Reset and Rewind

Chapter 1 - Blasted to the Past

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

Izuku blinked, staring at the all too familiar face of the doctor. Garaki, the one who created the Nomu. Why was he here? He died, didn't he? Izuku was pretty sure he got finished off when the heroes apprehended him. He shouldn't have resisted arrest in the first place, then maybe he'd still be alive and locked away in the depths of Tartarus II. But no, right now the man was sitting in front of him without a care in the world.

"What do you mean, doctor?"

His mom... She looked so young, so...big. Everything looked big. He blinked again, taking in his surroundings. Oh. He knew where he was now. He knew why Garaki was here, why his mom was here. He knew what would come next.

"You see this here, it's an extra toe joint," the doctor explained. "In people with quirks, like yourself, it's gone. But your son still has it, meaning he's very unlikely to develop a quirk."

Izuku stared down at his All Might doll, knowing the words that would come next would change his entire life. It would change everything. It would make him a social outcast, it would make Kacchan bully him, it would later on make All Might sympathize with him, it would help him master One For All... It would determine his entire life.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but your son is quirkless."

Ah, there it was. Izuku had dreamed of this moment a few times before, actually. Those dreams were more like nightmares, really. After Garaki told him he'd be quirkless, his dreams would always spiral into taunts and defeats and losses. Except now nothing happened. Now there was silence as his mom tried to keep up a brave face. As she nodded and thanked the man- the villain in front of her and urged Izuku to stand up and say goodbye before they left the clinic. Everything was just like it was back then, Izuku realized, and for the first time it occurred to him this might not be a dream.

He assumed it had to be at first. I mean, he passed out after that hit, who wouldn't? It was a blast the size of a city block! Luckily all civilians had been evacuated on time, but he was still worried about his fellow pro heroes... They weren't here though. No, it was just him and his mom, walking back home after hearing that horrible news. Inko tried to stay strong, she really did, and all Izuku could do was stare at his All Might plush and wonder whether it was real or not.

It felt too real to be a dream. Even if it was a lucid dream, things would have to alter and change at his command, which didn't happen. The scene had dragged on too long for it to end in another one of his nightmares, too. So what was this? Was this real? Was he back to being, what, four years old? That couldn't be, could it? No, because that would mean... That would mean he time traveled in one way or another, wouldn't it..? But time travel, even with the assistance of quirks, was impossible. It simply didn't exist.

None of his quirks were capable of doing something like that and it hadn't been documented or heard of in the last 300 years of quirk civilization. Sure there were quirks that sped up time or slowed it down, even pausing time momentarily or locally, but nothing quite like this. The closest thing to time travel would be Eri's rewind quirk, but that only affected one person in one direction and couldn't really be called time travel.

"I... I'm so sorry, Izuku," Inko choked out, trying very hard not to cry while they were still in public. "I'm so, so sorry."

No. No, that's not what he wanted to hear! Not back then and not now. Maybe this was a nightmare after all? He'll wake up soon, probably wrapped up in some hospital with an angry Kacchan ready to lecture the fuck out of him. Izuku could already hear him screaming at him. About how reckless he'd been yet again, about how he wasn't in this alone, that they created the alliance for a reason.