Chapter Text
The pavement came up to meet Hitoshi all too suddenly.
Hours spent training with Aizawa gave him the reflexes not to fall flat on his face (he should probably thank him for that later), and instead pull off a less than gracefully roll that at the very least stopped him from eating gravel.
This… was not the same block he was just on.
The street was void of people, and the deserted block clearly had been the subject of something terrible enough to make the locals flee.
The windows to all the shops around him were boarded up. The walls were cracked and rubble lined the streets. The cars that lined the road were badly damaged, as if something had rampaged through the block at some point and left destruction in its wake.
A quick glance at the crooked street sign left him even more confused- it was the exact same street he and Neito (he carefully refused to acknowledge the way his heart skipped a beat over the fact that they used each other’s given names. If he didn’t think about his feelings, he could pretend they weren’t there) had been fighting a villain on, but… what had happened ?
He could understand if he had been warped somewhere. That, in all honesty, shouldn’t be surprising. He knew of the warp gate villain that acted as a member of the League of Villains. But that wasn’t the villain he had just been fighting- it had been a relatively new one, who’s quirk was still unknown to Shinsou- oh.
He could vaguely remember the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, pushing him, then- then he was falling and the world was entirely different.
He may as well head towards UA. Hopefully, someone there would be able to help him make sense of what had happened.
The walk there was especially quiet.
Nothing moved, as if the neighborhood itself was holding its breath. He saw no other people, as if everyone had disappeared in response to whatever tragedy had gripped Musutafu. With every step he took, he became more and more convinced that he had been warped somewhere else. But no- he recognized that shop, even though it’s windows were boarded up and the front door had a gaping hole in it. He remembered this particular sidewalk from when he and Neito had visited a cat cafe on the corner, but this strange reality had a drab colored bar in its place.
The villain’s quirk likely had sent Hitoshi somewhere else- perhaps depositing him in an alternate timeline or another dimension, because that would be just his luck.
Deep within his stomach, the seeds of anxiety grew with every step. What had happened ?
And then, in the midst of his growing concern, UA came into view.
Or what was left of it, rather.
The once pristine building now lay in shattered rubble at his feet. None of the many buildings that had once proudly sat on campus remained, but instead it looked as if a vengeful god had taken a hammer to it.
Hitoshi stood in the rubble of what he had considered his only home, and quietly took in the devastation.
Class 2A had been his closest friends since he had transferred in earlier that year, and quite possibly the only friends he ever had, since most kids didn’t want to be friends with someone with a villain’s quirk. They had been the exception- Midoriya, with his shaky, sunny smile, always trusting Hitoshi wholeheartedly and responded to him without hesitation. Todoroki, with his quiet presence, every bit the loner that Hitoshi had been when he first transferred in. Uraraka, who was bubbly and sweet and treated Hitoshi like one of the group from the moment he had arrived.
What had happened here?
“Hello, new person!” A voice practically screamed from behind him. He whipped around, only to be faced with familiar gold eyes paired with pink dreadlocks and a total disregard for personal space. “You’re not from around here, are you?! People normally don’t wear costumes like that and hang around places like this unless they’re looking for trouble, or are the trouble.”
“Uh,” Hitoshi began eloquently. “You see- I was wondering what exactly happened here-“
“My baby!” the clearly unhinged totally mentally stable girl suddenly screeched. Before Shinsou could blink, she was all up in his personal space, grabbing his Artificial Vocal Cords. “I recognize the craftsmanship, truly brilliant, if I say so myself! I don’t remember making it, but it’s definitely my design!”
“You did make it,” Hitoshi explained, gently prying her off his support gear.
“I did?! I don’t recall ever meeting you, but it’s nice to see you again, odd customer! Are you back to have me make another baby?! Or do you want me to modify this one!?!”
“Neither. You see, I was fighting this villain, then all of a sudden I ended up here. I think this might be an alternate dimension or something, because UA wasn’t like that this morning, and you don’t remember me.”
You’re from an alternate universe? And there’s another me there? And you’ve met them?! Dimension travel was completely theoretical until now, quick, tell me everything you know about it! Did you use a portal? Do you know how to go back to your original one!?!”
“If I knew how to go back, I would’ve already left,” Hitoshi dryly pointed out.
“Why didn’t you say so? Come to my lab, and I’ll help you out! Oh, the possibilities ! If it’s a quirk, can it be harnessed or replicated by one of my babies? Or-!”
For his own sanity, he quickly tuned her out and allowed her to drag him towards the pile of debris that was this world’s UA. She dragged him toward where the support labs would be in his world, and crouched down amongst some broken glass.
