This section is the author's note. Sorry for the inconvenience—I accidentally skipped ahead in the original storyline earlier, lol. I'll fix it in this chapter. Enjoy reading, and I look forward to your support.
***
"I ENTER THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"
The booming voice belonged to All Might, who strode in wearing his iconic hero cape. His presence instantly sucked all the oxygen and attention from the room. Bursts of admiration exploded from Midoriya and his classmates.
Nabiel only let out a long sigh and buried his face behind his shirt collar. Here we go, he thought wearily.
All Might, with his ever-present wide smile, announced that today they would conduct Rescue Training at a special facility. They were ordered to put on their hero costumes and prepare to head to the location.
While the others donned colorful, eye-catching costumes packed with advanced equipment, Nabiel emerged from the changing room in his usual appearance, painfully ordinary. He wore an oversized white long-sleeved shirt with sleeves dangling over his hands, flexible black cargo pants, and tactical boots. Hidden beneath his loose shirt were a belt and harness holding his favorite tactical knives. An appearance that purely screamed "Background Extra Character."
Momo gave him an evaluative glance as they walked toward the bus, but she was too tired to comment on Nabiel's minimalist fashion sense.
The bus ride passed quickly, and Class 1-A arrived at a massive, impressive dome facility. Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ for short.
At the entrance they were greeted by the Space Hero, Thirteen. The figure in the white astronaut suit began delivering a highly inspiring speech. Thirteen explained how Quirks could become deadly weapons if misused and that the main purpose of this facility was to teach them to use their powers to save lives rather than to harm.
Nabiel listened while leaning against the wall near the entrance. Good thematic exposition, he evaluated inwardly. This speech is a transition marker. From the safe school atmosphere to the brutal reality of the hero world. Unfortunately that transition would happen faster than they expected.
Right as Thirteen finished his sentence, the lights throughout the USJ facility flickered erratically. The power suddenly cut out. In the central plaza far below them the fountain began hissing before a swirling purple-black mist vortex opened.
From within the mist dozens of figures with murderous auras stepped out. At the front stood a man with many hands attached to his body and a large monster with its brain exposed.
Aizawa Shota immediately stepped forward and lowered his protective goggles. His voice turned sharp and cold. "Gather together and do not move! Thirteen, protect the students! Those are… Villains."
Panic spread instantly among the students. Nabiel remained silent, his obsidian-dark eyes looking down. Ah, League of Villains. The invasion begins. My plan: stay behind Yaoyorozu, avoid combat, and wait for All Might or the other teachers to handle this.
However the narrative seemed to have grown tired of Nabiel's laziness.
The black mist that had been below suddenly expanded and shot toward them. Kurogiri, the mist villain, appeared right in front of Class 1-A and blocked the exit.
"Our task is to separate you and torture you to death," Kurogiri said in a horrifyingly polite tone.
Before Thirteen or Aizawa could stop it, the black mist exploded and enveloped the crowd of students. Nabiel tried to grab Momo's arm to stay near his safe zone, but the mist warped the space around him. His vision darkened, the sensation of falling without gravity hit his stomach, and in an instant he was thrown to a completely different location.
***
THUD!
Nabiel landed in a rolling position on the hard rocky ground. He quickly got up, brushed the dust from his cargo pants, and observed his surroundings.
He was in the Ruin Zone. Shattered concrete buildings were scattered, creating a quiet and oppressive labyrinth of debris. No Momo. No Todoroki. No one from his class. He was completely alone.
"Damn," Nabiel muttered softly. "The plot system separated me from the main characters. This is a very vulnerable position for a character without plot armor."
Just as he muttered, the sound of heavy footsteps came from behind a collapsed concrete pillar. It was followed by a hoarse, somewhat insane laugh.
"Hee… look what I got. A little rat from U.A. separated from its pack."
A man stepped out from the shadows. His appearance was disheveled, wearing a worn leather jacket with burn scars on half his face. But what made Nabiel's danger instinct scream was not his appearance but what was in both of his hands.
Fire. But not ordinary fire. The fire was bright blue, blazing with intensity that made the surrounding air vibrate from the extreme heat.
