Chapter 26

Chapter Text

The puff of smoke was both disconcerting—Izuku still couldn't use blackwhip?—and very welcome. Hitoshi quickly connected them with barely a grunted, inquiring noise.

"Shoto is safe. Your dad just arrived. And Iida, Endeavour, the hero killer and another pro hero—Native, I think—are all injured but alive."

"Glad to hear it. How about you?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you, Midoriya Izuku. You just went through yet another traumatic event."

"I'm not sure that one really counts," Izuku said, sounding embarrassed. "The other timeline was so much worse."

"I don't care if this timeline was less traumatic. It was still traumatic."

"I'm okay," Izuku said, sounding embarrassed.

"You can't use blackwhip."

"I am aware."

"You were researching your quirks with Papa, yes?"

"Mainly the ones I can't use."

"Can you ask the vestiges?"

"I would but I don't know how to—"

"You rang?" Izuku's vestige asked as he suddenly found himself inside One for All again.

"Are you sure you're me?" Izuku asked in a snarky tone. "I don't remember being so much of a smartass."

"Phhht…"

"Okay, arguing with yourself is just sad to watch," Banjo said with a hearty laugh.

"You saw?" Izuku asked.

"We did, kiddo," Nana said, moving closer to hug Izuku. He leaned into it, grateful that the green mist trapping him was so much less today than it had been the first time.

"Is blackwhip gone?"

"Nope," Banjo said, sounding very confident, "but it is greatly affected by your emotions and mental state."

"So I can't use it because I'm too emotional?" Izuku asked, trying to rub away the tears that always seemed to flow when he was inside One for All.

"I think," Nana said, glaring at Banjo, "that the hero killer being able to cut black whip was enough of a shock to you that you had a moment where you feared you would fail. I have no doubt you would have recovered quickly enough, but Todoroki ended the fight a moment later and you simply held onto that fear rather than moving past it."

"So it's all in my…er…his head?" Izuku's vestige asked.

"Pretty much," Banjo said with a shrug.

"Okay," Izuku said. "I guess that makes sense. I've been using it for communication too, so the shock was probably doubled when I thought I'd lost my way to communicate with everyone but Hitoshi."

"Hmm, that reminds me," Nana said, frowning a little. "What was that about 'alternate' timelines?"

"I'm still piecing it together," Izuku said, turning to his vestige who waved his arms in front of him as if to ward him off.

"Don't look at me," his vestige said. "I only remember bits and pieces of this timeline. Well until you got One for All and I met these people."

"I suppose that would make sense," Izuku said, his mind racing with possible explanations. "If every quirk has a vestige and every vestige is essentially alone inside that quirk there's no interaction or need to communicate. Maybe the stockpiling quirk is what makes communication and learning between the quirks possible?"

"It's a decent enough explanation," Yoichi said, nodding thoughtfully. "Who was the person you mentioned to Hitoshi? Twice?"

"He was a villain in the old timeline—assuming it existed and I'm not just plain crazy."

"Considering the nomu attack on Hosu and the fact that Iida Tenya was doing exactly what you'd feared I'd say it's pretty likely you're not crazy."

"Or maybe between the group of quirks we already have we've somehow created an ability to see the future? Kind of like Sir Knighteye."

"I guess that's possible too," Izuku conceded, "though it doesn't explain the memory of a young girl sending me back in time and telling me not to dodge." He rubbed the back of his neck, a little bit embarrassed to admit the next part. "I tried though, to dodge I mean. It didn't work. The body I had when I started at UA didn't move at all like the body I remembered from the future."

"So this villain," Nana said, apparently trying to bring them back to the more important part of the conversation—whether it was time travel or the ability to see the future was irrelevant in the long run—"Twice? What made you think of him?"

"He has a quirk that allows him to make a copy of anyone, I think. I'm not sure of the details, but I've seen…um in the other timeline, clones that could function independently but with the same memories and abilities as the originals."

"But how would that help you?"

"I'm not sure it would," Izuku admitted. "I have no idea if he'd be able to build a body for me using DNA from my corpse…er pieces, or if his quirk requires the copied subject to be alive at the time of copying."

"Approaching a villain for help doesn't seem like a good idea," En said worriedly.

"It's not," Izuku agreed. "But I know that Hawks didn't want to kill him and that before he met Shigaraki and joined the league of villains he was just a lonely guy with debilitating mental health issues."

"So there's a chance he's not a villain yet?"

"It's hard to say with how the USJ went down in this timeline, but there may be a window for the heroes to help him before the villains approach."

"All Might should be able to help track him down," Nana said brightly.

Izuku frowned. "No offense intended, Nana, but All Might doesn't really have the subtlety to deal with someone with as jumpy as Bubaigawara Jin."

"Aizawa?" Izuku's vestige asked.

"Yeah, I'll talk to him when he gets back from Hosu."

"Speaking of which," Nana said in a teasing tone. "Judging by his reaction, I'd say a certain fire and ice user has a crush on a ghost. That wouldn't have anything to do with wanting a body now would it?"

Izuku willed himself back out of One for All before the blush he could feel rising up his throat could start to glow like a beacon.

It was only part of the reason.

Just one part…

~*~

Shota found Todoroki in the family waiting room of the hospital where they'd taken Endeavour.

"Did the hero killer make it? I didn't kill him, did I?"

"No, kid, you didn't kill him. They're transferring him to the medical wing of Tartarus, but he's expected to make a full recovery and didn't lose any extremities to frost bite." Shota assessed the child in front of him and desperately wished his husband was in Hosu as well. He was the one good with comforting upset kids. "What about Endeavour?"

"Same," Todoroki said with a shrug. "He's in surgery but they're not expecting complications."

"Your family?"

Todoroki looked away. "They're not coming," he mumbled.

"Not even for you?" Shota blurted, wincing the moment the blunt words hit the air.

"My siblings barely know me," Todoroki admitted with a carefully crafted-to-look-casual shrug. Shota recognized it because he'd used the same one himself at that age when his own home life had been less than good. "And I haven't seen my mother in years." Todoroki absently slid a finger over the scar around his eye, the action seeming to be an attempt at self-soothing, and right now Shota really didn't want to consider what that unconscious tell might mean. He needed to get in touch with the lawyers Nedzu had put onto the Endeavour investigation and find out if there was anything he needed to know to help the student in front of him.

"Is there anyone I can call for you?"

Todoroki shook his head. "Is Midoriya okay? Shinsou said he wasn't able to use blackwhip after the hero killer cut it."

"I was not aware of that," Shota said, keeping emotion out of his voice.

"It's why I…" Todoroki glanced away, a slight blush coloring his cheeks. "It's why I overreacted with the ice."

"Not gonna lie, kid," Shota said, grinning wide enough for Todoroki to notice the different expression, "that was one hell of a demonstration of power, but we'll need to work on pacing yourself and energy conservation in class. If there'd been more villains, you may have left yourself vulnerable to their attack."

Todoroki nodded, probably not wanting to admit to how much energy such a huge ice wall would have drained from him. It was clear he was exhausted from the fight or maybe the emotional toll of seeing his father injured. Probably both. Whatever the cause the kid looked like hell, the eye bags he wore nearly dark enough to rival Hitoshi's.

"I haven't spoken to Midoriya today," Shota said, setting aside other worries for the moment. They'd been scheduled to patrol together later tonight, but since Shota was nowhere near home it wasn't going to happen.

"Shinsou said Midoriya bounced back to him after Stain cut blackwhip but that he couldn't use the quirk after that."

"I'll speak to Shinsou later," Shota mumbled, distracted by the police officers heading their way. Yeah, he had an awful feeling this was not going to be good.