When Setsuna returned with a stone faced expression, Hitoshi knew something went wrong. He rose from the wall he'd been resting against beside Shouto. "Setsuna, what happened?"
"None of your business," she retorted sharply, brushing past him.
"You were too hard on him, weren't you?" Itsuka questioned, standing just a little further down the hallway.
"So what if I was?" Setsuna didn't break pace. "If he continues as he is now, he's going to get himself killed. I'm doing him a favor."
"You're not seeing him for who he is," Itsuka called out to her. "All you can see is our Izuku, and how he doesn't compare. How is that fair?"
Setsuna came to a stop. Both of her fists tightened at her sides. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax. "The scouting party will be back tomorrow. We have our war meeting right after breakfast at 10. Tell the others." And with that she resumed her brisk pace, quickly disappearing behind a corner.
"Go check up on him," Itsuka told the two boys present. "I'll go after her. See if I can knock some sense into her." She flexed her right hand experimentally as she took off.
"Come on," Shouto turned the opposite way, heading for the stairwell. "Let's go see how badly Setsuna screwed things up."
Izuku stayed silent. Todoroki and Shinso had given up trying to ask about what Tokage had said, and the vestiges had finally quieted after they realized getting Izuku to converse was a fruitless effort. All he did was repeat what she'd said over and over in his head. He understood where she was coming from, but he just couldn't let anyone else get involved in this fight. It was his to finish and his alone. He couldn't let anymore people risk their lives over this fight that was meant to be just between him and All For One.
"Izuku, we should talk about this," Nana spoke, apparently having decided against leaving Izuku alone.
You think she's right?! Izuku was halfway to jerking his gaze towards where he could hear her voice coming from before he remembered Tokage's advice. Instead he kept his gaze facing forward. I can't get anyone involved. They won't be able to keep up. You know that.
"They are still only high schoolers, so going up against a supervillain like All For One would be asking too much," Nana conceded. "But you have to remember that you are still just a high schooler as well, Izuku. If they shouldn't be tasked with such a dangerous mission, neither should you."
Except I don't have a choice, do I!? Izuku bit back, finding himself growing uncharacteristically angry. I was given this power without any real understanding of the cost it would bring. Now I'm stuck with having to take down All For One because I'm the only one who has the power to! It's my destiny, whether I like it or not!
Nana tried to speak again, but Izuku mentally shut her out. First Tokage, a girl he scarcely knew berating him for being nothing like the Izuku she'd loved, and now Nana agreeing with her. Why couldn't any of them just understand!?
Izuku was getting so worked up that he failed to notice the building they were approaching. Nor the warning shouts from both Shinso and Todoroki. The next thing he knew he was hanging upside down in a net.
"Ah, a good ol' classic that one," a girl's voice said cheerfully from below. Izuku craned his neck to see Mei Hatsume grinning up at him. She wore a tank top with her overalls tied around her waist. She lifted her goggles, her scope lens-like eyes examining him. "Do come on in! I've been expecting you!"
"First things first, here ya go!" Hatsume tossed him a small package. He blinked, peeling away the wrapper and found himself holding Gran's cape.
"Sorry for taking it," Hatsume was already knee deep in a massive junk pile in the corner of Gym Gamma, which the entirety of it seemed to have been turned into one big lab. There were several massive junk piles, but they at least were contained with stretches of mostly clear floor in-between to walk. Work benches were set up haphazardly with either broken or incomplete projects laying atop.
"We needed a way to make sure you were who you said you were," Hatsume spoke. "Of course, interrogating you was the best way, but while you slept I took a look at your gear and compared that cape to the one we got hanging on Torino's memorial. Exactly the same. It's honestly quite amazing. But these-!" She lifted Izuku's damaged gauntlets from the pile. "These babies are magnificent! My, the other Hatsume must be some sort of genius! However-" A mad twinkle gleamed in her eyes. "I can do better!"
"You say that like you haven't already been-" Shinso started, only for Hatsume to toss the gauntlets back into the pile.
"And of course I got started on them right away," she pushed her way out of the junk. "Oh, but you can't see them yet. Not until I've finished!"
