Do You Recall, When We Spoke of the Dragons?

by CygusLorman

Summary:

Winston never saw the need to send out a recall to reform Overwatch. Jack Morrison was killed in his pursuit of revenge on Gabriel Reyes. When Izuku Midoriya finds a strange journal that was left behind after an even stranger encounter, it falls to him to bring back the world's first and greatest hero agency.

Chapter 1: Some Outside Help

Notes:

Hi. This is a new crossover with Overwatch that I'm trying to plan out and work on alongside my other fics.

Lena Oxton was...puzzled, to say the least. When Doomfist had made the move to rip off her Chronal Accelerator (damn it, now Winston was going to stress for weeks trying to anchor her like last time), she didn't feel any pain from having basically blinked out of existence, but it wasn't exactly pleasant, either. The first time she went through this after the whole Slipstream fiasco, she was quite convinced she died and had gone to her own personal Hell, but to be honest? Watching multiple events throughout history and the future play out like a movie...

It was actually quite nice.

'Hold on, what's that?'

Finding herself at a new point in time, Lena briefly looked around to get a look at her surroundings, and noticed how the park she was in, as well as the buildings and cars, didn't look too different from where she was originally from (other than the very obvious Japanese print on a nearby billboard), so she assumed that she was 'some-when' relatively close to 2070.

"Kosei o dashite kurete ureshī desu, Izuku!"

At hearing the excited words behind her, Lena turned around to see a woman tightly hugging a small child who was most likely her son, but the strangest thing yet...

The little boy had Genji's Quirk coiling around him.

The bright, neon green dragon that Genji told absolutely no one about, save for her, Winston, and Commander Morrison, and here it was being used as a toy by a child no older than six! However, it was quite clear there was no way that the boy she was staring at was the person that would become the badass cyborg-ninja that was the pride of Blackwatch.

It was common knowledge that Quirks were genetic; the exact origin of how they came to be was still unknown, but the passage of time easily showed that they were able to be passed down from parent to child with mutational variations.

Which meant that she was most likely looking at Genji's descendant (which meant that everything down there was still working, but she didn't want to think any more about it).

Well, sure, there was still the slight chance of the boy actually being his father, but Lena supposed that the chances of the heir of a crime family playing so out in the open. Not to mention that he looked almost nothing like the few pictures of Sojiro Shimada Overwatch had managed to find.

Lena moved to walk forward and try to figure out what kind of connection the boy had to Genji, but when she took the first step, she suddenly found herself pulled into the white-blue dimensional space that was the timestream, before being spat out into another time period that was very far in the distant past, judging by the herd of woolly mammoths in the distance.

Oh well. She'd have to just tell Genji about it whenever she finally showed back up in her own time period, but she might as well sit back and relax for now.

---

To say that the next several hours of Lena's life were uneventful had to be the biggest understatement since the dinosaurs went extinct. After trying not to freeze to death, outrunning several extinct species of predators, giving medieval peasants heart attacks, and trying to diffuse a hostage situation, she was just about ready to get on her knees and ask any deity above if sending her to a time period that wasn't going to try and kill her, her reprieve came in the form of showing up in Winston's lab.

The gorilla had quickly given her her repaired Chronal Accelerator, to which she wasted no time in putting it on, before sighing in relief at finally being anchored again. After sharing a hug with her friend, she explained that timing could not have been better, as she was busy trying to Blink and run away from the test site of the Tsar Bomba as fast as she could.

When she asked what happened with Doomfist, he sheepishly admitted that in his anger at seeing her disappear, he had gotten angry enough to knock the man out with one punch, and that he was currently being held in Japan's recently-built 'Tartarus' facility. Her heart swelled in pride for her friend at his accomplishment, but she suddenly remembered that she needed to speak to Genji as soon as possible, and asked Winston for his location, quickly running off with a short apology once he answered.

It was currently after-hours, and many of the agents and employees in the Switzerland Headquarters were already asleep or in their quarters, but there were still quite a few still up and about, such as one Jesse McCree, whom she hurriedly greeted on the way to the practice range, where she saw the resident cyborg-ninja making quick work of the robots with his sword.

"Genji!" she called out as she slowed down her jog to a stop, causing the man to cease what he was doing and turn around at the sound of his name. Upon seeing her, he sheathed his sword as he quickly made his way over to her.

"It is good to see you, Lena," he greeted. "I was not aware you had returned."

"Well, I literally just got back," she replied. "But enough about that. There's something I have to tell you."

Genji stared at her for a moment, before he slowly nodded. "All right."

"Okay, so, when Doomfist ripped off my harness, I ended up in Japan first, and I saw this woman and this little boy, and he...I saw him using your Quirk."

The man was silent as he crossed his arms and took in the information. "Lena, I am not the only one capable of using this Quirk, surely you know this." Just about everyone who was part of the main sector of Overwatch knew how Genji came to be the cyborg that was the pride of Blackwatch, but from what Lena heard about the Shimada Clan, she didn't think such a sweet boy could be like that.

"Okay, yeah, I'll give you that," she conceded. "But it was in a park, in full view of civilians. You have to know what that means."

Genji, however, was still unconvinced. "Then he is either a child or grandchild of Hanzo. What does that have to do with-"

"His dragon was green, Genji!"

Genji had shared that the Shimadas' ability to use the 'Spirit Dragon' Quirk was only capable through the main branch of the family, and that he and Hanzo were the only remaining members of it (unless their father had a few bastard children, which was honestly likely). However, the exact color of the dragon was something that was unique to a single lineage of descendants, able to reemerge here and there. Genji had inherited the color of his grandfather's dragon (though his own was much more powerful), which meant that any descendants Hanzo would have wouldn't inherit his brother's color.

The only people who he shared this information with were Jack Morrison, and the woman standing beside him.

"So you're saying..." Genji began, just barely above a whisper. "You're saying there's a chance?" It was a carefully guarded secret (that he shared with only Lena and Winston) that Genji was infatuated with Angela Ziegler, ever since she saved his life when Overwatch first found him on the brink of death.

But what he didn't know, was that she felt the same way. Lena had made a joke about how the two of them were spending more time together, and Angela had confided that she was interested. Lena even tried to get her to do something about it, but the doctor said that she was too scared of ruining the friendship they had, and that it violated the Hippocratic Oath, to which Lena called bullshit.

