Chapter Text
It was tough. Well, a lot of fights were tough— and Katsuki wouldn’t have it any other way— but this one, in particular, was pretty rough to say the least.
The villains they were subduing were strong, Katsuki would give them that much. But, even still, he never once doubted their inevitable victory.
Well, if he were fighting alone, he didn’t know if he’d be able to take it. He’d be wildly outnumbered and, annoyingly, the villains were smart. They planned for his moves.
But, luckily, he wasn’t alone very often.
Izuku took care of the creep with the teleporting quirk while Katsuki went after Eyeball (creep number two with neon spiral pupils) and the few other villains were forced to confront the heroes that eventually arrived at the scene. The main issue was that these villains were agile. Quick. They slipped out of their grasps way too easily and catching them was like trying to hold water.
But they won. On this cloudy, quiet Wednesday, that was all that mattered.
“Kacchan.”
Katsuki glanced at Izuku, who was currently sitting against a wall of concrete, bandaging himself up until the ambulances arrived to look over everyone and make sure no one would keel over. The blond gave him a grunt of acknowledgement.
Izuku’s smile was way too bright for someone who had just gotten the daylights kicked out of him, “You were amazing! I saw you trying out that new move— it was super effective!”
He grinned, “Yeah. Just you wait, I’ll be crushing villains left and right soon.”
“Careful,” the greenette hummed, “I’ll get stronger before you have the chance.”
“Just try and keep up, nerd.” Katsuki met his gaze, smug grin turning more warm.
Izuku’s eyes twinkled in return, “Always, Kacchan!”
Something bloomed in his chest; soft and light and fulfilled. The first decade of their lives had been rough and brash, Katsuki had been a snot-nosed kid and Izuku had been the one who took the brunt of his burning pride and fear. Even if his friend hated it, Katsuki would live the rest of his life regretting the years he spent stuck in his own head.
But they’d grown. Izuku— he had nothing to start with, and now he was a top hero right alongside Katsuki. They’d achieved their dreams. They crawled to the top with their friends and now they were sitting at the summit of the mountain. And the view was incredible.
At least now neither of them were going to hide anything anymore. They were partners, best friends, and— Katsuki would only admit this out loud during those cold, silent nights curled up together in the depths of a forest, by a river and a fallen tree— soulmates.
”You’re a leach.” Katsuki would say. Izuku would laugh and slug him on the shoulder.
”Rotten and gross?”
”Stuck to me like glue.”
As if Katsuki would have it any other way.
They weren’t like they were back in childhood, no, they were better. And Katsuki was, embarrassingly enough, happy.
His mind drifted to what they would do later, when their shift would end and one of the others (Todoroki, Iida, maybe even Aizawa if the occasion called for it— and that was always terrifying) would come over and pry them away from their agency.
Maybe they could get some food at that new place Katsuki was looking to try, or maybe Auntie or the old hag and old man would come over and insist on cooking. Hell, it’d been too long since All Might visited, maybe they could ask him to hang out.
Izuku would certainly jump at the chance to see his mentor again, even if the two call each other every single day.
Katsuki compared them to father and son. A fact that Izuku always got red at before telling him to shut up and talk to All Might himself. The man was always happy to talk to him.
Obviously. Katsuki was the best person to talk to.
A fist slowly came into his field of vision, trembling just a little. Izuku held it out with confidence, something that made pride swell up in Katsuki. A few years ago, he would never have done many things with confidence, but now… Well, the little stinker could get as smug as Katsuki.
The blond raised his own scarred hand and reciprocated the fist bump.
Then, when Izuku beamed at him with that too-bright and much too warm smile, Katsuki— damn it— he found himself smiling right along.
A shot rang out through the dilapidated building. Someone gasped. Red sprung out from Izuku’s head in an explosion of crimson, bright and unforgiving against the dull shades of the concrete. His wide and green eyes were all Katsuki saw before he fell forward.
If Katsuki were any less of himself, Izuku would’ve collided with the floor with a sickening thump.
As it was, Katsuki flung himself forward and caught his partner before that could happen.
