Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everything ends silently. It's unnerving. Even with the wind striking his face and his messy crying stealing his breath when he's choking on his tears, Karma can still sense that something’s wrong.

Even as Nagisa sobs over the abandoned clothes of their once-sensei, as the glowing particles that are left of him engulf Class 3-E, Karma knows there’s a disturbance in the atmosphere and it’s freezing him in disturbed anticipation, sending shivers down his spine when he's meant to be mourning.

The feeling follows him when they enter the quiet classroom for the first class with the absence of Korosensei, but there’s no source for the feeling and therefore nothing for Karma to do about it.

As he solemnly flicks through the coloured pages filled with their teacher’s drawings and life lessons, softly smiles at the yearbook and diploma that were all left on his desk, the feeling stays stuck to his entire being like a piece of gum on the sole of his shoe.

It’s creepy, and it's weird, but there’s no solution regardless and he assumes it's just the lingering effects of Korosensei’s death.

It's not.

Fatigue hits him like a truck when he lies his head on his desk. Not unlike the rest of his classmates, they're all tired out from the time they spent crying their eyes out and now he just feels like a wrung out towel. It takes a moment to get comfortable resting on his wrists, but once in the right position, he revels in the relaxation.

Unlike his outward appearance however, fuzzy anticipation buzzes throughout his bloodstream. His spinal cord is a tingling mess as his neurons malfunction and lose direction of the place they were heading.

It’s only when he realises that he can’t feel his fingertips does he comprehend that something’s wrong, that it’s not his paranoia messing with his head. His neck, wrists, ankles and skull burn with an intensity he’s never felt before. Panic creeps into his chest and bursts from the intensity of it, yet he can't move a single inch.

He’d like to think that this was the part where he starts hyperventilating and his classmates move to help him, but his sudden random paralysis does nothing to aid in alerting his friends and when thick black splodges blur the edges of his vision, trepidation spreads from his heart to the rest of his body stressing his circulatory system and yet it doesn’t change a thing.

He’s swaying, his mind a warzone between an armada and the sea, and whichever side Karma is on, he knows he’s losing. Polished shoes appear next to his desk, and he thinks he can hear a soft voice calling out his name, but he really can’t tell reality from delusion at this point.

“-rma,” A saccharine voice is ringing through his mind, but it’s impossible for him to reply regardless of what he wants to do.

He can hear the same buzzing penetrating his thoughts, growing increasingly more and more and more - infecting every sane idea with its vibrations and draining him of any peace his mind once had.

His body feels as though it’s combusting, hysteria painting his expression as the black dots spread until there’s no colour left in his sight anymore. He collapses at some point, the floor a welcome coldness soothing his temperature as his consciousness fades and melts into serenity as the pain finally disappears.

He’s floating, but the usual peace he expects to feel does not come.

Mercury eyes reopen a second later, but the change in scenery tilts his sanity from its usual stable, balanced axis into confusion. He’s no longer greeted with the chipped wooden beams of his classroom, instead faced with a glossy tv mounted on the wall, light reflecting from the crystal chandelier onto his cheekbones as he pulls himself up from the king sized bed.

Relief blooms in his chest when he spots the guides left for him by Korosensei placed on the large mahogany desk near the arched window, moonlight hidden behind the thick, expensive grey curtains.

It’s not that the bedroom is that unfamiliar, but the room itself had belonged to his family’s old mansion before they had moved, again, and was the last occasion he’d actually seen his parents when they’d left for another conference around the world the next day.

His forehead throbs when he finally sits up, and even burying his face in his hands can’t quell the headache that’s building behind his puffy eyes. For once he wishes he had the same powers as the main characters in the comics he and Nagisa read during lunchtimes if only for convenience of not having to get out of bed.

Humouring the idea, he points his hand towards the books as if beckoning them to fly towards him. Nothing happens, of course.

Until a firm yellow tentacle materialises from the soft of his inner wrist and shoots towards the pile, pulling them onto his bed.

