'Damn does school suck.'
Isshun stared ahead with indifference as the teacher at the front of the classroom introduced herself.
The only real upside was that maintaining a teleportation domain in a space with hundreds of constantly shifting variables was decent mental exercise. A workout for the brain, at least.
He rested his chin against his palm.
Isshun sat near the hallway at the back of the room, close to the rear door. It was a convenient position, even if it meant people constantly passed by on their way to their desks.
"So! Let's start off this school year with introductions!"
The teacher clasped her hands together, smiling brightly.
"I'll go first. My name is Nishijima Himari, and I'll be your homeroom teacher for the year. It's nice to meet you all!"
The class applauded in unison, Isshun included.
As introductions went on, however, they quickly devolved into Quirk demonstrations and enthusiastic declarations about becoming heroes.
…Why am I not surprised?
Isshun watched as students proudly displayed tiger-like arms, elongated ears, and rocky skin transformations. Each flashy Quirk earned louder applause than the last.
Unsurprisingly, the more visually impressive the Quirk, the more popular it was. If your quick was visually interesting, for these elementary students, then it was no surprise it was popular.
For now, the uses of a Quirk didn't matter as much as the visual appeal.
A few students with Emitter-type Quirks that required setup or simply couldn't be displayed on quick notice, returned to their seats with faint disappointment, receiving polite but noticeably weaker applause.
When it was Isshun's turn, he stood and gave a simple bow.
"My name is Shunkan Isshun. My Quirk is Precognition. I want to become a hero as well. It's nice to meet you."
That was it.
Precognition wasn't something you could visually demonstrate, and Isshun had no intention of trying. It would've been a waste of time and effort.
Still, he wasn't antisocial enough to deliberately brush off giving a decent introduction.
Though, from the looks of it, his delicate and overall polished look had somewhat made up for the lack of a braggable quirk, with the amount of clapping being on the same level with more of the showy ones.
Lookism really does encompass everything, even a society with superpowers, Isshun mused as he sat back down.
The moment he did, his previously quiet seatmate shot up with boundless energy.
"Tokage Setsuna! When I grow up, I'm gonna be a hero!" she announced loudly. "And my Quirk is this!"
She grabbed her head—
And popped it clean off.
Thanks to 'Precognition', Isshun wasn't even remotely startled. The sudden beheading visual, however, sent shockwaves through the rest of the class.
About half the room erupted into delighted applause, while the other half froze in silence before offering awkward, delayed claps.
"Tokage!" Nishijima-sensei yelped.
Before the teacher could spiral into full panic, Setsuna casually plopped her head back into place, grinning as if nothing had happened.
"Nice to meet you!"
She gave an exaggerated, theatrical bow before dropping back into her seat, clearly pleased with herself.
Nishijima-sensei took a slow breath, visibly steadying herself, then cleared her throat and moved on to the next student.
Isshun watched the teacher for a moment, mildly amused, before returning to his neutral expression.
…What the—
He glanced to his left just in time to meet Setsuna's eyes as she leaned over, mid-whisper. She froze for a split second, like she'd been caught sneaking snacks.
"So?" she whispered anyway, undeterred. "What'd you think?"
What am I supposed to say? That it was psychologically scarring? Isshun thought.
Outwardly, he hesitated, then answered honestly enough.
"It was... something?"
"Really?" Setsuna's eyes lit up. She completely missed the undertone, but hey, it wasn't a no, was it?
"...Yeah."
"Nice!" She nodded, satisfied, and immediately turned to the student on her other side as he sat down after his introduction to ask the same question.
Thank ROB she isn't fixated on me, it's for everyone.
I was already thankful Nejire isn't in the same grade as me, but if there were a Nejire clone sitting next to me? It would have been a loud year.
Isshun leaned back slightly, eyes narrowing in thought.
Tokage Setsuna…
That name sounded way too familiar.
--<>--
"This act of vigilantism is the work of a teleporter."
