So.. here's an update? I'd suggest checking this out on A03, as it has some links added to better the chapter though it is not needed! This.. is also me being that sucky guy that puts stories on hiatus. I was never that hooked into MHA, and actually started this story out of spite due to another fic I read where an OP Izuku from the future actually did worse than canon. That shit just grinds my gears!
Long story short, I'm uninspired and uninterested in the manga, and while there are still a few amazing authors in the fandom, many of those that initially drew me to MHA have either moved on or straight up quit writing. I'll never delete this, and will try to continue writing.. but honestly my guilt over not updating this story has kept me from writing half a dozen others across various fandoms, and even posting a fic anonymously so my name isn't connected to it.. though admittedly that one is a smut fic, so there were mitigating circumstances.
'It's interesting,' Izuku mused, 'how people can look to the same man, the same symbol.. and see such startlingly different things.'
Specifically in this case, All Might.
The Symbol of Peace.
The Number One Hero.
The Strongest Man in the world.
When Izuku was younger, he had assumed that those were the ways everyone saw him; not all at once, but most people, he had thought, likely saw him as one of the above.
That naivety had.. lasted longer than he would care to admit. It hadn't taken until his first encounter with Shigaraki, though it was the first time he had seen that much hate directed towards All Might.
Still, ignoring his and Shigaraki's diametrically opposed perspectives, one of the most interesting examples of this (in his own humble opinion) had always been that of him and Kacchan.
The two of them had just as many similarities as differences; they grew up together in the same area, went to the same schools, both came from loving families (even if the Bakugous were more brash and the Midoriyas more tearful), and both harboured the same ambitions to become heroes. Yet where Kacchan was brash, Izuku was shy - where Kacchan was a confident prodigy born with a powerful quirk, Izuku had been given his quirk and had to work hard just to catch up to others his age.. with plenty of broken bones along the way.
Both of them looked up to All Might, respected the meaning and authority behind his words - I Am Here.
And yet..
They looked towards the same man sure, but what they saw?
Izuku Midoriya saw a man who settled the hearts of victims, who brought safety to civilians wherever he went, who could save everyone with an unwavering smile.
Katsuki Bakugou saw a man who unsettled the minds of villains, who brought justice to criminals wherever they hid, who could defeat every enemy with an unwavering smile.
Izuku knew how many people over the years saw Kacchan as merely following Endeavour's footsteps in their ambition to become the Number One hero (some even went as far as calling him a villain-to-be), but the truth was that people saw his fighting prowess and almost immediately underestimated his intelligence. Even as a young child Kacchan had seen that All Might's strength also acted as a deterrent to villains.
That was the kind of hero his friend worked to become - one whose very existence deterred criminals.
Granted, his old friend was an asshole on his best days, but his drive to surpass All Might and become even greater? That was never something Izuku could judge him for, even if he himself preferred the classical definition of heroism that involved saving those who could not save themselves.
..Where was he going with this again?
"Aagh! Get the fuck away from me, you damned freak!"
'Oh right, that was it! Inazumo Hokuro; villain name Skullshocker.'
Izuku may prefer his own brand of heroics, but damn if Kacchan's 'Fear & Force' methods weren't fun as hell.. and besides, this guy deserved a little fear. He still remembered the look on Kyoka's face when she spoke of the way the villain was going to force her to choose between her own life and Denki's in the original timeline - if it hadn't been for Snipe's exceptionally timed intervention..
The man called himself Skullshocker - real original, classy name for a villain; Izuku idly wondered what came first.. the stupid name, or the stupid skull-shaped helmet he always wore? Not that it really mattered.
Izuku, currently dressed as his 'vigilante' persona Kurama, was using Black Whip to wrap around his body and face to add another level of security to his identity. Granted, he had been extremely careful to only use the Enhancement aspect of One For All as Izuku Midoriya, so using any of the other quirks individually shouldn't allow people to make the connection.. but he'd rather be considered overly paranoid than stupid.
Tonight wasn't the first night since his return that he'd acted as a vigilante (he had been a hero for too long to just stop because he didn't have a license anymore) but it was the first time since his.. discussion.. with Overhaul that he was doing it with a specific goal in mind, rather than just patrolling.
Namely, 'stacking the deck' as he had explained to Nedzu.