Conflicted eyes quickly scan around the room, but there's no Korosensei to be found. He grasps at his wrists in shock, squinting at the books as though they had personally scorned him.

Had he really…done that?

A humourless laugh echoes in the empty, too-large bedroom. It must have been a cruel joke of fate, for the student most willing to kill Korosensei to be the one to inherit his tentacles.

He pats himself down with trembling hands for just something, and finds success in the sleek phone hidden in his back pockets. Turning it on isn’t much of a challenge either, for it unlocks at the sight of his face but what glares at him isn't the lack of his homescreen (a picture of all of Class 3-E), but instead the date.

25th February. 20:00. 5 Days before the execution of Korosensei.

It didn't make sense, he couldn't understand why the months were different and why his phone was telling him he was tens of years in the future when just a moment ago it was the 2nd March, the day he’d both mourn and cherish the most in his lifetime.

“What the hell?” he mutters, tugging on his crimson strands as if it'll miraculously return him to his previous world, or whatever it was, so long as he wasn't here.

Flicking through his phone doesn’t bear much results either until he opens the calendar app and finds an event set for tomorrow, highlighted in an array of colours too bright for his eyes to deal with right now.

“Entrance exams for…UA? What?” He whispers out into the loneliness of his room.

Karma’s never felt more confused in his life than he does in this moment.

“UA High School is an academy based in Musutafu, the number one ranked school for heroics and is considered as the top Hero Academy in Japan!” A sweet and familiar voice calls out to him in an answer.

Karma’s mouth opens in surprise, “Ritsu?!”

“Yes!” The honeyed voice rings out again.

Karma sighs and rubs at his brow once more, knowing it’s going to be rough getting through this with only the AI on his phone. Mercury eyes lock onto digital blue ones.

“Eh~ So you know where we are then? What about the others?” He questions, a small bout of hope building in his chest.

Lilac hair pools on her shoulders as Ritsu looks down and pouts.

“We’re still in Japan, but as for everyone else, all traces of identification have been removed! Even Karasuma Sensei and the Asano family can’t be found in a single database anymore!” She sobs as the pixels around her turn blue and downtrodden, unable to solve the dilemma they’re currently in.

“...So we’re by ourselves here then?” Karma mutters, but he knows his question has already been answered.

“Yes!” Ritsu salutes.

He sighs, “So, UA High School? Hero academies? You gotta give me a bit more on that Ritsu.”

Her sullen figure seems to light up at being able to actually answer one of his questions, “Yes! Hero academies train students to become Heroes through gaining a licence, allowing them to become individuals who can use their quirks to protect civilians from villains, natural disasters and any other forms of harm!”

Karma wonders if it’s possible for a piece of technology to run out of breath.

“...And quirks are?”

“A superhuman ability categorised as either Emitter, Transformation or Mutant types! Worldwide, 80% of humans have some type of quirk, and those without are known to be quirkless and their bodies are often less evolved than their peers!” Ritsu bunches her hands together and cheers as she finishes her rambled explanation.

“Huh. So have I evolved to have a quirk or do I have a quirkless body with Korosensei’s tentacles?” He mutters to himself as he ponders over the specifics of his situation.

“No idea!” Ritsu beams.

Karma sighs.

Chapter Text

Karma’s dragging his feet as he walks into the entrance of UA, and despite it being his second day in this weirdly op world, he’s not the slightest bit nervous. At all.

He’d already been brimming with confidence regarding academics pre-teleportation considering his recently finished exam season, but he was especially unperturbed towards some alien school after Ritsu had spent a good two hours the night before rambling about monotonous quirk laws until it had begun to bore him to death.

A slow, painful and torturous death - the type he could imagine Lovro or another one of those freaky assassins having wet dreams of.

It had quickly ended with him turning over to sleep instead in a bed too big the second she started using words he hadn't even known existed, to save himself the risk of dying brain dead and meaninglessly like that of a lawyer crashing endlessly in his career knowing he’ll never amount to be more than a forgotten family failure.

