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moog-rt · 3 months

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ɪɴ ᴀɴᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴜɴɪᴠᴇʀꜱᴇ [ch.1]

[Shigaraki Tomura x Fem!Reader]

Previous: Prologue

➨ Chapter One

Next: Chapter Two

Premise:

The multiverse theory is the idea that there is not only one universe but, instead, an infinite number of universes, parallel to one another.

You and Tenko were heroes in your universe. The war came and went, and that left only you. When you are thrown into a universe parallel to yours, you find out the hard way just how similar and different it is from your own.

A/N: I know this is technically the first chapter BUT, there is a prologue for this story. So if you haven't checked that out yet, it's linked above, and I highly recommend reading that first.

If you'd prefer to read on Ao3, here is the link:

Otherwise, enjoy!

♡ ♡ ♡

CHAPTER ONE

The rain grew heavier, encouraging you to turn away from your departing friend in favor of heading home. Combined with the cool early-spring air, you were sure you’d get a chill. It was a little surreal, being a top-charted hero who helped save the world from villainous destruction and taking transit like you were a typical commuter. No one batted an eye. They probably didn’t even recognize you regardless of whether or not you were dressed for work.

That’s how the world was.

They cared for the first few weeks following the end of the war, but that dwindled as weeks stretched into months. Once the roads were rebuilt and everyone resumed their daily lives, there wasn’t much to remind them of what had happened.

And after the upheaval of hero-dominated society, the raving over who was Number One and which debuts showed the most promise declined to almost nothing.

Heroes were becoming a thing of the past.

Your apartment was reminiscent of that fact. For nearly your entire life, you were chasing after some dream of becoming a hero and making the world a better and safer place. Yet there was barely anything decorating your walls or countertops to suggest such a thing. You had been living there for roughly two years, just after the end of the war, but there were countless boxes shoved aside still waiting to be unpacked. You’d peered inside them a handful of times, but you decided it was better that their contents stayed tucked away.

After entering your apartment, you wasted no time in peeling off your soaked clothing. The various articles landed on the linoleum flooring with a wet slap. You kicked your pants to the side and shuffled over to one of the stools at your kitchen counter. You grabbed a throw blanket that was draped over the back of one of them and wrapped it around your shivering body.

A pitiful groan emanated from your stomach just before it cramped up uncomfortably. With a slight wince, you huffed and checked your fridge for any remaining left overs or easy meals.

What a sad sight that was. The light inside of the fridge illuminated your face as you stared at mostly empty shelves.

Whatever.

You could always order take out.

Swiping away missed calls and unread messages, you began a search for anything that sounded appealing.

Maybe if you’d gotten a text from Toga or Iguchi, you would have cared. But Toga was obviously busy with her big move, and you couldn’t remember the last time Iguchi had reached out to you. For a while, you two would try to make time to grab lunch or play games like you used to, but you both knew it was hardly the same anymore. You saw each other less and less, until your meetups stopped altogether.

Nowadays, your dreams were filled with memories rather than hopes for the future. Your heart and soul longed for the experiences and the people in your past, and the only way you could indulge was in your sleep. Waking up afterwards was like pulling teeth as you tried your utmost to return to whatever memory had been playing out in your mind.

The doorbell rang.

Your food was left outside your door, and after bringing it in, you ate maybe half of it before banishing the leftovers to the fridge of doom. The light filtering into your apartment gradually turned cool and dim, meaning it was just late enough for you to justify turning in for the night. You didn’t bother putting on a dry set of clothes, instead opting to crawl into bed wearing your mildly soggy undergarments.

Every day was the same. You’d work, go home, eat, and sleep. You never went out anymore, and you were certain that if you picked up your TV remote, it would leave a silhouette behind contrasting the dusty surface.

The only bits of ‘décor’ you had were photographs strewn about your TV stand. None of them were framed. They just lay there for you to peruse whenever you wanted to inflict even more emotional damage upon yourself. The old photos of your friends from work and school before the war best served for collecting dust.

There was one that stood out from the rest. It lay on your nightstand, still sheen from its frequent handling.

