Chapter 90

.::Drawing Blanks::.

Getting Kurogiri to warp Izuku to Aiko's apartment was much easier than he'd expected. The man hadn't asked any questions or even pressed for a reason, just wordlessly opened a warp gate to her apartment. Between that and the faces on the omurice that morning, Izuku was starting to suspect the misty man was still in an "off" mindset, but he didn't see a point in addressing that when it worked to his advantage.

He stepped through the portal and ended up in his bedroom, the familiar (and some not so familiar) faces of heroes greeting him from the posters. "Aiko-nee?" he called, poking his head out the door. He went to the neighboring apartment, but found it empty as well. Was she out, then?

If so, it didn't really matter. He wasn't here to see her anyway.

He returned to his room and started searching the bookshelf, which sure enough had some notebooks. Not nearly as many as his room at the Alliance headquarters, but still a few. He pulled out the first one and felt his face fall when he saw the childish writing on the cover: Support Item Ideas.

"Guess I was still trying to figure out alternatives without a Quirk," he muttered as he flicked through the pages. They were all items he could use as substitutes for Quirks. Of course, since he wasn't actually an inventor, they weren't too detailed. Mostly just rough sketches—not diagrams, sketches—of theoretical inventions and descriptions of what they could do.

Izuku got the sense that he started this after running away, given one page had a bunch of scribbled-out drawings and "Mobile Hands" at the bottom. Based on the text, the hands were meant to be remote-controlled and able to crawl. Which would be frankly terrifying. Thank goodness tiny Izuku's artistic abilities weren't able to draw hands, or he might have nightmares.

Once he thought that, he also realized that several of the support item ideas lined up with popular video games. Nothing too direct, but he now recognized the flower staff that shot lightning as an homage to the fire flower from Mario. He suspected the many super-powered swords also came from video games he didn't know. Same for all the blasters and laser guns.

Most creative one went to the bazooka that shot eggs that exploded into sticky goo. He had no idea what that was inspired by, but it was certainly unique.

It was a strange glimpse into his alternate self's life. It seemed that even after running away and ending up with villains, he hadn't fully given up on his dream. And judging by some of the handwriting that he didn't recognize throughout it, he suspected he might have had some surprising support. Based on the snarky nature of some of the comments, he suspected the additions might be from Tomura.

The thought of Shigaraki supporting him made Izuku feel weird, so he closed the notebook and put it back. The next one was for hero costume and name ideas, and flipping through it he found he'd diversified a lot from his All Might-inspired origins. It also seemed to be missing many pages, so maybe that had been due to necessity from irritating Shigaraki.

When he found the third one had similarly missing pages, he started to get an idea of why these notebooks were here and not at the Alliance base.

The last one had a blank cover, but Izuku flipped through it for all of thirty seconds before slamming it shut. The very first page opened with the words, "My doctor says I should write stuff out to feel better and vent, so I guess I am." The other pages read like a diary, and it had only taken a few glimpses of the words "mom and dad" and "crash" to realize this was probably a therapy diary after his parents suddenly died.

He felt somber and oddly guilty as he placed the book back on the shelf. Some things were too personal to look at, even if it was technically himself. He felt weirdly intrusive for even skimming it as briefly as he did. It took a few seconds to shake off the lingering sadness and homesickness that had started to rise with that brief glance.

More importantly, none of these notebooks were the one Aiko mentioned. Clearly he hadn't left it in plain sight. He started pulling off other books from the shelf, just to see if he'd hidden it behind them the way they hid stuff on Shinsou's bookshelf, but no dice. Checking under the bed, mattress, dresser and end table didn't get any results either, and the same went with checking furniture in the main room of the apartment.

After half an hour of looking, he felt more frustrated than anything. He'd been hoping to find the notebook before Todoroki and Uraraka would arrive, so he could review it in private. They'd all agreed to meet around noon at the warehouse, with the two of them grabbing lunch on the way for all three of them to eat there. Once they started talking about whatever the heck was happening in Odawara, Izuku had a feeling he wouldn't be able to focus on the notebook too much.