The statement alone was enough to draw grim expressions from the senior members present.
After reviewing all available footage before it had been cut out due to an electronic-disruption Quirk, Tsukauchi Naomasa replayed the key moment in slow motion once more.
On-screen, a firearm abruptly appeared directly in front of the bank teller, popping into existence without warning.
The meeting room was filled with several pro heroes alongside high-ranking members of the Police Force.
While acts of vigilantism always warranted investigation due to their violation of the Quirk Restriction Laws, this case was in a different category altogether.
From the limited footage alone, several conclusions could be drawn.
First: the user did not need to be anywhere near the scene.
Second: there was no visible signifier preceding and announcing the teleportation, no glow, distortion of space, or even an activation cue.
Third: the ability was powerful enough to relocate an adult male with ease.
There was no doubt about its potency. This was a Spatial-type Quirk operating far beyond the norm.
Spatial-type Quirks were already exceptionally rare, comparable to advanced healing Quirks. However, this case stood apart even among them.
Most known spatial abilities either required visible activation, suffered from range or mass limitations, or were weak enough to be dismissed as situational.
This one had none of those drawbacks in first impression.
A Spatial Quirk this powerful and versatile, with no apparent limitations, implied near-unrestricted use, meaning it could be used anytime, anywhere, with no observable risk to the user getting discovered in any way, shape, or form.
And if there truly were no downsides…
Then apprehending this vigilante—now or in the future—would be extraordinarily difficult to the point of near impossibility.
"Was there anyone near the crime scene who appeared suspicious?" one of the heroes asked.
Naomasa shook his head calmly.
"I've already cross-referenced the Quirks of every individual present in the bank at the time. None of them possess a Quirk even remotely consistent with what we observed."
As the video cycled through multiple camera angles surrounding the area, one of the newer heroes hesitated before raising his hand.
"Doesn't that kid look suspicious?"
He zoomed in on a still frame showing a vanilla-haired boy and a periwinkle-haired girl observing from a distance, focusing on the boy's notably disinterested expression.
Naomasa shook his head again.
"No. The child does not possess a Quirk related to teleportation or spatial manipulation. He does, however, have a Quirk that could explain that reaction, but I can't disclose the details."
Like Spatial Quirks, time-related abilities were also exceptionally rare and closely monitored.
Pro Heroes like Sir Nighteye were a prime example.
While Shunkan Isshun's Precognition of seeing 5 seconds into the future wasn't particularly flashy, knowing what would happen ahead of time and lacking the context of what followed after the electronic jamming made his lack of visible reaction unsurprising.
Although Naomasa himself didn't know the exact sequence of events once the feed was cut, eyewitness reports stated that the criminals' clothing had been teleported away.
Additionally, footage from a more distant camera, one unaffected by the jamming, showed the boy covering the girl's eyes as they walked away.
That detail alone all but ruled him out as the culprit.
Another rookie hero raised her hand hesitantly.
"So… if we don't know who the vigilante is and we have zero leads, why were we called in?"
A senior hero lightly elbowed her for the blunt question, but Naomasa answered regardless.
"This meeting is about awareness," he said evenly. "The existence of an ability like this one, with no visible limitations and extreme versatility, means crimes can occur right under our noses."
He glanced around the room.
"As a result, if anyone encounters even the smallest clue or anomaly that may relate to this teleporter, it is imperative that you report it immediately to fellow heroes or directly to the Police Force."
The rookie hero nodded slowly.
That… made sense.
--<>--
"Hey, hey, Shun-chan! So, how was your first day of school?" Nejire asked as she fell into step beside Isshun.
Isshun shrugged lightly. "About how a first day usually goes… I think."
Nejire nodded rapidly. "Mm-hmm! That's good!"
"Yeah. There were a lot of people whose Quirks might interest you," Isshun added, thinking briefly. The first thing that came to mind was that whole beheading stunt.
