Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a normal job, killing some members of a low-level cartel in the southern part of Red Grave. He wasn't used to taking such easy jobs, but he needed the money, and kicking some mobsters' asses seemed like enough entertainment for the 16-year-old at the moment. And to make things even better, some demons showed up, making things a little more exciting.
Killing demons and teaching lessons to underworld bosses through violence was a normal weekday for Tony Redgrave. What wasn't normal was the scene unfolding before his eyes. In the dark, enclosed space where the cartel he had just destroyed was located, there was a huge crack in the ceiling—not just a crack in the ceiling, but a glowing crack, and strange sounds were coming from it.
Tony was staring intently at the thing on the ceiling as if its very existence were an personal attack on him. And it kind of was. Because it could only be a hellgate, and that in itself was absurd, since his father Sparda had sealed off all possible connections between the human world and hell.
"There's no way I'm going to have to deal with any more of your mess, old man", the silver-haired boy thought irritably.
The demons who'd arrived to spice up Tony's party while he was dealing with the cartel had long since disintegrated, but one thing was bothering the young man. The scumbags hadn't come from the rift, but were trying to get to it. Obviously, Tony wouldn't allow that to happen. He wondered for a moment if the rift was the work of the cartel, but quickly dismissed the idea. The losers didn't seem like the type to dabble in the occult, only drugs and bank robberies (Tony had done his homework and minimally researched his target).
Well, it doesn't matter who opened it, maybe it just spawned here alone. This thought made Tony groan in frustration. He had to solve this; he couldn't let it escalate. It would eventually become a bigger problem, and it would become his problem anyway.
Scanning the deplorable place, littered with bodies that had once been foul-mouthed mobsters, he found an armchair. Quickly removing the body, he realized he would get his new boots dirty. "Great, just what I needed", Tony sighed.
Using the armchair as a sort of ladder, Tony approached the crack in the moldy ceiling. What he didn't expect was that the moment he got close enough to touch the opening, a massive suction force caught him off guard.
"Oh fuck," was the last thing the young albino said before he was completely swallowed through the rift and his vision went black.
When Tony regained consciousness, he expected to be in a putrid place, filled with hideous creatures, red and bloody ground, and a strong smell of sulfur. Instead, he smelled garbage and, looking up, saw a nearly cloudless blue sky. He was in a trash can.
"Oh shit, my coat!" he said as he quickly got out of the trash can. He dared to sniff his coat and quickly regretted it. "Oh, that's disgusting, I'm going to have to take a shower after this," the young man said tiredly, picking up the guitar case that was lying nearby.
After checking that everything was correct with the case, he turned to the trash can as if it had personally offended him.
"I'm not an expert on religion or anything like that, but a dirty alley wasn't what I expected hell to be like," Tony said running his hand along the sticky wall of the alley, "why is it sticky? Oh, I don't want to know, how disgusting", he said quickly pulling his hand away and walking quickly out of the alley.
The sight the albino saw made him freeze. Contrary to his initial impression, he didn't seem to be in hell, as there were people walking around normally. This made Tony breathe a sigh of relief; he wasn't as screwed as he thought. However, something made his apprehension return: these people weren't speaking english, but japanese. The realization hit him like a truck.
"I'm in Japan?!" Tony exclaimed in shock and without even realizing it, also out loud, making several people look at him. Uncomfortable with the sudden attention, he simply lowered his head and began walking down the street.
"That thing sent me to the other side of the world? Oh, what a pain, I had to pick up a new package with the old lady today, she's going to kill me, I need to find a way to call her and buy a ticket back, thank goodness I had received 50% of the money before, but this was definitely not how I wanted to spend it... Oh, what a terrible day, at least I know the basics of Japanese because of that job I did with Grue some time ago", he thought, putting his hands in his pocket and walking to look for some kind of public telephone.
Meanwhile, he began to notice some slightly worrying things. The phones people passing by were very different from the ones people in Red Grave had; perhaps it was some kind of new technology he simply didn't know about because he had no interest in cell phones. Tony tried to get one once, at Nell's insistence, but it broke the same day he got it, and the old lady wouldn't repair his guns for a week because of it. Tony found the punishment quite unfair; it's not his fault the thing was so delicate.
