Izuku sighed as he stood up from bed early in the morning. After processing for a second the unfamiliar room, he moved his arms and legs, feeling them stiff after the night of sleep. He yawned, and looked down at Epsi. The AI was in sleep mode, which was visualized with her icon being replaced by a chibi version of herself snoring under a green blanket.
"Good morning." Izuku said, and the icon immediately disappeared, replacing by a cheerful Zuzu-9-Epsi. The artificial intelligence winked at him, and Izuku couldn't help but feel it was a bit unfair she just got to wake up fully dressed and ready for the day.
"Good morning mister Izuku. I've adjusted all the parameters of my program for this universe. It's 6:30 AM, the day is expected to be sunny, and I took the liberty of downloading mister Izuku Midoriya's address and map the perfect direction. I also confirmed that our yen will work in this universe's vending machines, meaning we can easily buy a ticket to Nagoya."
"Nagoya?"
"Where Mister Izuku Midoriya lives. After all, that's also where the main branch of the Yaoyorozu Group is." Her clarification was followed by a quick show of the map, "It should take us about two hours to reach him. First though I suggest putting on the hoodie you were given and the accompanying face mask. We are lucky you two don't share the same age, but we can't risk to attract attention."
"Right." Izuku picked up the hoodie and face mask from his backpack. For the Masked Deku, given most people didn't know what he looked like, they had gone without any particular cover, but this one was different, since his face was all over the news apparently. He scrolled through them after dressing up and leaving the room, a collection Epsi had put together. Izuku Midoriya, The Emerald Knight, one of the strongest Nanomachine Users. Izuku Midoriya who had captured the Curse Gang in a fight ten against one without any help. Izuku Midoriya who had… "Married Momo Yaoyorozu?!" He shouted as he missed a step on the stairs and almost tumbled down before he luckily caught the railing.
"Alright! That's one more point for me!" Izzzuku suddenly shouted, Deku luckily already holding the railing when the sudden cheer exploded in his head, "I totally have to go back to Uraraka soon so I can get it added to my tally?" 'Your what?' "Oh right, you are not in the betting pool. So uh… don't tell Mariah please?" 'Izzzuku, what are you talking about?'
Izzzuku chuckled, "Well see, throughout the Multiverse you are married or in a relation with so many different people that we kind of have an ongoing betting pool on which girl you have married the most."
"You are betting on my love life?!" Izuku shouted.
A door nearby burst open, the face of a man with brown hair and an unkempt beard emerging from it. "Shut. The fuck. Up. It's too early in the morning brat."
"S-Sorry!"
"Yeah, 'sorry'. Get out now or I will…" Izuku didn't hear the rest, rushing away before he made even more of a fool of himself while ignoring Izzzuku's chuckles.
'There is nothing funny about this. Especially b-because you are making bets on my…' "Yeah yeah, please don't tell Mariah, I have better things to do than getting chewed for being immature. I'm over a thousand years old, for crying out loud."
"Could have fooled me." Izuku mumbled.
He quickly returned to the desk, where Tooru told him to wait as she walked back upstairs to check the room, before coming back down and announcing he could leave after returning the key, which he promptly handed to her. With a final wave, he walked to the door. "And by the way kid," She said, surprising him, "I don't know what made someone like you do this, but you should go back home. Your parents must be worried."
Izuku nodded stiffly, before walking outside and taking a deep breath. It was unintentional, of course, a suggestion that made sense to make to a teen that would rent a room alone in a less reputable part of town, but it stung. He thought about his mom. All for Deku was in his world right now, and Isaac had said he was at UA, which probably meant he was posing as Izuku. And if that was the case, he must have been fooling mom.
Izuku shuddered at the thought. 'It's fine, it's fine, he said he would only hurt heroes, mom is safe. It's fine…' He told himself to calm down, but he knew that wasn't entirely true. He knew that something had happened to Todoroki's family, something All for Deku had done.
Izuku gritted his teeth. The faster he did what he had to, the faster he could rescue his mom and his friends from a danger they didn't even know was real.
Leaving the hotel, he made his way through the streets of Musutafu. By day, he found it was a lot easier to recognize certain locations. He spotted a comic book store he had visited once or twice back in middle school, because they sold a few rare collectibles of All Might his usual store did not. He didn't know the area well, and he belatedly realized that, considering this was the poorer part of town, the store was oddly suspicious. Either they couldn't afford a better location, or had some other reason to open in that area. 'That's how money laundering works right? Use a legitimate business and then overprice items on the bill…' He thought, making his way forward.