Delicately, you picked it up, just as you did most nights, and peered down at it.

–

It was the day Tenko Shimura officially started as a pro-hero at the AFO Hero Agency.

He spent the past few years with them as an internship and a work study, but everyone felt that starting there as a graduate was something to be celebrated. So you all made a day of it.

Everyone was there, and the conference room had been decorated and rearranged to better fit the occasion. Several platters of food lined the tables, filling the room with a heavenly aroma that complimented the chatter quite well.

Tenko wasn’t typically one for parties or huge get-togethers, especially when he was the focus, but he was kept from standing idly as people took turns congratulating him. You could tell he was beginning to grow tired of all the socializing.

You chuckled as you stepped up to his side, walking him away from his dying conversation. You watched as he relaxed his tense shoulders and dipped his head back with an airy groan.

“How does it feel being the life of the party?” you snickered.

He glowered at you through his messy, black bangs before placing a gloved hand on your shoulder and giving you a strong shove that sent you stumbling. You cursed as you regained your balance, ready to retaliate but he was already walking away from you.

“Hey!” You trotted back up to him.

“You’re next, you know,” he said, looking at you from the corner of his eye.

You tilted your head to the side, “To be the focus of a party?”

“To join the agency,” he corrected. “When you graduate, you’d better.”

“Oh, of course.” You grinned at him before narrowing your eyes slightly. “But only if you promise to stick around until then.”

“I’m planning on it,” he chuckled, “Unless you piss me off.”

It was your turn to jab at him, but, unlike you, he kept his balance, barely even stepping to the side.

The two of you found a secluded place to sit and chat idly but it was mostly filled with a comfortable silence as you scrolled on your phones. You were only granted a few minutes of social reprieve before Magne came looking for you.

“Are you two aware that the party isn’t out here?” she said, crossing her arms like a disappointed mother.

You and Tenko exchanged a glance, but neither of you said a word.

“Get your asses in there!” She scolded, shepherding the two of you back to the celebration. “We’re taking a group picture.”

Everyone crowded together. You were pushed up against Tenko’s side, and the two of you felt Iguchi drop his arms onto your shoulders. He stood behind you, still clearly visible between your heads, and Toga latched herself onto your free arm. Touya lurked on the very edge of the group while Compress took on a dramatic pose to ensure his theatrics would be captured for all of eternity.

One of Jin’s doubles positioned himself in front of everyone, partially crouched down and shuffling this way and that in order to get the perfect angle.

He didn’t have to tell you to say ‘cheese’ to get you to grin from ear-to-ear.

You felt Tenko’s gloved hand press against the small of your back as the camera flashed, immortalizing the occasion.

–

Seeing everybody grinning back at you in the photo four years later made your heart ache in many ways. You were happy that you possessed that memory as well as a picture to always remind you of it. But you were also tormented by the fact that it would never be recreated.

Unfortunately, plans didn’t always come to fruition.

When you started as a pro-hero at the agency, the world was in too much chaos to celebrate. And even if you held a celebration once everything settled down, Tenko wouldn’t be there to congratulate you.

In spirit, maybe.

When you really thought about it, almost everyone would be missing.

Magne had passed many years ago, when your team was assigned to the Overhaul-Eri case. The war took away Jin, Touya, Sensei, and, of course, Tenko. Iguchi would have stuck around long enough, but Atsuhiro was forced into retirement when the war first started.

In a way, the villains got what they wanted. Countless heroes were decommissioned, and those who remained were no longer viewed in the same positive light as they once were. Criticism was high if a hero couldn’t carry out a job flawlessly and without any casualties. Even then, you were always at risk of being deemed a ‘fame-chaser’ or that you were only in it for the money.

The only heroes that remained were the honest and the resilient.

You liked to think you were both, but as time went on, you grew more unsure. In the beginning, you were more than eager to make a positive impact on people’s lives, regardless of whether or not you were credited or paid for it. Eventually, you met everyone at your agency, and hero work changed your life for the better. Even if you failed a job, you had people by your side to pick you back up and keep you pushing forward.

