Chapter 3
Every grate Izuku found, he carefully tested, hoping to find a loose one. Thus far, he'd had no luck.
Then he heard voices and froze.
The woman who'd dragged him here stated something he only caught the tail end of. "…a year a day."
"And how old is he?" The voice sent a shiver down his spine. If it was quieter, he'd describe it as a menacing whisper.
"I'd say six, by the look of him. We got lucky, catching him off guard like that."
Izuku frowned, offended. Six? He was eight! He knew he was small but, really?
Even as he felt the indignation, every instinct in his mind screamed to keep moving. The villains were about to find a room that he very much wasn't in and would start looking for him. So, he kept squirming through the small space.
Izuku knew that his prediction had come to pass when he heard angry yelling.
So that meant they'd found nothing but a broken pen and his ink stained fingerprints where he was supposed to be. He heard another unfamiliar, deep voice state placatingly, "There's no need for that, I'll find him."
It was at that moment that Izuku found a very loose grate. Even as he wiggled it, he felt a pressure shift in the tunnel, a slight stirring from the way he came. He kicked the grate out and crawled out. With the practice of someone who couldn't hesitate while running through playground equipment or over trash when being pursued by his bullies unless he wanted a beating, he crawled out with only mnimal prep for the fall, landed and rolled.
Izuku looked at a window that looked like it had been painted black, as if to keep out light, and pulled off the pants he'd tied around him, wrapping it around his hand. He needed to get to people.
Izuku didn't even understand why these people were after him. He just knew that staying here was bad.
That the consequences would be worse than anything his bullies had done to him.
He glanced behind him to see a pair of yellow eyes appear in the space previously covered by the grate. Not like yellow irises, but two glowing yellow eyes swathed in darkness.
Izuku found himself instantly fascinated. Whatever quirk this person had, it gave them an amorphous mist form. Rare, very rare. Very hard to outrun but maybe the shaft limited how much he could funnel himself here at once.
"Foolish child, if you were going to escape, you should have just run rather than talk about it. Not that it really matters, I only needed to see where you are to catch you."
"Oh, I didn't realize I was speaking out loud," Izuku stated, embarrassed. "Sorry!"
A strange sound filled the air as a swirling circle of black mist appeared. After a split second delay, a second black cloud appeared, then the first disappeared… no, it became the second. The villain was now floating in the hallway, towering over him.
"A warper," Izuku realized, unable to hide the awe in his voice. Both ends of the portal had opened simultaneously, so while it was good for transport, there would probably be no void space between—
Suddenly, a second person stepped forward, coming out from within the mist. A man covered in hands. Maybe real ones. Izuku looked up into mad, excited eyes behind the hand covering his face. "Well, well. So, it's true. They did knock a few years out of you." He glanced to the portal and called out, "Interesting quirk, let me know if you want to work with us again. I'm sure I could find a good use for it."
"Maybe I will."
So not only physical forms but energy waves could travel through it, at least sound waves. Although it didn't look like light…
The man's red eyes narrowed behind the hand covering his face.
"I said all of that out loud, didn't I?"
"He's been running quirk analysis since he saw me," the mist warper stated from just over Izuku's shoulder, causing him to startle and dart sideways so he could keep both men in his view while stepping closer to the window.
"Really? How interesting."
Izuku needed to think of a plan. Keeping these villains talking might keep him alive. Big villains usually loved to talk, after all, right? Especially if they didn't think the person they were talking to would get to tell anyone else. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"Oh, right. You wouldn't know," Hands Man said.
The mist man floated snake-like next to the other and stated, "This is Tomura Shigaraki, leader of the League of Villains, and I'm Kurogiri." Izuku had never heard of the group or the individual villains, but he'd always been more interested in heroes anyway. Maybe he'd change that if he ever got away.
"As for what we want, that might depend on just how good your analytical skills are. Kurogiri was hardly subtle about his quirk. Tell me, can you figure anything out about mine?"
"It's something to do with your hands," Izuku immediately replied. "Even if you didn't dress the way you have, the way you hold them gives that much away."
"How I hold them?"
Izuku nodded. He didn't understand why these people were interested in his analysis, as no one ever was before but if it bought him time, he'd talk about it. It also helped to keep him calm. "You lead fingers first but keep them slightly splayed." Izuku exaggerated the stance the other was using as he continued. "That suggesting you have to be careful about bringing them together. It must be an easily activated one. You are trying to get in close so it's probably not a long distance effect either. If it was, you wouldn't close in like this. Hands are too easy to damage and a bad mistake might leave you either in pain every time you went to use your hands or even functionally quirkless."
Shigaraki took an uncertain step back, withdrawing those hands slightly and Kurogiri's eyes widened before narrowing to slits.
Izuku lowered his head and started shivering in fear. "I guess the weakness assessment was a bit overboard. It's kind of a habit when I write down my quirk analysis—"
"You write that shit down, too?!"
"Yeah." He tapped the book and added, "I'm up to five now…" He looked down and saw 'Quirk Analysis No 15.' And suddenly everything started clicking into place. The alert for the 'older boy,' the disabling and age comments, the two villains before him and how they had to remind themselves that he wouldn't know them.
He looked back up at Shigaraki and said, "She made me younger!"
Shigaraki laughed. "Wow Midoriya, I didn't mistake you for being stupid but I never would have suspected your intelligence went so far!"
Shigaraki touched a wall of the hallway with all five fingers. The wallpaper immediately started peeling away with a crackle and the wood beneath it turned to dust that filled the air and coated the back of Izuku's throat as he breathed it in. "I'll be honest, it never crossed my mind that my hands would also be my weak points," He pulled it awat the wall, turned it palm up and flexed his fingers as he glanced down, "but, you're right."
