Chapter Text
Aldera Middle School was on a field trip to Kyoto. Izumi Midoriya was on that field trip, despite her teachers ‘almost forgetting’ to give her the permission slip.
“I can’t believe they did that! ‘Almost forgot’, yeah right! If they keep doing this, I’ll kill ‘em!” Katsuki Bakugo said, loudly.
“Come on, Kacchan, look at it this way. One more year ‘till we’re out of Aldera!” Izumi said, cheerfully.
“How do you do that, ‘Zumi?” Katsuki asked, clearly referring to her positivity
“I just know it’s not worth getting angry over, especially when I’ve got someone looking out for me!” she smiled brighter than the sun.
“Ah! Put those away! Are you sure your quirk isn’t glowing teeth and wholesomeness?” Izumi giggled.
“Pretty sure, yeah! Speaking of, I wish my quirk would just come in already!”
“Yeah, it’s bullshit. You’ll get it, but you’ll need time to train with it.
“I’ve been training physically, at least.” Izumi pointed out.
“Then why are you so tiny?” Katsuki asked, smirking. Izumi pouted.
“Let’s just catch up with the group.” They ran after the group. They had recently gotten off the bus, and now they were here to see the sights. That was until an explosion engulfed the area. Katsuki was knocked back on his butt and felt his ears ringing as he looked around shaken. He tried to focus on anything.
Izumi had taught her a few things over the years. One was to tone down his anger issues, but the most important thing she taught him was what it meant to be a hero. Katsuki got up, only shaken by the force of the explosion and not burned, thanks to his quirk. He then proceeded to run to the first person he saw when the smoke cleared a bit.
He quickly looked for major injuries, and while the classmate he found had a large scrape, it was only skin deep and wasn’t really bleeding all that much. He tried to look for a pulse, but he didn’t know how, so he put his ear near the boy’s nose. Thankfully, he felt him breathing. He would be fine. Katsuki didn’t know what to do about the scrape, as he wasn’t all that versed in first aid. He saw the smoke clear some more, and while he had thought Izumi would be doing the same thing as him, he was quickly proven wrong when he saw Izumi, bloody and out cold.
“Izumi! Izumi!” he yelled, running up to her. Another explosion rang out, but Katsuki jumped in front of and shielded Izumi. “Damn!” More explosions occurred, but they were going quickly away from the kids. He heard a strange noise and turned around to see the only classmate he cared about was gone without a trace. “Izumi! Izumi!” He screamed as he looked in every possible direction.
Izumi woke up, groggy. She was in a hospital room, and was wearing a weird device on her chest. It was a sort of harness that went over her shoulder and onto her back as well. It was fairly loose, so it wasn’t uncomfortable, but it wasn’t all that comfortable either.
“Ah, you’re awake.” Said a deep voice. She tried to sit up to see who it was. "I wouldn't try to sit up. You're still injured."
"H-how long was I out?" She asked shakily.
"About five months, but it's been a bit shorter for you." He chuckled.
"What do you mean?" She asked, puzzled.
"Let me help you sit up." A few heavy steps rumbled across the floor, until a giant man with, presumably, an ape quirk was standing over her, and she thought it was funny that he wore a lab coat and glasses, the contrast from his ape body quite obvious. He put his large hand under the bed Izumi laid on and slowly raised her upper body so that she was sitting up. As she was raised, she saw a few charts and x-rays.
"Before we go over this, I should go catch your mother before she leaves, she just left the room a few minutes ago." He made for the especially large door. He looked back at her. "By the way, I'm Doctor Winston." he said with a smile. He then left Izumi to her thoughts. She looked down at her chest and saw a glow. She looked under the gown and saw the device for the first time. It had a blue glowing circle in the middle, and it did look like a harness. She sat back, getting semi-comfortable under the blanket.
‘Five months, huh? What did he mean by shorter for me?’ She thought to herself.
“My baby!” Inko Midoriya crashed into Izumi, wrapping her in a hug.
“Ow… hey, Mom.” Inko detached herself from Izumi.
“Sorry. Oh, my God, I’ve missed you so much. Do you remember anything?” Izumi shook her head.
“All I remember is the Kyoto trip, and...and then a loud noise.”
“That was an explosion. A villain attacked Kyoto. Would’ve brought it to the ground if the heroes weren’t there.” Dr. Winston said. “Because of that incident you were out for a week. Well for you it was a week. For us, as I said, it was five months.”
“How is that possible?” I asked.
“Simple answer, your quirk. The more complicated answer is that your quirk caused you to experience Chronal Disassociation.”
“What does that mean?” She asked, she had heard of disassociation, but she thought that meant detachment. Chronal detachment? Time detachment?
“You’re exactly right, my dear.” He said as she realized she had said that out loud. “You were disconnected from time. You came back for only a few minutes at a time, and when they realized what was happening, they called me.”
“Why did they call you? I mean, thank you for helping me but why you, specifically?”
“Because I coined the term chronal disassociation. Have you ever heard of The Blink Hero, Tracer?”
“Yeah! She was one of the top twenty before she tragically fell in a fight with a villain.”
“Hmph. That’s the official story, but I’m afraid that the real story is much more tragic.”
“What?” Izumi squeaked.
“Tracer was a good friend of mine, her name was Lena Oxton. She was British but she came to Japan to get my help, and she never left. After helping her with a similar device to the one you’re wearing now, I coined the term chronal disassociation, and she became a hero. There have been very few cases of it, but hers was the most severe. In the middle of a battle, someone hit the Chrono Accelerator a bit too hard, and she blinked out of time. I still try to find her, but it’s been thirty two years. No luck. I suspect the broken accelerator caused more disassociation.