"What about the other stuff we asked for?" Todoroki asked, poking a suspicious spherical device on one of the tables. It immediately sprouted spider legs and scuttled off the table before disappearing into the junk.
"Oh, those were finished ages ago," Hatsume waved him off as she picked up a screwdriver and began unscrewing a small container as she walked. "Now, onto why you're here!" She set the container on a table and picked up some sort of scanner before rushing back over to Izuku, lifting his arms, scanning his body in various areas.
"Uh huh," she murmured, sliding her goggles back on. "Slight frequency variations. Expected. Not so different from ours…" She hummed, flickering a couple of switches on the device. "Any adverse reactions to the food here?"
"Huh?" Izuku was startled by the question. "N-no?"
"Any unusual symptoms in general?" The device was passing over his head, making steady beeping noises.
"No."
"Aaaaaand unique frequency signature verified!" Hatsume jolted upright, narrowly clipping Izuku's chin with her head. "Mostly similar to our own, but with just enough differences in length that it doesn't quite match up. Very fascinating! Oh, what a baby I could make with this info!"
"I don't follow," Todoroki looked very lost while Shinso rubbed his temples.
"English, Mei, please," he asked.
Izuku, however, thought he knew what she was getting at. "You're talking about the frequency of which humans give off, right?"
"Right-O other Izuku!"
"If you can isolate the common frequency humans give off in this world, you could then compare it to someone who came from another dimension," Izuku muttered. "Isolate their frequency and maybe use that as a way to-"
"Trace it back to your world," Hatsume finished, a wide grin on her lips. "Smart, just like our Izuku. It's very lucky our dimensions are so similar, or else you run the risk of just not being compatible with our food, water, even the very air we breathe. In fact, maybe it's because our dimensions are so similar that you ended up here..."
"Could you make a transdimensional hopping device?" Izuku asked, hope bleeding into his voice.
"Given time, yes!" Hatsume responded. "But…" She lifted her goggles, her usual loud and outgoing self replaced by a more solemn look. Already Izuku knew he wasn't going to like what she had to say next. "This is something many have deemed impossible. Countless warping quirks have been tested to see if dimension traveling was possible, but all failed. For a better chance at success, I need to have access to the quirk responsible for this. It'll speed up the process significantly."
"Also giving me more information on this 'Starfall' and her quirk would be immensely helpful," Hatsume continued. "More specifically, the nature of her warping capabilities."
Izuku spent the better part of the next hour giving her as much information as he could remember about the villainess from his world. Her real name was Hoshika Ijichi and her quirk's name was Celestial Absorber. Her warp holes were more akin to wormholes, which Hatsume pointed out already were theorized to allow one to potentially travel across space and time. Perhaps even across dimensions, if the conditions were right.
Hatsume was able to scrounge up a bit of info on Hoshika Ijichi from an online police database from a computer she'd gotten running again. Not much was known about her except that she'd gone missing during high school and hadn't been seen since. All For One could have gotten to her, but they'd never seen him or any of his subordinates use any of her quirk's abilities, so it was likely something else had occurred.
"Not much we can do on that front," Shinso said, finishing the rest of his acorn flavored jelly pouch. "We'll have better luck trying to find the one from your dimension. Provided she's even here."
"And if she's alive," Todoroki added unhelpfully.
"That's enough of that!" Hatsume decided, jumping to her feet as if shocked by electricity. Knowing her and her 'babies', Izuku checked around her feet just in case she had been. "I've got some babies to polish up so I need you all to scram!"
"Yeah yeah," Shinso slowly got out of the chair he'd been lounging in, yawning. "Some of us need to get some sleep."
"You never get sleep," Todoroki pointed out.
"Lies," Shinso replied with yet another yawn.
"Oh, and Izuku?"
He looked back at Hatsume from the doorway where she was hauling a large box out from the wall. "Make sure to come back here soon. I'll have something for you." Undecided if that was a good thing or not, Izuku followed Shinso and Todoroki.
"Is she as eccentric in your world as she is here?" Todoroki asked.
Izuku thought about it. "Maybe just a little less. But, you did go through a war, so that could have calmed her down a bit."
