Chapter 2: Time Passes and a Miracle

It is said that time heals all wounds. Inko and Izuku grieved for their lost husband and father, but in time they accepted his loss. Nezu visited them weekly and often helped Inko. Nezu had been like a father to Hisashi, he felt it only right that he should look after his adopted son's widow and orphan. Izuku looked up to All Might all the more, for him, the Symbol of Peace was the role model he needed to replace his father. Many times, he and Inko played and Izuku would dress in an All Might onesie 'saving' her from imaginary Villains. He often went to her with Hero names he wanted when he grew up, like Captain Might, and Mighty Phoenix.

But unfortunately, fate hit them hard again. At the tender age of 6, Izuku's dream was shattered when the doctor told him he was Quirkless. He lacked the mutation that showed he would ever manifest a Quirk. That night, Inko went to her son's room to see him watching a video of All Might saving the day once again. "Mom…" he said to her with tears in his eyes, holding his father's helmet, "Even without a Quirk, can I still…be a Hero?"

It was too much for poor Inko, tears poured from her eyes as she went to him and wrapped him in a hug and sadly said, "I'm sorry, Izuku. I'm sorry." And the little boy knew that he would never live his dream.

Time passed, and word got out that Izuku was Quirkless, while Bakugo Katsuki, Izuku's friend, developed his Explosion Quirk. Everyone praised the boy for his powerful Quirk, and Izuku was happy for his friend. But, as for many, power corrupts, and Bakugo Katsuki grew arrogant. He looked down on others he saw as weaker than him, but he especially looked down on Izuku. He began bullying him, and soon Izuku became his favorite punching bag, often coming home with bruises and burns courtesy of young Bakugo.

Inko did all she could, but as a single mother and widow who spent all her savings trying to find her husband she needed to work and couldn't always be there for her son. In her own sadness, Inko retreated into food to help her cope, and started gaining weight as time went on. Nezu did what he could, but he had his own responsibilities as the Principal of U.A. And so, time went on, and six years passed…

The Arctic Circle

Frigga was acting as an escort for this exploratory mission. Even in the summer, the Arctic was dangerous. They needed someone who could lead them to safety in case disaster struck. As soon as they touched down, Frigga closed her eyes and focused. She used her Foresight Quirk to look forward to the next two days to help predict the weather and ensure they would be ready for it. She searched through the possible futures into the best possible world. She searched and continued, until she saw something, someone, she never thought she would see again.

"Holy Mother of God!" she yelled out as she opened her eyes.

"What's wrong?" the leading scientist, David Shield of the United States, asked her.

"We need to take a detour. I saw something I never thought I would. And if we do this right, we may do the impossible! Are you willing to trust me?" Frigga told him.

David Shield nodded, "Just show us the way."

Frigga led the scientists down most of the course they had planned to survey, but then they took a drastic turn to the East. Frigga followed her vision, and ten hours from where they had originally started, they found a large crevice in the ice. "He is here," Frigga said, "At the bottom."

"Who?" David Shield asked her.

"A dear friend," Frigga informed him, "I need the climbing equipment!"

Frigga and the scientists quickly set up for a climb down the crevice, and she got ready to descend. "Are you sure about this? It's been six years, Frigga. No human being could survive that!" David Shield insisted.

Frigga looked at him and said, "My visions have never been wrong. I don't know how, but he is there. And I owe it to him to bring him home."

Frigga climbed down as quickly as the equipment allowed her, letting her vision direct her. She went down 500 meters, when she finally found the bottom. Frigga saw the frozen remains of the monster; it was clear that it was burned down to the bone. She stopped and spat on the remains and walked a few more steps and found the one she was looking for. His body was frozen solid, his long-ruined cell phone still in hand. "It's time to come home, Hisashi," she said as she gently lifted him up.

Two Days Later

To his shock…Hisashi felt something. He felt needles in his body, he heard the beeping of medical equipment, and he smelled medical alcohol surrounding him. He gently opened his eyes to the sight of some kind of medical tent roof. He had a tube in his nose and throat and had to gently look around and blink. He saw Inga in a chair next to him, reading a Swedish novel, its title translated to, Barbarian Boldness. He exhaled, loudly through his mouth, and Inga looked up.

"Hisashi! You're alive!" she yelled in Swedish, "David! He's alive!" she yelled over her shoulder, and David Shield appeared.

"Holy cow!" the American scientist yelled in shock as Hisashi weakly smiled at him. He was one of his international friends; it was David Shield who built his wings and jetpack. "You're alive…I thought Frigga was crazy! How!?"

Hisashi blinked, unable to speak with the tube in his throat. David helped him remove it; it went deep down in him, and Hisashi coughed. "Well, that was some experience," Hisashi said. "Inko'll freak after that last call I gave her. Then I turn up alive and well." Hisashi weakly laughed. "She'll kill me."

At the mention of his wife, Inga and David flinched. "What's wrong?" Hisashi asked them.

