Friday morning came with a problem.
Rei stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, running a hand through his messy black hair. Dark circles under his eyes. Face a bit paler than usual.
'I look like hell.'
Four hours of sleep. That's all he'd managed last night after the villain fight. His body was fine—the Spider Quirk's enhanced recovery meant he wasn't physically exhausted. But his mind?
His mind was running on fumes.
'Can't keep this up,' Rei thought as he splashed cold water on his face. 'School, training, patrol. Something's gotta change.'
The alarm on his phone went off. 7:15 AM. Time to get ready for school.
Rei grabbed his uniform and got dressed on autopilot. Breakfast was another cup of instant ramen—he really needed to learn how to cook actual food. His body was burning through calories like crazy with all the training and fighting.
'Add that to the list,' he thought tiredly. 'Learn to cook. Sleep more. Don't die.'
The walk to school felt longer than usual. His enhanced senses picked up every sound, every smell, every movement. Normally that was useful. Right now, it was just overwhelming.
'Focus,' Rei told himself. 'Just get through today. Weekend's coming. Can catch up on sleep then.'
Aldera junior high appeared ahead. Students filtering through the gates. The usual morning chaos.
Rei walked through the entrance and headed to his locker. Swap shoes. Go to class. Pretend everything was normal.
Except when he got to his locker, someone was waiting.
Izuku Midoriya.
The green-haired kid was standing nearby, clutching his notebook, looking nervous.
'Great,' Rei thought. 'What now?'
Their eyes met. Midoriya gave a small, awkward wave.
"M-morning, Mizuki-kun."
"Morning," Rei replied, keeping his tone neutral.
He opened his locker and started changing shoes, hoping that would be the end of it.
It wasn't.
"Um, Mizuki-kun?" Midoriya shifted his weight. "Can I... can I ask you something?"
Rei paused. Every instinct told him to shut this down. Keep distance. Stay invisible.
But Midoriya's face was so genuinely curious and non-threatening that Rei found himself saying, "Sure."
Midoriya's eyes lit up. He flipped open his notebook to a page covered in sketches and notes.
"Your Quirk—Spider, right? I've seen you use it during P.E. The wall-crawling and enhanced agility. But I was wondering..." He pointed to a rough sketch he'd drawn. "Does it also enhance your strength proportionally? Like actual spiders can lift multiple times their body weight, so theoretically—"
"You've been analyzing my Quirk?" Rei cut in, surprised.
Midoriya froze, face going red. "I—I'm sorry! I know that's weird! I just—I like analyzing Quirks, and yours is really interesting, and I didn't mean to be creepy or—"
"It's fine." Rei held up a hand. "Just... unexpected."
'Right,' he remembered. 'Midoriya's whole thing is hero analysis. He does this with everyone.'
Midoriya relaxed slightly. "So... does it? Enhance strength proportionally?"
Rei considered how to answer. The original Rei had kept his Quirk's full capabilities pretty private. But some basic information was common knowledge.
"Yeah," Rei said. "Proportional strength increase. Nothing crazy, but more than baseline human."
"That's so cool!" Midoriya started scribbling notes. "And the wall-crawling works on any surface? What about ice or—"
"Midoriya." Rei's tone was gentle but firm. "It's early. Maybe save the interrogation for later?"
"Right! Sorry!" Midoriya snapped his notebook shut, embarrassed. "I get carried away sometimes. Sorry!"
He hurried off toward the classroom, leaving Rei standing there.
'Weird kid,' Rei thought. 'But... not bad, just weird.'
In his previous life, Rei would've been annoyed by someone analyzing him like that. It was a security risk. Information that could be used against him.
But here? Midoriya's interest was genuine. Innocent. Just a hero fanboy doing what hero fanboys did.
'He's going to be something special,' Rei thought as he finished changing shoes. 'If he survives long enough to reach his potential.'
The image of the USJ attack flashed through his mind. Midoriya nearly dying against the Nomu. All Might pushed to his limit.
'Three months,' Rei calculated. 'Maybe four. That's when the League of Villains makes their move.'
He needed to be ready by then. Strong enough to make a difference when it mattered.
'Which means tonight, I train harder.'
---
Class dragged.
Rei tried to focus on the lectures, but his mind kept wandering. Running through combat scenarios. Analyzing his fight with the stone villain. Identifying weaknesses in his technique.
'I relied too much on mobility,' he thought during math class. 'Against an opponent who can manipulate the environment, that's dangerous. Need more versatility.'
By lunch, he was mentally exhausted.
Rei grabbed his convenience store bento and headed back to the classroom. Most students had gone to the cafeteria or outside. The room was quiet.
He sat at his desk by the window and unpacked his lunch. Rice, some vegetables, a bit of fish. Not great, but fuel was fuel.
Rei was halfway through eating when the door slid open.
Katsuki Bakugo walked in, hands in pockets, that permanent scowl on his face. He glanced around the room, spotted Rei, and—
Walked over.
'Oh no.'
"Oi." Bakugo stopped in front of Rei's desk. "You're Mizuki, right?"
Rei looked up, keeping his expression blank. "Yeah."
"You got a Spider Quirk or something?"
"Yeah."
Bakugo's eyes narrowed. "You applying to UA?"
'How does he know that?' Rei thought. Then he remembered—the career counseling forms they'd filled out last week. Teachers probably mentioned it.
"Thinking about it," Rei said carefully.
"Tch." Bakugo's scowl deepened. "Whatever. Just stay out of my way during the exam. I'm getting the top score, and I don't need extras slowing me down."
With that, he turned and walked back out of the classroom.
Rei stared after him.
'That was... weirdly aggressive. Even for Bakugo.'
