Spacetime Anomaly: MHA Fanfic

Chapter 1.2: Chance

Wait... why was Izuku looking at the doctor from all those years ago? The first person to every tear away at his jubilant life. The one who said...

"I'm afraid there's no hope for him."

"No! There must be some kind of mistake. The other kids in his kindergarten have all started to signs of their Quirks manifesting, but..."

"Sorry, Miss Midoriya, but you're from the fourth generation, yes? As far as Quirks go..."

"That's right, I can pull small objects towards me and my husband can breathe fire."

"Huh?" Izuku blurted out loud, silencing both his mother and the doctor. He looked around the room with mixed emotions fluctuating in his eyes as he subconsciously muttered, "Is this hell? Am I going to start reliving the worst moments of my life from now on?"

An unmistakable light of despair crossed his eyes as he looked at the floor confused. Just why couldn't the world let him be? It had already taken his hopes, dreams, and life. Did it also want his sanity as well?!

"Sorry? What was that?" Inko Midoriya, Izuku's mom asked as she looked at her depressed son slumped over in his chair. She'd never heard him curse and that frigid aura that covered him; it left her with goosebumps as she worried over his mental health.

At first, Izuku was confused, 'Did she just respond to me?'

"I thought this was supposed to hell? How can these illusions of the past respond-" He had an epiphany as he stood up from his chair and began to walk around the room, "Could it be that I was sent back in time?" He mumbled to himself, utterly uncaring about the doctor and his mother in the room.

Wait! Now that he was focusing on better understanding his situation, he realized that something else was odd about his situation. His sight was "funky" in his opinion. When he concentrated on the apparitions in his vision it seemed like nodes and vertices of an unknown shape were manifesting. But when he willed for them to disappear, his regular vision returned.

"What the f.u.c.k?" Though he was never one to curse, even in private when he was fourteen in his past life, now that he had given up on everything, he decided to cut loose. The last thing he would care of was what the world threw at him after he committed suicide; it was his last stand in having some sort of control in his life.

"Izuku Midoriya! What has gotten into you, mister!" Inko didn't know what had gotten into her son. First, he said "hell," and now he was casually throwing F-bombs. Just where he had heard these words in the first place?!

"Mhmm..." Looking at this never-before-seen expression on his young mother's face, Izuku returned to his seat and opted to passively wait for the situation to resolve itself. If this wasn't hell and he really had returned to the past, then he would simply kill himself again; there was no point in living out another miserable life. But, if there was more to it and the irregularity with his sight opened a new path for him to follow, Izuku resolved to think carefully about his next actions.

…

The car ride home was fraught with terrifying silence as Izuku didn't make a sound. Inko hadn't gotten a word out of him since he cursed that final time in the doctor's office and as she decided to dilute her uneasy emotions by focussing on driving, Izuku was experimenting with his newfound ability.

Apparently, though he was labeled as Quirkless by the doctor in this parallel life, he had somehow developed something close to X-ray vision. Only, the term wasn't entirely accurate as it wasn't X-rays that he was perceiving, rather it almost seemed like spacetime itself unraveled before his very eyes.

Izuku struggled to get a hold of this ability, but he could confirm that solid objects no longer held any meaning should he concentrate hard enough. He didn't even have to look through the car window to know how tall the buildings around him were, how many cars there were on the road, or how many pedestrians were around. The only problem was that after about a minute of constant exposure to the odd world of nodes and vertices, he felt a terrible migraine preemptively shut off his ability as if to give him a warning.

'If this were a quirk I'd probably call it See All or something, but it's not...' Izuku lamented before realizing, 'But does it even matter? Even if it isn't a Quirk, it's just as beneficial. In fact, compared to the idiots who bullied me, or who 'will' bully me, I can see this ability being dozens if not hundreds of times more useful in the line of duty. I could be a scouting hero and help others locate villain bases or search for downed civilians during a disaster. Hell, I don't know how far this weird vision goes. Maybe I'll even be able to use it to spot weakness in the bodies of villains if I were to have to personally fight...'