"Why the hell are you chasing me, you bastard?! Leave me alone!"
While he had been entirely truthful when he said he believed his classmates could handle any of the minor thugs Shigaraki had sent after them, especially since 1-B would be joining them in this timeline, there were still a few of them that were.. mildly more dangerous. Considering they would most likely be split apart randomly again, it was entirely possible for his yearmates to simply face a bad match-up and suffer injuries.
As such, Inazumo Hokuro needed to be prevented from appearing at the USJ. The man was one of the few people that were naturally born with two quirks - both the ability to emit electricity from his hands (which he would also use to disable the alarm systems) as well as the ability to quickly tunnel through dirt and rock like a mole (though not concrete or tarmac) - and while that doesn't mean the man needed to become a hero, Izuku had learned afterwards that he also had no real reason to turn to villainy except his own sadism.
Which lead to Izuku currently chasing him through abandoned alleys of the warehouse district of Korribu.. and there, his chance.
Hokuro had turned a corner that Izuku knew lead to a dead end; and as he stepped around the corner, he quickly ducked the sloppily thrown punch - though he did land a glancing hit, and the electricity coating the man's fist numbed his arm.
Fortunately, 'Kurama' wasn't a brawler - ducking beneath a second haymaker, Izuku rolled to the back of the alley and focused on Black Whip.
Hokuro hadn't wasted any time, however, and was already running for the exit of the alley now that Izuku was behind him.. not that he was quick enough.
Several tendrils shot out of his back and launched towards where the panicked villain was trying to escape, quickly wrapping around him and pinning his arms to his sides.
"Wai-wait.. What are you doing..? Ghhh-!" was all he could get out, before Izuku redirected another tendril to keep him gagged - Izuku had done surveillance on the area the last few days, so he knew there shouldn't be any patrolling heroes or bystanders.. but rather safe than sorry.
Izuku shook out the arm that had been shocked, trying to work some sensation back into the appendage. Still, that's the first of five done - he'd knock him out and then drop him off at a random police station near Naruhata. If his luck held, both the police and the league would simply assume it was the work of one of the vigilantes that so saturated that district.
He still had a few others to handle - the woman with the weak pyrokinesis quirk from the Conflagration Zone, the woman with the chameleon mutation in the Ruins Zone, the man with the hydrokinesis quirk in the Flood Zone, as well as the man with the shark mutation in the same zone.
They were the ones that stood out as the most dangerous - at least in the particular zones they were placed in. Perhaps not in the same league as more prominent villains, but given the advantageous terrain and the element of surprise they could cause his yearmates serious injuries - as driven and powerful as his classmates were, they still lacked experience.
Most of the other thugs were still dangerous, of course, but he felt his friends could handle them. Besides, he had discovered in his third year that he if he focused enough of OFA into danger sense, he could almost.. invert it.
Nedzu had also in no uncertain terms told him that if he was to go along with Izuku's plans, he expected him to do everything in his power to protect his students; even if that meant scrapping his plan and revealing he came from the future.
Izuku agreed whole-heartedly. If at any point it seemed that something had gone completely wrong, he'd strike back with all of his power - with all of his quirks, even.
He still didn't think it would be necessary though; his year was a strong one.
Still, it hadn't been fun to try and sway Nedzu to his side..
Several Days Earlier, Nedzu's Private Training Facility:
"Uhh.. is all this really necessary..?" Izuku asked apprehensively, as he stared up at the giant robot Nedzu was currently piloting.
It was only about the size of the zero pointer, but it was extremely obvious this was no robot designed to test or scare students - it was sleeker for one, yet judging by the vibrations as it moved it was also a lot heavier.. likely made of a stronger, denser material.
It had a strange colour scheme; a generally red torso, one blue leg and one yellow, with large shoulder-pauldron-things, a strange head almost shaped like a helmet with two wings rising from the side of it and a single horn-like protrusion at the top.
Something about the robot appeared.. strange to his eyes. Like it was some kind of.. amalgamation? The joints also seemed.. off, somehow, but Izuku's strength had always laid with analysis and design rather than engineering.
"If you want me to trust your plan to allow my students into such a dangerous situation as you described the USJ being..-" came the mechanical voice over the robot's speakers, before Izuku interrupted him:
"I know it's dangerous! And if worse comes to worse, I'll use my full power to protect all them.. my plans be damned!" he finished in a near shout, slightly overreacting to the dean's criticisms in light of his own uncertainty.
