Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Hello Again; YellowSaga here, this chapter contains some spoilers for the plot which may sound silly but it’s just for people that want a better overview of the story, this part also contains some character overviews so enjoy, you could SKIP this chapter if you don’t want spoilers.

Frisk & The Souls:

Left in a new world with an identity they do not have, they all share the same body and can use magic to a limited extent.

Frisk can still save, load and reset.

They can access the dimensional box/inventory at any save point, they have one of every item from the Underground except for the Real Knife and Locket.

Every soul (except Chara) can appear in a semi-translucent form of their soul colour, and help Frisk like helpful ghosts, they can conjure their signature weapons and armour.

Chara can posses Frisk instead ╹◡╹.

The dynamic between Frisk & The Souls will be  similar to the dynamic in The Thought.

They all deliberate in the Soulscape/Void/Pause Screen, have friendly banter, comment on Frisk’s decisions, it’s Undertale Schizophrenia (Red and Yellow but better) 

Frisk’s personality will be more similar to a post neutral run, despite the fact they did a pacifist route, this is because Frisk is mainly determined to do whatever it takes as this is a Post Soulless Pacifist Route Frisk, (a mouthful), they won’t think of the consequences till later, one of the main conflicts between them and Chara.

Boyfriend

He will be a natural inhabitant of the MHA Universe, as a General Studies Student, who will debut in the Sports Festival Arc, he will look rather similar his design in the Funk’s Justice mod (all credit to the game’s artists: ItoSaihara, NinKey, ImBurger, JayyThunder, GARBIE PATTIE, Jams3D, Paciofd).

His Quirk is called Echo, (based on how Boyfriend fights in Chino’s Animations), if anyone verbally talks or makes a noise to him, he can copy their movements or abilities, including other quirks, however he has to constantly sing in order to use his quirk and his pitch and tempo control the actions he does.

Niko (OneShot)

Last character I’m going to mention, as a part of the Indie Cross group he’ll act similarly to his debut appearance, however seeing how he talk to the player in the game, Niko will be able to read/hear certain comments from any chapter he is in, adds to the fun.

(I think Niko is a boy, correct me if I am wrong)

Plot

We are starting from Frisk & The Souls Perspective as they are thrusted into the world of MHA.

Soon to follow would be the Indie Cross Cast

Then back to Frisk’s perspective (we will mainly be following their POV).

Maybe a Boyfriend POV during the Sports Festival Arc.

Very bare bones I know, but I do have a few surprises up when I eventually get to those points.

(Thanks for reading this chapter, if you have any questions or comments feel free to ask.)

Also this fic has a slow start, if you want to ignore the prologues if you already know all the characters (I still recommend reading it) then go to Chapter 6 when I actually write the major MHA content also because of the slow pace, a bunch of fandoms listed such as Persona will come in at Chapter 17, the Indie Cross cast appear in a far layer arc after their initial chapter, and BFDI characters first appears in chapter 10, so please be patient. ;)

Chapter Text

“Again? You’ve got to be kidding me…”

Chara begrudgingly says for what is most likely the umpteenth time, as the sun shines, blindingly, on the mountainside Frisk stands on, together with Monsterkind.

“I think it’s…well….” As a green translucent girl appears besides Chara with a gentle glow, none paying attention to her as if a ghost; she has long hair that was supposed to be brown, a burnt apron and white coat on, and frying pan in hand, with a timid expression.

“I mean, it is the right thing to do.” As another yellow translucent “ghost” appears, a boy this time, with a sharp bright shine as he appeared. One with a cowboy-like attire, a yellow bandana spotted with blue, and an empty revolver held in a holster on his belt.

“Nothing excuses them!” Chara says with such vehemence that even Frisk flinches, unable to ignore them anymore.

“We’ve been over this Chara, besides, I’ve…”

“I know, the other souls may not know…THAT, but I do, besides they weren’t, I don’t know, doing the same psychopathic thing ten times over for the fun of it!”

“Settle Down” as the cowboy floats between the two.

“Nothing can really truly be fair when both of you are bickering ‘alf to death, non’ of us were there, but deal with this later, besides, they’re staring at you.”

Frisk looks around to see Toriel, with that same motherly expression she has given to every child before them, while behind her: Papyrus, Mettaton, Undyne, Alphys, even sans and Asgore; one of them being normally unfazed, the other having previously seen the surface before, still look in awe of the sun. (It fills them with Determination.)

“My child, do you wish to talk to someone, you must be rather stressed after freeing the entire underground, that is no easy task.”

“No, I’m fine... mom”

Toriel smiles calmly despite the fact she’s beaming pure joy on the inside from the mere mention of “mom”.

“That will be fine my dear, would you like anyone to accompany you?”

“No thank you, I’ll just watch the sunset for a big longer…”

Toriel nods and slowly leaves knowing her child needs some privacy, all the monsters talk to Frisk, maybe a smile or a laugh before eventually leaving, even Papyrus and Mettaton who asked question after question about the surface.

“Human! You are telling me that there are multiple types of spaghetti?!”

“What?”

“There are millions of puzzles humans have made I can take inspiration from!?”

“My my, darling, you should have told me the surface had this many potential fans, I would have let you go a lot sooner.”

“Fu-fu-fu, more prey...I mean customers! (I can finally reunite all the spiders)”

“Not bad kid, you did pretty well.”

“KID, you said there’s a place with colosseums, japes, weapons and anime, so tell me how far it is, so I could run there!”

“Undyne... I think you have Rome, eastern China and Japan mixed up.”

Then over time as each monster leaves Frisk, an awkward silence and stare-off occurs between themselves and Chara, the Human Souls that are awake solemnly look between them in the meanwhile, unsure of how to break the awkward air between them.

“Howdy!”

Immediately, every person, ghost, and even Chara glared at the yellow flower that burrowed out of the floor.

“Why you nasty piece of ____!” As a dark blue light swirls into place, another “ghost” appears, this time with worn ballet shoes and a simple tutu, clearly a girl.

“I’ve had a LOT of time to think, repent, scream, cry, blame the robot or that stupid fox, but then I realised it was the thing, the only thing that could be nice to me before...”

“Lily, y’know he can’t hear or see you, only Frisk and the rest of us can...” the Cowboy interrupted once more.

“...”

“Yeah, it still doesn't change what I’ve done I suppose...”

Another voice appears, this time with a yawn, an orange light flared almost aggressively, a boy, wearing a headband, gloves that almost were like gauntlets, along with a short t-shirt and pants.

“Lily we’ve been over this”

/// Meanwhile…

“What’s got you silent Frisk?”

“ You told me your name yourself, unless you REGRET something that you’ve done.”

“…”

“Still with the silent treatment then? That’s fine, I’m just here to remind you of what you’ve done, after all, you are above consequences aren’t you…”

Upon saying “consequences”, Flowey’s face warped into that of a smile, as he grew to Frisk’s height, Chara phasing right through him as he is an eye’s width anyways from Frisk.

“After all, you’re even worse than the past me, at least I get bored after a while, but you?”

“You’re determined enough to see it through to the end, I’m pretty sure you’re not even ashamed of yourself, despite your pity parties and repentance quests.”

With each word he attempts to spit at Frisk however realises he has no saliva so shrinks back down to the ground.

“Nevertheless, not like I can go do anything else, I DON’T want to die again, especially not to you of all people, and Smiley Trashbag refuses to even try and remember with all of his science doohickeys”

“And you’ve got me monologuing, so I’ll leave but…”

“I’ll be waiting for you, Chara.”

Frisk POV

And as Flowey leaves the world fades to black, quite literally, back to this strange black void, that’s not the void, Chara calls it the Pause Menu, Flowey once called it the Soulscape, I just call it The Void, not like it needs a cool name.

All the souls then started jabbering again, as usual, but this is the first time Integrity, sorry I meant Lily,  had such an adverse reaction to Flowey, I would ask but…

“Seriously Lily, it’s not like we can reset, get over it”

Bravery or should I say Oliver was berating her again, maybe it was tough love, but he’s no Undyne.

“S-s-says the one who’s friends like a smoking machine.”

“Lily…”

Ava then wipes her tears with her sleeve, do they even have sleeves?

“We aren’t skipping over Frisk again.”

“Chara as blunt as usual I see.” I blurt out.

“I almost forgot you could talk.”

“Real original…”

Ava then goes in between us, slightly hovering of the ground as if to remind me she’s dead.

“None of you are HELPING!”

Both me and Chara freeze for a moment, silently agreeing with each other before shutting up.

‘[That was rather rude]’ – says a textbox that appears in front of me.

I whisper to them “I forgot you could do that.”

Eventually, Chara joins the chorus of souls and Lily calms down, as for me I would try to talk but, well, I’m not in the best position to say the least but at least Ava smiles at me, so I give the first genuine smile in a long time.

“So what now?” Clover asks me.

“We’ve been to the Dunes a couple of times already, sorry but I’m not fighting Ceroba for the forth time.”

“Wasn’t asking bout that, stop trying to deflect from the problem.”

Chara then decides to but in, like always.

“Forgetting how forced Clover’s accent is, he’s right, Frisk talk to US.”

“…”

”…” continued.

“Alright, I guess if you all are that persistent after 99 resets, I guess a few more wouldn’t change your mind.”

“Finally, we can address the consequences.” Chara replies.

The last light of the six souls finally shines, a small yet prolonged light purple, a boy with purple moon-shaped glasses, accompanied by that notebook of his he always uses, it was useful against Sans a while back.

“Agreed, I’ve been waiting for the conclusion.” Says the last soul.

They all huddle in a circle around me, slightly intimidating I’ve got to admit, remembering Omega Flowey and THAT.

“You First”- As Chara stares at me.

“I thought I was, not exactly fun I’m not a sadist like Flowey, but it’s… curiosity I guess?”

They all stare into my soul, figuratively of course, waiting for me to continue.

“You’ve seen what we can do, I won’t say we are above consequences, I learnt that the hard way but we can always try again, so why not explore every aspect, we’ve only seen a fraction of the Underground, a fraction of the amount of friends we can make, a fraction of the fights too.”

Ava chimes in, those watery eyes having a glimmer of concern.

“Do you not care for any of the friends you made along the way? Sans, Papyrus, Mettaton, Undyne…, Alphys, and Toriel is more than a friend, you called her mom!”

I just give her a smile.

“That doesn’t answer the question.” Says Joey, that was his name. (Perseverance)

“They always forget, but I would do anything for them” I say, it is the least I could do for them.

“Don’t remind me of the time you became a serial killer and threw criminals into Mt Ebbot during THAT post-neutral run.” Clover again. [1]

“You were too patient I’ll say” As a new voice steps into the conversation.

Huh I forgot about that one, of course, I forgot about Patience, weird.

I guess I’ll explain it.

The actual last soul, Alice I think or was it Alisa? Was a small yet brilliant light blue like the sea, as they slowly formed into existence, each piece of them a wave of light that washed into being.

“That took you years to finish, even when I fought Gerson I didn’t take years.” Alice continued.

“Frisk, you may have not been caught in that timeline, but for you to perfect that…” Chara adds, of course.

“Jail wasn’t that bad, it’s pretty easy to reset in there.”

“Stop dodging the question.” A determined gaze.

“…”

“If I do, will you let me reset?”

“Sure, whatever.” Says Chara.

“Fine by me.” Joey exclaims

“Just don’t hurt anyone again…” Ava comments

“Just hold up your word”  Clover, of course.

“I can tell if you lie.” Sniffles Lily, still wet in the eyes.

“Or we just beat the crap out of you” Oliver smiles as he answers.

“We can talk all day or fight, a bit on the nose in hindsight but very true.” Alice gives me a fake smile of her own.

“My goal is to have a life, a life where I can truly be satisfied” I explained.

“I came to Mt Ebbot because I believed whatever happened to me there would surely give me something more than a life in a rural village, I believed that even death would be more interesting than seclusion and stagnation.”

“That goal changed, as I met every monster, to wanted to be their genuine friend, to save all of them, when I felled Asgore, it wasn’t satisfying at all, I just killed a man steadfast to his beliefs for his kingdom.”

“So, I pressed reset.”

“I saved Asgore.”

Ava, that waterworks of a girl, was surprisingly suppressing a tear, meanwhile the rest had stoic faces.

“Then I Saved Asriel and Flowey.”

“And it was then I realised, I needed to know more, how many more people could be stuck in the Underground unable to get out or oblivious to the news that I freed them all.”

“Sounds stupid, but I was my second run at the time, so lo and behold I reset.”

“Eventually as you all know one by one you awakened and followed me on my misadventures let’s call them.”

“The Genocide route was merely me accessing how the Underground would react to someone who was the complete opposite of me, accessing security flaws, the action, how effective their methods were.”

“…”

They were all silent, of course they were.

“That explains why you memorised all of Alphys’ works and evacuation routes.” Joey answers.

I nod.

“I was determined to make a perfect world, time after time after time.”

“After all, not only have I maximised my time in this route: I’ve helped Clover’s friends say their last goodbyes, the amalgamates are back with their families Papyrus and Sans will talk out his apathy towards himself, Alphys’s research will eventually get Flowey back as Asriel, Undyne and Alphys had the perfect date, Toriel and Asgore are on speaking terms, Muffet’s family is reunited, I could go on and on...”

“I’ve perfected every little thing about his world, except myself, as such, this will be the last time I reset.”

This is the first time everyone is in complete shock.

“You’re giving up?” Chara exclaimed, in utter shock.

“Yep, I’ve accomplished everything, this is the best possible ending.”

“So how are you planning to not reset?” Oliver asks.

“I can’t continue, in fact the button that should be here isn’t.”

Silence across the void.

“Instead there’s this.”

A multicoloured neon button appears below my hand, stating ‘True Reset’.

“If I continue, it’s clear I’ll become a worse person than I am now, I’m self aware enough to see that, Chara. I suppose that’s the consequences of my actions, my own imperfections.”

“This won’t affect you, at least I don’t think so, seeing how it didn’t affect Chara that one time.”

Alice asks “But what about you?”

“I’ll still be me, but I trust you guys to make sure I don’t…”

“Get a saviour complex again or perhaps becoming a perfectionist?” Chara states, vehemently and bluntly.

“Yep, that.”

“So any last words to the current me?”

“Are you crying?”

Ava slowly comes towards me as she says that, I flinch for some reason but then… she hugs me.

“No, just knowing all my hard work isn’t for nothing.”

All the others would say something but I press the button as the void fades to white this time, before I could hear them.

“That’s all folks!”  I shout out to the six people in this blinding light.

“You little motherfuc…” Oliver attempts to say.

“We can do that for you, ‘it’s the least I can do’ right?” Alice shouts at me, at least I think she did.

Clover tips his hat at me before being engulfed by the light.

“We won’t disappoint.” Joey gives me a thumbs up, he’s probably saying something cliché.

“I’ll give you a chance.” Lily mouths at me.

Lastly Ava, still hugging says the only thing I properly hear.

“Everything will be alright.”

And now the world fades to white, as I forget everything that made me the flawed caricature of myself, and I hope reader, I hope for the fact that I don’t come back.

Or we all might have a bad time.

Chapter Text

*The Drifter is a feline-like humanoid with blue skin, draped in an orange-red cloak while donning a grey helmet, gauntlets and boots. 

*The Beheaded, a blue-skinned humanoid figure wearing a basic breastplate and bandages around his arms with billowing wisps of black smoke for a head and a shining star for an eye coupled with a tattered red scarf.  

Two blades of light are thrusted into the eye of the beast. 

As a brilliant flash of blue and yellow shine, as the Drifter’s reckless abandon and the King’s Hand clash with the sickening boom of neon green that burst through the ruined cityscape, the rouge’s body disintegrates as its remains lays motionless, merely just a head with a shattered visage, embedded into a large crater. 

He spoke. 

“Well, mind if I do the honours?” 

The Drifter nods. 

The Beheaded then smugly walks up to the head and… flips the bird to put it lightly. 

However, a feeling of dread comes up from behind, as a ray of light suddenly shines from above onto the Beheaded, turning his body into gold, however, a sliver of black fog latches onto the Drifter’s shoulder along with a large mesh of vines that acts as a sort of neck that the Drifter quickly cuts off to stop the gold transmutation. 
 
The ray of light descends revealing a drone adorned with five golden petals forming a star, a thin robotic body made of a polished black metal, small protruding blades similar to ribs connect to his dress-like appendage edged with teeth; gold circuitry flaring as if to show of the luxury of its colour. 

Their petals open as the same light emerges from their eye, attempting to petrify Drifter, and failing in the process as he dashed out of the way.  

“Well, that could have gone horribly wrong, right peasa...” 

Then comes another. 

White judgement comes from above, as a colossal hammer smashes into the ground followed by bleached bursts of lightning and the ruined cityscape cries out in pain. 

Another descends, a large stature, a warrior of black and white with a similar physique to the previous rouge, except in the place of petals are two large downward spikes, similar to antlers, jagged spikes upon its legs with large speaker-box like feet while a white cape flows behind him. 

Now, Drifter stands perched upon the rooftop, Beheaded on his shoulder, both contemplating what just happened. 

“Okay peasant, that was awesome but WHAT the heck was that? I almost had the closest thing to death I could probably experience, or at least it felt that way.” 

Drifter simply shrugs his shoulders and dashes onwards into the distance 

“HEY PEASANT!” Drifter called out as he was barely hanging on to his shoulder by a vine’s tip, both of them heading towards a specific place in mind, of course Beheaded doesn’t know where in mind. 

/// Madeline’s POV 

It’s been a few hours since I’ve played darts with Shovel Knight and Cuphead, Badaline has figured out that she can’t actually touch the pancakes, much to her displeasure and Cuphead's amusement. 

“Well then, I suuuuuuuuuuupose, that’s more for me then!” 

“Don’t you dare.” She grumbled. 

“What are you going to do, spook me?” Cuphead answers with a hint of smugness on his face. 

“Guys?” I say with a nervous tone and a slight voice crack. 

“We can just share it equally among everyone here.” 

Shovel Knight then interrupts. 

“I have no need for further sustenance, as I am already in peak condition, perhaps one of you can take this extra share.” 

The Knight merely shakes its head. 

“Honestly, I don’t want more either...” I tell the group. 

“...Darling Madeline... y’know what never mind, just share some with Niko...” Badaline says with an apathetic attitude. 

“Alright!” Cuphead shouts 

/// A Few Moments later... 

I’m honestly just trying to sleep on the desk, when suddenly a large tremor appears and jolts me up. 

Badaline points upwards, as everyone looks up anticipating something. 

Charlotte quickly warns us “Alright everyone, stay sharp, we have company.” 

A large explosion takes out the roof of the bar, a large green monstrosity screams loudly in front of us adorned with large moving mechanical gears, a second mouth in the place of its abdomen and four spider like legs connected to the base of it’s mouth as if baring fangs, it stares us down. 

Niko passes the fixed shovel to Shovel Knight and ducks as he begins to jump and slam down on the Rouge spinning and stabbing his shovel into its head, before being captured mid-air by winding chains shot out from its second mouth and throwing him straight into the kitchen, Shovel Knight walks through fire, and gets a few more hits in before the machine’s gears wind him up, sending him flying. 

I try and get to Niko as Cuphead begins his fight, starting with an electric beam that leaves the machine unfazed, followed by a chair to the head, dodging the sudden onslaught of bullets from a hand that turned into a machine gun, rolling, dashing, jumping like a mad maverick from Mad Max before a quick kick from the thing’s legs sends Cuphead flying.  

(I wonder if this Rouge has a favourite finishing move or something, because it loves sending people to the air) 

Badaline fires a barrage of lasers and orbs, which let’s just say gives a few flashbacks to things I'd rather not remember, before passing through the attacks of Rouge as it leaps through the air and attempts to slash her. 

In case the robot could do something to Badaline, I throw a chair at it, hitting it square in the head before I realise it is going to kill me, so I skedaddle, forgetting to dash...somehow. 

As I come outside, the Knight is face down on the floor, which I’ll have to ignore as I jump through the window and kick the drone in the head again, saving Charlotte. 

Then this time, I get thrown across the air and somehow into Badaline as we fuse back and I land on the remnants of the roof. We hear the sounds of slashing and piercing but by the time we get back…

Shovel Knight appears from nowhere and grapples the drone with a large anchor from somewhere? And hits him into the air as a form of comeuppance, as me and Badaline split again, creating orbs for Cuphead to traverse on by parrying, hitting the drone with beams of lightning over and over again, it was basically like ping pong. 

Cuphead then grabs my hand as the glimmer of a golden feather shoots us high up into the sky and I toss him even further; he charges up Shovel Knight’s weapon with electricity while he is in the air, as the Knight returns, platforming off the debris to bounce off the shovel, glowing amethyst growing beneath him, as he shot downwards, a shooting star with a piercing desolate dive punching right through its chest like a hero from an action movie. 

I got back down thanks to the golden feather floating down safely after Shovel Knight and Cuphead got back down with his propeller, as Cuphead starts to talk. 

“Is that it?” 

Charlotte says nothing, but staggers to the remains and stabs into it with her claw, crackles of green energy become visible as she began to siphon the energy left inside. 

“Stay on guard.” Shovel Knight warned us all, as she became green and slightly bigger after finishing. 

She continues not to say a word, opening a red rift while staring at Shovel Knight, he and Niko tend to a new guy who must have helped fight the Rouge while I was stuck on the roof giving him a green syringe and pep talk, they said his name was Drifter. 

Another weird wispy creature was his shoulder, some black fog the size of a large cup with a glowing yellow diamond for an eye. 

“Thanks for save there, weird cat peasant” It exclaimed in a confident manner. 

“You're welcome, but I'm not a cat...” 

“Still a peasant though so it makes no difference.” 

Then white judgement comes from above, as the white Rouge from the first world came and struck the rift with its giant hammer almost effortlessly and stared us down while floating, many grey rifts forming from its presence. 

We all left as quickly as we could, I couldn’t really tell what was happening at the beginning to be honest, but Cuphead escaped with Niko as Shovel Knight tried to strike him down with gauntlets. 

Then, a large centipede shaped Rouge bursts through the ground, the size of a skyscraper, rises upward, it can fly, of course it can fly. 

The sheer size of this monstrosity almost pushes Shovel Knight into a rift, but it closes as two figures leap from it and climb unto a platform before being hit by the flying Shovel Knight. 

I helped Cuphead, Niko and Drifter and the wisp thing by extension unto one of the floating debris platforms, dashing from floating rocks, chairs and other debris, but then The Knight pushes us into a rift, as I struggle to reach him with my hand, he moved an inch towards me as he turns to gold, my finger just slipping off of his head, my eyes become impossibly wide and my mouth fell open. 

But then THAT thing returns, it punches the Rouge straight down, creating a crater unto the floor as something heavy hits my head before I could see it, and it all fades to black... 

/// Glamrock Freddy’s POV. 

“Superstar, do you have any idea where we are?” 

I asked, while looking at the ruined cityscape, oddly futuristic, I suppose we are in a different world, but this is vastly different from the Pizzaplex, a sleek black slate covering a majority of the landscape, but we stand on a floating piece of debris, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, after all I helped this child take down one of the co-founders of Freddy Fazbear's Entertainment that came back to life and somehow gained reality warping abilities and then gave him a Fazwatch so he can call me at any time... none of this makes sense in hindsight does it? 
 
The child stares at me blankly, as abruptly, an armoured man in some form of medival knight-viking armour slams into me.  

“Oh, are you alright?” 

“Why thank you my fine bear-like stranger, you have saved me from being separated from my companions, but I am on a tight-most schedule to retrieve them.” 

“We can help with that, can’t we Superstar?” 

They neither nod nor shake their head but merely point to the flower like robot who bears a vague resemblance to Sun, who is floating above two children an adult and glowing black bush, clearly with malicious intent. 

“Right, so how do you-” 

The blue knight grabs a hold of my hand, as his shovel is magically replaced with a small propeller that somehow manages to carry all three of us past the colossal red centipede, then gives us gears to glide on, however, the robot turns a strangely large bug into gold 

I proceed to jump on the flower robot's head in order to grab the frozen ally of the blue knight and charge into the portal, I may have hit the red-haired child by mistake, but the little force I used to jump should only give her a concussion, she can easily be tended to once we escape. 

/// Shovel Knight’s POV. 

The bear-like man was of great help, cushioning my impact of what would have been into an unknown location via the rift, he also saved my little friend of great valour, however the small child that followed him had unprecedented strength and punched the robot with catastrophic force, clearly they also must have trained with sorcery at a young age, nevertheless, we both landed on the debris at the same time, as we rushed into the portal at simultaneously before the hammer wielding fiend could strike us again.

Chapter Text

/// Chara’s POV.

They’ve fallen down again, the others aren’t awake yet, typical, but nevertheless, they seem... confused, did it actually work?

“Hello? Is anyone here?” calls out Frisk, somehow unfazed by the fall and the new location.

It’s almost unnerving, that innocence in their voice, as if they didn’t kill a majority of the Underground at least ten times over. It almost makes sick, but should they be punished for it if they aren’t even the same person? They’re already giving me a headache after their ‘death’.

(Why can they pass on but not me? Nevermind that’s a stupid thought...)

“Y’know, at least we can guide them for the better this time” - as a familiar yellow light fills the room, catching the attention of the oblivious child.

“What the FUCK?” Frisk stares at the two ghostly children floating above them.
I look at Clover.

“Yep, that reset definitely worked.”

Frisk still in confusion, stared down both of us, and continued to ask questions.
“Who... what are you?”

“I’m Clover, that’s Chara, we’re like... your spiritual guides in this place, yep that’s it!”

“...”

“Really?”

“Yeah, tell ‘em Chara!”

“We…are helpful ghosts, like Casper from that one movie.”

“Wait does that mean you’ve died here?”

“…This is going to take a bit, isn’t it?” Chara sighed.

“Where’s Alice when you need ‘em?” Clover added.

“Well, I’m here instead.”

A new voice appears, a persistent purple glow, he floats up to Frisk as he shifts into a more humanoid form and starts explaining in a half-confident, half-sincere tone.

“Kid, we’ve been through a lot, but we’ve all died of… accidents around here, but you have something different to the rest of us, it’s the reason why you can talk to us.”

“…What’s that then?”

“Your Soul is made of pure Determination.”

“…”

“Right, basically you can SAVE, LOAD, and RESET, like it’s a game, at certain points throughout your journey, you can’t die unless you give up, but that soul isn’t RED for nothing, so it’s highly unlikely.”

“…Oh, that’s a lot to take in…”

“Just take your time, not like anything is after you.”

“Except Flowey next door” I butt in, being somewhat pessimistic admittedly but I’m just being truthful.

“Who?” As Frisk’s face almost contorts into that of another confused scream.

“Ignore them, they’re just trying to cope with the fact they have to explain everything again.” Joey adds, ensuring they are taking it slowly.

“You see that glowing star?” Clover asks

“Yeah?”

“That’s a SAVE point, when you get close to it, you’ll instinctively know what to do, you should try, it ain’t that bad.”

Frisk walks up to the SAVE point, more so they’re gravitating towards it, the curiosity sparkling in their eyes, the warmth of the SAVE point fills them with this unknown feeling, their doubt and anxiety wash away, instead replaced with a newfound purpose to survive whatever weird magical adventures from this point onwards.

It fills them with DETERMINATION.

And something more…

The SAVE points shifts colour, changing from a brilliant golden yellow to a crimson glow and a black centre, sucking in light inside, leaving a red coloured corner of the room.

“Frisk, get out of THERE!”  I shout, but to no avail, not like I can possess them at this stage, and I’m definitively not tangible last time I checked.

Clover tries to shoot the rift, to no avail, summoning his signature gun, and somehow not blasting Frisk to smithereens in the process.

“You idiot! Since when did shooting a SAVE point work? You’re just going to hit Frisk!”

“Chara, look….” As Joey points to the problem child.

Frisk is currently on the SAVE Menu, as they begin to write their name, somehow oblivious to myself, Clover and Joey.

“…this Frisk will be worse than the last one…” I sigh, my headache turning into a migraine.

“It could be an Amalgamate.” Joey speaks up, the only one attempting to calmly look at the situation.

“Doubt it, the Amalgamate was the same colour as a normal SAVE point.” I quickly retort.

“Frisk either can’t hear us, or they’re ignoring us on purpose, and I’d like to think it’s the former, since they would react normally.” Clover deduces.

“Great observation Banquo, the air is delicate, just shoot Frisk.”

“…Chara, I know you hate Frisk at the moment, but you just told me not to.” Clover tries to refute me, weird but understandable.

“Also, when did you read Shakespeare, his works are over 400 years old.” Joey asks, typical nerd.

“They can’t hear us, and besides, they’re taking forever to SAVE, that should stop them, also I said shooting the SAVE point was a bad idea because you would shoot Frisk to smithereens, shoot their leg or something, we’ll just teach them to RESET, I guess.”

“As for you Joey, even I went to school…”

“Alright, ‘ere goes nothing…”

Clover steadily holds the empty revolver in his hand, unusually nervous, but then again, he’s never shot the person that allowed them to see their found family, even if they did other questionable things, I suppose the judge is rather bias about being jury all of a sudden.

Then the shot, it streaks through the silence.

Streaks of blood run down their leg.

Then the World SAVES.

As streaks of black run down the world.

“Clover…what did you do?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“It looks similar to a RESET.” Joey comments

“Since when did RESETS have the SAVE point go all dark are murky before-. “

 Then it fades to black again.

Frisk is certainly a problem child.

/// Clover’s POV.

I always wake up second, it doesn’t really make much sense, it should really be Alice first I’m the sixth human if I can count, but that’s not the biggest concern at the moment.

We’re on the surface.

To be a bit more precise, we’re in a hospital.

Who’s we?

Good question, it’s just me and Chara at the moment, but they haven’t said anything in a long time, they’re probably in shock with twist after twist so far, I would say this is almost shocking, if it wasn’t for the numerous times I’ve died before in much more zany ways.

/// Chara POV.

‘Frisk, WHERE THE HELL ARE WE!’ Is what I would like to say.

What the actual heck.

I would swear but I’ve exhausted every possible one I could think of.

This is unnatural.

But I suppose if Frisk has an actual family and seven friendly ghosts, they can be a better person this time.

So where are they?

Clover is off staring into the distance, and I have to admit humanity has advanced quite a bit, way more…” digital” than I remember, maybe that’s why, phones are as thin as paper now.

I slowly float around the room, as I realise this place, is off to put it lightly, monsters are on the surface?

No, not monsters, the nurses call them human, heck that’s a weird lizard lady right in front of me, like some teenage mutant ninja turtle reject.

Then the kicker.

Frisk is right there, at the hospital, laid down on a hospital bed, or should I say cot, how do I know it’s Frisk you ask?

Well, it’s because Frisk is tagged on, their leg as they are asleep.

I call for Clover as they also come and stare, dumbfounded.

“…By all the bullets in the world, what we have here is worse than Calamity Jane.”

“I hate that fake accent of yours,  y’know that right?”

“…That’s fair, but it’s not fake.”

“Anyways, what to do about this ‘ere?”

“Call the rest of them awake, me and you haven’t taken care of babies before, I’ve only dealt with cry-babies.”

Each soul one by one awakens, ending up in seven bright hues around the crib, all surrounding a little determined soul.

“…I can’t punch a child…” Oliver mutters to himself

“We can teach them better like this right?” Ava looks optimistically but some fear? Can be seen in her eyes.

“Honestly I’m glad this has happened.” Lily says, at this point she’s a motif.

“I feel like a missed a lot.” Joey exclaims as usual.

“I definitely missed a lot.” Alice whispers to Joey.

Despite the numerous glowing floating children around them, Frisk does not react whatsoever, almost as if they couldn’t see us.

“Strange.”

“What, Chara?” Clover asks, of all people.

“Frisk can’t see us, they probably can’t hear us, yet we’re still tethered to them.”

“Have you tried cutting it?” Lily floats by as she looks at me, almost happy with her expression.

“None of us can, I mean I’ve tried more times than the number of times everyone has RESET combined, except Frisk obviously.”

“Hey, come ‘ere and look at this one!”

I float there, I mean looking at Frisk as a baby can only get you so far in life.

“Who calls their child ‘Boyfriend?’, that a stupid name.” I almost laugh out loud, sure humanity has advanced, and they seem weirder but still as cruel, as least with their naming sense anyways.

“Maybe it’s so he has love in his life?” Ava remarked.

“If so that’s an unimaginative name, might as well call him Cupid.” I reply, unamused by the new world.

And then something bright in the distance, outside the window at the entrance of the hospital.

A SAVE point, but this one is a deep crimson red and an ever-consuming black at the centre of the four pointed star, emitting an eerie glow, blood seeping through light itself, it brightens to a blinding degree, me and the others try and circle around Frisk the light I couldn’t see anything, as an old melody is heard, bad memories, reaching into a crescendo,  and then —

• BANG!

An explosion rocked the hospital.

But it was what happened after.

Most of the babies were fine, it turns out Clover can still be a BIG SHOT and destroy most of the debris, while Ava could summon her giant green frying pan to protect them.

But the fact remains we’re still in rubble and Frisk—

Oh god, Frisk.

One after another I check each child, the one’s that didn’t get smushed anyways…

There’s not even an empty crib.

