Chapter Text
Izuku walked through the portal, a circular thing with a bright green rim, into the new universe. He sighed, thinking back on all the universes he had seen. Sometimes, he hated his quirk. It made him remember everything he had ever witnessed in the multiverse.
Every.
Single.
Thing.
He remembered every time he walked in on himself fucking, every time he ran into an eldritch being, every time he had to talk down Cthulu from destroying another world. Also, his quirk wouldn’t let him go insane, otherwise he would have lost it a long time ago. He guessed he could thank it for that at least. He thought back to a girl with blonde hair in a bob cut, deep red eyes surrounded with red scales, the horns atop her head, the smile filled with sharp teeth-
No! Bad, Izuku! Stop thinking about her, you and her lost contact ages ago! He shook his head, taking in his surroundings. It was an alleyway, one he was familiar with. He looked up and- yep, those were his shoes at the edge there. He looked further into the alley, but couldn’t see any body. Weird, usually when they found his dead body, they grabbed his stuff from the roof.
He shook his head, something about this dimension’s wavelength was throwing him off. It felt familiar, but he knew he hadn’t been here since it hadn’t been logged into his quirk for further travel like every dimension he had come across. But he couldn’t shake off the feeling of familiarity, especially with how chaotic this wavelength was. Due to the nature of his quirk, he had to wait ten minutes after he walked out of the portal to use abilities of any kind, from quirk to magic to biological experimentation, for ten minutes he was a normal human being.
In the meantime, he took out his phone, a sleek black thing with neon green techno lines, and scrolled through any recent news. There wasn't much, Mt. Lady's recent debut, the giant villain, some hero that was probably unique to this dimension taking down a few bank robbers on the other side of town, All might being sighted, all the usual stuff. All the stuff he didn't care about. He didn't bother to check the time, there wasn't any use in it right now, and he heard the explosion that meant the sludge villain, or in Izuku's mind Greg, but didn't run over like so many other versions of him because he was sure this version of him had it covered. Wait, no, his shoes were up on the edge of the roof, that meant this Izuku had taken the jump. Wonder why there wasn't a body, could be any number of things. Either way, his power's should be back right about-there we go! Good as new! He put his phone back in his pocket and opened a small portal in front of him, pulling out a dark green book, about the size of a notebook, with golden trim and a gold four leaf clover on the front.
He flipped to a certain page, and chanted a quick spell to show him all the big events that had been done in this universe. He took in the large amount, scanning quickly with an ease that took experience. He noticed that none of them were of his branch of the multiverse, only the others he had visited. He chanted a spell to see how many universes were involved and holy shit ! There were dozens upon dozens here, without even mentioning all the connected universes that weren’t directly fused with this one. He saw Heaven, Hell, the Null Void, Speed Force, and- was that the Shadow Realm?! Hell yea, Duel Monsters is a thing! Izuku was so making a dragon deck, they were so overpowered in the game!
Wait, back on topic. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, and looked at the date for this dimension. Same year, same month, same day, same time... this had to be his world, he had found no other dimension with this exact time with the suicide and missing AF (Alternate Foculpoint) on top of it... Well, it looked like this was his world, which meant that he needed to go save this Katsuki. He turned to the green book again, turning a few more pages before he said another spell and his clothes changed to his middle school uniform. Wouldn’t want anyone to get suspicious, after all.
He calmly walked over to the cafe down the street, ordering two medium coffees, one black and the other with some cream, no sugar. He felt a sense of slight deja vu, but chalked it up to knowing that another version of him had already done this. He got his coffee and walked over to another, more crowded alleyway. This one had a crowd of people watching a- well, to call it a hero fight would imply that the heroes were doing anything. The heroes were standing off to the side while Bakugou was being held hostage by Greg.
Izuku looked to the side and saw Small Might leaning against a light post, coughing up blood and no doubt berating himself for not being able to do anything. Izuku shook his head. All Might may be a good hero, and there were many versions of him that were smart, but there were just as many that were dumb as shit. Izuku was thinking that this was one. Whatever, that wasn’t Izuku’s concern right now. He walked over to him. “Hey, can you hold this?” He handed Small Might his coffee with cream, walking away before he could say anything. Izuku calmly walked past the heroes, dodging their attempts to grab him and stop him, and walked up to Greg.
