Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Prologue

"I think there's a child still in the building," Hawks reported urgently, sending feathers into the open windows to try and track down a person who should have been evacuated long before the mission to stop Shigaraki went sideways several months ago. This entire town was a mess of collapsed and collapsing buildings. There shouldn't have been anyone in a fifty mile radius.

"How the hell did they get in there?" Endeavour asked in his usual gruff tone.

"Don't know," Hawks said, frowning at Izuku as his feathers apparently gave him false information. "They weren't there a minute ago."

"If your feathers can't find them, how are you sensing them?" Midoriya asked, still fascinated by quirks even now that everyone knew about One for All.

"Not sure," Hawks said, looking intensely frustrated.

"Could their quirk be redirecting yours?"

"Anything's possible," Hawks said, with a shrug that looked nothing like the carefree ones he used to give to the public. The world was a mess and even heroes, like Hawks, who were previously adored were now under pressure to fix everything that Shigaraki and All for One had broken.

"Do you have a general area?"

"Seventh or eighth floor, maybe the south tower."

"I'll go check it out," Izuku said, used to making decisions without input from the others. It felt almost a lifetime ago that he'd been a student at UA. Hell, he hadn't even finished a full year at his dream school before the world changed forever.

"Deku," Hawks called as Izuku zipped away, "maybe the tenth floor."

"On it," Izuku said into his comms.

There was a time when he would have been too scared to enter a building as damaged as this one, but with the manifestation of One for All's other quirks he had a much better chance of getting out alive even if the building collapsed on him. It wasn't an experience he wanted to repeat a third time, but it had given him the confidence to rescue innocent bystanders even when it wasn't safe for any other hero to attempt.

"Maybe eleventh," Hawks reported, sounding even more frustrated. He gathered an extraordinary amount of information from his feathers so it would be maddening for it to suddenly seem so inaccurate.

Izuku didn't even realize there was no eleventh floor until he burst through the door from the stairwell and found himself on the roof.

"Hawks? I'm on the roof but there's no one h—" Izuku cut himself off when a strange squiggly sort of light entered his peripheral vision. When he turned to look directly at it there was nothing there, but turning away revealed the disturbance once again. "I'm not sure what I'm looking at," he said into the comms. "Hawks?"

"He can't hear you," a soft voice said. Izuku turned back to look directly at the squiggly light and this time there was the shape of a person—probably a girl and quite young, seven, maybe eight. "My quirk messes everything up."

"That's okay," Izuku said, giving the vague shape a friendly smile. "We just need to get you out of this area. It's not safe here anymore."

The child made a noise that sounded exasperated. "Nowhere is safe." She huffed again. "I exist in many timelines and this happens in all of them."

"All of them?" Izuku asked, unable to stop the words tumbling from his mouth. That was a very depressing thought. Was Shigaraki destined to win the war after all?

"All of them," the child confirmed. "Well, all of the ones I know at least."

Izuku was about to reiterate the need to get the child to safety when her outline shimmered brightly and a sound of awe filled the air.

"Except one," the child said excitedly. "You're the guy. The one who changes it all. You can fix everything!"

"Well," Izuku said, smiling his heroic smile the same way All Might did, "I certainly intend to try."

"Excellent," the child said excitedly.

Everything suddenly lurched sideways. At first Izuku thought the building was starting to collapse so it took a moment or so to realize that the building was no longer under his feet. In fact, he seemed to be somewhere else entirely.

"Where are we?" Izuku asked.

"We're in the inbetween," the kid said as if he should have known. "Thanks for doing this. You're so brave."

"Doing what?" Izuku asked a little worried by the weirdness of this encounter.

"Saving the world, of course."

"Of course," Izuku said, glancing around at the nothingness that surrounded them. "Any hints on how I'm going to accomplish that?"

"Time travel, silly. How else are you going to change the past?"

"But I can't time travel," Izuku said, confused as hell.

"That's why I'm here," the kid said, still a less-than-clear shimmer of light but at least identifiable as human now. "I'm sending you back to the point that changes everything."

Izuku had no idea how to get himself out of this, and in all honesty, probably didn't want to. If he had a chance to change the past and fix everything that had gone wrong, he was going to take it.

"How will I manage to avoid making the same mistakes as last time?"

"Easy," the kid said, sounding very confident in Izuku's ability. "Don't dodge."

Chapter One

"Oh dear, that's not going to help."

"I thought you said your kid was smart?"

"He is, Banjo," Nana insisted. "We've all watched his career. He's an excellent hero."

Yoichi shook his head even as he conceded the point. "All Might has been a wonderful hero for decades." Nana nodded once in firm agreement. "But Yagi Toshinori's teaching methods leave a lot to be desired."

Nana couldn't really argue with that. Toshi's idea for preparing Midoriya to receive One for All was… er, interesting.

