Midoriya had always been a bit of a crybaby. Katsuki and the rest of his former classmates had always picked on him about it. But he thinks any sane person would be in tears in this situation. He was kneeling on the roof of a building and watching the cars and people on the street. It had been years since he had seen so many people in one place. He had been in this spot for a few hours, finally breaking down after running from Eraserhead and the police. He still did not know where he was. Or when he was, if he could trust the words of the villain he had killed.

Shigaraki must have experimented on the intelligent Nomu. In the years he had helped the Pro Heroes fight and hunt the League, he had never known that Kurogiri's portals could move through more than space. He knew they used it to move around the country, but he didn't expect it to move through time.

Midoriya remembered Dabi grabbing Eri and throwing her. The scream, the lightning from her horn hitting Kurogiri and the portal.

Or that. That had to be it. He and Hitoshi were still teaching her how to control her powers, but sometimes, when Eri got overwhelmed, her quirk did unexpected things. It was why she had to carry suppressants with her.

As much as he wanted to geek out about time travel as a tangible, workable thing, he wanted to go home. He wanted to see his mom. He wanted to see Katsuki propose to Eijirou with the ring his brother had had him remake until it was perfect. He wanted to fulfill his duty as Katsuki's best man. He wanted to see Eri and Kouta graduate from UA. He wanted to end the war; return Japan to a time of peace as it had been before the deaths of All Might and his successor. He wanted to go on his honeymoon with his husband finally.

Hitoshi.

He wipes his eyes angrily. He had been crying non-stop for hours, and it would not do him any good to start up again now that his eyes had finally stopped hurting. He needed to figure out how far back in the past he was. He'd already hidden in a bus station bathroom and removed his uniform to check himself over. Not noticing anything out of the ordinary and finding most of his weapons still on him, he escapes to the rooftops to get his bearings and watches the people below.

His comms were useless, as was his visor since most of the technology they used wasn't feasible yet. The sakura blossoms and the people moving around without fear of Nomus hunting them told him he was at least four years in the past.

They had learned to base how far back Eri could rewind something depending on how many rings her horn grew. When her lightning had hit the portal, it had been between seven and eight rings.

Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Years. Decades.

He had no clue how far back he was, but Midoriya knew that if he couldn't return to his own time, he would take this opportunity and make it count. He'd take out the League before they got organized and give himself and his family a real chance at a better future.

In fact…

Midoriya gets up and checks the position of the stars. He had learned to tell time by the position and amount of light in the sky after the League had taken the country's power out in a successful attempt to isolate Japan from the rest of the world.

Knowing the sun would rise soon, he almost got down to walk on the street, just wanting to be around so many people, but one look at his outfit, and he changed his mind. There was no telling what the civilians might think. He keeps to the roofs as much as he can until he starts to recognize his surroundings, the crowd of the city thinning out until there aren't more than a few people at a time. Once he has to walk on the street, he removes the mask and visor and stores them in his thigh pouches. He takes off the vest and carries it, hoping no one questions him. He can claim to be returning home after work if anyone asks. Most people would see his clothes and weapons and assume he was a new Hero or an Underground one. Or that his job was something too dangerous to risk getting involved in, and they leave him alone altogether. Either assumption worked as long as no one called the cops.

He stopped at the park where he and Katsuki used to play and sat on the bench near the swings. He looks out at the playground as kids in uniforms and adults in business clothes start heading towards the train station. People were starting their day like usual. And it was customary for them. He tries not to stare at anyone for too long and ignores the stares he gets.

"Mama! Come on!"

"Izuku! Darling, slow down, or you'll drop your toy."

Midoriya froze. In front of him was a child. His green-haired was curly, and his face was full of freckles with an All Might doll clutched in his tiny fist. His other hand held a skinny woman with the same green hair, only a slightly lighter shade, and half of it pulled up in a bun. She dressed in the same stylish sweater and skirt he always remembered his mom wearing. Had he really been that small before?

Watching another Midoriya Izuku walking with his mother was surreal. He was back a lot further than he had hoped. He gets up as they enter the station and goes shopping. But first, he needed money. He checks his pockets for his wallet, pulling out a few bills. It should be enough.

He stashes his gear on the roof of an abandoned building before he makes his way into the shopping district. He goes into a pawn shop and buys an old burner with a cracked screen, making up some lie about dropping his phone at his job and needing a new one. The man was nice enough to cut him a deal to get a cheaper model with fewer than standard or legal upgrades. He'll give it the Hatsume special later. Mei showed him how to do with his gear when he first met her as a vigilante. All his stuff ran off the grid, with no actual IP address and untraceable by Wi-Fi or cell tower because it would piggyback off the surrounding technology. Other people's phones, computers, street lights, and anything on the network were fair game.

He goes into a department store next and gets a backpack, water bottle, and some non-perishable, ready-to-eat food. Paying for everything left him with barely enough yen to ride the train, so instead, he walked back to the roof where he'd stashed his gear.

