Izuku Midoriya was having a bad day. He was only six years old, but he was fairly sure that this was the worst day he had ever had, not that he had many bad days to consider, since his mother was wonderful and his days were spent playing with Kacchan and his friends in the park. At least, they used to be.

Now, though, Kacchan had begun to change. His friend had developed his quirk – literally able to create explosions from his hands, and his temper seemed to have changed to match. He was always pushing others around, saying how he was going to be a great hero and no one else would come close. Worse, Izuku had not developed his own quirk yet, and since he was almost seven – and most children developed their quirks around the age of four – Kacchan had started gloating that he was going to wind up quirkless.

Quirkless, worthless Deku, he called him. For Izuku, who had wanted to be a hero for as long as he could remember, it hurt more than anything. His friend said these things, which means they had to be true. He had asked his mom, who took him to a doctor. After the doctor took x-rays and examined him, he said he was a perfectly normal little boy who should develop a quirk, there was no guarantee, and even if he did it might not be a noticeable one.

At first, Izuku didn't care. He loved heroes more than anything, and he knew that there were heroes out there who had quirks that weren't flashy or useful in fighting, If he didn't get a quirk, he'd just do it without one. He'd convince his mom to let him join a martial arts school or something, and he'd work ten times as hard and he'd go to UA, and—

It was that last bit that made today so bad. He had said all of this to his friends as they were walking through a park, and Izuku hadn't noticed Kacchan getting angrier and angrier as he spoke. Then, as they were crossing a log over a stream, the boy had suddenly spun around and started screaming at him. "Will you shut up?! You're never going to be a hero, Deku! I don't care how hard you try, you're worthless and you won't get into UA like me! I'm going to be the best and you're not going to drag me down with your crying, whining—"

Suddenly the boy slipped and fell off the log. It was only a few feet and he landed in the water with a splash, but to the small boys, it seemed like a great height and they all stared in shock and fear – except for one.

When Katsuki wiped his face clear and looked up, Izuku was standing shin-deep in the water, holding out a hand to him. "A-are y-you okay, K-Kacchan?"

Katsuki saw red and slapped the hand away with a small popping sound as his quirk tried to ignite, but the stream had washed away his sweat. He couldn't believe this quirkless loser was standing there looking down at him like he was going to be hurt or cry from such a small fall. "DEKU! I don't need your help! I'll never need your help! Why would someone like me ever need anything from some stupid Deku like you?!"

Katsuki launched himself at Izuku, shoving the boy backwards. The two tussled briefly before Izuku managed to slip free and take off running. Katsuki (and the others who followed along like always) took off after him.

Izuku was crying, running as best he could through the blur of the tears. He wasn't sure what he had done wrong, but his friend was angry with him. He didn't want to risk the boy's explosions so he was trying to get home where his mom could maybe explain everything and make it better. He tripped on a tree root but managed to keep running, scraping his palms as he caught himself.

The edge of the forest drew near and he could hear the sounds of the city, but he could also hear the other boys catching up to him, and in a panic he didn't slow down as he hurtled through the edge of the gate and across the sidewalk and out into the street – just as a sleek black sedan drove past, striking the young boy.

Izuku felt the impact on his left leg, and a second later his arm and head slammed into the hood as he was lifted and tossed into the air by the impact. Time seemed to slow down for a moment as he could see blood arcing through the air next to him from what was clearly a badly broken leg. He saw a look of horror on the faces of the boys as they skidded to a stop just inside the gate, and an equally horrified look on the face of the driver, a young woman with jet black hair who looked vaguely familiar.

Then the pain hit. He choked on a scream, his nerves on fire as he realized how badly injured he was and yelled "No!" inside his head. The terror was so great he felt like his heart would explode, and then—

Suddenly, he was back in the forest, running towards the gate only a few feet away. He almost tripped from the suddenness of the change, and slowed a bit in shock. As he came through the gate, he reached out and caught the gate post, using it to spin to the right and head down the sidewalk instead of out into the street. A split-second later, a black sedan slid past him, the horn honking as a young woman with jet black hair driving stared at him with one hand pressed to her mouth in fear.

Izuku stumbled to a stop, his chest heaving. What had just happened? He looked down and saw that he was fine, physically, but he knew he had been hit. He wasn't in pain, but he clearly remembered the pain of the accident. It hadn't been a daydream, because he had seen the driver both times.

