Spring break was delightful. For a second she believed in finally obtaining freedom from insipid lessons and dull personalities. Alas, no good thing can last forever.
She was attentively listening to Seichi's explanations as he guided her through the route to her new school. It was within walking distance in a suburban area so he wasn't too worried about her traveling alone.
Nonetheless, there was something bittersweet about growing up, taking that next significant step in the journey of life. At least that's what dad said.
Somehow Kieruko expected a time-skip in real life and was severely disappointed to see still 6yo children in her new classroom.
Few familiar faces stood out, the rest not so much and there was one floating uniform.
No way.
There are enough humans on this planet for multiple people to have the same Quirk. It was statistically probable for that set of levitating clothes to belong to someone else. And yet.
It shouldn't be possible for this to happen twice in a row. And yet.
The new teacher asked the kids to introduce themselves after saying a few words about himself. Probably there was a name somewhere in that speech.
A new set of irrelevant children began rattling off their names with some random trivia.
Then.
"My name is Hagakure Toru. My Quirk is Invisibility. I like caramels and funny cartoons.
Damn.
It finally hit her.
Canon characters were all around. Soon enough familiar events would start to play out in the background. She needs to decide what her stance is.
"Hiseki Kieruko. My Quirk is called Not Today. I like" she did not have anything ready for that part so: random bullshit go! "...cute animals."
Her knowledge of the manga was a huge boon to the whole 'saving Japan' endeavor thus changing anything major now, would be plain stupid. But doing nothing would render it useless. So small ripples. Like befriending less fleshed-out characters. Maybe help them in figuring out their abilities earlier.
Then if Kieruko fails at her objective, people participating in the PLF war plot will be more prepared than in the original.
"...ith that I will now explain how your lessons.."
The objective.
She actually thought about that a lot.
Conclusion?
All for One is the main target. Her best bet will be to wait for when he is arrested and his original Quirk is stored (in Garaki's lab? hidden in Shiggy?) far away from Tartarus.
With plot knowledge and almost a decade to prepare, it feels like she has a fair chance at locating LoV.
Besides the second Kurogiri is arrested she will sic the whole hero community at Jaku Hospital, indubitably stopping the production of high-end Nomus and Shigaraki from becoming a flesh monster.
So arresting LoV will be more about intercepting them before they successfully absorb MLA and Gigantomachia into their ranks.
And as long as AfO's down permanently, it doesn't matter if one or two chess pieces slip away.
Honestly, she doesn't understand why anyone would let him live after Kamino with his expertise in murder and manipulation. Why would HPSC keep him alive? They had to know he was a ticking bomb that would not cooperate.
Impractical.
"...er a break. Please reme..."
...but maybe that's something a Kieruko with a gun could remedy.
Not Today was excellent against this particular opponent's fighting style after all.
The sound of shuffling chairs snapped her out of the thought.
Right.
3 years until OfA vs. AfO
6 years till middle school
8 years till Midoriya gets chosen as the 9th
9 years left before she can attend UA
She's going to be a hero (or rather get into UA's Hero Course to supervise the plot from the front row).
If that doesn't work out, she will become the most annoying vigilante to ever exist.
Damn it, the sheer weight of future knowledge feels exhausting already.
It's only going to get worse, isn't it?
The first few weeks were fairly uneventful. Excluding the sightings of one Hatsume Mei who seemed to attend the same school, just as a member of the other class.
Insignificant at the moment.
Kieruko was doing a short detox from potentially messing with the timeline in favor of genuinely planning out future steps and as such ignored pink inventor or anyone else for that matter. In return, everyone left her alone. One could even hope that with this kind of a great start, elementary school would be a serene experience without any hurdles.
No such luck.
Kids are demons, the universe seems to hold a grudge against her and the concept of karma might as well actively attempt to make her shoulder the sins of humanity as a whole.
It started with an innocent request.
After the last period was over, one of the random goobers in her class asked Kieruko to follow them. She decided to humor the child...and maybe satiate her faint curiosity.