Lena was a very out and proud lesbian, but she had been brought up by parents who were very, very much against such people. She even started dating Emily during her last year in school, so it was either break things off with her, or come clean to her family and risk their ire. In the end, she was disowned by parents who preferred they never had a child, and Lena had been happy with Emily ever since.

She just wanted to see her friends be happy, for a change.

"You'll never know until you try," she replied.

Genji sighed as he considered her words. "What's...what's his name?"

"I don't know about his last name, but his mother called him Izuku."

---

After managing to convince him that romance was possible in his future, Lena had ended up getting the idea of having Genji write down a guide of some sort for helping Izuku control his own Quirk, but while he was open to the idea when she pitched it to him, he was firmly against the means by which she would deliver it, which was to voluntarily get a far enough distance away from her Chronal Accelerator and pray that she was able to manipulate her disassociation from the timeline to get to where she needed.

Obviously, she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Lena continued to pester him for hours over the next few days, and even resorted to threatening to tell Angela about his feelings for her, before Genji finally caved in, if only to preserve what was left of his pride, and gave her a completed journal a week later, the entirety of it having been written in Japanese (this was meant for Izuku's eyes only, after all), but still wasn't convinced she'd be able to pull it off.

When the time came to tell Winston of her plan, he was understandably not amused. Only a short amount of time had passed since he was able to successfully stabilize and anchor her to the timeline, not to mention the sleepless nights that were spent fixing her harness and waiting for her to show up (he never actually said it outright but Lena knew the signs).

He went off on a tangent about how there was no guarantee he would be able to help anchor her again, and about how she was extremely lucky to have been found in such a short amount of time compared to the months that had gone by with her being thought dead after the Slipstream Incident, before he finally calmed down and explained that there was a way for her to do what she needed without risking herself again like that.

After he first managed to get the Chronal Accelerator on her, Winston had gotten the idea to start secretly working on building a 'control panel' that would work in tandem with the Slipstream technology in the harness, which would theoretically give Lena the ability to choose where and when she wanted to time travel.

Said device was about the size of a large smartphone, and in her honest opinion, it was better left destroyed. As much as she wanted to entertain the idea of preventing the Omnic Crisis, killing Adolf Hitler, and meeting Jesus Christ, the potential consequences would be no doubt disastrous (as in the very likely chance of reality imploding in on itself from the resulting paradox or being stranded in an alternate universe).

So after Winston hooked up the control panel to the Chronal Accelerator and spent a few hours spent calibrating it, as well as giving Lena a basic rundown, after being given a very express order to return as soon as she was finished, set off on her mission to deliver Izuku the knowledge of his (most likely) ancestor, so that he, too, would become a badass ninja, provided she could figure out how to use the damn thing.

She had ended up getting the year and location wrong several times (in her defense, she had been in Izuku's room for less than a minute), but eventually, Lena was finally able to get to where she needed. Upon seeing the vaguely-familiar posters of the man with blond hair and a hulking figure, she moved to place the journal onto the nearby desk, when she heard the sound of something moving behind her, and turned around to see an older-looking Izuku staring back at her with shock and surprise.

"Oh, er, hello, Izuku," she began, slowly moving towards him. "I don't think you know me, but my name's Lena, and I came here to give you-"

"Anata ha dare?! Dō yatte koko ni haitta no?!"

Lena stopped moving and raised her hands to show him she meant no harm. "I'm not here to hurt you," she continued, and slowly reached into her jacket to pull out the journal and show it to him. "I just wanted to give you this, see?"

Izuku, however, still didn't give a response, as he continued to stare at her. As the silence went on, Lena started to relax at thinking she had gotten through to him, but was instantly proven wrong when she saw the tattoo on his left arm glow and come to life, before a bright, neon-green dragon started barreling closer and closer towards her.

'...Bugger.'

Lena let out a yelp as she crouched low and used Blink to move to the side, narrowly dodging the attack. Honestly, getting into a fight was quite low on the list of things she expected would happen, but to be fair, she'd have the same if she were in his position and saw a strange woman show up in her bedroom speaking a language she didn't understand.

That didn't mean she had to like it, however.

When she looked back to Izuku, her eyes widened at the sight of him rushing at her with a sword, of all things, before her reflexes kicked in and she Blinked behind him, using the small window of time she had to activate the control panel to send her back to 2070, but not before dropping Genji's journal to the ground and kicking it away for good measure.

She was not about to deal with children attempting to kill her, thank you very much. Not again.

When the scene changed from Izuku's room to the familiar sight of the timestream, Lena let out a sigh of relief and promptly decided that she needed to get a drink, but when she landed back in 2170, she suddenly found herself face-to-face with a very disgruntled Jack Morrison.

---

After seeing the strange woman who somehow showed up in his room disappear, Izuku Midoriya maintained a defensive stance with his sword raised, anticipating a sudden attack, but after several moments had passed with nothing happening, before he fully calmed down, and placed the weapon back in its scabbard. As he moved to place it back under his bed, he noticed a small, leather book lying on the floor, and gently picked it up.

It was the book the strange woman had been holding in her hand, and he remembered that based on what he knew of English and the very clear hand gestures she was making, she had the intention of giving it to him, and a quick study of the book ruled out the possibility of it being harmful to him, if only at least physically.

He felt guilty about immediately attacking her with his Quirk, but she was also a complete stranger that just randomly appeared, unannounced, in his room. That, combined with his parentage, meant that he had to take no chances, so could you really blame him?

When he opened the book, there was a folded sheet of paper that had been attached to the back of the front cover with tape, and opened it to see that it was addressed to him, of all people.

To Izuku,

By the time you receive this, a very significant amount of time will have passed since I wrote this. According to a friend of mine (you may know her as 'Tracer'), you now possess the Quirk that has been passed down from my family for generations since its conception. Enclosed in this journal, you will find every single one of my techniques, along with a few our family had come up with, and all the information you would need about and them I can recall.

Even if you are not of my direct lineage, you are still family, and if I have to be honest, this knowledge will not affect me or my allies, and Tracer vouches for what little she knows of your character.

I bid you good luck and farewell in your future, Izuku, and may this knowledge help you in your future endeavors.

With you in spirit,

Shimada Genji.

"...What?" was all he could say from the message he had just read. This man claimed that he was his ancestor, and that everything written in this journal would help him in mastering his Quirk even further than he already had.

Izuku flipped to a random page and skimmed through the entry about something called 'Swift Strike', and took a moment to stare at his ornately-patterned dragon tattoo, before moving to his computer and searching the internet for any mention of the woman known as 'Tracer'.