It got to the point he started knocking on the walls of his room to check for hidden compartments behind the posters. None of them sounded hollow, and his frustration was reaching its peak when he suddenly realized one of the many posters decorating the wall wasn't a poster, but a drawing. He froze, hand hovering above it poised to knock as he just stared at it.

Six figures, two of them clearly drawn at a later point based on the difference in art quality. Izuku instantly recognized his parents and himself, and then Shigaraki and Aiko as the later additions. After identifying them, his gaze lingered on the scribbled-out girl between him and Aiko, who seemed to be part of the original four.

She had been drawn with multi-colored hair, lavender and blue and pink, and there was a large white square drawn in place of her left eye. Izuku stared at it in confusion for several moments, trying to puzzle her identity. He felt like he should know her, and that wasn't just some weird subconscious influence from his counterpart. Yet looking at it now, he drew nothing but blanks. The fact she had been drawn at the same time as his parents suggested he'd drawn the four of them before running away—

And then it clicked that he'd made the drawing before running away, which meant he'd probably hung onto the drawing as a keepsake of happier times.

After a few seconds Izuku retracted his hand and turned away, a bitter taste in his mouth. The drawing as a whole dampened his mood and drive to search the room, so he decided to call quits on the search. He left a note on the table in case Aiko showed up while he was gone, just in case she noticed anything, and then headed out.

He still had more than an hour left so didn't go to the warehouse right away, instead going to the nearest convenience store. He wanted to grab some snacks and—more importantly—browse the magazine selection to find some good ones for Aizawa. By the time he finished up, he had just enough time left to walk to the warehouse before their meeting.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Uraraka and Todoroki were already there. When Izuku crawled through the rusted hole in the shutter and laid eyes on them before even fully entering he felt himself freeze, just staring at them.

At first, he honestly didn't even recognize Todoroki. His hair was pitch black and covered with a knit cap, and he wore bulky red winter clothing that looked more suited for mountain climbing than a simple hike. He'd even peeled off the coat to tie around his waist. He faced away from Izuku, talking to Uraraka.

During his momentary shock Uraraka glanced his way and visibly perked up. "Deku!" she called, making Todoroki turn to face him as well. Once Izuku saw his face, the sense of familiarity washed over him. The scar and mismatched eyes were just as he remembered, even if they still felt incomplete and wrong with the hair.

But more importantly, he saw the same recognition as he'd seen with Uraraka and Kaminari.

It made something settle inside him, and he finished his crawl inside and offered them both a timid smile as he got up. "Hey guys, long time no—oof!" He yelped as Uraraka tackled him in a hug, squeezing him tight. When she pulled away she had a giant grin on her face, larger than even their last meeting.

"I missed you so much, Deku! You're doing okay, right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Which is really weird to say, since I'm living with villains. But..." He trailed off, glancing behind her at Todoroki. The other teen had approached during their hug, and up close he could see even more differences. His face was slightly more gaunt than back home, a testament to the fact he'd been living on the streets. His hair was also longer than it was back home, and a bit more shaggy.

As Izuku took in all the changes, all he could think to say was, "Your hair is black."

"I dyed it," Todoroki replied with a shrug. "I also usually wear an eyepatch, I woke up with it in my pocket." He pulled it from his pocket as he spoke to show Izuku, and as he looked at the white square his mind suddenly flickered to the drawing in his room.

"Oh," he said softly, the pieces clicking into place. "That was Ayane-nee."

"Huh?" Uraraka asked, and Izuku blinked, realizing he'd said that out loud.

"Oh, sorry. I was just thinking of this drawing in my room at Aiko's place."

To his surprise her face lit up with recognition. "Oh, the one with your parents and that scribbled out girl? I saw that and was wondering about it! She's not your sister, is she?"

Izuku shook his head. "No, Ayane-nee lived next door when I was really little. She was in middle school and her family was pretty busy with work, so she spent a lot of time at our apartment. She moved out when she started high school though. And after that, we lost touch." He hadn't seen her in years, so he hadn't recognized her until seeing Todoroki's eyepatch.

"I noticed one of her eyes was weird in the drawing," Uraraka murmured. "I guess it was an eyepatch then?"

