought them from in less than a year has become one of Japan's best-selling brands,' he shrilled as my tone grew more accusatory, 'From a remote shop in the arse-end of the world to one of the top 20 style industries last year. And you're trying to tell me that in this society there aren't people who hail you for a sneeze, and kiss the ground where the-"

"I get it, I get it! Yes, I know there are too many rabid fans, but it's not like I can really do anything about it!" he defends himself "There are many types of people with many different characters, for better or worse, who take things to excess"

"...I understand that. Anyway, about your Quirk by the way?" this one made Izumi stiffen, while Toshinori suddenly became stoic "Seeing Izumi use it, even if only for a brief moment, I more or less realised how the physical enhancement works, but your values are... dropping?" I add a little confused from the sight of it.

Toshinori's body modifications are more ingrained and stable than Izumi's since he had it for longer, this I can see with the enhanced vision, but... something's missing. I know that the core of One for All is now inside the girl, still under development, but now that I have All Might in front of me I don't understand why it feels that way. It should be biologically impossible. Ofa has modified his body to make it capable of absorbing energy and using it to empower himself into an ideal form, if possible. It's like seeing a car without a key. Or a running engine missing key parts like pistons. None of this should be possible. Without analysing and testing its DNA with proper equipment I can't determine anything, only interpret what I see, but does the problem only include the core? Does the Quirk send all its passively collected energy to it, so once that is removed the modifications made by the Quirk stop working as the source feeding it is missing? If that were the case, then shouldn't All Might have already lost his powers? If his body still has them he will slowly weaken, to what then, his health? Or something else? Maybe the Quirk was splitting the incoming power and leaving a part in the host's body? Is that why Izuku felt weaker than All Might when she was using 100%?

If that was the case, then it would explain why even though he lacks the core, there's still residual power ofa left in his body.

I pause for a moment from my train of thought once I sense the silence lingering in the room.

"Hold it, what is it with people finding out my secrets and mumbling? Is there a correlation, or is someone messing around with me?" an annoyed All Might asks, as Izumi stares at me with a mixed expression of confusion, mild amusement, and a bit of understanding.

"Shit, I did it again?" I ask trying to suppress the panic that was emerging. I really have to be careful when I think this deeply.

"All I understood was that you were freaking out because something in my Quirk-altered body wasn't working, something about Midoriya-shojo being 100% weaker than me, I believe, and you mentioned a core a few times, but otherwise you were talking too fast and low to be understood" the blond announces annoyed "You...what exactly did you understand from what you saw?"

The million dollar question. One which, depending on the answer, could allow me to influence the protagonist's growth and speed it up. This is an opportunity I dare not waste.

Making Izumi as strong as possible to face the liberation front later is my main goal, the reason I'm interacting with her is pretty simple. I want to try to avoid a butterfly effect or at least as late as possible. I will cause an effect in this world by existing, so better to do it in a way that works in my favour rather than risk messing something up disastrously without realising it. If I can destroy the Villan league before or during Kamino by eliminating the core members, and possibly killing All for One, most of the problems of the following years will disappear. In the worst case scenario, things would fly during the first major battle against Shigaraki Tomura's paranormal army, without stretching the more problematic events too far.

"Her Quirk transforms the accumulated kinetic energy and manifests it in the form of physical enhancement, however since she cannot yet control the output, the excess energy destroys her body and she is unable to use it properly" the two look at me as I broadly explain what I realised from looking at Izumi "However, it is strange. Her body contains too much energy to have been stored, ideally, for just over a decade, unless hers is a mutant/emitter hybrid Quirk. I can't say without a detailed analysis, but in that case the accumulation would have started much earlier, probably even before her actual birth, once the quirk factor in the fetus was developed enough to function. Yet even so, I'm not sure how the quirk accumulates energy and how quickly is it done. And here comes my biggest concern: Why are her body and quirk so out of sync? It's impossible that even the most inept pediatrician could have managed to miss such a odd and unique mutation as Midoriya's, besides it still doesn't explain how she wasn't helped by proper facilities beforehand. I also don't understand how after changing from a paediatrician to a general practitioner no one realised anything. With that level of power and danger, her parents could have applied to the state for professional help. Perhaps there would have even been schools or pro-heroes better equipped and specialised in such cases, like the UA".

My two interlocutors were starting to panic as I began to list the oddities with Izumi's situation, although the girl's gaze became sadder when I mentioned her parents. Did something happen to her father? From what I remember he never appeared 'From the way she presented herself at the exam she has a lot of anxiety and social problems that she shouldn't have if she had received the right help, and I can tell that her lack of control doesn't stem from laziness, because otherwise she wouldn't have thrown herself at Pointer Zero to save Uraraka and the other injured people. In fact, there are too many inconsistencies even with the few things I know about her to think of her situation as 'normal'"

"W-w-what do you mean..." stammered Izumi, now flustered by how much like I was putting the pieces together about her overall situation.

"Isn't that a bit much for an initial analysis!" asks shocked All Might sputtering, not expecting me to digress to the point of pointing out the holes in a possible cover story they had prepared.

"Nah, I've been working on Quirks and support equipment for years. Finding things that the vast majority of people wouldn't notice is my job" I reply, shrugging my shoulders from the chair I had made myself comfortable in once the discussion began.

The two look at me strangely now.

"You work? What about school?" the blond addresses me skeptically.

"Engineering degree with a master's in computer science at 10...nine and a half actually, but there we are. The last seven years or so I've spent working hard to build the Astrey" I reply casually, shocking the two again.

"L-laureate?! H-have you got an IQ-boosting Quirk or something?!" the peace symbol's pupil asks shocked.

"Frankly no I don't have one" I reply calmly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

This hits the two of them particularly hard. On one side is the man who had gone from a random guy in one of humanity's ugliest times to the symbol of peace; while on the other is the girl who had always dreamed of becoming a heroine but the world always turned against her because she didn't have a Quirk, and her only luck in a life of bullying and loneliness, was the person who had previously destroyed her dreams offered a chance that had always been denied to her.