The people around all appeared as baseline humans, without Mutants around. This time though it did make sense. Either the machines couldn't be used to change someone's appearance that drastically, or people just weren't interested, since not everyone liked what they looked like with powers. There was a reason Shoji always wore a face mask. 'Thinking about it, I should talk to him about it. It's his choice, but he shouldn't feel obligated to cover it all the time. No one in 1-A would ever bully him for it.'
The train station was small compared to the one Izuku usually used, but the shinkansen passed through it either way. Lucky for him, since otherwise he would have had to trek quite a bit for the next one. He walked in and made his way in the train, sitting down alone on a seat near the window and looking outside. The buildings of Musutafu passed by in the window, along with the people rushing by to work or school. The shinkansen quickly left behind the familiar and yet unfamiliar city, running toward Nagoya.
"Should I think about something to say to him?" He mumbled, making sure no one could hear him except Epsi. She responded by lowering the volume of her audio, forcing him to move the bracelet closer but making sure no one could hear her talk.
"Be honest. Mister Isaac indicated that usually the presence of multiple alternate version of yourself is the best way to convince another you of your identity, so with the three of us we are already at an advantage."
"Yeah I was there when we recruited Spider-Man." Izzzuku replied, "He just walked up to him and went 'Sup, I'm you we need to talk'."
Izuku snorted, "He didn't!"
"Oh, he totally did. Just 'Hello Spider-Man, did you know that there are other versions of you in the Multiverse? Oh, and it's not even the Spiderverse, that's another part of the omniverse.'"
Izuku chuckled, then he paused. "Omniverse?"
"It's a whole thing. Isaac's theory is that beyond our own Multiverse there are other ones with their own rules, and whenever two Multiverses brush each other that's when you get cases like Spider-Man. It doesn't really matter, is just the way we handwave the idea that Izuku was trained by a guy named Peter Parker. It doesn't really matter anyway. We focus on the Multiverse and leave the Omniverse to someone else. As Isaac said, we already have enough to deal with"
"He was what?!" Deku shouted, before pausing, looking around to make sure no one was paying him much attention. He had caught everything about the Omniverse, yes, but the fact Peter Parker had trained him was a bit more important for him right now, "I really want to talk to Spider-Man now…"
Izzzuku laughed, "Everyone from a universe where he is famous says that. The guy is ok, I suppose. Bit too much of a jokester though. I would appreciate some seriousness." Izuku would have stared at him, if he had anything to stare at. "What? I'm the comedic relief, I need a straight man to function. Two people cracking jokes are one too many, and I feel confident I'm the superior one."
Deku sighed. He was having a conversation like this with a dream creature living in his head. He had a female AI version of himself strapped around his arm. And he was riding a train to meet a version of himself that used nanomachines to fight apparently. 'I hope everyone is ok…'
The train kept rushing towards Nagoya.
-x-
Itsumi took a deep breath as she finished her shower, dried up and immediately collapsed on the bed. Every single one of her muscles was aching like they had been physically ripped apart and reconstructed. Mostly because that's what had happened to her arm, she thought, looking at it.
'Are you insane?!' She shouted, holding the arm that she had just watched explode and reconstruct from Mariah's touch. 'It's just a test for you.' The woman had calmly replied, 'I have been careful, but I need to ingrain into you what fighting All for One means. I know this Quirk well, so don't worry, you'll only feel a jolt of pain.'
She opened and closed the arm she had lost twenty-seven times that day. Mariah wasn't going easy on her, but it still felt like she was barely scratching the surface of what she could do. Frustratingly, she also still refused to tell her what she was doing wrong in her opinion, besides stuff Itsumi herself had noticed. She just kept saying she wasn't using Explosiomancy to its full potential, and that was really starting to get on her nerves. "What does that even mean?!" She shouted angrily, rolling on her back, "What does she want me to do…"
She opened her mouth, and a small amount of the explosive liquid trickled out of it and followed her orders, starting to spin around her hand. She stared at it. Her original Quirk, Explosive Breath, a bad combination of her mother and father's Quirk, had almost killed her. Her mom had then passed on Guide, and that had created Explosiomancy, the ability to manipulate Explosive Breath. But then, what did Mariah mean?
She made the trickle of explosive liquid move up and down around her fingers, like a snake. After a moment, she made it turn into a series of rings around her finger, spinning slowly.