"Yeah, exactly," Izuku confirmed with a nod. "She always wore one on her left eye. It's kind how I'd recognize her, actually," he added with a faint smile. "Her Quirk was Color Change, she could change the color of her hair and eyes. Mom says when she first moved in, I was confused because I thought Ayane-nee was a different person every time we saw her. I apparently thought there was some kind of eye thing going around because of the eyepatch."

Uraraka stifled a laugh, cheeks puffing up and her eyes bright with amusement. "I thought that girl's hair looked really colorful!"

Izuku's smile widened at that. "Yeah, though she usually only had one color at a time. I guess I wanted to make her Quirk obvious? I don't know why she wore the eyepatch though," he added thoughtfully. "She just always had it."

Talking about Ayane brought back a slew of warm, fond memories. Though much of it had faded with time, she'd spent plenty of time in their apartment babysitting and playing with him. She'd even gone to the park with him and Kacchan a few times. The day she moved away had been one of the saddest of his young life; he remembered he and his mom had just cried endlessly while waving at her family's car as it drove away.

Despite the lingering fondness from those memories, Izuku wouldn't call them particularly close though. He couldn't even clearly recall her face anymore. Chances were he'd made that same drawing back home and just couldn't remember it; the art style did seem to match up with when was six, around the time she left. He only saw her a few times after she moved, and by middle school she'd left his life completely.

But to his eight-year-old self who'd just ran away, those memories would be fresh in his mind. His smile faded then, realizing he'd probably still thought of her as close.

Or... did he? "I wonder why she was scribbled out," he muttered absently. "Was it maybe the only drawing I had of my family? No, probably not. And even if it was, that doesn't make any sense that I'd scribble her out. Maybe she made me mad...?"

"Can you really get that mad at someone though?" Uraraka asked with a frown. "You're not really the type to hold grudges..."

"But he does live with villains now," Todoroki interjected, and... that was a very valid point that had them all going silent.

"...Okay, enough of that!" Uraraka said after a moment, clapping her hands together. "We've got a lot to go over, and a bunch of fast food from WacDonald's that's getting colder by the second! Let's start eating and talking."

"Sounds good to me," Izuku agreed in relief, while Todoroki had already headed to the back where the couch was. They'd left the bag of WacDonald's on a camping stove in front of it to keep it warm, much to his surprise. "Wow, you guys are really prepared, huh?"

"Uraraka has a lot of stuff," Todoroki said bluntly as he started unpacking the bag, and she had a faint blush.

"Yeah, I kinda went overboard at the camping store, heh... Really glad grabbed my stuff when pushed me—" She stopped short, expression going sour.

"You were talking about Aiko?" Izuku guessed, and she just groaned.

"I hate this Quirk so much."

"Well, at least it won't get in the way of telling me about what's going on at Odawara. Besides the whole kidnapping Mic-sensei thing."

"Maybe we jinxed it by leaving Ashido as backup in case something wrong," Todoroki mused. He'd finished putting all the food on paper plates and passed one to Izuku, and he unwrapped the chicken sandwich while the other boy continued. "We didn't think something would go wrong with her, though."

"To be fair, I think we got used to thinking of Odawara as safe," Uraraka said sheepishly. "It sounds like villains never show up there. I guess Kuroe-san seems a little shady, since he apparently knows Seiko and all, but..." She trailed off, looking around. "Wait, Seiko's not here, right?"

"No," Izuku reassured her. "She doesn't go to Aiko's place, and I don't think she's actually at the base today?" He'd tried calling her, but had gotten no response. "She wasn't there yesterday, either. I still don't know what she does, so no idea where she might be. And Aiko wasn't at home today either," he added as an afterthought. "I ended up leaving a note in case she came back and noticed some stuff out of place. Still not sure what she does outside... chemistry."

He shuddered, eyes briefly glazing over as he thought back to the lab tour. "Aiko," Todoroki said softly. "That's... You guys think she knows..." He trailed off, clearly struggling to finish the sentence by how his eyebrows furrowed, and it took Izuku a moment to realize why.

"Oh, um, yeah, we're pretty sure she knows Dabi," he confirmed reluctantly. "And, um... sorry we couldn't tell you right away." He still felt guilty (and slightly incredulous) over Hawks beating them to the punch on that.

