The End of the World. If someone would hear that phrase, their mind might go to the inevitable death of the planet at the hands of the human race. It certainly wasn't too farfetched, given the nature of humans. Or maybe their mind would go even further to the degradation of the sun, a couple of billion years off. Or perhaps they'd think of it in a dismissive manner, nothing more than a phrase touted by "future-seeing" quacks or doom-mongers. But something like this...?
"Damn it... Damn it...!" Shimon let out, holding his bloodied arm as he looked on at the burning remains of what used to be Shinsei University, one of the greatest hero academies to ever exist, having come forth after the defeat of All for One nearly a century ago. He'd find it hard to get up from where he'd been laying on the ground, cursing as his eyes looked over to the school. Or what remained of it. "How... how could this happen?"
Looking at the school now, it was far from the great academy he'd been brought up to begrudgingly admire. Classrooms and facilities alike lay crumbling around him, with the acrid smell of flames and smoke filling the air. Shimon could hardly stand, being forced to smell the explosion residue, hear the sounds of explosions continuing to ravage his surroundings, and have the metallic scent of the blood of his classmates and teachers filling his...!
"Damn it...!" Shimon screamed, his voice cracking as it took on a tone he'd never heard before. It was all he could do to tear himself away from the sight and run away as fast as he could. The ground beneath him was smoldering, emitting heat like an oven, making it painful for him just to do that. It was almost as if the sky was fire, Shimon pressing his dried and chapped lips together as he looked up at the sky, which was currently colored a dark red, clouds churning above him.
The ground was shaking now, causing him to lose his balance and stumble to the ground. He couldn't help but cry out in pain as his right arm fell on a large scrap of metal debris, impaling his forearm.
"G-Gaah!" Shimon found himself screaming, gritting his teeth as he watched the blood flow from his cut, the crimson liquid dripping down the metallic length. It would be so easy for him to just lay down here, close his eyes and let himself bleed out... And yet... there was still something he needed to do; one last shred of hope allowed to him in this disaster. Something that he couldn't get by giving up here.
For quite possibly the first time in his life, Shimon grit his teeth and pulled his arm up along the piece of debris it had been impaled on. He hissed as he began to move his arm along, stopping momentarily as a horrible sensation ran along the impaled area. His sight hazy from the pain, Shimon looked at where he had impaled his arm, seeing that he had more than half of the length of the debris left.
Clenching his left fist, Shimon let out a guttural scream, violently going about pulling his arm off of the debris, his entire body trembling once he had done so. Severely exhausted, the young man glanced at his right arm, looking at the damage. Whereas his right arm had been scraped and bloodied after being caught near an explosion prior, he now had a sizable gash in it, blood gushing out profusely.
It was all that Shimon could do to take off the shirt he was wearing and wrap it around his forearm, wincing as he applied as much pressure to the wound as he could, looking up to the red sky once more. It was all that remained of the hero outfit he'd been assigned from the school... With all this destruction around him, the earth beneath him shaking, and the sky above bloodied red, it was hard not to see this as...
... the end of the world.
Although, given the name of the villain who did this, that seemed a little too on the nose. Dragging himself off of the floor, Shimon spotted a golden light emanating a distance away. Narrowing his eyes, the young man continued forward, still holding on to that one last bit of hope in his heart. Traversing the burning wasteland that was previously his school, Shimon painstakingly made his way to the light.
Maybe he was feeling sentimental, but Shimon couldn't help but reflect on what had happened up to this point. Less than a year ago, a villainous organization began to make publicized moves, proclaiming that it would bring about the end of the world as everyone knew. They called themselves the World's End Organization, with their leader being none other than a villain named World End.
No one thought much of the group at the time, given their rather incredulous claims and their leader's name. Even when their leader tapped into every communication device across Japan and announced his plan to end the world, explaining his Quirk in excruciating detail, there wasn't much worry towards them. So when their organization attacked Shinsei, with the intention to do exactly just that, the entire country was taken by surprise.
Of course, that was the extent of the knowledge that had been afforded to the public and the students of Shinsei Academy. Had it really just been that simple...? Had it really been that easy for a villain group to just attack Shinsei and bring about the end of the world?
