***We will now refer to our protagonist with his new name***
Chapter 13 – Movement Into the Future
This was pure delight.
A feeling of freedom, a sensation of weightlessness.
Flight had always been a dream for humanity.
Yes, with the invention of airplanes and other flying machines, people’s craving for the boundless sky had subsided somewhat.
But most, deep down, continue to dream.
To soar upward, without any technological gadgets, by their own power alone.
Ecstasy.
Looking at the gradually shrinking landscape below, Ryota felt something that had been invisibly pressing on his shoulders since his arrival begin to fade.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
He laughed.
For the first time since the day he had found himself in a strange body in another world.
He even suppressed his paranoia a little and slightly changed the vector shield’s settings to feel the wind hitting his face.
At the same time, the shield continued to block the low temperatures, preventing his child’s body from getting cold at such an altitude.
Glancing at the park spreading out beneath him, Ryota saw a crowd slowly gathering at the spot where he had taken off.
And suddenly, he didn’t feel like landing.
Other people’s concern weighed on him.
He was sure that as soon as his feet touched the ground again, he would be worn out with sympathetic questions and soft reproaches.
“I’ll fly a little longer,” he whispered to himself, his smile dimming slightly.
Then he turned toward the looming silhouettes of the high-rise buildings in the distance.
***
Several hours had passed since Ryota, under the influence of his vector manipulation ability, had risen into the air.
The sun had long since disappeared below the horizon, and the night had taken over.
But a big city never sleeps.
The noise of cars, the reflections of countless streetlights and headlights, the hum of voices rising into the sky, never ceasing even in the darkest night.
By this time, Ryota’s delight had somewhat subsided.
The adrenaline was slowly leaving his body, giving way to a slight tingling and a pleasant fatigue.
The guy himself sat peacefully on the edge of the tallest building in the nearest city, zoning out.
At the view that had opened up before him.
At the aftertaste of the flight.
At the strange duality of sensations.
You know that feeling when you’re standing at a very high cliff?
That pulling sensation deep in your gut.
Even though Ryota clearly understood that he was in no danger of falling from such a height and getting hurt, his subconscious kept pulling such tricks.
The feeling was strange.
The vector shield was no longer blocking the surrounding sounds, and he was fully enjoying the noise of the city bustle.
A strange sound behind him snapped Ryota out of this meditative state.
But he didn’t even turn around.
His still somewhat unfamiliar vector perception had already outlined the figure that had appeared on the roof.
“Hello, young Arai,” a gruff voice sounded.
A few seconds later, the sizable figure of the number one hero sat down next to Ryota, also dangling his legs over the edge of the roof.
“Everyone’s looking for you. They’re worried.”
“…All Might.” Ryota glanced at the uninvited guest.
“…My name isn’t that,” he said, turning back to the city views.
“Did you remember something?” the man asked in a joyfully surprised tone.
“No.”
“…And yet you still claim that name doesn’t belong to you?”
“Yes.”
All Might stared dumbfounded at the indifferent child.
“I just know it. No details.”
“Hmm… is that why you ran away?”
“No,” came the same indifferent answer, making the hero clear his throat again.
“I didn’t run away. I just wanted to think.” Ryota was a little more generous with his words this time.
All Might hesitated again, glancing at the boy.
Too strong a contrast.
Just a six-year-old child.
Yet his manner of speaking and thinking, even voiced in a child’s voice (especially because of it), caused a strange itching inside his skull.
“So you’re still going to come back?” the number one hero asked awkwardly.
“Don’t think I’m dumber than I am,” Ryota answered somewhat obscurely, not even thinking of finishing the thought.
All Might pondered again.
The answer was… ambiguous. The source of this chapter is g.com.
And to a large extent, it put an end to further questioning.
The conversation stalled.
Ryota wasn’t at all bothered by the awkward silence that had fallen.
He continued to gaze melancholically at the city at his feet, thinking about something of his own.
All Might, however, was clearly feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
“…You never said you could fly,” the man tried to start a conversation.
“I didn’t,” the guy said with a slight nod.
And fell silent again.
‘How awkward…’ the number one hero groaned internally.
“…A-”
“All Might-san,” Ryota coldly interrupted the man.
“Please shut up.”
All Might was completely thrown off balance.
***
‘He talks and talks, talks and talks.
What’s so hard about just sitting in silence?’ Ryota thought irritably, slightly glancing at the hero sitting next to him.
He didn’t look good.
Even his “horns” of hair seemed to have drooped.
The man was offended.
Ryota even felt a little guilty.
Seriously, he had gone far away specifically to be alone with his thoughts.
And then this guy showed up.
On the other hand, All Might was clearly a Hero with a capital H.
He was genuinely worried about the boy.
And some moments from the canon hinted even more that the local number one hero was a stand-up guy.
Remember how he dressed.
And not just his hero costume, but his everyday life, about which not much is said.
But one thing can be said for sure: he didn’t look particularly wealthy, no offense to him.
And maintaining his image should cost him an OBSCENE amount of money.
Participating in advertising campaigns, selling merchandise, just his salary for his hero activities.
And where are all those riches?
Why did he look and come across in the anime as the most ordinary person of average means?
Ryota had his thoughts on this matter, which partially coincided with one of his earlier assumptions.
The orphanage had more All Might merchandise than anything else.
Even in those fragmentary memories of the previous owner’s body in the past orphanage, there were plenty of images of various toys and figures depicting the brutal hero.
The conclusion was simple.
All Might donated all his money to charity or something like that.
As soon as this chain of thought closed and produced the most likely answer, Ryota’s conscience began to gnaw at him with renewed vigor.