It was familiar, it was nostalgic in every awful way. But this time around, there was no rain, there was no crowd surrounding them, there was no apology croaked out by the boy in his arms.
There was only dust, concrete, and silence.
Silence.
It all happened so fast, too fast. Heroes quickly ran up to them, asking what happened, gasping, moving back when they saw the red.
Eyeball was laughing while a gun was being pried out of his hands. Sirens wailed in the background. They echoed through the streets too, too loudly.
But, if he was being honest, Katsuki didn’t register any of it.
His entire world shrunk down to the weight he was holding up; familiar, heavy and warm.
“…Izuku?”
He got no reply. For once, the nerd was silent. For once, he had absolutely nothing to say.
Something seeped into his suit and dripped onto the floor the same way water would leak out of the tap back at the dorms. Back at UA. Eventually, they’d gotten it fixed, but Katsuki was this close to blowing up the sink all together.
Izuku was the one who alerted Iida about the issue, an exasperated but kind smile on his face. It was clear that he was just as irritated as everyone else, it was just harder to read on his face.
He was always like that. So much more gentle than Katsuki could ever be, but still shining as bright as the sun and moon and stars combined.
And now Izuku’s blood was spilling onto him in waves.
Katsuki pried open his mouth and screamed.
ⴵ
Eyes snapping open, he found himself sitting up with break-neck speed and subsequently fell off of the bed in a heap. He quickly righted himself and doubled over, bile rising in his throat. Before he even registered what he was doing, Katsuki bent over himself and threw up onto the hardwood floor.
The— floor…?
Once he was finished spewing his guts out, Katsuki wiped his mouth with his sleeve and jerked his head up, taking in the room he was sitting inside.
It… was his room. Graduation photo with Class A propped up on his desk, posters of heroes and bands that Jirou got him into, some history books stacked on one of his shelves. It was all in his room.
But— he was just— what happened?
Distantly, something clattered onto the floor, followed by the sound of frantic footsteps and, in what was probably with too much force, his door was thrown open by a panic-struck Izuku.
“Kacchan!” Izuku rushed over to him, knees knocking onto the floor when he reached the blond.
Katsuki’s brain short-circuited for a second.
“I heard a crash and—“ The man’s eyes landed on the vomit that was still very much on the wooden floor. His face scrunched up. But, even if the idiot was a bumbling fool half of the time, he was still a hero, and so his eyes softened before he turned back to Katsuki with concern, “Okay, you get back into bed, I’ll clean up.”
Izuku placed a hand onto his back. Katsuki froze.
Immediately, Izuku took his hand back, face even more worried now, “Kacchan, are you alright?”
That seemed to snap him out of it. Katsuki realized that he was just staring at his friend in utter disbelief for a bit and instead began to stare at him in confusion.
“I— what happened?!”
Izuku tilted his head to the side in the way he’s always done, ever since they were in diapers, “What do you mean?”
Katsuki flung his hands up indignantly, “I mean, we were just in some rundown place and fighting villains and—“
He cut himself off, face becoming pale with the memory.
Izuku, smiling at him, offering him a fist bump.
Izuku, flung forward and caught in Katsuki’s arms.
Izuku, with blood spilling from the bullet wound in his head.
Izuku— Izuku had died. He had died but now they were suddenly in their apartment? The greenette was suddenly… alive? Apparently?
“…Kacchan, you just woke up. It’s the morning, we had a pretty slow patrol yesterday.”
…What?
Katsuki slumped back onto his bed ungracefully. He hit his head against the mattress harshly, barely even feeling it.
He ran a trembling hand through his hair, trying to catch his bearings and take in the fact that Izuku was here and not…
“Some sort of nightmare…?” Katsuki breathed out, mainly to himself.
But it had felt so real. All of it. He could remember every detail, every aspect of their day, he could remember the feeling of scars and bruises and blood—
“Yeah, that must’ve been it.” Izuku sat next to him, offering a small, reassuring smile, “Everything’s fine, Kacchan. It was just a dream.”
Just a dream…
“Yeah… yeah, alright.”
Because there was no other explanation. Katsuki had just had a weirdly real dream and then he woke up, and things were fine.
It made sense, in a way.