I can’t stray too far from them.

They have to be somewhere.

The others haven’t noticed.

I’ll have to be quick.

/// Toriel?’s POV.

I was at the bottom of the Hospital, waiting for my friend to come downstairs, when I felt a scorching heat run across my face, although nothing compared to my cooking, a hideous circle incinerated the area, and a thunderous explosion shook the ground.

And yet it was nothing compared to my fire.

I shielded the bystanders with a quick dome, a light heat over their skin as light engulfed the room and smoke bellowed over, thick with the scent of sulphur, the explosion must have blown over the gas pipes as well.

“Quickly evacuate! And call the nearest rescue team!” I shouted urgently, trying to instil some form of order to ensure their safety.

I run up, and incinerate the debris, smoke billowing out as it seeps through the broken walls, as the civilians manage to escape.

“I will try to save as many as I can!” I yell outside unsure if they can hear me, but most seem to nod and call the authorities.

I rush upwards, setting the debris into nothing but ash and dancing blaze, but ensuring they do not move an inch past where they ignited, helping the injured, most were immobilised and some were…dead, but my flames could sterilise and cauterise the wounded while they wait for the ambulance or a medical hero.

I continue, repeating the same process numerous times, I had to ignore their gratitude, as time was of the essence.

I reached one of the most important rooms, and was shocked, the debris miraculously missed a majority of the children and infants, only with cuts or scrapes that required some disinfecting with a wipe or two, some of them were holding a—

I rushed over to the child, a bleeding baby, I couldn’t use my flames on someone so young, cauterising could cause permanent damage no matter how cold my flames could be.

What was even worse was the fact that blood was seeping from its face, clearly a large cut upon its face, yet their eyes remained closed, and their pulse was still strong.

I quickly lead them downwards at once, in case any of the children required further medical attention, holding the baby in my arms, as I rushed them to the emergency services that have just arrived outside of the hospital.

They thanked me as I simply nodded and dashed back towards the entrance, but it seemed a few heroes were already there.

“Thank you for the assistance civilian, but we’ll take it from here.” A grainy voice that came from a wooden man in blue spandex.

“Hmph! Do you even have a license, you could be a burden without the proper training!” Followed another, this time a man with a wider build and a blue cardigan that only goes up his arms with a construction pattern on his bracelet, such a strange design choice.

“I am a bit of an old hero; I would be surprised if you recognised me.” As I show my old hero licence out of my bag.

“Hearthmaiden huh? Never heard of you, but sorry for calling you a burden, I’ve just had a lot on my plate recently.”

“It is fine, I simply understand the sentiment, I was a bit of a popular pro hero back in my time, I’ll not distract you any longer, but I think you should be doing your job instead of berating old hags like me.”

The wide man scoffs, clearly embarrassed but eventually goes off with the wooden man, not knowing I already cleared the entire building.

And despite that…my friend.

/// Chara’s POV.

I see fire?

I mean more fire than there was before, it feels comforting, heck it’s not even burning anything but the rubble.

It’s…something I mean.

While I’ve been trying to find Frisk, the others still haven’t noticed, most of them are helping the kids in one way or another.

Then the heartache happened.

Mom.

She was slightly different though, happier? No that’s not how to describe her.

A lack of grief.

Her eyes had HOPE.

Her fire had passion, rather than denial, or fear.

She was determined.

Wait is she holding Frisk?

I begrudgingly called over the other fallen humans, after realising they were too busy playing hero to notice Frisk missing, they were forcefully dragged to Frisk anyways, seeing how far away they initially were, but they did allow me to berate them.

Then Toriel gave them to the ambulance.

I ignored what they were saying afterwards they haven’t noticed her yet, this world is… beyond strange.

But then they finally noticed her presence through the windows of the ambulance, as Frisk was lying on a stretcher, or at least the very least they were attempting something with the ACR (Ambulance Child Restraint: it’s a harness).

“Was that Toriel?” Ava questioned.

“She looked a lot happier.” Lily commented.

I quickly reply back, as I don’t want to hear them sniffle about Toriel again, like when I first met them.

“It’s a different Toriel, she’s been affected by the red SAVE point as the rest of world has.” I quickly add.

“Is Frisk alright?” Joey asked, surprising it was him and not anyone else.

“If they weren’t, we wouldn’t be here, in fact you could check right now.”

They all check, a large gash on their forehead, otherwise they appear completely normal, even with the eyes that never open – I thought that was a joke, but it seems biological, I guess.

Then a long time waiting, I’m certainly not in the mood to talk, but it takes forever for them to do anything about Baby Frisk, God at least the old Frisk streamlined their time, I almost understand them now.

• A few hours later…

Frisk was determined to be perfectly fine after a long examination; they deduced that their healthy state was due to an early quirk awakening, whatever a quirk is, and something about it being unidentifiable as Frisk hasn’t fully developed.

“We’ve been ‘ere for a while.” Clover states, trying to relieve their clear boredom with some small talk.

“Do you think Frisk’s parents are still alive?” Ava asks, rather dark for her but I suppose it’s a logical thought.

“I doubt it, but surely they have some relatives who are close enough to take care of them.” I reply in the bluntest way possible.

“Maybe they’re lizards.” Oliver says jokingly.

Well as if the world desperately wanted to answer Ava’s question, they called the closest person to Frisk’s parents on the phone, it was easy to guess seeing how they talked about custody and stuff and also about the fact that Frisk has no other relatives, very convenient.

/// A few days later.

I Am Banging My Head Against A Wall.

This is taking forever.

Legal process after legal process.

Wills are nothing like the media portrays them as.

And besides, half of the others are asleep, mostly due to the fact being awake for every moment of the day isn’t exactly good for one’s mental health, so no one to talk to either.

The executor of the will, some random white rat, polecat, bear looking humanoid animal thing started talking to Toriel at her house while Frisk was inside, she only had temporary custody till the will took place which would give her permanent custody until the age of 18 because a guardian is different from a parent.

Why am I listening to this? Well it’s more entertaining than watching a baby drool.

They clearly knew each other since they started chatting a lot and mo— I mean Toriel started making some really bad jokes, then the second kicker.

“How is your husband Asgore, I haven’t seen him a while.” The rat said it, of course it did.

They are still married?

What the heck?

I mean it doesn’t look like there’s a barrier in the world now that I think about it.

That means there was no war.

And I never would have met them…if I even exist in this world.

Ah well, I’ll spare you the court jargon, because it’s all going to work out in the end.

/// A few years later, Frisk?’s POV.

(I’m not using Buffy Speak)

Howdy!

I’m Frisk, Frisk Dreemurr!

I’m four years old now, time does fly by.

Toriel and Asgore have been my parents since that day, they say they’re sorry they couldn’t do anymore more, but I’ve never met my parents anyways, I barely remember their faces.

But suppose I should start with this morning.

/// Earlier Today.

“My child, are you ready today?” Toriel asked with concern.

“It’ll be better than you’d except!” As I begin to open to the door.

“The teachers can’t be better than you, but I’m sure nothing bad is going to happen.”

“You should not comment on your teachers before you meet them, but I am glad you enjoy my teaching.”

Then Asgore enters the room, still wearing his ‘casual wear’ which consists of: an ugly pink Hawaiian shirt which does not match his muscular build or his blue jeans, with work shoes and his bright blond hair, Dad’s a mess.

“How was work Fluffybuns?”

“It was alright Tori…”

I quickly leave before I see more lovey dovey business, cute but frustrating and also claustrophobic at times.

Toriel waved as I left, while I dodged a hug from Dad, I didn’t want to be late.

If you’re wondering why I’m able to walk to school by myself at such a young age, well my parents at famous for… an incident that happened a few years back when someone tried to kidnap me, and I managed to convince them a cellphone was enough, only took a couple months, and by convince I mean begging to go to school by myself before they explained what a phone was to me.

Besides, most adults say I’m pretty mature for my age, sometimes I feel like I have these lingering memories that never happened to me, maybe that’s why.

After crossing the road, looking both ways, blah blah blah, I arrive.

Aldera Junior High, despite the name it’s also a nursery.

Back to the usual.

As I sit down, there’s that green broccoli haired kid and his friend, the Pomeranian haired kid, they seem like decent friends, I haven’t really talked to anyone when I first started recently, maybe I should say hi at lunch.

Time flies, we have some lessons, nothing of note.

I sit alone as usual during the two breaks and lunch, sometime I think I see a spark of light, but people say that’s just eye floater or as the doctor called it photo -pee – ass – is. (Photopsias).

Then some random kids talk to me.

“Hi Frisk!” Says a random girl.

“Hi”

“What are you doing today?”

“Nothing”

“Oh…well I’ll see you next time then?”

“Sure”

That’s how most conversations go, but this time something new finally happened.

“Hey you!” A winged kid, leathery like a dragon, his breath smells like it too.

“Yeah?” I reply for the umpteenth time to a stranger.

“What’s your quirk?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“Maybe stop being so nosy about it.”

“My mom said you were on the news, you must have a cool quirk if you were in the news!”

“Hate to break it to you, but the doctors have no clue what my quirk is, and besides, even if I did you have no manners.”

“You talk like an old man and if you don’t want to talk about it that means you’re quirkless!”

“You talk like-“

He leaves before I could continue, god, what’s up with that kid.

Anyways, I hope the green and spiky kid are better friends to each other than that, as I wander the playground to search for them, also to clear my head of whatever that was, I could see the spiky kid and broccoli boy and talking, one of them standing on the monkey bars.

“Deku! Why are you protecting the villain?” The Pomeranian shouts, so they’re playing make belief huh.

“Y’all already made him cry, stop it!” The broccoli boy shouts back, a crying kid behind him.

“I won’t let you!” Another retort.

Them came a punch.

And then another.

A kick.

Blow after blow.

Something churns in my mind, this was nothing like friends at all, the explosive kid is more like a bully than anything.

“Hey Bakugo! That one’s quirkless too!” The winged kid nudges the spiky boy as he says that.

“Hey you, get out of the way!” The spiky kid starts talking to me, only giving me a split second to react.

Then he leaps forward, almost with a sickening smile, I push the green kid out of the way.

A voice then enters my head.

[You have a stern stance, you won’t be a bystander.]

[You are filled with Justice.]

[You are filled with DETERMINATION.]

I rush forward towards the bully after pushing the kid to safety, as the yellow speck of light I saw grows bright and brighter, and I see a world of bright yellow.

A large dust cloud rises, a thunderous clap from the impact, my mind feels fuzzy, almost like I’m sharing my body with someone.

/// Clover’s POV.

As the dust settles, I realise I have an actual body, I’m a bit shorter though, but it’s fine, wait is this Frisk’s body?

How? Why? As many questions were swirling in my head, some crazy kid came up and tried to explode me, Frisk, we? Again.

An easy dodge, nothing compared to Ceroba.

I call for Frisk but they don’t answer, but I can feel their DETERMINATION, so a light lesson should suffice.

Sparkles stares at me dumbfounded, as his two lackeys charge at me, one of them flying in the air, the other having some form of stone skin, a brawl is surely brewing.

I charge in myself, rolling under the bat kid as he tumbled unto the floor, sand in his eyes, while I fired a BIG SHOT, a large bright bullet of light roars towards the other one, the stone on his skin flying like shrapnel, tearing off, as he was hit, knocking him up and down for the count on the sand.

As for the other, he attempted to fly again, I summon my revolver and shoot some foam pellets as his wings, a warning shot, and he stops annoying us with a short fall to the ground.

“Game Over, kid, stop playing the villain, before you get a bullseye.”

The kid, Bakugo was it? Sounds foreign, oh right, we’re in Japan.

He started to cry, sniffling and shouting, to the point I thought he was being the one bullied for a minute before running off, his lackies taking suit.

And boy do I feel tired…

I pass out on the ground.

/// Chara’s POV.

“Clover, what the hell was that?” As a surprised expression plagued my face yet again.

“Dude I would say you rocked, if it wasn’t a bunch of kids you were beating up.” Oliver adds, we were both surprised at the sudden snap Clover had, let alone the whole possession thing.

“I don’t really know? It felt like Frisk was partially in control, they felt so angry, it felt unnatural, not that I blame ‘em though, those thugs deserved a lesson.”

We watched as both the Broccoli boy and the bully whose name turned out to be Bakugo, called for the teacher and all they saw was a bloody mess…without the blood.

They did however tell Toriel about this, and let’s just say she was furious after seeing the security footage they were so desperately trying to hide, although Frisk did say sorry when they, or was it Clover, it’s hard to tell who took the blame, but nevertheless Frisk said sorry, and then they argued some more, Bakugo’s mother got involved and the bully got a scolding worse than any explosion.

And the entire time Frisk was staring at us.

Chapter Text

Howdy again! It’s me, YellowSaga, sorry for the long wait, writing that chapter took longer than expected but I did meet the weekly requirement, so everything is fine.

As compensation, here’s a second notes chapter, with some ideas for upcoming characters for Class 1 – C, again this contains SPOILERS so you can skip or ignore this chapter if you want a more organic read of the fic.

Because I was both bored and due to the fact Class 1 – C is non-existent other than Shinso and Boyfriend the latter that I had to add, here are a bunch more characters, following the indie trend, I think all of these characters are from indie games or games that were indie games at one point, correct me if I’m wrong.

• Buddy from LISA THE PAINFUL

Lore: Similar to the lore of the original game, however, Brad instead of fighting against the gang, he is against the Yakuza, he is also dead, she is under the custody of U.A. when Nezu was searching for potential students off the grid.

She has to take mood suppressants to ensure her quirk doesn’t get out of hand.

Quirk: Joy: Whenever she feels emotions, she becomes stronger, the more intense the emotions the stronger she is but over time said emotions become addictive.

Type: Emitter.

Drawback: Self-Explanatory.

• Spooky from Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion.

Lore: She first discovered her quirk when she was trick or treating at the age of 4, On one Halloween night, when she tried to scare someone with her Red Death costume from the tale The Masque of the Red Death from Edgar Allan Poe and some fireworks, this scared him as a PTSD victim of shell shock due to being an army veteran which caused him to shoot her, this gave her a fundamental fear of death which caused her to manifest herself as a ghost and barely survive the ordeal.

As such she’s trying to become a hero despite a fear of death.

Quirk: Fear Manifestation: she can target one person within sight and create illusions based on their fears, she gains an innate understanding of their fears once she uses this quirk, she can either make numerous intangible illusions or small amounts of solid construct illusions she can control, but she cannot control what the manifestations are (e.g. someone has a fear of spiders, she summons a bunch of small spiders, useless in combat.)

She also looks like a ghost as the quirk makes her what she fears most, which is a ghost, this gives her conscious intangibility and flight.

Type: Emitter + Mutation.

Drawback: Lack of control due to unpredictable constructs as well as a lack of physical damage.

• Henry Stickmin from The Henry Stickmin Collection.

Lore: He was originally going to turn to a life of crime, due to his seemingly RNG based abilities, about to rob a bank until he was stopped by a passing Almight, a reverse Deku situation.

As such, he is somewhat scared of him.

He’s also friends with a younger version of Charles and Elle.

Quirk: In the Bag: if he has a closed space such as a pocket or hole nearby, he can reach his hand through it and it has a choice between two to eight random objects or actions that will be able to get him out of any situation to varying degrees of success, one is always the best answer and the other is always the worse answer, the others lead to branching issues.

Type: Emitter

Drawbacks: Completely RNG Based.

• Lonely Girl from Escaped Chasm

Lore: An average person who forces themselves to be extroverted and optimistic to try and reduce her anxiety, it does not work.

Quirk: Escapist: It is always active and forces a situation which allows her escape any given moment, the amount of time before this activates is based on her anxiety.

Type: Emitter.

Drawback: Unpredictable Application.

• Skul from Skul: The Hero Slayer

Lore: Agreed with Stain for about 5 seconds until he realised how stupid he was going about it, he has a much more pessimistic view on society, and hates the concept of the general studies class as it is essentially a backup class for more students in his mind.

His great grandfather was a first-generation hero that was constantly criticised and still is to this day, which is a sore spot for him, due his mysterious disappearance.

Quirk: Dullahan: His body is mutated to look like that of an animated skeleton, as such he does not need to eat, drink or breathe but the former two are good for mental health. The quirk’s active effect is when the user’s skull would be destroyed, it will be reconstructed using the nearest materials around the body, whatever the head is made of will give his body corresponding qualities.

Type: Emitter + Mutation

Drawbacks: He needs good material around him to gain a better constitution, it also takes time for him to reconstruct.

• Misfortune Ramirez Hernandez from Little Misfortune.

Lore: Unknowingly ‘fixed’ her parents and their relationship by using her quirk on them, quickly caught the attention of the authorities and now is in General Studies and under U.A. custody until her parents are back to normal, it helps with U.A. budget at this point.

Quirk: Glitter: When she sprinkles glitter on objects emitted from her hands, it turns them temporarily into a childlike innocent version of itself based on the user’s imagination.

Type: Emitter

Drawback: Limited Range & Unpredictable Effect on those effected.

• Nima & Parasite from Am I Nima?

Lore: This initially caused her to have an identity crisis, as she was wondering if she had any will or if the parasite had her life instead of her, ended with ongoing extensive therapy and a symbiotic relationship

Quirk: Who Am I?: The parasite can enter your body and scramble the target’s memories turning them into an amnesiac temporarily, if the target is conscious before being affected, it generally lasts up to five minutes if successful but if the target suffers head trauma or is unconscious it can last up to 30mins.

Type: Mutation (Parasite is a part of her and can exit her body.)

Drawback: Both the Parasite and Nima are vulnerable on their own.

• Cassidy from FNAF

Lore: She was brutally murdered by a serial killer before her quirk activated and sent them into a vegetative coma, as such she came to the hero school with a prejudiced hatred for villains, which overcomes her fear of death.

The concept of pain managed to malfunction the robots, she also got an immediate pass (no marks, the bare minimum to enter a class was given)  as to not traumatise others with her quirk, despite the borderline obsession with villains, she has enough morality to not rely on it in class to not traumatise other people.

Quirk: Remnant: Whenever she dies of unnatural causes, she comes back within a few minutes in the exact same state and position as she was before her death (e.g. she dies of a stab wound and is heavily bruised, she comes back, no stab wound but is still bruised), however the person who killed her feels a fraction of the pain, the action that caused the pain does not fall upon them.

It also increases the sensation of death for the user, makes it more vivid.

Type: Emitter

Drawback: She would still be traumatised from each death.

Also quick update, when writing some of the later chapters, I realised there would be an odd number of students, so I’m adding another student to Class 1 - A, have fun guessing who, as it’ll be from a new series recently added on tags.

Chapter Text

Start of HEROICS: Frisk and the Souls, Part 1

/// Frisk?’s POV.

Well after all the hustle and bustle, I can finally say I’m not crazy, seeing glowing lights constantly like a portable rainbow and reporting it to the doctor made me seem crazier than someone with a quirk, seeing how the doctor... actually I can see why now nevermind.

Oh and mom was furious.

She went ballistic.

I’ve never seen her like that before, heck, I’ve seen her burn her pies once due to a prank from one of our neighbours, and even then she smiled through and made an equally terrible pun of her own, back at them.

This was something else entirely.

It’s comparable to Aunt Roba.

Then Bakugo’s mother came along.

It was explosive.

Eventually after a few apologies and whatnot, it was decided I’d go to a different school, due to clear bias from the teachers despite the complaints from both mothers.

In the meantime, I’d be homeschooled, again, by Mom of course.

So, when I got home today, and I was finally by myself and can finally address the Elmer elephant in the room.

“So, what are you?" I ask the empty room, lights absent.

Then a voice brimming in sarcasm.

“Finally, took you long enough.”

Then six more.

“Hey there, you’re quite feisty y’know?”

“Nice to meet you!”

Another one tipped his cowboy hat

“So, it’s time to explain again huh.”

“Honestly, this Frisk is the best one yet.”

“Took them long enough, I’ve almost ran out of things to write about.”

Wow, to be honest it’s not every day you see six floating translucent glowing children, and it's sort of gratifying that I have some form of quirk besides surviving near death experiences coincidentally.

“You all… nevermind.”

“Anyways, everyone except myself have been asleep at various points.”

The red ghost said.

“Oh, and my name is Chara.”

The rest tell their names to me as well, with a variety of expressions.

“So, are you a part of my quirk? Wait no that’s a stupid thing to ask.”

“What’s a quirk?”

“Clover, you need to pay more attention.” Chara remarks.

“From what Toriel mentioned, it’s a superpower most people are born with, and they manifest at the age of four.”

“Oh, so like the brats with the thick skin and wings.”

“Pretty much.” Me and Chara say in unison.

“Huh, weird.” I remark, it’s almost as if they know me already.

“Anyways, the point is, don’t tell your doctor too much about us.” Chara continued, their face morphing into that of concern, pretty different from their attitude all day.

“Why?”

“Alright, look, we may seem powerful and whatnot, but you’re sort of the source, and we borrow off of your SOUL.”

“In fact, try focusing on someone, you should see something special,”

How cryptic of her, but nevertheless it certainly was exciting to say the least, I’m downplaying it, but after focusing on Chara for a bit.

[Check?]

I quickly press it, seeing the nudging from Chara, looking worried? Or happy, it’s hard to tell with that flippant personality of theirs's.

[Chara – ATK 8 DEF 99]

* Your Friend.

Along with the description is a red glowing heart, floating in front of their chest.

Huh, normally that would sound ominous but coming from them it seemed more like a joke than anything, at least the description.

“You see I just showed you my SOUL, it’s what makes up a person, their personality, flaws, bonds, all of that wrapped up in a neat little visual presentation.”

“Of course, not many people know they have a soul, so to check a person you get them talking, preferably about themselves, the more they reveal, directly or not, the more their SOUL shines, then I can take a look and summarise the important information.”

“What if they lie?”

“Normally, we’d just have to roll with it, however with both JUSTICE and INTEGRITY awake at the same time for once, they can proof-check with magic or something.”

…

“Have you never checked the info before?”

“…”

“…”

Joey then steps in to break the awkward silence.

“Well, it’s not like you can ask in the middle of a battle ‘Hey mister did you lie about x thing?’ It would be rather silly.”

“Oh”

“It’s fine regardless, we can practice it on other people around you.”

I light up at Chara’s statement, after all, I get to use powers that I actually have, no more quirkless accusations against me.

I immediately go test it on my Mom and Dad but can’t quite seem to do it.

“You’ll get the hang of it don’t worry.” Said the green girl.

“Okay.”

/// A few days later.

We arrive at the doctor’s room, here for a second quirk assessment since the incident, Mom seems particularly excited, Dad would be here but he’s at work in his flower shop.

“Welcome again, it’s rare for someone so young to take a second quirk assessment.” The doctor says, with a calm tone and a smile.

He doesn’t seem so bad.

/// Chara’s POV.

This guy is sketchy.

He has that Eggman-wannabe look, right down to the curly brown moustache, bald head and mad doctor attire.

And it may seem like a stretch but in a world where superheroes and villains exist, a mad doctor sounds pretty reasonable.

Also, because I checked his SOUL.

It’s a darn mess.

Thanks to Frisk’s seemingly childlike innocence and Toriel being a nice person, they easily got the doctor talking about himself.

“My name is Doctor Tsubasa, try to remember it this time.”

“He lied.” Lily pointed out.

“How could you tell?”

“His soul fluctuated.”

“And?”

“Y’know what I’ll explain later, just CHECK already.”

“Hey, wait a darn minute, that’s the same name as the bullies I taught a lesson too.”

Ignoring Clover’s slow realisation, I go in front of Frisk, floating in front of the doctor and gesture them to check.

For once, I need the help of the others, this was nothing like the usual.

His ‘soul’ was a large tree, slowly growing, yet rooted in its own reflection, a body of water as if a mirror, said tree was elder, but unnaturally tall, growing to the point where I couldn’t see the end, the base was rotting while the upper parts flourished.

[Kyudai Garaki – 1 ATK 1 DEF]

* An old man long past his prime, hiding a terrible secret, seems to be an expert in quirks, a disturbing interest in them…

“Now then, Frisk could you tell me about your quirk?”

Frisk looks me in the eye, I can tell they’re asking for help, especially with that foreboding CHECK description we both just saw.

“Just follow me lead.” I reply to them.

“Well, I can make people appear.” We both say, watching the man’s expression carefully.

“In what way?” he asks with his unwavering blank face, his eyes hidden under those gaudy goggles.

“They can help me move objects and they each have their own special ability!”

“Like ghosts?”

“Yep!”

“I see, can you talk to them?”

I give Frisk the nod.

“Yes, but sometimes they’re asleep.”

“Very interesting, perhaps you could ask them to do something,”

Frisk looks at me and I oblige, knocking over a vase in the room while writing “I’m Here” in black ink, I mean, if we’re falling into a trap I might as well mess with him back and I would have used red but that make me seem demonic in hindsight.

The doctor barely flinches.

“Well then, you certainly have a powerful quirk, normally i would name the quirk but yours seems unique from this and what I’ve seen in the security footage from your old school, it's nothing comparable to anything I've ever seen, I'll let you name it.”

We both said in unison, “How about SOUL?”

“An interesting name, may I ask why?”

“Well, it’s hard to explain, but it fit the ghost thing you said earlier.”

“Well, I’d say this is one of the rare cases where a quirk fits all three types.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, judging from the footage, you can transform into the different personas your quirk creates, your quirk also creates constructs from these sentient personas as well as the fact they are made in the first place, add your heightened sense of judgement and knowledge unlike most five-year-olds.”

“..”

Well, he just spouted a bunch of fancy bull crap.

“Basically, this quirk; SOUL, you named it, is an emitter due to its ability to produce personas and constructs, transformation as it can transform you temporarily and lastly mutation, due to your heightened awareness compared to most children.

“In short there is no concern for your child, and no need for specialist quirk counselling  either, I don’t see any detrimental effects although I would recommend facilities that specialise in sentient quirks but they are not necessarily judging by the maturity of your child.”

“That is a relief, thank you Doctor.”

“No need Miss Toriel, please call me Tsuaba, and I’m sorry I couldn’t diagnose your child’s quirk sooner, their extra toe joint is an abnormality amongst quirked individuals, not that I’m trying to belittle your child.”

“Do not worry Tsuaba, you are merely stating your curiosity.”

“Thank you for being understanding Miss Toriel, now I recommend these quirk counsellors.”

As he hands a pamphlet with local information on some local facilities.

The other souls start talking to Frisk as we leave, talking about how sketchy he was, but something else worried me, the soul of the man.

Well then, I have a theory, but you’d have to wait a few days…

/// A few more days later.

Frisk had checked multiple individuals in their local area; I’ll spare you the details.

It seems as though the SOULS of the inhabitants of this version of Earth take the shape of their quirk, how fascinating.

Particularly those who have trained their quirk, as their SOUL takes this into account and in most cases, they seem almost mature in a way, fires become more tame, while large flapping wings slow down, however I still couldn’t find any SOUL based on a reflection like the Doctor’s, he is definitely suspicious but none of us have any evidence against him so I simply advised Frisk to keep a distance away from him.

Other than that, heroes are a large part of this society, often glorified for fame and wealth, to the point where it is a viable job, of course Frisk wants to be one to, and it doesn’t help that the Toriel and Asgore in this world were appointed retired Pro Heroes.

Other than that, Frisk’s life has become pretty mundane so I don’t really have much else to add, it’s probably going to be a while till someone interesting happens though

/// Frisk?’s POV, 11 Years Later.

Howdy!

It’s me again, Frisk.

After going to a new school, I’ve done nothing too crazy, although I have learnt a lot more about my quirk.

I’ve been trying to convince the other SOULS (mainly Chara), to give names to our abilities like how Heroes have ultimate moves, but they’re unconvinced.

But they have taught me about SAVEs, LOADs, RESETs, and something about not abusing the manipulation of the timeline to your will, but I’ve only ever used it to help on my exams, and that one time where someone dropped a potted plant on my head, and that time where I got ambushed by a bunch of bullies, and that one time where I was late for school because of a villain blocking my usual route and that one time…

Oh, I sort of see Chara’s point in hindsight.

But it should be fine, it’s just minor things after all, and the other SOULs seem majorly indifferent about it.

Speaking of the other SOULs they are a blast!

It’s basically like having your own found family always with you at all times, and that sounds depressing, more so like permanent friends then.

Clover’s accent is fun to tease.

Chara’s just funny to mess around with, the amount of times I’ve reset to make a bet with them…

Lily says I’m her favourite Frisk, not sure what that exactly means but I’m sure it’s a compliment.

Oliver and me agree with rushing down an enemy, whether in a game or that one mugger in an alleyway.

Joey meanwhile is pretty fun too, he knows a surprising amount about retro games and he’s a great study partner too, saves me from having to get a tutor (Other than Mom, but she needs her rest.)

Ava’s a surprisingly good chef, when I give her control, she said something about lots of RESET experience?

Alice is sort of strange to put it lightly, I mean she’s a nice person and all, they all are but she’s scarily good at mind games, but I’ve never seen her snap before, she’s come close when Chara almost won against her in Poker over who gets the last slice of Pie, and no I’m not kidding.

But anyways, the reason why we’re all here is for the Entrance Exam to U.A. High.

It’s not too far from my house, it’s only a few miles away from where I live.

Anyways, as I walk in, it’s another moment of awe and wonder for me.

It’s two large skyscrapers merged together by a grandiose hallway-like structure in the middle, which repeats to make this simply enormous, I’m surprised by how much budget they have, as well as the amount of greenery they can afford, the gold plating on their signs  too, as well as the barricade of endless wall that stretch far beyond the eye can see.

As I walk in, I see a broccoli-haired kid being saved by some quirky quirked girl that made him float.

Alice cuts in.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the kid you stood up for back in Aldera.”

“Huh, probably, there aren’t that many people in Japan rocking that haircut.” I reply back.

Wait that means…

Yep I knew it.

Sparkles in right in front of him, walking away like he’s hot stuff, I mean he technically is but I meant that figuratively.

[Yeah Right.]  A text box flashes in front of my face.

“Chara, just no, don’t you even dare to try and imply anything.”

[Fine.]

Anyways, I was going to talk to them until this random girl bumped into me.

She was firstly foreign which was rare, but more so her appearance, it definitely doesn’t match her age, either that or she’s skipped some grades, barely above a meter in height with blond hair down to her shoulders and grey eyes that... shimmer?

“I’m surprised, not even a single blemish on her skin, a crazy quirk or an immaculate skin routine, and if it's the latter I would like to ask.” Lily blurts out, taking me by surprise but I suppose I’ll ask her if I remember.

“Oh... Sorry, are you alright?” She asks with pleading eyes.

I reply back in a nonchalant manner, trying to reaffirm her.

Then another, a blond man seemingly her father.

 He appeared to be some form of doctor, a bleach white lab coat similar to Dr. Tsubasa, with a symbol on it, a black badge with an inner circle, with three arrows pointing inwards but its been scribbled out with marker, the glasses don’t help with the stereotype either.

He’s also wearing a pretty expensive looking amulet, white gold, an outer circle with an inner flower pattern inside and a bright red Ruby in the centre, all adorned with diamonds.

“My daughter can be quite the handful huh.”

“Honestly it’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

He helps me up.

“Thank you Mister?”

“Bright, you can call me Jack though.”

“Thanks”

“Won’t you be late at this rate?”

Oh fudge.

I quickly dash to the entrance, waving at Jack, and realising the girl I just bumped into is already there.

I sit next to a guy with engines for calves, blue hair and a stern face.

The place itself was like a large theatre, students all around the large black stage and screens, probably in the thousands, it’s almost like a form of lecture.

Then spotlights shine on the lectern, and out comes another blond man, tall, slim and with a bushy set of hair spiked upwards in a large tuft almost like a puffy Mohawk, his costume too, is pretty extroverted, the high collar leather jacket just screams punk rock.

His voice is so loud I would say he’s screaming, but it’s not harsh at all, just obtrusive.

“WELCOME, ONE AND ALL TO MY LIVE-SHOW!”

“EVERYBODY, SAY HEY!”

Then comes the roaring applause, I think he’s a radio host or something better I see some people fanboying and fangirling over this guy, it almost fits that…excuse of a costume.

“NOW PAY CLOSE ATTENTION LISTENERS!”

“WE’ll BE TESTING YOUR METTLE WITH A 10-MINUTE PRACTICAL TEST!”

“YOU CAN TAKE WHATEVER YOU LIKE AS LONG AS YOU REGISTER IT AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE REPLICA-CITY DISTRICT WHERE THE EXAM WILL BE HELD!”

“WE’LL BE SPRINKLING A LARGE NUMBER OF ‘VILLAINS’ ONTO THE CITY, IN THREE DIFFERENT VARIETIES AND POINTS SCALED ON THEIR DIFFICULTY.”

“DISPATCH AS MANY VILLAINS AS POSSIBLE TO OBTAIN AS MANY POINTS AS YOU CAN!”

“OH YEAH!”

“AND DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT ATTACKING, SABOTAGING OR ANY OTHER KIND OF NASTY BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS FELLOW CONTESTANTS, THAT WOULD MEAN I-I-I-MEDIATE DISQUALIFICATION!”

