Chapter Text
…something's wrong.
…where am I?
…why is everything so dark?
"…お.."
Who is that?
"…くそ…安定している…えますか？"
It's so loud.
"…きろ…意識を失った民…路地…"
What are they saying?
You jolt as you suddenly register someone holding your shoulder, your eyes blinking open. You immediately wince, reflexively shielding them. Or, at least you should be shielding. Your hand isn't moving the way it should. It's slow and sluggish, like it's leaded down by whatever is clogging up your thoughts.
What's happening?
What's wrong with me?
Am I okay?
"—えますか? 大丈夫だよ。私の名前はたかみけいご。"
Your eyes slowly focus as you try to move away from whoever was holding your shoulder. While your movements are sluggish, the stranger must've sensed your discomfort, and retracts their hand. However, they hover over you, concerned.
"明るすぎますか？"
You realise whatever lightsource was assaulting you has suddenly dimmed, blocked by their body. With your eyes adjusting better now, you're able to look up and get a vague sense of the person above you. They looked to be a man in their early twenties, with ashy blonde hair, golden-brown eyes and their deep red…
Wings? Wings. Actual bird wings, shifting behind him. They're the brightest pop of colour present aside from his yellow glasses. The man cocks this head as he sees you staring at his wings. He watches you blink, slowly bringing up one of your hands to rub your eyes. As you do, you realise it's covered in grit, and stop raising it about halfway to your eyes to just stare. You turn it over, noting you appear to be scraped up a bit. You raise your other hand to inspect it as well, furrowing your brows in confusion.
"私の言っている…？"
You faintly register the man's voice in the background, but all the blood is rushing to your ears. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
You don't even realise you're beginning to hyperventilate until the man hesitantly reaches out, checking for your reaction. You recoil instinctively.
He frowns, before glancing back at his wings, pondering for a moment. He reaches one out next, instead of his hand.
It baffles you so much you find yourself absentmindedly stroking the feathers before your brain even registers the sheer audacity of your action. You blink, taken aback and mildly horrified at your rudeness. You'd ignored everything this person said—what were they even saying?—and just touched them at the first chance you got. Actually, were they even a person?
You can hear a slightly strained and relieved laugh as the man notes you slowly coming back to your senses, if only from your sudden social awareness.
"えっ、そんなに柔らかいの？" he asks teasingly. You just stare blankly.
Furrowing his brows, he tries again. "私の言っていることがわかりますか？"
"…w…what?" you finally, finally manage to find your voice. It's a little thing, but it's still a win.
His eyes widen in shock. "You don't speak Japanese," he says flatly, sighing and running a hand through his hair. "くそ。"
It doesn't take a genius to realise he's cursing, even if you can't understand it.
"N-no, should I?" you ask tentatively.
He side-eyes you, before taking a deep breath. He crouches down in front of you, still frowning.
"Do you know where you are?" he asks.
You shake your head no.
"Do you know your name?"
You nod, slowly offering it. He nods, repeating it carefully to ensure he got it right. You give a small nod of confirmation when he does.
"Okay. That's something. Where do you last remember being?" he prompts again.
You reply with the city you lived in. He just stares at you, before quickly pulling out his phone and typing something. He gives you a funny look. "Can you repeat that?" he asks.
You do, and he frowns heavily. "…not there… right…" he mutters, pocketing his phone. "How old are you?"
You reply dutifully, growing more concerned as he seems to be growing agitated.
"Sorry, but- what's wrong?" you ask.
He forces himself to relax a bit as he sees the spike of fear in your expression, and in the way you tense. "I'm sure it's just because there's bad cell service here, but I can't seem to find where you're from," he assures you, smiling wryly. "Don't worry about it. Can you tell me which country you live in?"
You nod, telling him. Much to your relief, he actually recognises the name, and seems to similarly grow relieved. "Alright. It's probably nothing, then. Do you know how you got here? Are you a tourist?" he prompts.
You shake your head. Your eyes keep flicking to his wings now that it seems like you had confirmation your home country existed. He seemed really famili- oh.
"Hawks?" you ask, before you can stop yourself. You grow flustered, feeling absolutely ridiculous. This was probably just a cosplayer, and they'd laugh at your poor, deluded, confused state.
"Oh? You recognise me? That's good. Yes, I'm Hawks. But you can just call me Takami, okay?" he prompts, brushing off his hero name and the status that followed.
