Chapter Text
The first time it happened, Izuku didn't even realize that something had happened at first. To him, it was just another ridiculously close call with one of Shigaraki's damned Nomu, one of the fucking Screamers, but then Shouta wouldn't let go of him after he'd jerked him out of the way. He wouldn't stop staring at him like he was a ghost.
They didn't have time to figure out what the hell was going on right at that moment, not when they were running and trying to get the hell away from the pack the bastard had called down on them, but Izuku couldn't forget about the way that Shouta stared for hours after in the few quiet seconds they could catch. The way that he clutched at his hand the same way that he clung to the lock of Hizashi's hair he kept braided into his own when he was stressed. It was both terrifying and sweet, and it didn't make sense, because nothing explained it.
And then they were as safe as they could be, huddled in the wreckage of a burned out cabin somewhere in the woods on a mountainside, and Shouta said in a haunted voice, “You died.”
“I'm right here,” Izuku said, holding Shouta's hand to his heart so that he could feel it beating. He pressed a kiss to his fingertips. “Safe and sound, Shouta.”
“Because Eri Rewound everything,” Shouta said. “Sent me… sent me back? I don't know how she did it. It was just a few minutes I think. Long enough to pull you out of the way of that damn Nomu.”
“That's not how my quirk works,” Eri said. She frowned at both of them. Their years on the run had hardened her, aged her beyond her years. She kept her hair ruthlessly short after a Nomu had caught her by it two years back, and that same Nomu had given her an awful scar that bisected her face. She hadn't smiled properly since then, and sometimes Izuku wondered what the hell had been the point of trying to teach her all those years ago in the first place.
Why had they bothered doing anything?
But… on the other hand… if she'd actually sent Shouta back in time…
“Maybe seeing me die caused an awakening?” he theorized. “Which you undid by sending Shouta back to fix it, which I'm grateful for, don't get me wrong, but if you awakened your quirk once, you could awaken it again. And if you could send Shouta back a few minutes, maybe you could send someone back even longer? With practice?”
“Or maybe trying would kill me,” she said bluntly. Then Eri laughed and looked around. “Not that there's all that much to live for these days.”
The night was a pretty one, temperate and clear, but no animals or insects announced their presence even though they were deep in the woods. Either they were all gone, or they were hiding from nearby Nomu, and both options were equally likely, given the way Shigaraki's war had gone.
As he'd risen to power in Japan, the world had been swift to attempt to stop him. The permanent loss of one country had apparently seemed like a regrettable casualty to America, and they'd taken nuclear offense to the loss of their Number One hero, Stars and Stripes. They'd launched several missiles in an attempt to take out All for One and Shigaraki, only to have those same missiles turned on the rest of the world through the use of one of All for One's quirks.
That had been almost a decade ago. The skies had only recently begun to clear, but the world itself never had the chance to recover. Shigaraki and his colleagues harvested those who died in the blasts but weren't vaporized to make hundreds, thousands of Nomu, and he unleashed waves of them whenever he got bored, which was essentially all the time. Each one was unique, though they could often be grouped into classes. Like Screamers, who tended to attract other Nomu when they found living humans. By screaming. Loudly.
Using Hizashi's quirk.
Izuku hated it when they ran into Screamers, mostly because of the way it always broke Shouta's heart.
“It's a ridiculous idea,” he said with a tired sigh, dismissing the thought of time travel on a larger scale than whatever had allowed Shouta to save him.
“I'm just glad you were able to do it once so that I could save Izuku.” Shouta shifted, tugging him close, tucking his head into his hair. It wasn't nearly as fluffy as it used to be, too greasy without the products to really take care of it, but Shouta never seemed to mind.
“Maybe that's why I managed it,” Eri said, drawing her knees up to her chin. “Because you've both lost so much.”
Izuku tried not to think about all of his friends and classmates that he'd lost as the years passed, or of the rest of the staff of UA slowly dwindling away until it was just the three of them left. He tried not to remember the way that their families had been invited onto campus in the early days, when the war had just been getting started, only to have Nezu's kindness backfire when Aoyama’s treachery brought the family dorms down with all of their parents inside. He'd cried as he'd done it, and he'd killed himself after, but he'd still done it.
“We all have,” he said.
The rest of the night was quiet and solemn, as most of them were, but at least Izuku and Shouta were able to take some small comfort in each other.
