Pillars of Hope
Chapter 1
I'm short again!
Disclaimer: Do not own anything.
Time travel stories have always been a mainstay of fanfiction. We all love stories about heroes. Stories about time-travel are especially great because we get to read how our beloved heroes go back in time and fixed their mistakes. Naturally they cause waves and bump into obstacles that they haven't met before, but this isn't that kind of story. This is a story about a side character, who inadvertently goes back in time, and how he chooses to deal with the new set of cards he has been dealt.
Start
It was the mold, Kaminari decided with a firm nod. The roof he was staring at since the moment he woke up on this soft, comfy, nice smelling bed that most assuredly did not belong to him, was significantly cleaner than the one he was used to looking at.
He wasn't in one of the Facility's beds or hospice either, because he knew, from personal experience, that the beds there were far too stiffer and uncomfortable than the one he was currently on. It also didn't have the irritatingly stringent smell that the hospital usually did. In fact, the nice smell was starting to feel kind of familiar, and he wasn't sure why.
Kaminari's dull yellow eyes swiveled over to the bed post briefly before turning back to the ceiling. Alright, fine, he wasn't at his Mentor's place either. Usually, his utility belt would've been hanging there if he had gone to sleep somewhere safe and he knew it wasn't around his waist.
Was he kidnapped? Kaminari nixed that thought immediately, because if there was someone out there kidnapping heroes, dressing them up in nice fluffy pyjamas and putting them nice comfy beds for a good night's rest instead of doing the usual kidnapper routine, then he figured that the guy just deserved a pat on the back.
And maybe a medal.
He knew more than a few cranky bastards who desperately needed a nap, his old high school teacher being one of them.
So…. That just made finding out where he was right now significantly more important, because the last thing he remembered, was that infernal experiment with Flashback and his mentor at the Facility. Supposedly, and it wasn't like he knew much about the plan, the mathematics or the physics involved; Flashback had managed to improve her Quirk a step further. He vaguely remembered that her Quirk only being effective on biological matter she touched in the beginning. Now, it let her bring someone with her as she reversed Reality itself while maintaining her own status and anything she touched, essentially going back in time like a living time machine.
So if he was lying here and relaxing, chances were good something had gone tits up during the Operation, which meant there were people who might need help. He took another curious look at the ceiling while absentmindedly doing a full body check by running his Quirk through his entire body for anything that might hinder him from doing his job and scrutinizing the feedback he was receiving.
Kaminari frowned again, harder this time. That was odd. His Quirk was on the fritz or something.
It wasn't making… any…. sense…... Oh.
Dull yellow eyes blinked and looked down as he finally understood what the hell his Quirk was trying to tell him.
His Abs.
They were missing.
What the fuck?
It wasn't just his abs.
His goddamn muscles were gone.
What the hell?
His HEIGHT.
What the actual fuck?
The blond youth with a black streak running down his hair like a lightning bolt shot out of bed and jumped in front of the nearest mirror.
Incredulous yellow eyes stared back at the blond as the blond gaped at his reflection, "I'm short again!" The blond boy squawked at the great indignity.
He had gone from lean, flexible, tough as hell and nearly 2-meter-tall Hero to a 1.5-ish-meter folds-like-a-wet-towel little sap!
Kaminari was well aware that his priorities were a little skewed at the moment. He was a little vain, and he would happily admit that to anyone that asked, but he worked hard to look good in a skintight suit alright? Whip cord lean and bulky, but not as bulky as those fucking muscle mountain braggarts (Sorry, All Might) while maintaining enough muscle power to bench press a goddamn car!
Besides, how did someone lose half a goddamn meter in height overnight?!
Oh right. Time travel.
The Electrification Quirk user frustratedly ran his hands through his hair and groaned as his brain raced like a horse hopped up drugs, "Why me?"
Hell, he hadn't even been in the same damn room as Flashback, much less been the target of her Quirk.
He was just the goddamn power bank because it took a shitton of power to fuel that particular aspect of her quirk and he had tons to spare. Yeah, fine, he had still been on the other of several segments of cables connecting Flashback and him, but each segment had been proofed in various ways and materials to ensure that he could still supply power to her but be unaffected by the contact between them, AND he had been sitting nice and safe in another room all the way in another division of the Facility!
Fuck. So all that trouble had been completely pointless?