Todoroki didn't seem too offended or hurt by that though. "No, I understand. It would have been a lot to process on top of everything else." He frowned, looking conflicted as he stared down at his own sandwich. "It's... still a lot to process."

Izuku and Uraraka could only nod, all of them falling silent as they just ate. It was hard to respond to that. They still had their own misgivings and struggles about the situation, and even then, they had no idea how it must feel for their friend. A full minute passed without anyone talking.

Surprisingly, Todoroki was the one to break the silence though. "It doesn't matter right now though."

"Huh?" The others looked at him in surprise, and he met their stunned gazes with that levelheaded, stoic coolness he'd become known for.

"We have other priorities," he said firmly. "We need to fill in Midoriya on everything that's happened on our ends."

"Yeah, I really want to know already," Izuku agreed with a nod. "I mean, Anjou mentioned a runaway network when we met, and I know there's apparently a ghost...?" Uraraka swallowed a mouthful of fries as she pulled out her phone.

"Deku, there's so much more than just that," she said, and the next words engraved themselves in Izuku's mind forever more: "We have a lead."

And with that, they began the long explanation of everything. Of Todoroki meeting Kuroe and getting connected to the runaways in Odawara, which included a surprising number of their classmates. Of Anjou managing to match Ashido's story to the one she'd briefly heard recounted from Todoroki. How she helped Ashido get to Odawara to stay with Kuroe, with Kirishima tagging along.

And how when the two of them met, Shouji appeared to reveal that he'd seen their world in a dream.

Izuku sat up with rapt attention at that part as they recounted his description of chasing the rogue janitor-bot. He, too, clearly remembered that day; after the initial panic and chaos, it had been easily one of the funnier moments of their school lives. It was amazing to hear about a firsthand perspective from a dream of all things, and so accurate too.

That dream had been courtesy of a man named Porter. A name they learned when a literal ghost appeared at the grand reunion when Izuku had to write the letter.

"And now, we're all doing graffiti to try to find him!" Uraraka said, showing him a Tweeter account on her phone. She scrolled through dozens of posts, showing photos of graffiti messages that he recognized cited events in their world. "We're doing it in cities that Mail said he might visit to check if stuff's different from other worlds. Jirou started it by Nighteye's place, but we all have the login to the account. This way if he sees it, he can message us there!"

"That's brilliant!" Izuku exclaimed excitedly. "So that's why you were in Numazu? He might go there? What's there?"

"Apparently Oracle, from Team Storm Chaser, is also their sibling," Todoroki said. "Apparently he's a villain in some worlds, so seeing if he visits the agency is a quick way to check what he's doing...?" He trailed off questioningly and Izuku frowned. He recalled Ashido mentioning Oracle in her story, but he hadn't known he was connected to Team Storm Chaser.

"I'm ninety percent sure Oracle doesn't exist in our world," he muttered. "Or if he does, he uses a different name. I've seen a couple people with different names from back home. But if he's underground, I also might have just not heard of him..."

"What about a woman named Saki?" Uraraka piped up. "She's also one of their siblings, and apparently works with Sir Nighteye here? It sounds like she's a hero, but Mail never mentioned her codename."

Izuku's frown grew. "I don't know, I don't know many people's actual names. Do you know what she looks like, or what her Quirk is?"

"Not really," Uraraka said glumly. "He didn't talk about her much."

"Well, then what about Mail and Oracle? If they're siblings, they might have a family resemblance. And the Quirks might be similar, too."

"I don't think that would work. Ashido says Mail and Oracle don't look anything alike, and Shouji said Mail doesn't really look like Porter, either, so I don't think it'd help if we described them. I don't think they're actually related by blood...?"

While she explained this Todoroki looked thoughtful. "Midoriya, do you know if All Might was heavily injured in the past?" he asked, making Izuku jump.

"H-huh?" he sputtered. Yes he had, but Izuku wasn't going to say that! Instead he nervously stammered, "Um, w-why do you ask?"

"Mail said Saki's Quirk let her check people's states. He mentioned it when telling us about how Porter's dreams work. Apparently in some worlds All Might has a major injury that she could sense with her Quirk."

