[Year 0: Musutafu City Orphanage]

It was a new year and life was blooming everywhere. Musutafu City being a coastal city had already started thawing and winter was nearly gone.

The City orphanage was getting ready for its busy days as it received an influx of new toys,clothes and other unsold Hero merchandise every New year. Some Heroes personally came to “greet” the children. Some were doing it for good PR, some out of genuine pity and with various other motives regardless of which the orphanage benefitted.

But this year they received something extra, there was a new amusement park opening in the City and they had sent free tickets to the orphanage. The orphanage naturally accepted it as it would be rude not to do so and they had even received a sizable donation leaving them no other choice but to accept.

….

Ayame stood outside the huge gates that were outside the park. She had an annoyed expression on her face as she watched all the kids push each other around.

“Please everyone, get in a line. Everyone will get a toy...nya~”she said trying to get them in order.

“I WANT ALL MIGHT HOODIE!!” A kid shouted from the back end of the crowd. Seeing this all the other children started shouting too.

“I WANT AN ALL MIGHT TOY!!”

“ME TOO.”

“I WANT AN ENDEAVOR TOY”

Ayame’s face turned red with anger as the ears on her head twitched and she bellowed, “BE QUIET YOU BRATS, IF ANYONE MAKES A SINGLE NOISE NOW….NONE OF YOU WILL GET ANY TOYS AND WE LEAVE? Am I clear nya~?”

“Hai..!!” the kids shouted terrified at the prospect of going back empty handed. They rarely ever got an opportunity to come out and enjoy so they didn’t want to ruin it.

Ayame heaved a sigh of relief after seeing them calm down. The kids always got rowdy this time of the year but they seemed rowdier this year.

‘Why can’t they be more like Aki-chan…’she thought as her mind drifted towards the cute boy. He had changed during the year and had become more mature than he already was before.

He was talking more now and smiled more too which was always a pleasant sight. She had asked him what toy he wanted but he had refused saying that toys were boring.

That had surprised her as she couldn’t believe a kid would say that but she had long realised that Akira was not like other kids. Not only was he mature for his age, the way he carried himself was also different.

It was not noticeable before but it was becoming more prominent over the year. His eyes that looked lost when she had first met him now looked clear. He had a confident look on his face now and seemed determined.

She scanned her surroundings to find him and found him at the end of the line with a book in his hands. Seeing the superhero cover on it, she couldn’t help but smile as she thought, ‘He is still a kid too..’

…..

Looking at the kids pushing each other around, Akira had moved back and was keeping his distance from them.

‘Excited over toys..huh’ he thought as he rolled his eyes inwardly.

He could understand why they were excited about them even though he never liked toys. What little curiosity he had over them was squashed by his grandmother. She was an annoying woman who hated him.

She had compared him to her old dolls calling them “Cold and unfeeling” like him. She had known his true nature all along and she even wanted his parents to disown him but of course they didn’t agree.

It had been a rather boring year for Akira and if he had to sum it up in one word, it would be ‘monotonous’.Now there were two types of monotonous- one was doing the same thing regularly and the other was the dull boring one where you just laze around doing nothing.

The first type while still boring at least made the time faster and kept it preoccupied but the latter was mind numbing and made the time flow slower.

Being a kid and an orphan on top of that restricted his means of seeking other entertainment. All the kids were too annoying so the only ones he spent time with were Saya and Ayame.

Saya because she was not a hero worshipping kid like others and didn’t annoy him about them. He had turned four the other day and he had still not awakened his quirk yet. Over the year, he had hit a mini growth spurt and had grown from 3’5 feet to nearly 4 feet.

He had yet to see any signs of his quirk but Ayame had reassured him saying that his quirk would mostly manifest in six months.

‘How will I know if I have a quirk?’ he wondered.

‘Will it instinctively come to me?’

‘Is it trainable?’

‘Does it require a stimulus to awaken?’

He had many questions but he couldn’t find answers for them...yet.

The orphanage didn’t have a good collection of books and since he was only 4, he couldn’t go out.

Still the orphanage received more support from the government than he had expected. In fact he was surprised an orphanage was even funded by the government. Orphanages were hard to maintain without loss so he had expected foster care to be present but there were more orphans in this world so having an orphanage made sense.

There were a lot of villain attacks and as much as heroes tried to stop them, there were still many casualties which left many children orphans. Due to the existence of quirks they couldn’t disregard these orphaned kids as they might choose a villainous path and might grow up hating the world.

He had tried finding quirk history books but he could find none in the Orphanage. He had asked Ayame to get him one and she was able to get him one.

It was not a quirk history book but was a book on quirks nonetheless. He didn’t remember all the exact details from the series so he had referred to it and learnt some basic information.

The first reported quirk was from a newborn baby in Qing Qing city, China. The baby had the ability to emanate light from its body.

After that phenomenon, many people around the world began to manifest different kinds of superpowers or quirks. They were called Meta abilities before.

The book was not a history one so it didn’t have more info about quirk history but it did show how they were classified.

It stated that currently 80% of the world’s population had quirks. It also stated the classification of quirks.

There were mainly three types of quirks. They were Emitter, Transformation and Mutant.

Emitters were the most common type by a large margin. As their name suggested, they were quirks that allowed the user to generate and possibly control certain things, or alter existing things around them in certain ways.

They had different ranges from requiring physical contact to longer ranged ones without any distance limit.

Akira’s quirk when it manifested would fall into this category.

Next were the transformation quirks that caused the user to take on a temporary alteration of some kind. These were the least common type and size transformation was the most common transformation kind.

Last type were the mutant quirks and these were the most noticeable type. They usually changed the body structure of the user permanently and the ability gained would be suitable to the body.

