Episode 3. "Moving side by side".

Even in my previous life, American cinema firmly implanted in my mind the concept and image of morning jogs—dawn, breath visible in the cold air, a hoodie, headphones in, and an empty street. A frozen world. Perhaps a seaside or a bridge over a strait. Monotonous movements, steady breathing—and you, alone with the whole city.

Needless to say, reality rarely matched this picture in that world. I didn't live there, my schedule was different, and I made the wrong choices…

Fortunately, I was given another chance.

The technology in this world was much more advanced and significantly more accessible, so it was easy for me to buy cool, compact speakers with awesome bass and surround sound, even with my pocket money. And the sneakers here—fantastic! Or rather, perfect for running…

Quietly closing the door—my parents were still asleep—I slipped out onto the quiet, deserted street.

It was dark.

In general, going out at night in the city—in this world—is not the wisest idea. However, our neighborhood is quite calm, All Might is back in Japan, and any unfortunate criminal who decides to bother me will be unpleasantly surprised.

After a light warm-up, I stretched with pleasure and set off at a steady pace towards my new training hall, flickering as a gray shadow under the streetlights.

Yes, the hall! I found it. And, moreover, I now have the perfect sparring partner!

But it's better to go in order...

When I saw that brunette girl in class, I immediately realized that in front of me was none other than Momo Yaoyorozu.

In the future—a brilliant UA student, an extremely promising hero, a straight-A student, an incredibly beautiful girl (well, yeah, with that kind of costume), and the owner of probably the most overpowered Quirk among all those I remember—she can create any not alive objects on the surface of any part of her body if she knows its structure and composition. I probably would have conquered the world if my consciousness had ended up in her body (but luckily, there was no gender-bending).

Seriously, who else could it be?

And… I was absolutely wrong.

Because on the first day, all students in Japan thoroughly introduce themselves, and within a couple of minutes, I heard (barely, because she speaks very quietly) that yes—this girl indeed wants to become a hero and plans to enroll in UA Academy (which caused an excited buzz among our classmates), but her name is different: Yui.

Yui Kodai.

My brain crashed like a blue screen.

In response to someone's question about her Quirk, the mysterious stranger replied that she "can make things smaller or bigger."

Then, snapping out of it, I remembered everything and chided myself for foolishness and forgetfulness.

Yes, in the anime, it was indeed like this: some characters from Class 1-B seemed to copy the appearance and, to some extent, the Quirks of the main plot characters from Class 1-A. Previously, I would have said that the mangaka was just making less work for himself. But now, living in this world…

I think it's just a coincidence.

It's unlikely that one person could create an entire universe… right?

In any case, I was the one who messed up in this situation: even in this world, I had read about Yaoyorozu online and knew that she was being homeschooled with the best tutors. Not only was Momo from a very wealthy family—likely undergoing screening at the best clinics with the most accurate diagnostics—but, possessing such an incredible Quirk, she was on the radar of the Japanese government and the Quirk control agency from the age of four, as one of those who would be recommended for training at UA in the future, as I know for sure from the anime, as the best hero school.

How does it all work? When talented—and dangerous—children are placed in the school, it's not just to teach them how to use their Quirk adequately and safely, benefiting society, but also for full psychological and ideological indoctrination. Hence the hero cult in society—why would you need anything more when you already have everything?

And if the same Momo isn't valued enough by the state, and she herself isn't sufficiently attached to it by family, honor, ethical principles, and material benefits, she could very well decide to, for example, synthesize antimatter and play the part of a suicide bomber.

To "play the hero", so to speak.

And, if I understand her Quirk correctly, we're not talking about a half-gram portion, which would be enough for Hiroshima (by the way, the bombings didn't happen in this world), but about half a kilogram of antimatter, which would wipe out all of Japan and half of Asia from the face of the Earth. Or even destroy the entire planet.

In my old world, a child like that would probably have been shot on sight. Better safe than sorry. But here, it's a more tolerant and civilized society… so they probably took great care in preparing the girl, likely planning to position her as one of Japan's strategic weapons on the political stage in the future.

Yeah.

It's strange, of course, that with such a thorough system of government control over truly dangerous superpowers, Tomura Shigaraki, one of the main villains of the anime, was completely overlooked by them. His Quirk, in potential, is no less terrifying than Momo's "Creation," but unlike hers, it doesn't require any academic knowledge or years of training. Just… destruction.

No doubt the main villain, All-for-One, made sure that no one saved the guy from himself when there was a chance.

