Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had been the most confusing twelve hours of Izuku’s life.

The last thing he remembered before somehow waking up at home was Shigaraki’s terrifying grin and his hand around Izuku’s throat. He remembered the feeling of being choked, air refusing to enter his lungs and his eyes going dark. The world around him faded away into nothing as he heard the eight previous One for All holders scream for him to get up. He also remembered Mirio, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot…

He remembered seeing Kacchan’s corpse.

Mangled, bleeding, cold, and dead.

Izuku’s breathing hitched again and he curled his body down into his legs. Twelve hours ago, Izuku died at the hands of Shigaraki, but he also woke up safe and sound in his bedroom at home. He woke up to his old alarm, to his mom knocking on his door to wake him up, to the world being as put together as it had been in the year leading up to the UA entrance exam.

He could no longer feel the comforting presence of One for All flowing through his body. What once was a constant hum of electric power now wasn’t even there. His body was also severely different, without the muscle he had spent ten months building in order to receive his quirk. His right hand no longer had crooked fingers from the damage they sustained during the first year Sports Festival. He only had the small starburst scars from his various encounters with his bullies instead of the many, many scars he accumulated throughout his first year at UA.

Izuku sighed. He thought it’d be a good idea to go to school today. If this was indeed all a dream or some weird afterlife, then he should have no issue observing, right? Well, lucky for Izuku’s mental state, Bakugo (this was not his friend Kacchan, that friend had been killed by Shigaraki) had ignored him all day, probably still embarrassed because of the sludge villain incident from yesterday. In fact, he didn’t encounter any of his bullies. It was just like how it had happened the first time.

During that run, he relished in the quiet and the apparent space his classmates finally gave him, but current-run Izuku had a brilliant thing called hindsight and knew that they’d be back for his skin within the week. And while he knew plenty of quirkless fighting techniques from Aizawa, he couldn’t take on those kids as he was now, with his body as small and lanky as he had known for fourteen years.

He went through the rest of the day in a state of constant confusion at everything he was now noticing with his new perspective. It was strange, to be technically 16 in a class with a bunch of 13-14 year olds. He had almost two years (and a whole lot of experience with villains and war) on them. It felt kind of unfair. But then he remembered that they treated him like shit and proceeded to shove the guilt into the deep recesses of his mind. He deserved to have some sort of advantage on them and if that was the knowledge of the future, he’d take what he could get.

After he had gotten home, he changed into darker clothes and told his mom he was going on a walk. He didn’t mean to be out for nearly an hour, but that was how long it took him to walk from his home to the park. Well, to this specific park, at least. The one he and Shoto frequented. The one they called their own.

It was a fenced-off area hidden between a large apartment complex and a forest. It had a rock pond with some fish, several large trees with plenty of strong branches for climbing, and a carved stone bench beneath an overgrown willow tree that was probably older than Izuku’s own grandmother.

Izuku pulled his feet up to sit cross-legged on the bench, leaning back to look through the swaying branches into the darkening sky.

He wasn’t with Shoto during their fights. Izuku was with Shigaraki, the heirs of One for All and All for One, having the final battle between them. Shoto and his father were put in charge of Dabi- Touya? Izuku wasn’t sure what to call the man, especially after his reveal. Dabi had once just been a fire-user with weird scars and a strange hatred of Endeavor. Looking back, it all made sense now.

“Well, maybe I can find him before the League does…” Izuku thought as he closed his eyes and focused on the sound the leaves made as the breeze swept through them. If he was indeed sent back in time to ten months before the entrance exam, right after All Might offered to train him, then he had to make as many contingencies and plans as possible to prevent the future he knew from coming to pass.

Maybe he’d find Himiko Toga as well. Mom could probably help her, or find a place for her to stay. The others could be dealt with after, since they were all just products of the system. Twice could get some professional help that didn’t give up on him. Spinner shouldn’t fall for Stain’s ideology. Izuku couldn’t remember the names of the others at the moment, but if he could save them too, it’d be a nice bonus.

The real threats were All for One and Shigaraki. The former was just a year away from finishing his new body and the latter was as volatile as a Bakugo being told he wasn’t strong. It’d take a lot of work for him to do it on his own, but he’d make it work.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the gate to the park opening and closing behind someone. Izuku barely moved his head to look over, but he felt his breathing stop when he saw an all-too-familiar head of red and white hair.

Shoto Todoroki met Izuku’s eyes and stopped dead in his tracks.

“Izuku?” The palpable relief in Shoto’s voice nearly broke him. Izuku stood from the bench slowly, shock covering his face.

“Shoto?”

Within seconds, they met in the middle in the tightest hug they’d ever shared. Izuku felt Shoto’s hand run through his curls and his own hands gripped the back of Shoto’s jacket like a lifeline, as if he could let go and the boy would disappear again.

“You’re here-“ Shoto breathed, “You’re alive.”

“I am. And so are you,” Izuku pulled away for just a second to look at Shoto’s face again. He was younger as well, fourteen in all but mind. He had some bags under his eyes and a busted lip, though, which made Izuku hug him even tighter. He was actually here and he remembered. He remembered who Izuku was. This was his Shoto. They were sent back together.

Izuku was no longer alone in this.

“Do we know what happened?” Shoto whispered, “Because the last thing I remember before waking up this morning was my brother…”

“You don’t have to say it,” Izuku just grabbed Shoto’s arm and led him to the bench to sit down, “I’m assuming our targets killed us and for some reason… we were pulled back? Possibly to fix our mistakes. To actually win this time.”

“Do you think… anyone else was pulled back with us?”

“It’s possible, but since we both died, I don’t want to think about the rest of them dying, too.”

They fell into silence and Izuku found himself fidgeting with the fingers on Shoto’s hands. He weaved them through his own, bent them, and squeezed them. It was a habit that had begun after the Kamino incident. With Izuku’s arms as damaged as they were, they caused a lot of pain when he’d fidget with them. So Shoto offered his own. It was their thing.

They were sent back together but neither of them had any idea who else was here. For all they know it could just be the two of them, but it could also be the rest of their friends, had they also died in the previous timeline. Izuku didn’t want to get his hopes up that they were the same people he spent a year fighting alongside. His mind supplied that he did have Shoto, whatever it was worth (he was worth a lot in this situation and Izuku was sure he couldn’t do this alone).

“Do you have One for All yet?”

Izuku shook his head, his curls falling in front of his eyes a bit, “We got sent far enough back for me to not have it yet, but have started my training with All Might. If I got it now, it’d blow my limbs off.”

Shoto hummed and nodded, “Alright. So we have to not only get you your quirk back, but we also have to plan out how to tackle the next two years with our knowledge. We can change so much.”

“You’re right. I don’t wanna have to live through the USJ, the training camp, or Kamino ever again.”

“Maybe we can stop Hosu from ever happening. Or…”

He noticed that pause, “Or what, Sho?”

“Or prevent Eri’s pain,” Shoto’s head fell to Izuku’s shoulder with a small sigh. That was another thing to add to the list. Izuku was probably just going to kill Overhaul if he ever saw the man again. Eri was such a sweet girl who never deserved what she got. For Overhaul to erase a blinding light was enough to warrant a public execution in Izuku’s eyes. Plus, the sooner they got her out, the sooner they could prevent the quirk-erasing bullets from being perfected and the sooner they could prevent Mirio’s loss and Nighteye’s death.

The two had a sizable amount of work cut out for them, but by all that was green and good were they gonna rifle through and make a plan so complex and intricate, it would make even Nedzu tremble in his rat-sized loafers. Actually, they might even bring him in on this, as he was invaluable in getting through this without causing legal issues. They could get their provisional licenses and go on missions with other pros. They could swerve around going to the Commission for everything. It would make it a lot easier.

But for now, Izuku relished in the presence of someone who cared for him, someone who genuinely understood his inner turmoil and pain. Shoto knew what they’d gone through, knew who they’d lost last time, and was someone to talk to throughout the next two years, even after they told people like Nedzu, All Might, and Aizawa.

It was, admittedly, the nicest feeling in the world.

~~~~~

“Okay,” Izuku pulled out the whiteboard from his closet and made sure it was fully blank before turning to a Shoto who sat on his bed surrounded by newly-filled, highly coded notebooks, “We are approximately ten months before the UA entrance exam. Our last moments were exactly one year after then, in the April-after-next.”

Izuku couldn’t sleep after the realization that they could prevent a lot of unnecessary deaths and pain for their friends. He spent the whole night after their first day in this new timeline writing down everything he remembered of their first year, then spent the morning rewriting it all in a code only they knew (it was made for war communications, Nedzu helped them create it). Nothing particularly exciting happened in these next ten months, besides training with All Might, so they had that time to plan for after they got to UA (which they would get into UA, Shoto made that clear). The two planned to meet at Izuku’s house that weekend to begin their planning.

And thus: The Board of Doom was born.

The whiteboard was split across the middle and two star-shaped magnets were placed at either end of the line. The first was labelled “timeline start” with the day the boys were sent back to and the second was labelled “AFO ambush” with the exact date of their final stand. Shoto had a spare notebook in his lap for his own note-taking and Izuku held up the one he had made specifically for the first week of school.

“So we have this section of the timeline dedicated to what we’re calling my training arc,” he took a marker and boxed around the area in question, just a little piece of the long line after the first star, “Then, we have the entrance exam, the first day, our battle trials, then the USJ.”

“And those last three all happened within the same week. School started on Monday, battle trials were Tuesday, and the USJ was Thursday,” Shoto wrote it all down at the same time as Izuku, “Three weeks later was the Sports Festival.”

“Which also was the day Iida’s brother Tensei got attacked by Stain and paralyzed-“

“Which led to him taking the internship with Manual and going after Stain himself.”

“And so the greatest inside joke was born.” Izuku rolled his eyes at his own words. Him, Shoto, and Iida rarely talked about what happened in that alleyway in Hosu, especially given the legal side of it all. But behind closed doors, with only them in the room and a vague sense of “fuck it” in the air? The three spent a lot of time perfecting the ways they could confuse the hell out of their classmates with references to their fight with the Hero Killer. However, if they had to give that up just to save Tensei Iida, then Izuku was happy to throw the whole joke away.

“After that was exams-“

“-do you think they’ll still make us fight the teachers?”

“Probably,” Shoto shrugged, “Exams, then the mall incident and the training camp disaster.”

Izuku nodded along as he quickly placed small diamond-shaped magnets along the timeline and labelled them with each event. He referred back to his own notes, adjusting them with Shoto’s input, then placed their definitive facts with each event. By the time they got to the Paranormal Liberation Front War, Izuku had gone through three markers and was now using a hot-pink one to write how Midnight had died during that fight.

Recalling the deaths of those he couldn’t save nearly killed Izuku himself. He knew that they were alive right now, maybe grading tests or out on patrol, but the fact that he had to live through a time where they were dead had certainly left damage on his psyche. Nighteye and Midnight especially. The former’s death, mixed with a new quirkless diagnosis, had nearly broken Mirio’s spirit and determination to become a hero. The latter was adored by the girls of 1-A and her death had made Ashido and Yaoyorozu grieve for weeks after, even into the Tartarus prison break. If they could stop those deaths from happening by being better this time around, Izuku wasn’t going to pull any punches.

It had taken the better part of an hour to get the bare bones of the timeline written down, but another three to finalize everything they knew. Izuku capped the marker he had written the final point with and moved to sit with Shoto on his bed to stare at the whiteboard with manic eyes and plotting minds. His notebook found a home at his feet as he lowered his chin onto his hands.

“So…” Shoto started, “That’s a lot.”

And it was. Their first year was nonstop, back-to-back life-threatening events. How they had time to still have proper school between it all was beyond them. It honestly might even be too much for just the two of them to handle.

“Let’s start with what we can prevent now. Me not having One for All kind of negates a lot.”

“Yeah, I doubt you can do much like the stick you are.”

“Shoto-“

“Tiny baby man,” Shoto teased, poking where Izuku used to have muscle and scar tissue, “Tiny man with noodle arms.”

Izuku bit back a laugh and rolled his eyes, leaning slightly away from Shoto’s hands, “God, I hate you.”

“You love me.”

“Uh huh,” he shook his head and turned back to the Board of Doom, “I’ll see if I can find more information around here if you wanna keep an eye out for stuff on your father’s level. I think our priorities right now are my training and… your brother.”

“You’ll have to stop me from punching him if we find him.”

“Good to know.”

This was going to be a very long and tense ten months.

~~~~~

“I’ve been meaning to ask, what’s the difference between the regular entrance exam and the recommendation one?”

“The recommendation one is just a big race, first to the end gets a better score.”

“Really? That’s it?”

“Well, when you’re up against a guy who can control the wind, it’s kind of difficult.”

“Hey, at least you’ve got the tricks we learned from your dad in January. That’ll probably get you a higher spot.”

“Yes, I shall be like the wind, faster than Iida, and better than everyone else.”

“Pfft. Okay, Bakugo.”

~~~~~

“Your mom is the nicest person ever, how did she survive you almost dying every week?”

“Trust me, it almost killed her. I think the training camp was the worst of it, though. She threatened to pull me out of UA if they didn’t get their shit together.”

“Let me guess, she couldn’t pull you out after Overhaul because you technically didn’t get hurt due to Eri’s quirk?”

“That’s what the official reports stated! I never actually told her about what happened.”

“Izuku!”

“What?! Had I told her, she would’ve just made me leave!”

“You’re such an awful son, oh my god.”

“Hey, your brother exists.”

“Touché.”

~~~~~

“Shoto, are you planning on just submitting something as close to your final suit as possible?”

“Yeah. I won’t fuck around with the stupid thing I had on at the beginning of the year. Early-roki no longer exists. He cannot hurt me.”

“EARLY-ROKI.”

“You didn’t have to laugh that hard.”

“I’m sorry-“

“No, you’re not.”

“No, I’m not.”

~~~~~

“Oh my god, you look like death.”

“You try hauling seven million pounds of trash through sand. I’m shocked I haven’t gotten tetanus yet.”

“Yeah, no I’ll take my abusive father’s training over whatever the fuck All Might’s got you going through. Does he not do anything half way?!”

“Nope. I am suffering.”

~~~~~

“You ever think about how Iida literally attempted murder but got away with it?”

“Every damn day of my life, Izu. Every. Damn. Day.”

“Like he didn’t get in trouble for literally taking an internship in Hosu to find and maim Stain. It was premeditated and everything!”

“I know. And he got away with it because Endeavor got the credit for the capture.”

“Fuck Endeavor.”

“Fuck Endeavor.”

~~~~~

“Izuku. You don’t have a quirk factor, right?”

“N-no? Genetically, I am quirkless. Even if I do get One for All.”

“Then would Overhaul’s bullets even affect you? Since they erase the quirk factor.”

“. . .”

“Izu?”

“Holy shit. I don’t think they would.”

~~~~~

Izuku woke up the day of the entrance exam as if it were any other day. He wasn’t shocked by this development, as he had already experienced the nerves of such a day the previous go-around. It was different this time, as he had finished everything the night before, not the day of, so he just had to meet All Might at the beach for the unenviable “Hair Eating Ceremony” as Shoto so-lovingly called it.

He jogged down to the beach before dawn and got there a few minutes before the number one hero.

“Ah, Midoriya! Good to see you here as punctual as ever!” All Might’s wide smile was somehow a beacon in the early-morning dark, “I hope you are okay with such a late acquisition. I had planned to have at least a week of training with the power as to not blindside you during your exam.”

Izuku shrugged, “It’s alright, sir. I’ll try to keep the bone-shattering to a minimum. Besides, ten months of training for this… it’s all worth it for the power to save as many as possible.”

“That’s all I ever ask from you.”

Just like last time, he couldn’t feel anything after gaining One for All (god, he never wanted to experience that again, if this ever happens for a third time, he’ll just become a vigilante and kill All for One himself). He got home in time to change and head to the park to meet Shoto, then take the train to UA.

“Nervous?” Shoto asked as they approached the school.

“Nah, I know the secret to this already, so I’ll just use what I have now to rack up as many rescue points as possible,” Izuku tilted his head and hummed, “Maybe take out the Zero-Pointer just to show off.”

“Try not to kill anyone, especially Bakugo.”

“I make absolutely no promises.”

Shoto gave him one last eye roll before walking off to find a place to finalize some plans while Izuku was doing his exam. Izuku walked onto campus and found his spot for the written portion. It wasn’t hard anymore, as he already knew this stuff from his previous go at the curriculum, so really the problem was the length of the test itself. He finished within an hour and leaned back in his chair. To not give the impression he had finished early, he kept his pencil positioned above the test booklet. His eyes scanned the rafters above the auditorium, but then he noticed movement beyond the giant lights hanging from the ceiling.

He had to stifle a laugh as he noticed the black jumpsuit, grey capture weapon, and red eyes of the one and only Shouta Aizawa. Izuku figured the man would be here, with his ability to erase quirks, it would do well to make sure no one was cheating with theirs. Right as Izuku felt the red eyes meet his own, he cocked an eyebrow at the man. Aizawa didn’t seem deterred by the catch, as he just squinted at Izuku, shook his head, and continued his prowl around the auditorium ceiling. The man had never looked so much like a cat than in that moment and Izuku once watched him knock a glass off the table to piss off Vlad King.

It did cause a pang in his heart, though, seeing his teacher like that. Aizawa had lost a leg and an eye during the war, unable to use his quirk fully for the fight with Shigaraki. It caused enough of a difference that he needed Monoma to pick up the slack with his copy ability. Izuku wanted to prevent his major injuries, especially that of the USJ, if he could. Aizawa wouldn’t trust him to join the fight at the Simulation Joint, but he could stop the elbow and eye injuries by taking Shigaraki out faster.

After another half hour of the test passed, Izuku figured that it was long enough to not raise suspicion and moved to turn in his exam. He felt Aizawa’s eyes on him as he went back to his seat and looked back up at the rafters to spot his teacher. It wasn’t hard when he knew what to look for, namely the red of his eyes.

If they could have a silent conversation with their eyes, they would. He bet that when he got into the school, Aizawa would keep a close eye on him. Maybe it’d help with getting to Nedzu faster, who knows.

The remaining exam time slowly came to a close and the students were then handed their cards for their practical exam. Izuku watched Present Mic’s presentation at half-attention as he tried to spot his friends in the crowd. Iida and Uraraka would obviously not remember him, though he could make himself known during the exam, just to get their eyes on him. If fate was nice enough, then he and Uraraka would be paired for the battle trials again, even if they had to go against Bakugo and Iida once more.

The students were released to change and get to the bus to their exam areas. Izuku was quick to get into his sweatpants and t-shirt, as Aizawa had drilled into them that a second wasted on such matters was a civilian dead (and he was right, when the war started). He spent the remaining fifteen minutes warming up and summoning One for All at smaller amounts. Now that he knew he could summon it so lowly even from the start, he tried to increase it to his former base amount of twenty-five percent. He didn’t get further than fifteen before he was being herded into the bus by the teachers.

Which was fine, as he had done more on less. Izuku was sure that the struggle to control his power from the get-go was a purely mental problem. Now that he had spent a year with One for All, getting used to it and its stockpile, he just needed to get back into the mindset after ten months of being quirkless.

Just as before, Present Mic counted down in his usual gravitas, but unlike before, Izuku was the first one into the city. He knocked down five robots before the final exam taker had even made it in. Izuku jumped through the city and took down as many robots as he knew he needed. The three-pointers were priority as he had to do less to get more points, but he still kept an eye out for exam takers who needed help.

Every once in a while, he would spot a future classmate and give them advice that they would take months to figure out on their own. He spotted Ashido at one point and suggested that she use her pointed acid spout. He found Sato and told him to try more evasive maneuvers to prevent from tiring out as fast. Even those he knew from the future 1-B got assistance from him, as well as some he recognized from the first year Sports Festival who made it into the other classes.

Really, he just wanted to help however many he could be their best selves. Before high school, there aren’t really as many quirk counseling opportunities for kids in combat. Nearly all of the kids he saw had never really thought to apply their quirks in the ways he had been taught for fighting and capture. Most of the time, they think of hero work as All Might’s pure strength or Endeavor’s flashiness. Rarely do these kids think to actually use their quirks like the tools they are.

Izuku chuckled to himself. He called the students who are only two years younger than him mentally, “kids”. He needed to not have this complex over them going into this year, as that would lead to some strange interactions with his classmates.

The buzzer for the final five minutes of the exam rang out and Izuku raced to the top of a building to find the Zero Pointer. It emerged from the back entrance of the arena and began stomping through the city. Many students decided to book it towards the entrance, but Izuku just ran towards the giant green robot. He helped a few people find their footing on the shaking concrete, got a bruised Asui out of a closed-off fake department store, and even assisted a worn-out Sero with getting down from a skyscraper.

He got to where the Zero Pointer was just in time to see Uraraka’s pink jacket under the robot. Izuku summoned his power once more, thankful for his near-mastery of One for All, and launched a kick right into the middle of the face. The sheet metal buckled severely and the robot lost its balance and toppled. Izuku rode the crash out before jumping away to land next to the girl and shield her from the shrapnel.

“You okay?” He asked once the ringing in his ears stopped and the final buzzer rang out.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” her hands were shaking as he grabbed them and pulled her from the broken bit of street. Uraraka glanced back at the destroyed robot and gasped, “How did you… why did you do that? You won’t get points for it.”

“Being a hero is saving those in need,” he gave her a strong smile, “See a need, fill a need, right?”

Her cheeks blushed a light pink, “Right. You’re really strong, I bet you’ll make it into the hero course for sure.”

“I’m sure you will as well! Let’s get you to the medical staff to rest.”

Uraraka’s head nodded against her will and she almost fainted on him, but Izuku made sure to stabilize her and carried her towards the robots accompanying Recovery Girl. The Youthful Heroine was grumbling about how “each generation gets more and more reckless” until she stopped the robots and motioned for Izuku to put Uraraka down onto the gurney.

“Are you injured, boy?”

“No, ma’am. Help her first.”

As a precaution, her eyes still scanned him over, “Alright, kid. Get to the lockers to change.”

“Thank you,” he gave her a small bow of his head and mentally made a note to get her some sort of candy or chocolate for the beginning of the year. The poor old woman really went through it in his first run, so he didn’t want to increase her stress by any iota.

Not that he’d do the same for any other adult in his life. He only felt this way about Recovery Girl. Aizawa had a big storm coming.

The bus back to the school took the rest of the afternoon, then Izuku finally got his phone back and texted Shoto to meet him at the gates. He saw the red and white haired boy waiting right outside, being approached by the very familiar brunette.

“Oh you’re waiting on someone?” Uraraka asked.

Shoto nodded, “I am. Did you happen to see a green-haired boy during your exams?”

She nodded heavily, “Yes! He saved me during the practical. Are you two friends?” She gasped, “Are you also planning on attending?”

“Yes on both counts,” he looked back to the school just as Izuku caught up to them, “Speak of the viridian devil and he shall appear.”

“Funny,” Izuku smirked, then turned to the girl, “I recognize you from the exams. Never got your name.”

“Oh! I’m Ochaco Uraraka!” She smiled sweetly, “You saved me during the practical and I wanted to thank you for that since I was kind of out of it.”

“It’s no problem. As I said, it’s a hero’s job to save people, regardless of if they get a reward for it,” he shrugged, “I’m Izuku Midoriya.”

“Shoto Todoroki. I did the recommendation exam last week.”

“Oh so you must be from a well-known family already. Can’t imagine that test was very difficult for you!” She hummed.

“You could say that. Maybe if we’re in the same class, I’ll tell you more,” Izuku noticed the fondness Shoto normally reserved for his friends. This Uraraka may not have all of their same memories, but she was still the same future hero, Uravity. She was still as bubbly, energetic, kind, and determined as ever.

“I’ll hold you to that, Todoroki-kun!” Her face shifted as her phone rang and she checked the caller ID, “Oh, that’s my dad. I’ll see you guys the first day of classes!”

“If we got in, that is!” Izuku yelled after her. She raced down the sidewalk as she spoke to her dad and Izuku let out a sigh that was a mixture of fondness and exasperation, “The same as ever…”

“It really is strange seeing her like this knowing everything that happened to change it,” Shoto said, “How do you think you did?”

He shrugged, “Eh, I think I did alright. Kind of had a big advantage on the others. Oh, I did see Aizawa during the written. He was hidden in the rafters like a cat to prevent quirk-based cheating.”

“Really? Couldn’t he have done that from the stage?”

Izuku snorted a laugh, “Oh come on, this is Eraserhead we’re talking about. That man would rather be a dramatic bitch than allow anyone to perceive him. We made eye contact. I think he’ll single me out on the first day just for that.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it. Aizawa was always a bit of a problem teacher, even during the war.”

“Just like we were his problem children, then problem soldiers. Now, c’mon, we’ll hit that cafe you like on our way to mine.”

“The cat one?”

“You know it.”

“Hell yeah.”

~~~~~

Nedzu watched from the cameras as the two students walked away from the school walls and out of his range of hearing. The stoat made sure to keep an eye on the green one since Aizawa brought up the fact that he spotted him during the written exam and he wasn’t disappointed by the sheer amount of points the child got during the practical.

Such a student has such an immense potential to become an amazing hero, but this conversation between him and the other boy raised a red flag or seven in Nedzu’s head. Izuku Midoriya was an enigma wrapped in a mystery, as All Might had put it. The boy had severe conviction and determination, training his body to the fullest to take on One for All, but his movements during the practical exam had proven that he had almost certainly mastered it.

No one, not even Nedzu, could perfect such a quirk in a little under two hours. Even with all the knowledge and capability in the world, Midoriya would need at least a year to get to that point. There was more to this child than Nedzu or All Might were aware of and if there was one thing Nedzu hated, it was not being aware of things.

His fur bristled as he rewatched the footage of the practical exam and pulled up the kid’s written test. He had done fantastically on both, earning a perfect score on the latter and the highest score on the former after the rescue points were accounted for. The child had split his time perfectly between smashing robots and helping other test-takers, and he even axe-kicked the Zero Pointer into nothing to save one person!

Yes, Midoriya was a strange child with a strange power and an even stranger understanding of said power. If the Todoroki boy knew about his strange behavior, then Nedzu had two students to keep an extra eye on. And of course they were now his students, as if he would pass up on the opportunity of a lifetime to study such odd children. He briefly wondered if Endeavor knew of his son’s strange behavior outside of his presence, then promptly ignored it at his own mention of the current number two hero.

For now, though, the students were to be put into Eraserhead’s Class 1-A so they could be watched and planned for. Should these two ever step out of line, though, Nedzu was prepared to get rid of them, proven they waste their second chance.

“I hope you enjoy them, Aizawa. It seems like they’ll enjoy you…” Nedzu gently sipped his tea and tried to relax his own unfound anxiety. He resumed his rewatch of Midoriya’s practical exam with a new lens, trying to see if there were any other worrying red flags to point out.

Nedzu thought back to the mention of war and soldiers. Whoever these two really were, whatever they’d really gone through, it was something Nedzu didn’t want to think about, but he needed answers. If he gave up sleep to get them, it was a necessary sacrifice. Being an incredibly intelligent being with vast resources and connections who still couldn’t come up with those answers, it rubbed him the wrong way.

These kids were telling him whether they wanted to or not. That was for damn sure.

For now, though, Nedzu had a hundred acceptance videos to record and five classes to fill. His deep dive into the children’s true identities could wait a few more days, much to his curiosity’s dismay.

~~~~~

Izuku answered the door to Shoto’s own letter from the school in his face, inviting the boy in to say hello to his mom.

“It’s good to see you, Todoroki,” she gushed as they sat on the couch, “I do hope you both got in, I have desserts planned for either result!”

“Mom you didn’t have to-“

“Nonsense, Izu! Just let me go get the tea and I’ll be back for you to open them!”

“She’s excited,” Shoto lowered his voice when she disappeared behind the wall separating the kitchen and living room, “I know you said middle school wasn’t great for you, but she’s… really excited by this.”

“I think it’s a mix of us being friends and my very possible acceptance,” he shrugged, “I let her fuss over me since I know it’ll only get worse.”

Inko returned with the tea and was practically vibrating in her seat as Shoto ripped the envelope and pulled out the small hologram disc. It went alight with All Might’s form as he congratulated Shoto on his impressive technique during the exam. Izuku watched the footage of Shoto leaving everyone in the dust with a smug smile on his face, which earned him a fond kick in the shin.

“Welcome to your hero academia!” The hologram disappeared and Inko clapped her hands together with joy.

“Oh, Todoroki, I’m so happy for you!”

“Yeah, that was a pretty cool move, using your ice. Really made it easy to slip past the competition. Just an on-fire performance. Not a half effort-“ Izuku’s puns were cut off by a throw pillow fulfilling its destiny by being chucked into his face.

“Oh stop it, you. Open your letter.”

“Fine, fine,” the disc hit the coffee table and instead of All Might appearing, Nedzu did.

“Hello, Izuku Midoriya. My name is Principal Nedzu of UA High School!” His tail flicked behind him, “I am here to congratulate you on your performance during the entrance exam! On the written portion, you gained an impressive perfect score and your essay questions were truly something to admire.”

Izuku felt his mom squeeze his hand with pride. She was already crying. He had gone home the night of the exam and told her about his quirk “randomly manifesting during the exam” and how he “knew how to use it like it was second nature”. It was the worst he’d ever lied to his mother. Ever.

Nedzu continued, “That alone isn’t enough to get into our school, however. You still had to complete our practical exam, which you did with a gusto we at UA haven’t seen in a long time. A lot of our prospective students only focus on the fighting aspect, gaining enough points to earn them their spot, but you went above and beyond in this portion. Not only did you fight the objective, but you also assisted many other students. Several were noted to have been talking about a ‘Green Blur’ that helped them perform better.”

“Couldn’t not be a hero, could you?” Shoto whispered with a shake of his head. Now it was Izuku’s turn to kick his shin.

Videos of Izuku’s fights and assists played in a small compilation. For every time Inko saw her son destroy a robot, her hand clenched, but it was followed by a quick relax when Izuku’s assists came in. Then, the clip of him kicking the Zero Pointer came up, followed by him dragging Uraraka to Recovery Girl. The score board from the practical exam, something Izuku never looked at once during the test, appeared next to Nedzu, showing Izuku’s spot at the top right above Bakugo.

“As you can see, we have ample evidence that you are our top scorer in both entrance exams this year. Even before your rescue points were added.” The numbers changed and while Bakugo stayed above the others with one extra point, Izuku’s score nearly doubled, “So, it is my pleasure to welcome you, Izuku Midoriya, to your hero academia. Please submit your uniform size and hero costume draft to our support class by the due dates. I look forward to seeing you in class.”

Nedzu’s little form bowed and the hologram cut out. Even before the shape of the Principal faded, Inko was already grabbing Izuku in the tightest hug imaginable.

“Oh, honey, I’m so proud of you!” She cried into his shoulder. Izuku made eye contact with Shoto, a silent begging in his eyes. Shoto just used his hand to stifle his laughter. The traitor.

He patted his mom’s arm, “Thanks, mom.”

After Inko got her tears mostly under control, she practically floated over to the kitchen to start on a celebratory dinner and dessert. She urged Shoto to stay, as if he needed the extra convincing, and declared that “tonight, we feast!”

The boys left her to her flowery air and made their way to Izuku’s room, instantly hitting the bed with exhaustion.

The entrance exam was the first major hurdle. They had planned for either one not getting in, as if that was at all an issue, but the relief of them still having their spots in 1-A was like a weight lifted off their shoulders. They had another few weeks before classes started, so they decided to just enjoy the time off from school and each other’s company.

Shoto sat up and rested his back against the wall, one of the few places without a hero poster. He eyed the Board of Doom above Izuku’s desk, mentally crossing out the entire time before the entrance exam, as well as the magnet representing it. It was only ten uneventful months off the timeline, but it was still nearly half of their repeated time.

He grabbed his phone and texted his father about his admittance. When Endeavor shot back with an “As expected”, he sighed and resisted the urge to throw his phone out the window.

Izuku swung his legs over Shoto’s crossed ones and rubbed his hands over his face repeatedly, “I need to see if I can contact the previous holders early. Having Blackwhip and Smoke Screen will make the whole Stain fight that much easier.”

“Or we could prevent it altogether.”

“How would we do that without raising suspicion, Sho? Tell Ingenium to ignore his patrol and be at the school anyway?”

“We could put out a tip to the local police about him and suggest they have multiple heroes on patrol?”

“I said without raising suspicion. I’ll think of something as we still have two months before it, but we have to still think of battle plans in case it comes to it.”

Shoto reached over and gently pulled at Izuku’s wild curls, “Careful, your war general is showing.”

“Oh, shut. I’ve been on fight or flight the past ten months and not having Float has really only given me one option,” he sighed, “I need to see if Nana and Yoichi can activate the connection faster.”

“Hmm.”

The sun slowly set and the boys emerged from Izuku’s room to help Inko finish with dinner. They discussed their future school plans, how their hero costumes would look, who they expect to have in class, and the people they met at the exam. The two expertly dodged around the fact that they already had a bunch of answers to “how do you think your first year will go.”

Izuku said, “As any other high school, but with quirk usage, I think.”

Shoto added, “It’ll be like any other high school, except for the fact that the children are allowed to fight each other during specific classes.”

“That, too,” Izuku said, “Not to mention the totally normal high school thing that is the Sports Festival. If robots were the entrance exam, what will they have at that?! A minefield?”

Inko started laughing as the two shared a knowing look across the table, “Izuku, I doubt your school will have something as dangerous as that on live television.”

“No, they’ll just have a bunch of teenagers punching each other for sport on live television. I think it’s our country’s favorite pastime, like how America has baseball.”

“Do you think people have betting pools?” Shoto asked, already knowing the answer. Some business course student was overheard during lunch after the event in the first run saying he had gotten a perfect score on his “betting assignment”. It was an open secret that UA encouraged them to test their skills during major events like the Sports Festival or the Culture Festival. It’s why the business course was in charge of marketing and PR for such events.

Because why hire industry professionals when you could offload the work to a bunch of teenagers and call it experience?

“I’d be more shocked if they didn’t.”

“Maybe the business students do it for a grade. Whoever can accurately guess the final outcome gets a hundred points of extra credit. Like March Madness but for child dogfighting.”

Both Inko and Izuku laughed, though at different volumes. Inko calmed down much faster than her son, “I doubt such a prestigious school would allow betting on children during a televised event, but I bet if they saw some students doing underhanded deals, they’d turn a blind eye.”

“Or it’s a rule that they can’t get caught. If they do, it’s points off,” Izuku said through heaving breaths, “The rubric sections are complexity, secrecy, total money exchanged, and professionalism.”

“Can’t believe it’d only be a month into the term and we’ve already got GAMBLING from the business course.”

~~~~~

“Alright, how much do you think our classes changed?” Izuku asked right when they crossed onto campus. They had gotten there pretty early, as Inko was determined to see them off before she had to go to work. Shoto had also gotten out of his house early to avoid his father’s speeches on ‘weeding out the weak and undeserving’. They waited outside the campus until an acceptable time to go inside.

Shoto gave it about two seconds of thought then shrugged, “I hope not at all. I’d hate to adjust our plans because the others couldn’t make it into the same class as us again.”

They took their usual route down the halls to the 1-A classroom. It was practically muscle memory and they were so confident with their steps that a few other first years mistook them for second years and asked for directions to various places around the school. Of course, having memorized the layout during the war, Izuku was quick with answers, which didn’t help the rumors. Right when Izuku shoved the giant doors open, he hid a small sigh of relief. Everyone he had known to be 1-A was still in the same class.

Uraraka had already met Iida and Ashido. Kaminari and Sero were already joined at the hip. Yaoyorozu was chatting with a very excited Hagakure and a more-toned-down Asui. Shouji and Sato were comparing workout routines already. And there were a few missing as class was still a bit away from starting, like Aoyama, Kirishima, and Ojirou.

Izuku also didn’t see Bakugo here. Not that he was complaining, he would rather deal with anyone but Early Bakugo (or Early-go as Shoto had taken to calling him, much like Early-roki or Early-Iida).

Unfortunately their predicament meant they had to deal with Early Mineta again, but Izuku could just ignore him. How that kid was allowed to stay in such a prestigious school was beyond him, even if he did have some sort of use during the war. Izuku found his spot just a few desks in front of Shoto and slid into the thankfully familiar chair as he always did.

“Oh, Midoriya-kun, Todoroki-kun!” Uraraka said as she almost bounced over to them, “I told you I’d see you the first day of classes!”

“Yeah, and what did I say? Your quirk is amazing, it’s no wonder you got accepted!” Izuku gave her a gigawatt smile, “And everyone else looks like they’ve got cool quirks too-“

“Oh my god, wait!” Sero exclaimed across the room. Izuku had noticed Sero squinting at him since he walked in, possibly trying to recognize him, “I know you! You helped me during the practical!”

“He did?” Uraraka’s head swiveled between Sero and Izuku, “He helped me, too!”

“I believe he also assisted me,” another voice said, this time it was Asui, “Got me out of a tight spot.”

“Well, it’s what we’re here for, to become heroes, right? And that doesn’t just include fighting things,” Izuku said for what felt like the fifth time this timeline. When the others started to mumble their agreement, Izuku heard a small thud noise and his eyes flicked to where Aizawa had just entered the room from, “How about we get ready for class before our teacher decides to be mean during our first day?”

He pointed at the door, which was enough of a sign for his classmates to get into their seats. Aizawa shuffled into the room and stood at the podium just as he did that first day nearly two years ago for Izuku and Shoto.

“I’m Shouta Aizawa, your homeroom teacher,” he threw their gym uniforms at them and told them to get down to the pitch for their assessment.

“Figures,” Shoto said to the class around them as they walked the halls to the locker room, “He’s known for not letting his first years go to orientation. Heard it’s some sort of assessment to see if they truly have what it takes to be heroes.”

“Sounds like him,” Izuku said, “I mean, he’s Eraserhead! He’s got some of the best stats out of any Underground hero! You don’t earn that title without hard work and knowing how to barrel through the worst of society.”

Uraraka hummed, “Huh. I was gonna ask about orientation, but now… good to know.”

“We should probably be fast with this. See if you snails can get down there before me,” Shoto said with a smirk before walking faster down the hall, not quite running fast enough to get in trouble for it. Sero and Kaminari squawked indignantly and sped after him.

By the time the whole class was on the pitch, Shoto and Izuku had already warmed up and were playing an increasingly intense game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. It had started including things like Gun, which beat Knife. Then they upped it to Thermonuclear Charge, which beat Skyscraper, Two-Hundred-Year-Old Super Villain, which beat Child with Stockpile Quirk, and Three Teenagers with the Power of Friendship, which beat Mass Murderer with Questionable Morals. Their teacher, standing not too far away from the two, had already tuned them out and was simply waiting for the moment he could tell them to stop.

“Ten minutes, not bad,” Aizawa said, putting his stopwatch away, “Let’s try to half that by the end of the term. Now, Midoriya, throw this.”

Izuku caught the familiar baseball with one hand and stepped into the circle Aizawa gestured towards. He rolled it in his hand for a second before stepping to the far side of the circle and tossing it into the air. When it came back down, Izuku spun on his heel and violently roundhouse-kicked the ball further into the sky. It broke through one of the clouds in the sky and Izuku heard a gasp from behind him. If only he could have done that without breaking a finger nearly two years ago…

“Two thousand, five hundred, and twenty-one meters,” Aizawa said, reading off the gauge in his hands. Izuku then heard a not-so-subtle ‘goddamn’ from somewhere behind him. Knowing the crowd, it was probably Kaminari, “We’ll run through similar tests to see where you are all at with your quirks. And just to up the ante… the person in dead last will be expelled.”

Izuku and Shoto made eye contact. Classic Aizawa.

Honestly, they felt accomplished for having finished the obstacle course and other challenges without breaking a sweat. At one point, Kaminari and Kirishima asked them what training they’ve been through and they answered the same thing at the exact same time: spite. Izuku thought it unnerved them, because every group activity afterwards, the two would stay as far away from the time-travelers as possible.

“So, Mr Aizawa,” Izuku started as he watched the remaining eighteen students struggle with the obstacle course that he and Shoto breezed through in record time (They ran through this as practice during their offtime when dealing with escaped convicts, as it really helped with navigating the destroyed prefectures), “Does your quirk work if you look at yourself in the mirror?”

The teacher sighed, “No. Don’t ask how I know that.”

“Nah, I can see it. Teenage you glaring at yourself in the mirror,” Shoto laughed. They had the upper hand in this argument: they’d asked him this after the Overhaul incident. Izuku had spent a lot of time with his teacher while helping care for Eri, so they had a lot of nonsensical discussions like this.

“Are you two always like this?” Aizawa asked, eyebrow cocked and eyes looking like they were about to activate his quirk.

Ignoring him, Izuku gasped a little bit too dramatically, “Hey, Shoto, do you think that kid with the copy quirk in 1-B could erase Erasure?”

“If he was fast enough. I’m pretty sure Mr Aizawa has his quirk mastered, so if they used it at the same time, it’d probably be Monoma getting his quirk erased.”

“But would the quirk being erased be Erasure or Copy? Aizawa, if someone had multiple quirks, could you choose which one to erase-?”

“Oh, would you look at that, other students!” Aizawa very loudly proclaimed once Iida and Bakugo finally got through the course. Their teacher very aggressively stepped away to keep an eye on everyone else, which made Izuku and Shoto start laughing.

The rest of the Quirk Assessment went by with the same energy. Shoto and Izuku did better than everyone else and hung around Aizawa the whole time while everyone was suffering with the tests. Eventually, Aizawa made a declaration that the first person to finish the 100m dash would run another five laps around the field. Izuku just bolted through the dash and immediately went to run the laps, like he had fully accepted it as a price for coming in first.

“Is this… almost too easy?” Shoto had whispered to him at some point halfway through, right after the long-jump.

“Sho, we’ve literally fought near-gods, I think our first-year quirk assessment is allowed to be easy.”

“Fair.”

The final results were, to absolutely nobody’s surprise, a tie to first between Shoto and Izuku, with the rest of the class following after them. Bakugo was practically smoking with anger at losing to “fucking Deku” and “that Icy-Hot son of a bitch”. Shoto totally didn’t disagree with the kid, but only if you considered the bitch to be his father. Rei didn’t deserve that sort of language.

Kirishima whistled lowly at the scores, “Y’know, I shouldn’t be surprised that they got the top spots, but I kinda thought Mr Aizawa would dock them points for annoying him.”

“I would’ve if I was any more cruel.”

“Says the man who threatened expulsion as a logical ruse to get people to try their best,” Shoto said with an eye roll. The class let out a single “WHAT”, minus Izuku and Yaoyorozu, who laughed and sighed respectively.

“And now you’re in last because you’ve stolen my thunder.”

Another “WHAT” from the class only sent Izuku into further hysterics.