Finally, the last geek in the room, me, who unlike the two of them achieved the goal of getting into UA on my own, with no help from other people and no Deus ex machina (One for All is a big dose of luck that is neither in heaven nor on earth). Of course with my previous life experience and my magecraft I was able to make huge strides in my studies. But come on, how can one compare what I possess to a broken Quirk like that? Everything would look weak in comparison, the two sides are too unbalanced.

"You can laugh if you want, I'm used to it" I say with a rather self-deprecating smile as I joke about it.

It wouldn't be strange if at least one of them thought I was making it up, or pulling their leg.

I can actually prove that what All Might said on that rooftop to the girl was not impossible. The fact that I scored 97 on the practical exam not counting the rescue ones I think will put me rightfully in the class of heroes, I could probably even be at the top of the leaderboard if Bakugo was the 'best' as in Canon.

Alright I'm aware that I've been over it a while ago but I still have an ounce of jealousy left towards everyone who has a Quirk unlike me. Perhaps being 'normal' in a world full of outliers gnawed at me more than I wanted to admit. Once it wouldn't have mattered to me, after all remaining a mere human wasn't a problem but death completely changed the perspective of many things. Being just a footnote was one of them, and I didn't want to be one again in this life.

The reason I am trying to go to UA is anything but altruistic. Part of me wanted to laugh in the face of all those who mocked me for trying to become something, who always discredited me for being different, for being... myself. A lot has changed but I couldn't turn a blind eye anymore.

Call me childish, but I couldn't ignore everything like I did in my previous life. Maybe it's because I had realised how easily and casually death could happen, or maybe it's for a less philosophical and more silly reason, but I wasn't really interested in understanding an impulse I had had from my rebirth.

"N-nothing at all!" she almost screams making me jerk from the high volume "That's amazing! Even without a Quirk you did so well that you managed to get through on your own strength! I on the other hand..."

"Midoriya-shojo..." All Might murmurs seeing the younger girl's conflicted gaze.

"All Might...do you think-"

"I think it's a good idea to tell him everything and allow him to help her" we all jerk at Nezu's sudden appearance.

"P-president?!" calls All Might spitting blood in surprise.

"Am I a dog, a mouse or a bear? More importantly, I'm the headmaster!" the animal mutated from a Quirk cheerfully introduces himself with his iconic introduction "I had come looking for you because you're late for the meeting, but since my instincts told me something interesting was going on I came to get you myself, and lo and behold? I discover that a new student has figured out from a few glances how a Quirk that has been a mystery for more than a century works, isn't that great?" he asks cheerfully as he enters the room.

New student? that means I've officially passed! While not a surprise given my score and the absence of laws that prevented me from getting in, I didn't expect him to say it so openly... Honestly, I should have checked the laws more carefully after the first rejection, not just the ones concerning the use of quirks to realise something was wrong. It was an embarrassing mistake when I first noticed it last year.

I was a little confused though, by Nezu's strange look and slightly devious smirk. He knows more than he wants to say but for some reason he doesn't seem intent on compromising my situation.

"..." Toshinori couldn't really retort to that statement, since what he knows of is only speculation from past users who didn't understand him.

It was known by everyone except Izumi, I think.

"You don't have to tell me everything since I already know the basics of how her Quirk works, but as a support engineer, seeing so much wasted potential pisses me off" I admit making Izumi giggle uncomfortably "With a properly set up training area and a well equipped lab, or at least the necessary materials I can teach her how to control herself without breaking her bones like she did this morning"

The heir ofa looks at me surprised and definitely eager to start training apparently, but looks first at the blond for confirmation, who indecisively glances at Nezu who replies curtly with a shrug and a relaxed smile.

The blond sighs.

"Good. I have some personal training areas we could use and a lot of funds left over despite giving almost everything I earn to charity, so we might as well try it out and see how it goes," he states with a heavy sigh, probably tired from the last half hour of surprises, though I think he's used to it.

"Don't worry too much All Might, Sakurajima-kun is one of the best in the business. Many of the best pro heroes go to him for costumes and equipment most of the time,' Nezu reassures him. Then his smile turns a tad more sadistic, almost maniacal, sending a shiver to us "I can't wait to see what he'll build this time" then his expression returns to normal "Now though, I'd say let's go to the meeting and you two go home. It's getting dark, so better leave now before you miss the next trains"

Izumi and I looked outside and noticed that indeed, the red sky was darkening further as evening fell.

I turned to Izumi.

"Do you want me to drive you home?" I volunteer since, despite the lunch just now and the fact that she had slept all afternoon, she still looks noticeably tired. And that's a good way to leave a good impression.

"Um...but aren't you going to be late like this?"

"My armour can fly remember? I'll get home sooner by flying than by train, and I'm licensed to use it in public spaces, so I'm up to standard. You, on the other hand, look like you're about to collapse again" I point out to her, her posture looking decidedly sluggish.

"Is-is it that obvious?" she asks with a rather forced and embarrassed smile.

"Yes" I reply without blinking.

She is stammering less. Has the revelation that I am without Quirk put her at ease with me, or is she simply too tired to be nervous?

"Well, have a safe journey then" Nezu tells us "Besides Sakurajima-kun, the school will provide you with the materials you need, so come back in two days to inspect your new workstation."

And with that we all went on our way.

The journey back was rather uneventful, although someone was in our heels the whole time, mostly eyeing me, but glancing at Izumi from time to time. I had no idea who it could be. I held my battle suit ready in case there was an attack on us in a clearer area, but it didn't, instead they merely watched us.

Izumi was as exhausted as I imagined and once we were seated in our seats on the train she collapsed and fell asleep, using my shoulder as a pillow. I let her rest until the end of the journey given that ours was the last stop, then from there we went straight to her house. Once near the entrance Izumi realised that in her haste this morning she had forgotten her keys inside, so she opted to ring the bell.