I sighed. Tomura is probably already a villain and even a murderer of his own family. But how could I have helped him?..

Meanwhile, at the request of the other children and after receiving an approving nod from the homeroom teacher, the girl Yui demonstrated her Quirk: she borrowed an ordinary hairbrush from a classmate, touched it with her palm, and with a crash, enlarged it to the size of a chair. The kids were thrilled, the girl stood modestly (she's very quiet, almost shy) by the board, fiddling with the edge of her skirt, while I frowned and analyzed the combat potential of such a Quirk.

In general, yes, she did the same thing in the anime.

I've long since stopped tearing my hair out trying to figure out how such Quirks work: where, for example, does the excess mass come from? What happens to the molecules of a substance when its size changes? Does the acceleration remain if the object is, for example, falling and increases in size in the process? Also, do the atoms in the object proportionally increase in number while retaining the same form, or do the atoms themselves grow in size (I don't even know which is scarier)? And what the heck happens to such objects if they break while being enlarged?

No answer. Neither my attempts nor those made by the largest research laboratories have been able to understand how most Quirks work, so it's better not to think about it too much: it exists, it works. That'll save your nerves.

What's more important is this: I think in the anime she just threw bolts and screws, and they would enlarge mid-flight (let's not forget to note that her Quirk activates with a delay of about two or three seconds) while continuing to fly (which means the momentum is somehow conserved… or maybe it increases proportionally with the object? Ugh…), and… that's it?

Are you kidding? This Quirk is also an incredibly powerful force if used intelligently, isn't it? Maybe there are some limitations that I don't know about yet? Hmm… Or maybe I should just demonstrate to her how irrational it is to use her Quirk like that and explain how to do it properly? I could turn her into an S-rank hero. Wait, but why? I decided not to change the canon for as long as possible. And is this really my business? No, definitely not…

That's when I realized everyone was looking at me, expecting something.

Oh… I need to introduce myself, go to the board…

"Hi, I'm Niren Shoda, and I'll be enrolling at UA," I briefly said as I walked up to the board, completely (not in the mood) ignoring the socially accepted formalities, though still remaining within the bounds of politeness.

And I sat back down right away.

The teacher, likely a bit taken aback by the fact that I was behaving more like a delinquent despite being a straight-A student on the record, suggested:

"Well, Niren-kun… maybe you could at least show us your Quirk?"

I smirked:

"It's an enhancement type."

A chorus of envious sighs echoed through the classroom.

Of course—it's a universal and purely combat-focused Quirk, not exactly rare, but rare enough that almost all young people dream of having something like it.

That's when I caught the attentive gaze of this… Yui.

Yes, darling, we're rivals now… although, ideally, both you and I will get into UA. But you don't know that.

And, in any case, the fact that you're using your Quirk at five percent efficiency—that's not my problem.

The rest of the day, no one bothered me, and I was left to my thoughts.

And here's what I came up with: why not, since I'm already encountering the canon, use my knowledge of it to my advantage—right now? There shouldn't be much harm to the original timeline from this, right…

Thinking this way, I resumed my search for a dojo, but this time, instead of looking for just any training base, I specifically sought out characters I was familiar with from the anime. Some of the UA students must have been training somewhere before enrolling. Many of them already knew martial arts during the entrance exams. For example, that guy with the drills for hands. Or that funny dude with the big tail from Class 1-A…

What was his name… I glanced at the very first of my hero notes, where I had written down everything I remembered from the anime. Ah… very useful. No first name, no last name—not written down, didn't remember. Well, to hell with it. He was into martial arts, right? And he had a big tail. He's my age… blonde… lives in Japan…

A search on the internet quickly turned up an article about the winner of a regional school karate championship held a couple of years ago—none other than Mashirao Ojiro.

With a name, things moved faster, and as I suspected, the guy turned out to be from a family of tail-wielding martial arts enthusiasts, though he was more talented and "tail-endowed" than the rest. And his family did indeed run a fairly large training hall… and there's the address.

That's where I went the next day, after finishing all the torturous school nonsense. It's funny—this institution annoys me more in a few days than elementary school did in six years. Wear their uniform with a blazer, respect your senior "senpais," don't yawn in class…

Anyway, I was heading to the dojo with a fair amount of skepticism. After all, what I really needed was a decent partner for "my fist meets your face, and you defend," not just a training hall. I can train by myself on some construction site. Sigh.

To be honest, when watching the anime, I considered Mashirao to be the most useless character in the entire show.