Shimon was racking his brain now, thinking back to the day that the villain responsible for all of this explained his Quirk. A Quirk that was so devastating that it could ravage the world in a matter of minutes when he made contact with the ground. Shimon remembered the time the villain boasted it would take for him to destroy the world too, it was an amount of time that was commonly mocked by children and adults alike in the days leading up to today.
20 minutes. Supposedly, after coming into contact with the ground, World End's quirk would ravage the world for 20 minutes before ultimately destroying it. Looking back, Shimon could hardly blame anyone who mocked such an idea, how would anyone be able to identify a quirk like that? Still, there was a theory one of his teachers had vocalized, one that they asserted once more before eventually dying.
The theory that, among his organization, World End had someone who could travel through time to inform him of his Quirk's effects and specific details. It was a rather far-fetched idea, yes, but one that was possible when one thought about it. The Quirk Singularity that had been theorized about back during the time that the Symbol of Peace, All Might, was still around had been reported to be already underway. Keeping that in mind, a time-traveling Quirk appearing wasn't all that impossible.
It was a long shot, but Shimon saw nothing else to believe in at this point, when the world was literally crumbling around him. If there was a time-traveler in this vicinity, Shimon figured they would be the source of that golden, almost ethereal light that was flowing up into the sky. Figuring he had nothing to lose, Shimon began to pick up his pace, not sure exactly how long it had been since World End's quirk had been initiated. The time between now and the start of the attack on the academy had already begun to blend in his mind.
His head was still ringing with the sound of the explosions currently raging around him, but Shimon eventually found the source, a white-haired frail-looking girl looking up at the sky with an anxious look on her face. Shimon might've mistaken her for a normal girl caught up in all this, had it not been for the big glowing wormhole-looking thing emitting the golden light he'd seen from afar. She seemed barely older than him, maybe by a couple of years or so, and yet upon seeing her, Shimon's desperation was starting to come through.
He may have been wounded at that moment, but Shimon found himself wasting no time in rushing at the girl, running at her with the intention of pinning her to the ground. She noticed him rushing at her, but she was too late to react, only able to widen her eyes in fear before Shimon throttled her to the ground. Despite his wounds, it was clear which one between the two of them would win in a fight, judging the difference between their builds alone.
Figuring her lack of physical prowess was why she was so far away from her leader, Shimon grit his teeth, using his right arm to keep the girl pinned. The pressure he was exerting on it now had caused his cut to start leaking blood once more, but the young man fought through it, his right arm being more than enough to keep the girl on the ground.
He didn't even know for sure if this girl was even a time traveler, or if she even worked with World End, but at this point, it didn't even matter to him. Shimon raised his left arm, using his damned Quirk to show her he meant business. His Quirk was a simple one, simply named Drill. It allowed him to harden parts of his body and rotate them at rapid speeds, as if they were a drill. A Quirk that was probably more than suited for a life as a construction worker, but it did the job here.
Feeling his arm harden, Shimon began to rotate it, the appendage letting out a whirring sound. He let it spin for a couple of seconds, watching the girl's eyes dawn in understanding before speaking. He barely recognized his voice, it was so low and raspy from all the smoke and smog around him. "My drill is more than suited for breaking through rock and rubble. So here's what's gonna happen, you're gonna answer all my questions or I'm gonna see how good it is at breaking through people, got it?"
Shimon hoped he wasn't giving away how much of a hurry he was in, but with the end of the world a few minutes away, he couldn't afford to waste any time. Thankfully, the girl wordlessly nodded, leading him to ask his next question.
"Your quirk, explain it to me," He continued, bringing his spinning arm closer to her face. "Now."
"M-My quirk allows me to make a portal like that one..." The white-haired girl stammered out, with Shimon just now noticing that her eyes were glowing the same shade of gold as the portal she was talking about. "I-It allows me to send the consciousnesses of either myself o-or the people I choose back in time to the bodies they had before."
"Time travel?!" Shimon exclaimed, almost in disbelief. His teacher was right, right now he was literally holding the key to fixing the world in his hands. He felt a smile creep onto his face, stringing his lips in a grin of both desperation and newfound determination. If he could see himself, he'd probably make a comment about how creepy his smile looked.
