Above him, the sky is clear and the sun is shining.
Izuku stared at the sky for what seemed hours taking deep breaths, it was a beautiful day, it almost seemed like the world knew what he had done and it decided to give him this as a sign, a sign that a new brighter chapter for the world had started.
Izuku was exhausted, his body feeling like a bag of rocks after the fight and really he kind of deserved it, more than half of the fight was him going feral with One For All and it's other quirks.
But he had to do it, if he didn't, if he stopped and thinked for even a second he would have died.
A laugh came from beside him, from the other person left in the destroyed battlefield that used to be a city.
All For One, or rather, Hisashi Midoriya, let out a tired laugh as he laid on the ground next to Izuku, his son
"What's so funny?" Izuku asked giving his father, the worlds greatest villain, a glare
"I'm just thinking of the irony of this whole thing, the quirk that I gave my brother, the only one that could defeat me passed down to my only child who has defeated me, quite the poetic ending, don't you think Izuku?" Hisashi said with a smile.
Izuku just rolled his eyes, the man next to him might have been just as tired as Izuku but that wasn't the reason he was on the floor, the real reason was that he was dying.
"You are dying and you are using your last moments to talk to your sworn enemy, seriously?" Izuku asked, annoyed that his father couldn't die any faster.
"You aren't my sworn enemy, really that title only goes to All Might, that annoying blonde was a torn in my side far longer than any other user so he gained that honor" AFO said with the same calmness one would have when talking with a friend
"Am I your sworn enemy Son?" Hisashi asked
"Don't call me that" Izuku said, getting called son by the man who had tried to kill him less than an hour ago made a chill go down his back "but… no, you aren't, that one goes to shigaraki, you are more like my fated rival or something like that"
"fated huh, guess you are right, if you didn't have the quirk you wouldn't have had to fight me and I guess shigaraki did annoy you a lot more than I did" another laugh came from the man, his suit drenched in their blood as he slowly felt his heart begin to slow down, he didn't have long, if he focused the fleetie healing quirks he had he could probably hold on for a few more minutes but his death was inevitable, he looked back to the young man with green hair
"what day is it?" the question surprised Izuku, why did he want to know the date? Izuku was too tired to just say no and really he also wondered what day it was too, maybe he could make it a celebration 'the day the greatest evil was defeated' yeah that sounded nice
He started thinking back, the war started close to a year ago, but the final battle started about two weeks ago and their fight lasted almost two days, both of them too stubborn to just lay down and die, so that would make today… oh
"It's July 15…" Izuku was really seeing the irony of the situation
"Your birthday correct?" His father said
"you… remembered?" Izuku was genuinely surprised, the man that had been missing his entire life, the one he had always assumed never cared about him, remembered his birthday
"why are you so surprised? You are my son, of course I would remember" AFO answered, and he had the guts to sound offended
"well, you never called, visited or even sent any presents so it's not hard to assume that you didn't care about me and mom" Izuku shot back.
Silence fell between them, for a moment he thought that the old man had finally died but it seemed like still had a few more minutes of torture to go through
"Izuku, I always cared about you and your mother" Izuku blinked in surprise hearing what his father said "the reason I left was because I left to fight All Might, I wanted to end it all there, not just the annoying lineage my brother had made but also my life as a villain, after that I just wanted to come back home and have a normal life, sadly, things didn't go as planned"
Izuku stayed silent in shock, he couldn't tell if he was lying or not, the sadness in his voice sounded… genuine.
"that blonde bastard won and I lost my face, I couldn't go back to you like that, so I ran away, I feared that if I went back I could be putting you and your mother in danger, and that brought out my hate for that man, because of what he did to me I couldn't go back to you and your mother, I had lost everything I held dear to me again, but I never stopped caring about the both of you"
"If…" Izuku gulped, he never thought about this but his fathers words caused a bit of curiosity to bloom inside of him "if things had gone in your favour, what was the plan?"
AFO didn't hesitate in answering "I would have taken One For All back, killed All Might and fake my own death, make the fight look like a tie, go back to you and your mother and just… rest" those last words were said with the exhaustion that only a man that has lived for thousands of years could understand
Silence once again fell between the two, Izuku taking in the words, the confession his father gave him and the many mixed feelings that came with it.
He hated this man, he was the cause of so many deaths including the people he cared about, his friends, teachers, all of them died just to give him the chance to fight, so many died for just one simple win.
but after hearing this, deep inside of him, he felt… happy, happy to hear that his father cared about him, that not being with them affected him just as much as it did to them.
He felt angry, angry that it was now that he was saying all of this, in their last moments together, that he didn't try harder to reach them.
He felt sad… sad that his father was dying, this one was the most confusing, he had felt sad, sometimes depressed when his friends died, but he couldn't understand why he felt sad for a man he barely knew, he didn't want to cry but he was too damn tired to stop the tears
"Son… I'm sorry for making this probably your worst birthday ever" AFO said, it was getting harder to breath, he wasn't sure if it was because of his dying body or the guilt of his actions finally catching up to him.
He wanted to do something, anything to make this day a little better for Izuku, because that's what parents do, they try to make their kids feel better but how could he… maybe that…
"Izuku, if you could, would you want to see your friends again?" he asked
"What… what kind of question is that?" Izuku asked back, confused as to where this was going.
