Year 1 :
• Month 1 : During the first month, Dante fully adjusted to his job at the convenience store while balancing his training. Kaijin finely tuned his custom martial art and Dante began refining his quirks already known techniques instead of trying to make new ones, focusing on control.
• Month 2-3 : Dante started sparring with more experienced fighters at the gym, including Kaijin and Kazuya every now and again. He develops incredible stamina and reaction timing thanks to refining his sensory antenna.
• Month 4-5 : Dante's name starts to spread among underground fighters. More thugs and low tier criminals from other gyms try to test him, but he just uses them for real world combat experience. Over time he has perfected blending his quirk and martial art seamlessly.
• Month 6 : Dante moves out of the convenience store, buying himself a small apartment near the gym with money he had saved from winning the underground fights, but he still helps out around the convenience store every now and again. His calorie loss has decreased significantly, allowing him to maintain using his quirk for longer periods of time without crashing.
• Month 7 : Kaijin introduced Dante to advanced combat theory, focusing on adapting to different opponents. Dante refines his tendrils and starts experimenting with detaching his sludge for ranged attacks.
• Month 8 : Dante participates in his very first organised underground fight, winning decisively. Kazuya, impressed, starts seeing him as an equal rather than just a promising fighter.
• Month 9-10 : Dante takes on a new challenge, Parkour training. This further enhances his movement in urban environments, making him an absolute nightmare to chase.
• Month 11 - 12 : Dante's quirk usage efficiency is at an all time high. He can stretch, harden and manipulate his sludge with pinpoint precision. He also starts noticing that his body naturally recovers way faster than before.
Year 2 :
• Month 1 - 3 : Dante continues dominating underground fights, but one night, he underestimates an opponent. There was a group of very skilled fighters who all had combat related quirks. They nearly killed him, overhwelming him with teamwork and unpredictable abilities, they even gave him a cross shaped scar on his right eyebrow. Just before the final blow, Kazuya arrives and Dante realises why people call him the Golden Lion. He used his quirk to create a set of beautiful impenetrable golden armour and dealt with the group, not without getting a few injuries though.
• Month 4 - 6 : While recovering, Dante acknowledges that he was getting arrogant. Seeing Kazuya in action, going out of his way to save him opened Dante's eyes. Kazuya wasn't just strong, he was also incredibly skilled. Curious about him, Dante sat down and asked about Kazuya's past.
• Month 7 - 9 : After a while of Dante's nagging, Kazuya finally reveals that he once aimed to become a pro hero and even attempted the U.A. entrance exam. However, he failed, unable to accumulate enough points in the practical exam thanks to his terrible combat ability. Bitter about that system, he abandoned the idea of becoming a hero and instead dedicated his life to training to fight and becoming an underground fighter.
• Month 10 - 12 : Dante, impressed by Kazuya's past and how eager he was to save Dante, starts researching U.A. and hero society in general. He realises how little he actually knows about how heroes function in this society, about this world as a whole, how quirks were categorised and what it truly means to be a "hero" in this world.
Year 3 :
• Month 1 - 3 : Dante starts training even harder, refining his combat intelligence, training not just for power but also his strategy. He also starts watching fights that involve pro hero's (mainly Aizawa since he hasn't forgot about the man that is the only reason he's still alive…) analysing their movements and weaknesses.
• Month 4 - 6 : Dante and Kazuya change their training plans and begin training together, pushing eachother to the limit. Kazuya's experience with structured training helps Dante improve his overall technique, while Dante's unpredictability and endlessly accelerating growth keeps Kazuya on his toes.
• Month 7 - 9 : Dante starts focusing mainly on long ranged sludge control, attempting to control and manipulate detached sludge for long periods of time. His goal was to control sludge as if it were still attached to his body even though it wasn't.
• Month 10 - 12 : Dante slowly takes an interest in hero related combat, testing himself against former hero course dropouts who fought in underground circuits like Kazuya. He begins understanding the difference between hero combat and underground fighting. Heroes fight with rules while underground fighters do whatever it takes to win.
Year 4 :
• Month 1 - 3 : Dante's training shifts once more towards adaptability. Kaijin teaches him a wide range of different fighting styles, forcing Dante out of his comfort zone.
• Month 4 - 6 : Dante refines his parkour skills further, incorporating acrobatics into his combat style. Now he's a complete nightmare to deal with in tight environments.
• Month 7 - 9 : Dante and Kazuya have a real fight again, this time, it's way closer. Kazuya won though, but Dante was absolutely catching up.
• Month 10 - 12 : Dante realises that he's outgrown low tier underground fighters. He wanted a real challange, something that will push him beyond just being strong. Then again, he doesn't even know why he insists on being stronger. He doesn't need to, he could just sit back and chill, but it's like there's something itching him to just grow stronger.
Year 5 :
• Month 1 - 3 : Dante is now one of the most feared underground fighters at just 13. People would call him a "ghost" because of how quickly he starts and ends a fight, he goes in, takes his opponent down and vanishes without saying a word.
• Month 4 - 6 : Kazuya asks Dante a deep question. "What do you really want from all of this? What do you really want?" And hearing those words took Dante back to one of his very first days in this world, when Aizawa had asked him the same thing. He didn't know how to answer. He'd been fighting and getting stronger for no reason, now that he's way stronger, what's next?