However, neither of us expected who would open the door.

Pointed ash-blond hair and red eyes, in her thirties but looking younger, with a very fit body. She wears a white T-shirt, a purple-purple jacket and a black skirt that leaves her legs uncovered from just below mid-thigh.

She is Katsuki Bakugo's mother, Mitsuki.

"B-bakugugo-san?!" squeaks Izumi in surprise, not expecting a visit from her apparently.

Neither did I, since it wasn't even mentioned originally. Did it happen off-screen? I know the story doesn't tell day to day, but Izuku and Bakugo seemed pretty much like they hadn't spoken or seen each other (except at school) until their admission to UA was announced from the hints given. Another change or am I somehow in the middle?

"OH! Izumi-chan, welcome back! And look how beautiful you've gotten! It's been forever since I last saw you," the blonde hugs the surprised teenager wistfully"And call me oba-san, 'Bakugo-san' makes me feel old!"

"Because you're old, baba!" an angry voice screams from what I assume is coming from the hall, which I immediately link back to the firecracker in class 1-A.

"K-katsuki, that was rude..." that I guess is Masaru?

"You shut up, you fucking brat!" yells Mitsuki equally enraged, completely changing her attitude from just a few seconds ago "And honey, if you're going to yell at our moron son, do it fucking decisively!"

I saw Izumi sweat slightly at the scene. She's probably familiar with Mitsuki's outbursts and her fights with Katsuki. What's the Bakugo family doing here anyway?

"Is Masaru-oji-san here too?" the green-haired girl asks surprised.

"Yes. Your mother had a panic attack when you weren't answering the phone and thought you were kidnapped and wouldn't come back" states the now calm woman again. Then her gaze falls on me "Who is he? Your boyfriend?" she asks as her eyes shine curiously.

"Fueh?!" she however ends up panicking.

"Oi Inko, Izumi-chan brought her boyfriend home!" after Mitsuki's shout, there were several broken dishes and splashes, followed by heavy footsteps running in our direction.

Midoriya Inko practically threw herself towards the door, almost breaking through the walls of the house to grab her daughter's shoulders, her eyes watery.

"I-I-I-Izu! Since when do you have a boyfriend?! Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" the green-haired woman screams in shock.

I could have made jokes to add to her embarrassment like 'Aaw, you haven't told her about me yet?" or something like that, but seeing how she was being shaken by her mother to the point of nausea, I decided to refrain from doing so. A pity.

'Maybe if you stopped shaking her she could talk without risking biting her tongue,' I remark to her.

When FINALLY Inko has finally calmed down.

"Sorry about the rant earlier, Mitsuki's prank sent me over the edge" says the older Midoriya "Can I offer you some tea?"

"I'd love to, but I should get home, it's almost dinner time" I politely decline the offer.

Now we're all sitting at the table, although the grumpy porcupine wanted to be anywhere but here, he was giving Izumi and me angry glances.

"Come on, you can stay a little longer can't you? We're curious to know how you and Izumi-chan met" Mitsuki insists with a smile a little too sweet for my taste.

Was she trying to intimidate me? Because I'm not impressed at all, but then again, it's not like I had much to do back home and cook for Benkei. The plans for Izumi's support equipment had been made and modified over the years, since I was already intent on meddling in the life of her male counterpart.

I had sent the list of materials to Nezu while I was on the train. Somehow he got my phone number, so I wrote to him there.

"Well, I'll have to call my grandfather and tell him to arrange something for dinner then," I say getting up.

"Don't worry, we're not going to keep you long, I'm sure he'll understand if you're slightly late" Inko says, but I shake my head.

"Unfortunately, he is very pushy about schedules. I usually do the cooking because he's bad in the kitchen, but I also have to do the grocery shopping, so I have to inform him that he has to fend for himself if he wants to eat at 7pm sharp" I turn away for a moment and go into the hallway for some privacy.

I unlock the phone and start the voice call. It rang three times before it was answered.

"Sakurajima estate, who is this?"

"Yo jii-san" I reply "I'll be back later than usual today, so you'll have to order takeout or go to that Ramen stall you love."

"Mn? Didn't you keep yourself free from any exam commitments? Have you already accepted a new request?" he asks with a hint of curiosity in his stoic voice.

"No, I'm at a friend's house. Her mother wants to meet me."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The silence slowly grew to bug me.

"Why are you so silent? Are you still there?" I ask irritated.

"No brat, I just didn't expect you to have friends, or be interested in a girl" he admits still stunned.

My eyebrow twitches.

"What exactly are you implying old man?"

"You never showed any interest in either boys or girls, so I started to think you were asexual at some point...or that you had fallen in love with one of those suits of armour of yours" he admits, forcing me to eye the phone incredulously. Was that what shocked him! "Your grandmother often complained that she would never see any grandchildren from you"

"...Go dig yourself up somewhere" I replied coolly hanging up.

I put the phone back in my pocket and returned to the room, where the adults were talking, with Izumi very uncomfortable with the way Katsuki keeps glaring at her.

I sat back down, and the two women's attention returned to me.

"So...how did you two meet?" asks Mitsuki suddenly, very curious.

Are we having that conversation now? Mitsuki seems just the type to threaten her niece's boyfriend who may or may not have taken her chastity.

"Officially at Ground Beta during the entrance exam. Some idiot with glasses was harassing her and I pretty much told him to fuck off while I took her to talk to a friend of hers in peace," I reply indifferently, making the blonde's eyes twinkle slightly with appreciation and approval. Inko and Masaru looked at me with a frown at my scurrilous expression.

"Was that your first interaction? What did you do after that?" she continued to ask in the same tone, making everyone but me a little uncomfortable.

"Mm...I kept her from smashing to the ground from a deadly height" I reply as if it's the most normal thing in the world.

"W-WHAT?!" screams the shocked blonde.

"I-I-IZUMI?!" stutters the distraught plump woman, starting whimpering and shaking on the spot again as her daughter panicked.

