Chapter Text
“I had been waiting for you to show up here.”
Nico stared at the person sitting across the broad wooden desk from him. The room itself was wide as well, one wall entirely adorned by a windowed view of the courtyard and gates that marked UA’s entrance.
Perhaps person was a strong word. They were humanoid for certain but that’s where similarities stopped. For one, the person spotted a long white snout, white fur and beady black eyes. This was Principal Nedzu, head of UA, Japan’s best in heroic education. There was another far more human creature with a scraggly mane slouched to one side, vaguely observing the other two with one eye while dozing. The principal had referred to it as an ‘Aizawa Shouta’. Nico felt as though he vaguely recognised this creature - from what myth, he had no clue.
“You can start by introducing yourself, if you’d like to speak at all.”
Nico shook himself out of his daze as Nedzu spoke.
“Yes... I’m Nico di Angelo. Age 16 but my birth date is in 1924.”
The Principal quirked an eyebrow, but chose not to comment on the discrepancy.
“And the purpose of your visit?”
“As you can guess, I come from the past. I want… to find out what happened to my family. My people... I guess.
“I have been in this time before, but the last time I returned everyone I knew had completely disappeared.
“I’d already heard some bad news about them while I was here and I’m expecting the worst, but I need to know for sure. To know, too, if there’s anything I can do.”
“And why do you think I would be able to help you with this?”
Nico glanced across at him, eyes tired.
“You wouldn’t be able to?”
“I wouldn’t know unless you told me what you need.”
“We, my two cousins who are still around and I, figured out I’d need to travel to the future and find out what happens. What we did to fix this and do it. I’m probably in need of historical records and perhaps some extra firepower too, to help me deal with problems, that the heroes could provide.”
“Let me set this out clearly. You have a problem in the past and decided to travel to the future to find the solution.”
Nico frowned.
“With all-“
“And you have considered the implications that messing with time could have?”
Nico presses his mouth into a tight line and stared down at the surface of the desk for a moment. Then he shifted, looking up and into the principals beady eyes.
“Fate, whether in my favour or not, is fate - it might even be the biggest power in our lives. I’ve been able to shift it and bend it but it doesn’t break. But with enough twisting, maybe I can stop what happened by travelling through time; maybe I can’t, but now that I have the ability I do, I can find out what happens and work with that information. I want to protect the people I have while I can. I don’t believe what I choose to do will change anything, fate is too deterministic for that, but if it does, I can work to fix that too.”
The two kept their gaze set on one another, the only sound in the room coming from the shuffle of clothing as Aizawa re-adjusted his position on the wall. Nedzu took a sip of his tea, and Nico, realising his parched throat, reached for his own.
He downed his drink ungracefully and set the cup on the hardwood, eyes slightly averted and hands fidgeting under the desk. The principal put down his own cup gently, turning it in line with the teapot then leant forward.
“I’ll help you. More than my interest in you and your sudden time traveling ability, I would love to know if changing the future would affect my memories of this ‘timeline’, as one might say.
“This school has access to thousands of historical and non-fictional references. Our online systems are just as useful, with online articles dating back hundreds of years as well as scans of the more fragile papers in our archive. You should have no problem finding what you need but I can wrangle together information from hundreds of sources internationally if you need. Just give me a few days notice.
“But you have all the time in the world, no?” He concluded. Nico tilted his head in not-quite disagreement and principal Nedzu continued.
“Of course, you’ll be staying in our campus’ dorms - we’ve got no spare rooms but you should be able to share with another student.” He pulled open a drawer in his desk.
“From the logs I’ve received from Recovery Girl, Midoriya Izuku was admitted at the end of his last class this afternoon. He should still be in the nurse’s office. I hear you know each other well enough already so you should be comfortable staying with him.
“A final condition. I’ll clear some room in my schedule - I want you to join me for thirty minutes before class, for every morning that you’re staying here. I’d like to hear about your people and your power but mostly your time. Doubtless there’s things you’ve seen that haven’t been recorded.”
“I don’t know how much I can say about what I know.”
