Timeloop Trouble

Chapter 3 - Painful Memories

Izuku remembered the pain. Numbing, stabbing, everywhere all at once.

Blinding.

Too much.

He remembered Kacchan. Except he wasn't Kacchan, not fully. In the same way he was Izuku, but at the same time he wasn't. He wasn't Izuku, or Deku, or Midoriya. And Kacchan wasn't Kacchan, or Katsuki, or Bakugou. They were nothing, yet everything. And it hurt. It hurt so much. But they were strong. So strong. Yes, Izuku remembered being fast, being agile. He remembered Kacchan being big, being strong.

They fought together.

Where?

It was fuzzy.

Izuku remembered seeing people. Familiar people. Faces without names. He remembered pain. A lot of pain. Too much pain.

Kacchan was hurt.

Izuku raged.

He remembered Kacchan's body falling to the floor, remembered the blood, the ripped off arms. He didn't remember how it happened. Didn't care to remember. But he remembered pain. Pain in his body. Pain in his heart. He remembered seeing a man standing over Kacchan. Big strong man. Powerful man. He did that. He hurt Kacchan. So Izuku had to hurt him.

He charged.

He clawed.

He killed.

Screams of terror.

Bright red eyes.

Then pain. A lot of pain. Then nothing. Black. Only black. Only darkness. For a long time. Too long. Then light. Bright white light. And then...

Izuku gasped, blinking as tears came to his eyes. His breathing was rough, his body shaking. And he was staring at those same dusty white tiles, sitting in that same chair in that same office. His memories were a mess of flashes and noise and pain and it was too much. Way too much. The memories, the implications- Izuku couldn't handle knowing that. Knowing he did that. Inko quickly pulled him in her lap, trying to soothe him.

"Hey, it's okay Izuku," she whispered, stroking his hair. "There's no need to be scared, okay? I thought you were excited to find out what your quirk is gonna be?"

Izuku clung to her side, part of his mind telling him that, yeah, four year old him had been excited. He'd been ecstatic when his mom told him they'd go to the hospital to figure out what his quirk was gonna be and when he was gonna get it. Everyone in his class already had theirs, after all. But this Izuku knew what was really happening here. This was the day he'd been told he'd be quirkless for the rest of his life, that the chances of him developing a quirk were practically zero.

"Yeah, so, that's not gonna happen."

There it was. That voice. Izuku tensed up even more as he heard it, heard him speak. That man... That horrible, despicable man... He was the one who did that to him, who made him do...things Izuku didn't even want to repeat in his own mind. He turned him into a Nomu. Izuku interfered, tried to help, and got turned into a Nomu. Both Katsuki and him... They were made into monsters in that timeline. Those were the consequences of their actions. Izuku had never been so happy about the time reset, and that happiness temporarily overshadowed the fact it had happened again.

"What do you mean, doctor?" his mom asked worriedly, not fully understanding what he was saying, or maybe why he came to that conclusion. "My son is going to have a quirk, right?"

"Ah, well, you see this here, it's an extra toe joint," the doctor explained, but Izuku didn't listen. Didn't want to hear his voice anymore. Didn't want to be here anymore. "In people with quirks, like yourself, it's gone. But your son still has it, meaning he's very unlikely to develop a quirk."