The supposed time traveler simply nodded her head in response, further explaining her Quirk as the world was continually ravaged around them. "I-I can also set rules for the consciousness that I send back, l-like-"
Shimon practically shoved his drill in her face now, his demand leaving his mouth almost as quickly as he thought of it. "Send me back. Send me back a year from now, the day before I turn 19. Could you do that?"
The girl's eyes widened even more, although Shimon had a feeling it was from something other than the rotating drill in her face. "B-But I can't, Taka will be mad-"
Shimon only spun his drill faster, the wounded boy reaching his maximum speed as he kept his left arm an inch away from the girl's face. "Taka? I don't give a damn about who that is, and you shouldn't either... that is, unless you want me to carry out my promise from earlier..."
Understanding, she kept her mouth shut, much to Shimon's satisfaction. Unfortunately, it was at that moment that the shaking of the ground intensified, with fractures starting to appear in the ground beneath them. Looking around, Shimon could see some of them glowing, energy pulsing out of the cracks. Thankfully, no cracks appeared below him and the girl, but it only increased the young man's desperation. "You need a date? I'll give you one, the day before October 11th, a year from now."
"Five more minutes..." She murmured, only for Shimon to press his right arm harder on the girl. A dozen thoughts were racing through his head right now, battling for dominance in his head. Was she saying there were only 5 more minutes until the world was destroyed? Was that enough time to try and find someone to try and go back in time and fix this? Was there even anyone left to try and do so?
There was one pressing question that was quickly rising to the surface of his thoughts, though, one fueled by the undeniable fact that he was currently faced with extremely limited options. If he was the one to do this... could he actually pull it off?
One of his teachers used to tell him that, when pushed to their breaking point, it was then that people revealed what they were truly made of. Being a chronic slacker in his entire time attending the hero course, Shimon had never expected much from himself, and very few others had done the same for him. But... as horrible as it sounded, maybe it was this situation that had ignited a fire within him.
Whether it was desperation, determination, or even a mix of both, that fire caused Shimon to say his next words. "I'm gonna go back and fix this, no matter the cost. You're gonna use whatever rules you've got to make that happen, got it?"
Once again, the girl nodded, the portal flickering slightly before gaining a more subdued glow to it. "A-And now..." She muttered to herself, closing her eyes as the change to the portal happened.
Seeing the glow fade, however, Shimon panicked, taking his right arm off of the girl and slamming it into her stomach. She let out a pained gasp, but her portal didn't fade anymore. "Hey! You're not thinking of closing that shit on me, are you?"
There was probably only a mere 3 minutes left before the world ended, but Shimon needed to be entirely sure that this would work before he made the decision that he knew he had to make.
"N-No!" The girl let out, clearly in pain, but she answered Shimon regardless. "Y-You said to use whatever rules necessary with the portal, s-so... I-I adjusted the portal for that purpose! I-It's ready for you to go through now!"
The world only continued to shake, Shimon realizing he needed to act fast. Getting off the girl, he left her on the ground, dashing towards the portal. Stepping into the golden light, he could feel his consciousness start to fade, a few lingering thoughts in his head before his vision blackened. If a loser like him was the only hope this world had left...
... then this world was fucked.
"Hey, Shimon! Give us that hero impression you're so proud of!" One of the workers called across, only for Shimon to scoff, his lips bending into a lazy smirk. More voices chimed in, echoing a similar sentiment until the raven-haired boy smirked, letting out a chuckle.
"Well, if you insist..." He let out, getting up from his work area, taking a deep breath, inhaling, then exhaling. When he exhaled, he started walking about with a sort of swagger, a confident smirk on his face. The others around him chuckled as he walked about, Shimon soaking as much of it in as he could, preemptively hardening his right arm
"Just who the hell do you think I am?" He exclaimed, stopping in one place as he held his right arm up to the sky, spinning it rapidly. He paused for a second, listening to some of the laughs and cheers before continuing. "This drill is my soul! This drill... is that of a hero!"
More laughing echoed across the lot, Shimon smirking wryly to himself. Late nights staying up watching old anime never failed to provide him with corny material to use in front of his coworkers.
