Chapter Text
Go check out Shackles of Time by All_usions and Eternal_writes!!!!! It's another time-traveling ex-villain Izuku fic and it's AWESOME!!!!! +v+
Izuku was Quirkless.
A label that defined his whole life.
Helpless. Talentless. Useless.
His fate was written in stone by the time he was five. Sharp words and dark bruises were engraved onto his mind and body by everyone around him. Not even his best friend, Kacchan, was spared, when his sneers and 'heroic' quirk seared into his skin. Everyone gave up on him before he could even begin. He was meant to die somewhere quietly in the background, where the world could forget that there was anyone named Izuku Midoriya.
But he was a stubborn kid. He held on because he had his mother's love. Her kisses washed away the worst of the bruises. Her warm meals filled back his empty heart. Every hug, every gift, every precious moment spent with her was what made him keep on living, no matter how cruel the world became. He would be a hero for her. He wanted to save people just like she did. He'll change the world so that there were no more kids who had to suffer like Izuku Midoriya because of their quirk or lack of it. He would do it. He would show the world what a Quirkless kid could do and shove it back in their faces. They beat him down and tried to break him, but he's stronger than their torment. He'll break the system or die trying. For his sake. For his mother's sake. For the only person who looked him in the eye after that fated doctor's appointment and told him, "Yes, you can be a hero. It'll take a lot of work and there will be a lot of difficult challenges, but I know that if there's anyone who can become the first Quirkless hero, it'll be you Izuku!"
For the longest time he carried those words with him. Even when the days grew dark and he couldn't breathe under the pressure, those words his mother spoke when he was four gave him hope.
But like all beautiful dreams, it had to end some day. He turned fourteen. He was attacked, crushed by his idol, and saved Kacchan only to be berated by the very same heroes who stood by and did nothing to help.
It wouldn't have been all too bad. Okay, so heroes weren't all that great and the current Number One, the man he looked up to all his life, is kind of a fraud and doesn't think he'll amount to much because he's Quirkless, but that's fine. It'll be fine! He'll redouble his efforts. He'll train more, build better support items, and be able to hack so efficiently that he may as well be a ghost in the digital world.
The phone rang. He pattered up to the landline and answered, his world shattering once again with just a handful of impersonal words.
His mother never came home that day.
~*~
LEAGUE OF VILLAINS STRIKE UA AND CRIPPLE ALL MIGHT!
FIRST YEARS DEAD AT USJ ATTACK!
CHAOS IN HOSU - HERO KILLER MURDERS UA STUDENT!
CLASS 1-A CURSED?
SPORTS FESTIVAL WINNER KIDNAPPED AT UA TRAINING CAMP!
T HE DEATH OF ALL MIGHT AT THE HANDS OF ALL FOR ONE!
QUIRKLESS GENED UA STUDENT TRAITOR FOR LEAGUE OF VILLAINS!
UA SHUTS DOWN AFTER PUBLIC RIOTS FOR FAILING TO PROTECT STUDENTS!
MASTERMIND OF THE LEAGUE OF VILLAINS, DEKU, IS QUIRKLESS?!
HOW JAPAN CAME TO FEAR QUIRKLESS VILLAIN!
THE ABUSE OF NUMBER ONE HERO'S ENDEAVOR'S FAMILY!!
PUBLIC HERO COMMISSION RAISING CHILD SOLDIERS AS "HEROES"?!?!
NOMU RAZES TOKYO AND MUSTUFASU!!!
NOMU SPREADS TO CHINA AND KOREA - THE BEGINNING OF THE END?!?!
Where are your heroes now?
~*~
It was silent. Dead silent. It didn't matter how much the wires fizzed, the metal clanged, or the small explosions from crossed circuits sounded off in the lab.
It was silent. Dead. Everyone was dead.
Izuku grit his teeth and tried reworking the circuits once more. Fourteen-year-old him was an idiot. Those dreams of a brighter future with the League burned out when Shigaraki released an army of Nomu across Japan. He'd managed to escape with a handful of people and join up with another small group of survivors. It didn't matter that he and Toga and Dabi were villains. It didn't matter that Katsuki, Hatsume, Uraraka, and . . . and Shinsou were heroes. Those distinctions had long been blurred, and so now all they were is a group of people trying to survive an impossible situation because they were all too stubborn to just die. There was no escaping this hellscape. There was no hope for a future.
Not until recently anyway.
He connected the wires and a spark of electricity flew. There was a quiet hum of the machine whirring to life. His breath hitched, eyes wide and unbelieving as he slipped out from underneath the panel, careful not to bang his prosthetic leg against the floor again. He shot up and started scanning the controls, the gate, the power source as the machine rumbled underneath his fingertips.
