Chapter 1:Born To Be Mild!
I knew my life was screwed the moment I saw someone fly. Now I know what you're thinking. 'Oh my god. Flying kids, the shocker, get on with it.' Feels repetitive I know. But look here's the thing flying equal powers, powers equal catastrophe. You get me now? Finding out wasn't very easy on me you know. I thought everything was ordinary. Well, other than me of course. See. I'm um, a reincarnator or something like that. I don't know how it works. My older brother was the one who understood this kind of stuff. He'd tell me of the stories he read, how obsessed he was with reincarnation and other worlds.
Though, there was one that stood out, the one that he'd spend hundreds of our parents dollars on, My Hero Academia. I swear, he forced me to read the entire manga series front to back. Forced me to watch the show too. I liked the manga a bit better honestly. It was more simple, less of a hassle. Though the animation was good. I think the main reason I even allowed my older brother to 'force' me to entertain this media was All Might. I mean seriously, the guy was just another level of cool. The guy better go into the hall of fame of heroes in the media. He deserves it. I mean seriously, such a well written character.
To my chagrin I never got to finish it, I was around the whole hero license exam arc. Heck, most of that's fuzzy since I had to stop reading because I got a job. Which was just not fun. I had to take care of third graders for Christ's sake! Those kids had too much energy! I used to come back home tired out of my wits ends. The upside though is my patience isn't as bad as it used to be.
So let's start over again, my name is Grayson Fujimura. And right now All Might is smiling right in front of me after saving me from a hit-on collision with a sign. Crazy right?
"Are you alright young man!?" He said, towering over my 5 year old frame, with kind blue eyes staring down at me.
Looking at the sign that nearly hit my head I just nodded and stuttered out, "Um, ye-yes sir," I mean who wouldn't? The guy was a giant. A friendly giant, but a giant nonetheless. I can understand why he's so terrifying to villains. Even with such a big smile on his face.
"I'm glad! Though I must be on my way! Stay safe everyone!" He yelled, leaping away. I watched him leap over five buildings till he was out of sight.
"That was so cool!" "That kid got saved by All Might, lucky!" "I wish I was that kid."
All I could hear was a series of words and conversations calling me lucky. I guess I could understand their point of view. But where in the world does almost getting squashed by a sign make you lucky? If All Might wasn't the hero on the scene I would have been squashed like a bug.
That was the only lucky part…. I just went against everything I said. Have you ever written an essay where you have one point of view but all the information and details go against your thesis? That's how I feel right now.
"Grayson! Are you okay?!" I heard from behind me, my mom arriving. She was tall and had brown hair and blue eyes. Well, this is going to be fun, having to explain exactly what happened. You know what, Ima leave it to the teacher. I think I'm going to go and have an existential crisis. Her eyes were full of worry as she bent down to check on me, Looking to see if there were any marks or bruises on me, "Hi Mom, first, yes, I'm good. Second, I met All Might. Third, I'd like to go home please." I said with a weak smile.
"Are you sure you're okay sweetie?" She asked.
As we were talking, I took notice of the large crowd that was once surrounding All Might, and were now dispersing, but there were some stragglers. Looking like they just wanted to listen into the conversation. Some were even taking pictures if the sounds of clicks and flashes were any indication.
"Please mom," I pleaded, hoping she'd listen to me and see exactly what I was seeing.
Of course, yes, let's go," She said, rushing me to the car. Though, things were gonna change, for the best or worst I don't know.
***
It's been one week since the events of All Might saved me, and honestly, it's weird how that just made me popular with the other kids. Except for this one other kid who just got his quirk, and well, favoritism came into play here. Before me, he was the kid everyone looked at most. Because he had such a 'hero' quirk. Being able to make armor out of rocks.
So he really didn't like me.
"So what if All Might saved him, he's quirkless, he's not even a nobody, he's less than a nobody."
"Naguno, that's not a very nice thing to say, apologize." Said my teacher, Mrs.Haruno. It's honestly too weird getting used to the honorifics. But, it's easier when I just put them into practice.
Though he was against apologizing at first, whining and crying out it was unfair, he begrudgingly apologized to me, grumbling it out. Things started calming down after that, well as much as it can with five year olds.
Though, honestly what he said did scare me. When would my quirk show up? My current dad has a quirk called "Reactive Hide" where essentially, he gets more durable after any form of damage, hit him once, boom it doesn't hurt as much the next time. Though it doesn't stay forever, it depends on the damage though. If it's again and again, it'll last a couple of days at best. Normally a hit or two would be a couple of hours. Doesn't really work against anything that isn't physical though. Mom on the other hand can, how do I say this, temporarily push her body outside of human limits. It's like she has a clutch gene, though it does leave her extremely exhaustive.
So, what would my power turn out to be?
"Gray, are you okay?" I heard my dad ask, "You looked like you were somewhere else for a moment son," I heard him say, with a lopsided smile on his face.
"I'm okay, um, I have a question, when can we go to the quirk doctor?" It was a simple question really, but instead of saying something immediately, they got quiet.
"Would you like to go tomorrow?" Asked my dad, contemplatively.
"I would! I'd love to go tomorrow!"
"Well alright then slugger, I'll get you an appointment," mom then gave him a pointed look, simply staring at him as he attempted to walk away, "After dinner of course," he said sheepishly.