He held onto the I for dramatic effect.

“Excuse me, may I ask a question?”

The guy that’s sitting right next to me stands up and proclaims this to everyone.

“On the handout there are clearly FOUR types of villains listed! “

“Such an error would be the height of embarrassment for U.A. as a top institution!”

“And you, the curly haired kid, if you-“

Suddenly Chara decides to slap him in the face.

Even the announcer is stunned from that.

Of course only I could see Chara so it just looked like he was magically slapped in the face.

“Look, your enthusiasm is nice and all, but you have to let the announcer finish his speal before you ask questions.” I quickly add, otherwise the silence might have dragged on.

He stand there shell shocked, not moving an inch.

“WELL THANK YOU FOR THE SEGWAY EXAMINE 7111 and 7112!”

“THE LAST TYPE OF VILLAIN YOU’LL FACE IS WORTH ZERO POINTS, I CALL THEM ARENA TRAPS!”

“SIMILAR TO AN UNSTOPPABLE OBSTACLE IN GAMES, LIKE THE THWOMP IN SUPER MARIO!”

“YOU SHOULD AVOID THEM AS THEY RAMPAGE WHEN SURROUNDED!”

“NOW THEN! I’LL LEAVE YOU WITH THIS! ‘A TRUE HERO NEVER STOPS OVERCOMING THE MISFORTUNES IN LIFE’ SO LET’S MOVE ON TO THE MAIN EVENT.”

“PLUS ULTRA!”

We all waddle on towards the various city blocks, I’m in City Block E, away from the motor man and broccoli boy, but before I could leave, the blue haired kid stops me.

“I am sorry for the disruption! I have realised that I —“

I put my hand on his shoulder.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

He was about to speak but they called for the remaining participants, and we go our separate ways, as the last begin to gather and shuffle about, the minutes begin to count down to the beginning.

Meanwhile I’m next to a great friend.

Sparkles.

“Let us have some fun.” Alice exclaims, twirling blue string around her fingers.

“I still haven’t had the chance to punch him!” Oliver cracks his knuckles.
“This is the first time we can really show off.” As Joey begins to record the quirks of everyone he could see.

“I don’t need to tell y’all to make it fair, but I’ll tell y’all anyways.” Clover cocks up his revolver from his holster, spinning the barrel constantly, fidgeting with the trigger.

“Please could we just get this over with? I don’t want them getting hurt…” Ava readies her frying pan.”

I look at each of them and give a devilish grin, silently tying light blue strings to Bakugo’s legs when he suddenly glares at me oblivious to my action yet with a similar expression to mine, except with a lot more ego in his eyes, gunpowder crackles from the tension.

“Who the heck are you supposed to be?” He shouted, noticing my focus on him.

“Howdy, I’m Frisk! Frisk Dreemurr.”

“So? I’ll fucking crush you if you DARE get in my way!”

“Sorry, but I won’t need to in order to beat you.”

“Big words for a scrawny kid like you.”

“AND START!” The announcer declared in the middle of nowhere,

“Eat My DUST!”

And he exploded his palms as each word was emphasised, coupled with blinding light, blasting high into the air, a sickening clash between the air and his hands, the heat was almost unbearable, but I kept hold as I tagged along, hanging by a few threads over the skies.

“This will be fun.” I mutter, as I get a bird’s eye view of everyone, all these fantastical quirks, fire, ice, electricity, bursts of sound, the clash of metal, the quakes in the concrete.

Then I take a leap of faith.

“You little fucker! When did you —“ And I couldn’t hear him anymore, as I hurdled down towards the most fun we’ve had in a long time.

Chapter Text

The wind flows, every hair on edge, an undeniable sense of adrenaline in your body as Frisk smiles almost maniacally at the chaos above, literal crackling could be heard above, inching ever further towards the chaos below, their eyes glimmer with promise and HOPE almost like twilight shining through the barrier, known as the sky, the journey’s beginning.

They’ve waited years for this moment.

And now they are filled with DETERMINATION.

/// Frisk’s POV.

“This is a terrible place to SAVE, what are you thinking?” Chara berates me once more, as the light of the SAVE point slowly shrinks with distance.

“I mean, why not? We can always go for a skydive if I'm bored for a day or two.”

“Y’know, you can’t just change your test results every time you feel bored.”  Clover adds, staring into my eyes and SOUL.

“Haven’t you ever wanted to — “

I hit the floor with a sickening pop, bones breaking, heart stopping.

Welp, back to the Void.

“That was stupid.” A purple light criticises me.

“It’s not my fault…”

“…”

“…”

Ah well, that’s why you SAVE during a skydive.

“You’re beyond stupid at times, you know that right?” As Chara gave another icy glare.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t rub it in.”

In the corner meanwhile, Alice had won another bet, Oliver begrudgingly owing her for what seems to be the umpteenth time.

Alright, let’s try this one more time.

“No Spiderverse References, Frisk.”

Damn It!

/// A Few Tries Later.

It turns out, following and swinging off of someone two skyscrapers high without a plan ends up badly.

I’ve had to try a dozen ways to survive.

Swing unto lampposts via blue strings.

Die from the fact that I can’t react fast enough to swing from the lamppost, also my arms, sort of rip off, from the reactant force when I am able to react, a large splat.

Trying to surf on the air with the green frying pan Ava can conjure.

Turns out pans aren’t the most aerodynamic.

Using one of Clover’s BIG SHOTs to offset the fall.

Turns out there are people that would be right under the blast, and the places that are, tend to be overrun with missile throwing gorillas.

Oliver just said to take it with some orange ‘magic’ to change the direction of movement before I hit the floor.

Then Alice said to use Her's instead, as her ‘magic’ changes the gravity of the target.

Then another argument that ended in a poker session we don’t talk about.

Lily won every rematch, Oliver got pretty salty.

And after I drop kick right into the softest object I could crash against, the tender metal of a 2-pointer, all the robots immediately rush into my direction, lights turned red as if bloodshot eyes coupled with hulking metal machines trudging through with its turtle-like form, lumbering with its sledgehammer-like arms almost like a sick twisted chimera wearing knightly armour, their point value drawn unto their plates, missiles being shot from their shoulders, roaring in their pursuit, sleek silver arrows, homing too, a lovey 3 plastered on its side.

At the same time, one-wheeled metallic monstrosities in the form of man, charge towards me, burning rubber with wild pivots all around me, smooth metallic plates for arms attached with Gatling guns for good measure.

And we can’t forget the 2-pointers; as it seemed U.A. got the award for world’s most deadliest school, arachnids with riot shields for forearms, eight segmented limbs, clicking like bones in a tomb, or perhaps the uncanny snap, a sound I know too well, to the point where this was uncanny compared to the rest, this fear designed by mistake.

What didn’t help was the two-headed multi-limbed tails, mechanical whips flared, cracking the air with general ease.

All of them emitted a not a roar but a hiss – a burst of high frequency static that sent your teeth buzzing, an ear-splitting sensation, metallic percussion that humanity could never emulate.

In short, I couldn’t wait to smash them to bits.

It would be like dancing with the devil.

[You should become a novelist.]

Haha, how funny.

Explosion after explosion, a pretty loud indication for me to bolt on out of here.

But not before going out in style.

Oliver’s POV.

The crunch of metal is as almost as exciting as punching Asgore in the face!

I mean pre-reset of course; I wouldn’t punch their dad.

And despite being called the soul of Bravery, this is actually one of the first times Frisk has really counted on me for something, other than that mugger, Alice certainly thinks I don’t have the focus.

So, I give a psychotic grin, as I work tandem with Frisk.

I can’t let them down, of course I’m not scared, I’m stressed, sweat is viscerally dropping down my brow, but the thrill of the fight.

The thrill of the fight almost makes me forget, at least if it wasn’t for Chara’s eyes boring into my SOUL, sharp as a knife.

Despite all that, it fills me with something I haven’t felt fully in a long time; DETERMINATION.

Each hit like a gunshot, the metal scrapes against my skin and ears, almost like frostbite compared to the heat of the action, the pungent smell of smoke and fire, almost intoxicating.

And it keeps going.

Push, shove, kick, headbutt, each time more shrapnel and stone, fly off into the head of another robot, buildings collapsing into each other, rubber burning, bullets flying past, blazing through, orange flashes of light with every strike.

The missiles finally home on.

Duck, catch, release.

Simple enough.

/// Chara’s POV.

It was not in fact “simple”.

I could feel the tension from here.

I’m also surprised this is legal.

But I suppose I should show not tell.

/// Frisk’s POV.

A lucid dream.

That’s the best way to describe how it felt.

Watching myself in slow motion, beaten to a pulp while making pulp, while thinking Oliver was high, it’s a lucid dream.

Each hit made me think Oliver fought as if it was an addiction, I ran straight through bullets like blood through water, cracking metal as if paper, I could feel his thrill run down my spine.

And yet pain itself, felt like pins and needles, almost numb in a way, and despite this I wanted to scream.

Then I did.

My soul shrieked.

Screams bled into metal.

And I was staring at a metallic scorpion, scrap upon scrap heaped around me.

Oliver was looking at me dumbfounded.

A large metal tail pierced my abdomen, eyes widened as blood trickled down, hand clamped over.

My body contorted to the floor, blood iced over, my whole body felt heavy.

My soul began to shake.

[But it refused...]

I could feel my heart stop.

[You called for help...]

Seeing stars.

[They responded...]

Pure nothingness

...I Blacked out.

/// Chara and The Souls' POV.

We watched, then reset.

Then we unanimously decided if Toriel was going to be pissed after this whole scuffle then so would we.

In the Void, Frisk was comatose on the floor.

Barely breathing.

Ava helped them up, Frisk lying on her lap, while Oliver gave them his jacket, barely responding beyond blinking.

Their SOUL just floated in the middle of the room.

And I grabbed it, then RESET.

Round 2.

Clover took control of Frisk first, as we fell from the sky once more, multiple BIG SHOTS fell from the sky, as a mixture of orange and blue magic resulted with a sharpshooter that could not be hit, revolving around in a chaotic spiral of smoke, dust, grit and shrapnel.

Dashing between volleys of enemy lines, sudden bursts in all directions, hand brushing against them, hanging blue strings drawn from his hands; attached to each bot as a cold smile crept upon their face, robots suspended above shattered rock like some strange tapestry come to life, missiles turn eager to trail-blaze.

“Bravery... Oliver... next time, don’t make me do this again, I hate cleaning up scrap.” As Alice’s smile distorted, first into a chuckle then flickers into an unhinged grin.

All the strings turned purple, stiff in the air, along with the grin turned monotone.

Missiles shot, nothing between Frisk(?) and the lances of light, spitting flame.

Only strings stopping them, an inch to his life.

Explosions posed mid-air, smoke covering his glasses.

Joey pushed them up, his other hand waved into the other crowd of robots, pushed in the string’s direction, vectors given shape – lines of force, every flick of his wrist caused a colossal impact on the buildings, erratic yet precise movements.

The strings bent continuously, a systematic symphony as their tension reverses, curving trajectory before the buildings could register the impact, dominos crashing one after the other.

“Seventy degrees offset, momentum northward.”

“Perpendicular, momentum reversed.”

Joey continues his drawl, a graphic field to his design.

“Since when did our magic become this strong?” Ava questions.

“That’s… a good point.” Joey replied, with no clear-cut answer for once.

“It’s something to do with this new world y’all in, and the fact Frisk’s soul is way brighter than normal.”

More explosions could be seen from above as a familiar voice berates us, interrupting rudely.

“YOU NERD BOOK-EATING ASS! WHEN DID YOU GET GLASSES?”

“Since we stopped playing nice.” A flat monotone voice answers.

All around there was merely piles upon piles of rubble, most of the participants seemed to have retreated to the other half of the city, makes sense as we were heavy competition.

“ARE YOU SCHIZOPHRENIC OR SOMETHING? IS THAT YOUR QUIRK, BEING A WANNABE COWBOY!”

The glasses disappear, red eyes return, as Frisk’s brown hair starts to rise, the air becomes silent, bone-chilling even.

“Clover’s not home, neither is Frisk or Joey…”

Bakugo’s stoic wrathful expression remains but even he could feel a sense of urgency from the sudden shift in attitude.

“It’s me, Chara.”

A red slash appeared right behind him, slicing a robot clean in two, the pressure lifting Bakugo’s hair and expression.

They were both tempted to strike.

“THE EXAM IS OVER!!!!!“

/// Nagi Toshinori’s POV, 2 hours and 10 minutes prior.

“Welcome everyone, it’s that time of year again, so I hope there are some promising students this year!” Nezu proclaims loudly, grinning ear to ear.

“And every year I don’t have to tell you about my expulsion pass.” A tired murmur comes from the corner of the room.

“Why of course, it’s the least I could do for my disgruntled employee.”

…

…

Watching the screen, I realised something.

What is Midoriya doing?!

Not a single robot has been even touched by Midoriya!

Perhaps I should give him some time and then look back at him, I also had a nervous time adjusting before using One for All for the first time.

“I like the cowboy kid; he seems to have a pretty good quirk.” Snipe remarks.

“The quirk almost seems to be its own person, their clothes change with their weapon.”

Nezu remakes, eyes gleaming with dangerous curiosity.

“More so, reckless abandon, that kid is trigger-happy.” Aizawa suddenly appears from the back of the room to an empty seat next to Nezu.

“He’s not so different from the explosion boy a few blocks away.” The smell of coffee and juice was noticeable.

“Regardless of their emotional state, that is some excellent use of those blue strings, I wonder if they use them elsewhere…” Kayama asks to no-one in the room except gaining a glare from others, particularly Nezu with cold dead eyes.

Then came the sudden purple precision, a twisted game of pinball, but the child’s powers are almost unrelated, like…multiple quirks…

I’ll have to ask Tsukauchi later.

“Energy blasts, string manipulation, some form of telekinesis, air dashing, accelerated cognition based on the precision of the child to not hit a single person, gravity manipulation on oneself, string reinforcement, and even I can’t tell what that slash was at first glance! We truly have a unique bunch this year, I might say they could even beat your record All Might.” Nezu notes passionately.

“Oh, and the other block, a young girl animating objects? This seems fun!”

I look back towards Midoriya's city block, and it turns out he’s helped quite a few people, even in a stressful situation his helpful nature is shining through.

...

/// 2 hours and 10 minutes later (canon events later...)

I knew Midoriya could do it!

Being awarded 60 rescue points alone is an incredible feat, my smile has extended by a few millimetres in fact.

But now comes the trouble of awarding points to the rest.

A tedious process that took most of my time in my empowered form,  a continuous back and forth, a majority of the negative feedback being from Shota although there were valid complaints from others as well.

“Now we are on to the heavy hitters!” Nezu proclaims with an unhinged grin.

“Firstly, Katsuki Bakugo! A whopping 65 villains points, very impressive, although do the staff have any objections?”

“Non’ ere” Snipe replies.

“His quirk is mighty powerful, too bad his attitude could use some work though.”

“Next, Frisk Dreemurr!”

“Immediate Expulsion.” Shota lifers his head as he says this, eyes with that same expression of indifference.

“Aizawa, I’ve seen you exclude a variety of students before, some for the better in fact, but this kid is just a little out of control, they weren’t as nearly as aggressive as the explosions kid.” Snipe pipes up against Shota, slight annoyance against this repetitive behaviour I’ve heard of.

“They’re dangerous beyond comprehension, but I’m not saying we should put the kid out forever, just let them try next year.”

“That’s awfully generous of you, Shota, why the sudden change of heart?” Vlad King glares at Shoto.

Nezu simply laughs.

“Normally I would just let you and call it a day but their mother is…”

“I’ve dealt with bad parents before.”

“No, in fact it’s rather the opposite, I’ve known the Dreemurr family for quite some time and Toriel knows her rights, if I suddenly expel them without concrete reasoning, she’ll ask for video footage and possibly sue!”

“…”

“…”

“Alright, I’ll reconsider it if you put that brat in my class, if they pass, they’ll need some proper discipline to make it out in the real world.”

“Glady, Shota, while we are on the subject of Frisk, how many villain points did they accumulate?”

Power Loader speaks up.

“Slightly above seventy, with the debris crashing into a majority of the robots in the north sector, they also saved a couple of stragglers caught in the mess they caused.”

“I would say that’s deserving of some rescue points, collateral damage is bound to happen in fights and knowing how to not get people involved is a valuable skill, I say we give ‘em the rescue points, it ain’t much anyways.”

“They caused the damage in the first place, if they knew what they were doing, they would have at least warned the other participants beforehand.”

They both stare at me, silently asking for my opinion.

“Well, I’ve been a quite a few fights, and saving others is a valuable skill, whether you caused the damage or not in the first place, and this case it is clear the child had concern for their surrounding, so I would give them the points, they can’t be perfect without some teaching!”

Aizawa, Power Loader, Cementoss voted no, everyone else voted yes.

“A grand total of 73 villain points, and 10 rescue points, not many could beat that, anyways, onto the next, Sigurrós Stefánsdóttir!”

This will take a while.

/// Charlotte’s POV; Location: Unknown.

In some dark room, barely any light reaching the small drone’s body, her green glow almost makes it atmosphere eerie, constant whirring and sudden gradient changes to a crimson red.

Darn It!

Those flying [REDACTED]

Where did they go?

She fiddled with multiple holograms on a virtual screen, many maps with intricate layouts, displaying potential rift locations, destroyed worlds, as well as the last known status of the indie characters.

They couldn’t have gone anywhere pre-determined for harvesting, they would show up on the radar.

The rift could not be natural either, otherwise the energy spike could easily be seen…

Aaarrghhh!

I cut a wall in two, as I slowly regain composure.

This will…be fine.

I just have to search every world that was not pre-determined to be harvested, as least there’s no threat of the rouges, and I have enough energy to hunt for more rifts.

It must work.

It must happen.

Meanwhile I’ll set the drones to hunt, it should be fine.

All I have to do is wait.

/// Flowey’s POV; Location: Somewhere in Japan.

I emerge from a sewer grate of all places, in some stingy alleyway, my roots all feel stiff, large city buildings, some form of city I guess, cars beeping, too many pedestrians, the sun burns my eyes.

Wait…the sun?

Where am I?

Is this…the surface?

Are those Monsters AND Humans?

What did Frisk do?

FRISK, WHERE THE HELL AM I!

Chapter Text

See Notes.

Chapter Text

/// Flowey’s POV; a few hours prior. 

I’m stuck in a glass display on a shelf. 

I woke up here. 

It would be rather easy to break out. 

The trouble is the aftermath. 

I’m in some form of underground lab, ironic since everyone’s already underground, creepy, but more so with how uncannily similar this place is to the True Lab; vats of purple ooze with humanoid figures that look half melted yet reforming like  amalgamates,  cameras everywhere too, blinking red so they’re clearly active, all sorts of other containers are next to me shelf upon shelf, glowing with something blue in containers that look like they could hold souls. 

“Ah: Shock Absorption and Super Regeneration! With this; creating the Anti – Symbol of Peace will be reality!” The door bursts as someone screams this out loud, in some form of language I barely recognised, let alone understand. 

In comes a man with a shine on his head that would make Papyrus jealous, a bushy moustache like one of those villains from one of those Saturday AM cartoons I used to watch with Chara, the manic expression from Undyne and the grace of a hunched-back Alphys watching a Mew-Mew Sequel. 

That is to say a lack of it whatsoever. 

Despite his repulsive appearance he was clearly human, he placed one of the jars next to me. 

… 

I can’t remember anything past my last reset either and I certainly didn’t cause this. 

I can’t reset either. 

What happened last timeline? 

I arrived in the room next to the hole in the mountain, I heard something fall. 

A human started to talk to themselves after a long fall and probably a concussion; the first time I've heard a human affected by gravity. 

Red light then began to spread into the room I was in... 

That kid must be more DETERMINED than me huh, if he could this… 

Then I won’t even need seven SOULS. 

But back to the matter at hand. 

The canisters (or containers) were labelled in a language I can barely recall from my numerous RESETS, I think when I was – Ugh – friends with Alphys I reluctantly learnt Japanese; I never bothered to learn how to listen as she always made me watch with subtitles. 

Checking the containers themselves by moving my vines under the lid and behind the canisters, and shaking them, it seems to contain some form of liquid, yet I could feel something similar to a SOUL, then I read the label. 

‘ダークボール’ 

Unlike listening I can actually read Japanese, due to Alphys’s Persistence, ‘Dark Balls’ how descriptive, it shows that they aren’t SOULS at least, unless that was the person’s name, with how strange the current timeline is, I wouldn’t be surprised with the world’s sense of humour. 

As for the jar he placed next to me, it was labelled as: 超再生,or ‘Super Regeneration’. 

They almost seem like powers given physical form… 

Or the man has a cruel sense of humour. 

Either way he’s completely distracted with hooking up the other container to a mechanical contraption of sorts, he certainly won’t check any security footage. 

I grab both jars and attempt to pry whatever is inside. 

They felt...alive? 

Much easier to absorb than souls, much more fractured, almost as if it was only a part of a human soul or a monster’s soul even. 

But the fact I can absorb them makes things much more interesting. 

Their voices are quieter too. 

And I instinctively know what to do. 

Black orbs formed from the tips of my vines. 

I smiled. 

/// Chara’s POV; Present Day 

Staring into the eyes of the explosive freak, my grip loosened, my knife dissipated into small specks of crimson light, as I felt the sweet release of concrete hitting my head. 

I woke up, my eyes widen as I registered my body’s condition, clenching my fists as I realised that I was wrapped in bandages, tightly wrapped, uncomfortable on a stiff hospital bed. 

Wait. 

Bandages…Pain? 

I look at my hands, then at the other SOULS above me, staring at me, clearly confused. 

Frisk is still out for the count. 

Then an old woman kisses my forehead. 

“That’s my quirk, don’t worry, it patches you up quicker, I hope you don’t do something that reckless again, but something tells me I’ll be seeing you very often…” 

As she said all of that, she pops a piece of candy into my mouth, sickly sweet, hard and crunchy, strawberry and vanilla, something Frisk would certainly like, but I prefer chocolate. 

Next to me would be the green broccoli hair kid, I honestly don’t see why Frisk remembers them so fondly from that one interaction, but I suppose he’s something alright, more broken than whoever was fortunate enough to Undyne’s sparring partner experiencing her German Suplex. 

“So, how is Frisk’s Soul?” I ask Clover, trying not to show too much concern. 

“Still asleep, but they are better than before, sound sleep on Ava’s lap.” 

“Frisk’s been through worse! Please just deal with it and try and pretend until Frisk wakes...” Alice interjects quickly, clearly trying her best. 

I give her one of the many cold glares I’ve been giving all day, but not even a flinch. 

And here comes the awkward part. 

Toriel comes bursting in, eyes tearing up and flooding the room, I suppose it's better than her reaction in the Ruins Pre-RESET, better than murdering your adopted child; by accident may I add. 

... 

I stop clenching my hands. 

I start to tear up slightly as well. 

“My child, I have heard the situation, please never do that again.” 

She tried to sound stern, but the emotion plastered on her face betrayed that notion. 

I hug her. 

Simple as that. 

I swear Frisk giving heartaches is a constant, amnesia or not. 

/// Flowey’s POV, sometime later. 

These…abilities? I suppose that’s what I’ll call them have proved to be incredibly useful. 

Dark Balls, rather than being a poor double entendre from an anime, formed destructive explosive orbs that dependant on the charge time, could probably be stronger than friendliness pellets. 

Testing one of them out in the vents, it created a slight impact that dented the walls, the doctor paid no heed, blaming rodents for the noise as he continued his work. 

Super Regeneration on the other hand was very interesting. 

It made my vines significantly stronger, they could regenerate even when detached and friendliness pellets became actual seeds that grew identical versions of myself (without my face) in soil, I used this to create a decoy in the glass display I was stuck in, and travelled through the ventilation system, exploring the entire building. 

The ventilation connected to a building above, some form of hospital, and judging from the numerous clocks, it seemed to be typical working hours. 

Perfect. 

Slowly crawling through the vents and hitting my head more times than I could count, I eventually made it to a random supply closet, spilling multiple bottles of bleach in the process. 

Anyways, time to kill two birds with one stone. 

I tested out the black orbs once more, allowing to grow to the size of a basketball before lunging it into a parallel room. 

Well I think that room is empty and if it wasn’t then it is now. 

Fire engulfed the area, a flaming field of bleach and smoke. 

The alarm rang. 

I dove back through the vents into the lab. 

The doctor has already evacuated. 

Now I search through the computer, files upon files of information that was more organised than I initially expected, a step above Alphys at least, but most of it seems almost nonsensical at first glance, not to mention the time crunch, as the most important thing was finding either the kid’s identity or information on this world in general. 

I open a file titled “Marked Individuals”.  

A sea of endless faces, but I stopped at a particular individual. 

An image of a kid with brown hair and crimson red eyes, titled "Frisk_EntranceExam”. 

Almost an exact replica of Chara, minus the inverted shirt. 

As well as a bunch of jargon I didn’t have time to read, so I extracted the hard drive from the computer. 

Unfortunately, as I attempted to grapple with my vines into the vents, they burnt my vines as soon as I touched them, smoke was billowing out as well. 

Great. 

I go in the direction the doctor went, most of the doors have closed from what I can only imagine as some form of security protocol. 

The bathroom remained unlocked. 

… 

… 

I did not come back from the dead and get bested by a kid I haven’t even met to die next to a toilet! 

I begrudgingly went through the pipes. 

And I gained yet another reason to understand why Chara hated humanity. 

I won’t describe the pungent odour, or the things I’ve seen in there. 

After being swept by many current next to unspeakable things, I eventually arrived at the sewers climbing on the walls and muck to escape through a manhole. 

…I’ll have more than a few words for the kid when I find them. 

/// Chara’s POV. 

And I thought Asriel was a cry-baby. 

I suppose there’s more than one thing me and Frisk have in common. 

Back in the Pause Menu, Frisk is sitting with the rest of the SOULS, sitting in a circle as if they were in primary school sharing toys. 

“Hi Chara...I’ve heard about how you helped us pass the entrance exam, thanks.” 

Frisk gives that same innocent, insufferable smile. 

“...No Problem.” 
 

“So, when are you going to give Frisk their body back? I mean... actually I can’t really think of much to add for once.” Clover adds, scratching his head thoughtlessly. 

I simply pass Frisk’s soul back to them ignoring Clover as per my daily routine to regain some sanity, but they push it away. 

“You’ve helped me for so long, it’s about time I let you experience the joys of being alive!” 

“You just don’t want to deal with the rest of today, do you?” I reply. 

“Nope!” Frisk admits, giving that same manic smile from when they took that skydive. 

“You’re lazier than patient, you can’t give any excuses.” Alice taunts, still sat down next to them. 

“I know, but it’s surprisingly cozy here, and I don’t need to deal with my parents doting on me at least for today, besides, judging by Chara’s reaction to Mum and Dad, they’re fond of them too and I get to talk to you all at the same time for once.” 
 

“...” 

“You're too shrewd at times.” 

My answer yields no response. 

I give another cold glare right after. 

Then I wake back to the land of the living. 

Eventually getting discharged; Toriel sent a message on Frisk’s phone saying they were late due to the car breaking down. 

I walk out of the school and through the streets, still mid-afternoon and the sun’s still shining, honestly, it’s a nice change of pace seeing the sun outside, everyone being able so share the surface in some form of imperfect yet comforting harmony, knowing the alternative, normal daily thoughts. 

“Howdy! It’s been a while hasn’t it, best friend .” 

...  

A flower, or should I say Asriel appears, more so pops up from the ground with that smile that he inherited from neither his mom nor dad, more so me if I had to be honest. 

I would say I’m shocked, but with the amount of crap I’ve been through today all I can feel is that migraine being more determined to get me than ever before with the amount of karma I’m paying for Frisk’s actions. 

Yep. 

This is why I hate Frisk. 

/// Flowey’s POV, a few hours before Chara’s Walk. 

… 

I pop out through a man cover, hard drive carefully wrapped around my vines, crawling out of that accursed place and finally take a breath of fresh air. 

Yet wandering through these streets caused a gradual return of my memories is returning, past my last RESET. 

The trigger seems to be Chara, I’ve had a headache since I saw their image. 

Wait, no…Frisk? 

I lingered on the thought of name for a few more seconds, trying to remember how they acted and sound like. 

Wait…their voice was the one I heard before the world went to… whatever it is now. 

But clearly, they are not themselves, only Chara could make a face like that on the image, and besides, I remember them being – 

Huh, I can’t remember. 

But they sure as hell didn’t act like a carbon copy of Chara! 

But what could cause this? Such an overwhelming change to the point where even my memory is blurry on the details. 

A True Reset? 

I’ve rarely ever had the chance to do it personally, and even then, I never performed one, I knew of the consequences , yet I never expected this . 

Monsters and humans living on the surface in some semblance of harmony, civilisation and therefore technology must be more advanced as a result, like in that scientist’s lair. 

But there’s only one way to truly understand. 

Asking my best friend. 

Searching a city shouldn’t be that difficult. 

*** A few hours later. 

I take that back. 

I’ve been stepped on multiple times. 

Fires randomly implode around me. 

Some hogwash about heroes and villains, which end up in an entire city block being destroyed and me having to take the long way around for the umpteenth time. 

Not to mention the insanity of traffic when you have people that fly, hover, walk or run while they are the size of a skyscraper. 

If it wasn’t for the aptly titled Super Regeneration, I wouldn’t have survived without Chara or Frisk resetting the timeline, and who knows how long I’d have to wait for that, if they reset at a time before these hypothetical deaths. 

Wait. 

Finally! 

Chara! 

/// Chara’s POV. 

“How did you?” My voice more irritated than in disbelief at this point. 

“Come on! Did you think your best friend would kick the dust so easily?” 

“How much do you remember?” I ask, trying to keep a poker face. 

“…” 

“Why don’t you explain first?” 

This won’t end well, either way. 

“Frisk did a true RESET; it affects everyone except for you and me clearly.” 

“No, this Frisk is clearly more DETERMINED than me, otherwise I won’t have to ask you what happened in the first place.” Flowey answers with a smidge of annoyance. 

“Maybe it’s for the best.” I tell Flowey in the calmest way I could. 

“What!” A reply mixed with clear shock, and something else I couldn’t quite tell. 

I continued regardless. 

“We don’t have to ‘Kill or Be Killed’. We can finally be ourselves, the barrier doesn’t even exist Flowey, Toriel and Asgore adopted Frisk, and for better or worse I share a body with the idiot.” 

His face held a myriad of emotions: surprise, elation, disgust, disdain, temporary resignation followed by denial and stubbornness. 

“Chara; you can’t tell me all my hard work has been for nothing?” 

“Right?” 

“ RIGHT?”  

“Azzy…no Flowey as you want to be known as, your actions did ultimately lead to this path, and thanks to your DETERMINATION, you were above consequences, and as much I would like to thank you…” Words straining my voice by the second, my attempted sarcasm lost; I couldn’t really explain how it felt to talk to the husk of a brother. 

“Chara...” Flowey’s face reverts to that of Asriel’s, tearing up, and vulnerable, his voice no more than a whimper. 

“How else do you think I would react to the fact you’ve killed Mom and Dad for sick entertainment? And don’t you dare use your lack of a soul as an excuse, I don’t have one either and I certainly didn’t gain any psychopathic tendencies!” 

He had no words; I’ve never seen him this stunned; ever. 

Frisk in all their current innocence and naivety would probably forgive the murderous flower and ask him to join us, ignorance is bliss, but I can’t just let Flowey roam this new world unsupervised, at best he’s a kid acting edgy while the latter speaks for itself. 

“Flowey, I can’t believe that I'm saying this but let's make a deal.” 

“What a saint you are, don’t act as if you haven’t done anything wrong or anything you don’t regret.” A witty reply, but you could see on his face something that vaguely resembled shame. 

“We’re both terrible people alright, happy now?” 

“Not really, but I’ll listen.” 

“You care for me, and I care for myself and Frisk, so if Frisk is fine and dandy, everyone is fine and dandy, so tell me everything you know since waking here.” 
 
Apparently whatever my face warped into frightened the hell out of Flowey because he went into one of Azzy’s old habits and spewed words faster than Clover could shoot. 

Then I explained the current world to him. 

Both of us had a lack of reaction, then again, we’ve both been through some less than stellar events. 

“So, what’s this deal you wanted?” 

“You want fun, you have a whole new world, I want Frisk’s safety among other things, once a week, come and fine me to basically report whatever you’ve done.” 
 
“That’s it?” Flowey regains the little composure he had when we first met. 

“Worse case, I’ll be sure to make you feel every death you’ve ever caused.” 
 
“Yeah yeah, repaying trust or something.” He grumbles, still clear enough for me to hear though. 

“I’ll take you to Frisk’s house, so you know where to find me, but after that you’re on your own.” 
 
Nothing of note happened, except for a glowing blue butterfly that appeared in the corner when the deal was done. 

Oh. 

And I won’t tell anyone else, they don’t need to know, the SOULS are all probably playing patty cake with Frisk or something.

Chapter Text

/// Boyfriend’s POV.  

U.A. was louder than I thought. 
Not in sound. In everything, the acoustics would be great for a band. 