~~~~~

Waiter! More Advil Please!

Pencil: nedzu im actually gonna kill those two

Wine Aunt: Oh god what happened during their quirk assessment

Hearing Damage: ITS THE FIRST DAY???

God.: Interesting. Care to explain, Aizawa? :)

Pencil: wipe that goddamn smile off your face

Pencil: these two are problem children through and through

Pencil: first they completely obliterate their competition and call this FIRST YEAR LEVEL QUIRK ASSESSMENT EASY

Pencil: then they have the GODDAMN AUDACITY to steal my moment of pointing out my logical ruse

Pencil: its like they KNEW BEFOREHAND

God.: Oh dear. They’re certainly two peas in a chaos pod, huh? :)

Pencil: i demand a raise

God.: No.

Small Might: Aizawa-kun, which students?

Pencil: the fuckin midoriya kid and todoroki one

Wine Aunt: You’ll give them nicknames soon enough.

Pencil: yeah like bitch one bitch two

Small Might: Young Midoriya was causing issues? Σ（ﾟдﾟlll）

Pencil: more like being a pain in my ass

Hearing Damage: One bitch two bitch red bitch blue bitch by dr sus

Alucard: Aizawa my class has no such heathens unless you count the Monoma kid. I’m sorry you got dealt two problem children.

Resident Cowboy: That’s a damn lie, and you know it, Vlad. You couldn’t be more happy to see ‘im having to deal with more than one Problem Youngin’.

Alucard: I know. :)

Wine Aunt: Sorry im still stuck on one bitch two bitch red bitch blue bitch

HES A PHANTOM: Wait, Aizawa, was Midoriya that kid that broke the record for most points in the entrance exams?

Pencil: Yes.

Pencil: and todoroki got one of the highest scores on the recc exam

Pencil: Ever.

Ace Hardware: Unsurprising, his father is Endeavor

Hearing Damage: Kayama, what about oh the bitches youll hoe by dr sus

Ace Hardware: Kids probably need a better quirk assessment than what you’ve got

Pencil: ill think of smth before their trip to the usj this week

Pencil: we still on for that, thirteen?

Wine Aunt: no no no hizashi what about the bitch in the ditch by dr sus

Buzz Lightyear: Ofc! The facility has gone through some fantastic renovations since last term! Thanks to Powerloader and Cementoss ofc!!

Ace Hardware: Glad to help, 13

Road Work Ahead?: Happy to lend a hand, my friend!

Hearing Damage: Horton slaps a bitch by dr sus

Buzz Lightyear: Kan’s class is on Wednesday and Aizawa’s is on Thursday, right?

Small Might: That is the plan, yes!

Small Might: And I shall attend both sessions! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

Pencil: granted you still have time for either one

Small Might: I shall limit myself on those mornings to allow for maximum I AM HERE!!

Wine Aunt: mr bitch can woo can you by dr sus

God.: Since you are all here: more information about the Sports Festivals has been finalized, everyone! :)

God.: We shall be having a meeting after classes on Friday to discuss post-first-week improvements and the final touches on the Festival!

Pencil: fine

Small Might: Will be there, sir! (￣^￣)ゞ

Alucard: Got it, Nedzu.

Resident Cowboy: Yessir.

Hearing Damage: bitchtholemew and the goonblek by dr sus

Nutritional Facts: There are two very different conversations happening and I am so confused.

Got that dawg in him: Same.

Small Might: I have learned to ignore Kayama and Yamada when they do this.   (ㆀ˘･з･˘)

Pencil: good choice, giving them attention only fuels them

Wine Aunt: the bitchass by dr sus

Wine Aunt: he speaks for the trees

Hearing Damage: And for some reason the trees are speaking vietnamese

Pencil: are you done

Hearing Damage: One sec

Hearing Damage: Bitch eggs and ham by dr sus

Hearing Damage: Okay now im done

Consequences: Dear lord what did I come back to

~~~~~

For Izuku’s entire time in this new run, he’s been avoiding Bakugo at all costs.

Not just because this version of his friend is still out for blood and acts like a rabid dog when looked at for more than five seconds, but also because of the fact that the last time Izuku remembered seeing the kid, he was literally lying on the ground after Shigaraki killed him.

One of the last things Izuku remembered before being shunted back in time was his childhood best friend’s corpse. For anyone, that being a core memory would fuck you up. So is it any wonder that every time Izuku caught sight of current-Bakugo, the only image in his mind was a hole in the boy’s chest, his mouth stained crimson, and his eyes as dead to the world as Izuku was not five minutes later?

He tried so hard to ignore that image, ignore that sight, but whenever he pushed it away, it came back ten-fold. It didn’t help that Bakugo seemed to only keep his eyes on Izuku. This version didn’t know about One for All, didn’t know about Izuku’s pain, and didn’t know how to properly express his feelings of confusion and betrayal over Izuku now having a quirk that he’s good at using.

Honestly, he debated just pulling Bakugo aside one of these days and just trauma-dumping everything. But everytime he considered it, Shoto would remind him that this Bakugo would rather become an SS-ranked villain than even listen to Izuku. He reminded Izuku that this version of their friend, the version who hasn’t grown beside them, who hasn’t improved as a person, who hasn’t recognized his mistakes, was never going to give him the time of day.

So playing the long game it was until Shoto and Izuku had more chips on the table and a more solid plan to prevent a lot of the bad from happening.

Luckily, Kirishima and Kaminari latched onto Bakugo rather quickly at the beginning of the school year, then dragged Ashido and Sero into their little “squad”, which made him easier to be around, but the fact that Izuku still couldn’t look the boy in the eyes?

Yeah, he needed to work on that.

But if Izuku has learned anything, he certainly hasn’t learned to not tempt fate like that.

So when he found himself being grabbed by the wrist and pulled into a dark corridor after classes by the very kid he’d been avoiding for nearly a year, he had to consciously attempt to keep his breathing as steady and low as possible as to not rouse suspicion.

Bakugo let go once they were sufficiently away from the classrooms and leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets and red eyes glaring into Izuku’s green. Izuku wanted so badly to leave, to run and never come back, but it felt like his legs were locked in place.

“What’s your deal, huh?” Bakugo sneered, “You avoid me for a year and then you come back with a quirk that you’ve nearly mastered. The fuck’s up with that, Deku? You lookin’ down on me? You think I’m weak?”

Izuku’s throat seized and he could barely manage to let out a very weak, “No…”

“‘No’ what? No, you’re not looking down on me?” He scoffed, “You’ve been nothing but confident all day, hanging out with that half and half bastard, but the moment I demand some damn answers, you suddenly can’t speak? You really are worthless.”

Again, Izuku’s only conscious choices were maintaining his breathing and keeping his emotions in check. If Blackwhip emerged now of all times (Banjou would 100% fuck him over like that), then Izuku couldn’t explain it away. He could feel the dark tendrils pulse under his skin, itching to lash out and grab the child they saw as a threat.

“Can’t believe I thought I’d get answers out of you,” Bakugo rolled his eyes and stepped closer. Izuku felt himself stop breathing, “If you ever pull shit like today again, I will fight you and prove that I have been and will always be stronger than you. Count your fucking days, bitch.”

His footsteps were rough and heavy and shook Izuku’s core until they faded down the hallway. Right when he couldn’t hear them anymore, his back fully hit the wall and he slid down to the floor. He clutched his knees to his chest and willed the tears welling in his eyes to go away, with very little success.

And it had been going well thus far. His training went better than it did the first time, he did amazingly in the entrance exam, he blew the quirk assessment out of the water, but now? Now he just wanted to curl into a ball and imagine what would’ve happened had he not been sent back. Had Shigaraki succeeded in killing him.

Izuku’s vision went dark and his head hit his knees. Whether it was from his hyperventilating or his own trauma responses or this world finally giving up on letting him fix his mistakes, he didn’t know.

~~~~~

“Kid. I swear to God, if you don’t wake up-“

His eyes opened to a familiar sight. Eight fancy chairs, a giant vault door, seven glowing people and one ghostly image of his mentor. Nana Shimura stood before him, her eyes wide and crazed. She seemed to have been in the middle of a rant, with the other vestiges sitting in their chairs with the same exasperated looks and in various degrees of “barely keeping it together”.

Izuku didn’t feel the same static he did the first time and looked down at his body that wore his hero costume from the war. It was still scuffed and bloody and torn in some places along his torso, but for some reason it brought the most comfort he’d felt in almost a year, Shoto notwithstanding.

He sighed, “Finally. Took you long enough, guys.”

“I’m sorry, but we had six months to figure out the connection the last time!” Yoichi yelled, the only other figure out of his seat besides Nana. He had his hands buried in his white hair and looked about two seconds away from tearing it out, “We weren’t expecting to be shunted back into Yagi and lose our tie to you for almost a year!”

“Is there anyway you guys know what happened?” Izuku asked, closing the gap between him and the vestiges, “Cause Sho and I still have no clue.”

“That makes ten of us who have no idea what happened,” Banjou said, “Deku, when you died, so did we, as your heart stopped before One for All could be given to a new host.”

“That’s what I figured. I’m glad you guys were brought back, though. If I had to somehow explain to you all how I knew more than you, I would’ve had a conniption.”

Nana laughed, however strained and uncomfortable it was, “Me too, kid.”

“Well, I guess we can just unlock everything,” Yoichi sighed, “It’s not like you need a reminder on how to use them.”

Izuku nodded in agreement. It would be difficult to explain to Aizawa on DAY TWO why he now had six additional quirks and could use them as naturally as breathing, but having them from the start couldn’t hurt. Maybe he should at least keep most of them under wraps, given how Danger Sense had no off-switch (“Super Anxiety”, as it had been described by Kaminari in the first run) and how most of them were incredibly useful during battle.

He had already gotten used to Fa Jin, too, with Gearshift being his only “last resort” of his stockpile. This was proving to be a bigger headache than he anticipated. Izuku just wanted to go home, ignore the talk he had with Bakugo, and try to mentally prepare for the chance of fighting him in the Battle Trials tomorrow.

“I’ll let Shoto know that I’ve got everything back, then we can continue our final preparations,” he said, “You guys keep an eye on the Big Bad for me?”

Yoichi nodded, “Of course, Deku. Let’s do it right this time, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

With a fistbump, Izuku felt the land inside his quirk fade and when he awoke to the dark hallway again, he had a heavy weight and a familiar, welcome warmth on his right shoulder. Shoto was absently scrolling on his phone when he felt Izuku stir, immediately turning his attention to his friend.

“You okay?” Shoto asked quietly, ice blue eye cutting Izuku to the core.

“I think so… I saw them this time. They also remember, so I have everything again,” he stretched his legs out, as they had fallen asleep on him in the strange position. He held up a fist and summoned a Blackwhip tendril, “Things just got a whole lot more...”

His mind stalled in finding an appropriate word. It could only be described as “more”. If it had been simpler, he wouldn’t be dreading planning their next steps. If it had been more complex, he would’ve had an even worse mental breakdown and probably would’ve lashed out with Blackwhip.

“That’s a good thing, though, that you can talk to them again. I was starting to think we’d have to wait even longer for even Float to appear. Do… they have any idea what happened?”

Izuku shook his head, “No. Yoichi is trying to figure it out, though.”

“Good. Put them to work. Back to the information mines you go, Yoichi.”

With a breathy laugh, the boy let Shoto pull him closer. His left side always ran much warmer, as expected, so in the unusual cold of the dark hallway and the holdover freezing sensation of the world inside of One for All, it was very welcome.

This was probably the worst Izuku had been mentally since being pushed back through time. Being confronted by his once-friend, being told by your mentors that they know nothing, being confronted with everything you now need to do in the wake of the rest of your powers… it suddenly felt like everything had come crashing down onto him at once and Izuku, despite the immense strength the stockpile gifted him, was by no means prepared for it.

At the end of the day, they were still just two teenagers. Sure, they were two teenagers with knowledge of the future and a near-mastery of their quirks, but that couldn’t be useful if everyone only saw them as the high schoolers with volatile quirks they were. Shoto may know Flashfire, he may know how to manage both sides with ease, he may know how to rival the tallest buildings in the city with his Heaven-Piercing Ice Wall, but according to people like Endeavor or Aizawa? He was just one rebellious phase away from ruining his future as a hero.

The same went for Izuku.

Really, if they wanted to truly change their luck, if they wanted to shift the scales and stack the deck heavily in their favor, then they needed to gain the approval and hand of one very specific man.

Or… one very specific stoat.

“I think… we need to enact Plan N.”

Shoto said nothing, only nodding in response. He knew what this meant. They both did.

It was time to inform the rat.

Chapter Text

Izuku was feeling better by the next morning, his mental state brightened by a full night’s rest and a surprise from his mom of his favorite pastries for a successful first day of school. He savored the jelly-filled dough as he walked to the train, then waited for Shoto to show up by the gates. In the time it took the boy to show up, Uraraka had already joined him and was talking his ear off about wondering when they would be having their first lesson from All Might.

“I think he’s being stretched between all three years,” she mused, “Maybe the third years got him first since they’re closest to being heroes and could use the insight.”

Izuku had the strange thought of All Might teaching Mirio’s class. Sir Nighteye had hand-picked Mirio to be the successor to One for All and Izuku wondered if All Might could see the same potential. He had often wondered what would’ve happened had Mirio been picked, and the ramifications of only giving him the final year of his schooling to figure out how to mix his Permeation and the other factors of one of the oldest quirks in the world. Izuku was, for lack of a better word, lucky with when he was chosen.

He had three years to perfect using his quirk. Three years to study and understand the power he had been gifted and entrusted with, to make it his own, which was completely doable if his progress in only a year was anything to go off of. Sure he now had additional time, but he figured that his extra year was like a pre-requisite class for a college program: necessary to enter the real program and invaluable when it came to graduating it. A powerful building is only as strong as the foundation underneath it, after all.

His “brooding” was interrupted by Shoto’s arrival, alongside Asui’s. The four took the path to the classroom together and mingled until Izuku and Shoto gave the sign to get to their seats. Even after only a day, the two had been assigned the “Aizawa Experts”, given how well they knew his patterns already. No one questioned it, thank GOD, but it was still difficult to try to craft an explanation for why they already knew so much about the man they had only known for a day.

“For your Foundational Heroics class, you will be taught by-“

“I AM HERE!!” The door shot open and All Might’s hulking form slid into the classroom, decked out in his Silver Age costume, “ENTERING THE ROOM LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!!”

Izuku felt the smile creep onto his face. His fanboying days weren’t that far behind him, after all. As their teacher explained the basics of their Heroics class, then dramatically revealed where their costumes were hidden in the room’s walls, Izuku caught a single second of Aizawa staring at him. His homeroom teacher instantly looked away, but Izuku knew that he was being watched carefully.

Maybe he could use his extra quirks today. As a treat. Just to fool the man.

Take that “logical ruse”, bitch.

Somewhere deep in his quirk, he could hear Nana cackling.

Izuku grabbed his costume case and was quick to get to the locker rooms and pull on the viridian jumpsuit, shoes, braces, and belt. He still kept the yellow scarf, relishing in the way it covered part of his face when he didn’t have his ventilator on. It matched his war costume nearly perfectly. The arm and leg braces could be improved, but a visit to Mei in the support labs would bring them back to where they were before his death. It was like welcoming an old friend, an old friend that protected you the best it could.

He did get an email from Powerloader before school started regarding how detailed his hero suit was and how it had taken them the most time out of any first year. Powerloader explained that the company asked for a few support students to even get it finished in time, which left Izuku feeling sort of guilty for it, but he had adjusted and crafted the final suit over the course of his first year and he didn’t want to start from scratch. Early-roki’s costume was bad, but holy shit was Early-doriya’s even worse.

Don’t tell Inko he said that.

As he joined his classmates in the training grounds, he could feel their eyes on him. At the beginning of the year, all of their costumes were the bare essentials. Only Izuku and Shoto had what appeared to truly be decked-out hero costumes. The only one to rival them in terms of preparation for an actual fight was Bakugo, who was adjusting the fit of his gauntlets as far away from Izuku as he could be. That didn’t stop him from sending glares Izuku’s way, as anything rarely did at this point.

Shoto’s costume was also as similar as he could get it to the one he had for their final fight. He made some changes, including a respiratory mask hanging from his belt and a few other temperature regulators, but other than that, it was largely unchanged.

Out of the twenty students, they were the most professional-looking. He could tell how it unnerved their classmates.

“Oh my god, Midoriya, you really went all out!” Sato said as he watched them walk in, “Like, that’s practically a finished costume, hot damn!”

“Thanks,” Izuku said, “I studied a lot of hero costumes to gain inspiration, so there might be a few parts you recognize from another hero or three.”

Not entirely a lie, his scarf was from Gran Torino and he could see the recognition in All Might’s eyes, but the rest of it was evolved from his own design and its subsequent failures.

“Oh, you too, Todoroki! It’s totally pro hero!” Hagakure said. Her gloves waved around violently as she gestured to him, “Are you even sure you can handle this many gadgets?”

“I planned this carefully with a few people from my father’s agency,” he said, the cover coming effortlessly, as it also wasn’t entirely a lie, “They’re some of the best for a reason.”

“God, you guys have got to give us pointers on ours!” Kaminari said, “I feel so unprepared next to you!”

“Not unsurprising, kero,” Asui said from off to the side, “They’ve been strangely prepared for this.”

“It always pays to be prepared!” Iida said, hand chopping through the air in a way that was somehow nostalgic to Izuku, “I, for one, admire their commitment!”

Their conversation petered out as the remaining students joined them in the training grounds and All Might began explaining the rules of the trials. Two teams of two, one hero, one villain, one bomb somewhere in the building. He held out the lot boxes for everyone to draw from and by some miracle, Izuku was still paired with Uraraka. Their team was chosen to fight Iida and Bakugo again, as well.

It seemed that there were some things that were destined to happen in any version of this timeline. The grass is green, the sky is blue, the tide comes in and goes out, and Team D will always fight Team A first.

With Bakugo and Iida in the building for their prep time, Uraraka and Izuku sat on the pavement just outside of it to start their planning period and figure out how to best capture both villains and acquire the weapon.

“So,” she started before him, “What’s your quirk? I think we can strategize better if we have that down. Mine’s a five-point activated Zero Gravity quirk. I can remove the gravity from any object I touch, but I have a weight limit or else I get nauseous.”

“Mine’s general super strength that stems from energy manipulation through my body. I theorized it could have more applications if I really tried,” Izuku said. He had been trying to figure out ways to better hide his many other quirks and Nana once suggested to subtly lie by using the ‘emitter quirk that doesn’t really make sense’ excuse. Don’t tell the other vestiges, but Nana was Izuku’s favorite.

“That’s really intense… but you seem to have it down fairly well. Now, how do we mix them to create a strategy and take out these villains?”

“Can I be real with you?” Izuku asked, not waiting for her response, “Bakugo does not give two flying fucks that he’s supposed to be guarding his objective. He can and will split off from Iida to fight me the second that whistle is blown.”

She gave him a look, “Damn, does he have it out for you or something?”

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Izuku mumbled, “Or something,” he sighed, “So I’ll distract their heavy hitter and capture him, then I’ll come assist you with the weapon retrieval. Sound good?”

“Well, you have proven to be a very strong person so… alright, I’m down. Where do you think they’ll hide the weapon?”

“Either in the very center of the building, as to be surrounded on all sides by a protective concrete barrier, or one level down from the top floor to give themselves time to react if they heard someone above them,” he deduced, “Either one seems like a strategy Iida would employ.”

True in the first timeline, they used the middle-of-the-building strategy, but now? Not everything should be a complete copy-and-paste from the original run. If anything, Izuku should expect this Iida to chose the latter strategy.

“Here, how about you float me up and I’ll try to spot the device and get in through a window. I’ll radio you when I’ve found it and then launch my distraction. All you have to do is get in and capture Iida or the weapon.”

With their plan set, All Might let them know that the trial had begun. Instantly, Uraraka tapped Izuku’s arm and floated him upwards. To alleviate some of the pressure on her, he activated Float and slowly drifted upwards. His eyes scanned each floor vigorously and he soon spotted Iida protecting the weapon on the fifth floor, the second from the top. Izuku grinned at his correct assumption.

He relayed as such to Uraraka and told her to release her quirk and get inside as fast as possible. Once he felt her weightlessness stop, he grabbed the window sill and rolled onto the third floor. It was still a maze of concrete walls and random staircases, so he just traversed to the center of the floor and waited.

He didn’t have to wait long before Danger Sense and the smell of burnt caramel warned him of the infamous right hook of one Katsuki Bakugo.

Izuku spun on his heel and grabbed the offending outstretched arm with a Blackwhip tendril, then he flicked his arm out and sent Bakugo flying into a wall.

“You really like that right hook, don’t you?” He said before his mental filter could catch up with his mouth. His false confidence could practically be seen with the way he hid behind Blackwhip’s protective shield.

“The fuck is that?” Bakugo mumbled when he righted himself, “What sort of devil did you sacrifice a baby goat to just to get a quirk?”

“A devil in spandex and a gigawatt smile,” Izuku raised his arms loosely and let the green lightning that accompanied One for All light up the room, “Now, villain, will you surrender or will you choose the hard way?”

Izuku wished to see the look on his classmates’ faces when he did this. Or Aizawa’s when he eventually watched back this footage. Bakugo unattached himself from the wall and raced forward, hand sparking in his rage. Blackwhip lashed out behind Izuku and pulled him upwards and away from the explosions. The blonde just responded by shoving his hands towards the ceiling and firing at him anyway.

It was a game of “Dodge the Anger Issues”, essentially. And while Izuku had been an Olympic champion at this game for the last year, he was even better with the quirks of the vestiges back. Izuku would skitter across the walls and ceiling with Blackwhip and Float and Bakugo would launch several explosions at where he used to be, too slow to catch up to him as he used both the stockpile to increase his speed and Banjou’s quirk to maneuver around the floor.

The smoke in the room got so bad that Izuku had to pull on his respirator, even if he avoided doing so as to not retreat into the mindset he had after the prison break. At one point in his distracting, he saw the pink of Uraraka’s costume disappear up the stairs from the third to fourth floors. He trusted her to win them the exercise as she did the previous run. Plus, she needed this confidence boost.

“Why won’t you just-“ Bakugo screamed, a larger explosion blasting away one of the walls towards the alleyway, “-STAY STILL?!”

“Careful,” Izuku’s whispering voice was more metallic due to his respirator and only reminded him of his solo hunt for escaped prisoners, “Collateral damage hurts your hero statistics.”

Izuku dropped from right above Bakugo, sending him to the floor with a low yelp. Blackwhip shot out and wrapped around his legs, arms, and fists to keep them closed. Izuku grabbed the small roll of white capture tape and placed one end onto the boy’s exposed neck.

“Bakugo has been captured and is now eliminated from the game!” All Might’s voice rang out, immediately followed by, “The weapon has been captured! Hero team wins!”

“Right, that was fast,” Izuku mumbled. He stepped away from Bakugo to put some space between him and the kid before undoing Blackwhip. He had to pull the respirator off and take some deep breaths to soothe his heart back to the pace of a normal human being.

Realistically, he should’ve been able to capture him much, much faster. But the entire time, Izuku’s mind was fighting between the knowledge that it was just a training exercise and the instinct of his vigilante days. It clouded his ability to do the takedown, as one side didn’t want to hurt Bakugo, but the other screamed to just incapacitate him and leave him for the police. Luckily, he had a distraction in the form of Uraraka running down the stairs.

“Nice work, Midoriya-kun!” She said.

“Yes, that was a clever ruse,” Iida nodded along, “I hope to watch the footage from the cameras.”

“Same, I was only really able to catch a bit of it as I passed you!” Uraraka almost pulled them down the remaining flights of stairs and to the exit. All three of them ignored Bakugo’s protests and demands for a rematch. Izuku was glad that these two didn’t fear him at all.

When they were successfully away from the building, Izuku’s instinct subsided. It went away completely when he joined Shoto in the observation room.

“Nice job. Didn’t even break a bone this time,” the boy said.

“Har har. I’d like to see you win in the same amount of time without that ice trick you did last run,” Izuku chuckled, even as Shoto’s elbow found his side. All Might led the post-exercise discussion and Izuku was named the MVP of the match. Yaoyorozu said it was due to his “swift thinking, lack of collateral damage, and ability to truly play the role of a hero”. He gave her an appreciative nod after her explanation and moved to sit where Shoto had claimed as the next teams entered the building.

The rest of the trials went rather smoothly. No one could measure up to the chaos of the very first trial, so they were easier to follow and comment on once they were done. All Might went through the motions of allowing the students to critique themselves and reinforcing the idea of teamwork. Izuku wondered when the man would finally actually learn how to teach or if he was saving that for after his inevitable retirement.

Inevitable. Because Izuku was going to preserve the embers of One for All within his mentor if it was the last thing he did.

The only thing Shoto and Izuku were gunning for were their provisional licenses back as soon as possible. If they had those, then they had probable cause to join the Kamino fight. An underpowered All for One and a childish Shigaraki were no match for Izuku’s current understanding of One for All. If he were to allow himself a moment of “letting loose”, he bet that both would be incapacitated and taken care of by the time the heroes got there.

All they had to do was jump through as many legal loopholes as possible. And the only person they knew who could do that with ease was Nedzu.

The return to the classroom was filled with buzzing conversations about their first combat training. The amount of times Izuku heard that he was “kinda op, my guy” was insane. He knew that One for All was a very powerful quirk and that he had a significant control over it, but if his death in the last run was any indication, then he still had a long way to go before he could truly defeat an awakened Shigaraki. The thought sent a shiver down his spine and he kept up with his classes through the eternal buzz of Danger Sense behind his eyes.

After classes were over and Izuku was about to leave campus, he was caught once more by Bakugo’s screaming. The kid was saying something about not being overshadowed and not being shown up when All Might came along and stopped it. Mentor and student made eye contact over a fuming Bakugo and Izuku just mouthed the word “later” to the hero. All Might sighed and waved for Izuku and Shoto to leave.

Wednesday morning gifted them a familiar sight of several dozen reporters and cameramen outside of the school gates. No one dared cross the line onto campus save for one brave yet stupid woman who was instantly blocked by the school’s defense system. Around the corner, Izuku and Shoto were helping their classmates get over the wall without setting off the other systems.

It was easy, don’t touch the wall, land softly as to not tip off the reporters, and book it into the building to avoid being caught by the teachers. Nedzu was certainly watching, he always was, so Izuku just made sure that the hidden cameras had a good view of their whole operation and that no one got hurt. Nineteen students (Mineta had foolishly decided to brave the reporter mob and hadn’t been seen since) launched over the walls and into the gardens with relative ease, then made their way to their classroom.

The school was rather empty, most likely due to the issue at the gates. Izuku had rarely seen UA like this, even in the first run. It was always bustling with activity and students running to catch friends or classes. The only time he had really felt this tense in a place he deemed as safe was right before their final stand. His eyes unconsciously flicked over to Aoyama, who was talking rather animatedly with Ashido about something.

That would have to be addressed soon.

God, why did so much shit happen their first year? Really, they should’ve known when their first week was filled with quite a bit of chaos.

The two allowed the reporter-themed infiltration to occur, not because they knew they couldn’t stop Shigaraki from getting a schedule, but because they wanted the USJ incident to still happen. In order to get their licenses back, they had to prove themselves. Nedzu would believe them more after that. At least, they hoped.

With Iida now class president, Thursday’s lead-up was a bit easier to manage. All Might still hadn’t joined them for the bus ride over, unsurprisingly as the man refused to not be a hero when he could. Izuku was throwing him into retirement as soon as he could. Maybe Nighteye would actually appreciate Izuku from day one of his work study if he accomplished that.

Glad he had preserved his hero costume from the battle trials, Izuku was meticulous in making sure his usual gear was prepared. A med-kit, his adrenaline boosters, the gaps in his gloves for air force and Blackwhip, and his iron soles now actually iron (the support class needed an extra day for the materials to arrive, so they just gave him padded soles for the battle trials). His nerves only increased with the sight of the familiar USJ and the even more welcome hero Thirteen standing outside waiting.

Thirteen herded the class inside and Shoto and Izuku finally split off to their planned positions. Shoto stood on the right side of the upper deck, right foot barely touching the edge. Izuku, then, stood on the left side closest to the door. He was fully prepared to blow it open and chuck Iida out to go get help the moment he saw Shigaraki’s crusty-ass face.

Which he did.

Kurogiri’s portal swirled and instantly, the door behind the class was kept open by a well-timed Air Force. Izuku shoved Iida through the hole and yelled, “GO GET HELP” right as the emergency doors closed.

He hoped the class president would actually listen and turned back to the class. Shoto had already began making the shields at the bottom of the stairs. His ice traveled down the edge of the steps and across the front of the plaza area, making the now-emerging D-list villains pause in confusion.

“Everyone, stay back, these are actual villains!” Aizawa shoved his goggles on and pushed Kirishima away from the top of the stairs, “Thirteen, protect the students!”

There really was no stopping Aizawa’s protective streak, huh? Izuku helped his friends to appear confused as well, but when the portal appeared to take him to the flood zone, he dodged it. Shoto was just as nimble to avoid the portals and shot a stream of fire out at Kurogiri. Some of the class, like Asui and Mineta were drawn in, but a majority of the students were either not targeted or were able to avoid the sloppy portal work.

“Foolish children! You cannot stop us and our mission to end the SymbFUCK-“ Kurogiri’s evil monologue was cut off by Izuku’s iron sole hitting his iron brace. The mist villain was thrown backwards towards the reinforced door, out for the count.

“Oh wow, that was insane!” Kirishima said, “I think you got him with one blow!”

“That was the goal,” Izuku said, “Watch him, I’m gonna go help Aizawa.”

“Not without me-“

Bakugo’s yell was cut off by Izuku glaring at him, something the boy had never really tried on Bakugo before, “No. Stay here and watch the villain.”

He didn’t wait to see Bakugo’s fearfully confused face. Izuku bypassed Thirteen and ran down the steps alongside Shoto. Aizawa had already dealt with a small amount of villains, but he was slowing down against the larger guys. Izuku kicked a massive mutation-quirked villain into the water of the flood zone, then used Blackwhip to throw his drenched body into the center of the water. Using Float, he launched into the air and shot an air blast to create the whirlpool. Mineta and Asui were still on the boat, luckily out of the way of the swirling mass of doom.

Izuku made sure they got away safely before returning to the fight at the plaza. He landed against the ceiling and used Fa Jin to send himself like a missile into the Nomu next to Shigaraki, who was about to give it the command to kill Aizawa. Not even the Nomu’s shock absorption was enough to stop the sheer power of Izuku’s iron soles in its brain and its body was sent flying across the plaza and into some still-standing villains.

Shigaraki was left screaming near the fountain and Izuku landed rather roughly on his feet in front of him. Green lightning pealed off of his limbs and he stood up straighter to face the man who once was destined to kill him.

“You! What are you?! A cheater, that’s what! Where’s All Might?!” Shigaraki yelled, nearly incoherently, “He was supposed to be here!”

“He had the day off,” Izuku said, taking gentle strides around the man, “Rather last-minute, really. Figured that the schedule you stole wasn’t the updated copy.”

“What?! That infiltration was perfect. How could you have known?!”

“I know a lot of things, Tenko Shimura,” he ignored the hitch in the man’s breathing and raised a readied hand, “It’s called New Game Plus, bitch.”

A single Air Force was enough to send Shigaraki flying over the fountain and to the stone floor on the other side. The man struggled to get up, but then fell back to the stone, unconscious. Behind him, Izuku heard Shoto freeze the last villain with Aizawa tying up the one he’d been fighting.

“You two are gonna have detention forever,” their teacher said with an air of breathlessness, “You couldn’t have just not done that?!”

“No offense, sir, but that thing looked tough,” Shoto said, “You couldn’t have handled it.”

“Midoriya knocked it out with a kick!”

“A planned kick to the exposed brain with enough power to knock down an entire ward,” Izuku added, shaking the static feeling from his leg, “Trust me, even then it took a lot of energy. Everyone else is fine, Thirteen is fine, the students are protected but separated, and the villains have been captured. Record time, really.”

Shoto stretched his hands out in front of him and shook off some excess frost, “Eh, could’ve gone smoother.”

“I highly doubt that, Sho, we didn’t lose anyone! Hell, Kaminari didn’t even short circuit!”

“Little victories, I guess.”

“Alright, I’ve given up trying to figure out what the hell you’re talking about,” Aizawa said, “Go help your classmates get to the doors. I think we’ll have assistance arriving soon.”

