Reset and Rewind

Chapter 38 - The Meeting

If it wasn't for the fact Izuku was forcefully locked out of using his quirk, he was absolutely sure he'd be losing it right now. He already thought it was odd for Aizawa sensei to just send them a document without any pretext, but it wasn't until he actually opened the file that he started freaking out.

Capture Report: Tomura Shigaraki

Izuku stared at the title for a long time before he started reading the actual report. How in the world did they manage to capture Shigaraki? Why did they capture him? Weren't they being told everything needed to escalate naturally? Didn't Eraserhead tell them not to intervene when not necessary? They were still students, they didn't want to attract unwanted attention by doing things they weren't supposed to do, but that didn't apply to the pro heroes they informed about what's going on, so maybe...

Then he read about Toga, about her being alive, about her using Shigaraki to fool everyone. That's when he flipped. When izuku's breathing became louder, irregular. When his body ceased functioning, trying to activate his quirk even though he had no access to the powersource. It felt like his heart stopped, like everything just stopped. But it didn't. It didn't stop and people had already reacted to the message and oh god that meant it was real, right? Aizawa wanted to talk to them, this was really happening.

It didn't take long for someone to knock on his door. The fact he'd been left alone at all was a small miracle. Ever since the alliance found out about his mental well being, or what was left of it anyway, they'd been on his case constantly. Now he was finally alone in his room, doing the assigned English reading, when this happened. Of course someone was going to come knocking.

"Izuku, are you alright?"

It was Yuga, which shouldn't surprise him. They were dorm neighbors, after all. He'd probably seen the message and came here right away.

"Can I come in?"

Izuku wasn't in a state to answer. He barely even heard the question, let alone that he effectively registered it. No, all his focus was on his phone screen right now. On the one sentence that said Himiko Toga was still alive. She'd been alive all this time. She'd faked her death, played them all, made Izuku look like a fool-

"Hey, ssh, calm down, it's okay," Yuga shushed, pulling Izuku in a hug as he forced the phone from his hands. Izuku had no idea when he decided to come in, but he didn't fight against him. "Tout va bien finir. Let it all out."

Izuku didn't have the mental capacity to translate his French right now, but he started bawling his eyes out either way. Shocks wrecked his body as he cried onto Yuga's shirt. Toga was alive. She tricked them, tricked him- Izuku mourned for her! He was sad, depressed. He felt so, so guilty about how everything transpired and it was all just some ruse! Something she planned out since the start! Shigaraki never remembered anything from their past timeline, he'd already been taken care of by then. It was all Himiko's work, Himiko's plan.

His sadness and shock was slowly turning into anger as he cursed himself for not seeing it sooner, for not picking up on the signals. Which signals, though? It's not like he interacted with the League on a daily basis, despite what most people thought when it came to 1-A. Izuku hadn't seen them ever since the raid on the yakuza, so really, he wasn't to blame for not picking up on things. But then again, he should've noticed, shouldn't he? That Himiko wasn't dead, that the body was probably a fake. He should've never let the villains take the body- He was a hero, for crying out loud!

A hero who was crying in his colleague's arms after finding out his nemesis had been captured. Well, was Shigaraki really his nemesis in this world? All For One, for sure, but Shigaraki? He didn't remember, he didn't have any power, not really. No, that had all gone to Himiko... He wondered how her comrades were going to react to that. Would they freak out the way Izuku did? Would they be happy she was actually alive? Feel betrayed by the façade she'd put up? Would Dabi try to burn her alive? Would Compress try to capture her in a marble?