Still, this was the life of Shimon Watanabe, the once heir to the prestigious and wealthy Watanabe family. That latter part was the reason why he didn't go around telling people his last name, though, simply preferring to be known as Shimon unless some application needed his name. Handed everything for a large part of his life, Shimon had rarely put any effort into anything that he did, which was the sole reason why he was cast out and disowned by his family, namely his father.
In a world where heroes were only exalted further after the final defeat of the heinous villain, All For One, becoming a hero was now seen in two lights.
One was the idealistic view, that becoming a hero was one of the noblest acts one could undertake, one that meant saving and putting oneself out for as many people as possible. It was a new that had persisted through the age of the Symbols of Peace, All Might and his successor, the hero known as Deku.
The other light was another one that had stood the test of time, that becoming a pro hero would net one not only fame but a sizable fortune as well. It was a more cynical view that was held by the more prestigious members of society. A group of people that his family belonged to, as a matter of fact.
With Shimon fitting neither, not the idealistic nor the opportunist view, it was no surprise that the young man wound up failing the teenage hero assessment. While society had recognized the fact that throwing teenagers into hero courses and expecting them to combat villains was... problematic to say the least, there were still rudimentary low-stakes, hero assessments for teenagers in order to judge one's potential for being a hero.
Nevertheless, Shimon had found himself failing that test. Despite hero courses only being offered to those that were at least 18, being able to at least become a hero carried a lot of weight within Shimon's family. So when he failed, it wasn't long before he was disowned, his dear old dad relocating him to one of his family's lower cost properties.
It was no skin off of his back, though, Shimon was just fine on his—!
In the midst of his thoughts and his hero impression, Shimon's eyes suddenly glowed gold, the boy freezing in his place.
"Hey Shimon, you okay?" One of the workers called over to him, amidst some of the cheers.
" 'Course he's fine, who the hell do you think he is?" Another worker replied before laughing once more.
As for being okay, though, Shimon was anything but. It was definitely disorienting, suddenly finding himself back in the past, but it seemed that the time traveler knew what she was doing. Still, with that visage of the world ending, Shimon's hero impression was all but gone from his face.
"I'm… I'm back?" He let out, still processing what had just happened to him. Realizing that he was up in front of a number of people, Shimon plastered a smile on his face.
"H-Heh, I've just gotta go sit down for a second, guys…" Shimon let out, wandering off to go find a place to sit.
Sitting on a bench not too far from his work area, Shimon sat down, curiously looking up at the sky. It was clear and sunny once more, a clear contrast to the bloodied sky he'd laid eyes on less than an hour ago.
He was back in the past now, back in the time when he was still kicked out by his father. While his father gave him the funds for basic necessities, at this point in time, it had been up to Shimon to support himself, so he'd gone about getting a job at a construction site. It was a job that suited his Drill Quirk well, and he was 18, so it had seemed like a good idea at the time.
Still, all that seemed awfully irrelevant compared to the situation that Shimon found himself in now. Whereas before he had simply coasted through pretty much all of his classes, now Shimon would have to figure out some way to stop this World End villain from attacking his school, Shinsei University. Speaking of which... if Shimon remembered correctly it was today that he was supposed to be scouted for the school, two scouters having located him based on his name alone.
"Hello, we're here to find Watanabe Shimon?" Right on cue. Hearing one of the scouters ask the chief construction worker about him, Shimon's suspicions about exactly where he was were verified.
Placing his hands together, Shimon found the time to reflect on the situation he'd found himself in. Shinsei University was one of the most esteemed hero academies in Japan, arguably the top in the entire country. It was also the target of the attack that would bring about the end of the world... about one year from now.
The only way one could get in was with an extremely high score on the teenage hero assessment, or through a prestigious name. Which was why scouters were looking for him, Shimon suspected it was his father's disguised way of giving him a final chance. The reason for that, though, was that the school worked closely in tandem with the most high-end Quirk research facility in the world.
With the Quirk Singularity reportedly emerging in more and more younger peoples' Quirks, a new form of technology was being researched; Quirk Alteration. The technology itself was highly expensive, pretty much only accessible to either those that were wealthy or high up in their respective hero organizations. The way the technology worked was revolutionary but simple; the equipment they used altered for very DNA altering the nature of one's Quirk.
