Chapter Text
Izuku had never seen anything like it. He doubt any of his team members had either. This quirk was amazing, impossible, and absolutely dangerous all at the same time. The world couldn't possibly continue the way it had with the discovery a quirk like this.
"TEAM B! TEAM B, DO YOU READ ME? THE TARGET IS--" static, "--COMPLETELY UNSTABLE! OVER."
"This is Team B," Izuku spoke into his intercom. He was trembling, his voice was shaky, "We are standing in front of the target right now."
Beside him, Ochako reached out to grab hold of his hand, which he interlaced his fingers with. He gave her hand a squeeze before letting go.
"TEAM B IS PREPARING TO ENGAGE," it was Tsuyu over the intercom now. She was standing less than twenty feet away from him and yelling into the intercom. Yet, Izuku couldn't hear her outside of speakers. The noise of the destruction around him covered just about any sound his teammates made. "TEAM A, HURRY AND GET HERE! OVER."
Team B had been the scout. They were to find the target and try to contain it. Try to stabilize it. Before they even found the target, however, it had already exploded. The destruction to its surroundings and reality itself was massive. It had happened in the downtown area during rush hour. Several skyscrapers were knocked over completely. Roads were ripped apart. A part of the crust itself was cracked open, exposing hot magma to the open air.
That wasn't the strangest thing of all. Here and there, the air around the target looked odd. Like the way heat rising off a barbeque grill looked. Wavy. Distorted. They existed in little pockets surrounding the target, sometimes stretching out and appearing fifty feet away. But, Izuku didn't have time to examine or think about that. They were in trouble. Team A had most of their heavy hitters. He was probably the best offense of team B. Team A was only to be sent if the situation was really bad.
Team A had just been dispatched. They had hoped they wouldn't need to use force against the target--
"HEROES. DO NOT HOLD BACK," Izuku swallowed as he heard the commands come through over the intercom. He didn't like this course of action, but... "THE FATE OF THE WORLD DEPENDS ON THIS. DO NOT HESITATE TO KILL. OVER."
Immediately, his teammates leaped into action. He couldn't tell what they were thinking. Did they also have the same doubts as he did? Did they not want to kill this...
Innocent woman?
It was not her fault for being born this way. She currently stood in the middle of the massive destruction with tearstained eyes. "My children! My children!" she wailed as her quirk lifted up the rubble around her in a whirlwind. She had long since lost consciousness to her grief. As far as Izuku was concerned, she wasn't fully aware of what she was doing.
A chunk of concrete came flying towards Izuku and he pulled his arm back to punch it. With One for All's power coursing through him, the rock broke into pieces. They have been engaged in combat for twenty minutes, but were still unable to get anywhere closer to the target.
"TEAM A, WHERE ARE YOU? OVER," Ochako called through the intercom.
Izuku heard a soft explosion sound beside him and he was sprayed with pieces of debris. "RIGHT HERE. OVER," Katsuki yelled at the intercom. He was raging and raring to go. Behind him, Todoroki had also arrived with Kirishima and Momo.
"ONE WOMAN DID THIS...? OVER," Todoroki said in disbelief. His hesitation didn't last, however, and he sent a trail of ice towards the woman, aiming to freeze her as a stop to her actions. The ice reached the woman's feet and she turned her gaze at the newly arrived Team A.
The ice didn't even touch her when it exploded into a million pieces, crushed by a red electric-like energy. Team A was stunned for a few seconds. They had seen the destruction from afar, but to see it in person was a completely different vantage point.
As if sensing the approaching danger of Team A, the power surging around the woman grew even more violent. Debris, metal rods, all matters of city pollution flew around her and slammed itself against the heroes trying to quell the situation. Izuku found himself unable to keep up with the mess that was attacking him. More than once, he had to take a heavy blow from some slab of concrete or a stab from a giant shard of broken window glass.
"Look out!" Izuku yelled as he shoved Katsuki out of the path of a crumpled flying car.
The two of them landed on the ground with a grunt. Katsuki sat up immediately while Izuku took a breather from the fighting. "Worry about your own fucking self and don't get in my way!" Katsuki yelled as he rushed off back into battle, not giving a second glance at Izuku.
"What a way to thank someone..." Izuku grumbled, but didn't dwell on it. As soon as he forced the thoughts of falling asleep away, he stood again and ran back into the fight.
He was starting to lose hope and so was everyone else. They must've been fighting here for an hour, but none of them could even get close.
"WHEN CAN WE GET AHOLD OF ERASERHEAD?" Momo said over the intercom, "PERHAPS HIS QUIRK CAN--"
Her question was cut before she finished as her makeshift shield gave up on her and a surge of red-electric energy knocked her to the ground.