No way Izuku would ever go down like that. Never that quick, never so soon, not without his spark burning the brightest it ever would.
Katsuki felt the tension drain out of his shoulders.
“Just a dream.”
He sat there for a few moments in silence, his childhood friend right next to him, gaze full of thinly veiled concern.
Ugh, he was a hero. He wasn’t gonna be bested by his own head.
With a grunt, Katsuki stood up and instantly made way for the door.
“K-Kacchan! Wait, you should rest—“
“Shut up, nerd. I’ll clean up, you go… do whatever you were doing before.”
When Katsuki opened the door, Izuku frowning right behind him, his eyes narrowed in on their kitchen, where a bowl was upside down on the floor.
Milk and cereal was splattered against the wood. The bowl had a crack in its porcelain.
Izuku looked distraught beside him.
“I… was about to eat my cereal.”
Even after such a rough morning, Katsuki found it in himself to snort.
Once all the mess was cleaned up, Izuku quickly made himself a salad (since they ran out of cereal) while Katsuki just grabbed an apple and called it a day. He had lost his appetite. Besides, he could just get something from the vending machine at their agency if he felt up for it.
The two heroes danced around each other with ease, both preparing for the day ahead while exchanging banter back and forth like it was second nature. Slowly, the explosive man felt his jittery nerves calm down, even if his mind didn’t let him quite forget the dream he had, even if he felt nauseous when the date on his phone told him it was Wednesday.
His eyes were hardened and he clutched his glass of water (because coffee was for dweebs like Izuku. What a loser. Katsuki could stay energized by himself) way too tightly.
Of course, his friend noticed. Izuku always noticed, because he was disgustingly considerate like that.
So, hesitantly, he offered his hand. Katsuki stared at it for a second before taking it and squeezing. Izuku squeezed back.
When the time came and Izuku’s stupid alarm went off, the two ran out the door and began their commute to the agency.
It was full to the brim with sidekicks and interns and assistants, as it was every other day. Luckily, after all this time, Katsuki could sidestep the noise with practiced ease while Izuku filtered through the requests with a smile.
Deku And Dynamight. Katsuki still softened at the notion. Even though he much preferred Dynamight and Deku. The nerd could fight it all he wanted, Katsuki wouldn’t back down on this, either.
But even with every detail, every insignificant sound, Katsuki couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d done this before. Sure, a few things weren’t familiar; the way Izuku kept glancing at him worriedly, for example. Or the way that some people avoided him more than usual and instead directed their attention towards Izuku. Or even just the way he felt a bit more out of it.
It was all… it felt like more than just deja vu.
At one point, he was handed a mission report that he was certain he saw in his… his dream.
Anxiety clutched at him the whole day.
Then, they were sent out on to the field to take down a group of villains that had snagged some hostages in a rundown parking lot.
Just like before.
You don’t become a hero without being wary. You saw the red flags before most others and acted on weird, distressing gut feelings before you had the chance to think.
Katsuki was a hero. He didn’t often take chances.
And, in this society where a single quirk could level cities, it was always better to be paranoid than to be lax.
With a clenched fist, Katsuki decided to test his luck.
“Deku.”
The man instantly snapped his gaze over to him.
“…When we get there. You go in first.”
In his ‘dream’, Katsuki had gone in first. He quickly realized that there were no hostages— it was a trap. Behind him, Izuku had gotten a knife to the leg and was an inch slower than usual the entire battle.
Izuku was looking at him now with confusion. Still, he just nodded, trusting Katsuki’s judgement without question.
Katsuki ignored the warmth that threatened to rise up in his chest at that and just kept his eyes on the mission in front of them, waiting to see if his paranoia was right or not.
When they arrived at the building, Izuku ran in without hesitation, passing by a few policemen that were stationed outside (the same ones as before) with a brief nod. Katsuki quickly followed him into the fray, not looking away from his partner’s back.
They arrived at the same spot, except this time, Izuku screamed that no hostages were present and Katsuki twisted himself around to set off an explosion before a knife could embed itself into his leg.
Just a dream.
