This was it. One last time.
The green-haired boy stood in front of the blue archway in the late-night rain. He remembered the first time he stood here, at the entrance of UA high school. It wasn't raining that time.
Izuku wiped the tear-mixed raindrops off his face to no avail. His vision was still blurry, his cheeks still wet.
"Young Midoriya," a deep voice sounded from behind, "you coming?"
"...Yeah," Izuku whispered. He stared at the bright lights in the distance coming from the dorms. They emitted a warmth Izuku could no longer feel.
"Can I just... stay here for a while longer?"
"Sure, kid. I'll be in the car." All Might's voice was filled with sympathy.
Izuku wept silently as his mentor walked away. Even though the boy knew there was no other way to stop the villains, the pain of leaving his friends still jabbed at his heart like an icy cold dagger.
Then a sharp feeling shot through his mind like a pin. It was the fourth's quirk, Danger Sense. Something was wrong.
A sudden wave of fear washed over him, making it hard to breathe. Izuku leaped into the air and activated Float. Danger Sense screamed in Izuku's mind, impelling him to look up. That's when he saw the girl.
No, it can't be...
"Eri...?!" Izuku propelled himself higher in the air to catch the silver-haired girl who was falling from the sky.
Eri was screaming, eyes closed, tears streaming.
"Eri! What the— How in the world did you—"
Pain.
Pain bloomed in Izuku's chest, and he saw blood sprinkle on Eri's face.
Izuku held back a scream. Two sharp, red-and-black tendrils were sticking out of his chest. Blood was dripping down, falling towards the distant ground alongside the raindrops.
A loud cackle boomed from behind Izuku. The boy froze solid.
Eri opened her eyes and whimpered. The tendrils were mere inches above her face. Her eyes, wide with horror, followed the tendrils to the place where they sprouted from Izuku's chest. She was shaking so hard Izuku worried she might explode.
"Ninth holder of One For All, Midoriya Izuku." The all-too-familiar voice said.
"All For One," Izuku said through gritted teeth. "I thought it was my job to... lure you out, didn't expect you to show up so quickly..."
All For One laughed. "If killing you is the only thing I need to do to win, why not do it as soon as possible? Plus, I need that little girl's quirk to heal my body. I can't rule the world looking like a squashed potato, can I?" The villain said that as if it were funny.
"Don't you dare lay a finger on Eri," Izuku spat, his head already racing for a plan. His grip tightened around the trembling girl.
"No..." Eri whispered, her eyes never leaving Izuku's wound. "You're hurt again... because of me..."
Izuku tried to relax his expression a bit. "Eri, it's ok. I'll..."
"No!!" Eri screamed. The horn on her forehead suddenly emitted a bright, yellow light. She was using her rewind quirk.
But something was terribly wrong.
The horn was growing bigger.
Izuku's mind went blank. This wasn't supposed to happen. Her quirk... it changed.
"All For One!!" Izuku bellowed, "What did you do to her?!" The boy tried to move, but his body wouldn't budge.
All For One was laughing maniacally. "I'm not doing anything! It's all her! I simply... expanded her vision."
The light from Eri's horn was spreading into the air. It surrounded Izuku like a cage, the tendrils of light shining so bright it blinded Izuku.
"Eri! Calm down!" Izuku shouted, but he couldn't hear himself. Noise flooded his senses, and the world seemed to spin around him.
Everything was chaos. Pain tore through his body.
Then he felt nothing.
•••
"...up, Izuku!"
A voice. Someone was calling his name.
"Izuku!"
Izuku's eyes flew open. He saw a ceiling. He blinked.
Then he remembered. Eri screaming, All For One laughing, his chest...
Izuku touched his chest. There was no pain. But something felt weird...
"Izuku!" The door slammed open.
Izuku sat up. His mother was standing at the doorway. She looked kind of different.
"Izuku you're gonna be late!"
"..."
"Izuku?"
"..."
The boy looked around. Walls covered with All Might posters, a desk, a bookshelf. Reality settled in.
"...This is my room."
His mom frowned. "You feeling good?"
"Mom..." Izuku blinked, "when... how... why am I here?"
His mom came up to him and placed a hand on his forehead.
"No fever. Are you ok?"
"I feel fine, Mom." Izuku smiled, which eased his mother's worried expression.
"But you need to tell me," Izuku grabbed his mom's hand, "how long was I out?"
"What?" His mom's eyebrows scrunched together, "what am I supposed to say, since you fell asleep last night?"
Izuku could feel the confusion in the air. "Fell asleep? What about Eri? Is she ok?"
"Who's Eri?"
"Mom, you know, the girl..." Izuku sighed, "Never mind, what about the villain I was fighting? Did U.A. get him?"
His mom shook her head, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Izuku. You probably had a bad dream."
"But..." Izuku's throat felt dry. He looked around again carefully. The walls, the posters... That one was the limited edition All Might poster, and Izuku was sure he had moved that to his dorm. He looked at his desk. Textbooks from junior high were scattered on it. He spotted his 13th hero analysis notebook, only without a scorched cover.
It can't be...
Izuku grabbed his phone from the desk and opened the calendar app.
"No..." Izuku stared in horror and bewilderment.
The date was from nearly two years ago.
His mind went blank again.
"What, Izuku?"
"Mom, this is today's date, right?" Izuku held up his phone. His mom nodded with a confused expression.
Izuku scrambled out of bed, into the bathroom, and stood in front of the mirror.
"... What the hell?!"
He stared at his reflection. It was the same Izuku, but he was skinny, and... young. His shoulders narrow, his limbs thin. The scars on his arm were completely gone.
"No... It can't be..."
If this wasn't a dream nor an illusion... Izuku shuddered at the thought.
There have been stories about how quirks can evolve if their owners were in extreme fear or anger. A reawakening when facing a crisis.
Eri's quirk had changed, but fundamentally, it couldn't have been completely different from her original rewind quirk.
So the only possible explanation was, Eri's quirk had become able to rewind time itself.
And Izuku was now two years back in time.
A/N: Hi, this is probably gonna be a longer story, so updates might not be consistent (and I might not even be able to finish it) but I'll try my best. :') Thanks for reading.