The first week at U.A. went by like a blur, but not the kind of blur you wanted to forget. More like standing in front of a firehose while someone yelled "Good luck!" and turned the valve. Classes stacked like dominoes, each one heavier than the last. Hero basic theory. Quirk application safety. Combat fundamentals. Aizawa-sensei's idea of "warm-up" looked suspiciously like special forces training.
Everyone else complained, but secretly? I liked it. The structure, the grind, the constant sense that every day mattered. Because deep down, I already knew what was coming. MHA's canon wasn't some loose "maybe." It was a loaded train barreling toward us all, and if I wasn't careful, I'd get crushed under the wheels.
The Sentai System, though… that was the unpredictable part.
At first, I thought it was just morphing. Red armor, sword, a few color swaps. But as the week wore on, I noticed things. Little things. The way the Morpher hummed differently when certain people were nearby. The way my HUD sometimes glitched, displaying names or faint percentages when classmates pushed themselves. It wasn't just power. It was resonance.
The Grid wanted connection.
It started small, during lunch on Wednesday. The cafeteria buzzed with energy: Bakugo snapping at Kaminari, Mineta creeping where he shouldn't, and Midoriya nearly fainting when Uraraka offered him a seat. I sat across from him, tray loaded with curry rice. The kid was scribbling notes in that infamous green notebook of his, muttering about "structural weaknesses" and "limit testing."
Curiosity got the better of me. I focused—not morphing, but letting the Morpher feel. A faint pulse tickled my wrist. Numbers flashed across the visor-less HUD in my mind's eye:
[Assist Node Resonance: Midoriya Izuku — 15%]
Effect Discovered: Will Surge — Sentai Strain decreases when ally pushes beyond limits.
I blinked. "…Huh."
Midoriya froze mid-bite, eyes darting to me. "Uh… Renji? Is there something on my face?"
I laughed, covering quickly. "Nah. Just realized something. You've got this dangerous kind of determination, you know? It rubs off."
His face went crimson. "D-dangerous? I—I'm not dangerous, I'm just—!"
Uraraka leaned over, waving her chopsticks. "He means you're cool, Deku. Chill out."
"C-cool?!"
The poor guy nearly short-circuited. I just smiled and kept eating, but inside, my chest was tight. Because it wasn't just some random number. The System had labeled him as a node. Someone whose determination could literally stabilize me in battle.
Which meant if Midoriya fell… the Grid itself might shake.
That night, I couldn't sleep. The dorm was quiet, Bakugo snoring like a broken chainsaw two doors down. I stared at the ceiling, Morpher resting on the desk beside me. My mind replayed the HUD data again and again.
Resonance.
Will Surge.
Assist Nodes.
It all sounded like game mechanics. But this wasn't a game. Every time I morphed, I felt it—threads tugging at me, pulling toward others. Midoriya. Uraraka. Even Bakugo, though his thread burned jagged, almost painful to touch.
The Sentai System didn't want me to be a lone hero. It wanted a team. Rangers weren't meant to fight alone. That was the whole point of Sentai, wasn't it? Bonds, unity, five colors standing together.
I rolled onto my side, sighing. "But I'm just one guy."
The Morpher pulsed faintly. Almost like it disagreed.
The next day, Aizawa had us running capture drills. Pair work, he called it. Random partners, see how you adapt. I ended up with Yaoyorozu, who made a full steel cage out of her skin cells while I distracted the target. Efficient, if terrifying. But every time she created something, the Morpher hummed again, faint and curious. Another possible node.
By the time training ended, I'd counted seven pulses across the class. Seven potential connections. Seven "assist nodes" the Grid might be trying to forge.
And then it got worse.
That night, I dreamed.
Not the normal kind of dream, either. I was floating in a void of green circuitry, neon wires stretching into infinity. The Morphin Grid, alive and endless. My Red armor flickered around me, pulsing in rhythm with the light. For a moment, it was peaceful—like standing in the heart of creation.
Then the peace cracked.
A hand tore through the grid, not one hand but five at once, pale fingers twitching and scratching like they wanted to peel the light apart. Wherever the hand touched, green dissolved into black smoke. The circuits screamed. The Grid itself screamed.
And behind that hand, I saw eyes. Too many eyes, glowing in the dark. Watching me. Promising they'd reach me soon.
I woke drenched in sweat, lungs heaving, the dorm spinning. The Morpher on my desk burned hot, symbols scrolling too fast to read.
[Warning: Grid Anomaly Detected]
[Potential Breach Location: USJ]
USJ. I froze. My brain pulled the memory like a file: the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. The field trip where villains ambushed Class 1-A. The place where All Might faced the Nomu. The place where canon could shatter.
And now the System was warning me. Not just of villains. Of a Grid breach.
I sat up, grabbing the Morpher. "You're telling me the Morphin Grid itself is under attack there, aren't you?"
No answer, of course. Just another pulse. Hotter this time. Urgent.
I dragged a hand down my face. "Great. As if fighting a bio-engineered monster designed to kill All Might wasn't enough, now I've got a corruption event?"
The Morpher pulsed again, like it agreed.
I slumped back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. My heart wouldn't calm. My mind wouldn't stop spinning. For the first time since transmigrating, I felt small. Tiny. Because this wasn't just me messing with canon. This was something bigger. Something that knew about the Grid and wanted to tear it apart.
The dream replayed in my head—the hand, the eyes, the smoke. And I realized with a chill that Shigaraki's obsession with power, with stealing quirks, might not just be quirks anymore.
He might already know about me.
By Friday, the USJ trip loomed. The class buzzed with excitement, Thirteen's name on everyone's lips. A rescue training facility, they said. A chance to practice real disaster scenarios. To them, it was a field trip. To me, it was a countdown clock.
I kept my smile practiced, my tone light, but inside? I was already suiting up. Already bracing for the moment the warp gate would open. Already preparing for Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and the Nomu.
Because the Morpher never lied.
And the warning still burned on its tiny screen, mocking me with green light:
[Grid Anomaly Detected — Location: USJ]