Izuku and the rest of class 1-A were waiting for a combat exercise to start when suddenly the screen in front of them glitched for a moment, Nezu's face showing up on the screen.
Except it wasn't exactly Nezu. Instead of the white fur and black eyes that most of 1-A had gotten used to, pitch-black fur and milky white eyes looked down at them.
"Ah! Wonderful! It worked! N-Prime, are you there?"
The screen glitched again, and Izuku was shocked to see their own Nezu smiling widely, teeth bared. "Yes, N-0235, I am here. Has your timeline's framework finally synced up to ours?"
The black Nezu on-screen grinned, nodding. "Yes, it has! To the millisecond. Truly, the stabilisation array you helped design is marvellous!"
Their Nezu chuckled, waving a paw at the other Nezu. "Aw shucks, you flatter me so. Why don't you open the portal and we can begin today's exercise!"
The black Nezu nodded and he disappeared from the screen, leaving the entirety of 1-A, as well as Aizawa and Yagi, speechless. After a moment, Kaminari was the first to speak. "Ok, either I shorted myself out again, or I had a stroke. Please tell me everyone else saw that."
As everyone nodded silently, still a bit shocked, there was a flash of bright green light in front of them, as a green circle of energy appeared. He saw Mr Aizawa instantly drop into a combat stance as the man jumped in front of the class.
"No need for that, Aizawa! I can assure you that these are not villains!"
Nezu appeared on the field next to the class through another, smaller green circle. He hopped up onto Aizawa's shoulder, snuggling into the man's scarf as he waved at 1-A. "These are your guest classmates for the day!"
As soon as Nezu finished speaking, people started appearing out of what was apparently a portal. Izuku hummed as he looked over them. Were they… themselves? Wait, no, the colours were all wrong.
Nezu spoke up again. "Please welcome UA Hero Course 1-A from Universe 0235! Today, you will be sparring against your counterpart from this reality!"
Izuku and the rest of the class stared at Nezu until finally, it was Kachaan that broke the silence.
"Ex-fucking-Scuse me?!"
Izuku sat across from… himself? It was weird seeing someone who was you but apparently had a 'flipped' quirk.
He still couldn't figure out how Super-strength and Black tentacle thingy's were the 'flipped' to his own 'Firebending', but he trusted Nezu enough to roll with it anyway.
Sticking his hand out for the other him to shake, he grinned. "Hey there, the names Izuku Midoriya. Guess you already knew that, though!"
The other him reached out slowly to shook his hand, and Izuku let out a yelp as black tentacles wrapped around the hands, giving a small squeeze before retracting into the other his arm.
As Izuku slowly looked up from his hand to the other him, he started chuckling, quickly devolving into laughing his ass off, while the other him proceeded to stick his hand under his armpit and blush up a storm.
"Oh my- oh my god. Dude. That was hilarious. Does it do that often? I'm interested to know how your strength and tentacles and stuff is the 'flipped version of my Quirk."
The other him froze, his mouth opening and shutting as his fingers twitched. Izuku scrunched up his eyebrows. "You... don't have to tell me if you don't want to? You seem pretty shaken up about it."
The other him relaxed a little, smiling. "Sorry, I haven't… had my quirk for very long, it's still weird to have that question directed towards me."
Izuku raised his eyebrow, his eyes widening. "Wait, what do you mean by that? How long ago did you manifest it? Wait! Did you get it from… ya know… All for One?"
He must have said something wrong because the second his mentor's name left his mouth, the other him had him pinned to the ground, body sparking with green lighting, and had the black tentacles wrapped around his hands.
"How do you know that name."
Izuku struggled against him a little, before huffing. He took a deep breath and released it, sending fire blasting out of his mouth, pushing the both of them up from the ground. Once he was standing again, he rolled his shoulders.
He shook his head, wondering for a moment if that absolutely feral look on the other his face was just his imagination, but as he turned back to look at the other him, he could see the focus and willingness to throw down in his eyes.
"Jesus, man. Chill out. All for One, the #1 hero? Can give and take Quirks? Big buff dude with a V made out of his hair? Look, your version is right over there. Well, he's pretty thin and sickly, but the hair is unmistakable."