Wait. Did that mean his Mentor and Flashback were around here too?
His eyes frantically roved around the room for a bit before they landed on a battered looking alarm clock.
It was still early, just 4 pm.
Wait.
Fuck.
What time did school end again? Was 4 pm early or late?
Was it even a school day?
Fuck. What year was it even?
Huh.
He knew he should've listened a little bit more to those orientation-slash-contingency sessions with Midnight. They had been trying to make his Mentor memorize all sorts of info in this time period and get him ready for the Operation just in case he wasn't able to make it back, but he being him, had basically just slacked in a corner. The blond knew his limits with his brain. He could think a little faster than normal people thanks to his Quirk, but that didn't really make him that much smarter.
Thanks to that, he sometimes came across as impulsive, but that was mostly because he had already considered all the angles in the time it had taken him to blink, but that really didn't help with memorizing or anything. And it was precisely because of how fast he thought, that he couldn't bear to just sit down and do something so boring.
Kaminari regretfully banged his head on the wall with a loud thud and was promptly with a familiar feminine screech, "DENKI! What are you doing up there?!"
"Sorry mom!" Kaminari yelled back almost on reflex before he glanced back at his reflection.
Fuck.
His mom.
When was the last time he had seen her again? He couldn't remember.
He was getting a headache trying to keep a handle on all the variables.
"Calm down, Denki." He slapped his cheeks and muttered some more, "Get it together you fucking electric hamster. You can do this. Flashback and Shishou's depending on you. Probably."
The blond relaxed somewhat and he began to assess the room again with that much more focus.
He needed today's date.
Then he needed money.
He could do this.
He could.….. right?
Okay, first priority.
Find his Mentor.
He'd know what to do.
Probably.
****PoH****
"Hey, mom!" The blond chirped as he bounced into the kitchen of his comfortable semi-detached, two storey house. It wasn't anything extravagant, but he remembered loving it. After all the shit he had been through in the later years, after watching people die one after another, coming home, coming back here, had been a bit difficult.
Survivor's guilt he had been told.
'That had been great. Absolutely, perfectly, great.' The blond thought dryly as he remembered the therapist the school had hired for him after he had watched Kyoka die.
At least he knew why he felt like a piece of scum.
Didn't make it any easier to sleep at night though.
"Denki?" A woman with similar yellow eyes, laugh lines and jet-black hair flowing down her back who had been fiddling with something at the sink put down the cleaver she had been using to cut some meat and squinted at her son suspiciously, "What's wrong? You failed another test?"
Kaminari forced a laugh out, "Haven't failed a test since…." The blond youth blinked with the expression of someone trying to remember something and failing miserably, "my last one?" he tried tentatively.
His mother sighed a fond sigh of long suffering as Kaminari bounced over to her with an awkward chuckle.
"Alright, so if its not a failed test, then what is it?" His mother eyed him critically, "You don't usually come out from your room after school until dinner, unless you want something. And no, no snacks."
Kamnari rolled his eyes at the familiar refrain, "I'm not looking for snacks."
"Then what is it?"
The blond shrugged, "My friends asked me out for a moment. Just wanted to say that I might not be back for dinner."
One jet black eyebrow rose as she scrutinized her son before nodding her ascent, "Just don't come back too late yeah?"
"Hell yeah!" Kaminari gave his mother a wobbly grin before he suddenly threw his arms around her, much to her surprise, "Hey mom."
"Hmmm?" his mother asked as she patted his back, "What's gotten into you?"
"i…." The words seemed lodged in his throat, he vaguely remembered not really being all that demonstrative when he was a kid, "I love you yeah?"
"Yes, yes" The dark-haired woman laughed with a slightly surprised, but still happy expression, "I love you too. Now shoo."
Kaminari heaved a sigh as soon as he was out the door.
That had been disturbingly awkward. He was an adult and a professional Hero inside for God's sake.
Still, at least his mother didn't seem to suspect anything, which was good.
The blond youth pulled out his smartphone from his pocket, it was incredibly ancient and goddamned slow by his standards, but at least it had the basics like a camera, a recorder and an internet browser, and awkwardly tried to maneuver the device in his hand, "Now lessee…... Shishou lives in Tokyo yeah?"
He grimaced. Wait, that was in the future.
