Chapter Text
It’s dark… why? What happened? Where am I?
I don’t feel anything. My body’s numb…
“Hello; it’s been a long time, Izuku.”
“Huh?” Izuku murmured as he opened his eyes, still feeling groggy. The world around him was a sight he hadn’t seen for a few years; it was dark but bright though there was no identifiable light source, and the black sky looked as though it was moving, like static fizzing from one side to the other. There was a strong wind coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, and his white and silver curls bounced about above his head with the twisting currents, occasionally brushing across his forehead and flushed cheeks. It was both sweltering and freezing, and he could feel his costume sticking to his chest uncomfortably with sweat while his pants billowed around his legs, cooling him down. “Who’s there?”
A pale figure covered in white clothes with shoulder length, equally white hair whipping about their face emerged from the depths of the dark, and Izuku’s eyes widened as he looked into familiar green eyes.
“Y-Yoichi?”
“Hello, Izuku,” the man smiled, extending a sturdy hand out towards Izuku. “How are you doing?”
The time traveller blinked before taking the offered hand in his own, gripping it firmly to shake it. “Eh, I’m just about surviving, so better than expected.” He briefly looked around before meeting the other man’s eyes. “Why am I here? Do you… do you know what’s happened to me?”
“You’re unconscious,” the first wielder of OFA stated calmly, bringing his hand back to his side. Izuku watched as the other man turned around to face out into the nothingness, and he got the strong impression of him watching something only he could see, “and of course I know what’s happened to you. There are laws regarding nature, however lax they might seem with human beings being able to manipulate things they never should’ve been able to, but you have broken one of the most fundamental ones out there. While it wasn’t intentional on your part, you still broke the natural order of time when you came to the past.”
Izuku came to stand by the man’s side, far enough apart that they didn’t feel cramped but close enough that Izuku could still smell the minty smell of Yoichi’s shampoo. He wondered why it was something that the quirk kept of the man’s image since he couldn’t actually shower, but it was strangely comforting nonetheless. “So it’s definitely the past, then?”
“Yes. Did you think this was an alternate universe?”
“Well, I… I don’t know. I could never really be sure of anything…” Izuku stared down at his crooked hands, tracing the scars littering them with his eyes. They stood out so clearly against his tanned, freckled skin, and they shone a bright silver in the otherworldly light around him. “Does this mean that the timeline I came from doesn’t exist anymore? Are… are my friends and family dead?”
Yoichi shook his head, his long hair falling perfectly over his narrow shoulders like a waterfall. He unconsciously tucked the hair closest to Izuku behind his ear and looked at him out of the corner of his eyes. “No; it still exists, but it also ceases to be. It’s… in a realm of its own, so to speak.” Suddenly, the dark sky lit up with thousands upon thousands of differently coloured stars, startling Izuku into looking up. “When you came back in time, your original universe split off from reality and became a possibility that’ll never come to be. It still functions as normal, and the people there will continue to live their lives as they always have until the universe inevitably implodes upon itself as all universes do eventually, but it’s cut off entirely from this new reality. You coming back made this world reality, and made thousands of possibilities that never would’ve been realised come to be.” He gestured to the stars above.
The two men were silent for a while, just gazing up at the stars. So, my mum and my friends are all okay… that’s a relief to hear. I was worried that they were, I don’t know, destroyed when I time travelled, but it’s good to hear that’s not the case. I knew somewhere deep down that they were fine – I mean, Outlaw used his quirk over a hundred times with three others ending up in different ‘points’ and the universe was still intact – but the fear was still there lurking. “Am I really so important that I can create new realities?”
A startled laugh made him look towards Yoichi, and Izuku felt his left eye twitch as he watched the older man wheeze, holding himself up with his hands on his knees as he bent forwards. “Ha, no! How self-centred, Izuku Midoriya! To think,” he let out another laugh, “to think you’re the pivotal point in something as intricate as reality! Ooh, you make me laugh.”
“That’s basically what you were making it out to sound like!”
“Eh, maybe, maybe not.” Izuku watched as the other man sighed and wiped at his eyes. They shone under the light of the stars. “Oh, that was funny. Thanks for that; it’s been so long since I’ve laughed that hard.” He coughed, embarrassed, and Izuku rolled his eyes fondly. “Anyway, this reality has always existed as a possibility in our reality, just a… a very small possibility. The fact it came to be… well, it was just very unlikely, but it did, and so here we are.”
