Chapter Text
Izuku lay on the ground, limbs shattered behind repair as All For One approached.
“You know, I thought All might’s successor would at least put up a fight, but look at you!” He laughed cruelly. “You’re a helpless, useless, waste of a quirk. I may not be able to take back my property, but if I can’t have it, no one can.” He snapped his fingers and a large spike erupted from the ground, catching Izuku in the back. He cried out in pain as he felt his spine crack, the spike piercing through skin, bone, organs, and through to the other side. All For One simply ‘tsk’ed, turning around.
“Say hello to my brother for me, will you?” He said, before teleporting himself away, leaving Izuku alone and dying. As he struggled to breathe through his obliterated lungs, blood pooling on the ground and in his mouth, the coppery sent filling his nose—
He blacked out.
ᨒོ ☼ᨒ
Izuku opens his eyes to see the sunrise shining through his curtains. He bolted upright, throwing off the covers and looking around frantically. But what he saw only made him panic more.
He was in his dorm room at UA.
He should be dead.
He couldn’t afford to panic right now, but god he wanted to. He tried taking deep breaths, but it wasn’t working—his deep breaths are too short and too shallow—he can’t breathe—
Can’t breathe, blood in his lungs, his mouth—arms, legs, spine, pulverized—dying—he’s dying—can’t move—
A ghostly hand on his shoulder, grounding him, the deathly chill of the Seventh seeping through his thin t-shirt, past his skin and into his bones.
“In-2-3-4, hold-2-3-4, out-2-3-4, hold-2-3-4,” she whispered in his mind, and he does, following her instructions until his breathing is even and his head is clear.
Opening his eyes—he wasn’t sure when he had closed them—he looks around his room with fresh eyes.
He still had all his hero merchandise, including his limited edition 10th anniversary poster that Sir left to him. He was wearing his pajamas, but they were too small.
He grabbed his phone off of the bedside table, making to check the time, only to drop the device. Izuku hadn’t exactly kept track of the date, but the number on the phone was at least a year earlier than it should be.
He took a shaky breath, closing his eyes as he once again calmed his breathing. He had just finished when he heard three sharp knocks.
“Midoriya! It is time for breakfast!” Iida’s voice sounded through the door. Izuku swallows thickly, but manages to respond.
“I’ll be there in five!” He listens as iida’s footsteps fade away, before moving on autopilot to get into his uniform.
Looking at himself in the mirror, wearing his—now too small—clothes, he felt slightly hysterical, but he moved to open his door anyway, heading down the stairs and into the common room.
The sight of his class eating and laughing at the table together almost made him start crying, because Kachan was there, and Jiro was uninjured, and Uraraka was ok, and—
“Ninth, remember, deep breaths.” Izuku listened to First, breathing deeply for the third time that morning. Once he had calmed down, he walked towards the kitchen, grabbing an apple and purposely not looking at his classmates, before heading to class. He would be early, but he couldn’t stand seeing his friends all carefree and happy when he knew what would happen to them—
But, it didn’t have to happen, did it? He was in the past—he could change the future.
He would change the future.
He had to.