Re-wrote chapter two after I wasn't happy with the first result. I tried to pick up the pace a bit quicker and changed how the MC was behaving a bit, please let me know what you think! Let me know if you want to read the original chapter two and I can repost it or something.
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He reached up for the sky, hands desperately grasping at something that eluded him. Like grabbing gusts of wind he merely felt it brush against his hands in a fleeting moment of hope. He was falling. Desperately he wanted to reach that light but he couldn't. He was already dead.
Eyes snapping open Nicklaus shot up in his bed, breath feeling heavy in his chest. Gasps shook his body as he tried to calm his mind. Ever since he had reincarnated he had been having this dream. Over and over again he saw the thread and he tried to grab it. He felt sick, he always felt sick after being here. As if his mind was telling him he shouldn't be alive. He needed to die, or at least he felt like that.
Getting up from his bed he walked to his desk and sat down at it. He didn't know what to do during these moments. Often he tried to think about his past life but the memories felt so… underwater. Foggy and distorted. There were parts that were clear, while others were not, but honestly, it was easier just to not think back to his life on earth.
At least he remembered the plot of this world, and at least he felt pretty confident about his knowledge. He remembered that was from his wish as well. Thinking of that he thought about how he was going to get the quirk he wanted. He had asked if he could choose a quirk. He had gotten confirmation, acceptance.
When he had awoken his quirk at the age of four he had been pretty miffed about it, to be honest. It was annoying, to say the least. He could choose his quirk, yes, but he had to take the one he wanted. He had to physically touch the person and he could take their quirk. One quirk. That was all so he had to pick carefully.
First, he needed to figure out what time of the story he was in. He didn't know exactly. He had looked for incidents he knew from the original story but hadn't found anything to do with the Sludge Villain or even Toxic Chainsaw. If he WAS the same age as Midoriya then the incident involving Toxic Chainsaw would happen when he was nine.
Thinking about the quirk he wanted it would be easiest if he got it before She awakened her quirk. At least from what he knew the organization had been a lot quieter and had morals and ethics before 'the boss' was put into a coma by their new leader. The holder of the quirk he wanted.
She was going to be given to him around when she was four at least. Since she needed to awaken her quirk first but the only problem was he didn't know when she was going to be born or even if she was going to be born. He hadn't had any interaction with the main cast of the story yet and he was fine with keeping it that way. He didn't want to disturb anything in the main plot by interacting with the main cast. If he supported Midoriya or tried to fix Bakugo's personality he didn't know what effects it may have on the story.
He knew that Midoriya was sixteen when he first met her. And that she was six. So she was born when he was ten years old and given to Kai when Midoriya was fourteen. He had to complete his plan by then. He had plenty of years IF he was the same age as the main cast. He honestly wasn't too worried he just wanted to confirm it. Then he could move forward with his plan. Needing a way to confirm it though the easiest way he could think of was to find either Midorya or Bakugo and ask them their age.
Honestly thinking about it he was over-complicating things. Even if the Toxic Chainsaw man event happened tomorrow then he would have plenty of time. She wouldn't even be born yet. Leaning back into his chair he sighed as he ran his hand through his grey hair. It was starting to grow out since he had asked for it not to be cut. Shaking his head he got up from his seat and made his way down to the kitchen. There was no point interacting with the main cast yet. Even if he wanted to meet them he had to be smarter about it. Just because he was forced to hand around kids didn't mean he needed to act like them.
Going downstairs he filled up a cup with water. Cursing his height as he had to go get a stool. As he made his way back to his room he thought about how his life was going. He was six, and he was meant to be at Elementary school but because of his maturity and intellect, he was being home-schooled. Well, at least that was the story. His parents let him do what he wanted as long as he passed the tests the tutor brought him. From the ages of six to fourteen, you were required to attend educational courses.
He wasn't however, after all, he was passing the tests he was given for his elementary education with flying colours. It wasn't even worth that much of his time, he spent most of it researching what he wanted. He was focusing a lot on biology and anatomy for the day when he eventually got his quirk. That and the structure of different materials and elements. He still had to do and pass the tests his tutor gave him to make sure that he was up to date with everything and get the legal documents signed off. He did want to get into U.A. after all and had to have completed prior education to do it.
Getting back to his room he sat down at his desk and was about to do some studying but a wave of tiredness hit him like a truck. He hated his younger body… it honestly sucked. Sighing he put the water on his nightstand and got back into bed. He could continue tomorrow morning.
The next morning he was up early and tinkering in the workshop as he thought about his plans for the day. He wanted to get in contact with Kai Chisaki, but he didn't know how. He knew that the yakuza group was in Musutafu somewhere he just didn't know where exactly. As he put down the sad attempt at a power glove he paced back and forth as he thought about it. Tapping the multi-tool against his chin as he did so.