"Hisashi…what's the last thing you remember?" David asked him as he started checking his vitals. Hisashi described the fight with the monster in detail, and then his last call to his wife. "I don't think I got brain damage, thankfully," Hisashi said as David asked him various questions about long-term memory, math, and even private details. As he answered questions, Hisashi had a growing feeling of dread in his gut.

He then looked at David and Inga; they both looked slightly older than the last time he had seen them. Not drastically, but as he looked at them, that feeling of dread in his gut grew, like cancer.

"Inga," Hisashi said as his heartrate spiked, "How long was I out!?"

Inga sadly touched his shoulder, "My friend, it's been six years, since we fought that monster."

Hisashi started breathing heavier, and the medical equipment beeped louder and faster, "No…No, that no," he said in his native Japanese, "I can't, I promised them… No… That's impossible!" Tears fell down his face as images of Izuku and Inko filled his mind. Six years… Izuku is eleven now… I missed over half my son's life… He couldn't even begin to imagine what he would look like now after all this time.

He finally opened his eyes as Inga tried to comfort him. "How am I alive?" he asked her in English.

David looked at him and said, "We don't know. Somehow, your cells managed not to be damaged, despite the fact that you were frozen. Plus, all your injuries have healed in that time. We examined you, your ribs were certainly broken, but they're all as good as new now. And your lungs were indeed pierced, but they also recovered. And this doesn't make sense, since your Quirks aren't related to healing at all."

Hisashi sighed, and said in Japanese, "So that bastard's experiments worked… Damn him."

He looked at Inga and David and said, "I'm going to reveal my worst secret ever. That might explain how I survived. But I want two things from you first. Promise me you won't tell anyone unless I give you permission."

Inga and David nodded, "We promise, Hisashi."

"What else?" Inga asked him.

Hisashi told her, "I need a phone. I need to call my family."

Midoriya Residence, Japan

Inko and the now eleven-year-old Izuku had just finished their dinner when Inko's phone went off. She didn't recognize the number but answered it anyway out of habit. "Moshi moshi?"

"Inko, hi," a voice said. The voice of a dead man.

Inko whispered, "Hisashi…" and promptly fainted.

"MOM!" Izuku said and shook her.

"Inko! What's wrong!?" the voice on the phone said, and Izuku recognized it, "D-Dad?"

"Izuku!? Is that you… Man, you sound a lot bigger than the last time we talked…"

"H-How!?" Izuku asked him.

"It's a long story, son, a really long one, and I'll tell you and your Mom as soon as we're together again, I promise," Hisashi told him.

Inko woke up, and Izuku gave her back her phone. Tears started forming and she wiped them away. "How do I know this is real?" Inko asked. "People tried deceiving me before; paparazzi looking for interviews, money grubbers, sick, sick people who get off on tormenting others…

"Prove to me that you're my husband. Tell me something that only he would know," she said. "Tell me how we met."

Hisashi took a deep breath on the other end of the phone and said, "It was eight… no… fourteen years ago now. I had been patrolling the fifth district of the Coruscant Ward. There had been a rise in gang activity, this gang called the Savage Slashers were on a rampage. I found a group of them harassing three women and flew down between them and the women.

"There were ten of them and one of me, but I didn't let that stop me. The Savage Slashers all had Quirks related to blades, some of them made swords, or spikes out of their bodies. One of them had claws, and their leader could make his body hard as steel and turn his hands into swords. That was one of the hardest fights of my life, I must have been slashed at least a dozen times, but I kept them off the women and bought them time to run away.

"I beat them all despite it, until only their boss was left, called himself Steely Dan. He actually knew how to fight, and he had the muscle to back it up. We fought for ten minutes straight, no matter how hard I hit him, the bastardo wouldn't go down. Finally, he got me and stabbed me right through my left kidney. I thought I was dead, and I slammed my fists as hard as I could into his temples, and that finally knocked Steely Dan out.

"I collapsed, I was bleeding hard, when one of the women returned. 'Are you alright?' she asked me, 'Oh no, you're bleeding bad. There's a hospital close by, just hang on.' It was you, Inko, I'll never forget that green hair, or those big green eyes as you helped me up and used your jacket to try to stop my bleeding belly. I had to lean on you to get to the hospital, but we made it. You would visit me every day until I left the hospital. And that was the day I lost my kidney, and my heart," Hisashi finished his story.

By the time he was done, Inko's tears were pouring down her face, along with Izuku's. "Oh Hisashi, my darling, I'm sorry I ever doubted you!" Inko practically screamed. Izuku could only cry as he realized his father was alive after all these years.

They could hear Hisashi crying as well through the phone and said, "I'll be home in a week. At Tokyo International Airport."

Inko managed to say through her tears, "We'll be there. I promise."

"See you then… Ink-chan," Hisashi said, using his pet name for his wife before he hung up the phone. Inko and Izuku held each other as they cried tears of joy and relief mixed with sadness for all the time lost.