File 1: Curious Visitors

Heroic Earth - Year 2214

Nezu took a sip from his tea.

In the coach in front of him are seated three young people: a gentle-looking girl with long straight white hair and pink eyes, wearing a white uniform embroidered in gold and pink as well as a sort of headset with pink horns on the sides, gently blowing her own cup; another girl, this time sporting curious red eyes and long black twintails with red tips and wearing a red and black heavy jacket over an armored black dress and a red tie, with more subtle short horn-like red and black accessories mixed in her hair, who was distracted observing him. No surprise, considering he wasn't human, but a very intelligent rodent.

Though what was surprising were the cybernetic prosthetics she had on her arms and legs. He could probably have guessed she was an amputee due to an accident but the fact he saw more signs of mechanical augmentation on her open back (which was previously connected with a sort of drone/thruster/cryogenic weapon) as well as her own impressive swordsmanship, put more doubts on her being a previous cripple, at least, of the involuntary kind.

Though she pales in comparison with their closely standing companion: a taciturn blue-eyed blond man with short hair that started to turn white and a blue and black jacket that he half-wore as a cape, that not only sported cybernetic limbs but also showed artificial white muscle fibers on the right side of his chest not covered by armor. He may look somewhat relaxed by leaning on the side of the coach but he was 100% sure that the male cyborg was hyper aware of his surroundings, physical and electronic, though he was specifically wary of the anthropomorphic well-dressed rodent that invited them to its office after their somewhat abrupt appearance from some kind of portal at one of the practical exam grounds at U.A. High, just when they released the Zero Pointer.

And they slew it with minimal effort. No, more like overkill. By freezing its joints; destroying its sensors with barrages of lasers and blowing its processing unit with a explosive particle cannon shot, these strangers showed a great amount of teamwork and combat efficiency with that brief exchange against a foe designed to be an insurmountable obstacle, just like an experienced Hero team… even though he never knew Heroes or even Villains like them before.

He was curious, so, instead of calling security like most people in charge of important places would, he just greeted them and invited them to his office to chat. The fact they were more confused than wary further assured him that that was the correct action. As well as formulate and discard even more hypotheses.

Especially when Nezu's attention was centered on the person that was between the two ladies on the coach: a curly green-haired man with green eyes and signs of freckles and scars on his faces that looked to be in his late teens, wearing a gray armored uniform tinged in green whose chest sported an emblem in the form of a wing over a shield with the initials GR and the words "Gray Raven". The same symbol, initials and words that also decorated the blue-themed blond's clothes.

And unlike his companions, this one showed he was quite nervous at their situation, what with the barely contained trembling and nearly imperceptible paling of his skin. There was even a little bead of sweat. If it weren't for his high intellect and experience, Nezu wouldn't have taken notice of those details, which speaks highly of this young man's composure, who unlike his team, knows perfectly that they are in presence of the principal of one of the most prestigious Hero schools in the world as well as a renowned Japanese Hero on his own right. Or maybe the rest knew but either didn't care or just processed it differently.

Funny, given that he was the one giving orders to the others and even physically contributed to the fight by toppling the giant robot by tying up its legs with a grappling hook cable and his self-propelled exoskeleton. The contrast between the confident warrior and the now nervous

young man was worth a few chuckles.

A young nervous man who coincidentally resembles an aged up 14-year old from here, Musutafu: Midoriya Izuku, who went missing ten months ago after a day from school. There wasn't any trace of him, like he disappeared from the surface of the planet. There was at least one suspect, Bakugo Katsuki, who was revealed to have bullied him since they were children. However, aside from the bullying and a suicide bait, there wasn't anything else that would possibly connect young Bakugo with Midoriya's disappearance. The fact that he showed genuine distress over the situation reduced the effects that the discovery of his actions would have on his record, which, while still allowing him to take the admission exam and potentially enter the Hero course, would permanently haunt him for life, one way or another. Same with Aldera Junior High. Their reputation has been tainted forever, no thanks to the teachers and students who turned a blind idea to the blatant bully and Quirkless ableism that was also brought up during the whole scandal.

But at that moment, a person looking very similar to the missing one has appeared on his very own school. Could it be…?

"Pardon me. But would your name actually be Midoriya Izuku?"

"H-hai! Commandant Midoriya Izuku of the Babylonia Task Force squad, Gray Raven, at your service!" The one claiming to be Midoriya Izuku quickly stood up, giving a stiff and nervous military salute.

"It's been a long time since I saw Commandant being that nervous." The white-themed girl commented with slight surprise."

"Yes. Though he was worse at the beginning, especially when he had to report to Commander Nikola." Added the redhead as an afterthought, which provoked the greenhead to gag.

"L-Lucia! That was unnecessary! And like Liv said, that was a long time ago! Even so, he still remains somewhat scary…" He murmured around the end.

"Really? Then that outburst you had at him once was a bluff?" Implied the blond with a hint of amusement.

"You of all people know perfectly why I reacted like that! I believed he was genuinely selling me to Kurono! Goodness, since when were you that much of a tease, Lee?" 'Midoriya' sighed while rubbing his head in exasperation.