I mean, seriously, what does he have? A tail, for crying out loud? That's his whole Quirk? What can he do with it? Swat away flies? Tickle a villain with the brush at the end? I get that not every super can be compared to Endeavor or All Might, but there has to be some limit to reason. What will he do if he faces an opponent with a strong offensive Quirk? Or—what will he do if he encounters a quirkless loser with a gun? Yes, this is Japan, it's hard to get a gun here, it's completely banned for civilians, but criminals have them! And you can run into one just on the street, while the tailed guy is from UA, the elite of the elite. He risks running into villains like Overhaul or Stain every day. And dying.

What's the point of his training if he's so useless in the long run?

God, how wrong I was.

The "dojo" turned out to be a fairly large complex with lots of extensions. Since I had contacted them in advance, a pretty girl with a ponytail was already waiting for me behind the first door. Pleasantly surprised by my age, she led me through a couple of corridors to a large, clearly reinforced hall. Along the way, I even gave in to a boyish impulse and knocked on the hall's wall with my knuckles—it responded with nothing less than a metallic ring. Wonderful!

Inside, the hall was familiar—high ceilings, mats on the floor, half a dozen kids in various degrees of coolness in their kimonos training under the watchful eye of a moderately strict senpai.

The owner of the place turned out to be… a tall, blonde, mustached man, just like my previous master.

I raised my eyebrows in confusion. Is the author out of ideas? Or did the Matrix run out of memory?

However, upon closer inspection, this man, who turned out to be none other than Akira Ojiro, the future hero's father, also had a tail—thin, with a tuft, resembling a lion's. And he himself looked like a lion—just as shaggy and dangerous.

At the moment, the tail was slightly bristling, like a "pipe," so to speak.

The man was in a bad mood:

"So, it was you who wrote yesterday and arranged the trial sparring with Mashi? I thought it would be someone older and stronger, but you…"

He scanned me skeptically from head to toe. I calmly met his gaze, occasionally distracted by his tail.

"Alright," Akira-sensei grumbled, "Have you competed anywhere? Do you have a belt? A dan? And did you come here alone? What if you get injured—who am I supposed to answer to?"

I raised my hands:

"My family knows where I am and has no objections. And I trained at Toga-sensei's dojo—I received excellent recommendations, as you surely know yourself."

"Hmm…"

"If possible, Ojiro-sensei, why don't you see for yourself? If I'm an untrained hack, you can kick me out in ten minutes, right?"

The man snorted:

"Ten minutes, you say… well, yeah, let's see if you can last even one to start. Do you even have a Quirk, kid?"

"I do. An enhancement type."

His gaze immediately became much more serious:

"Yeah, I remember you mentioned it in your letter… are you in control?"

"Absolutely."

"Powerful?"

"I think so," I said, mesmerized by the patterns Akira's tail was drawing in the air. It seemed to convey the slightest nuances of his mood. "But I won't use it until I'm one hundred percent sure I won't harm anyone."

The man thought for a moment, his mustache twitching ominously.

Finally, he sighed heavily:

"Alright. But only because Toga really spoke highly of you… and keep in mind—I'm watching you."

I silently bowed.

***

Ojiro Family Dojo "Jade Lion", Martial Arts Master Akira Ojiro.

The same time.

Akira-sensei cleared the space for sparring (having to drag away an overly enthusiastic nephew by his fluffy ear), called his son from the other end of the hall, introduced the boys to each other—and gave the signal. The match began.

He was skeptical. Now, to train on par with twelve-year-old Mashirao, one would already need either a similar mutation in physical parameters or, indeed, an enhancement Quirk. But "enhancers" are worth their weight in gold, and there aren't many of them. Rare things, in short.

If this Niren has such a Quirk—then why hasn't anyone heard of him? He hasn't won any championships, nor has anyone recommended him to UA.

And if he doesn't… well, this wouldn't be the first friendly sparring match where Mashi-chan completely wins in search of a worthy opponent.

And besides… Akira himself no longer dares to engage in a full fight with his son. If that kid gets him with his sledgehammer—it won't be pretty!

Meanwhile, the bout started sluggishly. His son was displaying his usual courtesy and restraint, allowing the guest to showcase himself, while the "guest" was being cautious. Akira frowned. Yes, there's logic in that, but time in his dojo isn't unlimited. Move it, move it!