"D-did you have to say that Sakurajima-kun?!" asked Izumi as her mother threw herself at her for a bone-crushing hug, while two large jets of tears started from her eyes and hit the ceiling "Wait Okaa-san, don't cry! No, you'll flood the flat!"

When Inko finally calmed down, for the second time...

Once she had stopped crying, passed out from dehydration, wiped the floor and got her back on her feet, the discussion continued.

I explained how the events of the entrance exam went, but given how sceptical everyone was, I brought in the Astrey, which was parked outside the door, to show the recorded footage taken during the meeting. Prophet makes recordings of what the armour sees every time it is activated, just in case.

Everyone was very surprised to see the white, black and red Gundam move autonomously as Iron Man's armour would do, but they were much more surprised to see Izumi make a leap of almost 80 metres and hit a 65-high robot with a fairly powerful punch on the way up, sending it flying for several hundred metres.

"...holy shit, that was a punch" Mitsuki said after regaining her voice, shortly after finishing watching the projection of events from my armour.

"But...how is that possible?" asked Inko confused, calm yet stunned, seeing her daughter's impossible feat at the exam "we saw the x-rays, the joint of her foot-"

"The paediatrician who examined her was incompetent" I reply unamused "In 45% of cases of a mutated Quirk, the joint is present, and the percentage is even higher if the Quirk grants extra body parts or mutations of other types, it was scientifically proven years ago. In Izumi's case, I got curious and analysed her DNA after seeing her in action. Apparently she is a mutant/emitter hybrid that has been active since birth, perhaps even in the last few months before giving birth. Her Quirk accumulates kinetic energy and converts it into physical enhancement, however her body was not strong enough to withstand the recoil, so it has remained dormant until now. Not knowing this, she never trained her body to use it, so she was never able to activate it. Without any real training, she has no idea how to use it, so during the examination, when she unconsciously activated it, her limbs practically exploded from the inside." With the phone, I show the x-ray image of the girl's damaged limbs, to show how her bones had broken, causing her limbs to bend in random directions, and all the muscle fibres torn by the power of the One for All.

The parents seemed convinced, definitely disturbed by what they were seeing.

Even Katsuki wasn't barking at me because according to him I'm talking bullshit. Though I suppose it's because I was the one who told him about Quirk instead of Izumi, and I did it in a pretty believable way by showing videos of what happened too. Part of the reason he's so quiet could also be because there are adults present, especially Inko. From Izumi and Mitsuki's interaction, the two seem to be friends even though they haven't seen each other in a long time, plus the children of the two families were childhood friends, so Katsuki may have had a similar relationship with Inko at some point before he moved away and became the rabid dog he is now.

The fact that he recognises this does not mean that he accepts it, let's be clear. I'm sure that even if he doesn't go with his initial 'you fooled me all along' bullshit, in a couple of days he'll still be pissed off that Izumi has a Quirk that as far as raw power goes, currently outclasses his in every possible way. Not to mention when he finds out that not only has she passed the exam, but they're also in the same class...

So, it's not 'if' but 'when' he will start acting like his usual self.

"I...understand, but...how will she learn if she makes a mistake and...that happens?" Inko asks in a trembling voice, unable to take her eyes off her daughter's broken body.

"Principal Nezu allowed me to use the UA's training grounds to teach him how to control his quirk," I reassure her, earning the sceptical looks from everyone but Izumi.

"You? Aren't you a little...young, to help with this problem?" asks Masaru puzzled, trying not to insult me.

I know he wasn't trying to, but my eyebrow twitches at his question anyway.

"With all due respect despite not looking like it, I graduated with honours from Tokyo University in engineering, with a master's degree in computer engineering" I reply, giving him a pointed look "Not many people know this if they're not in the industry, but I've spent the last five years building costumes and support items for pro heroes and sidekicks. Some of my most notable clients are Best Jeanist, Mirko and Ryukyu; to name a few in the top 10"

After the Sky Egg incident, Best Jeanist had learned from Iida Tensei that I had renewed the costumes of all his interns and even his armour a few years earlier, and he had been my customer ever since. Intrigued, he came to me with several requests, either super-strong fibre cables that he could manipulate, or equipment for his helpers. Mirko came to me because her boots kept breaking due to prolonged use, and she did very little and very poor maintenance since she works alone and has only a secretary. Ryukyu, on the other hand, was my second customer, shortly after Tensei, and she came to me because she had some problems with both her costume and her normal customised clothes. They were a bit too constricting for her when she transformed into a dragon, and didn't allow much freedom to move her wings properly. It was around the time she opened her own agency.

They are currently still my clients, but in the last year to prepare for Astrey I could only accept urgent requests, whether for life-or-death situations on occasion, or those of the highest-ranking heroes since they are the ones with the most patrols and responsibilities. Sure, I still took requests from underground heroes or those lower down, but with much less frequency unless they were, in fact, priority for raids.

Here, however, no one seemed to believe me, even Izumi was sceptical, despite having heard about me from Nezu.

So an awkward silence descended, broken by Katsuki's mockery.

"In three days I'm going to the UA to prepare things to prevent her from tearing herself apart" I inform Inko and, by extension, my new temporary pupil" I'm sure the headmaster will allow you to attend, Midoriya-san."

The mention of UA seems to sour the younger girl's mood so much that it was impossible not to notice.

"Isn't it great Izumi? You have a Quirk, and at your dream school you will learn to control it" her mother tries to cheer her up, to no avail.

"Yes..."

"Are you worried about the exam? Rest assured, after seeing that punch you'll get in for sure!" the blonde encourages her, making her surrogate niece look even more guilty.

"I didn't score a single point on the practical exam though..." she reveals with a bleak expression.

"Typical of an incompetent" scoffs the punk.

He had indeed resisted too much...