Greg looked at him, grinning like a madman with his mouth over Bakugou’s. “Back for more?! Sorry, but this guy gets the honor-AAAAGGGGHHHH!” If you were wondering, that scream was from Izuku chucking the black coffee in his eyes, and, since Greg didn’t have eyelids, he couldn’t close them to dodge this horrid fate. So, he was left to suffer while releasing Bakugou from his grasp, taking the extra sludge and putting them to his eyes like a normal person would put their hands. Izuku took this moment to grab one eye in each hand, walked over to the nearest non-destroyed trash can, grabbed a bottle, and shoved them in.
Izuku walked over to the nearby police cruiser. “Hi, I’m pretty sure more sludge is going to grow out of these eyes, here you go.” Izuku handed the bottle to the stunned police officer, walking back towards the crowd. As expected, the heroes hounded him.
“Did you have a death wish?!” Death Arms asked/yelled.
“No, I simply saw a plan that you did not, even if it was simply targeting the only solid part of his body. Seriously, you chose to punch the clearly liquid state, without even glancing at the solid bit that your punches would have actually worked against. How does that make sense? Also, you can’t even do anything to me. I’m quirkless, meaning any charge for vigilantism falls flat. Have a nice day.” Izuku walked away, leaving behind multiple stunned heroes. “Also, are you not going to do anything about checking to make sure the hostage is okay?” That got them moving, probably didn’t want to look bad for the press.
Izuku walked towards Small Might, who still had his coffee in hand. Izuku grabbed it, saying “Thank you,” and walked back home. Wait, he should probably go get his backpack from the roof. Yea, he still needs to keep his cover. He ignored Small Might’s attempts to call him back, and walked back in that direction.
After Izuku got his backpack, he walked along the familiar path home, mind filled with ideas of what to do now that he was back. He already knew that he was going to destroy Aldera, the question was which school he would go to afterward. While he could just take the online school route, he wanted to get some social interaction in this universe with some future classmates. Maybe Mustafa Private Middle School? Yea, let’s go with that.
“HEY!” Izuku sighed. Of course Bakugou had somehow found him just to yell at him. He turned around, facing Bakugou. “I didn’t need your help, you got that?! I would have been just fine on my own! All you did was get in the hero’s way! You did nothing-”
“Did you not hear me when I was talking to the heroes?” Izuku interrupted. Bakugou looked shocked, after all, he had never been interrupted by Izuku before. “If they had used even a few brain cells, they would have targeted the only solid part of the sludge. Also, it’s not like you did anything, all you did was make it worse. Those fires didn’t come from the Sludge Villain, they came from you. That’s why Kamui and Backdraft couldn’t help you. Backdraft was dealing with the fires, and Kamui Woods is wood, which burns. You’re the reason people didn’t rescue you sooner, and no one else. Maybe think about that.” Izuku turned around and walked back home, already knowing the shocked look Bakugou had on his face. He had seen it in enough universes to know it by heart, and it never lost its shine.
Now, Izuku had mixed feelings about Bakugou. He had been to enough universes that he had mixed feelings about everyone. He didn’t know whether to think of Bakugou as a bully, friend, brother, son, father, lover, nemesis, the list went on and on. There was one universe where he was Bakugou’s clone, now that was a weird one. Well, Bakugou hadn’t learned human decency yet, so Izuku could call him his bully. Whatever, that wasn’t important right now. What was important was getting a source of funding for his plans. He needed something to become a quirkless hero, after all. Hmm, maybe stocks? At this point, he knew every company that would make it big, and that he could afford. First, selling all his All Might merch.
He walked through the door. “Mom, I’m home!”
“Izuku!” His mother ran at him, tears streaming down her eyes. Oh yea, he had just ran up to a villain and beat it up. Of course she was worried, she had just watched the news.
After about ten minutes of calming down his mother, not explaining the multiverse thing, he went back to his room and changed into some comfy clothes manually instead of using a spell. He took his shirt off and saw himself in the mirror, the stories they showed on full display, those he was proud of and those he regretted. From the guild mark of Fairy Tail on his right shoulder blade, to the twelve legged spider with the number 0 on it displayed below his left ribs, to the blue techno lines pulsing to his heartbeat on the small of his back, to the kanji for ‘dragon’ in deep red above his heart, the list went on. He touched the ‘dragon’ kanji, shaking his head before going back to changing. The rest of his skin was baby smooth, not a blemish in sight, seeing as all his scars were transferred to his first form. He didn’t spend much time in that form.