Nezu laughed. "I may not be aware of what are you talking about, though I feel like it helped in lowering the tension here, wouldn't you think?" That made the Commandant sigh in relief and a bit of exasperation.

"If you know our Commandant's name, does that mean news of his disappearance were spread?" Lucia asked

"Of course! It's been one of the most talked about topics in the last ten months. I was even contacted as a consultant of sorts for the police. Though even I, with my High Spec Quirk, wasn't able to help too much beyond some conjectures related to teleporting Quirks."

The squad's expressions turned into surprise at that revelation. Slowly, Lucia and Liv turned concerned towards Midoriya, who took it the hardest.

"Ten months…" Midoriya uttered in disbelief. "B-but for me, us, it's been six years, at the very least!"

Lee sighed. "The Science Council thought of the possibility of our worlds possibly having differing flows of time. Seems this is the case."

Worlds? Differing flows of time? It seems this whole disappearance got a lot more interesting… as well as more complicated than expected.

"Midoriya-san." Nezu said . "If it's not a bother, would you care to shed light into what happened that day as well as any relevant events that have happened all those years from your perspective?"

"It's… a long story." Midoriya answered, hesitantly.

"I have a lot of time available, Commandant Midoriya." Nezu walked towards his now empty kettle in order to fill it again with water. "I left most of my current work to my subordinates and I can arrange it so we could continue the following days if necessary. Want more tea?"

"Yes, please!" The adorable Liv accepted the offer for more hot beverage, which left Midoriya looking towards his other two companions, who nodded to him in encouragement.

"Well, given our objective is to build good relationships here for Babylonia, why not?" He said more to himself than the rodent. "It began when I was passing through the bridge on the way home…"

AN: Given Izuku serves as a really interesting gacha protagonist like Timeless Academia showed and I was really excited for this new patch for PGR, my neurons activated and I returned with a glee to MHA as well as re-invest in the story modes of PGR aside from the dailies.

It's a really good game, though I am surprised it still hasn't got too many fics, especially crossover ones. For those not in the know, Punishing: Gray Raven is a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk, anime-styled, Stylish Action RPG from Chinese developers Kuro Games, the same that are developing Wuthering Waves as of the time of this writing. It's about the eponymous Gray Ravens, an elite squad working for a faction housed in a space station called Babylonia with the overall mission of reclaiming the Earth after it got devastated by a cybernetic pathogen called the Punishing that originated from an experiment involving zero-point energy generation.

The main members of Gray Raven and most military forces are Constructs, or Reconstructed Soldiers: full-conversion cyborgs/bionic humans who got their consciousnesses digitized in order to better fight the Punishing Virus, which aside from intentionally killing human cells, it can directly reprogram machines, though it cannot do the latter to organic minds, so while Construct bodies are immune to the human-killing effects of the virus, they're not fully resistant to the mind-control their mechanical bodies make them vulnerable to. Enter the Commandant: a human being that through a Brain Beacon can telepathically link to Construct M.I.N.D.s (Memory Inductive Neural Depository) in order to both maintain the latter's humanity and protect them from the virus. It has more going on but you can either search in the net, play the game or continue with the story.

For those NIKKE enthusiasts, is very similar in tone though I feel PGR is more optimistic (less assholish factions in your own side as well as proper progress in the war plus playable husbandos), though that bias may be mainly because it's been online since 2019 on China while it went global on 2021 and NIKKE's 1st anniversary happened recently. It also shares a lot of dark themes like humans/cyborgs/machines being cruel as Hell as well as cyberpsychosis and viral corruption… And let's not talk about the biomechanical monstrosities.

As for how Izuku would be perfect in the role of Gray Raven Commandant? Answer: the whole squad is as bad as him when it comes to helping people, no matter their somewhat quirky personalities. Even more so with the Commandant being a comparatively frail human who, despite his position being not of frontline fighting, gets directly involved in battle (though they're only directly playable in a section not available to global yet) with nothing more than a exoskeleton, a combat knife, a handgun and a loooooot of serum that protects them from the Punishing. Of course, Izuku being Izuku, found a way to involve himself even more in battle. Which will be further hinted and even explained much later.

This will follow two storylines at the moment: present and past. And given the two-worlds nature, the name of each world will be indicated with the date: in the present, it's the year 2091 in Punished Earth, while it's 2214 in Heroic Earth. Izuku's tale in this fic begins in 2085 PE/2013 HE, covering his time at the military academy, while proper PGR canon begins in 2089 PE. The dates are references to the release of both MHA as well as the CN and global releases of PGR. Given that CN/JP previously exclusive content is being released faster on global, it fits, I think…

In this case, this happens at the very least after Spiral of Chronos/Chapter 21 of PGR (where the wacky space-time hijinks begin to appear proper), maybe after Wintry Shackles, going by how the global patches are being released monthly, coinciding with the end of February, the date of the Entrance Exam.

Hope you'll like it… as well as I'll like going through hundreds/dozens of chapters/episodes of manga/anime as well as hours upon hours of gacha gaming main campaign plus grinding/farming for sidestories…