But that wasn't all. He passed an electronics store with TVs on display, and it seemed like every news channel was reporting the same thing. From what Tony could tell, it was an attack on a group of students from a local school. Nothing too special for Tony Redgrave, of all people, until they showed footage of the alleged attack. And Tony can admit, this wasn't one of his finest moments, but the moment he saw the students' garish and extremely colorful costumes, he started laughing out loud. "They were attacked during a costume party? What kinda of clothes are these?" he said, doubling over with laughter. There was even a boy wearing a bird mask, which made him almost choke.
Unfortunately, this earned Tony some unpleasant looks, which signaled it was time to continue his search for a payphone. But before that, he felt a sharp object jab at his back. "Hand over your wallet, foreigner, or you're done for", he heard someone say behind him. "At least he's saying something I understand", the young man thought as he allowed himself to be guided into an alley; after all, he couldn't handle the guy in the middle of the crowd.
When they were finally out of sight, the man armed with what Tony thought was a pocketknife prepared to say something, but before any sound could come out of his mouth, the albino, with inhuman speed, ducked and tripped the robber, who fell to the ground in fright. Before he could even react, Tony stomped hard on his chest, knocking the air from his lungs. "A tip: next time you try to rob someone, be more charismatic. That was the most boring robbery attempt I've ever been a part of. I mean, that wasn't even scary, you didnt do it right—" Before continuing, Tony finally noticed something.
Something that left him slightly disturbed.
The hand where Tony thought his assailant was holding a knife wasn't a hand at all, but a blade. This guy had no fingers. "A demon?" But the young man quickly dismissed that idea. The man in question smelled too human for that, and demons were never about stealing people, but more about killing and tearing them apart. And if it was a demon the guye wou alredy have called him "The traitor's blood!", or whatever.
"What the hell is this? ", Tony said, a little disconcerted, looking at the hand in question. This reaction seemed to make the robber, who was still trapped under his boot, irritated. "I know it's ugly, you don't need to humiliate me more than I already am, I didn't wish to be bron like this, alright?"
"That sounds really sad, but I'm not a therapist, man, and I don't believe your lie either. After all, that thing is metal," Tony said, crouching down on the chest of the man who was still stuck on the ground to inspect the strange member. "It's my quirk, man, that thing," he said, huffing in frustration.
"Your what? Quirk?" Tony said with a look of genuine confusion that caught the thug by surprise who replied, "You know your quirk, the powers you inherit from your parents?"
This made Tony get off the man who, looking better, didn't seem much older than him. He scratched his head, "Powers? And everyone has them?" The thief still on the ground nodded and added, "Most of them at least." This made the mercenary run his hand over his face, "I'm definitely not in hell, but this is definitely not my home".
Now it was the man's turn to look at Tony in confusion, "why do you seem so baffled by this, this is all basic information and like you have a quirk", the man said finally getting up from the ground, for a second he wondered what the strange teenager's quirk was, "something involving speed for sure".
"Obviously I have a quirk, a really cool one that's none of your business," Tony said, quickly turning to face the boy with a hand on his chest and a confident smile. "Look, I was going to beat you unconscious in this alley, but change of plans! You're lucky I need to know where there's a library around here, and you're going to help me in exchange for your well-being. It seems fair to me," the gray-haired boy exclaimed, looking at him slyly. Suddenly, the atmosphere in the alley changed completely, and the other man felt suffocated and hot out of nowhere. "Are we clear, bro?" The mercenary asked with a smile, but his tone was extremely cold. The robber nodded tremblingly and left the alley. Tony promptly followed him.
After pointing to a huge, futuristic-looking building with lots of windows, the pale robber ran off as fast as he could. Tony chuckled at this and entered the building. Inside were several shelves with many books arranged in what he assumed was alphabetical order. Beyond the shelves were several things that the young man could only assume were computers. "Not bad", he thought.