He changed into a dark green long sleeve shirt that said ‘Comfy Pants’ and a pair of gray sweat-pants. He decided that if he was going to take down Aldera, he was going to get enough funding for Mustafa Private Middle School first. After all, it did cost more than Aldera, however much that hell cost. Actually, hell was better than that, at least there the people getting tortured deserved it. He thought of Lucifer, the adorable CEO of Hell-
No! Bad Izuku! Stop it, you’re being horny. He shook his head again, ridding it of thoughts of her. Wait, there was a Hell attached to this dimension, did that mean Lucy-
Stop it! They could be the big bad demon instead of the adorable CEO! He sighed, cursing the fact he had been to so many universes for the millionth time. He went over to his computer, sitting down in the All Might themed chair that he was going to sell as soon as he got a replacement. He looked around at all the All Might merch around him, wincing at all the eyes staring at him. It had been so long that he had forgotten how much of a fanboy he had been. Alas, All Might’s shine had worn off long ago in the face of all the mistakes he makes. Izuku suddenly had an idea. He would need to make sure all the facts were straight, and edit things around as needed, but. . .
“Izuku, dinner’s ready!”
“Coming!” he called back. He had been thinking for longer than he thought, he had forgotten that, unless he was with another person, time flew by faster than he could think. That would be a problem.
As he walked into the kitchen, he saw five plates instead of two. He knew what this meant, but it would look suspicious if he didn’t ask.
“Uhh, mom?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Um, why are there five plates out instead of two?”
"Oh, your father was concerned about you after the sludge incident today and thought that it would be nice for us to have some company, so he asked your aunt to come live with us since they are moving here to Mustafu for your uncle's new job anyway."
"So, Aunt Natsume is coming to live with us?"
"Yes. Her husband, son and she are coming to live with us from now on. You don't mind if your cousin shares your room, do you? Your aunt and uncle will take the guest room."
“No, I don’t mind!” he replied with a smile. Truth be told, he was ecstatic to see Watanabe again! There were so few universes where he had family other than his mom and dad, and Watanabe was the rarest! He thought himself lucky that he had him growing up, when so many others didn’t! The chaos he and Watanabe could create together, oh, he couldn’t wait!
He also knew that Watanabe was too smart to hide his new experience from, but that was fine. If he had to keep this to himself, he would crack eventually. He wouldn’t go crazy, no, his quirk prevented that, but he would be brewing with the information on his own. He knew his old friends couldn’t follow him here, they wouldn’t belong. Garnet would have tried, but it was hard being a transformed dragon in a world where dragons weren’t real. Jibril wouldn’t even try, she would be too curious for that. Her desire to know everything she could about everything never ceased to amaze him. And Mick. . . he was a cat. Not even a cat with a quirk, just a cat that could talk, with wings. That would raise plenty of eyebrows.
Wait, why was he thinking about that now? He had things to worry about right now! He needed to play the part to a T if he was going to convince everyone but Watanabe.
"Mom, wouldn't it be an inconvenience for them?"
Inko perked up at his question, "Oh, no they are going to rent the apartment next door but it will only be available next month, so until then they will be living with us. You won't have to share rooms for long. Plus your uncle Ryuzen's office is closer here, so they are keen to move here too and they also think it will be nice for Watanabe to live with you since you are both of the same age."
"Oh," Izuku said simply. He knew he couldn’t outsmart Watanabe, he was basically Nedzu in human form, but he could use Watanabe’s help.
The doorbell rang just then, "Izuku, can you get that. Natsume must be here."
Izuku nodded and went to open the door, "Hello there Izuku! How are you doing? I was so worried when I saw you on the news. What were you thinking young man!"
"I thought it was awesome," Watanabe said, popping his head under his mother's arms.
"You be quiet young man. Obviously, you would think that, what with tackling robbers in the middle of the road."
"Now, now Natsume, it's not like he did anything bad and I think you should let Izuku go…"
Natsume only then realized that she had seized her nephew by the shoulder. She immediately turned red, "Oh, uh sorry. Anyways, where is your mother?"
"Right inside," Izuku said and dropped behind to talk to his favorite cousin, “Tackling robbers? Nice! In most dimensions it’s just purse snatchers," he said in a low voice.
Watanabe looked at him with wide eyes, and Izuku just smiled slyly while putting a finger to his lips. Watanabe nodded, smirking at him and shaking his head. Oh, the chaos they would create together.
Watanabe technically wasn’t Izuku’s age, at least his mental age, but that didn’t mean that Izuku couldn’t get along with him. All his multiversal friends were younger than him by a long time. It took some major searching to find anyone as old as him, and he was happy to hang out with the friends he had.