What he found wasn't even close to what he was expecting. According to many of the websites the search engine had given him, Tracer was the poster girl for Overwatch, the organization that was considered to be the world's first true Hero Agency and paved the way towards modern heroics, even setting the gold standard for how they should operate (downfall and disbanding aside).

However, the information on her biography stated that she died more than fifty years ago, which simply couldn't be true at all, seeing as how she had been in his room just five minutes prior, which prompted him to try and figure how the woman was able to do what she did. He had considered a fast-acting warp-type Quirk, and the biography confirmed that her Quirk was short-ranged teleportation.

However, Genji Shimada wrote in his message that he personally knew Tracer, and when considering all of the facts involving who she was and the circumstances of him acquiring the journal, Izuku concluded that there was only one answer that made the most sense: Tracer's Quirk was time travel, and that her ability to teleport had something to do with the device that was strapped to her torso.

Izuku wanted to think about the possibilities of how such a power could be used (as well as try to figure out how to apologize for his rash behavior), but opted instead for grabbing his phone and dialing his father's number.

"Hey, Izuku."

"Hey, dad. Are you busy right now?"

"Nah, I'm on break from my patrol. What's up?"

His father hadn't told him much of the Quirk that that came from his family, but because of the sudden appearance and disappearance of a strange woman who somehow knew his name, along with her leaving a journal addressed to him and written by someone who claimed to be his ancestor, he needed the guidance of not just Hisashi Midoriya, but also the Pro Hero Edgeshot, now more than ever.

Notes:

I read a theory on Reddit one time that said the Chinese glowing baby was born in 2020, and that the main story takes place 150 years later, and I've been sticking with that for all of my MHA fics. Fight me.

And I'm aware that Inko and Edgeshot have a 9-10 year age gap, but this actually makes sense with what I'm going for, so I'm also going to make him 43 instead of 33 by the time Izuku starts UA.

I'm going to be completely disregarding the 'Recall' cinematic and all the ones that take place after it, along with the entirety of Overwatch 2 and the Second Omnic Crisis.

Chapter 2: The Sparrow's Melody

Notes:

Right. Nine months later, I finally managed to get my shit together and get chapter 2 out, so here it is at last.

I'm getting a lot of ideas for this fic, so I might have chapter 3 out by mid-September or October.

"Again. The transition took too long."

"Damn it," Izuku cursed under his breath. Stifling the urge to groan, he broke his gaze on the wooden practice dummy in front of him and began walking away from it. Once he was back at his starting position, he turned back around and adjusted his grip on his practice katana, readying himself into another stance.

"Remember: it all has to be in one fluid motion."

He nodded mutely at the advice, and with a deep breath, closed his eyes and focused. A second later, his right arm became overcome with a sensation he could only identify as a sort-of tingling, which then as his dragon tattoo flared to life once again. That same tingling continued when the ethereal dragon circled around him, before it spread throughout his body as it entered through his back.

When he finally opened his eyes, Izuku's vision was filtered by a neon-green aura surrounding him, and he shot forward with a brief streak of the same colored light trailing behind him. Stopping in front of the dummy, he raised his katana for an immediate strike, ignoring the vibration emanating from it as the dragon sank into it. With a cry, the strike made contact with the dummy, where it subsequently broke and his sword splintered from the force.

"Much better," his father commended with a nod, and Izuku breathed out a sigh of relief as he released his hold on his Quirk, allowing it to coil around his arm and sink back into the tattoo. "Let's call it here. We've got a guest coming over for dinner in half-an-hour."

"Who is it?"

"You'll see." Izuku shrugged at the answer, and after cleaning up, taking apart the practice sword, and placing the broken pieces in the trash, he made his way to his bathroom to take a shower.

In the five years that had passed since that fateful day Tracer left Genji's journal behind, the contents of it had been...eye-opening, to say the least. Included was every single one of his techniques and several paragraphs' worth of theory regarding his Quirk, as well as minor tips and tricks that helped to answer any questions Izuku had.

One such technique involved using the latent energy the 'Dragon Force' Quirk possessed to propel oneself forward a short distance, aptly named Swift Strike. However, Genji noted that he had created it after joining Overwatch, meaning it was heavily reliant on his cybernetic enhancements in order for it to actually work properly.

And no matter how many times Izuku practiced with it, he was left tired out after only a single use, and left unable to use it again without resting his body and Quirk (a cooldown, one might even call it).

But what had excited Izuku the most to learn was the Ryūgekiken—channeling his Dragon into a weapon to greatly enhance its strength and durability. There was even a combo written down that involved using Swift Strike to engage enemies—whether it was in the air or straight into a group of them—and then immediately switching into a Ryūgekiken for a quick and powerful attack.

What he had been doing just now, in fact.

Naturally, Izuku thought it was the coolest thing ever, and spent nearly every minute of free training he had to perfect the technique, but because he was still young and wholly inexperienced with using his Quirk in combat, he would end up almost passing out after a single use of both Swift Strike and Ryūgekiken. It had seen drastic improvement over the years, and now that he was fifteen, was now much more able to withstand the strain of channeling his Quirk in rapid succession.

(Hisashi even offhandedly noted that their family's shared Quirk by itself was similar to something called a 'Stand' from the old manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, although Izuku thought that there were more differences than similarities.)

But alongside a guide to improve his Quirk to its fullest potential, Genji also included bits of information about his personal life, including secrets only known within the main branch of the Shimada Clan. Secrets that were assumed forever lost when the Shie Hassaikai wiped them and virtually all opposition out in Japan, forcing thirteen year-old Hisashi to run away and change his name to Shinya Kamihara.

Growing up with a Pro Hero for a father, especially one in the Top Ten, had itself obvious ups and downs. Sure, there were times when Hisashi was gone for more than a few weeks at a time because of missions, but Izuku had grown up knowing he was loved, and that everything his father did as a Pro Hero was so he could live in a safer world.

Naturally, this meant that there was a lot of difficulty on who the title of 'favorite hero' went to: his father, the pro hero Edgeshot, or All Might, one of the very pillars of modern society? After all, children usually stopped regarding their parents as their heroes after turning thirteen, but you really couldn't go wrong with the Ninja aesthetic.

After finishing his shower and changing into more comfortable clothes, Izuku then made his way to the kitchen to see if his mother needed any help with dinner, and as he approached the entrance, he heard an unfamiliar voice coming from the living room.

