Time Travel AU set before Toshinori gains One for All, much less becomes a Pro Hero.

The day he first met the girl he would swear up and down had to be an angel, he had just gotten his ass kicked because he refused to give up his dream of being a hero. Even if he didn't have a quirk, he was determined to join UA.

He knew he had a concussion...he was too dizzy to even consider sitting up, much less walking. And there was no one at home to worry about him.

So when a head of verdant green attached to a cute face appeared in his field of vision, his first thought was that he was hallucinating.

"Wow. Who did you piss off?"

He felt someone carefully pull him up, and he had just enough coherent thought to try and walk rather than have the girl drag him.

When he found himself in a slightly out of the way flower shop, sitting in the back, he tried his best to focus on the girl who helped him.

She muttered something under her breath, and the flower hair pins in her hair glowed before two parts of the six flower petals broke off and formed an off-shape oval.

He felt the difference immediately...it was obvious she had a strong healing quirk because his concussion was rapidly healing over and his dizziness was passing. Even the cracked ribs were healing themselves.

When she was done, the two parts that broke off rejoined to become part of the left flower in her hair.

"Thank you," he said gratefully.

"So what did you do to earn such a nasty beating?" she asked, openly concerned.

He tried to avert his gaze.

"I want to join UA, and three of my classmates disagreed. Vehemently."

Something in the way he was acting caused her to give him a look he couldn't readily identify. He would later recognize empathy.

"Let me guess...they have flashy quirks and think they're hot stuff that would get admitted into UA instantly because of it, and the teachers are more likely to praise them for their quirk rather than stop their behavior," she half-guessed.

He nodded miserably.

"The fact I'm quirkless doesn't help either."

"They're idiots. Anyone can have a flashy quirk, but it takes someone with real heart and courage to be a hero. Just because they have an impressive ability means nothing if they don't know how to use it correctly. I knew a teacher in a hero school who was known for throwing out his entire homeroom class because they thought being a hero was all about being flashy and looking good for the media instead about helping people," she said in annoyance. "Everyone thought I was quirkless for years until we found out it was because I didn't have the proper focusing tool for my ability."

Seeing the hope in his eyes, he knew then and there he had met an angel. It wasn't the fact she had healed him and had shown disgust that his classmates had beaten him up for wanting to be a hero.

It was what she said next that cemented it and would start a friendship that would last for a lifetime.

"I don't care what anyone says. Even someone without a quirk can be a hero. You just have to work harder at it than the rest to make up for what you lack. Support companies exist for a reason after all and if nothing else you can be their testing dummy for new gear for heroes before they can be marketed for specialized use while helping people."

Something about the way she said that made him remember a pre-quirk hero who was able to fight toe-to-toe with the major villains without getting killed for it.

"You mean like Batman?"

"Without the emo and angst," she agreed. "Or the bank account and fake playboy personality. Personally I'm more of a Marvel fan myself, but it's such a pain finding the comics since quirks became the norm."

His face lit up.

"You like pre-quirk comics?"

"I like the classics. I mean you have to wonder if X-Men wasn't a scarily similar version of what happened when quirks first appeared, considering how mutants would fit in perfectly in our society today without having to hide."

He wondered if this was what it was like to be in love. Not only did she encourage his dream, but she liked pre-quirk classics!

"Where are my manners. My name is Toshi," he said with a beaming smile.

"Nozomi," she said smiling back.

Toshi became a frequent visitor to the shop. Mostly to visit with Nozomi, who worked/lived there. Imagine his surprise when he found out that she was home-schooled, and could make scarily detailed observations about quirks! Watching her break down a rookie hero's quirk was both fascinating and openly terrifying, because she was very efficient at making a general guess of what their quirks actually did and what they could do to make improvements.

Reading her notebooks was scary enough. There were pages upon pages about quirk analysis that went into more detail than most people would imagine. He had to wonder if other heroes put this much time and effort to learn about their quirk and how to use it.

Being around Nozomi was like a breath of fresh air. The first time his bullies ran into her, they soon regretted harassing him in front of her.

She didn't use her quirk (though how a healing quirk could be used offensively he didn't know) to kick their asses and make them run screaming for their mothers.

"How did you do that?"

"Aikido and some karate. Before quirks or even guns were around, people learned how to use their bodies to defend themselves. Martial arts is one thing the villains can't take from you and are perfectly legal regardless of what country you're in."

Toshi didn't even think twice about what he said next.

"Can you teach me?" he asked.

Nozomi grinned at him.

"It's a good thing you know how to take a punch, because you're going to be receiving a lot of them," she replied.

Toshi would soon learn that was an understatement. When he asked for training, nothing could have prepared him for the next year of absolute torture. However he wasn't complaining...he could feel himself getting stronger month by month and his movements were much more fluid and less like a colt learning how to run for the first time.

It was during one of his rare days off when he was eating at a ramen stand that he would have a meeting that would change his life almost as much as Nozomi already had, and pave the way towards his future as the top pro hero.

That day he met the woman who offered to give him a quirk that all but insured he would become a hero. She definitely approved of the training regimen Nozomi had him on. She was not, however pleased when she learned he had told Nozomi about One for All.

(It would be at least a decade or two before he found out the cause of her sudden one-eighty in regards to his slip-up. Even then he still didn't fully believe it.)

Nozomi POV

In retrospect, she should have seen it coming two years ago. Seriously, how dense was she that she missed who Toshi was?

