Mei didn't just build a castle—she built a fortress.
She stacked blocks with architectural precision, forming defensive walls, adding towers with "cannons" made of pencils, all while narrating the entire process.
"See, the walls need to be thick here to withstand attacks! And the towers should be positioned for maximum visibility! And we need a moat—do you have anything we can use for water?"
Kaito couldn't hold back his sigh this time. "No."
"Hm. We'll have to imagine the moat, then. Okay! Now we need defenders! Where are your action figures?"
Kaito handed over a few.
She placed them along the walls with deliberate care. "This one's the captain. This one's the engineer—that's the most important one. And this one… hmm… this one's the scout."
Then she grabbed one of his toy cars. "And this is the enemy's siege weapon!"
She rolled the car toward the fortress.
It bumped into the wall, toppling a few blocks.
"Oh no! The fortress is under attack! Quick, Kaito—you're the captain! Give orders!"
I really don't want to.
But she was staring at him expectantly, golden eyes bright with excitement.
"Um… the engineer should… fix the wall?" he offered hesitantly.
"Good call! Engineer, report to the breach!" She grabbed the "engineer" figure and moved it to the damaged section. "He's fixing it now! But wait—the enemy's sending in another wave!"
She rolled the car again.
This time, it knocked over an entire section of the wall.
"Ahhh! We're losing ground! Kaito, what do we do?!"
"Counterattack…?"
"YES! Brilliant! Captain, lead the charge!" She grabbed his action figure and made it "jump" off the wall toward the car. "Take that, evil siege weapon!"
She made explosion noises.
She sure is fully committed to this.
Kaito watched, internally exhausted yet faintly amused, as Mei carried on the "battle" with unrestrained enthusiasm.
It stirred memories of his own childhood, from a world that no longer could he reach.
Even back then, he had always preferred playing with computers—hacking together scripts in his bedroom, taking apart old electronics just to see their circuit boards, arguing with strangers on obscure programming forums at 2 AM. Social games like this had never been his thing. It's too much energy for an energy-saver guy like him.
He glanced briefly at the people who were now his parents. They were decent people.
His parents in his previous life hadn't been bad though. They're just so busy that he had been left to fend for himself. Even after dropping out of college, he still sent them money from time to time, despite their disappointment. Their relationship had been largely transactional.
Still, he thought, they must have felt something when he died.
Kaito felt a twinge of pity for his current family.
I don't think I'll ever be able to truly connect with them emotionally… But maybe I can repay what they give me—just like I did before to my original parents.
While he was lost in those thoughts, Mei continued narrating every move, making explosive sound effects and dramatizing every moment.
"—and the captain swings his sword—swish! And the enemy's weapon is destroyed—boom! And the fortress is saved! Victory!"
Must've been fun to be like her. To be obsorbed in her own world.
But watching Mei behave the way a child normally would, Kaito began to think more seriously.
In his current situation—constantly burdened by the mismatch between his mature mind and his child's body and psychology—he would inevitably accumulate stress. And when stress built up, mistakes followed.
Over the past few days, he'd already gotten a sense of his parents' personalities, and just how sharp they were when it came to noticing changes in their child. At the same time, he'd been spending most of his waking hours acting—pretending—which was emotionally exhausting. Sooner or later, that exhaustion would make him slip.
Maybe I should loosen up around them.
Sure, I can't afford to be emotionally distant like I used to be—but even I have my own hobbies like playing on the computer. If I can show those naturally, I can relax more naturally, too.
When he'd chosen the world of My Hero Academia and the Error Pathway as his power, he'd been curious about what he could influence using his abilities and his personality alone. That curiosity hadn't faded.
What had changed was that he needed to think more carefully about how.
"That was awesome! Let's do it again!"
Mei's voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
Kaito looked at her with a smile. "Yeah!"
For now, he would actively push back against his older mentality and sink into his child's body. There was nothing wrong with simply playing with Mei.
***
For the next hour, Kaito endured Mei's relentless creativity.
She built. She narrated. She made sound effects. She assigned roles to inanimate objects. She created elaborate backstories for toy figures that didn't need backstories.
Eventually, Hatsume-san called out from the living room. "Mei! Time to go home!"
"Aww! Already?!"
"We can play again anytime, Mei-chan," Kaito said to comfort her—while thinking the exact opposite.
Mei was still an extrovert. He was an introvert. The two did not mix well.
Of course, Mei didn't know that as she turned to Kaito with bright expression. "Yes! That was so fun! Let's play again soon!"
"...!"
She hugged him suddenly—he barely had time to react—and then ran off toward the door.
"Bye, Kaito! See you later! Next time we're building a rocket! Don't forget!"
The door closed.