Ochako yelled for her, but her voice couldn't be heard above the roar of the energy around them. Izuku watched as she dropped off of the floating slab of concrete she had been hanging on to help Momo back up on her feet. Momo, as Creatie, couldn't do much if she wasn't in a position where she could create something, after all.
"EVERYTHING OKAY, CREATIE? OVER," Iida asked.
"YES. I'M FINE. OVER," Momo answered, "BUT AS I WAS SAYING, WE CAN'T GET ANYWHERE NEAR HER. ERASERHEAD CAN CANCEL HER QUIRK. OVER."
"IF IT'S POSSIBLE, THEY'D HAVE FUCKING DONE IT ALREADY, DUMBASS!" Katsuki yelled over the intercom. No one said anything for a little while. Katsuki hadn't used the proper speech notation of ending his messages with -over. By the time someone figured it out, several minutes had already passed.
"THEY'VE TRIED," Tokoyami explained, "WHEN THEY FIRST FOUND HER, THEY SENT ERASERHEAD TO THE SCENE TO STOP HER. IT DIDN'T WORK. OVER."
"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! I THOUGHT ERASERHEAD COULD ERASE ALL QUIRKS?! OVER!"
No one said the words that they were all thinking of. No one wanted to admit it. The reality of it would shake the world again. Just like how when they first found that glowing baby in China. News of this would shake the world to its core. Protests would be made, society would be in disorder...
The fate of the world could depend on it...
The words that had passed through the intercom earlier came back to Izuku's mind. There was more meaning to it than Izuku had first thought.
This woman's power wasn't a quirk.
Just as Izuku thought that, Todoroki had managed to send a powerful blast of ice towards the woman, this time fast enough to encase her completely.
"DID... DID WE DO IT? OVER."
No one dared to make a move. Their surroundings were finally starting to calm down--
Craaaack...!
All of them tensed up again as Todoroki's ice casing broke in half and the woman climbed out of the confinement. It wasn't over yet!
"You... Just what are you trying to do?" had she not even realized that the heroes were around her prior to this? She was only screaming something about her children... Turning to face Todoroki, her hands glowed red and a blast of energy was sent towards him. It was unlike the little stray sparks of red electricity that had been floating around earlier. This was a gigantic, full blast...!
"TODOROKI! NO!" just like always, Izuku felt his body move on its own. He dashed forward, One for All aided him and sped him up just in time for him to push Todoroki out of the way. As he saw the flash of red approach him, he heard his friends yell at him. Have to get out of the way, he thought, but the light enveloped him. It was too late! He wasn't getting out of here alive--
Izuku heard the sound of distant thunder. Above him, gray clouds floated by, threatening to shower him with rain. "...Huh?" aside from that, it was quiet. "...Am I dead?" he whispered. He really hope this wasn't heaven because heaven would be awfully dreary, then.
Izuku was in an alleyway of some sort, from what he could tell while laying on the ground. There was a dull, rusted-red dumpster nearby and the walls of two buildings rose up towards the sky. He only saw three sets of windows so they weren't skyscrapers. From where he was laying, however, they looked as though they touched the clouds.
The walls of the buildings were black with years of smog and pollution. Izuku could see a small vent that was covered in black smudges. Whatever store it was, it wasn't open now. The world is about to end, why wouldn't they take a day off, the thought ran through Izuku's mind.
The world is about to end...?
It was so quiet.
There was no way the world was ending.
With a grunt, Izuku tried to sit up, but pain immediately coursed through his body and he collapsed on the concrete again. "Huh," he sighed just as the first few raindrops landed on him. That battle must've done a number of him for him to feel this sore.
Maybe I'll enjoy this and take a nap, he thought as he closed his eyes. The rain didn't bother him. He was far too tired and in far too much pain to care.
Klang!
The sound of something hitting the dumpster woke Izuku up. He had only closed his eyes for a few minutes and was only beginning to drift off to dream world before that sound. It was quickly followed by the annoyed meow of a cat and Izuku forced himself to raise himself on his elbows.
There was a crash this time and Izuku watched as someone fell into the open dumpster. The cat had landed on the unopened lid earlier. This person was not so lucky and crashed right into a bed of trash bags and rotting garbage.
"Gross!" the person yelled. A hand shot out from the dumpsters and gripped onto the side to pull themself out.
"...?!" Izuku watched speechlessly as a boy pulled himself out of the dumpster.
There was something familiar about the boy that Izuku couldn't quite pinpoint. The boy had dark hair and eyes and was wearing a black spandex suit with a red cape around his shoulders. He also adorned a headpiece that looked strangely familiar, too. But Izuku just couldn't put his finger on it. He looked foreign. European. Definitely not a native of Tokyo. Izuku's hard work in English class paid off because he understood every word that came out of the stranger's mouth.