Inko and Mitsuki glared at him, although the plump woman was much less aggressive than her mother. Surprisingly, it was Masaru who slapped Katsuki's head though, with a decidedly displeased, even angry expression. Despite the fact that he was growling like an animal, the firecracker kept his beak shut, realising that things were going to get bad for him otherwise.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much" I say, deciding to nip in the bud anything that might distract her from the training she'll have to undergo "As well as bot points, there's also save points and with your stunt you'll have done quite a few of them."

"Hah?"

"Saving points?"

The confused questions from the other two who had participated in the exam but knew nothing about it came as no surprise. After all, while they don't try to keep the existence of that extra score hidden, it's not even publicised. They are not even prepared scenarios in advance to accumulate, they are given randomly by the judges on the spot.

"Although you don't believe me, I have also created costumes for former students or alumni currently attending UA. I've been told by several sources that save points are given by the examiners when they see people who, like Izumi, selflessly help other contestants in need when they're in trouble. The Zero Pointer is partly for that" everyone blinked like owls, somewhat taken aback by the statement "when students got buried by rubble, you were the only one who instead of running away rushed to help them and prevent the Zero Pointer from accidentally crushing them, even though in your case you had everything to lose...yet you might have taken a penalty on that score, counting that you would have died from the fall if someone hadn't caught you on the fly"

"D-do you think she will pass?!" asks Inko immediately hopeful, and I nod, knowing that she will surely be admitted.

"Considering the number of available fields in the practical test, the amount of bots present per field, and the number of students present, she should accumulate 35 to 40 points to get into the 36 available slots of the hero classes" even knowing this, I can neither confirm nor deny since something else might change, or it is and I don't know "I'm pretty sure she'll pass, but if she doesn't get admitted to the hero class with the score she got, she'll be placed in another class from which she can later move on to the hero class if she learns how to use her Quirk. The UA usually has events such as the sports festival or exams to consider a possible transfer."

"Really? That's good news, aren't you happy Izumi-chan?" asked Mitsuki happily, relieved to hear her surrogate niece with a smile, trying to be reassuring.

The girl in question stared at me relieved, although her gaze is a bit blank, and after a while she nodded.

"What are the chances of that happening?" the ashen blond asked gruffly with a frown.

I didn't give it much away, I guess, but Katsuki was starting to wear my patience down. Not only did he not want to be here and wasn't even trying to hide it so as not to make Izumi uncomfortable, but he was trying those few times he did deign to speak with the specific intent of subtly taunting and mocking her. And this was really starting to annoy me.

"In her case? Very high. The most glaring example of this is Togata Mirio, though there are many others" I reply with a shrug, dismissing his question "He failed the entrance exam, but given his save points he was placed in the general studies as a reserve, and after the end-of-year exam, given his progress in using his quirk he was placed in the hero class. His Quirk doesn't give him any insane strength or create massive explosions, in fact it has more cons than pros, but he has mastered it and is currently the strongest student in the school."

My words seem to give some confidence to Izumi, who smiles determinedly, while Katsuki snorts and says no more.

In the end, I was invited to stay for dinner, which I also accepted because that damn stalker is still on the move. The Bakugo also stayed, much to Katsuki's annoyance.

---

After dinner and some more idle chatter, I set off home, but not before making one last diversions.

So I landed on a rooftop where a certain Stalker was observing a little too much for my liking.

I wanted to have a word with that pesky stranger who kept watching us the whole time at the apartment complex, but then I was surprised by who he actually was.

He is a handsome young man with short blond hair, blue eyes and a mole under his left eye. He is not Asian, wearing a UA middle school uniform, which is actually almost the same as his high school uniform, except for the colour of his green tie, the same shade as his trousers, rather than red.

Yes, in this world, the UA also exists as a middle school. It opened just over two years ago actually, and if it really is who I think it is, then the sudden reason for that opening would also make sense.

He resembles the Kiba from DxD, but just in case I'm wrong, while this guy might look like a random bishonen, I definitely spot the same unknown alterations I saw in Izumi's body, and it can't be a coincidence. Although in his case his seems more ingrained and stable for a long time.

"You know, I could report you for stalking, but I don't think the law applies to non-humans" I say from inside my armour.

The young man seems surprised by my words.

"You noticed me then? I thought I was being subtle about it" he admits with an embarrassed smile showing little hostility in appearance.

"You've been following me and Midoriya ever since we left the AU, you kept watching us while until dinner, then you followed me on the way home" I reply unaffected, retracing the path I took "Midoriya didn't notice, but I did. So, I ask again, what are you? I detect a foreign substance in your body that has also infected her, but it doesn't seem harmful apart from the DNA alteration. I don't have a match for any biological life form born on earth or altered by recorded quirks, and neither mutations can be perfectly the same since the plus alpha gene adapts from the host person's DNA, ergo you cannot be human'

He blinks, confused.

"You really don't know?" he asks puzzled.

He is tense, I can see under his skin muscles, joints and the flow in his vessels. He is prepared to attack if necessary. His musculature is denser than that of a human, though the weight is just right for his size.

"I know the mutations you have are not caused by a Quirk, that much is certain" I reply impassively "Bioengineering experiments perhaps? Or serum of some kind?"

"...I think there's been a misunderstanding" the blond announces calmly, in his friendly and polite tone, slightly less tense than before "My name is Kiba Yuuto, I'm a senior at UA Middle School, and I can assure you that I'm not here with bad intentions"

As I imagined, he's just like his dxd counterpart. So don't tell me Izumi is now a devil? What the fuck is going on in this world? How is this possible? Does she have something the devils are interested in or has she been targeted by other factions at the wrong time? Or has she become a devil of her own free will? If she is a servant of Rias I don't think she forced her, but I also don't know if they are the same kind of people as in their world...not to mention if she got One for all before or after being reincarnated? Does All Might know about it? I found eight... items, possibly evil piece, that altered her DNA, so is she a pawn? Does she only have One for All or is a sacred gear involved?

"Stalking is still a crime that makes me wary," I reply impassively, making him wince.