Shinso nodded in agreement. "By the way, if you want, since you don't really have a place to sleep, you can use Izuku's room at the 1A building."
"I-" Izuku looked away. "I couldn't."
"Izuku," Todoroki stopped in front of him. "Don't put yourself down just because you think our Izuku was better. You are still Izuku Midoriya, a kindhearted and amazing hero, regardless of what you yourself may think. So just take the room. Our Izuku wouldn't have minded in the slightest.
Izuku looked at him wordlessly for a moment before giving in. "Alright."
"Hm," Shinso was studying Todoroki. "6 out of 10. Your speech could use some work."
Todoroki silently approached the other boy and placed two of his right fingers on the back of his neck. Shinso yelped and leaped away from him. "That was cold man!"
Izuku felt the tightness in his chest ease just a little. If nothing else, it was nice to see that even during the end of days, there were moments like this occurring.
Izuku stepped into his other self's room, suddenly feeling wary. It was that sensation of coming into your room after your mother has gone through, cleaned everything, and rearranged all your items. The room felt both familiar and foreign to him.
He left the lights off as he shut the door behind him, slowly making his way to the middle of the room. The curtains hung open, letting in a sliver of moonlight that provided just enough light to see. The various All Might merchandise Izuku was accustomed to in his own room wasn't as bountiful here. His furniture remained the same, yet different at the same time.
His bed was neatly made with only a few wrinkles and one pillow out of place. The contents of his dresser remained the same for the most part, most of the clothes he remembered owning within. Yet there were a few empty spots, one of which would have contained a black sweater with the katakana for 'chair'. Izuku paused at that thought, before shutting the drawer.
A neat pile of notebooks adorned the top of his desk and when he picked up the top one, he saw that it was the 18th edition of his hero analysis for the future. Except it lacked the word 'Hero', instead replacing it with 'Quirk'. He flipped through it, seeing various heroes he didn't recognize in the beginning before realizing these weren't heroes at all. He stopped on a page titled Cryoheart - Revised. Both pages contained two drawings, one of her in a decorated red kimono, and the other of her in a pale blue bodysuit, both costumes having fur lining around the neck.
Villains, Izuku realized. I never wanted to include villains in my hero notebooks, but I guess cataloging their quirks and analyzing them just as I would with heroes would be beneficial.
He set it down, eyes being drawn to a picture frame propped up on the desk. He reached out, gently picking it up and staring at the photo. It featured a scene he never experienced during his life. There he was, freckles and all, grinning in embarrassment as he was hugged by Tokage in a photo booth, her wide grin in the picture showing just how much the world has broken her since.
Izuku didn't know the Tokage from his world, so it was hard to imagine him being as close to her as this Izuku had been. And despite the embarrassment the Izuku in the picture showed, he looked happy. Probably happier than Izuku could ever remember being with someone other than his mom.
With a heavy sigh, Izuku lowered himself onto the bed. He fell backwards, legs hanging over the side. With effort, he kicked off his shoes and hauled himself fully onto the bed. He lay there, his thoughts whirling with emotion.
He turned on his side, trying hard to not let tears fall. As his face pushed into his pillow, he breathed in. It smelled clean, having been freshly washed and dried. Yet, he detected another scent, containing only the slightest hint of familiarity. It was a calming scent, even if only barely there. As his breathing eased, and the turmoil within ebbed, the image of Tokage smiling, however brief it may have been, filled his mind as he drifted off.
When Izuku awoke, his body moved on autopilot. He took a shower, brushed his teeth, and was just about to pull on UA's school uniform before he remembered where he was. He let the clothes drop, suddenly unable to look at the UA symbol without being reminded of everything he learned yesterday. He half considered putting his costume back on instead, but one whiff of that changed his mind. Yet when he went through the drawers looking for something to wear, he couldn't bring himself to put anything on despite most of it technically being his.
That's where Todoroki found him when he walked in five minutes later, sitting on the bed in pants and staring at a pile of clothes on the floor. Todoroki assessed the situation silently before promising to be right back. He returned with a new pair of pants, a white shirt, and a dark blue hoodie. They were just a little too large for him, but he accepted them gratefully.