"My name is Dabi," the man said, grinning widely to show his yellow teeth. "And I hate heroes. Especially aspiring heroes who look like they underestimate everything, like you."
Nabiel stared at the blue fire. Blue fire? Its temperature must be much higher than normal fire. This is not some random low-level villain. This is a mini-boss.
As an Outer, Nabiel could simply snap his fingers and erase Dabi's existence from this reality. He could manipulate the laws of physics to instantly extinguish the fire. However the rules he had set for himself bound him: he had descended into this world to experience the story, not to ruin it. If he used his Outer power now, his entire disguise would collapse and the value of his experience would become zero.
He had to survive as Nabiel, an ordinary human without a Quirk.
Dabi did not waste time. With a swing of his hand a wave of blue fire shot quickly toward Nabiel, burning the ground it passed into glass.
Nabiel reacted in milliseconds. He leaped to the side, rolling over the concrete debris just as the blue fire slammed into the wall behind him, melting the concrete as if it were butter.
The heat immediately stung Nabiel's skin. The dangling end of his white shirt sleeve was slightly singed.
"You're pretty fast too, rat!" Dabi laughed, continuing to advance while hurling barrage after barrage of fire projectiles.
Nabiel kept moving. His brain worked at maximum speed, processing the fire trajectories, the ruin structures, and the enemy's blind spots. With fluid movements from his ten months of physical training he ran up a slanted wall, performed a backflip to avoid a deadly fire sweep, and landed behind a thick pillar.
His breathing began to quicken. Nabiel wiped the sweat pouring down his forehead. The heat in the zone increased drastically. His lungs burned with every breath he took.
Human physics has limits, Nabiel thought, objectively analyzing his own condition. I cannot keep dodging forever. His attacks are Area of Effect type. Sooner or later I will get roasted.
From beneath his shirt Nabiel's hand moved quickly to pull a matte black tactical knife from his harness. He gripped the knife handle tightly. No Quirk. No cosmic power. Only steel, reflexes, and killing instinct.
"Hiding won't save you, kid!" Dabi roared. The man pressed both hands to the ground. Instantly a sea of blue fire spread across the ground surface, sweeping the entire area around the pillar where Nabiel was hiding.
Nabiel was forced to leap out of his hiding spot before his feet melted. As he was in the air Dabi was already aiming at him with a sadistic smile, preparing to release a fire pillar directly at him.
But Nabiel did not give up. In the air he twisted his body and threw his tactical knife with lethal precision straight at Dabi's neck.
Dabi was surprised. He was forced to stop his attack and raise his left hand. Blue fire exploded from his palm, striking the steel knife. Due to the extreme heat of the fire Nabiel's knife melted in mid-air before it could touch Dabi's skin, falling as droplets of molten metal.
Nabiel used that opportunity to land and run in a zigzag, trying to close the distance. He drew his second knife. He had to fight in close quarters so Dabi could not use area attacks without burning himself.
Nabiel dashed, ducking under Dabi's fiery punch swing, and slashed toward the man's ribs.
SLASH!
The tip of his knife successfully tore the leather jacket and grazed Dabi's stomach, splattering a little blood.
"ARGH! YOU BASTARD!" Dabi raged. Instead of retreating the man exploded blue fire from every pore of his body at once, creating an exploding dome of fire outward.
The repulsive force from the explosion hit Nabiel hard. His body was thrown into the air, slamming into the concrete ruin wall behind him with a painful thud.
"Uhuk!" Nabiel coughed up a little blood, feeling several of his ribs crack. His white shirt was now dirty, torn, and singed in several places.
He tried to stand, but his legs trembled. The oxygen around him was thinning because it had been burned away by Dabi's blue fire.
Dabi walked slowly toward him, both hands now enveloped in wildly spinning balls of blue fire. The man's laugh echoed among the ruins, sounding like a death knell.
Nabiel leaned his back against the concrete wall that was starting to crack from the heat. He glanced left and right. The sea of blue fire had blocked all escape routes. He was truly trapped in a narrow corner, with an enemy ready to turn him into ash.
His right hand still gripped his last tactical knife tightly, but his deep black eyes now stared straight at the approaching blue fire blaze.
The Observer, for the first time in his human life, was truly cornered by his own narrative.