Then Kacchan and the others caught up to him, and he found himself being shoved around between them for a few minutes before someone walking on the other side of the street yelled and the other boys took off running again.

Picking himself up off the ground, he sighed at his ripped shirt and winced at some painful spots he knew would be bruises before turning and starting to walk home.

He opened the door as quietly as he could, hoping he could get to the bathroom and clean himself up before his mother, Inko Midoriya, saw him, but his hopes were dashed when he saw her standing just inside with a bright smile on her face. "Izuku! I made cookies!" She held out a plate full of cookies but froze when she realized he was injured. "IZUKU!" She dropped the plate of cookies and he watched them fall, the plate smashing on the floor and shards of ceramic and cookie flying every which way. He wasn't sure whether he was more upset that his mother was upset or that the cookies were no longer edible, but then he blinked and – oh.

He was standing outside the door to his apartment, hand raised to open the door. Again? he thought.

He paused, then cracked the door open and peeked inside. Sure enough, his mother was standing there with the cookie plate in her hands. He paused without coming inside and said "Mom, can you put those down, please?" His mother looked confused, but quickly set the plate down.

"Is something wrong, Izuku?"

He let out a deep breath and opened the door. "I'm okay, Mom, but I f-fell in the woods and g-got a bit bumped around." For an instant her eyes widened, but then she stretched out her arms and he stepped into a hug.

"I'm glad you're okay, sweetheart. Did Katsuki help you out?"

He hesitated, but thought of how his mother rarely did anything other than work to support them and occasionally spend some time with Auntie Mitsuki, and didn't want to hurt her by telling her the son of her only friend was the cause of his bruises. Besides, he thought, he's probably right anyway.

"Yeah, he did, Mom. But I need to t-talk to you. Something weird happened today."

She tilted her head to the side and took his hands in hers. "Of course, sweetie. What is it?"

"I.. I think my quirk may have done something."

Her eyes widened, and she started smiling. "Oh, Izuku! That's so exciting! Tell me about it!"

He paused, trying to find words to describe it without telling her he was hit by a car. "W-well.. I was running home, and I g-guess I wasn't watching where I was g-going because it hurt and my eyes were kinda blurry.. And someone ran into me and knocked me down, and it hurt – but then it was like it didn't happen. Like, I was running again and could see the person coming, so I slowed down and they ran past me. Like everything happened twice, except I changed it."

Her eyes as big as saucers, she swallowed. "Are you sure, Izuku? You didn't just.. imagine that they ran into you?"

He shook his head. "I'm sure.. It happened again, t-too. When I g-got home, you saw me and dropped the cookies. And then I was back outside. So I opened the door and asked you to set them down so you wouldn't drop them."

Inko was having trouble believing this. It was certainly nothing like her quirk of levitating small objects towards her, and it wasn't like her husband's quirk of breathing fire, either. "Déjà vu", she whispered.

Izuku's brow furrowed and he tilted his head to the side. "Deja what?"

Inko smiled. "Déjà vu, sweetie. It means 'already seen'. Like you're familiar with something that you shouldn't be. If you really did see what was going to happen and were able to.. well.. 'reset' things, I guess, that's amazing!"

Izuku blinked. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but this wasn't it. "It.. It is?"

Inko beamed at him. "Of course, sweetheart! Being able to rewind time is such a neat quirk! That seems like something that could really help you be a hero!"

Izuku froze. "A h-hero? Really?"

She nodded, and then turned a serious look on her son. "Izuku, being a hero can be dangerous. You've watched videos of All Might, and seen him rescuing people from fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, and all sorts of things. You could end up facing villains, and having to fight them. If something bad happened, you could make it not happen!"

Izuku grinned, before frowning. "M-maybe. But I can only go back a few seconds I think. And I can't really control it!"

Inko smiled gently at her son. "Sweetie, you don't have to be able to control it right now. You literally only just learned you have it! You'll learn how to use it as you get older and trust me – you'll make such an amazing hero!"

Izuku wasn't aware when he started crying again, he just knew that one second he was standing there thinking about how he might really be able to make his dreams come true, and then he was in his mother's embrace and crying, and he realized he wasn't sure if they were happy tears or sad ones. The only thing he knew for sure was that he finally had a quirk.