The younger man sighed. “So I really can’t go back? Not even with Eri’s powers?” If this has become the new reality, and where I originally came from has split off from becoming a possibility, then that means it’s on a different string of reality or something, right? And Eri’s quirk is a reversing quirk along one string of time, not a true time manipulation quirk. She can only affect my body’s time frame, not the universe’s, so if she used her quirk on me, I’d only end up becoming younger and not back in my original time. Well, it was a good idea while it lasted.
“No; fortunately, or unfortunately, you’re stuck here.”
“How do you even know all this, Yoichi?” The hero inquired after a brief pause. “I mean, you’re just an impression left inside One for All, right? And, I mean, you don’t have a quirk that allows you to see this kind of thing; your quirk was the ability to pass your quirk on to others, so how do you know all this? It’s a little suspicious, if you ask me…”
The older man chuckled softly, shrugging his shoulders. “You learn a thing or two stuck in this place, believe me.” He gently took Izuku’s hand to pull him closer, directing the younger’s eyes back to the stars still shining above. “Take a look. Do you see what I see, or are you seeing what you see?”
Izuku blinked.
And blinked again.
“The fuck are you on?”
Yoichi guffawed, his pale cheeks brightening to a rosy red as his eyes closed with laughter. Izuku thought the look suited him; it made him look alive and real. It reminded him that yes, while Yoichi was just a figment of his quirk, he was once a real person with thoughts and emotions, with a life, with friends and family and a whole future ahead of him. It made him look beautiful in a way only life can. “Nothing, I swear! I mean, do you see what you believe you should see, or what is actually there? Because those aren’t stars, as I’m sure you’re seeing them as, but the possibilities of reality realised as small colourful orbs, with each colour representing a general overall… resulting emotion of that outcome. It’s hard to explain with words, but once you pass on One for All and join the rest of us here permanently, you’ll understand what I’m trying to describe.”
Izuku didn’t know whether or not he was looking forward to that facet of his inevitable future.
“This quirk breaks the natural order of the universe, too, you know? Just like Outlaw’s,” Yoichi continued, his eyes hardening slightly. “That means we aren’t quite tied to the laws of nature, either. We all see things we’re not supposed to – like the past and future – but it’s not like we can tell anyone other than our current holder, and who are you gonna tell? It’s not like you can go around shouting about things you shouldn’t realistically know and expect people to believe you. And if they do believe you, they’re probably only saying that to gain your trust so it makes life easier when they tell you you should seek psychiatric help.”
Izuku nodded slowly, understanding what he meant. “But no one else has been able to come here before me, have they? Not until they died.”
“Yes, that’s right. You’re different, Izuku Midoriya; you’re not like the rest of us. You’re the singularity point.”
“I still don’t fully know what that means, Yoichi, and it’s been twelve years since you first told me it.”
“And until you figure it out for yourself, Izuku, I will continue to not explain it.”
The two stood in silence for what felt like minutes but could’ve been hours, days, weeks, before Izuku murmured, “It’s… hard, being back in the past. You don’t realise that you’ve forgotten little things about people until you see them doing those same things again, or that they’ve changed so much until you see them twelve years younger and it’s suddenly so obvious. It makes me feel even more out of place, you know? I don’t belong here…”
Yoichi smiled sadly. “No, you don’t, but you’re here to stay regardless. You need to make yourself belong, and if you don’t mind me saying, you’ve been doing a rather fine job of it so far. You’ve changed things for the better for your past self and for Eri, and you’ve formed new friendships with people you hadn’t before. I don’t think you’re as ‘out of place’ here as you might think.”
Another small eternity passed, and Izuku felt oddly at peace. This was one place where things hadn’t changed at all since he’d come back to the past, and he didn’t realise he’d needed some familiarity so badly until he saw the first holder’s face. It released some tension in his shoulders that he didn’t know had settled there in the first place.
Yoichi suddenly turned to face Izuku, his eyes serious. “You do realise that you being here means there are currently three forms of One for All existing in one time frame, which isn’t supposed to be possible. The quirk is strained to its limits and acting strangely, as I’m sure you’ve noticed?”