"S-stalking? Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?" he asks caught off guard by my accusation.

"..." he fidgets a little under my gaze and lack of a response.

"Okay yes it may sound strange but I can explain" he says trying to keep a fight from breaking out. I'm not going to fight him anyway if I can help it, so I decide to continue waiting for an explanation "Midoriya-san and I are part of the club on occult research, or ORC for short, at UA. Buchou made a call since she still hadn't shown up at the club after a certain hour, then found out that she was in the infirmary because she got quite hurt in the exam and sent me to check on her, but you had already left."

So the 'UA middle school' was opened because Rias' peerage, and perhaps Sona's, were not old enough to attend high school at UA High when they came to the human world?

"...I might even believe that, if it weren't for the fact that she doesn't attend UA and didn't say anything to me about having club activities in question" I reply flatly, making him chuckle uncomfortably.

"She is an unofficial member, and we had the day off because of the entrance exams. From next year she will actually join the club" Kiba replies without much apology "I followed you because Buchou was worried about Midoriya-san since we don't know you, so she asked me to keep her safe from any danger"

If her master is Rias Gremory, that is something she would do.

"...I'm not really in the mood to instigate a conflict, but if I find out that you're still following us and what you told me is bullshit, I'll tear you apart when I find you again" I seriously warn him. Not 'if' but 'when'. I made a point of emphasising that particular point.

He only nods as I fire up the thrusters and fly away.

Seriously, what the fuck is with these surprises? How did all these encounters happen just by taking the AU entrance exam? Did Musutafu replace Kouh in the DxD storyline? Mha and DxD are the dominant storylines in this world? I really hope not, because the amount of messes that would overwhelm the city and consequently me.

Putting the Astrey back in its charging station/dispenser in the basement of my lab and making sure nothing was out of place, I left to go home it's almost 10pm now.

"I see you handled the conversation with that devil well."

I turned to see Benkei looking at me with his usual historical gaze.

"I'm about to get another information dump aren't I?" I ask rhetorically, knowing it was time for a serious discussion about the old swordsman's somewhat ambiguous past.

"You've come into contact with something you don't know... or rather aren't fully aware of, judging from what I saw and heard on that rooftop, so I'm going to fill in your gaps tonight, that way you won't be caught off guard if the worst happens," he replies as he makes his way to the main hall.

Was he there? How did he conceal himself? How much did he hear? Does he know about the supernatural? Why didn't he tell me anything until now? Does he know that I have been practising thaumaturgy? If so, why has he said nothing and not helped?A whole bunch of questions came to mind as I followed him, and sat across the table from him on a cushion placed on top of the tatami.

He even made himself some tea, so I guess the conversation will go on for a long time.

"You have a lot of questions I guess" he starts after a moment of rather awkward silence "I suppose we should start with the basics"

"No, actually I'd have more questions about breathing styles" I interrupt him before starting.

He raises an eyebrow at this "Really? What do you need to know that I haven't already taught you?"

"What am I really?" I ask seriously. Honestly, I've always wondered. I thought it was related to Kimetsu no yaiba, or at least that those events had already taken place, but as I analysed my body during the use of the breath, I noticed many times that there was...something that didn't quite add up, but I couldn't quite figure out exactly what.

The reactions my body has during the breath are too abnormal! Although with a natural or induced path of evolution it is possible to get to such performances, I shouldn't be able to do it without...a quirk...

"Mnn...I already told you what our ancestors did in the Tashio era, right?"

"Yes, you told me they fought Kibitsugi Muzan, but not much else to explain their origin" should be between 1912 and 1926. I knew the story, but there would obviously be differences in this world, and I wanted to know which ones.

He told me about the demon slayer corp, but I thought it was merely a quote from Kimetsu no Yaiba. A horror story told to children to traumatise them, or something like that. I had never really paid attention to what actually seems to have happened.

"That's because they date back almost 1,000 years before that time, and I've left out the supernatural side of things" he replied seriously. "Kibitsugi Muzan was an artificial demon. A human was experimenting after finding some vampire remains, and accidentally turned him into something between a demon and a vampire, granting him frighteningly powerful abilities" he takes a sip of tea before continuing "One of them was the ability to turn anyone to a demon of his kind, through blood. The demon's strength depended greatly on who was transformed, and this created problems for the Shinto and Yokai factions. Normal exorcists were no match for that monster, while the Yokai were the perfect material to create its army. They were hunted down and turned into puppets under his command with no way to rebel. In the 1,000 years he was alive, he exterminated almost half of their race, leading to the extinction of many clans and Yokai subspecies, including the nekoshou, of which there are only two left at present." As I showed no sign of commotion or questions, he continued, "One day, long ago, a human was born with uncommon abilities, blessed by the goddess Amaterasu. He was so powerful that he could annihilate maou-class beings with ease thanks to his boundless talent with senjutsu and its branches, as well as his incomparable talent with the sword. After his appearance, the Demon Slayer Corp was created with the aim of killing Kibitsugi Muzan. The Yokai to help donated much of their knowledge and techniques to the corp, and with the help of Tsugikuni Yoruiichi, the first demon slayer and our ancestor, the breathing techniques were created"

That's surprising. If Yoruiichi is more powerful than Muzan, how dangerous was that monster in this world? Also, hadn't his wife and child been killed by Muzan? The child somehow survived?! how?! in addition that he is an ancestor?!

"So the breath-"

"They are techniques created to implement senjutsu and touki into the various fighting styles, as well as innate abilities of some Yokai in a few more unique cases" Benkei confirms. "Yoruiichi had such mastery of these techniques that he almost achieved enlightenment. No, I'm sure he could have achieved it and ascended, but he didn't want to. From Amaterasu-sama's accounts and the few texts that describe him, he was a peaceful person who hated any kind of violence. He wielded the sword only because Muzan was such a threat to the world that he could not be ignored."

"So the reason the changes in my body seem so unnatural is because of touki?" I ask puzzled.