Eri slept alone.
***
The next time it happened left Eri wild eyed and sobbing incoherently for hours after she dragged them out of a bombed-out pharmacy before they could get any of the medical supplies they urgently needed. To Izuku, it seemed that they'd only just stepped through the door when Eri had yanked sharply on both their arms, dragging them away. She pulled them until they were miles away, sheltering in the ruined husk of an apartment building, and then she gave in to her tears, clutching them both tightly to her.
“Shigaraki took you,” was all she would say.
He didn't know who that was directed at, and he didn't want to. They didn't sleep that night. He and Shouta stayed awake, watching over Eri as she gave in to quirk exhaustion and passed out between them, her cheeks still wet with her tears.
***
“I know how I did it, now,” Eri said, her voice dull. She hadn't let them leave the apartment that morning. “I think I could do it again. For long enough to make a difference.”
“You'd have to Rewind almost ten years,” Shouta protested. His hand tightened on Izuku's. “Eri, it would kill you!”
“Shigaraki knows where we are,” she said. She huffed out a broken laugh. “I let the future go for a bit after he…” She swallowed hard. “Not because I wanted to, but because we were trying to rescue—” She stopped again and let out a shuddering sob.
“Eri,” Izuku started. He wanted to tell her to stop, that it was okay, but if it was true that Shigaraki knew where they were, then…
“He's been playing with us. Tracking us. Probably watched us hide here.” She laughed again. “I think one way or another, this is it, because he's bored now. And you know what happens when he gets bored.”
“So we go down fighting,” Izuku whispered. He looked at Shouta, who was staring back at him. There was a look in Shouta's eyes that he didn't like. “Shou, we go down together, right?” That was the deal that he'd made with him, back when they'd spent their first night together.
Back when it had just been about comfort, not feelings.
Shouta smiled at him. He reached up with one of his knives and sliced through the lock of his hair that he always kept braided with Hizashi's, pressing it into Izuku's hand. He curled Izuku’s fingers over it and pressed a kiss to them. “Sorry,” he murmured against them.
The apartment building shuddered around them as several thunderous booms echoed around the city.
“Shouta,” Izuku started. “Shouta, you promised—” His heart was breaking. This wasn't right. This wasn't how their story was supposed to end!
“Guess it was one last logical ruse, sweetheart. I'll buy you all the time I can. Make it count.”
And then he was gone, leaving Izuku with Eri.
He tried to catch his breath, but he couldn't quite manage it. “Eri, Eri please,” he started. “There has to be—”
“There isn't,” she said, the words blunt, but not unkind. “We've had this conversation a few times, you know?” An explosion rocked the building, but it didn't fall. “The most recent time, we discussed what has to happen in the past. Are you ready to hear what you decided?”
Izuku's mind was racing as he tried to think of other options, tried to shove away the vague plans that he'd been halfway thinking of since Eri had sent Shouta back the first time and they'd dismissed it as nothing more than wishful thinking. But if she was telling the truth and she'd lived through this a few times, then… Maybe there really wasn't another way out. Maybe this really was it.
Maybe they were fucked and the only answer was in the past.
His hand clenched around the lock of hair. “The USJ is my best chance to take out Shigaraki. If I get him there, he never finishes assembling the League.”
“And you can keep Erasure from getting damaged, hopefully, which would help you in taking out All for One and his creepy Nomu making Doctor before they can recover from Shigaraki's loss.” Eri sighed. “And if you can't stop the Nomu from hurting Shouta, then you need to leave me with Overhaul until he perfects the bullets.”
Izuku flinched. “Please don't ask me to do that,” he whispered. That was harder than almost anything else. She was so little when they rescued her! How could he just leave her there?
She glared at him, then she jerked her arm at the ruined room that surrounded them. “Do you want this to happen again, even with Shigaraki dead? Erasure or those bullets are the best options against a monster like All for One, so you promise me that you leave me with Overhaul either until that motherfucker is dead or the bullets are ready. Got it?”
His words got caught in his throat, so he closed his eyes and nodded. He reached for her, and she hugged him close, her frame gaunt in his arms. “Now go save the world, Deku,” she whispered.