But enough of family failures! Though Karma could name many that came to mind, his thoughts were more focused on hero school and the funny little things he could get down to in attending one. Though for such a famous institution the head was surprisingly vacant from news reports, some Nedzu guy that was likely another government puppet controlled to tune out perfect soldiers if Karma really wanted to get into it.

(One more name strikes his memory, but he shoves it to the back of his mind).

The cream knitted scarf he has loosely wrapped around himself keeps irritating his skin in the strangest of ways despite the sheer amount he’d spent on the single piece of cloth, and he has half a mind to throw it away if it weren’t for the weird tingling he keeps feeling on the back of his neck.

If anything, the Quirk History exam he’ll be taking in a couple of hours is more irritating than a piece of fabric. Ritsu had told him the basics of the written exams he’d need to pass in order for a chance to be able to attend this elite school, but it was easy to realise it would take more than a couple hours of studying to cover over a hundred years’ worth of history.

But Karma was way too interested in this new heroics business to throw his chance away at trying to get into the school by failing topics he’d never even learnt about and so he took the easy route instead.

Cheating. Karma never claimed to be perfect but realistically, what harm would a little a peek at an impossible test do?

Truthfully, it was extremely easy for Ritsu to access the school’s database and acquire the tests and mark schemes for any quirk-related questions. Memorisation came easy for someone like Karma who’d spent the past three years at one of the most competitive schools in Tokyo, and he had planned the basics for any interpretation style questions with the lilac-haired AI this morning.

Karma wasn’t a genuine cheat though, so he limited the hacking to only the questions that required proper knowledge of quirks that he just didn't have - knowledge that would be impossible to learn in the short period of a few hours.

Considering the principal for the school was meant to be some frightening genius, it was comparably really funny snatching away the details as if taking sweets from a baby. It was too funny, humorous enough for a piece on a comedian’s talk show, one Karma’s sadistic streak would be heavily entertained from.

It was making him chuckle even as he made his way to the exam hall. He didn’t blink an eye at the pro-heroes he passed as whatever fame or presence they probably had, he had no idea who any of them were anyway. It's unlikely they were any major bigshots though considering only the smallest of crowds were gathering around the occasional hero.

Entering the hall was an entirely different thing though. Honestly, Karma had thought Ritsu to have been exaggerating when it came to the popularity of the school but seeing the sheer size of it proved him wrong, with zero space left to argue against his digital classmate.

Countless rows of chairs filled up the humongous room and yet despite the excessiveness of it all, it still seemed pretty likely to fill up with how many families he had seen lined up outside cheering on their children.

Luckily, finding his seat was actually really easy and despite being one of the last candidates to walk in he still had time to slouch in the creaking chair and watch more of the potential students file in and take to their own desks as well.

The timings for each exam were different, but they were split into a couple hours depending on the subject and its difficulty or length. Maths and English had an unexpectedly long time for how quick it took for Karma to scribble the correct answers, but maybe UA was taking pity on the poor examinees taking the tests.

In fact, even though he could feel the tension around him from the people surrounding him and the rush of pens scratching against paper, it was surprisingly easy to finish the majority of the tests with a good amount of the given time left.

He knew some would say it was worrying how fast he finished each exam, or that it was an arrogant display of someone stupid, but it truly wasn’t that big of a deal to someone like Karma. They were practically a walk in the park compared to the mock exams of Kunugigaoka’s, and it was somewhat enlightening to see that this was what normal schools’ exams were like.

The only paper he had to put effort into answering with more scrutiny was the Quirk History exam, but Ritsu had gone above and beyond in providing him with the majority of the answers that morning and it was hardly a challenge just repeating what he had been told in the early hours of the day.

The only surprise was a random question on late bloomers Ritsu hadn’t been able to sniff out, but bullshitting has always been Karma’s speciality and writing the essay was a breeze. Enough to pass, anyways.

