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This was supposed to be a normal mission. He’d been working largely on taking down trafficking rings across the country over the last few years while his peers continued to work during the day and focus on minor villains.
There really hadn’t been any major villains that needed the Symbol of Hope since All for One and Shigaraki were defeated all those years ago.
Besides, it wasn’t like he wasn’t rising in the ranks at all. He was doing quite well for starting on the leaderboards later in life due to his very high mission success rate with low civilian casualties and property damage.
The remainder of his graduating class, of course, were all supporting him through his rise since they were already established, but that was more expected than anything considering that they were more tight knit than most agencies by the time they had graduated due to the war.
Izuku shook his head softly, it was never good to get lost in thought during a mission.
Looking behind himself quickly to confirm no one had snuck up on him, he glances around the 90 degree corner up ahead in hopes that there wouldn't be anyone nearby.
He really did miss having the vestiges which weren't visible to others at times like these.
Luckily, the coast is clear beyond the corner so he moves quickly into the next set of halls.
There is a door up ahead, a dark mahogany which contrasts the otherwise solid tile halls. The majority of guards and other workers had already been taken out when they rushed the front of the building and made a lot of noise. So all Izuku needs to do now is, set a quick tripwire along the bottom edge of the door, press himself flat against the nearby wall and wait.
It doesn’t take long.
The door slams open within a beat or two of Izuku having set his little trap and it’s a simple matter of watching the villain boss trip spectacularly on it in his mad rush to escape.
The man flails his arms, managing to regain his footing without hitting the ground, but before he can do much else, Izuku has already curled his gauntleted hand into a fist and slammed it forward in a punch to rival the good old days of a One for All powered smash.
The villain goes down. Hard.
Izuku quickly cuffs the guy and then reaches for his earpiece. “This is Deku,” he says, leaning down to grab the boss by the back of the collar, so he can start dragging him up and out to where the authorities are waiting to book him with the rest. “I’ve got—“
There’s an odd little click from the room the villain had come running from and Izuku’s heart sinks as he reflexively freezes.
Dammit.
He’d assumed the boss had been alone.
Clearly he’d been wrong.
“Hands up,” a voice hisses from behind him and Izuku obediently raises his hands in surrender.
He can see a hazy reflection of whoever is standing in the doorway behind him thanks to the large mirrored visor the boss is wearing over his eyes, and though it’s not enough to make out specifics, it is enough to see some kind of weapon pointed his way.
Izuku holds still and takes stock of the situation. His earpiece is already crackling with what sounds like a million voices checking in since he'd cut himself off abruptly. And thanks to the mirrored visor Izuku can track the weapon enough to be able to dodge a shot without needing to turn around.
The situation is still well in hand.
The man steps out of the doorway, moving closer to Izuku, his weapon still pointed directly at Izuku’s back.
Izuku takes in a soft breath, stilling his movement.
“Look,” he says, attempting to talk the man down so that he doesn’t have to dodge an uncertain bullet. “I don’t want any trouble. Maybe we can talk about this.”
The man huffs. “You are trouble.”
Izuku just hums. “Maybe.”
He spins around quickly, taking advantage of his faster speed than the average person without a quirk to enhance it.
Still, without One for All, he’s too slow.
A blast of bright red light flies towards him out of the tip of the weapon, hitting him square in the chest.
He takes in a deep breath of surprise, the light hitting him with force and throwing him backwards.
His head hits the tile flooring behind him.
The world goes black.
He awakes to the signature soft beeping of the heart monitor in a hospital. It’s comforting, even without him opening his eyes. If he was captured by villains, he certainly wouldn’t be in a hospital.
He’s almost tempted to immediately fall back asleep before a person near his bedside speaks.
“Are we sure this isn’t your dad?” a voice which sounds rather like Shouto asks. What were they talking about?
He leaves his eyes shut, faking remaining asleep until he can discern if he actually needed to be awake for this particular conversation.
“I have met my father,” his own voice huffs.
But it’s not him. He didn’t respond to Shouto’s question.
He stills, muscles tensing. What exactly was going on?
“Maybe he’s a distant relative?” a voice Izuku would recognize anywhere suggests. A voice he hasn’t heard in 8 years. A voice he’s missed for so very long.
Shouto doesn’t respond to the voice.
He wouldn’t have been able to anyways, for he certainly didn’t hear it.
In the back of his mind, he hears them all chorus in response.
The One for All vestiges, the very people he had given up so many years ago in order to win the war.
They were there, as real as they had once been.
The voices of the other vestiges are there too, echoing in the back of his mind as if they’d never left.
He slowly opens his eyes and sits up, witnessing the all so familiar UA hospital bay. It wasn’t like it had been when he was last there just weeks ago with a student, though. No, it looked just the same as when he’d been in 1-A.
His eyes skirt over the various scenery in the room, eventually settling on the two, technically three if one counted the half formed ghost of Yoichi, standing at the foot of his bed. Off to one side stood Aizawa, already seemingly done with life and almost looking very young and uninjured.
Shouto squints at him, not even really registering him being awake.
“How are you related to him?” Shouto points at the younger version of himself briskly.
“I am him,” Izuku deadpans only to get a heavy sigh from both Shouto and Aizawa.
