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The year is 2022 and quirks have caught up in prominence to the world especially upon the advent of the age of heroes, alongside the skyrocketing development of technology. After graduating from Yuuei and finishing his training with Gran Torino, Yagi Toshinori was supposed to go on his life, pursuing his hero career and within a decade, manage to become a renowned hero under the name All Might, get injured within the next decade and die in accordance to the predicted timeline of his former sidekick's foresight.The year is 2048, a century past the quirks' first recorded appearance in the world. This was supposedly the story of a boy who will receive an inherited power from the man that tried to carry the world, became a legend of his own right - and he had to reach that pedestal and then expected even to surpass. But great power meant great injuries, a lost youth and in exchange of the carefree days, the looming responsibility to stand at the top. With the age of the fallen Number 1 ending, he will strive to meet the odds and defeat the greatest evil.Except in this time, Yagi Toshinori switched his usual route from school- on this day before graduation, nonetheless- and ended up helping a salesman from a villain attack. While it was nothing he needed the One for All, he did quite inspire the man who decides to hand over a package as thanks.NerveGear - the latest technological advancement taking the world by storm, alongside the latest VRMMORPG in the market - Sword Art Online."It's alright, son. You've saved me quite the trouble," They both stood at the side after the whole proceedings with the police and stuff, and he met the blond with a smile, "Yuuei huh? Well, I'll see you, Hero! For now, please take this as my thanks!"Resistance was futile and he ended up taking the package from the other. After all, it was just an extra stock. The man wanted to try it for his son but seeing the kind teen made him rescind his decisions a bit."A student surely needs to have time for recreations, too." So Yagi nodded, and ended up taking a different path home. Timelines split, where in one he would have been excluded from one of the jarring events of the century to this one where he changes from spectator to participant.He glanced down at the package and studied the device, taking slower steps but no less awareness of his surroundings. He spied the manual at the back and started reading.He thumbed through the manual as he finished the trip home. Arriving at the flat, he noticed Gran Torino has yet to come home. Sighing, he replaced his bag and paused - he wasn't hungry yet...He glanced at the device, still in the packaging before shrugging, curious to try the latest technology. Admittedly, he has his inheritance but he liked to live frugal. And he arrived early, fridge is fully stocked, place is spotless and he finished homework - okay stop rambling in your mind, Toshinori.Just a quick peek before dinner shouldn't hurt, right? Let him be a normal student as the salesman said, right?He left a note for Gran and started the device in accordance to the specs. The helmet size was alright, their place should handle the wattage and the settings okay. Mid-calibration, he considered buffing up - but surely the game is best without Quirks, right??He wonders a bit, as he remembered the game does not have any means for emergency exit - but surely, the NerveGear has been released for a while for some other games, so it should be okay...So he finished the preparations, took a comfortable position in bed and proceeded."Link Start!"[ Avatar Name ] Toshi seems too short, Yagi is too formal so - mixing should be okay... [ Toshiya ][ Gender ] Never mind that people call me a pretty boy, still, I'm... [ Male ]
[ Customization ]
The prompt disappeared and he's facing boxes like Yuuei's costume containers, with previews of clothes. He selects a black basic, custom blue harnesses, dark boots and finger-less gloves. He only slightly alters his basic features: dark hair in a half-updo, length reaching his arms, and chocolate eyes - he sees a bit of her in his current appearance and before he knows it, he's pushing his fingers to twist his mouth to a smile as she does - It is him, but with her coloring. I miss you Nana...He selects [ Done ] and another set of shelves replace his surroundings.
[ Weapon ]
A sword huh?
He's never fancied a weapon and with his supposed Quirk, he wouldn't start any time soon. But as he hefted a wazikashi out of one of the boxes, he recalled a memory, one he has almost forgotten- almost a different lifetime ago...Remember, Toshinori, wield your strength for others... The man smiled before pushing a pressure point on his neck.
He wakes up to the broken dojo of his family and upon the questioning of the police.
In his haste, all he has managed to salvage is the broken sword of his father, blade snapped near the tsuba and the former grey tsuka dyed brown with the blood of the owner.