The building rocked around them in another explosion, but Izuku didn't open his eyes. His skin was tingling. He kept his fingers clenched around the lock of hair, wondering if he'd be allowed to hold on to it, or if it would fade into nothing.
How would this work, with the world being Rewound around him? He wanted to open his eyes, but he was reasonably sure it would be disorienting. Depending on where he got dropped off to, he didn't want to come out dizzy or—
“You really are so cool, Eraserhead!”
Izuku's eyes snapped open. Dizzy? No. Disoriented? Hell yes.
The USJ. The first Nomu released, already having nearly broken Shouta. That was Erasure already fucked up, probably. And Shouta on the ground injured, which had Izuku seeing red.
“Hey,” he snarled, dragging himself out of the water. Full Cowling lit him up in green, Blackwhip coiling out from him like an Eldritch nightmare, and in his head, the Vestiges that he wasn't supposed to be able to hear yet were clamoring in confusion, the poor bastards. He'd explain things to them later. “Shigaraki. I'll be your final boss today.”
He lunged. Danger Sense flared as Shigaraki screamed for the Nomu. Izuku dodged and flung it away, tossing it through the ceiling of the USJ.
He caught Shigaraki by the arm and wrenched him around, holding tight, bracing four of Shigaraki's own fingers against the villain's own back. “Careful,” he said. “I know how your quirk works.”
Did he have a weapon on him? Could he end this cleanly?
The only thing left from the future that would never come to pass was the lock of Shouta's hair. And Hizashi's, but Izuku didn't have the same connection to that. Not a weapon.
“What kind of hacker are you?” Shigaraki screeched at him.
“The kind who unlocked new game plus and is speed running,” Izuku said. “I am sorry that I can't save you.” He wanted to say more to the kid that had been so corrupted by All for One, but the Nomu had already landed and Danger Sense was flaring again. Kurogiri was coming too.
There was no time.
He let Shigaraki go, only to grab him by the head and snap his neck brutally. It was a sickening sound, dull and violent, and Izuku flinched from it.
But he didn't have time, because the Nomu was there, and so was an enraged Kurogiri, and suddenly Izuku was fighting both for his life. He'd never fought the warper before, and fuck was he fast. Izuku pushed himself hard, boosting One for All as far as he could, trying to neutralize the warper before he could get sliced in half by one of his portals while also using Blackwhip to fling the brainless Nomu around. He wouldn't worry so much about Kurogiri except that somewhere in the back of his mind he kind of remembered that maybe he wasn't complicit in all this?
Shouta had said something once, before UA had fallen. It was hard to remember. Somebody he'd known had been used to make Kurogiri? Shira-something?
If there was something to be saved, Izuku wanted to save it. Shigaraki had been too far gone, but maybe—
Then the Nomu almost got him and Kurogiri nearly took an arm and fuck it, he couldn't keep this up! There were kids watching this fucking fight; what the hell was he supposed to do, and where the hell was All Might? Wasn't he supposed to have been here? The USJ had been so damn long ago and he didn't remember how long he needed to hold out but he couldn't keep this up when his muscles and bones were screaming at him!
Blackwhip tore out of him once more and ripped into the Nomu, tearing it to shreds. As it did, Kurogiri caught him in a portal, and Izuku screamed. He managed to jerk himself the rest of the way through as it closed, but he was pretty sure he lost a chunk of something given the way that his vision whited out.
He staggered, shaking, his hold on his quirk sputtering, his breath coming in sobbing pants. Kurogiri faced him, his purple fog flickering, and then he sped forward. Izuku tried to power up Full Cowling again, but it wouldn't respond.
He couldn't move. He was spent.
He'd taken out Shigaraki, but at what cost? He was going to die to Kurogiri. Lose One for All for the world, and All for One would win another way. He'd failed Eri.
Failed Shouta.
No.
Fuck that.
Izuku grinned, teeth bloody and bared, and he called Blackwhip up one last time. He caught Kurogiri, thudded him against the ground once, twice, three times, until the Nomu was unconscious.
And then he let the world go black.
***
He woke to beeping, steady and rhythmic. It was unfamiliar, but in a way that seemed as though it shouldn't be. Sort of nostalgic?
A hospital. That was a heart monitor. Fuck, when was the last time he'd heard one of those? He snorted with laughter as he opened his eyes, and then he regretted it immediately. Not the opening his eyes, although that hurt— who let people keep hospitals so damn bright?— but the laughter. Fuck, that hurt. What had he done to himself?
