The Digital Traveler

The afternoon sun filtered through the high windows of Class 1-A, casting long, golden rectangles across the floor. It was that strange, liminal space between the intensity of Aizawa’s Quirk Apprehension Test and the next period. The air was thick with the scent of ozone and sweat, but the tension had bled out of the room, replaced by the buzzing energy of twenty teenagers getting to know one another.

Soa Sakihara sat quietly at their desk, their back straight but their shoulders finally beginning to drop from their ears. The fatigue from transforming into their chimera-like OC still hummed in their bone marrow—a dull, heavy ache that made the wooden chair feel surprisingly comfortable. They adjusted the wrist device fastened securely to their arm, the metal cool against their skin.

"Man, that was totally intense!"

The loud, cheerful voice belonged to Kirishima. He was leaning against a nearby desk, his red hair defying gravity as he gestured toward the front of the room. "I really thought Aizawa-sensei was gonna send someone packing on day one. Talk about a manly way to start the year!"

"It was certainly an efficient way to weed out those without resolve," Iida added, chopping his hand through the air with robotic precision. "Though the psychological stress was quite high!"

Mina Ashido turned around in her seat, her pink skin glowing in the sunlight. "Forget the stress! Can we talk about everyone's Quirks? Some of you guys have such cool origins! Like, I just started secreting acid one day while playing tag. My clothes were ruined, but my parents were so hyped!"

The conversation rippled through the room like a wave. Kaminari talked about accidentally short-circuiting his middle school’s sound system; Uraraka mentioned the nausea she felt the first time she floated a tea set. It was a bonding ritual, a way for these strangers to weave their lives together through the common thread of their abilities.

Soa tried to look inconspicuous, pulling a stray strand of their royal blue hair behind their ear. They were the listener, the observer. They liked it that way. If they stayed quiet, they wouldn't accidentally say something that defied the logic of this world. They were still learning the "rules" of this reality, still trying to anchor themselves to the identity of 'Soa Sakihara' before it drifted away like a glitching save file.

"What about you, Sakihara-kun?" Mina’s eyes were wide and curious as she leaned toward them. "Your Quirk is like... digital, right? That transformation was wild! You looked like a total boss, even if those extra eyes were a little creepy."

Soa blinked, their heart skipping a beat. They felt the collective gaze of the class shift toward them. Even Bakugo, who was scowling at his desk, seemed to be listening out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh, I... it’s called Digital Nexus," Soa said, their voice soft but steady. They chose their words carefully, navigating the mental minefield of their own history. "I can interact with digital worlds. Games, mostly. I can bring things out, or... I can go in."

"Go in? Like, actually inside the game?" Midoriya’s eyes lit up, and he scrambled to pull out a scorched notebook. "Is it a physical manifestation of data? Do you become a program, or does your body maintain its biological integrity while inside?"

Soa chuckled nervously, the anxiety in their chest loosening just a fraction. "It’s physical. At least, it feels physical. I found out about it when I was younger. I was playing an old Sega console... a classic Sonic the Hedgehog game."

They hesitated. The memory was vivid, but it was tinted with a sadness they couldn't share. They couldn't tell these aspiring heroes that they had been a lonely child in a world without Quirks. They couldn't mention that their parents had been so indifferent to their existence that they hadn't noticed their child had vanished into a cathode-ray tube television for three days.

"I ended up getting pulled in," Soa continued, their gaze drifting toward the window as the memory took hold. "I didn't know how to get back. I was stuck in the Green Hill Zone for three days."

"Three days?!" Kirishima gasped, his eyes wide. "Dude, that’s hardcore! What did you do for food? Did you have to fight those robot ladybug things?"

"The Badniks, yeah," Soa smiled, a genuine, fond expression. "It was terrifying at first. Everything was so bright, so saturated. The grass felt like plastic but smelled like fresh rain. I was just a kid, and I was crying because I thought I’d never see a person again. But then, I heard this... *whoosh*."

The classroom fell silent. Even the rowdy students were leaning in now.

"I met them," Soa said. "Sonic and Tails. It was the classic versions, so they were smaller and... quieter. Sonic didn't actually speak. He used a lot of gestures and a specific kind of sign language. He was so impatient, always tapping his foot, but he wouldn't leave me behind."

"Wait, so how did you talk to him?" Tsuyu asked, tilting her head.

"Tails translated," Soa explained, gesturing with their hands. "The fox was a genius, even then. He realized I wasn't from their world. I couldn't run at supersonic speeds, obviously. I was just a normal kid. Every time they zoomed off, they’d have to loop back and find me panting behind a palm tree."

Soa laughed softly, the sound light and airy. "I had to learn how to survive their world. I couldn't do the loops—the centrifugal force would have probably snapped my neck—so I had to find shortcuts. I learned how to climb the checkered stone walls using large leaves to protect my palms from the rough edges. I found out that the world wasn't 2D like on the screen. It was a full, 3D dimension. You could walk behind the loops, or find hidden caves behind the waterfalls that the 'camera' never showed."

"That sounds like an incredible adventure," Momo Yaoyorozu remarked, her expression one of fascination. "To see the architecture of a digital construct from the inside... it must have been mathematically fascinating."

"It was beautiful," Soa admitted. "On the third day, I found a spot where the 'code' felt thin. It looked like a shimmering glitch in the air, right near a Star Post. I realized if I focused my energy through my wrist—where my Quirk manifests the strongest—I could tear a hole back to my living room."

They left out the part where they stepped back into a dark, silent house. They left out the part where the TV had been turned off, and they had been forced to exert every ounce of their willpower to 'ping' the device from the inside to force it back on.

"When I got out, I realized I could bring a piece of that world with me," Soa said, touching the device on their arm. "That’s how I started making my OCs. I took the things I learned—the climbing, the survival, the different traits of the creatures I met—and I digitized them into forms I could use."

"So that wolf-thing from earlier," Sero chimed in, "that was inspired by your travels?"

"In a way," Soa nodded. "It’s a manifestation of a character I drew to feel brave. The 'Devil’s Eyes' were meant to see the things that were hiding in the shadows of the code."

Mina beamed, leaning back in her chair. "That is the coolest origin story ever! You’re like a digital explorer, Soa-kun! We should totally have a game night. Can you take us into a game? Like a horror game? Actually, wait, no, that sounds terrifying."

"Maybe something peaceful," Soa suggested, feeling a warmth in their chest that had nothing to do with their Quirk. "Animal Crossing, perhaps?"

The bell rang, signaling the end of the break, but the atmosphere in the room remained light. For the first time since arriving in this strange, hero-filled world, Soa didn't feel like a glitch in the system. They didn't feel like a traveler hiding behind a mask of "Soa Sakihara."

As Aizawa trudged back into the room, his yellow sleeping bag slung over his shoulder, Kirishima gave Soa a thumbs-up and a toothy grin. Soa returned it with a small, hesitant smile of their own.

They had kept their secrets—the negligence of their past, the true nature of their world-hopping—but they had shared a piece of their heart. In this world of heroes, perhaps 'Soa' didn't have to be a temporary identity. Perhaps they could finally stop running through the levels and actually stay for the credits.