He took a step back and ran his hands through his messy, greasy, tangled hair. He pulled his goggles away from his eyes and snapped them on his head. He looked at the machine in awe and let out a laugh.
"It. . . It's working. . . It's working!"
The pitter patter of feet came up from behind him and he turned around, still beaming. Standing there was a girl barely into her teens. The stained white shirt she wore was two sizes too big and had the sleeves ripped. Uraraka's faded pink jacket wrapped snugly around her frame, the sleeves rolled up to her forearms. Ripped jeans, scuffed combat boots, belts lashed securely around her hips and torso that held Toga's and Shinsou's knives. Choppily-cut white hair brushed the tips of her shoulders in ragged waves. Bright red eyes on a haggard face stared back at him. Her bangs fell over her forehead but parted at her golden horn.
His smiled tapered off into something softer, gentler. "Hey Eri."
She swallowed thickly. She marched forward, face hardened to hide the hopeful gleam in those ruby eyes in case she hadn't heard him right. Izuku's heart panged. That old ache rose back up at the sight of a kid who had to grow up too fast too soon. Even before things went to hell with the Nomu, she'd been stuck with the Yakuza. She never got the chance to experience a normal childhood.
He resolved to change it this time.
"Deku-nii . . ." She murmured, tired eyes raking over the machine. She took in every aspect of it - the soft hum, the gigantic gate, the control panel . . . Her gaze flickered back to his. "This is it?"
"Yeah, Eri," He ruffled her hair. "It's time."
She scoffed, cracking a small smile. "You're terrible."
"Got my favorite little sister in the whole wide world to laugh, didn't it?"
"You're incorrigible."
He whistled. "Big word for a short stack."
She punched his arm and he faked a gasp of pain. Her face scrunched up and she shook her head. "For Kami's sake, Deku. You were the shortest out of all of us."
He groaned. "Don't remind me. Dabi never let me forget."
Quiet chuckles that petered off. Silence passed between them. It felt unreal, almost. After years of surviving in this post-apocalyptic world, after all the people they lost, after resigning themselves to just trying to get to the next day alive, they finally had the chance to undo all of that. No more deaths. No more Nomu. No more apocalypse.
"You'll kick their butts for me, right?"
He grinned. "Who do you think you're talking to?"
"An idiot?"
"Where did I go wrong with raising you?"
She patted his arm unsympathetically and sauntered over to the machine. Izuku scurried after her as she sat down on the floor. He made quick work of fastening the helmet to her head, checking over the controls one last time, and making a brief prayer in his head that this was going to work for once in his life.
An explosion rocked the base. Eri and Izuku looked at each other, paling. That blast came from two up, which meant they have a handful of minutes to get the ball rolling.
Wordlessly, Izuku fired up the machine as his little sister barred her teeth in a fierce scowl that would make Katsuki proud. Her eyes locked onto the blast door on the other side of the room. Her hands tightly gripped the knives stashed in her jacket, poised to throw at a moment's notice. Izuku flitted around the controls, fiddling with levers and cranks and buttons and switches.
"Eri, power up now!"
A bright golden glow glimmered from under the helmet. It traveled through the wires that fed directly into the gate. With a crackle, sparks began to burst, and then a shining portal of white light encapsulated the space bordered by the metal frame.
With a crash, the door to the lab blasted open and smashed into the opposite wall in a hunk of twisted metal. A blur of silver zipped through the air and impaled the incoming Nomu in it's exposed brain with a screech of pain and fury. Eri whirled her head around to the frantic man, yelling, "Go, Deku!"
More Nomu started pouring in. Eri threw knife after after, impaling each one through the brain and eyes with a shriek of fury. "Go!"
He dashed to the portal. He squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth as his heart screamed at him to turn around and join the battle to save Eri, his sister.
But he can't. He whipped around one last time, committing her small frame and furious, desperate expression as she fought against the Nomu with the knives of her fallen brothers and sisters. "I love you, Eri! I'll find you!"
She grinned ferally, though it was pained and she was down to her last knife. "You better beat Chisakai to the ground for me! Love you, Deku!"
He jumped into the portal. The last thing he could see before he disappeared entirely was a Nomu reaching out for his sister and her panicked expression before her eyes caught his.
She smiled.
Then nothing.
~*~
Izuku walked through the door of his and his mother's shared apartment, ready to collapse at a moment's notice. His nose burned with the stench of sewage clinging to his gakuran, but it's been there for so long that he could no longer smell it. He was exhausted. He'd love nothing more than to drop dead to the floor and sleep, but he didn't want to inconvenience his mother with his tired body blocking the entrance. Shower first, then change, and then collapse.