Seeing the date once he got the phone set up sent him into tears again. 15 years. He would only be five or six now. He knew where they were going when he saw him and his mom entering the station. The doctor's visit would define him for the rest of his life. He hides on the roof and lets himself cry out his grief. He didn't know where he needed to look for answers. How does one go about figuring out time travel?

Once he calmed enough to think, he stripped out of the rest of his gear, leaving him in his undershirt, pants, and boots. Putting everything else in the bag he had bought, he climbs down the fire escape and sets off walking the streets. He needed to think, and the walk would help. The first thing he needed to do was to get money for food. Then he needed to set up an identity if he was stuck here. Everything else could wait until after.

But where would he find the money? Yawning, he rubs his sore eyes and decides that he first needs rest. The fight with those Nomu, then the portal, and then hiding most of the night from the cops and Heroes from the warehouse had left him exhausted. He would need a safe place, difficult to find but easy to escape and defend. He made his way to the old junk beach. No one went there because of the trash, and a lot of the stuff was salvageable or could be fixed up and sold or pawned. He could make a couple of bucks off it while figuring out his game plan.

The beach was the same as it had always been, with trash piles higher than some buildings in the city. He had come here with Mei to salvage parts for their shelters and tech before, so he knew this place would have most of the supplies he would need to get started. First, he needed to scout an area for him to make camp. Standing on the boardwalk above the beach to get a better look, he noticed one pile was big enough to hide a decent amount of the sand because of the rusty truck on top.

"The last time I was here was ten years in the future." He muses. "It makes sense that there is less here now, I guess."

He walks from one end of the boardwalk to the other, trying to find a good enough spot, even if it is temporary. A cluster of trees at one end of the beach starts a small forest that caught his attention. He hops over the railing and rolls across the sand, stopping on his feet. Brushing sand from his clothes, he explores. The trees were close enough to provide some cover from the elements, and he found a small clearing that wasn't visible from the beach. He dropped his bag under a large pine; it was good enough for now.

Now he just needed to build a shelter to sleep in tonight. Leaving the bag there, he heads back to the beach. His gloves from his time as a vigilante would have to do until he could get new ones. The first was a floor so he wouldn't have to sleep in the dirt. Considering his other option was garbage, he figured the pine needles might have been worth it. Looking at the surrounding piles was a little overwhelming. The truck. Going over to the tallest pile, he climbs the garbage to get the truck on top. How the hell did it even get up there?

Once at the top, he unlocks the driver's door through the broken window and pulls the door open. He puts the vehicle in neutral and pushes the frame until it rolls down the artificial hill and stops with the hood buried in the next pile. Midoriya snorts and makes his way down the pile with more caution. He drags it out of the pile and wipes the glass from the seat and floorboard. Looking under the dash, he pulls out two of his smaller flatheads, putting one in the ignition and the other in the top hole of the steering column, pushing up until he feels it give. Pulling the key ignition out, he replaces it with the larger flathead and starts the truck. Letting it run, he fills the bed with other things he finds that might be useful for the shelter. Four empty oil drums go up first, then a couple of metal sheets and a glass bottle full of nails that he pulled out of other things in the piles. A small metal pipe would work as a hammer to put them through the sheeting.

He puts a wooden dining seat without legs in the driver's seat to avoid sitting in glass and drives the truck back to his clearing. He pulls the four barrels out and sets two of them apart on their sides. He places the smaller sheet of metal against the bottoms and rearranges them until they're resting corners as evenly as possible, using the others to hold it in place. Midoriya hammers the nails and metal pipe into the barrels. Once those were in, he broke the tops off and climbed in, using the pipe to bend the nails so they won't come back out. He repeats the process with the other two, using the truck bed to hold the two barrels up.

Once all four are done, he sets it upright, the metal sheet now acting as a floor. He pulls the larger metal sheet out and sets it on top. Hammering it down into what was left of the tops of the barrels, he drags his new shelter under one of the larger tree branches for the most coverage. Driving the truck to a stop next to the tree, he disconnected the fuel pump fuse and battery to shut the truck off and engaged the emergency brake. He'd leave it like that until he needed it started again.

He collects pine needles and leaves to make some padding for the flooring. Then, he uses one of his emergency blankets in his belt pouch to act as a second barrier. Holding it down with rocks, he spreads it over the leaves and puts his bag on it. Looking at it, it seems pathetic. But it would keep the rain and some of the wind off him, and it would have to do for tonight.

His stomach growls, and he startles, noticing it is getting dark. He had been working all day on this little thing. Walking back to the beach, he looks for wood to make a fire so he can make food before he goes out patrolling. He was in a place that was nothing like what he was used to, but he knew he wouldn't give up being a hero this time, even if it meant starting his vigilante career a little earlier than last time.

But first, he needed a few things to get started.

….

His first patrol was purely beneficial to him. He had stopped a few muggings and a drug deal. Knocking out the men and stealing the money from their wallets wasn't Heroic, but it was the quickest way to gain money to get new clothes. Once he'd changed outfits, he had gone to a bar in the red district and started a fight with some drunk men in an alley. Katsuki would have beaten his ass for such a stupid plan, and Hitoshi would have given him that look. The look he always gave him when he thought he was an idiotic genius.