This is amazing, maybe things can get jump-started from here, I have to get something amazing out of all this. I mean what kind of kid wouldn't want a super power?
***
"Look I'm sorry, you don't have a quirk."
Those were the first words I heard. How? First question I asked myself, how. I did the dumb toe thing test myself, I wasn't double jointed, so how? Things were going so well, they did all kinds of tests on me. So how? As I was about to speak up though, my dad did it first.
"How? Explain to me how my son is quirkless," asked my dad, a shocked look on his face, accompanied by my moms look of… disappointment.
"Well, we did the standard diagnostics, even did some new tests that I-Island sent us – we did x-rays, quirk profile scans, even went deep into looking for genetic markers – which is going to cost you a pretty penny by the way – but, there's no indication of your son developing a quirk factor. I'm really sorry, but you're quirkless."
This isn't how it's supposed to go, I'm supposed to have something. I'm the guy who was reincarnated. I don't even care about being a hero that much, to survive and thrive in this world I needed a power, any power, just something I can live with. Doesn't need to be flashy, it can be something that helps me clean and I wouldn't even complain. I just needed something.
"But–but his pinky toe, he's not double jointed," My mom stuttered out.
"That's more of a myth than anything else, some heroes are well known for being double jointed. It's not a reliable factor in this day and age anymore, maybe in the early days, but there's a lot more new research coming out. I'm really sorry."
I felt like collapsing, I knew I was being dramatic. I already lived like a normal person once, I can do it again. But, I really was looking forward to it. My throat felt honest to god dry. In a bad way. The kind of dry you got when you felt like vomiting.
Staring up at him queasily, I asked him one more question, "So there's no chance? Not even me being a late bloomer?"
"We'll keep things monitored," He said, a tired sigh coming out of him, as if he was the one receiving the bad news, not me, not my parents, "but it's unlikely. Some do have the possibility of manifesting their quirk later, but they usually had at least some traceable quirk activity by your age. You don't, I'm sorry."
That car ride home must have been the quietest ever, my dad wouldn't even look at me. No less speak. This felt like some kind of cosmic joke. A guy gets reincarnated in a world of powers, with the potential of becoming something great, but gets nothing in the end. I was just some background character, and maybe that's all I will be.
"It'll be okay," I heard my mom say from my side.
Looking up at her, I could see the worry in her eyes. Flickering from me to my dad. As if she was scared of his reaction.
"Look son, Gray, nothings gonna change the fact that you are our son, okay?" She said with a gentle smile.
"She's right." I heard my dad finally say.
"You're our son, quirk or no quirk.
I honestly didn't know how to feel right now. Relief? Happiness? Despair?
"Thank you," I said, my eyes welling up. I'm man enough to confess that I can cry. Why hide it.
"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry, I promise you'll be okay. It will be okay." She said with a soothing voice, holding me in her arms.
I really wish things were as simple as other stories.
***
It's been two weeks since the events at the doctors office. And my life got so much worse. I swear, the author did not do quirkless people Justice. Seriously, the prejudice against them is insane. The amount of kids here and teachers that flipped their switch is, just wow. Most of the kids who used to flock around me, now avoid me. The teachers even belittle me. Naguno uses every chance to call me quirkless.
Honestly, I got desensitized to this. It may be bullying, but I'm basically an adult now, in my mind I'm 19 now. To any other kid, I'd swear they'd go into a depressive downward spiral. But like I said, I'm an adult now. And even though it affected me so much then, I can deal with this.
As long as I have my family, my mom, my dad, I'll be okay.
Walking out to the playground during lunch I tried my best to find a quiet spot where I could be alone. The moment I sat down though, I heard footsteps behind me, and there I saw Naguno, and his merry little band of miscreants.
"Grayson, how's it feel to be useless? Huh? Nobody,that's what you are, nobody. Your quirk was a no show," he said, laughing throughout his little spiel.
Thoughts of punching the kid showed up every now and again. But there'd be no point. He's just a five year old kid. See if this was high school this would be totally different. I'm not fighting anyone younger than 15 at best, not unless they decided to throw hands first. Then, only then, am I going to fully throttle them.
"Leave me alone Naguno, before I get the teacher," I said looking at him with an annoyed gaze.
"Ha, What's the teacher gonna do, she doesn't care about you!"
"Right, okay," man, this kid is off his rocker.
I started to walk away from him, hoping that this would deter him and make him leave me alone.
"Hey! Don't walk away from me! I'm talking to you!"
"Look, we don't need to-agh," I fell to the ground, holding my cheek. I looked up, and there I saw a rock arm. And him, standing over me with a wild look in his eye.
The playground became silent after that.
I could hear whispers of the other kids. Of how easy I went down. How Naguno hit me.
"Naguno! You can't punch a student like that! Not even with your quirk! I'm gonna have to call your parents, say sorry to Grayson!"
"I'm sorryy," he said, giving the poorest example of a sorry I've ever heard. I can't believe things escalated this much. Just because I was quirkless. Were they seen as that bad? That low on the totem pole? The food chain?
It hurt. Both the punch and seeing this. I'll live though.
Looking down I looked at my lunch. Staring at the All Might on my juice can. How can I change the world like you did?
This world, it's crooked.
The kind of crooked you think would have been dealt with so far in the future.
The kind of crooked, no-show like me would want to change.