"Of course you will, Young Midoriya - that has never been under any doubt.. but you are not as strong as you were in the future, nor have I seen you in action in such a situation - which is why we are doing this. This robot was personally designed by me to serve as a further defence for UA; combined with the dozens of other security drones I will be activating, and my one considerable intelligence.. it should serve as both a trial to test your current limits, as well as a demonstration for myself."
Izuku closed his eyes and let out a slow breath - he knew he was overreacting somewhat. Nedzu was just looking out for the rest of his classmates; heck, the fact that he was even willing to go along with Izuku's plans was already a massive leap of faith.
A leap of faith he knew most wouldn't have taken.
Perhaps his mentor, All Might, could have been convinced to trust him.. but the small, insecure part of his psyche that had grown up quirkless kept whispering that All Might only trusted him with One For All because he believed that All For One had been defeated - that there was no singular enemy that would need a hero wielding One For All to defeat.
He hoped he had proven his worth to All Might in the years that passed, fighting against enemies such as Overhaul, the League, and even the MLA.. but none of that had come to pass, yet. All Might was extremely protective of his students, and Izuku wasn't sure he would willingly go along with his plan for the USJ if it put his students in danger.
Opening his eyes again, he looked up at where Nedzu was piloting the machine and nodded; shooting the hero an apologetic smile.
"Okay.. so when do we start?" he asked.
He really should have known better.
He only had a moment to register Danger Sense's warning before one of the giant hands on the robot seemed to retract, before being replaced by multiple gun-barrels. The moment Izuku noticed the barrels start to spin, he moved; dodging forward, he heard the sound of multiple projections being fired, and rather than look back to where he could feel the ground shake where the ammunition hit the ground (was Nedzu shooting bowling balls at him?!) he quickly activated Full Cowl and leapt towards where the arm joined the body of the machine.
He definitely needed to get rid of that weapon, before the other robots entered the battle and he lost the chance to focus too long on a single target.
Deciding to start low and work his way up, he lashed out with a kick with around 5% of his current strength.. only to get freeze a moment in shock as the arm was completely separated from the robot.
'Wait, this doesn't make sense - the robot is clearly stronger than the training bots I used in third year, so why would..-'
Danger Sense screamed at him, and he snapped out of it just in time to block a blow from the robot's other hand.
'Snap out of it, Izuku! You need to focus!'
As he rolled away from another faster-than-it-should-be-at-this-size punch, he focused his frustration at himself for letting his attention slip into Blackwhip and threw out several tendrils against the arm; once they were wound tightly, he activated float and jetted backwards - ripping the lower half of the remaining arm off in the process.
This was easier than he thought!
..Izuku felt a shiver go down his spine.
'Too easy,' he thought, 'what am I missing..?'
His eyes caught on the weaponized arm he had damaged first, again noticing something off with the joint - yet as he turned his head to look closer, a panel slid open to the side of the robot's head and another weapon barrel popped out.
It was shaped differently than the other one, with a smaller barrel (so no more bowling balls, thank Kami) but that almost made him worry more. Especially when it fired, and rather than the high speed projectile he expected, an almost sluggish projectile hit the ground a few feet in front of him.
At this point Izuku actually gaped at where he could see Nedzu sitting in his pilot seat through a (no doubt reinforced) viewing window. Something the Dean seemed to fight amusing, judging by his growing grin.
Izuku scowled, and prepared to power OFA up as far as he could - if Nedzu wasn't going to take this seriously, then he'd finish it quickly so he could go and scout out further places to ambush his possible 'troublemakers' for the USJ.
Before he could, however, several things happened at once - there was a sharp buzzing sound, followed by a sudden crack - Izuku looked towards the sound, before his eyes widened and he jumped backwards as far as he could to escape.
The strange projectile wasn't meant to hit him - it was meant to spread a gas. A gas Izuku recognised as a more concentrated version of Midnight's quirk; he hadn't realised Nedzu had developed it this soon!
At the same time, certain sections off the walls slid open, releasing dozens of other droids - and that was all Izuku could call them, because most of them seem to come straight out of that really old film series he knew Nedzu loved.