The fight, in all fairness, was different. Albeit not by much. The villains and heroes were the same, their moves were the same, even their taunts were the same. But maybe Eyeball was stationed further away and Teleporter got tired quicker. A hero got a little more banged up and Katsuki dodged an attack that he didn’t before.
To say it raised his suspicions was putting it lightly.
He decided to knock Eyeball unconscious and managed to assist everyone else, having a pretty good guess at the villains’ moves. Their victory came easier.
Soon enough, Katsuki was leaning against a concrete wall, stood up this time. Izuku was next to him, bandaging himself up before the ambulance arrived.
“Kacchan, you were amazing!” Izuku beamed up at him. Something squeezed in Katsuki’s gut, “I saw you using your new move, it was so efficient! And you took them out so quickly, your reaction speed was so fast and—“
The nerd rambled on. Katsuki didn’t bother to hound him for not using code names out on the field; whenever he got like this, it was pointless.
“Deku.”
The greenette snapped his mouth shut, sensing the tension in his tone.
Honestly, Katsuki didn’t know what he was gonna say. They won, again. The dream… was it really just a dream?
If not, he took out Eyeball, so no gunshot would sound and he wouldn’t have to think about this day anymore.
“…Nevermind.”
Izuku’s eyebrows furrowed. He looked at Katsuki with way too much knowledge behind those green eyes, unpicking every aspect of his expression until he didn’t even need to ask what was wrong. He just knew.
“Kacchan, you’ve been weird all day.”
“I’ll tell you later.”
His friend didn’t really seem satisfied with that, but took his word anyway. Hesitantly, he lifted his fist in offering, sending Katsuki a comforting smile.
Katsuki looked at the scars that littered the calloused hand. Constantly breaking his bones back at UA caught up to him and he was aged beyond what a fifteen year old really should’ve been.
With a bit of apprehension, Katsuki lifted his own fist.
A shot rang out through the dilapidated building.
Izuku’s head split open, red coating the wall behind them.
Eyeball was knocked out. The gun was still firmly in his pal’s hand.
Rookie mistake.
Katsuki rushed forward, catching his teammate before he clattered onto the floor just like the bowl of cereal he had dropped this morning in favor of running to Katsuki’s aid.
Sirens wailed outside.
Blood seeped into his suit. Pooled onto the floor.
Katsuki didn’t think he could break so completely twice.
ⴵ
When Katsuki’s eyes snapped open, he shot up in his bed, subsequently falling off of it and onto the floor in a heap.
Something clattered in the distance. Footsteps raced to his room.
Izuku threw open the door, almost knocking it off its hinges, “Kacchan! I heard a crash and—“
“What the hell.” Katsuki breathed, mouth agape.
Izuku rushed over to him, his knees thumped against the floor, “Are you alright?”
A hand rested on his shoulder and Katsuki felt himself tense. Before his friend could voice his concern, the blond stood up from his spot on the floor and wrapped his arms around himself, feeling lopsided and wrong.
“Izuku.” He stared on in horror, “The day. What day is it?”
Getting back on his feet, Izuku’s arms started flittering around Katsuki, but he made no moves to reach out. Still, his face scrunched up and his head tilted to the side, “It’s Wednesday…”
And Katsuki’s world turned on its head.
A little frantically, he ran out of his room, brushing past a bewildered Izuku. Once he arrived outside of his door, his eyes zoomed in on something on a the kitchen floor. A bowl, milk and cereal splattered onto the wood exactly where it had been… yesterday.
Next to him, Izuku looked distraught.
“My cereal…”
Katsuki felt like throwing up.
—
“A timeloop?”
“Yep.”
The walk to their agency was the same, too. The same civilians stared at them, the same clouds covered up the sun, the same kids excitedly asked for autographs.
They usually walked to the agency. It wasn’t that far, anyway. Besides, they could spot any incident easier this way. Even if they weren’t technically on the clock.
And… it cleared Katsuki’s fuzzed up head. Just a bit.
“What makes you think that?” Izuku leaned into his space, eyebrows furrowed in concern. He wasn’t skeptical, not really; the question was genuine. Katsuki could already hear the oncoming whirlwind of muttering.