"-so that's when I said to the guy, 'An ass-kicking is here!'"

The stranger's joke was met with his parents' laughter, and Izuku walked in to see them sitting on the couch across from a lanky, blond-haired man. When he was finally spotted, the three adults all stood up as the two men stood up to greet him.

"Izuku," his father began. "This is an old friend of mine, Yagi Toshinori."

The blond-haired man stepped forward and briefly bowed, before he suddenly gained mass, and what took his place was a hulking figure who sported an eerily-familiar grin.

"It's good to meet you, young Midoriya."

Izuku just blinked. "...what?"

---

Ten Months Later...

Belts? Check.

Harness? Check.

Safeties on? Check.

"Yo, check out what she's wearing."

"Is that what I think it is...?"

"No way is she gonna be using that. What do you think her Quirk is, anyway?"

Ochako couldn't help but smile from the comments she was overhearing as several of the other test-takers watched her check her support gear for the fourth time since donning it. She had to admit, she would have never in a million years considered using anything like what she was wearing right now, but in hindsight, she really should have thought of it sooner. She had expected a belt or something to help with her nausea, but this?

Only someone like Mei Hatsume would think of trying to replicate something like the Omni-Directional Mobility Gear.

When Ochako asked her best friend to make her some support ear for the U.A. entrance exam, she didn't think she would go to this length to help her. But who was she kidding? The entire Hatsume family lived for doing the impossible when it came to technology (she recalled Mei wistfully talking about how she wanted to recreate one of the Bastion units from the Omnic Crisis during one of their sleepovers).

"Just remember to tell everyone who made this baby if they ask!"

But getting permission to allow her to actually use the gear in the exam, on the other hand, had been a bitch to do. Even after filling out all of the required forms more than two months in advance, Ochako didn't hear back from them until just a week before the exam. She wished it was only an issue having to pay some type of fee, but the truth of the matter was that it wasn't vital for her to be without it, which meant it took very low priority.

She felt a bit guilty about having to ask her friend's family to flaunt their name (and maybe even make a couple donations, according to what Mei told her) to the U.A. board of education, but she wasn't about to risk not getting into the school.

"And START!"

Interrupted from her thoughts, she looked up in confusion to see where the voice had come from, and was met with the sight of Present Mic looking down on them and pointing to the very large mock-city gate just ahead of the crowd of students.

"What?!" he yelled down at them. "You think we get countdowns fighting actual villains? Clock's ticking, folks, so get. Your. Butts. MOVING!"

'Is he serious...?'

Turning her gaze back to the students around her, Ochako saw several faces look at each other in confusion, before they collectively 'lit up' as they realized that yes, he really was being serious, and made a mad scramble for the massive door leading to the mock city with the rest quickly following suit.

When she finally reached the entrance, she saw that several students were already starting to rack up points from the various Villain robots in the vicinity, but she ignored them in favor of raising her right arm and focusing on aiming it towards the nearest building.

With the pull of a trigger and a simultaneous slap to her midsection, a cable sprung forth from the mechanism surrounding her arm, and she was pulled into the air with speed that made more than a few heads turn to marvel at the sight, before she eventually retraced the cable and repeated aimed her left arm.

After all—what use was wearing something with Mobility in the name if you didn't use it?

One of the biggest reasons why Ochako went along with using ODM was because Zero Gravity heavily if not completely mitigated the glaring issue of g-force strain and motion sickness on the body during swings. Moreover, she simply didn't have the time to spend countless hours building up core strength, what with having only a year to get with using the thing, but it was entirely smooth sailing.

The ODM Gear itself was adapted from the anti-personnel version from the latter half of the series, rather than the more iconic version that one would think of when they heard the words 'Attack on Titan', and with a few of Mei's personal additions.

Although the structure and mechanism themselves were largely the same (such as aiming the miniature grappling hooks using the arms instead of hips), the mineral that made the gas propulsion possible just didn't exist in the real world, which gave Mei the idea of adding a miniature jetpack rocket underneath the main housing.

...Except neither Mei's parents nor U.A. would allow it, so Ochako would just have to make do with her Quirk.

Alongside the lack of any weapons (for obvious reasons), the handles for each hand that held the triggers for the cables and the rocket propulsion were now connected to the main body through loose hinges that left Ochako able to switch between operating the ODM Gear and using her Quirk on herself or her surroundings in rapid succession.

It may have come from a 150-year-old show, but hot damn was it perfect for her Quirk.

---

Four points.

Fifteen points.

Thirty-two points.

Only three minutes had passed since the start of the practical, and already Izuku was making short work of every Villain robot he came across with his Quirk, with the last few robots having to be taken care of the old-fashioned way to avoid overextending himself. Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to bring even a practice sword because weapons didn't count as support gear, but that didn't mean he wasn't allowed to grab a long piece of rebar from the rubble and use it as a makeshift staff.

(He even had to take a moment and stare in awe at the sight of someone swinging through the air with cables. He couldn't really help but be just a little bit jealous.)

Unlike the written part of the exam, the practical didn't have a minimum point requirement; the only way to secure a spot in the hero course was by scoring in the top thirty-six of students in all exam sites, according to All Might, but Izuku wasn't about to doubt the man's words—his place was already secured if he kept on going at this pace.

To be honest, he felt pretty bad for the other students in the exam. It wasn't fair at all for him with his training to be taking the public entrance exam instead of the recommended one, but the amount of people who knew that Hisashi Shimada and Shinya Kamihara were one and the same could be counted on one hand, and he kind of wanted to keep it that way.

As more time passed, Izuku continued to rack up more and more points alongside helping out any other students who looked like they needed help. He even took the time to help out a purple-haired boy with a brainwashing Quirk gain some of his own points by letting him take control of him and destroying several of the robots. But once he found himself back to his senses when the other boy finally relinquished his control on him, the ground suddenly began to rumble, and they looked up to see an ominous figure having revealed itself to the assembled mass of students.

The Zero-Pointer had finally come out.

A good moment of silence passed where the students did nothing but stare at the titanic robot, wherein it broke the silence by punching the ground just ahead of them, kicking up a massive cloud of dust. Several moments of shocked silence passed, before they all collectively made a run for it the other way. Izuku, however, instead shoved his way towards a distinctive bob of brown hair.

"Hey! You with the grappling hooks!" he yelled, running towards the girl. She had already had her arm outstretched and was ready to high-tail it out of there, but the call-out made her pause and look his way with a confused expression.

