MHA: Unleashing The Ten Shadows Technique

All Might was dead.

I couldn't believe it, but everytime I typed in his name expecting news about his latest beatdown on some hapless villain, instead all I got were the same deliberating headlines.

All Might's Heroic Death at Camino Ward.

The Story of Toshinori Yagi: Our Hero.

The Camino Ward Incident.

The Forever Number One Hero

All Might was gone, All For One had come after him a second time, and after watching the countless videos circulating online, it was scarily close to what happened in the anime. 

Except All Might was ripped in half.

I went back to my notes, one of the modifiers I thought I had a good grasp on was no longer as simple as I thought.

Unknown Footprints in The Sand: three very important parts of the story have been randomly placed somewhere else in the timeline.

I could scratch off one of those already, making an actual note of it before turning off my smartphone and setting it down on the small study desk in front of me. 

I was currently in my new bedroom, my gaze settling on the cat clock hung on the wall that told me it was three a.m.

One of my disadvantages was proving troublesome already, Insomnia taking a toll on me just my second day into my second life.

I just couldn't sleep, and I found that most of my energy came out at night, when darkness fell and Japan's vibe changed to something more sinister.

All Might being out of the picture for six years had changed a lot of things, and I could clearly see the effects it had on society.

The illustrious and bright Japan of MHA was darker now, some cities I found having as bad a crime rate as Gotham…

The heroes were losing, vigilantism was on the rise because of it, and villains and criminals were growing stronger and more arrogant by the day.

Throw in the fact one for All was possibly gone as well, and things were not looking great.

Hell from the few times I went out Musutafu was like Chicago, but worse, and how that was possible I would never know.

I yawned loudly, sitting back in my cheap office chair and spinning around slowly in thought.

Honestly, I had gotten relatively lucky in my arrival into my second life, because the night I had woken up on was Friday, and Aldera High didn't have school on Sunday.

The last two days I had been doing research, trying to find obvious changes while quietly looking for more subtle ones. I had found All Might's death immediately, and then I also found out that Endeavor didn't have two sons and one daughter, but all girls.

Seeing Shoko Todoroki, two toned hair and all, compete in ballerina and gymnastics competitions was a shock if there could be any.

That was the modifier Character Chaos LV2: the same aspect for two characters has been changed, at work. Which also meant there was another character out there that was gender bent as well.

Thankfully it wasn't something worse being altered, but I was silently praying it was not Izuku, I didn't need that, but I would find out in four hours anyways; we went to the same high school after all.

 Obviously, I wasn't going to be able to sleep, my new found insomnia made sure of that, so I decided that I couldn't just sit around.

Spending my first two days of my second life cooped up in my room was a grave mistake, because calling myself paranoid was an understatement.

Although, even if I didn't do anything, because of the modifier The Quirk User Could be Anyone, the story would come to me whether I liked it or not.

So, what was a seventeen year old with the Ten Shadows Technique to do?

Well, get familiar with it of course, but I needed a place to tame them, an enclosed area that could take a beating.

I clasped my hands together, causing the shadows in my room to shift, a black and white wolf materializing from them a moment later.

"Morning Frost and Night," I smiled at them, the names I gave them were simple and easy to remember.

It was weird, having a connection to what was technically myself, seeing as they felt like me, just an extension.

They also had no consciousness or soul, a hollow pit of shadows that with just a thought, obeyed my orders without hesitation.

Fortunately, I wouldn't be shouting orders like a pokemon master, I simply had to think of what I wanted. 

Like now, I formed a brief thought and they sauntered over in curiosity.

I dropped my smile after grabbing something, holding up the burnt and torn uniform I had woken up in, Frost stepping forward and sniffing it without hesitation. 

It took a few seconds, but with a tug on my cursed energy to expand its sense of smell, Frost finally got a hit.

The white wolf turned, and through our vaguely shared senses, I could see a smoky trail of gray leading toward the outskirts of Musutafu.

'Looks like I am about to find out who killed me,'

I wasn't a complete idiot, because I would be damned if I went to school not knowing who had killed Old Kenji. I had initially had suspicions of Bakugo, so showing up completely healed would have caused more than a little trouble.

Knowing it was a canon character helped, but it still was such a wide net of people to guess from. I was naturally a paranoid person too, and my mind was always running a thousand miles a minute.

The previous, now mixed with my new condition that didn't allow me to sleep made one hell of a combination.

I was not going into anything entirely blind, and if I wanted to live a fulfilled life I wasn't afraid to knock others off theirs.