“Is this safe?” He asked, looking at a large price of twisted metal inches from them.
“Of course it is! As long as you’ve got your tetanus shots. Do those exist in your world?!” Hatsume asked, digging around in the scrap metal and jagged glass for… something .
“Yeah, of course they do. What are you-?”
“FOUND IT!” She yelled happily, and suddenly she pulled at the ground beneath her, opening up a hidden door. Beneath it was a dimly lit stairwell that probably led to Cthulhu’s personal torture chamber, but Hatsume had already risen and begun making her dissent into it, so Hitoshi simply followed and hoped for the best.
The door automatically closed behind them, and the lights gradually get brighter. At the bottom of the stairwell was a short hallway that led to a door with a panel for people’s hands to be scanned. Hatsume pulled of a glove, scanned her hand, and the door slid open to reveal an exact recreation of the school’s support labs, with a few adjustments.
“This is all yours?” Hitoshi quietly asked, marveling at the incomplete prices of support gear littered around the workshop.
“Nope! It’s for anyone who needs it, really. The last surviving piece of UA.” She explained, walking over to one of the large computer monitors that took up the back wall. “Now, do you have a description of your villain? Finding him would be much easier that way, and we can work on figuring this out.”
“He called himself Rifts.”
“Rifts... here’s a result! His quirk is called Reality Shift, and it can send people out of his current dimension. Few people ever come back, apparently. He has no control over where he sends them, and the only way to reverse it is to get another him to send you back.”
“Do you know where we can find another him?” Hitoshi asked, dread building up.
“Not currently! He’s around here somewhere, and I should be able to find him with enough hacking, though. You’ll be stuck here indefinitely until then though.”
“What’s everyone else up to?” Hitoshi asked, looking at the pink haired maniac seriously.
“Everyone else?” Hatsume asked distractedly.
“Like… the UA students.”
“Oh, them! Not a lot are left around. Any in particular? I could probably find them for you.” Her shoulders took a stiff set, and she refused to meet his eye.
“Midoriya Izuku?”
She typed his name into the computer, and a result came up instantly. Deceased , it read in giant red letters across the screen.
“No….” Not the sunshine boy. Not Midoriya, who could beat any villain while bawling his eyes out, smiling like he aimed to outdo the sun, and with only a broken arm to show for it. “What happened ?”
“I’m so sorry about your friend- I hoped he was one of the ones who got taken instead.”
“Got taken?!” Hitoshi’s voice certainly cracked, but Hatsume didn’t comment on it. Instead, she blew out a shaky breath and proceeded to give Hitoshi the explanation he has been waiting for since he got there.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard of him. All For One, a great and terrible villain. He rose up, with an army of villains just like him. He took over Japan in less than a day, no one could stop him. All Might was the first to fall, live on TV, in Kamino. He didn’t even give us the decency to show up himself, but he sent that bitch Shigaraki to destroy UA, and recruit any of the hero students he could. Whoever he couldn’t recruit, he killed.”
Tears rolled down Hitoshi’s face, and his body was overtaken with trembling. His friendwere either dead or with him .
He could remember the pure fear that had run through him when he watched the tense and devastating battle between the Symbol of Peace and the specter of terror that was the villain dressed in a bespoke suit with a Darth Vader-esque mask. Even from his TV screen, the man exuded pure killing intent.
And in this world, he had won .
“Hey, it’s okay,” Hatsume comforted, and suddenly he felt himself get enveloped in a hug. “I’ll find that villain. We’ll get you home.”
“What if you can’t ? What if he’s dead like they are and I’m stuck here ?”
“Shh, it’s okay. This isn’t your world. You’ll go home, and they’ll be there, and you can put all this behind you.”
“But-“
“Shhh.” Hatsume embraces him, and Hitoshi lets the exhaustion and anxiety he’s felt finally run over as he loses himself in sobs.
He’s alone again.
His mother left him for the next life, his father hated the very sight of him, and let him now with constant beatings at every point.
His mother had left him alone with that man .
Then foster care, and his foster parents had loved him- until he got a villain’s quirk. Then he was alone again, ostracized by his new parents who couldn’t stand such an evil child .
Other foster homes, and he was lone in every one of them.
And then he got to UA.
There, he wasn’t alone. He had his friends, and he had… maybe something more with Neito.
But that damn villain had snatched it all away and left him all alone, in a place he may not be able to get back from.
Hitoshi wept, because it ended like it always did, and maybe, just maybe, this was forever to be his fate.