"I have a plan!" he said, when he stopped in front of her. "I just need you to grapple us towards that-" he pointed towards the zero-pointer. "-and throw me at it!"

"What?!" she yelled back, amidst all the noise from the robot wheeling its way towards them to the crowd scrambling to get away. "You want us to fight that thing?!"

"No! I just need you to get me up there so I can destroy it!"

The girl just gave him a look for a second, before briefly closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, and then looked back at him. "Okay, I'll do it!" She extended her left arm to him, and as the two of them clasped forearms, Izuku felt himself suddenly become weightless as he started floating in the air (her Quirk, maybe?), when she raised her other hand and fired a cable into the zero-pointer's torso, where they were then pulled up towards it at a high speed.

The zero-pointer, however, ended up immediately noticing them as soon as they entered its line of sight above the dissipating cloud of dust, and moved to grab them accordingly. And with a cry, the girl flung Izuku towards it, where he managed to land on one of its fingers with the help of her gravity-defying Quirk. Utilizing Swift Strike alongside said Quirk, it allowed him to leap a great length towards its head, and with his dragon tattoo flaring to life, he aimed his arm towards it.

"RYŪ GA WAGA TEKI WO KURAU!"

---

Elsewhere...

Siebren de Kuiper woke from his slumber with a sharp intake of air. For several moments, all he did was continue to breathe in and out while trying to recollect his thoughts, but when he tried to open his eyes, he grew confused at the inability to move his eyelids. And that was when he realized that it wasn't like seeing darkness with his eyelids closed; he couldn't see, period.

Why the hell couldn't he see? Did he just go blind all of a sudden?

Confusion and panic quickly turned to shock and horror as Siebren moved his hands to feel for his face, but where he expected to be met with the familiar sensation of bulging roundness, he only found a hauntingly empty space where his eyes and eyebrows were supposed to be, replaced by nothing but the uneven roughness that was scar tissue. Wordlessly, he reached behind his head, then proceeded to move his hands all around his scalp at the realization that he was completely bald.

"What..." he tried to say, before immediately having a coughing fit as his throat was extremely dry. All of a sudden, an unknown hand took hold of his own, pressing a glass of liquid into it, and Siebren drank eagerly.

"What happened to me?" he finally asked, once the water finally quenched his thirst.

"Do you not remember?" a low, baritone voice suddenly asked in Japanese, and Siebren sharply turned to his left at the surprise of there being another person with him.

Although Siebren's command of the language was rudimentary at best as a result of working with Japanese experts in the field of astrophysics, he didn't expect for the unknown man's words to register so clearly. It was as if he'd been speaking it all his life, even more so than Dutch, for some odd reason.

"The hell's wrong with him?" another male, but one that sounded younger, asked from the same general direction.

"This tends to happen from time to time, young Tōya, although it's been quite some time," the other man replied. "And shouldn't you be practicing with the upgraded Doomfist armor right now?"

"I'm working on it," the young man now known as Tōya replied. "And I'm still trying to figure out how to make it work with the Quirk Sensei gave me."

"You know that he will want to know your progress as soon as he is able."

Who was this Sensei...? The name oddly rung a bell in Siebren's mind, but he couldn't recall ever having met anyone who went by such a-

...Oh.

He remembered. He remembered. He was a murderer—no, a monster. He didn't deserve to be called human anymore.

"My son," he whispered. "Dear God, my son..."

He killed...he killed Yoichi, who finally gained the courage to stand up to him just months after he forced a Quirk on him. And then he killed Lena Oxton, as she tried to keep Yoichi's son—his grandson—out of harm's way. And then the ones who followed in Yoichi's footsteps, all the way up to that brave, brave woman who looked him in the eye defiantly...

Like all the others.

Except...it was never him, though, was it? Not really. Whatever happened when he tried to harness that black hole—it released something. Something that went inside him and took control from the inside out. He couldn't remember all of it, but in everything that he could, he had only ever been a spectator; there wasn't anything he could have done but be forced to helplessly watch as he (or whatever was masquerading as himself) committed atrocity after atrocity, all without so much as a nudge.

And then he felt it. That feeling, that sensation of something buried deep within himself...something that was trying to claw its way out. Something was happening to him, but the fear Siebren felt was quickly overpowered by the shame and sorrow of what he had done.

Shhh, it's all right now, someone...something whispered soothingly in his mind. Let me take care of you...

Before he could even blink, pain incarnate flooded his entire being. Only, it was something different from the physical sensation, but Siebren found that was the only way to describe what he was feeling. It was the familiar pain of his mind and soul being locked away once more.

"No...no, please..." He didn't know what these...these monsters were keeping him captive for, but he wanted no more part in it. Once upon a time, he wondered if this was what it felt to die, and even welcomed it if it meant finally having a reprieve from this curse. But as he was forced to relive it again and again, he realized that this was only a product of this Hell of his own making.

Was it too much to ask for peace? Did God hate him so much that he would be damned to forever be a stranger in his own body?

Once upon a time, Siebren longed for any reprieve from this Hell of his own making, and even found himself childishly wishing for someone, anyone to come rescue him. But the longer that time went on, the more he came to realize that there would be no one coming to save him.

There never had been.

He could only wish that that failed experiment truly killed him, all those years ago.

And in that brief window of time he had left as himself, Siebren wondered whether or not anyone still thought of him. If someone, anyone ever wondered where he was before finally giving up on him.

But that moment went as quickly as it came, as that damned melody that haunted his every waking moment filled his senses once again, and Siebren screamed out to the heavens in terror and sorrow before being silenced with knowing only peaceful nothingness as the Other once again took his place.

There was nothing but silence in the room for nearly an entire minute before Kurogiri spoke.

"Sensei? Are you with us?" he tentatively asked. The face that once belonged to Siebren de Kuiper wordlessly looked over to him, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"My apologies, Kurogiri," All For One murmured. "It appears I've had another lapse again."

Notes:

I may or may not have overdone it a bit by giving Ochako ODM this early, but I've wanted her to have it while I was brainstorming chapter 1. And who really gives a shit? I no longer have the patience to spend 3-4 chapters building up to yet another Entrance Exam, not since I'm going balls to the wall with it in the DBZ fic.

You can thank Logar3 for coming up with the idea of Ochako using ODM Gear in his fic Restless. I even asked for permission and everything.