"At the very least he needs safety equipment. The kid could end up getting tetanus and losing an arm or something," En said worriedly.

"Not to mention permanent damage to his bones and tendons," Banjo added, his voice rising in volume as he embraced his argument. "He's a pint-sized, underfed middleschooler. How the hell does Yagi expect him to move a microwave off the beach, let alone a full-sized refrigerator?" Banjo grunted, tilting his head as if trying to see more clearly, despite their awareness of the outside world not working in a visual sense. "What the hell is he doing now?"

"That's um…" Nana hesitated, not wanting to criticize out loud the man she'd chosen as her own successor so long ago. Had Toshi forgotten all of the lessons she'd given him when he'd been a skinny, quirkless kid himself?

"Is All Might sitting on the fridge he's expecting the kid to move?" Hikage asked, sounding suitably horrified.

Nana dropped her head into her hands, nodding awkwardly even as Toshi taunted his chosen successor, seemingly unaware of the muscles and tendons and internal organs Midoriya risked permanently damaging as he strained against the impossible weight. Not to mention the potential damage if he lost his footing. The sand was filled with broken glass, rusted metal, and discarded syringes, and the kid was wearing shorts!

And, yep, he face-planted. Hell, even with modern quirk-assisted medicine the risks of Toshi's training technique far outweighed the gains.

But the kid was an "authority pleaser" so it would never occur to him to question his mentor's methods. He hadn't even asked if he could include his mother in the secret of One for All. The poor woman thought her son was going to attend one of the most dangerous entrance exams in the country completely quirkless. Possibly the only thing keeping her sane was the outdated belief that he would be turned away once his lack of quirk was revealed. UA had changed their entrance requirements only that year to include quirkless applicants.

Not that Izuku would actually be going in quirkless.

"A hard core gym workout?" Banjo repeated Midoriya's words skeptically.

"The Aim to Pass All American Dream plan?" Yoichi asked, repeating All Might's words in a bemused tone.

"Ten months of absolute hell," Hikage whispered.

Yeah, Nana could absolutely agree.

Ten Months later…

…so I want you to clench your butt cheeks and yell this from the depths of your heart… Ssssmmmaaaasshh!

Oh dear…

~*~

"Seriously?" Shota asked, the delivery his usual deadpan tone but his hair raising slightly as he struggled to stop his quirk triggering with his agitation.

"Of course," Nedzu responded cheerfully. "He has a wonderful grasp of what it means to be a hero."

"He broke an arm and both legs. Heroic spirit or not, a quirk that poorly mastered will get him killed faster than tossing him into a room full of super villains." Shota glanced at Vlad, noting the other teacher's smug expression.

"That's why I want him in your class, Aizawa," Nedzu said serenely. "Imagine how much he will improve under your guidance." It felt suspiciously like the principal was blowing smoke up his ass, but it at least wiped that annoying smile off Vlad's face. Hah! But that petty vengeance didn't change the facts.

"Midoriya clearly has no control of his quirk," Shota reiterated. "Do I even want to know which middle school he attended?"

Nedzu made a show of checking the paperwork in front of him despite not needing the reminder. His quirk, High Spec, came with an excellent memory.

"Hmm… Aldera. We've never had a successful hero-course applicant from that school and this year we have two! How wonderful."

Shota refused to show his annoyance, but it was pretty obvious that Nedzu intended to win this argument. Well Shota was going down swinging and if he managed to poach a couple of students already promised to Vlad, all the better. "Fine, but I want Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, and Iida."

"Done," the rat said happily and far too quickly. Shota really should have asked for more than just three of the legacy students in this year's batch. Vlad's expression had turned to one of annoyance, so bonus points for Shota, but it still meant he had to teach the self-destructing problem child.

"Also," Shota said, pushing his luck just a little, "if he fails the first day's quirk assessment I reserve the right to expel him."

The rat just smiled serenely. That was not permission per se, but Aizawa had a history of getting his own way when it came to heroics students. "I think Midoriya will surprise you."

Shota snorted. "Not with that physique he won't. I can't even imagine what sort of workout routine he followed to end up wiry yet so slow and inflexible."

"See," Nedzu responded smugly, "you're already identifying how to help Midoriya Izuku. He is lucky to have you as his teacher." The chimera clapped his front paws together, signaling that the discussion was closed. "Okay, Bakugo Katsuki…"

"I am not taking the Bomeranian," Vlad grouched unhappily.

Shota would have snorted at the description—it fit the angry kid perfectly—if he hadn't shared the sentiment. The kid had a powerful quirk and had even scored the highest points on the practical exam, but he'd received them all from destroying robots (and yelling DIE! each time. What the fuck? How was that heroic?) and hadn't earned a single rescue point.

"Fine, I'll take him," Shota said with what he'd been told was his creepy smirk.

He needed at least one student he was allowed to expel on the first day.