A ring jolted him out of his thoughts. He frowned, not really feeling up to answering it, but something in his gut told him that he should. Or maybe it was just nausea from swallowing that sewage. Maybe he could get mom to take him with her for a check-up at the hospital when she goes for her night shift?
He blearily stumbled over to the landline and managed to pick it up after a few tries.
"H-hello?" He croaked.
"Is this the Midoriya residence?"
"Y-yes, this is Izuku, Inko Midoriya's son."
Silence.
". . . Midoriya-san, I'm sorry to say this, but your mother . . ."
A fog pulled over his mind. Inko Midoriya was there at the Sludge Villain attack at the shopping district. One of Kacchan's stray blasts had exploded a nearby cafe where she was enjoying her day off. Everyone was able to evacuate in time, but . . .
She died. Saving the life of a child with her body when the debris came down. She was the only casualty in the whole attack. She died.
Leaving him on his own.
He bounced from home to home. No one wanted to take care of a Quirkless child after all, whose fate was that of failure before he even had a chance to prove himself. He still went to Aldera. The jeering grew worse. His classmates all told him that it would be better if the Sludge Villain had taken him instead of Bakugou. None of them knew about the fate of his mother, because her casualty had been blotted out for sake of Bakugou. After all, what he did was an accident, and it would severely damage the victim's mental health if he were to find out he indirectly killed someone.
The next four months was torture. His mother was the only bit of light in his life, and now? Now she's gone. He wouldn't come home to gentle hugs and smiles and katsudon. He'd go to a house where the other kids picked on him and the adults turn the other way. He'd be lucky to get any dinner before it was stolen by the others. He wanted to see his mother again. He couldn't blame her for saving that kid's life. He just wished she didn't have to die in the process as well.
He gritted his teeth as he limped to that house. His body was decorated with bruises and burns, courtesy of the other kids in his classroom and Bakugou's lackeys. Should he be glad that Bakugou no longer joined in the torment? It's not like he hasn't destroyed him enough already.
His eyes burned. His throat clogged with despair or rage, he didn't know. He ducked into an empty alleyway and ripped his backpack off his shoulders, sending it hurtling to the ground. His books, textbooks, and that stupid hero analysis journal that was burnt to a crisp spilled out into the pavement. He screamed in frustration and broke down, falling on his knees and sobbing his heart out.
"What ails you, child?"
He sucked in a breath and his head shot up. A man in a tailored two-piece suit stood there on the other side of the alleyway. His body looked seemingly incorporeal, comprised of a dark mist that rose and disappeared like a silent flame. He had a grocery bag in one hand. His yellow eyes burned brightly in the dark.
His analysis book was open in front of his feet.
Izuku sniffed and hastily wiped his face. He got to his feet, muttering, "S-sorry, sir, I-I didn't m-mean to bother y-you. I'll be g-g-going now." He bowed, but a sharp pain lacing his thigh had him wince and crumple back to the ground instead.
The mist man moved forward and dropped his groceries. He caught Izuku before he fell, but he hissed as the man pressed against one of his injuries on his shoulder. He was gently lowered to the ground, the man's eyes narrowed as they scanned his body.
"You're injured. Do you have anyone you can call to come help you?"
He weakly scoffed, frustration and bitterness creeping up his throat. "No. They won't bother with a Quirkless loser like me. I'm useless."
The confession rang out in the alleyway in silence. Izuku realized with mounting horror what he just said and stammered, "I-I'm sorry! I-I didn't m-m-mean to - !"
"It's alright," the mysterious man gently said. "And I would have to say, you're far from useless."
He grimaced. He shook his head, weakly smiling. "Th-thanks for t-trying to make me f-feel better, but really, I d-don't have anything g-going for me."
"That's not true," The mist man picked up the burnt notebook from the ground, and Izuku's heart lurched at the sight of it. "You're quite the observant young man. I'm certain that any of those listed here would appreciate your thoughts."
"B-but they're heroes," he weakly argued. "W-why would they listen t-to a Quirkless person like me? N-no one does."
"I would."
Izuku blinked. He scanned the man for any semblance of a lie, but his body language read that he was being honest. His breath stuttered and he whispered, "R-really?"
The man nodded. He reached out a hand. "Why not come to my home so that I can have those injuries treated? I know a few people who would love to hear about your observations of their quirks."
A spark ignited in Izuku's viridian eyes. Eyes that had been glazed and dull for the past four months. A tentative smile bloomed on his face as he hesitantly held the hand that reached out to him. "I-I'd like that."
At that time, Izuku Midoriya disappeared into that portal. His sudden disappearance would be reported as a missing person's case, shelved and forgotten the very day it was filed as a runaway. What they didn't know was that the boy would later attend U.A.'s General Education course as Akatani Mikumo.
What they didn't know was that he would become one of the most feared villains in all of japan.
D E K U