Unable to control his habit of compulsive analysis, Izuku brainstormed dozens of situations in which he could save the day; hundreds where he could prove useful to other pro heroes. But eventually, his train of thought came to a staggering halt as he questioned, 'Should I, though? Become a hero? I now have the power, but my resolve is weak...' Smiling humorlessly as he thought of himself, he continued ruminating, 'I killed myself the first time around and even planned to kill myself this second time had I not awoken any powers. Should someone as weak-willed as me even try to become a hero?'

He might have gotten a Quirk-like power that he would have died to have in his first life, but now he was nothing more than a broken boy. To someone who possessed the mentality to give up on life itself, what was a dream? He had already proven to himself how unheroic he was. How much of a no-good, worthless, useless, Quirkless he was…

But then again, just as his depression culminated into being, a light shined at the end of the tunnel. Izuku thought, 'I… I can't let that happen… Heroes should be able to push through impossible odds. I know I may be a hypocrite for only acting on it now that I've died and come back ten years past with a Quirk-like power, but this could be a new start for me.'

His eyes shined with a dangerous light and an impossible standard was etched into his heart. Only time would tell whether or not he would be all thoughts and no action, but as he wallowed in the car and thought about how he would live out this second life, the thought of suffering to better himself wasn't rejected; it was pursued.

…

Later that day, just after they passed through the entrance to their home, Izuku reached out and grabbed his mother's hand. Feeling a deep shame, Izuku said, "I… I'm sorry mom. I shouldn't have done that." Though he struggled to find the courage to look his mother in the eyes, he did so as the very first act to prove he would change for the better.

"Oh, honey," Inko dropped down and hugged her son as she let the waterworks flow; tears streamed down her eyes like a waterfall. "You were just shocked is all. It's ok, honey… We- We'll get through this together." Mistaking her son's apology as him being sorry for cursing, Inko picked Izuku up and as she walked over to his room, she said, "Do you want to watch that video again to feel better?"

In her arms, Izuku shook his head, stunning his mom as a result. He said, "I… I want something else." He looked nervous as he stuttered, "C-can I a-ask for s-something, mom?"

"What is it?"

"Since I can't be a hero because I lack a Quirk..." He dragged out his words, pulling on his mother's heartstrings the longer he delayed, "I want to study hard and excel in other areas to become a different kind of hero." He couldn't bear to lie to his mother, so he worded the pre-qualifier to his request such that it was a half-truth.

Seeing the confusion in his mother's eyes, Izuku said, "I want to be homeschooled."

"What?!" While homeschooling wasn't entirely impossible, it was nearly extremely uncommon; especially so, since Izuku was asking for this as a four-year-old.

"I want to progress through school as fast as possible to be the most prepared by the time I graduate. Please mom," he pleaded, "just give me a chance and I promise you I'll never fail to meet my own expectations. If I so much as fail a single year or fall behind my own schedule, I promise I'll go back to regular public school without a word..."

"B-but Izuku, won't you grow up sad and lonely? How will you make any friends?"

"Mom, let's be serious for a moment," Izuku's expression darkened, "I'm already starting to see how my life will turn out if I don't act now. All of my frie… friends already have their quirks and they pick on me at kindergarten because I'm a late bloomer. I may be a kid, mom, but even I can guess how they'll respond once I tell them the truth. I've also seen what they say and do to the Quirkless of the last generation. It'll probably only get worse as each new generation slowly has less and less Quirkless..."

Inko paled at Izuku's words and the unmistakable maturity his prepubescent voice contained. The striking contrast between the high pitched squeaky voice of a toddler combined with the insightful meaning behind his subtle words left her wondering what exactly had happened to her son for him to have changed so much. 'Was he always this sharp?' She asked herself.

"S-still… I can't just leave you in the house all alone while I go to work." Inko pressed, "Where will you get your food? Who will teach you? Surely you're not saying you'll do everything alone."

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Izuku sighed, "I'll even cook and clean the house if it means you'll grant me my wish." His words left to give for her to take.

"..." Speechless, Inko dropped the matter temporarily. It was only after two days passed and Izuku dropped bombshell after bombshell on her, expressing his dedication to this harsh life he had set for himself. By night, on his first day after traveling ten years into the past, Izuku created a detailed plan for what his goals would be. The next two days, he made Inko sure that he could take care of himself. He went so far as to cook right before her and clean the entire house so she could see how serious he was.