“Unfortunately for you, that intrigues me more. I’m guessing your quirk is time travelling?”
“I don’t think I have a quirk in the current sense of the word at all.”
“Interesting. Well, that’s simple enough to find out. We can schedule a quirk assessment while you’re at the nurse’s office.” Nezu stopped and leaned back into the leather with a smile. “You’re in a very unique position here young man. No one really has the power of foresight like what you can obtain. Don’t make a waste of your circumstances.”
Nico’s gaze hardened and he straightened his back.
“I don’t and have never planned to waste what I have.”
“Of course Di Angelo. If you could wait outside the door, that would be fantastic. Mr Aizawa will be with you in just a moment.” Nedzu concluded with a slight smile. Nico stepped out of the room, dipping his head gratefully as he left and then leaned against the wall outside the office. He had barely begun tapping his foot and picking at his nails when aizawa appeared, barely gesturing for Nico to follow before he turned down the corridor.
Aizawa strode along the passageway, Nico dashing to catch up with him.
Aizawa stopped at a door a few corridors away from their starting point, rapped once on the surface, then opened it and strode in.
“‘Evening.”
“Good evening, Aizawa.” Recovery girl replied cheerily. She eyed Nico as he followed in behind the teacher and stood up, pattering across the room. Aizawa spoke again,
“Is Midoriya still here?”
“Yes, but if you wish to speak to him, you’ll have to wait until he wakes up. That should happen quite soon but it might be worth coming back here later.”
“No it’s alright. Only this one needs to speak to him and he can wait. If you could, please set him up with a medical quirk assessment.” He eyed Nico with a neutral expression as Recovery Girl nodded briefly and disappeared behind a nearby medical curtain. “Nedzu instructed me to do the physical one later. I guess that means I’ll have to see you again.” Aizawa set his hand on Nico’s shoulder as he passed, pausing slightly in his stride.
Nico’s eyes followed him out the door and stayed trained on the empty entrance way until the door clicked close. Recovery girl trotted out from behind the privacy curtain, a cup of water in each hand.
She handed one to Nico and herself sat down at her terminal. Nico lowered himself into a waiting chair, sipping at the water and quietly listening to her tapping and clicking at the computer. After a few moments of silence she swivelled around on the chair and smiled at Nico.
“I hope you understand a lot of my time has to be kept open for injured students but I do have an open appointment time in two days at 5, about 40 minutes after the end of hero class. It shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to do and get the results printed. I’d do it now but the room needs to be set up properly.”
“That would be alright with me. “Nico hesitated. “Will it… need any blood? Or something like that.”
“Not at all. I’m only doing an X-ray and those are purely external. I might be able to get more specifics with a blood sample too but an X-ray is all that’s standard.”
“Okay then, an X-ray it is.”
She scribbled it down on a note, then turned back to her computer, clicking occasionally, mouse clattering as she moved it on the hard surface.
Nico heard shuffling behind the curtain, as did Recovery girl as she hopped down from her chair and stepped behind the partition. Quiet talking floated out from the side room and Nico slurped up the final dregs of his water, just as the door to the office clicked open again.
Through the door way stepped a spritely older woman, green hair tied in a slightly frazzled updo and clutching a pale blue hand bag. She scanned the room then her eyes settled on Nico and she trotted her way over.
“Hello dear,” she said, seating herself next to him. “Are you here for an appointment? Is Miss Recovery girl still here?” Nico shook his head.
“No. I’m waiting to speak with Midoriya. The nurse is with him right now.” He pointed vaguely towards the partition and the lady smiled.
“Good, Izuku is still here. He usually goes to his dorm room for the evening but I thought I’d take him out for dinner tonight. I was worried since he wasn’t answering my messages but I guessed he’s been asleep in the nurse’s office.” She leaned back into the cushioned back-rest then sat up with a start. “I must sound awfully strange. I haven’t introduced myself - I’m Inko Midoriya, Izuku’s mother.”
“I’m Nico di Angelo. Of course, your son and you look very alike.” Nico replied politely and Inko blushed.