For once, the two time travelers did as they were told. Shoto ran to get Asui and Mineta from the flood zone while Izuku gathered the remaining classmates and knocked-out villains from the other areas. He used Blackwhip to carry a bunch of incapacitated villains to the small “holding cell” Shoto made of ice and some rubble. By the time every villain was captured, help finally arrived in the form of All Might and Present Mic.

~~~~~

“We have about ten minutes before emergency services appear. We’ll detain those we have and start questioning those awake,” Shouta told the new arrivals. He then noticed their stares towards the floating, glowing Midoriya and sighed, “Yeah, I can’t explain anything that little shit does. Just focus on the actual evil people.”

Thirteen had been quick to gather the students outside while Todoroki and Midoriya wrecked shop in the plaza. Shouta was almost inclined to thank them for their involvement as it prevented a huge headache for him, but thinking about how they acted so quickly, knew exactly how to take the warp and giant villains out, and had the ability to hold their own in the fights against the other villains was enough to cause one.

These two children were better than most pro heroes Shouta knew about and they hadn’t even finished their first fucking week of high school. Midoriya especially. None of these aspects of his quirk came out during the entrance exam. He never used those tendrils or this floating ability and he had an awareness for his surroundings that rivalled those with highetened sense quirks and could even detect when one villain had gotten loose, pulling the guy back with a black tendril and slamming him into the concrete hard enough to break the floor.

Todoroki was also fairly amazing with his quirk. Wielding both fire and ice in battle was no doubt tiring on such a young kid, but he did so without even breaking a sweat. He swapped between the two with such a practiced ease that Shouta wondered if he could use them at the same time, but Todoroki never did. He was just that good at it. No child, even the son of the famed number two hero, should have such mastery of both sides after only ten years. Especially because said hero was a fire-only user, not an ice user.

Nothing about them added up. Shouta kept his opinions regarding the two mostly to himself, as All Might and Nedzu were rather excited to have such promising future heroes in the first year line-up. But these two were more than that. Shouta could recognize the pain in their eyes, as no one with barely any experience fighting should have that pain. They moved and scanned their surroundings and were intimately aware of everyone around them that it felt like they were more soldiers than heroes-in-training. Midoriya especially had this hidden weight constantly on his shoulders, it seemed.

A weight that was both infinitesimal and infinite. Like he knew so much about its burden that he was jaded to it, but that at any moment it could crush him. That sort of burden was one Shouta really only saw in those who have seen some shit.

Which begged the question: what have these kids seen?

He was snapped out of his musings by the sirens of arriving authorities. He directed the police through the motions of gathering and detaining villains, then walked to where Thirteen had left the class to check on them. They were a bit rattled, but otherwise just curious as to what exactly happened. Shouta could hear them cut off their hypothesising and theorizing as he walked up.

“Mr Aizawa, sir!” Iida said as Shouta approached, “May I ask where Midoriya and Todoroki are?”

Shouta raised a hand to quiet the student, “They had to be questioned by the detectives due to their involvement. Once they’re released, we’ll get you guys back to the school and contact your parents.”

“Will they get in trouble for it?” Uraraka asked, “They were… pretty involved.”

“It was pretty cool how they did that,” Kirishima mused, “But you said to stay back and they went against a direct order.”

“Their punishment will be gone over once we’re in contact with Nedzu,” Shouta sighed, “You shouldn’t concern yourselves with them. It would only cause more issues, got it?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good. We’ll go over emergency procedures tomorrow instead. Clearly, it needs more explaining than what we went over yesterday,” the erasure hero turned to rejoin the steadily shrinking police force. The detective in charge had what he needed and left already, so Midoriya and Todoroki were still inside, accompanied by Present Mic.

They didn’t look like they had just gone against an order and fought roughly seventy villains and a monster. Actually, it looked like they had just gotten done with a quiet patrol and were planning on what to get to eat afterwards. Cause they were literally making dinner plans.

“Sho, we had soba last week. You always suggest it first.”

“And you always want katsudon, so who’s really pushing for their fave?”

“Shoto, oh my god, I will slap you.”

Shouta cleared his throat and both looked over (Midoriya dropped his threatening hand), “I’m assuming the police left your punishment in UA’s hands?”

“Yeah, they said that whatever they could legally do wasn’t enough,” Todoroki said, not afraid.

“Had it not been for the laws of this land, I’m sure the detective would’ve killed us.”

“I have first dibs on causing your demises,” Shouta deadpanned, “Besides, I’m sure Nedzu already has plans.”

He saw them share a look that Shouta could only describe as knowing. Whatever was going on with these two was something he couldn’t hope to understand.

“Alright, think he’ll be available when we get back?” Midoriya asked.

“I’ll try to get you a meeting after class, but we’re legally required to get you to your families as soon as possible.”

Todoroki shrugged, “My father won’t be available for another few hours. Call him and it’ll most likely go to a sidekick.”

“My mom’s still at work until I’m out of here and unless you’ve got a Ouija board in the classroom, my dad’s uncontactable,” Midoriya gave him a smug smile, the little shit, “So we’re in your hands until classes normally end.”

Goddamnit.

“Fine. You’ll talk when we get back,” Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose, “Now go join your class and try not to impede with the investigation.”

“Thank you, sir!”

He watched them walk out of the building and resume their argument over food. They’re just kids. Kids with an unreasonable control over their superpowers, but kids nonetheless.

Experience notwithstanding.

~~~~~

This group was a good start, truly.

Izuku sat at the conference room table with Shoto on his left and All Might, Aizawa, and Nedzu on the other side of the table. Because of a passing comment of “I know” from Shoto, All Might was in his powered-down form, looking more confused than ever. Aizawa just looked tired and Nedzu was analyzing them like they were the most complex puzzle locks he’d ever seen.

Lucky for him, Izuku had the key.

“I’m sure you’re all wondering why we’ve gathered you here today,” Izuku said, “In fact, I’m sure you have a heap of other questions about us, but rest assured, they will be answered.”

“What we are about to tell you is unbelievable, trust me, but what we are saying is the honest truth,” Shoto added, “So just listen to what we have to say and keep an open mind about it all. That’s all we ask.”

They proceeded to tell them… everything. From the fact that they were from the future to the fact that they had died in said future. They then ran through the condensed and shortened timeline and major events, going from Hosu, the training camp, and Kamino (All Might looked sick at the mention of All for One), to the provisional license exam, Nighteye, and Eri (Aizawa almost stood from his seat to go kill Overhaul himself), to everything after.

They spoke of the prison break and the war, how the children of the UA hero course were called upon to capture escaped convicts and murderers. Izuku spoke of his time as a vigilante, how he was broken and believed himself to cause more danger than stop. Shoto gently rubbed his arm in comfort and received a similar comforting hand when he started to speak of his oldest brother and his death.

“Shigaraki was too strong,” Izuku said, trying to ignore the ghostly feeling of Shigaraki’s hands on his throat, “We waited too long to stop him and he far outgrew what even One for All was capable of.”

“We suspect that something to do with the destined tie between the two caused the jump,” Shoto nearly whispered, “That when Izuku was killed, the universe tried to right it and sent us back to fix it.”

“So. Here we are!” With a small, tired jazz hand, Izuku put an end to their story, “And now we want to prevent a lot of it from happening, including many deaths of those we hold dear.”

Nedzu was the first to speak up, “That is certainly a tantalizing story. I can see why you believed yourselves unbelievable. But know that I trust your word. No one gains the knowledge of such a power overnight, Midoriya.”

“Exactly,” All Might said, “It took me a while before my master thought me in control of One for All. I was suspicious with how well you took to the strength and had been meaning to ask you, but when you used a quirk I had never seen before during the battle trials, I was hesitant to ask about something I didn’t have all the facts of.”

“I would’ve said something eventually,” Izuku mentioned, “I couldn’t have exactly helped today without giving us away. Seven quirks in one kid is enough to raise, like, seven red flags.”

“And it did,” Nedzu admits, “I caught a bit of a conversation between you two on one of the outer wall cameras. You mentioned something regarding a war and being soldiers. You spoke about Aizawa as if you had been friends with him for a while. I was very confused.”

Shoto turned to Izuku, “Dude, you never mentioned the wall cameras.”

“You didn’t see them?” He genuinely asked, “I thought we all knew about them from reviewing UA’s security during the war!”

“I thought those were added later after the dorms were built. We had supervillains after us every other week!”

“Well now you know,” Izuku chided and turned back to their teachers and principal, “We’d like to ask for a few favors in light of everything.”

“You made us sit through a whole year of your trauma. If you ask for something that isn’t fucking therapy, I am inclined to deny it,” Aizawa sunk down into his seat and rubbed his eyes, “I swear, I get a worse crop of kids every year.”

Izuku ignored the joke potential of “fucking therapy” and instead just laughed and directed a request at Nedzu, “Sir, we’d like to request a provisional license, or at least the chance to take the soonest exam. We are severely limited with what we can assist with now, but a license would eliminate most issues with the legality of our involvement.”

Nedzu raised a paw to his chin and gave it a moment, “You have already proven yourselves to be capable minds and fighters. Your help in the USJ incident was remarkable and you’re no doubt the most knowledgable on All for One and the man we have in custody, Shigaraki Tomura. It would be misguided to deny such a request.”

“They are still children, Nedzu. You cannot possibly be considering-“

“Yagi, I know their ages, however they have experienced enough time to be considered late teenagers, much like our many third years who are very close to getting their hero licenses,” the stoat gave the number one hero a stern, beady eye, “We will keep a close eye on their activities, however the Commission will not be told any of this. Just that we have seen their immense potential and talent and wish to nurture it on the field as fast as possible.”

“We could do benchmark tests to prove that we’ve already gone through most of the curriculum, even if a month or two were interrupted by war efforts,” Izuku added, “We just want to prevent as much disaster as we’re capable of and that’s only possible with the ability to legally do so. I can’t exactly stop All for One from a jail cell.”

“And we will figure it out. The next round of provisional testing is in May, after the Sports Festival,” Nedzu said, “Usually, it’s reserved for second-year students who didn’t complete the first-year exam, but I’m sure an urging from me will allow you two to attend. It will certainly be a smaller group than the one you took.”

Izuku nodded. He could work with that. Another month or so of waiting was worth it to make sure Overhaul’s formula wasn’t finished. He could use that time to find Dabi before the League got their hands on him and plan the capture of Stain.

“We’ll discuss it more later, but for now, I want to thank you two for telling us,” the principal said, “May this run end better than the last.”

That’s all Izuku and Shoto could ask for.

~~~~~

The three weeks between the USJ incident and the Sports Festival went by normally for eighteen out of twenty students on Class 1-A. Their normal core classes of math, history, biology, english, and literature were still a full-class activity, but their Foundational Heroics classes excluded the two students they all wanted to see fight more.

Aizawa gave the excuse that they were barred from participating as part of their punishment for their actions, which most people accepted. For Midoriya and Todoroki to not only defy orders but also single-handedly take out a ton of the threats, it probably took a lot of restraint from Aizawa to not just expel them. And if he had just gotten rid of them, the entire class would’ve been up in arms.

For now, though, every time they had Foundational Heroics, the two students would wave goodbye and leave down the other hallway in the direction of whatever it was they were doing during the class. Some had theories as to what it was.

Sero thought they were doing manual labor for Cementoss and the reconstruction of the USJ. Ashido thought they were spending the entire class going over “laws and stuff” and then writing essays. Iida tried his hand at predicting and said that they were probably being given lectures on quirk usage at appropriate times, among other things.

Ochaco kept her opinion to herself. The two always left and were sometimes seen going in the direction of Nedzu’s office. She once overheard them talking about something to do with an exam after the Sports Festival and a license. Midoriya had also let it slip once that they had some sort of remedial class? Whatever it was, it wasn’t a punishment for kicking ass, it was a reward. Some sort of higher education for two students who had an ungodly amount of talent and experience using their quirks for combat.

As the mystery slowly stopped being talked about, it was replaced by excitement over the Sports Festival. A once-a-year opportunity to show off your abilities to the entire country and earn the eyes of nearly every pro hero out there. It was especially helpful for the week-long internships Aizawa told them would happen afterwards.

“This is your chance to make your name and face known. It’s a guarantee that the winner of the Festival gets the most amount of offers,” their teacher had said, “Use this time between now and then to make sure you have at least a bit of your identity as a hero set. You have three more years to cement it, but now is when you start mixing the solution.”

Strange analogy, but one she understood. Ochaco wanted a firm foundation for her future as a hero. Nothing was going to stand in the way of that, not villain attacks, not mean classmates like Bakugo, not the rest of their year hating them, and certainly not two over-powered peers who dealt with the aforementioned villain attack.

She was friends with Midoriya and Todoroki, sure. She sat with them at lunch and met them outside of the school gates to walk to the train station. They shared their jokes with her, their humor, their limited strange stories about their lives pre-UA. They’d even added Iida and Asui (Tsu, Ochaco had to remind herself) to make five, but those two boys had some sort of connection that she couldn’t quite understand.

Like they’d walked through hell together and came back with smiles on their faces.

It was almost admirable, seeing how they both looked so haunted, yet so fond of life. Ochaco wasn’t sure what to exactly make of them, but she wasn’t gonna let that stop her from being their friend. Maybe they needed that in this moment, someone to finally lean on after everything. She wouldn’t judge, she wouldn’t push, she wouldn’t say a word.

She’d just be a friend. Cause that’s what friends do.

~~~~~

Tensei Iida got his assignment to patrol Hosu before the UA Sports Festival. He’d be able to see his little brother compete in-person after all.

~~~~~

Izuku sat with Tsu and Iida at one end of the locker room. He wasn’t in his gym uniform, as Nedzu declared that the two wouldn’t fight fairly in the Festival. Shoto was then forced to reveal their plans to make it to the final round of the 1-v-1’s and finish it off with an intense game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Everything Else. Nedzu and Aizawa shut it down very quickly and proclaimed that they could do an exhibition match during the break between rounds two and three.

Admittedly, he was disappointed. His quest to become the ultimate shit-poster at UA was being stifled by the higher powers at play! It was insulting that Nedzu thought he could dampen such a powerful and beautiful light!

Then the stoat explained that they could participate in the third year Festival instead and Izuku was immediately okay with it. It did mean he had to be on campus much longer than his classmates, as he was sure they’d want to go home to rest after the ordeal that was this Festival, but he could always ask them to watch him beat their upperclassmen into submission from their TV’s.

“Hey, Izu,” He looked up to see Shoto sit down across from him, also still in his school uniform, “Can I do the thing?”

“No you cannot do the thing.”

“But I wanna do the thing!”

“I’m sorry, what’s ‘the thing’?” Uraraka asked sheepishly. Tsu and Iida also had the same confused looks on their faces. They’d gotten used to his and Shoto’s stupid inside jokes (about their trauma) and the class had even started keeping a tally of how many times the two mentioned something that no one else knew about. Last Izuku saw it, they were at around twenty-five tallies.

“It’s a stupid inside joke of ours where he always has to proclaim he’s gonna beat my ass in whatever it is we’re doing,” Izuku rolled his eyes, “He does it every time, it’s so annoying.”

“I also have to do it in the most deadpan way ever,” Shoto’s hand moved in front of his face as it relaxed and stoned, shifting immediately into the cold, stoic Early-roki Izuku tried to push from his brain, “Know that I will beat you.”

Uraraka sputtered a laugh and had to cover her mouth with her hand as she coughed while Iida’s face morphed between looking humored and looking more confused than ever. It was cute, in the way a dog would raise its ears and tilt its head.

“He doesn’t even look the same!” Uraraka exclaimed as Shoto’s face went back to normal, “How are those the same person?!”

“How did this tradition start?” Tsu asked, ignoring Uraraka’s plight, “You two don’t seem like the type.”

Izuku chuckled, “Oh, you guys never saw it, but Shoto at the start of our friendship was like… kind of a hard-ass.”

“Hey-“

“Big man with big talks of how he wasn’t here to make friends and all that. But then we met and started seeing each other outside of school more and more and eventually he begrudgingly became my friend and helped me train for UA,” he was totally pulling this out of his ass, “He said that, those specific words to me, the first time I taught him how to play my favorite racing game. I couldn’t focus and he ended up winning out of pity.”

“It was not pity. It was me just being better than you,” Shoto relented, even if the backstory was fake, “Besides, we were friends from the moment I met you, I just didn’t know what capital-F feelings were at the time.”

“Emotionally repressed meets chronically obsessed, who wins?”

“The magic of friendship and ‘IT’S YOUR POWER’.”

They fell into their usual inside-joke laughs as Uraraka recovered and kept their conversation going. Soon, though, they were all called to the pitch for the opening ceremonies. Nedzu said that Izuku still had to give the opening speech due to coming in first during the entrance exams, so he followed them out and emerged from the tunnel when Midnight gestured for him to follow her.

Present Mic introduced him and Izuku grabbed the microphone from Midnight with a sort of false confidence. He shook his head, took a deep breath, and prayed to whatever god sent him back in time that his voice would not crack in front of literally millions of people.

“In our world, the thing anyone ever talks about is power. The power to control, the power to fight, the power that makes you better than everyone else around you. I ask you not to focus on the power today. I ask you to focus on the willpower, determination, and heart of the students standing before you. For that is what makes a true hero. Not the strength of someone’s hand, but how they use that hand to lift up and support others.”

“Today, you will witness the pride of UA: the crop that will, in just a few years, be your next greatest heroes. For now, they are students, eager to show you what they’ve already learned. Give them your love. And you,” he pointed to his fellow first-years, “-I expect a fair fight. Teamwork and strategy is your greatest strength right now. Give these people your all. It’s our school motto after all: Go Beyond?!”

“PLUS ULTRA!”

When he handed the microphone back to Midnight, she whispered in his ear, “Not bad, kid.”

He gave a final wave to the cheering crowd and stepped down to join Shoto in the stands.

It was just… such a shame that Endeavor got called away to handle a manhunt in Hosu during the Festival. Izuku wandered the back halls of the stadium with ease as he found the seats reserved for heroes and teachers. Aizawa was in the commentator’s booth with Present Mic, so he couldn’t count in sitting next to him, but he found Shoto easily enough and took his spot next to him.

“How’d your dad react to his sudden call from the Commission?” Izuku asked, noticing Shoto’s text chain with his father. Well, more like the number two hero’s rant about not being able to watch the Festival and Shoto’s various one-word responses.

“I’ve said ‘damn that’s crazy’, ‘oh my god’, ‘wow’, and ‘huh’ about fifty times interchangeably,” Shoto said with a side-eye, “He either hasn’t noticed or he genuinely thinks that’s how I still act. I think if I started telling him random shit like how I’m from the future, he wouldn’t notice at all.”

“That sounds like Endeavor. Did you tell him about not fighting in this one?”

“Yeah, I had to mention that we were in the third year Festival to get him off my back. He might still show up, but if he does, you know what to do.”

Izuku’s eyes glittered with their planned chaos. Should Shoto’s father show his face around here during their Festival, he would regret it even more than leaving Touya on that mountain that night. And that was SAYING SOMETHING. 

The first year Festival went exactly the same, minus two of the heaviest hitters in the class. Some more Gen-Ed kids got through to the cavalry fight but Bakugo’s team (him, Kirishima, Ashido, and Shinsou, surprisingly) swept it anyway. When the intermission started, Shoto and Izuku rushed to change into their gym uniforms for their exhibition match. They agreed with Present Mic that their fight was only supposed to be three minutes with very heavy limits on what they could show off.

So no Heaven-Splitting Ice Wall or Flashfire and no Gearshift or Infinite 100%. God only knows what destruction would be caused by these two if they had access to it.

“And for a bit of intermission entertainment,” the man screeched, “Two first-years who’ve gone above and beyond to warrant such an exhibition: Izuku Midoriya and Shoto Todoroki!”

They stood on either side of the cement platform, finishing their stretches. The actual intermission period was stretched further than normal to allow this fight at the very end as an opening to the third round.

“Three minutes on the clock, two students giving it their all, and one winner. Who will come out on top?!” Present Mic’s countdown began and Izuku fell into his instinctual fighting position. Instantly, he saw Shoto’s right foot twitch with the countdown. Shoto had gotten better at not letting his arm and leg movements give away his next move, and to the untrained eye he succeeded. But Izuku has known this boy for nearly two years and has a better analytical eye than anyone else he knows. The millisecond Present Mic said “go”, the arena was flooded with ice and Izuku was already in the sky, glowing green. He wasn’t wearing his gloves, so Air Force was a bit dampened, but it still did the job in getting him to the other side of the arena.

Shoto let out another ice wall and when Izuku dodged it with a tendril on one of the extruding bits of ice, he raised his left hand to incinerate his opponent. Izuku just landed right behind Shoto and kicked him in the back to send him sliding across the arena. Shoto went down to all fours to skid to a stop and was quick to retaliate with a large blast of fire. Luckily, this melted a bit of the ice around the blast’s path and it gave Izuku a good spot to land when the fire cleared.

Shoto had already moved as the fire dissipated and was using both sides to propel himself around the arena on a slide of ice. Izuku just watched the boy circle him and readied an arm with Fa Jin, then released his purple Smokescreen. Nedzu had mentioned that this would mess with their capturing of the fight, but Izuku’s punch against the ice wall that ruptured the slide also forced the Smokescreen mist backwards and off the arena’s edge.

Now, the green pitch around the arena was covered in the purple mist and it almost looked like a foggy drop into a bottomless chasm.

Shoto’s slide broke apart and he was sent careening to one side of the arena while Izuku stayed in the middle. Neither were out of breath, having only used a little of their immense stamina.

“They’ve got one minute left on the clock! Can either pull a victory from this?!”

Izuku’s body released yet another Smokescreen and he released several Blackwhip tendrils out of it, slapping them against the concrete in a way that was a hundred percent inspired by old monster movies. He used them, and Float, to rise up out of the fog like that one pre-quirk octopus supervillain, his body hanging limp from them.

When the fire hit them, he forced the tendrils to back off and he gently lowered back to the ground, “Playing with fire, Mr Todoroki? That’s rather dangerous!”

“Danger is my middle name!”

“Huh. I always thought your middle name was LOSER!” A series of tendrils launched out and Shoto wasn’t able to fend them all off with his flames, backing away to put more distance between him and Blackwhip. This sent him to the very edge of the platform and he nearly stepped off of it. Blackwhip grabbed at his arms and Izuku walked up, hands behind his back, “It’s admirable, truly.”

“Fuck you.”

“Come fuck me yourself, coward.”

Blackwhip dropped Shoto into the still-heavy bank of fog around the arena. The buzzer rang out and suddenly Blackwhip and Smokescreen disappeared as Izuku deactivated his quirks. A single tendril lifted Shoto back onto the arena and the two gave the incredibly loud crowd large smiles and waves of gratitude. Their match was less a match and more a performance.

Really, Izuku wanted to see exactly how many internship offers he’d be sent after that. Shoto was guaranteed a lot since he was Endeavor’s son, but a performance like that was the perfect thing to rack up as many offers as possible. He wanted the chart next week in class to look really stupid.

The two made their way off the pitch and gave Uraraka a series of motivational words and fistbumps as they passed her. Her first fight was against a Gen-Ed kid, not Shinsou luckily, but if she made it through the next two rounds, it was possible that she’d fight him, too. Izuku was determined to at least have her on the podium if she couldn’t win a final fight against Bakugo.

When the end of the final round came around, Bakugo had gotten first, with Uraraka in second and Tokoyami in third. It was strange to see Bakugo on the top of the podium without the restraints from the first run, but he was still scowling at the fact he couldn’t fight either Izuku or Shoto. He’d still get that opportunity if he didn’t get his act together, but Izuku was sure he could knock an Early-go flat on his ass within the time it took for Izuku to tweet something hateful about Endeavor. And Izuku had gotten really good at typing his hate comments in recent months. Don’t ask him why.

He and Shoto spent the second-year Festival with those classmates who weren’t entirely worn out from the event and soon returned to the school after sundown to attend the third-year Festival.

“Mirio!” Izuku called out to one of the Big Three when they entered the waiting room. Mirio instantly snapped his head over to look and returned Izuku’s smile.

“Midoriya! Todoroki!” He waved them over, but still met them halfway, “I watched your exhibition match! That was really something!”

“Oh my god, are these those first years?!” Hado flew over and began circling the two, “Your quirks are really interesting. Is it really half ice, half fire or is the fire some chemical reaction from what you use to make ice? Were those tentacle things a support item or just part of you? What was that smoke?!”

“Hado, you’re freaking them out,” Amajiki said, pulling at her shoulder to get her to back down, “At least, you’re freaking me out.”

“It’s quite alright, I would be happy to answer questions, but only after I beat you all in your own Festival,” Izuku said with his normal hero smile. He saw Amajiki duck behind Hado again and Mirio only laughed.

“I know Nedzu was sure about you guys participating, but I’m not so sure about your confidence that you can beat the people closest to being heroes at this school!”

“Trust me, it isn’t confidence, it’s stupidity,” Shoto said, “At least on Izu’s part.”

“Hey!”

“That was for the comment earlier about me being a hard-ass.”

“You cannot tell me that Early-roki wasn’t a bitch.”

“Stupid detected,” he placed his finger over Izuku’s mouth with a shush, “Opinion rejected.”

Lucky for Shoto, he yanked his hand away before Izuku could bite his finger off.

The first round of this Festival was kind of similar to the first-year one in the sense that it was meant to get rid of as many participants as possible. Where the first-year and second-year first rounds were an obstacle course and relay race respectively, the third-year first round was a giant game of Hide and Seek.

Cementoss used his quirk to turn the whole arena into a maze of concrete. It looked like a surrealist painting with staircases to nowhere, random openings in the walls, and plenty of places for Blackwhip to grab onto. Within minutes, all of the third years had climbed the structure and were hiding somewhere within the walls. Teachers who specialized in this sort of work, like Aizawa, Snipe, Midnight, and a half-a-dozen third year homeroom teachers, were let loose onto the pitch and told to find everyone.

Shoto found a good spot to hide close to where the teachers emerged from. He slid into place, nice and out of view, then when they had passed, he emerged and found a different spot nearby. It was risky, but if anyone had suspicions about that area, they’d think that someone else was already captured and not bother searching the rest of the hiding spaces.

The tower of surrealism went almost all the way to the top of the stadium. There was a rule that students couldn’t somehow jump from the top of the tower to the roof of the stadium, so Izuku didn’t let himself see that as a viable option. Instead, he used Float and Blackwhip to carry himself around the ceilings of the tower (really, they were just the bottoms of the upper floors, but what difference would that make?). He followed certain teachers around for entertainment value and even found a few third years himself. Mirio, Hado, and Amajiki were still in the game, as expected.

Soon, the fifteen minutes of game were up and Izuku and Shoto were among the remaining thirty-two participants. It was a shock to some, sure, but two lanky, short fifteen-year-olds went up against nearly a hundred eighteen-year-olds in a game of “squeeze yourself into the smallest space imaginable for fifteen minutes”. It wasn’t difficult to imagine how they had been able to win.

The second round was much like the first in terms of game-ness. Instead of it being a multi-team game, it was a two-team game of Capture the Flag. Two captains were chosen at random (a student with a light pixie quirk named Koka and a student with a shapeshifting quirk named Joli) and they then split the remaining students down the middle. Shoto and Izuku were on the same team, thankfully, as Koka was fast to gather them for her offensive and defensive lines. Joli hadn’t chosen them because he was a “stuck-up prick” as Mirio put it. Amajiki was the only one not on their team as Joli said “us formshifters have to stick together”.

Yeah, it’s safe to say it was a wipe in favor of Team Koka.

Koka had placed Shoto on defense with Hado and Izuku on offense with Mirio. The other eleven students were split between the two according to what Koka believed to be the best strategy using their quirks. One advantage of these guys being third-years was that they already knew each other insanely well. Not all of them were friends, as the distance between the hero classes and the other courses was still vast, but they had friendly banter and enough professional bridges and connections that they already worked really well together.

Izuku had studied quite a few of their quirks in the first run, and so many of them were now viewing the two as fellow third-years, despite the obvious age gap, that they didn’t blink when Izuku gave his input on Koka’s strategy. Shoto also got a few pointers from a fellow fire-user on the defensive line. They decided to stick together for the fight as Shoto’s ice could help the overheating issue with the other student.

The arena was once again changed by Cementoss, who made it into a large valley of hexagonal stone pillars separated by large gaps. The two ends were much higher up and contained the flags: a blue one guarded by Joli’s team and a red one guarded by Koka’s. The students could not cause anything that would bridge a gap between the pillars, unless it was temporary and only there to prevent people from falling. If you fell to the now-rubbery pitch below, you were out. If your team’s flag got taken to the other side successfully, your team lost. You could attack students for your flag back, but should it fall to the pitch, your team automatically lost.

The defensive line of their team was good. It had many long-range fighters who used elemental quirks that could go very vast distances. This kept the other team on-edge and at a disadvantage. Izuku and Mirio decided to team up at one point during the match and used Permeation to distract some students from their legs being grabbed by Blackwhip. Smokescreen covered many pillars and made the terrain, overall, very unsafe for those without flying quirks.

There was a very close call towards the end when a blue-team student carrying the red flag had almost made it to the blue homebase, only to slip on their jump and fall into the pit below. The red flag flew out of their hands and Izuku used Fa Jin to leap across the entire battlefield and catch it with Blackwhip. A collective sight of relief washed over the crowd and Izuku floated away and back towards the red base. Moments later, the ending buzzer rang out as Hado successfully dropped the blue flag into Koka’s awaiting hand.

Izuku and Shoto, two first-year students, had just successfully made it into the third round of the third-year Sports Festival.

It wasn’t any wonder that Inko called during the intermission.

“IZUKU!!!” She yelled through the phone. He had put it on speaker so Shoto could hear it as well, “I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!”

“Thanks, Mom. Nedzu was right about us being ready for this Festival. I nearly broke a sweat this time!”

“Don’t forget your clutch at the end, Izu, you saved us the whole game.”

“I am going to hold that over these guys for the rest of the year,” he said wistfully.

Shoto chuckled, “Miss Inko, your son is planning war crimes.”

She gasped, “Izuku! What have we said!”

“No war crimes…” he sighed, “But can I at least violate the Geneva Convention? As a treat?!”

“No! If Principal Nedzu is against it, then I’m against it.”

“I highly doubt Nedzu is against war crimes, but go off, queen.”

“I heard that, Shoto Todoroki.”

Eventually, she hung up as the third round was starting and Izuku was the first fight. He was against a student with a strange ink-based quirk that allowed them to dissolve their body into ink that their feet secreted and swim inside of the ground as if it were water. The student could only do it where the ink was and on flat surfacing, so Izuku was fast to destroy the arena and combat the student in hand-to-hand. They nearly got him, but Izuku planted a Fa Jin-charged leg onto their stomach, flipped back onto his back, and kicked them out of the arena.

“Good one!” He jogged over and helped them to their feet. He’d have to analyze this quirk later, it was so cool, “It’s very impressive how well you can control that!”

“Thanks, kid,” they said, taking his outstretched hand and accepting his help to get to Recovery Girl, “You’re not so bad, for a first year.”

Shoto’s first fight was, unfortunately, against Koka. Her quirk was the pixie-like wings on her back and a sunlight-manipulation quirk. She could still manipulate the moonlight, however dim it was with the stadium lights, but her wings proved to be an issue as they succumbed to the frost of Shoto’s ice. When she surrendered, he was quick to heat them up to prevent damage.

Their second fights were against other third-years with various quirks and support gear, as this crop had a lot of support students making it through to the finals. As expected, they were happy to just let the support students show off enough for the crowd before they accepted defeat. Soon, Izuku and Shoto were in the semi-finals.

Shoto was going up against the third-year who had beaten Hado and Izuku was up against Mirio.

Y’know, when strategizing and fighting a war with someone in an alternate timeline, you pick up on a lot of that particular person’s tricks and schemes. Izuku knew Mirio’s style to be one of quick movements across a wide area using his Permeation, but what he didn’t have down exactly was how to correctly beat the kid. Danger Sense and Float were key in this fight and Izuku just needed a way to either pin down the boy long enough for a forfeit (impossible with a quirk like Permeation) or send him careening out of bounds on his own (much more doable if Izuku played his cards right).

Shoto’s fight was short lived, as the student he was against had a very unfair weakness to light, much like Tokoyami. All Shoto had to do was use his fire in creative ways to disorient the kid (yelling “FLASHBANG” the entire time like an asshole) and use his ice to send him off the platform.

As Izuku met Mirio on the arena floor for the second semi-final fight, the crowd was at the most excited they’d ever been. Two students, one a well-known and powerful third-year with the highest chance of getting to number one out of high school and the other a first-year who appeared to have approximately seven bajillion quirks he could use interchangeably, were about to either level the entire stadium or cause a punch heard around the world.

The same second Present Mic told them to start, Mirio slipped into the ground (thankfully, the school learned from their last Sports Festivals and gave him a special gym uniform that could go with him. Why Mirio didn’t use it during their fight before the work studies in the first run was beyond him). Izuku kicked off the concrete and started to float around the arena, keeping an eye on the ground directly below him. When the slightest bit of yellow hair poked from the ground, he sent Blackwhip out to grab the now-nonpermeable Mirio. As expected, the whip went right through the bastard at a specific point, but it did latch onto the ground behind him. Izuku tugged and his foot caught onto a nonpermeable part of Mirio, sending him to the floor with the One for All user.

This caused Mirio to stumble a bit, but he didn’t fall out of bounds. He was more shocked than anything. When he reached a hand up to push his fallen hair from his eyes, Izuku noticed something in the stadium lights.

Whenever there was a permeable part of Mirio, where he activated his quirk, his skin took on a strange sheen. It wasn’t at-all noticeable by anyone that wasn’t Izuku, much like Shoto’s subtle moving of limbs to summon his powers, so it was no surprise that Mirio might not have noticed it. Izuku filed the knowledge away for the time being and ran forwards to hopefully catch the kid more off-guard.

This didn’t work, but Danger Sense warned him of the rocketing Mirio a few seconds later and Izuku kicked himself to the right to avoid it. Thank god for Super Anxiety.

Another minute or so of jumping around and avoiding Mirio and testing his theory on the quirk-activated sheen proved effective. The sheen only covered his skin, as expected, and was difficult to see through the quirk-assistant clothing. This was a major discovery and even was impressive that Mirio subconsciously covered as much of his body with his hero suit as possible. Le Million would not have the same weakness to normal villains, even to ones who could somehow figure out the weakness. Lucky for Izuku, though, Mirio’s jacket got torn off by a rogue Blackwhip tendril and was sent across the arena floor, exposing his chest and more of the quirk sheen.

Izuku knew that Mirio couldn’t do much with his chest, as his quirk prevented breathing when on his lungs, but Izuku saw that Mirio’s quirk control was crazy and that the kid probably studied anatomy enough to have the area encompassing his lungs non-permeable to keep himself alive.

‘Tricky bastard…’ Izuku thought, ‘But not tricky enough.’

Mirio appeared once more and Izuku used Fa Jin to launch himself at the third-year rather violently. His kick hit a non-shimmering part of Mirio’s body and successfully sent him flying across the arena, directly into the wall behind him.

Mirio was out of bounds and Izuku was now in the finals.

Two first-year students had just beaten every third-year at their own game and were about to fight each other. If a shiver went down the spine of every villain in Japan, none of them had the balls to admit it out loud or even to themselves.

Midnight and Cementoss shared anxious looks with each other as Izuku and Shoto took the stage once more. Their exhibition match had spread rather quickly after the first-year Festival ended and the broadcast concluded. Now, they were about to fight again, no holds barred, for a Festival that wasn’t even their own.

“Are the two fighters ready?” Midnight yelled over the roaring crowd.

“Yes, ma’am!” Izuku gave her a sharp nod.

“Born ready,” Shoto mused.

Cementoss kept his hands on the edges of the arena from the start and Midnight was two seconds away from putting the boys to sleep and letting the audience vote for their winner. But, they had a job to do: the job of letting these children fight for the entertainment of millions. For the first time in their careers, they hesitated to give Present Mic the signal to begin his countdown.

Present Mic, unbeknownst to the audience or even the two kids, gave his co-commentator (Aizawa, who was as smug as ever for some strange reason) a very, very long look before activating his microphone and beginning his countdown.

With three times as many Sports Festivals as years UA had been in operation, there have been many times where a 1-v-1 had led to an unexpected conclusion. There was even an example in the first-years’ Festival with Kirishima and Testutestu’s arm-wrestle for the winner of their match. Many times, a coin had been flipped, a vote amongst teachers had been counted, and a simpler challenge like a race or a fast-paced puzzle was brought in to settle a match.

But, somehow, never in all of UA’s history, had a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors determined the winner of a Sports Festival.

But as Izuku and Shoto calmly approached each other at the center after Present Mic’s countdown, the spectators here were about to witness history. They held their breath as both boys raised their fists and brought them down in front of each other, only for them to gently bounce them thrice and change between a fist and a flat hand for each.

The un-mic’d mumbling of “rock, paper, scissors, shoot” somehow echoed through the stadium four times. Two of those rounds were ties and two went to one of the boys. Now tied 1-1, they raised their arms again and on “shoot” changed their hands once more.

Shoto had scissors.

Izuku had rock.

“I forfeit,” Shoto said to Midnight.

Two firsts were done that night. The second of which was that a first-year UA student had just won the third-year UA Sports Festival. This was somehow not the most talked about of the two.

~~~~~

Somewhere, All for One stared at his tv screen, unbelieving of what he had just witnessed. This child, this scrawny teenager, was carrying One for All, but at a level of mastery that no other wielder had ever had. Wherever All Might got this kid from was someplace All for One wanted to be. With Tomura and Kurogiri captured, the Nomu production and subsequent healing of his body had slowed tremendously. And with that pesky Hero Killer running around, All for One had little options.

And how he hated having little options.

That child needed to be within his grasp soon and the final thread All for One had right now needed to enact their plan soon. To trust another teenager with such an important development wasn’t something All for One wanted to do, but it was necessary to reconstruct the foundations of his new empire.

Izuku Midoriya would burn for his hubris, just as Caesar and Icarus before him.

~~~~~

Shoto got home very late that night.

His second-place medal was buried somewhere in the bag he just threw onto the couch and his body felt like it was about two seconds away from shutting down. The Festivals weren’t particularly taxing on him, he had fought in a war before, but the exhaustion slowly crept into his mind. To fit all three broadcasts into one day, UA started fairly early and ran fairly late. By the time Shoto got home, he had asked Fuyumi to go to bed and not wait for him five or six times.

She hadn’t listened of course and had just left the kitchen with a tray of tea and a plate of congratulatory cookies she made in her waiting.

“Yumi, you didn’t have to-“ Shoto said, taking a cookie anyway.

“I did! Shoto, you and your friend made history today! I wasn’t about to not wait to be the first of the family to congratulate you!” She practically buzzed with energy and Shoto wondered what she spiked her tea with to stay up until 1 in the morning, “Dad still hasn’t gotten back from Hosu, and I doubt he’s seen the broadcast highlights yet. Has he texted you?”

Shoto pulled out his phone for the first time since leaving the school and saw no new messages besides those from his sister, “No. I bet he’s captured some big villain or something.”

Their distraction worked a bit too well. Endeavor had been called out by the Commission to assist in the manhunt for the Hero Killer: Stain. Tensei Iida was supposed to go on his own, but an anonymous call tipped off that Stain was going after him specifically, so the Commission forced his agency, Iidaten, to have his patrol before the Festival instead of during. Shoto remembered seeing a blue-haired man cheering rather enthusiastically when Iida came in fourth in the obstacle course and made it into the finals after the cavalry battle.

Tensei had been saved and all it took was Endeavor being forced onto a strike team he wasn’t in charge of. Shoto relished being in the house with only Fuyumi for once and let himself sink deeper into the couch, his tie long forgotten and his shirt sleeves unbuttoned. The Hosu incident had been prevented and hopefully that started a chain reaction. Nedzu said that the boys could go see Shigaraki in Tartarus, but only Izuku took him up on the offer as Shoto had plans to spend his internship week finding Touya.

Speaking of older brothers, the man hid himself well, but not well enough. Nedzu had acquired several confidential reports of a scarred, black-haired man with a blue-fire quirk terrorizing small areas near Kamino and narrowed down a field of search for Shoto to start on. He couldn’t use his quirk legally until their provisional licenses got settled, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use his words. And, boy, did Shoto have a lot of words for his emo-as-hell oldest brother.

He dared not bring up his search to his other siblings, lest they demand they join him and inevitably get hurt, but he wasn’t going to hide this secret, both of Touya and the time-traveling, much longer. Izuku was already planning how to tell Inko, but he suspected that she already knew, even if she didn’t have all the details. Fuyumi also had her suspicions, but that was only because of Shoto’s very sudden change in demeanor and mannerisms a few months before UA. He went from being cold, off-putting, and somewhat cruel with an ice chip on his shoulder, to being warm, inviting, sarcastic, and a bringer of banter and jokes. Shoto’s apparent breaking of his vow to never use “Father’s quirk” probably set off a lot of alarms in his sister’s head.

One of these days, he’ll tell her, but when that day arrived, he hoped to have all of his siblings at his side, their father’s invitation pending. The man still had a whole character arc to go through, after all, and Shoto was on the fence about whether or not he should allow it to happen.

But as Shoto let Fuyumi talk his ear off over tea and cookies, at a time that Endeavor would most certainly not approve of, he allowed himself this precious moment of safety.

The same safety he only ever felt when he was at Izuku’s side.