"Really?!" Nejire bounced on her heels. "Then I have to go see it tomorrow!"
"Yeah. There was this one girl who could just… take her head off," Isshun said flatly. "Scared the teacher pretty badly."
"Aww!" Nejire whined. "I should've been there! Why couldn't we be in the same class~?"
Isshun could only shrug again.
They stopped at a crosswalk, waiting for the pedestrian light to change.
"Any more cool Quirks?" Nejire asked, filling the silence almost instantly.
"Well, there was this guy whose eyes glowed when he pinched his nose," Isshun said.
Nejire gasped. "What color?!"
"He said any color he could think of. He did a whole rainbow."
Isshun continued answering while Nejire continued asking, the conversation overlapping naturally as the pedestrian light flipped to green.
"What color fur did the kid with animal hands have?! Was it—blue?!"
Nejire, completely absorbed, stepped forward—
—but Isshun didn't.
He quickly grabbed her sleeve, keeping her beside him. At the same time, he reached out and caught the sleeve of a woman and the child she was holding, pulling them both back a step.
The woman blinked in surprise.
"Um… excuse me?" The mother asked, along with a confused tilt of the head from the child.
Isshun turned to her, already speaking. "Sorry. I thought I saw a bug on your back and wanted to let you know—"
HOOOONK—
A massive truck roared past the crosswalk, exactly where they would've stepped moments earlier. Two Pro Heroes blurred by soon after, clearly in pursuit.
Isshun cast the truck a brief glance before returning his attention to the woman.
"…But I must've been mistaken."
He bowed quickly. The woman stared at the truck getting further away for half a second, then turned back toward Isshun with a thankful expression and returned the bow, tightening her grip on her child, who looked between them in wide-eyed confusion.
He gave a small wave at the receding mother-child pair as they crossed the road.
Isshun turned back to Nejire. "And no, Nejire, I'm pretty sure the fur was orange. Kind of white-ish."
Nejire, however, wasn't even paying attention to the previous conversation anymore.
"Whoa! How did you know there was—oh! Precognition. Never mind!" She clapped her hands together. "That was so cool!"
"You're catching on," Isshun said, allowing himself a small, tired smile.
"You were all like—stop!—and then—whoosh!—and you didn't even freak out!" Nejire reenacted the entire thing with dramatic flair.
"Mhm." Isshun merely nodded along at Nejire's dramatic reenactment of what was basically a 30 second interaction.
"That's why I'm saying we have to be heroes!" Nejire declared. "Me and you, same energy! We can be the… Vanilla & Berry team!"
"Yeah, yeah," Isshun replied.
"I'm being serious!"
--+--
A/N: Might be a long Author's note but stuff to add:
I hope that just cause i added setsuna people don't assume this will be a harem. Just couldn't think of an additional character to introduce, and since nejire and isshin are in different grades so needed another character for interactions in class.
Just didn't really want a Class 1-A student to be here, and I do like setsuna so boom!
Additionally, Isshun's 'Quirk' isn't technically precognition, it's the hyper sensory intake from mutant changes in his body and the brain interprets all that information. It's just that precognition is merely a aspect of the brain naturally using a decent amount of that information to 'predict' the future through the concept of Laplace's Demon. I just call it precognition cause that's how it's classified as.
Or at least that's how I made it!
Isshun actually uses some of that information to create the teleportation domain if that wasn't clear.
And you know, with how 'smart' i made the mc I can't think of a reason of how he could naturally expose teleportation to anyone except a thing i have in mind for the relatively far future(thats also plausible dw). Fuck.
So sorry for the people who wants mc to aura farm w/ teleportation short term, but with his personality it isn't happening.
I also wanted the mc to not be a doormat, but i feel like some people on wn considers everyone with accommodating personalities to be a doormat so I hope he didn't come off that way.
Thanks to all my readers for enjoying my first work!
If there are any issues, constructive criticism and any issues with grammar would also be nice!
Bye bye!