The date was about a year before they entered UA, so they were all still in their second year of middle school, which meant.….. his mentor lived in…. he could faintly remember the green haired man saying something about insisting to his mom that he wanted to stay near…. UA even as a kid right out of his diapers.
So, chances were his mentor was currently living in Musutafu.
Which meant…. Kaminari scrolled down the train schedule he had pulled up from the public transit website. It was only a 20-minute ride from Saitama where he lived to Musutafu if he was remembering it right. Both Prefectures were on the outskirts of Tokyo, so there shouldn't be any issue getting there. Problem was, he had no idea what school his mentor went to, much less where the guy lived in Musutafu.
No wait. He remembered his mentor saying something before, about a school. Kaminari slapped his forehead in frustration as he tried to focus on the blurry memory, "What was the name of that school again? Alchia? Aldia?"
Whatever it was, the name started with an A. that much he knew for sure. So that at least narrowed down his search area by a good chunk, Kaminari decided as he began to walk to the nearest train station.
It was something his Mentor had only mentioned in passing. A scandal had erupted sometime after they had graduated UA; a kid had committed suicide at a school and a subsequent investigation had found evidence that the school had been artificially inflating kids personal files and covering up some rather unsavory stuff that would allow the bullies to skip past the usual Hero Academy reputation checks and get into high-ranking Hero schools where they usually excelled thanks to their physical abilities and Quirks.
This was especially the case if the kids had some flashy Quirks which generally did well in the Hero Rankings at the time, at which point they would turn around and endorse their loving teachers and respected alma mater in public, boosting their reputation, and in turn, their admission rates, budgets, donations and grants they got from the government.
Being able to advertise themselves as the school that some so-and-so Hero had gone to, or that they had been the personal teacher of that Ranking XX Hero probably helped boost their egos quite a bit too.
His Mentor had said some pretty cynical stuff at the time, which was why it had caught his notice, something about it being way too late. He had not realized that his Mentor had been referring to much more than just that one suicide until much later.
Either way, it turned out that there was a bunch of Heroes, most of whom he had known in a personal capacity, who had been outed as pretty shitty kids in the fallout, including the Number 3 Hero at the time, Dynamight, NINE middle schools that had been slapped with huge fines, and at least two of them had been sued to the point where they were shut down entirely.
Kaminari paused mid-step as some dread filled the bottom of his stomach.
The Hero Rankings.
He had forgotten about that.
He pursed his lips as he continued walking again, making another mental note to deal with the Hero Commission as soon as possible before they fucked up, as he scanned his student card and passed through the throughfare to the station.
The blond youth found an empty chair and collapsed into it with a heavy sigh.
This… it seemed like there was way too much for him to handle alone.
"Shishou, I seriously hope you and Flashback are here." Kaminari murmured to himself as he settled himself in to wait for the next train.
****PoH****
His first indication that his hopes were about to be dashed was the fact that his Mentor looked like shit.
Granted, his Mentor usually looked someone had just beaten the tar out of him anyway, but his second indication that all but sealed his shattered hopes in stone were the wobbling lower lips of a mini version of Midoriya Izuku as he struggled to contain his tears while he watched his belongings get torched.
His Mentor had always been a bit of a crybaby, yeah, but that kinda crying and this kinda crying…. Were two entirely different kinds of beasts.
Well, at least he found the guy.
Him, two flunkies laughing like hyenas at the side, and what looked to be a mini Dynamight who was saying some pretty harsh stuff. He wasn't exactly beating the crap out of Izuku, or at least, he had gotten bored of it if the bruises showing up on Izuku's arms were any indication, but he was most certainly using what looked like one of his Mentor's famous notebooks, some textbooks and bag as target practice for his Quirk to blow up.
These guys were…. 14? 15? Right?
Yikes.
He didn't remember Dynamight being such a little piece of shit.
Kaminari pursed his lips.
No, wait. He had always been a condescending piece of shit.
A tolerable one later on, MUCH later on, but a piece of shit nonetheless.
There was a reason why, even 10 years later, that no one but Red Riot and his Mentor could stand the guy, despite his No. 3 ranking, for anything longer than 10 minutes at a time.
Oh and Hatsume too.
But then he was convinced Hatsume was too bat shit crazy to notice Dynamight anyway.