"Yes" he confirms as he continues to drink his tea "All the documentation on those techniques were destroyed by the Ubuyashiki family in charge of the body after the fall of Muzan"

"How so?" I inquire confused, as a frown crept across Benkei's usually stoic face.

"They were created and developed to make sure that even the most clueless of users could use touki, and in a very limited way senjutsu" his answer brings me to a halt "No hunter was even close to Yoruiichi's level, however having an army whose strength is drastically higher than average, capable of generating attacks that no one could really defend against certainly played a large part in that decision. After all, the cold war between the factions of the world is still going on, and something like the demon slayer corp without the threat of Muzan could have been the spark to ignite animosities and reignite the actual conflict."

"That...yes, I can see that happening. From what I know, only the Yokai and a few other special cases manage to use senjutsu and its subtypes, even those cases, only a few can master even the most basic proficiency..." I admit rather shocked to learn that all along I've been using touki and senjutsu without knowing it.

How many people have actually mastered it in DxD? First generation Son Wukong and Buddha...I don't think any others have been named. The only ones who can use it well are Koneko, Kuroka, Bikou and almost certainly Yasaka who is the leader of the Yokai, though my knowledge doesn't go that far.

The touki is in many quotes 'easier' to use because a user can unlock it even with extreme training like Sairaorg's, however you still have to have a minimum of compatibility, I think, otherwise half the cast or at least the DxD would have had access to it.

Coming back to the point, why Kiba was so tense made a lot more sense. I don't think he was nervous just because I had found out, but because of Koneko. She is a nekoshou with incredible natural talent in that field. If she's still traumatised, she probably warned Rias that someone dangerous (me) was around, but she didn't come to check on me herself despite being the best psychic in the group because she was terrified. We were in a civilised environment, so Akeno or Rias would have been too conspicuous due to their physical and supernatural characteristics, plus the slightest hint of magic or demonic power would have put me on alert, so by process of elimination the only one left was the Gremory knight. The familiars were also out of the question, for as creatures of a magical nature they would be noticed immediately, even in disguise.

Now, however, another question arises about Muzan. From what I remembered of DxD's Lore, Susano'o before his clash with Yamata-no-Orochi was in the top 10 of the world's strongest beings, and even afterwards he was still monstrously powerful as he is also now one of the trinity, so why didn't he, Amaterasu or Tsukuyomi take care of him directly? Gods (and by extension pantheons) have power boosts based on the believers' faith in them, so considering the backward mentality of the time and how superstitious the Japanese in general were, couldn't they have easily wiped him out?

"Why didn't the deities get rid of it if their followers couldn't?" I ask perplexed.

"Around the human world, there was until recently a barrier erected by the Kamar Taj blocking divine-class beings and the like, erected after the great war to prevent the various factions from destroying the world in their conflicts" I was confused by his answer, which only generated more questions, but before Benkei could explain further I pointed out a small detail.

"Was there? What happened to him?" I ask puzzled.

His gaze darkens.

"After Loki's attack on New York the world realised that we are not alone in this universe, even the supernatural part of it, so by mutual agreement the faction leaders decided to slightly lessen the seal's grip on the world so that the factions could protect their territories on earth from invading attacks, since we know next to nothing about anyone who might attack us again" despite the words that should be nice in theory, the frown he has doesn't appeal to me at all "However, a few months ago the Ancient One was killed"

The Ancient One? The bald woman? Shouldn't she have died a few months after the events of civil war? Was the fact that she's a woman known even before, or was it only made public after her death?

"Who?" I ask playing dumb, just to make sure it was the same figure I knew from the MCU.

"The Ancient One held the role of the 'sorcerer supreme', head of the Kamar Taj, a place where sorcerers, people who have mastered the mystic arts, have been training to protect humans from supernatural threats for several thousand years, long before the great war was interrupted by the cease-fire 10,000 years ago, or the creation of the church. To interdict, it is unrelated to any supernatural faction, so not everyone looks favourably on them, since there is always trouble somewhere when they appear" he specifies at the end. "However, this barrier mainly affects any being with deity traits, but it also attacks any being above a certain power level, like the current Maou. The exceptions to not being affected by it were very few and unfortunately, as fate would have it, Muzan was one of them" he informs me with some basics on the barrier and the Kamar Taj, before continuing "However, the Ancient One was killed by a being from another dimension, one we didn't know. To be more precise, by her followers, and she was in the top 10 of the strongest beings in the world, just so you understand the dangerousness of that being, who didn't even need to take the field to fight. He was fortunately sealed back away from Earth, by the sorcerer the Ancient One was personally training, who then took charge once that disastrous day was over."

So the events of Doctor Strange have already happened...?

"I see..." I say before returning to the previous topic "So they weren't sure they could beat Muzan with the barrier?" I ask sceptically, but he nods with a serious expression.

"The leader of the Yokai faction at that time was powerful enough to stand up to the old Satan, but he was still killed by Muzan" his confirmation made me frown too "Deities, evil or not, play a vital role in making the world work, also keeping its ley lines stable. If one were to be cancelled forever, unless replaced by someone, the sudden imbalance would create disasters in neighbouring places of unknown vastness. Not knowing whether they themselves could be contaminated by Muzan, they could not risk it because otherwise Inner Japan would pay the price. They gave blessings to their followers in the Demon Slayers that served to amplify and maximise the abilities of the breaths used to deal with it, as well as a mineral to create their katanas, nichirin ore, which exploited Muzan's only weakness: sunlight."

Here was another thing that confused me.

"If it was a demon, couldn't it have been exorcised?" I ask puzzled, but he shook his head.

"That was exactly the problem. He didn't have the same weaknesses as any dark creature, so exorcisms and the sacred element were completely useless against him and his offspring" he says rather annoyed at the memory of such a monstrosity on the loose"His only weakness was the sun, so Amaterasu-sama blessed a mineral growing here in Japan with its properties to erase him, though it took too long and an inordinate amount of sacrifice to do so..."