Kid, what the fuck?
Oh no. He didn't need the damn Vestiges talking at him while he was in the hospital. That seemed like a one way ticket to a stay in a psych ward, and he didn't have time for that. He'd taken out Shigaraki, but All for One was still out there. He had shit to do. Shouta still had a chance at his happily ever after with the actual love of his life, and Izuku would be damned if he didn't get it.
He slammed a mental door closed between him and the Vestiges. They could talk later. Once he knew more about what the situation was.
“You awake over there, Listener?”
Izuku froze. That voice. The last time he'd heard it, it had been coming from a Nomu screaming after them, and—
His quirk flared, Blackwhip leaping to his hand, before he remembered that he wasn't there anymore. He dropped the quirk with a small cry of pain, clutching at his hand, which was angry at the use of the quirk. His whole body was sore— he'd definitely overdone it with Full Cowling, and with Blackwhip. This body wasn't strong enough to do the kind of shit he'd done.
“Listener?” Yamada Hizashi stepped into view. He wasn't in costume— his hair was down and he was wearing sweats and a Put Your Hands Up t-shirt. He had bruises under his eyes, and he wore a smile that quivered at the edges. “I didn't mean to startle you,” he said. “We've got you here in a room with Aizawa. You were both in pretty bad shape after what happened.”
Izuku swallowed. “Did—” It came out as a croak.
Yamada helped him sit up and helped him drink some water. The beeping, Izuku realized, wasn't attached to him. It was for Shouta. He was pretty banged up, but it didn't look as bad as it had the first time around. At least, Izuku didn't think it did. He wasn't sure. So much had happened since his first year at UA…
He took a deep breath. “I need to talk to Nezu,” he said. He leaned back against the pillows. “And Tsukauchi. He can verify that I'm telling the truth.”
Yamada blinked at him. “You're not in any trouble for what happened,” he started. “You will have to talk to the police about the fight, but—”
Shouta's hair from the future was lying on the table beside the bed. Izuku reached for it, and Yamada was kind enough to hand it to him, though he did frown down at it when he touched it. “Midoriya,” he started, even as he passed the long lock of hair over.
Izuku said nothing. He took the hair and carefully wrapped it around his wrist before tying it tightly in place, using his teeth for assistance. Not sanitary, but who cared? That wasn't even the grossest thing he'd done in the last 24 hours.
“This is mine,” he said, not looking up from it. He let his fingers run over the braid. “My Shouta and his Hizashi started braiding a strand of their hair together after UA fell, once they realized that we really could all die at any minute. And when his Hizashi did die, and this was all he had left of him, it was a great comfort to him.” Izuku's breath hitched, but he locked it down.
There was too much to do. He didn't have time to mourn for a future that would never come to pass.
“My Shouta cut this out of his hair and gave it to me just before throwing himself into a suicide mission to give me a chance at stopping the end of the world. We had a pact that we'd die together if it came to it, and that fucker told me—” Izuku stopped. He couldn't continue. The words wouldn't come.
He sucked in one breath, then another. One more. If he could keep breathing, he could keep moving. “So I need to talk to Nezu, and I need to talk to Tsukauchi. All Might would also be great, because we really need to discuss the importance of making sure your enemies are dead when you kill them.”
Something soft touched his hair, and it took Izuku a long moment to realize it was a hand, gentle and kind. Yamada’s hand. “I've texted Nezu. He’s on his way with All Might and Tsukauchi. I didn't tell him why.”
Izuku swallowed hard. “Thank you.” It was hard to force even those two small words out around the lump in his throat. When was the last time he'd cried? Why was he trying to now?
He didn't have time to mourn. He had a world to save.
“They'll be about twenty minutes,” Yamada continued. His hand continued to move gently through Izuku's hair. “Have you had a chance to breathe since you lost your Shouta?”
And Izuku, who hadn't cried in at least five years, if not longer, shattered. The first sob took him entirely by surprise, and then he was wailing, brokenhearted, tears streaming down his cheeks like they hadn't since he'd been a child. Yamada stepped in close and continued to stroke his hair, his touch so gentle, so kind that it hurt, because for the first time Izuku understood what Shouta had lost and his heart was broken, both for his Shouta and for himself.
