Title: Here I Stand

Summary: I had grown up being told death was supposed to lead to the peaceful afterlife, not a world of superheroes and "Quirks". [SI-OC/Reincarnation-fic]

Disclaimer: This will be the one and only time I do this, so let's get something clearly obvious over with. I do not own Boku no Hero Academia, but Kohei Horikoshi sure does! I'd like to encourage everyone to go out and support the official release (the manga)!

Chapter 0: Prologue

I felt the waves lapping over, and over and over my frantically waving hand. I flailed and thrashed around, but in the end, I got nowhere. My arm eventually became fatigued, and helplessly dropped below, next to my equally exhausted body. It felt as though my lungs were being filled with burning acid–ever ripe and ready to burst. The worst part is whenever I thought that this is my limit, this is my end, I held on to my life that much longer.

Eyes widened, clenched fist, mouth—still shut. I pushed once, reaching for god-knows-what. I failed of course, only managing to grab a fistful of water. I tried to relax—didn't work.

I've held my breath in a pool before, but this—this was nothing like that. This felt like the equivalent of having a gun to my head and being told not to let my heartbeat.

Of course it was going to beat.

And just like the heart must go on, my lungs would have to inhale at some point; whether it is the air or briny water. My mouth quivered frenziedly before finally caving in. At the moment that the frigid water rushed in, I knew I was going to die. In mere moments I would float like a seaweed, nothing more than flesh and bones ready to rot and decay below in the depths of the marine ecosystem.

I wanted to be saved from this mess; I wanted a rescuing hand to carry me back to life, to the world above…

This, however, wasn't like some movie where drowning was unrealistically noisy and attention-grabbing, someone yelling and waving their arms for dear life as they dip below the waves and come back up, the lifeguards on shore scrambling dramatically to rescue them.

Instead, drowning was much more hushed, their movements subtle, rarely making any noticeable noise at all. One moment your head was hovering above the water and the next, it was gone underneath the violent waves as they pulled you under; no regard for your life. Screaming wasn't really an option, the water tugging you underneath constantly seeming to negate any chance of you screaming for help.

Well.

At that point in time, I had already come to accept that I was going to die. This was really it for me, after seventeen-short-years old on this planet. Well, it couldn't all be so bad. At least I could go and meet my maker and be at everlasting peace; just like in those stories my mom always told me about all those years.

That was when I finally let myself go and just breathed. There was a naïve part of me that had wished and hoped air would somehow magically enter my body. That didn't happen, the water surrounding me, flooding into my body and filling me with gallons upon gallons of water.

And it was done. My eyes gradually closed shut, the darkness enveloping around me.

I never in my life thought I'd die by drowning in the vast ocean; I thought I would die at least honorably, ceasing after an escaping pocket-picking thug and getting fucked over for being heroic. Drowning didn't seem like such a bad option either, except for the fact that it wasn't nearly as painless as people made it out to be.

Before I parted ways with the world that I knew, I heard the shouting of a man and several others nearing me. Must've been the lifeguards, coming to rescue me; the damsel in distress.

Guess someone really did notice me in trouble.

Unfortunately, at that point, it was too late. I had already forfeited my life to the despicable murderer that was the sea.

I wondered how my mother, father and the rest of my family would deal with this tragic ordeal, knowing their baby boy was gone forever and nothing could be done to bring him—me—back. I wished I could say my last goodbyes to them, that I could hug and kiss them one last time before I made my departure.

It sickened me to my stomach to know that I would be leaving behind precious people and the memories I've made with them. That I didn't get to fully enjoy my life and experience all the things that came with growing up and becoming older. All the hard work I put into my education, everything, it was all forfeit and all I could do was accept that.

At least I can die knowing that I fought with all I had in me to survive.

Those were my single last thoughts as I passed, my body drifting lifelessly down into the depths of the sea.

...

There was nothing but silence. Surrounding me was nothing but darkness, not a single sign of light around me. I tried to move around, but I couldn't. I was just there; my entire body invisible to my own eyes. Was… was this truly what the afterlife was like? Maybe God or his angels would show up any time now and guide my poor drifting soul to Heaven.

And then, just like that, my wish was seemingly granted.

A blinding light manifested, overpowering the darkness around me.