"Just humor your old man in his last moments would you?" Izuku rolled his eyes but he couldn't help the sad smile that formed in his face remembering the fun times he had with his friends as he closed his eyes, back when everything was fine, when they were just students and not child soldiers.
"yeah, I would love to see them again…"
Izuku couldn't see it but from the tips of the dying mans fingers, a small black and red tentacle formed and slowly made its way towards the green haired boy too deep in his own memories to notice the danger.
"Son" Hisashi said making Izuku open his eyes just enough to see the tentacle pierce his chest stabbing him right in the heart, soon after came a wave of electricity that ran through his entire body, he screamed as excruciating pain clouded his own mind, his body spasming, his blood boiling him from the inside and yet somehow, he heard his fathers voice loud and clear "Happy Birthday"
Then, his world went dark.
--
Izukus body felt sore.
Not as heavy as before but he is tired and there's a strange ringing in his ear, he moves feeling the cold asphalt beneath him, the soft material from his suit not there anymore and instead replaced by something a lot more loose.
When the ringing finally stops, letting the sounds from the world come back to him, he focuses on the voices around him.
"-so happy to see you again little brother, isn't this the best? All the family is here!"
"Back off you old bastard"
"WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?"
"Come on Shimura, that's no way to treat your guest, what happened to your manners?"
"Can we please try to focus on the situation at hand and then try to kill him later?"
Izuku recognised the voices and the name so that meant that he must be inside One For All again, he must have passed out or something, but why was Nana screaming?
"Uhm guys, the little guy is waking up"
Izuku was finally able to sit up, the soreness in his body slowly disappearing and he opens his eyes only to wince when the light hits them… wait, light?
Izuku takes a moment to let his eyes focus only to discover that he isn't inside One For All unless they changed it and made it look like a dirty alley, he looked around his eyes falling on the ghostly figures of the past users around him, they seemed to freeze when they realize that he was looking at them and not through them.
But there was someone sticking out, a man with white curly hair, he didn't recognize them and the situation only confused him more since they had their arm around first almost as if they were… family
Things clicked into place, All For One, their fight, the war, his mistake.
In a panic, Izuku quickly stood up in a fighting stance and activated full cowl at fifty percent but instead of feeling his body lighter thanks to the boost, instead his body screamed at him in pain as his muscles almost feel like they would tear to pieces and that his bones could shatter if he took a step.
"W-what?" Izuku said surprising himself even more when his voice didn't come out with the usual deep and gruff voice he had gotten used to, insted, his voice was much higher and softer, more like the one of a teenager than an adult.
That's when he finally looks at himself only to not find his hero suit but instead see a middle school uniform on him, the ground seemed closer too, he passed a hand through his hair only to realise that his ponytail wasn't there anymore, he had pulled his hair into one since he had been to busy to get it cut, this also made him look at his own hands and see that they weren't littered in scars and they were much smaller than normal, the only thing he could recognize from his outfit were his signature red shoes on his feet.
He looked around at the ghostly figures waiting for them to do something but they just stood still like they were invisible "What… what happened?" he asked, making them snap and look at eachother.
Nana was the first to react as she looked at him with a nervous smile "Kid… can you… see us?" she asked
Izuku raised a brow at her question "of course I can see you, why wouldn't I?"
The OFA users looked at each other for a moment only to look back at the two white haired people here, first glaring at the taller man.
First was glaring at All For One, Hisashi, his father.
"What is he doing here?" Izuku asked looking at Hisashi with a glare of confusion and anger
"You wound me son, is it wrong for a father to want to spend time with his kid?" he said with a smile on his face which only helped in annoying Izuku further.
"Tells us what you did, you bastard, where are we and why does Izuku look like that?" Nana asked but anyone could hear the anger in her words glaring at AFO who was still smiling and holding first who kept trying his best to try and get out of his grasp but found that he was too weak to push their arm off him.
"All I did was give my son his birthday gift and my apology gift too" he answered waving his hand in the air like nothing of this was a big deal.
Izuku tuned out when Nana started to swear at his father again only to look at himself again, he recognized the uniform, it was from aldera, his old middle school he was in before going to UA, as he looked at his clothes he noticed just how much of a mess he was, a few parts were torn like someone had slashed at him with a knife and some places it even looked burned, he recognized the smell, burned sugar.
Bakugo.
The last time he had seen him he had stayed back to take on an entire pack of nomus from reaching him and the other survivors they had tried to rescue, in one final attempt he decided to blow himself up along with all the other monsters, he had gone out with a bang and honored his hero name 'Ground Zero'
Izuku came back to the present when he felt something in his pocket vibrate, he pulled it out to see his old phone, the one he had before it broke and Mei made one for him, it was weird holding it feeling that it was heavier than mei's design.
He turned it on and his eyes widened
His eyes focused on the date, he watched the clock change and he bit the inside of his cheek hard enough to make sure he wasn't dreaming
"Two… years…" he muttered catching everyone's attention.
"It's two years before I met All Might…" Izuku said looking wide eyed at his father
Above him, the sky is clear and the sun is shining.