The other him looked away for a moment and yelled out. "Uh… All Might! I think we need to talk with him… me for a moment! Could you please come here?"
Izuku looked back and forth between the other him and the alternate All for One.
Why did he feel like he just stumbled onto another life-changing secret?
"So… you make things heavier?"
Ochako smiled at the alternate her, clapping her hands together. "Yep! As soon as I make skin contact with anything, I can make it feel up to 10x the normal amount of gravity! But I usually stick to around 1.5x to 2x on people, higher than that is bad for the body."
The other her grinned back. "That's really cool! I have to get all 5 of these pads on my fingers onto something, and I can remove the effect of gravity from things! I can even use it on myself to float around and stuff!"
Ochako's eyes widened as she hopped up and down. "Oh my god, you can fly?! That's amazing! Can I try? Wait, let me go grab Izu, he'll love this!"
She turned to see that Izu was currently talking to the alternate Izuku and a tall, sickly man who seemed absurdly familiar to Ochako. She waved over to him, and he smiled at her, but shook his head, motioning to the two people in front of him.
Pouting, Ochako turned back to her other-self. "Damn, seems like Izu's stuck with his double! Shame, he'd love to see your Quirk in action."
The other her smiled as well, blushing a little. "I, uh, guess Deku and All Might are talking about something important with him? They do that a lot. I don't think they know that we noticed he's All Might's favourite. Guess it makes sense with his Quirk but…"
Ochako nodded. "I'm assuming All Might is important to you? We have the same thing, sorta. All for One works at our school and seems has taken a liking to Izu, but he couldn't come today."
She noticed that the other her flinched, but brushed it off. "Anyway, since we have some time before we gotta fight, let's compare notes, friendship style! Who's your best friend? Mines Izu, but like, that's pretty obvious"
The other her blushed, scratching at the back of her head and waving her other hand around. "Uh, I'd say that Deku's my best friend as well, but Iida is a close second. Wait, why would it be obvious that Deku is yours?"
Ochako grinned, a small blush forming on her face as her index fingers tapped together.. "Well, uh… I mean, you know... they say that your boyfriend should be your best friend as well, right?"
Shoto glanced over to the pair of Ochakos as the one from this universe squealed, suddenly floating into the air.
He and his other self were sitting cross-legged across from each other, and they had been silent so far. But even without words, it was fairly obvious how the other Shoto's quirk varied from his.
While his left side was his father's ice, the Shoto from this reality had his fire on the left. It felt odd, looking at him, as it was like a mirror image of himself, except for the scar, which was on the same side for both of them.
Checking his watch, Shoto saw that there were still 10 minutes left before the fights began. He wasn't the most sociable person, he knew, but did they really need 15 minutes to get to know someone who was essentially themselves?
Hmm, Izuku was chatting with himself, as was Iida, Ochako, and even Bakugou seemed to be interacting with their other selves. Should he…
"Shoto."
The other him looked up, his head quirking to the side. "Yes, Shoto?"
Shoto hummed.
"I believe that we should make attempts to socialize. Would you like me to show you some humorous short videos about cats? I'm quite fond of them myself."
He noticed something glow in his counterparts eyes at that, a soft smile appearing on the other him's face.
"Yes, please. I have a few saved myself that I think you might like."
Toshinori sighed as he and Izuku listened to the boy's alternate self.
Placing his hand on Izuku shoulder, he looked over to the boy who was so much like his successor, well, who technically was his successor. In a way… god this was confusing. "I'm sorry, young Midoirya, but All for One is… a threat in this world. I hope you can understand why Izuku here would react the way he did."
And then he saw something he never had before. The other Midoriya looked in between the two of them, grinned, and then shrugged. "Eh, it's fine. Surprised me with the tentacle stuff, but honestly, it wasn't too dissimilar to this one villain I fought during my work-study."
How weird it was, to see his successors face make such a nonchalant expression.
"I'm really really really sorry, I just… I heard the name and I panicked and I'm sorry for using Blackwhip on you and I-"
The other Midoriya held his hand up and placed it over Izuku's mouth, silencing his successor. "Dude, it's OK. you didn't hurt me, so we're cool. That alright with you?"
