MHA - HARDCOIL

*Yaaaawn*

Inside of a small room, a young boy's eyes fluttered open.

"Hmm? Where am I?" The boy rubbed his eyes as he sat upright and looked around the unfamiliar room.

He stood up and nearly stumbled over, 'Was I always this small?' He thought to himself as he approached a mirror.

The boy looked at the mirror and two strange red eyes stared back at him. Unlike his regular brown eyes, the red eyes that reflected his own had a strange white X instead of pupils, but that's not what was on his mind.

The child in the mirror was not the man he remembered, he was a hardworking student about to graduate from what he could recall.

The boys eyes flashed back to a strange place filled with sweat, tears and paperwork.

They reflected a scrawny teen slaving day and night, forced to spend every second of his life studying like there was no tomorrow.

But all of that, gone? And right before graduation too?

"What is this… This shouldn't be possible? Did I die and get reborn? Then why am I not a newborn?" The boy's hand rested on his chin as he tried to find a scientific explanation for his situation, but nothing came.

"Why now of all times? All of my life wasted? Ha! What a joke." The boy started laughing before tears started to stream.

"Surely not? Right… I didn't have any friends? My parents didn't give a shit about me, I didn't even get to enjoy my childhood, and all of that just to die? Right before graduation at that, I didn't even get to enjoy any of my work. And be reborn into the body of a strange child. Great, now I'm sure I'll have to relive that hell." The boy sighed before looking out of the window when a lightbulb appeared over his head.

…

…

A rope made of bedsheets was tied to the ceiling of a small room, at the end of the rope was a small child standing on a chair trying to fit his head through a gap in the rope.

Right before he could jump off the chair, he heard a loud noise from downstairs.

"Dante! We're home!" A soft female voice echoed from below.

The child's eyes narrowed and he slowly descended from the chair onto the cold wooden floor.

He walked out of his room, taking a peek down the stairs in the direction of the voice.

"Dante! Come down, I've brought takeaway." A young woman poked her head out through the doorway to the stairs, she had long blonde hair and the same red eyes as the boy in the mirror.

"Me? I'm Dante?" The boy pointed to himself questioningly.

The woman scoffed and chuckled, "Duh, who else?"

'Interesting, she seems different than mother from before.' Dante thought to himself before walking down the stairs into the dining room.

In the dining room he saw his mother, the woman with long blonde hair and red eyes, and a Tall man with dark green hair and glasses.

'That must be my father.' Dante's gaze darkened and the memories of his father looking down at him in dissatisfaction any time he showed any emotion.

"Ah there he is! There's my little man!" The man suddenly lunged at Dante and lifted him into the air with a grin.

Dante flinched and held his eyes closed for a moment, but when he opened his eyes he was surprised to see such an expression.

His father laughed, "what's with the face dude?" He then gently placed Dante on a chair and sat back down, where he started eating some fried chicken.

'He didn't hit me? Very interesting. They are different.' Dante looked out the window, wondering what would happen next.

…

…

The next morning, Dante woke up before anyone else.

Dante walked around his room, looking for any clues as to where he could be. But most signs indicated he was in Japan.

However, if he was in Japan, why was his name Dante? 'Maybe we are foreigners?' Dante sighed and kept looking.

He found various action figures of people he suspected were from a television programme or something, but it wasn't anything too insightful.

Dante decided to just get ready for the day instead of snooping around, he brushed his teeth, had a shower and got his school uniform on.

'This body is 8 years old, so I must be in elementary school? Seriously…' Dante scoffed as he put on his school bag.

Dante didn't have to get a bus or even have a parent accompanying him to school as he lived less than a 10 minute walk away, and from the huge sign pointing in the direction of the school he could tell where it was.

…

However, the moment Dante stepped through the doorway, his gaze immediately widened.

I mean…

'I'm not seeing things… right?' Dante stared in disbelief as he saw a kid literally flying around the classroom, a kid with extremely long fingers and even a kid with rocks for hair!

Dante wanted to turn around and leave, but his teacher entered the class and ushered him to his seat.

"Well shit, this changes literally everything." Dante muttered under his breath, this new change actually does change everything, this isn't the world he knew.

…

…

After a while, the bell rang for the end of class. Dante immediately stood up and was ready to just leave before a voice sounded behind him.

"H-hey! Dante… you left your bag…" a scrawny small boy with green hair and freckles pointed towards Dante's discarded bag.

'Haa… don't tell me, this kids hair is made of broccoli right? Eugh…' Dante thought to himself before waddling back over to pick up his bag.

"Thanks, dude." Dante waved at the weird kid and left the classroom to explore the school a bit more.

"He s-said Thanks?" The green haired boy looked a bit startled but then smiled before leaving too.

Dante reached the outside area where he saw many children playing, using strange supernatural abilities and just talking.

'Where the hell actually am I… And do I have a power too? Or is it just these freaks?' Dante thought as he approached a group of 4 kids, one of which looked similar to Dante.

