"Y-Yes Honey?", surprised at his heartfelt cry
"Are you okay?", Worry set in as she saw the tears in her son's eyes. Seeing her child on the brink of tears brought wetness to her own eyes
"Mom!", quickly he embraced her, Inko yelped in surprise at the sudden show of endearment
He hadn't seen her in some time, she was one of the first people who were evacuated into Stone Reich. The first and last stronghold against AFO. The headquarters of the combined force of Japan, China, USA, Germany, and Great Britain. After every country had either fallen or had joined All for One.
"Seriously Izuku! what's wrong? Is it school? A bad dream? or-or-or", Inko fretted, she had always been an emotional worrywart. Her brain working a million miles an hour, concocting extreme reasons for her son's tears. As these reasons quickly grew into absurdity sending her brain into overload.
"Mom calm down", Inko had begun muttering out loud, talking about drugs, girls, gambling, or whatever mess her teenage son could possibly have found himself in.
"It was just a bad dream! Mom, jeez I haven't done anything like that!". Sigh. He had missed this, whether 7 years in the future or now in the present his mom never changed.
The only reason they evacuated her to Iron Reich was to help Izuku focus only on the war effort. She wasn't anyone special other than being the mother of one of the 6 powerhouses known as the Special war powers.
The Heroic Legion was the name given to the forces that opposed All for One and his army. Were they truly heroic? Who knows, war makes monsters of men after all.
"Just a bad dream? You're sure", Inko was still worried. Izuku had missed his alarm for school as well, and this had never occurred before.
"Yeah, that's all it was", his eyes trailed, examining his room, and observing it until his view had landed on his clock. 11:30 it read, school started at 9:00 and ended at 16:00. His mother had probably presumed he had already gone to school until she heard a noise from his room and came to investigate.
"Well, I guess you woke up too late to go to school, If the dream was that scary you can have the day off, Okay!?"
"Thanks, mom". Ephialtes, also known as nightmares, adequately summarise the future he had come from. A hellish world, the spawn of nightmares, a Hadean diabolical dystopia. Izuku as a Special War Power (SWP) was not subjected to the worst of war. He was only ever deployed to fight in battles with only the strongest of the enemy fighters.
But still, he saw monsters, he knew of walking calamities, and he had bestowed destruction himself. This was it; this was Izuku's chance to create a better world, a world where egregious, atrocities never happened in a future with barely any resemblance to normal society.
Two hours had passed since his conversation with his mother. Clad in a simple black hoodie and bottoms, with his infamous red crimson shoes. He was out jogging, to clear his mind, but he also had a specific place he wanted to go.
Stopping outside a rectangular building that was neatly tucked away from view. The building was sleek anthracite, obsidian black. With the words 'Fists of Fury' in the red of red carnations, a contrast to the noble black of space
It was a fighting gym All might had told him about some time ago. Entering the building, on the get-go he could smell the stench of hard work and sweat. A scent he was cognizant with.
"Hello, sir how may I help you?", said in an orotund and raucous tone. Breaking out from his stupor, he found himself gazing up and the towering entity in front of him. Even if he broke out of his muttering habits, sometimes he just lacked awareness of his surroundings.
And what a sight the 'entity' was. If you could manifest the concept of testosterone and manliness as a person, Izuku was sure this was what you would get. Kirishima would have been absolutely inspired and marvelled by the man's appearance.
Speaking of appearance. With the weight and size of an African forest elephant, he quite literally towered over Izuku. A hulking mass of robust, powerful muscles. His presence filled the room, a herculean figure.
He looked like a man who had picked up heavy objects and put them down, and then repeated that a few billion times.
Izuku wasn't all too worried, he had seen bigger, he had seen mightier, and he had fought the true monsters of this world. Though he was still tense, he lacked One for All. His body was missing a key ingredient to his vast repertoire of combat skills. That ingredient being muscle memory.
"Jeez, Hayate sneaking up on the customers like that! your gonna scare away this one like the others you know!". This voice was very clearly female. It had that singsong, bell-like characteristic to it.
She was wearing high-top black sneakers that had white laces and a strip of reddish maroon going across them. She had on a fitted dark grey jogger bottom, and a crisp, charcoal-coloured belt with a golden square buckle. Dressed in a graphite black crop top with a blush pink heart drawn onto it, she wore a light grey, zip-up hoodie that she wore loosely, exposing her upper arms.
Finally, she had on a black cap. Looking closely there was an intriguing symbol on it that consisted of a fan with a flame in it.
"I had no such intentions, Akane Chiaki-san". Izuku had never heard of them in his past life. The name Akane meant deep red, while Chiaki translated to a thousand autumns.
"Sure, sure", she waved her hand dismissively and turned her attention to Izuku. ", she seemed to observe Izuku.
