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Yuuto Shigaraki limped down the hallway of Overhaul’s mansion. His broken leg caught on a fallen vase. He hissed in pain.
“Are you all right, Uncle Yuuto?” Izuku asked. He offered his arm.
Yuuto gratefully accepted. “Thanks, kid.” Izuku helped him move around the rubble left from the battle with Overhaul.
As they approached Eri’s bedroom, Yuuto said, “You stay outside while I—”
A young girl screamed.
Ignoring the excruciating pain from his leg, Yuuto ran into the room.
A man with white, curly hair had his hand on Eri. Tears streaming down her face, she fought and cried. Glowing light exploded from her body and the horn on her forehead, wrapping around the man.
He tried to let go of her. But the light had fastened around him. As he turned, Yuuto glimpsed his face.
Hisashi Shigaraki. All for One. Yuuto’s older brother.
That familiar face was already changing, the lines smoothing away as his body shrank. Yuuto saw his brother become as young as the day he’d smiled while forcing a quirk on him. As a high-schooler first launching his criminal organization. As the middle-schooler who’d foraged for food after they’d been abandoned by their mother. Still he kept shrinking.
Holy shit, hadn’t Eri’s father died this way? Panic seized Yuuto’s heart.
There were a million reasons he shouldn’t save Hisashi, and only one reason he should. Hisashi was still his brother.
Yuuto leapt forward. He wrapped his arms around his shrinking older brother. The glowing light struck him as well. On his broken leg, Yuuto couldn’t move properly, so he crashed into the wall. He used his body to protect his tiny brother from the impact.
The light itched under his skin. It wasn’t painful, exactly. More like being tickled everywhere at once. It made him feel dizzy. Something was happening. He couldn’t feel his limbs. His body wouldn’t respond to his commands.
Izuku ran into the room. “Uncle Yuuto! I heard a crash. Uncle…Yuuto?”
Yuuto looked down at his arms. He held a two-year-old Hisashi, tousle-headed and chubby-cheeked. His own arms looked oddly thin. His sleeves hung over them, too long. He was falling out of his hero costume.
Yanking off his overly large mask, Yuuto touched a hand to his face. The soft baby fat didn’t belong to an adult. He glimpsed his reflection in the mirror over Eri’s dresser. He looked about ten years old.
“It’s me. I got rewound,” he told Izuku. At least his leg no longer hurt. The break had been healed. “We got rewound.” He looked at his dazed brother. Whoa, Hisashi sure had been cute at that age. Probably because he looked like a miniature Izuku. There was no way pure evil would be so cute in his own right.
Eri screamed. “I did it again! I’m so sorry!” Still glowing, she ran for the door.
“Wait, we’re here to save you.” Izuku leapt forward to grab Eri.
“Stop!” Yuuto latched onto Izuku’s arm and held him back. He completely understood how his nephew felt, but he couldn’t risk it. Not with Eri still exuding the same light. He’d just seen the rewind quirk turn his adult brother into a toddler. If twelve-year-old Izuku got hit by the same force, he’d vanish from existence.
From the floor, Hisashi moaned, “What happened?” Being even smaller then Yuuto, his clothes had slid off his body. He looked up from his hands and knees. “Yuuto? You’re so…young.” He shook his head. “Did I die? Surely I wouldn’t go to Heaven.” He sounded like the thought offended him.
“Nope, you’re still alive,” Yuuto said. “I got hit with a time-travel quirk, remember? This is the time period I arrived in. Then we both got rewound to children because you were trying to steal some poor little girl’s quirk. I want it on the record that this is all your fault.”
Hisashi’s dazed eyes fell on Izuku. “Green-haired Yuuto?”
“Nope, that’s your son. Izuku, I’d like to introduce you to your father, Hisashi Shigaraki, also known as the villain All for One.”
Izuku paled. “Please tell me this is some kind of joke.”
“I’m afraid not.” Yuuto would have liked to indulge in some denial himself, but he had no time for that. “We need to find Eri and get out of here.” He looked at his neck peeking out of an overly large collar. “Oh, and I need some new clothes.”
Izuku reached into Eri’s dresser and pulled out a gender-neutral, baggy pair of overalls. “Here you go.”