The pace picked up, and Niren attacked energetically, going for two levels at once—a low kick to the knee and immediately a straight right punch. Well, his punch is well-trained… the block rang out sharply as Mashi-chan countered with his left. The blue-haired kid's technique was on point, no doubt about it. After bouncing back, the boy used the momentum to spin and kick, but this predictable attack was stopped by Mashirao's tail.

And then came a counterattack with that tail. Not even a Whirlwind Roll or a Dance, just a simple strike, hitting the arms set up in a proper block…

The blue-haired kid was thrown across the hall, tumbling to a stop on his back.

Akira hummed approvingly into his thick mustache: the boy had managed to more or less roll with the impact, avoiding injuries, except for a few scrapes. Still, the blow must have been devastating, primarily for his self-esteem—so the master expected that this Niren (what a strange name) would realize the vast gap between him and Mashirao, and leave the dojo on his own accord.

Akira was wrong.

Still lying on his back, the blue-haired boy suddenly smirked and clapped both hands on the floor beside him… causing something like a powerful shockwave that literally lifted him back onto his feet.

A chill ran down the sensei's spine.

Cracking his neck and stretching, the boy said:

"Knocking you down is a pleasure, Mr. Anderson."

And he launched an attack, initiating the second round. Frowning and trying to understand the meaning of the strange phrase, Akira almost missed the moment when the dynamics of the fight suddenly changed. Niren began to strike sharper and more fiercely, literally exploding with a series of punches ("Could it be that he wasn't showing everything he was capable of, but was just testing the opponent, as he mentioned earlier?" flashed through the sensei's mind), and at the moment when Mashirao blocked the last strike with his tail-Quirk, there was a bang…

This time it was his son who was getting up from the floor on the other side of the hall.

The onlookers, consisting of family members who had paused their training or rushed in from other buildings to watch, had their eyes bulging. Mashirao Ojiro—he's preparing to enter UA, everyone knows that! And here…

Quickly scanning Mashi-chan for injuries—and finding none—Akira-sensei smiled in satisfaction. Toga-kun wasn't lying, oh no, he wasn't… finally, a worthy sparring partner has been found!

***

Niren.

Oh, crap… how everything hurt after the fight!

Bruised forearms, battered knuckles, bruises on my ribs and thighs, a few scrapes… and my palms felt like they were on fire! Why was that happening?

Well, who cares. That's not the important part.

Forget what I said about that damn tail!

Yes, he only has a tail, but WHAT A TAIL! It's not just a tail; it's a huge, flexible log! Size really does matter…

Not only is the muscle covering this log as hard as steel—so much so (I had the chance to assess it) that it could probably block a bullet without much harm to itself, at most it might get stuck—but he also swings that log around like I swing… my… I really should come up with a name for my Quirk, by the way… and on top of that, he can fight as well as I can.

In short, a beast.

Surprisingly, we turned out to be almost perfect sparring partners—I can hit hard, he can block that hit, he can hit hard, I can… well, yeah. And overall, it's a very engaging experience—fighting an opponent who knows martial arts at your level but has one more limb than you do.

By the way, I liked Mashirao as a person too. Calm, thoughtful, and, most importantly, without any star syndrome. Hardworking as hell. And unlike me, who treated it as a tool for achieving specific goals, Mashi-kun was genuinely passionate about martial arts (all of them, it seemed, without exception), knew a ton of facts about them, and truly had a talent that put my persistence and determination to shame.

And he, like me, had been preparing for UA since he was four years old…

To my surprise, I found that this, essentially still a boy, could very well understand what it was like for me, and we had quite a few topics in common to talk about.

The fight itself, as well as the hundreds of subsequent routine sparring matches in the following days, revealed one very big problem I have.

I lack speed.

Basically, I'm just a physically fit kid with typical human capabilities. Yes, give me the time to prepare, "mine" the battlefield, and I'd be able to give even the best heroes… I mean villains… a run for their money. But they're rarely polite enough to give such an opportunity.

Right now, I wasn't even able to keep up with someone like Mashirao—trained, but essentially ordinary—simply because he had one more limb.

If I don't figure out how to transfer the properties of my Quirk, or, I don't know, start using some high-tech gadgets like roller skates or something in my future superhero costume, I'm done for in the first serious fight. That's the way it is.

By the way, my "Agent Smith" style lift-off deserves a mention. I've been thinking for a long time about how I did that… and I still don't get it. I had to shrug it off and put it on the back burner—this wasn't the last sparring match against a strong opponent…

***

This morning, despite a good run and equally good mood, the training didn't go well. Mashirao beat me again, and this time he did it without breaking a sweat and even delivered the first knockout—something that, in the context of my psychological age (or maybe despite it), irritated me immensely.