Toshinori ruffled Izuku's hair after the boy nodded, smiling. "Alright, you too. You've only got around a minute now before the sparring starts. You both ready?"
And when both of the boys turned to him at the same time, with the same determined smile on their face, and clenched their fists in front of them at the same time, Toshinori couldn't stop himself from laughing his ass off.
Tsuyu looked down at the alternate version of herself, focusing on the little bit of tongue sticking out of her mouth.
"Ssso. You're a frog?"
"Yes, and you're a… snake? Naga? My friend Habuko would love to see you, I reckon, ribbit."
Tsuyu hummed, tapping her finger to her chin. While her counterpart was a frog-human mutant, she was a snake-human mutant. Instead of legs, she had a long snake tail, and the fangs in her mouth were capable of releasing a wide variety of toxins.
"I think calling me a Naga ssshould sssufice. And likewise. It ssseems that ourselves and Habuko ssseem to have ssswapped"
The other Tsuyu looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "Did you just choose words that specifically started with S so you could hiss?"
She shot the small Tsuyu a glare. "Do you have to ribbit at the end of every sssentence?"
"Touche, ribbit."
"Ssso what's being a frog-girl like? Can you taste thingsss with your tongue out? I can use my tongue to track ssscents, kinda. Ssstill working on that."
Frog Tsuyu shook her head. "Nope, ribbit. When my tongue is being extended, I can kinda choose whether or not I taste things. But it can still feel pain and stuff when it is out. Got cut by someone once and I spoke with a lisp for a few days."
Tsuyu nodded, frowning. "Yea, I got a giant gash down my tail during our summer camp, and it made moving absurdly difficult.
Frog Tsuyu tapped her finger to her chin, seemingly thinking for a moment. "Himiko Toga?"
Letting out a sigh, Tsuyu nodded. "Himiko Toga."
"She's crazy, ribbit."
"Preasing to the choir, sssister."
"Ah! Your Quirk is like my older brothers!"
"Ah! Your Quirk is like my older brothers!"
Tenya froze as he and his alternate self said that exact same thing, in complete sync, their hands having chopped down right next to each other. Smothering a chuckle, he grabbed the other hand and shook it firmly.
Up, down, squeeze, release. The perfect introductory handshake for any situation.
His smile grew as his alternate self went through the exact same motions, albeit the squeeze was a little weaker. Having engines in your arms did make his baseline arm strength higher than most others could achieve.
"It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to spar with you! If our experiences are similar, even accounting for our differences in Quirks, then it would almost be like sparring against Tensei when he was in school!"
Tenya nodded. "You are absolutely correct! While it is unfortunate that Tensei isn't able to spar nowadays, I am glad to have this opportunity as well!"
His alternate self was about to say something when they both heard a group of people to their side. Both of them turned in sync to see both Mina's on both of the Denki's shoulders, looking as if they were in the middle of a piggyback fight.
All four of them groaned at the same time, fear in their eyes as they watched the Iida's interact. "Oh god, there's two of them!"
"Ashido! Kaminari! What in gods name do you think you're doing?!"
"Ashido! Kaminari! What in gods name do you think you're doing?!"
Aizawa had had enough.
Emi and Ryuko kept telling him to practise more self-care when he came home from patrol stupidly late at night, and stopping the clock early was his way of doing so. "Alright! Everyone back to the viewing area, we're starting the spars!"
He moved up to the control table and turned the cameras on for the areas they were going to be sparring in. Once everyone had arrived back, he spoke. "Alright, sit on either side of me, my realities kids on my left, the others on the right."
He sighed when Denki stuck his hand in the air. "How will we know if people are on the right side?"
Aizawa glared at the boy. "Did you walk through a portal at all today?"
Denki shook his head. "No sir."
"Then sit on my left."
Shaking his head, Aizawa picked up his list of students. "We will be going down the list based on your student number. That means first up will be Aoyama. Both of you head to Combat Area A, now."
As he watched the two Aoyama's wink at each other, sparkling, Aizawa sighed.
God, this was going to be a long day, wasn't it?