While Yuuto put those on, Izuku found a winter jumpsuit. “This is going to be a bit big on you, but I think you can tighten the drawstring…Dad.” From Izuku’s tone, he had trouble believing the toddler in front of him was his father. Yuuto didn’t blame him. He had trouble believing it himself.
“It will do,” Hisashi said, staring at Izuku with a burning intensity.
Noise came from the front of the mansion. Yuuto ran to the window to look out. Izuku crowded behind him. Hisashi crawled up his leg to grab the ledge and see.
A team of heroes stormed the front of the mansion. Yuuto recognized them from their costumes—these were the heroes most closely affiliated with the corrupt Hero Commission. One of them held a little girl with white hair. His stomach plummeted.
Starting to sound more like himself, Hisashi said, “I’ll scare them off. Then we can talk about this ‘son’ thing.”
Hisashi raised his hand. Nothing happened. He stared at his tiny fingers as if they’d betrayed him.
“You didn’t have your quirk when you were two years old, big brother,” Yuuto said. Hmm, it felt very strange to refer to a toddler as his older brother.
“Impossible,” Hisashi whispered. He turned frantic eyes on Yuuto. “How do we fix this? There must be a way to fix this!”
“We need to save Eri,” Izuku said, jiggling. “Do you think I can grab her and run?” Even as he spoke, Eri was hustled into a car surrounded by over twenty heroes.
Yuuto hesitated.
This was one of the most painful decisions in his life. He wanted with all his heart to save Eri. But right now, Izuku was the oldest of the three of them and the only one with a quirk. No way in hell was he sending his twelve-year-old nephew out to fight two dozen professional heroes alone. Though it made his soul scream to abandon that poor little girl, he had no real choice.
“We can’t get to her right now,” Yuuto said. “The Hero Commission is full of assholes, but they wouldn’t torture her like Overhaul. More like they’ll try to brainwash her into their perfect little tool. That gives us time. All Might will help us save her. But first, we have to escape so we can tell him.”
Face resolute, Izuku nodded.
“I’m still not entirely sure that this isn’t a dream, but I have a car in the back of the mansion,” Hisashi said.
“I’ve always wanted to drive,” Izuku said. “I enjoy the arcade games.”
Hisashi frowned. “On second thought, maybe—”
His words were cut off when Izuku picked up Hisashi under his left arm, slung Yuuto onto his back, and punched a hole through the back side of the mansion.
Somehow, they made it back to their apartment. The Hero Commission stooges had followed the sound of breaking walls and spotted them, but Izuku had thrown them off with some creative driving. It just went to show that all those coins spent on arcade games had paid off. Yuuto had helped out by holding down the gas pedal since Izuku’s legs couldn’t reach. Hisashi had screamed a lot.
Emerging from the kitchen, Izuku held a tray with three steaming mugs of tea. “I thought we could all use this.”
Perched like a king on an enormous armchair, Hisashi took a mug and blew on it. “Thank you. You said you were my son? I had no idea you existed, but I can certainly see the family resemblance. Your eyes are just like my brother’s. You’re such a cute child.”
“Thanks? You’re rather cute yourself.” Izuku rubbed his forehead. “Sorry, that just popped out. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Ah, my current situation.” Hisashi frowned. On a toddler’s face, it made him look pouty and adorable. “As a first step to reversing the procedure, I’ll take you two to my laboratory—”
Izuku raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me? I’m not following a villain back to his hideout.”
“I’m your father! You have to obey me!”
“Never even met you before tonight.” Izuku crossed his arms. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re just a toddler with attitude. If anyone’s in charge here, it’s Uncle Yuuto.”
“Yes!” Yuuto pumped his fist.
Hisashi stared in horror. “You can’t put him in charge. He probably plans to storm Tartarus all by himself to rescue that horrible rewinding child.”
Izuku snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Yeah, don’t be ridiculous,” Yuuto said, rapidly changing his plans. On second thought, the full frontal assault had been a bad idea. It wasn’t easy to think, since there seemed to be an odd fog over his mind, making it hard to focus. What had his original plan been again? “All Might has power and connections. He’ll know the best way to get Eri back.”
“Isn’t that the name of the Only Quirkless Hero?” Hisashi’s nose wrinkled. “I’m not letting a hero see me like this.”
“Then we’ll talk to him without you.” Yuuto was starting to remember all the reasons he’d spent his entire adult life running away from his older brother.