The building was practically a fortress, or maybe a palace. People. Thousands of them buzzed through the halls like swarms in concerts (I’ve had too much experience with that.), some with the confidence of someone who could probably bench press a bus with their eyelids, while others had broccoli for hair. And that was before Present Mic showed up.  

Yeah. That Present Mic.  

I nearly exploded when I saw him. I’ve been listening to his radio show since I was seven. Dude’s voice has more horsepower than most speaker systems with his raw voice alone. He announced up on stage; a human amp, screaming louder than any mic, ironic I know.  

I didn’t catch most of what he said at first. Too busy nodding off to the beat in my seat while with a little bit of fanboying, guilty as charged.   

But I heard the important stuff: 
Ten minutes. City blocks. Smash robots. Don't smash each other. Pretty straightforward for an entrance exam to one of the best hero course schools in the whole world. 

Anyways, the introduction was beyond words, seeing your favourite radio host in person certainly brightens up your day. So was the deafening slap, didn’t hit me but it certainly woke me up.  

Still, I couldn’t help bouncing in place. Not from nerves, just from the beat. I always had a beat going, you could call it an echo.  

Echo.   

That’s my quirk.  

I can copy anyone who responds to me. Movements, quirks, fighting style, it all becomes part of the song; I mean it’s the exact action. But I gotta keep singing, or it fades. And I can’t talk. Not naturally, at least without some pain. For years, nobody understood a thing I said.  

Eventually, my dad, he’s a genius, got this support device made that helps translate my music into words. It doesn’t always sync right, but it works enough. And when it doesn’t? I beatbox instead.  

Heh, I can see what people mean with life flashing in your eyes now, it’s pretty tense not gonna lie, but I suppose listening to your own voice makes you understand why people love it so much, my singing that is.  

But now, here I was. Finally, at U.A. After years. After ditching a boring breakup and moving across the ocean. This was it. I was gonna be a hero.  

I just had to make some noise.  

So, I took off my headphones.  

And the world hit play.  

Music - a frantic mess of melodies, chaotic, imperfect and alive.  

Humanity’s Cacophony.  

Each person had a song. Not something they chose. Something they were. I don’t know how to explain it exactly; like their heartbeat and brainwaves were in 4/4 time, and I could hear it.  

There were melodies; some sharp almost opera-like, deep rhythms oddly baritone compared to the vocals, anxious staccatos, smooth jazz, glitchy dubstep. Some were half-formed, dissonant and raked with tension, others were polished albeit repetitive, like Top 40 Singles on loop.  

I didn’t just hear them. I felt them. Colours I could taste, emotions bubbling to the tangled layers to songs, yet a consistent tempo.  

But none of them were mine.  

Not yet anyway.  

Boop-beep. Boop-bap-boop.  

I bounced in place, air drumming, head gently bobbing to the chaos I could hear. No one had said anything to me yet — not directly. I could hear their music, sure, but it was locked, to put it lightly. 
I needed a voice. Any voice. Heck even a wave would do. 

“Excuse me!”   

Out of nowhere, a sharp, stiff voice, packed with emotion, more so annoyance.  

Bingo.  

A clockwork piano, reaching to an eventual crescendo with a steady beat from the drums, the electric guitar and the pace of a steam locomotive, marching in time with his movements as he sped through towards me like a silver bullet.  

“Why are you idling in the middle of the city? Do you not understand the stakes of the examination?”  

I give a not-so-subtle smirk.  

“Thanks for the reply.”  

Robots start surroundings us, swivelling around us, burning rubber.  

I start humming to the tune, it’s almost like one of those ancient army march songs, but with some modern instruments.  

Iida goes first, rushing towards the enemy with the speed of a bullet train, a heavy kick echoed like a cymbal crash. Its head spun halfway off before collapsing in a heap of metal and smoke.  

Then I come into gear.  

My calves split open with a hiss.  

Twin exhaust pipes extended from my muscle, clicking into place with a sharp mechanical ping. My whole body leaned forward on instinct—just like his. His movement was embedded in my rhythm.  

Metal cracked from my sudden launch, speed only possible by the torque of Iida’s quirk, the great impact hitting another bot that surrounded us.  

I had to stagger after the hit, hopping on one leg and wincing from the influx of pain.  

“That stung more than expected…”  

“How did you copy — “  

He had to quickly dodge a sucker punch from a robot, before he could finish, I call it karma.  

“Look, we probably have to work together for a little while alright?”  

I say this as I sing the tune, resulting in my voice being in what sounded like auto tune and half-baked lyrics in those overpriced albums, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too I suppose.  

Iida charged left. I mirrored right.  

We dove into a cluster of robots, our movements in sync mostly. I wasn’t as precise as him, but close enough to keep up.  

He swept a bot’s legs; I tackled another mid-lunge.  

He vaulted backward; I spun sideways—accidentally crashing into a nearby wall, then giving him a thumbs up.  

Iida blinked.  

“That was… not ideal, but effective!”  

I grinned and beeped a three-note riff as I spoke. 

“Come on four eyes, I make mess look cool.”  

Grinding, Smashing, Lunging, Kicking; I’ve got to admit I haven’t had a good workout like that in a good time.  

Too bad it couldn’t happen twice.  

After that little incident, I couldn’t find a single robot.  

Talk about bad luck.  

But I’m not too worried, I’ll definitely enter, even if it’s not the hero course, I’ll just have to work my way up to it, no matter how long it takes, I didn’t only inherit the good looks of my parents; after all there’s always an encore.  

/// Sigurrós Stefánsdóttir’s POV/ SCP – 239’s POV.  

That boy was pretty cute. [1]  

…  

Wait what did I just think about?  

My father would kill me if he knew about this!  

Before my thoughts could continue, I was thankfully interrupted by the announcer.  

I’m not exactly a fan of public heroes, most of them anyways, but he was probably somewhat of a big deal judging from audience reception.  

Also from the leather jacket screaming unresolved issues and pointy hairstyle that lost a fight with an electrical outlet; no self-respecting human being would wear in public without some kind of excuse.  

Nevertheless, this is the largest place I’ve ever seen, it seems even larger than the stories father told me about those facilities.  

Nothing too anomalous about the whole situation, I mean in a world full of superpowered individuals, how would an invisible slap be that surprising?  

City Block A.  

But before then I had to register my support items and paperwork to the receptionist.  

The paperwork was an honest bore, having to sit through a few hours of pure unproductively before getting to fill in the details, at the start of the day, only to hand it in during the exam? It seems to be a somewhat backwards system.  

Father definitely didn’t want to help, he can barely stay still during movie night.  

Then grey emotionless eyes bored into my soul.  

“So, you’re Sigurrós Stefánsdóttir, right?”  

The receptionist asked with a hint of monotone.  

“Yes.”  

“For legal purposes, I’m just going to have to confirm everything before the exam starts, I’ll give President Mic a signal when all of this is done, alright?”  

“That is fine.”  

“You can confirm the name of your quirk is Supernaturalist?”  

“I can confirm.”  

“Verify it’s effects to me.”   

Judging from how quickly he relied to my answers each time, it was clear he had to rehearse this numerous times.  

“The quirk allows me to create supernatural objects based on pre-existing objects I have held or currently touching; that are seemly based on my cognition.”  

“So, your various holsters contain mainly household items, stationary, capsules of water, ice, snow, toys, drawings and flowers?”  

“Yes.”  

My voice being as monotonous of his at this point.  

“Alright, everything checks out, sorry to keep you waiting, you may use the identified support equipment in your examination today, any untold features of the equipment that are seen in use today may lead to immediate disqualification , do you understand?”  

Unlike the last few minutes, his tone changed to something more serious, an underlying threat nestled with that tone father used whenever the authorities talked to him, unnaturally professional.  

“I understand.”  

“Now go join the rest of the students.”  

I walk off and join the crowd.  

“ AND START! ” The announcer declared in the middle of nowhere.  

I rush alongside all the others and was somehow funnelled into a completely different area; ending up in a small dark alleyway, just my luck.  

A massive mechanical metal scorpion was right in front of me.  

Great.  

A raised claw, metal creaking, a mechanical menace that knows no-one is going to help me if I’m a potential competitor.  

I tried to form a plan, but panic surged and I had a not so calm scream.  

My hands flew to my holsters, side pockets, every single nook and cranny.  

My hands flew to my side-pouches, and I just—threw.  

A toy block.  

A matchstick.  

A pen.  

A flower.  

A coin.  

A sponge.  

A leaf.  

Everything.  

They scattered around me with soft thuds and hollow clinks, skittering across concrete like forgotten toys.  

“Please,” I whispered. “Help me.”  

The air twitched.  

And the world shifted.  

The block hopped. It grew in size to roughly 3 feet. A single thunk. Then two eyes blinked open on its smooth side, followed by black sleek stickman-like limbs emerging from its other sides with stubs for hands and feet, then a curved line for a mouth.  

And out came a hoarse voice.  

“About time! said Blocky, his voice half-sarcastic. “You drop me like a brick for years and expect me to catch you, mid-death?”  

The match flared to life in a flash of orange. A flame twisted upward, catching in midair like a tongue of living light, while the burnt match barely managed to stand upright with a shocked expression on its face.  

“Siggy!” Firey grinned. “Hey! What’s got you spooked?”  

“Not my hair! OMG, what the heck is that?!”  

Unlike Firey, March flailing their arms in a clear panic, more so about their hair than the important situation at hand.  

The flower floated upright, petals perfectly arranged despite landing on a sewer grate.  

“Ugh, don’t tell me we’re fighting already,” Flower whined. “I just fixed my petals!”  

More began to stir.  

The sponge groaned and wobbled upright, only growing legs. A deep squishy voice, as if half-underwater or stuffed with food.  

The coin shimmered, blinking sleepily, crass and brash, similar to Firey’s voice.  

The pen rolled into place and unfolded its arms; a rather sharp voice compared to the rest.  

“All of you, go!” I snapped, my voice cracking. “Please. I can’t. Just get it away from me!”  

The scorpion lunged.  

“We’ve got you,” said Leafy, appearing beside me with the soft rustle of her body. Her arm barely reaching my shoulder. “Like always.”  

“Don’t worry!” Coiny said, flipping himself into the air. “I’ve waited years to finally be better at something than Firey!”  

“Sigurrós,” Golf Ball added crisply, “You really need to work on your panic response protocols.”  

The group charged.  

I stood there, dazed—frozen in the alleyway as my childhood friends punched, burned, and screamed their way through a six-meter mechanical scorpion.  

Metal cracked under Spongy’s flop like a waterlogged wrecking ball. Firey phased between its joints, catching sparks with every pass as he tried to burn the mechanisms within. Bubble popped, reformed, and popped again in midair for no strategic reason whatsoever, as Match and Pencil blew bubbles to revive him over and over.  

And me?  

I just stood there, wondering what reality I had stepped into. Again.  

This wasn’t new. Not really. I’d seen it before. Too many times. But it still didn’t make sense. Every time I threw these objects, every time I panicked, they came to life, and the world stopped making logical sense.  

This wasn’t how most quirks worked. This wasn’t how anything worked.  

Yet here they were. Still here. Still mine.  

“Okay,” I muttered, steadying my breath. “Okay. This is happening. Again.”  

I ducked as a rubber chicken soared past my head, thrown by Blocky for reasons I will never understand.  

“Nice one, Blocky. You hit literally no one!” shouted Golf Ball.  

“Hey, it’s about the atmosphere!” Blocky yelled, now holding a rubber duck, a fake arm, and a small harmonica all at once. “It’s called theatrics!”  

“Skippity do, you can too!” chirped Leafy brightly.  

I blinked.  

She pointed to a hand-drawn map of the alleyway. Her finger tapped a glowing red dot labelled “Right Behind the Robot.”  

With a ‘woosh’, she vanished.  

A second later, she popped into existence behind the scorpion and kicked it in the eyes.  

Leafy then gave me a thumbs up.  

Tennis Ball and Golf Ball had already set up what appeared to be a missile launcher made from three traffic cones, duct tape, and someone’s support drone they stole despite having no arms, as a loud disembodied voice yelled “Snatch!” as they took and dismantled the poor drone.  

I can tell that the teachers were contemplating whether or not that was a direct act of sabotage or not, the answer was louder than expected. 
 
“EXAMINEE 2309! SINCE YOU DID NOT ORDER THEM TO STEAL THE SUPPORT EQUIPMENT, YOU ARE NOT FALLIBLE FOR THE LOSS AND MAY CONTINUE THE EXAM, OH YEAH! JUST MAKE SURE THEY DON’T THAT AGAIN!” 

“Firing in three!” Golf Ball called.  

“I don’t think that’ll work, the calibration is a little off” Tennis Ball said.  

“You should have told me that before I fired!” Golf Ball shot back.  

The projectile hit the wall, bounced off, and slammed into Rocky, who simply opened his mouth and vomited acid all over the robot’s front leg.  

“BLLLEEEEHHHHHH—”  

The leg sizzled into a disgusting puddle.  

I ducked again. A second rubber chicken soared past.  

Firey phased through the scorpion’s torso like an ember slipping through cracks.  

“I think I found its battery pack!” he shouted, before emerging on the other side with an armful of smoking wires. “Oops!”  

The robot swayed. Its tail sparked wildly. Still active.  

“You called me Needy again, didn’t you?” shouted Needle.  

“No, I said Nee—” someone started.  

SMACK. A crater formed where the ground used to be, but it completely missed the giant scorpion trying to kill everyone.  

Flower growled from the side.  

“Don’t make me press the button,” she said, holding the remote.  

My spine felt shivers.  

“You brought the Announcer Crusher?!” I yelped. “I thought we weren’t—”  

“Just in case,” Flower said with a smug kick of her non-slip sandals. “If I don’t want you to fall, then you won’t.”  

“She’s been itching to press that thing for five years and it actually being useful for once,” Pin mumbled. “It’s weirdly personal.”  

Through all this, the robot still had not gone down.  

It stumbled forward, leaking, twitching, until Blocky leapt onto its back with a rope, slapped a kick-me sign on its eyes, and dumped a full barrel of slippery slime over its head.  

“Ha! Classic prank!”  

“How is a prank suitable in this kind of situation?!” Golf Ball snapped. “It’s a death machine!”  

“It slipped, didn’t it?!”  

The robot spun, lost balance, then crashed backward into the wall and shut down with a hollow clunk.  

Silence.  

Then Flower slowly raised the remote.  

“Don’t,” I warned. “It’s already down.”  

“Just one tap?”  

“No.”  

She pouted. “That was rather anticlimactic.”  

I finally exhaled.  

They all turned toward me at once, Firey the same as ever, Spongy covered in oil, Leafy still glowing faintly from the map hop.  

“You, okay?” Leafy asked gently.  

“Y-yes,” I said, brushing dust from my skirt. “Yes. I am… fine. I just…”  

I stared at the wreckage. At them. All of them.  

“I still don’t understand how any of this is real.”  

Firey shrugged.  

“It’s real ’cause you wanted our help, right?”  

I opened my mouth. Closed it.  

I had no answer.  

But I should probably give you all an answer on who the heck these people are.  

These are my friends, sort of my only friends, at least the ones that have stuck around throughout my life for better or worse.  

They said they completed a series of game shows for years, competing for a dream island, then competing for the battle itself, then the live recording of the last two battles or ironically enough superpowers from a walking talking number 2.  

It makes as much sense as what just happened. [2]  

After that, they said they woke up here whenever I summoned them with their respective inanimate counterparts.  

Also, most of them are named after their inanimate object, or with a -y at the end for extra flair, it also makes saying their names more tolerable.  

Now after that reality check, let us continue.  

“So how many of those things do you need to beat the pass the test?” Tennis Balls questions, a rather nasally voice, grainy too.  

“As many as possible.”  

There simply silence.  

Then—  

“WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU START WITH THAT?!” shouted Blocky, flinging a metal plate in a random direction.  

“Oh great, another excuse to hurl garbage at robots,” muttered Coiny, already kicking debris toward the nearest alley.  

“Let’s GO!” Firey whooped, his flames igniting mid-leap.  

And just like that, they were in motion, rushing into the core of the city for what I can only describe as pure chaos.  

Tennis Ball squinted at the twisted heap of robot remains, trying to channel some form of confidence into his work while Golf Ball’s eyes were prying into his soul.  

“Okay, okay… so if you jam that servo coil into the… uh… sockety thing… the remains should be able to serve as a makeshift grenade.”  

“ That’s not a real sentence,” Golf Ball muttered, already half-way through wiring a shock module using a streetlamp and what looked like a broken microwave.  

“You didn’t say it wasn’t correct.”  

Tennis Ball proudly shoved a few wires into place.  

“I did. Just now. I said it wasn’t real.”  

“ You’re welcome.” And a smile crept upon Tennis Ball’s face as he said that.  

Coiny crept behind a one-pointer bot and cupped his hands around his mouth.  

“Hey, Needy!”  

Needle’s pupils shrank.  

“Say goodbye, toaster legs!”  

She came and went across the field in the blink of an eye with the sheer force of rage in every step she took and slapped the robot so hard it went airborne, ricocheted off a building, and exploded into three different pieces that somehow landed one after the other.  

“Never. Call. Me. That.” Her high-pitched shrill voice now dangerous to say the least.  

Blocky picked up a rubber hand.  

“Here we go, this is a classic”  

He hurled it. Then another. Then another. One after the other—rubber hand, banana peel, toy shark, empty can, novelty mug, whoopee cushion, pineapple.  

Each hit nothing important.  

One even bounced off Golf Ball’s cannon and knocked Tennis Ball flat.  

“HEY!”  

“It’s a layered distraction!” Blocky called.  

“You have no layers,” Golf Ball growled.  

Bubble stood tall.  

For a moment.  

A bot exploded her mid-sentence.  

“YAAAAAY—”  

POP.  

“Bubble!” Match screamed, using the bubble wand.  

“Don’t worry, I got her,” Pencil said, already blowing a stream of new bubbles.  

Another bubble formed.  

Bubble returned.  

“YAY I’M BA—”  

POP. A missile clipped her mid-twirl.  

“Why does this always happen?!” Match snapped, blowing again.  

“Just keep her looping, we’ll cover!” Pencil shouted, as she gave the wand to Match.  

The bubbles flew—shiny, harmless, and mostly ignored by the robots.   

Spongy screamed incoherently as he was thrown by the combined effort of Snowball, Pen and David through the air like a living wrecking ball, crushing three bots under his sheer volume.  

A One-pointer’s wheel spun out from beneath him. Two-pointers caved in like crumpled cans. Spongy did not stop, he could not to be more accurate.  

“THIS! IS! STRESSFUL!”  

Rocky opened his mouth.  

And never stopped.  

A stream of acidic barf blasted from his face like a pressure washer of horror, tearing through metal like a steel-melting hose. He walked forward slowly vomiting constantly spraying walls, bots, traffic signs, and occasionally me.  

“Rocky please STOP!” I yelled.  

“BLLLLEEHHHHHH—”  

“Ugh. Why is this the most effective strategy?!” Flower winced.  

Flower, meanwhile, glided through the battlefield like chaos did not dare touch her. Her non-slip sandals anchored her to the ground like breaking the laws physics. She slipped nowhere.  

She stepped lightly past a skidding one-pointer.  

Another came from the left, it slammed right into her face.  

“Still not slipping,” she said smugly. 
 
The robot was then promptly burnt by Firey. 

Then she raised the remote.  

“It’d be so much easier if I just crushed the field.”  

“You’re not pressing it,” I said.  

“One tap?”  

“Flower. No.”  

“Ugh. Buzzkill.”  

From the smoke and chaos, the crew regrouped around me: singed, scorched, dented, and grinning.  

Golf Ball’s grenade sparked ominously. Tennis Ball had jammed scrap metal, wires and lightbulbs from light posts into a large spherical mess. Spongy was wheezing on the ground as if his lungs were composed of water. Rocky was still vomiting, albeit less intensely.  

I stared at them all.  

“You’re all completely ridiculous,” I muttered.  

“Ridiculous and successful,” Leafy beamed. “That’s our style!”  

Then the ground shook.  

THOOM.  

A shadow spread across the alley like a falling curtain.  

We all looked up.  

The Announcer Crusher loomed, silent, massive; a giant steel block covered in silver spikes, the size of a building hovering over the masses.  

Flower’s stub of a hand twitched over the remote.  

/// Almight’s POV, during the examination. 
 
As Nezu paid attention to the girl, I saw something arguably more ridiculous than my fight with All For One. 
 
Objects, human sized, doing thing that simply broke the laws of science as if it was a simple walk. 

Then he laughed.  

Nezu laughed. 
 
“UHUHUAHAHAHUHAUHAAHAHAHAHA!”  Some form of inhumane cackling that sent shivers down my spine. 

I’ve heard of the other staff warning about his laugh, and to be prepared for the aftermath. 
 
Shota flinched from the unexpected laugh. 

Everyone else had fear in their eyes  

Except Power Loader and Cementoss, they knew quite well what was coming.  

“Send in the Zero Pointers.” Came a calm, collected voice, from the same deranged laughter moments prior.  

Power Loader complied.  

All while Nezu’s eyes gleamed with deadly curiosity.  

“Let’s see whose Chekov's Gun shall best the other.” He muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear. 
 

/// Sigurrós Stefánsdóttir’s POV  

At first, there was just the sound.  

A deep, grinding bellow that vibrated up from the concrete. The buildings trembled. Dust fell from rooftops. Then the smoke shifted and from it stepped something that made the rest of the battlefield feel like an opening act.  

It was a walking tower.  

Green armour, it blocked out the sun as it moved through buildings. The streets were too narrow for it, but that did not matter. Walls scraped. Steel beams bent inward. Entire upper floors of buildings were shoved aside like cardboard props in its path.  

Twelve glowing red sensors pulsed across its angular face.  

No eyes, no mouth, just a flat grid of cold, watching lights.  
 
Its arms were blunt masses, just crushing slabs of alloy, built not to grab but to crush. 

Tank treads rolled beneath its legs, chewing the road into ribbons. A faint trail of smoke hissed from its vents, it was ensuring the most destruction possible.  

It did not roar.  

It did not charge.  

It just walked, and everything moved for it.  

“Is that…” Blocky’s voice cracked. “...a final boss?”  

“No,” I said, eyes fixed on the horizon. “That’s the plot escalating . ”  

The Zero Pointer had arrived. 
 
Screams broke out instantly. 

Students scattered like ants, diving behind cars, slipping into alleys, trampling each other in blind panic. Some had trained for this. Most had not trained for that.  

The Zero Pointer did not even look at them. It moved with sheer brute force.  

And still… no words. No warning. Just weight.  

And it was not here to play fair. 
 
It turned. 

Its dozen glowing red sensors focused on the only group still standing still.  

Us.  

It took another step. The buildings groaned around it.  

“Okay. No. We throw the grenade, fall back, and hope it chokes on rubble, it is the logical course of action” Golf Ball snapped, yanking a lever on the half-cooked scrap bomb she and Tennis Ball had built.  

“Yeah, seriously,” Spongy wheezed, half-melted and still steaming. “We’re barely holding together!”  

“That’s not true!” Leafy shot back. “There are still people running. We can help them.”  

“With what?!” Blocky waved his stub of a hand. “Do you see a plan? Because I see my entire life flash before my eyes and it was mostly pranks and questionable contests.”  

“We don’t need a plan!” Firey interrupted, the floor beginning to ignite from his feet as he spoke. “We just need to move. Now.”  

“Tch. Typical,” Coiny muttered, stepping beside Firey. “Charging in without thinking. Let me guess, you’ll punch its leg and hope it says ‘ow’?”  

“Maybe I will.”  

“Then I will first.” 

“Do you ever stop?”  

“Not if you’re answering.”  

They glared at each other. Sparks flew. Literally.  

I cleared my throat.  

“We help,” I said firmly. “People are still trapped. Running will not change that.”  

That was enough.  

Leafy beamed. 
Firey nodded, almost surprised. 
Coiny smirked triumphantly. 
Even Match and Pencil paused, exchanging a rare look of respectful agreement. 

Golf Ball sighed so hard it sounded like her soul deflating.  

“I suppose it’s for the best.”  

“You’ll hate being dead more,” Tennis Ball added, handing her the grenade with her foot.  

“Fine. One chance. One grenade. And when it doesn’t work; I’m building a tank from the wreckage of our failure.”  

We lined up on the street. The Zero Pointer advanced.  

“Alright, bright balls,” I said. “Let’s test the glorified trash grenade.”  

Golf Ball activated the timer.  

“Fuse is unstable. Detonation radius unknown. Impact questionable.”  

“That’s how you sell it?” Blocky shouted.  

“It’s honest!”  

Blocky hurled it, despite his earlier enthusiasm.  

The metal sphere flew in a perfect arc, spinning, sputtering sparks and a few glass shards and struck the Zero Pointer’s shoulder while humming like a kettle and glowing bright red.  

A burst of smoke. A flash of light. Shrapnel flew.  

But when the fog cleared, the Zero Pointer just stood there, an immoveable object.  

It turned its head.  

Not even a scratch.  

“That was our big move?” Coiny muttered.  

“That was our test run,” Golf Ball growled, already sketching a new design in the dirt with her foot. “We need more force.”  

“Like the Announcer Crusher!” Flower passionately offered, remote still in hand.  

We did not answer.  

The Zero Pointer’s massive arm lifted.  

And then it began to charge.  

No warning. No windup. Just momentum, as if it had already decided we were beneath it.  

Its tread units pulverised everything beneath them. Chunks of concrete launched like shrapnel, glass burst from windows several stories up, and entire streetlamps were flung from the shockwave alone.  

“Now would be a good time to panic!” Blocky shouted, ducking behind Spongy  

“We don’t panic,” Golf Ball snapped, sketching new schematics into the soot with a broken antenna. “We refine . Everyone, grab everything that looks remotely dangerous or sharp!”  

“You got it!” Coiny said, flipping over a crushed hand and yanking out its intact motor.  

“I found a buzzsaw!” Tennis Ball called. 
 
“Why do you sound proud?!” Match yelled. 

But Fiery and Teardrop were already gone.  

I threw a few drops of water and out came Teardrop, nimble and silent, darted through rubble and missiles, dripping through fences and rubble. She reached a pinned examinee, lifted the beam, gently slipped the kid out without ever making a sound.  

Fiery burned through fallen support beams like they were paper. His form flickered, slipping through cracks in wreckage, catching wounded stragglers and pulling them free.  

“Go! Go! Just run!”  

The rescued students didn’t stop to ask questions. They ran.  

“This way!” Leafy shouted, pointing toward Spongy, who had flattened himself like a living bouncy castle.  

Examinees tripped, leapt, and launched over him like a springboard. Spongy barely flinched but he was muttering a lot under his breath.  

“I’m gonna need s o many showers , ” he groaned.  

Flower stood at the rear of the alley, remote in hand, glaring at the Zero Pointer with laser-focused irritation.  

“Just say the word,” she said to me.  

“Not yet,” I replied. “We’ve still got people inside.”  

She scowled but did not argue.  

Near the front lines, Golf Ball crouched beside a growing pile of machine parts—motors, casings, servo clusters.  

“This junk’s useless. I need a capacitor, at least two pistons, and something explosive that doesn’t scream when I pick it up.”  

“Try Rocky’s stomach!” Pencil shouted, dragging a small frame behind her.  

“But it’s already full of acid.” Match replied  
 
Rocky belched. 

Golf Ball didn’t even blink.  

“Useful. Very useful.” Golf Ball said, but I could not tell if it was sarcasm or a compliment.  

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we’ll have to rely on Flower’s Announcer Crusher, we don’t have enough time.” 
 
Fiery walked through the wreckage, flames blazing as he burnt away layers of debris. Teardrop flowed through gaps he could not reach. 

But the final support beam would not budge. It groaned under the weight—too thick, too fused into the wreckage.  

Teardrop shimmered, pushing with all she had. But the heat was immeasurable. Her body began to steam then:  

She evaporated, gone in a hiss.  

“No Teardrop!!” Fiery yelled.  

Then came a voice. Flat. But full of something.  

“Aw. Seriously.”  

David stepped forward from behind the rubble, expressionless, stick-limbed, a literal stickman I drew as a toddler, his movements awkward, he planted both hands on the beam.  

“Aw… seriously!!”  

With surprising strength, he lifted the beam with Fiery, buying just enough time to drag the trapped examinee clear.  

That is when it was centimetres in front of us.  

“FLOWER!” I screamed.  

“YES!”  

The remote clicked.  

The Announcer Crusher fell. 

The inferno of jealousy and wrath, all the anger, irritation, annoyance Flower had that moment, previously being unable to do anything, was personified as divine judgement from above, the metal spiked weight fell so fast, it was almost like white lightning coupled with a sickening crunch. 
 
Silence. Then smoke and dust. 

A chirp. Followed by the unmistakable, monotone voice of an old friend.  

“Impact registered. Casualty: One giant murder tower. Style: 8 out of 10 would be better if it wasn’t used to try and kill me previously.”  

The full, boxy, hovering form of the Speaker Box.  

“Back in form.”  

“Ugh, finally!” Match threw her arms in the air. “What took you so long?!”  

“We've been dodging like everything for ten minutes!” Pencil added.  

“I was waiting for a moment of cinematic payoff,” Speaker Box replied, voice perfectly smug despite the robotic tone. “And that —” he pointed a metal panel extending from his body as if a hand, pointing at the crater, “was peak spectacle.”  

“You could’ve helped!” Golf Ball snapped.  

“I was helping. As motivational support.”  

“Useless box,” Blocky muttered. “I could’ve rated that explosion myself.”  

“No one trusts your taste in explosions, Blocky.”  

“Excuse me?! I have a brand!”  

Flower stepped forward, face glowing in the reflection of the crater.  

“Don’t ruin this for me,” she warned. “This was my moment. That’s my Crusher.”  

Speaker Box gave a mock-applaud, playing that age old sound from sitcoms as old as time.  

“And it was glorious.” He finished.  

But then… a beat of silence.  

The smoke cleared.  

And realisation dawned.  

“Wait,” Blocky said, blinking. “...How many robots did we actually destroy?”  

“Counting the Zero Pointer?” asked Coiny.  

“Besides the Zero Pointer.”  

Eyes shifted around the field.  

A menagerie of One-pointer bots flickered in the distance, still rolling along. Others twitched in alleyways although destroyed, one could not tell who destroyed it, whether another contestant or the Zero Pointer, the one three pointer they beat up was dismantled by Golf Ball. One two-pointer was crawling away, still very much broken yet still intact. 

“Oh no,” Leafy whispered.  

“WE FORGOT TO FARM POINTS! I have counted every bot we have destroyed so far, and we have only gained 11 points in total!” Golf Ball shouted, scribbling panic formulas into the dust.  

“From 5 one-pointers and 3 two-pointers!” She added.  

“We spent like 90% of the test saving people!” Match said.  

“And throwing random items!” added Pencil.  

“I broke like, three things!” Blocky said proudly.  

“You broke morale,” Golf Ball shot back.  

“Aw. Seriously?” said David, standing in a crater, completely useless, stuck with the support beam.  

“Quick!” I yelled. “Get those points!”  

Spongy belly-flopped over a bench.  

“DOES THIS COUNT?!”  

Rocky vomited on a lamppost.  

Needle just started slapping everything.  

Everyone scattered.  

“ THE EXAM IS OVER!”   

/// Nezu’s POV, earlier that day.  

“Well then, I hope you are ready for the exams today!” I said towards one of the many students legally under my care.  

I’ve already said goodbye to the majority of them except for this one.  

They are rather peculiar.  

A rather strong quirk, a mix between a hetromorph, therefore mutant, and an emitter.  

But that’s not why I took care of them.  

While yes, their quirk is remarkably strong, especially if Gerson Boom is anything to go off of.  

It’s their eyes.  

That glint of determination, their ability to defy their preconceived ideas, nature, angsty rebellion one could call it.  

That is why they are my favourite.  

I shouldn’t have favourites professionally speaking.  

Bah!  

Who am I kidding, I have many favourites, all treated equally.  

“Yeah, don’t tell me twice.” Said the child.  

Otherwise known as Susie, no last name like myself.  

An anthropomorphic purple lizard, female, previously homeless and seemingly abandoned, I took it upon myself to care for her, I must admit I saw a glimmer of myself within her when I found her that day, I can’t possibly repeat history, especially when you have the power to change it so easily!  

She hated studying, at least until I engrained it into her daily routine, as despite her punk rock attire, leather jacket and spiked bands, she can be studious when she needs to be.  

Proper control for her quirk was also taught by yours truly, and a large variety of other hobbies and whatnot.  

All unimportant for what is to come.  

I might as well introduce her quirk then.  

Mane Axe: she can conjure large great axes out of seemingly thin air! Able to use them for a variety of combat and practical applications, as well as this, she can channel her emotions through the weapons to conjure energy based attacks, the most prominent being her’ Rude Buster’, she almost killed me with it!  

Other than that, she seem long has shown an interest in healing as well, with rare acts of kindness she can shoot blasts of green light from her hands to heal minor wounds, although it exerts far more energy for her to make it practical.  

And of course she’s never used it for me, but I’ve had my ways to see that happen in person.  