Izuku stopped himself from getting into that rabbit hole as Natsume and Inko squealed meeting after such a long time.
At Dinner
"So did Aldera grant Watanabe's application to join the school from tomorrow?" Inko asked. Izuku smirked evilly at the thought, Watanabe seeing this and mirroring it. Ryuzen saw this and looked at him weirdly, but didn’t comment on it.
"O yes, they were quite pleased to have him. I do feel a bit bad at taking him away from his friends, though. Hopefully, there aren't any bullies at Aldera. Otherwise, I have to go to school countless times in the first week!”
“No, Izuku hasn't faced any bullying problems all these years so he will fit in nicely."
"It's not like he would tell you though," Ryuzen said, joining the conversation for the first time, "Boys especially don't like to report about bullying. It sounds stupid but I have done it myself." Ryuzen moved his gaze towards Izuku, "But you should be upfront about it, Izuku. They might call you a snitch for it but bullying is a big issue, otherwise you can just break their noses like Watanabe. I recommend the second one," Ryuzen said sagely.
Watanabe laughed into his soup at that while Natsume gave her husband an annoyed look. Izuku just chuckled.
"What?" he asked innocently.
That was too much for Izuku and he started to cackle as husband and wife started bickering, thoughts about his own bullying at the forefront of his mind. Inko looked on fondly, glad to see her son finally laughing, albeit one that sounded vaguely ‘mad scientist-escue’.
"Did you guys buy a bunk bed especially cuz we were coming?" Watanabe asked as he stood in Midoriya's room. Everyone had gone off to bed but the two were playing games together.
"No, I threw a tantrum when I was little so Dad bought me a bunk bed. It was while he was on holiday. Anyway we need to talk.”
“Damn straight, we do. The fuck was that about ‘dimensions’ earlier?”
Izuku smiled sadly. “Well, today, well at least in this dimension, I found my quirk.”
“Wait, really?!” At Izuku’s nod, he pumped his fist. “Finally!” Then the rest of his sentence registered. “Wait, today in this dimension?” Before Izuku could clarify, he began to think out loud. “If you have been traveling dimensions, then that means that time has gone by. Enough for you to get a personality change, or at the very least more confidence. But you said that you got your quirk ‘today’ which would mean virtually no time had passed between when you discovered your quirk and you coming home, otherwise you would have told Inko immediately. Inko doesn’t know, or she would have been crying tears of joy that you had finally found your quirk. Enough time passed between you finding your quirk and you coming here to deem it necessary to keep this secret, and give you a confidence boost. You said earlier ‘in most dimensions’ meaning you traveled to multiple dimensions, and stayed there long enough to learn this information, which shouldn’t have been possible for one day, meaning either you discovered your quirk a while ago, or, the most likely reason, time isn’t constant in the multiverse.” He looked at Izuku questioningly, waiting for him to confirm or not.
“Hehehe, this is why I’m glad to have you in my dimension. Yes, time in the multiverse is fucked up.” Watanabe’s eyes widened only slightly at the curse, but Izuku still saw it. “Yes, I can swear now. So far, you are the only person in this universe who knows this.”
“So, was that a choice, or did you plan on keeping it from me?” Watanabe asked.
“Tell you, of course! Do you know how hard this would be without someone else knowing? Besides,” Izuku grinned evilly, “I need someone as my chaos buddy.”
Watanabe grinned as well. “My my, how you have changed. So, what do we do first, oh powerful overlord?”
Izuku chuckled at his friend’s antics. “Nothing for tonight. Go get some sleep, we have a big day tomorrow!”
As Watanabe was climbing in bed, he saw Izuku walk over to his computer. “What, you gonna stay up late and play games? I thought you said we had a big day tomorrow.”
“We do, I’m preparing for it. I lost the need for sleep a long time ago.”
Watanabe looked at him incredulously. “You still look 14!”
“One of the aspects of my quirk that I don’t really like, I don’t age unless I’m in my dimension. This is my dimension, by the way, I just didn’t find it for a long time. Dimension after dimension after dimension, looking for my home.”
Watanabe stared at him for a second, before asking his question. “How long have you lived?”
Izuku looked him dead in the eye. “Do you want since I was born, or since the last time I came back from death?”
Watanabe just stared at him for a second, seeing the complete seriousness in his eyes, and just buried his face in his pillow. “Fuck that, I can’t deal with this shit right now.”
Izuku just chuckled once more before turning back to the computer. He had a lot of work to do.