"Where am I?" the boy grumbled as he scanned his surroundings, "It's raining, too?! Perfect." He sighed as he jumped out of the dumpster. He frowned when he saw Izuku lying on the ground, "Hey, can you tell me where I am-- Woah?! What happened to you?!"
The boy had knelt down beside Izuku and saw how bad the damage to his hero costume was. "I was," Izuku wracked his brain for the right English words, "in a fight with a..." He didn't want to say super villain, "With someone that was ripping apart Tokyo."
"Ripping Tokyo apart?!" the boy's eyes widened in shock.
"...Yea," Izuku laughed weakly, "...I guess it's all fine now. No one's screaming anymore."
"...Okay," though the boy's expression showed that he was still mildly concerned. "Hmm. So I'm in Tokyo," the boy sat down with a groan, "Okay, definitely the wrong place. That little trickster. I'm never going to get it right at this rate."
"Trickster...?"
The boy's eyebrows shot up, like he realized he was talking about something he shouldn't be talking about, "Um, never mind. You look like you need to go to a hospital."
"Yea," Izuku laughed, "I'm pretty beat up from that fight. My friends--" Izuku stopped. His friends! Where were they?! He had been hit by the blast, but what happened to them?! There's definitely no sounds of fighting right now. Where were they...?! Izuku quickly pressed the button for the intercom on his gloves. It connected directly to the microphone by his mouth guard. "Hello?! Uravity? Shouto! Ingenium? ...Explodo? Anyone?!?" all he heard back from the intercom was static. He was beginning to panic as he forced himself to sit up. Where were his friends...?! He had to find them--
"Wait, where are you going?! You're in no shape to move," the boy stood up with him and placed his arms around Izuku, ready to catch him should he fall.
"My friends... Have to find--"
"Yikes!" Izuku had stumbled and the boy caught and steadied him just in time, "You need to get to a hospital--"
Both boys stared with wide eyes as a slice appeared in the air. A gap pushed its way out and through reality, distorting its surroundings. "Wha--" Izuku started as a hand pushed itself out of the gap. Izuku couldn't see who the hand belonged to. The gap shrunk almost immediately to surround only the person's arm.
"Hurry and grab my hand," the person on the other side of the gap ordered.
"W-What?!" the boy next to him looked torn, "Wait, there's an injured guy over here that--"
"There's no time for that!" the person yelled and waved their arm about impatiently, "We can't leave without you and those that we can't name are getting closer! We have to leave!!"
"I..." the boy looked at Izuku, who was just staring at this surreal scene in confusion.
"Hurry! Do you want to find your brother or not?!"
The boy squeezed his eyes shut and let go of Izuku, who swayed slightly, but caught his balance, "I'm sorry! Please get yourself to a hospital, though!"
"Huh?! Wait--"
It was too late, though, the boy had already grabbed onto the floating hand and was pulled through the tiny gap of space. The distortion around the gap disappeared in an instant, snapping reality back to what it was before.
Rain fell around Izuku. Puddles were already pooling on the uneven alleyway floor. Aside from the pit-pat sound of rain on the concrete, puddles, and umbrella, it was silent. The world was too quiet--
Wait, umbrella?!
Someone new was standing before Izuku now, several feet away, at the front of the alleyway. The distortion from the arm earlier had warped reality just enough so that Izuku couldn't the person standing before him now. The person held an umbrella that covered his face. The edges came down just enough to hide past the person's nose. Izuku could see that his mouth was open slightly as though he was in shock.
It looked as though the person had just gone out shopping. He was holding a single plastic bag full of groceries in the other hand.
"I...Uh..." Izuku didn't know where to start or how to explain. Immediately, his hand flew to his head--
Yup.
Of course.
His mask had been blown off and his face was visible to the civilian standing before him, "Hey, uh, don't tell anyone about my identity, okay? I'm still the hero Deku--"
"...Izuku?" it was a whisper and if it hadn't been so quiet, Izuku was sure to have missed it.
"Huh?" wait, had he ever said his name? His name had never been broadcasted together with his hero name. During high school, they always used their real names and gym uniforms when they were broadcasted to the world. That way, their alter egos wouldn't be revealed until their debut and maybe some people would find the connection, but it was still frowned upon to talk about it publically.
"You're... Izuku Midoriya, right?"
"Uh... No, I..." a wave of fatigue suddenly washed over him and Izuku felt his knees buckle. The ground was coming towards him fast, but before he collapsed to the ground, the stranger had dashed forward to catch him. Izuku let out a small groan of pain and squeezed his eyes shut as he felt the stranger's fingers poke against a wound on his arm.
"...Oh. Sorry," again it was barely a whisper. Izuku felt himself being lowered to the ground. The rain wasn't hitting him now, the stranger had the umbrella directly over him.
With a gasp of fresh air, Izuku opened his eyes to see the stranger's face for the first time.
"... Kacchan?"