All Might had not expected a child to turn his life upside down.
It had been a week since Reinhard began living with him, temporarily, as Nezu kept saying. The plan sounded simple whenever it was spoken aloud. Keep the boy safe. Figure out how to send him home.
In practice, nothing about it was simple.
Other worlds were the kind of thing you joked about in comics or late night television specials. All Might had never seriously considered the possibility. There had always been villains to stop and people to save. This world demanded his attention.
Reinhard, however, kept talking about another one.
He spoke of it in pieces. Knights sworn to kingdoms. Spirits that drifted freely through the air. Magic woven into daily life. Monsters that were not villains so much as disasters.
At first, All Might assumed it was a coping mechanism. A child dealing with trauma by retreating into fantasy. He had seen that before, far too many times.
That assumption did not last.
"I can show you," Reinhard had said one evening, sitting at the kitchen table with his hands folded neatly in front of him.
All Might chuckled softly. "Show me what, kid?"
"My world."
The smile slipped from All Might's face.
Reinhard hesitated, then spoke carefully, like he was afraid of saying the wrong thing. "It's called the Divine Protection of Mind Reading. Normally, it lets me hear thoughts."
Nezu frowned. "Normally?"
Reinhard nodded. "I found out I can reverse it. Instead of taking information, I can give it."
"You can share memories?" All Might asked.
"Yes, sir."
Before either man could object or fully understand what that meant, the room blurred.
All Might stood beneath an open sky that felt too vast to be real. Stone cities rose in the distance, their walls worn by time and war. Castles overlooked wide plains where armored soldiers marched in disciplined lines. Magic crackled through the air like living lightning, and luminous spirits drifted freely, watching everything with quiet awareness.
And then there was Reinhard.
Not the soft spoken child sitting at the table.
This Reinhard stood alone on a battlefield, a sword in his hand that carried a weight far heavier than its steel. Blood stained the ground. His expression was calm, far too calm.
When the vision ended, All Might staggered back into a chair.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
"That wasn't imagination," All Might finally said, rubbing a hand over his face.
Reinhard shook his head. "No, sir."
After that night, things changed.
All Might watched Reinhard more closely, not out of fear but out of concern. The boy woke before sunrise without being asked. He trained quietly in the backyard when he thought no one was watching. He apologized constantly for taking up space, for eating too much, for things that were not even mistakes.
And he never complained.
One night, All Might found him sitting on the porch, staring up at the sky.
"You miss it?" All Might asked, sitting beside him.
Reinhard was quiet for a long moment. "I think I miss what it used to be."
All Might nodded slowly. "Home does that to you."
Reinhard hesitated, fingers tightening in his lap. "All Might, am I allowed to stay here for a while?"
The question caught him off guard.
"Allowed?" All Might repeated.
"I know I should go back," Reinhard said quickly. "People need me there. I am supposed to protect them. But when I think about returning, I feel tired."
The words hit harder than any villain's punch.
All Might placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You're eight years old," he said quietly. "You are allowed to be tired."
Reinhard looked up at him, eyes wide, as if no one had ever told him that before.
"All Might," he asked softly, "what do heroes do when they do not know what the right thing is?"
All Might smiled, not the bright grin meant for cameras, but something smaller and real.
"They keep moving forward," he said. "And they do not do it alone."
Reinhard nodded, thinking it over.
...
The kid had quite literally appeared from thin air. No documentation, no papers suggesting his existence.
Nezu had seen everything All Might had seen that day.
Where All Might focused on the child, Nezu focused on the system that shaped him.
Child soldiers, he thought bitterly.
He had watched Reinhard, a literal child, sent into combat. He had seen councils discuss casualties while placing swords in small hands. He had watched Reinhard deployed against the remnants of demi human rebels as if it were routine.
It made his stomach turn.
"I should not judge another world by my standards," Nezu muttered.
But he did anyway.
He had seen Reinhard kill without hesitation, eyes steady and movements precise. Despite everything, Nezu could not bring himself to blame him. The boy had not been cruel. He had been trained.
That frightened him more.
Power was another concern entirely.
Nezu exhaled slowly, rubbing his temples. Reinhard was strong, strong enough that even All Might would have to take him seriously if things ever went wrong.
Two figures standing at the pinnacle of power.
And Reinhard was not strong by accident.
By his own explanation, he was Od Laguna's favorite. A being blessed with the ability to ask for any divine protection he desired.
In simpler terms, the boy could have any power he wanted.
"All For One would kill for that," Nezu muttered darkly.
What unsettled him even more was Reinhard's indifference toward it.
"These divine protections," Reinhard had said once, almost casually, "they are just tricks."
"Tricks?" Nezu had repeated.
Reinhard nodded. "They do not make me much stronger. My real strength comes from my swordsmanship and from using mana to reinforce my body."
He had said it like he was talking about the weather.
Nezu leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.
He needed to keep this boys existence a secret since all for one was still at large.
A child who treated god given power as a convenience.
What kind of world made someone like that?