~~~~~

Enji had just about had it.

The past year of his life had been a shitfest and a half, with how his son was now so determined to train on his own that he’d go out for hours at a time and not come back until late in the evening. Shoto had started using his fire, sure, but that was at the cost of being more rebellious. Enji hoped that this was just a phase and Shoto would be back in his control soon enough, but the months went on.

Soon, Enji learned about Shoto’s friendship with that green kid. Fuyumi had mused once after Shoto left about how she was glad he was finally making friends, something Enji wasn’t privy to. His daughter then went on to talk about “the green-haired boy” that often waited outside of the mansion’s gates for Shoto on those days the boy was out the longest.

At first glance, the boy was nothing special. He had a glowing smile, was sort of thin and weak-looking, and was always the first to start talking and didn’t stop before Enji lost sight of them. And it was always about nonsense, like a fight he had seen that day or what All Might was doing. Why his son, an ice block of a boy, was fraternizing with such a child wasn’t something Enji could understand.

Then, Shoto mentioned that the kid had also gotten into UA. Into Shoto’s class. With the highest score on the written and practical exams. From what Enji heard of the kid’s analysis, he was a capable mind, but that kid? The one that looked like he was one small breeze away from flying into the ocean?? Enji wasn’t buying it. That kid somehow bribed the UA board of directors, or even Nedzu himself.

It was thanks to this kid that Shoto wasn’t himself, wasn’t what Enji had raised him to be. It was because of this delinquent that Shoto had been muttering like a maniac to himself, being more independent, and questioning his father. Enji had to put a stop to it and he was planning on doing so at the Sports Festival, where he could corner the boy and force him to not stick around Shoto anymore at least, or leave UA entirely at most.

Then the goddamn Hero Commission put Endeavor onto a strike force against the Hero Killer and every plan fell to the wayside as Enji now had to be in fucking Hosu the entire week. He had made his opinions heard in his and Shoto’s texting thread and from the sound of it, Shoto had the same thought. It was crazy and confusing, specifically why Endeavor of all heroes was called upon.

Hosu was a tight fit and any fights with Stain would most likely be in a dark, damp alley somewhere. Endeavor wasn’t an alley kind of hero. This type of fighting was much more suited for Ingenium or Manual, who were also stationed in Hosu. Enji was just given Ingenium’s patrol schedule upon arrival as the man had been called in for an earlier shift the week before and was now at UA watching his younger brother fight in the first-year games.

That was supposed to be Enji! He had a teenager to traumatize, for God’s sake!

In between his patrols and strike team planning, Enji found himself indulging in his one and only guilty pleasure: online discourse. With a secondary account that had absolutely no ties to his official, verified hero account, Enji stalked forums, trending pages, discussion threads, and textposts all about heroes and hero society. If there was an argument somewhere about a hero in the Top One Hundred, Enji was there to either defend the hero’s honor or help tear them down. He was a machine of research, analysis, and correct opinions.

He did have a constant rival, though, in the form of one account called SmallMighty. The irony was not lost on him.

As it were, he wasn’t able to check his phone all day the day of the Sports Festival and when he finally got back to the place his agency rented for the week, he caught the tailend of the third-year games’ second round. Shoto had mentioned that Principal Nedzu had bumped him and another classmate up to these games and Enji was curious as to how far his volatile son had gotten in a Festival two years older than him. He was slapped in the face by the sight of the green kid (Izuku Midoriya, the screen said) clutching the red team’s flag with his quirk, some sort of black energy whip thing.

The games switched to intermission and Enji pulled up his second account to find clips of the first and second events. All he found, however, were clips from the first-year intermission. Strange that an intermission was being talked about, but Enji dove deeper to discover why.

The school had allowed an exhibition match between his son and Midoriya.

An exhibition match that looked like a fight between two high-ranking pros.

Shoto used his ice and fire interchangeably, something Enji had started training him on only a few months ago. He showed off skills and tricks that Enji wasn’t aware he even concepted and was very close at times to getting Midoriya out of bounds.

But the other kid was just as insane! Floating and kicking and flicking air and those whips again and the lightning and everything else was flying all over the stage. He even used some sort of mist emitter to look like he was a cryptid emerging from the dark. If he were a lesser man, Enji would’ve shit his pants!

The kid was a lunatic and Shoto appeared to have gotten influenced by Midoriya’s insanity.

He was done watching and rewatching the three-minute fight when the intermission for the still-live Festival was up. Enji moved to watch the remaining fights and was confused every time. Shoto and Midoriya fought every third year like they were following a script, able to keep up with every little thing and ultimately winning in the end.

The real kicker, however, was the final round. Enji knew his son could win against this kid, he was made to defeat even All Might, but the exhibition match had planted a seed of doubt into Enji’s mind. If this kid was that powerful and terrifying, then would Shoto really stand a chance. He watched them emerge onto the arena, confidence oozing off of them in waves, and the announcers actually looked scared.

Cowards.

Midnight raised her hand and called for the fighters to confirm their readiness. The commentator returned to the mic at the cut end of a deep sigh and began his countdown. The boys waited until the call of “go” to begin walking towards one another. Enji saw the faint green lightning of Midoriya’s quirk activate in his left fist and a faint smoke billow from Shoto’s own.

They raised them, then brought them down.

And played Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Midoriya was announced the winner.

Enji closed his laptop with a blank expression on his face and looked around the bedroom he’d commandeered. Everything was too expensive to break. The rising anger in his throat was beginning to overwhelm him and, for the first time in his life, he didn’t want to let it out.

So, with the grace of a mother putting her sleeping infant down into its crib, Enji carefully removed himself from the bed, placed his laptop on the nightstand, turned to the open floor, and gently lowered himself to lie on it, face-down.

And he stayed like that.

For roughly thirteen hours.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Izu, look at what one of my dad’s sidekicks sent me today,” Shoto pushed his phone across the lunch table towards Izuku, who caught it right before it went off the side and studied the screen, “They said he was nearly unresponsive.”

The photo of Endeavor face-first in the carpet of some hotel room made Izuku nearly choke on his rice, “Holy fuck, Sho, why the hell does he look like that-“

“I think he watched our match.”

“Has he called or texted you?” Izuku shoved the phone back, but not before showing Uraraka and Tsu the photo of their Number Two Hero. Uraraka let out the loudest, ugliest laugh ever, gaining the attention of many other students near them (they would never bring it up, the fact she was eating lunch with “The Monsters” would protect her) and Tsu slapped both hands over her face and struggled to contain her own laughter.

“Nope, it broke him too bad,” Shoto said, ignoring them.

“Serves him right.”

“What broke who?” Iida asked as he sat down across from a still-struggling Tsu, “And why do the girls look like that?”

Shoto silently handed him the phone with the picture (he had already added many stupid emojis and made it his lockscreen) and Iida nodded sagely. Tensei must have done this a lot in the past and Iida was just used to what that pose typically meant.

“I see. Your father’s reaction to your matches was up to par, then?”

“Indeed it was. Fuyumi said he got back a few hours ago and hasn’t said a word to her yet. Not even about his capture of Stain on Sunday.”

“Oh my, Endeavor really needs a break after this.”

Izuku turned in the booth to face the boy, “Hey, Iida, how’s your brother? I saw him at the Festival, but couldn’t get him to sign his page in my notebook.”

“He’s great!” Iida’s smile brightened by a thousand times at the mention of Tensei, “He had the patrol before the Festival, unexpectedly, so he came to watch and support! I swore I heard him through the crowd at times.”

“I saw him, he had a giant sign with ‘Go Tenya!’ written on it. I think it had poorly-drawn engines on it.”

Iida chuckled, “Yes, he showed me the sign. Mother helped him make it as he has horrid handwriting.”

“I assume he insisted on drawing by himself?” Shoto raised an eyebrow, then laughed, “You wouldn’t expect us to be talking about a pro hero who’s, what, 30?”

“He’s 26, but I see what you mean. Tensei is just passionate about everything.”

Uraraka and Tsu finally recovered from the Endeavor Breakdown picture and joined in to talk about family and Tsu’s younger siblings. Izuku and Uraraka had nothing to add, but Shoto’s mention of his “emo-ass, ugly-ass, stupid-ass, dramatic-ass bitchass of an eldest brother” was something Tsu nodded along to (“If you don’t complain constantly about your siblings and then offer to bury a body with them, what’s the point?”). Iida’s relationship with his older brother wasn’t quite like that, but he did understand Tsu’s sentiment of both adoring and despising your siblings with a burning passion.

~~~~~

When Aizawa said he was bringing a guest for their next training session, Hitoshi fully expected someone like Present Mic or Midnight. Y’know, other heroes who fought quirkless that could assist Aizawa in monitoring Hitoshi’s progress? What Hitoshi didn’t expect, not once in a million years, was one half of the “Monsters of UA”, Izuku Midoriya. But the scene Hitoshi walked in on at one of UA’s many training gyms went beyond his expectations and just straight-up confused him.

Midoriya was stretching in the school gym uniform and talking at Aizawa, mouth going a mile a minute like he was rapping a complex section of lyrics. Hitoshi couldn’t at all follow the words he was saying, even as he got closer and focused. All he could get was something about the media and Endeavor. The hero noticed Hitoshi and kicked his own student in the shins, silencing him.

“Shinsou, I have no doubt that you know who this is, but for professionalism’s sake, meet Izuku Midoriya. He’ll be assisting me with your physical and quirk training.”

Then, the absolute ball of sunshine that was Midoriya lit up and Hitoshi resisted the urge to squint in the pure light, “Good to finally meet you, Shinsou! I watched your fights at the Festival and I gotta say, I’m hella impressed!”

“Thanks?” The kid who could pass as a seasoned pro hero in a teenager’s clothing was impressed with Hitoshi’s garbage performance at the Festival? What kind of backwards logic was this kid running on?

“Of course, as with anything, there’s room for improvement,” he clapped his hands together, “So! Let’s get started, shall we?”

And thus began the worst month and a half of Hitoshi’s life.

~~~~~

Since Nedzu knew about their knowledge of the future, Izuku and Shoto had started taking their Foundational Heroics classes with him after the USJ. It was a simple “remedial course” regarding the complexities of heroics and battle planning. First Run Nedzu was very careful to not traumatize the children too much with his endless streams of knowledge and curiosity, but New Nedzu had the luxury of knowing that whatever he said wasn’t going to be as bad as them remembering their deaths.

While the rest of 1-A had sparring and quirk training with Aizawa and whatever teacher that was free, the two would be going over what else was needed to defeat this timeline’s All for One. It spawned what the trio had been calling The Board of Doom 2.

“Having a visual representation will assist in more detailed decision-making!” Nedzu had said as Izuku copied what they had at his board at home onto a hidden board in the principal’s office. Having two copies of their plans also meant Nedzu could create his own theories in his off-time, making their endeavor that much easier.

But today, the Monday after the Sports Festival, Nedzu proposed that Izuku go with him on a trip to Tartarus to see Shigaraki during their “remedial class”. It wasn’t a trip Izuku was particularly excited to go on, but he had to face the music one of these days and getting information out of Shigaraki now was easier than later. All Might offered to come with for ease of comfort (and to see the grandson of his former master), but Izuku declined.

“He won’t trust us if we show up with the Number One Hero. We need to go about this carefully and without much pressure on him,” Izuku said, Nedzu nodded along next to him, “I’ll speak with him alone and try to get him to open up about his time with All for One, but it’ll be a long process.”

So, their final class of the day rolled around and the 1-A door opened to the principal, “Midoriya, please come with me.”

“Not Todoroki?” Aizawa asked, mostly for appearances’ sake, “Usually it’s both of them.”

“Todoroki will be joining you for your Foundational Heroics class today as you will be going over internships. Midoriya and I have a separate appointment to get to.”

“Alright. You heard ‘im, Midoriya. Get a move on.”

Izuku nodded and gathered his things to follow the stoat out of the classroom. His classmates at first were curious as to why Izuku was being pulled out when he and Shoto were a known package deal, but upon Nedzu cleverly mentioning that Shoto was to be a part of their class that day and that they would be learning more about their internships, the class started talking about their excitement for the next week of experience with actual heroes. Izuku gave his friends a final grin and left campus with Nedzu beside him.

The drive to Tartarus was pretty long, with it resting just off the coast, so Nedzu and Izuku filled that time with talks of analysis, the future, and what possible quirks All for One had at the moment. Their ultimate goal was to find and kill or capture the man before the summer was up and his body was made whole again. Izuku knew their main place of operations and the warehouse that served as the Nomu-making factory and a surveillance team had been placed on both of them already.

Not by the Commission, but by Nedzu himself.

Turns out, when you’re an animal with an intelligence quirk and an intense hatred of humanity for how they’ve treated you in the past, you tend to get whatever you want if it keeps you happy and contained. Nedzu knew this and behind those beady black eyes was a mind so masterful at manipulation and subtle threats that Izuku was inclined to believe that the stoat had some Commission member’s kid tied up in a basement somewhere.

But Izuku also knew that Nedzu was never one to target children. He taught at a school and had seen the horrors of mistreated children. So, by all accounts, there was no kidnapped child used to pull the strings behind the scenes. Nedzu was just like that.

In the first run, Izuku had never been to Tartarus. He knew his teachers, especially All Might, had gone to speak to All for One when he was still trapped here and Kurogiri when they’d finally captured the warper. Now, though, Izuku couldn’t believe the sight he was seeing. Tartarus was massive in both size and depth. For one facility to be casually kept so close to society and house some of the greatest, most dangerous people in all of Japan, it had to be this big.

The metal bridge was already intimidating, but the facility it led to was even more so. Giant panels of metal connected to the outer walls, said to be strong enough to withstand a punch from All Might in his prime. Guard towers hung on either side of where the bridge met the wall and Izuku could see the many soldiers with anti-quirk weaponry hanging out of the windows. The salty sea air hit his lungs the second he stepped out of the car and he was glad he had the forethought to pull back most of his curls with pins that morning, as those that were unbound flew into his face by the wind.

Through security, a nearly fifty-stage process regarding body scans, metal detectors, lie detectors, quirk analysis, and quirk-suppressing bracelets (not for Nedzu, never for Nedzu), the stoat and teen were finally greeted by the prison warden, a woman named Mahal. Warden Mahal led them down the heavily fortified halls towards the visitor’s room and Izuku tried not to let his eyes wander for fear of being seen as analyzing for hopes of a prison break.

How All for One made it out of here in the first place wasn’t told to Izuku, nor was it really found out before his death. All they knew was that the only SS+ rank villain had let a bunch of violent, dangerous, and vengeful prisoners escape and that the country needed every hero, licensed or not, on the capture teams. It made Izuku’s stomach churn knowing that Lady Nagant was somewhere within these walls. Had he a current reason to visit her and talk, he totally would.

A quirk like hers, Rifle, would be immensely helpful in the coming battle, but with her blacklisted by the Commission for her rebellious tendencies, Izuku had very low hopes of ever helping her become a hero again.

He shook his head as Warden Mahal opened the visitor room door and motioned for the protective shielding between them and the prisoner to be brought up. Izuku sat down gently and without a sound as the metal slowly lifted and he made eye contact with Tomura Shigaraki.

He sat hunched in his chair, falling forward despite the restraints placed across his chest. His hands were covered in partial gloves tied to quirk suppressant cuffs, which were chained to the arms of his chair. Pale blue hair hung in front of his eyes, but Izuku could still see the blood red of his irises.

Shigaraki’s breathing was coarse as he inhaled, “What? Here to gloat? Kick a man while he’s down.”

“No, Young Shigaraki,” Nedzu’s ears flapped as he shook his head, “We only wish to talk.”

“Talk?” The man scoffed, “You heroes and your talking. You think words can solve everything. It’s why you don’t try anymore.”

“We want to understand you and your predicament: why you chose to attack the USJ, why you brought a creature capable of defeating All Might with hopes of doing so, and why you still refuse to cooperate.”

He laughed, “Understand me? No one can. The only one who does is Sensei.”

“Sensei?” Izuku asked, “The man who raised you? Who took you from your home?”

Slow breaths hitched, “What do you know about Sensei?”

“Depends. What do you know…” green eyes narrowed and for once, Izuku allowed himself to fall back into who he was as a vigilante: dark and dangerous, “…Tenko Shimura?”

The chair did a remarkable job at keeping Shigaraki bound (and Izuku did an even better job at not flinching) as he tried to launch himself at Izuku through the glass, “THAT CHILD IS DEAD.”

“No, he’s sitting right in front of me,” he opened the file he’d been clutching since they entered the building and began reading, “Tenko Shimura, age 20, son of Kotaro and Nao Shimura, grandson of hero Nana Shimura. All deceased."

“Stop-“

“Quirk: Decay. A five-point activation quirk in which the user turns whatever they touch to dust. After an incident left Tenko’s family dead by his own hand, he was taken in by Zen Shigaraki, villain name: All for One, quirk: All for One.”

“Shut your mouth.”

“You were then raised by the man known as the Symbol of Evil, the Boogeyman of the Underground. You were fed lies about your family, about your grandmother, in an attempt to turn you into a vessel for his power.”

“I said, stop-“

“He only now trusted you with an attempt on All Might’s life. An attempt that ended in the worst possible way: your capture,” Izuku snapped the file shut. He didn’t even need to read from it to say that, it was more for appearances’ sake. They were still on camera after all, “Do you know why Tartarus is called that?”

He wasn’t given a response.

“It’s called that because in Greek Mythology, Tartarus is a prison in the land of the dead. The worst evils are placed there and tortured for all of eternity, never to see the light of day again,” he tried to soften his look, but his instincts screamed at him, “I do not want that for you, Tenko. I know you can change.”

“There is nothing to change,” Shigaraki snapped.

“Then I will not force it. I will just be here, every week, until you are able to finally see the truth. Heroes failed you, I can see that. They failed to arrive fast enough to protect you from the worst evil Japan has seen, but Tenko?” Izuku waited for Shigaraki’s eyes to appear past his hair before continuing, “I promise that I won’t fail you the same way. Saving people doesn’t just mean protecting them from villains. It also means saving them from the horrors they’ve seen. Healing isn’t linear and I know you’ve got a long road ahead of you.”

Shigaraki didn’t say anything and Nedzu’s nose twitched impatiently.

Izuku sighed, “Just know, Tenko, that I’m here for you. Whatever you’ve gone through can be left behind and you can change. I’ll come back when I can. We have all the time in the world.”

“…whatever.”

Izuku and Nedzu rose as the shield lowered once more. Red eyes stared at him until the very last second and once the metal fully covered the glass, Izuku finally let out a tense breath of hot air. Warden Mahal escorted them out of the prison, but not before taking them to the viewing room of Kurogiri. He was tied up like before, and his vital signs were low enough to classify him as dead to everyone. Everyone but Izuku and Nedzu.

Inside of that purple smoke was a dear friend of Aizawa and Yamada and Izuku was determined to give them their friend back, even as an actual body to bury and leave dead. The nomu-fied corpse of Oboro Shirakumo said nothing by the time the student and principal left the Bronze Gate.

Once back on the mainland, Izuku loosened his tie and sunk into the seat, “And I thought my death was stressful.”

“No doubt you only saw the man who killed you in his eyes,” Nedzu said, “I’m proud of you, Midoriya. I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”

“I have to save him, Nedzu.”

“I know you do, but knowing that some just don’t want to be saved is just as important. Your health shouldn’t be placed second behind his. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

Nedzu nodded in acknowledgement, “Now, Aizawa has told me that Todoroki is planning on interning with a hero in Kamino to hopefully find his eldest brother. Have you thought about who you’ll go with?”

“I want to go with Nighteye early and get Eri out of the way, but I can’t do anything without my provisional,” he ran his hands down his face, “You said we can attend the exam the week after next?”

“Yes, it will be the part of the replacement for your end-of-term finals before summer. After that, we will commence Operation Future. He will be caught before our time is up, I am sure of it.”

“… thank you, sir.”

~~~~~

Shoto was glad that Junebug was available for internships because this woman’s agency covered a vast majority of Kamino. Other heroes who offered him an internship were either not close enough to the bar and warehouse or completely overshadowed by the range of other agencies. Out of the 9,000-plus offers he got (a much-lower number than Izuku’s 15,000, but that was understandable, as most agencies thought Shoto would go with his father), the Cicada Hero: Junebug was the best chance he had at finding Touya.

While he wasn’t out on patrol, he was scouting the other areas in search of the bar (he found it fairly easily and tracked good routes between it and the agency building before sending it all to Nedzu, just in case) and of his brother. Touya wasn’t a man who would want to be found, but if Shoto got anything from his father, it was his stubbornness.

Day four of searching ultimately brought up nothing, so night four had to at least give him a glimpse of that dyed hair and scorched jacket. Shoto threw on his disguise and made for the streets once more, taking the streets and alleys he hadn’t yet. He recognized the hypocrisy of telling First Run Iida to not go after Stain for his brother and then turning around and going after his own brother for his family. He also ignored the little voice in his mind that brought up said hypocrisy.

As Shoto walked past a dark alley, he saw a cloaked figure book it up the fire escape on the side of the apartment building. Shoto caught the faintest glimpse of purple skin and metal piercings before he was chasing the figure up the ladders and across rooftops.

The war brought not only extreme quirk usage but also non-quirk usage. Shoto couldn’t use his ice as it left evidence behind and he couldn’t use his fire as it would tip off people below. So instead, he ran across the rooftops with a grace he cultivated during chases where he wanted to preserve his quirk stamina. Escaped convicts really liked parkour.

Shoto chased Dabi to a highrise across town, then slowed as Dabi stood on the edge of the building, hands in his coat pockets.

“You are one hard tail to shake off, you know that?” Dabi said. His voice was as scratchy as ever, possibly due to constant smoke inhalation the last nine years. It wasn’t as bad as Shoto’s final moments in the last timeline, but it was still something that needed to be treated. Dabi eyed the disguise, “Who even are you? I don’t get many fans out here.”

Shoto shoved his hood off and pulled his mask down with a heavy eye roll towards his brother, “I’m the bitch you better listen to or I’m gonna get really annoyed.”

“Shoto?” The villain’s eyes went wide, icy blue glowing somehow, “How did you know-?”

“There’s only one bastard dramatic enough to have blue fire, a hate for Endeavor, and a body that can’t handle its own quirk,” he chided. He wanted to get closer, but he knew the second he did, Dabi would bolt, “And his name is Touya Todoroki.”

“You don’t know anything, not about what happened, not about what he did.”

The dual-quirk user laughed and scared Dabi, “Dude, I know a lot of things. I don’t care about Dad right now, he could die in a ditch for all I care, but I do care about the people I’m training to protect and they need him. Not as a symbol, but as a pillar of strength. His Emboar-lookin’ ass may be ugly as shit, but he’s still important. I just want you to come home so Fuyumi can have her twin back.”

Dabi considered it for a second, then sighed, nodding with the face of a man who was told he didn’t need to be on the run for nine years, “Y’know, I watched the Sports Festival, just to see how you were doing and I was shocked that you weren’t participating,” he paused, “Then you went up against that green kid and I was like ‘oh okay’.”

“Nice reference.”

“Your power is far too much for a teenager. You shouldn’t be this good at controlling it, even if he did train you everyday.”

“One of life’s greatest mysteries.”

“And now you come after me and tell me that you’re doing it for our sister.”

Shoto nodded and sarcastically gave his estranged brother a very sarcastic thumbs-up, “Got it on one, my guy. Now, I’m required by my agreement with Nedzu to tell you that if you want to be done with this quote-unquote ‘dramafest’, you can come with me to UA at the end of my internship and we can help you.”

“What’s your little hero school got to do with this?” He gestured to all of himself.

“A lot, actually. Intel states that you and a few others were planning on joining a little group called the League of Villains. Well, I don’t know if this information has reached your little club yet, but Shigaraki has been captured and is being held in Tartarus after attacking my class during a UA-sanctioned field trip.”

“What.”

“So he won’t be available for open auditions. Nedzu has offered you a chance at redemption and making your voices heard without all the maiming and murder, so if you come with me, we can get it all sorted out,” Shoto pulled out one of Nedzu’s business cards. It was one of those cards that had a visual puzzle on them where you had to hold it up to the light at a specific angle to see the information printed on it because the rat was pretentious like that, “Touya, I promise I’m not gonna arrest you. The worst you’ll get is being attacked by Fuyumi when she sees you next and I will not protect you from her because you deserve to get your ass kicked for this.”

“Wow, really feeling the sibling connection, lil bro.”

“Don’t say that, it’s cringe.”

“Who taught you that?”

“A classmate. Anyway, I better be heading back, I have a full hour of teenage angst on the schedule for tonight and I’d hate to push it back by another fifteen minutes. Toodles!” he turned to leave and gave Dabi a small salute as he jumped down the fire escape and turned back to the streets.

As he pulled out his phone to text Izuku and Nedzu that he had found his theater kid of an eldest brother, Shoto heard a faint “oh my god he’s crazy” from the rooftop and laughed.

Not crazy, he thought to himself, just jaded as shit.

~~~~~

“Before we go in, Nedzu required that I lay down some ground rules,” Aizawa said, pulling out a literal piece of paper labeled ‘FOR THE PROBLEM CHILDREN’.

The three stood in front of the facility that hosted the second-year provisional license exam. This test was for any kids across Japan who didn’t pass the first one during their first year but couldn’t attend the remedial courses for a guaranteed license. These students were finally given the chance to catch up to their classmates after over seven months of the inability to do any kind of hero work.

Their teacher read from the notice, “He says no moderate-to-severe maiming, traumatizing, property damage, or self destruction. You may not directly sabotage any other test-takers and if you fail this test, we are entitled to force you to take it again in August with the rest of the first-years.”

Shoto shrugged his backpack to the other shoulder and lifted his hand to his teacher’s arm, “Trust me, Aizawa, we’ve got this in the bag.”

“Says the guy who failed this test the first time he took it and had to take remedial courses with Bakugo of all people,” Izuku slammed the car trunk shut after grabbing his hero costume and turned to his friend with a fist resting on his hip, “And then proceeded to get into the middle of a villain attack thirty minutes after passing the retake and nearly gave All Might a heart attack.”

“Shut.”

“Make me, you IcyThot.”

Aizawa sighed, “Just get inside and get your licenses, we have a lot of plans riding on this.”

“We could always go the illegal route-“

He slapped his hand over Izuku’s mouth, “Not even gonna humor that- DID YOU JUST LICK MY HAND-“

After Izuku was sufficiently yelled at because “you are so GROSS”, Aizawa separated from his students to find an entire bottle of hand sanitizer to steal and a quiet corner to sleep in. The boys found their way down the halls to the locker rooms, swiftly changed and followed the many signs to the waiting room where the test would start.

The thing about this test was that it was a retake. A majority of these students’ peers already got their licenses and had already started doing provisional hero work studies. These kids were already behind and they didn’t want to waste another moment of their second years twiddling their thumbs due to not having it. Which is why this specific test was created with that in mind and has a much, much higher success rate than the first one. Where the initial test only had a passing rate of 50-60%, this one was near guaranteed unless you actively played a villainous role. That wasn’t to say these kids weren’t gonna give it their all, but Izuku and Shoto were much less inclined to give their 110%’s like the others here.

Speaking of the others here, once the two had entered the waiting room, the temperature dropped roughly a thousand degrees and every pair of eyes snapped over towards them. There had to have been about a hundred students in this room, from all over the region, but in that one instance, it felt like one giant conglomerate of students that were all a part of the same hivemind.

Izuku wasn’t sure if they had already decided to try and take him and Shoto out first like the test in the first run or if these people had immediately recognized them from the Festival a week ago and all suddenly felt the exact same sense of dread and doom wash over them. Whatever it was, it made the room deathly silent and still.

The proctor for the exam actually congratulated the kids on silencing themselves before he began running through the test.

The arena inside the facility was split into four sections, each its own disaster zone. The students were then also split into four teams based on quirks, school, and grades. Their job was to bring order to a chaotic district. “Villains” were running around, buildings were on fire or collapsing, and civilians were trapped and in need of rescue. The teams had thirty minutes to designate their rescuers, fighters, and intel-gatherers, then they had two hours to do their best to control their area.

The teams were put onto the big screen in the room and the students were given their allotted time to form their groups and begin planning.

By some grace of whatever gods there were in the universe, Izuku and Shoto were put onto the same team. They weren’t sure if this was because they were the only UA students here or if it was because they were the youngest or if the people running the exam were IDIOTS, but once the two walked over to Team Three’s section, the other twenty-something students went rigid.

The first to break from the group and greet them was a boy who introduced himself as Fukodo.

“It’s nice to meet the UA Wonder Duo!” Fukodo said, enthusiastically shaking their hands, “You really proved yourselves if the Commission is letting you guys take this so early into your first year.”

Izuku shrugged, “Well, it was a no-brainer for them. I’m Izuku Midoriya and this is Shoto Todoroki. Let’s do our best today, yeah?”

The other students of the team agreed and the mood slowly softened as they ran through their names and quirks as quickly as they could and began planning their mini squads. Fukodo’s quirk was a cool one: he could emit any gaseous substance from his skin as long as he had the right materials in his body. It was like if Amajiki was a chemist instead of a shapeshifter. Shoto was put squarely into the rescue squad as his ice structures could lift rubble and was strong enough to carry whole buildings without cracking. The team had an issue with where to place Izuku because his abilities (paraded around as ‘energy manipulation’ with many applications) could fit any category.

“Dude, you’re so OP, it’s kind of insane the Commission hasn’t yoinked you yet.”

“Trust me, they want to. So bad. Nedzu has to beat them off with a big stick every day. And once that wasn’t even hyperbole.” It wasn’t, a Commission agent once tried to catch Izuku unawares while he was outside having lunch with the Principal and Nedzu proceeded to grab a tree branch and threaten the man with both it and legal action if he didn’t leave.

They ended up deciding that he was their wanderer, a position they made up at the last second to allow him to help whoever.

The planning period ran up and the teams were instructed to turn to their corner of the room and ‘watch’. Of course, this meant that as soon as they did, the walls of the square room retracted and revealed their split areas.

A short countdown rang out and once they were told to go, all four teams instantly ran off into their respective areas.

~~~~~

Class 1-Aaayyyy

Chaos 1: guys check it out

Chaos 1: [provisional_license.jpg]

[The photo is in selfie-format, with Izuku in the foreground holding up his provisional license. Shoto is next to him, but a bit behind Izuku, with his own, and Aizawa can be seen in the background, looking as tired as the day he was told about his time-traveling students.]

DefyingGravity: IS THAT WHY YOU TWO WERENT IN CLAS TODAY WTFBAJXJJW

Chaos 2: Yeah, Nedzu let us take the exam (checks watch i dont have) almost four months early

Nyoom: Congratulations on passing!

Aux Cord: Wait does this mean you can tell us what our exam is

Dadzawa: no they signed NDA’s

Xenomorph: SHIT REALLY

Chaos 1: Zawa that’s only bc you didn’t trust us to not tell them

Chaos 2: And we couldn’t even tell you because they change the exam every time. It hasn’t been the same in years.

Goddess: Makes sense! So many students take the exams multiple times a year, so they’d have to have a giant rotation to prevent cheating!

Nyoom: Indeed.

USB-C: Damn :fist: :pensive:

RockHard: did. did you just type out the emojis instead of just sending them

USB-C: yaeh

Chaos 1: Anyway, this means Sho and I are now allowed to use our quirks in emergencies and during work studies >:)

Chaos 1: Sir Nighteye had better watch the fuck out

Chaos 2: OH IS IT TIME???

USB-C: Time for what??

Dadzawa: let me at least contact him first, holy shit, you just got those things TODAY

Chaos 1: don’t make me make The Joke, you know I can’t make The Joke but i wanna make The Joke

Chaos 2: HA get social awareness’d, asshole

Xenomorph: Can someone add a tally

DefyingGravity: On it.

Armed and Dangerous: What’s it at now?

Darkness. No parents.: forty-eight

Darkness. No parents.: it’s only been two months since classes started

Frœg: Damn really??

Frœg: I thought it’d been a lot longer than that

Darkness. No parents.: nope, two months

Dadzawa: trust me, i am intimately aware with how long it’s been

Chaos 2: Oh cmon aizawa you love us!

Chaos 2: You’ve got two students with provisionals already!

Dadzawa: you know damn well i had nothing to do with that

Chaos 1: Weeeeeelllllllll

Dadzawa: Don’t Finish That.

DefyingGravity: I’m adding another tally just for that.

DefyingGravity: I hate all three of you.

Chaos 1: :(

Chaos 2: Anyway, what was y’all’s heroics class today?

USB-C: Quirkless sparring

USB-C: we got to punch each other a lot, it was rly fun

Tapegun tourniquet: Recovery Girl needs a raise

Dadzawa: i’ve literally been saying that since my first year at UA fifteen years ago

Tapegun tourniquet: you think we could get mido to convince nedzu?

Chaos 1: I can certainly try but he’s been denying my motions to expel mineta so :/

GrapeJuice: WAIT WHAT THE FUCK

Goddess: If I may ask why?

Chaos 1: He keeps saying that my evidence isn’t enough! But I’ve got plenty of footage and testimonies and pictures and shit bro

Chaos 1: I even made a powerpoint!

Chaos 2: It’s true, I’ve seen it

GrapeJuice: MIDORIYA WHAT THE SHIT MAN

Goddess: Truly unfortunate, he really doesn’t have the makings of a hero.

Chaos 1: That’s what I said! Like what would he do in an apocalypse scenario?

GrapeJuice: MY BEST??????

[GrapeJuice has been muted by Chaos 2]

Chaos 2: I’d like to propose something

Chaos 1: omg yes i will marry you

Chaos 2: I’d like to propose something else

Xenomorph: LMAOOOO

Aux Cord: BRUHH

Chaos 2: Guys what is your ideal/favorite apocalypse scenario

Chaos 1: haha you already know

Xenomorph: ALIEN INVASION.

DefyingGravity: SPACE INVASION.

Xenomorph: JINX

DefyingGravity: JINX

Armed and Dangerous: Zombies probably

RockHard: Uhhhhh oceanic uprising

USB-C: Same, if Pokemon has taught me anything it’s that i’d do AMAZING against water villains

Tapegun tourniquet: Yknow that pre quirk anime attack on titan

Tapegun tourniquet: I wanna swing around giant monsters all day, that sounds fun

Darkness. No parents.: I agree, that one is relatively peaceful if you ignore all the times it isn’t peaceful.

Darkness. No parents.: But that isn’t mine. Mine would be like Birdbox or something.

Frœg: Birdbox huh?

Darkness. No parents.: Silence, I realized as soon as i sent it

Frœg: No no i agree, that’d be mine too

Frœg: I like sensory deprivation horror

Gone Girl: Uhhhh idk i think im with shoji on the zombies

Armed and Dangerous: I build shelter, you scavenge supplies?

Gone Girl: Hell yeah

Aux Cord: Anyone else here know about cyberpunk 2077?

USB-C: WAIT YEAH ACTUALLY

USB-C: ID BE SUCH A GOOD NETRUNNER

Chaos 1: Jirou you mean to tell me you aren’t already a cyberpunk character?? 

Aux Cord: Mido you mean to tell me you aren’t already a shonen anime character??

Chaos 2: LMAOOOOOOO

Chaos 1: WHAT THE FUCK

Dadzawa: jirou you’ve got five points of extra credit for your next assignment

Aux Cord: HELL YES

TwinkInTwinkle: I have to agree on technological apocalypses. A robot uprising  is my ideal scenario.

Chaos 1: Sounds about right.

Goddess: I think I’d be good in any survival/apocalypse scenario, but only in the beginning when food and water aren’t scarce. If we didn’t have quirks, though? I’m a fan of monster movies. :)

Chaos 2: Really? Didn’t expect that from you.

Goddess: Kaiju movies are some of my favorite. :D

AnimalJam: Samee!! Monster apocalypse for me!

Goddess: Oh we should have a marathon at some point!

AnimalJam: ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

Nyoom: I have to agree on the ‘my quirk would be useless after a while’ sentiment, so my ideal apocalypse would be unnatural natural disasters.

Cookingbythebook: Ooohhh here’s a deepcut for y’all: you ever see the Tomorrow War?

Chaos 1: YOU MEAN THAT REALLY OLD PRE QUIRK MOVIE THAT WAS REALLY BAD??

Xenomorph: Mido do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down

Nyoom: I don’t believe I have?

Cookingbythebook: Yeah its abt the earth from the future recruiting people from the past to fight aliens after they invaded but the main guy is like ‘wait why dont we stop it in the past first’ and it ignores all the paradox shit and its rly bad and i love it.

Cookingbythebook: That’s my ideal apocalypse scenario.

Gone Girl: Did you just have that copied for when people asked about the tomorrow war plot

Cookingbythebook: yes ANYWAY

Gone Girl: JEJDJWJHXJSBXH

Chaos 1: LMAOOOO

Tapegun tourniquet: Holy fuck sato do you know what my dn is a reference to

Cookingbythebook: No?

Tapegun tourniquet: Pre quirk adaptation of War of the Worlds. Mc’s daughter’s leg is stabbed through with rebar after running from the robot aliens. She gets to safety but she’s bleeding out. Her bf is like “dont worry im a pro”.

Cookingbythebook: Dont tell me….

Tapegun tourniquet: YEP. USES A FUCKING TAPEGUN. TO STOP THE BLEEDING.

Aux Cord: Does that even work????

Tapegun tourniquet: IN THE MOVIE IT DOES

Chaos 1: Hang on i gotta ask recovery girl smth

Tapegun tourniquet: Oh my god

Xenomorph: the suspense

Chaos 1: Okay i think she blocked me

Aux Cord: HAHDJJDHJWHXHSJCH

Tapegun tourniquet: OWJXNIEVXHBDLMAO

Cookingbythebook: LMAOOOOOOO

Xenomorph: ICANNT FUCKCING BREAATHEEE

Dadzawa: anyway, mine is nuclear winter, mic’s is zombies

RockHard: bakugo won’t answer bc he hates us so I’m just gonna assume his is nuclear apocalypse bc bombs

Tæil: I didn’t know there were so many types of apocalypse.

Chaos 2: That’s why it’s an interesting question

Tæil: Mine might just be the deadly virus apocalypse. Not zombies, but the step before that. The horror is that it could totally happen irl.

Chaos 2: I’ve thought about mine but I think rn it’d be I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream

USB-C: Terrifying!

USB-C: alright Mido you’re the only one who hasn’t answered yet: ideal apocalypse scenario

Chaos 1: Well Sho already knows mine, but it’s actually a hypothetical that popped into my head a few months ago!

Dadzawa: oh god no

Chaos 1: What if, hypothetically, Tartarus’s defenses failed (all eight squaspillion of them) and every major villain and criminal from the past fifty plus years escaped to seek vengeance on the general population of Japan, destroying whole prefectures and killing hundreds of people?

Xenomorph: What.

Chaos 1: I think that sort of “we’ve lost control of one (1) thing and now everything’s in ruins” scenario is my ideal, if I had to pick one. 

Chaos 2: Hypothetically, of course

Chaos 1: Oh of course!!

USB-C: damn that’s,,,, specific,,,,

Aux Cord: Huh. Never thought of that.

Armed and Dangerous: Goddammit now I can’t stop thinking about it

Gone Girl: mido what the shit

Goddess: Mr Aizawa what WOULD happen if Tartarus were to fail?

Dadzawa: considering the eleven million safeguards in place, nothing 

Dadzawa: there’s a contingency plan for literally everything that could go wrong, even if they made it past the Bronze Gate

Dadzawa: Midoriya is just like this For Some Reason.

Nyoom: Good to know!

Chaos 1: Yep!

Goddess: Well, this conversation was certainly enlightening.

Aux Cord: Yeah you could say that.

Xenomorph: Aaaanyway

Xenomorph: GUYS WHAT IF WE DID A HUUUGE APOCALYPSE MOVIE MARATHON OVER THE WEEKEND.

Xenomorph: I WANNA WATCH THE MOVIES SATO AND SERO BROUGHT UP

Tapegun tourniquet: Oh i would love to see the life fade from your eyes as we watch that bullshit

USB-C: I HAVE A BUNCH OF PRE QUIRK MOVIES DOWNLOADED I CAN BRING MY LAPTOP

RockHard: Oh I have the perfect short film to show you all

RockHard: Kung fury my beloved

Goddess: I will see if I can host! My home theater is perfect!!

AnimalJam: Original godzilla time :)))

Cookingbythebook: IM ON SNACKS!!!!!

Xenomorph: MOVIE MARATHOOOONNNNNN!!!

Chaos 2: Izu and I will be there >:)

USB-C: HELL YEAH MOVIE MARATHON!

