Learning History (Time-Travel Fic)

Chapter 3

Izuku's eyes snapped open to reveal endless black, almost immediately he recognized the place, the vestige realm. He groaned and slowly got himself up off the floor of the strange void, spotting the familiar concrete ruins that housed the vestiges most of the time. Brushing himself off, he made his way there, frowning as he heard panicked shouts.

As he rounded the corner and entered the ruins, he came to a dead stop, as usual, there were eight thrones in the ruins. However, what wasn't usual was the fact that four of those chairs seemed drained of color, nothing like the red and gold of the others. He made his way to one of those chairs, his heart racing as he read the numbers etched on the side.

One, two, three, and four.

The chairs of the first four users, he didn't like the implications of it, but he couldn't say he was particularly surprised. He turned to the others, all of which had finally realized he was there and were staring at him with honest fear in their eyes. This was definitely the reason why he'd not heard from them in so long, let alone them coming out to say hi.

"What happened?" Izuku asked, his voice trembling and he realized he was scared, he didn't want to know the answer to his own question.

Nana stepped forward, tears running down her cheeks.

"When you arrived in the past, Yoichi, Second, Third, and Hikage just started screaming before they exploded into gold dust." Nana explained, lifting a hand up to wipe her tears away." We think it's because there can't be two versions of the same person existing at the same time."

Izuku felt his mouth go dry, the vestiges had become like family to him since he'd discovered their existence, but now four of them had been ripped away and he hadn't even noticed. How could they be gone but still leave their Quirks behind, unless One For All had evolved itself and the Quirks inside it to the point they weren't the same Quirks at all?

"They're gone?" Izuku questioned, his heart aching in a way it had never done before.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Nana murmured floating over to give him a hug, burrowing her face into his hair, he could hear soft whimpers of distress coming from the woman, though she seemed to be trying to suppress them.

Izuku just allowed the woman to cling to him, he couldn't imagine how she might feel, she'd known these people for so long. Daigorou and En had known them for even longer, it left a horrible taste in his mouth. These people were more than just friends, no one could stay in the same place for so long and not become family, especially if those people were friends, to begin with.

"Sorry for going radio silent, kiddo," Daigorou's voice mumbled, it sounded so exhausted and broken, Izuku knew the man had been close to Hikage, he'd already lost the man once when alive but now Hikage was gone for good.

"It's fine, you were grieving, I'm not going to blame you for that." Izuku said pulling out of Nana's arms and turning to the bald man." Are you ok though? I know you were close to Hikage, but I don't know the extent of how close."

The man just huffed in mild amusement, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"I'll be ok, kiddo." Daigorou reassured as he walked up and ruffled Izuku's hair." We were already dead, I'm just happy we were able to spend so much more time together, even if it had to end so abruptly. As for what we were to each other, well, I'd like to think if he hadn't died when he did then we might have become a couple."

Izuku bit his lip, eyes welling up with unshed tears.

"Well, at least I still have their living counterparts, even if it's not the same," Izuku whispered, his heart feeling torn in two, he had loved those four so much, he loved all of the vestiges but those four had always been special to him.