Also, the kid sounded like Elmo which was hilarious. Red bob cut did not help.
What she could not expect was being jumped by an entire group of Muppet-looking kids while passing by janitorial closet. The whole circus popped out of there to immediately surround their victim.
"We got you now, villain!" exclaimed the rainbow-haired girl and likely the leader of the assailants.
Again? I didn't even do anything this time. She pondered just before a familiar blue-haired boy (with a pair of exceptional lungs from what she could remember and features vaguely reminiscent of the Cookie Monster now that she had a chance to look at him) tried to push her while using his weak-ass electricity.
She easily erased it...only to feel a hand latching onto her arm. Suddenly her muscles went slack.
Five-point touch paralysis Quirk.
Motherfucker.
Before she could even shift her gaze, another figure stepped in and blindfolded her.
Why. Are. Those. Toddlers. Working like an organized crime ring. Is this a kidnapping?
The sound of duct tape did not bode well.
They taped her arms and legs together, used a generous amount of tape on her mouth, then threw her immobilized in multiple ways body into the closet.
All of this was accompanied by a riveting narration of their fearless leader.
Apparently, everything was not fine in the last few weeks.
Being left alone was a sign of a cast out.
Light globule girl and blue-haired boy did in fact spread far and wide the tale of 'Quirk stealing villain kid' who before was protected by someone with a strong Quirk.
Now that she was separated from her belligerent warden, the righteous heroes could bring justice to the local 'evildoer' and finally put Kieruko in her place.
So when she was planning out her training regimen needed for future ventures, a group of self-proclaimed heroes put together an effective plan to capture her slippery self.
She regretted dearly not paying attention to the Quirks of her classmates. Or other kids in general.
As the door slammed shut, she was left blind and thoroughly incapacitated in a closet.
Fuck.
It was beyond embarrassing to be outsmarted by literal elementary schoolers.
But hey, on the bright side: not a kidnapping.
A person locked in a makeshift sensory deprivation chamber has a lot of time to contemplate their fate.
Asking the real questions.
Like.
When did it all go wrong?
For someone planning on taking down supervillains, to have their ass handed to them by the cast of Sesame Street was quite the wake-up call.
Turns out six-year-olds are vicious creatures prone to violence.
Who would have guessed?
...
She really needs combat experience. Something she'll mention to her parents at a later date...and maybe frame it as an extracurricular exercise and not a needed ability. Dad would not be happy to find out that self-defense might be an essential skill for her survival.
Growing up the first time around WAS NOT this precarious. What is happening? Maybe there is something in the tap water? It would not surprise her if in this batshit crazy anime land was at least one person deliberately making citizens more aggressive.
Actually, she knows of a few factions already doing it. Dammit.
...
Kieruko should be panicking.
But it would not change a single thing.
Still paralyzed. Even 10 minutes after the contact. Pretty strong Quirk despite paralysis being a common one. Shame it's wasted on such a little shithead.
Thankfully having a few extra decades' worth of memories reduces any distress she could have to almost nonexistent.
Oh no, I'll have to lay on the floor for some time. Dad's going to notice I'm still not home in an hour or so. Staff will discover me even faster. If not, humiliation will continue for a few more hours. I might have to take a nap in the meantime. Oh no.
Hopefully, she'll be found out before anyone starts panicking. It would be wasteful to leave the school with 2 BNHA characters without even an attempt at establishing a connection. No doubt parents will pull her out of here in a blink of an eye if they find out about this fiasco.
...
Quirk finally wore off.
It did not change a lot. But it was a start.
With a lot of wriggling she confirmed that, indeed, she was still unequivocally stuck.
Fuckers used a whole roll of tape to make sure of that.
Untangling herself from mops and brooms turned out to be a futile venture, leaving her with one solution. Kicking the absolute shit out of the door.
And kick she did.
Before swiftly tiring herself out.
Definitely needs to exercise more.
Hagakure Toru was invisible.
It was the first thing every single person noticed about her.