“You’re a very courteous young man.” He nodded simply in thanks and they settled back into silence. Then Inko turned to him again.
“You said you were meeting my son? Perhaps you’d like to come along with us to dinner. That way I can hear what you have to say to him and you can have something to eat too.”
Heh clever. Not that I have anything to say that his mother would disapprove of. I think.
‘I'd be happy to join you.”
A new voice stepped into their conversation. Recovery girl rounded the curtain, pulling it along with her as she went.
“Good timing Mrs Midoriya.” She began and Inko stood up to greet her. “Izuku is awake now and fully-rested. He should be ready to leave almost straight away.”
Inko nodded and then moved over to Izuku, who was smiling nervously at her and rubbing the back of his neck.
“Hello dear, how are you feeling?”
“I’m alright, I just pulled something in my last class and ended up falling asleep after Recovery girl fixed me up-” He dropped his head- “I’m sorry for not messaging to let you know that I wouldn’t be in contact.”
“Don’t worry about it. I wanted to take you out tonight so it’s probably more convenient for you,” Inko dismissed him with a slight smile. “Why don’t you speak with your friend while I sign you out?” She gestured towards Nico then promptly turned away to Recovery Girl’s desk.
Izuku turned his head to where she pointed, and almost fell off the bed.
“Ah! Mr Di Angelo! What are you doing here?”
“I needed to talk with you after you woke up but since your mum invited me along to dinner, we can talk there.”
“She-“ Izuku spluttered as he made a motion to stand- “but you’re...”
“I’m…?” He replied smirking. Izuku blushed, head down, and Nico turned away to let him get out of the bed and fix himself up.
He watched as Ms Midoriya finished writing on the page with a flourish, clicking the pen closed, then gathering up her bag and the trio left the building.
It wasn’t long before they were out on the street. They were bustling with the crowds of evening shoppers and Nico followed closely behind the Midoriya’s, listening into their happy chatting and occasionally joining in. Within a half hour they arrived at a small low-rise restaurant, spilling soft light out through its windows and open doorway. Inko pulled them inside, greeting the waitress standing in the entranceway.
They sat down at a table, each ordering a meal then relaxing slightly into the booth’s seats. Inko rested her cheek on one hand,
“It’s good to see you again. It’s been pretty busy at home and those dorms don’t give you much chance to come home, even on the weekend.”
“How do you know Izuku? Are you from that other class, 1B?”
Both Nico and Izuku shook their heads, but before Nico could open his mouth, Izuku answered her.
“No he’s not a student. He’s the hero I mentioned to you, you know the famous ‘Quirkless King’.”
“Oh! Forgive my rudeness Mr Di Angelo, didn’t realise you were a teacher.”
“No, no I’m not a teacher. I’m Izuku’s age.”
“Still to be a hero at such a young age deserves some respect.”
Mentally, Nico rolled his eyes but he replied politely,
“Don’t worry about it at all Mrs Midoriya.”
They continued to chit-chat as a trio, quietening slightly when the food arrived but otherwise the conversation volleyed between the two Midoriya’s discussing Izuku’s school work and Inko’s home life with Nico quietly slurping up his food to one side. During a lull in their discussion, Inko perked up and faced Nico, caused him to look up from his bowl.
“Oh! Mr Quirkless King, I’ve just had a thought,.I hope you don’t mind me asking…” she trailed off and after a moment, he vaguely waved for her to continue.
“It’s about your hero name - are you really quirkless?”
“Mum, that’s a little insensitive.”
“Oh sorry Mr-“
“No no, It’s fine. I do have a ‘quirk’.” He lifted his hands into quotation marks. Well, a power I can use. Gods that word was hard to say. “I guess I couldn’t be called Quirkless King anymore.“
Izuku shuffled for a moment in his seat next to Nico’s, catching his attention.
“Well, if I remember correctly, all but one of the people you saved were quirkless.” Nico raised one eyebrow and Izuku continued. “Well, not all reports are official, especially in your first few sightings, but all the three you helped on your debut confirmed their quirklessness a couple weeks after your sightings stopped.”