It went like this: I dodged a wide spinning kick over my head, dove in for a sweep, and seeing that he couldn't dodge in time, I was sure the round would be mine!

But that tailed bastard just slammed his log-tail on the floor and, changing his movement trajectory, simply jumped over me (flying three meters forward and one meter up).

And simultaneously smacked me in the forehead with his knee as hard as he could.

… Oh, the room is spinning…

… Hey, Mashirao, when did you master the duplication Quirk?..

… Niren, are you alright?..

... Ugh…

After pulling myself together, I felt downhearted.

Not only did I have to endure a medical check for a concussion—though I had seen nothing wrong with a mild TBI even back in my previous life, where I was into extreme sports—not only was I knocked out by a twelve-year-old, but… even the guy I considered useless just a month ago was progressing rapidly, coming up with new moves, and basically solving the same problems that were hanging over me.

And me?

I wasn't doing anything.

No "head issues" were found (guys, it's been cast iron since my previous life); a single bout of vomiting isn't a death sentence, so I skipped the end of the training and slowly made my way to school.

I thought along the way.

I got the impression that people in this world are sturdier and more resilient than they were in mine. But that's not surprising, considering Lemillion, who was able to fight villains even after losing his Quirk. Then again, he did train for half his life… yeah, that's such a rarity…

I was in a terrible mood, and on top of that, I was caught up in reflective thoughts. Some idea was spinning in my head, but I couldn't quite catch it by the tail… ugh, tail…

Hmm. Seriously, what exactly can the "Tailed Hero" do with his appendage?

As it turns out, quite a lot.

First of all, he can hit with it. Well, my whole battered body already knows about the properties of those hits. Not that.

Secondly, he can hang from it like some kind of iguana, and even swing from one wooden beam to another, like Spider-Man (who unfortunately doesn't exist here). Is this useful to me? Hardly. Not that.

Thirdly, he can stand on it like he would on his legs or arms—in short, use it as a support—and believe me, it's very unpleasant in a fight when you can get hit with two low kicks at the same time. But again, not that.

He also showed me his "Whirlwind Rolls"… a silly name, honestly, but that's a matter of mentality and perhaps a romantic nature. Anyway, he just spins in place, using his tail to defend against everything around him. Not that…

And then there's the new trick I had the honor of witnessing this morning. Mashirao said he'd been practicing these moves for a long time. Later, he showed me something like "bunny hopping" (a term straight from my early youth—from Counter-Strike 1.6), with which he could move at incredible speed, bouncing and instantly changing direction as needed by striking the ground with his tail.

But he only decided to use it in a fight against me now, after knowing what to expect from me.

Clever little bastard.

I smirked. Well, well, he knows… but I haven't used ranged attacks even once yet and have been trying to keep them a secret.

Alright. Now this last one—yeah, that's it. I need something like his "bunny hopping" too.

Hmm…

After the first sparring session, my palms hurt like hell. Right? Right. And why? It's logical to assume it's from the impact on the floor using my Quirk and the Matrix reference.

Mashirao can move at incredible speed and instantly change direction (though, to be fair, during such jumps, he's completely defenseless). Right? Right.

I can create a shock on any surface, right? Seems like it. Hmm…

So, theoretically… that surface could be me, right?

Alright. Let's assume that's the case.

The potential applications are endless, but right now, I'm specifically interested in finding a way to gain some speed.

What do I need for that? I need to enhance every step… creating an explosion… but instead of leaving craters behind me, somehow reverse the effect, pushing off not the ground, but my own foot.

Sounds crazy.

But you never know until you try.

Okay. How to try this out? To use my Quirk to its full potential, I'll need armored boots and gloves with cushioning, no less… something like what Deku will use in the future (and I really should start thinking about the design of my costume, by the way)…

So—let's start small. Let's say, ten percent of the full capacity…

In the meantime, I made it to school. I walked into class—and since it was recess, as I'd missed the first lesson—I calmly sat at my desk. My relationships with classmates still weren't working out, so there was no need to greet anyone.

So then…

I sat down—and clapped my hands loudly, ignoring the surprised looks. Then I stared intently at my palm, trying to release an enhancing impulse right from it.

It wasn't going very well.

It tickled…

Hmm… did it just work? Or was that just a breeze?

This was the captivating activity I was engaged in when a girl approached me…

Yui? What does she want?