He always had the option of trying to get information from the dark web, he wasn't that sure that he could do it securely though and when Kai lost his quirk as he assumed would happen when he took it then he didn't want a trail back to him especially if he was able to use it now. Honestly, it would be easiest if he could just kill the to-be Yakuza boss. It would make it so much easier to cover up.
He had to meet Kai, and he had to do it somewhere with little to preferably no people. If he was going off the assumption that he was the same age as the main cast then Kai would be around seventeen, the oldest he could be was twenty-one or twenty-two. Sighing he didn't think he could beat someone that age with his meagre skills. He was exercising but he was only six. While the bodies in this world had much more potential than the ones from earth it was still something that wasn't possible. He couldn't beat him. Unless he could steal his quirk, then it would be easy. Nodding his head he got back to working on the power glove.
Later that evening after he had grown tired of his lack of progress he decided to search for anything he could on Shie Hassaikai, he found some information about it like it being forced to the underground by All Might but nothing to do with its location. He would have to search much deeper for that. Since it was a hidden base he doubted he could find anything to do with it without going onto the dark web.
Nicklaus wasn't happy. He had just handed in his test to pass third grade the other day. He was currently eight, almost nine. He had made leaps and bounds in his progress towards support items. With his father's help and his already mature mind, he had been doing university-level studies to do with the development and creation of support items. His father and mother were exceptionally proud of his progress as well. He was also making a lot of progress in biology which he was honestly spending more of his time with, the only problem was he didn't have someone to help guide him as his father did for creating mechanical things. So he was left to try and figure things out mostly on his own. Luckily his mother got him books whenever he asked and his dad did his best to help since he knew quite a bit about plants because of his choice of creation method.
But what he wasn't making progress on was finding overhaul. He had spent a lot of time trying, a lot. Once he turned eight his parents let him go to Musutafu on his own as well. Trusting in his maturity and the heroes if anything did happen. So he had time to explore and just look hoping that blind luck would lead him to cross paths with the man but alas it never happened. He had been learning to cover his tracks on the internet and search the dark web safely. So at least the progress wasn't zero.
Walking out of the workshop he wiped his hands on his oil-stained shirt that hung loosely off his broad shoulders. He looked good for eight. His body was closer to a ten-year-olds to be honest, and he was happy with that. It meant that his constant exercise and work was paying off. He was making sure to eat properly and had made himself a strict training plan. As well as making sure he got plenty of sleep, more so in recent years though had he really started to try and push himself.
Heading up the stairs he heard his mum call out from the kitchen. "Nick dinner is going to be ready in a moment, can you please set the table?"
"I'm covered in grease, give me a moment to clean up, I'll try, be quick." He called back. Rushing up the stairs now and trying to not leave any hand prints on the railing. His mum had snapped at him the first time he had done that. He had remembered to take off his work shoes before leaving the workshop this time so that was a bonus.
Getting to the bathroom he dove into the shower and quickly washed up. Trying to be as fast as possible as he put on a new set of clothes in his room. Heading down the stairs as he was pulling the clean cream-coloured top over his head he sighed as he saw that the table was being set by his dad. Smiling apologetically he said. "You should listen to your mother when she says dinner should be ready in ten minutes and start getting cleaned up then, not in ten minutes."
Smiling sheepishly he rubbed the back of his head. He had been told this over and over again yet his parents never seemed to get mad at him for it. He knew he should but they were a bit too forgiving for him to change. They were happy with how he was doing and his progress in creating so they let him off the hook when he spent too long in there. He remembered his old parents constantly snapped at him when he didn't stop playing games and was late to dinner. He was so grateful for his mum and dad here. They really did their best to support him and help him grow.
Sitting down at his spot food was served and soon the night came to an end, his parents sitting down to watch a movie together as he went up to his room. Sitting down at his desk he pulled his laptop out and quickly activated his VPN and other security measures as he got onto the dark web. He had recently paid someone to try and find Kai for him. Half the payment now and the other half when he found his location but he hadn't heard back and honestly thought that someone had just run off with his money.
He made a bit of money with the help of his dad. Whenever he helped his dad on part of a support item design his dad would give him some of the profit he made from selling it depending on how much had contributed. Recently his dad was helping him sell his items directly through his father. Despite his father getting the credit since no one would get the item if they were told an eight-year-old made it he still liked the opportunity he was being given.
