A/N:
Hey guys, this is a fic I am working on alongside JJK: Tremor and Force in JJK. Please do not expect an upload schedule of any kind, as I work on each story depending on if I'm facing writer's block from the other two stories. I want to clarify a few things about the CE quirk interaction, but that will be an auxiliary chapter that also covers how it works with AFO.
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3rd Person POV
Hakari Ryou was a happy child.
That's what his father always told him, always with that same tired smile on his face. His father, Hakari Kinitchi, loved him deeply, but Kinitchi had one problem. A gambling problem.
He used to be a tall, handsome, upstanding member of society. He stood taller than most at 1.80m tall with long platinum blond hair and black charcoal-like eyes.
He even had a wife, but she had left him after his worst spree to date. It was a terrible night where Kinitchi lost everything: his job, his wife, his old house, his old life, really.
But he had kept one thing, the one thing that mattered to him more than any of those three, his son, Hakari Ryou.
They lived in a tiny apartment on the edge of the poor side of the city of Tokyo, on the third floor. It was a dirty, cramped space that was barely holding on to some semblance of structural support.
And that wasn't even mentioning the other inhabitants of the complex.
Yet still, even in the face of all of this, the father and son were still happy. They ate and played together, and talked about their future together. Kinitchi insisted that there was something special about Hakari and that he would grow up to be something great. Something about a gambler's intuition.
That didn't matter to Ryou; he was only a child and was just happy to spend time with his dad. He didn't know about his father's… untoward proclivities. He was simply too young to understand his father's drinking and gambling, only that his father acted weird sometimes.
And because, despite his father's vices, never once did he lay a hand on his son. He loved his son, and part of the reason for his drinking and gambling was his guilt over never giving his son the life he thought he deserved.
But Ryou never cared about that, only that he and his dad were happy. He didn't even care when his quirk showed up when he turned 4.
Or 5.
But today was his 6th birthday, and his dad had been nothing but happy, always telling him that his quirk would come someday, and that even if it didn't, he would still love him. He was much nicer than his mother in that respect.
He and his dad had finished eating dinner and the slice of cake that Dad could afford, and he had fallen asleep long before his dad started to drink again.
His father, no matter how much he tried to hide it, was sad, because he wanted better for his son so so much more. Above all, he blamed himself for his son's lack of quirk because he, too, didn't have a quirk.
And so he passed out that night, drunk on the couch, the one thing he thought could give his son a better future left open on the table in front of the small tv.
A laptop on an online slot machine. He wasn't stupid, they were reputable, and he did research before betting on any website.
The odds were just astronomically small because it was towards the tail end of the night, and he placed a Hail Mary bet on the 150,000,000 yen jackpot.
The neighbor woke Ryou up with a loud ringing of the crappy rock music he was making that he swore would get him out of the poor part of town. He sighed and rubbed his eyes, walking into the living room, joint kitchen.
He saw his father passed out on the couch, several open beer cans splayed on the couch table, and he moved to pull a blanket over him. His father muttered something in his sleep, and Ryou smiled before turning to get a glass of water.
His attention was drawn, however, to the bright open laptop in the otherwise dark room. The website's bright red spin button drew his eyes like a moth to a flame. His hand stretched forward, and he clicked the cursor like he saw his dad do a couple of times.
He flinched back as it made a soft ding, and a jangly music started to play as the three columns of the slot started to spin. The first one slammed to a halt with a louder ding, and the pointer stopped dead on a bright green comic font seven.
His breath hitched slightly, and he felt inexplicably drawn to the laptop. Even without knowing how the game worked, the dinging sound and exciting music made him think he was doing well. The next slot spun to a halt with another green seven, and another louder ding played.
His eyes opened wide, and his pupils dilated; he could feel his heart thumping in his chest for a reason he couldn't fathom.
The final wheel slowed dramatically, stopping on the number 5, one off the number seven. Before slamming down onto the last green seven.
A loud winning jingle played, and the word jackpot flashed across the screen.
"You… You just…" Ryou snapped his head back to see his father wide awake, apparently sober now and staring at the winning screen. Ryou looked back at the computer and then back at his dad.
"Did I do good?" He asked innocently.
His father stared in disbelief a moment longer, contemplating all that he could do with the 150,000,000 yen his son just won.
He laughed out again, this time more excited than anything, rushing to grab his son in a strong hug. He picked him up and spun him as he laughed, "Good?! YOU DID GREAT?!" He put his son on the ground and stared him in the eyes with a mega-watt smile, "You just won us both a LOT of money."
"Really?!" He asked with equal parts jubilation, as his dad put him down and stopped laughing.
"Yes, really!" He answered back excitedly, "Do you have any idea how much better our lives are gonna get now?! I can finally pay for college, and–and get you a full cake, I can pay my debts off, and we can finally get out of this shit–"
His excited cheers for a better future were interrupted as Ryou grabbed his head and winced. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" his dad asked frantically.
"I–I don't…" He started before grabbing his head, "My head… it… it HURTS!" He screamed before collapsing to the floor wailing in agony.
"RYOU! RYOU ARE YOU OKAY!" He scrambled checking over his son to see if anything was wrong. He scrambled at his pockets desperately fishing his phone out of his pocket and dropping it.