Before heading to the computers, he walked through the shelves until he found an English-Japanese dictionary that he would definitely steal from that place. As he strolled through the library, he finally began to notice how clean the atmosphere of this place he found himself in was, unlike all the places he had been before. Because no matter where he went, there was always that trail of demons hunting him, however, that seemed nonexistent here. "A place without demons, is that really possible?" he whispered to himself, running a hand over his face. He didn't know whether to laugh or knock over the bookshelf in front of him.
But then he remembered the scene of the demons trying to pass through the rift before. This made him grip the dictionary in his hand tighter, "whatever is happening is definitely not good and it will definitely fall on me", the mercenary sighed tiredly.
Leaving that question aside for the moment, he went to the computer area. The computers were sleek and futuristic, and after an embarrassing three minutes of trying, he finally managed to turn one on. "aha!", he said excitedly, until the information on the screen made him stop.
The date on the monitor.
August 12, 2256.
Tony looked at the computer as if it had slapped him, color completely draining from his face. He wanted to puke. But instead he suddenly started laughing, not because it was funny, but because it was such an absurd situation that it was the only thing left for him to do now: laugh. Tony only remembers feeling as hopeless as he did now only once in his life before. What could he do now?
His laughter caught the attention of the librarian, an old woman who looked normal and wrinkled like any other old woman. She made a face at him, which reminded him of a certain Methuselah, but he couldn't care less now. Sighing, he sat down in the chair and began researching. During his first few attempts, he managed to change the language to English, which made finding information much easier.
Apparently, one day, for some reason, people started being born with superpowers out of nowhere, and about 80% of the world's population had them, but the vast majority were quite weak. And there were some people with "quirks" that manifested physically. "So, that kid on TV really had a bird's head? How does he eat pizza with a beak? Or maybe he can't? So many questions". People who had strong quirks became "heroes," which made Tony laugh again, earning another dirty look from the librarian.
Heroes. Maybe he's been transported to a comic book after all.
Licensed heroes who worked for the government, "how boring", Tony couldn't help but think. They even had a ranking of the best heroes, with the top spot going to a guy named All Might, a super muscular blond guy with spiky hair.
The mercenary watched some videos of the so-called "#1 hero," and he really looked like the kind of superhero that come from kids imagination: smiling, confident, strong, and with extremely embarrassing moves. "Why is he shouting the names of the American states? Jackpot has much more style, modesty aside". This All might actually looked quite strong, with one of his moves shaking an entire city block in the video. "I have to admit, impressive," he thought, clapping his hands.
Second place went to a guy named "Endeavor," a red-haired guy with an angry face and fire powers. Tony didn't want to see any videos about him.
From then on, the heroes began to seem increasingly annoying and uninteresting, until he reached a certain hero with giant red wings. "Hawks," was his name. "Is he a cross between a bird and a man, or just a guy with wings?" Tony wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer, but the hero's videos caught him off guard. He was fast. Really fast.
An ordinary human probably wouldn't be able to keep up, but that wasn't a problem for the red-coated mercantile. The way he also seemed to control his feathers with his mind and use them as a sword "They're much tougher than they look", he thought this guy left Tony slightly intrigued.
Suddenly, however, the young man sighed.
"Enough studying, I can't take it anymore," he said, looking at the time. It was already nighttime. He'd spent hours reading, but before leaving, he looked for a cheap hotel nearby to spend the night. He memorized the address, then deleted the history of the last few hours and tucked the dictionary into his coat. He looked around and saw that the library lady was busy tidying up a shelf. He ran through the shelves to the exit.
Tony Redgrave was very tired. So tired that when he got to the cheap place he found ,on a more dangerous part of the city it seemed, he didn't even try to negotiate the price he just paid for the cheapest room in dollar and crashed into the bed.
Unknown to Tony on the other side of the city on the roof of a tall building, a certain hero with disheveled black hair and tired eyes was on the phone.
"An energy pulse that left three blocks of Tokyo without power for hours, what a problem," the man said with a huff. "Okay, okay, I'll investigate, but I have my students first, remember that," he said firmly.
One more thing on his endless list of things to solve.