“I’m not letting you two go anywhere without me!” Hisashi pounded a tiny fist against the armchair. “You’ll immediately get yourselves killed. Just like how Yuuto recklessly charged into the rewinding quirk.”
Yuuto glared with rising fury. “Excuse me? I saved you from being rewound from existence! Given how I ended up as a result, a little gratitude would be nice.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Hisashi sniffed. “I was about to escape on my own.”
What a blatant lie! Even his big brother couldn’t possibly believe it. He was just being his usual arrogant jackass self. Refusing to admit that he’d gotten his ass saved.
A thread of malevolent mischief filled Yuuto. He smirked. “I can’t help it if you need constantly need protecting, my foolish little brother.”
Hisashi reacted like he’d been jabbed with a cattle prod. “I’m not your little brother! This outward form is a mere façade! Not only am I still mentally older than you, it’s by a full century now.”
“Whatever you say, my adorable little brother.” Yuuto picked Hisashi out of the chair and held him up. “You look so much cuter at this age. Look at those pinchable wittle cheeks.”
“Stop it! Put me down!” Hisashi’s small fists beat futilely. “Once I get my quirk back, you’ll pay for this!”
Yuuto pinched his brother’s cheeks. “Aw, is someone grumpy? Does someone need a nap?” He tousled Hisashi’s hair.
“What have I possibly done to deserve this?” Hisashi wailed.
Yuuto’s eyes gleamed with malice. “You want to know what you did to deserve this? Shall I go through the whole list? Do you want to talk about the bank vault?” He picked his brother up, set him down, picked him up, and set him down. “Can’t stop me from doing this, can you? How does it feel, being the weak one?”
Izuku said, “If both of you are done playing around, we need to call All Might.”
“Right.” Sheepishly, Yuuto retreated to his own chair. He wondered what had come over him. That had been fun, but very childish.
Hisashi’s lip stuck out in a pout. “I’m not going to see this All Might idiot and you can’t make me. I’ll leave on my own and find my followers.”
Yuuto rubbed his forehead. “Hisashi, you can’t.” And it surprised him that his older brother, evil but an evil genius, hadn’t figured that out already. “You have a child’s body, and you don’t have your quirk.”
Something flickered in Hisashi’s eyes. “I have no idea what you’re implying.”
Yuuto had been trying to be gentle, but now he was starting to get angry. “Do you truly believe anyone will still follow your lead? You always ruled by fear, not love. Right now, you’re a powerless toddler who will have All for One in the future. That makes you both vulnerable and extremely valuable. Human traffickers would pay any price for you. Remember what happened in the past? I’ll bet most of your minions would sell you out without hesitation. And it’s your own fault for not having any friends. If you weren’t such a jerk, then right now you wouldn’t be totally helpless and alone.”
Hisashi burst into tears.
Struck speechless, Yuuto stared.
Hisashi rubbed his eyes, trying and failing to stem the tide. “Don’t look at me! I don’t know why I’m like this.” He sobbed even harder. “I know it’s true. I won’t let any former acquaintances find out about my current state.” He sniffled. “I can’t understand why I didn’t realize that myself. I…there’s something wrong with me.” His small shoulders shook with the force of his crying. He stared at the liquid on his fingers with horror.
Yuuto ran forward and pulled his brother into a hug.
He shouldn’t have said that so bluntly. But there was something wrong with him, too. His mind had been in a strange fog ever since his transformation. Satisfying though it had been to pinch and pick up Hisashi, it had been strangely childish behavior in the middle of a crisis. “The transformation didn’t just affect our bodies,” he said. “It affected our minds, too.” And he had a bad feeling it was getting worse the longer they stayed like this.
“This can’t be happening,” Hisashi whispered. He trembled in Yuuto’s arms. It roused an instinctive protectiveness. Back when Hisashi and Yuuto had been children, they’d always looked out for each other.
“Tissues?” Izuku offered a box. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I cry all the time, too. Must run in the family.” He offered an encouraging smile.
“I don’t cry.” Hisashi took a tissue. “I’m not going to do it again.” In a toddler’s voice, this only made him sound cranky. He blew his nose aggressively.
Yuuto bit his lip. “I’m sorry for what I said. You’re not alone. You’ve got me.”