"Sorry Bout the big guy~, he may be huge but he's as harmless as a fly. Well unless Mr. H tells em to fight". She apologized bowing her head to show sincerity.
"U-um it's all right you don't have to bow to me like that" caught off guard by her sudden apologies, he replied quickly, accepting her apology. "I'm just here to get of hours of sparring with a boxing bag"
"Sparring? You don't look like a martial artist". Harsh and blunt this girl wasn't pulling any punches.
"Your hands don't look like they've been trained much, but I can tell you're well-built and have trained your body". Without asking she had grabbed his hand and was inspecting it for signs of a fighter.
"Have you no tact nor shame? Chiaki-san, Leave the customer alone" the giant known as Hayate Akio quickly put a stop to her antics.
"If you're not planning on getting one of our plans which range from 8500-20000 yen monthly, we can offer you one day for 1500 yen". Izuku had brought 2000 yen with him, the prices here were not expensive even though this was a fighting gym.
"That's perfect, thank you" handing over the money and receiving his change he proceeded deeper into the gym. Spotting a punching bag he made his way there, placing his bag on the ground.
Skipping on the spot and stretching his arm to increase circulation, Izuku got into form. He started with a standard boxing stance.
Breathe in, his left arm elongated into a quick jab. Ducking under a jab as if he was in an actual fight. Izuku brought his right hand up for a right hook to the body.
Breathe out, transferring his weight and energy to his left leg he brought back his body twisting and like a torque unleashed a powerful liver punch.
Breathe in, he moved his body sideways imitating the peek-a-boo style. He threw more punches making sure to switch them up and hit from different angles.
Breathe out, straightening his posture he transferred into a generic kickboxing stance. Wham swiftly his leg impacted the bag. Ignoring the ringing of the chains that held the bag up. He continued with a high kick to where the enemy's head would be.
Breathing in, Izuku caught his breath, Breathing out he checked the time on his phone realizing he had spent two hours in the gym he decided it was time to go.
On his way to the exit, he saw a group of people near the back of the gym. There seemed to be a martial art lesson going on. He saw a few adults teaching what seemed to be children and teenagers.
His gaze met with one of the tutors. Long brown hair, and pupilless white eyes. The man wore a ponytail.
Looking away quickly Izuku left the building, something told him, no his instinct told him there was something wrong with that guy.
.............................................….
Memories, memories, memories, memories, memories, memories, memories
What a funny thing they were
Experiencing the memories of the body Michael Carter has inhabited. He felt strange, it was almost movie-like, as he could not experience the emotions of Katsuo Ryo. It was like he was watching the memories like a family would watch a movie, laughing at funny things, crying at sad things, frightened of scary things, smiling at happy things.
The ups and downs of life, Katsuo Ryo was no one of substantial importance. A boy who at the age of 5 lost his family. A child who had wished to become a hero.
He could pity the boy, who had gone through life knowing his family was gone. But in a way, they were similar, weren't they?
Both only had memories
Memories of the past
Memories of loved ones
Memories of friends
Memories of family
The old Ryo wanted to be a hero, but the new Ryo had died one
He had practiced what most would call a weak quirk. But little did everyone know the potential of these powers. The same powers that in another part of fiction had elevated a pirate to the top.
Opening his eyes, Michael or should he be named Ryo now? Got up from the ground. 'Sigh this is my life now huh'.
Ryo had 2 quirks. Rubber body and Haki.
Rubber body worked exactly like he thought it would as it seemed to be identical to the powers of Monkey D Luffy. It was a mutation quirk that granted the body the properties of rubber. This allowed Luffy and subsequently Ryo to be able to stretch, bend, bounce, inflate and twist like rubber
The quirk had allowed the past owner of his body to survive in the vicious environment of the orphanage
Ryo's knowledge of one piece wasn't the best. Most of his knowledge came from a good friend of his who was obsessed with the anime.
The quirk Haki allowed Ryo to utilize their own spiritual energy. Using the memories of this body to fill in the gaps he knew of the power in one piece. He remembered the 3 uses.
Armament Haki, Observation Haki, and Kings/Conquerors Haki.
Armament acted as an armour that increased the potency of an attack, Observation gave the user a sixth sense of the world around them, and Kings Haki grants the user the ability to unleash their own willpower to overpower the wills of others.
From what he learned from the memories; the past owner of this body had never been able to use the quirk.
Ryo wasn't sure what the future would behold for him. He doesn't have the willpower nor the discipline as Luffy to train.
At least the old owner had practiced the quirk and had been training to be a hero with it.
So, what should he do now? The apartment was bare, there was not much food in the fridge, and he had fuck all money. 'If I want to survive, I need to have a plan, I can't be going through life like this'.
There could be others like him, but all that wasn't important right now.
Ryo needed money, at least enough until he can figure out how his future should play out.
Putting on black hoodie and trousers, a feeling of excitement elicited him. A sense of adventure in a world so far far away.