IMPOSTER SYNDROME 《BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA X READER》

A Journey Beyond The Veil

tw: depictions of death, slight bloody imagery

You step onto the sidewalk with a gleaming smile. The various shopping bags you carried weighted down your arms in an uncomfortable way, but you ignore it as you laughed along with the conversations of your friends. It was your seventeenth birthday, and the day could hardly get better. You had just spent hours shopping and gossiping with your friends, and now you were on your way to meet your boyfriend for a reservation at your favorite five star restaurant. And when you got home, you know you will be greeted with various gifts from your parents.

You feel your phone vibrate in your pocket—probably your boyfriend checking to see if you were on your way—and halt your movements to retrieve it. Your didn't realize you had stopped in the middle of the road until you hear the horrified screeching of your friends as a semi-truck barrels into you at a speed much too high for a parking lot.

You feel an intense pain in your chest as you hit the ground with a thud. You try to move, but your body won't respond. You can see people gathering around you, their faces filled with shock and horror. You faintly hear the sound of a car door slamming shut and tell-tale ringing of a dial tone as someone calls for an ambulance, but you know deep down that it's too late. Your vision starts to blur and you feel a heaviness in your chest. You can feel your body shutting down and you know you are dying, and your mind starts to race with regrets and missed opportunities. You wish you could turn back time, to avoid this tragic fate. But it's too late. You take your last breath, surrounded by strangers on the side of the road. Your life flashes before your eyes, everything you've ever done and everyone you've ever met rushes through your mind in the span of a second, and you can't help but wonder what could have been if you had just stayed on the curb a little longer. And as your heart comes to a slow and your hearing starts to fade, you realize that this is the end. You are gone, forever.

Except that you aren't.

The first thing you notice is the bustling noises of cars rushing past and people chattering loudly. Your body lays face down against a hard and rocky surface, and as you move your hands to push yourself up you feel dirt and grime sticking to them.

You haven't opened your eyes yet, but the smell is the first thing you notice. It's putrid, like the smell of rotting food and shit, and forces you to open your eyes immediately.

You're surrounded by two brick walls, with giant green dumpsters presses against them on either sides. Although you're in the shade, sunlight filters through. You're obviously in an alleyway, but where?

The first thought that comes to your mind is that your friends had dragged your mutilated body off of the road somewhere until an ambulance arrived, but the thought was quickly overshadowed when you realize that nothing hurt at all. You look down at your hands, unharmed aside from the dirt on them, and as you look down at the rest of your body, you observed the same thing.

You weren't dead. In fact, you were perfectly unharmed.

"Huh?" You whisper, surprising yourself when the sound came out with no struggle.

Were you dreaming? You had to be. You were 100 percent sure you just died—the pain was unforgettable!

"So why am I here?" You think.

the thought falls to the back of your mind as the sounds of talking from the sunny side of the alleyway catches your attention again. Were your friends out there? You stood up suddenly, expecting to be at least a little bit wobbly, but you weren't. You slowly make your way out of the alley until you feel the warmth of sun hit your face. You gasped loudly.

Where the hell were you?!

You're suddenly surrounded by hair and eyes and skin of every color of the rainbow. But not just that, because the girl who just passed by had what you think was antennae on her head! And the person leaning against the wall had a nose that must have been at least a foot long! And you would have thought you were at some kind of cosplay convention if that guy wasn't flying! And suddenly everyone who you observed had something strange or ridiculous about their appearance! That lady had a tail! That kid had horns! And—