A part of the problematically titled ‘Monster Quirks’ more so similar to; again Gerson Boom, and others such as Toriel Dreammur, previously known as Hearthmaiden, and Asgore, otherwise Trydent. With seemingly magical quirks, with much more powerful capabilities than most ordinary quirks, although them comes the quirkism and racism.  

A topic for another time.  

I simply lead Susie to the examination grounds, before heading upstairs myself to greet my fellow employees, giving a confident smile before parting ways.  

Today will be an interesting show.  

/// Susie’s? POV, Start of Examinations.  

Normally, I would never sit at a desk for more than two hours, but when you’re at one of the world’s leading hero courses I suppose you have to make ‘compromises’ as Nezu put it.  

No, I’m not calling him dad.  

But at least they didn’t make me write in chalk, otherwise I would’ve eaten it.  

In one bite.  

So I guess they give a flying fuck about their students then.  

But hey, I’m not letting all out hard work go to waste, might as well try my best, not like I have anything to lose.  

After what seemed like forever.   

I could stretch my legs instead of being bored to death in a stuffy student supply closet.  

City Block E, huh?  

It’s probably the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen, the rat certainly doesn’t skip on budget.  

Not that I'll be able to describe it in detail anyways. 
 
But it was massive; like “you could crash two blimps and still have room to start a turf war” massive. 
 
What did the rat say: ‘Ah yes, urban realism’. 

 
What a joke. 

The moment that blonde siren screamed, the crowd exploded, kids sprinting like they were running from a villain attack. Everyone was too busy racing to even glance at me.  

Good. 
 
More for me then. 
 
I strolled. 

Let the nerds freak out and play tag with the bots. I’d take my time.  

Then the first one-pointer rolled out from the smoke; metal, ugly, with caffeine in its coolant. 
 
“Come here, you trash bin.” 

I threw nothing into the air, then my first axe formed, heavy and jagged, purple crackling across its edge as it flew towards the bot. I was going to name it but why telegraph your attacks and give people an advantage, plus it made Nezu flinch once, and that’s fun.  

I swung it once. The air ripped with the force.  

So did the robot as I split it cleanly in two.  

“One point, baby.”  

Another one charged in from the left.  

“Make it two.” 
 
Two axes, two clean cuts, two points. 
 
Things were going great and getting better. 

Bots dropped like flies. Axe after axe. Steel clanged, limbs flew, and my grin was wide. I even scared off a group of kids just by cracking my neck at them.  

Good. Less competition.  

But then... the ground shook.  

First, I thought it was just me landing heavy. Again. But then the sky cracked open with light, a big yellow light fell like a shooting star.  

Soon after purple threads shot through the skyline, suspending them mid-air, strung up like dolls. 
 
Then came the sudden whiplash missiles redirected, debris bending mid-flight, buildings slamming into each other like dominoes, or Nezu playing chess, God I don’t want to remember that. 
 
“...That’s new,” I muttered, shielding my eyes from the dust storm. 
 
Then I found a kid that couldn't decide their gender: sometimes a cowboy, sometimes a ballerina, always stealing points. 
 
Landing in a pile of burning debris with the ease of someone who knew gravity personally. 

No support gear. No hesitation. 
 
Then a spikey humanoid Pomeranian comes over with a shit-eating grin. 
 
An airstrike from above, as he latched on to the scene before I could even talk to the genderfluid kid. 
 
“YOU NERD BOOK-EATING ASS! WHEN DID YOU GET GLASSES?” 
 
“Since we stopped playing nice.” A flat monotone voice answers. 
 
Clearly. 
 
It went from an artificial city to a ghost town, only rubble, piles of it, heavy competition here. 
 
Someone’s showing off. 
 
They turned slightly, eyes unreadable behind those stupid glasses, and kept walking, dragging purple strings like a haunted marionette. 
 
I mean, they were choreographing their own anime intro. 
 
And then the whole damn street froze. 
 
No birds. No flowers. The wind didn’t laugh; it wouldn’t dare. 
 
And then they spoke. 

“Clover’s not home. Neither is Frisk or Joey…”  

They said it calm. Like it meant something. 
I had no clue who those people were. Or if they were people. 

“It’s me. Chara.” 
 
A nearby bot fell apart before the sound even caught up. 

And next to them? 
The living airstrike stood stiff, like something in his gut just went ice cold. 

For a second, both looked ready to kill each other.  

“Oh.”  

That was all I said. 
Because anything else would’ve been stupid. 

You don’t interrupt a wild animal when it bares its teeth. 
And you don’t interrupt a kid who just called themselves Chara while slicing through steel with words alone. 

So, I stayed back.  

My axe stayed in my hand, I didn’t swing.  

“Note to self,” I muttered, “figure out what the hell a Chara is, or who the hell they are. Then punch it. Maybe.” 
 
“THE EXAM IS OVER!!!!!“ 

And as for me?  

I forgot to swear at the fact that I barely farmed points.

Chapter Text

/// Frisk’s POV.

Wow.

I haven’t had a good rest in a long time.

That was great!

Better than the coffee Chara makes in the morning.

Not that I drink coffee that often.

But everyone else filled me in on what happened after I fainted.

I do remember my soul shining brightly on everyone, as if I gave a part of myself to help them, like a buff or something.

Other than that, my mind draws a blank.

But hey! It’s a new day starting now, and Chara & Co beat the living souls out of the robots so I’m not too worried, even if we don’t become heroes at U.A. this timeline, I mean we can always RESET.

The letter comes a few days anyways, got nothing but time to kill.

“Frisk, please could you come downstairs!” Toriel shouted from downstairs, a hint of glee in her voice.

“We have a surprise!” Asgore added.

I immediately rush downstairs, these surprises could mean anything, literally, from a baking session, gardening, the seven beers incident, or Mom giving me a gift, like that pair of golden heart shaped lockets, with a music box inside.

Asgore looked at me with the same eyes whenever he gave flowers to Mom at Valentine’s Day, ready for trouble.

“We’ve never told you this before as he wanted to keep it a secret until he finished college and confirmed the opportunity he was given but —“

“You have a brother, my child, mine and Asgore’s son, your older sibling.”

…

Me and Chara shouted in unison.

“WHAT!”

Although Chara finished it with.

“THE FUC—“

And was promptly covered by Ava’s sleeve.

My mouth was left on the floor, eyes wide in what I can only describe as shock, but it was something way stronger than that.

Then someone burst through the door, two people.

The splitting image of Toriel and Asgore, younger, two large ivory horns on his head, curving back similar to a ram, black marks on either side of his cheeks, that go up to his eyes.

His eyes were like stars in the dead of night, literally shining.

His ears were floppier than Toriel’s and rested on his shoulders.

A soft face and wacky hairdo, I can see why my parents look proud.

But his costume was weird, albeit cool.

Dark blue robes with a white outline and accents, similar to mages or wizards in fantasy settings, the family’s emblem in the middle, The Delta Rune.

The layered paldrons coupled with his cape definitely gave my brother the classic hero attire down to a tee.

“Hey Frisk, it’s me, Azzy, I guess I’m your new brother huh?”

I don’t know why, but a strange feeling crept up to my chest, my SOUL, as if trying to remember a past life, as whatever this feeling was more determined to make me cry than whatever semblance of composure I could muster.

I hugged him.

He was very fluffy.

More so than Mum and Dad combined.

“God. That’s what Asriel would’ve looked like if he grew up?” Chara squints.

Clover stares as dumbfounded as the rest of us.

“I can see he was in the emo boy band phase once.”

Joey states, and to be fair, I can sort of see it, as if he was once of those One Direction clones back in the late 2010s.

Wait… how do they know Asriel?

Oliver and Ava immediately glare at Clover, clearly painted as he rapidly blinked with giving his excuse, quickly correcting himself.

“I meant that’s what Asriel looks like, cause we’ve heard Toriel and Asgore talk about him before while you were asleep…”

Right.

But then we suddenly both had the same thought.

“So has Dad gotten into any trouble while before I came into the family?” He gave a playful smirk, so did his friend, while Dad was sweating bullets out of the blue.

“The Seven Beers incident.” I said as calmly as possible.

“Wait, that happened more than once?” He shouted.

This ought to be good.

But before Asriel could spill the juicy details, Toriel gave another glare.

“Why don’t you introduce yourself to Frisk as well?”

A stern yet motherly tone, more so a subtle warning before something wicked this way comes.

“Oh. Right. Sorry. I’m Azzy’s…friend, call me Dess.”

Mom gave the look, the one where even a burnt pie wouldn’t cause.

Now everyone was sweating bullets.

Speaking of Dess, they were a deer.

Dark brown hair down to her shoulders and antlers that screamed Christmas, a red nose, pine green jacket, light blue jeans to create some light RGB; need I say more?

I mean they were actually human, probably a weird quirk, I mean my family consists of fiery goats, so a family of deer people doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch at all.

Asriel breaks the silence by embarrassing Dad to kingdom come and back.

“So, it started when Dad absorbed the seven beers.”

He then does an impression of our dad in a state I’ve only seen him in once, being drunk, all in a falsetto, singing too.

“Driving in my car, right after a beer.”

“Hey that bump is shaped like a deer.”

“DUI? How about you die.”

“I’ll go a hundred miles...an hour.”

“Little do you know, I filled up on gas.”

“I’m a get your fountain making ass”

“Pulverise this smuck!”

“With my Bergentrück!”

“It seems you’re outta luck”

“TRUCK!!”

With each verse he acted the scenes out like a mime desperate for attention and purpose in life, drama queen.

“He’s still a theatre kid…” Chara mumbles to no-one in particular.

...

...

“Did I really say all of that?” Dad questions, "And for once I’m using the fifth amendment on any reply you thought I would give. "

[That is admission by silence.]

‘Since when did you become a lawyer?'

[...]

Great, no response.

Dess chirps in, a smug expression despite the cold dead eyes Toriel gave her.

“Honestly, if it wasn’t for my quirk, I’d be toast. Probably roadkill.”

Both me and Asriel seeing the volatile state Mom is in, he deflected the situation.

“So the reason why I wanted to surprise you now…” Asriel grinned, scratching his floppy ears. “ Is because I just got an apprenticeship with Captain Celebrity, the whole shebang!”

My mouth dropped again.

The fourth ranked hero in the US of A, wanted the brother I just met, realised I had, would be going soon, the weird theatre kid in a wizard cosplay?

“Don’t worry, little bro, the internship doesn’t start for at least a month or two, and I just finished college, so I’ll spend time with you all again, did you never wonder why there was just a spare room in the house.”

That’s a good point.

“Ahem,” she said, eyes darting between everyone, but Azzy most in particular. “I also got an internship offer. Not to brag. Same deal as Azzy—Captain Celebrity, first one too, very glam.”

She shot Asriel a sideways look.

“What? No it didn’t!” he snapped.

“Did too. I just got it first and didn’t go about it like a crybaby.”

“You’re just mad he liked my cape more than yours.”

A snarky comment from Asriel.

Retaliated by…

“That cape looks like it was stolen from a renaissance fair.”

“It has style.”

“So does your couch.”

Toriel’s glare intensified between Dad, Dess and Asriel. The room got twenty degrees warmer.

He immediately straightened his back.

“A-anyway! Uh, Frisk, I really did want to be here for you. I mean, you’ve been through a lot with mom and dad, and I missed out on… everything.”

His tone softened, it’s clear he’s trying at least, but that’s the least of his problems right now.

“So,” Toriel said with a dangerous undertone; the subtle edge of a guillotine. “Would someone care to elaborate on what actually happened that night?”

Dess gives an exaggerated shrug, and nonchalant tone to try and dodge the question, although her answer said otherwise.

“Whatever happened that night was real boring, totally just a car crash, it barely hit me.”

“…”

“Miss Dreamurr, you know my quirk, it’s stronger in the dark so I was totally fine.”

“…”

“We all avoided any major injuries.” Asriel adds, to no avail.

“…”

“We all avoided things that night.” Asgore stated in a similar manner to Dess, sipping his tea to hide his worry.

Mom keeps her stern demeanour.

“The ‘lyrics’ of what you sang were baffling, not only attempted vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol”.

She now adopts the heat of a thousand suns, raising her tone but not her voice.

“What are the ‘fountains’ Dess supposedly make?”

…

The entire room turns an awkward silence into a war zone.

“I’ll be in the kitchen, and hoping the food has not burnt in my absence, I cannot force any of you to reveal what has happened, and I will not force you as the past is behind us…”

“But?” All three ask in somewhat nervous unison.

“Was anyone hurt? Did you do anything wrong, other than the… Bergentrück?”

They spoke all at once.

“Nope.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I squinted.

They were so bad at this.

She sighs. “Asgore, no tea for you tonight.”

“As in the drink or tonight’s meal?” A shaky voice asks, hand trembling with his teacup.

“Both.” Replies the blunt voice.

He slumps on the armchair and continues to sip his drink.

“In the meanwhile, Dess why don’t you stay for the night, I know your family recently moved back into town and I’m sure they would understand how dangerous it is for one to go alone at night.”

“Thanks, Miss Dreamurr!”

“Please, call me Tori or Toriel, the pleasure is all mine, I remember when Asriel used to kiss you back in primary school.” [1]

“Mom!”

Dess simply puts on an air of superiority by wagging her finger as Asriel.

“Asriel~” she said trying to tease him as much as possible. “I’m gonna blackmail you forever” voice. “Was it once at recess or twice behind the juice boxes?”

“It was one time! We were five, it was a dare!”

“And now I dare you to live that down, not like we’ve stopped doing that~” she smirked.

“Yes! Yes we have! Stopped that I mean!”

Dess just looks triumphant as she rushes to Asriel’s room. “I’m taking the top bunk!”

“Not if I get there first!” He sprinted faster than Asgore’s truck, his dignity clearly on the line.

All and all, it’s a pretty eventful day, then we played some board games: Dess cheated at Uno somehow, Dad was a master of scrabble but then again we were playing the German version, while Mom dominated Risk without a word.

The day after Dad had a private chat with Dess and Azzy, then she left and it turns out my brother is a big fan of retro games, Joey and the others spent no-time giving me their treasure trove of useless trivia to help me win against him in some Smash Brothers.

Of course, then came the letter.

We all gathered in the living room like it was a national holiday.

Ironic, since I’ve recently just learnt that Dess’s last name is Holiday.

Sealed. Thick. Official-looking enough to make Toriel straighten her posture and Asgore choke on his tea twice, probably because the symbol of U.A. was on the darn thing.

Chara was still quiet.

That scared me more than the envelope.

Dess was already texting bets into her phone.

Asriel was bouncing his leg like he was ready to duel the letter in Smash.

I, on the other hand, was trying not to throw up.

Toriel handed it to me gently.

“No matter what it says,” she said, “we’re proud of you.”

I nodded, and opened the letter quickly to get it over with.

Inside was a thin card, shimmering with holographic light, and a note with embossed golden lettering. A small screen lit up and a holographic figure appeared.

It was bright.

Too bright.

The hologram burst into full image and there he was—All Might, in all his glory, golden smile blinding like a flash bang from his pearly whites, hair defying gravity, with his muscles that weren’t purely for show.

“Hello! Young Hero.”

“I know we haven’t met yet, but your performance put on quite the show, it’s my first time seeing such a powerful quirk in the hands of a such a child like yourself, you’ve had the entire staff in a frenzy!”

So he watched everything, possibly the fact that I somehow fainted mid-skydive that was definitely not due to overwhelming shock from being stabbed by a school-funded robot.

“You demonstrated pure tenacity, strength, determination and the commitment to save others, especially when you were the one who put them in danger in the first place, that is true responsibility.”

The hologram continued, now joined by another voice—lighter, precise, and a little too chipper.

Principal Nezu.

I’ve heard of him, and apparently Mom and Dad go way back with him, but I’m not sure what he is, and as if he read my mind he answered my question.

Sort of.

“That's right. It's me, Nezu, the one who could be a dog, a mouse, polecat, weasel, I’ve even heard that people call me a bear!” He shows off some eccentric hand gestures while doing so, spilling his tea everywhere except himself. “But more importantly... I'm the principal!"

“And now for the formal side of things!” he said with a grin so wide I could hear it, as it rivalled Almight’s smile in terms of uncanny valley. “Congratulations, Frisk Dreemurr! You’ve officially been accepted into the Hero Course, Class A!”

“The villain points you have accumulated are rather impressive! You have earned 73 in total!”

A small ding played as it showed a leaderboard of the top ten appeared on screen, my name appeared in third place between Sparkles and a guy called Eijiro Kirishima, some European name under him too.

I blinked. That was…way more that what I was expecting.

Wow. My friends really carried me through huh.

“However.” Nezu continued, “there is another category unannounced at the time; to measure genuine heroism: rescue points. These are awarded when examinees demonstrate selfless acts of bravery during the trial.”

It showed on the screen the different point categories, splitting the screen into four sections: name, villain points, rescue points and total points.

And I scored 10 rescue points.

“With the extra points you racked up, your final total is 83 points!”

The number flowed in bold, and I hear a slight cackle from Nezu.

Then his voice dropped in pitch, just slightly.

“That breaks the entrance exam record. Surpassing even All Might’s performance by a full point.”

The room was dead silent.

“I’d like to personally congratulate you on this historic feat. And… per tradition…”

Nezu added a dramatic pause for effect.

“…you will be delivering the opening speech at this year’s U.A. Sports Festival.”

Dess let out a low whistle.

Asriel‘s mouth dropped.

Mom gasped softly and covered her mouth.

Dad was almost crying already.

The video ended with a little fanfare jingle.

I stared at the screen.

Blank.

No thoughts.

“No offence. But you. A speech? We’re all doomed.” Lily sighs as she racks her head in contempt.

Clover chuckles and tries to reassure me.

“There’s definitely no need to RESET now, is there?”

Oliver followed Dess’s low whistle and smirks.

“We just beat a living legend’s record; you should be happier!”

“And I was barely conscious for most of it.” I mutter under my breath, thankfully no-one heard that.

Before I could stage an impromptu disappearance into the attic, Toriel clapped her hands together.

“Well! I think this calls for a celebration!”

Dad wiped his eyes with a sleeve and stood up like he was announcing his retirement.

Then Mom came in and stood right in front me, in case I still had any thoughts about escape.

“We shall bake every pie we know.”

“Every?” I asked warily.

“Every.”

“I second this motion,” Asriel added, already pulling out the old recipe book to look up old recipes.

Dess stretched out on the couch like she owned it.

“Cool. I’ll just supervise. And taste-test.”

“So nothing.” I replied.

“Exactly.”

And that was how we spent the rest of the night—baking three pies at once, burning one, eating the other two, fighting over who got to name their own pie the “Victory Pie,” and laughing so much my ribs hurt.

The burnt pie was obviously Dess’s, despite her wanting to taste-test she immediately got bored of waiting and ‘helped’ Azzy make his pie, it didn’t help that it was snail pie.

The second was actually Dad’s which everyone ate before we could name it The Victory Pie, rather buttery, more so my brother’s taste than mine.

So the only pie available was Mom’s pie, Butterscotch and Cinnamon, obviously the best tasting as a classic but Mom, Dess and Asriel were ‘fighting’ over who got to name it and therefore give the first slice to me, in the end I had to eat through three large slices before anyone could even talk.

All in all, a pretty nice time, and the rest of my time before U.A. was spending time with family, and when Dess came over occasionally.

School shouldn’t be that crazy right?

/// Chara’s POV.

Asriel is still alive.

So is Flowey.

How is everyone else not freaking out about this?

Thank God, Frisk didn’t look into Clover’s mistake when he screwed up.

Wait.

So, when I don’t exist, Asriel is still alive.

While when I am Asriel’s friend…

He’s…

Nevermind that for the time being.

Frisk got into U.A.

I’m not surprised, seeing how we carried them throughout the entire thing, Frisk being down for the count.

But I suppose Frisk being a hero would at least help cure that growing savour complex, if the teachers are competent that is.

And I have no clue who Dess is, so let’s add that into the pile of things that make no sense.

Ah well, I suppose I’ll do what I do best.

/// Frisk’s POV, First Day at U.A.

It’s early.

Too early.

Mom often says early bird gets the worm, but this is ridiculous.

Dad and Azzy are taking me to school, Mom would but someone had to supervise Dad’s shop and Mom didn’t want him to miss out on quality bonding time.

But I suppose even the early morning has its fair share of nice moments, walking over a sea of soft indigo with streaks of orange is a very serene experience.

“You know, Frisk,” he says, chuckling in that warm, soft and overbearing tone I’ve heard quite a few times whenever Dess is around, due to the infamous Truck Incident, “it’s been ages since I got to walk someone to their first day of school.”

“Didn’t you drive me to school the first time, what changed?” I ask innocently.

“The deer incident.” Asriel replies bluntly.

“I may have had my truck keys confiscated after the incident during non-work hours…”

“Dad…does Mom still think you’re twelve?” Azzy says with a hint of surprise and pity.

“No, I’m even younger!” He retaliates with a hearty chuckle and the worst dad joke I’ve heard to date.

Azzy sighs.

“That’s not a no… y’know what nevermind.”

We reach the gates after what seemed like being lost for an hour, they’re taller than I remember. Or maybe they always were. Giant iron bars, gold trim, the U.A. insignia gleaming in the early light.

“You nervous?” Asriel asks me, adjusting the strap on his scabbard. He looks way too put together for someone who used to fall asleep during math class, at least that’s what Dess told me.

“Probably.” I shrug.

“You shouldn’t be. Worst-case scenario, you just end up outscoring the top ten again.”

“Please don’t say that.”

“I mean, you’re kind of a big deal now.” As he smirks at me with a knowing grin. “Speech at one of the world’s biggest events kinds of big deal.”

Dad gently puts his hand on my shoulder and looks at me reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, Frisk. The whole family’s proud of you. And we’ll be cheering from the crowd every step of the way.”

“Even if you bomb the speech,” Asriel adds helpfully. “All you need to do is make a few friends, pass exams, be a decent hero. Maybe don’t vaporise the school.”

This put a smile on my face.

“No promises!”

Everyone had a bit of a laugh from that.

But once they left, I realised something.

Walking to anywhere in this place was a pain.

They had at least five different sites all next to each other with classrooms in each.

So let’s see what the school has in store, other than a clear lack of scale except for the word gigantic, and we can’t forget confusing, I wonder if the site could count as a modern art piece.

Wandering corridors aimlessly however gives a lot of time to kill.

“This is definitely an improvement to the last two schools.” Chara chirps up after what practically was a week-long silence.

“If this place has the budget to do a yearly deathmatch with robots as an exam for children, it probably has the budget for this.” Joey floats next to me as he says this.

“Astute observation Banquo, the air is delicate.” Chara replies with a mocking tone.

Ava cuts in before the debate starts. “Guys. Banter later. Frisk has enough voices in their head already.

There’s a pause. Then, flatly.

“I was right,” Joey mutters. “Chara’s defensive again. Guess seeing him shook them.”

Chara doesn’t answer.
And honestly, neither do I.

Chara had nothing to say to that, even though he specified who.

Anyways, arriving early, means I get to socialise, which should be good for me, considering my only close friends are figments of my quirk.

[It can’t be that bad, you’ve had lots of experience talking to us.]

‘Yeah.’

[Very descriptive]

‘Thanks Captain Obvious.’

Ava just stares at Chara; I'd call that a sixth sense.

Whether I’m eager or stalling however is up for you to decide yourself.

Nevertheless, I entered the room.

It’s a pretty sight.

Flirting.

I like the word but actually doing it?

Let’s not go there.

Some grape haired kid and blonde not so spiky Pomeranian chat with all the girls to varying degrees of success, the most successful is being friend zoned while the worst speaks for itself, minor pranks around the classroom won’t get you anywhere pal.

Then the stuck up kid from the exam runs right up towards me, Oliver with no hesitation almost gut punches him, but he bows at the last minute.

“Hello! I am Iida Tenya from Soumei Junior High School.”

This obviously made me wince, since the only time I’ve seen something remotely similar is Azzy’s roleplaying, it’s bad.

“Howdy, I’m Frisk, Frisk Dreemurr.” As I put up a genuine smile, as despite my recent pessimistic behaviour mostly due to stress and dying in hindsight, being in the world’s top hero school does give me a lot of comfort.

“I must hand it to you; you divined the actual nature of the practical exam while I was blind to it!” He bows again vigorously. “I am sorry for my poor conduct yesterday while next to you, I deserved the slap you gave!”

“It’s all fine and good, technically I didn’t even slap you in the first place.”

“Hnmm?”

“I have a sentient quirk.”

The whole class bursts towards me from my blunt response, suddenly very interested in me, probably because they heard my name too.

“Wait. You’re Frisk! That kid who demolished their city block—that’s so manly!” said a red-haired guy from across the room, practically glowing with excitement. “Nice to meet you! I’m Eijiro Kirishima!”

“It appears we have found one of our kin. My name is Fumikage Tokoyami, my quirk is known as Dark Shadow.”

Wow. He’s…

“An Emo.” Chara states in the bluntest way possible.

“And I’m Dark Shadow!” A black bird-like figure phases into existence from the shirt of the emo kid, having a much more enthusiastic response, I think.

A bunch of others start crowding around me, as if I needed more attention.

“You’re the little SHIT THAT STOLE ALL MY POINTS!”

“That is unacceptable behaviour towards our fellow classmates!”Then comes the broccoli haired kid who shouts more so screams at the hobo that’s been at our feet for five minutes, in a deluxe yellow sleeping bag.

“If you’re hunting for buddies, go do it elsewhere.” Said the hobo with a gravelly deadpan that hit the whole room.

“Wow, I found a guy more monotone than Joey.” Chara snides to no-one in particular.

“Is he in the right place?” Oliver exclaims, trying not to laugh.

“This is the department of heroics!” He slogged, sucking a jelly packet dry afterwards.

He then hops in his potato sack towards the halls, everyone followed out of curiosity.

“Hmm. It took you lot eight seconds to quieten down when I arrived.”

He emerges out of the potato sack with heavy eyebags and the shaggiest hair I’ve seen that would put Azzy to shame.

“Life is short, you’re all lacking in common sense. And if you couldn’t tell I’m your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shouta.”

...

“Pleasure meeting you.” he quickly adds to fill the awkward silence.

“Wear these. Immediately.” He pulls out the blue and white P.E. Uniform. “And shove off to the P.E. grounds.”

We end up in a training ground the size of an Olympic stadium; the air smelled like ozone and fresh paint. No cheering, no coaches, just silence and sky.

“A QUIRK APPREHENSION TEST?” Everyone screams, thank God no-one has a sound quirk.

“What about the ceremony? Or guidance counsellor meeting?” Says a bubbly brown-haired girl waving her hand.

“If you want to be heroes, we don’t have time for frilly luxuries.” His quick dismissal shut the rest of the class up.

“I guess I’ll explain everything then.” He abruptly stops and stares at the class.

“The school has a reputation for freedom, no two classes are the same, well that freedom goes to everyone, most notability us teachers.”

“As such, I’ll make you all do familiar middle school activities, but you’re all allowed to use your quirk.”

He looks at the closest kid to him.

“Bakugo, how far could you pitch a baseball in middle school?”

“67 Meters.”

He gives a softball to him.

“Try using your quirk this time, you can do anything, as long as you don’t exit the circle there.”

“Don’t hold back.”

Bakugo winded up. Just grinned like he’d been waiting all morning to blow something up and roared—

“DIIIIEEEE!”

The explosion cracked through the sky like thunder. The ball disappeared into the clouds, leaving a trail of smoke that made fireworks look like children's toys and light so bright, it might have rivalled Almight’s smile, almost like lightning had struck unto the field.

I flinched.

Everyone flinched.

“Before anything else, one must know what they are capable of.” Aizawa regains our attention.

“As such, this test will serve as a rational metric for the basis of your ‘Hero Foundation.”

He flips out a tablet, showing Bakugo’s Score: 705.2m.

“Awesome, that looks so fun!”

“705 metres? Unreal!”

“We can really use our quirks now? That’s the department of heroics for you!”

...

“It looks fun...you say?”

This rhetorical question sent shivers down my spine, silence only grew.

“This is Mad Dummy all over again...” Chara mumbles, who or what is Mad Dummy?

Aizawa doesn’t raise his voice. He doesn’t have to.

His tone is flat, colder than the morning wind. No explosions. No sparkles. Just the quiet burn of disappointment—like a parent who doesn’t need to yell.

That’s worse.

“Having a good ol’ time? What happened to becoming heroes?”

He drags his fingers down his face, slow, the class’s collective stupidity physically weighing on him. His hair falls around his eyes, casting shadows so deep, they stare back at you.

“So, you were planning to spend your three years here… goofing off?”

The entire class is drowning in silence.

“Welp, tragedy strikes again.” Joey comments while staring at Chara for God knows what reason.

“This doesn’t really seem fair.” Clover points out, and I thought Chara was Captain Obvious.

“In that case,” Aizawa continues, “new rule.”

Oh no.

“The student who ranks last in total points…”

A pause, just long enough for my stomach to drop.

“…will be judged hopeless.”

“And instantly expelled.”

“Whaaaat!” someone gasps.

“Seriously?! What am I gonna do?!” yells someone else—definitely the flirting duo in hindsight.

Me?

I say nothing.

Because if he’s bluffing, it’s the best poker face I’ve seen in my life.

And if he’s not…

[Well.] Chara whispers in my head. [Time to either impress or RESET, and that rhymes.]

“Chara!” Ava scolds then as she looks back at Frisk. “You’re the top scorer in your year group; you definitely have enough talent to pass.” She says in a motherly tone.

The shock still hasn’t left the class.

Voices rise. Not brave ones—panicked ones.

“But this is our first day!”

“You can’t just expel someone over a PE test!”

“What kind of school is this?”

And in the middle of it, Aizawa doesn’t blink.

“Unreasonable?” he asks, like it’s a foreign word. “Japan is now positively drenched in ‘unreasonable.’”

His voice doesn’t rise, but it spreads. A ripple across the field.

“Villains don’t wait for your feelings. Natural disasters don’t pause for guidance counsellors. Egomaniacs don’t ask if you’re ready.”

He points—right at us.

“From now on, your life at U.A. will be hardship. Trial after trial.”

“Sounds like a Tuesday,” Clover says flatly.

“He’s right,” Chara says. And that’s the scarier part—they agree with someone.

“He still doesn’t have to be so blunt ‘bout it.” Clover comments.

Aizawa folds his arms.

“If you were counting on hanging out with friends at McDonald’s after school… that’s too bad.”

“He just attacked capitalism and friendship in the same sentence?” Joey murmurs.

“Based.” Lily adds quietly.

Then Aizawa holds up a single finger.

“This is Plus Ultra.”

Some looked as if he dug their grave personally and set up their deathbeds.

“I expect you to overcome these trials. And climb to the top.”

Chapter Text

/// Frisk’s POV.

I can do this…

[As much as we bicker… you definitely have the power to do this, for one, you’re determined, and secondly, you have us. Ugh; cliché power of friendship speech, but you get the jist.]

Seeing Chara end their week long silence to comfort you, not only proves they’re a tsundere, but also fills you with DETERMINATION.

Trial One: 50-Meter Dash.

I firstly make all the SOULS visible, with their consent of course, it makes things easier if I have to explain anything to the teacher anyways.

When could I do that?

Apparently forever, but they’ve just never bothered to tell me, it would’ve helped so much but the past is the past I suppose.

“Alright, Frisk,” Aizawa says, giving me a sidelong glance. “Let’s see what your ‘quirk’ can do.”

I snap my fingers and pray it works.

“Guess we’re doing this, huh?” Oliver cracks his knuckles with a grin, floating beside me.

“Oh, we’re really visible huh?” Lily hums, twirling midair like she weighs less than the air itself.

Each one slightly different, in posture and outfit, but none of them solid. They hover, flickering slightly in the morning sun, iridescent rays of purples, blues, green, yellow, orange and red.

The class, understandably, stares, it is a bit flashy I guess.

A few gasp.

Someone audibly whispers “Are those… kids?”

Kirishima leans forward.

“Yo, that’s kinda sick.”

Mina lets out a low whistle.

“Wait…was that part of the entrance exam? No wonder this kid broke records.”

“Is this part of your quirk?” The broccoli haired kid asks, eyes practically sparkling. “I would very much like to understand the logistics—!

“I never agreed to this, are we seriously doing this?” Joey sighs as he manifests, already rubbing his temples.

“Can we at least have fun with it?” Clover tips his hat.

“Only if we win,” Alice replies, adjusting her ribbon with a ghostly little curtsy.

“You all need to stop showboating and get on with it” Ava shouts, looking back at the teacher’s cold dead eyes.

“So blue soul to reduce gravity, orange soul for momentum boost, purple to keep movement efficient by forcing myself in a straight line and a big shot from Clover should give us a big head start right?”

…

“Sure, let’s go with that.” Joey replies, slightly shocked at my plan, he seemed impressed.

Aizawa lifts his hand. “Ready.”

I exhale slowly. They hover just above me, each colour syncing and affecting my body. The blue, orange and purple light wraps around my body highlighting its outline, eventually mixing into a dark muted reddish brown that shone from my chest.

“Let’s do this,” I mutter.

“Three…” Ava counts.

“Two…” Clover charges up a flicker of golden light behind me.

