Izuku sat in class, head hunched down, hoping no one would notice he was doodling designs for his costume instead of taking notes on the trigonometry problems he had studied weeks ago. He could feel Bakugo's presence in front of him the way one felt the palpable tension given off by a ticking bomb, one set to explode the moment Izuku made the slightest twitch. All in all, it was another boring day in the life of Midoriya Izuku, and in that moment, he wished for something, anything, to shake up his boring life.

The door slammed open, stopping the teacher mid-lecture. Hatsume Mei, with disheveled hair, grease stains all over her clothes and skin, and enough bags under her eyes to supply a supermarket stormed up to Izuku's desk, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him out of school.

"H-hey!" Izuku tried to wriggle out of her grasp, but his frail constitution proved no match to the grease monkey's iron grip, forged in countless hours of tightening bolts and hammering parts into shape. "I need to be in class!"

"And I need a test subject for my latest baby. Come on, you're going to love this one!"

As they walked, Izuku caught a whiff of Mei's body odor. Scrunching his nose, Izuku asked, "When was the last time you took a shower."

"Wednesday!"

"Mei, today's Tuesday."

"So it's been a day or two. Who cares? Science waits for no one!"

In a seedier part of town, Mei led Izuku to an abandoned parking lot. Cracks riddled the pavement, and weeds sprung up in tufts. A lone car in the parking lot sat underneath a thick tarp.

"Uh, Mei, why are we here?"

"For this!" Mei walked up to the covered car and swept the tarp off in a grandiose motion. Izuku eyed the vehicle with confusion.

"You built a DeLorean?"

Mei flicked him in the forehead. "No, silly! I built a time machine!"

"You built a DeLorean out of a time machine?"

Mei huffed in frustration. "Hey, you said that backwards and you know it! Now, get in! I think we'll start with a short hop back in time."

"What, five minutes?"

"Twenty-five years."

"Twenty-five years!" Izuku shouted back. "No way, that's too dangerous, what if we damage the space-time continuum somehow, like in the movie, what if my own mom fell in love with me, oh god, I'm feeling sick just thinking about it…"

Mei grinned knowingly at him and said, "We could go see All Might while he's at U.A."

The DeLorean's passenger door flew open, and Izuku bolted into the seat, pen and journal already prepped for an autograph. "Come on, what are we waiting for, let's go!"

As Mei buckled into the passenger seat, Izuku looked around the DeLorean's interior. He didn't know the movie enough to verify that the panels, wires, and digital clocks were perfect replicas, but he recognized the luminous three-pointed device sitting just behind the front seats.

"Oh wow, is that the flux capacitor?"

"Yep!" Mei gave the boxy device a tap. "It wouldn't be a time machine without one!"

As Mei suppressed a yawn, Izuku noticed once again the bags under her eyes. "Uh, Mei, when was the last time you slept?"

"I caught a quick power nap before I picked you up, I'm fine. Plus, I have coffee-chan." She chugged a giant thermos stored between her cleavage, nearly making Izuku's brain overheat in the process. "Now, buckle up, Marty, let's make history!"

"Uh, maybe I should drive?"

Before Izuku could react, Mei floored the gas, spinning the DeLorean's tires as it lurched through the parking lot. Quickly reaching the other end, Mei slammed the brakes, and Izuku's head came within inches of crashing through the time displays.

"Huh, we don't have enough space."

"To time travel?"

"To reach eighty-eight miles an hour, of course."

"Wait, does the car need 1.21 Jigowatts too?"

"Of course not, Jigowatts isn't a real unit. It does need 1.21 Gigawatts, so close enough, I guess."

"Alright, so we just need to find somewhere else to drive this, right? Maybe we could do it on the highway when it's not busy?"

Mei hummed in concentration. "Why wait when there's some perfectly good road over there?"

"Over… where?"

Mei turned the vehicle towards the city streets. Izuku turned pale as death as he realized what Mei was about to do.

"No, Mei, stop. Turn off the ignition, get some sleep, and we can do this later, alright?"

"Sleep is for the weak!"

"Mei, wait!" Rubber smoked and cylinders roared as Mei gunned the DeLorean out of the parking lot. The streets were thankfully deserted for the first few blocks, but Mei quickly steered the DeLorean towards the big, busy streets near the city's heart.

Praying to All Might and any other worship figure for his safety, Izuku buckled in and kept a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. As the speedometer climbed towards the magic number, sirens blared around them, and police cars poured in from the side streets. Up ahead, a blockade closed off the street.

"Mei, we better stop, you're taking this too far!"

"No way! We're so close, I can taste it!"

Mei jumped the meridian and landed on the other side of the street, smack dab in the middle of oncoming traffic. Cars honked and swerved aside as the DeLorean barreled towards them.

Up ahead, a truck made a wide turn, taking up the entire road. Izuku reached for the steering wheel and said, "Mei, we're not going to make it!"

