My head felt groggy, like I'd just woken from a long sleep.
The afternoon sun streamed through the classroom window, painting everything in soft gold. It warmed the side of my face, and for a moment, I just lay there, half-lost between dream and waking.
Outside, birds chirped lazily, and the faint scratching of the teacher's chalk filled the air — a calm sound that somehow managed to be irritating.
"Lock, wake up. Class is over."
A soft, delicate voice brushed my ears — light enough that it could've vanished with the next breeze.
I opened my eyes. Beyond the window stretched a sky so blue it almost hurt to look at.
"I dreamed of my past life again… feels like it was just yesterday."
I murmured under my breath, ignoring the girl who'd called to me.
Until—
Poke, poke.
A gentle, ticklish sensation tapped at my back. I turned to see the girl behind me, raising a slender eyebrow in mild annoyance — and faint concern.
Our eyes met for a fleeting moment.
Short dark purple hair. Straight, neat bangs. Refined features and a sharp nose that gave her face an effortless confidence.
But what stood out most were the two cables extending from her earlobes — like headphone jacks come to life.
The sunlight from the window framed her perfectly, catching the faint motes of dust in the air. They glimmered like tiny halos around her, giving her a quiet, ethereal glow.
Jiro Kyoka.
Someone I'd only ever known as a character in a manga… now sitting right in front of me, so vividly real that it almost made me dizzy.
Unbelievable.
My name is Lock — or at least, that's what everyone calls me now. In truth, I'm a reincarnated soul.
In my past life, I was just another ordinary guy — a diehard anime fan who stayed up late bingeing Fairy Tail. I must've fallen asleep halfway through an episode, because when I opened my eyes again… I was here.
A world where heroes are real.
A world of My Hero Academia.
It's been a year since I was reincarnated, and by now, I've confirmed it beyond doubt. The existence of people like Jiro Kyoka and All Might, the "Symbol of Peace," says it all.
It all began with that story — a glowing newborn, the "Luminous Baby" who marked the dawn of a new age.
From that moment on, the world changed.
People began awakening supernatural abilities — fire, lightning, transformation, and flight. They called them Quirks. Within a few generations, 80% of humanity was born with one.
But power always has a price. Crime soared, and chaos spread as people used their Quirks for selfish ends. To fight back, Heroes emerged — licensed protectors of peace and justice.
It's the kind of world any teenager would dream of living in.
Except for me.
The body I was reborn into… belongs to the 20% who are Quirkless.
The boy who lived this life before me couldn't handle it. A Quirkless nobody in a society built on power and glory — he lost all hope and ended his life in despair.
And then, I took his place.
But giving up over something like that? What a waste.
Just because you don't have a Quirk doesn't mean you don't have power.
After all… I was reborn with something else entirely.
A system.
A Mage System — from the world of Fairy Tail.
It allows me to extract and learn the magic used by any wizard from that world.
When it first appeared, the system taught me how to cultivate magical energy — and then went completely silent.
No further prompts. No guidance. Nothing.
So for the past year, I've been training on my own — meditating, focusing, learning to feel the flow of magic within me.
Yet after all this time… I still haven't managed to cast even a single spell.
…
"Lock, have you decided on your career form yet?" Kyoka asked softly, snapping me out of my thoughts.
It was September, near the end of the semester. Both of us were about to enter our final year of middle school.
We weren't kids anymore. For the first time, we had to think about the future.
Yesterday, the teachers handed out our high school application forms — the "volunteer" sheets.
Every student had to choose a path: a regular academic high school… or a Hero Academy.
Kyoka and I had known each other forever. We lived in the same neighborhood, played together as kids, went to the same schools, always in the same class.
Childhood friends, plain and simple.
Because of that, she knew my situation better than anyone.
My willpower.
My Quirklessness.
My family's small, struggling hero agency — now closed.
I was supposed to inherit it someday.
But without a Quirk… that dream died before it began.
Maybe that's what broke the original Lock.
Before I could answer Kyoka, the bell rang, signaling the end of class.
The clock read four in the afternoon. Not just the end of a lesson — but the end of another day of school.
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A/N: There were some mistakes in magic names and plot inconsistencies, so I tried to fix them.
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