But even if the greenette believed in him, he still felt something inside him bristle, “Every time I wake up, it’s Wednesday. The day is the same each time, we get the same report of a fake hostage situation, the villains are the same.“
It was probably one of their quirks. Katsuki sneered at the thought.
"So, do you live out the day in its entirety or...?"
"Nah, the loop resets when you—"
He clamped his mouth shut, stomach churning at the, frankly, unwarranted images that flashed through his mind.
"When I...?" Izuku prompted, noticing how he paled.
When Katsuki didn't answer, the younger seemed to grow even more panicked.
"Kacchan, do I– do I initiate the loop somehow?" His words were steeped in guilt, now. Damn it.
"Kacchan?"
Katsuki clenched his fists, sparks crackling under the weight.
Izuku stopped walking, placing a hand on his shoulder. Katsuki, even if he doesn't want to, stopped as well.
"What resets the loop?"
And he sounded so earnest but Katuski didn't deserve it because he failed too many times.
"You..." The blond grits out through his teeth. At an encouraging look from Izuku— one that practically cuts him through— he manages to answer, "You die."
His friend stills completely, hand now a dead weight on Katsuki's shoulder.
"...Oh."
"Yeah." The hero resumes walking, leaving Izuku stumbling after him, "So, I've gotta figure this out soon."
"Right... Uhm..." Izuku cleared his throat, shaking his head as if to clear his mind. Katsuki wished it was that simple for him, "Alright, so, there are a lot of ways this could work. Although I've never really dealt with timeloop quirks before so I might be way off but— let's say that someone used their quirk on you and now you're stuck in a loop, the loop resets when I... die. That might mean that we need to try and keep me alive long enough for the loop to break which— I mean, making an educated guess since the loop puts you back at the start of the day— means that I have to stay alive until the end of the day."
Katsuki scoffed, "Keeping you alive? Until midnight? So, basically, I'm screwed."
Izuku would've lightly punched his shoulder for that comment, but as it was he was engrossed in his own analysis, "So it shouldn't be too difficult to find a way to break the loop. That is, if my theory is actually correct. I mean, if it isn't, then maybe we need to get the quirk user to actually deactivate their quirk? Which would definitely complicate things—"
"We'd need to find the moron first."
"Exactly. I mean, for all we know, I'm destined to die every loop—"
Katsuki felt his shoulders tense.
"—so maybe deactivating the quirk really is the only way to stop the loops. Either way, it'd be a good idea to track down the user and look into the actual quirk in order to get any concrete ideas of how to help you. So, Kacchan, did you notice anyone weird?"
The nerd didn't even need to take a breath after his creepy muttering. Katsuki rolled his eyes at Izuku's mad (and honestly a little scary) habits. Some things never changed, he guessed.
"Nothin' out of the ordinary. No one at our agency has a time related quirk, yeah?"
"Right. And no one bumped into you? Or looked mad at you?"
"Not any more than usual..." Katsuki grumbled, "Our best bet would probably be the villains later."
Izuku hummed, "So what do we do?"
The blond gave him a predatory grin.
"We destroy them."
Once they arrived at the agency, Katsuki dealt with everything in the same way he did before (yelling and rushing to the gym before filling out reports with way too much vigour), although this time around he took a little more charge, paid a little more attention to the things going on. He caught a water bottle before it fell to the floor and stopped Izuku before he could ram into an intern.
Soon enough, they were sent to deal with the fake hostage situation.
"Izuku. When we get there, you go in first. If you see a gun, destroy it. We leave as soon as the villains are unconscious."
Izuku glanced at him apprehensively, "That... we can't just apprehended them? Or—"
"No."
Once the two arrived, they entered the building immediately, barely sparring the police a glance. Izuku rushed the first villain he saw and Katsuki set off an explosion behind him, not even bothering to check whether or not a knife was headed his way.
This time, when Eyeball fell to the floor (something that was surprisingly a little harder) Katsuki reached into the villain’s pocket and pulled out the gun. He blew it to pieces.
The fight was over even quicker than yesterday. Minimal injuries were sustained, the villains were all knocked out, and Izuku was standing off to the side, clutching his arm but otherwise unharmed.