"We're so close! Just a couple mph more!"

Eighty-five. The truck horn blared, and the driver tried to make a sharper turn. Police officers surrounded the site, watching helplessly as the two vehicles careened towards each other.

Eighty-six. Izuku stared out the window, reflecting that it might be the last thing he ever saw. His eyes met the sunken blue gaze of a gaunt, yellow-haired man. His expression was the same Izuku saw in the mirror every morning, helpless, defeated, desiring nothing more than to help and lacking the strength. Or maybe Izuku was projecting too much.

Eighty-seven. The front bumper of the DeLorean made a horrendous crunch as it slammed into the truck. Izuku jerked forward, stopped just short of taking a face full of glass shards and circuitry by his seat belt. He felt a gentle tug on his whole body, as if he were being stretched like taffy in every direction, then, with a gentle pop in his ears, the scenery around him changed.

The first thing he noticed was an endless expanse of water, stretching from horizon to horizon. Waves glittered in the sunlight like diamonds scattered on a sapphire floor. Not a single cloud marred the sky, making it difficult to tell where sea ended and sky began.

Vertigo seized him, and that's when he noticed how high up he was. The DeLorean pitched forward as it fell through the air. Wind whistled through the cracked windshield.

Panicking, Izuku turned to Mei, who sported a nasty gash on her head from slamming into the driver's wheel. Nervously, Izuku shook her shoulder and said, "Mei, wake up! We're falling, and we're about to die! Please tell me you made this thing fly too, like in the second one!"

Mei drowsily brushed him off. With a slurred voice, she said, "Not now, I'm almost done rewiring the circuit board in my rocket boots."

"Mei, your time machine's in danger."

Mei snapped to attention. "Not on my watch!" She blinked and looked down. "Oh wow, not sure how the spatial coordinates got messed up."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Can't this thing fly?"

Mei shrugged. "Figured I'd get the time machine done first and worry about the flying bit later. Had to do it the classic way the first time."

Izuku glanced out the window, wondering if his odds of survival would improve if he jumped. Looking down, he saw a brown spec that drew steadily closer. On the main sail, he could see a giant skull and cross bones wearing a straw hat, of all things.

"Is that a pirate ship?" Izuku asked, feeling his panic rise to new heights. "How far back did you send us?"

"Pirates?" Mei hugged the dented steering wheel. "They're not going to steal my baby, are they?"

"Priorities, Mei! We're about to crash right on top of them!"

Mei shrugged. "Nothing I can really do about it. I mean, maybe opening a door would help?"

Before they could try, a red blur shot up from the ship and crashed into the windshield. Flattened against the broken glass, a round, rubbery face with a straw hat gawked at them. "Hi!" the stranger shouted. "How are you guys flying?"

Before either of them could think to answer, the speedometer reached eighty-eight miles an hour. A white glow surrounded the vehicle, and the scenery around them faded into static. This time, Izuku felt as though he were being sucked through the world's skinniest straw and spat out the other side.

Praying they had made it back somehow, Izuku was disappointed to find the same ocean underneath them. The ship, however, looked much bigger and flew a different Jolly Roger on red sails. On the deck, pirates snapped to attention. One man stepped forward, tall and imposing in a red coat, clearly the captain of the crew.

As the DeLorean plummeted towards the ship, Izuku braced himself for impact. The captain's arms blackened and shimmered like metal as he crouched, arms outstretched. With a grunt, the captain caught the DeLorean, slid back a few feet, and gently set the vehicle on the deck.

"What do you think it is, Captain?" one pirate asked, brandishing a sword. "Something whipped up by the marines?"

The captain peered inside. Mei struggled with her seat belt buckle, which had bent in the crash, and the rubber-faced stranger had his head buried in the flux capacitor. Izuku stared back, petrified like a rabbit staring down a snake.

With a chuckle, the captain said, "Not sure why the marines would send a couple of beansprouts without their tighty-whities to us. More likely, these kids bit off more than they could chew.

As much as Izuku wanted to huddle down underneath the dashboard and pray that the pirates forgot about him, the thought that they'd push them overboard scared him into leaving the relative safety of the vehicle. Shaking as he stepped and bowing profusely to the captain, Izuku stammered, "I-I'm Midoriya Izuku. We, uh, we're from the future."

"Really?" the captain asked. "How far?"

Izuku did some quick history checking. As impressive as the ship looked, it clearly predated the industrial revolution centuries back.

"At least four-hundred years. We were only supposed to go back twenty-five, but we got in a car crash, and wound up a mile in the air somehow, and I have no idea how we're supposed to go back-"

The captain gave Izuku a hearty clap on the back, which scared ten years off his life. "Breathe, lad! You're gonna pass out at this rate. So, four-hundred years, eh? Tell me, do you have any idea who I am?"

Izuku looked closely at the man's face. Eighteenth century pirates weren't exactly his forte, and the curly black mustache, though distinctive, only made him think of Blackbeard. Short an actual beard, the captain didn't fit that profile.