Right. Okay. They clearly don’t believe him…
Which is good! –he suddenly remembers, his eyes widening at the realization of what he’d just almost done. The rules of time travel are pretty clear if all the books and shows he’d consumed have anything to say about it. He could rewrite the timeline if he isn’t careful! All for One could win this time! Izuku himself could simply cease to exist! Both of him!
He quickly glances over at his younger self and takes in the odd expression on his face.
Right then.
Younger him had reflexively shot Shouto down when his theory-crazed best friend had suggested Izuku was his own father, but that had more been an automatic thing, probably honed from months of shooting down the quote, All Might Theory. Judging by the look on Izuku the younger’s face, Future Izuku– Fu Ku for short– definitely looks familiar. (As he should, all things considered.)
And well… Fu Ku can work with that.
“I’m hurt you don’t recognize me bud. I know I’ve been away since your fifth birthday but you can’t tell me you really don’t recognize your old man.”
Present Izuku– Pre Zu for short– frowns, the entirety of his forehead furrowing as he does. “No…” he says slowly, staring Fu Ku down in visible puzzlement. “My father would have called first if he was returning to Japan.”
“Right you are, my boy!” Fu Ku beams, cringing internally at the way he’d subconsciously picked up Toshinori’s manner of speech. “But as you can see, this wasn’t exactly a planned trip…”
A bolt of inspiration hits him, a surefire way to get them off his back about this.
“I was battling some villains in Gotham and had just taken a hit from one of their quirks. That’s when this bright red light suddenly flashed before my eyes and then I was falling, falling, falling until I woke up here.” He puts on a show of looking around then. “Where is here anyway? This doesn’t look like a hospital…”
He lets the question hang and pretends not to see the looks being exchanged between Pre Zu and Yoichi.
It’s fine if they still have doubts. He’ll be able to answer any of their questions by blaming it on the League of Villains and his connection to Pre Zu should they press him. And hey, if he’s managed to arrive before Kamino then maybe he can find a way to safely turn things around for–
His heart skips a beat as a flood of regret suddenly hits him. There’d been so much about how everything went down that he’d always wished he could change. Kacchan’s heart, Toshinori’s secret coming out the way it did, Shigaraki…
“Something isn’t right here,” he hears Yoichi whisper through the void.
The vestiges were always the first ones to know when something was off.
“We’re at U.A. in the medical ward,” Pre Zu eventually answers, his words oddly stilted as if they are not fully his own.
Fu Ku hums softly, attempting to remember all he can out of his father’s mannerisms from when he was young. He had seen his father far more recently given that he had the budget to travel and visit as an adult, but Pre Zu certainly hadn’t had that privilege yet.
Aizawa squints his eyes at Fu Ku, clearly trying to discern the truth behind the situation.
“Do you have any identification on you?” Aizawa eventually asks. “I would assume you have your hero license on you if you’re who you claim you are.”
Izuku pats his pockets, thankful to find his hero license is completely broken and charred. He holds it up to the man with an apologetic look. “I’m afraid this won’t be much help for you. I’m a licensed hero in America, though, if you’d be able to get access to the international database.”
He isn’t quite a dead ringer for his father, but his appearance is fairly close if Aizawa managed to find any news photos. As far as he knew, since he did end up checking the database at one point in his teens after the war to try and convince Shouto that All Might wasn’t his father, his father didn’t even have a photo in the database given that he largely worked at night and in more secretive operations.
Aizawa just sighs once again. “I’ll send All Might in. Todoroki, please come with me back to class.”
They file out of the room, leaving just the two Izuku’s in the room for a brief moment.
“It’s strange,” Yoichi murmurs, stepping closer to Pre Zu and by extension Fu Ku as well. “Something about this feels… very very strange.”
“You’re telling me,” Future Izuku nods with a barely stifled snort.
Pre Zu and Yoichi flinch.
“Can you… you can see him?”
“It’s more pressing that he can hear me, don't you think?” Yoichi says drily, staring Fu Ku down distrustingly. He takes another step closer and then freezes.
“You… You are—“
There’s a flash of red light, bright and long and so all encompassing that Izuku’s vision completely whites out.
When next he opens his eyes he’s in a hospital bed, a real one this time, and ironically, Shouto is sitting right beside him, though it’s the pro hero version this time.
“What happened?” Izuku manages through a throat gone dry. Time Travel fucking sucks.
“You got hit with some kind of weapon,” Shouto says, slowly shifting himself to a standing position so he can go get a nurse. “We were able to hear it go off through your comms so I rushed down to help as soon as I could. When I got there you were glowing with this red energy completely unconscious so I brought you here.”
“Oh…” Izuku murmurs, his fingers twitching against the blanket. So all of it was a dream? He’d never actually left, he'd just gotten knocked out?
One hand moves to his chest subconsciously as he reels.
He could have sworn that he’d really felt—
“Huh.”
Izuku looks up at that to find Shouto staring at him.
“Ah, all good?” Izuku manages to ask, even going so far as to force a smile to his face.
Shouto merely continues looking at him, a completely unreadable expression on his face. “It’s strange,” he finally says. “But looking at you in the bed like that… I can’t help but be reminded of your father.”
Izuku blinks at him dumbly.
“You remember, that time we found him unconscious in an alley and dragged him back to UA with us…”
“You really do look just like him.”