~~~~~

With their licenses obtained on Tuesday and the official clearance from the Commission for hero work sent to Nedzu on Wednesday, Izuku showed up to Sir Nighteye’s agency with Toogata Mirio on a beautiful Thursday afternoon. Late May had run its course and the trees were at their fullest. There were many wildflower patches along the sidewalks in this part of the city, something Mirio told him was partly his doing.

Speaking of Mirio, the boy was the most excited Izuku had ever seen him. He was a ray of sunshine in the first run during this fateful meeting, but now he was the entire sun and Izuku swore that the bright yellow hair the third-year sported was practically glowing as they walked up the steps to the agency doors.

“Oh, Midoriya, Sir is gonna LOVE you!” He kept saying, “When I showed him your Sports Festival win, he practically DIED with laughter! Clutched his stomach and everything!

Not the best wording Izuku had ever heard, but he stamped out the pain that suddenly clenched his heart in favor of nodding along, “I’ll have to tell him how that happened, then. Aizawa said he was rather confused when I asked for a work study and not an internship.”

“Well, he isn’t often caught off-guard, but you certainly raise a few questions,” Mirio shrugged as he held the door open for Izuku, “Though he might not ask and just wait for you to tell him.”

Izuku nodded and hummed, “Well, we’re here early, think he’s available now?”

“I’ll go ask!”

He was left alone in the lobby of the semi-familiar agency with only his thoughts as company. Sir Nighteye was a fairly low-level spotlight hero, edging on the side of being a twilight hero. He didn’t have a big fancy agency in the middle of a large, bustling city like Endeavor or Hawks, but at least he had an agency. He had employees (Izuku waved at Centipeder when he and Mirio walked in) and he allowed students to study under him. He was helping train who Izuku knew to be the best candidate for “youngest Number One Hero” in the form of Mirio.

Sir Nighteye was an important and powerful man. He took no shit, gave no shit, and had the ability to ruin your day with just one look. He tried to do that to Izuku when they first met, and then he did it again on his literal deathbed. The man was only in Izuku’s life for roughly a week and a half as they planned the raid on Overhaul right after meeting Eri, but he did leave a profound impact on Izuku that he would never forget. But that man wasn’t here anymore. The Nighteye Izuku was now dealing with was one from much earlier in the timeline, one who knew about One for All but was probably not as mad about him getting it, and one who cackled when seeing how he and Shoto settled the Festival.

This man was probably completely different from the one Izuku first met. And that revelation was causing all sorts of problems in Izuku’s mind.

But he shoved that all away the moment he saw Mirio return to the lobby and excitedly wave him over, “Sir says he can see you now!”

Izuku nodded and plastered on a smile as he moved to follow the upperclassman.

~~~~~

Mirai Sasaki wasn’t a stupid man.

His many accomplishments over the past decades of hero work proved as such. Sir Nighteye was a sought-after hero for his analytical prowess, ability to overperform, and his once-in-a-decade Foresight quirk. The ability to see someone’s future was such an incredible boost to his already-incredible ability to just read people well.

He even personally scouted the best ninth holder of One for All. It took him a year and a half of studying UA students to do so, but he eventually found promise and determination in Toogata Mirio. The strength this student showed was like no other and he was well on his way to accomplish his goal of saving one million people. However, for all the proposals and convincing Mirai had planned, he never expected All Might to make it completely for naught by giving it to some untrained and unprepared first-year student who wasn’t even in UA at the time of giving him the power.

Izuku Midoriya was an enigma and a half to Mirai and he wanted to learn more for himself. First, he had apparently mastered One for All by the entrance exam, a whole ten months after Yagi began training him. Then, he went on to be a key player in a villain attack on UA’s rescue training grounds. After that, he and another student (son of Endeavor, Mirai knew) had been singled out to have their own exhibition match and then thrown to the wolves during the third-year Festival. And they won said Festival.

So, he thinks it’s safe to say that this child was one he wanted to pick the brain of. He wanted to find what made this kid tick and if that meant accepting him as a work study student (so early in the year), then so be it. Mirio had already come in to announce their arrival and then left once Mirai had told him to bring Midoriya in.

The boy was exactly as Mirai had seen on TV: short, muscled under his school uniform, green hair and eyes, and a constant presence. Whether that was the power of One for All or if that was the intense look Midoriya had in his eyes when he looked at Mirai, the man was unsure. The teen kept flicking his eyes around the room and back to Mirai. They kept widening when they did, as if he was surprised to see him still sitting behind his desk.

“So,” the child began, scanning all of the All Might paraphernalia in the office, “Take it you’re a big Kamui Woods fan or something?”

Mirai couldn’t stop his small breathy laugh, “Or something. It’s nice to finally meet you, Midoriya. When I heard my former hero partner had taken on a protege, I was a bit skeptical, I will admit.”

“Yes, well, you were always looking out for him. Makes sense that even after your fallout, you’d keep an eye on him.”

Strange. Mirai swore that his departure was only amicable in the eyes of the public, “Tell me, Midoriya, why did All Might choose you as his successor? One for All is an incredible power and I’m wondering what you believe makes you worthy of such a responsibility.”

The boy seemed to think on that for a second, as if he didn’t expect the question to be asked. Admittedly, it took longer for him to give an answer than Mirai was comfortable with, almost a full ten seconds.

“I guess… because he saw a lot of himself in me,” Midoriya said, “I was quirkless, before this. Relentlessly bullied and beaten by my peers for something out of my control. Even when I took a gamble and ran to save someone when the heroes wouldn’t, he never thanked me. He only kept up his tirade against me.”

“So I think, at the end of the day, All Might chose me because he knew no one would help cultivate my potential otherwise. No one would give me a chance unless he did. Much like how his mentor chose him for his heart and soul, All Might chose me for mine.”

It was, in Mirai’s opinion, a good answer: dependent on Yagi’s belief in him, pointing out his previous quirklessness, adding in the bit about Yagi’s mentor, and knowing that no one would have given him the time of day. Mirai would have complimented him, if he were more swayed by that sort of talk. Working with as influential a man like Yagi made you really immune to his grandiose speeches about doing your best and being a hero and uplifting others and the like.

“A good conclusion to come to. That hero has always seen the best in people, even if no one else would,” he said, rather truthfully, “Your performances across your first two months of school are really telling and I can see that you’ve really made One for All your own in the past year.”

Then, he heard Midoriya snort, “Year? Oh, no, Sir. All Might gave me One for All two months ago.”

What.

“What?”

“Yeah, those ten months beforehand were all training my body so it didn’t explode upon receiving it the day of the entrance exam. Trust me, I’ve told him how much of a bad idea it was, but he didn’t listen.”

Mirai’s mouth moved before his brain could, “Then what sort of black magic are you using to train all hours of the day to control such a volatile and dangerous quirk within two months?!”

“It’s not black magic, Sir. I’m just…” Midoriya trailed off, trying to find the right words. When he couldn’t, he shook his head and looked Mirai directly in the eyes, “I won’t say it was easy to figure it out, but between training and school and my own hobbies, I had a lot of time to observe how All Might used One for All. It’s like an energy transference between the many quirks inside of it. If I could figure out how to call upon a small part of it, or spread it out to all of my limbs equally, I’d greatly reduce the risk of it harming my body.”

“And you did that within the hours between getting it and the entrance exam?”

The teen shrugged as if to say ‘what, like it’s hard’ and moved to pull out a notebook from his bag, “I actually figured it out about a month or so into my training, but I couldn’t put it into practice until later.”

He flipped to two specific pages and pointed at the date scratched at the top, along with the notes on One for All that he had made. Midoriya was right, the energy transference of the quirk through the body could be manipulated and changed at will, particularly around the outer limbs like the arms and legs. Midoriya had created the solution to the problem before he even experimented with the quirk.

Mirai supposed it wasn’t the quirk anymore. This version of One for All, the one where Midoriya manifested every power within it and mastered it… this was now Midoriya’s quirk, his power. It was truly impressive just how fast he got used to it.

“I will say, I didn’t expect you to be such a solid choice for this quirk.”

“All Might said as such. He said that you were… upset when he chose me over Mirio. That you trained him specifically to take it on. And I understand if you still wish that to be the case, but-“

“I don’t. Mirio would’ve been an excellent choice as the Ninth Holder given his personality and charisma,” Mirai interrupted, his words as honest and sincere as he could make them sound in his usual tone, and pointed to the now-closed notebook in front of him, “However, I recognize now that this sort of power would have needed more time than his final year of schooling. I am glad you have three years to determine who you are and I am impressed with how quickly you have made One for All your own. I see no future in which Mirio would have been a better candidate. I am glad you are the current holder and am eager to see how you grow as a hero.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Midoriya’s face betrayed his professionally casual tone, as if he wasn’t expecting the words that Mirai spoke.

“That said, you still must pass my test,” Mirai reached for his wooden stamp in the desk drawer as he spoke, but he couldn’t find it. Strange, as he always kept it there unless he knew he would be standing for this. He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket instead, but it wasn’t there either.

He then saw a very familiar stamp being held up by one of Midoriya’s black-energy tendrils, right above the kid’s shoulder. He was smiling, but it wasn’t at all smug or telling, just happy that he had apparently guessed right as to what the test was. The tendril shook the stamp slightly, as if it had a mind of its own and was taunting Mirai to come and grab it himself.

“Looking for this, Sir?”

Once more, Mirai spoke without thinking, “Did one of the previous holders have a telepathy quirk or a foresight quirk-?”

Midoriya laughed and retrieved the stamp from the tendril, which disappeared behind him, “No, I can just read people.”

The hero gestured for Midoriya to explain himself, then removed his glasses to rub his eyes.

“Well, you kept looking between me and the area of your desk where my application sat. Nothing in that area was of interest at the moment, so I assumed it was at my application. Plus, your hand kept twitching to the right towards the drawer. Mirio mentioned on our walk here that you usually have extra requirements or tests for applicants and I bet you would’ve wanted to see exactly how a student two months into his first year got his provisional license so quickly.”

“Additionally, your office is decorated wall-to-wall and I bet that any task you gave me would’ve included me trying to get something from you, which would have led to a fight or a keep-away. You wouldn’t fight a student, so keep-away while avoiding the decorations to test my spatial awareness it was. My application needs to be stamped or signed by my work study hero and you seem like the type to use a stamp with how official and studious your agency and personality is. So I concluded that you would ask for a test consisting of keep-away with the approval stamp in your right-hand desk drawer.”

Midoriya gently placed the carved wood onto the desk, “And judging from your face, it appears I was correct.”

It took a moment for Mirai to compose himself and not flip his desk over.

“I… have never, in my many years of hero work, had someone read me so thoroughly and correctly,” he ended up saying, rather breathlessly. It made Midoriya stifle a laugh, which Mirai promptly ignored, “You were correct. I would have had you stamp your own approval form.”

“Isn’t that kind of, sort of, maybe against the rules? You would have had grounds to deny my application on the basis of me lying that you approved it,” Midoriya shrugged, “No, Sir, I would prefer it if you stamped the form yourself.”

God, was Nedzu teaching this kid? Mirai had zero doubt that the Rat King of UA had some sort of influence on this child. If neither Yagi nor Eraserhead could keep this child away from Nedzu, then Mirai took it upon himself to help maintain at least some humanity in the kid. It was clear that if Midoriya wanted to, he could take over the HPSC, or the world for that matter.

“Well, if that is the case,” Mirai grabbed the stamp and gently pressed it against the box on the bottom of the application form, “Welcome to Nighteye Agency, Midoriya.”

They shared a smile. It was rather unnerving. Mirai hadn’t met anyone like this kid and he would greatly prefer to keep it that way.

~~~~~

Shinsou raised a hand to stop Shouta in the middle of his sentence, “Wait. What do you mean a spot ‘suddenly’ opened up?”

“I mean, there was an incident and now 1-A has an open spot, so Nedzu decided to pull you into the course. We can’t finish the transfer until after summer break, but you can begin joining them for classes and training, as well as the summer training camp,” Shouta shrugged. He failed to mention the specific “incident”, but Shinsou didn’t need to know about the hilarious video that sat in Shouta’s phone.

[Todoroki stood by one of the giant windows in the hallway outside of classroom 1-A with Midoriya, clearly engrossed in whatever conversation they were having before school started. There is no audio, as Nedzu muted it for the recording that was spread around, but it appears to be very serious and very interesting, as neither student noticed the small purple boy walk up behind Todoroki.

Mineta went to make a comment about something or other, but the second he made his presence known, Todoroki jumped two feet in the air, screamed so loudly it could be heard even with the muted audio, spun violently on his heel, and roundhouse-kicked the tiny pervert through the massive windows and across campus. Both Todoroki and Midoriya stood there for a moment, eyes not straying from what could be assumed to be Mineta’s body as it flew and landed harshly outside. Midoriya’s hands flew to his mouth and Todoroki stayed in the wide stance he landed in after the kick.

They both silently locked eyes, then slowly turned like owls to the hallway camera. Todoroki mouthed ‘You saw nothing’ to the camera before grabbing Midoriya’s hand and dragging him away. A few minutes later, Iida walks into frame, sees the shattered window, and races away to inform a teacher.]

“I can’t give specifics, but you were the first to be considered, so there’s the offer,” Shouta slid Shinsou the paperwork for his parents and smiled, “Welcome to Class 1-A, Shinsou. Hope you like chaos.”

Chapter Text

The whole time he’d been back, Shoto had been debating going to see his mother.

In the previous timeline, he had started seeing her after the Sports Festival shook things up and Izuku changed his world. But now, he hasn’t even gone to the hospital, even though he knows for a fact, from Fuyumi seeing her, that Rei Todoroki is still there.

Really, it’s because the last time Shoto saw her, she was trying to calm her eldest son down from his rage. She was caught in his fire and her skin was burning from both the flame and her own glacial ice. Rei wanted her family back and she almost died for it. After Shoto’s death, she probably did. He didn’t like to imagine his old timeline and what could’ve happened after he and Izuku were killed. Their friends almost certainly were killed by the League, or they succeeded in their missions, but Shigaraki and All for One took them out anyway.

It wasn’t a nice feeling! Shoto would openly admit that! He knew his friends and their abilities and powers and was confident in them, but twenty teenagers against a bunch of escaped convicts and two (2) supervillains isn’t the best match-up in the world, even if one is the destined opponent of the supervillains. So when Rei came to the fight against Dabi, Shoto couldn’t see them all getting out as a family.

And as he expected, they never did.

But now he had another chance. Touya had apparently called Nedzu during Shoto’s provisional license exam and asked for help, which was a vast improvement from what Shoto knew his brother was doing at this point in time. Sure, the man was still traumatized (rightfully so) and had a long way to go, but at least he was asking for help instead of slapping away every open hand. Maybe it was just a Todoroki thing. God knows Enji really hates asking for help, Early-roki was just as bad, and Natsuo and Fuyumi tend to plaster smiles on their faces and say they’re fine instead of mentioning a bad day or sick feeling. Touya was just another part of a long pattern in the Todoroki children.

Was it the child abuse? It was probably the child abuse.

Nedzu demanded that Shoto and Izuku attend mandatory therapy after All for One’s death in this timeline, which Shoto both was and wasn’t looking forward to. Finally getting his mind back on track after the war and his death would be nice, but actually acknowledging some things he’s already moved past wouldn’t be fun.

Which brought Shoto back to his mother, the first ever Todoroki to actually get help, even if it wasn’t on her terms.

He had gotten as close as the hospital front door a few times, but hadn’t ventured too far inside. She was in the same room, the path to which Shoto knew by heart. Now, though? He was in the hallway that held her room and he could feel his heart beating out of his chest. Stupid Izuku and teaching him stupid feelings like compassion and sympathy. How dare he make this harder for Shoto.

Well. No time like the present. Shoto took the steps down the hall and approached her room. He raised his hand and rapped his knuckles against the door, enticing a little, “Come in.”

Slowly, but surely, he opened the door to his mother’s face. Rei sat at her seat by the window, a small halo of afternoon sun lighting up her white hair.

“Shoto?” She asked, confused.

“Hey, Mom,” he shut the door behind him and took a few steps in, never venturing far enough to make her feel uncomfortable with his presence, “It’s been a while.”

Her look of confusion shifted to a soft smile. This was still his mother, he was still her son, and no amount of time traveling or future knowledge could change that. Rei motioned for him to sit down and Shoto gladly took the seat across from her. And…

They talked.

It was just like his first visit in the last run, awkward and sort of unsteady, but with more from Shoto about his friends (mainly Izuku, but shut up) and school and his new work study under Ryukyu. Rei mentioned how well the staff at the hospital treated her and how she had made a friend with a young girl a few doors down.

He wanted so badly to mention Touya and how he was finally getting help, but he didn’t want to either get Rei’s hopes up only to have Touya relapse or to cause her distress over mentioning her eldest. Instead, he talked about Natsuo’s college classes and his acceptance into med school and Fuyumi’s hilarious “problem children”. He really should ask Aizawa for better coping mechanisms but he feels his teacher would just suggest constant napping and hard liquor. That or drugs.

Rei kept laughing at the jokes Shoto brought up or asking clarifying questions about his friends and their quirks. It was easier than the first time, to talk to her. Shoto found it so easy to mention his friends and their jokes and adventures from both runs, making sure to not say anything that hasn’t happened yet. He also loved listening to her little stories, especially when she started talking about him and his siblings as toddlers (did he consider some of it blackmail? Absolutely. Nedzu would be proud). His “small visit” turned into nearly two hours of them finally catching up and finally starting to bury the hatchet (kettle).

Then, Shoto’s phone buzzed with a text from Izuku.

From: Izu :)

Sho, we’re starting movie night at Yaomomo’s!! Where tf are you?? (-_-;)

“Oh, is that your friend?” Rei asked, snapping Shoto out of the small trance he was put in.

“Y-yeah. That’s Izu. We planned a movie night at a classmate’s place and he’s yelling at me,” he shook his head fondly, “I guess that’s my cue to go.”

“I wouldn’t want to keep you from your friends, Shoto,” she smiled, then reached across the table to grab his hand. The left one, “I’m proud that you have more people who care. Go have fun.”

He tightened his grip on her hand and nodded, “Thanks, Mom. I’ll try to be back soon.”

“Don’t overdo your training. I’m sure Izuku would hate to see you injured.”

“He’s more likely to turn his bones to mush,” he stood and released her hand back to the table, “Bye, Mom.”

“Bye, Shoto.”

~~~~~

Luckily, it didn’t take long for Overhaul to show his ugly-ass haircut around Izuku’s patrol region. He was trusted enough to split from the others to take a few streets for himself for solo patrolling experience. Not that he really needed it, but it was so much fun to wander around streets he had only known as battlegrounds and ruins. He didn’t use Float or Blackwhip, just Full Cowling to jump between eaves, streetlights, and short rooftops. He kept his eyes on the alleys, even if it was the middle of the day and crime wasn’t that rampant in this section of town.

He chose this region for his solo because he knew that the Shie Hassaikai would be out by this point. They had finished their quirk-erasing formula the week of Izuku’s first provisional exam and they instantly had buyers and partners in other criminal organizations, which means that they would have men in the ground spreading the word of Overhaul’s power and abilities.

His job, however unofficial in the means of his work study, was to find a member of the family and interrogate them regarding the quirk-suppressant drug. He would then try to get them to talk about Eri, which would open up his reasoning to bringing it to Nighteye during his report and joining the raid that would then be planned after.

Much, much easier said than done, but Izuku in this timeline was nothing but determined. Mirio mentioned that “a few of those Shy Housekey guys will be out and about” and told Izuku to watch for the family crest on their lapels.

Luckily, he didn’t have to grab one of the men who looked, sounded, and smelled like they’d been smoking seven packs a day for thirty years. He just felt a small bundle hit the backs of his legs and turned to see familiar white hair with a yellow horn poking out. Her hospital gown was replaced by a faintly pink nightgown and her arms had less bandages than the first time.

“Please…” she whispered as Izuku scanned the crowd for either a handler or Overhaul himself, “Please help me.”

When he couldn’t find anyone, he knelt down and gently picked her up, hiding her hair and face with his big yellow scarf, “It’s alright. How about you tell me your name?”

“E-Eri.”

“Alright, Eri. I’m Deku. What’s wrong?” He kept his voice calm and small, trying not to frighten her even more as he carried her away from the streets and towards the agency. It wasn’t that far from where he was assigned, so he just had to walk just slow enough to not seem suspicious, but fast enough to prevent one of the family from catching up.

Eri spoke softly about “the bad men” and their “white room”. Izuku’s mind unhelpfully supplied him with memories of the experimentation room in the base, how white and sterile and cold it was. If he was being honest, Izuku never liked those. Hospitals sent his anxiety over the edge with how often his quirk required him to be in them, which is why he tried his best to stay away from breaking anything now.

Nighteye Agency came closer and Izuku hurried up the steps into the safe zone inside. Centipeder gave him an odd look as he removed the scarf from his neck and gently placed it and Eri down onto one of the lobby seats. She was trying not to cry now, but Izuku’s worried expression must’ve sent her over the edge as she immediately began crying. Silently.

Izuku was going to murder that son of a bitch again.

“Deku?” Centipeder called, warily eyeing the girl, “Who is this?”

“Could you call Lemillion and Sir Nighteye back? I think we have a break in their case,” He asked, hands clutching Eri’s. He ran his thumbs over her bruised knuckles as gently as he could. She probably barely got away from her handler this time, so who knows who’s out looking for her. It was a miracle he was able to get her away fast enough.

The door behind him flew open and Eri flinched into his arms. Mirio and Nighteye stared at him wide-eyed and Izuku quickly picked the girl up and carried her further into the agency, motioning with a quick jerk of his head for them to follow him. Both student and mentor did so without much urging, watching with confused looks as Izuku opened a secure conference room and set Eri down in one of the more plush chairs before kneeling next to her. His scarf was hers now and he draped the longer end over her shivering body.

“Sir, this is Eri,” he said firmly, “She ran into me on my patrol and asked me to save her. She said she was with some very bad people who were using her for her quirk.”

Nighteye solemnly nodded along and Mirio looked ready to be sick.

“She also said that the main one was a man with a bird mask,” Izuku added, gently lifting her frail arms to show the many bandages, “And that he was the one who did this to her.”

“Overhaul?” Nighteye whispered, but Izuku could read his lips. He wasn’t told about the case yet, but he figured that a break such as this would negate any questions Nighteye had about his knowledge of it. The hero sharply turned to Mirio and they began talking in hushed tones.

Izuku turned back to the girl next to him and whispered, “That’s Sir Nighteye. He’s a hero.”

“A hero?”

“Like I’m training to be,” he smiled, “He’s gonna help you as best he can, okay?”

She was quiet for a moment, red eyes scanning the two who were still talking, “Okay.”

Nighteye stepped out of the room, making sure the door closed behind him, and Mirio stepped forward to greet Izuku.

“Hey, Deku. He’s calling Eraserhead and Nedzu. Hopefully we’ll have her in UA protection soon,” he whispered to him before kneeling in front of Eri, “Hey, kiddo. I’m Lemillion!”

“Lemillion?” She looked between his bright blonde hair and the scarf. Izuku bit back a laugh as she lifted one end of the scarf to compare the colors.

“Yep. I’m also training to be a hero,” his smile was infectious as Izuku found his own grin growing, “We’re gonna contact some very important people who also want to help you. I promise you’ll be safe, okay?”

Eri just nodded warily and Izuku stayed with her as Mirio left the room to check up on the agency. They sat in silence and eventually, she nodded off onto his shoulder. Izuku scooped her up and held her close to his chest, watching as she pulled his scarf tighter into her. She was such a small thing, even in the first run. How she was still this thin at six years old wasn’t a mystery, but it certainly wasn’t something Izuku wanted to dwell on.

Overhaul would be looking for her by now, he thought as he watched the clock in the room tick over to an hour since he found her. His men were likely combing the streets and looking through hacked security footage to find whoever took their ticket to a world of chaos where they reigned supreme. The Eight Precepts of Death were already with the Shie Hassaikai, if Izuku’s memory served well, and they were with him for the formula.

With Eri gone and in UA’s custody, his empire was sure to fall without much hero interference. Unless they found the hero-in-training and somehow, by an act of multiple deities, killed him in this state to get to her, Eri would be safe from them and guaranteed a happier childhood. It was all a case of protecting her.

The on-campus dorms and teacher apartments were already approved by the school board and Izuku was told that they would be sending out permission slips and information to parents before finals in a month. It was planned that they’d have students move in over the summer, after camp, and that the next term would start in the dorms. They would have done it sooner, but such a sudden move with a school holiday right around the corner was “too much” for the students swamped with final exams.

It also took into account their planned raid on the warehouse and bar in Kamino, which was supposed to be before finals as well. All for One was dying soon, if Izuku had anything to say about it.

For now, though, he held Eri close and waited for Nighteye to return with news.

~~~~~

Deku was nice, Eri decided.

He held her and told her what was happening and explained big words to her and always smiled when he saw her. Deku gave her his scarf to hold onto as she was taken from the strange building with the bug man and blue girl to a car with the tall man (Nighteye, she reminded herself) and Lemillion. He always gave her a choice and let her hold his arm on the car ride to the big glass building (the school, she was told).

It was a really pretty building. She hadn’t ever seen something so big and bright, especially with the way the sun reflected on the surfaces of the window panes. The golden letters above the gate they walked through matched the color of Deku’s scarf and Lemillion’s hair.

“UA” she was told they said. This place was UA High School, where Deku and Lemillion were training to be heroes like Nighteye. They were greeted by a black-haired man with yellow goggles and a small animal thing with a scar on its face. She couldn’t quite keep up with their words, but soon they left the entrance and walked through the halls of the school. Deku asked her if she wanted to walk by herself and Eri shook her head.

Deku was nice. Deku wouldn’t let her get hurt while she was in his arms.

After a few minutes of being led by the strange creature, Eri was placed inside of a room like the white rooms where Chisaki would cut her open. She hid her face in the scarf and clung to Deku as he was ushered out of it. It was barely even a rough grasp, as she was used to things being taken from her anyway, but he stayed where he was.

An older lady, who introduced herself as Recovery Girl, put Eri through some tests with her arms and legs. She told Eri everything she did and when there would “be a little bit of pressure”. Eri just hid her face in Deku’s scarf when Recovery Girl had to take a blood sample, but she didn’t hide her gasp when she realized it was just a small needle poke and a few seconds before a yellow bandage was placed over the needle site. Chisaki never did his blood draws that fast. He always cut her open, not one to do things halfway.

Could it have always gone this way? Was it always this painless? Eri wasn’t sure. Since her curse developed, she was put through the pain to make it right. It was the only way for her to not be cursed anymore. That terrible golden light and the pain in her horn were proof she was cursed and if those went away, she wouldn’t be cursed anymore.

And if it ever went too far, Chisaki put her back together. Every time he did, though, it felt like she was wrong, incorrectly reassembled and never the same. Maybe if she knew more than that pain and the halls of Chisaki’s home, she’d have something to liken it to. But now, she just had her own feelings. It never felt enough.

The hours passed and Deku began idly talking to her to keep the silence away. He spoke of his friend, Shoto, and their small group of classmates. He told her about his teachers and their classes and what he was training to be as a hero.

“I want to be someone that people look at and instantly feel safe,” he said, “I want to be the person they go to for help. Lemillion and I just want to help as many people as we can. It’s what heroes do.”

And he had helped her. That color, the bright yellow of his scarf, was like the sun. She didn’t get to see the sun that often, just for an hour everyday to “play” (she always played alone, as she didn’t have anyone but Chisaki and the other men and women in the house). In her eyes, the blinding yellow light was something rare, but now, at UA and with Deku, she saw the same light from everyone around her.

Deku’s scarf, a golden yellow, gave her warmth in her thin hospital gown. It covered her shoulders and was a comforting weight on them. Lemillion’s hair almost glowed in the sunlight, just like how his big smile seemed to radiate that very light, drawing her to his presence. Nighteye didn’t have as much yellow in his hair as Lemillion, but the man was quick to find more help for her. There were Eraserhead’s yellow goggles, which hung from his neck as he explained how he would be taking her in. He explained how he could erase her quirk (curse) when it got too much and how he’d be helping her control it. 

It was a different kind of yellow than that of her curse. The golden glow that happened when she activated her power was cold and dangerous and the pale yellow of her horn was a grim reminder of what she was able to do, what she had already done.

They took the rest of the day for some more examinations and tests (not experiments, but tests to make sure she was healthy) before she was given something to eat and Deku kept up his talking. He liked to talk, especially about his best friend. She wanted to meet this Shoto and see if he talked about Izuku as much. They seemed close.

The sun began to disappear through the windows and Eri watched the sky turn bright orange as it faded into night. Deku remained at her side the whole time, even as she fell asleep on him on the hospital bed.

So, yeah. Deku was nice. He was safe.

And maybe yellow was a good color after all.

~~~~~

With Aizawa and Yamada taking care of Eri and Nedzu finishing the paperwork to actually give her an identity as their foster daughter, Izuku allowed himself a quiet night at home with his mother.

Nighteye was working on catching Overhaul and promised Izuku he could be on the raid team when it happened. Shoto had finally gone to see his own mother and was working with Nedzu to get his brother’s life on track (they offered him a job as a teacher’s assistant and a rough outline for his continuing of his schooling, which would get him protections and a place when the apartments were finished). Their classmates were gearing up for finals and the training camp was still on the slate to actually happen. Hopefully with less kidnappings this time!

Izuku sunk into the couch with a sigh that carried the weight of the world.

“Was your day with Sir Nighteye that bad, Izu?” His mother joked from the other side of the couch, “Or was that you being your dramatic self.”

“Hey, I’m not dramatic!” He whined dramatically, “At least not as much as other people I know!”

“Yes, your drama is less than others, which makes it not drama,” Inko rolled her eyes and took a sip of her tea, “So what happened today?”

“I was supposed to be patrolling a few blocks on my own for the experience when I encountered a lead in a case Sir has been working on. Most of it is classified, so I can’t give specifics, but he did say I was on the callsheet in case it escalated.”

She hummed, “You’ve been in school three months and you’ve already got classified information to keep hidden. I’m starting to think you’ve been doing this for years and only now found a legal way to keep at it.”

It was a joke, Izuku knew that, but deep down a small part of him thought that she already knew about his time traveling. Inko Midoriya wasn’t a stupid woman. She could read her son like the back of her hand and oftentimes knew his emotions or thoughts better than he did. He sometimes thought her quirk included mind-reading, but looking back on his childhood and what he can do with analysis, it’s very clear where he got his mind from. It sure as hell didn’t come from his father.

Inko always encouraged his hobbies, no matter what. Sure, part of it was the guilt of him not having a quirk, but if she helped cultivate it, then he could’ve become an amazing quirk analyzer and worked with top heroes on improving and understanding their powers. But then he got One for All and got into UA and all the shit of his first year happened and now he’s been sent back in time to fix his mistakes.

“And if I have been doing this for years?” He asked softly, finally deciding to broach the subject, “Not in an illegal way, just… in a more complex way?”

“What do you mean?”

Izuku sat up in his seat and turned to Inko, his arm holding up his head against the back of the couch, “Mom, do you remember when I first brought Shoto here to meet you?”

“Yeah, it was about a year ago. You said you met him at the park,” she gently placed down her teacup and stared at him inquisitively. 

“I lied. In fact, I’ve been lying about a lot of things, but it was all because we needed time to figure things out,” he sighed, “Mom, I’ve lived through this once before.”

“How so? Time loop?” He held back a breathy laugh at that. His mother: ever the Sci-Fi geek.

“No, we went through our first year and by the end of it… Japan was in ruins. It’s hard to believe, looking at everything as it is now, but we were in the middle of a war. A very bad person wanted to destroy everything and I couldn’t let him, but during our fight, he… he killed me.”

Izuku let it sit for a minute before continuing.

“He killed me. And Shoto was killed around the same time. Next thing either of us knew, we were waking up at home, ten months before UA. We were safe, we were alive… and we had the ability to change everything.”

“So that’s what you’re doing now,” she said slowly, “Changing things.”

He nodded, “We retained what we knew about our quirks so it seems like we’re leagues ahead of everyone else. The USJ incident had been a disaster the first time, with our teacher nearly dying and his eyes being permanently damaged. There was supposed to have been an attack on our classmate's brother, the hero Ingenium, and he was supposed to be paralyzed. We stopped that by forcibly changing his patrol dates and getting a hero more suited for the hunt to Hosu.”

“Was that the Hero Killer? Stain?”

“Yeah. Our classmate went after him during our internships and Shoto and I had to help him fight Stain. We stopped that fight, too.”

“But now you’re near the end of your term. What else is supposed to happen after this?”

“A lot, but we’re ending it before summer hits. The man who killed me in the first run has already been imprisoned and I’m currently doing my work study with Nighteye because I wanted to save someone earlier: a little girl who was being used for her quirk to make biology-reversing drugs that could shatter a quirk factor,” he looked away and steadied his breathing, “She’s safe now, and a ward of UA.”

She held up a hand to stop him from continuing and he took the time to focus on not crying, “Who else knows about you two? Todoroki was brought back, but this other stuff probably needs a powerful person to pull strings and have connections.”

“Principal Nedzu, our homeroom teacher Aizawa, and All Might,” he breathed, “Shoto’s been debating telling his siblings, but I think he wants to wait until… he has all of them in one place.”

Inko sighed, hands clenching in her lap, “You realize how crazy this sounds, right, Izu? And if it is true- I mean- goddammit, you died! No one should be okay after that!”

“Trust me, it was par for the course with how the first run went,” he ran a hand down his face, “Between being attacked at our summer camp, breaking every bone in my body multiple times, a supervillain wanting me dead, my vigilante era, being betrayed by a close friend, and almost dying once a month-“

He stopped because she looked sick at it all. Izuku often forgot that what he’s gone through and what he’s endured isn’t normal. He was fifteen (technically almost eighteen) going through all this, he shouldn’t be okay. But with how jaded and tired he is, his mental health has been a sort of back-burner issue. He’d seek help after he’s killed All for One, but the way his mother is looking at him says he probably needs it now.

Without warning, Inko launched herself across the couch at him and Izuku had to catch her as she flung her arms around his neck and held her son as tightly as she could.

“Oh my god, Izuku. You shouldn’t’ve had to go through that!” She said with a slight waver in her voice, “You should’ve been kept safe! It’s the school’s job, not yours!”

He waited for her rambling to calm and for her tears to slow before saying, “You said the same thing… after the training camp disaster.”

“Huh?” Inko pulled away slightly, eyes glassy.

“I encountered a villain that put my arms in a state where if they were damaged like that again, they’d be unusable for the rest of my life. When UA came knocking saying they were putting us into dorms for our protection, you said that… it’d be better if you pulled me out of school entirely. That what I’ve been through was too much for only a few months of schooling,” he helped her pull away and looked her in the eyes, “But you know what changed?”

“What?”

“You saw the effects of my training. I saved a kid at the camp, the nephew of one of the heroes. His parents were killed in a villain attack and he was left behind. It ruined his perception of heroes. Until I saved him. I was doing true good, changing hearts and saving people. You said that as long as I kept that up, you were okay with me attending UA.”

“But, Izuku, you ended up dying. You were killed for being a hero.”

“Which is why we’re changing things,” he urged, grabbing her hands, “I will not let history repeat itself. Neither will Shoto. We’ve seen how much damage can be caused and how many lives will be changed. We can save everyone.”

Her fingers tightened around his, “But what about you? Who will save you, Izuku?!”

Izuku’s eyes widened a bit before he relaxed them and looked away. He would argue that he’s already been saved and helped down the long, winding road to recovery. Someone has already helped him, just as he helped them. His heart beat faster and his mind juggled every instance of them saving each other.

Him reminding them of their strength.

Them answering his cryptic call for help without question.

Him getting them to reconnect with someone once thought to be lost.

Them immediately trusting him with a plan when a friend was in danger.

Him helping them save a close friend.

Them knowing exactly what to say to get him to listen and come home.

Being the only person who understands what the other has gone through because they’ve both lived it. They’ve both seen pain and loss immeasurable and are learning to heal alongside each other in their second chance. To Izuku, it’s seeing them and immediately feeling safe and at-home. Recognizing their flaws and being by their side regardless. His mind supplied a word that he hasn’t dared label his feelings with. But isn’t that what this is?

“He’s already saved me, Mom,” he looked back at her, “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Shoto.”

Inko relaxed back a bit, “That boy means a lot to you, doesn’t he?”

“More than I could ever put into words.”

“Honey,” she raised a hand to his cheek and wiped away a stray tear, “I’m so proud of you and who you’ve become.”

“Mom-“

“Let me finish. You saw an impossible scenario, a restart of a difficult part of your life, and you took it head-on. You reawakened your quirk and used it to change so much already,” she smiled at him, “My son, you are already a hero. Nevermind what people say about quirks. Even if you didn’t have this quirk, trying your best and helping all those you can is what makes you a hero.”

Inko pulled him into a hug, “I believe you said it best at the Sports Festival. It’s about how you use that hand to uplift and help others. So, yeah, I’m so proud of you, Izuku.”

Izuku let himself fall limp in his mother’s grasp. The tears he held back finally fell and he sobbed into her for the first time in years.

