I walked home.
My uniform was dirty. My knees were scraped.
I tried to brush the dust off before opening the front door.
It didn't work. I looked like I rolled down a hill.
I took a deep breath.
I opened the door.
The house was quiet.
I tiptoed toward the stairs.
Yukino: "Stop."
I froze.
She was standing in the hallway.
She had a book in her hand. The Catcher in the Rye. Again.
She looked me up and down.
Her eyes narrowed.
Yukino: "You look terrible."
YN: "Thanks. I try."
Yukino: "What happened? Did you get into a fight?"
YN: "No. I tripped. Construction site near the station."
Yukino: "You tripped? You usually have better balance."
YN: "It was a really big rock."
She stared at me.
She knew I was lying.
But Yukino didn't pry if she thought it was stupid.
And tripping over a rock is stupid.
Yukino: "Go shower. You're tracking dirt on the floor. Mother would have a fit."
YN: "Right. Sorry."
I ran upstairs.
I locked my door.
I collapsed on the bed.
My heart was still racing.
I pulled the black card out of my pocket.
UA.
It felt heavy.
In the anime, UA is a high school.
Here, it's a secret organization.
That meant no sports festival. No dorm life.
Just work.
I waited until midnight.
The house was silent.
Yukino was asleep.
I changed into black sweatpants and a hoodie.
I opened my window.
I climbed down the trellis.
Easy.
I used to sneak out to internet cafes in my old life.
Some skills transfer over.
I looked at the address on the card.
It was in the Minato district.
A boring office building.
I walked there. It took forty minutes.
I kept my hood up.
I checked for tails.
Nobody. Just a drunk salaryman singing karaoke to himself.
I reached the building.
It looked abandoned.
The windows were dark.
I stood by the front door.
There was no doorbell. Just a camera.
The buzzer clicked.
Voice: "Come in."
The lock disengaged.
I pushed the door open.
The lobby was empty.
Just an elevator waiting open.
I stepped inside.
It didn't go up. It went down.
Floor B4.
The doors opened.
It wasn't a basement.
It was a high-tech gym.
Concrete walls. Metal mats.
And him.
Yagi Toshinori.
He was sitting on a bench, wearing a yellow tracksuit.
He looked even skinnier than before.
Yagi: "You came."
YN: "I was curious."
Yagi: "Curiosity is good. It killed the cat, but the cat died knowing the truth."
YN: "That's dark."
Yagi: "It is a dark job."
He stood up.
He walked over to a table.
There was a teapot. He poured two cups.
Yagi: "Sit."
I sat.
He slid a cup to me.
Yagi: "What you saw today... that is the reality. There are people with power. We call them Quirks."
YN: "And you fight them?"
Yagi: "We police them. The government hides them. If the public knew, society would collapse. Panic. Chaos."
YN: "So UA is... what? The Men in Black?"
Yagi: "Close. We are a task force. We find rare quirk users. We train them. We protect the secret."
He looked at me seriously.
Yagi: "You don't have a quirk, YN-shonen."
YN: "I know. I'm normal."
Yagi: "But you have the spirit. I saw it."
He stood up again.
He paced around the room.
Yagi: "I am injured. I cannot keep doing this forever. I am looking for a successor."
I knew this was coming.
The big moment.
But hearing it in real life was different.
It was terrifying.
If I said yes, I had to fight All For One.
If I said no, I could go back to playing video games.
But...
I remembered the fear.
I remembered the helplessness in the alley.
I didn't want to feel that again.
YN: "A successor? You mean... you can give me your power?"
Yagi: "Yes. My quirk is unique. It can be passed down."
He stopped pacing.
He looked at me.
The skeletal face looked serious.
Yagi: "It is called One For All. It stockpiles power. It is a burden. It will hurt. It might kill you if you are not careful."
YN: "Great sales pitch."
Yagi: "I need to be honest. This isn't a comic book. You will bleed."
I looked at my hands.
They were soft. Unused to work.
But I remembered the rock monster crushing that guy.
I remembered the sound of the wall cracking.
YN: "If I take it... can I protect people?"
Yagi: "Yes. You can be the Symbol of Peace. Or just a guy who saves people in alleys. That is up to you."
I took a sip of the tea.
It was bitter.
I made my choice.
I wasn't going to be a background character.
Not anymore.
YN: "Okay. I'm in."
Yagi smiled.
For a second, he looked like All Might again.
Yagi: "Good answer."
He reached up.
He plucked a single strand of blond hair from his head.
He held it out to me.
Yagi: "Eat this."
I stared at the hair.
I stared at him.
YN: "...Excuse me?"
Yagi: "It contains my DNA. It is how the power transfers. Eat it."
YN: "That is gross."
Yagi: "Do you want the power or not?"
I sighed.
I took the hair.
I looked at it.
This was my life now.
Eating hair in a basement.
YN: "Bottoms up."
I swallowed it.
Nothing happened.
No lightning. No thunder.
YN: "I don't feel anything."
Yagi: "Give it a few hours. Your stomach needs to digest it."
He checked his watch.
Yagi: "Go home, YN. Sleep. Tomorrow, come back here after school. Your hell training begins."
YN: "Hell training?"
Yagi: "You have a weak body. If you use One For All now, your limbs will explode."
YN: "Explode?!"
Yagi: "Like water balloons. Good night."
He waved me off.
I walked back to the elevator.
I felt nauseous.
Maybe from the hair. Maybe from the anxiety.
I pressed the button for the ground floor.
I was a UA trainee now.
And I still had a math test tomorrow.
YN: "What a mess."