But now?

Now, you were tired.

You no longer had your support system keeping you motivated and in good spirits. While you still felt pleased with every life you protected, that feeling of fulfillment would be gone by the time your head touched your pillow.

That’s where you were at currently.

With a deep sigh, you let go of the photograph, letting it fall back onto the nightstand, and rolled onto your back to stare at the ceiling. You shut your eyes, but you knew it would be hours before you actually fell asleep. You would either sleep the day away or you’d barely sleep at all. Rarely could you find a balance between the two.

Usually, you would stay up thinking about how everything ended up the way it did, and whether there was anything you could have done to prevent it all from happening. What could you possibly have done so that your team would still be at your side?

If you were split up differently during the Overhaul raid so that you were in Magne’s group, you could have pushed her out of the way of Chisaki’s fatal touch. If you had stuck by Jin’s side instead of letting him go into the Paranormal Liberation Front’s headquarters alone, you could have fought off Hawks before he landed his deadly blow.

And Tenko…

You’d probably have to end the war all on your own in order to save him. He was at the forefront of every battle, leading the charge. He had no regard for his own safety. He gave up his own body so that Mr. Shigaraki could transfer his quirk and conscience to it. You’re pretty sure that was the point of no return.

After that, you don’t think anything that came out of Tenko’s mouth was truly him.

Whether or not he could even hear you scream and cry for him in the final moments of the war would remain a mystery.

The heels of your hands pressed deeply against your eyes as if you could physically push the thoughts out of your head. You couldn’t do this tonight. You needed to do something, anything, other than lay there and dwell on things of the past.

How could you have known what was to come?

Throwing off your covers, you ripped the last garments from your person and got up to change into something clean and dry. You had to get out of your sad and dingy little apartment. You wiggled your way into a spare hero suit after deciding that lending a helping hand for the night was your best chance at clearing your head.

You made your way back to your agency as quickly as you could through the frigid rain. It wouldn’t be so bad if it were summer time, since the warmth would typically counteract it, but you still had a few months of spring to get through. By the time you arrived, you were a bit damp, but you found it hard to care. Pulling your keycard out of your wallet, you tapped into the system so you could get in.

Even though it was late, there were still a few people around in case of emergency, and none of them were surprised to see you stroll in. Two of them were people you had graduated with, though they did their work studies elsewhere.

“Hiya,” Minji, a pink-haired and bubbly girl, sang to you in greeting. She was sitting alert at her desk, ready for whatever report came her way.

“Hi,” you nodded, walking over to her.

Another girl you attended school with was lounging in the space adjacent to hers, leaning back as far as her chair would allow, both feet propped up on the desk. Her head turned over in your direction before she acknowledged you, “Need something to do?”

“If you have anything,” you said with a shrug.

“I think Sakiko got a call-in just a few minutes ago requesting a hero to accompany the transport of a villain,” Minji chimed with a soft smile, eyes darting over to her companion.

“Uh, yeah. Let me get the details on that,” Sakiko mumbled as she kicked her feet off of the desk and scooted closer to search through her computer. “Yeah, so the police want to transport a villain to a higher security prison… His name is Dai Uchuu. He was involved with Overhaul during the raid, but he was able to escape, and there’ve been no updates on his activity since. We also don’t have any official documentation but his quirk is believed to be a teleportation-type triggered by his hands making contact with each other.”

“Sure, that works. Send me the address, and let them know I’ll be there.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The station wasn’t too far from the agency. You walked for maybe ten minutes before you could see its lit-up sign at the end of the block. There was a brief flicker but it recovered almost immediately. However, the lights within the station began to spasm on and off, which was slightly more concerning.

The police relied mainly on quirk-nullifying restraints and cells to prevent breakouts. If they were having issues with the power, then the nullification effects would likely be down, and that would be quite the problem.

You quickened your pace and rushed into the building. The first thing you noticed was the plethora of odd objects that had been thrown about the lobby. There was a bicycle on top of the desk, a canoe sticking out from one of the doorways, and a large tub of paint that was actively rolling across the floor, leaving a trail of blue behind it. You could see a large splatter on the wall where you assumed it had made contact.