Kaito remained seated on the floor, surrounded by the wreckage of blocks and toys scattered in every direction, dumbfounded. Soon, he let out a long sigh.
Yuki peeked into the room. "Did you have fun, sweetie?"
For a moment, he considered lying. dismissing the thought as quickly as it appeared.
"Mei-chan is really energetic," Kaito said, his exhaustion clear in both his voice and expression. "I couldn't keep up with her… Is that weird, Mama?"
Yuki walked over and knelt beside him, her face soft with concern. "That's not weird at all. Everyone's different. Some people match your pace, and some don't. Mei-chan ivery energetic, so it's only natural that you'd feel overwhelmed, Kaito-kun."
Kaito glanced at her.
She really is attentive... But most mothers are like that. Mine is just built different.
The corners of his lips lifted slightly.
"Still, Mei-chan seems really smart," he added. "I think I'll still like playing with her. I wanted to know more about her as a friend."
"Oh, really?" Yuki looked a little puzzled, but she smiled anyway. "That's good, then. She doesn't really have any friends. It will be good for you to befriend her."
I don't think she cares about that.
Mei was content in her own world. Friends, lovers, even family—he doubted she cared much about any of them.
And truthfully, he didn't care about being friends with her either. What he knew was that Mei would be useful as a creator of support items.
If ROB hadn't lied, then his Quirk was certainly Error Pathway.
At Sequence 7, he should already be capable of Kazuma-style theft, along with physical and sensory enhancements several times greater than those of an ordinary person. At higher sequences, he would likely be able to steal abstract concepts—even identities—but that was still a long way off.
To reach that point, he needed to acquire everything he could. And support items would be his primary means of doing so.
For someone like him, whose Quirk revolved around theft and exploitation, support equipment was indispensable. Support items could grant him capabilities his Quirk could not. Mobility gear for when he stole someone's flight but needed a fallback. Defensive equipment for the vulnerable moments between thefts. Offensive tools that didn't rely on borrowed power.
In a world where his versatility depended entirely on what he could take from others, having independent functionality was essential insurance.
Mei Hatsume, even at four years old, already showed the raw talent that would make her UA's most prolific inventor. Staying close to her now meant access to custom equipment later—gear tailored specifically to his quirk's mechanics, built by someone who wouldn't ask too many questions about why he needed such oddly specific modifications.
It was practical and efficient for a long-term investment.
"For now, tidy up the toys first, Kaito-kun," Yuki said, pulling him out of his thoughts. "We'll have dinner after."
"Okay," Kaito replied. His voice lacked its usual enthusiasm; he simply smiled instead. Yuki seemed to notice but chose not to press him, likely because she already understood why.
Once she was gone, Kaito looked around the room, letting his thoughts drift. His eyes eventually landed on a phone lying on the floor. He recognized it immediately as his mother's, and at the same time, a faint sense of unease crept in. His eyes narrowed unconsciously.
Why is that glowing...?
A subtle, inexplicable light seemed to seep from the phone's entire body. It wasn't coming from the screen; he was certain of that. He rubbed his eyes once, then again, but the glow stubbornly remained. When he glanced around the room, he realized the phone wasn't the only thing shimmering. The television, the refrigerator, other valuables scattered throughout the house—something even gleamed faintly from inside a drawer.
Every time his gaze lingered on one of them, strange information flowed into his mind—not in words he could immediately articulate, but instinctively. A sense of value, worth, and price.
This is…
Kaito returned his focus to the phone on the floor, unaware that his movements had grown unnaturally quick. His right hand felt oddly light as he raised it, fingers spread, reaching toward the device. The moment he imagined it resting in his palm, the thought barely finished forming before reality followed.
"Oh."
Three seconds later, the phone was in his hand.
Kaito's lips curved into a small, satisfied smile.
My Quirk is finallyawakened!
***
A/N: Consistency has always been something I strive for.
I'm not a particularly good writer, so I often ask others for their opinions—good or bad—about my writing. It helps a lot when feedback includes the reasons behind it and possible solutions. If not, I'll try to figure them out myself.
I'm a perfectionist and an overthinker. I want things to be perfect, but I tend to overthink details that aren't really useful at the moment.
Even if I could create a perfect chapter, the amount of effort required wouldn't be worth the time sacrificed. At the same time, putting in no effort at all isn't acceptable either.
If a perfect chapter is 100%, then I aim for around 70–80% on average, with 50% being the absolute minimum.
Right now, I'm still struggling with writing the main character. He lacks depth, and his main traits—sarcasm and being outspoken—aren't coming through as well as I'd like. I'm generally bad at writing OC characters, but as mentioned in the synopsis, I should be able to improve the MC after this chapter.
Rate it from 1–10, with reasoning if possible. That would really help me figure out what's missing from the story.