• Month 7 - 9 : Dante pushes his quirk training to the limit, developing his detached sludge limbs, Armor techniques he stole from Kazuya and a temporary full body sludge form like what his father had done.
• Month 10 - 12 : Dante makes a decision. He's done playing small. He's ready to move up in the world, whatever that meant.
———
Dante's stats post time skip :
Name : Dante Graves
Nicknames : Ghost of the Underground (underground fighter alias)
Age : 14
Height : 177 cm
Weight : 165 lbs
Build : Lean but muscular, built for agility and endurance rather than bulk.
Current appearance :
- Broad shoulders, defined arms and a strong core from years of street fighting and intense training.
- Longer limbs give him an advantage in reach, hand to hand combat and quirk usage.
- Toughened skin with a fair amount of small scars from fights, but nothing too noticeable other than the cross shaped scar on his eyebrow.
- Bright, sharp red eyes with a strange white X shape for the pupil that make him look either intimidating or dead serious all the time
- Messy, long golden blonde hair that he barely maintains, often all over the place and looking wild.
Physical Statistics and Speed Comparison :
- Strength :
- Can lift over 900 lbs, not out of the ordinary in this world but extremely strong for his age.
- Hits like a truck; his punches feel heavier than his size suggests due to his perfect technique and control over momentum.
- Speed and Reflexes :
- Can sprint at speeds beyond the fastest sprinters of his previous world, but his real strength is in his acceleration and overall agility.
- Fast twitch muscle dominance, he reacts instantly in a fight, making him nearly impossible to trick or catch of guard.
- Doding ability is out of this world, he fights based on predicting movement patterns and countering.
- Stamina and Endurance :
- Can fight for long periods of time and his quirk barely even drains energy anymore, only when he overexerts himself.
- Trained pain tolerance, he will keep going even when he's injured, but he does know when to back off.
…
…
March 30th, 5 years 6 months after Dante's reincarnation.
The morning air was crisp, the streets buzzed to life as Dante made his was towards the old Boss' convenience store to help him set up for the day. The city had changed over the time Dante had been here, or maybe it was just he who had changed. He wasn't some nameless homeless kid anymore. As he walked, people actually acknowledged him, be it for his time working in the convenience store, buying food late at night alone or his reputation as an underground fighter.
"Yo, Graves! Lovely morning aye?" A street vendor grinned, waving a spatula in greeting.
"Morning," Dante responded, with a much deeper voice than what we once knew.
A group of kids playing with a ball paused as he passed. One of them, a scrawny kid with messy hair grinned up at him. "Hey, Dante! You fighting today? My dad says you're awesome!"
Dante smirked but shook his head. "Not today, and you're too young to know about that! Keep playing the game."
He never thought much of it, but it was a nice change, people know him. His time wandering around buying random stuff at random times, helping people with errands, he was quite well known. Some looked up to him, some feared him and some just respected him for surviving.
Reaching the convenience store, he slipped inside, the all too familiar bell jingling. The old Boss, seated behind the counter, peered up from his newspaper and chuckled.
"Look who showed up, You're awake early."
Dante grabbed a bottle of water and a protein bar, tossing a few bills on the counter. "I've got training today, Kaijin told me to be there early today… Guess they're gonna go all out again."
The old boss nodded approvingly. "Good. Just don't forget to eat properly, and use those fists for good!"
With a giggle and a simple wave, Dante left, his pace steady as he headed for the gym, which had began opening in the morning rather than at night, Dante's existence seemed to reel even more people in.
…
The instant he stepped inside, a roar of excitement erupted.
"AYY, DANTE!"
"MR. GHOST IS HERE, THE MAN HIMSELF!"
Dante blinked as several of the gym regulars crowded him, patting him on the back, cheering his name like he'd won another championship. Even Kazuya was grinning ear to ear, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall.
Dante frowned. "What's this all about?"
"You, dummy," Kazuya said, pushing off the wall. "It seems Kaijin has officially given up."
Dante raised an eyebrow. "Given up?"
Kaijin stepped forward, shaking his head with an amused smile. "I've trained a shit ton of fighters. Studied thousands of martial arts, even ancient ones that were outshined by modern martial arts. I've always had ways to refine and improve someone's combat ability. But you?" He exhaled, crossing his arms. "I've seriously got nothing left to teach you, all I can think of now is professional training, wether you decide to pursue herosim or not is up to you, but I'd recommend it if you want to make it big."
Silence settled for a moment.
Then the gym erupted into even louder cheers.
Dante took a moment to fully take in what he just heard. He'd spent five years training my here, listening to Kaijin's every word, pushing his body beyond its limits. Now, even the man who had built his entire reputation on improving fighters had nothing left to give him.
Dante let out a distant laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. "Damn. Seriously? Nothing left..? I'm free?"
Kaijin smirked. "Doesn't mean you're perfect. Just means the only thing left for you now is to evolve, and the only person that can teach you to do that, is you."
Dante smiled. "Alright, I'll try."
The rest of the day passed in celebration. It wasn't anything grand, just the gym guys hanging out, training, eating and talking trash. It was simple, but it was a nice reminder.
A reminder that Dante had come a long way!