Chapter 55 - My SI Stash #55 - One Foot In the Void by The Master Artificer (My Hero Academia) (2/2)

Suddenly, I could feel Bakugou's aura shift, and not in a good way. All at once, he was very interested, even if he didn't say a word. No, it was that he was staring at me with one red eye, and even I could tell he was daring me to say yes, just so he could rip my tongue out for even suggesting he could run with the likes of him.

Do I pat the tiger bearing his fangs on the head, or should I sock him in the face?

”It's on the list. There are a few other places I'm considering.” Survey says: split the difference and make him sweat. Wait, his sweat is what makes him explosive, right? Okay, let's not do that. Or at least make him sweat figuratively.

Bakugou just scoffs and then goes back to staring out the window. As I do, I happen to see a large figure suddenly rise up amidst the cityscape. A woman. Mt. Lady. A woman with a superpower to becomeas tall as some city skyscr_a_p_ers.

This was going to take some getting used to.

Bakugou's house was in a Japanese suburb in Mustafu, not far from Tokyo proper, which made sense considering he was going to the same school as Midoriya prior to UA. I was given the tour and the spare bedroom, which was right next door to Bakugou's. I had suppress a mirthless laugh. Mornings were gonna be fun fun fun fun fun fun FUN trying to compete with this guy in the morning.

I started unpacking my stuff, which was a great time to take stock of what I had on me.

I had taken two bags with me, including my backpack, which was full of my usual roundup of electronic things. Chief among them was my laptop. It was still the same as when I had it replaced with my old one when I fried the power system. Canned air, gaming mouse and headphones. I set up on the nearby desk and turned it on. Surprisingly, my suite of games was still on there: League of Legends, MTG Arena, Rainbow Six: Siege, and Starcraft II. More importantly, a novel that I had been working on for the last few years was still there, too. If that didn't survive the trip, I probably would've had an aneurysm.

The rest of my stuff was clothes, enough to last maybe a week and half, and a couple of books on Japan I had to help refresh my memory on the culture. There was nothing about hero culture in them, though. That was going to come back to bite me in the a_s_s sooner rather than later.

With a few more minutes until dinner was called, I decide to do something that was probably going to set the whole tone of how this was going to go. I pulled out my (Japanese) smartphone, and dialed one number: the one for home.

”We're sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service-”

I hung up, not even wanting to hear the rest as I flopped onto the bed.

On my own in a foreign country with a host brother that would not hesitate to make my life hell and only one and a half parents to keep him in check.

A normal person would've broken down and cried.

Me? I almost broke my new phone throwing it to the ground and screaming a low, gurgling scream into the pillow.

School started the next day, and I was going to Aldera Middle with Bakugou. And it looked like he wanted absolutely nothing to do with me, and just gave me a glare when I tried to match his pace. So I just kind of let him go, as we had a few extra minutes before class actually began. I had to introduce myself to the teacher in the office before class began, kind of like Persona 3 and 5. Sadly, no Mama Kawakami equivalent to be found here, although he did look at least mildly impressed to meet an actual American transfer student. It also came with a comment on how ”heroic” I looked, having remained 6'1 and some semblance of muscle mass.

Not sure what the teacher was on, I was a nerd through-and-through and pretty much had the body to show for it, as far I was concerned.

And then...along came the introductions.

I took the chalk and scribbled my name in both English and katakana on the board and turned to the class and presented myself from the front of the class.

”Hello, all. My name's Ian Giles Wendells. I'm from the United States, and I'll be staying here for the rest of the year. Please, take care of me.”

Bakugou just glared his usual glare. I could see Midoriya, looking at me with something between curiosity and awe. It made me wonder if I was going to have my own entry in his ”Notes For the Future” series, even if I hadn't shown a Quirk yet. Did I even have one? I'd hate to be another Quirkless guy who sticks out in a Quirky world like Midoriya. Or worse, I'd end up being the one who ends up taking One For All from him.

...knowing my luck, that's exactly how this was going to go.

And the question was asked.

”What do you want to do for a living, Wendells-san?”