He closed his eyes for a moment, out of respect- and decided, it was time he stopped running away from that legacy.He replaces the sword and tries to find one that could fit with him.Looking back to that event, the creator, Kayaba Akihiko, was revealed to have an Illusion Quirk. But along his genius came the urge to remove all the Quirkless in the world. Since the appeal of the game leaned more towards that niche of people - what with 1/3 outright having them and the world moving on from its prejudicial stance on their abilities, it was evident that a Quirk-filled world was up and coming - he ensured that of the 10,000 initial launch, more than 70% were Quirkless. Not to say he didn't prepare in the advent of those who possessed Quirks venturing in the game - it would also be a culling to ensure only the best will survive.Having the device directly access the head - ready to heat the brain and explode it should a Quirk activate - is a surefire way to threaten someone, like holding a gun to another. The Aincrad Hostage Situation, as it will become known, with 10,000 individuals battling to clear the world created by a madman. He does so wanted a challenge and a good view before his end- because assuredly this is known worldwide- and he wonders, if there are real heroes he will be facing.He has long wanted a world of his design under his control...And now that he has it, and he wanted to see it under those he consider lesser than him.
In game, a man known as undefeated and the Leader of he Knights of Blood would betray the players at the 75th floor as his identity is compromised. There was a talk of confrontation, but in the end he retreated.
He reappeared to face the top players at the last floor, with a massive behemoth by his side ad was defeated.
Any other details from the participants are unknown. The little investigation results discuss the life of a virtual world in two years, but none is known about the top players.
No one ever truly learns what happened in the game.
What happened in Aincrad, stays in Aincrad- unsaid but effected by all players.
There is only one known thing about the game's clearing - there was a group of legendary players who took the game by storm and cleared the last levels. No one knows their true names, and those who have an inkling will never tell.
Also, another curious information, the played Toshiya, who disappeared from any of the games after clearing Aincrad.
Toshiya, the Guild Leader.
His gaze meet a world starting to turn to Dusk - interestingly similar to the sky guiding him earlier on his walk. Classes were dismissed early but the spectacle has taken much of his time, alongside reminiscing of his remaining time in Yuuei.He glimpsed around and saw a world unlike reality but alive- a massive park with a towering stone and the numerous houses surrounding it. There were numerous people and numerous conversations- so much movements and excitements - he felt his own rise in response, and he wondered, marveled at how far everything has advanced. Everything looked real and he took his first steps, looking around, and stopping before the stone.Grinning, he swiped his hand down, recalling the basics as instructed by the earlier preparation hall, and studied the menu that appeared. He memorized the controls, and loaded the map ~ Town of Beginnings ~, he found the nearest exit and memorized the path.As he was about to close the screen, he paused, feeling that something is amiss.Never ignore your instincts. A man he cannot remember, a woman whose death hurt him so much and a mentor hammering the lesson - all three of them and their voices echoed in his head."Come on dude! Let's go to the Grounds!" A male passed, dragging his friend, and with it, his attention to the rising danger he sensed. He tries to refocus, but he swipes his menu away and looks around. Maybe it's just me being uneasy?He hears another crowd of friends and lets their enthusiasm wash over him. He was going to relax. He will have finished Yuuei tomorrow. He just wanted a break today...He opened eyes he has subconsciously shut and starts to head to the grounds. He has a game to play. Something about the whole thing felt familiar and unfamiliar at once. The blade on his hand was unbalanced but-
Hold it properly, unbalanced swords still have souls and could cut you down if you don't respect them
He grips it properly and faces the Boar - charging forward but slow, for him - he sidesteps before swinging the edge down, cutting through the back down to the flank. There was a bit of simulated resistance before flesh gave way-The beast is reduced to mere pixels, and he feels a bit of cheer and rebuke.
A good swordsman knows timing, distance, reaction time, and reaction ability - our bread and butter-
Sometimes, he wonders about his life before the Orphanage.