“That’s why I’ve spent the better part of my life to make sure the Chrono Accelerators won’t break, ever, so you don’t have to worry about that if you want to become a hero, like your friend said you did. I’ve used all sorts of alloys and tested them, with even All Might helping me.” He poked the accelerator on Izumi’s chest. “His punch couldn’t break this one. You know why? Rare metals. Expensive ones.”
“Oh, dear. I’m willing to pay, but I’m worried about the cost.” Inko said. Dr. Winston smiled.
“Won’t cost you a dime. I’ll only charge you a small fee for the training.”
“Training?” Izumi asked.
“Yes. That is, only if you want to become a hero. I can’t tell you the secrets of the accelerator unless you wanna become a hero. Hero Commission’s orders.”
“I definitely want to become a hero! I have all my life!” She yelled. He chuckled.
“No hesitation. As I expected. Your mother and friend told me a lot about you.”
“My friend? Katsuki! Oh my god, did he get caught up in the explosion? I mean he’s immune to his own explosions but what about those explosions?!” Izumi asked.
“Yes he is! He told me he shielded you from all but the unexpected first one. He slept here for a few days after we got you back. It was only a few hours after the incident, for you that is. It was seven days ago.”
“I called the Bakugos and they’re on their way.” Inko said.
“Fantastic. Well, after a day or two of observation, Izumi should be good to go.” The doctor said with a smile.
Two days later, Izumi was cleared to leave. It turned out the ride home from the hospital Dr. Winston worked at was an hour long. However, Katsuki rode with the Midoriyas.
“So what is that thing, again?”
“It’s called a Chrono accelerator. Dr. Winston told me that I need to keep it on until I get a size bigger, and he’ll quickly replace it. It anchors me in time. I can take it off, but it needs to stay close to me, at least.”
“Oh...well you’ll need clothes to wear that make it so you don’t have to just wear baggy clothes. My dad’s a fashion designer, so he’ll probably do it.”
“The doctor gave me a few outfits that’ll work, hopefully Uncle Masaru can use those as a base. Really it’ll just be tight clothes the accelerator can fit over,” Izumi said, gaining a smirk as Katsuki blushed at the thought of Izumi in a tight shirt. "Nah, I could probably wear regular clothes
“I’m sure he can. Anyway, we were really worried about you.” He grabbed her cheeks and stretched them as far as the human body would allow. “Don’t scare me like that again, you hear?”
“Yes, Kacchan, I hear you.” He let go of her. “Ow…Oh! I just remembered, the doctor is coming to a place near us so he can train me to use this thing!”
“Use it? Isn’t it just keeping you here?”
“Yeah, but he said if I wanted to become a hero, he’d teach me the secrets of it. Of course I wanna be a hero so he’s gonna teach me!”
“Awesome!” Katsuki replied. “But how can he do that?”
“I assume it has something to do with the hero he talked about, Tracer.” Katsuki paled.
“Oh yeah, now that I think about it, she had one of those, too, huh?” He looked down. “Are you sure you wanna do this? I mean, you know she died?”
“Yeah, but Dr. Winston said he spent thirty two years making this version more durable.”
“I guess…” He huffed and crossed his arms.
“Aw...Is someone worried about me?” Katsuki looked at her to see a shit-eating grin on her face.
“Of course not! I just don’t want my sidekick killed is all. It’s a blow to morale if an employee gets killed.”
“Employee? Really? Well, and look at me when I’m speaking to you,” she said as she turned Katsuki’s face toward hers. “I’m nobody’s sidekick. It’s on.” She said with fiery determination. He looked at her, and a dusting of red crossed his face.
“It’s on.” He said with the same determination, only for it to be taken away when she pecked him on the cheek. He sputtered.
“For luck! God knows you’ll need it if you wanna keep up with me.” she said, smirking at his reaction.
“Oh, it is on, girlie.” he said, smirking at her. The two locked eyes and all they could think about was how badly they were gonna beat the other.
Ten days passed, and Izumi was at her wit’s end with her mother doting on her.
“Are you sure you don’t need anything? Really sure?” Inko asked, worriedly.
“I know that it’s hard for you to comprehend this, but I’ve been fine since I got out of the hospital. I was fine then, and I’m fine now. You don’t need to act like I’m fragile.”
“But you were in an explosion!” Izumi groaned as Inko kept babbling. She kept at it until the phone rang. Izuku picked up her mom’s phone, and answered it.
“Hello?”
“Ah, Ms. Midoriya, is your mother home? I’d very much like to talk to you both about this.” Dr. Winston asked.
“Yeah, I’ll put her on speaker.” Izumi said.
“Is something wrong, Doctor?” Inko was worried.
“On the contrary, I have finally moved to Musutafa and I’m fully set up in my temporary office and training lab. You can come down tomorrow at any time before 5:00 pm and we can start on your training.”
“Thank you so much Dr. Winston!” Izumi yelled. He chuckled.
“I’m your trainer now, so just Winston is fine.”
“Can you guarantee my baby will be safe?” Inko asked, frantically.
“Just training, yes she will. However, your daughter wants to be a hero. I know well that it’s not the safest profession.”
“Oh I know, I just worry.”
“That’s perfectly normal. But to ensure the most safety she can have, come by tomorrow. Have a good day you two.” He hung up.
“This is great!” Izumi yelled.
“Izumi, can you promise to be careful? You’ve always had a self sacrificing streak. If Katsuki weren’t around I don’t know how many times you would’ve come home injured…”
“I will, mom. I promise.” Izumi said, looking determined.
“I guess that’s all I can ask of you.”