Edward James lay on his deathbed, silently counting the final, shallow breaths he had left until he was gone. Only a year ago, a routine checkup had shattered his world with a terminal cancer diagnosis and a grim "less than a year" timeline. He had been dejected, but eventually, he found a quiet sort of peace.
Against all odds, he survived six months longer than the doctors promised—a small, silver lining in the cruel joke his life had become. As an orphan, Edward had always craved the things others took for granted: a long life, a wedding with the love of his life, and a house filled with the noise of his own children. Fate, however, had a different path. Surrounded by the few loyal friends who were the only family he ever knew, Edward felt his grip on reality slip. Within minutes, his eyes drifted shut, his heart stilled, and Edward was dead.
Edward found himself floating in a vast, dark void where time didn't seem to exist. It was ironically peaceful. The crushing weight of his illness was gone, and with it, his memories began to dissolve. The faces of his friends and the pain of his past were being deleted, leaving him in a state of empty calm.
Suddenly, the void condensed. A needle of bright, piercing light shattered the darkness, blinding him. When he finally managed to open his eyes, the world was no longer black; it was filled with color and sound.
He saw a woman looking down at him. She was beautiful, with vibrant red hair that fell like silk and eyes the color of a summer sky. She looked at him with a tenderness that Edward had never experienced in his previous life.
"Takuma, look at him," she whispered, her voice trembling with joy. "He is so beautiful."
A man moved into his field of vision. This was Takuma. He had a strong jaw and kind eyes that crinkled when he smiled. "Of course he is," Takuma replied, his voice deep and proud. "He is our son. He has my facial features, but he definitely has your bright red hair."
Ren—as he was now named—was completely flabbergasted. He tried to process what was happening, but his brain felt foggy, and his body felt tiny and weak. He realized he was wrapped in soft cloth, his small hands balled into fists.
Then, something impossible happened.
Takuma's eyes changed. A strange, intricate pattern swirled within his pupils, glowing with an otherworldly light. Using his Quirk, Takuma didn't reach out with his hands. Instead, Ren felt a strange, invisible force lift him off the bed. He gasped—a tiny, high-pitched sound—as he began floating through the air.
He stared at his father's glowing, patterned eyes in total shock as he drifted across the room. The man caught him gently in the air and then lowered him carefully into the mother's waiting arms.
Being held by the woman felt like being wrapped in pure safety. Ren looked up at her, his tiny face twisted in a look of pure confusion and wonder. He couldn't understand how he was flying or why these people were looking at him like he was the most precious thing in the universe.
The mother saw his wide-eyed, stunned expression and let out a soft, melodic laugh. She pulled him closer to her chest, the warmth of her skin radiating a love that filled the hole in Ren's soul.
"Welcome to this crazy world, Ren," she said calmly, her blue eyes shimmering with happy tears.
Ren didn't know what a "Quirk" was yet, and he didn't know he was in a world of heroes and villains. All he knew was that for the first time, he wasn't an orphan, he wasn't sick, and he finally had the family he had died wishing for.