Chapter Text
Inhale. One, two, three. Exhale. One, two, three. This is not the time for you to lose your shit, Katsuki. You’re better than this. You’re no longer the insufferable brat from years ago. You have anger management sessions. You’ve changed.
Katsuki repeated those words in his head like a mantra. His jaw strained tightly, lips drew into a thin line like he did not trust himself enough to open his mouth. His brows dipped into a deep frown, nostrils flared, eyes squinted shut trying to concentrate on his breathing.
Inhale. One, two, three. Exhale. One, two, three. Nope. This is NOT working.
Katsuki opened his eyes, furious vermilion orbs pierces straight into guilty green ones. The injured hero was lying face down on the ambulance stretcher with his back bare. Hero costume tattered like cheap rag was thrown to the side. He peered up to watch the brimming storm of a person looming over his head. If Katsuki’s quirk had been laser vision, Midoriya Izuku would be dead ages ago.
“How many times –” The blond paused, looked away for a brief moment to compose himself.
Still not working.
“How many fucking times did I tell you knucklehead to wait for the goddamn SIGNAL?!” Katsuki roared into the greenette’s face.
Izuku tried to face the blond, he winced at the movement, which made the other person’s face darken. He reasoned stubbornly. “But Kacchan, the girl was crying. She looked so scared. I – I had to…”
“You didn’t have to anything, Izuku.” The greenette silenced at the name. It’s rare for his friend to use his real name so whenever the blond used it, he did not doubt that things were getting serious.
Katsuki tried to keep his voice down in a more moderate tone.
“The whole place was fully secured. You, Half ‘n Half and I just needed to wait for an all-clear to put that villain down. Yet, you still dared to jump in without any backup. No backup. Rookie mistake, Deku.”
Katsuki was pacing back and forth, hands threw up angrily to the sky. “Guess what, oh yeah, you already knew. The fuckmunch was spooked, so he threw the hostage at you as his shield. If it wasn’t for Icyhot’s ice wall, your martyr nuisance would have been stabbed into next week.”
He chuckled dryly. “And for the sweet cherry on top, you were hit by that child’s quirk. You should receive a whole medal for this mess, shitty nerd.”
Izuku lowered his head down the stretcher, looking ashamed. It’s not like he wanted to get reckless, but the little girl who was kept as a hostage had been wailing and the villain got impatient. If he hadn’t done anything, the girl could have been hurt. Could have been.
“Lay off him Bakugou.” A calm voice said. Shouto walked back to the pair after talking to the police. Katsuki sneered at him.
The dual-haired hero turned to Izuku, frowned lightly. “But he wasn’t wrong, Midoriya.” He shook his head. “Anyone could have been hurt if things went south. In this case, that person was you. You shouldn't have acted on impulse like that.”
Chewing on his lips, Izuku squeaked out. “I’m sorry, Shouto. Sorry, Kacchan. I promise it won’t happen again.”
“Better keep that one then.” The explosive blond spat. “Next time, I’ll make sure I blast you away so hard you’ll see the curvature of the Earth.”
Endeavor stepped in, one hand held Katsuki down. He ordered. “Calm down, boys. Go see what the police have to say about the girl’s quirk. I hope it’s not some quirk singularity. The medics will check if there’s something up with Deku. I’ll report this back to your homeroom teacher.”
Katsuki grunted in affirmation while Shouto just walked away, leaving Izuku behind with a sullen mood and an agonizing ache on his back.
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“A dimensional…what?”
Katsuki and Shouto were sitting at the police station trying to gain information about the new quirk. The woman in front of them was the little girl’s mother, who was clinging to her side.
“A dimensional counterpart attracting quirk.” The woman looked down to her daughter, caressing her hair softly. She glanced up to the pair and sent out an apologetic smile.
“At first I thought my daughter had a habit of talking to her imaginary friends. And she was getting weird marks on her skin. However, after checking in with a quirk clinic, they said she had a quirk that can pull out of her body many versions of herself in alternative universes into this world. She was talking to them after all.”
The mother looked quite proud at that. Katsuki was getting impatient.
“The squirt can create many copies of herself. Great. What about when she uses it on other people?”
She shook her head. “Not copies, Mr. Hero. Versions, with different appearances, different characteristics. Or sometimes they are you, but having made different choices in their life.”
Shouto held his chin in contemplation, head titled up. “So it’s like many what-ifs of you which are pulled into our universe.”
“Yes, that’s right.” She nodded. “Normally her counterparts only exist for 7 to 8 hours. According to her doctor, she can reach her limit of a whole day, but then it would be painful for her. She couldn't control her quirk today so I guess it may have manifested to her full extent. The time also depends on the marks she creates. When one fades, the time resets.” She hesitated but continued anyway with a sad expression. “The more marks she has, the more awful the pain is. It can be quite excruciating. I’m so sorry about your friend. ”
The two boys were stunned at the news. This was strange, even for both of them, as students in UA, which resided by individuals with a plethora of types of bizarre quirks. They nodded absently at her thanks for having saved her daughter and returned to inform their quirked-up peer.