"Ta…kami?" you repeat, your eyes widening.
"That's- that's your name? Like, you're actual name?" you ask, growing a bit panicked.
He shoots you an odd look. "…yeah? Why wouldn't it be? What, do you only know my hero name-"
"Oh my god-" you hide your face in your hands. "What the hell is happening?" you mutter.
Takami gives you some space, sensing you're radically coming to terms with your current situation. But he could tell something was off. At first, you'd been almost bewildered to see him, then relieved, then… afraid?
"…am I making you uncomfortable?" he asks softly after a minute.
"Wh- oh! N-no! I mean- I just-" your brain unhelpfully decides to stop forumulating complete thoughts at that moment, "I- fuck!" you curse, unable to formulate much else.
"Hey, hey… it's okay. Take your time," he murmurs reassuringly. "I'm sure this must be confusing for you. Don't try to force anything, you'll only get a headache."
He wasn't wrong. You'd felt one coming on for a while now, one that intensified the longer you tried to figure out what happened.
"I… I'm sorry…" you mutter, sighing.
"What are you apologising for? Cursing? Fuck, I curse all the time~" he assures you, laughing easily.
Despite yourself, you can't help but feel a small smile tug on your lips. Taking that as a positive sign, Takami asks if he could sit next to you. You nod, and he plops right down on the ground covered in god-knows-what without a second thought. One of his wings partially moves behind your back, serving almost as a shield from the world.
"…where am I?" you finally ask.
"Fukuoka, Japan," he replies. You stiffen.
"…oh," you let out breathlessly.
"Not from around here, huh?" he muses, trying to keep things lighthearted.
"…no," you mutter, pulling your knees up to your chest.
"…you said… my city-"
"Don't worry about that right now," he cuts you off before you could begin questioning what he meant earlier. "Let's focus on where we are right now. Can you tell me what you see right now?"
"Huh?" you blink, confused, looking at him. He just looks back, expectantly. "Um… you?"
He breaks out into a dazzling grin. "What else?"
"Your… eyes? They're, um, amber? Golden? And, um, I- …I see your goggles. They're really yellow. Why are they yellow? Doesn't that make the world look yellow? Is that even helpful?" you ask, furrowing your brows in confusion.
"It filters out blue light, so it reduces haziness while enhancing contrast and sharpening depth perception. You know, to give me hawk-eyes," he explains with a smirk, tapping the goggles. "Gotta live up to my name somehow."
You can't help but let out a small, incredulous laugh that that was what let him 'live up to' his name. "Really? Not the wings?" you ask, your own smirk tugging on your lips.
"What, these? Nah, they're just for decoration," he replies, fluffing up the feathers and posing them dramatically, causing you to really laugh this time. His features soften as he smiles more genuinely.
"You sure seem to like them," he teases, "can't keep your eyes off them."
"Ack- I'm sorry! I just, haven't seen anything like them before! I mean, I've seen birds before of course- fuck, I mean, that was really insulting wasn't it? Not that they're like bird wings! Wait, no, I mean- I don't know what I mean," you give up, surrendering to the fact you were making a fool of yourself while hanging your head in defeat.
He bursts out laughing at your flustered rambling. "Ahahahaha! I don't think I've ever heard that they aren't like bird wings. Mostly that they look like a robin's, not a hawk's," he chuckles, shaking his head in amusement.
"I didn't mean-!" you sputter, mortified.
"Relax~ I'm just teasing you," he says, the wing behind you gently bumping up against your shoulder and causing you to jump.
"…you can tell me anything, you know. I won't judge you for what you've gone through. I promise," Takami says eventually.
You'd fallen into a comfortable (ish) silence, while you'd gotten completely lost in thoughts of where you were and what to do.
"I've seen plenty as a hero. Some people think victims are just of physical violence, but… that's not true, is it?" he prompts softly.
You freeze. Oh. Oh.
"Are you saying…?" you ask, blinking rapidly. "But- but that can't- no, no I was at home. I was home- this isn't even real, I'm going to wake up, and I'll be in my bed, and- and-"
He looks at you with pity as your breathing speeds up, your heart moving from racing to pounding. Without saying anything, he slowly wraps one wing around you. He's mindful of your body language, ready to pull away the moment you seem uncomfortable.
You must be craving even the slightest hint of familiarity, because you find yourself leaning into his touch. He uses his wing to pull you closer to his side, wrapping one arm around you as well, letting it all wash over you.