~~~~~

We don’t wanna go Back to the Future

Wheatgrass: whelp, that’s my family told (i have told one (1) person)

Peppermint: YOU DID NOT

Wheatgrass: mom knows now, about the time travel not ofa

Blondie: How did she take it, Midoriya? (･_･;

Wheatgrass: eh, she was kind of confused but came around

Wheatgrass: i think she’ll kick my ass for not mentioning ofa during our very serious conversation about time travel tho

Peppermint: @Powered Sugar Nedzu what’s the ETA on Touya

Powdered Sugar: He should be a teaching assistant by tomorrow and will move into the newly-built teacher apartments in a few days!

Peppermint: Then I’ll request visitor passes for the Other Two™ soon

Blondie: And your brother is accepting of this change? ∑(ﾟДﾟ)

Blondie: The times you’ve mentioned his other timeline self do not inspire hope in me. (ｰ ｰ;)

Peppermint: His ticket to offing my dad led nowhere, so i bet he’s just glad to be off the streets rn

Wheatgrass: your brother terrifies me

Peppermint: Yes, Izuku. He killed me.

Wheatgrass: not the theater kid; natsuo

Peppermint: HOW TF DOES HE SCARE YOU

Wheatgrass: it’s the height difference, he got it all from ur dad

Peppermint: Izu just kick his knees in, nothing’s stopping you

Wheatgrass: YOUR FATHER IS????

Peppermint: AND YOU COULD KICK HIS ASS.

Black Licorice: keep saying that and i’ll make that your final

Peppermint: You Wouldn’t Dare

Blondie: I have Endeavor’s contact information if you want it, Eraser. ٩( 'ω' )و

Wheatgrass: GASP ALL MIGHT BETRAYAL

Peppermint: Never in my life have I felt more betrayed and my mom literally poured boiling water on my eye

Powdered Sugar: Oh!

Black Licorice: (ignoring that) i’ll keep that in mind, yagi

Peppermint: Can’t our final be killing a supervillain to prevent a future war and the deaths of some beloved teachers and heroes

Powdered Sugar: If we don’t want to incur the wrath of the board of directors!

Peppermint: Dammit

Wheatgrass: Sho when’re you telling your mom

Peppermint: idk Izu when’re you telling Bakugo :)

Wheatgrass: JAJXJJWHXJSBHX

Wheatgrass: FUCCK YUI

Peppermint: Come fuck me yourself coward <33

~~~~~

Shoto saw Touya periodically throughout the last few weeks. He had been healed as much as he could be by Recovery Girl, so his scars weren’t as purple or infected, and they didn’t sag his skin as much as they were. The scars got so bad and the fire so hot that the metal literally holding Dabi’s skin together melted into the flesh and seared it. It wasn’t strange to smell the burning before seeing Dabi arrive.

But Touya was different now. The purple just looked like a strange miscoloration that was easily covered, his roots were growing out and the black was slowly washing away, and his eyes were a brighter blue, where once they were cold and dull.

The eldest Todoroki had begun his meetings with Nedzu regarding his time both in and out of his childhood home. Sometimes, Shoto would be brought in for comment about post-Touya times or about how his siblings were. Touya was happy to hear of Fuyumi’s new job as a teacher and Natsuo’s med school acceptance. It all started to feel so… normal. Like his brother had never left at all.

(But he did. He left and the hatred in his heart changed him into someone who wasn’t Touya. He was corrupted and soured and he killed Shoto. He killed him with burning rage and in cold blood. Shoto’s corpse in the other timeline would forever be marred and unrecognizable. He would never see those friends, that family, ever again.)

With a simple suggestion of seeing the campus and meeting his teachers, Fuyumi was on-board to go to UA. Natsuo was a bit more difficult, as he had a longer commute to the school, but Shoto promised to introduce him to “that crazy-ass Midori kid” to make the trip worth it. The two arrived together and Shoto walked them through the gate to one of the few meeting rooms without cameras or listening devices. Shoto noticed one of the hallway cameras following them, unbeknownst to his siblings, and nodded.

The camera nodded back.

When they arrived at the room, Shoto placed his hand on the door and paused, “Before we head in, there’s something I want to say.”

Fuyumi and Natsuo looked a bit confused, but Fuyumi gestured for him to continue. Shoto took a small breath and wondered what exactly he could say to prepare them. What do you say about your eldest brother who’s come back from the dead? Luckily, Shoto already found his answer.

Nothing, that’s what.

With a loud banging sound, Shoto slammed open the door, pointed at Touya in a dramatic fashion, and said, “Yumi, get his ass.”

And much like a Stand, Fuyumi dropped her purse and launched herself at her twin. Touya tried to step out of the way, but her aim was too accurate and she tackled him square in the chest. The two tumbled to the floor, Fuyumi holding Touya in a headlock and pinning his arms to the floor with her leg.

“YOU GODDAMN BASTARD. YOU LEFT ME WITH LAUNDRY DUTY FOR EIGHT YEARS.”

“YUMI I’M SORRY. PLEASE-“

“BEG LOUDER, BITCH, I DON’T THINK DAD CAN HEAR YOU.”

Shoto cracked a smile and turned to push Natsuo inside, “Come on, it’s gonna be a day of revelations for everyone. Might as well get it over with now.”

Once the twins had sufficiently beaten each other, hugged, and cried, Touya split from Fuyumi to grab Natsuo, who was much more welcoming of his brother being alive than Fuyumi.

“It’s good to see you, kid.”

“You don’t get to call me kid, I’m taller than you.”

“Shut up.”

Shoto stood back and watched them fall back into the normal rhythm he somewhat remembered. It was nice to have his siblings in one room again without one of them trying to kill the others. Images of blue fire danced in his mind and Shoto quickly shook his head and called for them to sit at the table with him. He let Touya explain his life up to this point on his own. The man was 24, he could handle telling that story. Shoto rewatched the broadcast during one of the few moments of reverie between battles. He remembered the horrific scarring along his brother’s body and the story of how he was left to die by the supposed number two hero.

It wasn’t ever pretty. Their lives were portraits of pain and Shoto had to bear the proof of it. His scar and the mental scars left by the many attacks and battles, all of it culminated in this second chance. Not only did he get another chance to stop All for One and Shigaraki, but Touya got another chance to make amends and find his family. Fuyumi got another chance to see her twin, Natsuo got another chance to see his brother.

“Wait,” Natsuo said when Touya stopped, “How did Shoto know who you were?”

“He… never explained that,” the eldest turned to the youngest, “He just showed up one day, chased me across some rooftops, made fun of me, and shoved Nedzu’s card in my face. I gotta say, it was some severe emotional whiplash.”

Shoto shrugged and sat up, “I guess that means I get to explain the bullshit that is time travel.”

“What,” all three of his older siblings said at the same time.

“Yeah, so, apparently… There are some quirks out there that can send someone back to an important day of their life,” he made a so-so motion with his hand and tried to piece together their working theory, which was rather difficult without The Board, “And the running theory is that it also brings back an important person so you don’t go insane. Well, that happened to my friend and guess who the universe thought was the most important person to him at that moment?”

He gave his siblings, who were all looking at him like he grew a second head, goddamn jazz hands and a stupid grin, “So I’m actually from about a year into the future and was sent back after dying to the evil version of this asshole,” he jabbed a thumb at Touya. His brother looked like a deer in headlights that was just told he was a wizard.

“Wait-“ Fuyumi started, hand raised to pause the explanation, “Wait. You’re from a future where you were killed by Touya?”

Shoto nodded, “Yes. It’s how I knew who he was this time, actually. He made a big show about being this big-name villain with the League of Villains and then he revealed himself to Dad and I after blowing up a whole ward. Several weeks later, he killed me, which sent me back here.”

“Oh my god, our brother’s insane,” Natsuo’s head met his hands fairly violently and Shoto snorted a laugh. It was exactly what Touya had said on their first meeting.

“Not insane, just even more traumatized than you thought and determined to not die this time.”

“You say that like it makes a difference, Shoto!”

“It doesn’t actually,” he said, truthfully, “Nothing changes except I fix my mistakes and stop a lot of damage and death.”

He stiffened a bit and dropped his face, “Listen, the future my friend and I experienced is not one we want anyone else to live through: monsters roaming the streets, villains everywhere after Tartarus crumbled, and two supervillains with the power to destroy the whole world actively hunting my friends and I down. When I tell you it’s better this way, please believe me.”

“And I want to believe you, Shoto,” Fuyumi reached over to grab his hand, “I swear, I really do. But you have to understand how crazy this sounds!”

“Trust me, I know. But it’s all true. I’m living that truth. As much as I hate to say it, things went very differently,” he paused and whispered, “What would make you guys completely believe me?”

The three older siblings locked eyes and Touya sighed, “Has he taught you Flashfire Fist yet?”

Of course. That would be the ultimate proof. Their father swore to not teach Shoto such a move until he proved he had the potential to handle it. Such potential would not happen at the very beginning of his first year, no matter how efficient Shoto had gotten with his quirk. Desperate times (the war) called for desperate measures and once Shoto had gotten Phosphorus right… 

“He did, before my death. I mixed it with another technique I developed to circulate my temperature and regulate my power,” Shoto stood from his seat and stepped away a bit. He raised his hands as fists and summoned his quirk. The fire and ice ran through his veins and the orange-and-blue glow of Phosphorus appeared around his chest, “With this, I can summon a Flashfire Fist even more powerful than Father’s.”

The glow faded and Shoto’s breath escaped as an icy cloud, “He practically loathed teaching me, but it was necessary, even if it didn’t help us win in the end. I still died and I don’t know what happened to all of you.”

When he looked back at his siblings, Touya had already left his chair and circled the table to stand in front of his youngest brother. The pain in his eyes was evident, like everything had just then sunk in. Shoto remembered a death at Touya’s hand in a future where their family was even more broken than ever. Fuyumi’s hands covered her mouth and her eyes were watering. Natsuo looked about ready to cry as well.

“I’m sorry I never said anything for a year,” Shoto said, “I couldn’t, not until our plans were set. But I promise that we are finally fixing things. After we defeat the man responsible, we can put all of this behind us and enjoy our new future together.”

Touya’s arms were around Shoto before he could finish talking. Shoto’s mind screamed at him to run, to fight back, to flee from the man who killed him, but Shoto was too tired. He was tired of running, of fighting, of fleeing and he let himself collapse into his brother’s arms. This was not Dabi, not anymore. This was his oldest brother, Touya, who Shoto missed and adored. He felt another pair of arms wrap around him and Fuyumi’s cold skin hit his neck as she shoved her head into it. Natsuo’s arms were last and Touya moved to encompass all of his little siblings at once.

This is what Shoto wanted: his family back. He just needed to get his mother and it’d be complete.

But that could wait until they were settled again with the bombshells that were Touya’s life status and Shoto’s impossible situation.

Shoto smiled.

It was three, him, one, Izuku.

~~~~~

I do not control the lobsters

<Shotodoroki added Fuyuyu, Natsu, and Toy Yah>

<Shotodoroki changed their name to Gay>

<Gay changed Toy Yah’s name to Emo>

<Gay changed Natsu’s name to Tall>

<Gay changed Fuyuyu’s name to Girl>

Gay: Fuckin’ finally. I can send yall MEMES

Tall: Shoto is this your way of coming out to us

Gay: Maybe.

Girl: SHOTO.

Girl: YOU COULD’VE TOLD US WHILE WE WERE REVEALING **OTHER** IMPORTANT INFORMATION???

Gay: OH IM SORRY I FORGOT TO MENTION THIS DURING THE “IM LITERALLY FROM THE FUTURE CONVERSATION”

Gay: Also it’s not like i told you guys last run, we were kinda in the middle of a fuckin’ WAR

Gay: Didn’t wanna say “damn can’t believe touya’s alive and evil and also i think my best friend is cute!” Like??????

Emo: Goddammit he’s catching up to my title of Biggest Disappointment

Emo: Can’t I keep that for myself Sho

Gay: No I’m coming for that longest road card stfu

Emo: FFFUUUUCCKKKK just take the sheep you bastard

Gay: I NEED STONE NOT SHEEP DIPSHIT

Tall: I hate you both

Girl: Same.

Girl: Anyway, Shoto, when the hell did you find that out??

Tall: Yeah I wasn’t aware you even knew what that meant

Gay: Oh it was right after our classmate was kidnapped and then I actually put a name to my feelings before the war

Emo: That entire sentence is hilarious

Tall: When a supervillain escaped from prison but you gotta learn the meaning of, and then serve cunt

Girl: LMAO

Gay: I had this weird moment when my best friend left to pursue the escaped convicts and he left us all letters and he talked about how much he cared about me and I realized that maybe I didn’t just want to be his friend and I GOOGLED what it meant to feel that way

Girl: In the middle of a war,,,

Gay: Asked my lesbian friend for confirmation and she was all “todoroki wtf” and i said “goddamnit tsu help me get over it” and she went “assflash newshole, you don’t” and i said “fuuuck” and i kept that shit to myself for TWO MONTHS, MY DEATH, AND NOW ANOTHER YEAR.

Gay: If I could tell him I would. Maybe after we kill the BBEG.

Emo: Wait is it the green kid you literally fought at the sports festival

Gay: Yeah,,,,

Girl: I need you to know that Natsuo is dying laughing at your plight and I’m afraid he’s gonna cough up a lung

Gay: I live to entertain :finger_guns:

Emo: Yknow what nvm i rescind my title and pass it to you

Emo: Bc goddamn

Emo: And I thought i was bad!

Girl: <laughtrack>

Gay: Yeah yeah welcome to Dysfunctional Family Land, population: six. We’ve got Grippy Sock Grotto, Bad Dad Boulevard, Villain Arc Vista, Time Travel Train Station, Natsuo, and Lesbian Lagoon.

Tall: Love being the cishet of the todoroki kids

Girl: My gf can beat up ur gf

Tall: I KNOW SHE CAN WHICH IS WHY OUR GF’S ARE NEVER MEETING

Gay: Wait Yumi is this when you started dating Miruko

Emo: WAIT WHAT THE FUCK

Girl: Yeah

Emo: HUH?????

Tall: See what shit you miss out on when you aren’t here Touya

Tall: This shit right here

Emo: Atp i’m gonna be the least problematic child holy fuck

Girl: Hey you got a better shot at being dad’s favorite now!

Gay: JAKDJOWJXHWBBXJWJXN

Tall: LMAOOOOOOOOO

Girl: What you’ve always wanted!

Emo: Wait Shoto you were literally chosen by the universe to go back in time with your crush

Gay: Yeah

Emo: What kinda soulmateism is this

Girl: Omg you’re right

Gay: Trust me, i’ve had plenty of crises over it

Gay: I almost asked fuyumi what it meant when the universe pulled you into the past as its target’s “most important person”

Girl: I would’ve been so confused

Tall: This is so manhwa coded holy shit

Tall: I Got Sent Back to the Past to Stop a War With My Crush!!!!

Gay: Thanks for summing up my trauma in the worst possible way

~~~~~

Surprising to absolutely no one, UA’s rumor mill works overtime. The amount of gossip and rumors that float through the halls at any given point should be picked up by at least one person’s quirk. They’re like ghosts, carried by the wind. It always reaches you, in whatever form it’s been shaped into, and you always watch it go to the next person. Normal high schools are like this, but for some reason heroics students go beyond.

Which is why it’s absolutely, not at all surprising that Ochaco hears a rumor right before finals that two of her friends are secretly dating.

She’s heard many rumors about these two in particular, like the rumor mill specializes in them, but she’s always turned them down. Gossip about their remedial classes, the fact that they have their provisional licenses so early, their overwhelming firepower, the Sports Festival, the USJ incident, and so much more spread around the school like wildfire. Ochaco likes the occasional rumor or gossip, but after Midoriya told her to not worry about the rumors and put her faith in him, she started not liking it when the wind brought new tidbits to her.

These were her friends! They wouldn’t lie to her about their capabilities or why they were really at UA. Todoroki is the son of the number two hero! If he was really a spy for an international villain organization hellbent on dismantling society from the inside, then he’s doing a terrible job of it. And someone could say that Midoriya’s analysis notebooks were creepy, but she actually found them very impressive. He barely knew what her quirk was and he already found several techniques to help her improve! Before classes even started!

They sit with her, Iida, and Tsu at lunch, they attend class bonding days, they help Kaminari and Kirishima and Mina with their homework and understanding the lessons, they take extra notes in case someone doesn’t show up to class, and they always know what to say to make her feel better about her training. Really, she’s inclined to believe that they are the best candidates for becoming heroes after graduation.

Sure, they have a knowing look to them at all times and they maybe have their own inside jokes they won’t explain to everyone, but that’s normal because they knew each other for two years before UA. They were friends in middle school and helped each other come out of their shells. Is Ochaco a bit curious as to how they met because they seem like the type to go to different schools? Of course. Is she gonna pressure them into talking about it? Not a chance.

Ochaco will just sit back and observe these two as they discuss nonsensical things like garbage movies and pre-quirk internet humor. She’ll listen when Todoroki complains about his siblings or when Midoriya talks about his work study (as much as he can with the amount of classified information, at least). She and Tsu will accept their help with the homework. Iida will ask clarifying questions when they bring up an incident from before high school.

Their group dynamic is friendly, strong, and understanding of each other.

Which is why it pains Ochaco to say it, but they are the two most oblivious people in the whole world.

“I still think they’re dating,” she said as she sat at their unassigned-assigned-lunch-table on a day both boys were gone on their work studies (Nedzu had retrieved them and Aizawa that morning, leaving the class to Midnight; they left in a hurry, she noticed), “Or at least mutually pining.”

“Oh my god, same,” Tsu said, “They are so clearly in love with each other that I fear they may never realize.”

“We shouldn’t speculate on their relationship, but I will admit, it’s….” Iida trailed off and sighed, “tempting to lock them in a storage closet and hide the key.”

Ochaco elbowed Iida’s side with a chuckle, “Damn, get that from a romance novel or something?”

“No!” His face was bright red, “Tensei reads them and likes to watch romantic comedies! I catch a little bit of them when I’m home.”

“What’re we talking about?” Jirou asked as she sat down with Yaomomo, “Who’s dating?”

“You guys agree that Mido and Todo are totally dating, right?” Tsu deadpanned. Jirou started nodding vigorously before she started laughing maniacally and Yaomomo put her hand to her chin in thought.

“Well, Shoto has changed drastically since meeting Midoriya. And the way they act around each other suggests a deeper connection than just being best friends,” she said, like she was analyzing a novel, “They confuse me, to say the least.”

“Which is why I still think they’re dating!” Ochaco groaned and put her head on the table, facing everyone else, “And if they aren’t then they do love each other. You’d think they’d figure it out by now.”

“It’ll be a cold day-“ Jirou wheezed, “-in HELL when those two finally kiss.”

“Maybe Iida was onto something when he said lock them in a storage closet…” Tsu mumbled.

“Well, I just want to bring this to the table,” Yaomomo began, hands folded rather professionally, “We all see how they act now. They’re rather close and rather touchy, always making sure the other is within arm’s reach or eyesight. If they get over their feelings and finally get together, are we willing to see that go from ten, where it is, to a hundred? We’d feel like third, fourth, fifth, etcetera, wheels.”

Ochaco thought about that for a second. They were rather close physically. Every time Midoriya realizes Todoroki isn’t in the room, he gets more fidgety and vice versa. Once, when Midoriya was called out of their heroics class for an appointment with Principal Nedzu, Todoroki looked a bit lost during the lesson, like he wanted to make a joke but the one person who would understand it wasn’t there. There was even a time where they were on opposite sides of the room but Midoriya had one of his black energy tendrils connected to Todoroki’s pinkie and the kid was fine with it, like it was a normal occurrence.

They act this way without any regard for who can see them.

“Yeah, no, if they were already dating, then this is the final stage,“ Ochaco urged, “There is no more Tododeku Event Horizon, we’ve reached the middle of the black hole and are being destroyed by their simultaneous crushes on each other.”

“Not how that works, but alright.”

“Shut up, Iida.”

“Tododeku? Is that what we’re going with?” Tsu raised an eyebrow.

“It was all I could think of.”

“Uh huh.”

Their conversation was cut short by someone in the lunch room shouting, “TURN ON THE NEWS. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT CHANNEL. THE UA MONSTERS ARE FIGHTING A GODDAMN DEMON.”

~~~~~

Nedzu’s scouts alerted him to some concerning movement and activity outside of the nomu warehouse mere hours ago. Shoto and Izuku were quick to grab their things and leave school under the guise of “work study stuff”, and even quicker to meet the Aizawa and All Might at the school gates. Their friends wondered where they were off to in such a hurry, but Izuku assured them that they’d be back before classes finished.

Not that he was so confident in his ability to kill a supervillain, but because the original fight with a supremely underpowered All Might only lasted ten minutes. The whole world changed in ten minutes. 

Izuku plans on doing it in three.

He had spoken with the vestiges a few weeks ago about the difference in letting All for One live versus apprehending them. All eight of them, including Izuku, were of the opinion that he had to die to protect their second chance. Shoto agreed when Izuku brought it up to him, that the man was better off dead (actually dead this time, Izuku would assure there was a body), that the risk of him living was too great. The Commission would understand. It’s not like they haven’t done worse.

“The scouts sighted several hired guns entering the warehouse at 0800 hours today,” Nedzu sat between the two students in the back seat, laptop open in front of him, “One even resembled the information broker you two remembered seeing from the First Run. They infiltrated the bar in Kamino to find it completely abandoned and cleared out. They most likely consolidated their work to the warehouse.”

“Have the scouts made it out safely?” Izuku asked, “This is about to be ground zero if he’s there.”

“They have, confirming they’re a few miles away already and have sent an anonymous tip so we can begin evacuation efforts. Those will take approximately thirty to forty minutes,” Nedzu tapped a small countdown at the top of his screen labelled ‘PD and Evac’, “Provisional heroes Deku and Shoto will be helping with evac until Deku gets called in for air support and Shoto for ground. I trust you know what to do.”

Izuku and Shoto locked eyes above their principal’s head and nodded.

“Yes, sir.”

“Understood.”

Aizawa turned in his seat slightly, “I want you two to remember that even though you have experience, the rest of the world doesn’t see it that way. We are establishing this as a coincidence that you are there. Don’t do anything stupid, got it?”

“Sir, I think I’ve done my fair share of stupid,” Izuku said, his right hand clenching. Even though the pain and damage was no longer there, his mind sometimes supplied a ghostly ache where his fingers should be crooked, “A lot is riding on this.”

“Just making sure you know.”

They parked at an alley a few blocks away and started for the warehouse on foot. All Might was still in his small form to minimize recognition and prevent alerting the hired guns before Ryukyu and Nighteye arrived. Nedzu handed Izuku a small earpiece for communications and the boy pulled on his green hood and ventilator as a precaution.

There was already police chatter as they secured the area and Izuku launched himself to the top of a nearby building to get a better look. Aizawa followed after him and they surveyed the scene of fleeing citizens and police barricades. He never had such luxuries in the last run, things always moved too fast and resources were always too limited to have this level of efficiency. It’s why the UA kids were brought in. They were extra hands, even with the small level of true experience they had. 

“Kamino PD have evacuated the area around the bar just in case he moves,” Detective Tsukauchi said over the line, “ETA of additional hands is thirty seconds for Hawks, one minute for Ryukyu, two minutes for Nighteye. Everyone else is five or more minutes away.”

“Once Hawks gets here, get him on comms and instruct him to keep collateral damage to a minimum. We want to do this nice and simple,” All Might said. Izuku often forgot the man had a brain, which was the most insulting thing he ever thought about his idol, “We have enough time to finish evac, Nedzu what’s the status on that?”

“T-minus two minutes.”

“Eraserhead, stay close and stay out of sight. You are indispensable in this fight.”

“Understood.”

Izuku felt a shiver of electricity run down his spine. One for All was shifting within him and he could almost hear the vestiges screaming for All for One’s demise. If All Might couldn’t handle it, Deku was to step in as the next wielder of the quirk. With how both sides of the fight were, Deku was almost guaranteed a victory, even if All for One has made some changes to his form in the past few months.

“Incoming!” Hawks’s voice came over the comms as he landed behind Izuku and Aizawa, “Deku, Eraser. When’re we headin’ in?”

“Once we get more air support,” Aizawa said, “Stay high and keep damage to buildings as low as possible.”

“Right on.”

A red feather attached itself to one of the clips on Izuku’s scarf as Hawks flew away. Izuku noticed another feather wiggle its way into one of Aizawa’s pockets. Hawks became a small red dot in the blue sky and he made a wide circle around, his feathers flying off to make sure every citizen was out of the evacuation area. Even for all he does at the whims of the Commission, Izuku greatly respected Hawks.

(The man was the definition of an industry plant, but Izuku liked him better than Endeavor, so. The chicken man could stay. For now.)

If the group was going to be honest, they weren’t expecting much of a fight. Nomu, sure. The Doctor, sure. The hired guns, sure. But All for One’s body should not at all be prepared enough to take even a low-level vigilante in a fight. The “Grand Defeat of All for One” was probably just gonna be unplugging his life support like you were getting rid of a grandparent with a large trust fund. Izuku really wanted to be the one to kick his teeth in, but he promised to stay back if he could.

Didn’t mean he wasn’t gonna kick All for One’s body when he got the chance. No one was safe from a Deku Dick-Kick if he had anything to say about it.

[“Ryukyu is on-site.”

“Shoto, meet me on the south side of the street, we’ll set up a perimeter with your ice.”

“Yes, ma’am.”]

The hired guns were still inside, probably freaking out over whatever was going on. Izuku bet that most of them were like the criminals at the USJ incident: D-listers pulled off the streets by promises of high payment. Really, they should know better after all of those criminals were beaten senseless and arrested for attempted murder and various other charges. They were spared the horrific Tartarus fate, but a quirk-suppressant prison cell wasn’t that much better.

Actually, Izuku saw one of the men through one of the windows. He had a gun strapped to his back and a strange purple coloration across the right side of his face, with a glowing yellow void where his eye should’ve been. It was like Kurogiri if he wasn’t misty. Maybe the Doctor attempted to regain Kurogiri’s power after losing him to the heroes and failed.

[“Recon says there’s thirty men and roughly fifteen of those monsters inside. Stay cautious.”

“Nighteye is on-site and he’s running comms to get Nedzu out of dodge.”

“Let’s keep this as efficient as possible, my friends.”

“Got it, Nighteye.”]

If Izuku remembered correctly, the Nomu operation wasn’t at all tied to Shigaraki. It was all the Doctor and All for One in this warehouse. Shigaraki was just in charge of forcing them on people, like in Hosu or at the training camp. With him gone, though, the main source of outer interference was the Doctor and whatever poor souls signed onto All for One’s payroll.

[“Hawks, keep those news choppers away.”

“On it.”

“Kamui Woods and Mount Lady have arrived. Edgeshot said his and Best Jeanist’s ETA is one minute.”]

“Deku, we’re going in,” Aizawa said from beside him, snapping Izuku out of his musings.

Izuku nodded and used a Blackwhip to mirror Aizawa’s capture weapon to lower him to the ground and sprint towards where All Might was waiting in an alley in his deflated form.

“He’s inside, according to Hawks. Though, he is more recovered than I would’ve liked,” the number one hero said, “I’ll go in first, you and Shoto are to be back-up in case I cannot maintain it any longer. Got it?”

“Do you want me running support from afar?” Izuku asked. It was a stupid question to ask, really. Both of them knew that he couldn’t stay out of this fight if the world depended on it. All for One had to be stopped here and now.

“If you can. Just stay out of reach. Eraserhead, let me know when you need a break,” All Might’s form changed to his seven-foot one and he stepped out onto the street to greet the others, “Let’s get this show on the road, people! Let those inside know that WE ARE HERE!”

He reeled back and summoned his power. With a loud crash, the doors to the warehouse were bashed inward and the wall caved enough for the rest of the heroes to file in after their leader. All Might charged inside, quickly followed by Izuku, Ryukyu, and Kamui Woods. The Dragon Hero erupted into her giant form, the roof of the warehouse being torn clean off by her sheer size. At the roof’s demise, Hawks swooped in. His feathers grabbed the downed hired guns and carried them away from the site and into police custody. He got a few good hits on the Nomu inside, working through them as the number three hero should be capable of.

Izuku was jumping between the Nomu capsules and pools and the criminals inside, knocking their weapons from their hands and destroying the Nomu production line. He dodged gunfire with Blackwhip and sent one to fling a man into the sky for him to be caught by Hawks. The Nomu in the building were easy to deal with, after the altered ones from the first run.

His eyes caught onto a familiar white lab coat hiding behind two Nomu at one end of the lab area. Izuku swung overhead and kicked one normal-looking Nomu away, into a large water tank. The other one, tall and spindly, with tentacles for hands and feet, and a large bulbous head that was clear enough to see the brain, squealed in rage. It thrust a hand out and the tentacles grew outwards. Izuku jumped into a Float to avoid them, then Air Forced them into the ground. He landed harshly on them, the weaker ones cutting under his iron soles. He ran up the arm and kicked the Nomu in the face, then wrapped a Blackwhip around the smallest point of the bulging head.

When he landed right behind the hulking mass, Izuku shoved One for All up to 15% and pulled. The tendril tightened and cut into the octopus-like head. It let out the loudest squelching sound and Izuku saw blue blood scatter on the floor next to him, the tendril and the half-head following soon after. He straightened out just as the Nomu fell backwards. Izuku turned to face the cowarding Doctor and let out another Blackwhip tendril to grab him to give to Hawks.

“No… no, you can’t! My work!”

Izuku let out an exasperated sigh before launching the man upwards with an eye roll.

“Villains and Nomu taken out,” All Might said over the line. Izuku barely registered his voice over the sound of a giant explosion rocking the warehouse’s foundation, “Clear out to support positions. Leave him to me.”

The far wall of the warehouse blew open and All for One gently stepped out. He still had his suit, though it was missing a few pieces, and the godawful helmet that covered his whole head. Loose wires and tubes hung from the back of it and his breathing was coarse through the metallic filter of the life-support mask. Ryukyu and the other heroes fled the scene, ready to jump in when All Might called for them. Izuku spotted his teacher behind one of the fallen walls near the front, clutching a hand to his bleeding arm.

They locked eyes, both understanding their true purpose here. Aizawa gave Izuku a stern look, then nodded and doubled back around the pillars he was hiding behind. Izuku circled around as well, keeping his eye on Aizawa for when the red glow hit All for One. Just as the man was about to raise a mutated fist against All Might, Aizawa’s hair floated up and his eyes glared at him, cutting off the access to his deadlier quirks. The mutations stayed, but he couldn’t shift his arm any further and he couldn’t put more power behind the punch he sent out at All Might.

The hero pulled his arms up in defense and the punch sent him barely skidding across the floor. They traded weaker blows, each one sending a shockwave across the warehouse floor.

With how long Aizawa could keep his eyes open, Izuku had just enough time to float up to right above All for One and launch several Blackwhips out at the blown-apart warehouse roof. He pumped his leg full of energy from Fa Jin and summoned Gearshift, locking his arms into the correct position for his whole body. Once he saw the red glow off to the side begin to fade, Izuku kicked off the air above him and catapulted his whole body down at All for One.

With his quirks back, the supervillain attempted to summon a shield, but the sheer energy coming from Izuku’s power broke it instantly. Iron sole collided with All for One’s head and the man was sent flying across the giant empty space, slamming through the farthest wall of the building and into the brick wall that lined the alleyway behind it.

The metal mask crumbled instantly and All for One’s blank upper face had a massive gash from the shrapnel of the mask’s explosion. All for One wasn’t out yet, if his moving limbs were any indication. A group of black tentacles emerged from his back and lifted him up and away from the wall.

“You…” he wheezed, “You child. You know not what you’re against.”

“I think I know plenty, Zen Shigaraki,” Izuku said, ignoring the way the grafted skin on the villain’s face clenched at his own name, “That includes how you’re going to die tonight.”

“Deku,” All Might walked up next to Izuku and placed a hand on his shoulder, “Let’s give it all we’ve got.”

The teen gave his mentor a wicked smile, “Understood.”

They broke off in opposite directions right as All for One launched himself directly at them. He landed in empty space and frantically looked around, summoning light-blue energy shields to float around his head. If he wanted to protect up high, Izuku would have to hit down low.

He kicked off a wall and spun on the ground to aim a kick at the man’s shin. Right as it made contact, a disgusting cracking sound echoed in the warehouse. It was enough to make All for One tilt and stumble, his own black tentacles keeping him upright enough to dodge a punch to the head from All Might. Izuku’s breathing started to get heavy and he pulled up his respirator right as he noticed the smoke that hung in the air. Some of the electrical equipment must’ve caught fire and spread while Izuku was distracted.

[“A fire broke out on the far side!”

“I’ve got it!”

“Shoto, no, get back here!”]

All for One’s leg was disfigured and bent at an awkward angle, so he reached down to yank it off with a quirk, but once his hand made contact, his power was shut off and the tentacles vanished into black plumes of smoke. All Might took the chance from Aizawa to land another quick punch before All for One hit the ground. Izuku also got another kick in, this time to All for One’s arm with a bulk of his life-support on it.

The wielders of One for All landed on opposite sides of the barely-hanging-on villain. Izuku made a show of clenching his fist and summoning the bulk of his power into it, a solid 30% of it. All Might lifted his arm as well, even as wisps of steam emanated from his mouth and shoulders. Ice blue met forest green in an understanding only they could have.

All for One’s dazed state was interrupted completely by two punches to his body.

Izuku’s hit landed square on the right side of All for One’s jaw.

All Might’s hit was to the man’s left knee.

Both punches sent a different half of the body in the opposite direction from the other. Izuku ignored the sounds and the smell and the feeling of a body being ripped in two directly next to him and instead focused on landing on his own two feet. He straightened and shook out his hand right as All for One’s upper half landed, lifeless, next to him. The villain’s bottom half accompanied All Might on the other side of the warehouse.

There was a moment when both heroes stood there, unmoving, as if waiting for the two halves of the man who hunted them down to move. Izuku dared not lift his head and eyes away from the torso and stared at the horrifically scarred face of the Boogeyman of the Underground. He dared the bastard’s heart to beat, he dared his lungs to intake oxygen, but all he got was the glow of the spreading fire, the sound of crystalizing ice, the smell of blood, and the overwhelming feeling of a sudden, yet long-awaited victory.

[“Deku, All Might, Shoto! Goddamnit, someone come in!”

“The smoke’s covering them, not even the helicopters can see them!”

“I don’t have visual, but my feathers are picking up signs of life with one stopped heartbeat. I can’t tell whose.”

“Someone get in there!”]

“Izuku?!”

He turned when he heard his name and saw Shoto race over to him. The two-toned boy ignored the corpse nearby and threw his arms around Izuku, clutching him tightly. It took Izuku a second to return the hug, but when he did, he practically collapsed into Shoto’s arms. He let himself be dragged away from the embers of flame and the decaying corpse of All for One.

“Hey, you did it,” Shoto whispered, holding Izuku’s body close, “He’s gone. We’re okay.”

Izuku tried to look over at All for One’s body, but Shoto reached up to stop the motion. He also swiped at some stray tears as they fell down Izuku’s cheeks. Izuku planted his face into Shoto’s chest and listened to his heightened heartbeat.

“You don’t have to look over there. No one could have survived that. He’s dead, I promise.”

“Wait… wait until it’s confirmed,” Izuku urged through clenched teeth.

[“Eraserhead is out! Shoto has Deku! All Might is still further in!”

“I’m sensing his heartbeat, however erratic it is. The other body is in two, no brain activity or heartbeat. Jesus, it looks bad.”

“Let’s get the kids out and go from there. Someone make sure the… body… is secure.”]

“Kids!” Hawks yelled as he landed between them and All for One’s body. His giant wings blocked the sight of the corpse and Izuku was evermore grateful for the hero’s common sense, “Let’s get him out of here. Can you carry him, Mini-roki?”

“Yeah, I can. I think he’s in shock.”

“No shit. I’ll be right behind you.”

Izuku was swung up into Shoto’s arms and swiftly carried away from the scene. Two paramedics met them at the entrance and began taking what vitals they could on the run to the ambulance. One checked his eyes for a concussion and the other checked his blood-oxygen levels as well as his blood pressure. When the second paramedic asked Shoto for his own testing, Shoto shook his head and said he was completely fine.

The bright lights in the vehicle caused black spots in Izuku’s vision and once the preliminary tests were done and he was pushed to sit up and face the back doors of the ambulance, Shoto was instantly in his field of view, hand clutching Izuku’s like a lifeline.

“They said you’ll be fine, you’re just out of it due to the smoke,” Shoto said. His voice wavered in relief and he sounded more like he was reassuring himself, rather than Izuku, “They have their reservations about letting you back out to help with clean-up, but I think they’re waiting for Nighteye to be told before they drag you away for more testing.”

“Or they’re waiting for you to leave since you’re technically not allowed to be here,” Izuku squeezed Shoto’s hand tighter, “Why’d you go against an order? Ryukyu won’t be happy.”

“You were gonna be hindered by the smoke and I was the only one who could put the fires out. If you’re able to do something about it, then why not?”

“You’re listening to me too much. Go back to Early-roki, he at least had some braincells.”

“He thought you were All Might’s secret love child, I’d much rather lack common sense via osmosis with you than believe that bullshit.”

Izuku laughed, his vision finally clearing and his mind settling in the chaos outside of this small space, “We really are two dumbasses in a stupid pod.”

“Yeah, but I think that’s what makes us so great,” Shoto put on a smug smile and lifted Izuku’s gloved hand to his lips in the faintest echo of a kiss, “Also, I don’t think we can say we’re idiots after planning… everything.”

“Hey, we had Nedzu help us.”

“With the legality of things. Everything else was all us and the fabled Board of Doom.”

