Chapter Text
“Ha! You’ll make a perfect skin suit for me to hide in kid!” It was a normal day for Izuku. Normal until a sludge villain showed up. Before Izuku had time to react slime surrounded and suffocated him. “Don’t worry kid I’m just taking over your body.” Izuku’s vision started to fade. Was this how he died? A worthless Deku who dreamt of being a hero but in the end couldn’t even save himself? However, before he could completely blacked out he heard a loud voice.
“SMASH!! HAVE NO FEAR, NOW THAT I AM HERE!” That was the last thing Izuku heard before everything went black.
“All Might!?” Izuku was a bit confused when he woke up to All Might slapping him awake.
“I thought I lost you! Sorry about that back there.” All Might. All Might! Izuku’s favorite hero, Japan’s number one hero! Right in front of him. The hero who just saved him. This had to be one of Izuku’s greatest memories to date. Right next to the day he learned who All Might was and the day he found an exclusive limited edition Silver age All Might figure. He found it in a thrift store when it was no longer in production and also at a fraction of the original price.
“Autograph! All Might! Could you please sign my notebook!!” Izuku picked up his notebook still damp and damaged from Kacchan’s quirk. He quickly tried to flip to the next blank page.
“You already did!! Thank you so much!” All night’s signature was written boldly across 2 pages.
“No problem! Now if you excuse me I have to get this guy to the police.” All Might gestured to the capped water bottle that held the sludge villain. It was a bit surprising that it could all fit in there. Wait a second, there’s no time to start muttering about theories! All Might just said he was leaving? Already?
All Might couldn’t go! Izuku had a lot of questions for his favorite hero. Before Izuku knew what was happening, he leaped and latched on to All Might’s leg.
“What the- what do you think you're doing? Let go!”
“If I let go I'll die!” Izuku already regretted his actions but there was no backing down now.
“That’s a good point…” All Might started to fly slower and flew down to the top of a building.
Izuku thought about his dream to be a hero and how everyone supported him until the day he found out that he would never have a quirk. That day was probably his worst memory.
“All Might…” Izuku started. “Is it possible to become a hero even if I don’t have a quirk? Could I ever hope to be someone like you?” Izuku gained to courage to look at his hero. “Wait what the fu- where’s All Might?”
“I assure you that I’m All Might… You know those guys at pools who are always flexing and sucking in?…” All Might went on with his strange metaphor that barely processed in Izuku’s already overstimulated brain. This had to be some weird dream Izuku’s brain concocted. Or that slime villain left some goo in Izuku’s brain.
“See this scar?” All Might lifted his shirt exposing a healed wound. “This was caused by a villian a few years back.”
“Toxic Chainsaw?”
“Heh, you your your stuff. But no this was a more powerful villian.”
The rest of the conversation was a blur to Izuku. Except for this next part. Izuku remembered these words very clearly.
“This job isn’t easy. Some villains just can’t be beaten without quirks. you can’t be a hero without a quirk.” Each statement felt like a stab in Izuku’s heart.
“Listen kid it’s just not realistic to be a hero without a quirk. There are other options out there if you want to help people. For example, being a police officer…” All might’s words seemed to fade as all Izuku could focus on was ‘without a quirk’. Without a quirk, I can’t be a hero. Without a quirk, others will think you’re useless. Suddenly Izuku remembered the words Kacchan said to him earlier:
If you want a quirk, go take a swan dive off the roof and pray you’ll have one in your next life!
And so after All might left Izuku on the roof, he jumped.
But Izuku didn’t die. Instead, he woke up with a sharp inhale. It felt like he just woke from a nightmare but it felt so real. He looked around his room stuffed to the brim with All Might merchandise. Looking at the merchandise made him feel a bit queasy.
Although it was just a dream, it felt so real. Izuku got out of bed and got out notebook number 13 from his book bag. No burn marks and no signature from All Might.
What a terrible nightmare Izuku thought to himself. He thought about what happened in his dream. What he was thinking when he jumped off the building? What would his mother think? How sad would she be if he left her? Izuku made his way down to the kitchen.
“Morning Izuku, I was just about to leave for work. I left breakfast on the-" A sharp snap echoed through the room. Izuku turned to see his mom’s heel holding onto the rest of the shoe by a thread. “Darn. I really liked this pair.”
Didn’t those shoes break yesterday? Or did they break in last night’s dream? What a weird coincidence.
“Mom! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, just surprised, but I better hurry or I’ll be late.” Izuku’s mom quickly grabbed a different pair of shoes before excusing herself out of the house.