Uraraka gasped. "Right! And Mail said it basically gave All Might two forms, his buff one and the skinny one he got after Kamino! And that made me remember we saw him in his skinny form when I visited you in the infirmary at the Sports Festival! He was visiting you, too!"

Oh. Oh, crap. Izuku had forgotten that any of his classmates had ever seen All Might in his skinny form before Kamino, let alone that he'd visited him. Now they were both looking at Izuku expectantly, waiting for his response. After several seconds he sighed, silently apologizing to his mentor. He wouldn't be able to dance around the truth this time, so he'd have to give them at least a partial answer.

"Yeah, he did get injured," he confirmed reluctantly. "I actually met him a year before starting at UA, and found out when his time ran out. He didn't tell me the details of how he got the injury, just that he was in a bad fight five years before we met. So... a bit over six years, now?" He shrugged. He didn't know when exactly he'd fought All For One beyond the fact Izuku would have been around nine, maybe.

"So, you met him only a year before school?" Todoroki asked, and Izuku started to respond before suddenly stopping. Wait.

"Todoroki, he is absolutely not my father," he declared tiredly. The blunt statement had Uraraka choking back a laugh and Todoroki blinking. Izuku remembered being flustered at the first accusation of being All Might's secret love child, but after so long dealing with this mess, he didn't feel embarrassed at all. "My dad is Midoriya Hisashi. I am definitely not related to All Might. He visited me at the infirmary because he helped me train after I found out his secret."

Todoroki squinted at him suspiciously, still doubtful—"Did you blackmail the symbol of peace to train you?" he asked, and Izuku's brain short-circuited. What?

"NO!" he yelped, horrified at the notion. "He offered to train me! I would never tell someone his secret or hold it over his head! Do you have any idea how disastrous it would be if word got out he had a time limit?"

"Pretty bad," Uraraka said quietly. "Just think if the villains knew about it at USJ." They all shuddered at the thought, but in Izuku's case he felt an extra chill because they didn't realize how close of a call that had been. All Might's time had run out; he'd pushed past his limits that day to defeat the Noumu, and paid the price for it.

"Well, anyway, I still don't know who Mail's sister is," he said after a moment, deciding to change the subject. "You said she could sense All Might's injury, but there's a lot of ways Quirks can do that. Did he give any other details on it?"

"Not really," Todoroki said with a shrug. "Just that she could detect the injury in both forms."

"Maybe it's Ragdoll?" Uraraka suggested. "Her Quirk can tell if people are injured, and Saki sounds like it's a Japanese name!"

"No, it can't be," Izuku said without missing a beat. "I mean, for starters, I don't think her name's Saki. But also, the Wild, Wild Pussycats are still active in this world. Well, except Mandalay," he added as an afterthought. "She's an actress now, I guess...?" He didn't know the details, just remembered seeing it mentioned in one of his notebooks.

"Huh, wonder why only she retired then."

"Yeah, me too. Rescue heroes are pretty safe in this world and aren't targeted by villains, so it's not like she had to leave. And I think Water Hose is still alive, just retired, so she doesn't need to look after Kota full-time. Uh, I think anyway? Actually, come to think of it, the rescue hero thing makes it kinda weird that Team Storm Chaser has an underground hero. They're historically a rescue team, so they wouldn't need to go underground..."

He mumbled to himself with a frown, and Uraraka perked up. "Oh, right, we actually talked about that! Deku, get this. We think that Shadesse might have worked as an underground hero back home!"

That had Izuku's head snapping up. "Wait, what?" he blurted. "Shadesse?" He knew only a little bit about her, since she retired when he was four and loathed the media, but her ninja aesthetic had really stood out on Team Storm Chaser. And her Quirk, which let her store stuff in scrolls like medical supplies or food... or weapons... or drugs found during a raid...

"Actually, that kinda makes sense," he admitted after a few seconds. "But what made you think that?"

"Because in our world, she disappeared without a word, but in this one she made a big announcement when she retired!" Uraraka explained. And then her shoulders slumped, her enthusiasm gone. "Which, uh, Todoroki says... means she probably... died." Her voice tapered off at the end, and Izuku slowly turned to Todoroki with a look of horror. Todoroki didn't seem particularly bothered by the topic.

