Hero Too | BNHA , MHA Various

9 | Revelations

“Slap me in my face, I don't know what I am.”— The Cribs, I Don't know What I Am

Chapter Nine
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"I'M NOT WHO you think I am." Ishii Kayama bravely faced the board of teachers and the principal of UA High.

Everyone's gazes were on her and she could feel herself melting already.

Don't quite get the situation yet?

Well, let's rewind to sixteen hours ago, right after dinner time, inside her room when she finally got the chance to reopen her white journal again.

Ishii had successfully opened the white journal once again— now in less than thirty minutes. She hurriedly turned back to the page she was reading before Kaminari had fetched her for dinner time.

"Aha!" A triumphant grin made its way to her baby pink lips.

Entry #64

Dear Diary,

It's Ishii again. Mom told me something very important today. It's about my quirk— well, our quirk. I couldn't believe what she said and almost tore the entire house down. I feel so betrayed that she never told me about it.

I had this terrifying nightmare last night, I came to her for comfort— but instead of assuring words, all she said was— "You shouldn't have found out."

I was confused, so I forced the answers out of her.

I'm a dual-quirk wielder.

Born with two quirks, one from my mother, and another from my biological father— who I don't know.

She told me that she hid it from me because she was afraid of what would happen if the information got leaked.

My mother has an incense quirk and can control everyone who inhales her incense for approximately thirty minutes.

While father's quirk is Dimension. He has the ability to switch from different dimensions and time periods.

Apparently, I got both their quirks.

And my nightmare from last night wasn't a dream or even a figment of my imagination.

It was real.

Darkness submerged Ishii in a pitch black neverending sea. And she found herself watching a scene that felt so familiar, yet she had no idea what it was or when it happened.

"Seven million people and counting have died due to the Coronavirus outbreak in Japan—" Change channel.

"Deaths due to COVID-19 are rampant in the United States of America—" Change channel.

"COVID-19 cases in Northern Japan have risen by 45% for the past week—" Change channel.

An unknown white-haired lady was flipping through channels as she lounged on the plush gray sofa in the middle of the room.

‘I recognize her. But this flashback of mine brings confused feelings flooding through my veins— which tells me that I didn't know her at that time. I'm a stranger to someone else's memories, and yet it feels like I'm living it.’ Ishii thought to herself.

"Ishii?" The woman's mellow voice called out.

A soft yet confused hum came from the white haired nine-year old 5D human's lips. "What is it?"

"The world is a terrible place, isn't it?" She asked, keeping her eyes glued to the television that was now playing a history documentary on Adolf Hitler's reign.

"It depends on how you look at it."

It was evident that the one speaking was Ishii— the Ishii from the somewhat real human world, but the girl who was having the current flashback didn't remember having this type of conversation with this woman.

"The world the way it is is full of flaws. Problems, crises, and to add to that..." She trailed off.

"... People who have no empathy and choose to do wrong over right."

"Wouldn't it be easier to call them bad people?" The older woman asked the girl.

"It would.." She answered. "But it would also mean that we're bad too."

"How so?"

"While I can say that their history and their upbringing is no way to justify their current bad deeds, it's also safe to assume that these people were raised differently from us."

"If you raised me like they were raised by their parents, I would've been like them." She explained.

"If I were planted in infertile soil I wouldn't have grown well. That goes the same for people. I'm not generalizing and saying that everyone's like this, but it works for most people I know— if their upbringing is good, they would have good morals."

"But to be honest.." She trailed off. "I don't think the world is a terrible place. It needs an awful lot of fixing, but it's our world. We better not take it for granted."

The nine year-old's deep words warmed the older woman's heart.

The older woman smiled lightly, "You're a good person, Ishii."

The girl nodded with a slight grin, "I know, Mom."

Ishii emerged from the flashback, immediately falling into a coughing fit. She felt like she was just underwater, and was drowning.

"Was that.." She trailed off, looking at the open journal that was beside her.

"The nightmare she had?"

It didn't feel like a nightmare to her. In fact, she's lived through COVID-19, that was ages ago. It started in late 2019, when she was four years old, and ended when she was nine years old, in early 2024. In her world— the human realm, it was currently 2030, similar to the time in the anime.

She was on the hunt for answers, and possible conclusions to hypotheses that were running through her head the entire time she's been in this anime dimension.

And sixteen hours later, after her adventure into the unknown as she read through the journal entries from A to Z the entire night before her second day of school, here she was— inside the principal's office, with all the information she got, confessing to the jury.

"I'm not who you think I am." She gulped, feeling herself shrink under every single one of their gazes.

"I'm not Ishii Kayama."

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