"We'll be having a war council meeting soon," Todoroki told him as they headed downstairs to the commons. "You're welcome to join."
"I don't think Tokage would want me there," Izuku said quietly. His dreams had consisted of nightmare scenarios of his friends dying gruesome deaths, Tokage's words replaying throughout.
"Well, I'm inviting you, so there," Todoroki said bluntly. "Of course, if you really don't want to, then don't."
Izuku pictured the relief and happiness he saw on his classmates yesterday when he set foot in the dorms. They hadn't cared that he wasn't their Izuku, just that he was Izuku.
"Alright," he decided. "I'll come."
The meeting was held in UA's cafeteria. The rectangular tables had been pushed together in the middle to form a giant table. When Izuku and Todoroki walked in, most of the seats were already filled. All of what remained of 1A and 1B were in attendance along with some older students Izuku could remember briefly seeing around the UA campus in his world. There were very few that resembled pro heroes, but they were all young and none that Izuku could recognize aside from Tiger and Pixie-Bob from the Pussycats. He couldn't help but remember the countless monuments to the fallen heroes outside, a sign of how much tragedy the villains had wrought.
As he sat next to Todoroki, he caught Tokage briefly glancing at him before ignoring his presence as more people trickled in, taking seats at other tables surrounding the big main table. Shinso was among the last to arrive, the bags beneath his eyes just as pronounced as ever. He nodded to Izuku and Todoroki before taking a seat next to Tokage, letting his head drop onto the table. That was apparently Tokage's cue to start as she stood, clapping her hands for attention.
"Alright, thank you everyone for coming," she said. "There are two things to discuss. The first, as I'm sure all of you know by now, is that an Izuku Midoriya from another world is with us today."
Izuku shied away as he felt all eyes turn onto him.
"While he would certainly prove to be a boon to the war efforts, he has no obligation to help," she gave Izuku a pointed stare. "Hatsume is working on a way to send him home, where hopefully the tragedies that have occurred here will never come to be over there." A couple of amens followed that statement before Tokage continued. "Onto our second main topic. Our scouting party returned just a few hours ago. I'll let Lady Nagant take it over from here."
Izuku sat up straighter as Lady Nagant strode from the back of the cafeteria, where she'd been hiding out of sight. He was shocked to see her to say the least. Scars lined her face and arms, likely remnants of when All For One had her self-destruct. Following her was Kuroiro, who literally melted out of the shadows to walk beside her. Following the both of them with his hands stuffed in his pockets was Hawks, his fierce wings tucked behind him, making Izuku wonder if he suffered any lasting damage to them in this world, or if he had healed since then.
"Thank you, Monitor," Lady Nagant gave Tokage a nod before taking her place at the head of the table. "As most of you know, our scouting party's main objective was to search for any other survivors. Hawks?"
"Ahem," He coughed into a fist, bringing up a stack of notecards. "There are pockets of surviving groups across Japan, though none are as large as UA Haven. The second largest would be the one at Shiketsu High, where a good chunk of hero students have pretty much fortified the entire place. They've agreed to meet us here tomorrow morning, along with several other groups. Those that didn't agree to come are those who believe All For One has already won."
Lady Nagant nodded. "Thanks to Vantablack here," she patted Kuroiro on the shoulder and he looked away, embarrassed. "We now have a pretty good idea what All For One's forces have been up to in the last two months. Like us, they've been recuperating from that devastating fight and have holed themselves up in the ruins of Tartarus. Their forces have been depleted slightly, with most notably the deaths of Himiko Toga and Muscular. That's not to mention the dozen or so Nomus that were killed."
"What about Cryoheart?" Todoroki asked with a hand raised.
Lady Nagant shook her head. "She's still alive. And doing well unfortunately."
Todoroki cursed under his breath as he leaned back, silent rage burning in his eyes.
A wry smile nearly formed on her lips, but Nagant schooled her expression. "While the majority of the villains still live, there is one notable thing to discuss. All For One. From what we can tell, he has not made an appearance outside of their base of operations since the last battle. We have enough reason to believe from what Vantablack was able to overhear when infiltrating their base that All For One is injured, and has been for the past two months."