"Sometimes, heroes' deaths are covered up," the other teen explained with a shrug. "It's rare, but it happens. I think she probably died in an underground operation, so they lied and said she retired to avoid lowering public morale. And also to avoid compromising whatever that operation was."

"Oh," Izuku said faintly. It was surprising and grim, but his reasoning made sense. Team Storm Chaser was pretty well known on an international scale, and revealing one of them worked on underground cases—and then died on said case—could cause some pretty serious scrutiny. "Actually, now that you mention it, the autographed poster I have doesn't have her signature back home. Or Veilance, but we know Veilance already died, so..."

He trailed off with a mild grimace, but Uraraka seemed to focus on a different detail. "You have an autographed poster from Team Storm Chaser?" she gasped, eyes lighting up. "When did you get it? How did you get it?"

"It was a birthday gift when I turned five. We have it framed at... home..." He trailed off yet again, the gears in his brain starting to turn. His mind flickered to Aiko's apartment where a near-identical poster hung, the only difference being the signatures. Veilance's signature was missing on both, but the one in Aiko's apartment lacked Noir's signature instead of Shadesse.

Except, suddenly he wondered: was it really a different poster?

It wasn't just that, either. There was the framed drawing with Ayane in his room, meaning he'd held onto it not just until and after his parents died, but even took it when he ran. It suggested he'd thought of her as important even two years after she would have moved away. Even if she'd been scribbled out since then, surely he had other drawings of his family he could've taken.

And then... All Might's battle with All For One.

The pieces started to slot together in his mind as he stared at his half-eaten sandwich, brain turning over the entire conversation thus far. And as they did, Izuku really didn't like the picture it was forming. "Deku?" Uraraka said worriedly. "Are you okay? You suddenly became really quiet."

Izuku took a breath, slowly raising his head to look at his friends. "Guys," he said faintly. "When did this world's history diverge from ours?" That had Uraraka and Todoroki frowning.

"When All Might died," Todoroki replied quizzically, as if it should be obvious, but Izuku shook his head.

"Guys, the person who injured All Might in our world... It was All For One." That had the others tensing, eyes going wide.

"So... they really did fight before in our world," Uraraka breathed. She'd asked before, when they first reunited at Aiko's apartment and went over his letter, but he'd evaded answering. Talking about All Might's previous battle felt like an invasion of privacy. Now, though, it was unavoidable.

"It happened five years before I met him, when I was fourteen," he said, repeating his earlier statement. "It happened when we would have been around nine."

All at once, he saw the understanding flash on their faces, eyes practically bulging. "We were seven," Uraraka whispered. "It happened two years earlier in this world. Why did they fight earlier?"

"I don't know, but there's more. In our world, Shadesse probably died when we were four. Noir was alive until we were about eight, but... Here, he's dead." Saying it out loud, it felt like a fact, a cold certainty settled inside him. Izuku had no confirmation, hadn't even looked into the rescue team in this world, yet he knew he was right as continued, "He must have died here before my fifth birthday, while Shadesse survived instead."

"And that's also before All Might fought All For One," Todoroki murmured, and Izuku nodded grimly. It had been so obvious, the evidence had always been in front of his eyes, from the moment he read that letter, but he hadn't fully realized until now. After all, there had to be a reason All Might and All For One fought earlier.

"This world changed from ours even before All Might died," he declared firmly. "So, what was the first change?"

None of them had an answer.

So, remember the veeeeeery first chapter? And how it opened with a flashback to Izuku talking to his babysitter, Ayane, after getting diagnosed as Quirkless?

Well, I'm looking forward to the reactions of those who do.

Some bigger news: I'm taking next week off from updates. Next Sunday I'm getting my second vaccine, and a LOT of people have had some bad reactions to the second shot that have lasted into the next day. My buffer's also gotten a bit low, only at 92 right now, so I think I might as well use the extra time to build it up again. Especially since I have some EXCITING plans for the next few chapters, I want to make sure they're top quality.

Question for next time: What was the first change?