Quirkless, oddly charismatic and a drive to become a hero despite the odds with bangs like that?

If she hadn't seen him transform into a much younger but oh-so-familiar hero, she likely never would have figured it out until they were at UA together and they gave his full name.

Toshi...short for Toshinori Yagi, aka All Might.

Nozomi was glad Toshi wasn't around once she got home, because she had kicked herself repeatedly for not realizing who he was until he used One for All in front of her for the first time.

His teacher had been wary of having her in the know...right up until Nozomi took her aside after realizing who her best friend was and told her the truth. Once she found out Nozomi was the ninth inheritor of One for All, picked by the young man she had just chosen as her successor, her credibility went up.

To be fair, even Nozomi hadn't expected her hair pins to have the ability to travel through actual time if she put enough power into them with all six fairies out. That being said when she saw that idiot Kirishima again, she was going to kick his ass because she had no idea how to get back to her own time and was now stuck several decades into the past.

She just hadn't realized how far back she had gone until now. Sure, she knew the dates and had been annoyed by it, but she had no clue she had gone so far back that she would meet All Might before he ever gained One for All, much less joined UA!

Well, nothing for it. Nothing really changed realizing Toshi was the untested and still naive version of All Might.

Though it did make her growing crush on him even more unspeakably awkward, because in her time Toshinori Yagi was the closest thing she had to a father figure in her life, and in this lifetime he was potential boyfriend material.

Kurenai-nee-san, who had taken her in once she proved she knew her way around flowers, hadn't stopped teasing her about the fact that Toshinori had an obvious crush towards her that would swiftly developing into something more if she ever gave him the okay.

All too soon the UA entrance exam approached.

Toshinori looked at the red head his best friend had laid out flat with a single right cross.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked.

"Possibly not, but something about him screamed 'punch my lights out' to me for some reason. That and his arrogance pissed me off."

He reminded her of Bakugo at his absolute WORST, when he acted more like a villain than hero and his ego/pride was running completely out of control. The fact this asshat looked entirely too familiar wasn't helping, and she had the sneaking suspicion she knew EXACTLY who this hot-headed ass was going to grow up to be once he graduated.

If she was right, then her right cross was going to be a preemptive payback for his wife and children for being a complete dick.

Nozomi felt justified the second she was given detention for punching out a recommendation student after she heard his name. Though the detention's punishment was downsized once she pointed out that if he couldn't take a hit from a girl who got in on a "healer's scholarship" then how was he supposed to last against actual villains?

People with useful healing quirks were so rare that most hero schools would fight to have them attend. So much so that once a student passed the basic entrance exam they were automatically admitted into the school with all their fees and supplies paid for...under the provision that they spent a set amount of time working in the infirmary until graduation.

Which meant her quirk made her infinitely more valuable than the hot head's fire power. Hence why she only got a light slap on the wrist and told to clean the infirmary on their day off as punishment.

"What exactly did he do to piss you off anyway?" asked Toshinori.

"He asked me out on a date, as if I would consider a quirkest like him worth my time. The fact I'm one of the better looking girls in the class and the one most likely to make hero didn't help," said Nozomi in disgust.

To be fair, it wasn't her fault that most of the class didn't really stand out with their quirks. Sure, they were moderately useful but it was pretty clear to anyone who knew what to look for that they were unlikely to be more than "B-List" heroes who were more filler than anything. The kind of people who either got stuck in the sidekick role or eventually quit.

Nozomi almost missed the dark look that crossed Toshinori's face hearing that. Clearly he was not pleased that this "Enji" guy was already trying to pick up the girl he had a crush on and had been best friends with for years.

(Nozomi would be torn between either laughing or sighing about the fact that she inadvertently kick-started the epic rivalry between Endeavor and All Might years before it would have begun. Especially considering why it started.)

A few hours later...

Enji glared at the loser that until now had registered as quirkless because his ability woke up late.

"What was that, trash?" he snarled.

"I said keep your hands off Nozomi. There's no way I'm going to let someone who only wants her for her quirk to date her, considering she's my best friend," said Toshinori, staring down the hothead without hesitation.

"What makes you think a loser like you has any chance with her? You barely know how to use your own quirk. Besides, what girl wouldn't want to date someone like me, who's almost guaranteed to be the top hero once I graduate and start working as a pro hero?" sneered Enji.

"You're an arrogant ass who doesn't even care for her as a hero, much less as a person. All you see is her quirk and her looks," said Toshinori, glaring. "Besides, she's her own person...so long as she's happy I don't care who she dates."

Though deep down he hoped she would look at him like that, he knew better than to try and push the issue and possibly turn her off on the idea of dating. He had been crushing on her for years since he realized she was encouraging him to be a hero long before Nana-sensei passed down her quirk to him.

Even now, Nozomi was one of his strongest supporters and would merely sigh in exasperation before patching him up after training with Gran Torino.

Enji sneered at him.

"Next heroes versus villains exercise, I'm going to roast your ass so bad you'll never recover."

"And I'm going to punch your face to hard through the wall it will make your mother unable to recognize you," said Toshinori glaring with intent.

Nozomi had a rather odd look on her face when she had to patch them up after the exercise...mostly when she found out what the two were arguing about after the fact.

Toshinori took the surprisingly strong head slap as his due... that ass Enji totally deserved the broken bones he got, looking at his friend like that! Nozomi was more than just a mere breeding tool!