If they noticed her at all.
She was defined by her lack of notable presence.
Making friends became quite the challenge when she needed to go above and beyond to be just perceived. To compensate for that she had to be twice as loud and expressive.
And when she wasn't, well, there were a lot of things people would do when they thought no one was looking.
Like two of her new classmates spreading malicious gossip about the villainous actions of the girl sitting in the back.
Supposedly she could steal Quirks and burn those who opposed her.
The worst thing Toru saw her do was almost fall asleep during math but others heeded the warnings and kept their distance.
Kieruko. Plain girl with the highest grades in their class and a bored look permanently plastered to her face. Honestly, Toru can't blame her, she also wouldn't want to socialize with peers if they were constantly badmouthing her behind her back.
Toru spotted the dirty looks Niji-chan sent that girl's way every time the teacher announced Kieruko had the highest score on a test.
Toru overheard when part of her class gathered to plan an ambush on an innocent classmate.
'To take care of the villain once and for all' they said.
It felt wrong.
Toru observed as Sekiaka-kun led unsuspecting Kieruko-chan to her doom.
She had to do something.
Following the two unseen was easy.
Seeing her classmates beat down and restrain a vulnerable girl was not.
But she was scared.
Unfortunately, she was a single person unable to protect herself or others. So weak. She wanted to confront the bullies head-on, however, that would only end up with one more tied-up body in the dark closet.
She didn't want to be locked in a closet.
She wanted to help.
Like a hero would.
Toru witnessed the whole incident while peeking over the corner of the corridor. When the cheerful group of tormentors began to head in her direction, she promptly backed far away.
She didn't want to get caught.
Thankfully her Quirk was perfect for hiding.
Waiting them out in an empty classroom and finding the closet again took her way too much time.
Dread was slowly filling her stomach.
No.
Everything was going to be okay.
She was going to save Kieruko-chan.
In the world of flashy abilities, she was transparent.
She wanted to be seen.
She wanted to become a hero, to be perceived, to help those as invisible as her.
She would become the best hero possible.
Starting now.
Toru grabbed the handle of the door and swung it open.
There, on the floor was lying a sweaty mass of tape and crumpled clothes buried under cleaning supplies.
She frantically pushed aside buckets, mops, and brooms, not knowing where to start as she decided to peel off the gag first.
The lying figure greedily gasped for fresh air before speaking.
"Sooo... is this a rescue party or did you forget to kick my ass on the way out?"
Why would she...?
The blindfold.
Toru almost tore it off Kieruko's head.
She was met with black eyes, squinting at first from a sudden wave of daylight then slightly widening in surprise.
"I haven't expected to see you here, Hagakure-san."
"I want to save you," Toru responded without skipping a beat.
Kieruko can proudly say, she didn't roll her eyes at the heartfelt declaration. Really wanted to but didn't. It appeared like recently something exceedingly emotional happened to her savior and it would be rude to intrude on that.
"That's great!" she replied, then slightly wriggled, still on the floor. "Do you have anything sharp for the bindings?"
Toru did not.
It took 10 minutes to find scissors and with that, Kieruko was finally free.
"Thanks, you're a lifesaver." Actually, there was one compliment every kid wanted to hear those days.
"You are my hero."
*Kieruko uses appreciation*
Hagakure began sobbing violently.
*It's super effective!*
"Do-do you-uuu wa-want to be frie-eends?"
What kind of logic is that?
"Sure."
The first thing Seichi heard when his daughter, who came home terribly late, was "I want to learn martial arts."
"..why?"
"I want to be cool" Kieruko claimed in a flat tone.
"Did something happen at school?"
"Nope. Just saw a hero fight" she lied.
That sounded suspiciously like something a normal child would say. He gladly accepted it.
"What did you have in mind?"
With that, she began attending Muay Thai classes twice a week. That physical activity was desperately needed.
And then after a few more months, she convinced Dad to also sign her up for gymnastics because she just loved exercising.
For now, she felt proud of the training she managed to obtain.