That and if Dynamight even tried to do anything to her, her mechs would have instantly booted his ass out of her lab so hard his mom would've felt it, Explosion Quirk and unnatural beast-like fighting instincts be damned.
Kaminari pinched his brows, partly in frustration and partly to stop the incoming the headache, as he tried to decide whether or not to interfere.
But as he watched the kids a bit more, Dynamight, the two unknown students standing at the side and laughing at his Mentor, and Izuku himself who was still on the ground and looking a little battered, he caught sight of his chibi Mentor's dopey green eyes and the sheer depression, longing, sadness, loneliness and hopelessness that were shimmering in those eyes….
He decided that time travel sucked donkey balls.
****PoH****
"Oi, what the hell are you doing?!" Izuku gaped in shock as a yellow blur suddenly burst out of the shrubs near them with incredible speed and shoulder barreled straight into a laughing Katsuki from behind, throwing him right into one of his friends, the one with the long fingers.
Katsuki instantly jumped off his fallen friend; inadvertently, and probably uncaringly, kicking him in the chest in the process, with a loud, angry roar, "Who the hell do you think you are!?"
"A piece of shit bullying another kid." The deceptively slim and weak looking newcomer replied bluntly, and the thing that struck Izuku the most was that he didn't seem scared at all even in the face of the full might of Katsuki's aggression. Then the blond glanced at Katsuki's friends and seemed to amend himself, "Three pieces of shits bullying another kid."
Izuku held his breath, and heard a vague bomf-ing sound coming from Katsuki's clenched fists that he knew indicated an incoming explosion of temper and a physical beating from sheer experience. He was proven right when the taller blond leapt forward with a roar, plumes of flame and wind generated from his fists pushing him forward violently.
The shorter blond simply frowned as Izuku immediately leapt up, intending to block Katsuki when the newcomer's yellow eyes suddenly zeroed in on him, as if he knew what Izuku was trying to do. For a split second, those eyes glowed and Izuku was pinned to the spot by the sheer intensity of that stare before the feeling disappeared like snow on a summer day, and so he could only watch as the newcomer smirked, and then casually side stepped a wild swing from a rampaging Katsuki.
Izuku, now frozen with sheer surprise, watched as the stranger moved.
Casually stepping back from another wild haymaker, Kaminari suddenly and fluidly stepped right back into Katsuki's area of influence, bringing him nose to nose with the stunned Explosion Quirk user. With a growl, Katsuki immediately tried to backpedal to put some space between them so that he could gain more momentum on the way in, when Kaminari began to pivot, seemingly turning his back on the other boy.
Roaring with anger at the perceived insult, Katsuki charged back in at the other blond just as he completed his spin, right into a casual back hand that had been hidden behind the other boy's silhouette the entire time.
Katsuki lost all strength in his legs and crashed to the ground to a sliding stop, all he could see were stars when a foot suddenly kicked him directly in the chest, it felt like a truck had slammed straight into him, driving out all the air in his chest, sending him flying until he blurrily felt himself crash into someone else.
He screwed his eyes shut and tried to keep himself from hurling all over the place when he heard the newcomer clicking his tongue. Instantly, his temper flared again and he tried to struggle to his feet when they were casually swept out from underneath him. There was a loud cry from beneath him as he fell right back onto the winged fatty, pinning him back down with his entire body weight.
This time, he couldn't stop himself from the sudden disorientation and began to puke all over the two flunkies in front of a very stunned Izuku and a rather disappointed Kaminari, who after going to school with Dynamight and knew quite well how much of a tough bastard Dynamight was, had quite frankly, expected a bit more of a fight.
If only so he could shove his foot even further up Bakugou's ass.
No, he did not have a grudge against Dynamight at all.
Especially not after he heard from Izuku what exactly Dynamight had done during their shared childhood.
Nope. He was a totally professional Hero that totally wasn't kicking the ass of three overly aggressive 14-year-olds with his 10 years plus of experience battling World level Villains and other miscellaneous idiots.
And this wasn't Dynamight. This was a 14-year-old Bakugou. He wasn't petty enough to do something like that just because of a teensy, tiny little grudge.
Nope. Not him. Totally not him.
He loved time travel.
Not the muscle aches that came from lack of use, though.
Cos those were already starting to ache like a bitch.
Fuck. He needed to start working out again.
Ah well. Time to deal with the angry Pomeranian.