“One—GO!”

The instant the word leaves his mouth—

BOOM.

Clover’s shot fires off, the big shot more like a laser than a bullet.

I launch forward.

Oliver’s ‘magic’ crackles like fire in my chest, pushing me in a surge of momentum that nearly sends me flying face-first.

Lily raises her hands - gravity drops. My weight feels like a feather.

And then purple threads snap taut in front; Joey pulls me forward with a tight string, tied to the finish line while muttering something about efficiency. I moved as if on a monorail.

Most of it was admittedly a blur, as to the shock of many, I wasn’t used to such high speeds, I just felt the wind punch me in the face while looking at smeared lines and people, before somehow landing feet first on the finish line.

“3.01 Seconds.” The teacher said bluntly, not a single emotion on his face.

Huh, that I’ll take.

As I waited for some of the other students, I saw some crazy stuff.

Sparkles as flashy as ever, did what Clover did but with much more consistency, rushing in with what I could only describe as murderous intent for the metal posts.

That one girl who bumped into me, made a leaf sentient and gave it arms and legs before being given a map and spouted nonsense before just teleporting to the finish.

He blinked.
He actually blinked.

“1.6 Seconds.”

...

At least Azzy was wrong for once.

Trial Two: Grip Strength.

"So, we know there’s only one person who’s remotely helpful here.” Lily stares at Oliver.

“Wait you’re complimenting me?” Oliver looks at her as if she was drunk.

“No musclehead, I’m explaining that you’re a musclehead.”

“...right.”

Instantly my stance shifts. Shoulders square, back straight. Oliver pulls in every muscle I forgot I had.

“137 kg,” Aizawa reads out.

People stare.

“That’s not even my final form,” Oliver smirks.

Chara attempts to berate him.

“Were you always so -”

“Not the time guys! We’re all still visible!” Ava again acts as mediator, and at a time where I couldn’t be more thankful.

A boy steps forward with way too many arms, eight of them, bulging off of his body like overcooked noodles.

He grips both handles at once. His arms pulse.

CRUNCH.
The machine lets out a low whine as the screen flares red.

“540 kilograms.” Aizawa states.

The rest of the class goes dead quiet.
 Even Joey’s impressed.

“Well, that’s terrifying.”

Then it’s the broccoli-haired kid’s turn, twitching heavily, mostly from scribbling stuff down in a notebook

He steps up like he's facing a death sentence, grips the handles—and gives it everything.

Beep.

“56 kilograms.”

He just… wilts slightly.

Trial Three: Standing Long Jump.

This one was a smooth breeze and the least climatic of all previous events, Alice being able to manipulate one’s gravity allows me to effortlessly jump past the sandbox.

As for the others, someone shot a laser from their stomach which propelled them way past the sandbox into the wall.~

Oliver gives a playful smirk. “You’re not the only big shot around, huh Clover.”

Again, the girl with the map is broken, no other comments needed.

Trial Four: Repeated Side Steps.

Honestly, I didn’t plan anything for this one.

The others argued while I was already halfway through.

“Let me handle it,” Joey suggests, flicking a thread toward the markers. “If you attach lines here, we can slingshot side to side—”

“Or you could just run, like a normal person,” Lily asks.

“No style. Besides, go Plus Ultra right?” Joey smiles, trying to show enthusiasm.

“Joey, you should work on that smile, you look like that Doctor Eggman wannabe.” Chara taunts as payback.

So I just… go.

Left, right. Left, right. Left, right.
It was more so, being pulled like a ragdoll from side to side than actually jumping, like one of those intense rollercoasters.

After all is said and done, I go to the toilet.

“You moved faster than your will to live clearly.” Joey remarks, brushing off his sleeves.

Final Trial: Softball Throw.
I came back from the toilet, and it seems I was one of the first to go, so I’d do what I do best, something.

And by something, I mean debate with the SOULS for about five minutes.

“Let’s just do what we did with Frisk at the race for the ball.” Joey starts.

“Seems a bit bland, I thought you could cook up something better.” Chara groans, possibly from watching me be sick, or from the tedious exercises, perhaps both.

“I mean I could try telekinesis like S—. I mean I could try it…” Alice sheepishly twirls around.

“Isn’t that a bit overkill? I mean not like we could get over 750m.”

“Don’t be such a buzzkill Clover, you just don’t want to shoot Frisk again.” Chara smiles and swirls around him.

“When did that happen?” I ask.

“Don’t worry about it.” Chara playfully smiles.

Aizawa stares at me like he's already mentally filed the paperwork for my expulsion.

“Anytime today,” he mutters.

As I prepare to throw the ball, his eyes turn to a bright crimson, as his hair starts floating into the air, perhaps his quirk is --

[Being a buzzkill.]

Actually throwing the ball itself, felt like a controlled detonation, pretty much what they do on a daily basis.

What happened, or at least what I thought happened, Clover somehow loaded his revolver with the baseball, shot it outwards, Lily decreased its gravity, while Joey set its course, Clover then continually shot it until it left our vision.

It was basically an impromptu railgun, except instead of magnets, there were magical strings, energy blasts, gravity manipulation, the works.

The ball ended up in a continuous tangent, shimmering mid-air, too bright, too far in the air too see, the threads latched on, guiding it like a guided missile, being boosted by the occasional shot from Clover, or perhaps a hit of the cast-iron frying pan from Ava.

It didn’t descend.
 It didn’t slow.

It just kept going.

It pierced the clouds like a comet.

[Welp, they’re not getting that ball back.]

The sky’s still torn apart when the silence comes back down.

Aizawa doesn’t flinch.

He doesn’t whistle. Doesn’t blink. Doesn’t even tilt his head. He just stares—eyes glowing red, hair floating.

His eyes narrow.

Only for a moment.

Barely noticeable. A flicker of thought behind the bags under his eyes, the tension thick as if someone set down a knife and pretended, they never picked it up.

“21,423 metres,” the device beeps.

Kirishima lets out a stunned “Holy crap.”

“That ball will land in another country, how magnifique!” A French kid exclaims.

But Aizawa’s already walking to the next student. No praise. No criticism. No reaction.

Just a single, barely audible mutter under his breath:

“…I don’t get paid enough for this.”

/// Midoriya Izuku’s POV.

I stepped forward, heart pounding louder than the murmurs of the other students. They were all watching. I could feel it—the weight of their expectations. The curiosity. The disbelief.

“Midoriya Izuku.”
Aizawa-sensei’s voice was flat. Tired. But it carried all the weight of finality.
“Begin when ready.”

This was it.

I glanced at the ball in my hand. Just a standard-issue softball.
But to me, it might as well have been a ticking bomb.

I have no quirk of my own… just borrowed power.
And every time I’ve used it... it’s broken me.
The Entrance Exam. That colossal robot. The moment I struck it, everything l shattered like glass.

But it worked.

It saved her.

If I could just use that same power again…

I grit my teeth. Drew my arm back. I was going to do it.

The power surged—One for All roared in my veins like lightning.

But in the next instant—

My body froze.

The power vanished.

Like a switch had been flipped. My knees buckled, and I fell forward. The ball rolled harmlessly from my grip.

My breath caught.

“What…?” I gasped, stunned. I… I lost it? What just happened?!

Then I saw him—Aizawa-sensei—eyes glowing red, hair levitating, scarf fluttering in the still air like a viper waiting to strike.

“I erased your quirk.” He states bluntly.

“Honestly it defies reason how you entered this academy.”

Then it clicked.

“Those goggles! And the erasure… You must be the Erasing Hero: EraserHead!”

“From what I’ve observed, you can’t rein in your quirk’s power, meaning you can’t use it efficiently at all.”

My mouth tried to move but he continued.

“Did you believe someone would come to save you after being crippled?”

I tried to answer.

“N-No, I didn’t— I Jus—“

“Whatever hopes you may have of being nursed you of your imminent rescue.”

“No-one is in a position to aid you.”

“There was a certain blockhead, who made a name for himself by by rescuing a thousand people by himself.

“You have his brute courage but that’s all, at most you’ll be a sitting duck.”

“Your power at its current state, won’t make you a hero.”

He blinks shakes his head, suddenly losing all attention in me as he begins to apply eye drops.

“I gave back your quirk, so try pitching the ball again, so I can get this over with.”

I still can’t adjust my power output. Can I stake my chances by adjusting it on this one pitch? No… it’s as Almight told me: I can’t get it down in such a short span of time… shit.

If I keep going at it like I have been up till now, there’s no way I’ll ever be a hero!

*** Meanwhile. Frisk’s POV.

I wasn’t really paying attention at first; half-focused on Joey and Chara’s reviews.
But when that broccoli-haired kid stepped forward, the SOULS decided to pay attention.

“That’s the one?” Ava notes, eyes narrowing.

“He’s the primary school kid, but Aizawa isn’t giving him a fair shot.” Clover looks in recognition.

“Not like we could much about it.” Chara adds with a straight face.

“We’ll give him a piece of our mind if he fails.” Ava looks at him wielding her frying pan in an iron grip.

[Iron grip, really?]

‘Well, I inherit my jokes from the worst.’

“Wait, he did that erasure thing on us right?” Oliver asks. “How come we didn’t poof out of existence?”

“It affects quirks...” Joey mused.

Chara and Joey have a silent agreement, about what I’m not sure.

“So, you guys aren’t a part of my quirk?” I say jokingly.

“...Yeah definitely, we’re figments of your imagination and this a dream.” Chara sarcastically smirks, getting dangerously close, as in their smile would stab me close.

“FNAF 4 Treatment.” Joey smirked.

“Wouldn’t erasing us essentially kill us? Did the teacher almost commit manslaughter? I feel like we’re not taking this seriously enough.” Ava glares at Joey and Chara, clearly wanting to change the subject.

“It wouldn’t last long would it.” Lily says without a hint of self-preservation.

“You are all unfazed by the fact that you just ignored total erasure.” I note. “Are you all really my quirk?”

“We’re your friends.” Clover says simply, flashing a disarming grin.

“We’re your support.” Alice adds, adjusting her bow mid-air.

“We’re dead kids haunting you with a dash of bad ideas.” Chara mutters, arms folded.

Ava clears her throat like a teacher. “Frisk. You’re overthinking it.”

“It’s a valid question” I mutter.

“Well,” Lily says, crossing her legs mid-air, “As extensions of you, because quirk logic, we would know as much as you do.”

“We’re your quirk, if that helps you sleep at night.” Joey begins rationalising calmly.  “And from the diagnostic that bald doctor gave some years ago, Erasure doesn’t affect mutant quirks, and your quirk has mutated you, if ever so slightly.”

I stay silent.
I stare a little longer. Nobody meets my eyes.

The SOULS are quiet, a rather awkward silence.

“That made way more sense that what I was expecting.” Chara and I say, not verbatim, but we were both surprised at the sound explanation.

Then a golf ball slapped the teacher with his legs after the broccoli-haired kid finished his turn. Huh.

Wait what?

Chapter Text

Howdy, YellowSaga here, I have recently gone abroad with my family so chapters may slow down, but I’ll probably get at least one out in the meantime, also because last chapter was a slog to write, I don’t know why, the first half was rather fun though, Aizawa was one of the only things that kept me going when writing the chapter.

Chapter Text

Other Side: Quirk Apprehension Test.

/// Sigurrós Stefánsdóttir’s POV.

I’m not nervous. I should not be nervous. I mean has been objectively nonsense, especially for me.

Objectively; how ironic, these objects have been everything but objective, rather subjective if anything.

Most of the movement tests were easily accomplished with Leafy’s map, except for continuous side steps, it was a breath of fresh air ironically enough, partaking in a rather normal activity in a mundane way.
Other than that, grip strength was abysmal, most of them were all talk, also because they are inanimate objects of varying strength dependant on the situation.

In the meantime, everyone had lots and lots of questions, mostly me despite the fact I already had the answers, as for the others…

“So, is your quirk an emitter that brings objects come to life? Or do you need to use up certain objects to call these specific entities?”

A green haired kid began to mumble incomprehensibly with the frequency of a machine gun and didn’t stop.

“OrhowaboutthefactthattheyhavesomeformofinvunerablityorprobablitymanipulationImeantheresnowaytheycanbeluckyallthetimeandnotunderallcircumdtancesandthefactthattheycouldalsoheareverythingdespitebeinginamiatemeansthat…”

…

“Don’t worry, he’s always like this… I think?”  Said a bubbly bob-cut girl, Uraraka I think she was called.

“Good to know.” I mutter, in a much more subtle manner than the other.

“Your quirk is rather interesting, it is certainly more unconventional than most, it had many unique applications with little telegraphing.” A ponytailed girl notes.

“Thank you?” I couldn’t tell if that was a compliment or the start of an investigation.

In the meanwhile, the cut-I mean boy I bumped into, sent the softball outside of orbit with a demonstration only second to the strange methods I’ve used.

“So, do we just stay still, or do we actually get to do something? I’ve only done one thing in the last hour.”  A raspy somewhat deep voice from Snowball, one of the larger of the objects, being half a foot larger than the rest.

“You should be a bit more patient, if you don’t the situation will snowball out of control.” As Coiny nudge him vigorously.

“…”

“If we weren’t here with others, I would’ve punched you by now.”

“Yeah yeah, deal with it.” Coiny pats him on the back and smirks.

Aizawa was just tired at the chaos, which if this class was anything to go by, the school would be unconventional to say the least.

“It’s your turn.” He said, unblinking.

Coiny immediately rushes for the ball, much to the dismay of —

“What are you doing? “You shouldn’t be so impulsive!” Comes an irate Golf Ball.

“I’ve got this!” Coiny smirks as he shouts some terrifying words.

He throws the ball in front of him in the air, steps to the side and says; “Hey Needy!”

Most of the class was oblivious, questioning his sanity while I took ten steps to the side, I would have ran but it happened before my legs could take off, as well as the fact I couldn’t move too far without getting disqualified.

“DON’T CALL ME NEEDY!”

Needle, to put a lack of a better word, may as well have broken the sound barrier when she instantaneously appears where Coiny was.

Thankfully it was where he was, and she slapped the ball.

And if you thought ‘breaking the sound barrier’ was figurative, it was before but it is not now.

It broke the stratosphere – vanishing into nothing more than a dot.

Ten times the volume of Bakugo’s explosions.

I am surprised, although there are better words to fit my situation, not at the sight of Needle breaking the sound barrier, I was rather desensitised by absurd problem solving.

Rather the fact that her strength was so inconsistent, during the entrance exam this would have been useful in a variety of ways.

Everyone else, did a mixture of fleeing, similar shock, bleeding from the ears, or screaming.

/// Frisk’s POV.

Woah.

Seeing a good two, three other people pelt the ball to kingdom come certainly does something to you.

I mean I’m not a perfectionist or anything, but it certainly gets my blood boiling, not that I’m mad, more so I finally have others worth competing with, Azzy was right.

School would be fun.

[Drama Queen.]

“Frisk’s making that smirk.” Clover states with only slight worry, raising a brow.

“Another skydive?” Chara asks, with a hint of that trademark sarcasm.

“No RESETs this time, besides, not like throwing balls is something to be jealous over.”

“Why did you have to phrase it like that?”  Lily comes right into my face.

“Eh.” I shrug.

/// Aizawa’s POV.

Nezu still hasn’t given me a raise.

Two children are not affected and are more of a loose cannon than the child who tried to strangle the self-sacrificial martyr with that bloodlust of his, emanating from here, as well as the martyr.

One is a showboat and can’t control their own quirk without a five-minute conversation.

The other takes ten.

And of course, both of them have to have quirks which are absurdly powerful in their own right.

I’ll have to have a talk about this with Nezu, and I suppose the results might as well be revealed.

“What are you doing?” Shouts a raspy voice in the distance.

At first, I thought one of the students wanted to be expelled, instead I see a talking golf ball, I’ve seen them be sapient and independent of her quirk, let’s see how this develops, I haven’t leaned towards expulsion…yet.

“Have you considered the possibility of that your Erasure, could have killed us all?”

…

What?

“We are all sapient beings with individual thoughts and feelings, some of us even have personal lives outside of this!” She stared at Aizawa with more so disappointment than anger, though his voice showed otherwise.

“As such, using this ‘Erasure’ against us is an act paramount to attempted murder!” He jumps and slaps Aizawa with his stick-like legs as she continues.

“You should be ashamed of yourself as a teacher to put the lives of others close to your students in jeopardy, attempted not once but twice!”

I was going to counter but being the first time dealing with…this made me realise I had no idea how to deal with a ranting golf ball; for now.

“As a leader you should be ashamed of yourself!” She shouted at the top of those non-existent lungs.

…

…

They make a fair point, as obtrusive as they were.

I scratched my head and pulled up my hair.

“Alright, I admit, I should have asked more about your quirks before using my own on them, I did not mean to belittle or offend.” I bow as I say this, while noting in my head that Nezu most likely did this on purpose for shits and giggles.

In fact, I can imagine him in his office now spying on me.

/// Chara’s POV.

Sparkles was about to do something violent, I could see it in his eyes, and by the way he was creeping towards Broccoli Boy with explosions crackling in hand, and by creeping, I mean preparing for an assault.

Until he waited for that foreign girl to finish her turn, huh, he has a weird sense of sportsmanship, I can almost respect that.

Then the whole golf ball roasting our new teacher happened, so of course he stopped in shock too, the closest thing I could think of would be that time where Frisk went…

Actually, let’s not think about that.

Frisk and the others were accepting his apology, Clover feeling rather justified for once, great choice of words I know.

Speaking of a great choice of words; assault, explosions, the works.

Again, I know I sound repetitive, but when you hear the same deafening sound from robots, a flower that absorbed human souls, that skeleton, the other skeleton’s traps, lasers, a dog, and god knows what else I can’t think about right now; it gets old pretty fast.

And besides. I’m pretty sure he’s a one trick pony.

His face though, was hilarious; a sort of surprised expression but it looked more like was going to be sick, bulging eyes, mouth wide open, trying to be angry but failing, I wish I had a camera.

“WHAT THE HELL! EXPLAIN YOURSELF DEKU?” He declared with as much subtlety as Undyne’s Ambush, almost perfect, if not for their monologues or in this case, the fact he left a few spectators.

Then the teacher’s scarf came flying at him, almost as if it was possessed, wrapping him over his head, shoulders and lower body; securely to the point where he couldn’t move.

“What the? This cloth…it’s Stiff!”

“It’s a capture weapon made of carbon fibres and a special alloy wire…geez you can’t catch a hint, stop using your quirk.”

Aizawa’s eyes flow fiercely in a crimson red as his hair floats, at the same time, Bakugo begins to release his grip, realising how futile it is.

Aizawa gathered the class and had that same apathy I’ve seen all day.
“Your total scores simply reflect your performance in each of the exercises.”
He looks at the class bluntly.
“Explaining the process would be a waste of time, so all of you get are the final ranking.”

Lo and behold, a lovely blue holographic screen came to spell someone’s doom.

[ 1st - Momo Yaoyorozu  

2nd - Sigurrós Stefánsdóttir  

3rd - Frisk Dreemurr  

4th - Shoto Todoroki  

5th - Katsuki Bakugo  

6th - Tenya Ida  

7th - Fumikage Tokoyami  

8th - Mezo Shoji  

9th - Mashirao Ojiro  

10th - Eijiro Kirishima  

11th - Mina Ashido  

12th - Ochaco Uraraka  

13th - Koji Koda  

14th - Rikido Sato  

15th - Tsuyu Asui  

16th - Yuga Aoyama  

17th - Hanta Sero  

18th - Denki Kaminari  

19th - Kyoka Jiro  

20th - Toru Hagakure  

21st - Minoru Mineta  

22nd - Izuku Midoriya ]

The tension was so thick, not even Asriel could’ve screwed it up.
...

“Also, I was lying about expelling someone.”

[I feel disappointed now.]

Frisk’s face just gave way to a slight smirk.

I knew the kid liked a challenge but it seems some things never change…

“It was a logical ruse to obtain the best results from each of you.”

He continued, with the first sign of emotion I’ve seen since we’ve first met; a shit-eating grin, heck he even had a little chuckle to himself.

The entire class went into a frenzy, or in simpler terms lots of screaming.

The ponytailed girl however was unfazed, it seems someone smart is actually on Frisk’s generation, I’m almost impressed.

“Well of course, it was a lie, didn’t take much to figure that out.”

She sighed, but maintained a cool demeanour.

Then the Tennis Ball speaks up, the Match holding a tablet for him.

“Actually, according to this news article, Aizawa expelled his entire class last year!”

“Oh my god, that’s insane.” Match commented.

“How original.” Golf Ball added, mumbling to himself.

…

The grape-haired kid and the broccoli-haired kid started trembling immensely.

“That was because my class had no potential last year.”

He says calmly, not a hint of emotion.

“Anyways, we’re done here. Your documents about the curriculum and such are back in the classroom, please take a look.”

He then looks at Greenie.

“Midoriya.”

He looks as if he’s already dead.

“Have Recovery Girl fix you up, tomorrow’s trials won’t be any easier.”

Now Greenie is gasping for air like a fish.

But hey, everyone survived, to my slight displeasure.

Chapter Text

Howdy; it’s YellowSaga again!
While writing and brainstorming for future chapters I realised that a class of eleven might not constitute a proper class so I’m adding a few more, enjoy the gears for breakfast!

Hat Kid from Hat in Time
Lore: No-one knows where in hell she came from, Nezu thinks there’s a high probability of her not being human, she used to appear all over U.A. like a ghost, speaking in an unintelligible language mixed with English.
Nezu eventually captured her and managed to make a deal, she would normally be in a hero class if it wasn’t for the language barrier, she had a unique theory test made by Nezu to try and compensate.
Despite this, it is still unknown whether she’s an actual alien or just someone with a quirk that heavily affects her mentally and physically.

“Quirk”: Imaginary Thread - When Hat Kid crafts or modifies something made of fabric, she can imbue it with supernatural qualities. Her creations (umbrellas, badges, hats) often have abilities — directional guidance, superspeed, generating explosive vials, freezing themselves solid, platforming on invisible objects, and stopping time to name a few. She also demonstrates superhuman intelligence.

Matt from Epic Battle Fantasy 5.
Lore: He barely managed to pass the written exam and has a rudimentary understanding of Japanese, thanks to the help of his friends who go to other hero schools.
He’s someone who’s had a sheltered life or at least compared to his parents who are lost at sea and haven’t returned.
He is one of the few students who already live at the school dorms, a spare dorm for teachers due to his living situation.
Some of his only friends are Hat Kid and Boyfriend as not many in his class/school know English.
He wants to become a classic hero like in the fantasy games he plays.


Quirk: Swordmaster – He can make swords out of anything he puts his mind to, light, air, earth, even fire and ice, he can also move them telepathically.
Of course, creating these swords takes time, the larger they are or the more complex the material is (e.g. light), the longer it takes, however and moving them puts a mental strain on him, he can push past this, at a physical cost, causing internal damage; he calls the technique “Limit Break”.

The Batter from OFF
 Lore: A student claiming he’s on a “sacred purification mission.” His speech is monotone, direct, and archaic. Not many know where he came from. Teachers suspect delusions, yet his quirk output and composure under stress are exceptional.
Nezu found him after one the raids he orchestrated against the Meta Liberation Army long ago, and he has been under special care due to his engrained “mission” and this conditioning has been hard to remove.

Quirk: Purification
 The Batter can “erase” anything he deems “impure” — nullifying quirks, illusions, objects, etc. However, his definition of “impure” is entirely subjective, guided by his sense of moral order.
However, he must hit the target or object for it to work, he prefers to use a bat.

Type: Emitter

Drawback: Excessive use dulls his empathy and makes him violently zealous. If he loses emotional control, he risks nullifying allies’ quirks or his own senses and emotions, and it has a limited range.

David Crazetopher Blazing III, otherwise known as Crazy Dave from Plants Vs Zombies.

Lore: A feisty teen with an unparalleled genius, yet for some reason he decided to apply for every course, and of course Nezu allowed it, but his savant syndrome made him incompetent in everything not related to plants, including business, and unfortunately he was in the same city block as Frisk, he moved to Japan for some odd reason instead of going to any of the prestigious hero schools in the US of A, why? Because he’s CRAZY… I think?

Quirk: Bloom and Doom – Dave can instantly learn about a plant merely by looking at it, down to a genetic level, he also memorises it and it cannot be forgotten by any means. As well as this, he can manipulate any plant he touches to a genetic level, creating controlled mutations, he can also memorise any mutation he makes, but of course it takes time for him to create mutations, especially controlled ones.

Type: Emitter + Mutation.

Drawbacks: Storing so much information can scramble his brain at times, making him slow or erratic, as the human brain has to adapt to his quirk continuously whenever new information is forced in.

Here’s a list of the full Class 1-C:

• Buddy from LISA THE PAINFUL
• Spooky from Spooky’s Jumpscare Mansion
• Henry Stickmin from Henry Stickmin
• Lonely Girl from Escaped Chasm
• Skul from Skul: The Hero Slayer
• Misfortune Ramirez Hernandez from Little Misfortune
• Nima & Parasite from Am I Nima?
• Cassidy from FNAF
• Boyfriend from FNF
• Hitoshi Shinso
• Susie from Deltarune
• Hat Kid from Hat in Time
• Matt from EBF5 (Epic Battle Fantasy 5)
• The Batter from OFF
• David Crazetopher Blazing III/Crazy Dave from Plants Vs Zombies

This class is insane from a quirk standpoint, and will probably serve as a great team against Class 1-A and Class 1-B; especially during a certain arc we can all guess.

Chapter Text

/// Frisk’s POV.

The sun’s just starting to slip behind the rooftops by the time I leave U.A.
 The campus looks different when it’s quiet — less like a battlefield, more like a normal school. Almost.

“Long day?” Joey floats backward in front of me, arms folded.

“You know already.” I retort.

Then a blue butterfly appears in my view, it’s strange to say the least, because it is literally glowing blue, but...

“Did you see that?”

“See what?” Chara looked rather apathetic, perhaps the amount of emotion they’ve witnessed drained theirs's for the day.

“The glowing blue bug.” I replied bluntly.

“Normally I would say you’re hallucinating due to fatigue, but the peculiar natures of quirks are a thing, so it’s probably just a quirked butterfly.” Joey exposits much to the dismay of my ears which have went through too much today.

“Sure, let’s go with that.” I reply.

Then the slow slog back home, I know it isn’t that far, but honestly, I’m more exhausted now than at the entrance exam, and I died back there!

My house appears ahead — warm light through the windows, one of Mom’s coats hanging by the door, Dad’s truck conspicuously not in the driveway, that means he’s probably at work.

And as I open the door, who else to greet me but my recently acquired big brother.

“Howdy Frisk, how was school, did you do any tests?”

“It was fine, I did a quirk apprehension test I guess.”

“What did you score?”       

“I got in the top three in the ranking so there’s that, scraped third place.”

The foreign girl had a quirk more busted than mine, and the ponytailed one’s was terrifyingly versatile — she could make anything as long as she understood it and had the calories. Ridiculous.

And of course, Azzy takes this very well.

“I’m surprised you only got third place, your quirk is busted!”

“Yeah.”

“Are you feeling down?”

“Not really, if anything, the spotlight being taken away from me is relaxing.”

“Well, just to remind you, that spotlight’s coming back when the sports festival comes around!”

“You don’t need to remind me.”

“I’m just messing around. But were there at least some cool quirks there?”

“Honestly there were some quirks more busted than mine and others like a rip-off version of dad’s.”

“Wait really? And I thought my quirk was busted.”

“What actually is your quirk?”

“I call it Thermoflux! It allows me to create fire and lightning from my body! I was going to call it Fluxthermia but Dess said that sounds like a disease…”

[It actually does, it would also explain —]

“That would explain why you’re so adamant about the cold shoulder at times.”

I add with a big smirk on my face.

“…Frisk, your jokes are worse than Dad’s.”

“I know.”

“That somehow makes it worse.”

Meanwhile the SOULs deliberate on Azzy’s naming sense.

“Wow, and I thought was bad at naming.” Joey asked with pure shock.

“It’s not that bad…” Ava tried to help.

“I don’t know why he bothers at times.” Lily pinches her nose.

Anyways.

“So, where’s Mom and Dad?”

“Oh, Mom still doesn’t trust Dad for the time being, so she’s handling deliveries for his flower emporium.”

“That sounds great.”

“Don’t worry, I can cook surprisingly well! You learn a lot when you live away for a year at college.”

“As long as Dess doesn’t give you any advice.”

“Nah, she’s working on something back at her place.”

“How cryptic.”

“It’s nothing crazy, probably playing that new Dragon Blazers spin off, that weird racing one.”

…

“I’m just going to go to my room now.”

[An awkward silence fills the room; you are so adamant to not continue this awkward silence conversation it fills you with DETERMINATION.]

[Wow, and I thought the skydive SAVE POINT was dumb.]

Chara of course, after invading my mind telepathically, gives me a new expression, a satanic smile, with droopy or gloopy(?) eyes and mouth, it would’ve scared me if not for the crazy things I’ve already seen.

“Chara, don’t you think that’s a bit much?” Clover questioned.

“I mean it’s still a better SAVE POINT than the skydive.” Lily went up to Clover’s face as she said that.

But as I escape the living room and go up the stairs—

“Frisk, talk about cold shoulder, you’re pretty hypocritical and it wounds my heart!”

He clutched his chest and felt to the floor on both knees, acting like he has frostbite.

“Maybe stop acting like Shakespeare then!” I shout as I take a needed shower and a long-awaited nap, Azzy’s too much of a drama queen today for my attention anyways.

*** The Next Day; still Frisk’s POV.

I arrive at U.A. and everything is surprisingly normal.

I have classes not related to heroics, English, Maths, the works, all of them taught by famous heroes, I guess being a Pro Hero can’t pay all the bills, huh.

Then comes food, I mean tuition’s free, and so are a majority of the things you need at this place, sport uniforms, support gear, hero costumes.

If only the food was free too.

I mean I have an allowance; I help occasionally at Dad’s florist shop, and the food here is cheap and made by a world class chef but…

“Frisk, buy out all the chocolate.” Chara demanded in the most serious tone I’ve heard all week.

“Frisk, please could you get some white rice, bland.” Joey pushed up his glasses and tried to peer past the steam.

“Frisk! Are those scones?” Lily looked surprised and impressed for once.

“Is there any gunpowder we could eat?” Clover inspects the food menu from afar.

“…We could wait for Frisk to actually order their food first.” Alice just watched and sighed like everyone were wild animals.

“Chicken! Frisk! Chicken!” Oliver punching his fists in the air.

“You’re all acting a bit like children!” Ava scolds in a quiet tone.

Taking care of my own quirk is not easy.

*** A few moments later…

After somehow catering to everyone’s needs to what I can only describe as Poker for children, we somehow made it back to class without a hundred-yard stare.

The early afternoon, a start for my first hero training class.

But nothing is ever that simple.

“I HAVE COME THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!”

“HAHAHAHAHAHHAH”

There’s only one person in the world who has such an unsettling, yet confidant laugh, white pearls for teeth and booming voice that somehow doesn’t break my eardrums.

Allmight.

The class of course went wild.

“It’s really Allmight! Incredible!” A red-haired kid started pumping his fists.

“He’s really gonna teach us!” Shouted a frilly girl’s voice.

“T-t-that’s his silver age costume! Back when he — “

Broccoli Boy, or was Midoriya his name? Got interrupted as…

“HERO BASIC TRAINING IS NOW!”

Allmight was too loud and somehow flexing his muscles as he spoke without making it cringe-inducing.

“IT’S THE CLASS THAT WILL PUT YOU THROUGH ALL SORTS OF SPECIAL TRAINING TO MOLD YOU INTO HEROES!”

Everyone was stunned into silence.

“NO TIME TO DALLY, TODAY’S ACTIVITY IS…”

“BATTLE TRAINING!”

I could clearly hear the gunpowder going off in the Pomeranian’s brain.

“AND FOR THAT, YOU NEED THESE!”

He dramatically pulled away a white curtain that covered the left side of the room, revealing shelves of suitcases all numbered up to the number of students in the classroom.

“IN ACCORDANCE WITH FHE QUIRK REGISTRY, AND THE SPECIAL REQUEST FORMS YOU FIILED OUT BEFORE BEING ADMITTED…”

Everyone practically shouted the same thing and jumped out of their seats.

“COSTUMES! YEAH!”

Personally, I care more about practicality than looks, but having both wouldn’t hurt.

“AFTER YOU CHANGE, COME OUT IN RANKING ORDER TO GROUND BETA!”

“AND MAKE SURE TO LOOK GOOD; LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, AND LOOK ALIVE BECAUSE FROM NOW ON – YOU’RE ALL HEROES!”

There were a variety of hero costumes ranging from someone in a purple jumpsuit and metal diaper, to the Pomeranian’s x-striped vest with shoulder pads and grenade gauntlets.

Broccoli Boy, sorry, Midoriya had a weird green rabbit costume that vaguely resembles Allmight, I could tell he’s a super fan but this might go under copyright infringement.

And why the heck do the majority of the girls have skin tight uniforms? We’re not in Las Vegas?