"So once it was defeated..."

"They erased everything related to him, including the material to make nichirin blades, the method of creating swords, the instructions for breathing techniques, the Demon Slayer Corp, and anything related to that nightmare" he confirms "The only things left from that period are the strong alliance between the Shinto and Yokai factions, and little knowledge about the techniques used by our ancestors, still used today by our family and a select few others. Mainly the few remaining descendants of the members who survived the last great battle with Muzan of the Demon Slayer Corp. Not even the great clans of Japan have access to such knowledge."

"I see" I say thoughtfully, briefly going over in my head the information he just gave me. Which led to another question, as well as a fucking migraine. Seriously, how fucked up is this world? "So you knew I was practicing thaumaturgy? Why didn't you ever help me?"

"You have no talent" he replies unceremoniously "I'm not very well versed in the subject, but I've dealt with magicians before, and I can tell you have no talent. Human magic is based on calculations, but they also usually have a magic crest and quality circuits to use, which develop with use and practice. You're good with scientific stuff, but your circuits are barely above average and haven't improved much over the years, besides the fact that you've struggled to learn the basics, when even a common wizard in any magic society would take a few months at most to learn them. Maybe a year if he has no information to work with" I feel his analysis hit me harder than the shinai we use during training "it's an instinctive thing. Even if he doesn't have the knowledge of a book, a magician with some talent would eventually figure out how to use his circuits to achieve the desired results, but that wasn't the case with you. You have mastered them now, but there would have been no point in helping you with something you couldn't improve any further."

Ouch, that hurt more than I wanted to admit. Knowing that I had worked so hard to suck so badly was a blow to my pride.

Nevertheless, he said something that intrigued me. Magic circuits and magic crest are common then? I thought it was just a thing in the nasuverse, but from the way he talks about them they are also present in this dimension, however they also develop here? Then again, in the nasuverse the age of gods was long over and magic had been in decline for centuries now, in most stories I've seen related to the brand. Also, in fairies quantity and quality of circuits are established at birth, they cannot develop and increase as Benkei implied...

As for DxD on the other hand, there wasn't much information about the magic used by humans. I knew that magic was developed from the demonic power of demons that humans were also able to use at some point. Since DxD is based on mythology anyway, from which it takes the basis for the supernatural factions, I think it's mainly thanks to Merlin and Solomon that the general story applies in this world. From what I remember of the novel, with the exception of devil magic, it doesn't matter if it was Norse, fairy or otherwise, everything was based on calculations and magic circles, except for rare very specific cases. There are users like Rossweise who customise their magic circle to achieve certain effects, but even then, it all depends on calculations and what they want to reach.

It is not difficult to see why the Church is against magic, despite internal debates over its use, and how well the systems of the two worlds blend together. Underlying both are numbers and logic.

"...what about senjutsu instead?"

"That...I'm not too sure about that either to be honest" Benkei admits. 'I sensed something when he said that. I'm not sure what, but...I don't know, I got a strange visceral feeling at that admission of his "I taught you the breathing techniques, the kata of the main breathing styles and how to use a sword. With that, you manage to use the most basic skills of senjutsu and touki, such as physical enhancement and expansion of the senses, but considering the almost total lack of progress in the last two years, it could be that you have reached your limit of growth in that area...or your growth has stalled for some reason. Your physique is at the top of the form you can achieve with training, so I think it's more of a psychological block that you must have developed at some point, somehow."

"Just great" I sigh wearily, dropping onto the tatami from a seated position "I've trained my whole life in only two things, but I'm not talented at anything. Is there anything else I need to know about my growing list of failures?" I inquire sarcastically.

Benkei did not react when I let my frustration show, he simply continued to look at me with his usual calm expression, which was now starting to irritate me.

I 'officially' know about the supernatural now, but I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't stay out of it. Being human doesn't necessarily mean being weak, and in the Novel it was amply shown with Vasco Strada kicking Arhtur and Bikou's asses in a dozen different ways as he took them on at the same time. As much as it pains me to say it, so does that parody who call themselves 'heroes' that is Cao Cao and his lackeys. Unlike them though, not having broken sacred gear to use, innate abilities, or legendary artefacts of some kind really puts me at an unfair disadvantage.

Even having Rias or Sona reincarnate me into a devil, should they accept, wouldn't really give me any advantage beyond a slight power up that wouldn't make too much of a difference. I currently have...just a prototype armour, along with a slew of designs and theories I'd like to work on, but I can't because I lack the funds. Not being aware of the presence of the supernatural in this world, I haven't yet tried to design anything that would enhance certain talents I could train. There is also the fact that I have only used materials from the human world. Are there any I could get that would benefit me in some way, perhaps by giving special properties to the metals used? How should I design my next armour? Where can I look for new materials and information on them? Could Benkei help me search for supernatural materials if I asked him to? No, probably not. He didn't fund me for the armour and still thinks it's a lost cause, so of course he wouldn't bother with it.

I'm not even sure if the two hereditary ones are interested in me in the first place. Sona prefers utility and versatility over a silly amount of raw power, as well as a considerable amount of intelligence to pull off all sorts of strategies, and while I can fit into her circle the main doubt remains: would she be willing to invest in me? if that were the case how much rope would she give me for my plans?

Rias was initially much more desperate about her situation with the arranged marriage to Riser, so I'm sure I can get plenty more funding, as well as her trust, to achieve my goals without the risk of being treated like a slave or being traded like an object, as tends to happen in devil's society.

Also, it wouldn't interfere too much in my life and possible career as a pro hero either, so another plus point, I suppose. With its backing, I wouldn't have to rely on the Japanese government to supply materials for my future armour until I can finance myself, so it has many pros than cons.

So many questions but so few answers.

"Better sleep" I was mentally exhausted to think straight and look for a solution to my problems.

Now I am too frustrated to find a solution to this issue, and it has really been a very long day.