This can't be real. There's just no way. My Hero Academia. In the flesh. Is it even really in the flesh? I mean, Hawks is— what does that even matter?! Nope, no way, this is a dream. Let me just pinch myself—
Takami grabs your wrist before you can follow through on that thought, staring into your eyes with concern. "What did you say? 'My Hero Academia'? Why do you think this is a dream?"
Your eyes widen. Shit— that wasn't just said in my head?!
"…you're still speaking," he replies.
You look around nervously. You had to snap out of it and think. Worst case scenario, yes, this was real. No way in hell were you about to let yourself get taken advantage of or screwed over. But you weren't good at keeping such reality-altering secrets.
You find yourself staring at Takami's wings again as your thoughts drift. Then it hits you.
His wings. They could essentially act as his ears. Which meant you could just cup your hands around them and be certain no other technology would hear what you said—and you could never be certain he wasn't wearing an earpiece and microphone or something. He probably was, to communicate with the police.
He shifts his wings a bit as he sees you staring at them. Before you can talk yourself out of it, you ask if you can hold one of his feathers. He would normally refuse, but the look on your face, combined with the odd scenario, was enough for him to be willing to give anything a chance if it meant he'd get more information.
You take a deep breath as you cup the small feather he passed you in your hands. You do a quick mental hype up, before just going for it, leaning in to hold your cupped hands around your mouth like a seal and whispering to the feather.
"I know this is going to sound crazy, but I'm not sure what else to do. I don't think- no, I know I'm not from this world. Reality, even. Where I come from, this place is fictional. An anime, or manga, stuff like that. You are- were- a character. I'm not sure, I mean I think you and this world are separate from whatever stories existed in mine, but still- um! I can prove it, I, uh, can maybe probably sort of predict the future! You still have your quirk, so- so that means that there's still stuff that has yet to happen I know about. Oh! The Hero Safety Commission! You're a spy for them! Um, it's why I'm using your wings to talk to you- oh this sounds so stupid— um because I don't want them to know I know because they sound really scary-"
You keep rambling on somewhat incoherently as Takami sits there, processing everything you're saying. You were right about one thing, it was smart to use his feather to talk to him instead of just talking normally. The Commission would've overheard otherwise. He purses his lips, before holding a hand to his lips in a gesture for you to be silent for a moment. He puts a hand to his ear, cluing you in that there was an earpiece within.
"一旦オフラインになります。後で詳しく話しますね。彼らは怖がってきている、" he says to whoever is on the other end. With that, Takami takes out and promptly destroys his earpiece.
"You can speak freely now," he says.
"Wh-what did you just do?!" you ask, panicked. "Won't you get in trouble?"
"Don't worry about it," he shrugs off your concern, "just explain more about what you know about me, and the Commission. As much as I'd love to write you off as crazy, you don't speak Japanese, you're clearly disoriented, and I sincerely doubt you just magically guessed or somehow had ascertained my history from anywhere on this world. So, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. For now."
The way he says that makes it clear there will be repercussions if you were lying, or otherwise were not on his side. After all, you could jeopardise everything he'd worked for.
As it turns out, your phone transmigrated with you (you fell asleep holding onto it). And, by the power of plot device, it actually worked. So, you were able to pull up the fandom wikipedia page on him, and on the story as a whole. You just let him read through it. He furrows his brows as he reads about how he loses his quirk, but shakes it off. He could learn more about that later.
"Alright. You're coming with me," he says, standing up. He offers you a hand, which you accept without thinking much about it.
"I'll keep your phone somewhere safe, okay?" he prompts after pulling you to your feet.
You frown. "But-"
"Listen, I'm sure there's things you don't want me to see on it. Relax. I can't even unlock it without you. Which is why, like I said, you're coming with me. Of course, that's not the only reason. You know too much about me, I know too little about you, and we collectively know too little about how you got here. We don't know what, or who, did this to you. Besides, you hardly have anyplace to go. I found you, so, you're my responsibility now. Even if you're legally an adult," he adds before you can protest you didn't need to be babysat.
You pause, contemplating. You take a deep breath. "…okay. I'm trusting you. Please… don't betray that," you plead softly.
He was all you had. You'd risked everything just telling him this, but you felt like he was the only person who'd know how to navigate living life and going around with such a massive secret. It was fortunate he was the one who found you.
He softens a bit, smiling melancholically at you. "I won't, if you don't give me a reason to."