School was interesting… Izuku found that a lot of the material that was said was a lot like the material gone over in his dream. In his dream, he worked on hero analyses in his notebook. However, after checking it today he forgot to put it back into his backpack and couldn’t work on his analysis today.
“But I know you all want to go to the Hero Track!” Sheets of paper filled the room as cheers broke out from the class. Weird quirks were shown off in the class.
“Izuku,” at the sudden call of his name Izuku’s attention was pulled towards his teacher. “You want to go into UA’s hero course as well. Correct?”
“Uh I- um…” before Izuku could stop stuttering, Kacchan interrupted.
“Stupid Deku, you think you can make it into UA’s hero course?! You’d be lucky if you’re able to step through their front gates.”
—————
Right after the bell rang and Izuku grabbed his bag and left. Although it was just a dream where Kacchan told me to jump off the roof, He didn’t think that he could handle being told that again.
He quickly ran off and left through a different exit than where he usually goes. He hurried home in a hurry rather than his usual leisurely walk. He wanted to get home ASAP and have this day be over. Unfortunately, his plan was interrupted by a sludge monster.
“Ha! Didn’t have to wait a long time at all for a perfect skin suit to come my way!” Slime oozed out of a sewer vent. Before Izuku had time to regret his decision of going home in the same direction as in his dream. Slime filled his throat and lungs. Izuku flailed and uselessly tried to grab handfuls of slime. Uselessly. Useless, quirkless Deku.
Izuku’s dream was so close to reality that he regretted not taking a different route home. Or better yet, not go to school at all. But in his dream didn’t All Might save him? Today, however, he left school rather quickly and avoided his talk with Kacchan. Would All might be fast enough to save him? What was Izuku thinking? Of course, he will. He always saves everyone with a smile on his face. Those were Izuku’s last thoughts before he blacked out.
After that Izuku woke up with a sharp inhale.
Not one weird dream but two. Or should he be calling them nightmares now? The first dream All Might crushed his dreams. In the second he never showed up at all. Instead of the All Might merch in his bedroom only making him feel a bit queasy, He wanted it out of his sight. The dreams- were they even dreams? Izuku just wanted it to be tomorrow already.
He didn’t want to get out of bed he continued to lay down for another moment. Trying to savor the warmth before sluggishly getting out. He slowly headed down to greet his mom.
A snap echoed. “Oh darn. I really liked this pair.” Sure enough, Izuku saw the heel of the shoe barely hanging on by a thread. “Izuku, I didn’t hear you come in- gosh sweetie you look terrible how are you feeling?”
Oh you know, I was gaslit by Kacchan to kill myself, got told that my dream of being a hero will never happen by all might, and this day keeps repeating.
“I think I may be sick.” Was all Izuku could reply
A worried mother’s face is something you never want to see she felt Izuku’s forehead and replied. “Try and get some sleep. I’ll call the school.”
Izuku nodded his head and headed back to his room. He laid back down in his bed. Izuku pondered about what the hell was happening.
He died. He was sure he died twice. As much as he didn’t want to admit it he jumped off of that building. He did jump. And there was no denying the feeling of being unable to breathe and suffocating to death. He couldn’t mistake that for a dream.
But so what did he die? What did it mean? Was this purgatory? Some weird delusion? Someone’s quirk at work?
Quirk…
A light bulb suddenly went over his head. He got out of bed and he brought out a new notebook. He opened it and wrote what he knew. The ability to redo the day. Was this Izuku’s quirk? Did Izuku have a quirk?!
Izuku was reminded of that pre-quirk era movie Groundhog Day. Where the day would repeat. But maybe, instead of no reason, perhaps the day repeats whenever… whenever he died.
As a true quirk analyst, many ideas swarmed his head as well as muttering.
“What if a die exactly at the moment where the day resets? Would I endlessly die? Is there a limit to the number of resets I have? If I change the same day enough do butterfly effects occur? Is death the only trigger to redo the day? Or is it possible just to activate it by wanting to?”
Unfortunately, most of these theories would stay theories. No amount of curiosity would allow Izuku to test out these theories. Right?
Izuku may have thought that a side effect of dying may have made him go crazy, but instead of thinking rationally, he sat in a bathtub nervously holding a toaster that was connected extension cord that was connected to a plug. His pajamas loosely floated in the water.
All might said it himself, you can’t be a hero without a quirk.
This was to prove he had a quirk. He could prove that he wasn’t some useless Deku. With this quirk, he could be a hero. If this quirk was what he thinks it is he could gain dangerous information or do jobs that would be suicide for other heroes. He could gain information about the future just like Sir Nighteye He just needed to be sure that this was his quirk. Not an illusion and not a dream.