As an underground hero, Hitoshi knew that sometimes the extreme plans were the best because people thought you were too stupid to go through with something like it, so other people would believe it was the truth. Getting his ass beat by drunks and having them steal his fake wallet was a small part of a much bigger plan.

Left alone with a broken nose, bruised, and covered in glass from where the man broke his bottle over his head, Midoriya comes stumbling out of the opposite end of the alley. He fakes, looking frantically up and down the street. He had a small travel suitcase full of cheap clothes from a second-hand store and a destroyed messenger bag over his shoulder. People were startled away from him; this was where the real plan started.

"Nuet! Sec min loy! Et hun sikit!"

It was a made-up language he and Katsuki's class had made up to keep the villains and intelligent Nomu they fought from knowing any plans the Heroes and Vigilantes made. The 1A kids had started it when they had kept getting attacked during their first year. It was a code for their class to use in case they were in danger again. Once the League took over Japan, it became a well-known secret that they taught all Heroes and Vigilantes the language.

People started looking around, and a couple of people approached him, asking him what was wrong and why he was hurt. He pretended he didn't understand them, continuing to mess with his bags as if looking for something and speaking in the coded language. Someone got their phone out and called the police, reporting it as a tourist mugging. That will work. He pats his pockets and makes a distressed noise. He points at the woman on the phone and mimics her. A man asks if his phone was stolen. Continuing the act of not understanding, he shakes his head and mimics her again.

"Nuet, apel." He says, holding his fingers up like a phone and putting it to his ear. This time, he throws out the second part of the plan. "Toto? Toto? Hello?"

"Phone?" Another man comes closer. He, too, mimics the phone gesture. In English, he asks Midoriya again. "Your phone? Was it stolen?"

"Yes!" Midoriya acts relieved and starts explaining his made-up story in the coded language again.

The man holds up a hand. "I don't know what you're saying. Do you speak English? English?"

Midoriya runs his hand through his hair as if stressed. He looks out into the street again and then turns to the man. "Small amount of English. Taught in enchou when mit."

The man turned to gesture the woman closer so that he could translate the little bits of the story Midoriya told him into English, so she could explain the situation to the cops on their way.

Midoriya lied about being on vacation. He won an office party and was dropped off at some lot from a private plane and caught a ride into town with the driver from the lot. But the man had pulled over before they got to the hotel. When he had asked the man what had happened, the man punched him. He woke up in the alley and realized his stuff had been gone through and his bag was destroyed. He didn't know where he was, how long he had been out, or where the driver or his stuff was. He pretended to freak out as he went through the bags while talking to them, acting like he was discovering his wallet, passport, watch, dress shoes, laptop, phone, and other insignificant items worth a little money were missing.

He played the part of a university student that was the victim of a cruel prank and a mugged tourist in a country where he didn't speak the language. The man and woman stayed with him as he started crying, asking them what would happen to him without his identification or money. He asked the man if he thought they could arrest him for losing his passport. By the time the police showed up, everyone was acting so defensive of him with his fake sob story that the two translating for him demanded to come with him to get his statement. The police officers denied them, then changed their minds when Midoriya started speaking the other language again. Since neither spoke enough English to get his statement, they took the man with them.

Pulling up to the station, they take them to a police officer with a cat head. Midoriya recognizes him as one cop from the warehouse. Sansa. The cops asked where Tsukauchi was, and Sansa told them he was on patrol. The two cops leave them with Sansa, and the man explains what the younger man had told him. Midoriya asks Sansa if he was being arrested for losing his papers.

Sansa went to get their supervisor and Tsukauchi.

….

No one in the police precinct knew what to do with his situation. They called Tsukauchi from his shift and sent Sansa to cover him on patrol. The plain-looking man enters the interview room, introduces himself and his quirk, and asks if he can record the conversation. The other man explains that Midoriya didn't understand Japanese and only a little English.

"Then how did you call in the incident?" The officer asks.

"Sect tu noi men?" Midoriya turns to the civilian. "What ask?"

The man repeats the question in English. Midoriya turns to Tsukauchi. "Hard. Not very well. She help."

Tsukauchi turns to the other man. He explained the story Midoriya fed him and the woman who had been the one to call the police; the younger man looked confused as they spoke, as if he didn't know what was being said. That part of the plan made it easy to get around lying to Tsukauchi and his quirk by having the man explain first, then verify that it was indeed what he had told him.

"And all of this is true as far as you both know?" Tsukauchi asks his last question. The man confirmed, then repeated the question to Midoriya in English.

"Tu ect soit tu goi mir." Midoriya nods. "It is true."

True. Tsukauchi nods. The confirmation Midoriya gave was not for his question but his own statement. The man did not know what he said, but his quirk told him neither man had lied. After a few hours of going in circles, they had called in a few favors and gotten him some temporary papers and ID.

"We need a name for the paperwork," Tsukauchi told them. Midoriya turns to the other man. He repeats it in English.

"Takeko," Midoriya tells him. "Takeko Yukio."