Would it be really that far-fetched to make Sigma older than canon, and then have the sinister alternate personality being All For One, as well as making him the first OFA user's father instead of older brother? Naturally, this would also merge the League of Villains with the current version of Talon, so make of that what you will. (EDIT 8/9: I seem to fucked up really hard here. I could've sworn Sigma was suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder ever since his origin story came out, but apparently it's actually not.

Fuck it, I can still make this work.)

By the way, this doesn't have any significance to the plot, but I used Sigma's failed experiment as the cause for Quirks appearing in the world.

Chapter 3: The Scion

Notes:

Right. Here's chapter 3. This is where more AU part of the story starts to come in.

"You seem particularly aggravated today."

"Oh, do I?" Tōya said under his breath. Lowering his arm from having punched yet another training robot into the cement wall in front of him, he turned to see Kurogiri standing in the doorway wheeling in a cart with a bottle of what looked to be whiskey and two glasses. He spared another glance at the newest crater at the edge of the Talon training facility, before moving to press a switch inside his right gauntlet.

With a hiss, the mechanized armor he was wearing opened outwards, then stepped out onto the floor and walked over to Kurogiri. "You didn't have to do this, you know."

"Indeed, I didn't. But I understand this year would be especially trying, tonight."

"...yeah," Tōya replied, and raised his glass to Kurogiri. "Well, cheers, old man." He took a gulp of the whiskey, humming in satisfaction from the soothing burn of the alcohol, before he downed the rest of it. It was the year Shōto would be starting U.A., and it was the anniversary since he ran away, so he'd prefer not to have any reminders he didn't need, thank you very much.

Kurogiri nodded behind him as he took his own sip. "You seem to be handling the upgrades quite well."

Tōya snorted. "Yeah, well when you have a Quirk that's literally made to work with it, it doesn't really take a lot."

Although the perks that came with Sensei's protégé were pretty nice, he wasn't a fool—whatever great plan involving All Might the man had been grooming him for for eight years was finally going to be happening soon, but as long as he could still get what he wanted in the end, he would be content with whatever All For One had in store for him. And besides, he kinda owed the guy, what with saving his life and all.

After that fateful night of going overboard with his Quirk and faking his own death, he spent the next several days traveling as far as Tokyo, scavenging and stealing whatever and whenever he could in order to survive. Given how severe his burns were, it didn't take him two brain cells to see that any hospital he went to would immediately notify Endeavor of his continued existence, but it was either that or dying of infection and sepsis.

Except his desire of bringing down hell upon Endeavor overpowered his rational thinking, so he resorted to trying to use his Quirk to threaten anyone and everyone he could to treat his burns and get him medical supplies. But it ended up backfiring when a kind woman talked him down after he threatened her, even going so far as to give him money and food alongside applying burn cream on his wounds and replacing his bandages.

She even offered to take him in (which he very nearly accepted), until she mentioned that she would get help from a Pro Hero, and he realized that it was too good to be true, no matter how tempting it was. He train-hopped out of the entire city later that night, and as much as he wanted to, he never once tried to go back and apologize.

The next five years were spent doing jobs for various Villain organizations and black market dealers, as they were the only ones who would willingly get him medical supplies without asking any questions. It went like this day in and day out, until one day after replacing his newest set of bandages, he finally got careless and ended up pissing off the wrong guy, and was saved from being forced to use his Quirk to defend himself by Kurogiri, who was on orders to follow him.

Only after a brief time in a safe house having his wounds properly cleaned and treated by the other man, was the real reason why he was helping Tōya revealed—All For One had known exactly who he was from the very start, and even offered him a place in Talon.

His original plan was supposed to be using Cremation to make a name for himself as a Villian in the criminal underworld, alone, and work towards dismantling everything Endeavor had built for himself, and eventually reveal himself to his former family in the most psychologically-damaging way possible.

Until one day Sensei also offered to replace his Quirk, and even make him the ninth person to wield the Doomfist Armor—upgraded from a gauntlet wielded by the Scourge of Numbani and All For One's first Successor, to a full power-suit in response to the growing strength of Quirks each generation. Apparently, it used some of the designs from one of the German Crusader suits from the Battle of Eichenwalde.

"You've already cast away all ties you once had with your family—what's your Quirk compared to that? In this, you would truly be your own man, free of the shackles being Endeavor's son placed on you. You could become even greater than you ever imagined."

From African warlords, Talon leaders, European political dissidents, all the way down to the oldest son of one of the top Japanese Heroes. He would be lying if taking on the collective moniker of some of the most well-known Villains of the past two hundred years wasn't at least a little intriguing, but the sheer notion of being able to cause more damage than with Cremation was enough for him to accept.

That was the day Tōya finally cast away the Todoroki name and became Tōya Shigaraki.

---

Izuku lay prone in his bed as he slept, blissfully unaware of the world around him. That was, until he was forced out of said sleep by the blaring cacophony that was his cell phone's ringtone. Taking a deep breath, he mindlessly reached across his bed for the device and hit 'answer'.

"H-hello?" he asked groggily, tapping the 'speaker' icon.

"Midoriya-kun!" exclaimed the voice of Tenya Iida, causing Izuku to wince and turn the volume down. "The plan was supposed to be that we meet up at the train station before rush hour! I don't know how our homeroom teacher will respond if you're late on the first day!"

Izuku's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the other boy's words, and checked the clock on his phone, which undoubtedly read exactly seven o'clock.

"Oh, shit." Immediately, he closed the call and shot out of bed and used Swift Strike in repeated intervals to grab his U.A. uniform out of his closet, before rushing to his bathroom to take a shower. Apparently, he ended up sleeping through the alarm he had set the night before. Usually, he would be woken up by either of his parents, but they had been gone since Saturday on a romantic getaway.

And Izuku, in true teenage fashion, immediately used the opportunity to stay up later than he was supposed to playing video games.

When he was finally finished showering and dressed, Izuku double and triple-checked his backpack to see that he had everything he needed, Izuku then made a break for the train station. After risking several infractions for public Quirk use and over an hour of anxiously checking his schedule on the train to Musutafu and calling Tenya to make sure he wasn't going to be late, he was able to make it to U.A. and the massive door that led to Class 1-A just shy of eight-thirty.

When he opened the door, he was met with the sight of Tenya reprimanding another student who had his feet placed on his desk.

"You are desecrating the memory of your predecessors and the ones who sat in that very desk!"