Friendship with Hagakure Toru changed a lot in her everyday life.
They were eating together, talking with each other, and hanging out after school.
It also made Kieruko remember that she didn't know the Quirks of people around her. With some examination few things suddenly made much more sense.
Psychotic Rainbow Dash had a minor intelligence Quirk called ironically Super Intelligence. That might be the reason she has taken offense to not being The Best at schoolwork 100% of the time.
Her henchmen: light globules, Cookie Monster (shit electricity), Elmo (some kind of transformation), Fedora Bear (boy with slight bear mutation), and Big Bird (tall girl with very yellow hair, 5-point paralysis) while surprisingly thematic, were still sheep mindlessly following their charismatic leader.
With some extra context provided by the ever-observant Hagakure, their stunt was, while explicable, still an overreaction.
Kieruko didn't report the blatant act of assault. Mostly to not worry parents, they have been busy enough lately.
In the meantime, she had an enlightening one-on-one with Rainbow Dash. Let's just say it's easy to spook kids with some cleverly presented facts. As intended, it made her calm the fuck down.
That year continued more serenely.
Where was she?
Ah, yes.
Spending time with Hagakure.
In their friendship, Toru was the one to do most of the talking, which was fine with Kieruko.
The first time they switched roles, she was invited over to the invisible girl's house. When they were playing in the garden, Toru asked about her interests.
What followed was an introductory lecture about Quirks with a nifty addition of Kieruko's new and improved classification system based on her experiments with Not Today (definitely not sneakily conducted on kindergartners for the most part).
"..but erasing the Quirk Factor is only the first stage as it only disables obvious Emitter and Transformation types.
The second stage is mutations caused and working in tandem with the semi-active Quirk Factor. The most provident examples would be Heteromorphs.
In my first-ever test, I found out that there is an obvious distinction between Quirk and vestigial mutations I was capable of erasing one before the other.
In short with ranking by the amount of active Quirk Factor, we have:
1. Quirk - 100% active, anything breaking laws of nature or physics (telekinesis, gigantification)
2. Mutation - 100%-1% active while used with obvious deviant tissue that does not disappear when Quirk is in an idle state.
3. Vestigial mutation - inactive but present, honestly anything that would be considered out of the norm over 150 years ago
It should be noted that what is considered a mutant Quirk nowadays can fall under either the second or third category depending on the individual in question.
A new classification system divides Quirked and Quirkless based on recognized functional methods (even if only available to one person) instead of just acknowledging observable differences.
With that, we come to my Quirk.
Not Today.
Proof of everything that's great with Mendelian inheritance, but that's a story for another day.
When activated it stops types one and two from being used.
On a technical level, anyone not affected by that should be considered Quirkless."
Also, she could feel when she was blocking the active Quirk Factor and the only Quirkless people she ever met were a few Heteromorphs. She wondered if it would feel different with someone like Izuku or Melissa.
"Now, because I'm awesome, there is a possibility to push my Quirk into temporarily getting rid of anything affected by Plus Alpha Gene.
It's like a slider. The more engaged role" a body part "an element takes in active Quirk use, the less takes me to deactivate or even entirely get rid of it."
The one time she pushed to 100% on that slider everyone was screaming.
Once Seichi asked her to test Quirk's percentages on him. It was not a happy memory. People get hurt when she goes above 80%.
"Also it gets harder to hold it and shortens the time I'm able to keep the connection
For example"
Which heroes were working already? Obviously, Hawks and Mirko were out.
"If I used Not Today on Endeavor, he would be unable to use his flames. After pushing the slider he would lose fire resistance but his looks wouldn't change.
In comparison, Gang Orca wouldn't probably lose anything at first. Maybe hypersonic waves. And then...I dunno what's next. I actually never used that part of my Quirk on a Heteromorph. He probably would turn into a normal dude."
A lie.
She had no idea and was too scared to test it out on anyone who didn't have the Human 1.0 model skeleton.