But he would keep moving, because he didn't have a choice.
***
By the time Nezu got to his room, along with Yagi and Tsukauchi, Izuku had pulled himself together. Aizawa was still unconscious in the bed across the room, his monitor beeping steadily, and Yamada had retreated to sit next to his husband.
“Midoriya,” Nezu started as he entered the room. “Yamada says that you've asked to speaspeak with us, specifically. Which is interesting, because I didn't think you knew myself or the good detective.”
“Not yet,” Izuku said. “I would've spoken to Tsukauchi if the USJ had played out the way it originally did anyway, but I don't remember when you and I first met.” Izuku sighed and leaned back against the bed.
“What the hell?” Tsukauchi's voice shook. “That read as true.”
“Izuku, my boy,” Yagi started, hesitantly.
“No,” Izuku bit out. He sat up again to scowl at Yagi. “You— I lived through ten years of hell, Yagi, because you didn't check to make sure you actually killed All for One when you fought him. The world ended because of that motherfucker. There was no fixing it, apparently, at least that's what the girl I thought of as my sister decided. So here I am, ten years in the past, a kid again, to keep the world from ending!”
Yagi let out a startled little cough, blood dribbling from between his lips, and then he deflated with a puff of smoke. “You're not supposed to know about All for One,” he said weakly.
Izuku groaned. “I know,” he said. “You passed the quirk he covets on to me without ever warning me that it would make me a target. But that's fine. I think the fact that I killed his protege will make me even more of a target than the quirk would.” Izuku grinned.
“Asui did say that you seemed to know who the young man covered in hands was,” Nezu said. He looked delighted with everything that Izuku was saying, practically vibrating in place with excitement. “Can you tell us more about him?”
“Shigaraki Tomura. Raised by All for One to be his heir. In the future, he would inherit a version of All for One that would make him crazier than he already was with the help of some creepy ass doctor who needs to fucking die. Shigaraki successfully sparked a worldwide nuclear war, then used the leftover bodies as spare parts to make armies of Nomu— that monster that attacked with Kurogiri. The doctor knows how to do that shit.” Izuku closed his eyes and let out a tired huff. He ached all over, and he wanted to sleep, but he had things that he needed to take care of before he could.
“So, if we arrest this doctor and All for One, then we should be able to prevent the end of the world.” Yagi smiled at Izuku, looking for all the world like a puppy waiting to be praised.
Izuku couldn't remember the last time he'd been so optimistic. The last time he'd smiled like that. “If you arrest them, they'll eventually get out,” he said, his voice even.
“You genuinely believe that.” None of the horror had faded from Tsukauchi’s voice. “Why do the worst things read as true to you?”
“Because life is a nightmare,” Izuku said with one of his teeth-baring grins. “And the world is All for One's playground. He didn't get where he is by not planning for setbacks. He needs to die. So does the doctor.”
“Heroes don't kill,” Yagi said. “My boy, I gave you that quirk because you wanted to be a hero.”
“There's no room for heroes at the end of the world,” Izuku said. Then he let out a tiny, genuine giggle. “I'll handle it if you don't have the stomach for it.”
A snort, pained but familiar, came from the other bed. “Don't make puns when you're plotting murder, kid.”
Izuku's heart stopped. Shouta. His Shouta, but not. This was his teacher, still, who yes, would die for him, but didn't really like him, wasn't his friend, didn't… didn't…
Had his Shouta loved him? They'd never said the words, and Izuku would never know.
He swallowed. “Sorry, Aizawa-sensei,” he said. The formality would help, he hoped. He needed it to. This wasn't his Shouta.
This Shouta still had his Hizashi. He didn't need a battered and broken Izuku, in love with the ghost of a Shouta who'd died to give him a chance to save the world.
“We're not sending a child to kill the worst villain in history,” Tsukauchi said. He was rubbing at the bridge of his nose, his eyes pinched shut. “I hate the fact that we're even talking about this at all, but we can't let a kid do it.”
Izuku just shrugged. “Not really a kid,” he pointed out. “And it isn't like he'll expect me. Not if you managed to keep the warper in custody.”
Nezu was practically vibrating in place with the force of his excitement, probably over the sheer chaos that Izuku had the potential to cause with his presence. “We did! He's in a secure facility now. What do you know about him?”