"Shit!" He called out glancing back to Ryou to see him still writhing on the floor. "Hang on, everything is gonna be okay." He tried to consol grabbing the boy and pulling him to his chest, as he grabbed his dropped phone and dialed the emergency number.
It connected instantly, and before the operator could ask what happened, he was already screaming, "I NEED HELP! MY SON HE–HE JUST COLLAPSED SCREAMING! I NEED AN AMBULANCE!"
"Okay sir, I'm going to need you to calm down–" The female operator started before Kinitchi cut him off.
"PLEASE YOU HAVE TO HELP! I'M–WE ARE AT 343-1153, NISHISHINJUKU. PLEASE SEND HELP!" He screamed before hanging up, knowing that might add some urgency to the responders coming.
It took 11 agonizing minutes for the ambulance to come, and Ryou screamed the whole time. The paramedics tried to help him, but he was completely unresponsive to what they said. Kinitchi drove with them in the ambulance the whole way to the hospital.
He stayed in the hospital as the doctors tried to diagnose him, sitting alone in the waiting room, wondering where it all went wrong. The bright fluorescent lights beamed down on him as he adjusted himself on the plastic chair of the waiting area.
He was almost asleep again, head in his hands, as a doctor came to inform him of the condition of his son. "Mister Hakari?" the nurse asked softly.
He snapped his head up, startling the poor nurse, but he hurriedly asked, "Yes! How is my son?" He moved to stand, and the nurse took a step back and looked at the clipboard of Ryou's information.
The nurse composed herself and calmly addressed the panicking man, "Your son suffered from an adverse quirk awakening." Kinitchi's eyes widened at the news.
"He has a quirk?" He whispered in shock, before clarifying with more excitement, "He has a quirk?! And what do you mean by adverse awakening?" He asked, conflicting emotions raging in his chest.
"Yes, your son does have a quirk," She started exasperatedly, "And an adverse awakening is where a quirk is… rejected by certain other parts of someone's biology. So the body works to… suppress the quirk gene awakening." She explained simply and motioned him to stop when she noticed him prepare to interrupt and ask questions.
"See, this results in cases of 'late bloomers' as some would call it, as the body gradually adapts to the quirk. But sometimes the quirk factor breaks through, leading to an explosive gene representation." She explained, taking a breath and again motioning for Kinitchi not to ask questions.
She began again, "Not explosive in the literal sense, it means that it forces the body to adjust to the quirk rapidly, and more often than not, painfully." She stopped and waited for the questions she knew were coming.
But Kinitchi only had one, "So is he going to be okay?"
She blinked, "Yes, your son will make a full recovery, and from what we can tell, with a strong quirk to boot." She smiled at him through her doctor's mask, "Congratulations."
Kinitchi let out a sigh and asked the next most important question on his mind, "When can I see him?"
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1st Person POV Ryou
My head hurts.
That was my first thought as I woke up in the hospital room. The next was why I was in a hospital room, and where all these weird memories came from. Last thing I remembered, I was flying in a plane and I–
No, that's not it.
Last thing I remember, I was with my dad, and I had just hit a jackpot on that weird gambling website.
I put a hand to my head and tried to sort out my thoughts.
I was Hakari Ryou.
But I was also…
…
Huh?
I can't quite remember who else I was.
So I guess that makes me Hakari Ryou?
I have all these memories from that other life, but I don't really know who I was in that life.
I remember I died in a plane crash… but it feels overlayed somehow?
I'm so confused.
I was Hakari Ryou, I was six years old, and I didn't have a quirk–
Quirk? Like My Hero Academia?
I scanned my memories in a desperate fever. Sure enough, there was a plethora of professional heroes in Japan alone, and that's not even mentioning the most telling part of it all…
All Might.
The number one hero, tall, built like a mountain, and blond, just as I remembered from that guy's life. I was silently cursing him because he only watched the first two seasons of the show, which was now my life.
Wait, was this that isekai thing that guy saw in anime?
I groaned, suddenly hating my lack of quirk more. I wanted to go to UA and be a hero too, sure the USJ sucked, but it was a pretty light-hearted show, so it's not like it could have gotten much worse. Plus, compared to the other universes I saw in that other guy's life, it was WAY better than something like Berserk.
I shuddered just thinking of waking up there or in a place like JJK, which was the main focus of this guy's focus. I smiled, thinking about how I shared a last name with one of his favorite characters.
I was even blond like Hakari, too. And I got this guy's memories after winning a slot machine–
I paused, clearly, that's coincidental, right? I mean, no way would I be in any way… related to him, right? I mean, they were different universes entirely, and quirks were way different than cursed energy.
'But what if…' I thought as I glanced down at my fist and focused. Cursed energy was created and channeled through negative emotions, so I focused and thought of all the most aggravating memories of my past life.
All the times I got hurt, every bruise and cut, all the little petty grievances, rush hour traffic, and most of all…
Every single game of ranked online games.
Hours of Brawlhalla and Rainbow Six Siege flashed in my mind.