Katsuki didn't waste any time. He grabbed Izuku's hand and dragged him out the building, "Alright, c'mon."
"Woah— wait, we should check on the others—"
"They aren't the ones who're gonna get shot, Deku."
"But, we can't just leave—"
Katsuki whirled around to glare at him, "We already agreed on this, okay? You can lecture me later."
Izuku looked back at the injured heroes. They'd be fine, they would. However, one of them might not be fine he refused to move, "But—"
"Deku—"
Something cracked, dust began to fall from above.
Katsuki snapped his head up just in time to see the concrete split and cave.
Izuku screamed his name. A weight collided with his shoulder and suddenly Katsuki was being shoved out of the building. He fell to the floor with a grunt as deathening crashes were heard.
Katsuki sat up instantly, ignoring the pain spreading through his arm.
The ceiling had collapsed. Concrete blocked the entrance. He scrambled up and lunged at the debris with pathetic desperation.
"Izuku? Izuku!"
No one answered him.
"Izuku!"
ⴵ
When his eyes snapped open, Katsuki didn't move. Instead, he just stared at his ceiling, staying perfectly still.
Something empty echoed in his chest, a yawning, cruel gape.
He... he failed. Again.
And he tried. He tried to save Izuku but—
But instead, Izuku saved him.
Of course he did.
After a few minutes of silence, Katsuki snarled, animalistic and strangled. His hand lit up and he brought it down into his mattress.
A low pop sounded through the room. It was a weak explosion, barely enough to seer his sheets. It was only really a crackle.
But it must've been enough.
Izuku flung open his door, cereal in hand, panic flooding his face, "Kacchan! What happened? You’re usually up by now so I was about to check up on you and heard— are you okay?"
Katsuki took a deep breath. He dragged a hand down his face.
“Just— forget about it.”
—
Katsuki flew over the city, explosions setting off behind him. His hands singed and his vision blurred around the edges, but he got good at brushing it off.
Izuku jumped from roof to roof behind him, stumbling while he tried to catch up.
"K-Kacchan! I really think that we should discuss this—"
"Already did!"
He hadn't gone to the agency this time. Instead, Katsuki got ready and alerted nearby heroes of the situation; a set up, they could take them earlier than usual.
He had briefly explained the loop to Izuku on the way. The nerd seemed conflicted but chased after him anyway.
"Right— but what are we gonna do?"
"We kill them!"
Izuku groaned behind him, "That's not a plan!"
"You didn't ask for a plan!"
“Well, maybe—“ Izuku tripped and fell behind.
For a terrifying second, Katsuki thought he’d turn around to see no one following him. He thought he’d hear something crash into a garbage bin and the city would go still.
Izuku stumbled on the roof he landed on, looking behind him to see a pile of bricks that he must’ve not noticed. The greenette caught up to him only a few moments later.
That only went on for about three seconds, Katsuki thought scathingly to himself, but I still...
“Maybe,” Izuku continued, as if nothing was amiss (but everything was wrong), “we should plan our attack before we get there. I mean, what did you do the last few times?”
Katsuki felt something hot rise up in his chest, “We did have some sort of plan—“
“some sort.”
“—but then you,” he shot a glare back at his partner, “refused to follow it! And messed everything up!”
He could feel the confusion coming from Izuku, but didn’t dignify him with an explanation, “…Sorry.”
“Shut up.”
When they once again arrived at that damn parking lot, Katsuki noticed that only a few heroes were dotted about. Sure, he had gotten here pretty quickly, but he didn’t think everyone else what that slow.
But even that didn’t distract Katsuki from the fact that they weren’t inside the building.
“Why aren’t any of you fighting?!”
“Dynamight!” One of them— Jirou— called out, approaching him with furrowed brows, “We searched the entire building, no one’s in there.”
Katsuki blinked at her.
Oh.
Right.
It would have taken them about an hour tops to get here once Katsuki woke up the last few times. So, the villains simply… hadn’t arrived yet.
After a few moments of silence, Izuku snorted behind him.
Katsuki whirled around on him in anger, face reddening quickly, “Shut up!”