However - here’s the thing. As much as he hates to admit it, Karma is as much of an overachiever as the snobs he’d once been stuck with in Class A.

He had no idea what the practical exam would be like, and he looked forward to the satisfied feeling of acing all of his tests and he knew competency would give him an edge against his competitors on the odd chance he failed during the ten minutes he had to prove himself using his ‘quirk’ after lunch.

But most of all he just wanted to ace everything as a snack for his ego.

He suspected he was one of the first to leave the hall after checking the last page of his final exam, but he couldn’t be bothered paying any attention to the weirdly mutated people around him so he didn’t know for sure.

The cafeteria however, he was willing to pay a lot of attention to. The smells wafting through the air were on another level, and he’d assume them to be better than even home-cooked meals if he actually knew what they tasted like or the aroma they were meant to give off. The scent reminiscent of missile-baked takoyaki.

Karma brushed off the bitter memories of tentacle hugs and foreign films.

Regardless, the food was definitely going to be delicious and Karma was thanking his yesterday’s self for deciding to go through with coming to UA after all. No point in doubting if he’d fail or not when he’s Akabane Karma.

He was lucky the school was offering free meals for the day for exam takers, but only few seemed to take advantage of it. He could see a girl with shoulder-length brown hair tucked into a table in the corner talking with a girl with completely pink skin. Funky.

A brightly painted vending machine leaning against the wall caught his eye like a hidden gem, and he couldn't help spoiling himself a little. Some sort of craving for sweet foods had been festering throughout the day, and what better way was there to celebrate than with artificially flavoured strawberry milk?

It was odd, his sudden desire for sugar. But Karma got over it like he does with everything in his life.

Bringing his overly sugary catch and the bowl of fried rice he’d ordered from some strange faceless chef to his table, he began to think over his next moves and basic plan for the next portion of testing.

The practical exam would be happening soon. It was simple enough to solve something involving specific situations, fighting wouldn't be a problem and using the tentacles wasn't too difficult either after he’d played around with them for a bit the night earlier. But he couldn't conjure up what would be the most likely to happen, or even if he had to fight against others’ quirks. Is that even legally or morally correct here in a place where it's fine for heroes to absolutely demolish villains? Is a few fights between fifteen year olds that big of a deal or not?

The worst part of it was that you could not find a trace of any information about it on the internet at all.

“Hey, Ritsu?” He muttered to the piece of technology propped up on the table as he unhinged his jaw like a snake to take the largest bite possible of his food.

“Karma! How did the written exams go?” The lilac haired girl smiled brightly as she took over his phone screen.

Obnoxious snickering pushed itself out of his throat as the girls in the corner glanced over at the noise, a mirth-filled smirk painting his face.

“Perfect, obviously. Thanks for the assist this morning.” He drawled, knowing it would be stupid to outwardly admit to cheating in the building itself.

“No problem!” She saluted.

Karma hummed as he tried to think of the right way to word his question, “So for the practical…you think it'll be hard? Anything unexpected?”

The AI frowned, “The practicals change each year, but they’re mock battles! They’re made to be so difficult that only 0.3% of participants actually pass.”

As she continued to ramble on about statistics, Karma took the chance to stare at his surroundings again. Most of the other students that had been in the room had went home for a bit to prepare and then come back for the practical, but the now empty sight of the canteen was kind of sad.

Actually, he was the only person in the room now. Even the guy that had served him earlier had gone back to what he had been doing previously.

Was he the weird one in this situation?

Shaking his head, he tried to plan what he’d do next. He’d be heading to the auditorium when the hour was over, but time seemed to be going especially slow every time he glanced at the clock.

What better time to explore than now?

As a grin settled across his face, he took his empty plate and stacked it near the serving area. The food hero from before had completely disappeared.

From the large windows he continued to pass he could see small groups gathering, families and friends giving each other hugs and smiles meant to motivate. It was completely and utterly boring.