Kneeling down and carefully avoiding the vomit, Kaminari casually dug through Bakugou's pockets and pulled out the phone, "Whu-Whaare yuu doing!?" The injured and disorientated Bakugou wheezed and slurred as he felt the other blond pulling out his phone.
"Putting my number in your phone." Kaminari replied easily, "I'm sure your parents will want to know who kicked your ass so hard you have a cracked rib. So, I'm making it easy for you to contact me."
He lifted the phone up to Bakugou's blurred eyes and Bakugou almost hurled again.
The bastard hadn't only put his number in the phone, he had the balls to take a selfie and attach it to the number. And then he had included his address as if he was worried Bakugou was too stupid to find him with just his number.
"Of course, when they come around, I'm going to have to tell them why exactly I was kicking your ass all over the park," Kaminari continued blandly, "So I'm going to show them this."
He held up his own phone, clearly playing a recording of Bakugou himself standing over a clearly injured Izuku, throwing his books and belongings into the air and destroying them with a quirk, his friends loudly cheering him from the sides.
Smiling lightly, Kaminari placed Bakugou's phone back into his shirt, uncaring whether it touched the vomit or not this time, and patted his head insultingly before he spoke again. This time, his voice had lost that laid back, playful teasing quality and was cold as steel, "I'm pretty sure if your parents, or anyone else really, like say UTube's very large number of users, see that video, you're going to have a pretty tough time getting into a Hero Academy."
"Any hero Academy." The blond with the black streak through his hair smiled thinly, not bothering to hide the threat at all, "So be a good boy yeah? You might think that I won't find out if I'm not around, but If you do anything naughty, I'll find out, Bakugou Katsuki." Bakugou's swirling eyes widened at the implication that the other boy knew his name, "And when I do, I'll make sure that those hands you're so proud off, won't even be fit for a Villain."
Kaminari watched with great satisfaction as the message-slash-blatant threat finally seemed to sink into Bakugou's grey matter, helped along with a rather healthy dose of killing intent right before his eyes rolled up into his head and he fainted dead away.
The Electrification Quirk user snorted with some amusement as he stood up and casually walked over to the chibi version of his Mentor. Although they were currently almost the same height, seeing Izuku so much smaller than he was used was going to take some getting used to.
"Yo." He waved with an amused smile at the look his chibi-Mentor had on his face. It kinda reminded him of a goldfish what with the flapping mouth and wide-open eyes and all, "You doing alright?"
He knelt down and picked up that infamous note book, noting the number 11 on the front, marred as it was with burns. He actually vaguely remembered seeing this particular one in the future before, so Izuku had probably replaced the cover sometime later since that one had been in good condition.
He offered it the other boy, "This yours?"
"Yo-You beat Kacchan…" Izuku stuttered out, not taking the offered book.
"Yes, I did." Kaminari agreed blandly, "You don't mind, do you?"
"Yo-Yo-You beat Kacchan…"
"Yep. Didn't even take more than 4 moves either."
"Yo-Yo-You beat Kacchan…"
Kaminari rolled his eyes as Izuku repeated himself again for the third time.
He recognized the signs as easily as any other Professional Hero would've.
Izuku was in shock.
Why exactly, he wasn't quite sure.
He was well aware that his Mentor in the future was, if not friends, then at least on speaking terms with Dynamight and spoke quite well of his work ethic, but even Izuku 10 years in the future wouldn't willingly stay in the same room as Bakugou for an extended amount of time and there had been very real anger and dislike in his voice when he had told Kaminari about his pre-UA past.
But looking at Izuku now, it almost looked as if Kaminari had beaten up his idol instead of his bully.
"Alright." He stood up again and briskly took ahold of Izuku's collar, ignoring the green haired boy's squawk, "C'mon, I'm getting you some ice cream. Should help you settle down a bit."
****PoH****
Author's Note
How was it?
Was the fight scene alright? Any strenuous objections of how Bakugou was treated?
Pretty sure it's rather obvious who Flashback is, so credits to Psyckosama from Archiveofourown dot org who wrote Flashback, and it's also where I got the idea for the hero name from,
Also, please feel free to recommend a pairing. I don't do harems, unless there's a really good reason attached, or slash. The faster a pairing gets accepted, the faster I can write them into the story. Currently I'm just flying by the seat of my pants.