And a flicker of translucent cold emerald fire covered my hand. Shock ripped through my body like a freight train, and I stopped concentrating in my stupor.
My mouth opened, and I stared for a moment. Before I let out a short laugh like my dad did when I won the slot machine. It soon became full belly laughter at the pure joy I felt.
'I have a quirk! I HAVE A QUIRK!' I screamed in my head, careful not to cause too much of a scene with my joy. But a nurse had heard my laugh and came to check on me.
I stopped my excited celebration as I heard her walk closer, instead choosing to vibrate quietly where I sat. She poked her in the door to my room, smiling at my awake form.
"Oh you're finally awake," She said in a purposefully sweet voice, "You gave us all quite the scare, you know." She stepped closer before furrowing her eyebrows, "You didn't wake your dad up?"
I furrowed my eyebrows in turn, wondering what she was talking about, and I decided to scan my surroundings for the first time since waking up. It looked like any other hospital room in Japan, the same pale colors–
Sitting in the chair closest to my bed was the sleeping form of my father, blond hair spilling messily. I smiled at the person I was closest to in this life. Before turning back to the nurse, "No, my dad works a bunch, so he's really tired a lot."
She made an 'oh' sound and smiled pitifully at my dad and me. "Do you remember what happened?" she asked softly, trying not to wake my father.
I pretended to think, when I remembered it in perfect clarity, "Uhh, I think I was talking to my dad about winning this game on his computer, then my head started to hurt, and I woke up here."
The nurse sighed before looking at me with a smile, "That's good that you remember then, but you had what's known as an adverse quirk awakening." She started to explain, and I tuned her out because my suspicion was confirmed, and I wasn't schizophrenic.
I really did have a quirk!
That means I can be a hero! I can make a bunch of money for my dad and me, and play that slot machine again and win even more money!
"–I want you to know that these cases can be very traumatic, but using your quirk will not always be as painful–"
Was she still talking? Wow, I kinda thought I made it obvious that I wasn't paying attention.
But this did give me a golden opportunity to test one of the things I was concerned about: could others see my cursed energy? If it even was cursed energy that was.
I pretended to pay attention to the nurse's rambling about my condition and focused on channeling my cursed energy. It took a couple of seconds, but my arm lit up in the same emerald green flame as before.
"–Our reports actually indicate that your quirk might be very strong, considering the rapid activation and changes to your biology–" She continued without noticing the flames, but I tuned in to what she was saying now after hearing that last bit.
"You might notice some changes in your vision, and in brain power, uhh because our tests show that your quirk has changed your eyes, and brain in some way that has actually boosted overall functions in those areas." She explained, and I took a moment to consider that.
The vision changes, I'm assuming, are for me to be able to see cursed energy, but that might also make it so that I see through cursed energy. Something to test later, but the brain part is definitely a technique, and if I'm right it's Hakari's.
I'm a little annoyed I didn't get something seriously overpowered like the Ten Shadows or the Six Eyes and Limitless, but there's no point in looking a gift horse in the mouth.
But wait, if I have cursed energy, does that mean–
"Hey, Miss Nurse?" I asked, interrupting her lecture on how I didn't need to be scared of my quirk.
"Yes?" She asked back.
"Can my quirk get stronger?" I asked, concerned that I might get handicapped by my base potential.
"Uhh, well, in the vast majority of cases, it is almost expected that your quirk grows as you use it. In most cases, it acts like a muscle; there are, of course, exceptions, but those are limited mostly to mutations." She explained, confused, before a figurative light bulb went off above her head, and she smiled at me.
"Do you want to be a hero?" She asked sweetly, and I nodded excitedly. She smiled wider, "Well I'm sure you will be a great hero, do you want to wake up your dad so we can examine your quirk and see just what type of hero your gonna be?" She asked sweetly.
I was impressed by her masterful tactics on controlling children, and I nodded in concession. I softly shook my father, with a soft call of "Dad."
He woke slowly, blinking once, then twice, before he recognized me, and his eyes widened. He smiled and in a soft, tired voice said, "Hey buddy, are you feeling all right? You scared me quite a bit."
I nodded hurriedly, "Yeah I'm great, and did you hear? I have a quirk!" It felt a little weird being this childish after what feels like experiencing a whole other life, but I was still the six year old kid of Hakari Kinitchi.
He smiled brightly, "Really? That's great!" He said with faux shock, and I played along.
"Yes, really! And that nice lady over there said we're gonna go get it examined so that they can see what kind of hero I can be!" I said to him, and he threw a slightly sideways glance at the nurse.
"Is that so? Well I'm sure you can be any kind of hero you want, regardless of your quirk." He narrowed his eyes slightly at the nurse before smiling down at me. "But come on lets go find out what your quirk does."
He stood and gave me a hand to help me off the tall hospital bed.
I trailed beside him as we walked, marveling at the difference in height from that other life.
I decided right then, as I walked, that I would make my father proud and become the world's greatest hero.
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A/N:
Aaaaand done wow, that was really interesting to write. I hope you enjoyed, and if you did comment, I will try to get at least three chapters a week done for this, but no promises.
Let me know what I can do to improve!
Oh, also, it's between Toru and Nejire for FML.
Have a great night!