My legs hurt with the strain of using OFA at eighty percent when I ran to Hosu, Minizuku could feel me when we first touched, and I’ve been slightly struggling to control my quirk as well as I did before… yes, I’ve definitely noticed.
“It’s not something to be worried about, per se,” Yoichi continued, and Izuku noticed the deepening of the frown lines on his brow, the stormy look in his eyes, the way his hands clenched into fists unknowingly, “but you should be aware that things won’t be the same. Toshinori will more than likely lose One for All quicker this time around to compensate and, um…”
“Yoichi…” Izuku encouraged, his own brow furrowing in concern.
“You’re more than likely going to have more issues with One for All than this reality’s Izuku will, purely because he’s the one that got it most recently and, you know, he’s the ‘true’ Izuku here,” the older man raised one hand and made the quote marks when he said that, “but you could also not experience any other problems again. All I can for certain say is, if one of you is using One for All at one hundred percent, the other can’t use it at all. As you both share the same DNA, you both share the quirk, so don’t hog it all, okay? Especially not when the baby is taking part in his first sport’s festival, even if you were facing the Hero Killer.” He joked, smiling awkwardly as he relaxed his hands.
Izuku nodded absentmindedly, but something about that bugged him…
“OH SHIT, SHOUTA’S GONNA KILL ME FOR GETTING STABBED!”
“Ahh, there we go; I’ve been wondering when you’ll remember. Good luck with that, Izuku!”
“Bitch, why didn’t you say something?”
“Because your face right now? Priceless.”
“You are such an asshole, I swear.”
“I have to get my entertainment from somewhere; it’s kinda limited when you’re dead and stuck inside someone else’s head. At least I can see from your eyes twice over now.”
“Wait, what?”
“IT’S YOUR QUIRK, TODOROKI, NOT HIS!”
The words came out of him almost instinctually, and Midoriya wondered if that had anything to do with the nine shady figures that continued to hover just outside the ring, the strange feeling of déjà vu that still encased his entire being, or whether or not he was just naturally gifted at shouting world-shattering advice across stadiums for millions of people to hear.
It could honestly be any of them.
His money was on the second option, but the last was sounding kind of good too in an I’m-just-gonna-take-that-as-a-compliment-and-not-as-a-thinly-veiled-insult kind of way.
The match had started out better than he’d been expecting; Todoroki’s ice had been fast – so very, very fast and cold and beautiful – but he had been faster. He knew that had he not gotten the personalised training from Hinata-sensei, things would’ve been a lot different and likely a hell of a lot more painful, but he had gotten the training. Memories of the scars littering his elder counterpart’s hands, the far-away look in his eyes when he talked about the repercussions of One for All, the small, true smile that would peek out when he talked about his Todoroki, made him think that he’d done that damage here and now in Hinata-sensei’s time, but Midoriya hadn’t broken anything yet.
Other than Todoroki’s ice and worldview, but that wasn’t what he was focusing on right now.
Midoriya’s hands were in perfect condition other than the occasional numbness that would shoot through his fingers if he used too much power when he wasn’t prepared enough for it, but it never lasted more than a couple of seconds. If anything, that numbness had stopped happening so frequently as the match continued, so maybe he was continuing to get better at using it?
He had to admit, most of his movements through the match hadn’t even been his own conscious choice; it was like someone else entirely had taken over his body and yet he was still in control. It was a weird feeling, reminding him almost of dissociation, but not quite. It just… it felt wrong and right and like it was meant to be that way, and Midoriya wasn’t exactly opposed with what was happening.
It’s just… he wished those nine shadows weren’t there watching his every move. It was both creepy and comforting and he wanted to prove himself to them and he didn’t understand why. Who even are they? What do they want with me?
Todoroki’s eyes widened as he froze in place, his mouth dropping open just the smallest amount in his shock. Midoriya could just make out the tips of his perfectly straight teeth in the gap. It was kind of cute. “What?” he breathed out, a cloud of ice-cold mist leaving his mouth before it dissipated into the air.
