Chapter Text
Izuku groaned as he lifted his head from where it was rested on his elbow and sluggishly looked around. Even though it was dark, his eyes hurt to open. He placed his head back down and closed them.
Just as he was about to fall back into unconsciousness, he noted with a foggy mind how warm it was. Not that it was even particularly warm, but having been sleeping outside in the cold recently, this detail stuck out to him. He opened an eye with difficulty and glanced around, it was unnaturally dim, even on the darkest of nights there still was some moonlight. It was unsettlingly quiet too, no wind, no dogs barking, no occasional person walking past. Something was off.
The previously comfortable warmth now sent chills down his spine. He slowly sat up, the space around him was becoming less of a dark abyss and more like several dark blobs against a grey background.
The blob to the right looked like a bed with a shelf covered in weird decorations that he couldn't really make out at the foot of it. The decorations were neatly placed and seemed to be organised. On the floor there were several piles of, what he assumed to be clothes, strewn around. Infront of him was a small desk that he had just been asleep on, it too had decorations though they were smaller than the shelfs, and an open book placed right in the center, the words indecipherable in the darkness.
He tilted his head in confusion, this didn't feel like a kidnapping at all. At this he noticed the lack of restraints, or even his hero costume, which had been replaced by just normal clothes and had quite possibly just been thrown on the ground too. He took another look around, this time with the help of a small desk lamp. The bed looked like nothing special, only way too comfy for if he had been kidnapped, The shelves with the weird figures, that were coloured and reminiscent of All mights signature pose-Wait. Izuku glanced around at the now familiar room. This was his old dorm, the bed against the wall, the shelf next to it, even the little All might stickers on his desk.
His thoughts quickly became a jungle of incoherent questions, yet all with the same theme. How? How had they found him? When? What even happened? Why couldn't he remember? Didn't they understand the danger he would bring? Izuku forced himself to stop over thinking, he needed to leave, it was the only way.
Hurrying up from his chair, he practically leapt for the balcony, he could float away from there. Only to realise as he tried to open the door that it was locked. He patted himself down autonomously, unsurprised when his keys weren't there. They wouldn't let him go that easily. He contemplated just smashing through the glass doors but Nedzu would've made sure the the dorms are secure. Izuku sighed in frustration, why couldn't they understand, he had to leave and he was doing it for them. With no choice, he steeled himself before raising a finger and squeezing his eyes shut tight, when a knock at his door nearly made him jump out of his skin.
He knew this was going to happen and he was dreading it. As he walked to the door to answer it he cycled through the possibilities of who was on the other side. Kaccan came to mind first, and Izuku found himself at a loss for what his reaction would be. He used to be able to read the blonde like a book, but now.... Perhaps it would be Iida coming to shout at him for being reckless. Or maybe Uraraka or Todoroki who would both try to comfort him. Either way this meeting was bound to be painful for all involved.
He braced himself before opening the door to see Iida stood alone
"Ah Midoriya, I just wanted to check you were all right." Iida looked down at him and smiled. Like Izuku hadn't run away, and it made his chest ache. He stared back, unable to form words.
Iida nodded despite the lack of a response. "I was just wondering since dinner was served about ten minutes ago, and you have yet to come down to eat. And I remembered you saying you were going to do some homework, and you especially can get caught up in work like that." Iida finished with another smile and looked towards Izuku expectantly, who just stared intently onwards.
"U-uhm." He didnt know what to say, he hadn't pictured this happening and even if it did he imagined it would go a very different way. And truthfully too much had happened in too short time for him to have actually heard most of what Iida said. "Sure."
Iida clearly accepted that as a suitable answer, as he left to go downstairs, leaving Izuku stood awkwardly in his doorway.
Something about that whole interaction was... off. Izuku shook himself as he turned back to his room and closed the door. What now? He glanced towards the balcony, that was the best answer, the only answer, anything else would bring unnecessary harm to his classmates. But even as Izuku tried to convince himself it was the only choice, he found himself looking back at where Iida had just left. One meal, he could have one meal with them, right? Izuku could feel his self control wavering, but he had to be strong and that meant he had to leave. But the idea of it made his chest burn with sorrow and he found himself unable to stop his walk downstairs.