Izuku felt his heartbeat start to quicken as his adrenaline started to kick in; and then he noticed that the arms he had torn off (he knew that was too easy!) were slowly rolling towards the main body.
He gaped in disbelief as they suddenly shot up and seemed to reattach without any problems.
He could hear the Dean laughing maniacally, and narrowed his eyes - okay, so he had underestimated Nedzu.. but Nedzu wasn't the only one with an ace up his sleeve.
Izuku activated Float rose into the sky slowly, channelling more and more of One For All until Full Cowling was practically glowing; more and more sparks of energy coming off of him, almost two dozen tendrils of Black Whip coming out of his back and whipping about as if alive - several others wounding around his arms and legs to act as support to help brace against the recoil of his quirk yet leaving them free enough for his preferred style of fighting.
"One For All: Unison Soul."
—
Several hours later, an exhausted and bruised Izuku Midoriya all but collapsed on over the coach in Nedzu's office; long passed a point of caring whether or not he was being rude. Despite being far more experienced and powerful than he appeared at first glance, he still had struggled against the training the mad rodent had set up.
Struggled, but still ultimately succeeded.
Releasing a groan as his body protested against any movement, he made to sit up and face Nedzu, who was currently sitting across from him on a custom seat made for his smaller size. Seeing the thoughtful way he was staring at Izuku, the time traveller almost grinned. It wasn't obvious to anyone who didn't know him, but Nedzu was impressed.
Impressed, and surprised.
Which, given his intelligence, would only impress Nedzu more.
Placing down his tea cup (Izuku honestly couldn't understand how Nedzu drank so much of the stuff), Nedzu leaned forward to rest his chin on his clasped paws.
"You know, Midoriya, despite believing that you were All Might's chosen successor.. I admittedly still underestimated you, as your earlier trial proved. Though you clearly have your mentor's sense for showmanship.." he trailed off with a small dip of his head.
Izuku frowned in confusion, before his brows shot up in understanding.
"Trial.. it wasn't training, was it? It was supposed to be a lesson.. a lesson in accepting failure?"
"Just so," came the calm response, "though, somewhat ironically, it seems that I'm the one to learn that lesson instead!"
Not quite sure how he was supposed to respond, Midoriya just sat back and waited for Nedzu to finish gathering his thoughts.
A bit less than 15 minutes later Nedzu nodded his head, apparently having come to a conclusion about whatever he had been pondering.
"While it was not my intent, our battle clearly demonstrated that you should be able to handle any opponents at the USJ. Combined with your plan to take care of the most problematic villains that would appear the day beforehand, I am inclined to go along with your plans. However; I would like to know of the rest of your abilities as well - in case they do become needed during the attack, it is better to have an excuse prepared beforehand."
Izuku blinked a few times, wondering if he should call Nedzu out on the flimsy excuse that was no doubt just a weak cover for his innate curiosity, before shrugging.
It wasn't that he was particularly trying to hide his quirks, it just hadn't come up yet with everything else they were dealing with.
"I don't have a problem with that. Uhh.. okay, in the order of the past users, I guess?"
Izuku was amused to see that despite the dean's solemn nod, he actually scooted closer to the edge of his seat in anticipation.
"Right, the First User was named Yoichi Shigaraki - the one both born with the quirk to hand his quirk down, as well as the one that was gifted the stockpiling quirk by his brother - the one who started our quest. He was followed by the Second user who still does not wish to share his name, but named his quirk Sense Seal."
He paused here, taking a sip of water, before continuing:
"It allowed its user, at the cost of one of his own senses, to 'seal' away a person's own sense. I generally swap out my sense of taste to seal away someone's sight in order to ambush them - though I have on occasion taken away all my own senses in order to leave an opponent completely helpless - something I can bypass with the Fourth User's quirk, which I'll explain in a moment."
Nedzu simply nodded, and motioned for him to keep explaining.
"The Third User, who also refuses to share his name, referred to his quirk as Lunar Sight. The quirk is an illusion-type quirk that requires eye-contact to maintain the illusion - unlike Eraserhead, blinking does not break the effect, though the concentration need means I can't move unless there's a full moon. The strength of the illusion seems dependant on the waxing and waning of the moon.."