...

I felt weak and utterly drained. I felt tightly compressed and uncomfortable at the moment, almost as if I was being confined between oddly shaped, riffled feeling walls.

Where was I?

Why was the afterlife so—dark and warm?

Where did the light take me?

These questions played in my head like a record, as I attempted to deduce where I was currently at. I was then snapped out of thought, my ears suddenly assaulted by an onslaught of loud noises. Beeping could be heard from somewhere nearby, increasing in volume at every passing second; it was like machines were going haywire.

The piercing, high-pitched screams of a woman could also be heard. Just what kind of sick place was I in!?

"Pusshu, misu! Anata wa sore o suru koto ga dekimasu!" an encouraging voice yelled over the violent bellowing of the woman. I couldn't understand a lick of what the man was saying and the screaming wasn't helping me recognize the language either.

I needed to know what was happening, why I was still feeling and breathing. Why wasn't I actually dead? Shouldn't I have been ascending to the gates of Heaven or something?!

Suddenly, it all happened. The warm, oddly-shaped walls enveloped around me began to get a little too tight, a bit too unstable. Then there was a pulsating wall of muscle forcing me to slip downward. This was too weird! It almost felt like I was going to be squished! My flight instincts kicked in. I needed to get away before I was turned into taffy!

Funny thing about that though, was that none of my limbs seemed to respond the way I wanted them to and I ended up getting pretty squished regardless.

Next thing I knew, I was finally out of the unknown cesspool. I inhaled impulsively upon feeling air coming in contact with my body. Moments later, my entire body was bombarded by a several towel wipes, these random figures cleaning the sticky fluids dripping off of me. This, as a result, opened up my airways completely, allowing me to breathe easier.

Wait a minute…

Sticky fluids? Warm darkness? Mechanical beeping? Screaming from a woman?

The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. It made more and more sense as I continued to be carefully cleaned off by the figures.

I wasn't going to consider it; I didn't want to consider it. However, the answer was so blatantly obvious why this was happening to me, why I was still living and why I wasn't in some sort of afterlife. I didn't want to accept it, I couldn't.

This harsh reality still existed, no matter how much I didn't want to consider something like this real.

I had just been reincarnated as a baby.

Translations:

Pusshu, misu! Anata wa sore o suru koto ga dekimasu: "Push, miss! You can do it!"

Author's Note:

And done! It's not really much anyone can get from that short prologue chapter but I still hope you all enjoyed it! I'm just going to go ahead and release the second chapter right after this anyways.

This is an idea I've had circulating for about a long time now, and I mean since 2017 long. As of January of this year, I have been planning out the course I want this story to follow and I felt confident enough to actually go ahead and post it.

Also humongous thanks to someone I consider a great friend, CorgisAreMySoul. She's responsible for cleaning up and editing the stupid mistakes I make in every chapter; I really can't thank her enough for the wonderful job she does. Also, if you haven't checked it out, please make sure to give her SI-OC fic: Eternal Flame, a read!

In my opinion, it's probably the best SI-OC fic in this fandom as of right now; mostly in part to how well she constructs and writes. You honestly won't regret reading, that's a guarantee.

Regarding romance, I was a little indecisive on making a choice on this matter, and I came to a conclusion: I am still indecisive. There's a good chance that there will be romance, but I do not want to get any one's hopes up.

Warnings/triggers will be provided if people believe them to be truly necessary! I don't think every chapter will need one but just let me know in a review or PM if that's the case and I'll make sure to add it in!

Lastly, with this being an SI-OC, events will eventually begin to shift and change due to the inclusion of this character, for the better or worse. All I'm saying is that it'll take some time to diverge from the canon events that happen in the series/universe, so don't expect to jump right in that kind of stuff for just a little while. There are a couple of important plot points that happen during his childhood-years, including middle school years.

I am writing this story with a vision in mind and I plan to fulfill that through and through. Keyword: plan. In terms of an update schedule, thanks to summer, it should be about one every two weeks; depends on my beta reader's schedule. I cannot speak for when school starts back up as I'll be a Senior in High School; so that's a pretty busy, stressful rollercoaster in itself right now.

With all that out the way, I hope you will enjoy what I set out to be one of the greatest stories ever told in this entire fandom and site!