“And me,” Izuku said in a voice of steel. “I wouldn’t let my worst enemy get taken by human traffickers, much less my own dad.”
“I suppose I have no choice but to rely on your hero friends.” Hisashi rubbed his face. “You may contact them.”
They hadn’t needed his permission to call All Might, but Yuuto let it go.
Upon receiving the serious news, All Might promised to head straight to their apartment. He was worried about any possibility the Hero Commission might track them down. Though he’d been a bit shocked, he sounded ready to raise hell and rescue Eri.
While waiting for All Might to arrive, Yuuto and Izuku barricaded the windows with wooden boards, as a precaution. Yuuto commented, “I remember doing this with my brother back during the riots…”
He remembered entirely too vividly. Before, his early childhood had felt blurry and distant, like most people. Now he felt like he’d been fending off looters just yesterday. Quite literally.
He tried to remember his middle school and high school years. Those remained under the same haziness. No, even worse. He’d lost basic details like his former physics tutor’s name or his sixteenth birthday party.
How had he met Izuku for the first time? He. Didn’t. Remember.
“Is something wrong?” Izuku asked, mumbling around the nail in his mouth.
Yuuto sighed. “I’m losing my memories. Everything before age ten.”
“Oh.” Izuku winced. “All Might said that he’d look after you too, remember? He promised to handle paperwork and identification.”
“I know.” Yuuto looked at his hands. His too-small hands, uncalloused by martial arts training.
“It must be scary to feel like you’re losing your identity. I’m sorry.”
“I’ll be fine.” Yuuto didn’t entirely mean it—he just didn’t want to scare his nephew.
This sucked. He’d fought through his brother’s smothering in order to turn himself into an adult he could be proud of, and he hated the notion of losing all that effort. He had no desire to relive puberty again. He felt like a huge chunk of himself had been ripped away. And he’d made this sacrifice all to save an asshole older brother who’d yet to even say thank you.
But at least his brother was still alive. Speaking of which, where had Hisashi wandered off to?
A bad feeling formed. In his brother’s current mental state, who knew how he might react if he’d noticed the missing memories, too? Yuuto said, “I think I should go find Hisashi. Can you finish the window?”
Yuuto found Hisashi curled up on the floor of the bathroom, crying.
As soon as the door opened, Hisashi covered his face and stopped making any sound.
“I understand. I’m losing my memories, too.” Yuuto sat down on the tile floor next to his brother. “It sucks, right?”
“I was trying to remember the password for a hidden bank account of mine. Something to help us. Nothing!” Hisashi burrowed his face in his knees. “I’m going to lose everything I’ve spent decades accumulating. I’m going to be helpless again.” His shoulders shook, though no sound emerged from his mouth.
Yuuto cleared his throat. “You can cry if you want. I won’t be a jerk about it. I promise.”
“I don’t want Izuku to hear.” Hisashi wiped his face. “I ought to be protecting him, not the other way around.”
“I know how you feel.” Yuuto wondered if it would help to say that All Might adored Izuku and would be a wonderful guardian. Might just be throwing salt in the wound.
Hisashi stared at his knees. “We nearly died in our first childhood. We got lucky several times. Who knows if we’ll make it this time around?”
“Believe me, I feel you.” Yuuto didn’t remember their early childhood or their abusive parents with any fondness, either. He’d only survived because of his older brother taking on far too much responsibility at too young an age. “Even if you lose everything, this time around, I’ll protect you. I promise.”
“You?” Hisashi snorted. “You’re going to lose your maturity and memories, too.”
“Even when I was ten years old, I knew that I was only alive because of you. I owe you a debt. Now that I’m the older one, it’s my turn.” Yuuto spoke with an iron will. This one thing, he’d never forget, no matter what else he lost. “I know you don’t think much of me, but there is no power in this universe that will stop me from protecting you until you grow up.”
Hisashi made a soft sound. Yuuto waited for his brother to recover. When Hisashi finally spoke, it was in a joking tone. “Why do I have a feeling a part of you is enjoying this role reversal?”
“Hey, you might not like how I do it—I didn’t always love your parenting, either—but I won’t let you die.” Yuuto chuckled. “I won’t even make you call me big brother.”
“As if that would ever happen.” Hisashi stood up. And Yuuto knew that he had made his brother feel better, even if he’d never acknowledge it.
