I wake up with a gasp, shooting into a sitting position… and startling the girl who was leaning over me?
"Oh! I'm so sorry about that! Are you ok!?" I try to get up in order to help her up from where she fell, but a bout of dizziness causes me to miss my footing and I fall on top of her! I push myself up, groaning in pain- huh. 'Actually, there isn't any pain. Weird.'
But I still groan, it's sort of like a conditioned reflex given how being put in a similar situation before would cause me to do the same. The only difference now is that I… don't actually hurt.
Unfortunately, the time I spend thinking about this is time that I haven't finished pushing myself up.
"So…" The girl under me starts, grabbing my attention. "Not that I don't appreciate the energetic greeting, but could you let me up?"
Realizing that I'm laying on top of her with our faces only inches apart, I blush and scramble backwards, banging my back against…
I tilt my head backwards and see a bloody kitchen table? I blink. Then blink again. I look down at myself and finally realize how I'm dressed. Or rather, how I'm not.
"Where are my clothes!?!?" I quickly cover myself, steam coming off of my face from how heavy my blush is.
Standing up, the girl brushes off her school uniform and looks at me with a tilted head. "I threw them away. I'd already gotten all the blood out of them, and it's not like you needed them anymore since you were dead."
A lightbulb seems to go off in her head as I process her words, barely hearing the next. "Speaking of- WHAT THE HELL!? YOU'VE BEEN DEAD FOR, LIKE, THE LAST DAY!! HOW ARE YOU ALIVE RIGHT NOW!?!?!?"
That is enough to break me out of my wondering on why she would get the blood out of clothes then dispose of them.
"Dead? I was dead?" I blink, memories of my final moments coming back to me.
"That's right," I mutter. "I jumped off of the roof headfirst. So why am I alive right now?" But like the memories of before I died, I slowly start to remember what happened after I died.
`~`
I'm in a dark room, extending as far as the eye can see. How can I see far if it's dark? Well, it's just the kind of feeling it gives off. I can't actually see that far. In fact, the area immediately around me isn't dark at all. Instead, it's illuminated by a single light.
An old style lantern sits on a desk woven from bamboo. And behind it sits a dark haired woman in a business suit. She looks up from whatever it is she was writing when I appeared and quirks an eyebrow.
"This is unexpected. How rare." She gestures and a chair appears in front of her desk. "Please take a seat so we can identify your oddity and determine where you will be going."
Hesitantly, I do as she asks, gingerly taking the seat as I try to think about how I got here. Where here even is. Or heck, even what day it is!
I don't expect anything from that last one, but it's still another thing to wonder about, so I might as well. Not much else to do when… you're…
…
Oh.
"I died, didn't I."
The lady across from me nods her head in a single simple motion. "That is correct. But according to the paperwork, you aren't." She pulls open a drawer, prompting me to look down in front of me. But nope. It's a simple desk, really just an arch of interconnected bamboo with a flat 'top'.
Nowhere for there to be a drawer.
I dismiss the thought as she pulls a file from the impossible drawer and opens it, frowning as she does so. "Ah yes. Quirks." Irritation is clear in her voice, and I can't help but feel offended.
"You don't like quirks?" I spent the majority of my life studying them! Theorizing on them! Heck, sometimes I even dreamed about them! Her disliking quirks is basically like her disliking my existence!
Disregard the irony of how important they are to me despite me not having one myself.
"Incorrect." But contrary to my expectations, she shakes her head. "We don't have a problem with quirks in general- they're just a part of the mortal world. Like giraffes." A shiver goes through her.
"Freakish abominations." She mutters under her breath, but not quietly enough that I can't hear.
Before I can ask about it though, she continues. "No, the problems only arise when a quirk interferes with processing souls for the afterlife."
I perk up at that. "So the afterlife exists?" Yay! No more constant suffering! 'Oh wait, I killed myself. So I guess I'll be going to eternal damnation instead. Sigh. Just my luck.'
She wiggles her hand a bit. "Yes, but actually no. See, 'afterlife' is a broad term. So while it does technically fit, it also doesn't."
At my confused look she sighs before looking at an hourglass on the corner of her desk. The sand in it isn't moving.