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“Oh my god, that girl’s quirk is just so fascinating! Think about all the possibilities!” Izuku exclaimed joyfully upon the explanation as if he did not hear the drawback of this peculiar power.
Both of them practically squinted their eyes at the blinding smile from the sunshine boy. They had debated on whether they should tell Izuku or just Shouta. Shouto had convinced him that as the one who got hit Izuku should know what was going to happen to him.
Even though it’s not like Katsuki preferred Icyhot’s option, but he would listen to him rather than admitting that he adored the vibrating energy from the greenette whenever he found out about new quirks and he wanted to indulge the little fanatic. Nevertheless, Katsuki regretted his decision immediately. Shouto only tilted his lips into an amused curve.
Fuck the Half ‘n Half bastard. Truly.
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When Izuku, Katsuki and Shouto arrived at the Height Alliances, they were welcomed with the familiar cloths of Shouta’s capture weapon and his deadly glare. Their teacher dragged them to the infirmary, ignoring all the stares of curious classmates. Recovery Girl tutted at the three of them, pointedly at Izuku, who blushed profusely.
“As I was informed by Endeavor,” Whilst Shouta spoke with an uninterested tone, his stiff pose betrayed his current emotion. “During today’s work-study in a hostage situation, The Problem Child was hit by a rather interesting quirk. Care to explain it for me?”
Recovery Girl directed Izuku to lie face down on one of the beds while the other two summarize the quirk’s information to the raven-haired man. She told the boy to strip his top, and Shouta sighed exasperatedly when he found seven marks blooming on his student's back, each with different shapes and sizes.
Seven. He groaned internally, thinking about the ugly side effect of the quirk. Can’t this kid catch a break?
Katsuki grimaced at the sight with Shouto standing beside him looking worried. Recovery Girl shook her head and said sadly. “If that’s the case then I’m afraid I can’t treat him because those marks aren’t even wounds. Just be careful,” She turned to Shouta, “and tell his classmates to keep an eye on him.”
Shouta nodded. “Will do.” He waited for the greenette to fix his clothes then led them back to the dorms. When he opened the doors, the common room was filled with almost all of the class, considering the fact that they had also finished their work for the day. All eyes were now staring at them, waiting for an announcement.
“Listen here, class. Midoriya was hit by a quirk,” Shouta ignored a small “Not surprised.” and the following scold “That attitude toward your classmate is unacceptable, Jirou.” from a certain class representative.
He continued. “That allows him to summon versions of himself from alternative universes, according to marks created on his skin. He has seven marks on his back, which means this might prolong for a whole week. This experience can be arduous for one so if there’s anything that may be concerning for Midoriya’s well-being, please call me immediately. Are we clear?”
Class 3-A chorused out. “Yes, sensei.”
“Good.” Shouta said. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to my work.” Then he left.
When the class turned back to the trio, Izuku had already fled with the other two to the communal bathroom.
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Hair still damped from the shower, Izuku shuffled into the common room to join dinner. He was exhausted from today’s events. He only wanted to fill his stomach with warm food then shut down in his comfy bed. Greeting him was a worried expression of Ochako and Tsuyu, who looked like they just came back from their daily workout together.
“Oh Deku-kun, I heard about your quirk accident. How are you feeling?”
The greenette sent her his most genuine smile.
“I’m fine, Ochako. I only have some badass marks on the backside. They look like tattoos, actually.”
Izuku was taken aback when he turned his body to look at the marks in the mirrors inside their dorm’s bathroom. The marks were beautiful, with various colors and sharp lines. The one near his right shoulder shaped like a swirl of tornado, with dark green lightning surrounding it. Under that mark was an imprint of a sword with a split color of red and green.
Some marks had complicated shapes with small details, like a stamp of a teal creature on the backside of his ribs, or a symbol of his very own mouthguard and hood from his hero costume but with a much darker color. They could also be simple, like a mark looking like a footprint of a cat, or rabbit, and there was one with the shape of a steel bolt.
Besides those, the one down his lower back had a liquid-like shape with a hue of scarlet which he mistook for a splash of blood from the event before.
Ochako chuckled at his excited words. She gave him a pat on his back but suddenly jolted back at the contact. Her brows rose. Tsuyu and Izuku gave her a confused look. He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong but could not make out any sound. His attention was on the burning feeling on his back, near the right side. The green one? The freckled boy thought as he reached his hand towards the mark. He hissed out painfully and crouched down to ease the shock.
Chatters died down instantly. Everybody stilled at the scene. They exchanged worried glances around the quiet room.
Tsuyu slowly sat in front of the boy, asking. “Are you okay, Midori-chan? Is it about the marks?”
As Izuku tried to answer her question, he wheezed out incoherent words and bent down in agony, hands clutching both sides of his biceps. Sweat began to collect on his forehead before dripping down the wooden floor. The mark on his back was glowing, radiating heat so hot it had smoke flying up. Izuku cried out as a vague form rose from the mark, tearing away his shirt from the back.
A strong hand shoved the shocked girls to the side. Katsuki pulled the greenette into his chest protectively, carefully trying not to touch the mark. He yelled out.
“SOMEONE CALL AIZAWA. NOW!”