Unsurprisingly, the halls were just as dull as he had been feeling in his moment of boredom and even peeking into random classrooms didn’t give him any joy. The classroom he’d give his vote to was definitely one of the second years’, with a bunch of vaguely human-looking drawings covering the chalkboard. It was probably the single most entertaining thing of existence in the entirety of the school.

He found himself pouting at the complete lack of interesting in this place. There weren’t even any students hanging around like he’d expected there to be, so he was just alone in the monotone school.

The matching grey colours of the walls were starting to blend into one and if death by lack of thoughts was a thing, Karma knew he wouldn’t be on this earth for much longer.

What’s more, the feeling of eyes following him was starting to creep him out to the point he was actually shivering a little, so he ended up on another walk to return back to the entrance to start the next exam via scenic route. It was all a touch too weird, but not enough to deter him from the second half of exams.

It was worth it all though for the little delicacy he had bought earlier. The strawberry milk was rich and sweet in every way that satisfied him, and he knew he’d be purchasing more from the magic vending machine again whenever he got the chance to. Hourly, daily, or whenever, his newfound addiction was warmly welcomed.

Sauntering into the auditorium stocked with seats for the hero course orientation with all the enthusiasm of a man held at gunpoint, Karma stared at the hero on the stage with the weird gelled-up hairstyle.

Seriously, the level of bizarre this school was on was starting to confuse even him, a graduated member of 3-E. The thought of such a thing made him smirk.

He slid into his assigned seat as the blinding lights flashed on and highlighted the silhouette of a blonde hero as he began to speak. Karma couldn’t recognise him, but he assumed from the shocked gasps that the hero was well-known.

“For all you examinee listeners tuning in, I welcome you to my live show today!”

“Everybody say heeeey!” The strange man spread his arms out and shouted to the audience, putting a cupped hand to his ear in anticipation.

But he was only greeted by silence. Pure, deafening silence and Karma swore he could hear the hitched breathing and pulsing of blood of the people seated next to him with how quiet it was.

His resolve to take the whole thing seriously crumbled as he snickered, holding tightly onto his middle as his body trembled with laughter, shaking off the other candidates giving him weird looks.

It was way too funny for him to ignore, and Karma had always naturally revelled in the embarrassment of those he felt impartial to or hated. Case in particular - Asano.

Wiping the tears that had collected in his eyes a little, he slouched down further into the comfortable seat until he was properly buried in his knitted scarf, bundled up like he could remember Bitch-sensei being on her first official date months before.

His mind drifted for a little as the man explained the different battle centres, staring at the little card he had with all of his details. It didn’t really tell him anything, but he wasn't expecting much in the first place.

His name and birthday had little value in the face of reincarnation, or whatever the hell had happened to him. They didn't feel special anymore, Karma having found himself with no friends to celebrate with and no teachers to rely on anymore. But then again, no-one could replace the 3-E shaped hole festering in his heart, not even pros breaking down buildings and arresting villains in eye appealing costumes could compare.

A shout of, “Excuse me!” breaks him out of his thoughts, as the perfect epitome of the elites he’d see in Kunugigaoka stands and chops the air frantically. Karma stares, stares and stares some more as a ramble of polite words spout robotically from the guy’s mouth as he questions the host and lectures an even wimpier guy a few rows behind.

Karma glares half-lidded at the perfectly combed hair and sparkling glasses when the examinee settles a disapproving frown at him for how he's sprawled out on the chair. Being petty, he makes sure to laze in his seat further as their eyes remain locked, until the guy looks away in frustration.

He stays like this until everyone is ushered off onto buses to take them to their respected examination areas. He sits alone and looks coldly at whoever attempts to go next to him.

Time passes gradually until the students exit the transport buses they had been herded onto earlier to begin the mock urban battles. The inclusion of robots only had Karma slightly teetering off his normal hilt, but training was a normal thing for him as were battles. It was nothing he couldn’t handle.

Karma could do this - Korosensei had prepared him for anything, fighting robots was miniscule compared to the behemoth that was assassination.