“I had no idea. I just helped whoever I happened to come across, whether they could have helped themselves or not.”
Izuku’s eye widened, sparkling slightly in the booth’s hanging lights. Inko smiled and put down her chopsticks, threading her fingers together.
“You know, little Izuku manifested really late. He was quirkless too, for quite a few years.” Izuku groaned, face flushed, and Nico spoke,
“Manifested?”
“Yes. I’m sure you know most children are either born with an obvious mutation quirk or first develop their power at about 4. Izuku first showed his quirk on the day of his high school entrance exam and broke his arm and legs. He seriously had me worried when he didn’t come home straight away.” Inko’s mobile rang in her purse and she quietly excused herself, turning away from the pair and speaking quietly into phone. Nico leaned closer to the boy to talk quietly,
“That’s pretty self destructive. You have to break your body every time you use it?”
Izuku seemed to flush harder at the proximity, putting down his chopsticks to wave his hands around.
“W-well it was pretty bad at first, but you really should’ve seen what it did to the thing I punched. A-and I’m much better at controlling it now.”
He paused waving around his hands to show Nico his wrist.
“It’s a shame it wasn’t faster though. I shattered the same arm twice in one fight with my power and now I’ll have reduced use of it for the rest of my life.” Nico pursed his lips and leaned back towards his dish slightly.
“If it’s any consolation, my power, well ‘quirk’, nearly caused me to fade out of existence.”
“Fade out of existence?”
“My.. quirk allows me to use shadows to travel myself to other places. I was in a bit of a… hurry to get across the Atlantic Ocean, from Europe to America. I’d probably be able to that alright by myself given enough time, but I had to bring along a massive statue as well as two other people. I didn’t get much rest between jumps and by the time I got there, I needed several weeks of bed rest to stop from becoming a shadow myself. Well... luckily, staying in the hospital didn’t end up being as bad as I had expected.” Nico finished with a small smile. Izuku seemed a little dazed by his confession.
“I’m.. I’m glad that it ended well. The classmate I was fighting with in my incident ended up becoming one of my closest friends so I’m glad you made a good friend too.” Izuku professed and Nico nodded.
“That’s not quite how it turned out, but thank you.” The ghost king sat back to pick up his fork in time to see Inko smiling widely at him, phone tidily tucked away.
“What were you two discussing? UA?” She turned to her son, “or maybe your hero notebooks?”
Izuku groaned again, a nervous sweat breaking out on his neck.
“Mum that’s embarrassing. I’m literally sitting next to a hero right now.” He hissed quietly at her, face pink.
“Notebooks?” Nico asked, ignoring the startled yelp from his neighbour.
“Yes! Izuku has always wanted to be a hero. He keep records and notes on every hero he’s interested in. Maybe you’d like to look at your page?”
“I have a page?” He asked, turning to face Izuku. Inko continued.
“You’ve only shown up once or twice but after the Urokukichi incident where he helped you, he couldn’t stop talking about you for a week.”
“Huh.” He said blowing lightly on the food in his fork. “I wouldn’t mind fact-checking my page. I need to get my story straight for Nedzu after all.”
Izuku jolted, wide eyes staring at Nico and Inko smiled gently.
“I’m so glad you two are getting along so well.”
Nico smiled back.
“It would’ve been bad if he disliked me. After all, Mr Nedzu has temporarily placed me in Izuku’s room while I’m staying here.”
“W-w-what!?”
Nico picked up the glass Izuku knocked over, luckily already empty.
“Calm down. I’m not sleeping in your bed, I’m having a mattress on the floor.”
“But... my room...” Izuku trailed off, shaking slightly. Nico smiled reassuringly.
“Don’t worry about your room. I’ll only be there a couple days at most. Hopefully.” He moved to face Inko. “I hope this would be fine with you.”
“I don’t think it’s any problem at all.”
The conversation turned back to Inko as Izuku quietly steamed in the corner of the booth. Soon the food was finished and Nico was once again tipping change onto the table. He picked up a drachma that had been in his wallet, turning it over his hand. I wonder if iris messaging even still works.