When he got there, his friends were sat together around a table, laughing and talking, and Izuku felt wrong, like he didn't belong there. Uraraka turned to face him and gleefully patted the seat next to her. He had never felt so out of place. But slow as they did his legs moved to sit next to her. An uncanny feeling bubbling in his gut
She glanced at him for a second, considering. "Where's your dinner?" Izuku looked down at the empty space infront him, he didn't usually eat much anymore, as sitting down somewhere to eat forced his guard down. He didn't want to die because he was distracted by eating, so he just wouldn't. He thought of what to say to respond, whether to make an excuse or tell her the truth and make it awkward. Even though it didn't matter much, he felt like he was in this moment for hours, staring at his lack of a meal and thinking of a response until Todoroki eventually said something that made her laugh, distracting her. Izuku relaxed the barest amount before the feeling came back much stronger. Something is wrong.
He jolted when she nudged into his shoulder, the unexpected touch panicking him slightly. She went quiet for a moment, seemingly clocking that something was up. "Sorry about earlier, with the lights and all Denki got a bit excited cause he won a bet against Mina." She spoke hesitantly, Izuku distantly noted that she was trying to lighten the mood as the bad feeling had grown exponentially. "Damn, that English homework you were doing really got you down, huh?"
Izuku felt as though the world paused, the bad feeling clearing as clarity overtook him, she keeps mentioning earlier. Iida had been talking about earlier. Talking as though he had been here just hours before, but that was wrong. He remembered this morning, trudging around in the destroyed city, looking for people to save, he remembered seeing that little dog that had been abandoned, the way it cried and ran away from him, (gaining One for all had made him less than favourable to creatures) He remembered the bone deep tiredness, Then he was waking up in his dorm. Clearly he was missing something, and the unbearable Wrongness was making him feel nauseous. He couldn't stay down here. He stood up quickly, ignoring the confused calls of his friends as he sped to his room again.
When he got there, he started pacing. Had a villain possibly gotten to him with their quirk, Izuku tried to think of an alternative but as the only other possibility was some kind of elaborate ruse, he discounted it quickly, leaving the only question to be what kind of quirk. A dream or hallucination quirk would make the most sense. However it would also mean that his real body is left defenseless. Although One for all usually protects him from mental quirks-
One for all... would've protected him. It always has. could it be, that this was real? Thinking about it, those quirks usually had the effect of making things feel fuzzy and slow but right now reality felt crystal clear. He turned everything over in his mind, maybe he was just over-reacting but he felt as though there was something else at play. And One for all was top priority. With that in mind he widened his stance and activated his quirk.
Pure agony. That's all he felt. His bones ached and he felt as though he was being stabbed with several burning knives. With a gasp he dropped the quirk and fell to the ground. His head hurt and his vision was blurring, not to mention the leftover aching in all his limbs.
As he essentially lay on the floor, he tried to think through the pain. One for all had never done that before, though the feeling of pushing himself too far was similar.
As his breathing became easier, and the pain lessened, he moved to sit against his bed.
He had autonomously used 45%, Definitely in range for comfortable use, He groaned as he stood up, the pain had lessened but was still uncomfortable.
Izuku widened his stance again, the feeling before had felt too close to overdoing it that he wanted to check something. Hesitating, he slowly activated it making sure it was at 5%. It felt like normal, he felt the rush of energy and strength. He saw the electricity. But most importantly he felt no pain. slowly he ticked up the percentage, 6%, nothing. 8%, nothing. 12%, nothing. 16%, a slight pressure. 20% creaking bones.
Running his hands through his hair, he sighed. What about the other quirks? He tried to activate Blackwhip, only for nothing to happen. Then he tried smokescreen, and also nothing, after attempting all of his 'extra' quirks, he discovered that none of them worked, and focusing on it brought the realisation that he couldn't feel the vestiges presence.