It was a catchy trick, but this wasn't it. Just an application of her power, the same one she used with her baton-whip and her Smashes. With her One for All being a small piece, she had to use her explosions to pack a real punch, she always knew that. With Guide, she could direct the explosions outwards, not damaging herself as she attacked.
She stopped and walked to a window, looking out a moment before extending her arm and pointing forward. The rings of liquid reformed into a single orb that started to spin around her arm. Once it gained enough momentum, she launched it and watched it impact the water of the river Tames and explode. It didn't do much, safe for startling a raven and a few pigeons perching on the railing of a nearby bridge. She sighed, leaning on the windowsill a bit. Long range, short range, and medium range with her whip. She had everything covered, what else could she want?
She reflected on her fight against the Claw, back in the magic universe. That had been a pretty one-sided beating she had to run from. In her mind, she could still see the moves the woman that looked like her grandmother did. Itsumi thought. Jumping around like her might have been possible, maybe, but it would take more training to become second nature, and Itsumi was already pretty agile anyway thanks to One for All. She couldn't replicate the gravity trick, that one was either a Quirk or technology she just didn't have.
'Why am I trying to copy her?' She suddenly asked herself. Her mother and father were her inspiration, and she already took from both. Close combat like mom, long range like dad, and middle of her own.
So why was it that now when she imagined strength her mind was always going to the Claw?
'Let's see, what else did she have?' She found herself asking, 'I don't really see the point of the boots and claws. If I can't break something by making it explode, I doubt I can tear it apart barehanded. And then there is the baton, but I already have my own, and with a whip mode too.' She sighed, 'On paper I was on equal grounds with her, so what's the difference? Why was it so one-sided until I got a lucky shot?'
She focused. Experience was the obvious answer, but that was a divide she couldn't really fill by training. Hopefully there was something else. Speed, power… both of those depended on her physique, and she would have needed time she didn't have to build either to an even larger level.
"Aaaaargh, this is impossible!" She shouted, standing up completely, "She makes it so easy, find your own way forward, but what am I supposed to do?! I'm a teenager that shoots explosions from her mouth, not some battle genius!" She started walking up and down the room, steaming, "Close range, I punch them. Mid range, I whip them or beat it with the baton. Long range, I shoot them. Why is that not enough?!"
She stopped. Was the answer 'because you aren't strong enough?' That seemed a possibility now. Maybe what Mariah was trying to teach her was that she should give up. She was an All for One user after all. Bumming you down was kind of their whole deal, apparently.
She shook her head, and begun to walk again up and down the room. No, she couldn't think like that. She had gone to ask Mariah for help and she had agreed even if she had better things to do than train her… aunt? Cousin? This was so confusing, but the point stood.
Itsumi paused. If she couldn't ask Mariah, maybe she could ask someone else. The Green Scar was strong, if the scared glances Melissa and Dekiru were shooting at him were any indications, maybe he would have some suggestions. Honestly, even a 'nothing' would have been better than what she was doing, going up and down her own room.
She approached the door, when it slammed open. That was worrying, especially because she had locked it. From it emerged Katsuki Bakugou, the male version of his mother, with anger evident on his face. "Fucking. Stop." He grunted, his teeth scratching together.
"Uh, what?"
"Stop! You have been walking up and down talking out loud to yourself for the last ten minutes, and I can't take it anymore!"
Itsumi realized that she maybe was thinking out loud. And shouted a couple times. 'Oh god, dad's influence is finally here, I am going to start muttering.' She thought, before Bakugo snarled again.
"And what are you even talking about?! Something like a Claw and not knowing what you are supposed to do? Pathetic!"
Itsumi bit her lip. Apparently, this was normal, but she couldn't believe her mother was so crass when she was younger. Or was it because she was more aggressive as a male? No, she had seen her mother watch QMMA. She was definitely more aggressive than this in certain situations. 'Thank god I got mostly father's temper.' She stared at Bakugo. "Uhm, sorry. It's nothing, just… training problems."
"No shit. 'Aaaagh, this is impossible!' Yeah I heard all that. Mariah is using you to clean the gym's floor and you have no idea what to do. Tough luck."
"What is that supposed to mean?!"
"It means you need to get your shit together, Freckles."
"Freckles?"
"You are not an Izuku and you have Freckles, so I'll call you Freckles. Got a problem with it?" He replied, shrugging. Before she could say yes, he continued, "What's bothering you this much anyway?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Because if I solve your problem, I don't have to listen to you shouting in frustration in the room next to mine. Now spit it. But not literally, I don't want you to make this room blow up."