This caused an even louder outbreak of discussion, so much so that Tokage clapped her hands loudly. "Everyone, quiet!" She waited a few moments before nodding to Lady Nagant. "Explain."
"From what little we know," Nagant went on. "When he took One For All from Deku, he went into a comatose state and hasn't woken since. Vantablack tried going deeper into the facility to gain evidence of this, but was blocked by Tartarus' anti-quirk defenses, which seems to only be active in a limited area deep within the facility." She let out a small sigh. "We cannot dismiss that this could very well be a ruse to draw the remainder of Japan's fighting forces out of hiding, but it also could be our best chance to strike. That's what my instincts are telling me."
"That's the state of things so far," Tokage took over. "Their forces still outnumber ours, but if the other groups still holding out come to aid us…"
Izuku's mind was a buzz of activity. The vestiges were all arguing while Izuku tried to process the information from Lady Nagant. It seemed too good to be true. All For One was supposedly in a helpless state? Izuku could scarcely believe it.
"We shouldn't!" Daigoro said firmly. "This is way too convenient to be true!"
"I'm with Daigoro on this," the second user said. "All For One is too crafty. This has to be a trap."
"Think about it," Nana urged them. "What it would mean if it's not a trap, but he really is comatose."
"It would have to be from taking One For All," Yoichi explained. "This quirk has changed significantly over the centuries, gaining both consciousness and additional quirks from when we all once inherited this power."
Which would mean it might be too much for All For One to handle, Izuku finished, having come to the same realization.
"All For One has stolen powerful quirks before and has been just fine," Daigoro argued. "Who's to say this is any different."
Because this is One For All, Izuku reminded him, thoughts racing a mile a minute. But you're right. If he isn't already in control of the quirk now, he will be. Probably even soon. It's a miracle that he would still even be in a coma two months after stealing it. Lady Nagant is right, this would be our best chance at striking, before he manages to wrangle One For All completely under his control.
"Do you intend to fight, Izuku?" Nana asked. He could feel her concern for him, but he ignored it as he raised his gaze to where Tokage was still speaking to everyone. Yes, yes I do. All For One is going to pay for everything he has done!
Hoshika Ijichi, aka Starfall, was having a bad time. First she had lost her prey, Izuku Midoriya. Second, she'd been tossed halfway across Japan. And that was before she realized this wasn't her world. That had been an interesting quirk awakening, something she didn't get much chance to try and replicate since, third, once she tried seeking out All For One, she'd been locked up here in their base; Tartarus. That was well before she realized she'd landed herself in an alternate dimension.
"Let me out of here you assholes!" Currently she was trying her hand at persuasion, her fists pounding on the cell door. "I'm one of you! I work for All For One! Just from another world!" It didn't seem to be working despite having spent the last day trying this method over and over.
"Dammit!" She grit her teeth. "Listen! I can give you information! Just let me speak to All For One! He'll want to know that Izuku Midoriya is-!" She yelped, leaping back from the door, cradling her left hand. Part of it had begun to freeze, along with the rest of the door. The locking mechanism clicked within the door, and it opened slowly. A figure stepped inside and immediately the temperature dropped into freezing.
"You just said something interesting," a cold, feminine voice spoke.
Hoshika backed up against the far wall of her cell, suddenly very afraid. The woman in the doorway stepped further inside, each footstep spreading ice across the floor. It crunched beneath her boots as small clouds of crystallized air blew out with each breath. Her red with flower designed kimono gracefully swayed as she moved, fur lining around the neck.
"Tell me," the woman placed her hand on the wall beside Hoshika, ice spreading from the contact. She moved her face close to hers, a malicious smile gracing her features. "What is it you know about Izuku Midoriya?"
Some updated Hero Names:
Shouto Todoroki - Revenger (Took it upon the death of Touya and Endeavor)
Hitoshi Shinso - Mockingbird (Speaks for itself if you know the bird)
Setsuna Tokage - Monitor (Lizardy is kind of cute, but I like Monitor much better. It represents both her role as a leader and monitor lizards)
I hope you all are enjoying summer! Until next time! Toodles~