The Ten Shadows Technique matched me well honestly, because I knew enough about it and I would never put all my eggs in one basket. It had a plethora of abilities, and I was going to master them all, more than Megumi could too.

I wasn't keen on suicide by Mahoraga, so I was going to have to use the other nine shikigami to their fullest. 

Like now, the Divine Dogs had an insane sense of smell, were agile, and had very sharp claws.

Not a whole lot of versatility, but it would work.

"Lead the way," I said, donning my black hoodie, black slacks, and a gray medical mask.

Thankfully me and Old Kenji shared a sense of fashion, muted colors and comfort being our first and only priority when it came to clothing.

I also tested if people could see my abilities, and the answer was yes and no. The convenience store cashier definitely saw the Divine Dogs when I went to grab a late night meal, but she was completely ignorant of the fact I was literally on fire via blue flames.

So the shikigami were visible, my cursed energy was not, that was interesting to say the least.

Luckily, I could have Frost and Night hide in my shadow, though the extra added weight had me grunting as I slipped on my sneakers.

The Ten Shadows wasn't all powerful, there were drawbacks, and adding two full grown wolves weight on myself was a good workout; thankfully it was evenly disrupted through my entire body for the most part.

Plus, I had the inklings of a start on how cursed energy worked, which was mostly on how to reinforce myself.

'Who knew, I was somewhat of a prodigy at wielding otherworldly energy?'

Especially since after just two days, I could make myself strong enough to not show any outside indicator that I was now two hundred and forty pounds heavier.

I was just that good.

The cold chill of night immediately greeted me through my quiet inhales, and my hood came up once I was a few blocks away from my apartment. 

I was tall enough to pass for an adult, and Megumi's mug wasn't bad at all. That aspect, me and Sukuna could agree on.

I looked a bit older, was handsome but not overly so like a certain blue eyed white haired guy, and a bit lanky. 

Overall, it was an upgrade from my 5 '5 self in my old life, well looks wise anyways.

I still thought about everything I left behind, but I could push them away easier each time by thinking of everything I could look forward to.

I was going to UA University, it would give me more safety, and if canon characters were going to be drawn to me anyways, I might as well.

If I didn't attend UA where the majority of the good guys were, that meant out here outside the school the bad ones would gravitate toward me.

I didn't plan on ever running into Toga, and god forbid she was the one who killed me, but it was all up in the air because I was unfortunate enough to not see the extent of damage I did sustain.

All I knew from my uniform was that I was burnt and stabbed, and fire really didn't seem like Toga's thing, unless her being older now changed her kinks in some way.

I shook my head, realizing I was staying in my thoughts way too long, it was a bad habit to form surrounded by the unknown.

Eight minutes passed slowly, and only then did I find myself stopping.

Frost led me to a bowling alley of all places. 

I surveyed my surroundings, noting that despite it being so late there was plenty of traffic. It was upon walking inside that I figured out why.

There was also a bar taking up half the brick and concrete building, most of the patrons inside—having mutation Quirks— were loudly drinking and probably having the time of their lives.

I noted some had scars as well, actually a lot did, and my gut was telling me to turn tail and run.

I knew where my first lead was, so I should gather more information before I did something stupid.

"You alone?" 

One of the shorter security guards with blue eyes and unnaturally spiky metal hair stepped forward.

"Nah, I was meeting up with friends from Uni but they sent me the wrong address, supposed to be a pizza joint but I thought it was conjoined with this place," I showed him my phone that had maps leading to the bowling alley, then navigated to the fake text I sent myself.

The guard read slowly, then nodded, "Yeah they must have dropped the pin while walking, Yassupoi's Pizza is three blocks down."

I nodded, turning on my heels and walking out, though I did catch the guard's words.

"Just stay away from places like these Kid, lucky I was the one that noticed how lost ya looked."

I gave a weak wave back, stepping out into the street and heading toward Yassupoi's. 

I did eventually get there, even walked in and went to the restroom.

However, after a few minutes of waiting, I walked right back out, simply standing on the sidewalk and waiting.

Ten minutes ticked by before I finally spotted what I was looking for, a trio of slightly drunk people with mutations ranging from a head literally being a cardboard box, to simply snake eyes and fangs.

I got close to the biggest one, a guy with mammoth tusks and literally no pupils, and matched pace with him while focusing hard.

I slipped into his shadow after a few long seconds of concentration, sinking into the inky blackness like water.