Itsumi blinked. She had Izuku's room on her left, but she had never considered the room on her right could be taken. She sighed. Of course they put a Bakugo and a Bakugo's daughter next to each other, that sounded like some sensible compartmentalization, especially if Bakugos were usually this loud. "Uh, I'm trying to figure out what Mariah means when she says I'm not using my full potential." She explained, and then she added an explanation of her abilities. They weren't a secret anyway, since the Bakugo already knew she had One for All.
Once she was done, Katsuki shook his head and sighed, loudly. "So, you don't know why you can't beat that 'Claw' guy and Mariah?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"It's because you never think outside the box."
"Wh-What?! But I have a move for anything."
"Yes, a move. The moment someone dodges that, you are fucked. From your story, that Claw bitch could have gutted you like a fish, because, surprise surprise, you only use three moves."
"I don't just use three moves!"
"Three techniques then, is that better? You punch, you whip, you shoot. It's not bad, but you are too focused on those three techniques."
"W-Well…" She paused, "Alright, but even if I could see the issue, what am I supposed to do to fix it?"
Bakugo sighed in exasperation, like she was a brat that wasn't listening, "Come with me Freckles. And quick, before I change my mind." He turned around and started walking, and after a moment Itsumi followed him, closing the door behind – or well, trying, but the lock had been busted. She hoped Zuzu-9 had seen that it wasn't her fault.
'I really hope Izuku is doing better.' She thought, following Bakugo. The man accompanied her down the corridor to the elevator, and entered, hands in his pocket. "Second floor underground." He snarled, and the elevator started moving on its own. Itsumi made her best effort to think at why they were going at the mechanics floor, but the elevator dinged before she could come up with an idea.
Bakugo just walked through, heading to one of the tables, basically kicking away the robots nearby. "Alright, so this is my workshop, got it Freckles. Don't touch anything, most of this stuff is made to explode."
"Explode?"
"'Explode?'" Bakugo parroted mockingly, "Yes, kaboom, boom, big firey death if you are lucky."
"No, I mean, why are you building explosives?!"
"Men need their hobbies, Freckles. Mine is seeing how much napalm I can stick in an incendiary grenade. Yours apparently is moping about lacking flexibility."
"I… What?"
"I heard you, you know? You can do three things, and you decided that was enough, and all of them are one application of your Quirk."
"It's at least two."
"You control the liquid so long as it is in contact with you or with something in contact with you, that's fine. It explodes the moment it touches air, that's fine. But why is that all you do with it?" He pulled up a weird machine, and ended her a glass container. "Fill this one for me, please, and don't let it go until I tell you to."
She hesitantly nodded, filling it to the brim before placing it in the machine to Bakugo's instraction. "What's this for?"
"Some testing. Are you sure air is what makes it react?"
"Positive." She replied, "Or well, any fluid. Water does the trick too."
"Stuff you should mention before, to be honest. How are you even alive?" He asked, as the machine started pumping, Itsumi finally realizing it was creating a vacuum in the vase, to stop the reaction from starting.
"Uhm, the liquid is usually contained in an… organ of some kind, that when filled stops producing more. It connects to my esophagus so when I use it it just comes out from there, and we assume the organ is a constant vacuum when not filled."
"That is so fucking disgusting, no offense meant, I just mean from a human perspective. I see why you need Guide, otherwise you'd just explode every time your bomb puke leaves that organ." The machine ringed before she could reply, "Ok you can let go." He said, as he took the vase filled with explosive liquid. It was translucent, like Itsumi was used to see it. She felt instinctively on edge, but Bakugo clearly knew how to handle explosives despite his brash personality. "Alright, I will do a couple tests to see how strong of an explosive we are working with?"
"And then?"
"Grenades, for starter. It shouldn't be hard to build one. Then maybe something to launch paintball pellets filled with it? Just shoot one and watch it open on impact and explode. Yes, that seems nice. Some good, fine dakka, you get me?" He turned around to the other side of the lab, "Ohi, Tin Can, are you there?!"
"Stop screaming in the lab!" Another, feminine voice answered, probably the Mei.
"Ohi Bloody Eyes, where the fuck is the Tin Can?!"
"Power Suit went back home." Hatsume Himiko explained, emerging from the other side of the lab, among machines of every type, "And you know you are technically banned from this lab."
"I'm banned from testing napalm, dynamite, or any other explosives I know." He showed her the vacuum-sealed container, "I'm not banned from working with extradimensional bomb puke."
"Stop calling it that…" Itsumi grumbled, but the man shushed her before returning to Himiko. The girl with Hatsume's hair and Himiko's face just sighed.