As for mine, I don’t really know how to design something flashy, so I just asked for a hanging blue ribbon with a red tip to tie on my hair, and a blue shirt with yellow stripes and a red heart in the middle, and a blue wrap around my right arm.

Of course I asked for clothes to be made out of the most durable fabric possible, apparently this can stop bullets like Kevlar.

I also asked a sword with an eye in the hilt but I don’t think my class gets support gear yet. [1]

“WELL, SHALL WE BEGIN MY WARDS?”

“IT’S TIME FOR BATTLE TRAINING!”

Of course the class begins to chatter amongst themselves and the Souls chime in.

“It’s weird seeing heroes being taught in a school and stuff, especially when we used to watch the stuff like at Saturday AM.” Clover says.

“I mean some people have no fashion sense, at least Frisk understood the assignment but a diaper? Seriously?” Lily visibly gagged at the sight of the grape kid.

“Honestly there’s worse back here.” Joey replies in a deadpan tone, pointing towards a guy who naturally has half white, half red hair split down the middle and a scar on right side of his face, barely covered by his costume, some sort of white coat scholarly shirt with his right half covered in ice and a red eye that screams edge-lord, both literally and figuratively.

I mean even the literal emo in the class isn’t that blatant. He just swears a dark robe that doubles as a cape.

Then I hear the bob-cut girl say: “I wish I’d been more specific on my request form, this suits puffy and tight…it’s embarrassing.”

…

Note to self:The Support Department is full of weirdos.

So I might as well help I guess, I talk to her, it shouldn’t be too hard.

“I’m pretty sure you can file a complaint if your suit isn’t how you imagined it, especially if it’s that thin and skintight—“

Joey pops up to finish my sentence.

“You could be easily cut or bruised, I mean some people have an excuse due to their quirks either making up for it or actually having some form of protection, like those grenade gauntlets, they look hard; but you look like you’re going trick or treating tonight.”

The bob-cut girl blushes a vicious shade of red.

“You might have been a b-bit too blunt there!”

Midoriya I think? Also started the red face parade.

[Yeah, that’s broccoli boy’s real name.]

Green, bushy and freckles, best way to remember.

The SOULs have been awfully quiet, actually that brings something up.

“Hey Chara?”

“Yeah?” They barely paid attention, floating off somewhere.

“Why did I name you guys as a collective as SOULs?”

…

“You constantly compared us to ghosts back when you were little.”

Chara replied in monotone, but they looked…sad? When they mentioned it.

“Why is everyone so solemn? It’s not like we’re all actually dead, hehe…”

Oliver tried to bring up their spirits but his awkward laughter only made things worse.

“Bring up their spirits? Really? You can better than that Frisk, even if you don’t say it out loud.” Chara somehow heard that and leapt at the opportunity to criticise me, with a smile on their face.

“Pppmt! Hahahahaha! God Frisk, that’s terrible! Hahahaha!” Lily was laughing of all people.

Then a stern voice comes out to actually progress the lesson.

“Sensei! This appears to be the same field used in the entrance exam. Will we once again be performing cityscape manoeuvres?!”

Iida said that and he looks like a mix between a white knight and a transformer, lifting his arm politely as he asked.

“NOPE! YOU’LL BE MOVING ON TO STEP TWO!

INDOOR ANTI-PERSONNEL BATTLE TRAINING!”

“VILLAIN BATTLES ARE MOST COMMONLY SEEN OUTDOORS, BUT…

STATISTICALLY, THE MOST HEINOUS VILLAINS…

…ARE MORE LIKELY TO APPEAR INDOORS.”

“IN THIS HERO-FILLED SOCIETY OF OURS…

BETWEEN CONFINEMENT, HOUSE ARREST, AND BLACK MARKET DEALS…

AHEM.…LURK INDOORS!

THE CLEVEREST VILLAINS OUT THERE…”

“YOU’LL NOW BE SPLIT INTO VILLAIN TEAMS AND HERO TEAMS…

…AND FACE OFF IN TWO-ON-TWO INDOOR BATTLE!!”

A frog like girl pipes up.

“So no basic training?”

“PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE TEACHES YOU THE BASICS!”

“THE DISTINCTION HERE IS THAT YOU WON’T BE FIGHTING DISPOSABLE ROBOTS.”

“And of course, everyone starts asking questions.” Chara critiques unbeknownst to everyone.

“What determines victory?” 

The ponytailed girl asks.

Of course the Pomeranian follows up with.

“CAN I JUST BLAST EVERYONE AWAY?”

The Bob-cut girl also speaks.

“Are you threatening to expel someone, like Aizawa-sensei did…?”

Iida adds to the list of questions.

“How do we proceed to divide ourselves into teams?”

Another guy in literal shining armour proceeds o make him the spotlight of attention.

“How fabulous is my cape?”

“ONE AT A TIME!! MY QUIRK ISN’T SUPER-HEARING!”

“LISTEN UP!! HERE’S THE DEAL. THE VILLAINS WILL BE HIDING A NUCLEAR WEAPON IN THE HIDEOUT AND THE HEROES HAVE TO GO IN AND TAKE CARE OF IT!”

“THE VILLAINS MUST EITHER CAPTURE THE HEROES OR PROTECT THE WEAPON UNTIL TIME IS UP.

THE HEROES HAVE A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME TO EITHER CAPTURE THE VILLAINS OR SECURE THE WEAPON.”

“YOUR BATTLE PARTNERS WILL BE DECIDED BY… DRAWING LOTS!”

Iida speaks up again.

“Is that really the best way?”

[Someone’s eager to ‘learn’]

Chara mocks him within my mind of course.

Midoriya answers for Allmight.

“Makes sense, because pros often have to team up with heroes from other agencies on the spot during emergencies…”

“I see…! I apologise for getting ahead of myself… MY MISTAKE!”

He starts bowing profusely.

“This Iida guy walks and talks like a stick.” Chara berates him again.

All Might accepts the apology.

“IT’S FINE!! LET’S JUST GET TO IT!”

“You died once already,” Joey might say flatly, “so maybe just don’t overdo the heroism this time.”

“Last time was a bit intense…” Ava twirls her hair as if I’m going to hit her.

“Don’t worry guys, I’m sure a class of would-be heroes have more morality and self-restraint than a bunch of metal husks.”

I reassure them.

“Ignoring the fact that whoever made that machine is clearly incompetent.”

Chara grumbles.

[Elsewhere at the U.A. faculty, Power Loader feels a chill up their spine.]

The teams were as follows:

• Izuku Midoriya & Ochaco Uraraka (Team A)
• Katsuki Bakugo & Tenya Ida (Team D)
• Frisk Dreemurr & Fumikage Tokoyami (Team B)
• Sigurrós Stefánsdóttir & Shota Todoroki (Team I)
• Mezo Shoji & Tsuyu Asui & Mashirao Ojiro (Team H)
• Eijiro Kirishima & Hanta Sero & Toru Hagakure (Team J)
• Denki Kaminari & Kyoka Jiro (Team G)
• Momo Yaoyorozu & Minoru Mineta (Team C)
• Yuga Aoyama & Mina Ashido (Team E)
• Rikido Sato & Koji Koda (Team F)

“AND THE TEAMS THAT WILL GO FIRST ARE…”

He pulls out two teams from the lots dramatically, as if he was holding an award or a bomb.

“TEAM B AND TEAM I! TEAM B WILL BE THE HERO TEAM AND TEAM I WILL BE THE VILLAIN TEAM!”

Chapter Text

/// Ryuji’s POV.

*** Sometime after the events of Royal and Strikers.

Alright! Summer again!

It’s been a while since I’ve been this pumped!

I mean, apparently there’s something serious going on but the last time they said that, it was just turned out to be a surprise party for Ren. So it’s all good.
And he’s coming again this year!

So I make my way to LeBlanc, Sojiro’s café.

“Heya guys! Wassup!” I shout as I burst through the door.

“Oh, hey, Ryuji.”

Someone’s already sitting at one of the tables, typing god knows what on her laptop at a hundred miles an hour. Of course, it’s Futaba. She lives five minutes away — lucky her. I wish my commute was that short.

Man, the number of meetings Ren held just to tell us we weren’t going into Mementos or a Palace…
Ah well. The past’s the past.

I grin. I mean, Ren’s coming back, and there’s no weird app news, no people turning into apathetic zombies, no famous criminals whose hearts need changing, it’s gotta just be a hangout, right?

“No idea,” Futaba says, not even glancing up. “But Morgana’s the one who asked for it.”

“Wait Morgana? He’s just a cat! How’d he even call everyone?”

“Obviously Ren called it, Ryuji…”
She facepalms like I just said something unholy.

“Hey, I’m not that dumb!”

“Anyways… Morgana said they smelled a palace, it’s really strong or something but we haven’t got the app anymore, Ren won’t come in time, he’s going to take a few weeks, so Morgana’s been train jumping to get here.”

“Woah, For Real!”

“That is certainly not easy, even for Morgana.”

A calm voice walks into the room as the doorbell jingles, and it’s none other than Yusuke!

“Yusuke! It’s been a while!”

“That’s a big understatement.”

Futaba mutters, I can hear that though.

“I suppose you’re doing well Ryuji, judging from your tone of voice?”

“Yeah, I just hope Morgana doesn’t take all day.”

*** A Few Moments Later (3 hours later.)

‘That Darn Damn CAT!’

Futaba is asleep on the desk, Yusuke’s been chatting to about me about art stuff I don’t understand for the last three hours and doing art stuff in his sketchbook, everyone else finally arrived but they just ignored me!

What have I done to them?

“Meow.”

“Haha, how funny Ann.”

“Actually, it’s me Ryuji.”

That voice. That smug, grating, self-satisfied tone.

And I know that cat’s got a shit-eating grin on his face right now.

“Mona! I’m actually happy you’re here for once! “

“I wish I could say the same, Ryuji”

He would’ve given an arrogant smirk... if he wasn’t a cat and all.

“And if you can't tell, I’m dusty, battered, dirty and need a drink and a ba-”

Everyone glares daggers.

“Mona. The problem first.”

Makoto’s voice. Calm and terrifying…
Man, she’s scarier now than when she… actually I don’t want to remember that.

“R-Right, it’s similar to the jail that spanned all over Tokyo, but it’s stranger as normally I can't smell a treasure unless it’s in the metaverse.”

“So, you’re telling me we’re gonna have to search through all of Tokyo to find it!?”
I blurt out, and at this point I should expect a-

“Nope.”

That cat’s giving a devious smirk again.

“Ren called in a few favours, and we’ve already narrowed it down to a few places.”

“…And?”

I carefully ask, hoping not to get a cat on my face, or wait another three hours.

The door opens a few more times as soon as I said that.

“Sorry we’re so late, traffic from Kyoto was weirdly busy.”

No way, gramps! Damn I wasn’t expecting them.

“And It seems there must be a really big problem if you’ve called in everyone, huh.”

He sits down next to everyone else.

“Ichinose couldn’t make it, so she gave me this instead.”

He pulled up a phone and it spoke, a familiar red-haired girl on the screen.

“Hello, Phantom Thieves, I am glad to make your acquaintance once more!”

“Sophia!”

Futaba jerks up instantly from the sound of her voice.

“You have all aged gracefully!”

Sophia chimes.

“Well thanks?”

Zenkichi looked confused but nevertheless everyone is here!

“Thank you for the compliment.”

Haru smiled back at Sophia, polite as ever.

“Enough pleasantries. Now that everyone is here, me and Sophia will find the palace, Makoto’s driving right?”

“Of course, or would you rather let Ryuji drive?”

“Hey! I just got my driving license!”

“I’m not sure we’ll all fit in my car…”

Gramps scratched his head at the sight of all us.

“Do not worry, I have already booked a rental RV in advance for this occasion, it should come in five minutes!”

“Woah, I missed how convenient Sophia was!”

“Maybe, you should miss her as a friend as well.”

Ann shoots back.

“Yeah yeah, that too.”

Five minutes later, like clockwork, the biggest, shiniest RV I’ve ever seen pulls up in front of LeBlanc. It’s spotless, silver and black with tinted windows, honestly it looked more like a fat limo, than an RV.

“Whoa…”
I can’t help but whistle. “Sophia, you really outdid yourself.”

“I strive to please!” her voice chimes cheerfully from Zenkichi’s phone.

Zenkichi steps up beside me, squinting. “This thing’s bigger than my first apartment.”

“Wait.” Futaba looked warily at Sophia. “Did you do something illegal to pay for this?”

“Of course not…” Sophia’s voice hesitated, almost guilty.

“Ichinose, has more than enough to pay a few luxuries for my friends!”

“…for real?” My voice cracked because that sounded heavily illegal.

“Oh she just texted me, she said ‘think of it as a sorry for trying to remove humanity’s freedom a year ago’ - I’m surprised I didn’t arrest her a year ago.”

Zenkichi mutters, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Tell her thank you—“

Haru was speaking and Futaba butt in.

“And that the bribe was successful! Mehheheheh.”

Everyone piles in: Makoto in the driver’s seat, Futaba passing snacks, Ann marvelling at the kitchen, and Yusuke staring at the composition of the room, heavily.

Morgana claims the dashboard immediately, tail flicking like he owns the place.
“So, the plan is simple: we circle the city, trace the scent, and stop when I say.”

“Right,” Makoto nods, turning the key. “Everyone, buckle up.”

“Wait, since when do we actually use seatbelts?”

“Since we learnt how Haru can drive.”

Makoto’s eyes gleam into my soul.

“And the many times we’ve been chased or need to escape a palace!”

Haru adds.

“…fair.”

*** A Few Hours Later

Tokyo drifts by in lots of neon and heat
Skyscrapers blur. Billboards flash. People pass.
And still nothing.

That was my attempt at poetry after a few hours.

Every now and then Morgana’s ears twitch, or Sophia hums with a flicker of blue light through Zenkichi’s phone.
“...Strong… then gone again,” Morgana mutters for the sixth time.

I sigh and lean back. “You sure you’re not just smelling ramen stands?”

“I know the difference between tonkotsu and treasures, Ryuji.”

The RV bursts into laughter, even Makoto hides a smile.

But after a while, the jokes dry up, again.
We end up somewhere filled with government blocks and stone plazas.
The sun’s setting.

Haru peers through the front window. “This area, wasn’t this—”

“Yeah.” Morgana’s tail lowers. “It’s here. Somewhere close.”

Sophia’s voice quiets to a whisper.
“I sense distortion… concentrated… ahead.”

The RV slows to a crawl as we turn a corner.
Then everyone sees it.

The Diet Building looms at the end of the road.

Even from here, how could I forget it.

I got beaten to a pulp for sacrificing my life for everyone!

I mean I actually survived but still!

“Ah, crap,” I mutter. “Please tell me that’s just next to the treasure.”

“No…” Morgana’s voice drops low. “That’a the source. A big one.”

“But we don’t even have the app anymore,” Futaba says, eyes wide. “How the hell—”

Then the RV’s lights flicker.

Sophia’s voice cuts in glitching.

“Warning. Metaverse Ǘ̷̢͈̗͓̟͇̲̍̃̃͌̅̄̋͠ņ̶̧̡̢̡̛̫̝̪̳̮͔̼̥̤͈͙͖͔̥̫̪̗̹͈͍̫̗̼̪̞͍̲̝̍͗̈́̃͋̅̃̈́̔̿̑̅͌̃̃̇̃̀͛̽̂̓́̈́̃̋̀̽̿̽̈́̌̄̈̈́̕͠͝ͅk̵̛̠̗̞̲̣͎̄̌́̾̋̾͊̏͆̄́͌̍̓̀̎̇̅̀͆̆͒́͑̽̅̾̽͝͝͝ͅn̵̛̛̛͈̳̪̣͙̜͋͑͆̎̑̓͊͑̆͂́͆̈́̋̂̋͊̊̈́̂̄̽̄̈̂̒̍̂̄̿͗̈̌͂̓̎͘̕̚͠͠͝͠͝ǫ̵̧̨̧̨̢̤̘͍̘̹͇̹̠͇̥͙̱͈͖̺͇̭̲̰̲͇͓͔̝̥͖̙̗̰̣̜̋͋̂̽́̉̏̈́̒̌̌͆̈̓̀͊̃̆́͂͗͋̅͗̉̌̓̓͛̾̚̚͘͘͘͜͜͝w̸̡̛̛̛̹̲̦̪͖̘̩͔̙̺͕̟̝̠̳̭̘͎͉̐̆͆̓͊͒̆̉̈̅̅͑̽̂̍͒̑̀͆͒̿̒͑͋̀͌̔̓̂͋̂̈́̃̕͠͝͝͝͝ͅͅǹ̴̬͇͖̯̀̎̏̈̀̑̄̉̈́͝͝ ̴̧̰̹̱̖̤̜̙̪̮͚̻͓͖͉̯͔̲̗̯̩̳̹͚͍̯̞̼̝̥̣̝͕̲̪̖̥̊́̃̌͌͊͌̇̈̑̐͌́͗̈́͆͌̍̃̂͑̊́̈́̓̅̿͑̃̂̇̋̏̀́̒̂͛͗͆͐̃̂̋̈́͜͜͜͠͝͝ͅT̴̢̧̧̡̧̛̛̜̗̙̮͙̦̱̰͍̖̬̙͖̯̪̖̘͖͓̙͔͉͚̬̟̮̼̯͍͎͇̳̘̻̣͑͊̊͐̈͛͋̈́̀͋̑͛̀͋͝͠ͅẖ̴̨̛͙͍̣̯̣̺̲̮̱̣͉̱̣̬̩̫͍̣̝̪̭͙͎͓̻̟̺̓͋̋͒͌̄͂͐̿͛̈́́̈̂̿̓̂̂̌͆͋͐̔̉̓̐̐́̅̌͗̕̚̕͘̕͘͝͝ͅͅŗ̷̢͉̪̮͎͚̻͙̫̣̞̯̘̯̞̤͕̜̼̳̦̰͉̱̳̺̯̣͚͕̫͈̙̙̀̈͊̊͑͌͒̌͋̒͑̏̅́̂͗̿̂̋̂̈͌̋̅͐͐̅̈́̈́̈͆̎̈́͊͒̑͐͊̒̐͘͝͝͝e̴̛̛̩̥͈̠͉̺̥̱̻̰͈͕̪͔̟̜̱̯̐̔́̽͒͒͒̽͐̈́̀͂̍̇̿̑̉̕ą̴̨̧͙͎̻̰͚͉̦̘̫̻͇̜̟̤̥̞͔̰̖̗̏̒̅́̐̒̓̀̑̏̄̈́͘͝t̵̡̨̥̼͙̩͖͓̼̳̤͓̤͈̩̫͉̯͕͇̳͎͇̞͒͛̓̽̌̊̈́͑͂̾̔̅̊̉͠ͅͅͅ:̴̵̢̛͇̙͈͕̬̳̱̭͍̤̠̱̙͇͚̹̬̬̟̫̫͓͎͇̲̻͉̱̣͓͙͚̬̯̥͔͎̻̱̥̫̭̪̻̣̻̖̥̳̘̪̰̩̤̣͖̫̜̝̜̯̺̤̼͓̗̠̣̰̮̟̊͒̍̂̉́͗͋̿͆́͜͝͝ͅB̶̨̢̢̡̢̡̛̛̰̝̞͚̭̟̖̼͕̣̩̼̞̼͓͎̳̥͖̗͕̮̮̮͖̠͚̜̫͎̝̯̠̭͚͓̗̟͓̩̊͐̈́͗͆̊̿͂̾̊̋̆̄̾̏́̌͑̅̏͂̾̍̽̓̍̀̎̏̇͗͘̚̕͝r̴̨̢̢̧̼̮͙͇̘͕̯̲͈̫̹̫̤̻͎̖̲̳̙̩̻͈̰̮̲̭͕̩̠̲̠͇̠̻͊̈ͅͅȩ̷̡̟̥͔͈͙͉̻̱̘̟̯̤͈̠͉̜̖̺̩̲͕̜̙̺̞̭̯̰̟́̊̀̓́͐̄̈́̓̔̌̉̇̒͆̅̚͠͝ā̷̢̡̙̗̥̹͈̲̟̰͎͛̔̍́̂͒̾͋̎͐̾̔̍̔̕͝͝c̵̢̟̞̫̟̩̞̰̹͇̪̘̖̭͎̅̏̓̅̅̀͒̂͒͌ȟ̴̢̨̧̫͍̙͇͉̻̝͉̼̟̰̮͈̈͊͗̾͌̍̓̋͌̀̎̾͂̅͆̋̈́͌̒͆̌̀͌̓̏̈́̊̋̀̽̈́̉͆̑̾̚̚͘͘͘͝͝͝͝͝͝ ̸̛̞̅͛͒̔͊̈́̐̽͌̀̀̑̋̈̏͊̇̀̔̀̃͌͐̒̕̚͝͠D̴̗͎̟̹̗͖̭̹̖̻͙̈́̐̉͌̈́̉̀͌͊̔́͋̿͗̾̍̍̎͊̆̾̂͋̿́́̕̚͝ę̷̹̞̟̪͙͉͈̼̙̤̝̻̺̰̭͉̇̈͛́́̈̿̉͌̀̐̇̈́̃͛̋̊́̑̋͛̒̈́̉̕̕̕͜͠ẗ̷̗̪͖́̾͗̿̿̐͌̿̉̓̀͂̿̐̅̇̒̿̊͌͝͝͠ȩ̵̨̧̰̺̬̱̮̜̤̥̟̞̲̣̬̰͖̼͕̹̖̥̮͍̀̋̿̾̆͒̈́̐͐̆̾͜͝ͅç̵̡̨̜͕̗͈̣͔͙̳̪̗̳͕̪̹͙̩̳̲̝̙͈͒̊̆̌́̋͐̒̃́̆̊̐́̐͋̈́͆͊̔̈̾̈́͑̌́̇̔̎̈͛͐͊͘̚͝͠͠ţ̴̨̢̢̛̛̫̰͎͓̠͙̦̻̙̪͉͉̙͓̥̪͕̰͚̙͙̲̳̠̹̠̭̃̈̇̇͛̇̀͒̈́̔̃͋̉̇̇̓̏̊̇͌̾͂̍̑̓̀̏́͗͑͋͌͗̏̽̃̚̚͜͜͜͝͝ę̶̭͉͈͚̪̞̟̥͉͌́̈́̊́̇́̇͊́̿̂̿̔̀̚͘̕͘͠d̸̡̛̙̬͍̻̗̹͇̝̜̮͈̰̮̭̟̼͎̬̯̹͋͛́̒͑̀̌͐͆̇̅̑̒̆̈́̊̇͆̏̌͊̃̈͂̃̊͛͌̊̌̍̕̚͘̕͜͝͝ͅ”

The phone screen flashes red.

And then a voice cuts through everything.

“It appears fate has dictated that we meet once more.”

Standing before the Diet Building is a small, white-haired girl in ultramarine, with amber eyes.

“L-Lavenza!?” Morgana gasps.

She smiles softly. “The door between realities weakens once more, Friends of the Trickster. It would seem your tale is not yet concluded.”

I blink, trying to process. “For real!? You’re saying… the Metaverse is back!?”

“Not the Metaverse you once knew,” she says. “But something born from the meeting of worlds.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I facepalm, why does it have to be every summer?

“What God is it this time?”

Lavenza shakes her head.

“Unfortunately I cannot say, however; I will grant you ability to access the Metaverse again, my master has approved of your interference.”

Suddenly all our phones ring at the same time and that red eye is back on our screens.

I almost missed this thing.

“I’m pretty sure we can’t park right outside the Diet Building.”

Zenkichi subtly asks Makoto to park somewhere less suspicious, as if this luxury RV wasn’t already a red flag.

(A few parking moments later.)

We all exit and hang around the building.

“So we still need a keyword don’t we?”

“Yes, Ryuji.”

Morgana looks at me and I swear he thinks I’ve gone senile.

“We don’t even know if the target is human?”

Futaba blurts out, which is a good point.

“No need to worry, due to the nature of the situation I may assist you in more direct ways; the keywords are: Portals, The Core, Calamity.

Lavenza calmly tells us that this palace is apparently got something to do with calamities.

“Candidate Found.”

Everyone’s phones start buzzing at once.

And here comes the “fun” part.

The world started changing and warping, into red and black before spitting us back out in normal colour.

And what we get is something out of a sci-fi movie.

Like the city got sucked through a blender with some red glass chucked in.

I blink, and now we’re standing in this… giant bubble?

It’s more like a black void and we’re staring on an invisible floor.
The whole place looks like someone cracked open the sky and replaced it with glowing spaghetti made of light.
Pink and red lines crisscross everywhere, twisting like beyblades.
And in the middle, there’s this thing.

A giant glowing ball.
Maybe a sun, fits the whole void of space theme.

While we’re in the Metaverse, our clothes change to reflect our Personas, our inner selfs, I’m saying to remind myself how sick it was, this part I definitely missed, black leather, metal and skull mask, we’re back!

Oh yeah, and Sophia gets a body when we’re in the metaverse.

“Looks more like the world’s angriest disco ball,” I mutter.
Nobody laughs. Guess I’m the only with a sense of humour.

Futaba’s typing like crazy. “Holy crap! These energy readings are insane! Each of these rifts have unreadable quantities!”

“I’m going to need an optician after this.”

Zenkichi tries to shield his eyes from the neon light.

“Simply amazing, a breathtaking sight even..”

Of course good old Yuskue is trying to frame the damn place.

Lavenza turns, calm as always.
“Unfortunately, I cannot assist you any longer, even myself and my master do not know how this palace operates.”

“Simple enough,” Makoto says, gripping her gloves.

“I mean, we’ve driven down 70 floors of hell, what’s an endless void of space?”

“That’s the spirit!”

Ann adds as Morgana turn into a truck.

“This is the one part I didn’t miss, Morgana’s moaning as a car.”

“Hey, I don’t moan!”

“You’re moaning about moaning right now!”

“No, I’m not.”

Suddenly, Haru puts her axe way too close for comfort; near my neck.
“Ryuji, maybe you should stop messing around.”
She says in a calm, dangerous tone.

“Okay…”

And we all got in the van.

Futuba’s been typing with her persona for a while now, until she pumps her fists in the air.

“Eureka! It turns out these rifts are like doors, or more accurately portals, I can hack into the them to open and close them!”

“How does that work?” Ann asked.

“It’s like hacking automatic doors.”

“That was a simpler explanation than expected.”

I blurt out.

And Makoto thought that was the perfect punchline because she put metal to the pedal and almost made me throw up my lunch.

And to add insult to injury, entering the first rift flash-banged me, in lots of red.

“Woahahah!”

And as everyone came out of the Morgana Van, outside was lush green hills?

I crossed my arms and thought things wouldn’t be too bad.

“This place isn’t so bad, clear blue skies, fresh air, honestly I wouldn’t mind going for a jog here… hey what’s that bird sound in the distance?”

“HAAAA-HIN-IHA!”

What’s that red blu—

I blacked out as I felt something hard hit my head.

“Ryuji?”

“Ryuji!”

“I don’t think he’s waking up.”

“Let me do this, Salvation!”

I felt someone slap me as I came back to consciousness.

“Hey kid, you alright?”

“Huh? Gramps?”

Futaba’s doubled over laughing as she sees me wake up.

“Hey what’s so funny?”

“You just got hit by an Angry Bird, I never thought these guys had relevance past the 2010s!”

“Could we just go to the next portal?”

Zenkichi looks slightly disturbed, when honestly that should be me.

“Alright, here it is!”

Futaba declared proudly.

We decided not to drive Morgana as we don’t want birds or other things possibly smashing into Morgana and surrounding us.

The next place was a church made of chrome with an eerie red lighting.

And a literal mecha angel was standing in front of us.

“This place is filled with passion! Many multi-faceted desires must have come to life in this place!”

Yuskue is again, taking it all in.

The angel didn’t even look behind it as it spoke.

“Machine.” It said in a commanding echoey voice.

Then it looked.

“I will cut you do— Who the FUCK are you!”

…

“We’re the Phantom Thieves?”

I shout loudly.

“…not again.”

“What?”

“This and the impudent bowl… YOU WON’T LEAVE THIS PLACE ALIVE!”

It starts charging at us and attacking with laser weapons!

“William!”

My persona appeared in front of me and took the brunt of a large swing.

My persona’s a skeleton pirate captain by the way with a sick black hoodie and red eyes, on a silver yacht he uses as a hover board, and one of his hands is a giant railgun!

“God’s Hand!”

William clenches his fist, and a giant metal hand comes from the sky and holds the angel down.

“Futaba! Please hurry, and pick a rift that actually leads us somewhere!”

I yell over the noise as that robot angel tries to cleave us in two with what’s either a sword or a lightsaber.

“I’m working on it!”
Futaba shouts back, fingers flying across her holographic keyboard. “Hold onto your butts!”

Sophia giggles like it’s a roller coaster. “Next one!”

We land on metal rails in the middle of nowhere.

Dark, foggy, moonlight cutting through smoke, something’s burning out here.
“Where the hell are we now!?”
My voice echoes off the trees.

THUNK… THUNK… THUNK.

A horn screeches through the forest.

Out of the mist comes a train.
Not a regular one.
It’s got spider legs. And fangs. And pure white eyes.
And it’s coming fast.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Morgana already turned into a car.

“DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE!”
Makoto screams, as Haru has taken the driver’s seat.

We jump back through the next rift as the spider-train lunges, teeth slamming shut right where I was standing a second ago.

And I’m definitely going to puke my lunch.

We tumble into a forest at night.
Stars everywhere.
Everything looks… flat. Like, paper-flat.

“Okay, not the worst place so far,” Ann sighs, brushing dirt off.

Then the sky splits.
A huge floating eyeball with teeth descends, screaming like a blender full of demons.

“I TAKE IT BACK!”

Haru swings her axe. Yusuke freezes the darn thing. I shoot my shotgun.

And it still doesn’t pop!

“Next!” Futaba yells, already flicking another rift open.

“Futaba, how much closer are we to the centre?”

“Shouldn’t be too far now, it should take about four more jumps or less?”

Hangout today; my ass, I’m gonna need more than nap after this.

We crash through a window into some suburban nightmare of a house, that looks more a weird escape room.
“Ugh, smells like socks and seawater.”

Zenkichi takes a step forward and a snap echoes.
He looks down. Bear trap.

“Son of a—”
Futaba’s wheezing with laughter. “Zenkichi.exe has stopped working!”
“I swear to God, I’m retiring after this!”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

Ann looks at it worryingly.

“Salvation!”

Morgana heals the injury.

“Stop making so much noise!”

Makoto says in a hushed tone as we can hear someone coming up the stairs and a moustache comes into view.

The next rift opens before the guy with the moustache even spots us.

Suddenly we’re on an airship mid-heist.
Two stickmen are having the most intense showdown I’ve ever seen.

How could I tell?
Well one’s got sacks of cash. The other’s got a laser arm.
The airship tilts, alarms blaring.

“Are they—are they stick people!?” I shout over the chaos.
“They’re… stickmen!” Futaba squeals. “I love this series!”

“Less fangirling, more leaving!”
The cyborg guy fires a laser through his eye, misses us by inches, and we dive through another rift.

Now we’re in a plaza mid-explosion.
Bombs everywhere. Smoke. Confetti.
And right in the middle, there’s this tiny kid in a purple hat, dancing through chaos while catching explosives like baseballs and sending them back with an umbrella to what I can only describe as your typical mafia unit.

“What is she doing!?” I manage to say, before more explosions drowned out my voice.
“Being adorable and terrifying,” Morgana mutters.

The kid winks at us, then dodges a bomb that heads straight for us

Time slows.
We run.

Straight through the last portal.

Or I hope it’s the last one anyways.

Now the sky’s like a busted TV;  static and lightning fighting each other, flickering between black, red, and stars that don’t sit still.
The floor’s split into pieces and we’re all standing on floating islands of rubble.

BOOM.

A blinding white hammer slams into one of the floating chunks ahead.
The shockwave tears through the air, shattering glass buildings and ripping the ground like paper.
Lightning crashes down in jagged white veins.

“W-who did that?”
Ann points ahead. “Uh, maybe them?”

Three massive mechas appear.

One, black and white, horns like a devil statue, hammer in hand.
Another, gold and green, face like a sunflower made of circuits.
And the last, long, thin, a mean green machine dressed in a cape.

They stand like executioners waiting for orders.

“None of them’ve noticed us yet,” Ann whispers.
“Morgana, you sure this is still a palace? ’Cause it feels like we walked into someone’s bad VR experiment.”

“Honestly… I’m not sure anymore,” Morgana mutters.

Futaba’s typing furiously. “Their signatures match cognitive constructs, so yeah, they’re the host of this mess!”
“The voices too?” I ask.
“Same pattern as Mementos. Background subconscious chatter.”
Morgana groans. “You’re giving him ideas he shouldn’t have.”

Since the murder-bots don’t seem to care about us, we huddle for a quick debate.

“Futaba, you recognised some of those worlds, right?” Zenkichi asks.
“Yup. video games.”
“So what, these robots binge-played through them?” Makoto crosses her arms.
I blink. Wait.

Hmmmm.

Portals.

Robots.

Games.

Other realities…

Wait I’ve got it!