"I suppose we have time. So, essentially, after an intelligent being dies, we recycle the souls after removing their memories. However, this is not a short process. Especially if we want to avoid damaging a soul! See, as a soul lives; experiences new things, builds a personality, overall just exists- it becomes imprinted. To remove the imprint, we give them new things to experience in the 'afterlife'."
I can feel the quotes she puts on the word. Weird. "Since what happens in the afterlife is not 'real' the soul gets filtered as the old memories are replaced by the new, and eventually becomes 'clean'."
She looks at me, asking if I'm following so far. I nod and she rounds it off. "Now that it is a blank slate, so to speak, it can be reused. That is the process of rebirth." She pauses as she seems to realize something.
"Ah, but that doesn't really tell you what the 'afterlife' is like." She shrugs. "Basically, depending on the type of person you were when you were alive, your stay can either be pleasant or terrible. Though it also depends on your handler."
Sensing that she's done, I finally ask my question. "So… since I killed myself, does that mean my stay is going to be terrible?" 'I was really hoping that I would finally get some peace…'
But to my surprise, she snorts. "Of course not. A single moment does not make up your entire life. More to that, your stay is directly connected to your mental state."
She points a long finger at me. "Essentially, your mental state and our mood will determine what your stay here is like. I will not give any more details though."
"Oh…" I look down. "So my stay isn't going to be pleasant? Because my mental state is… pretty bad." My hands clench as I think back to everything I've gone through. How Izumi was doted on while everyone else turned a blind-eye to what she, Kachan, and the other kids were doing to me.
I shouldn't have let them… I should have listened to the voice and fought back! I sigh. But now it's too late.
"It wouldn't… if you were actually staying here."
My head shoots up. "Huh?"
"Like I said, the only quirks I have a problem with are the ones that interfere in the soul." She glares. "Like yours."
Again. "Huh? But I don't have a quirk?"
She shakes her head, and pulls out a bucket? She tosses it across the desk and it lands upright next to me. "Try to kick that. If you can, you will be staying dead. If not, you will be returning to life. Because you have a quirk that is pulling you back." She shakes her head and shuffles her papers as she mutters to herself.
"Jumping off a twenty story building and thinking they do not have a quirk despite not staying dead…" While she mutters about how people are getting dumber with each generation, I stare at the bucket.
I jumped. More than that, I jumped headfirst. And from that height? There's absolutely no way that I should be able to come back. My brains would be scattered all over the alley!
'But what if she's right? What if I have a quirk… and it's keeping me alive? But no, she said that I am dead. But it's bringing me back to life? Is that what my supposed quirk does? Bring me back to life after dying?'
I choke back a chuckle at the thought. That would be ironic. A powerful quirk going undiscovered due to its stringent activation requirements.
'But,' I stand and take aim at the bucket. 'If I do have a quirk-' I pull my leg back. 'Then I can be a hero! Izumi and Kachan will stop bullying me, and I won't even have to fight them!' I let loose, and watch as my foot goes through the bucket, my excitement reaching new heights.
'Inko and Toshinori will finally acknowledge me!'
I freeze at the final thought, and the woman speaks. "See, not permanently dead. And it seems like you are being pulled back to your body, so this is goodbye. Try not to return until you get rid of your guilt and regrets. It is bitter"
And suddenly, the darkness vanishes, and I'm looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling.
`~`
I start giggling, something I haven't done before, startling the girl before me. Somehow, that changes my giggles into full blown laughter. Before I realize it, I'm laying on the floor, holding my stomach from how hard I'm laughing!
The girl is standing by this point, and she's pointing a knife at me, but that just keeps me laughing!
Eventually though, I manage to calm down. When I do, I look at the girl who doesn't seem scared of the naked, hysterically laughing, formerly dead boy laying on the floor. Instead, she looks like she wants in on the joke.
But that will have to wait.
I stand up, still making sure to cover myself. Her knife doesn't waver as it follows me, and I look at her curiously. We stand like that for a few moments before I clear my throat. "Um, sorry, but would you be able to find me some clothes? Being naked is kind of…"
While I trail off, she looks at me with suspicion clear in her eyes, but nods all the same. "Sure, but stay here, alright? If you try to run, I'll stab you."