He doesn't recall his life before the age of 9, when his entire family was slaughtered. He was spared when his father hid him on one of their storage cupboards- but the voice feels familiar - with the familiar warmth from Nana- from Gran's voices when they talk to him.
He met Nana when he was 12, and trained with her until her death, the day he started Yuuei. It took Gran more than a year to track him down and by then, he had long been self-sufficient, struggling but making his own progress in his own way. Gran takes him under his wing and proceeds to help him, going as much as being their homeroom teacher for his final year.
While neither Nana nor Gran uses anything but their fists or legs in the good old hand to hand combat, a part of him that used to hold a shinai, and runs through katas hide away. The two mentors, over their accumulated times they discuss Toshinori and with their own experiences in training him, wonder that in some ways, the boy was already long disciplined, long able to take the exercises, the training they required of him.
Toshinori has spent enough years at the Orphanage to make his own mark then. He refused to get adopted to let the other younger kids have better families, going as far to judge the foster families himself on several occasions. There was something instinctive in his gaze, commented by other parents. Anyhow, he remained the "Nii-chan" in the Orphanage, defusing arguments, teaching about Quirks and overall helping around - it may not be his home but it was something he used to have, and a shelter was the least the world could provide to those who have nothing, he decides.
When Gran transferred to Yuuei, and reaching 18, he leaves and reduces his visits to the weekends. He remains a warm individual that caretakers and other children fondly remember. And while there was never an issue with Quirks in the Orphanage (whether you have one or not, we have all been left here and all we have is one another - one of his favorite ways to defuse arguments, they were all family even for this small moment), he remains focused before, to make a difference, to smile for those who can't and in his heart, to help other people when he can.
Sometimes, he wonders about the past. But he will remember to keep running towards the future. He hefts the sword up, noting that there were no chips or cracks, before holding it at the ready to face the other monsters.He steps close to one and as he raises his right hand, he feels a sort of click before suddenly moving his body into the motion. The sword flashes with a light trail and he finds the Boar dissolving faster.Sword skill? A window pops before him and he recalls that advice in the pamphlet - A proper initial motion would initiate sword skill.He tries to recall the feeling, and while the next motion carries him with the trails of light, it takes the tenth Boar before he could proceed to do the same skill, this time without the light play.So if I had raised it lower and a bit less hard, the skill doesn't activate, he considers the movement, before promptly deciding that while the system could support and augment his skill, he still needs to train himself to be capable of mimicking the system but without the augmentation.I could train here! Yagi- no, Toshiya, gleefully considers, before getting back to the task. One moment, he was at an empty field, cleared of all other Boards roaming he grounds. Next, there was a flash of light ad he was at the main square of the Town of Beginnings-Staring at the grinning, bleeding visage of the creator and he tried not to let the sheer terror freeze him-All his happiness sucked away down the drain as the man declared a hostage of 10,000 all for his shits and kicks-Worse, he wanted to eliminate any advantage - sticking to the game's protocols with mere swords, no spells barring magic items, no quirks - a true survival game with nothing but their own abilities.
