Grimoire Ultra 4 (Patreon)

Yagi Toshinori sat across from Principal Nezu, the head of UA sipping his tea with what, to outside observers, was perfect calmness. Toshinori wasn’t as familiar with the principal as the rest of UA’s staff, but he’d worked with the quirked animal long enough to tell that something was bothering him. He couldn’t point to anything outward, it was just a feeling that he had.

“You heard about the unfortunate incident yesterday with the hero D’Artan?” Nezu asked as he set his tea cup down.

“Only the basics,” Toshinori said. “He was killed by a villain with an extreme heteromorphic quirk, but little else.”

Nezu turned one of the laptops on his desk around, showing a drawing of a gaunt monster with what looked like a deer skull for a head and an exposed rib cage, as he spoke, “The villain possessed what appeared to be a quirk that made them akin to a wendigo. It is a creature from the folklore of the Algonquian tribes from the north eastern regions of America and Canada. It is said to possess immense strength, speed, durability, etc. in addition to being associated with winter, cold, and extreme greed. The way that wendigos were said to come into being was through cannibalism.”

Toshinori sighed, he hated cases involving the crazy serial killers, “Unfortunate, but there’s more to this than a probable cannibal near UA. If that were it, you would have simply sent a notice.”

Nezu nodded, tapping a few keys on his keyboard and the image on the screen shifted, showing a short clip of a young man, roughly Midoriya’s age, running through a lobby, being chased by the wendigo villain. Nezu spoke, “That’s security footage from the Korran Apartment Complex. The young man being chased is Smith Jerred, one of our two American applicants this year. Also the one who scored first place in the Practical Exam. And seven weeks ago he didn’t exist.”

Toshinori looked up, “Do you believe he’s a plant?”

“If that were all, I’d agree with you, but there are certain elements that don’t add up. The apartment that Mr. Smith was staying in was ransacked, with a message left in blood. Mr. Smith was away at the time, security footage placing him near Nakano Broadway for most of the day, but the message was rather curious, it read ‘This world’s meat is mine.’”

“Charming,” Toshinori muttered.

“Quite, but it’s the first two words that caught my curiosity: ‘this world’, suggesting that either the wendigo villain is not from this world or is delusional. More than that, why did they write this message for Mr. Smith? What about him makes the villain decide to target him and why that message? Too many questions, and not enough answers.”

“So what do you intend to do?” Toshinori asked, feeling a little out of his depth.

“Nothing directly, for the moment,” Nezu answered as he took a sip of his tea. “The wendigo villain vanished, taking D’Artan’s remains with him, and I am working with Cementoss to construct a series of dormitories on campus. They should be done in a few days, at which point invitations will be sent out to the students. Mr. Smith’s invitation will include a recommendation he accepts, given the attack on his previous apartment. For now, we will simply observe him. We need more information before doing anything.”

Toshinori nodded, before pausing and asking, “If I may ask, were there any indicators of who fabricated Young Smith’s records?”

“No, and that’s one of the fascinating mysteries about this case! If I didn’t check the closed Internet Archives, I would have been fooled. Whomever created his records did an exceptional job!”

[hr][/hr]

I don’t know which god to praise, but whichever one was responsible for my getting sent to this iteration of My Hero Academia was getting a hallelujah from me. I was currently going on a jog along with Izumi. Who was wearing workout clothes. I didn’t stare like a creep, I had more class than that, but I did follow her jogging route and quietly filed the view away in my mind.

The jog route felt long, but my American was showing as I couldn’t begin to guess how many kilometers it was. Izumi didn’t seem to notice the effect her workout clothes had on me, otherwise she’d probably be a blushing, stuttering mess. As adorable as she was like that, it was better this way.

We returned to her place, hopped through the shower, then I showed my appreciation for the couch by fixing breakfast. It wasn’t anything fancy, just some leftover rice thrown into a pan with a touch of oil and some eggs stirred into it. Salt and pepper to taste, and viola!

I was concerned about the Contractor running around, according to the news they’d evaded capture, but at the moment there wasn’t really anything I could do about it. Not right now at least. I’d be looking around for different places so they didn’t come here, but until I could find one on short notice, I’d be keeping an eye and ear out.

Of course, two days later those plans changed when I received an email and a letter. Apparently the dorms were being opened earlier than in canon. Obviously this was a butterfly caused by me or the Contractor, but I immediately signed up for it. I’d be surprised if the Contractor’s attack hadn’t gotten attention, but… free rooms. Plus, with the month before the new year at UA started, it’d give me a chance to get to know some of my fellow students.

I thanked both Midoriyas for letting me crash on their couch with a big hug. Both might have had a bit of a blush when I left with my suitcase and nerd loot. As I made my way to the train station, I couldn’t help but remember the twin blushes on their faces. I could see where Izumi got her adorableness from. Not that I was planning on doing anything, I was already wooing her daughter.

Within the hour, I was in front of the gates to UA High. Taking a deep breath, I stepped through, looking at the map that had been with the letter. So I’m at this entrance, take a left before the main…

“What do we have here?” a voice cooed in my ear, making me jump out of my skin.