I giggle again, causing her to raise an eyebrow. "I won't, don't worry." I smile and watch with curiosity as she winces before retreating while rubbing at her eyes.
With her gone, I'm free to look around the kitchen- making sure I keep an eye on the door of course. The kitchen is pretty bare. Other than the blood-drenched table, the only thing in here is the refrigerator.
At the sight of it, my stomach growls, reminding me that I haven't eaten since… lunch, yesterday? The girl did say that I stayed dead for a whole day.
"Does it take a day for me to come back to life? Can it be trained so that I come back to life sooner? Or are there other factors at play? Maybe the severity of my injuries made it take longer to bring me back to life? So if I'm killed by a clean strike- maybe a broken neck or stabbed through the heart- would I come back to life quicker? What about-"
My theorizing comes to an abrupt halt as I pull open the fridge, and what I see inside. There's no food. No drinks. Nothing that the typical person would consider should be put inside a refrigerator.
Instead, three large jars of blood stand proudly as the only things worthy of being cooled.
"Huh." I close the fridge. I open the fridge. I close it again. Open again. I stare at them for a moment.
"Huh."
I close the fridge and turn back towards the door as I hear the girl returning. "There's nothing here, so I dug your clothes out of the trash Cinnamon Roll!" She stops at the doorway on seeing me standing at the fridge. Her eyes narrow.
"Did you look inside?" My clothes fall from her hands as she flicks her wrist and her blade appears.
I look on, disappointed about my clothes now being dropped on the dirty floor. 'Though she did say she dug them out of the trash…'
I nod, pointing a thumb behind me. "Yep. I looked. Do you need blood for your quirk?" My eyes gleam and my hand twitches, looking for a pen to write down what she says on instinct.
She blinks at me in surprise. "Uh, yeah? I can drink blood to transform into people." To demonstrate, her body becomes engulfed in some kind of mud-like substance, and when it clears, she looks like me! But wearing her school uniform.
I leap towards her, ignoring the knife now pressed against my throat. "That's so cool! Is there a time limit? Does it matter how much blood you drink? Can you use their quirk? Oh! What about memories? Do you get flashes of memories when you transform to help you in acting like them?"
I don't wait for her to answer, bombarding her with more and more questions about her quirk as her eyes start to glaze over. Then I realize my situation.
"Ah! Clothes! I'm still naked!" I hurriedly pick my clothes up off of the ground before shooting the girl a look and deciding that with how unfocused she is, I'm good with simply turning around to get dressed. It's not like she hasn't seen me naked already.
I pause as I put on one pants' leg. 'Wait, why was my naked body on a kitchen table?' I turn my eyes to the bloodsoaked top, and see that some of the blood is leaking onto the floor from some holes inside of it.
I breathe a sigh of relief as I finish getting dressed. "Oh… you were draining my blood for your quirk!" I nod in satisfaction. "That makes sense. But you probably should have found someone better to look like. I'm kind of universally looked down on."
I jump, the realization that I've been gone from home a full day finally sinking in."Oh no! My family must be… worried…" I pause as I think about that statement for a moment. "They must be worried. Right? I've been gone a whole day, and even they must have noticed by now."
My eyes gleam as I whirl on the girl, grabbing her hands in mine. "But I'm not going to have to worry about them ignoring me anymore! And when I get back, they're going to be so happy! I finally have a quirk!" I start bouncing in place, the girl quickly following suit even if she doesn't get it. But she's sharing my happiness!
I stop as I look at her with shining eyes. "Would you like to come with me?"
"Buh?" A weird sound comes out of her mouth, setting me back to giggling.
"Do you want to come with me? I'm sure that once I tell them about my quirk, they'll support me going to UA! They'll actually pay attention to me! And All Might, who's apparently my father, could probably convince the principal to get you in too! Afterall, your quirk is amazing!"
I stand there smiling at the girl as she blinks at the unexpected propositions. I can see the gears in her head turning before she takes them and smashes them with a mallet. She smiles back.
"Sure! Why not."
I jump in place for another minute with her before excitedly pulling her with me to the door. "That's great! Oh, and what's your name? Sorry, I was too excited to ask earlier. Mine is Izuku Yagi."
She smiles, fangs poking just past her upper lips. "Himiko Toga."