"Memory? Take a look around you, four-eyes—no one gives a shit."

Tenya looked visibly affronted by the statement, and was about to make his retort when he spotted Izuku standing in the doorway. "Oh good, you've made it," he began, walking towards him. "I was starting to get worried."

"I may or may not have left my room a mess," Izuku shrugged. "Anyway, how come you're not sleepy? You got up at five."

"Black coffee. What's your excuse? Didn't I specifically suggest that you not stay up past one o'clock?"

"Okay, but I was on a win streak. You can't blame me for wanting to play one more game."

"...Yes I can," Tenya deadpanned. "You would've been late and risked getting expelled if I didn't call you in time."

Having grown up in the same city, attended the same middle school, and had connections in Heroics, it was painfully obvious that Izuku and Tenya immediately bonded over their mutual interest in following their respective families' footsteps, although Izuku kept trying (and failing) to get his friend into video games. His brother Tensei, on the other hand, was a lot more easygoing and would regularly play Hero-Strike with him whenever he wasn't busy with Hero work as Ingenium.

"I'll never understand why you play that game so much," Tenya continued.

"Well maybe if you actually join us for once, then—"

"Hey, you're the guy with the spirit dragon!"

At the interruption, Izuku turned to see the brown-haired girl who helped him in the entrance exam. "Oh, you were the one who had the, uh—" He snapped his fingers. "—the grappling hooks! Like Spider-Man!"

"Yeah, that was me!" she replied excitedly. "Man, the way your arm went all glowy and how that dragon just went into the zero-pointer—it was like something from an anime!"

"If I may," Tenya interjected. "How did you come up with the idea for your support gear? I could've sworn I've seen it from somewhere."

Before the girl could answer, however, their conversation was interrupted by a fourth voice coming from behind her.

"Oi." Izuku could only look on in confusion as a very haggard-looking man wearing a black jumpsuit and a gray scarf around his shoulders appeared behind the girl, before the both of them stepped out of the way to let him into the classroom.

"It took an entire eight seconds for you all to be quiet. You kids need to be more efficient with your time. Anyway, my name's Aizawa Shōta and I'm your homeroom teacher," he said, before reaching into the sleeping bag he was dragging. "If you look inside your desk, you'll see these uniforms. I need you to go to the locker rooms and change into them and meet me out on the field. Now get moving."

---

After the sight of Katsuki Bakugō yelling 'DIE!' as he used his explosive Quirk on the softball, Izuku thought the Quirk Apprehension Test would have been a good way for everyone to get used to using their Quirks so openly in school, based on the excited murmuring coming from his classmates' reactions.

"Hell yeah! We get to use our Quirks as much as I want!"

"Oh wow, this is gonna be so fun!"

Their teacher, on the other hand, looked like he thought it was the opposite. "...Fun? Which one of you said that?" The chatter among the class immediately descended to an awkward silence as many of them collectively looked at a pink-skinned girl, who sheepishly raised her hand.

"Look, you're all new to this sort of thing, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt," he continued, sweeping his gaze over the rest of the class. "But there is a time and place to have fun, and this shouldn't be either of them. Having fun means letting your guard down and relaxing, and in the field of Heroics, letting your guard down could mean the Villain you're chasing ends up getting away, or whoever you're trying to rescue ends up dying."

Aizawa paused for a moment to pick up another softball from the cart, before he turned back to the class. "So if after everything I've said that you still think this is fun, then consider this—whoever ends up placing last in this test is out of the hero course."

Izuku and the rest of the class were immediately in uproar, until Aizawa silenced them all with a raised hand. "This world is unforgiving—and I mean unforgiving—when it comes to making mistakes. For every new hero on the scene, there are at least three new Villains, whether they're just petty thugs or part of organized crime. About a hundred years ago, after the Omnic Crisis, there were barely any powerful Quirks back then, so the United Nations actually cared about enforcing peace."

"You mean back when Overwatch used to be around," Izuku said.

Aizawa looked at him. "Exactly. Midoriya, right?"

He nodded. "Yes, sensei."

Aizawa picked up another ball from the crate and tossed it to him. "You're up next."

---

The rest of the Quirk Apprehension Test for Izuku went as follows: he got a higher-than-average score in the ball throw because his Quirk couldn't really do anything. The other tests were more than easy enough for him to do very well in thanks to repeated uses of Swift Strike and his own physical ability from his father's training, and ultimately ended at second place under Momo Yaoyorozu. Subsequently, last place went to a rather short boy named Minoru Mineta.

And it was only until after he started to look like he was going to have a nervous breakdown, did Aizawa reveal the expulsion threat was a 'logical ruse' the whole time and was only there to make sure everyone tried their absolute hardest. It was a bit cruel, in Izuku's opinion, but he couldn't deny the fact it did get the job done.

"Hey! You guys!"

At the voice coming from behind him, he turned around to see the girl with the gravity Quirk (he never heard her name, come to think of it) walking over to him and Tenya, with a pink-haired girl in tow behind him.

"Hope you don't mind us tagging along," she continued.

"It's no problem," Izuku replied. "Uh...your name's Uraraka-san, right?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! I'm Uraraka Ochako. You're Midoriya Izuku and...Iida Tenya! Did I get that right?" At their nods, she then gestured to the other girl standing next to her with both hands. "And this is Hatsume Mei! She's the one who made my support gear for the entrance exam."

"'Sup," Mei greeted, casually waving.

"Wait, that was you?" Tenya asked incredulously. "By the way, Uraraka-kun—how did you manage to get the right paperwork to get it allowed? You didn't seem to be

"My parents own a support company," Mei interjected. "A bit of money in the right hands usually goes a long way."

Tenya looked like he doubted her, but he didn't say anything about it. "Is the gear inspired, by any chance? I could've sworn I've seen it somewhere..."

"Yup. You ever heard of 'Attack on Titan?'"

"No, I can't say I have," Tenya admitted, putting a hand to his chin.

"Okay, so it's this really old anime from, like, a hundred years ago, but it's about these really giant humans called Titans, and..."

Ochako turned to Izuku. "So are you guys going to the train station? You mind if we come, too?

"Well, uh," Izuku began. "My parents won't be back until, like, tomorrow, so Iida-kun and I were just gonna go get food at this ramen place. You guys wanna come with?"

"Uh, sure, if Mei's fine with it," Ochako said, looking to her friend.

The two of them looked over to see Mei biting down on her hand for some reason. "Huh? Oh—sure, I'm down."