He's faced worse, with a man shattering the broken body of his mentor, and him unable to look away from the sight-
He's seen worse - the attendant too late to prevent him from seeing a once pristine hall into a bloodbath scene of massacre-
Think of it as an exam, Toshinori, he all but begs from himself.He gulped down his fear and let adrenaline chase it away, much like One for All used to thrum in his veins.He must not summon that strength, he wills, and locks away the sensation of electricity chasing in his veins, of power by 8 people in his own.He checks the inventory and sees his visage, caused by the Mirror item.He lets it fall and shatter to the ground, as his hair turns blond and his eyes turn electric blue and he feels like he lost her all over again.He can't calm down with everyone panicking in this Town Square. He dimly recalls the map and starts heading away - the Exit - a moment to breathe is preferable.Dashing, out of breath, but willing his legs to move, he reaches the exit and nearly clashes with another fellow - he's in all black and bolting, the motion too fast and he unbalances - but Toshinori, no Toshiya, grabs his shoulder and digs his feet, steadying them both.A thanks, introduction and a conversation - before he knows it, the other's drive is pushing him, then he sharing contacts with Kirito, and running with him to the next town. It takes a little over 2 years, more than 3,000 people lost and a group of the best players to clear the game.From the shadows, a man in a black suit curses the news and gruffly comments, "Well, Akihiko-kun tried... But I did get some good Quirks from the handful that died...""It's quite typical both of you were using one another..." A doctor steps from the shadows and the other laughs - dark and chilling, "But I am All for One and he didn't know any better of things, so it's all good in the end."He wakes in an infirmary and meets the eyes of his mentor, who proceeds to squeeze his life away before starting to chastise him from playing the Death Game.He waves the man off, letting him go look for a nurse, but he hears the cheers in the other rooms and knows everyone has woken up. He glances out the window and sees Musutafu. He had lost the past 2 years, the only one in his batch that was held back by his participation of the game- given he has never met any of his classmates there.But he doesn't falter, instead, smiles genuinely, as if he was privy to a secret no one would understand even when he told. It takes him five years before he runs to a fellow ex-SAO player. Another for hi to reconnect with his old friends, and his Guildmates. A decade into his Hero career, he decides to take this world by another storm, seeing how it changed and how Heroism was dwindling to less helping-others and more making-myself-known.It takes another decade of living two lives, one as a Hero saving people when he can, the other from the shadows, supported by his fellow survivors from SAO and he meets his match, a forgotten enemy that catches him (both actually) unaware.
He knows it is futile, that he cannot destroy All for One in his lifetime, no matter how much he hopes but-
but Japan and the world can entertain an era of peace.
(In actuality, long before he even he had his victory over his nemesis, he has done more than enough.)
He tries not to deal a deathblow to the man, but the other has plunged his hand in his chest and
it h u r t s.
He has to go. He needs to leave the hospital.He wants to tell Sir that he has long lived two lives, but the man refuses to let him leave.His phone was crushed, his family would be worryingOne encounter with All for One and all a decade's work gone the drain? Unacceptable.He tries to enunciate these to them, but they have never been aware that he was not always All Might- he knows his limits, thank you very much- but he has to go-..Sir used his Quirk, unknowing that while All Might agreed his usage on their cases, but made him promise to never use it on him.Sir, who does not know his Quirk can be limited by a piece of chemical they have started imbibing in their blades.A chemical they discovered to be in part of the manufacturing of the NerveGears and one of the things peope still find out about Kayaba.A blade that is currently sitting in the clutch that Sir carried- and Sir does not see Toshiya, or Yagi Toshinori- but he sees what he wants and that's a bad end before the decade ends...He tries to remind them of his duty. Tries to agree. Tries to leave.Yagi Toshinori is drowning under two names.He needs to be All Might.He needs to be Toshiya..
.
He wants to be comforted, not scolded.
.
.
Oh. They left?
Pretty funny that people you meet in your teens, those that battled alongside you in a battlefield, comrade in arms for a life-or-death situation would chase you to the very ends of the world so you can regroup with them. They let him take hits, but support him, fight with him, heal him and take his damage if they can.
In comparison, he had people in the industry saving others- but he chokes on their expectations- he drowns in the call to save others- they tell him to save himself but they don't help, they try but it is painful and weighed with the information of wht he is letting down- an industry he loved once? starting to hate?, they step back - they rile him up and bring him d o w n.
He doesn't want this, he never did. Does it look like he purposely went after All for One? He forgot the man existed on most good days!
He tries to tell them, tries to spell his regret and tries to get comfort- but an industry built on getting up and being tough and low refractory periods has taken its toll.They separated ways. It takes him three months of hospital visits, surgeries and discussions. He moves to meet his friends personally. A family meeting have him stopping his top members from destroying the Hero Community because what the fuckBut he wants an out and he gets it. He limits the Heroism to his current limit of 7 hours and does not work on weekends. He advises the government, the military, the police and his other contacts - but in a petty way, not the Hero community.The past three had everyone on high alert there because yes, he hasn't appeared for a while.
Naomasa sighed, before answering, "They want you to apologize first for not taking their advice to rest."