Getting onto the sight that he used to hire the man he saw that something had come through. Grinning he read through the message and opened the attached link. It was a map of an office district not too far from the suburbs he was close to. It was filled with notes and coloured lines that webbed across the streets following routes. This was where Kai had been spotted and followed the routes that he normally went around during his normal daily life. This was amazing, this was more than he was hoping for. Agreeing to leave the rest of the payment at the agreed location he found the cash he had and put it into an envelope. He was told to leave it in a certain mailbox discretely so that he would do it. He was going to Musutafu tomorrow.
The next day he told his parents he would be home late that afternoon and that he was hanging out with some friends. Despite his mental age gap he tried to have some friends to not worry his parents, they also provided good cover for why he went out. He didn't mind some of the kids his age, he mostly hung to the back of groups but ever since kids had stopped playing hero and villain all the time some of them were alright.
He hadn't seen any of the main cast which he was glad about, since he didn't want to risk changing anything. Even if he was tempted to try and find them just because some childish part of his brain wanted to see them. After all, it was exciting being in a story… but he had more important things to do than risk messing up the future.
Getting to the suburbs early morning, a place along the edge of the city filled with office blocks he saw most people just moving around going to their jobs or to get coffee and some of the cafes that had set themselves up along the outside of the office area to take advantage of the tired workers passing by.
Looking at the map on his phone that he had downloaded he first made his way to the mailbox he was meant to drop the money in, walking past it he put the envelope inside to get that out of the way. He had done it before for the first half of the payment so he didn't have a problem doing it again. After making sure no one had seen him he walked towards his destination.
From what he could see Kai rarely left the Yakuza base but had been doing more so recently, according to the reports he had he had been more agitated than normal when he did nowadays. Which wasn't good for him. The calmer he was the more likely he could get away with just pulling on his coat or something or grabbing his wrist for 'help', without being turned into a fine pink mist.
Although he didn't think it was likely he would do his best to make this as smooth as possible. He had taken some gadgets with him. A very high-powered taser he had kept secret from his parents that he could wear on the palm of his hand and his 'bouncy castle boots' as his parents had dubbed them from his comments when he was younger. They were able to release blasts of powered air from the soles to let him spring around and they were fairly compact and mundane looking so as to not pass off as odd. Apart from being a bit more clunky than normal shoes but they just looked a bit oversized. While they were a bit hard to control they would come in infinitely useful he thought. The braces up his legs also made it so he could kick harder and his loose baggy combat pants helped hide them.
Reading the reports on the line he took on Tuesdays, the day it currently was he was glad that he normally travelled with no one. Almost consistently he would make his way to the hideout from somewhere else, presumably for meetings or deals. He wasn't meant to follow the same route but since he was nineteen and from the sounds of the reports agitated about something the wasn't really doing what he was meant to. Which was very very nice for Nick.
Making his way towards the route he looked at the time, ten minutes till he usually passed through here with a variation of six to seven minutes. He shouldn't have missed him. Good.
He was in a quiet street that was currently mostly empty, it lead to a dead-end road with a short footpath between the houses for a shortcut for people on foot. It was fairly obscured and probably the best place to ambush him out of sight. Standing that the end that Kai would be walking towards he planned to walk down the path and just bump into him. Hopefully, his quirk didn't need direct skin contact. If he did he would try to taser him before he could react and grab his wrist or something. Hopefully, he wasn't wearing a coat or anything either.
Waiting he just hung around the corner looking at a small camera he had placed in the nook of a tree so he could see when Kai was coming, if he didn't come today for whatever reason he would just have to wait until the next week to try again. Luckily that wasn't the case. Seeing Kai round the corner. Hands shoved in his pockets and making his way towards the normal shortcut he smiled to himself as he tried to contain his excitement, this wasn't done yet.
Kai was wearing a long overcoat and his purplish brown hair was cut short almost to a buzz, a mask covering his face. Remembering Kai was a germaphobic he pressed his lips together in a narrow line, he probably wouldn't be able to bump into him. Although it was worth a try. Cursing the long sleeves and pants he watched the man start to walk down the shortcut and rounded the corner himself. Staring at his phone as if he wasn't paying attention to what was happening at all.
As he walked past he tried to just bump into Kai but Kai moved aside just in time, a scoff being heard as he did so. Looking up he met eyes with his target, Nick's hazel ones meeting Kai's golden eyes. As they looked at each other Nick kept on walking looking back at his phone as he silently cursed. Trying to go for a more peaceful approach he stopped and turned to Kai, reaching out and trying to tap the man's arm saying "Hey do you know wher-" not even finishing his sentence.
Pulling away, disgust clear on his face Kai spoke quietly but bitterly, "don't touch me you filth." His voice filled with disdain as he turned and sped up his pace to get away from the unknown boy.
Cursing himself Nick rushed forward almost impulsively. He didn't have to do this again and Kai wasn't going to respond the same if he saw him coming down the alley next week. He had to do this now… no he wanted to do this now. He wanted a proper fucking quirk!