These were also not rare and were mostly inherited through family lines. Some of them caused inconveniences but most were pretty useful.

There was another type of quirk which was not mentioned in the book. The accumulation type quirk that required the user to accumulate something ahead of time, such as power, energy, mass, or a particular resource.

…...

“Akira-kun, what are you reading?”a voice asked him.

It was saya of course.

“Hmm...I am reading the 69th issue of’ I am a Hero but I am in another world with cheat and level 99 powers.’ ”

“Ehhhhhh..?” Saya tilts her head in confusion.

“It's a manga about a hero in another world.” Akira answered her.

“Oh..” Saya said while inwardly she thought, ‘Akira-kun is so smart..he can already read books but I still can’t read well…’

Akira had only displayed fast skills at reading because he couldn’t handle the boredom of not having anything to do. Ayame was surprised when he learnt reading quickly and had started getting him more books to read.

The isekai genre was still up and running even in this new world. It was not the number one genre with superheroes being the first but it was still somewhere in the top 5.

Saya was about to say more but stopped short when the large gates finally opened.

*bam* Akira shut the book close and put it away in his backpack. Quite handy to carry things in and he was glad he had picked the bag instead of toys or hoodies of All Might. The bag was still an All Might themed one but at least it had some use unlike the others.

….

The amusement park was different from what Akira had seen in his last life but it was still within his expectations. It followed a common theme of this world. It was as he had expected, a Hero themed amusement park.

‘..What did I expect, of course it's hero themed like everything else in this world…’

….

The amusement park had similar rides but with more “Hero” added to it and some were more advanced than Akira expected. He recalled that this was a world set in the future and not everything was the same.

While quirks had halted the advance of civilization, it had still made progress and many things were new for Akira.

“Aki-chan, which ride do you want to go on first nya~?” Ayame asked as she took in the sight of the park. The other children were split into groups and were taken away by the other matrons.

Ayame being the youngest, having only turned 17 the other year was let off and she had decided to take Akira and Saya with her. This made the other kids envious and worsened their impression of Akira and Saya. Akira they could accept because he was exceptional but they despised Saya even more as she was quirkless and yet she was with him.

Ayame being the naive girl or rather cat girl didn’t notice all this.

“Roller coaster.”Akira replied as he pointed to the tall tracks on the other side of the park. It was a giant piece of architecture and the tracks had lots of curves and slopes.

“Ah..Sorry Aki-chan, that ride is too dangerous for you..also you are too young and you can’t get in it so...can you choose any other ride?”

“Alright” Akira nodded and then kept asking Ayame about each ride and he was rejected for most of them.

“How about you,Saya-chan?” Ayame asked the shy girl who looked down to avoid eye contact.

Ayame sighed as she looked at her. ‘She has only opened up to Aki-chan...and still doesn’t trust others.’

“Um..I want to go on any ride with A-Akira-kun..” Saya finally managed to speak up and she would have been inaudible if it had not been for Ayame’s sharp ears.

“Of course, you would want to be with Akira..” Ayame replied with a smug grin on her face which caused Saya’s cheeks to develop a faint blush.

…..

They spent the next few hours trying out ‘child’ friendly rides and finally it was time to leave.

‘I have to admit, it was not that bad’ Akira thought as he recalled the day’s experience.

“Ne..Akira-kun...today was fun right?” Saya asked him as she caught up to him with a skip.

“I suppose it was not bad..” he replied. “Though I would have preferred..”

“RUN !! IT'S A VILLAIN ATTACK…” A voice interrupted Akira mid speech and as he turned to look towards the source, he saw a man running towards his group.

Attracted by the man’s shout, a figure followed behind him. It was a giant 7 foot man with a beastly appearance. He had thick dreadlocks and was quickly advancing on the man with his hooves like feet.

“Don’t run little man....hahaha” the villain said as he leaped and landed right in front of the man.

Akira was panicking as he saw the villain near him. He didn’t even have a quirk and coupled with his child body the chances of him escaping if the villain came after him were slim.

“Saya” he quietly whispered and grabbed her hand. He slowly tried backing away without attracting the villain’s attention.

Saya was startled and almost shouted but Akira clamped a hand over her mouth and gestured to her to stay quiet.

She nodded and started backing away from the villain. Akira and Saya had been at the back of the line so they were the ones in most danger. The other kids were already out of range of the villain.

But Akira was so focused on the villain that he didn’t notice a can on the floor and he stepped on it.

*Crunch*

The villain who was holding the man by his collar turned his head at the noise and he spotted the two kids backing away.

Akira made eye contact with the villain when he gazed in their direction and a smile formed on the villains face.

He threw the man he was holding on the ground and grinned, “Ah ...A kid, you will make a better hostage….”

Before Akira could react, the villain jumped towards him and grabbed his shoulders. He tried struggling but it was of no use.

“Stop right there Villain” A man clad in white armor shouts as he approaches the villain with two other heroes in tow.

“HEROES...I was waiting for you to show up...hahaha. See this kid.” the villain lifts Akira in one arm.

“My demands are simple. Stop chasing me or I will have to snap this kid’s neck, get it?...Now back away…”

The female hero tried advancing but the armor clad one stops her. “Stop Dove, we can’t rush in, he has a hostage....back away for now..”

She tries protesting but seeing her sensei’s face she backs down.

‘This is the absolute worst situation’ Akira thought as he struggled to free himself.

‘Why did this have to happen to me now of all days?’

‘Looks like even the heroes can’t rescue me...I am a hostage now and this oaf could kill me with just a squish.’

‘I feel so helpless..so weak..’

Akira was feeling anger, anger at the villain, the heroes and the world. He didn’t want to die like this, not when he had got a second chance at life. And then……..