All Might flung open the apartment door. “Fear not, for I’m here!” His eyes fell on Yuuto. “Whoa.”
“Yeah, I know.” Yuuto rubbed the back of his neck.
“I’m sorry, was that rude?”
“A completely understandable reaction. I still can’t believe it myself.” Yuuto sighed.
Toshinori’s eyes became gentle. “I’ll help. I promise.”
“Thanks,” Izuku said, the strain in his voice betraying him.
Toshinori pulled the boy into a one-armed hug. “You know I’m delighted to adopt you. I already love you like a son.”
“That…means a lot.” Izuku sniffled. What a terrifying situation this must be for his nephew—his legal guardian had been turned younger than him and his mind was starting to warp into a child’s. The poor kid had already lost his mom and suffered horribly in foster care. Izuku must have been trying his hardest to hold it together.
As Toshinori hugged him, Izuku’s tears gradually died down.
“What happened?” Hisashi stepped through the doorway.
All Might gasped. “A miniature Izuku!” His eyes gleamed. “Is this an angel?”
Hisashi backed away, hiding behind Yuuto. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Who’s this idiot again?”
Toshinori stared with open avarice. “Of course, I’ll be happy to adopt a third child, too.”
Hisashi said, “I don’t know if my brother told you, but I’m a villain.” From his tone, it was evident that he’d revealed this because he believed it would cause All Might to immediately yeet him over to foster care.
Without batting an eye, Toshinori said, “Then you just need someone to raise you with loads of love so that doesn’t happen again.”
“Oh, yeah,” Yuuto agreed without thinking. “Our birth parents sucked.”
Toshinori clapped his hands. “That’s settled, then!”
Hisashi pinched the bridge of his nose, an oddly mature gesture. “Don’t you have any other friends, Yuuto?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“They’re all heroes, aren’t they?”
“Afraid so, sorry.”
Hisashi pouted.
Toshinori cooed, “So adorable!”
Watching his brother’s face get increasingly murderous, Yuuto wondered if he might need to intervene before Hisashi tried to ankle-bite All Might to death.
The door flung open and Nana strolled in. “I heard we might be storming Tartarus! Sounds like fun.” She planted a kiss on Izuku’s forehead. “How’s my youngest grandchild doing?” Her gaze fell on Yuuto. “Maybe second-youngest, now.”
Brushing back his hair, Yuuto chuckled. “This is strange for me, too.”
Nana’s eyes fell on Hisashi. She gasped. “An angel!”
Toshinori beamed. “I know, right? Get this: there’s no other family to look after him. This adorable little moppet is completely free for the taking.”
“Ooo, it’s been years since I adopted a new child, but you have me tempted.” Nana rubbed her hands together in glee. “You might have to arm-wrestle me for him.”
Toshinori laughed. “You know I’d lose, teacher. We can share.”
Hisashi tugged on Yuuto’s sleeve. With a lifeless look in his eyes, he said, “I’ve decided. Let’s launch a frontal attack on Tartarus to get the wretched rewind girl back.”
“You said that was a stupid idea.”
“Death is looking increasingly preferable.”
Yuuto patted his brother on the head. “Cheer up. We might yet find a solution to our condition.”
All Might held up his phone. “Good news. We’ve successfully obtained a court order to turn over Eri to U.A.”
Yuuto blinked. “So fast?”
“The Hero Commission has learned from bitter experience not to cross me. They only thought they could get away with this by keeping it secret.” Toshinori shook his head. “Unfortunately, I have bad news, too. Eri’s quirk can only rewind time backwards. Your condition can’t be cured. But don’t worry, I already have my lawyers drawing up the adoption papers.”
A thud hit the floor. Hisashi had fainted dead away.
OMAKE TIME!
Omake: Fourth Wall Fun
Izuku: I’m getting adopted by All Might! This is the best day of my life!
Yuuto: Excuse me? Your poor uncle got turned into a ten-year-old, and it’s the best day of your life?
Izuku: You’re getting adopted by All Might, too.
Yuuto: You make a compelling point.
Izuku: Your brother got turned into a two-year-old. You’re the older brother now.
Yuuto: Even better.
Izuku: And he’s about to get adopted by All Might against his will.
Yuuto: This is the best day of my life, too!
Hisashi: What could I have possibly done to deserve this?
Canon All for One: (Shifty eyes.)