“It’s not your dad’s quirk,” Midoriya said again, much more quietly and much more calmly than before, but no less confidently, “it’s yours. You might have been given half of your DNA from your flaming-pile-of-shit-of-a-father,” the shadow with the piercing green eyes laughed before the one with white eyes elbowed the former in the ribs, cutting them off with a wheeze, “and you might have a fire aspect to your quirk, but that is your fire, and it is your quirk, Todoroki. You make that fire, and you control it, and nothing about that has anything to do with Endeavor. Don’t limit yourself to just your ice because of that arsehole.”
“Can you hear anything they’re saying right now, Shou? They’re talking way too quietly!”
“Mic… if you can’t, how the hell am I supposed to? We’re listening to the same speaker.”
“Uhh… WELL, NEVER MIND THAT! WE WANT TO SEE SOME FIGHTING GUYS, SO WHAT’S WITH ALL THE CHATTING?!”
Suddenly Todoroki’s left side set alight, and Midoriya was stunned by the intensity of the bright yellows and warm oranges and deep, deep reds of his scorching flames. They towered high, for the first time not restricted by their wielder, and the greenette couldn’t stop the breathy exhale he let out at the sight as the other boy let out a shy yet excited smile.
“That’s it Todoroki; it’s your quirk! Let’s finish this!” Midoriya grinned, his blood rushing through his veins as adrenaline kicked his heart into overdrive. Oh fuck, I messed up so badly making him use his fire – it’s so hot already and he’s only just let them loose – but I couldn’t live with myself if I willingly let him carry on hurting himself by refusing to use his fire. He was freezing himself into either a coma or death, and neither was a fitting option. But, at the same time…
God, he’s just so beautiful.
“AH! TODOROKI HAS JUST LET LOOSE HIS TRUMP CARD! WE HAVE YET TO SEE THIS BOY’S HALF-HOT SIDE IN THIS COMPETITION UNTIL THIS MOMENT! SHOU, ANY THOUGHTS?”
“It’s about damn time he used his fire; my TA and I have been trying to get him to use it since the school year started, but this is the first time he’s willingly used it.”
“WHOA, REALLY?”
“…does everything you say have to be so loud?”
“SHOUTA! SO MEAN!”
Just before Midoriya sprang forward, his body covered in the faintest flicker of malachite green lightning, a distorted yet familiar voice spoke out. “Wow, I forgot just how beautiful Shouto looked at this moment – I was way too focused on trying not to shit myself! That and the pain in my hands and arms, heh.”
“Honestly, Izuku? That’s what you have to say right now? Can you not just watch him fight?” another distorted voice, this time completely unknown to the teen, replied deadpan.
“But just look at him, Yoichi! He’s so pretty with that manic smile on his face!”
“…You’re deranged, aren’t you?”
“Rude.”
“Huh?” Midoriya muttered, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but before he could say much else, a flame-covered fist slammed into his nose, breaking it on contact. “FUCK!” The green haired teen threw a hand to his face, immediately feeling hot, sticky blood coating his palm as he tried to stop the bleeding.
“Ooh, that’s gotta hurt…” the familiar voice – Izuku? As in Hinata-sensei? What the hell? – said sympathetically, and Midoriya swore he was going to throttle him when he was done with the festival.
“Sorry!” Todoroki panicked, his fire disappearing within the blink of an eye as he took in the state of his opponent. “Are you alright? I didn’t – I mean, I thought you were – why didn’t you dodge?! Um, are you, are you okay?”
“Just peachy…” Midoriya chuckled self-deprecatingly, but he let his hand fall to his side in a fist and got into a fighting stance, ignoring to uncomfortable feeling of blood steadily flowing over his lips, his chin, and down his neck into the collar of his UA training gear. The taste of iron coated his tongue and made him nauseous. “Let’s go!”
The fight after that was a blur; he remembered smiling for most of it, though. Todoroki – once he saw that a broken nose wasn’t going to stop him – fought Midoriya with both his ice and fire, and the greenette appreciated the other for not holding back against him. He remembered breaking more ice with his lightning-coated fists, remembered the feeling of his skin burning as he dodged lances of fire being sent in his direction, but in the end, when he woke up in the make-shift nurse’s office on a bed, he couldn’t remember how the fight ended.