“How did you say that in italics-?”

“Midoriya, Todoroki!” Nighteye’s voice came into the ambulance as the man swiftly walked over and ducked to peer at them inside. He let out a small sigh, “I am glad to see you two unharmed, though I would prefer if you left the fighting and rescuing to the heroes next time. You could have been seriously hurt.”

“Sir, you know I couldn’t have just not done anything-“

Nighteye cut Izuku off with a small glance at Shoto. Right, he doesn’t know that the other kid knows about One for All, “Regardless of your heroic instincts putting you in danger, I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you. You both really helped out today and I don’t know how this would’ve gone had you not been here.”

“I didn’t really do anything-“

“Shoto, you helped evacuate people and pets, barricaded the evac zone to ensure it was kept clear, aided the heroes in capturing villains, protected fallen heroes from the Nomu, and saved me and All Might from the fire that had spread,” Izuku sternly said, eyeing his best friend the whole time, “Now if you say that bullshit again and I will Detroit Smash your balls off.”

“I don’t think you said that how you wanted to say it.”

“Shut up and take the goddamn compliment.”

Shoto laughed and curled in on himself, holding Izuku’s hand to his chest, “God, you sure know how to make a boy feel good.”

“Thanks, I try.”

The hero they kinda forgot was there cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up his nose, “You two are alright, which means we need to begin cleaning efforts. Your teacher wishes to speak with you before you begin helping.”

“Yes, Sir,” Izuku nodded and moved to leave the ambulance as Nighteye left to resume his actual job, “C’mon Sho, we gotta go be heroes.”

“Wait, Izu, one more thing.”

Shoto’s hand that still gripped Izuku’s pulled him back and the other hand flew up to cup Izuku’s cheek. A second of staring between each other, the unspoken words being said as quick as lightning, brought Izuku closer, hand grazing the front of Shoto’s hero costume. He looked about ready to just kiss him and Izuku wished he would.

“Will you do me the honor of going out with me after this?” The taller boy asked, “I find myself rather fond of you.”

“Just say the words, Mr Darcy,” Izuku scoffed lightly, already feeling the warmth on his face creep over his cheeks and nose. He pressed his head further into Shoto’s touch, “You Todoroki’s and your drama, I swear.”

“I love you,” Shoto reached his other hand up to fully grab Izuku’s face, a faint pink spreading across his own.

 Izuku leaned in more to whisper, “And I love you, too.”

The sounds of sirens and yelling seemed to disappear as they fully leaned into each other at a singular point. Where once they had to remain vigilant and aware to prevent an ambush, they now allow themselves to fall away into the comfort of each other’s presence. For a year and a half, Izuku waited. A year and a half, he wanted to find this very moment, this very opportunity, to finally do what he’s been meaning to do since that original night in Kamino.

It was the determination, the raw strength of this boy in front of him that made him want it. It was the pure heroism and the power behind his words and movements that brought a flush to Izuku’s cheeks. It was Shoto’s headstrong attitude, stupid jokes, beautiful looks, and grand love that made him the only person Izuku could love. And that was indeed the word for it.

Love.

Now, with everything that’s happened and everything that’s changed, he finds himself able to enjoy every second of the kiss they found themselves entangled in. It’s messy and inexperienced, but the way they lock together and hold each other close is so much like them that he wouldn’t have it any other way. They don't kiss for too long, as there’s still an active investigation behind them, but it’s just long enough for both of them to fully, silently tell each other again, “I love you. I always have, and I always will.”

“Alright, symbol of hope,” Shoto said when he finally pulled away, “Let’s go be heroes.”

~~~~~

Within the darkness of One for All, seven ghosts cheered and danced and breathed sighs of relief.

Their fight was finally over. It was done.

The boys had finally kissed.

Oh and All for One was dead too, they guess.

Chapter Text

In Izuku’s defense, they were back before the end of classes.

Realistically, the gathering of heroes and the fight with All for One only took a few hours, cutting over lunch and the class after it. Because the boys were work study students, they didn’t really have to do much in the aftermath. They were spoken to by Best Jeanist, who was insistent on their silence until the report was published a few days later. Nighteye and Ryukyu were busy with clean-up efforts and after the boys helped with clearing some of it, they were released with Aizawa to head back to UA.

Nedzu met them halfway up the path to the school’s front doors, “I trust we’ve confirmed it this time?”

“By several people,” Aizawa grunted, “He will be disposed of soon. It’s over.”

“A relief, I’m sure,” he directed at Shoto and Izuku. They nodded, still a bit dazed. Neither boy sustained major injuries, a blessing in itself, but both were clearly experiencing some sort of brain catch-up as their bodies and minds finally accepted the fact that the man was dead.

All for One was dead. Shigaraki was captured before his awakening and was being rehabilitated. Kurogiri was indisposed and restrained. Dabi was Touya again and was healing steadily. Toga had been found and placed in a foster home that specialized in blood quirks (which totally wasn’t just Vlad King using his emergency foster license). Stain had been captured before his message could truly be brought to light, and a recursory search of Spinner’s real name brought up a bright young man in med school (and if Natsuo had started talking about his friend Iguchi, Shoto wouldn’t comment on it).

Other members of the Old League hadn’t popped up yet, mainly because they didn’t get their start until the League was formed in the first run. But that only happened around this time, after the USJ and the Sports Festival, but before the training camp. Finals week was upon UA and so far, no other League members have come up in the Underground.

Which meant… they’d done it. They truly, genuinely, didn’t realize that fact until they stepped foot onto UA’s grounds and Nedzu started talking about their plans to implement the dorms anyway. This time, it wouldn’t be out of necessity or keeping students safe, it would be because UA was “transitioning to a more boarding-school-style curriculum to ensure our future heroes’ future”. The classes would be in the dorms and not have the lingering fear of villain attacks.

And, sure, the other issues would come to light, like Humarise in the winter or ReDestro in the spring, but other problems that occurred because of something that happened in the first run, like Nine or Dark Might, wouldn’t rear their ugly heads until further down the line (or hopefully not at all,). And when those first things did happen, they were prepared for it.

This was it. This was the culmination of their efforts and planning: All for One, dead before summer break.

He didn’t know what he was expecting. The plan was to get rid of the League quickly and quietly, not causing collateral damage or leaving room for people to die. He had saved Eri rather quickly, he had set the Shie Hassaikai on track for implosion, he took several people off the streets, and he took out the two-hundred-year-old supervillain that plagued the ghosts in his mind for years. 

So, he didn’t expect huge fanfare or celebration, but the quiet acceptance of it all being over was a bit lackluster. Izuku supposed that he could invite Those Who Know™ to dinner as a thank you for believing in him and Shoto, which would probably be the better option. Fuyumi always liked having people over, but having to explain this weird group of people to Endeavor would’ve taken years off Izuku’s (and Shoto’s) lifespan. Maybe Izuku and his mom could host. Shoto practically lived at his house anyway.

But returning to their classroom and the shocked and confused faces of their classmates gave Izuku some of his energy back. Uraraka was quick to stand up and engulf the two in a big hug, followed by Tsu and Iida. Soon, they ignored their study hour to gather around the two like children around their grandparents for a story by the fireplace. Aizawa simply sat at his desk with an unamused, yet somehow still fond, look on his face.

“Oh my god, guys, we saw what you were doing on the news,” Ashido was saying, holding up her phone as if they weren’t literally there, “Todoroki went in and then the news lost sight of what happened. They had to cut the feed due to the smoke from the fires and Hawk’s command.”

“What even happened? You guys were there for your work studies, but it seemed like you were pulled out specifically for this raid, y’know?” Sero said.

“What we have right now is classified until the report comes out,” Izuku held up a placating hand, “Trust me, I wanna tell you guys, but for ease of mind, just know we were simply at the right place at the right time.”

Iida leaned back in the chair he’d commandeered, pushing up his glasses to rub his face vigorously, “You two have been pushed forward rather swiftly through the curriculum and the first thing you do is somehow end up in a raid involving the top heroes and what appears to be a supervillain.”

“Technically not the first thing this dumbass has done, but that’s also classified,” Shoto smacked a hand onto Izuku’s shoulder.

“Shoto!”

“Sorry, my guy, don’t hate the player-“

“Don’t call me my guy, you literally kissed me less than two hours ago.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, would you prefer something more coupley?” Shoto said, propping his chin on his hand and resting his arm on the desk as he turned to cock an eyebrow at Izuku. He ignored the confused looks and mutters from the rest of the class, “Like dear? Or darling? My love? My viridian angel? My hope incarnate? My hero?”

“Oh my god, Sho,” Izuku shoved his very red face into his hands and curled inward, “Shut the hell up.”

“Answer me and I will, babe.”

Izuku screamed into his hands.

“Okay, what the shit?!” Uraraka yelled. Yaoyorozu and Sato, who sat next to her, leaned away in an attempt to avoid her flying arms as she tried to make sense of what the hell happened in the last few hours, “I thought you guys went to fight a villain, not go on a cutesy date and come back as this!”

“I mean…” Tsu said, eyeing Izuku’s red face and Shoto’s smug look, “With what we have seen, aren’t those the same thing to them?”

“Yeah, I feel like Midoriya could punch someone in the face and Todoroki would think it’s the hottest thing ever,” Kirishima laughed.

“Who’s to say it isn’t-“ Shoto was shut up by Jirou’s kick to his shin, “Rude.”

“You guys are so gross,” she rolled her eyes, “Literally at lunch, we were debating how bad you’d be if you got together. Guess we have our answer.”

“It isn’t gonna be this bad all the time,” Izuku said, lifting his head to look at Jirou, “He just really likes to annoy me.”

“You just make it so easy, my greener pasture.”

Uraraka leaned against Sato’s arm, who just patted her hair with a small chuckle, “You guys are gonna be the death of me…”

“No, what’s really gonna be the death of you all is FINALS,” Izuku suddenly said. It totally wasn’t to distract from the relationship he just got into or anything, “And if we continue to talk about mine and Shoto’s day, I think Aizawa will kill us.”

He had to physically stop himself from saying “and I don’t wanna go through that again”.

Yaoyorozu was the first to stand and sigh, “He’s right, we still have those in a few days. Ashido, Kaminari, did you two still need help with the math study guide?”

The other students slowly began filing away with grumbles about finals and Izuku let himself breathe a sigh of relief. He never felt Bakugo’s eyes leave his head, even after the boy had taken his seat in front of Izuku. That was a conversation he was dreading, for sure, but one he had to do alone. If their plan to tell them at the training camp went through, Bakugo wouldn’t be appreciative of having been told with everyone else.

Izuku let his mind fall away into the somehow rare monotony of doing his schoolwork. He and Shoto passed their license exam, which was part of their final, but Nedzu still required them to do the same tests as everyone else. Not that he was complaining, he’d already passed these tests once before. The practical exam was still a mystery, as the boys knew that the others would be fighting the teachers. They haven’t said anything, of course, but Izuku knew Aizawa had something stupid up his sleeve for this.

The days passed by with strange ease. Not having the looming shadow of All for One over him, Izuku actually allowed himself to relax and just exist in this new timeline. He and Shoto actually went on their first date and ignored their friends who sat in garbage disguises across the restaurant and behind them at the theater. Inko was told of their next step and she just exclaimed “oh finally!” which totally didn’t break Izuku and make Shoto start cackling.

All Might then officially announced his retirement. With All for One gone and his powers slowly fading, he declared it was time to hang up the suit and focus full-time on teaching the new generation of heroes. Izuku totally wasn’t a deciding factor on that and totally didn’t have a forty-slide presentation on why the man should retire. He’d already referred to him as “the former top pro” by accident, so he had to make sure it wasn’t for nothing. The public was understanding, thank god, and they welcomed his true form rather easily. The Commission had sent Nedzu various death threats regarding All Might’s switch from hero to teacher, but the rat gladly laughed in their faces and proclaimed that Toshinori Yagi was no longer their employee and that they could answer to the young man in green and red regarding their want for him to return.

The Todoroki siblings, in light of their father’s ascension as the number one hero, had started packing Fuyumi’s things to move in with Touya, who was finally able to get his own place outside of UA. She would be living there full-time while he stayed at the school, but it was as much his place as it was hers. She also began filing for custody of Shoto, but she wanted that to be a surprise for later. None of them told their father any of this and wouldn’t tell him until the summer rolled around and all of her stuff was gone.

And it did roll around. The week before classes let out, Izuku was sort of regretting adding his scarf to his costume. Shoto stood on his left side and activated his cold sheen to fan over to Izuku, but it hardly helped. The ice-cold hand that held his own was nice, though. They stood in front of one of the many training grounds and were told the basics of their practical final, as well as their pairings and opponents. It was largely the same, but Yaoyorozu was paired with Bakugo against Aizawa. How that match was gonna go was anyone’s guess, and Izuku would pay good money to see the footage when all was said and done. His final with Shoto was announced last and Aizawa had a shit-eating grin on his face as he spoke.

“And finally, we’ve got Midoriya and Todoroki going up against-“

“SHOOOTO.”

“Oh godDAMNIT,” Shoto loudly exclaimed, stepping away from the wall of heat that was his father, “Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?!”

“I don’t know,” Aizawa shrugged, “You figure it out.”

Izuku was just laughing at his side, using Shoto’s shoulder as a support so he didn’t fall over, “Sho, you gotta admit this is the funniest outcome.”

“Oh would you look at that, suddenly I’m single again,” Shoto muttered to Uraraka. She slapped her hand over her mouth to stop her own laughter. 

Luckily, because Aizawa knew they’d pull some stupid bullshit, their fight was first so everyone could watch it and so Endeavor could leave the school grounds faster.

“Good luck guys! Fighting the number one hero for your final is rough!” Uraraka said, waving them to the bus.

“Make sure to not maim him too badly,” was all Tsu yelled, eliciting a cackle from Izuku.

They took one of the city streets grounds. Tight, urban, slightly industrial, plenty of places to hide. They had the same rules as the other finals, as required by the school board. Izuku bet that if those requirements didn’t exist, they’d be forced to fight a full-powered Endeavor with no option to run. Luckily, that rat had some humanity and allowed for the escape ending to their final.

Shoto watched Izuku’s final last time and trusted him with all of the strategizing during their fifteen minutes of prep time. With Izuku rattling off Endeavor’s stats (from the first run) and his many, many special moves and attacks, Shoto was just glad that they had determined the pairings before last week. Otherwise, Aizawa wouldn’t have let them fight together, their history notwithstanding.

“Alright, I think we’re good,” Izuku said, patting his scarf further down his neck. It blocked a lot of the sun, but the fabric made it hotter on the inside. He felt like a baked potato in tin foil, “You got all of it, Sho?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, “But are you sure I can’t use Flashfire?”

“Shoto, I am sure we won’t need Flashfire.”

“But what if he uses it against me?”

“One, he won’t if he knows what’s good for him. Two, if he does, then I give you permission. However, know that you two will destroy the whole campus if you point-blank Flashfires at each other.”

“A necessary sacrifice.”

Izuku rolled his eyes and walked up to the door to the training grounds. A few seconds later, the buzzer rang and Nedzu’s voice came over the speakers, “Izuku Midoriya and Shoto Todoroki, first term practical final: start!”

~~~~~

Shouta really wished he’d brought popcorn because not only was this thing going to be the best first term final of all time, it was also going to be the best commentated match ever. Eighteen kids and nine pro heroes in one room, watching two overpowered teenagers from the future destroy one of the most powerful pro heroes to-date.

Yeah, Shouta wished he could record this and post it online. He couldn’t, due to stupid rules set by the education department regarding test results of minors, but the twinkle in Nedzu’s eye indicated that this was going to be spread around the school faculty for years to come.

On one side of the monitor bay was Todoroki and Midoriya, simply walking through the fake city with the confidence of people who knew their opponent was fucked. On the other was the still-confident, yet unknowing Enji Todoroki. He sat in the middle of the city, near a large plaza with a geometric piece of artwork. Where Nedzu acquired said artwork wasn’t important, but Shouta would bet on it being stolen. Behind Shouta was the rest of the class and then the other heroes, ready to leave the room and stop the fight if need be.

The boys stopped short of the plaza, eyes catching Endeavor’s in some sort of stand-off. Neither party moved, but the flames on Endeavor burned a bit brighter at the sight of the students and Midoriya began glowing green. Shouta swore he saw a tumbleweed bounce between them.

Then, the screen glitched a bit. Shouta tried not to let it bother him, but a small pop-up at the bottom commanded his attention.

“Warning: Sound system overridden.”

Shouta eyed the notification, then turned to Nedzu, who looked rather shocked at the flaw in his precise and perfect system. The rat began tapping on the keyboard, but stopped once he heard music coming through the speakers.

It was fast. Then it became very fast. Guitar and percussion moved hand-in-hand for the beginning of the song. Shouta snuck a glance at the students, all of whom looked confused. Except for two.

Denki Kaminari was violently shaking Kyoka Jirou’s shoulder as they stared gobsmacked at the screen. They knew this song. Shouta quickly turned back to the screen as the lyrics poured through and Midoriya and Todoroki moved. 

“On a cold dark winter night, in a time before the light, in flames of Death’s eternal reign, we ride towards the fight.”

Wait. He knew this song. It was from a pre-quirk band known for their epic and fast music. Shouta was shown it by Hizashi in high school. A quick look back at his husband confirmed that he, too, recognized the song and was so interested to see what Midoriya and Todoroki had planned for this.

Shouta eyed the movements of the two students, both taking individual paths around Endeavor to split his attention. The man chose to focus on his own son, who had started using his ice slide move from the Sports Festival to quickly circle his father. Midoriya ran across the sides of buildings and leapt between them and streetlamps. His eyes never left Endeavor, not even to see where he was landing. He never stumbled.

The song continued until the chorus hit and Midoriya jumped away from the building, the glass shattering beneath the force of the jump. He shot himself towards Endeavor, using a tendril to gain more momentum around the artwork and landing a solid kick to Endeavor’s face. The man was caught off-guard and sent to the side of the plaza. Todoroki also jumped in, using his ice to circle around and create a glacial pillar that Endeavor crashed into.

Endeavor yelled and flared his fire, melting the ice around him and flying into the air. But the boys were quicker. Midoriya’s Float ability sent him up just as far and he met Endeavor’s eyes. Endeavor reeled back a flaming fist to punch the child, but his hand was caught in a torrent of ice as Todoroki used his own fire to catch up and touch the readied hand with his right side. Todoroki flipped over top of his father and landed in Midoriya’s arms right as the kid released Float and began falling to the ground.

He used Blackwhip to flip them around on a streetlamp and land in the center of the plaza. The song had kicked into high gear at this point, just being an intense instrumental section that greatly improved the fight, in Shouta’s opinion.

The hero above quickly melted the ice and summoned his fire once more, surrounding his whole body and firing himself down at the plaza with a yell of the Prominence Burn attack. With the intense heat, the metal of the artwork lit up red. The boys split up again to dodge, but Todoroki wasn’t quick enough to fully clear the attack. His leg was caught in the torrent and he landed harshly on the other side of the plaza.

Shouta expected the usual yelling in pain, but instead he saw a strange glow emanate from his student’s torso. Two glowing flames, forming an X, emerged from Todoroki’s chest as he stood up. The leg of his suit was charred, but his actual skin sustained no damage. He faced his father, who stared in clear shock, then raised his left hand.

“Now here we stand with their blood on our hands. We fought so hard now, can we understand? I’ll break the seal of this curse if I possibly can, for freedom of every man!”

Midoriya yelled something from across the plaza, but Todoroki ignored him and clenched his fist, saying something to his father. The fire surrounding his hand went a cold white color and all of the blood drained from Endeavor’s face. Todoroki swiftly stepped forward and jumped with the assistance of a pillar of ice. He raised his left fist and came crashing down onto his father.

The flames engulfed Endeavor’s own and mixed in an abhorrent combination of white and orange. The cameras glitched out from the heat and Shouta could see Midoriya’s Blackwhip tendrils pull him out of the way of the erupting fire. Flashfire Fist wasn’t a move Endeavor used often, as he went on-record saying it was too much for his body to handle for too long. But here was fifteen-year-old Shoto Todoroki, using his quirk mastery to wield Flashfire for over a minute. 

The glass on the buildings surrounding the plaza shattered in the heat and nearly every metal object in the vicinity warped instantly. Todoroki’s fist hit Endeavor’s gauntlet, but the force of the fire sent the man flying backwards and through two buildings. Miraculously, the buildings stayed standing.

The drones capturing the fight were quick to chase Endeavor, but so was Midoriya. He immediately grabbed Endeavor’s wrist and placed one of the cuffs onto it. Several seconds later, the song finished. A buzzer sounded out through the arena and the viewing room.

“Izuku Midoriya and Shoto Todoroki passed! Congratulations!”

Seven minutes was all it took for two teenagers to beat the new number one hero at his own game.

Yeah, Shouta really wished he could post that online. And from the looks of it, everyone else in the room did too.

~~~~~

I do not control the lobsters

<Gay added Izuku_Midoriya>

<Gay changed Izuku_Midoriya’s name to Green>

Gay: Everyone say hi to my boyfriend

Girl: Hi to my boyfriend

Tall: Hi to my boyfriend

Emo: Hi to my boyfriend

Green: damn a coordinated attack

Gay: I fucking hate all of you.

Green: haven't seen the todoroki’s this coordinated since the war

Emo: oh my god he’s traumatized too

~~~~~

We don’t wanna go Back to the Future

Powdered Sugar: [Todo_Mido_final_tape.vod]

Powdered Sugar: This is not to be shared anywhere outside of this chatroom.

EmoRoki: HOLY FUCK THATS INCREDIBLE

MediRoki: SHOTO HOLY SHIT

GlacialRoki: I am so proud of him oh my god

Mama Matcha: Oh my goodness, I’m crying.

Black Licorice: IS THIS THE FOOTAGE NEDZU

Powdered Sugar: Indeed it is. :)

Powdered Sugar: Because most here are faculty and students, I figured it would be okay to share such footage. Again, not to be shared anywhere else.

EmoRoki: My allegiance is to the rat, to his dictatorship

Blondie: Please do not give him any more access to any more power. ಠ_ಠ

EmoRoki: My fire is his fire, All Might

Powdered Sugar: A welcome sentiment, Touya! :D

MediRoki: I keep rewatching the part where Shoto freezes dad’s on-fire hand, then gracefully lands in his bf’s arms like a goddamn princess

Wheatgrass: yeah, sho said he wanted to drop hints but i don’t think your dad picked up on it on account of the ice

Peppermint: Izu that was some bs i made up, i just wanted you to princess carry me in midair

Wheatgrass: babe you don’t have to ask for that ;)

Black Licorice: gayest shit ive seen and i go home and kiss my husband every night

EmoRoki: LMAOOOOOO

Peppermint: Goddamn called out by our own teacher

EmoRoki: GAY :finger_pointing:

Wheatgrass: touya you have no room to talk, i saw you rewind the footage from the afo raid where hawks was on screen and stare at him for a solid twenty minutes

GlacialRoki: WAIT REALLY

MediRoki: OH MY GOD SOMEONE GET THIS BITCH THE NO. TWO HERO’S NUMBER

Peppermint: Touya if you start dating Hawks I will actually never forgive you

Blondie: If he wants it, I have it. (^-^)

Peppermint: OH MY GOD NOT THE ALL MIGHT SET UP

EmoRoki: omg wait actually

Blondie: I wouldn’t lie about something like this, my friend! (⌒▽⌒)

Blondie: If you truly are interested, then Hawks could use some more friends! ٩( ᐛ )و

EmoRoki: Lemme dm you-

Wheatgrass: holy fuck ex-villain Dabi starts dating Hawks, more at 11

Black Licorice: not over all might saying hawks is lonely as fuck

GlacialRoki: Fire user starts dating a bird, call that shit HotWings

Several people are typing…

~~~~~

Izuku stood in front of the Bakugo family house and sighed. Shoto wasn’t here for emotional support because Izuku said he’d just make the reaction worse, but he was waiting at Izuku’s place for whatever happened afterward. For whatever happened after… this. The telling of Katsuki Bakugo. It was bound to end in disaster, on both accounts, but if he had to learn about this at the same time as everyone else, during the training camp, he would have an even worse reaction.

With a final steeling of his thoughts, Izuku raised a hand and knocked on the door. Mitsuki was quick to answer, throwing open the door with her dynamite smile and welcoming eyes.

“Izuku! A pleasure to see you!”

“Hey, Auntie,” Izuku ran a hand through his curls, “Is, uh… is Katsuki here by any chance?”

“Oh, yeah. He’s up in his room like the little hobbit he is. Come in, I’ll get you something to drink.”

He stepped inside and waited by the door after it closed, “N-no thanks. I just wanna talk to him. We’ll take it to the park nearby.”

“Suit yourself,” she shrugged and yelled up the stairs for Katsuki to come down. He yelled back at her, of course, but when she said it was Izuku, he was practically down the stairs within seconds.

“The fuck did you want?”

“To talk to you,” Izuku said plainly, “How about we step outside?”

He looked ready to argue, but Mitsuki threw his shoes at his face and told the two to get lost as she practically shoved them out the door and locked it behind them. Izuku shook his head and took point on the short walk to the park near the Bakugo residence. It was a nice little thing, mainly for tiring out kids before bedtime, with a decent-sized field and plenty of trees for shade. On one side was a small ramada with a picnic bench beneath it. Izuku slid onto one side of the table and motioned for Katsuki to do the same. He didn’t.

“I’m sure you’ve had questions for a while now-“

“No shit.”

“-but I wanted to tell you this stuff before I told everyone else,” he sighed, “It’s rather important and it wasn’t my secret to share until recently.”

“Does Half-n-Half already know?” Katsuki mumbled.

“Yeah, but I’m not gonna talk about him until later. Just-“ he mimed throwing something off to the side, “Just ignore him for now.”

Katsuki sat down with a huff, “Fine.”

“I wanted to tell you about my quirk and how exactly that happened. As we know, I was quirkless, had the extra joint and everything, but the day of the sludge villain attack, I had met All Might. He accidentally revealed his true form to me and after he saw me save you from the villain, he offered to train me and give me his quirk: a power by the name of One for All,” Izuku said, surprised he hadn’t been interrupted yet. Katsuki barely reacted, only slightly nodding along as he glared daggers into Izuku’s soul, “However, in doing so, he put a huge target on my back in the form of the man named All for One, the villain we fought in Kamino three weeks ago.”

“The quirk One for All actually originates from a mix of a stockpile quirk and a quirk that has the ability to be passed on through DNA mixing. Yoichi, All for One’s brother, was the First holder, passing it onto another early quirk user. Several generations of vigilantes and heroes go by and now All Might, the eighth holder, has passed it onto me, the ninth. Because the power exchanged hands so many times, we believe this to be the origin of the super strength, but I’ve started using the quirks of the other users as well, Blackwhip and Float mainly.”

“So all that other shit, the purple mist, the heightened awareness, it all came from previous holders?” Katsuki asked, waving his hands around as if he was trying to untangle the story physically.

“Yeah. There are seven quirks in total: the stockpile, Gearshift, Danger Sense, Fa Jin, Smokescreen, Blackwhip, and Float. I can actually communicate with their spirits inside of the quirk and learn more about their power from them,” Izuku nodded, “All Might and I were quirkless when we got it, so that compounded the stockpiled strength.”

“Why doesn’t he use the other quirks then?”

Izuku chuckled to himself, “Y’know, I actually have some theories on that, but I won’t bore you with it. The point is, that I showed up with a quirk that wasn’t mine to begin with and I’m sorry for not telling you. Things were crazy and you hated me for so long that… I thought it wouldn’t matter.”

Katsuki scoffed, “Didn’t tell me and yet you told that IcyHot bastard.”

“He… actually was a completely different circumstance,” Izuku ran his knuckles together nervously, “That’s actually the other part of this that I wanted to tell you. There’s a reason Shoto and I are so close… but it’s kinda crazy and I don’t doubt you’ll think I’m insane after I tell you.”

“I already think you’re crazy for going after a supervillain after only having a quirk for a few months.”

“About that. If I were to say that, hypothetically, Sho and I were actually from a different timeline in which we’ve already lived out our first year and all the danger and trauma it caused, ending in a war against All for One and his lackeys that ended up killing us both at the hands of Shoto’s older brother and All for One’s successor?” His voice kept getting faster and he leaned back in his seat as if he was trying to avoid the inevitable, explosive backlash.

“What,” Katsuki gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes. His hands clenched to prevent his quirk from going haywire. It was barely working.

“And that right after our deaths, we awoke on the day I started my training with All Might, once again quirkless, but determined to make sure that the people I care about don’t suffer like they did in the first run?” Izuku pierced his lips together, then sighed, “And that the first thing on my mind was… preventing your death?”

He whispered the last bit, but the calming silence of the park made it sound as loud as if he were shouting it. Izuku looked down at his hands on the table, carefully avoiding Katsuki’s processing gaze. Izuku mentally stomped his feelings down in an attempt to not cry, but it didn’t work. Tears began spilling down his face as he took a shaky breath and continued talking.

“The last thing I saw before being killed by Shigaraki was your corpse. He had done something to you… something that stopped your heart and-“ he bit back a sob and screwed his eyes shut, “And it was what sent me over the edge into blind rage. I couldn’t think straight and that’s what got me in the end. Every time I saw you after we woke up in the new timeline, I only saw your face… pale, cold, bloody. It hurt. It still hurts.”

Izuku felt his hands be touched and opened his eyes to Katsuki’s hands holding his own. Katsuki’s thumb ran over the back of Izuku’s hand in the comforting way they established as kids. The small gesture made more tears fall and Izuku bent down to rest his head on the table.

“You’re right… I almost don’t believe you,” Katsuki said, “But, Deku, nothing else could explain how the hell you mastered a quirk in only four months. You already knew about the evil bitch, you already knew about the shit with the USJ… but I also see that you’ve already been a hero.”

“I haven’t done much, just captured some villains and saved some people during the war.”

“I bet my ass that if I asked your boyfriend, he would wax poetic about your heroism. He seems like the type.”

“Oh my god,” Izuku bemoaned and lifted his head to rest on his cheek, just so he could look up at Katsuki, “He would. He totally would. I hate that you know he would.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, “You sure know how to pick em, Deku. Do you even know why he was yanked back with you?”

“The running theory is that we got sent back due to some All for One, One for All mumbo jumbo, but I’m not even sure that’s what it is. It’s not like there’s some magical destiny link or whatever between them, it’s all just through the brothers’ connection and the moral obligation to use Yoichi’s quirk to defeat Zen, which has happened already.”

“What if it was a quirk?”

“Shigaraki wouldn’t have had a quirk like this. All of his were power-based emitters to make him a bitch to fight.”

Katsuki hummed, “Do you think you had something to do with it? None of this happened until your death. False negatives exist, though they’re rare.”

Izuku paused and sat up.

Could that have been his quirk? Some sort of second-chance ability that only activated upon death? If so, then that’s such a garbage quirk to have. Like, Izuku’s seen some bad quirks in the past, but goddamn would that suck. It would explain why Shoto was brought back, as he had that emotional connection to Izuku. It would explain why it activated upon Izuku’s death and why it brought him back to that fateful day when he started his training. It could’ve taken them back to a significant day in Shoto’s life, but it didn’t. It chose a day tailored to Izuku.

The doctor said there was a very low chance of his developing one. A quirk like this wouldn’t show at all until he had some sort of fatal accident. It wouldn’t have any bearing on his life until it fucking ended. Garbage quirk, indeed.

But it made sense. It made so much sense that it would be Izuku’s quirk. His life was fucked up enough for that to have been the case. His luck was bad enough for the universe to play him such a bad deck of cards and not leave a single instruction booklet.

“I… am going to fight God,” Izuku decided on that warm afternoon in the park.

“Go apeshit, Deku. Go apeshit.”

The two returned to Izuku’s house as his brain and mouth ran at a hundred miles an hour to try and think of the exact reasons why it couldn’t have been his actual quirk that caused the time travel. He immediately raced to his room after a quick hello to his mother, then grabbed his notebook and began writing down everything he remembered about the transition between his death and his awakening.

He didn’t even register Shoto and Katsuki’s conversation.

(“I take it the talk went well?”

“As well as it could have, with him explaining this fuckass quirk and the fuckass time travel.”

“So you believe us?”

“Yeah, I doubt you could’ve gotten over that childhood trauma you joke about in just a few months of knowing him. Which reminds me, I have a traumatizing shovel talk to give you.”

“Oh God, don’t remind Inko. I think she was waiting for you to know so you could tag-team me.”

“Good idea, I’ll ask Auntie to help me.”

“Fuck.”)

Izuku eventually moved to the old Board of Doom which had gotten several uses since All for One’s death, namely as the Endeavor Hate Campaign. He erased everything on it and removed the images that were taped to it as he wrote down his findings more coherently for the two that sat behind him.

“Okay, we all know that I was quirkless before One for All, it’s why Katsuki was a bitch to me for years-“

“I’m sorry about that, by the way.”

“Don’t be, it was excellent character growth for First Run Us,” he paused and pointed a finger at Shoto’s cocked eyebrow, “That was a joke. Anyway, there has been a history of people being declared quirkless because their abilities don’t show as mutations or they simply don’t meet a specific requirement that makes their quirk unlock, which is why my original excuse of my strength only coming in after developing muscle mass was so effective. Quirk science is still a relatively new field of study and with human experimentation being banned across the board, it makes it difficult to truly understand the logic behind them.”

“But we have biological studies about the Quirk Factor and how it gives us our powers,” Shoto mentioned, eyeing the way Izuku’s hand flew across the board writing down basic notes about quirks and his family, “We had to study mine to finally get Phosphorus down.”

Izuku whirled around to him, “Yes, but things like false negatives aren’t something that can be easily studied! Only a few happen every year and even then, it takes years for those people to learn about their quirks, given they survive the discriminatory torment into adulthood or whatever happened to cause the awakening. Usually, they live their whole lives believing they’re quirkless.”

“So the chance of you being another false negative, with some sort of time-correction quirk is… possible?”

“But where the hell did it come from?” Katsuki asked, “Your mom’s is minor telekinesis and your dad’s was fire breathing. Neither of those should've accumulated into a time travel quirk, even with the limited studies we’ve done into inherited quirks.”

“Hang on…” Izuku went to his bookshelf and grabbed a much older notebook, one labelled with a childish ‘2’ on the front cover. He thumbed through the old pages of this analysis notebook until he found the specific section he was looking for.

This one was about his grandparents specifically. He’d met them all a few times before and asked heaps of questions about their quirks. Most of his notes at the time were messy and uncoordinated, but Izuku deciphered it well enough to write on the whiteboard the information he needed.

His maternal grandparents had pretty interesting quirks, those being Telepathy and Radio Waves. Telepathy was just mental communication, but Radio Waves was the ability to move messages through the air without the need of wires or an actual radio. Izuku’s grandfather was an emergency radio operator, simply because he didn’t need the radio. Inko’s minor Telekinesis probably came from the mix of traditional telepathy and the ability to move things across radio waves.

His paternal grandparents, though, were rather strange. Hisashi Midoriya’s mother had the quirk Study, which meant she could stop time, rewind it back to a specific moment, and rewatch it as a projection she could walk around in. The only drawback was that she couldn’t go too far without feeling nauseous. She was a homicide detective that often worked with pro heroes on confusing and near-cold cases. Hisashi’s father had the fire part of Hisashi’s power with his quirk called Bond. He could see the interpersonal connections between people through a small fire that erupted from their chest. When the person stood next to someone, the fire would burn a different color that Izuku’s grandfather had figured out the meanings of.

Mix these quirks, a rewind quirk, a soulbond quirk, and a pull quirk, and you have the perfect recipe for an invisible power that brought the user back to an important moment alongside someone who was as important to them. Izuku finally moved his hand down to the bottom of the board where he had placed a small circle labelled with his name. He wrote the inscription of the power he apparently had:

“Second Chance: A soul-bound quirk that grants the user the ability to redo a portion of their life upon death. It also brings back someone they have an intense emotional bond with.

Important: Destroys the old timeline should something be changed. No take-backs, no additional redo’s.”

He capped the pen and sat down between the other two, “I… was never quirkless. I just had a stupid quirk that activated upon my death.”

“Why would a quirk like that even exist?” Katsuki asked, reading and rereading the notes and single conclusion on the board, “What if you died of natural causes or old age?! Would it still send you back?”

Shoto side-eyed Izuku, “And can it be used again or is it a one-and-done quirk?”

“I… don’t know. And I can’t test anything without dying,” Izuku fell backwards onto his bed and rubbed the heels of his palms into his eyes, “Guys, this quirk sucks.”

“I can tell.”

“No shit.”

~~~~~

Class 1-Aaayyy

<Dadzawa kicked GrapeJuice>

Gone Girl: Oh fuckin’ finally

Chaos 2: Wait is it finally happening

USB-C: Is what happening

<Dadzawa added Shintoshi>

<Chaos 1 changed Shintoshi’s name to Better Purple>

Dadzawa: nedzu gave me the go-ahead to finalize the transfer

Chaos 1: @everyone SAY HELLO TO OUR NEW CLASSMATE!!!!! HITOSHI SHINSOU!!!!

DefyingGravity: OH MY GOD HIIIIIII

Nyoom: Hello!!

Goddess: Welcome to Class 1-A!

Xenomorph: HIIIII!!!!!!!!

USB-C: OH ITS THE COOL GUY FROM THE SPORTS FESTIVAL

Better Purple: hnnnggggg people

Darkness. No parents.: mood.

Tapegun tourniquet: OLD MEME

Cookingbythebook: Says the guy with a prequirk movie reference as his dn

Tapegun tourniquet: SO DO YOU TF???

DefyingGravity: I think a lot of us do

Better Purple: i assume my name has smth to do with the kid you used to have?

Goddess: Yep! He’s dead to us all!

USB-C: Had a funeral for him and everything

Better Purple: jesus what’d he do?

Gone Girl: Crimes.

DefyingGravity: Unspeakable things.

Chaos 1: He pissed me off.

Better Purple: O h.

Chaos 1: but you’re not like him so we’ve greatly improved!!

Nyoom: I assume you’ll be joining us on our training camp trip?

Better Purple: that’s what aizawa said

Xenomorph: OH THIS IS GONNA BE SO MUCH FUN.

Chaos 2: Eh, it’s a training camp. Probably gonna regret saying that after Night 2.

Dadzawa: Todoroki.

Chaos 2: Sorry

Xenomorph: Goddammit someone add another tally

Darkness. No parents.: on it.

Better Purple: tally?

DefyingGravity: Mido and Todo have this weird thing where they reference stuff from before UA without giving context and we’ve been keeping track of how many times they do it.

RockHard: I think Tokoyami started it?