He sunk to the floor, horrified. He was weak, too weak. If Shigaraki came back, he would be useless. He couldn't protect anyone like this. Desperately, he racked his brain, how could he have been so careless. How could he let this happen.
Nobody was here. he had checked his surroundings throughly and there was not a single person to be found. At the confirmation, he could already feel his body begin to give in the lure of sleep. Despite training his body to stay awake for longer, two and a half days was his limit, and as of now he was even stretching it, to say he was sleepy was an understatement. He was almost falling asleep where he stood, until a small pang of danger sense startled him, shaking away the tiredness and bringing a whole new wave of paranoia. But even through the paranoia he was just so tired. He eyes threatened to close again. A very sharp, very sudden sting of danger sense zapped through his head. He had no time to even process it before a hand was placed over his face and the world cut out.
Izuku shot up and stumbled towards his desk, he needed to write this down or else he would forget. Grabbing the closet pen, he scribbled, until it was all down. Then he looked back at all the information he had gathered.
A villain had got to him, one with a skin contact quirk, maybe a disapearing quirk, and getting touched was the last thing he remembered, his progress with One for all seems to have regressed, and he's back in his dorm with his classmates acting weird.
He began chewing on his pen, without even realising it. What quirk out there could do all this, and why was it all so unrelated? Danger sense would've have warned him if it was multiple people.
It had been 8 minutes of pure writing before he was distracted, and he hadn't even come close to think of an actually good theory. What had torn him from his misery was his phone, specifically a text from Iida, asking him if he was ok. But he couldn't focus on that, not when something so blatantly wrong was there.
The date.
It was wrong. It said September. And even though hasn't been particularly focused on the day, he knew it was mid May.
He instinctively turned to his wall calender. September. There was a moments panic before he shut it down. He needed something more concrete. Quickly standing up. He scanned the room. It all looked pretty much how he left it. His eyes fell on his All might shelf. There was a figure missing. His favourite, one he got from all might for Christmas. His heart stopped at the realisation. He ran this stupid theory through his head. It couldn't be possible, there had to be something.
But it all made sense. One for all was weaker because he was in the past. He was in his dorm because he was in the past. His classmates were acting weird because he was in the past. There was not a single thing wrong about this theory. Other than the implausibility of literally time travel
Izukus hands started to shake, the walls felt as through they were closing in, and his lungs weren't working properly. His eyes started tearing up as he was practically gasping for air. When a knock at his door shocked him out of it.
He made no move to answer it, nor to call out. From the other side Uraraka spoke.
"Hey, are you alright? You didn't respond to Iidas message earlier, and you left dinner without eating anything." She paused waiting for a response that never came, "I brought up a plate... if you're hungry." She paused again, longer this time. "Are you asleep?"
Izuku finally felt his voice respond. "N-no." Slowly, he opened the door and was greeted by a bright smile. Uraraka eyed him up and down before pushing the bowl into his hands, her smile had become slightly strained with worry, he probably didn't look too good right now but who wouldn't after discovering they had just time traveled, he looked at his dinner and grimaced, he didn't know if he could eat it.
They were stood there for what felt like ages, with Uraraka watching him, worried and Izuku stood staring into his bowl, just processing it all until she said her goodbyes and left. Leaving Izuku stood at his doorway, alone. He closed it, put his dinner onto his desk and collapsed onto his bed. Where he lay in shock.
Had he really...gone back in time? To when everything was fine, to before the war. Before people got hurt. Before people died. Before everything. Would he have to watch it again? Experience it again? Be helpless as those he loved were injured, watch Aizawa cut off his own leg to save everyone. Izuku could barely handle it the first time.
Would he have to leave again? To deal with abandoning them all, feeling so guilty for leaving but having to do it no matter what? Could he do it again? Uraraka had seemed so happy earlier at dinner. It was a sight he hadn't realised he missed. Would he have to see that happiness fade? For a second time? He couldn't. He couldn't, not while he knew what was coming.
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He knew what was coming.
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Maybe he could stop it.