“Oh, you’re finally awake, dear?” Recovery Girl’s voice came from his right. It took some effort for him to turn his head, but Midoriya managed it, meeting the elderly heroine’s eyes. “You’ve been out for a while. How are you feeling?”
“…Sore?” Midoriya rasped out, his throat burning and the taste of ash coating the back of his tongue. At least it’s not blood anymore. “What happened?”
“Ah,” the lady smiled softly, though Midoriya knew it was more of a disappointed-but-worried-grandma kind of smile than anything else, as she used a small remote to raise the bed into a seated position, “Todoroki used the cold of his ice and the heat of his fire to cause a huge explosion that the wind of your quirk exacerbated, though he told me he didn’t mean for it to have been so big when he followed you in. It… well, it knocked you clean out of bounds and into unconsciousness, and he ended up winning the round. You’ve been out for almost an hour now.”
“AN HOUR?!” he choked out before coughing vigorously. “H-have the matches concluded?”
“Yes, they have, though they postponed the award ceremony by half an hour to see if you’d wake up in time. It should be taking place in about…” she looked at the clock on the wall as she grabbed a cup of cold water from the table beside her, a straw poking over the top of the rim, “ten minutes or so? Here, sweetheart; drink up.”
“O-oh, thank you.” He took a large sip, the ashy taste disappearing and the rawness of his throat soothing immensely. “W-what happened in the other matches?”
Recovery Girl hummed, her face frowning softly in thought as she placed the half-empty cup down. “Well, Yaoyorozu won her fight against Kirishima by immobilising him and then stunning him with a taser. Honestly, it was a rather ingenious way to stop someone who would’ve normally been a bad match up for her.
“Iida won his match by pushing Sero out of bounds before he had a chance to do anything. The poor boy was so embarrassed, but Iida was so earnest about the whole thing that he seemed to just accept it after a minute. They’re such good boys.”
Midoriya chuckled softly, thinking about his friend. “That does sound like something Iida would do.”
The heroine smiled softly. “Yes, it does, doesn’t it? Anyway, Shinsou – the boy from General Studies – beat Bakugo by using his quirk, I believe? All I know is that he riled Bakugo up somehow, and all of a sudden he went from shouting his head off to being deadly silent. Shinsou said something – much too quiet for the microphones to pick up, unfortunately – and then Bakugo was turning around and walking out of the ring. It was a very intriguing match.”
Wow, what a quirk! I didn’t get to see his match against Tokoyami since my match was straight after his, but it sounds so powerful! It’s probably some kind of mental quirk – receptive to speech, maybe? A listen-and-respond type like that suggests some kind of mental manipulation, mind control, or maybe a puppeteer-style quirk? Either way, they’re pretty rare quirk types but so useful for heroics. Why isn’t he in the Hero Course already? Surely he’ll be eligible for a transfer since he made it into the semi-finals, and we do have a free slot in our class after Mineta dropped down to Gen Ed.
“Indeed; I believe Shouta is making arrangements to transfer him over, but you didn’t hear that from me,” Recovery Girl smirked, and Midoriya blushed, slapping his hands over his mouth in embarrassment as he realised he’d spoken out loud. He blinked though when what she said registered, and he removed his bandaged hands and placed them back by his sides.
“Wait, he is?”
“That’s what I understood from his mumblings over the speakers, anyhow.” She shrugged her shoulders, but her face was bright like she was pleased. “It was mostly about the ‘unfairness of the entrance exams’ and how they’re ‘biased against non-physical quirks’ and that ‘so many useful quirks get glossed over because of the stupid standards of this school’s God damn exam’, but I’ve known Shouta long enough to know that that equates to ‘I want that boy in my class pronto or I’m gonna raise hell’, and Shouta Aizawa is Nezu’s favourite human by far, so he’ll listen to his demands on this without question.”
Huh. Aizawa is Nezu’s favourite human? I guess even animals aren’t immune to favouritism, Midoriya thought, nodding his head at the nurse. “What happened after their match?”
“Ah yes,” she continued, “Todoroki kept freezing Yaoyorozu over and over again and she kept breaking free using her quirk, and when both of their quirks were exhausted he beat her in hand-to-hand combat, though not by as much as I had been expecting. I guess those training sessions you all did for the past few weeks really helped.”