“Hold on… what if those weren’t just random games? What if we were seeing the crap they saw,  like, we’re inside their memories or something or each world is like an alternate reality?”
Everyone stares.
“How,” Futaba finally says, “is Ryuji the one who got that before me?”
“Miracles happen!” I grin.
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, okay, but it actually… fits fit now. Ugh.”

Makoto sighs. “Let’s not jump to conclusions until—”

[Anomalies in Code Detected.]

We all turn to Futaba.
She’s frozen mid-type. “...I might’ve poked something I shouldn’t have.”
“You think!?” Morgana yells.

[Scan complete. You are not the anomalies we have been targeting. Nor is your world selected for extraction. Leave immediately. Your presence destabilises rift energy.]

And just like that, the three robots blink out.
Silence.
Followed by gunfire. Metal banging as well, a blue blur in the distance.

“Guys…?” Ann whispers.

The ground rumbles.
Red light starts bleeding through the cracks.

“Morgana!” Makoto shouts.
“I know! Everyone, get out now!”
He bursts into helicopter mode rotors spinning out of nowhere.

“Since when could he—” Zenkichi yells, hanging off the ladder.
“Since we—AH crap!”

My leg’s stuck.
Something clamps around my ankle like a vice, the ground glowing red underneath me, as it traps my leg.

“Ryuji!”
Zenkichi jumps off the ladder, grabbing my arm.
“Don’t you dare let go!”

“Trying not to!” I yell back, pulling, kicking  but it’s like my foot’s in the world’s biggest mouse trap.
Futaba’s Persona appears, a glowing metal triangle. A tractor beam shoots out, dragging us both up inch by inch.

“Almost got you!”

Sophia leans over, reaching out. “Take my hand!”

And then the glow turns blinding.
The crack splits wide open, roaring like a jet engine.
Red light explodes upward.

“Hold on!” Zenkichi shouts.
Too late.

The rift pulls.
Hard.
Air rushes out of my lungs, ears popping, gravity felt like it was upside-down.
Zenkichi’s grip slips.

Futaba screams as her Persona’s beam stretches like elastic;  then snaps as she’s flung towards us.
Sophia lunges, catches my wrist and gets dragged with us.

The last thing I see before everything goes red is the others reaching, shouting our names, their faces warping in the light.

/// Zenkichi’s POV.

God, I remember why I don’t help these kids full time.

Good thing Akane’s with Ichinose, I hope I don’t screw things up again with her.

I push myself up and scan the area,  glossy tile floors, music over the speakers, smell of pretzels and floor polish.
A… mall?

But where are —

OOF.

Something lands square on my back. Two somethings.

“Zenkichi! You alive down there?”
Ryuji’s voice. Of course.

“Define ‘alive,’” I grunt as I feel a phone smack me on the head.
“Zenkichi? Can you hear me?”
Sophia. Still cheerful, even through static.

I pick up the phone. “Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Looks like we’re back in the real world.”
“It appears so,” she replies. “But… why are you still wearing your Phantom Thief attire?”

Wait, what—?
I glance down. Still in the long leather tailcoat, black mask, holstered pistols, and all.

And somehow, no one’s called the police at the sight of the Phantom Thieves, or masked weirdos in general.

“For real?! You’re still in your outfit, Gramps!”
Ryuji points at me like I’ve committed a war crime.

“I can say the same for you, kid.”

Futaba groans, brushing dust off herself. “Uh, guys… does that man have a shark head?”

We all look.
And sure enough, a broad-shouldered man in a white vest walks past with the full head of a hammerhead shark.
And no one bats an eye.

Around us, the mall’s crowded:  people chatting, shopping, half of them with animal, plant, or at least superhuman traits. Horns. Tails. Bark skin. Wheels for feet. A woman with wings folding neatly behind her back.

“…I think this world’s got a different definition of normal,” I mutter.

Ryuji shrugs. “Hey, maybe this world’s chill. We could find a computer, get some answers, maybe hit the food court.”

I stare at him. “What is it today with you and being reasonable?”
He grins. “Maybe I just needed a break from the constant Metaverse disasters every summer.”

Honestly, same and I’ve only been through one.
A few quiet minutes to breathe would be nice.

BOOM!

The entire concourse shakes. Glass rains down from the skylight as a fireball bursts across the upper floor.
People scream and scatter.

A man with angular limbs,  his elbows and knees sharp blades,  lands on a kiosk, flames coming off his body, as he tied a hostage to a pillar.
“EVERYONE ON THE GROUND!” he roars. “Anyone moves, the hostages BURN!”

Just great.

Everyone drops. I do too,  hand inching toward my gun out of habit.
Judging by our outfits, our powers should still work here.
If I wait for a distraction, I could—

“YO!”

Ryuji. Of course.
He charges straight at the guy, yelling, swinging some weird hammer with a short hilt instead of the pipe I normally see him use.

The villain grins, catching it with a spark of orange light.
“My quirk makes my skin hard as steel! I can generate heat through friction! You picked the wrong guy to hit, brat. BURN!”

Sparks explode across Ryuji’s body.
And nothing happens.

He just stands there.
Unbothered.

“W-what!?” the villain stammers.

Ryuji grins like a maniac. “Second time’s the charm!”
He swings again and when the hammer connects, it thunders.

A crackle of electricity bursts from the point of impact. The villain’s arm chars black, and he drops, twitching.

The entire mall goes silent except for the hum of burnt air.

Ryuji spins the hammer on his shoulder. “Guess I’m the one sparking now.”

“That’s your first one liner in this world? Maybe we do need a break.”

Futaba looks somewhat disgusted at his joke and criticises his pun.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Great. We’re in another world, surrounded by superpowered civilians, and you’ve already assaulted one of them.”

Sophia’s voice crackles from the phone. “Correction: that was clearly not a civilian but a criminal.”

“Not helping, Sophia.”

I holster the gun I was about to shoot and scan the shocked crowd, noting phones out, people whispering words like quirk, hero, villain, vigilante.

…yeah. We’re definitely not home.

“Halt! Vigilantes, put your hands in the air and do not resist arrest!”

A booming voice cuts through the smoke. I turn to see a mountain of a man in a strange vest and construction-themed clothing and beside him, a tall figure in tight blue Spandex… their entire body seems to be made of wood.

Fantastic; super-powered law enforcement.

“You will be arrested for vigilantism, assault, use of illegally modified weapons, possession of firearms, nuisance and property damage, illegal quirk usage—“

“Kamui! Just bind them first!” The big guy barks.

…

“Oh right.”

“Skull, Oracle! Get out of there!”

I quickly change to using code names.

Futaba’s Persona scoops her up in a flash of blue light,  a geometric craft that yanks me inside too. In seconds, we’re both sealed in some sleek, glowing cockpit. My stomach lurches as we accelerate.

As for Ryuji…

“Chained Lacquer Prison!”

Before I can move, the wooden man - Kamui - launches his arms outward. Branches split and multiply midair, spreading like a living net.

Kamui’s branches slam into him, wrapping tight around his torso and legs.

Ryuji Grins. “William!”

“On it mutineer!”

His persona talked back?

“Maziodyne!”

William shot his arm gun in the air, and after Ryuji was restrained by branches of wood, lightning struck from above, shattering the glass roof and cutting through every branch, charring the man.

The wooden man let out a loud scream, smoking.

“You’re not getting away that easily!” The construction man charges, fist cocked. The ground cracks as he hits Ryuji square in the jaw, planting his feet in the ground.

Ryuji doesn’t even flinch.

“Is that all you got?!”

He swings his hammer in rapid arcs,  driving the man backward. Sparks burst with every hit, the sheer impact shattering display windows.

Then Ryuji pulls a shotgun from nowhere, shouting, “Megido Blaster!”

The weapon ignites, spewing a spray of crimson fire that morphs midair into the shape of a bull. It slams into the hulking man, sending him crashing through concrete.

“Skull, move!” I yell.

Futaba’s Persona extends a glowing tether and drags him toward us — but Kamui’s already moving again, singed but still alive thankfully.

Vines lash out, wrapping around Ryuji’s leg.

“Not again!”

He swings the hammer downward, but the hilt’s too short to reach. I almost jump out to help, but he—

He throws the hammer.

It spins, slamming into Kamui’s arm, then, impossibly, whirls back to Ryuji’s hand like it’s magnetised.

The wooden hero snarls and regrows the vine, faster this time, tangling Ryuji again.

“High shock chance my ass, Joker!” Ryuji shouts, throwing the hammer again and again, each strike sending sparks and splinters or flying off course until the last blow lands.

Kamui’s vines ignite, burning clean off.

Ryuji wrenches free, sprinting toward the Persona’s beam as the cockpit door slams open from the inside. Futaba yanks him inside, and we rocket upward through shattered glass, leaving the heroes shouting below.

I let out a slow breath. “Great. First world we land in, we’re already public enemy number one.”

“Hey,” Ryuji pants, “at least we didn’t get arrested this time.”

“...”

“Does anyone know where we’re going?”

Ryuji asks Futaba as she narrowly avoids a skyscraper.

“Nope!”

“Not the worst crew I’ve seen…”

Ryuji’s persona started talking again, in that stereotypical pirate accent.

This will take longer than a day won’t it?

Chapter Text

/// Frisk’s POV.

Compared to everyone else’s hero costumes, mine’s kind of boring.
Everyone else looks ready for a magazine cover or a war crime. Mine’s just… blue.
 Ah well - I’ve got three years here. Plenty of time to fix that.

Welp, I have five minutes before the training starts, might as well set up a plan.

“Greetings once more Frisk, we must do our utmost to defeat our current adversaries.”

Tokoyami greeted me in the nicest way he could.

“Hiya!”

Dark Shadow waved as he came out of Tokoyami.

“I have told you the mechanisms of my quirk, perhaps you could indulge in yours?”

There’s no reason to say no.

“Well, my quirk is called SOUL, I have seven sentient kids who don’t seem to age and watch my every move with great advice.”

Then they all decide to become corporeal so they can do just that.

“I think you forgot the part where we each can act and think independently and summon magical weapons from thin air.” Chara looks smugly at me.

“Yeah, that too.”

“I need to go for a moment.”
 And just like that, Chara’s gone.

Weirdly, the second they vanish, I spot a yellow flower near the training floor. Figures Captain Cryptic is off again.

“Does that normally happen?” Tokoyami asks.

“No, but we can plan without them, they can pick up the pace.”

I reassure Tokoyami.

“Anyways meet the team I guess.”

Everyone tells him their names, and I get a rundown of the enemy team.

“Todoroki has a quirk known as Half-Cold, Half-Hot; with his right arm he can project ice and his left can project fire, a fearsome opponent who can regulate his temperature and control the battlefield.”

“And we don’t need to talk about the foreign girl.”

“Another one of our kin,” He nods in thought and continues.

“She can summon objects that break the laws of physics, some of our class were in the city block she was during the entrance exam, there were roughly 20 of them.”

“I remember, she beat me in most of the exercises last test.”

“Both are formidable foes who revel in a banquet of chaos.”

“No offence, Mr Shadowman, but I don’t think a direct confrontation would work.”

Clover pipes up and spins his revolver around.

“If they worked together for an all-out attack, they would easily overwhelm us, us and Frisk are versatile, but they have pure firepower.”

Joey then pushes his glasses up as he continues where Clover left off.

“As well as this, if we were to use our full firepower, the building would probably collapse.”

“I concur, Dark Shadow becomes stronger in the dark yet also more feral, as inwards lies a ravenous beast.”

This gives me an idea.

“How malleable is Dark Shadow?”

I ask, grinning like a madman.

“I’m very stretchy!”

Dark Shadow proves his point by becoming a circle-like shape, acting as an umbrella.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I’ve thought of something very, very interesting.”

…

…

…

“I’ve never thought of it that way before, yet I see no flaws, I shall do my utmost to shroud them in a banquet of darkness.”

Tokoyami’s now grinning with me, a rare sight but hey, I could RESET, worst case scenario.

“Darkness, you say?”

I almost got a heart attack, as Chara appeared from nowhere.

“I can help with that, have you used knives before?”

“No, but I would be willing to try.”

“Great, here’s how to make a dark fountain.”

/// Chara’s POV.

*** Five minutes prior.

That Damn Flower.

How did he even get in here?!

And he has decoys now too?

I see the darn brat with a devilish grin, clearly planning something.

So, I appear behind him.

“Gah! What the heck Chara!”
Flowey looks startled, weird considering he called me here.

“I should be saying the same thing.”

“Same thing? Same thing! You didn’t tell me there was another schmuck with my former body and name!”
And now he's crashing out, great.

“I…was going to tell you eventually.”

“It doesn’t matter now, I’ve gotten over it rather quickly, anyways, aren’t you on a time limit right now?”
His demeanour quickly changes to that of a grin.

“How did you know?”

“I’ve got some new…’quirks’, I’m also not deaf.”
I mean Flowey's always been nosey, but this is on a new level.

“How ominous.”
I retort.

“Anyways, I was watching the other me, they paired up with Dess and Asgore and made this giant pillar of dark light!”

“Dark light?”

“It sucked up all the light in the room and shot it upwards, then they disappeared, jumped into it.”

“They exposited a lot, Asgore was hopelessly naïve. But they called it a Dark Fountain.”

I was silent, waiting for him to continue.

“They didn’t really explain it, but I got the gist of it, you need a SOUL, and extreme emotion, and something sharp.”

“And how did you figure this out?”

I asked, still sceptical of the whole idea.

“Well, firstly they stabbed the floor, secondly, their SOUL floated into the air as this happened, and thirdly: Dess riled the other me up with some generic garbage, yuck.”

“Did you figure out what’s inside?”

“No, I had no clue what that would do to me, but that fountain, it contained a large amount of magic, at least as much as a human soul.”

“…please tell me you’re joking.”

“If I was, I would be a lot more in your face about it.”

“So did you absorb it?”

“And create a missing family incident? I thought I was insane, not you!”

“So why tell me?”

“Because you have a SOUL. Or at least, the kid does.”
 “So, you want to see what it actually does, without risking yourself.”
 “Pretty much.”
 “You’re unbelievable.”
 “And yet, you’re still listening.”

“I’m not as desperate as to use your information to help Frisk win in class.”

“Well, if you don’t, I might get bored and say go in a rampage in the streets.”

“You…actually that sounds a lot like you, you’ll die if you do that you know?”

“Not before I tell Frisk who caused me to do it, even if they RESET, they’ll remember what you’ve withheld from them.”

“…You’ve gotten smarter.”

“Why thank you, dear sister.”

He emphasises the “sister” with a vehement tone.

“Fine I’ll bite, but do this again, and I’m sending as many heroes as I can find after you.”

“Fine.”  He scoffs, and after an awkward pause he says.

“Deal?”

…

I shake his vine.

“Deal.”

/// Sigurrós Stefánsdóttir’s POV.

*** Five minutes prior.

My hero costume came out better than expected!

Apparently when I was younger, I thought I was a witch, at least that’s what father kept saying.

So why not design my costume after that, I mean I already have the Fantasia magic of bringing life to objects.

The main piece is a crisp white blouse with dark-indigo cuffs, gold buttons on the cuffs. The skirt is high-waisted, knee-length, a deep red patterned with thin yellow pinstripes; practical enough to run in. A leather belt-satchel rests at my waist, stocked with tools and objects for my quirk.

Under all that, I’ve got black leggings and sturdy red Victorian-style boots, laced with black cords — a little old-fashioned, but great for stability. My cape is dark indigo to match the cuffs, scattered with yellow star patterns, fastened at the neck by one big golden button. The inside of the cape is lined with warm, fuzzy red fabric, the kind nurses used in the Great War. It’s surprisingly cozy.

And, of course, the witch hat: same dark indigo and fuzzy red interior, sprinkled with stars, wired carefully so it never flops.

Honestly, this has been the best gift I’ve been given all year.

“So where are we hiding the bomb?”

I ask, Todoroki doesn’t look like one to talk, so maybe initiating a conversation would do some good.

“We don’t need to. If we stop them before they reach the top floor, we won’t play a defensive game.”
 …
 “So, the top floor, then?”

He gives no answer so that’s a yes.

“I won’t stop you if you don’t exit the building when I freeze it, our opponent is nothing to be trifled with, their sheer firepower is on par with Midoriya and Bakugo.”

“What about Tokoyami?”

“I’ll just freeze him when I see him.”

Then he walks off to the first floor.

And I should probably summon everyone this time.

“What’s happening?”  An ungodly high-pitched voice asked, like helium being scrapped against a wall, coming from an ice cube with only legs.

“Finally, I’m actually here!” Pin raised her intact limbs in joy.

“Tennis Ball!” Golf Ball looked oddly confident, especially when her eyes hit the security cameras in the room. “Did you keep the scrap from last time?”

“Of course.” Tennis Ball replied with a wide grin. “I also got the equipment from your lab.”
“Could someone get one of the cameras?”  She asks rather politely for once.

“On it!” Coiny manages to snatch one and I could guess what Golf Ball was trying to do.

“Are you trying to reactivate the camera feed here?”

“Yes, it would give us an immediate advantage, if they’re a wireless model, we could hack into the feed and make a rudimentary tablet to see it, assuming they are all operational, furthermore, we can create earpieces from some scrap we’ve gathered, allowing for seamless communication!”

“So, you can do it in five minutes?”

“…”

“…”

An awkward silence between me and the sport balls fills the room.

“Barely!” Tennis Ball replies.

“It would be either the earpieces or cameras.” Golf Ball quickly iterates.

“Do the camera feed first, we already have earpieces.”

Golf Ball and Tennis Ball start working while I make a plan of action.

“Since everyone is here, we’ll split into teams of five for each floor, there are five floors in total.” I count everyone while I’m at it to ensure no-one gone off already.

“Leafy, Golf Ball, Tennis Ball and Needle, Rocky will stay with me on the fifth floor where the bomb is kept.”

“The first floor will be Firey, David, Snowball, Spongy and Ice Cube and will help Todoroki in any way they can to stop Tokoyami and Frisk from entering.”

“The rest of the teams will be: Flower, Coiny, Blocky, Pen, Woody; Eraser, Match, Pencil, Pin, and Bubble.

“Before the match starts, Teardrop, Leafy and Announcer (Speaker Box) will set up traps for the four floors above Todoroki, Leafy should be able to get a high budget with paper slips for Announcer.”

“Hooray! Iance is back!” Pencil shouted as she went down with the rest of the group.     
“But I thought you said you wanted to be by yourself?” Golf Ball questioned.

“When did I say that?” Pencil stops in her tracks, looking mildly irritated.

Golf Ball and Tennis Ball looked worried but dismissed the issue and let everyone go.

This probably will be enough, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the opposing team had something up their sleeve.

// Frisk’s POV.
*** Start of Battle Training.

Alright.

How the heck am I supposed to battle an infinite slurry machine?

I mean the majority of the plan relies on Dark Shadow and Tokoyami.

But that’s all pointless if I can’t stall him for long.

“Everyone gets tired, even Mr Lukewarm.” Joey reassured me, looking way more confident than me in the situation.

“Huh, now that I think about it, Half-Hot & Half-Cold is just lukewarm.” Oliver just noticed this as we step inside.

Lukewarm Man is here to greet us and starts by freezing the entire building, an eerie blue spreads throughout the entire building, encasing it in a shiny cocoon, my feet glued to the floor.

“Bring it on, but it would be painful without the soles of your feet.”

He looks as emotionless as Aizawa or Joey on a field trip.

“Wow, I can’t believe I found someone more of an emo than Tokoyami!”

“…”

“Is that all you can do?” He looks cautiously, confused at my inaction.

Suddenly he gets punched by an invisible force, as an orange energy bursts from my feet, out of the ice.

“Meet my friends, invisible and intangible.” I declare with a smirk on my face, this guy has a strong quirk and a stronger mindset, this’ll be fun.

He staggers upwards and looks surprised.

“I won’t go easy on you anymore.”

He starts shooting ice from his hands, great pillars burst as if legions of spears came to life with a thirst for blood, aiming for my neck.

A red light cuts through the room; Chara’s knife, slicing Todoroki’s ice into a glittering mist. It hangs in the air like snow that forgot how to fall.

The red flash fades, Chara’s knife left a seething arc across the floor, steam curling from the line.

“Needlessly showy, why didn’t you knock me out before?” Todoroki asks flatly, stepping through the fog like nothing happened.

“Yeah, well, I want to beat you at your best.”
I duck just in time; another barrage of spikes explodes from the ground, grazing my sleeve. Clover fires a BIG SHOT, shattering the pillar, but Todoroki’s already sliding sideways on a fresh sheet of ice.

He raises his right hand. A thin frost creeps outward from his fingertips, racing along the floor toward me. I leap, but the ice climbs the walls, sealing off my path. The entire room tightens — like he’s folding it closed around me.

“Oliver—!”
“I’m on it!”

Todoroki tracks my movement, eyes narrowing. “You’re not after me,” he realises. “You’re trying to get upstairs.”

“Wow, you’re good at this deduction thing,” I shoot back.

Another wave of ice surges from his arm, a spire that nearly clips my shoulder. The air is freezing, it feels hard to breathe, but it’s not close to having your lungs punctured.

Orange light flares around my legs and hurls me forward, faster than I can think. I punch through a wall of frost, shards spraying like broken glass. Todoroki’s expression doesn’t change as his hand reaches out.

“Joey!” I shout.

Purple strings whip out and catch my wrist midair, yanking me ninety degrees. Ice blooms where I’d been a heartbeat earlier, and he called me a show off.

“Close one,” Joey mutters, tightening the string’s pull.

Todoroki’s gaze shifts upward. He’s waiting for the next move — and that’s when I realise, he’s stalling too. He hasn’t left the floor. He’s hunting me.

“Alice, give me a boost!”

I feel a blue energy cover my SOUL, gravity being a distant thought for the time being. I jump, rocket forward, aiming for the stairs. Todoroki raises a wall of ice taller than me, planning to freeze the entire room.

I don’t slow down.

Chara’s knife carves through it in one motion, crimson light splitting the ice in two. Shards explode past me — blinding and sharp.

“Keep him busy,” I whisper, and Clover’s golden bullets burst outward, piercing ice, scattering light everywhere — just enough chaos to cover what’s coming next.

I just need one more opening.

Todoroki’s eyes flick to the windows like someone checking a metronome. He’s not looking at me so much as waiting for a second move.

 “Where’s Tokoyami?” he says into his earpiece.

 A pause. “Sigurrós, watch the upper floors. If he shows, don’t let him slip by.”

Damn my luck; He’s already thinking two moves ahead.

Todoroki lays down a grid of thin, glassy spikes that close any fast route to the stairs.  The room tightens again.

“Astute Observation Banquo, the air is delicate.” Chara snides at no-one in particular.

Outside, I know Tokoyami’s moving, using Dark Shadow like an ice pick and harness.  Claws dig into the concrete and ice; the shadow slowly ripples up, as I barely see him through the frozen window.

Todoroki’s gaze sharpens again. He presses his hand to the wall again, layering ice thicker and thicker; he’s about to freeze everything solid and leaves me here, as he leaves for the stairs.

I can’t let him.

“Hey, Banquo,” I call, breath visible, “It’s high noon.” Me and Clover say in unison.

A yellow revolver appears in my hand; and I shoot him in his right arm before he could react, bruising it, he’s visibly wincing.
“I can’t let my friends do all the work now can I?” I stare at him dead in the eyes.

 "Now draw, preferably from you left.”

“...”

He looks more peeved than anything else, and gives me the silent treatment.

“What’s wrong, looks like you’ve seen a ghost.” I comment, as the right side of his body is beginning to freeze over, and I mean past the poor costume.

 And then he destroys the stairs, flash-freezing it all and rides a spire of ice before filling the entire stairway with ice, but he’s noticeably shivering.

Damnit, climbing the building would take too long.

“Chara, you’re on overtime.”

They just grumble incoherently.

/// Tokoyami’s POV.

*** At the start of the battle trial.

After our conversation, the ghost known as Chara gifted me a crimson knife, with explicit instructions to bring out true victory over our foes, blinding them in total darkness by Frisk’s performance that—

“So all snug and wrapped up?” Dark Shadow asks, as his cord is wrapped around my entire torso, our attempt at makeshift climbing gear—

“Using yours truly!” He smiles with pride as he finishes my inner thoughts.

“Let us begin the climb, revelry does not wait for us.” I announce to my partner, as his claws start puncturing the walls.

Climbing on a smooth surface, even with the help of Dark Shadow, was a brutal task, the knife alleviated some of the pressure, piercing the concrete like butter, but I am certainly not used to lifting the weight of one’s self like Atlas.

Then the building became a frozen wasteland, entirely encased in ice, Dark Shadow’s claws were stuck in place.

“God! It’s cold!” He yelped, before realising his mistake, as our minds are melded, and as such, he already knew his mistake.

…

In the end, Dark Shadow uses their beak to scratch off the ice from their claws, while I try and keep stable by stabbing the knife into the wall so I can stay on more securely.

The climb continued till we reached the fourth floor, when Frisk decided to talk through our earpieces; “Tokoyami, can you hear me, over?”

“We can, what seems to be the issue, over?”

“Todoroki figured out that you’re missing and is probably telling Sigurrós to get the place on lockdown, you need to hurry, I’m a bit occupied, over.”

“Affirmative, over.”

This was getting rather intense for a training exercise.

“Indeed! I’m getting cold shock here!” He complains.

“Since when were you so talkative?” I asked.

He doesn’t answer and merely continues the slow crawl.

Eventually we make it to a window we can enter, it would be safer to enter the fourth floor than to risk it and climb to the fifth floor, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were already checking the walls for us.

We enter the next room and are greeted by—

“SAY HELLO TO THE FREESMART SUPERVAN!” A pencil shouts in the driver’s seat in a mix of fervour and manic glee, of what appears to be a horrific abomination of a car.

A bright pink van with “FREESMART” painted in blue, orange flames on the hood, and a white windshield; and the object was going to ram the vehicle into me.

/// Narrator’s POV

*** Back with the rest of the class, in a secure room with access to camera footage of the live exercise.

“Almight! Is that even legal?” Denki shouted in a mix of surprise and worry, as he pointed at the screen with clear evidence of the living pencil trying to run over or at least crash into Tokoyami, who swiftly avoids with a jump to the side.

“WHY YOUNG DENKI; THIS IS TOTALLY ALLOWED AS THE VEHICLE IS AN EXTENSION OF HER CREATIONS MADE BY HER QUIRK, ALTHOUGH I WILL ADMIT IT IS A BIT EXTREME, THE VAN SHOULDN’T BE ABLE TO KILL ANYONE!” Almight replies.

“How does that work?” Tsuyu asks, as she is more confused by Almight’s response along with the rest of the class.

“HER QUIRK IS BASED ON INTENT, MORE SO THE INTENT OF HER CREATIONS, THEY ARE UNPREDICTABLE AT TIMES YES, BUT AS LONG AS THEY DON’T WANT TO KILL SOMEONE, PHYSICS WOULD BREAK FOR THAT RESULT.”

Despite the seemingly logical explanation, Almight is noticeably sweating.

“AND IF THE EXERCISE DOES GET OUT OF HAND, WE HAVE MULTIPLE STAFF ON STANDBY SUCH AS ME! " He reassures the class, with his iconic bright smile.

For a solid three seconds, no one in Class 1-A breathes.

As on screen, Pencil jerks the steering wheel like she’s reenacting a car chase from a movie that was fast and furious. The pink van fishtails across the icy floor with far too much enthusiasm and grace for the intent of ramming into a child.

“Is she drifting, that’s manly!” Kirishima blurts out.

“Bro, I think she’s Tokyo Drifting,” Kaminari corrects, horrified.

“It’s a van,” Ojiro adds, equally horrified.

A second later, the FREESMART SUPERVAN^TM performs a perfect 180° spin, narrowly missing Tokoyami by inches.

Mineta shrieks.

Mina cheers.

Iida is having a crisis.

“This is utterly unsafe!” Iida cries, chopping the air. “That vehicle lacks proper registration, unsafe, irresponsible driving—!”

“It lacks a driver’s license,” Momo quietly adds.

“It makes up for that in style, C'est plus que magnifique” Aoyama declares dramatically.

Bakugo just scoffs. “Tch. If birdbrain gets hit by a glitter van, that’s his problem.”

All Might laughs a little too loudly.

“HOHO!!” He wipes sweat from his brow. “AND ABSOLUTELY NO SIGNS OF MALICIOUS INTENT! NONE AT ALL!”

The van scrapes along a wall, shedding sparks. Pencil screams, “FREESMART NEVER DIES!” while hanging halfway out the window.

Sato raises a hand. “Um. All Might? Hypothetically… if the pencil did develop an intent to kill—”

“IT WON’T!” All Might interrupts instantly. “IT WON’T. IT CAN’T. WE SCREENED HER QUIRK. PROBABLY.”

“Probably?” Jirou echoes.

Another crash fills the speakers. On screen, the van is now attempting to parallel park directly into Tokoyami again.

Tsuyu tilts her head. “Kero… At what point do you intervene?”

All Might gives two thumbs up.

“ONLY IF SOMEONE IS IN REAL DANGER, TSUYU!”

On the screen, Dark Shadow is barely clinging to life, screaming.

“WE’RE IN REAL DANGER!!”

“NOT REAL ENOUGH!” All Might insists, voice almost cracking.

/// Tokoyami’s POV (continued)

Dark Shadow shrinks back behind me like a terrified cat, due to the car’s headlights shining on him, as his size diminishes.

“I was not prepared for vehicular homicide today,” he whispers.

The van lunges forward.

I roll aside just as it smashes into the wall, which dents inward like cardboard. The van backs up and Pencil pumps her fist.

“YEAH! THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!”

I rise to my feet and steady my breathing, gripping the crimson knife Chara provided.

This was supposed to be a stealthy infiltration.

Instead, I am being hunted by a possessed pink rectangle with a driver who claims supremacy as living stationery.

“My adversary,” I warn, “your chaotic machinations shall not—”

“BORING!” Pencil shouts, revving the engine. “I’m gonna run you over in cursive!”

The van launches forward again.

I leap left, and the van blasts into the wall over in a blur of pink paint and consequence.

However, an even bigger inconvenience came from behind.

“Hi Pencil!” A leaf appeared from thin air holding a map and started to talk.

“Just wanted to tell you that Golf Ball said to—“

“WOAH!” Match screamed as Pencil’s driving knocked her out of the car through the window.

“She said don’t grievously injure anyone but hold them off till Todoroki arrives.” Leafy shouts over.

“What do you think I’ve been doing?” Pencil sighed, as she began to reverse.

“Well we’ve brought backup!” Leafy smirks as they begin to circle me, car on one side, the new group on the left.

A bubble and drop of water join the front.

This isn’t good, this ambush has been reversed against our favour, like a lion toying with prey.

‘Hey! Let me try something!’ Dark Shadow says within my mind.

…

‘Making a dark fountain, but the room is anything but dark!’

‘I’m dark!’ Dark Shadow replies proudly.

‘I cannot refute that logic, I suppose we have no other option, let us make a banquet of darkness…’ I grip onto Chara’s red knife harder before passing it to Dark Shadow.

And everything goes black.

And darkness blooms.

Chapter Text

“I normally don’t like being the informative one, but Al Azif can’t speak and I have no clue what’s happening with Valjean.” As he speaks he waves his hand on each mention of our personas.

“Elaborate.” I say.

“Sorry to interrupt.” Sophia pipes up, “But I do not believe we have considered the possibility of the rest of our group also arriving in this world.”
——————————

“Look we don’t want any trouble! Could you please for Fuck’s sake leave us alone?” Ryuji cries out, as another torrent of flame is mercilessly blasted towards him.

“If you were truthful with that statement, then you should’ve been arrested PEACEFULLY.” He charges forward with another attack, “FLASHFIRE VANISHING FIST!”

The concrete melted into black sludge, the lampposts exploded into molten glass and mental, parts of buildings were charred black, myself and Futaba were too slow to react as the flame engulfed both him and Ryuji in a fiery tornado made from the aftermath.

——————————

Dark Shadow is not responding.

Not verbally, nor emotionally.

Yet our minds are one, I can feel he is still conscious, but he is no-where to be found.

Not around me nor within.

A strange feeling for certain, as if a part of yourself left.

Yet I still trust in him, and this trust is shown in the change of air around me, a distinct pressure being given, as if a deep rumbling of earth.

——————————

In the meanwhile, me and the rest of the Souls sneak by, Oliver’s the greatest distraction at the moment.

The perfect opening.

[Chara, if you would so please.]

[Fine.]

Chara kindly and smoothly cuts open the steel cube while everyone is engrossed on the orange light show.

“Then I simply-“ I brag but before I could finish.

——————————

“Where in blazes are we?” Cuphead asks, his voice echoing in the cave they entered.

”I believe this is some sort of multi-environment chamber of sorts, as a false lake can be seen in the yonder, not to mention the mountains high above and the glass barrier above.” Shovel Knight explains as he is shielding the child from further argument.

”This crossing of worlds is still rather hard to believe, but it would explain Superstar’s overwhelming strength as well as your supernatural abilities.” Freddy adds, murmuring to himself.

Niko in the meanwhile looks down, and appears to be reading something no-one else can see.