I recognized that the voice was female, so as I turned around I triggered my most powerful weapon against the feminine persuasion: I went pug croc. Sitting on my haunches next to my dark red suitcase, I stared up at surprised yellow eyes under blonde hair. I blinked, more than a little surprised to see the infamous vampire of My Hero Academia, before she overcame her own surprise.

“KAWAII!!!” she screamed, reaching down and picking me up, rubbing her cheek against the top of my head.

When I first developed the ability to turn into a pug croc, I thought it would be useless, but it’s turning out to be far more useful than I anticipated. Even discounting the fact that I hadn’t figured out what this form’s additional ability was, it had gotten me more affection and smoothed over more ruffled feathers than I thought it would.

I will say this for Toga, she’s strong. Seriously, she carried me in pug form under her arm and both of our suitcases with the other. Five minutes after meeting her, we were outside the dorms. Wriggling out of her grip, I shifted back to human and took the handle of my suitcase.

“Sorry about the unusual introduction,” I said with a smile, holding out my hand for her to shake. “Je-Smith Jerred. First year Hero Course.”

She shook my hand, a wide grin showing her larger than average canines, “Toga Himiko, first year Hero Course. You’re not quite as cute like this, but still cute.”

“Thank you,” I said as I held the door open for her, following after. “I admit, I’m kinda surprised to see someone else showing up for the dorms this early.”

“I was staying at a hotel, this is much cheaper,” Toga responded with a shrug. “I had less stuff than my roommate there, so I got here first. She’ll probably be by later today.”

I nodded, heading up to the boy’s side and picking a room. Game books, dice, and minis, prepare to be on proud display! A grin stretched my face as I started decorating my claimed room. It felt good to finally feel settled. The room was small, but comfortable enough for a single occupant. I even managed to fit all of my nerd loot in a corner cabinet, leaving the rest of the shelves free for textbooks. I set my bed up near the window, which let me watch the sunset over the city below. As the sun dropped beneath the horizon there was a chime from my phone. I picked it up and saw I had a message from Izumi.

‘Hi! Mom and I were talking, and we decided that I'd move into the dorms.’

My grin stretched so wide my face hurt. I'd get to see my green haired maybe-girlfriend on a daily basis? Yes please!

[hr][/hr]

Unfortunately, Izumi wasn’t moving in immediately. She’d be moving in during the last week of March, roughly a week before the school year started. So, until then, my main dorm mates were Toga, the gravity girl I helped during the Entrance Exam (who introduced herself as Uraraka Ochako), a tall girl with black hair and a fondness for the color red, a guy with a hardening quirk named Kirishima Ejiro (who was cool with me calling him Kiri), a guy with a peppermint hairstyle who kept to himself, and a fellow American by the name of Tsunotori Pony. That was an interesting meeting.

Turns out that despite what I’d been led to believe by fanon, Pony was not from Texas, she was from Florida. Her family ran an alligator farm, and the family pet was a pug sized and shaped gator. So when she arrived at the dorms and saw my pug croc form there was a… little bit of a mix up.

That amusing mistake aside, most of the following month was spent either getting to know my fellow dorm mates (Kiri was hands down the best gym buddy ever) and going through my grimoire in my free time. The next power had appeared in its pages, but it was taking me a lot longer to parse and understand it than any of the previous ones. The previous powers the grimoire showed me were fairly straightforward, despite what one might think. This one was so complex I was still trying to figure out what exactly it even did.

Finally, a week and a half before the school year began, I pushed the grimoire aside and stood. Rolling my neck, I let out a satisfied sigh at the series of pops. I’d work on it some more later, for now, I’d spend some time getting a workout in, maybe some unarmed combat training in. Or I could try and find a sparring partner or two. Either way, today would be spent outside of my room.

I stretched again and made sure everything was ready to go before heading downstairs. Whistling quietly to myself, I paused as I was about to leave the dorm. The TV in the main living area was on, showing a news report. The pictures of several heroes were on the screen.

Walking over, I glanced over at the students watching the report, Kiri, Peppermint, and the tall girl, and asked, “What’s this?”

“There’s a new villain in Mustafu, and not the small-time thug type,” Kiri answered.

“They’re targeting heroes?” I asked for clarification.

Tall girl nodded, “Thus far four heroes have been targeted: Fourth Kind, Hammer Fist, Frost Force, and D’Artan. Hammer Fist is the only one the villain didn’t kill, but he had both of his arms torn off by the villain.”

I winced when she mentioned D’Artan. Well, I knew who the villain was. I let out a sigh, “Assuming it’s who I’m thinking of, I’ve had an encounter with this villain. If you see someone who is tall, emaciated, and has an antlered skull for a head: run.” The three turned to me, the question easily readable on their faces. “My apartment building was attacked by a villain with a wendigo Quirk, the first hero on the scene called themselves D’Artan, so I figure it’s good odds it's the same guy.”

“What’s a wendigo?” Kiri asked.

“Monster from Native American folklore, extremely powerful, extremely dangerous, and a cannibal,” Peppermint answered.

“Pretty much,” I agreed. “That aside, you up for some sparring in the gym, Kiri?”