Dashing forward with a blast from his boots he watched as Kai's eyes widened as the boy's hand closed around his arm. Feeling nothing when he tried to activate his quirk as he cursed as the clothes got in the way but before Kai could react further, the man's hand already coming around to grab Nick's wrist Nick activated his taser with a device in his other hand. His phone had been dropped on the floor.
Feeling the jolt of electricity pass through Kai as his body locked up Nick dropped the remote and tried to reach for the other man's face, thinking it too dangerous to reach for his wrist. He was wearing gloves, well he was. As the taser shocked Kai his quirk activated making the gloves disassemble into multiple lengths of string as they were sent flying off his hands. The crazed mad eyes that Kai now had locked onto Nick as his hands seemed to approach Kai's face in slow motion.
Feeling the taser shut off as the batteries in it emptied he cursed as he tried to pull away knowing he had little luck now. Feeling Kai's finger brush against his sleeved arm just for a moment he almost fainted as he saw red. His lower arm with the taser suddenly exploded off his body.
It hurt like hell had broken loose. It was indescribably painful having his matter torn apart like that. It had only been for a split second but he was already gasping for breath as he collapsed onto the floor having flung himself away from Kai, landing hard on his back, staring at the sky. He was so glad he didn't outright die, or that Kai wasn't more proficient in his quirk.
"I don't know what you want but that hurt. I am going to kill you now you filthy animal for daring to lay your hands on me, ME!" His tone rose in anger as he stomped towards Nick, fury clear on his face. As he reached out his hand towards the fallen boy Nick tried to scramble back desperately trying to think of a plan, he was about to push himself away with his boots but stopped. If he ran he would lose an arm and his chance at overhaul… no he had to calm down and think. Waiting for Kai to reach his hand out he hoped that this would work. Throwing his remaining hand forward he felt his fingers connect with Kai the whole time desperately trying to activate his quirk. And activate it did.
As Kai's hand made contact with his for a split second he felt the pain start but it never finished. A constant throbbing shooting through his arm as he looked at Kai, his eyes holding the older guy's gaze as he watched Kai's irises fade into a dark brown. His own lighting up with golden colour as he knew what had happened. His quirk had activated first. And he was so so so glad that it did.
Grabbing Kai's hand he held onto it tight as Kai in confusion just looked at their connected hands, he knew that Kai was now lacking the feeling that he now had. It was odd. It was like he could feel every part of Kai's body through his palm as if his hands were telling him what Kai was made out of. It was an odd feeling.
In the panic of things and the rush of events, not knowing how to work the quirk yet Nick thought in desperation 'disassemble' and with that Kai did. His body exploded from the arm up, shock plastered on his face Kai exploded into gore in front of Nick. Trying not to throw up Nick backed away and breathing deeply tried to calm down. Fuck he needed to clean this up.
Taking deep breaths Nick was mostly prepared for this, he figured this would happen but playing it over in his head and seeing someone explode in front of him was a lot different. Forcing himself to calm down he figured someone would have heard something in the nearby buildings and quickly got to work. Touching his chest with his left hand he felt that his left arm was badly hurt, most of it was starting to fall apart and the bone was covered in cracks. He had almost lost both his hands. If he had been just a bit slower he wouldn't have been able to use the quirk even if he had gotten it. Almost laughing with relief he forced it down for now. He needed to focus.
Feeling his body he left his hand on his chest as he thought forcefully, 'reset'. Feeling his body disassemble and come back together he looked and saw that both his hands were completely healed. There wasn't even any pain from the action. He could turn it off? Or did it automatically start with the nerves to disable them for his own protection? Did his knowledge of human anatomy help?
Putting the questions aside for later he walked over to the blood messes of his former arm and what was once Kai, quickly touching them he willed them to become concrete like the path. Having touched the concrete he knew how it felt to his quirk and forced the feeling onto the mess that and watched in fascination as it merged together and no sign of the mess was left behind. This was amazing.
This quirk had so so so much untapped potential. He could disassemble and reassemble MATTER. From what he knew as well he could even obtain other quirk factors by merging people with himself, not that he would do that for now but if he found a way to steal just someone's quirk factor? He didn't think that was possible without a lot of research and trial. But Kai had taken other quirks but merged with people. He didn't know if it was possible without taking the whole person but he would be damned if he didn't at least try. Shaking his head he got up and grabbed his phone he saw the cracked screen and smiled as he simply reassembled the glass. He needed to start heading home. It wasn't late yet but he was tired.
He would need to experiment more and hope that the Yakuza didn't find out about this and hunt him but he was hopeful… even if they did he would do his best to fight them. He had a quirk now. He just had to learn how to use it!