While Tokoyami probably would agree to testing, it didn't feel too ethical to erase a sentient being known as Dark Shadow or try to dig even further into an oblivious toddler's Quirk Factor.
Kinda a fucked up thing to do to someone you care about.
She lost the thread.
"Any questions?"
"Can you make me visible?" Hagakure's tone was almost pleading.
"Indeed I can." That much should be obvious. Doesn't she have any questions about the groundbreaking parts? Wait. She's still six. "Would you like to try now?"
Toru shot up from the grass (she was lying down sleepily after the first few minutes of the tedious lecture).
"I'm ready."
"Okay." Kieruko's eyes shifted from black to yellow and her hair began defying gravity. "So. Fun fact. Your Quirk is erased."
"I'm still invisible." The disappointment was palpable in the girl's voice.
"Exactly." Kieruko did her best impression of Eraserhead's trademark grin. "That is how you look." Still no recognition. "Which means you are invisible AND have a Quirk."
"REALLY?!"
Deciding to drop a second bombshell in 20 seconds Kieruko slightly pushed on the link of Not Today.
There she stood, wonderfully visible Hagakure Toru in all of her adorable baby glory.
She had messy green-yellow? (is 'pastel lime' a color?) hair with pink streaks.
With wide disbelieving eyes, she looked at her pale hands for just a moment, before sprinting back home screaming for her parents.
Understandable reaction.
Kieruko decided to give her excitable friend as much time as she could to marvel at that revelation.
She lay down on a freshly mowed lawn and focused on keeping the connection stable as long as possible. Almost like training. When pressure turned into the beginnings of a slowly growing migraine, she let go. So probably around 2 minutes? it felt slightly longer than last time.
With closed eyes, she sighed. The weather was nice, high in the sky sun shined cheerfully, and as such she decided to take a deserved nap.
It was never meant to be.
A moment later three sets of clothes also known as the Hagakure family arrived.
There was a second round of explanations, ironically enough with two adults Kieruko's descriptions were simplified for the sake of not giving the strange 'small child with too analytical personality for their age' vibe.
A few times she tried acting true to herself with grown-ups, they were visibly disturbed and Seichi was always hiding sadness behind an engaged expression.
Kids were surprisingly fine with her real personality, just bored.
Okay, that's a lie.
Obviously, they were not fine with it. But attempts at bullying mean that at least she's still treated as a part of their ecosystem. Why did she care?
Toru's parents were surprisingly okay with that revelation. Still, they were left with one question.
"If it's not Invisibility, then what is Toru's Quirk?"
Impossible to answer without lying about the mechanics of Not Today, or explaining BNHA so time to "theorize".
"Considering how entangled it is with her mutation and the statistical probability of her having kind of common Quirk type, I would say something connected with light manipulation."
There goes her resolve to not spook the parents.
"...you are really smart Kieruko-chan" a soft feminine voice replied.
She was definitely not. Absolutely middle-of-the-road intelligence in her original age group.
"Thank you, Hagakure-san," she says instead. "I like reading about Quirks."
"How do I use it?" An excessively bubbly girl piped up.
Isn't that the million-dollar question?
Time to summon all the knowledge gathered from articles with a mix of manga memories.
"We are outside. Can you feel sunlight?"
The girl froze up. Probably. For sure her clothes didn't move anymore.
For but a few moments, there were just four people in a garden on a sunny Friday. No one dared to make a sound.
The visible light around (probably) Toru's hands began to slightly bend before it twinkled and then went back to normal.
Fascinating.
"Refraction" Kieruko muttered.
Everyone else was losing their shit.
All in all an eventful afternoon.
Hagakure family undeniably took a fancy to Kieruko. It was great. Uncle and aunt (an upgrade from Mr. And Ms.) made her always feel welcome, commenting on how much of a well-mannered clever girl she was. And what a great friend to their daughter!
She felt flustered by the generous praise but learned that any attempt at helping them (to feel less like a fraud) would only earn more compliments. Embarrassing yet amazing problem to have.