Midoriya grinned, the skin of his cheeks burning slightly as it stretched. It brought attention to the gauze taped over most of his face and body and the bandages wrapped around his limbs. “Yeah, they really did. I think if I hadn’t had the extra sessions with Aizawa-sensei and Hinata-sensei on Fridays, my quirk control would’ve been God awful; I probably would’ve ended up with broken fingers and arms, honestly.”
The old lady laughed once as if in agreement, though she didn’t comment. Maybe Hinata-sensei said something to her along those lines? “After that, Shinsou used his quirk on Iida and won, and in the finals… well,” she picked up the cup again and brought it up to Midoriya’s lips, and he took a few more sips, grateful for the nurse’s sixth sense in regards to her patients’ discomfort, “it was rather unorthodox: Todoroki and Shinsou ended up having a rock-paper-scissors match.”
Midoriya spluttered out a laugh, the mouthful of water he’d just taken splattering all over his bedsheets as he just managed to turn his head away in time. “W-what?!”
“I said what I said. Believe me, everyone was just as surprised by that as you are.” She placed the cup down again before she stood up, moving over to grab some papers and a pen from her desk. “I don’t know why they did it, but they both seemed to be in agreement – if anything, Todoroki was practically ecstatic at the idea. Shinsou ended up winning two-to-one, and when Todoroki walked out the ring, I had never seen such a happy look on his face as his father yelled at him from the stands. I’m pretty sure there was smoke coming out of Endeavor’s ears. It was actually really funny to watch; that man is such a stuck up piece of work, I swear.”
Ahh Todoroki, did I accidentally lead you down this path of no-fucks-given? I really hope so. If not, we need to become friends so I can help with that, and Shinsou is also a must-have member from the sounds of it. The teen laughed heartily, ignoring the raspy quality of it as well as the rawness of his throat. “Oh, I’m so happy for him; he deserves to give his dad payback.”
Suddenly the door slammed open, startling the pair.
“Chiyo!” Aizawa-sensei burst through the door, Eri perched on his right hip with a worried look on her face and a pink backpack slung haphazardly over his left shoulder. His usually pale cheeks were flushed red with exhaustion, and Midoriya watched as Recovery Girl rushed over to him with a worried frown on her wrinkled face. “Chiyo, can you look after Eri for a while, please? I need to go murder a bitch.”
…
Huh?
Shouta barely held in a laugh as he watched Todoroki walk off the concrete stage, a small, genuine smile pulling at his lips as he looked straight ahead, but he allowed a smirk to slide into place. Normally he would’ve had something to say about how things ended – at the end of the day, this was the UA Sports Festival, watched my millions of people worldwide – but the boys both looked like they needed a bit of light-hearted fun.
Besides, the sound of Enji Todoroki going off on one as steam spurted out if his ears and his flames flickered three-times their normal height was like fucking music to his ears. I’ve always hated that bastard, and it seems like Todoroki feels the same way; I wonder why.
“W-Well, there you go, folks; this year’s first year winner is Class 1-C’s Hitoshi Shinsou! GIVE HIM A ROUND OF APPLAUSE!” Hizashi cheered next to him once he’d gotten over his little squealing fit of confusion. The man’s eyes glistened with joy as he watched the purple haired teen below blush with embarrassment down below, and Shouta couldn’t help but wonder about what his best friend was thinking.
“Um, papa?” Eri’s soft, sleep-ridden voice broke his concentration, and he looked down to the little girl sat on his lap, her hair mussed up from both earlier and from her long nap after. “W-what happened?”
“Shouto just finished his match against a boy from 1-C called Hitoshi. Hitoshi won, which means he won the festival for the first years.” Shouta explained gently as he ran a hand through her hair, easing out some of the knots there as he pulled it away from her face. Her cheeks were ruddy from sleep, and little crease lines marred her skin from where she’d had her face pressed against his clothes. She looked adorable. “Do you want me to tie up your hair for you, darling?”
“Yes please, papa.”
Shouta ignored what Hizashi was saying as he turned his daughter around in his lap and began to gather her thick hair into one hand for a simple ponytail. The thick pink bobble on his wrist left a red ident when he pulled it over his hand and around her hair, but he didn’t mind; he would never mind something like that when it reminded him of having Eri in his life.