"Sorry, I have no idea, uh, sir," Izuku said. "They don't teach much about pirates in school."

"Really? You sure the name Gold Roger doesn't ring a bell?"

At that name, the stranger wrenched his head out of the flux capacitor. "Gold Roger?" He gawked at the captain. "You died, didn't you? How are you still alive?"

Gold Roger bellowed with laughter. "At least one of you squirts recognizes me! What's your name, son?"

"Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be king of the pirates!"

The crewmen snickered, but Gold Roger looked him over and nodded. "A bold claim, kid. I like you." Turning towards Mei, who had wriggled out of the car and popped the hood, Gold Roger asked, "What about you, little lady? Care to introduce yourself?"

Mei rooted around the engine, muttering to herself about patching a coolant leak. Then she wriggled under the hood of the car and groaned. "My poor baby! Axle's bent, but I think I can hammer that back into shape." Springing up, she got well within the captain's personal space and asked, "Do you have a map?"

The crew's navigator snorted. "Lady, ain't nobody got a map of the Grand Line."

"Any map will do."

The navigator thought for a moment. "Hang on, I should still have those East Blue charts somewhere." A minute later, the navigator returned with a bundle of parchment. Mei rolled it out on the deck and said, "Yep, just as I thought."

Izuku looked at it and frowned. "I haven't even heard of any of these places."

"Well, of course not. We're in a different universe now."

Izuku's brain took a few seconds to reboot itself. "Wait, what? How?"

"First, we ran into that truck. Truck-kun's notorious for sending people to fantasy worlds."

Izuku groaned to himself. "So, we didn't go back in time. We're in another universe."

"No, we went back in time too." Poking Luffy, Mei said, "Right after he hit the windshield, the speedometer hit eighty-eight. Speaking of, Lucy, or whatever it was, do you know how long ago that guy died?"

Luffy hemmed and hawed as he thought over the answer. Then he shrugged and said, "Dunno. I don't remember stuff like that."

"I died before you were born, right kiddo?" Gold Roger asked.

"Yep! I climbed up that guillotine in Loguetown. Almost got my head chopped off on it too!"

Gold Roger looked distraught. "Those stinking marines caught me? Ah well, I guess it's better than wasting away. But yeah, you said you were supposed to go back twenty-five years, right? That means Luffy here is from the future, while you two came from somewhere else entirely. Did I get that right?"

"Uh, yeah," Izuku said, "I think so."

"Good! Now, do you have a way back home?"

Izuku looked back and nearly wept at the sight of the shattered flux capacitor. "Mei, please tell me you can fix that."

"What, the capacitor? That's just for show. The real stuff's in the trunk."

Izuku heaved a sigh of relief. "Well, that's a relief. Is the eighty-eight-mile thing also fake?"

"Well, I programmed the time machine to start when we reached that speed. I could remove that check, but I'd need a computer to do it."

Izuku looked around at the pirate ship and asked, "None of you know what a computer is, do you?"

Gold Roger shrugged. "I think you're out of luck kid."

"It shouldn't matter," Mei said. "The engine's still fine, just needs a few tweaks."

Izuku's mood brightened, until he took in the scenery. "Mei, how are we going to get the car up to speed?"

Mei thought for a moment. "You don't have paved roads, do you?"

"Paved with what, gold?" a pirate asked. "A few of the big cities have stone."

Mei shook her head. "Suspension's shot, and the time machine's too delicate."

Luffy pointed up and asked, "Why don't you just fly? Isn't that how you guys did it?"

Izuku looked at Luffy as though he had grown a second head. "We weren't flying, we were falling!"

"No wait, he has a point," Mei said. "First, we got hit by that truck before we got up to speed, but when we fell, we made it to eighty-eight and went back in time. All we need to do is get somewhere high up and fall!"

Izuku sighed with exasperation and said, "That sounds great, but how are we supposed to get high enough to fall that fast?"

Gold Roger snapped his fingers. "I have the perfect idea. You could come with us!"

One of his pirates shook their head. "Captain, we don't even know if we'll make it up there."

"Up where?" Mei asked.

"Into the clouds." Gold Roger pointed north, towards a thick sheet of clouds just peeking out over the horizon. "I can hear something calling me, high up in the sky, and I know someone had to put it up there somehow."

"Uh," Izuku asked nervously, "Where exactly are you going?"

"Skypiea," the navigator said. "The fabled city in the clouds. Supposedly, the clouds are thick enough to sail on, but you'd have to fly to get up there."

"And how are you planning to fly?"

Gold Roger grinned and pointed at a roiling froth of water in the middle of the ocean. "The knock-up stream, of course."

This submission was a part of an Emerald Library writing competition starting on June 30, 2021. To participate or vote in the competition, you're welcome to join the discord link we have on the profile.

Written by Bardothren.