Being in shadows was weird, but another aspect of the Ten Shadows was shown to me when I first did it to a random passerby on my second night in this world.

I had to bear their weight when I did so, which without my cursed energy reinforcement might have been a problem, but I had it so I was all good.

Sitting in the mammoth guy's shadow felt like sitting in oil, but I could still breathe weirdly enough, though I knew with Megumi's fight with Reggie that others couldn't.

The only problem was I could not see, but I could hear, and that was enough when I heard the same rowdy sounds of the bowling alley enter my ears.

'Bingo.'

"Yo Habihana, who you got your bets on today?" I could tell this was the mammoth guy talking by how close he was to me, and I could also tell by the hiss in who responded it must have been the guy with the snake eyes and fangs.

"Depends if Rappa is gonna abuse his Quirk again."

I blinked once, noting the name of Rappa as they continued to talk.

"Doesn't matter, the Ring is always bringing in well trained fighters and labeling them underdogs. Bullshit, an ex-military is always gonna do better than people like us."

It was the final guy, the box head I was naming him, as they all took seats at a table.

"Quite whining you-" Mammoth stopped talking, seeing as heavy footsteps came from behind him.

"You three here for the showing?" A female voice.

A collective yes was more than enough for an answer, and I continued to listen intently. 

They ordered their food, spoke more about what they were hoping to see, and started to get shitfaced drunk.

As minutes ticked by, I mentally put together everything I heard through laughter, eating, cheers, and curses into a cohesive whole.

The Ring was an underground fighting arena where people could make quick cash or put their names out there. Villain organizations were constantly fighting for room, well the smaller operations, because most would refer to what I guess was All for One as 'Him' and move on.

So they were fighting for scraps that he cared little about, some even hoping to make enough noise that they got a call from him and got the Quirk of their dreams.

Made sense that most of the bowling alley's customers were people with mutation Quirks, they were interested in getting a new Quirk to look normal.

What's twenty years working for All for One if your family didn't hate you, normal looking people didn't avoid eye contact, you could not get lingering eyes when traveling out of major cities?

'Interesting, it seems that discrimination might even be worse here.'

Although, I was hearing it from the very people who were being ridiculed, so they might make it sound worse than it was, but I wasn't going to count what they said out just yet.

I now had more information on who made Old Kenji bite the dust, because perhaps they were looking for the Ring to see if they could make a name for themselves.

That ruled out Dabi, he was more of a loner who did his own thing, even the League had a loose leash on him in canon.

Toga was still a factor, and so was any Hero because of the modifier A New Villain in Town: A hero and villain have swapped sides, their origins have been changed to fit was very much a thing.

I exhaled heavily, knowing that I wasn't gonna get much of anything else as the trio stumbled out of the building and towards an alleyway to puke away their sorrows.

It was actually scarily easy how I exited the Mammoth Guy's shadow unnoticed, too occupied patting his friends back next to a dumpster.

I got most of what I was looking for tonight. 

It was odd working backwards, because with Frost having the scent I could find the culprit immediately, but getting to them was the problem.

I checked my smartphone, grimacing upon seeing it was five thirty am, and I would have my first day at school in an hour tops.

It sucked to be back to having my classes assigned to me and not chosen like in college, but that was what I signed up for in this new life; it came with both bad and good.

I yawned, pocketed my smartphone, and made my way home.

I was finally able to pass out once I hit my pillow, the stress from being in someone's shadow and the drain on my cursed energy pushing me close to actual exhaustion.

It was good though, because I did eventually drift off, only to curse the heavens once my alarm woke me up.

I hadn't dreamed ethier, which might be a blessing, because I was sure I would see my old life in them, not this one.

Groggily getting out of bed, I mimicked a zombie as I did my morning routine, so tired that I forgot to turn the shower knob to hot, and was not even phased as I took a ten minute bone freezing shower.

My thoughts lagged, and as I looked at my backpack that smelt of mildew and was still torn, I realized right then and there some things I still hadn't thought about.

Luckily, I did at least have an extra uniform.

I had been way too preoccupied with my circumstances. I had forgotten to prepare for school, so I was pretty much going in blind.

"Well, here's to hoping Izuku isn't a girl."

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Hey, decided to publish the second chapter because it feels weird sitting on five chapters and do nothing with them.

So a free chapter, and I should probably say once again that the start is gonna be sloowwwww. It will pick up, there will be fights, drama, romance, some spice, and some slice of life.

Just let me cook a little, right now I am dicing the vegetables and getting the pan hot.