“There,” he said as he ran a hand over the top of her head lovingly, “all done.”
Before Eri could respond, the piercing sound of Shouta’s phone ringing took his attention, and he immediately grabbed it and accepted the call, not bothering to look at the caller ID. After everything he’d been through that day, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was someone else Izuku had given his number to without his permission that was in desperate need of help. “Eraserhead.”
“Ah, Shouta, it’s Tensei. How are you doing?” The sound of his friend’s voice over the phone was relieving to hear, and Shouta practically sagged in his seat as he wrapped an arm around Eri’s waist to bring her against his chest.
“Tensei, I’m so glad to hear your voice. I’m fine, but how are you? Did Izuku get to you in time?”
“Izuku? Do you mean Janus? We didn’t really get much of a chance to do introductions.”
Shouta blinked, a feeling of dread settling in his stomach. “Yeah, I mean Janus. He’s my TA, and we live together.”
“Ah, I was wondering how you guys know each other. Let me tell you, when he dropped down in front of me from the roof of a building I guessed he knew you, but getting legitimate confirmation is nice, too. Scared the shit out of me, but hey, at least I know where he picked the habit up from!”
Shouta frowned as he pulled Eri a bit closer to him. He could feel her heartbeat in his chest, and the steady thump-thump helped. “Tensei, why don’t you know his name? Why did he not introduce himself to you?”
“Ah, well, actually–”
“Wait, why are you calling me?” Shouta blinked, his frown deepening. Hizashi must’ve heard something in his tone, because he felt the man’s hand come down on his shoulder softly in support. The raven looked up to confirm the microphone was on mute before he took the phone away from his ear and changed the call to loudspeaker so the blonde could hear, too. “Not that I’m not happy to hear your voice – God knows that I wouldn’t have believed Izuku’s incompetent ass if he’d just told me you were fine – but I was still expecting Izuku to ring me first.”
“Well, see, that’s the problem…”
“Heh, what’s he done now?” Hizashi chuckled, but Shouta could feel the way his fingers dug into his shoulder in worry. “Izuku’s always getting into some kind of trouble.”
“Oh; hi, Hizashi – didn’t know you were there, too!” Tensei chirped, but his voice immediately went back to nervous. “Well, the thing is, Janus – ah, Izuku, rather – is, um, in the hospital right now?”
…
“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN HE’S IN THE HOSPITAL?!” Shouta yelled, startling the room’s other occupants. “Tensei, what the fuck happened? I told him to stay fucking safe, so why on God’s green earth is he in the bloody hospital?”
“Um, well, it’s a long story–”
“Fucking shorten it then!”
“Ah, right! He got stabbed in the stomach by Stain.”
…
“BITCH!”
“Ah, Shouta, don’t forget Eri’s quite literally sat on your lap with her ears right near your mouth…” Hizashi hedged, and Shouta blinked, realising he was right. For a moment, he forgot where he was and who he was with; Izuku seemed to do that to him. “Do you want me to take her?”
Shouta shook his head as he passed his phone over to his friend. “No, thanks; you’ll be commentating on the awards ceremony soon.” He stood up, moving Eri to sit on his hip, and grabbed his daughter’s backpack from the side of the commentator’s setup before slinging it onto his free shoulder. “I’m gonna take her to Chiyo; Midoriya should be awake soon so she should be free to watch her.”
“Okay; as long as you’re sure.” He passed back the phone once his hand was empty.
“What’s going on? Who’s Eri? Shouta?”
“Tensei, listen; I’m coming over to Hosu General right now. I’ll be about two hours. Find out which room Izuku’s in – he’ll either be under Janus or Izuku Hinata. Text it to me.” Shouta couldn’t think about anything other than the bare minimum, because the majority of his mind was taken up with the statement he got stabbed in the stomach by Stain. “Let the hospital staff know I’m coming and that I won’t be accepting ‘no’ as an answer in regards to visiting him. I’ll fucking scale the building if needs be. And when you’ve done that, start praying.”
“Um, praying? Dare I ask why?”
“Because if Izuku isn’t awake and healed and begging for forgiveness at my feet by the time I’m there, I’m gonna fucking kill him.”
“Right; I really should’ve guessed that. I’ll see what I can do. See you soon, Shouta!”