"You know what, fine, but if you make something explode outside of your control, I will add that to the list of stuff you are not allowed to touch, keep it in mind."
"Fine, fine. So, when is Tin Can going to come back?"
"A few days. He has to check on his family, but Mel wants him around to finish the portal asap. Until then, I'm going to pull all-nighters to keep the schedule up."
"Damn. You'll have to wait, Freckles, at least for the more fancy stuff. Until then, start thinking about what I said on your own. You can do something good with your power." He grinned, staring at the bottle, "You can do so much with it…"
"Should we leave you alone?" Hatsume teased with a grin, and the Bakugo in response put the vacuum container in a container next to his worktable, grumbling as he did so.
Itsumi really wished she knew what to say to all this.
-x-
Izuku looked up at the building. A large western-style villa, not amazingly luxurious but enough to make clear the owner was wealthy, stood in the outskirts of Nagoya, close to a station. It was clearly built so that someone could easily leave from it to go to Tokyo, Shizuoka or Musutafu just by taking a train. Which made sense if the other Izuku, the Emerald Knight, worked in Musutafu. He had to wonder why he would take the train at all, though, if he lived in a place like this and certainly had a driver. He approached the gate and walked up to the intercom.
"What are you waiting for?" Izzzuku asked, when he noticed him hesitating, "Buzz already."
Deku took a deep breath, and finally rang the bell. After a moment, a voice replied. "Hello?" It asked. An older man, it seemed, and Izuku took a deep breath. Of course the Emerald Knight wouldn't answer at his own doorbell.
"Hello? My name is Deku. I'm looking for Izuku Midoriya."
"Sir, we can't just let anyone see mister Midoriya. He is very busy, you see, so he can only receive you by appointment." The answer was stern and to the point, leaving Izuku to awkwardly question what to do. But before he could speak, Izzzuku emerged from his head, looking into the intercom's camera.
"Look man, we have a reason to be here, and it's pretty complicated to explain from here. Can't we at least come in?"
"A hologram. Quite the advanced technology, sir. Are you perhaps a nanomachine user?" The man asked, ignoring Izzzuku completely, clearly only speaking to Izuku.
"I…"
"Yes! Yes he is! We need Izuku's help because I'm clearly malfunctioning. See?" Izzzuku replied interrupting the teenager, suddenly appearing all garbled, like he was buzzing in and out of existence, "Pleeeeease, it really sucks to be like this."
"I take the hologram also has an AI of it's won. Fascinating. Excuse me for a moment sir." The intercom clacked, clearly signaling the fact the man was leaving.
"What are you doing?!" Izuku hissed the moment he was sure there was no one listening, "I'm not a nanomachine user!"
"I know. Just explain it to them after they let us in."
"If they let us in."
"Why…"
"That's incredibly interesting." A new, familiar voice said from the intercom, "How long have you had an Implant?"
"Uhm… Two d-days." Izuku stammered, receiving a wink of approval from Izzzuku.
"And did you pay for it?"
"N-No, it was… very sudden." Izuku decided to reply. Saying he had paid someone would have started more questions.
"Very well. I wish to see it with my own eyes, so you will be let in. Do know that if you try anything my nanomachines are capable of absorbing your own." The other Izuku's clarification made Deku stop a moment while he was turning to look at the gate.
"Uhm… do they have a name?" He asked. 'Please no, please no, please no…'
"Oh, of course. My nanomachine Implant is called All for One. I doubt you would have heard about it, it's a prototype."
Izuku stared at the intercom, then at the open gate.
He could turn around and leave, he realized. He could just walk away. But, he needed help, and he knew there were good All for One users, Mariah had proved that. He took a deep breath and walked past the gate and towards the villa.
(xx)
Sorry for the longer pause this time, I had to deal with some stuff irl and decided to work on some lighter ideas. I wrote a one-shot called My Hero of Destruction that is a crossover between MHA and Magu-Chan: God of Destruction, if you are curious. Alas, I could only post it on Ao3 since 's handling of adding new fandoms is nebulous at best.
Staying more on this chapter, this is very much a setup section. Itsumi is exploring the League, now with added bombmaster Bakugo, and Izuku is experiencing the first universe where he isn't in danger. Yet. I'm sorry for people that want action, but I assure you there is going to be in spades soon. Still, a huge focus on this world is to introduce various worlds and characters, so I wouldn't like to not explore them a bit.
Chapter next week should come out regularly, don't worry.