On an even better note, Toru became her partner in Quirk training. For now girl was only capable of creating slight shimmers or marginal light refraction. Didn't make it less impressive considering the first time it took her nine more years to figure it out.
The other half of the duo got approval to erase Toru's invisibility almost constantly. The girl adored being seen especially delighted by the attention from her peers and Kieruko got a chance to improve the time limit of Not Today by constant practice. Using her Quirk in school became a game of sorts. During classes, it was a Green Light, Red Light where detention was at stake, and between periods kids were usually okay with it (might have something to do with the fact visible Toru was cute as hell).
Tight Bun became Kieruko's new staple hairstyle for practicality's sake. She also gained killer reflexes in deactivating her Quirk. Part of the process. As well as mastering the use of all natural migraine remedies from the constant Quirk exhaustion she hid from everyone.
With that day day became more hectic than ever. Getting top grades for now was too easy so she was stealth Quirk training at school, had her extracurricular activities four times a week (Toru in the act of growing clinginess also now frequented the same Muay Thai classes) and weekends were her internet privileges days. Those were sacred for research and entertainment reasons.
And in between all of that, she was plotting.
What?
Obviously, no plan survives the contact with the enemy.
And when your enemy is the fate of the very universe you reside in, you need to be prepared for anything.
So she was busy creating contingency plans for contingency plans.
Just in case.
7 years before 1A Hell Class came to be, Kieruko made her first potentially risky move.
One of the biggest issues that arose during the planning sessions was: What if she died or was incapacitated during big events?
Accidents happen.
As far as she's aware stray brick could end her story tomorrow. All her effort for naught. Which is unacceptable.
So.
Contingency 1
A random anonymous email containing a PDF file with everything she knows. Scheduled to be delivered a year from now to the one person she knows won't ignore it. Every 30 days she logs in and pushes the date one month further.
Now, no matter what, the knowledge won't be lost.
Contingency 2
Creating external support in case of emergencies.
During summer Hiseki family took a trip to a remote village with a rapidly aging population in southern Nagasaki. They were visiting some distant aunt for a week. That was beside the point. The important part was the public library. Small decrepit thing with peeling paint, no cameras, and an ancient computer in the back.
After being given permission by responsible adults to roam around freely, she had a chance to execute the next tiny piece in her ever-growing Master Plan™.
All she had to do was to sneak past an ancient (quite possibly senile) librarian and there would be no way to trace anything she did on that machine back to her.
The elderly woman did take almost an hour-long break at noon every day. Without closing the building.
It was too easy.
Kieruko entered the library, turned on the relict of the past, made a new email, and...
So fucking stupid.
She was going to regret it.
She already found Nedzu's official electronic correspondence address on UA's website.
Horrible plan.
Going to ruin all the prep.
But if it works out as intended, she will have a powerful ally to at least partially rely on.
No way a rat won't want to play mind games.
All she needs to do is to be honest, except for a few small things. Like the fact, this is all a manga/anime. Create a beneficial but believable narrative.
Besides this is just to establish her presence. She doesn't have to contact him ever again.
Reckless.
Trusting others with any knowledge introduces new variables. Brings more uncertainty.
She is but a single powerless person.
The clock is ticking. 30 minutes left.
Fuck it.
Hello.
You don't know me and I hope to remain anonymous for the time being.
What you should be aware of is that I'm either clinically insane or experienced future in a limited way.
If it's the former, I'll never contact you again. If it's the latter though, let's just say things are going to become much more complicated and you might be interested in what lies ahead.
This is a test for me to determine that. And I guess you are the best person I can contact and consider an impartial judge.
I'm going to leave a...prediction. Please do not check the text file attached below before the end of the next year. If I'm right, it could make the future take an unfavorable turn.
Just to ease any worries, I wrote about one of the biggest victories your allies will achieve and we wouldn't want to risk changing that.
You know how those butterflies like to flap their wing.
Hopefully sound of mind,
Sibyl
She logged out.
It's done.
One more chess piece on the board.