“…ry.”
“Huh?” the man flinched slightly at the boy’s muttered words.
“…I apologize. That was rude. I didn’t mean to.”
“Uh…” All Might stared blankly at the boy, who still hadn’t turned to face him.
However, despite his words and his slightly embarrassed tone, the profile of his face had become even colder and more impassive.
Only the number one hero’s much stronger-than-average vision could discern the barely noticeable flush that had appeared on the boy’s cheeks.
‘…Tsundere!’ All Might nearly shouted it out loud, but managed to restrain himself, limiting himself to his thoughts.
“…It’s nothing,” the man said, noticeably perking up.
“I’m the one who’s bothering you.”
“Exactly,” came the instant answer, making the hero almost choke.
“Hmm… I mean… Sorry,” he said, drooping again.
Ryota barely managed to suppress an annoyed sigh.
“Fine. I’ve sat here long enough. I’ll fly back,” the guy decided to retreat from this situation ignominiously, getting to his feet.
“Huh?” All Might said, confused.
But a second later, he cheered up again.
“Don’t bother. You’re too slow,” Ryota answered, turning his whole body toward the hero.
Then, as the hero gaped at the statement, he simply fell backward, dropping off the high-rise.
“Young Arai!” All Might jumped up in alarm and jumped after him.
The next moment, he was slammed into the wall by the shockwave created by the boy breaking the sound barrier, which Ryota had deliberately not dampened with his abilities.
“Ugh…” The man peeled himself off the masonry, staring dumbfounded at the spot where, a moment ago, the boy had been falling into the abyss.
Of course, it was already empty.
***
Getting back to the orphanage was no problem at all.
The spatial reasoning skills he had acquired along with his computational abilities easily mapped out the entire area he had flown over.
He had even managed to visit the place where the entrance to the underground villains’ base, from which he had recently escaped, was located. Read this novel at novelping dot com for the best experience.
It was still cordoned off by police.
When he returned, Ryota was, as expected, gently but somewhat nervously reprimanded for his escape.
He simply turned the vector shield’s sound suppression up to maximum and stared back indifferently, throwing Miyamoto Yasuko off balance.
The flight stunt was held against the guy for several more days.
It seemed like all the orphanage caretakers had made a bet on who could get Ryota to show emotion.
But he still made contact very reluctantly.
However, the experience of the flight and the brief conversation with All Might had somewhat improved the guy’s psychological state.
His attitude toward his surroundings changed.
Only slightly for now, but it was something.
And Miyamoto-san was only happy about that.
Everything went on as usual.
Ryota continued to show positive dynamics in his socialization.
Except he still didn’t communicate with the children.
And every night he had the strange dream, from which more and more white hairs appeared on his head.
The staff psychologists were somewhat worried.
But Ryota stopped caring about that after six months.
Besides, the accompanying headache from these dreams no longer bothered him.
And, honestly, he liked his gradual transformation.
Yes, his appearance was slowly and gradually being adjusted to match the character whose abilities he possessed.
But there were differences.
Ryota didn’t give up on his own physical development.
He never missed a morning exercise or jog.
In general, he tried to move as much as possible.
Without overdoing it, of course.
At that age, it’s easy to mess up and get some kind of injury that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
So he was extremely careful.
Flexibility exercises, a little cardio, and a lot of hanging from the pull-up bar.
After all, he wanted to have the same height as in his previous life, not the average Japanese one.
And he had been tall.
His efforts to study the local language and other subjects began to show results.
Ryota could already easily express himself in the Japanese that was native to this body.
He could read and write at the level of his English.
He was surprised at the speed of his learning, but it was all thanks to his memory.
The increase in his brain’s computing power couldn’t help but affect all other areas of this complex organ.
His memory had become significantly better.
Not yet perfect, not even photographic, but good enough to be a very useful tool for his gradual integration into the new world.
Among the local children, he was something of an outcast.
But, as you might guess, he wasn’t bothered by that in the slightest.
Besides, it was expressed only in completely ignoring his person.
They wouldn’t dare do anything else.
If they tried anything else, Ryota wouldn’t hold back.
He would answer the children with all his creativity and seriousness.
Without directly causing harm, of course, or anything so banal.
Children are cruel.
If even one of their group makes a serious fool of himself, the others will mock him mercilessly, even if they recently called themselves his best friends.
Ryota could arrange that.
He could easily scare a couple of the most zealous ones and make them cry.
After that, no one else tried to bother the “quiet one” or the “nerd.”
And so Ryota lived peacefully, studying what he needed to know to live in local society and thoroughly investigating his vector control ability.
And there was a lot to investigate.
Just remembering the anime, where Accelerator did some completely crazy things with his ability, made his brain twist into a knot.
Using vector control at a distance?
He did that.
Just by stomping his foot on the floor, Accelerator could make a large stuffed animal tens of meters away fly into the air.
And what about those stone pillars he somehow formed from homogeneous rock?
Strengthening the structure of an object?
Multi-layered manipulation of air, with which this psycho formed a vacuum sphere, in the center of which a ball of plasma formed due to excessively compressed air trying to fill the vacuum?
All of this was implemented in ways that were completely unclear and for reasons that were equally unclear.
At the same time, much simpler to implement and no less useful things, like distorting light vectors to create optical invisibility or banal levitation by changing the gravity vector, weren’t used by this type at all.
In short, Ryota had plenty of work to do studying the piano that had fallen into his lap.
And he was delighted about it.
And three years later, the canon made itself known.
The number one hero, All Might, faced the villain All For One in a brutal battle.