But also revealing. Bakugo had sought him out specifically. Which meant he saw Rei as potential competition. Someone worth acknowledging, even if just to dismiss.
'Interesting,' Rei thought, finishing his lunch. 'The original Rei was invisible. But now, with me training, getting stronger... I'm starting to show up on people's radar.'
That was dangerous. The whole point was to stay low-profile until the exam.
'Maybe I pushed too hard in P.E.,' Rei considered. 'Need to tone it down. Be good, but not too good.'
The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Students started filtering back in.
Rei packed up his bento and prepared for afternoon classes.
Just a few more hours. Then he could go train.
Then he could go patrol.
Then maybe, if he was lucky, he'd get some actual sleep.
'Three more weeks,' he reminded himself. 'Just hold it together for three more weeks.'
---
The afternoon was a blur.
English class. Science class. Then finally, the dismissal bell.
Rei packed up his stuff and left quickly, avoiding any more interactions. His social battery was completely drained.
The train ride to the forest felt longer than usual. Rei caught himself nearly dozing off twice.
'Get it together,' he mentally slapped himself. 'You've operated on less sleep than this. Stop being weak.'
But that was the problem, wasn't it? In his previous life, he'd been an adult. His body had been trained for years to handle sleep deprivation, stress, pain.
This body was fifteen. Still developing. Still growing.
He was pushing it too hard.
The forest appeared ahead. Rei got off at his stop and walked the familiar trail to his clearing.
Except when he got there, he wasn't alone.
A girl was sitting on one of the fallen logs, eating an apple. She looked about his age, maybe sixteen. Long black hair tied in a ponytail. School uniform he didn't recognize. And her eyes—sharp, calculating eyes—locked onto him the moment he entered the clearing.
"Took you long enough," she said casually. "I've been waiting for like twenty minutes."
Rei stopped, every sense immediately on alert.
'Who is she? How did she find this place? Is she a threat?'
His instinctively moved his wrist, ready to web her if necessary.
The girl noticed and smiled. "Relax. I'm not here to fight. Just curious."
"Curious about what?" Rei's voice was flat, dangerous.
"About the spider guy who's been beating up criminals at night." She took another bite of her apple. "You're getting pretty good at the whole vigilante thing. Very mysterious. Very cool."
Rei's blood ran cold.
'She knows.'
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said carefully.
"Sure you don't." The girl stood up, brushing off her skirt. "Black tracksuit. Spider-themed powers. Webs bad guys and disappears. That's not you at all."
'How?' Rei's mind raced. 'I was careful. I stayed in the shadows. I never let anyone get a good look at me.'
The girl seemed to read his thoughts. "You were careful. But I'm better at tracking than you are at hiding." She walked closer, and Rei tensed. "Relax. Like I said, I'm not here to fight. I'm here to offer advice."
"I don't need advice."
"Yeah, you do." She stopped a few meters away. "You're burning out. Anyone with eyes can see it. The late nights, the training, the fighting. You're running yourself into the ground."
"I'm fine."
"You're not." Her voice was surprisingly gentle. "And if you keep going like this, you're going to make a mistake. A big one. The kind that gets people hurt."
Rei's jaw tightened. "Who are you?"
"Someone who's been where you are." The girl's smile faded. "Someone who learned the hard way that you can't do everything alone."
"I'm not trying to do everything."
"Aren't you?" She tilted her head. "School. Training. Night patrols. Preparing for UA. When do you sleep? When do you rest?"
'She's right,' a small voice in Rei's head admitted. 'You know she's right.'
But he couldn't stop. Not now. Not when there was so much at stake.
"I'm managing," Rei said.
The girl sighed. "Alright. Your funeral. But when you crash—and you will crash—don't say I didn't warn you."
She walked past him toward the trail exit.
"Wait," Rei called out. "Who are you?"
The girl looked back over her shoulder. "Just a concerned citizen. Try to get some sleep, Spider-boy. You look like you'll die soon."
And then she was gone, disappearing into the forest like she'd never been there.
Rei stood in the clearing, alone again, his mind spinning.
'Someone knows. Someone's been watching me.'
This was bad. Really bad.
Because if one person could track him down, others could too. Heroes. Villains. People who wouldn't just offer advice and leave.
'I need to be more careful,' Rei thought. 'Way more careful.'
But the girl's words echoed in his head.
"You're burning out."
Rei looked at his hands. They were shaking. Just slightly, but enough to notice.
'Maybe... maybe she has a point.'
He sat down on the log where the girl had been and put his head in his hands.
School. Training. Patrol. UA prep. He was juggling too much. Something had to give.
But what?
He couldn't stop training. Not with the exam coming up.
He couldn't skip school. That would raise questions.
And he couldn't stop patrolling. People needed help. He could make a difference.
'So what, then? Just suffer? Push through until I collapse?'
That's what he'd done in his previous life. Work until you drop, then get up and work some more.
But that life had ended in a warehouse, bleeding out on concrete, smiling because it was finally over.
'I don't want this life to end the same way.'
Rei took a deep breath and made a decision.
"One more week," he said to the empty clearing. "One more week of this pace. Then I adjust. Figure out a better balance."
Just one more week.
Then he'd fix this.
He stood up and started his training routine. Drills. Combinations. Technique work.
His body moved on autopilot, but his mind was elsewhere.
Thinking about mysterious girls who appeared out of nowhere.
About Bakugo noticing him.
About Midoriya analyzing his Quirk.
About the slowly shrinking time until the UA exam.
'Three weeks,' Rei thought as he fired webbing at a tree. 'Three weeks to get stronger.'
'Three weeks to not break.'
The sun set slowly over the forest.
And Rei Mizuki trained alone, pushing his limits.
Just like always.
------
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