It was said that the human body could only go through three alterations before health complications would arise, and there were limits to alterations. Alterations had to relate to the original Quirk, in either their function or Quirk type. An emitter quirk could be changed to another Quirk of the same type with a similar function, and even become another type entirely if the alteration was made to relate to the Quirk's function in some way.
Given the recency of the technology, as well as the high cost, Quirk Alteration was still a relatively new concept... one that offered its full resources to Shinsei University. Shimon had never taken advantage of it while he attended, but if he was to take on the task of saving the world... he'd actually have to make an effort in both his classes and in using the advantages of Quirk Alteration.
After all... He thought to himself, wryly looking down at his arms. My weak Quirk and lack of determination were why I was disowned in the first place.
With his lack of determination rectified, at least for now, Shimon would resolve to make the most out of his Quirk and the resources he had. He considered telling someone about what was to come, but who could he tell? His father, who looked down at him? His mother, who had left the family years before he was disowned? He didn't have anyone else to tell, and even if he did, the World End Organization hadn't even revealed themselves yet.
As far as he knew, the day when they revealed themselves was the first that the world ever heard of them. If he remembered right, the day they did that was January 11th... and today was October 10th. That left him with around three months to find out as much about World End as he could, and it was November 18th of the following year that World End would attack the school.
Did he come for the Quirk Altering tech? Was his explanation of his Quirk a bluff, and he simply planned to alter his Quirk to make his decision? Shimon supposed that didn't matter right now, he had nearly a whole year to figure all this out.
Seeing one of the scouters walk over to him, Shimon raised his head up, getting up on the bench he had found himself sitting on. He wasn't entirely sure that he'd be able to accomplish what he was setting out to do, but he'd be damned if he didn't try.
Alright, so it's been a good deal over a year since I first went about this story. I wound up doing about 3 introductory chapters in the first 3 months the story was up, but I lost steam before getting to actually introduce some of the OCs. I'm still really fond of this concept, and planned a lot of it out, so I'll give this one last shot.
For starters, I'll be looking to fill out the students in Shimon's class and the Villains associated with the World End Organization. These will be my highest priority to fill this time around. 15 students and 7 villains. Additionally, I have 5 slots for Pro Heroes that would be teachers at the school, but I don't have much problem filling those slots with my own characters if needed.
So as it stands:
15 Students
7 Villains
5 Teachers/Pro-Heroes
If you've submitted an OC to the previous iteration of this story and got accepted, shoot me a PM! I'd love to still use them if I accepted them in the first place, or discuss if you'd like to adjust them or not.
For new submissions, however, these are my general rules.
1. When submitting an OC, you should send your OC through PMs only! Really want to stress this, if you submit an OC through a review I'll automatically decline them. No exceptions.
2. To keep things organized, the subject of the PM you send should read as follows: [World's End SYOC, OC's Name, Quirk]
3. For OCs, I will be accepting 14 Students, 7 Villains that are working within the World End Organization, and 5 Pro Heroes to act as teachers at Shinsei University. You are able to submit up to 3, but depending on how many I get, I'll be less inclined to accept multiple OCs.
4. Most of the characters should be Japanese, but if you intend on submitting a foreign character, please let me know beforehand.
5. This story isn't necessarily first come first served, so just focus on making sure that your forms are as good as they can be.
6. Don't think this needs to be said; but I have control over your OCs' fates once accepted. With the world's end literally on the horizon, your OC's are not safe from being killed.
7. This story would take place 100 years after I'd expect the story of My Hero Academia to end, but if you want to submit a descendant, I'm entirely open to that! I'd actually like to see what kind of descendants some of you would come up with. Like with the foreign student rule, though, just let me know beforehand.
8. The Quirk Singularity should already be rampant within the generation, with people like Shimon being some of the few exceptions. With that mind, feel free to invent whatever kind of Quirk you want!
9. This is not first come, first serve, so take all the time you need before the deadline!
10. Hate the idea of having a dead reader, so out of courtesy, I'd expect a review at least every other, or every 3 chapters. Feedback on the overall story and how I write your OCs is always welcomed!
If you guys want a general deadline to shoot for, I'd say around January 5th? That is tentative, though, might extend it once if I don't manage to fill up submissions.