He had blonde hair and red eyes too, just his hair was way lighter and his skin was also lighter.

"Hey, how come that guy has wings?' Dante asked the kid, since he looked relatively normal compared to everyone else.

"What did you just say, dweeb?" The kid stepped closer and looked down at Dante.

'Deadass?' Dante looked deadpanned at the kid.

"Um, I asked how that guy has wings, dude…" Dante scratched his cheek and repeated his question.

"Look at this loser, how do you not know what a quirk is!" The kid and his friends burst out laughing and pointing at Dante, to which he simply walked away.

Dante noticed a green haired boy walking towards him and attempted his question again, "Hey, how come that kid over there has wings?"

The green haired boy looked a bit startled but immediately stood upright, "Ah that's because of his quirk!"

Dante's eyes narrowed, "Quirk?"

[insert explanation of what a quirk is]

…

"Interesting… so, what's your quirk?" Dante tilted his head at the green haired boy, who looked down a bit awkwardly.

"Uhh… I don't actually have a quirk." The boy looked back up with tears in his eyes.

Dante averted his gaze, avoiding eye contact as sweat began to form on his brow, "Ah! Uhm, my bad…" Dante replied a bit hastily, he doesn't really know how to respond to these kind of emotions, so that's the best he could do.

"Ah anyways! How do I know if I have one? Or what it is?" Dante looked back at the boy, who had returned to his enthusiastic expression.

The boy looked around and then back at Dante, "You mean your parents hadn't taken you to see if you have one?" He asked.

"Oh… I don't think so." Dante scratched his cheek again, he probably had been taken but he doesn't exactly… remember.

'I'll ask mother or father when I get home…' Dante thought to himself before he prepared to walk away.

"Ah! My name is Izuku Midoriya by the way, I know you're Dante Graves but just in case you didn't know me!" Izuku waved at Dante leaving, who returned his wave.

"Damn nerd…" The blonde boy from earlier grumbled beneath his breath while looking at the two interacting.

…

…

After what seemed like an eternity, Dante finally reached his home, where he saw his father sitting on the couch watching TV, where he saw what seemed to be a superhero on the screen.

'Yeah, I should've known.' Dante rolled his eyes and then waddled over to the couch and leaned on the armrest.

"Father, do I have a quirk?" Dante tilted his head and asked, to which his father nearly spat out his drink.

His father, now fully focused replied, "Oh! We've already discussed this no? Yes, you have a quirk silly."

Dante sighed in relief and wiped the sweat off his brow, then asked "And what is it? I forgot."

His father squinted and replied while giggling, "how do you forget something like that…" he then waved his hand in a 'come forward' motion.

"Come, let's go to the garden." His father stretched before walking over to the back door.

Now in the garden, his father yawned before he breathed out and the air began to vibrate.

His body began shifting and churning before it became a mass of dark green sludge.

"See, son? This is what I truly look like. My quirk is called Sludge, it transforms me into this." His father, now an amalgamation of sludge said with a deep and unnerving voice.

Dante's eyes widened, "What the hell…" he muttered under his breath, "Can I do this?!" He asked worryingly, becoming that creature wasn't really ideal…

Before his father could reply, the back door opened again, and out walked his mother.

"Why are you in that state, silly." His mother set down her washing and rolled up her sleeves "I'll show you a proper Quirk."

Her arms suddenly turned a dark shade of red, "This is my quirk, Dante. I call it Hardening, or shell? I'm still not sure what to call it, but it encases any part of my body in this indestructible shell. Pretty cool yeah?" She giggled and did a punching motion.

'I'd way prefer that one than that sludge thing I suppose…' Dante squinted and inspected his mothers quirk.

Dante then turned his head and stroked his chin, 'Izuku said that quirks are sometimes a combination of the quirks of both parents, but what would that even be?' Dante began thinking hard about the possibilities.

"We're still not sure about your quirk, you've been able to change the shape of your hand before, but that's about it." His mother crouched down and ruffled his hair and then held his hand.

"Ah, yes." Dante acted as if he totally knew what she was on about, his gaze then shifted to his father who was slowly regaining his human-like form.

His father yawned, then began walking back towards the house. "First day of work tomorrow, you know it's difficult for me to find work nowadays… I'm going to go to bed early."

"Ah… goodnight father." Dante replied with a smile.

His mother rolled her eyes and patted his back, "Sleep well darling." She then kissed his cheek and then began putting the clothes on the washing line.

Dante walked inside and walked up to his room.

…

"Alright, let's test this." Dante breathed out and looked at his right hand, where he began focusing all of his attention and energy towards.

But… nothing happened.

And no matter how much effort he put in, it just didn't work.

"Is it… because I'm not the real Dante?" He muttered, but when he did…

His stomach began to convulse and churn.

Dante lifted up his shirt to see his whole torso moving around strangely as if something was trying to escape his body…