"Sweet," Izuku said, before he pointed to the road with his thumb. "We, uh, we should probably get going before they get full. I heard it's a really popular hangout spot for the U.A. students."

---

Class 1-A's first official day of classes the next day were proving to be...lackluster, to say the least. Compared to the previous day where everyone was allowed to let loose with their Quirks, it was mostly the usual general education subjects, from English with Present Mic, Modern Literature with Cementoss, Modern Hero Art History with Midnight, and Math with Ectoplasm.

All in all, your run-of-the-mill Japanese high school experience. Up until their next class right after the lunch break, that was.

When they had gotten over the initial amazement that was Lunch Rush's cooking, Izuku, Ochako, and Tenya also spent a bit of time speculating over who their next teacher would be as they walked back to their classroom.

"So who do you think the next one is?" Ochako asked. "Is it gonna be another Hero?"

"I'm not sure," Izuku replied. "All I know is we're gonna learn about ethics, I think."

"Ethics of Quirks and Heroics, to be exact," Tenya corrected. "But I can't say I know who'll be teaching us. All that was said on the timetable on my schedule was that it would be announced."

There were still a few minutes to spare when the three of them went back to their respective seats, with several students spending that time either talking to each other or using their cell phones. It went as quickly at it came as the bell, however, as soon after the bell finally rang, and the chatter in the room quickly died down as the door opened to reveal...an Omnic.

Not just an Omnic—an Omnic that was floating.

"Good morning," the robot greeted with a slight bow. "My name is Zenyatta Tekhartha, and I will be your teacher in Ethics of Quirks and Heroics."

Immediately, there was murmuring around the class at his statement, because the last Izuku heard, Omnics weren't allowed to become teachers. Compared to western nations like the United States and United Kingdom, there was still heavy discrimination against them in Southeast Asia because of how much damage the Gwishin Omnics caused, before South Korea and China finally destroyed the omnium that kept producing them.

"I'm certain many, if not all of you have questions regarding an Omnic teaching at U.A.," Zenyatta continued. "So please—ask away."

Izuku—and a good three-quarters of the room, he noticed—all immediately raised their hands, and their newfound teacher surveyed the room for a moment before pointing to Izuku's general direction.

"And your name is, young lady?"

"Yaoyorozu Momo, sensei. Will we be learning about the effects of the Omnic Crisis and Overwatch's influence?"

Zenyatta nodded. "Indeed we will, Yaoyorozu-san. In fact, the majority of your first semester will focus on those two subjects, given how recent they were." He pointed to another student, this time at the opposite side of the room. "And your name?"

"Asui Tsuyu. I apologize for my rudeness, but why exactly are you allowed to teach here?"

Izuku—and just about everyone else in 1-A—promptly turned to stare at her. Okay, he was thinking it like everyone else probably was, he admitted, but you don't just say it like that!

"A perfectly valid question," Zenyatta chuckled. "Let's say Principal Nezu and I have...an accord, of sorts. I assure you, my employment here is legal." He turned his gaze back to the rest of the class. "Any other questions?"

---

"My Quirk is called One For All," All Might began, in his 'deflated' state. "It was passed down to me by my master, and from the users before her. It's a stockpile of power that's given me the ability to perform great feats of strength all these years of being a hero."

"...Why are you telling me this?"

"I'm called the Symbol of Peace because of what I represent to society, and it was my goal to be someone everyone could look to," All Might continued, before he lifted his dress shirt to reveal nasty spiral-looking scar. "Five years ago, I got this injury defeating one of the most dangerous men to ever exist—as a result, I can't stay powered up for more than three hours a day."  He sighed and dropped the hem of his shirt, allowing it to cover the scar again.

"Eventually, my body won't be able to sustain One For All anymore, but because I'm the Symbol of Peace, criminals and Villains would immediately spread chaos the moment I announced my retirement." He looked back up to Izuku. "Your father and I have been friends for many years, and like with One For All, he shared with me his past as a Shimada. It's been my goal for thirty years to try to bring back Overwatch, and after I talked with your parents—and considering your, uh, unique heritage—I think you're the best person to make that happen."

"..."

"I'm saying that I would like you to become my successor and inherit One For All."

"No, I heard you the first time. Just...what?"

Izuku ultimately told him he had to think about it. However, it would have also been the absolute worst lie he had ever told if he said he didn't want to immediately say yes. You don't just reject the Symbol of Peace if he says he wants you to take his place one day, but that was the thing—from the moment he learned what Pro Heroes were, he had wanted to live up to his father's and Genji's examples, but with All Might's added in?

It was just too much baggage. He needed time to process this. But hopefully, it would be a long while before he actually had to give his answer.

After an enlightening class period of Zenyatta answering several questions about his class and his own past (apparently he was famous for helping with Omnic-human relations back in the day), as well as a brief overview on the history of Quirks and how that led to the creation of Omnics, the majority of the class immediately started talking among themselves with varying degrees of praise for their teacher.

To be honest, it had to have been the most interesting first class he'd ever had.

"I am...walking through the door like a normal person!"

Up until that happened.

Notes:

I thought I'd be clever by making Tōya the ninth person to be called Doomfist use power armor as a step-up from a mechanized gauntlet and as an obvious parallel to OFA and canon Izuku using Full Cowl. But where's Tenko Shimura in all this? You'll see. Overwatch had a lasting impact on the world in this fic, after all, and it inspired much more than just the basis of Professional Heroics as everyone knows it.

The chapter title is meant to reference how the first 3 Doomfists (Savior, Scourge, Successor) all have titles that start with 's', so I'm just continuing the tradition.

Izuku getting OFA wouldn't go well with a lot of people because he would be pointlessly OP, but I came up with a solution—nerf OFA to where it only Quirkless people who get it (i.e. All Might and canon Izuku) can manifest it as strength, but for all the people who had it alongside a Quirk, that stockpiled energy goes towards their Quirk and their aptitude in using it. Thoughts?

Because Izuku grew up in Tokyo instead of Musutafu, he and Bakugō are actually meeting for the first time.

Tenya being an avid gamer seems a bit too far-fetched to do, but no one ever said Tensei couldn't be. Also, you can probably guess where Hero-Strike comes from. This'll be a plot point, don't worry.

By the way, I'm looking for a beta to review new chapters for any of my fics and bounce ideas off of if anyone's interested.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of "The World Could Always Use More Heroes!"