The greenette flailed his hands around in some sort of placating manner, though his eyes were still glittering with mirth, “Sorry, Ka— er, Dynamight! It’s just…” He grinned from ear to ear. Katsuki wanted to punch him. “So many heroes showed up…”
Katsuki fired an explosion at him.
Izuku dodged, of course, but his hair still frizzed up and blackened.
Despite his protests, the heroes fled the scene quickly, seeing no danger and assuming that he had just sounded a false alarm. Jirou, at least, told him that she’d be on standby in case someone actually did show up.
Cowards. This would probably put a dent in his credit for a while.
Katsuki was, reasonably, upset. But he stood his ground and stalked around the area, keeping an eye out for any suspicious behaviour. They should’ve shown up any minute.
Izuku looked on at him in pity, arms crossed over his chest like a disappointed mother.
Katsuki barked at him to go to hell. The greenette just sighed and said he’d patrol the area.
So, there he was; one of the best heroes in Japan, waiting patiently to kill a bunch of losers who thought that they could get the better of him.
And… they had gotten the better of him three too many times. But that didn’t matter. Katsuki would fix his mistake and he’d never have to see that damn nerd’s eyes lose colour ever again.
As he entered the building for the second time, Katsuki started to ponder on the quirk that had him trapped. It was pretty strong, that was for sure, but he had faced stronger.
He had the scars to prove it. Emotional and physical. What was a few more?
Thinking about it, Katsuki hummed as he prowled around the parking lot, why does Izuku’s death reset the day, anyway?
Unless the loop begins at the same time everyday… Although, Katsuki’s sure that the last two times they’d been much quicker to wrap things up. Still, it would probably be useful to keep in mind the time.
Katsuki tensed at the implications of that.
Keeping track of the time would only be useful if Katsuki kept failing. And that wasn’t an option. He was going to end this and save Izuku this time around.
The blond began to think through what he knew of time quirks to keep his mind occupied. They were pretty rare, and it wasn’t like medical records were really just out there in the open. But still.
Katsuki managed to think up some potentially useful information, fortunately. Thanks to Izuku’s knack for these kinds of things.
Quirks of this nature weren’t likely to have a time limit. Which, thinking about it, made sense.
But more than that, the quirk users usually had some sort of indication of their quirk. They needed a lot of energy to literally control time so that energy either had to go to or come from somewhere.
Katsuki’s mind drifted over to Eri and her horn. The little brat had been doing well lately. Maybe after this was all over he could pay her a visit, Izuku would certainly jump at the chance to see her again. She was practically his little sister.
For the first time in what felt like forever, Katsuki felt a small, genuine smile form on his lips.
He quickly refocused on the task at hand, though. He actually had to escape the loop before planning what to do once he was out of it.
So he had to look for any abnormalities in the user’s appearance. Seemed simple enough.
An image popped up in him mind— Eyeball. Those neon eyes with spiral pupils.
But did Eyeball ever use his quirk?
The blond tried to cast his mind back to any instances of the creep using his quirk on him, filtering through the fights and straining to remember what kind of quirk was involved, if any.
He’d been through this three times already, he should be able to recall it pretty well.
But before Katsuki got the chance to gain a more concrete understanding, his comms crackled to life.
”Requesting backup—!“
Katsuki felt his blood go cold.
”This is the hero Deku— I’m— my location has been posted, any nearby heroes—“
As Katsuki bolted it out of the maze of white paint and concrete, ignoring how his stomach lurched at the sudden movement, he could hear Izuku vomiting over the line.
”Any heroes— they’re here! There’s too many—“
A cry of pain.
”Kacchan, I need y—!”
The second he made it to the surface, a sharp snap was heard over the line.
”This is the hero Earphone Jack, I’ve got your location. I’ll be there in two minutes. Could you provide any more details on their quirks?”
”Hello?
”Deku, are you there?”
”Deku! Deku, I’ve arrived at your location. I can see the villains— please respond!”
After a few seconds, Jirou stopped calling for Izuku. Instead, all that was heard was a horrified, choked off gasp.
08:02
ⴵ
Katsuki’s eyes flickered open.
Useless.