"Both the Second and Third users refuse to share their names.. taken along with the possibilities of their quirks, and considering the madness in the era when quirks became more prominent.." Nedzu mused, before shooting a meaningful look at Izuku.
He inclined his head just a bit to show that yes, he had made the connection too, before continuing on as if nothing had occurred.
"The Fourth User was Hikage Shinomori; he referred to his quirk as 'Super Anxiety'," Izuku said with a snort, pulling a chuckle out of Nedzu as well.
"Is that so? Well, from what you've told me, that might have been something you already possessed, hmm?" Nedzu asked with a smirk.
Izuku just shook his head, unable to even try and deny it. And even if he did, Nedzu had his original application from before he came back in time - it was full of nervous ramblings.
"Anyway, the quirk is actually named Danger Sense. It.. is pretty self-explanatory. It allows the user to sense any and all danger to themselves, in a sort of sonar-like pattern. It's how I am able to continue fighting with only one of my senses active.. It is also a critical part of my plan for the USJ," he admitted.
"Indeed?" Nedzu asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Around my third year, I discovered that while the other quirks had grown stronger over time, Danger Sense had instead.. mutated, in a sense. If I try to project the feeling of anxiety that comes with the quirk, it instead let me sense others in danger around myself as long as I kept it active.. though it does come at the cost of the quirk being completely blind to any danger to myself."
Nedzu narrowed his eyes disapprovingly, already realising that he would keep it inverted for the entire duration of the USJ attack, before letting out a sigh and muttering something about self-sacrificing hero lineages.
Izuku grimaced, and rubbed at the back of his head nervously. He couldn't really argue the point, and he could clearly understand where Nedzu was coming from considering his own worries about how hard All Might was pushing himself.
Deciding to just push through the sudden awkwardness, he said:
"That only leaves the Sixth you don't already know about - I only know him as En, and he had a rather.. unique ability. It was called Absolute Insight. Before becoming stronger as part of One For All, it allowed the user to project any experience of theirs onto another for as long as they kept it active.. Now? It allows me to project anything I've experienced for as long as I first felt it.. It is how I dealt with Overhaul."
Nedzu outright snarled at the mention of the name.
"Ah, yess.. you mentioned something along that line. Do.. elaborate," he practically hissed out, and Izuku felt no doubt that if Nedzu deemed Overhaul's unofficial punishment inadequate he would be taking steps of his own to punish the man.
Izuku spared a moment to smile - if he didn't already know better, he'd almost assume Eri's quirk was something that inspired complete loyalty in any decent human being.
"As I've explained, Overhaul deemed quirks unnatural - a sickness to be cured. So.. I obliged him. I lived 17 years without a quirk - now he has the chance to experience it for himself. He is effectively quirkless for the next 17 years, and I will gladly keep refreshing the quirk until the day he dies," he finished darkly.
Nedzu twitched, his canines flashing, before he sat back with a frustrated sound.
"I suppose there is at least some poetic justice in punishing him in such a way..-"
Nedzu was interrupted by Izuku's vindictive snort.
"That wasn't a punishment - that was just to render him utterly useless moving forward, especially as I completely destroyed his entire laboratory and anything even resembling research. No.. his punishment, as you put it was something else altogether - I made him repeat the experience of our final fight. Over, and over, and over again."
If ever Izuku needed further evidence that Nedzu had mostly predator ancestry, it vanished under the outright malicious look that now settled on the chimaera's face.
"Your final fight, you say..?" he asked with a knowing tone.
Izuku couldn't help grinning back.
"Yep," he said, popping the word, "and he had to relive that experience - One For All shattering my bones, Rewind healing them, before I shattered them again - over and over again.. until he blacked out from pain. Or the sensation of pain, I suppose, since he doesn't have an actual scratch on him.."
Then he laughed, and it wasn't long before Nedzu joined him.
It was fortunate that they were alone in the building, and Nedzu's office sound-proofed besides, because the sounds of the two conspirators' unforgiving laughter would have sent chills down the spine of All For One himself.
Did I give Nedzu the Zord from Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, with the addition of a few upgrades? You bet your ass I did. Was this because I have vague plans for Zord-Nedzu to fight Gigantomachia? I can neither confirm nor deny.
Review if you would, and apologies for those who were hoping for more frequent updates.