Xenomorph: He owns the google sheet so yea

Nyoom: He even color-coded it for texting vs in-person interactions and included the context of the conversation in case we learn something and it relates!

USB-C: What’s the current count, Tokoyami?

Darkness. No parents.: Since four months ago, they have accrued eighty-nine tallies.

Chaos 1: Damn i thought we’d break a hundred before the training camp

Better Purple: is aizawa in on this???

Dadzawa: unfortunately, yes

Chaos 1: we like to piss him off with it :3

Better Purple: god damn you’re braver than me

Chaos 2: Nah he’s just stupid

Chaos 1: SHOTO

DefyingGravity: Mido you fought a supervillain two weeks ago and the most important part of that day to you was the fact you got a bf

Nyoom: I will say, your lack of self-preservation is,,, unnerving

Chaos 1: guys ;-;

Frœg: Midoriya they’re saying you’re a self sacrificial idiot and will most certainly die against some sort of villain.

USB-C: I-

Xenomorph: Goddamn

I hate all of you.: jesus christ

Tapegun tourniquet: wow

Chaos 2: You broke him, Tsu, holy shit

Dadzawa: drag his ass asui

Chaos 1: BETRAYAL?????

Chaos 1: OF THE HIGHEST ORDER??????

Chaos 1: SEE IF I EVER SAVE YOUR ASSES AGAIN??????

Chaos 2: Not like you can stop yourself from being a hero

Chaos 1: TOPIC CHANGE. Shinsou what’s your opinion on ghosts

Frœg: Smooth.

Better Purple: uhhhhhhh if they’re real i dont wanna fw them yknow?

Darkness. No parents.: As you should. The forces of the afterlife are not to be taken lightly.

Chaos 1: Eh ghosts aren’t that scary, some just yell about how hot your teacher is

Dadzawa: wh

I hate all of you.: Jesus fuck

Chaos 2: Tokoyami add another tally

Xenomorph: Really?

Chaos 2: Trust me

Darkness. No parents.: I see,,,,

Better Purple: are they always like this

DefyingGravity: yeah

Nyoom: Unfortunately.

Xenomorph: We’ll chronicle the TodoDeku Strangeness on the drive to the camp

Goddess: Yes, some of this is…. Not fitting for a text format.

Chaos 1: tododeku?

Chaos 2: Just go with it, babe

Dadzawa: midoriya which ghost??? if it’s first i’m killing his ass again.

Chaos 1: . . .

Dadzawa: he’d better be ready to throw hands my god

Chaos 1: “i’m a bad bitch you can’t kill me” -first

Dadzawa: BITCH

Darkness. No parents.: Added another tally. Ninety-one.

Chaos 2: Hey maybe we’ll hit the triple digits before the camp after all

I hate all of you.: I FUCKING HOPE NOT.

DefyingGravity: I FUCKING HOPE NOT.

Better Purple: oh you guys are a riot.

~~~~~

“I spy something tha-a-a-at’s… grey.”

“Kaminari, that’s been the clue for the last ten clues from you. It’s the mountains out your window.”

Kaminari slouched down in his seat, arms crossed like a child, “Well, there are only three colors outside! Grey, green, and blue! Blue’s too generic!”

“And grey isn’t?” Mina laughed a bit, “Here, how about…” she tapped a finger against her chin and looked around the bus.

They’d been on the road for about three hours now. The training camp was pretty far away, in a mountainous woods that was all owned by the Wild Wild Pussycats. They were beautiful woods, clearly well-kept and maintained, but still wild and full of nature.

Mina kept her gaze on her classmates, trying to spot something good for her clue. Her classmates had all quieted down to their individual pastimes. Tokoyami and Jirou had quickly turned to their music. Iida was reading something, somehow not getting carsick on the bumpy mountain road. Others like Hagakure, Ojirou, Shoji, and Shinsou were sleeping in various odd positions in their seats. Many others were just looking out the windows and watching the landscape roll by. Mina noticed Midoriya’s head on Todoroki’s shoulder. Neither were asleep and she could see them holding hands, but they were keeping their vigilant watch and seemingly twitching for want of a fight.

They were weird, Mina knew, but their soldier-like stances and watch were considered normal for them, which meant she glanced it by.

She did noticed a small glint from where Yaoyorozu sat. A little golden keychain that hung from her belt loop with a small red star charm. They made them on their first sleepover as the “girls of 1-A”. She smirked to herself, then looked around a bit more, “I spy something… red, gold, and sentimental.”

“Oh come on, Ashido, you can’t give me a little bit of an easier hint?”

“I gave you three. Figure it out.”

He pouted and somehow sunk deeper into the seat. Mina turned back to the windows on the other side of the bus as the mountains got taller and the valley of these woods truly showed themselves. She was never one for forests or woods, not because of the discomfort of camping or the dirt or the endless bugs, but because of the uncertainty.

An unseasiness always crawled along her bubblegum skin, as the endless possibilities of what could happen to a targeted hero course crept into her mind. False memories she never had before of blue fire and swirling gas pricked in the back of her mind and Mina felt her spine seize and her fingers tighten in her lap. The feeling of a loss she’d never felt before wormed its way into her mind as she watched the forest roll by. She tried to shove the anxiety down.

This has happened before, the emergence of these thoughts and their paraded falseness. Back at the USJ, she saw more of her classmates disappear in that villain’s smoke. She saw Thirteen damage themself with their own quirk. She saw Aizawa nearly die protecting them. But that isn’t what happened. Midoriya and Todoroki protected them, jumping into action like they’d done it before. Aizawa was fine, assisted by two students with far more experience than they should have.

The threat was subdued before All Might even got there.

So why did she still have these memories of a version where things didn’t go so well?

Mina didn’t dare bring it up with anyone, for fear of them not taking her seriously, but a small voice in the back of her mind screamed for her to tell Midoriya or Aizawa. That they’d understand.

She dared not listen.

The rest of the bus ride to camp was as quiet as it had been for an hour and soon they pulled over to a small outlooking area of the road to stretch. Aizawa made sure everyone got off and introduced two of the Wild Wild Pussycats, Mandalay and Pixiebob. Mina briefly wondered what they were doing out here, when they still had another hour or so until the camp.

Then Pixiebob shoved her giant gloved hands to the ground and broke off their little outlook with an excited squeal. Mina felt a familiar tendril wrap around her waist as Midoriya and Todoroki worked together to catch them all. She was gently placed on her feet

“Good luck, have fun!” Pixiebob yelled over the newly-formed cliff.

“Kittens who don’t get back before noon don’t get lunch!” Mandalay jeered.

“Another thing,” Aizawa’s voice somehow drifted down to them, “Midoriya. Todoroki. If you two appear without the class, you’re doing it again.”

The two in question rolled their eyes as the heroes backed away out of sight. Mina was sure that if anyone else in the class did that, they’d be expelled on the spot.

She glanced around her class, the final members sliding down a slanted pillar of ice and being caught by those who had already landed. None were harmed by the sudden betrayal of their teachers, thank god. Midoriya was still floating above them and surveying the edges of the woods. He squinted into the trees and then looked down at everyone else, “Incoming!”

A small gurgling roar echoed from the treeline and a bipedal dirt monster emerged, its giant clawed hand digging into one of the trees at the very edge. It was hunched over, made of mud and grass and pieces of tree that were stuck in the mud. Yellow eyes swept over the class and it roared again. 

Yeah, this was a strong start to the first day of training camp.

It was UA. What the hell were they expecting?

~~~~~

Touya watched the class of teenagers disappear from the cliffside with a tired look. Had he known that Aizawa would’ve dropped his brother and his class off a mountain in a landslide to fend for themselves in the forest, Touya probably wouldn’t have volunteered to be a chaperon for this trip (Fuyumi had done that for him, but she was here too, so she was also a bit shocked that their brother didn’t warn them). He did feel a bit strange, having been told that the last time he was here, he gave a bunch of students smoke-inhalation-based damage and kidnapped the exploding kid, but that was a version of himself without roughly two months of therapy and a solid job under his belt.

He stood back near the bus with Eri and Fuyumi. Because both Aizawa and Yamada were on the trip, their foster daughter came too. Midoriya had said something about her becoming friends with Kota, Mandalay’s nephew, and how he hoped that they could still help the kid, even with the lack of a villain to beat into a pulp (whatever that meant, because even though the Todoroki twins were let in on the secret, doesn’t mean they were told everything).

The heroes wasted no time getting into technical talks about the camp, leaving the students to fight a bunch of dirt monsters at Pixiebob’s summon. Touya just silently followed Aizawa and kept an eye on the forest. He could hear the sounds of fighting and the faint callouts the class was taught by the two time-travellers. Apparently they developed a code for in-fight call-outs during the war and Nedzu approved the spread of it as a “1-A thing” as other classes had begun calling it.

With his position and overreach as a teacher’s assistant, Touya had spent quite a bit of time in the other years and other courses. It was kind of eye-opening to see how the other classes took to their studies. Gen-Ed, especially, as they were just normal high school students. Normal high school students with super powers at the greatest hero school in the country, sure, but normal students with a normal curriculum nonetheless.

Touya was actually sort of… what was the word? Jealous? Yeah, he was jealous of those kids. He knew that it wasn’t his fault that his life pre-running-away was as shitty as it was, but what he wouldn’t give to have had the opportunity to just go to college like Natsuo or high school like Shoto. It was selfish and maybe a bit childish to be jealous of kids and their ability to go through normal school. He was in his 20’s for goodness sake, he was well past the realm of being in high school, but the pang in his heart never went away.

“Mr Touya?” Eri’s small voice came from next to him, where she sat with her bag in her lap. She was staring past him, out the window to the forest where Touya could see the faint explosions from the Bakugo kid and the residual ice from Shoto, “Are Deku and Shoto going to be okay?”

“Yeah, kid, they’re strong. They’ll carry their class on their backs before letting themselves fall,” he tried to smile at her for reassurance.

She nodded at that, seemingly already knowing but needing extra confirmation. Touya often forgot that Midoriya had saved this girl. He was told how Midoriya was alone that day, how it was unlike the previous run where he was with someone who had to stop him from moving without thinking. In her eyes, he was probably this guardian angel who was sent to save her from Overhaul.

Well, considering how he got here, Touya doesn’t doubt that he’s some kind of angel. Or demon. Midoriya fits the description of a demon better. Demon brother-in-law… Touya shuddered at the thought.

The camp was only another hour away by bus and the teachers began unloading their things into their rooms and the students’ bags to theirs. Touya set himself up near the door in the boys’ room and Fuyumi helped Eri lay out the girls’. The twins had never really gone camping before, unless you could Touya’s couch surfing during his “emo period”, so Fuyumi was a bit too excited for this. She happily pulled Eri along as Mandalay showed them how to prepare the camp. The little girl was just glad to be along for the ride.

Touya soon found himself out front, staring into the forest as the faint sounds of fighting continued. The door beside him opened and he turned to see Aizawa lean against the building next to him.

“Apparently, this is how we met the first time,” the teacher grunted, “Your brother mentioned that you attacked me right out the gate.”

“Oh really?” Touya chuckled, “Glad we had such a brilliant first meeting, sir. It probably set the tone for the rest of the year.”

“Maybe… but that isn’t how we actually met. At least not this time. I always have to remind myself that no matter what happened then, it isn’t happening now.”

Touya sighed and nodded in agreement. Every story he was told about “The First Run”, his counterpart was never spoken about in a positive light. And, yeah, that was understandable. Dabi did kill Shoto in that timeline, there was no way around it. But Touya was here, not Dabi. Recovery Girl’s quirk did wonders on healing the pieced-together skin to his body a bit more, negating the need for the metal stitching. He also redyed his hair white with red highlights to better match his twin sister, who was eternally grateful for it. Now, if anyone looked at him, they’d see a young man with hefty bags under his eyes and a fire quirk that isn’t compatible with his own body.

He was happy about that. It meant he was as far away from Dabi as he could be. There are still times that Shoto has to do a double-take to fully realize who’s standing next to him or who’s talking, but that was preferable when the other option was his youngest brother being afraid of him. Touya often wondered how Dabi let so much anger enter his heart that he did everything he did. It wasn’t in his future anymore, to go so far as to hurt his family. Touya would rather die than see his siblings be injured by his hand.

“Did you ever want to be a hero?” Aizawa asked, eyes not trailing from the treeline.

“Yeah. I always wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps,” Touya shrugged, “Can see where that led, but now? I won’t entertain the idea on account of my fire’s danger, but… I sometimes try to imagine what would have happened had I become a hero anyway.”

“I can see that you have that potential, but your quirk is, as you said, dangerous. I may not agree with everything your father did, God knows I despise the man, but he was right in knowing that to let you continue with a quirk like that, it would’ve destroyed you.”

Touya gave the teacher a worn smirk, “I know. Which is why, after this, I’m probably gonna go back to school. I want to help kids like me overcome the fear of their quirks. Fuyumi tries her best in her classroom, but some kids need more help beyond a nice teacher.”

“So, a quirk therapist?”

“Exactly. Mido’s been helping me find reputable doctors to intern under when I do start school. Really, it’s just a matter of finalizing my no-longer-dead paperwork with the Commission,” he gave Aizawa a short glance, then returned his eyes to the forest, “After that… I’m an alive man with a job and a chance at higher education.”

Aizawa gave him a small pat on the shoulder, “I know some people who could’ve benefited from someone like you: someone who gets them. I know you’ll do great, Touya.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“And none of this ‘sir’ stuff when it’s just us adults. Call me Shouta like the other staff.”

“Got it.”

“Now, come on, we’ve got to make dinner for those hell children.”

~~~~~

It was safe to say that Izuku was looking forward to the Test of Courage.

Day one of camp had gone fairly smoothly, with him and Shoto leading the class through the forest, using it as an opportunity to help them boost their confidence and teamwork. The war forced them to study each other’s quirks more in depth (not that Izuku didn’t do that anyway) and they needed to get back up to the point where they knew practically everything if they wanted to succeed in their provisional license exam.

Of course, the rest of their classmates took this as the boys being their normal smart selves, but Izuku remembered how every one of his classmates could greatly improve their quirks. Starting next term, he and Shoto would be taking point on specific training for them all. It didn’t mean that they wouldn’t let their friends figure some stuff out on their own, but they would be steadily guiding them towards the right direction and giving them pointers on how to become their best selves.

But, back to the Test of Courage, Izuku had approached Aizawa about a week before the term ended to ask about it, specifically about if they were still planning on it.

[“Hey,” he said, slamming his hands down onto Aizawa’s desk after the class had left for lunch, “Are we still doing that Trial-or-Walk-or-Whatever of Courage?”

“The Test of Courage, you mean?” His teacher cocked an eyebrow at him.

Izuku just waved a hand, “Eh, we got attacked during it, that was kind of the priority over remembering the name. But, yes. Are we still doing it?”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to plan a different activity and Mandalay already has the trails set up,” he paused before mumbling, “Also I figured you would have some batshit insane thing to scare 1-B with that would make Kan so mad.”

“And you’re right. Anyway, I need my spare hero costume for it. Figured I’d ask so you didn’t see it missing and wonder if I was going vigilante on you again.”

“Is this related to the,” he held up his fingers to make air quotes, “‘Dark Deku Arc’ that Todoroki keeps joking about?”

“Yes.”

“Go ahead. The support course is making new ones for you guys anyway.”

“Pog.”

“Don’t say that.”]

Izuku had spent a few weeks dirtying the suit, staining it with fake blood at his hands and on the soles, ripping the sleeves to show off his blood-red braces, tearing the scarf and ears up, and darkening the insides of the eyeholes for maximum void when he put on the mask. The yellow accents were covered with black paint and he added a few stitches to rips to give the impression of it being much older and worn than it actually was. He practiced making claws and spider-like legs with Blackwhip, and got in a bit of practice during the dirt monster course. It looked almost exactly the same as it did by the end of his “depression era” (Ashido said that when he finally returned to UA, not him).

For some reason, a tiny, miniscule part of Izuku relished in the comfort that swept over him when he finally tried the costume back on. The small part of him that remained as the paranoid, isolated, and burden-carrying Izuku felt the now-worn fabric, smelled the strange scent of the fake blood, saw the dirt and the rain soaked into the viridian that looked more brown than ever, and let out a sigh of relief. Izuku looked at himself in the mirror, taking in the brightness of his hair and eyes, mixed with the terror of the suit. It was just a costume.

And he was about to scare the absolute shit out of some teenagers tomorrow night, he wasn’t even kidding.

But, that was tomorrow. Now, around mid-afternoon, Izuku emerged from the treeline towards the massive dirt clearing where the base camp building stood. He was the first one in the forest and the last to leave (like always), so he looked around to make sure they actually had everyone, counting eighteen friends and Shoto in front of him. Ashido and Kaminari were lying in the dirt, Iida and Yaoyorozu were helping people with small cuts and bruises, Katsuki was dusting Kirishima off “because you’re a dumbass who ran through those things with reckless abandon”, and Shoto was creating small ice cubes to put into a piece of torn fabric for Ojirou and a rather bad cut on his tail.

Everyone else was catching their breath and nursing their own faint injuries or trying not to let themselves pass out. Izuku then noticed Mandalay and Ragdoll approach the group from the building, shocked smiles on their faces. He pushed to the front of the group, as he was the best fit out of anyone to greet them.

“I’m impressed!” Mandalay said, “It takes us heroes around three hours to do that, but you guys made it in less than six!”

“Your teacher did say you had two intense kittens in your class,” Ragdoll stared at Izuku, then at Shoto, with those giant eyes, the sparking of her Search quirk shining in them, “But I figured it would still take you until sundown! It’s a new record for you guys, that’s for sure. No one will be able to beat it!”

Mandalay clapped her giant paws together, “So, again, I’m impressed! Come get some food, you’ve definitely earned it.”

The class filed inside to shower, change, and eat, though Shoto went to find his siblings and Izuku went to find Eri. They were in the same spot, a little outdoor eating area towards the back of the building, helping Eri with her writing. The little girl looked up from the page and instantly noticed Izuku, eyes going wide.

“Deku!” She gasped and slid off the bench, practically jumping at him. Izuku didn’t exactly expect it, but he trusted himself to catch her. He always did.

“Woah, Eri, you gotta give him a warning,” Touya chided with very little malice, not making any move to grab her from Izuku.

“Oh, let her be a kid, Touya,” Fuyumi said, lightly slapping her twin’s arm and turning to the students, “Didn’t expect to see you guys here so early.”

Shoto shrugged and sat down on the other side of the picnic table, leaving enough room for Izuku to put Eri between them, “It wasn’t that difficult. We had to hold back from causing a lot of property damage, though.”

“Geez, how bad can your fights get?”

The boys made eye contact over Eri’s head, the memories of every major fight coming to mind. The fact that they almost leveled an island during the Nine fight, their destruction of the tower on I-Island, Izuku’s complete annihilation of Dark Might’s floating base… they caused a lot of destruction while fighting those villains. Even smaller opponents like Overhaul made a big mess.

“I once split an aircraft the size of a small island in half,” Izuku said, being purposefully vague as to not scare the girl that sat next to him, “No biggie.”

Touya whistled lowly, “Remind me to never get on your bad side, my god.”

“Okay. Never get on my bad side.”

Fuyumi laughed, light and airy, “God, never thought I’d see the day in which big, strong Touya cowers before a teenager!”

“Eh, I’ve seen it,” Shoto shrugged, also laughing, “He thought I was crazy.”

“Crazy? I was crazy once-“ Izuku started.

“They locked me in a room.”

“A rubber room,” they said at the same time, “A rubber room with rats. The rats made me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once-“

“Stopping this now because I’m tired of you two already,” Touya groaned and lowered his head into one hand, holding the other to stop them, “Remind me why I agreed to this?”

“Do you have memory issues or something? You’re asking us to remind you a lot.”

The twins devolved into their normal sibling bickering as Shoto quickly corrected one of the kanji Eri messed up on, explaining the difference between the two in a soft voice, and continued to watch her practice. Izuku wasn’t looking at Eri, he was resting his cheek on his hand and staring at Shoto’s concentrated face. It was the way his eyes focused and his brow furrowed as he paid close attention to something. Izuku thought it was the cutest thing in the world.

He could sit here and watch Shoto work with Eri all evening but Mandalay’s quirk echoing the announcement of dinner shocked him out of his staring. The group of five packed up their stuff and joined everyone else in the meal hall, splitting between the chaperons and students.

“Hey, guys, feeling better?” Izuku asked, noticing how Uraraka’s muscles finally looked relaxed and Iida’s engines were no longer steaming. Even Tsu’s face wasn’t as swollen from overusing her tongue.

“Yeah, a nice shower really helped,” Uraraka sunk down in her chair, “I don’t understand how you two looked like you didn’t just crawl through a forest of death. I mean, you practically looked like you were having fun!”

“I will admit, it was kinda spooky,” Tsu nodded, “I know you have crazy stamina, but even a pro would’ve looked ragged after something like that.”

Izuku just shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck to look sheepish, “We did quite a bit of training before UA. This was just… par for the course?”

“Even then, it was rather impressive,” Iida said, “My brother keeps asking when he’s going to meet you two. He keeps saying that your exhibition fight was one of the best he’d ever seen.”

“I would love to meet Tensei when we get back!” Izuku gushed, “I still have to get his autograph for my notebook.”

“I’ll arrange it with him when he’s free!”

Their idle chatter died down towards the end of dinner when Aizawa and Vlad King stepped to the front of the hall and asked for their attention.

“I’m sure you’re all exhausted and in want of rest, so we’ll let you get to bed early tonight,” Vlad started, “But tomorrow won’t be any easier.”

Aizawa nodded, “That’s right. You’re all training to be heroes, which means going beyond what you once thought to be your limit. Tomorrow, we’ll start at dawn and start pushing you further than ever before. If you want to be a hero, you have to be the best you can be.”

“So, finish up and go rest. I’m sure you understand what we’re asking of you?”

A resounding “yes, sirs!” echoed in the hall.

That night, Izuku couldn’t sleep. He tried, he really, really tried, but no matter how many times he twisted and turned on his cot, he couldn’t stop his mind from racing.

They stopped the League. They killed All for One. Touya was not Dabi.

And yet, every time he looked out the windows, Izuku saw smoke. He saw blue fire. He saw the intense gaze of Muscular on top of the mountain, red eye staring him down as he threatened to rip Izuku limb from limb. He saw so many of his classmates succumb to the poison gas. He saw the purple mist close around Katsuki’s face and his voice… his voice saying to not follow them.

“Stay away, Deku…”

Izuku pressed his pillow to his face and only moved it to breathe and look at the ceiling he’d come to hate. Beside him, Shoto had already fallen asleep. He wasn’t quite as used to sleepless nights and fighting through the exhaustion as Izuku. Not that his training or vigilance or trauma didn’t keep him up at night or keep him going, but he wasn’t quite at the level of Izuku.

He turned to his left to face Shoto’s sleeping form, watching his chest steadily rise and fall with every breath. Because they were facing each other, Izuku got a good look at his boyfriend’s face. Shoto hardly ever looked truly at peace. He was almost always tense or focused, especially before the war. But recently, he’s been letting himself drop his guard, letting himself just enjoy the moment. Izuku relished in the knowledge that he caused that ability to relax. He loved knowing that Shoto Todoroki was so comfortable being with him and being by his side that he allowed himself to forget everything in favor of putting his head onto Izuku’s shoulder, slumping his arms into his lap, and releasing all the tension in his body.

Izuku reached over and threaded his fingers through Shoto’s. The boy barely moved, but his fingers tightened naturally. Izuku pushed himself across his sleeping pad and closer to the other one. He rested right on the gap between the two and shoved his pillow under his head with the hand not held by Shoto. He held their intertwined hands closer to his chest and the warmth of Shoto’s left side seeped into him. Izuku pulled his blanket over his body and tried once more to fall asleep.

That night, he finally rested without the creeping nightmares that threatened his mind. The warmth he felt all started from the singular point of his hand. Izuku fell asleep with the faintest of smiles on his face.

~~~~~

Fuyumi was woken up before dawn by Touya tapping the floor next to her sleeping bag. She wearily looked up at her twin with a confused look and went to ask him what the hell he was doing, but he held a finger to his lips to shush her and jerked his head for her to follow him. She gently removed herself from her sleeping bag, checked that she didn’t wake up any of the girls, and tip-toed like a child behind Touya to the boys’ room.

A few of them were already awake and moving silently about to prepare for their training, but Fuyumi noticed them all struggling to not laugh. Touya walked her around to the far side of the room, where their brother and Midoriya were sleeping, and just… pointed.

Fuyumi glanced down at their sleeping forms and had to slap her hand over her mouth to stop the very loud “AWWWEEEEE” she wanted to produce.

They were cuddling like koalas. At one point in the night, Midoriya gravitated towards Shoto’s sleeping bag and curled himself into the boy’s chest. Their legs were intertwined beneath Shoto’s blanket and their hands were held very close to Midoriya’s chest. For once, both boys looked completely at peace and content.

She looked at everyone else who was awake, which was only Iida, Bakugo, and two boys from 1-B, making sure that they were seeing the same thing. Bakugo just pulled out his phone, typed something really quickly, then turned it around for her to see, a smug smirk on his face.

“I’ve already got a shitload of blackmail. We’ll pretend we never saw them and then use it when they piss us off.”

Touya nodded seriously at this, completely understanding the want to hold this over the heads of two of the most powerful children in the world. The twins and Bakugo finally had the upper hand against two time travelers. It was an older sibling thing, one Fuyumi understood as well. Fuyumi just pulled out her own phone and took a few pictures to send to Mom when they finally told her about their relationship.

She scampered out of the room once more people started to wake up and began slowly getting the girls up with shakes to the shoulders, which was nicer than the kicks to the legs Touya was giving the boys (and the airhorn Aizawa used). Fuyumi then helped get Eri ready for a day of observing and her own training with Aizawa and the twins. She pulled on some simple workout gear and made sure the final girls got breakfast and made their way to the giant clearing for training.

Shoto and Midoriya were walking around each area, observing their classmates and giving advice when needed. Midoriya, especially, was analyzing their quirks in seconds and telling them how best to improve it. Shoto looked like he was speaking from experience when talking to those with emitter quirks. Fuyumi was almost jealous with how easily they fell into instructing before she remembered that they watched their classmates go through this all before and probably wanted to lessen the time each student took to realize some special move or remedy for a weakness or three.

Fuyumi and Touya just kept watch over Eri and made sure that no one hurt themselves too much. When Eri requested to walk around a bit more and Touya obliged, Fuyumi found a nice shaded spot to sit under while they watched the classes from another angle.

Then she noticed the other kid.

Kota, the kid with black hair and a red hat with gold horns, was standing just a few meters from where Fuyumi sat, watching the students with a faint scowl on his face. Midoriya told her and Touya about his parents, but without the Muscular fight, he had no way of changing the kid’s mind. So Fuyumi set aside her own little plan on convincing the kid.

She grabbed her backpack and pulled out some snacks. She quickly caught his eye and waved him over with a smile. Kota rolled his eyes, but still walked over and took the offering of food. He sat beside her, keeping his distance, and watched the students still going through the motions of training. Fuyumi didn’t want to push him to talk about it, but she didn’t have to wait that long for him to start talking. Her teaching taught her well: kids are very easily motivated by food.

“I don’t get it,” he said, “They’re doing all this for what? To be heroes? Seems stupid.”

“Not to them it isn’t,” she said, “My brother wants to be a hero to save people like him.”

“Is he here?”

“Two of the three are here, actually,” she guided his eyes to where Touya was with Eri near Asui and then to where Shoto was helping explain something to Aoyama, “Touya is a teacher’s assistant at UA and Shoto’s the hero student.”

Kota humphed, then took another look at Shoto, “What did you mean by… people like him?”

“I’m sure that you know this, but not all heroes are actually heroes. Our father is Endeavor, but he wasn’t the best to us, or our mother,” Fuyumi looked down at her lap, “We didn’t know how to help him until his best friend came around. Then… he started saving himself, started seeing the world differently. He wants to be like his friend: a guiding light for people who are lost. A lighthouse in an endless sea.”

“But he can’t reach everyone. Why try?”

She hummed, “I can see why you’d think that, but one thing we’ve learned is how help can compound and stockpile. If someone helps one person, then that person helps someone else, there’s a chance that the third person could go on to save more. Eventually, it starts a wave effect of hope and peace, all from that one droplet in the sea. But it always has to start somewhere.”

“He wants to be that droplet…”

“Yep,” Fuyumi nodded, “My brother’s already done so much. He helped stop a very bad man a few weeks ago that will bring about a new era of peace for us. He and Midoriya.”

“I heard Pixiebob talk about them yesterday. She said they’re really strong…”

“Midoriya is possibly one of the strongest people in the world. And he uses it to uplift others. It’s very admirable.”

Kota pulled his legs up to his chest and sunk the bottom half of his face behind them, staring at the students over the tops of his knees, “But what about the heroes who don’t come back? If the droplet dies while it starts the wave, then someone is still gone.”

“While that’s true, it’s undeniable that they still started a wave. We just have to hope that it’s large enough to find another droplet that can continue it,” Fuyumi looked at the boy and scooted herself over to him just a little, “Did you know that Midoriya already has a name from the public?”

He shook his head.

“They call him the Symbol of Hope. Because he’s representing the emerging hero hopefuls. And I can’t blame them,” she lifted her head to look back at where Midoriya was running a 1-B girl through some basic martial arts to help with the range of her quirk, “When I look at that boy, all I see is the purest colors of hope in his eyes. If Hero Student Deku is this good now, then he’ll be an even better Pro Hero Deku.”

“Hope…” Kota mumbled, also staring at Midoriya’s kind eyes and giant smile. The student lowered into another stance and the girl followed suit, keeping an eye on his movements. The faintest bit of green lightning peeled off him. The determination and pride on his face when she got it right was so bright. Fuyumi could see the gears turning in Kota’s head as he watched the other students, “Do they all wanna be like him?”

“I know my brother does,” Fuyumi said, “But so do all of Midoriya’s friends, like her-“ she pointed at Uraraka, “-and him-“ then at Iida, “-and all of them.” The other members of the class were pointed out by her, “They all look to him for guidance because he’s their hope. I’m just saying that if Deku showed up to a disaster I was trapped in, I would instantly feel safer.”

She gave him his space back and kept watching the students. They were doing very well for their first actual day of training. Shoto had moved on to helping Ashido with her accuracy and Aizawa was already going head-to-head with Shinsou to get the boy’s quirk better exercised. Midoriya was floating below Uraraka, watching her push her quirk to its limit. Fuyumi could see him mumble to himself, then shoot a tendril from his foot to pull himself to the ground.

“What’s Deku’s quirk?”

“Energy manipulation with many applications.”

“How does he not get tired?”

“Spite.”

That actually got a laugh out of the kid, “What, did he say that himself?”

“Yes, actually. He once told me he chugged five of those energy drinks that last for five hours to see if he could enter the ‘forbidden 25th hour of the day’,” she raised her hands to do air quotes, “All it gave him was a sleepless night and a very heavy crash the next afternoon. My brother had to force him into bed.”

To Fuyumi’s infinite relief, the kid started laughing. She dove into telling more stories about the students, all things she was told by her brother, and every time, Kota laughed with her. Sure, these kids were superpowered hero students with the ability to change the world for the better, but they were still just kids (that included Midoriya and Shoto, who were still just children trying their best).

Hours passed as the students slowly began filing out one-by-one due to small injuries or hitting their own limits until the only ones left standing were Midoriya and Shoto. Fuyumi had handed Kota off to Mandalay an hour ago and Eri was taken back by Touya at lunchtime. The boys were running through basic drills and fighting moves against Aizawa and Vlad King and had already gotten a few weaker moves to be much better than before.

Midoriya had steadied his flying axe-kick, a move inspired by Miruko, and had finalized a few moves with Blackwhip. He had learned to manipulate the tendrils more effectively for aiding his hand-to-hand combat. They acted more like Ojirou’s tail or Shouji’s arms, adding an extra boost to his already damaging attacks, but the difference in the two ways was stark. It also helped keep his arms from exploding, as he said they did in the first run.

Shoto was more so focusing on his mobility than his strength. He had shown Fuyumi his ice slide and the way he used his fire to fly like their father, but combining the two always led to some sort of fumble or tumble. He zoomed around the clearing and the rocky hillside like a man on a mission, but at some point, his fire would slow or his ice would be too jagged and he’d fall off or melt the ice too fast or lose his balance.

“It was drilled into us to be fast,” he had said when she questioned him about it at lunch, “If I’m not fast enough to get to the scene of the crime, then that’s people dead.”

Yeah, Fuyumi didn’t want to touch that with a fifty-foot pole, but she had to think about it all the time. Her youngest brother had memories that she didn’t. His brain was more mature and more traumatized than she’d ever expected. He needed therapy more than any other person in the family and Fuyumi would admit that was a bold statement to say! But the kid was killed and now has to find all of his faults and flaws and fix them to prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

He chose to face those troubles head-on, but he wasn’t alone. He had someone by his side the whole time. Fuyumi was glad that her brother didn’t have to go through it all alone. With Midoriya by his side, Shoto could look death in the eye and say “no thank you”.

The boys’ training ran until sundown, when Fuyumi finally decided to leave the clearing and go help the kids make dinner. She supervised and made sure they wouldn’t catch anything on fire (or explode anything). Surprisingly, a good amount of the kids were good in the kitchen, especially Bakugo and Asui. Fuyumi made pleasant conversation with them all until her brother and Midoriya arrived back.

“There you guys are!” Iida said, waving them over to help, “You don’t even look ragged!”

“Like we said,” Shoto said with a shrug, “Par for the course.”

Uraraka rolled her eyes as she approached Midoriya, “You guys always say that. Honestly, I’m starting to think you’re from the future.”

The boys made eye contact with each other over her shoulder. Fuyumi tried to stop her own freeze, but she was noticed by Jirou, who cocked an eyebrow at her. The adult just shook her head and smiled at Jirou then returned to what she was doing.

They would know soon enough.

Like… tonight soon.

And it would all be over.

~~~~~

Telling their friends was arguably the most nerve-wracking part of this. With their teachers, the boys had to tell them to not get in trouble for the USJ. With Shoto’s siblings, they deserved to know how he got Touya back. With Inko, she had to know as to prevent any chance that she pull Izuku out of school for UA’s negligence if anything happened. With Katsuki, he needed to know as to not isolate him from Izuku any longer.

All of the times they told someone, it was out of necessity to get another foot in the door or to make certain things easier. Honestly, they could just not tell the class at all and leave them in the dark forever, but for peace of mind and Izuku’s own mental stability, they chose to tell them now, when they were away from prying eyes and ears, and protected on all sides by heroes. It was after dinner that second night, right before the Test of Courage, when Izuku and Shoto stood before their friends and peers and explained everything.

Izuku took to explaining One for All, its past, its present, and the lack of a future, as he and All Might determined that a tenth holder would need a self-regeneration quirk to counter an additional compound of the strength. He showed off in small amounts how each quirk worked and how he honored the previous holders in the way he wielded them. Shoto helped explain the myriad of inside jokes regarding the vestiges, as well as answering questions about transference, the ghosts of the previous holders, and Izuku’s ability to communicate with them.

After that, the boys had to get their friends’ word that they wouldn’t interrupt the next bit regarding their supposed knowledge of the future. As they spoke about the “bad timeline”, Izuku noticed some of their faces light up with recognition, when they really shouldn’t have. Ashido was the first, as Shoto talked about the USJ incident and how Aizawa almost died protecting them. Her eyes flickered over to their teacher, who was unconsciously rubbing the elbow that had been disintegrated. Then, Iida looked confused as the first Sports Festival and the Hosu incident came up. Tensei was fine, so why did Iida look like he’d mourned then?

As they explained various accidents, incidents, disasters, sieges, battles, and the war, more and more of their friends’ faces lit up with recognition and confusion at said recognition. Uraraka’s face twisted at the memory of Toga, Shouji’s eyebrows furrowed when Shoto talked about Bakugo’s kidnapping, Yaoyorozu’s eyes widened at the mention of the provisional license exam, and so on.

Izuku noticed that by the end of the recounting of their first run, everyone had some sort of memory or recognition about what happened. It wasn’t full remembrance like him or Shoto, but they did have those memories. Was this the quirk’s doing, that they’d at least know? Or was this the timelines merging? Would the others like Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and more remember? Would Touya regain his memories of being Dabi?

The questions ran a mile a minute in his head as Izuku answered his classmates’ questions like he promised. He would have to ask them about it later, but for now, he laughed when he should’ve, looked serious when he needed to, and kept a hand or an eye in Shoto at all times, like all of this was a bad dream or a strange afterlife and his partner would disappear the second he wasn’t in range.

But Shoto never vanished and their classmates took the new truths in stride. Izuku grabbed Shoto’s hand and squeezed it for comfort, intent on just needing that, but the two-toned boy lifted his arm over Izuku’s shoulders and pressed a kiss to his temple as everyone began filing out of the room to prepare for the Test of Courage.

“Hey,” he whispered, his voice low and rough, “You okay?”

Izuku nodded, “Yeah, I think so. We made the right decision in telling them, right?”

“I like to think so. It’s been long enough and we’ve secured this timeline, so they deserved to be told.”

“I guess so…”

“Are you…” he looked down at Izuku, eyes pleading with some unasked question, “…having second thoughts?”

“About telling them or-?”

“About everything. I know I wasn’t as happy about having to relive a very bad time in my life.”

Izuku looked away, hands grabbing Shoto’s and squeezing them. He had always wondered what would’ve happened had he completely given up that first day. Had he not gone to the park and discovered Shoto, had he rejected All Might’s offer, had he ran away, had he done a million things differently so as to not have to go through it all again. But then he looks at Shoto, the boy who’s stood by him for years at this point, the boy who loves him just as much as Izuku loves him back, the boy who knows the truth behind their stories, and he doesn’t regret a single thing that it took to get here.

He doesn’t regret a single decision that brought them to an uneventful training camp, leagues ahead of their classmates, with everyone they cared about at their sides. People were saved, their deaths prevented, their demise stopped, and everything was better for it.

All for One was dead and everything was better for it.

Shigaraki was being reformed and everything was better for it.

The League never existed and everything was better for it.

Izuku Midoriya could look into the heterochromatic eyes of his beloved, his boyfriend, his iron rod, his grounding weight, his guiding beacon, Shoto Todoroki, and see that everything, including every small detail or miniscule fact, was better.

He just turned to cup his hands behind Shoto’s head and pulled him down into a kiss that transcended words.

“I don’t regret a single thing, Sho. You know why?” Izuku saw Shoto tilt his head ever so slightly, “Because we’re here. We’re alive. That’s all that matters to me.”

Shoto kissed him again, “I love you.”

“And I love you.”

And that was all they needed.