"Five point touch?"
A moment of silence, then Kurogiri said, "I think I understand one of the reasons UA class 1A has held so well against us."
"You think? I'll bet you that he's the one who thought up that stunt they pulled in Kamino Ward."
Despite his fear, Izuku felt a smile come to his face. "You mean I make it? I actually make it into UA without a quirk?"
Both pairs of eyes look at him in surprise.
He cocked his head and blinked, then smiled. "I have a Quirk? Oh, what kind? It must be subtle, since I haven't used it yet. Well, not knowingly at least."
"Your quirk's about as subtle as a sledgehammer."
-Alternate overlapping version-
Izuku cocked his head. 'Knocked a few years out...' His mind was trying to put the pieces together but it wasn't working. And this wasn't the time either. Not surrounded by such high powered villains.
Izuku tried to delay Shigaraki by talking. Meanwhile, he had backed up to the window, one of the spots of light blocked by his body.
Shigaraki mentioned dealing with him before help came.
Izuku scoffed. "I doubt you need to worry about that. Kids like me don't get rescued. Not unless we save ourselves."
Shigaraki froze at his words, wincing as if Izuku had slapped him. He didn't know why they had instilled that reaction but that was good, because they'd almost lodged in his own throat, painful as they were. If they delayed this man long enough to save him, it would be worth it.
Izuku clenched his cloth covered fist and spun to the window, as he'd been planning to do originally. With the shattering glass came blinding rays of sunlight shining through but he pushed himself forward. He heard the warper curse as he undoubtedly shielded his eyes from the light.
Izuku took advantage of the moment and jumped onto the window ledge and saw the guy had haphazardly opened a portal out the window. He placed his protected hand on the window frame, hoping none of the remaining glass shards would cut through the thick fabric of the pants. Then he jumped to the side and landed in front of the building, seeing more than feeling a piece slash through his shirt and shoulder. With the warper momentarily blinded by the sunshine, his best hope was to outrun Shigaraki. He had to keep the escape hole small and leave the glass in.
Izuku glanced up to see the latter looking down at him as a gray spot already appeared on the wall beneath, showing he was using his quirk to eat a through the building.
Something had changed in Shigaraki's gaze. Sadistic joy replaced for an intense stare.
Izuku shot a glare back at the man before running for his life.
Staying close to the wall, Izuku ran around the corner of the building. Even though it meant less distance, it also meant the warper would have to poke his head out the window to get a lock on him. As he rounded the corner and saw stacks of trash almost blocking up the windows on the hotel side and a door hanging unhinged on the side door of the next building, he thanked his lucky stars. He might actually get out of this.
Izuku darted down into a side entrance of the next building, door hanging off its hinges. He swiped his hand across his bloody shoulder and slammed a handprint on the wall to the right before darting left. It was more gruesome than dropping school supplies but he hoped it would do the trick. He ducked into the nearest doorway, leaving it half opened but hiding behind it. Once out of sight, he waited, hoping his trick would work.
No more than a few seconds passed before he heard a single pair of footsteps approach. If the mist man was there and had a physical form, it could levitate. What a quirk! He'd have to take notes later, if he lived that long.
He heard Shigaraki's voice and his breath caught in his throat, "How old do you think he was?" There was a strange whispery sound in the background.
"Shigaraki, please, stop scratching yourself like that. You'll tear your skin open. It just healed up for the first time since we left Kamino." Not whispery, Izuku realized, it was the other scratching at himself. Izuku felt a wave of sympathy at the thought that the man might actually do it so intensely that he hurt himself.
"I was about that age when Sensei finally renamed me. He looked like he's known no one was coming for ages already, like he'd figured it out on his own." There was another stretch of silence and this time, there wasn't any scratching. "There's his hand print. He must have gone this way. We need to find him. I need to talk to him. I think…I think I misunderstood. Bakugou wasn't the only one…maybe not even the biggest."
Don't look back… Izuku silently begged. Please don't check here. The footsteps continued onward and he fought the urge to sigh in relief. But he felt safe enough to breathe again as they began to move away from him.
"We still need to be careful. Don't forget how powerful his quirk is. It might break him to use it if cornered but it won't stop him…"
What was this quirk that had them so scared?
Izuku gave them enough time to get around the corner before he slipped back out the way he came in. He went deeper into the alley and found that there was a space between the buildings behind it so that he could slip out into the next street.
Over the next hour, he travelled four blocks.
Along the way his memories started rushing forward, showing him that night at home and the next day. His injuries started fading but he winced as he took a few more blows suddenly. He moved quietly, careful to watch for portals or shadows when crossing streets, as the bleeding in his shoulder slowed.
Suddenly, he stopped because of a headache. He suddenly had a new memory of getting home but he knew that he never made it there. It was like his memories suddenly kicked into a fast forward button, hopping through his evening with mom and to bed even though he was still standing in an unfamiliar place all alone, not safe but running from villains.
Izuku barely made it into an alley to hide. He needed to calm down. He looked down at his journal, binder pointed toward him, a few drops of water, ink and blood on it. Maybe there'd be something here to help him.
He turned the page, hoping his older self would give him the help he needed.
After all, if there had ever been anyone he could count on to help him, it was himself.
I worked really hard on Izuku giving Shigaraki the slip.
I would not be surprised if Shigaraki scratched his throat to ribbons after All For One was arrested. I think he would have been disturbed enough by losing his Sensei to do it no matter what.
So, the fact that Izuku keeps notebooks helped me for planning this out because it would be a way for his younger self to make connections and figure out what was going on.
Other than a few minor details I changed upon prepping this for posting (such as the age Shigaraki was when AFO renamed him), most of it was written before reading the Manga.