The second thing you noticed was the silence. Despite the apparent chaos, not a single cop was in sight. You couldn’t even hear any voices emanating from adjacent rooms. There was no one.

You briefly reported the situation to your agency through the communicator strapped to your forearm and cautiously proceeded onto the other rooms. The holding area and the locker rooms were empty and in similar condition to the lobby. You were about to say the same for the offices, but you noticed a quiet murmur coming from behind one of the far desks.

In a slight crouch and with light feet, you slinked in that direction. As you peered around one of the desks, you saw the villain, Uchuu, still dressed in his medieval garb. His colorful back was turned to you as he rummaged through a filing cabinet. The quirk-nullifying restraints dangled from one of his wrists. One of the officers must have gotten that on him after he had a go at most of the building.

But then why hadn’t you run into him?

You silently reached forward and cast your quirk, causing his clothes to freeze him in place. As you walked forward, he began to snicker. You faltered a step at his odd behavior.

“Of course you would be the one to show up,” he spoke with a strange accent.

“I guess?” You positioned yourself in front of him. You wouldn’t be able to attach the restraint he had on to his other wrist due to it being frozen along with him, so you pulled out one of the few that you carried. “What happened to everyone?”

You reached forward to attach the new set of cuffs, but as you did, you caught sight of the file he was holding.

Was that your name?

The cabinet he was going through was supposed to contain criminal profiles. Just as you were about to question how and why he had one that was addressed to you, you felt a sharp pain on the back of your hand.

“Ow! What the fuck?!” You jerked away and were about the curse the man out for fucking pinching you, before processing the fact that he was standing up. Your surprise had caused you to release your quirk, freeing him.

“What a fortunate turn of events this has been,” he drawled with a wicked grin. You narrowed your eyes and raised your arm to use your quirk again, but before you could, his hands clapped together.

You felt your entire body lurch forward, and for a moment, everything was black.

You figured you must have blinked because it was only a second before you could see clearly again. A wave of nausea began crawling its way up your belly, but you did your best to ignore the feeling while you frantically looked around.

It took you a moment to realize that Dai Uchuu was no longer in front of you. The filing cabinet was closed and no more papers were littering the floor. He must have gotten what he was looking for and bolted… Were you seeing black for longer than you realized?

If he clapped his hands, he must have tried using his quirk but he still had a restraint around one of his wrists. That should have been enough to still subdue his quirk, so he had to be around somewhere.

You quickly made to leave, almost bumping into an officer who was standing up from his desk. He shouted after you, and you gave a clipped apology but kept on your pursuit. As you entered the lobby, you almost ran head first into another officer and had to pause to move out of her way. She didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry though.

“Do you know which way he went?” you quickly asked her as you began walking backwards towards the exit of the building.

She looked perplexed, doing a double take of you. “Who? What were you doing in that area?”

He must not have gone that way otherwise, given his outlandish appearance, she surely would have remembered. That meant he would still be in the building.

“That’s where I found Dai Uchuu. He was going through some of the criminal records but he managed to get away,” you explained, slowly walking back towards her. “I’m not sure what he was looking for, but I’m guessing—”

“Who are you?”

What?

“I’m the hero assigned to your case,” you said matter-of-factly. “You guys sent in a request for help, so I came.”

She jerked her head back, scrutinizing you. “We didn’t—”

“Listen, if you didn’t see him come this way, he must still be in the building. You guys should look for him here, and I’ll check outside in case he found some other way out,” you said as you began a quick pace into the lobby.

They made quick work of cleaning up, because all of the foreign objects that were thrown about when you’d arrived were nowhere to be seen. You noticed even the giant paint splatter was gone. Actually, the entire place looked spotless of even normal dirt and wear-and-tear. Maybe you should’ve hired them to clean up your apartment for you.