“He's a Nomu,” Izuku said with another shrug. “Shouta— my Shouta— knew more about him. He's under some kind of control, and his quirk is manufactured? His base quirk had something to do with…” What had it been? There had been so much on his mind in those days, and Shouta never wanted to talk about his losses, not even his Hizashi. “Clouds, maybe?”
That sounded right, anyway.
Yamada let out a wounded noise, and Shouta let out a sound like he'd been thrown off a building and landed wrong. Nezu went very still. “Shirakumo Oboro,” the chimera said, his tiny voice haunted.
Izuku just shrugged again. It meant something to them, obviously, but the name was just a name to him. “Anyway, once I've handled All for One and his pet Doctor, I figure I'll spend some time dismantling his organization. We didn't really talk about that— didn't have time in the few minutes we did talk, but there has to be a pretty big ring backing the fucker, right?”
Yagi cleared his throat. “My boy,” he tried again. “The adults—”
“I know I look like a kid, but I'm pretty sure I'm, like, twenty-something,” Izuku interrupted. “Years got a little fuzzy after the bombs dropped.”
Nezu shook himself. “But you will need to finish school,” he pointed out. “And before you can do anything outside of an emergency situation, you need a Provisional License, or you'll be arrested for vigilantism.”
Finish… finish school? Izuku's mind blanked. When his mouth opened, the words that came out were entirely unexpected to everyone, himself included.
“If you try to make me sit in a classroom with Aoyama, I'll fucking murder the bitch. I don't care how much the traitor regretted it, he still murdered our families.”
“Young Midoriya,” Yagi said around a sputtered cough, red dotting his lips. “Maybe the hero program isn't right for you right now. Perhaps we should consider passing on— just until you've had some therapy, mind you!—”
Izuku just shook his head, even as Shouta exploded in the background that All Might had no right to remove anyone from his homeroom. “It can't be passed off to anyone else,” he said bluntly. “Or didn't you read any of the reports yet? Or watch the footage of my fight? It's hit Singularity. It would kill anyone else.”
Yagi’s shoulders slumped. “I know that you've lived through something awful, and that it's my mistake that caused it, but I wanted better than this for you,” he said. He reached out and ruffled Izuku's hair, telegraphing the move, then he turned and headed for the exit. “Nezu, please help Izuku coordinate what he needs and let me know where I can help best. My boy— If you need me, please don't hesitate to reach out.” He left, then, and something squirmed in Izuku's stomach, something he hadn't felt in a long time.
Guilt. Ugh. He didn't have time for guilt. They had to strike fast, while All for One was still reeling from the loss of Shigaraki, the Nomu, and Kurogiri. Before he had any of the League, if it would even occur to him to assemble them.
“Do you know where All for One is based?” Nezu asked.
Izuku nodded. “Kamino,” he said. “He's on life support now. If we strike today—”
“You aren't striking today,” Shouta growled. “You're going to stay in that bed and recover from your fight. Let the adults handle this for now.”
Izuku laughed, and it hurt him to do so. “Weren't you listening, Aizawa-sensei?” The formality tasted like ashes in his mouth. “I might be a child physically, but this is my second time living this life. Mentally—”
“Mentally, you apparently survived an apocalypse,” Shouta said. “I'd say that means you need therapy before you can start actively taking missions in the modern world.”
“But we do have contacts we can work with who are more than capable of handling these sorts of missions,” Nezu said cheerfully, clapping his paws together. “I'll stop by with one of them tomorrow after you've had the chance to rest, Midoriya. In the meantime, perhaps you should consider what you'd like to tell your mother when she comes to see you?”
His…
Mom was going to make katsudon that night, a desperate grasp at normality in the week after she'd moved on to campus with all the other families. He wanted to eat with her, but at the same time, he and Shouto had been talking about running some experiments with their quirks if they had time after homework.
Mom?
So he'd been snotty when she'd invited him, and they'd argued a bit, but they'd already made up and of course he was going to her for dinner. It wasn't really a surprise they'd fought; everyone was arguing more with what was going on outside the school. But he was looking forward to dinner with her, so much so that he almost didn't understand what it meant when he spotted Aoyama’s laser going off, full force, impacting the family dorms.
The building crumbled, turned to ash and rubble, before anyone could stop him. No one survived.
Mom was alive again?