Kirito rolled his eyes so hard and Asuna slammed her glass on the table.
Toshiya silences the argument before it rises, "They walked out of my life first, Nao."
The world changes a bit. There is less All Might and more Toshiya. The former appears in various places, overseas and Japan every now and then.Toshiya is more subtle but also needing more care, and more remedial training. He travels the world as his usual, balancing the need to take care of his body (lest Asuna go through with her threat to cut his legs), to try out more of the games (he hadn't been able to interfere after Aincrad with his work, but he did try to connect with them as much as his fellow pro Heroes in other countries) to see more of the world and to enjoy life.
The world isn't yours to bear, Toshiya. You don't have to be All Might all the time. Let everyone else handle it.
Yagi Toshinori was drowning under All Might.He was dying - he would have surrendered, had he never taken that game.In another life, he would be holding medicines in his arms til the end.This time, he lugged around a black case and special permits for the customized sword.It's a couple of years from the time he put a supposed end to his enemy, but he feels the shadows shift- and he knows another reckoning will happen.So he goes back to his hometown and finally settles down.
"Of all places, this old building?"
"Hey I used to live here, Kirito."
"Sorry Toshi-nii. .. Apologize."
"Yes, Asuna. Sorry Toshiya-nii."
"Maa, let's start your Home, Toshi-jii!"
"Yes, yes, Yui-chan."
It's a simple decision to purchase the old building he used to rent - he and Gran lived in the third floor. It was also simple to renovate it and make the entire building available if any of them wanted to visit. His co-leaders tried to protest, but-
"I will most likely live the rest of my life alone, had I never met any of you-"
They dropped by every now and then. The first floor was storage, second for food, third for gaming, fourth and fifth for bedrooms and bathrooms, sixth for a library and a board room and the seventh for a training room.It's a month of living together, the four of them when they have to go live their lives again. In time they left, but this time, their lives echoed in the building he stayed in.It is another week when his phone rings incessantly.
"Hello-"
"Ugh, please respond to chats, Toshiya-nii"
"Ah sorry Kirito, I got preoccupied-"
"Ah geez take a break from being All Might and log in- live Nii-chan!"
He laughs but acquiesces to the point.
"In other news, I am still looking for a successor and judging the current Heroes in the field."
The other line buzzes and he knows this discussion could proceed from bad to worse-
"Hm, well you will always be our Hero, Toshiya."
He freezes in the answer, remembering the 100th floor and defeating Akihiko, clearing the game and finally- saving everyone from that hell.
"Ah, I think you broke him, Kirito-kun."
He splutters and breathes again, just as the Yui's voice comes through, "Either way, you promised to tell everyone you are back!"He peeks at the calendar and sends a message to Naomasa. You guys can handle if I don't bother tonight?
Ugh Finally, take a good rest Toshi.
"Okay okay, I'm going online tonight."
"Oh great! Ring us if you have an emergency if ever-"
"What if they don't-"
"Don't be a stranger, Toshi-niichan~" he snorted at the response, overhearing Kirito's laughter at the other end.Trust Asuna to mimic Kirito's speech patterns every now and then, even on her articulation.
"Fine, I'll send the address later. I'll be online in an hour so send my regards to everyone for the meantime, Asuna, Kirito, Yui-chan."
"Link Start!"A familiar town square meets his eyes, and he registers the night sky in this land.The moment he does appear online, a group nearly mauls him in a glomp. It's a reunion.The game is a remake of Sword Art Online.He forgets to be All Might, lets Yagi Toshinori rest, and he reappears in the games as Toshiya.Then there is the Boss fight and he feels more alive in this world, free from the pain of his side. He logged out and savored the smile on his lips, before shifting his gaze at the sealed case on his bed. Putting away his headphones, he settled on his bed and ran his hand at the sensor and with a click - the locks released with a hiss.All Might never fought with items (barring the trials he had with the Support Department more than a decade ago)But Toshiya did, once upon a time.Trapped in a death game, wielding a broadsword with his fellow Clearers on the front lines to reach the top of Aincrad, it all felt like another lifetime ago.