Bakugou was suddenly all ears again, like he was in the car the day I arrived the last time the question popped up. I merely shrugged and replied, ”Pro hero. Chef. Author. Pro gamer. Maybe all four. Haven't quite decided yet.”

By God, the look on Bakugou's face. If he could make me explode by boring holes into my soul with his eyes… ”Like hell you're going to be a pro hero. Only one person in this school is going to UA and be the Number One hero, and that's me. Not you, and not that Quirkless shit Deku.”

Midoriya jumped, hearing his name mentioned.

”Iunno, now I might just become all four just to spite you,” I said airily. ”What'cha gonna do about it?”

Bakugou huffed, folding his arms. ”Whatever. F_u_c_k_i_n_g nerd.”

I was actually kind of surprised. I was thinking that he'd probably leap out of his chair to attack me. But instead, he just kind of waved me off like a dismissive food critic, wrecking some poor restaurateur's dreams with a gesture of ”indifference.” I figured he knew it would look bad if his host brother came back from school with a black eye that he gave him. Of course, that would change if I did decide to become a pro hero.

With what Quirk? That smarmy part of my brain said.

Feeling mildly defeated, I instead took my seat in the back, feeling the gaze of everyone on me. I looked towards Midoriya, and he promptly looked away, frantically scribbling into a notebook. I pulled out the textbook everyone had and started taking notes.

The rest of the day wasn't really noteworthy. Well, except for a handful of girls who were now swarming me, asking me questions about the States and what guys and heroes were like there. I hadn't paid attention to the American stuff in the series, although I knew they were a bit more lax with Quirks than they were here...which I could totally see, unfortunately. If Quirks were anything like guns, most people would be defending the right to use Quirks however they wanted with all the fire they would put towards defending the Second Amendment. It makes sense when you think about how the South tends to be.

But what was more important was that I decided to head into town to take in the rest of the area after school. Because that's where things really took off at MACH 2 for me.

I just happened to be walking down the street, looking around at what was around. I did notice there was an arcade in town, but I didn't want to go in, knowing I'd get s_u_c_k_e_d into the gameplay and probably end up getting back to school late. And then someone came out of a store nearby. It was hard not to recognize her, that black hair, the innocent black eyes.

What was Momo Yaoyorozu doing out in Mustafu? Didn't she live way further north, in Aichi? I guess since she was a lock for UA, she had moved here, or was in the process thereof. We passed each other briefly in the street, and we locked eyes for all of a second.

And then I just kept walking.

Well, that was rather anticlimactic-

”LOOK OUT!”

Someone shouted something from up high. I spun around on my heel.

There was a huge pane of glass falling from the sky. It was going to fall on Momo's head. Glass that size was heavy, heavy enough to…

It was going to kill her.

No.

No way!

Was this particular timeline I was in so cruel as to off Momo before she even showed up at UA!?

I started running, but even as I did, I could tell I was way off-tempo. Momo had frozen, and if she was going to create something that could save her, she'd never get it off in time, either. She was going to die, and I would be six feet from her splattered remains.

But I still kept running, hoping for a miracle.

I couldn't let this happen!

I had to do something!

And that's when I heard it.

Think of a line.

A line?

Think of a line that separates two sides. You and that girl exist on one side.

I was still running towards Momo, despite knowing I was still gonna be way too late to save her. But maybe...if this is really MHA, and I was brought here for a reason, then I had to have a Quirk. I had to!

Push her to the other side.

I can't reach her, though!

Push her to the other side.

I take a flying leap, stretching out my arms. And in that moment, I see something ripple out from my hands, invisible save only for a minor crackle of red energy.

The window fell and shattered.

And Momo was perfectly fine, despite being surrounded by a ton of shattered glass. For some reason, I was too, even though I was resting on some pretty big and nasty shards. What? And then, when I looked around, I noticed that the world around me was different again. The world was twisting and bending a little, like reality itself was distorting. All except for Momo; she looked like she was still her normal self.

”What the…?” Momo asked, looking around.

This was my Quirk, apparently.

And the thing is, I kind of knew what this looked like.

This was suspiciously a whole lot like what the Rift Plane looked like in Warframe.

Did that mean my Quirk functioned like Limbo's abilities?

...I'm gonna kill that Man in the Wall for this.