He slowly counted out the coins for his meal and drink and slid them over to Inko who had payed everything with a bill. He stood up before she could protest, pulling up the still rosy-faced, shaking Izuku with him.
He thanked Inko politely, before they left the restaurant. Izuku seemed to come to focus at this and looked at his phone in panic.
“Problem?” Izuku showed Nico his opening screen showing a background of the teen with several other young adults, classmates he guessed, and the time glowing above. 10:26.
“Dorm curfew starts in less than five minutes and they’re at least ten minutes away!”
“Okay, calm down Izuku. Are the dorms on UA ground?”
“Yes.” He replied shakily.
“Then I’ll get us there, it’s no big issue.”
Izuku looked at him confused and Nico sighed. “My quirk, remember?”
“O-of course!”
“Now, this makes some people unwell, so I’ll drop us near a bin if I can. I’ve heard it helps somewhat to close your eyes.” Izuku nodded, still blissfully excited as the prospect of ‘seeing’ the hero’s quirk, and Nico stood opposite grasping the student’s forearms.
Then he concentrated and a short twisting moment later the two were on the UA grounds, quite close to a row of waste disposal units. Izuku quickly turned, hands on the wall and head down, heaving deep breaths. Nico awkwardly rubbed small circles on the teens back but luckily, he wasn’t sick.
“Sorry about that.”
“No no I’m fine.” Izuku replies and pulled out his phone. Still 10:26. “Thanks Mr di Angelo.”
“Really, you need to call me Nico.”
“Ok Mr Nico.” He said with a smirk as he turned away from the bins and towards fresh air.
“I’m certain you’ve pulled that joke before Izuku.”
Luckily, Nico had brought them close to the spot they needed so it took only a brief moment of orienteering before the pair began trotting to their destination.
“So your quirk’s teleportation?”
“In a way, yes, but it’s a bit more complicated than that.”
“There’s some really cool and sophisticated quirks in my class too. There’s one guy, Shoji, and he has six arms.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, you’d think that would be useful for attacking a villain or even just doing something like cooking - but that’s not all.” Izuku almost tripped as he distractedly stepped around the corner of the building. “He can also change his hands to ears or eyes or mouths which is great for surveillance!”
“It might be nice to meet your classmates.”
“Yeah! Are you sitting in on our lessons?”
“Not sure. I’d have to talk to Nedzu about it first.”
They stepped into the building, door luckily still unlocked, but the sound of jangling keys and whistling from the presumed doorman echoed distantly.
They kicked off their shoes and pattered through the corridor. Midoriya led them through the common room. The area itself was empty and silent but quiet thumping from the floor above suggested activity, even at that late hour.
They wound around the passageways to Midoriya’s door, where they stopped. Midoriya opened the door and the pair stepped in.
It was almost impossible to not notice. Each wall was adorned with posters and decorations of all shapes and sizes, each carefully arranged and maintained and featuring a central motif; a broad muscled man with blond
They were littered with words, wisely slogans in a combination of languages but the most heavily featured was the phrase ‘All Might’.
A hero’s name perhaps?
“A fan of his?”
“Yeah, it probably seems a bit weird but all might has been an inspiration all my life sooo…. Oh! Someone’s already put you out a futon. If you want to borrow some clothes, I should have some your size.” Izuku bustled around just out of view, trying to catch his attention. Nico smiled and turned to face the green-haired student,
“Don’t be embarrassed about your interests. I don’t think it’s too weird, I used to have my own obsessions just like yours so I don’t mind it.”
Izuku smiled gratefully but his eyes still roamed the room,
“Would you at least like to borrow a bed shirt? I probably can’t offer you any pants…”
“Really, I’m alright,” Nico dismissed, “Have a good night.” He set down his boots on the floor and shrugged off his jacket. Settling into the mattress, Nico turned to face the blankest wall and tried to close his eyes.
He heard quiet muttering behind him from Izuku as he fell asleep, fretting about changing with a hero in the room, Nico’s “quirk” and more. The spiral of increasing unintelligibility proved surprisingly soothing and Nico was soon dead to the world.