The room erupted in clamor as you booked it outside. It was a lot clearer out without the rain, but you still couldn't see any sign of the villain. Leaving it up to intuition, you started sprinting down the road to your left as you updated your agency through your communicator with a request for more heroes to help search.

You were barely running for a minute before you began feeling overheated. There was no way you were that tired already, you didn’t go through all that training for nothing. Then, you realized it wasn’t your body that was too warm, it was the air around you. Not even ten minutes ago, you were freezing your ass off as you trudged to the station in the rain. Now, it felt like the temperature outside was pushing 70 degrees.

Someone had to be controlling the weather. Quirks like that were rare, but not unheard of. Either way, that was somebody else’s problem. You were a little preoccupied at the moment.

You were growing irritated that you hadn’t heard anything from your colleagues. Minji was usually super responsive. She must have stepped away and left Sakiko in charge, which would explain the lack of urgency on their end.

Your pace began to slow as your energy grew more and more depleted.

Your end of the search was proving to be pointless. You passed a run-down convenience store when you decided it would be best to head back to the station to see if the police were fruitful. You heard the chime of the shop’s bell too late, turning on your heel to retrace your steps and crashing into someone as they were exiting.

You jostled back.

There were two people, and your collision caused them to drop their bags, scattering the contents. You crouched down to help them pick up whatever had fallen, hoping they didn’t have any paper products for the rain-soaked ground to get soggy.

Your eyebrows pressed together as you picked up a messy handful of napkins. You looked down at the sidewalk and pressed your hand against it.

It was bone dry.

That couldn’t be right, there’s no way the water would have evaporated that quickly.

You couldn’t ponder the strange occurrence for long as the shoe of one of the people stepped closer to you. Hurriedly, you scooped as many items back into the bag as you could and peered up at them with an apologetic smile. They were already reaching toward you with an open hand. It was a bit too close to your face for your liking, so you leaned away as you stood.

“I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.” You pushed the bag into their hand and finally looked at the person’s face to see it was mostly covered by a black face mask and a hood. Despite that, peeking through a plume of dusty blue hair was a pair of fiery red eyes that felt as if they were burning through your soul.

♡ ♡ ♡

➨ Chapter Two

taglist: @boogiemansbitch

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moog-rt · 3 months

Text

ɪɴ ᴀɴᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴜɴɪᴠᴇʀꜱᴇ [ch.2]

[Shigaraki Tomura x Fem!Reader]

Beginning: Prologue

Previous: Chapter One

➨ Chapter Two

Next: Chapter Three

Premise:

The multiverse theory is the idea that there is not only one universe but, instead, an infinite number of universes, parallel to one another.

♡

If you'd prefer to read on Ao3, here is the link:

Otherwise, enjoy!

♡ ♡ ♡

CHAPTER TWO

The stranger’s striking red eyes narrowed as he hesitantly took the bag from you. It was hard to see behind the hair covering his face, but you noticed the skin around his eyes seemed dry and irritated. It was obvious he had been scratching at it, as well.

You were looking at him for too long, and once you realized it, you shuffled backward. A glance at the person to his side revealed a middle-aged woman slightly taller than you with straight black hair and bangs cut across her forehead. Her outfit led you to believe she worked some sort of office job, very put together in contrast to the man’s grungy, all-black look.

The two of them were an odd duo but pretty ordinary otherwise.

So why did it feel like you had a pit in your stomach when you looked at them?

It took you a moment to notice the expression on the woman’s face, wide-eyed like she’d seen a ghost. She could only take a single shaky step towards you before the man moved in front of her, forcing your focus to return to him. You had to admit, he had a bit of an unsettling energy around him, characteristic of a villain. But you had picked up his receipt, and the list appeared long enough to cover everything he was carrying.

“Thanks,” he mumbled in such a gravelly tone that you could barely recognize it as a word. He turned and walked away, but the woman stayed frozen for a moment until her eyes flickered over to her companion. Her eyebrows pressed together, and she reluctantly followed.

You couldn’t pull your eyes away as you watched them make their way down the block and around the corner. Something was urging you to go after them, like a tether wrapped around your torso, tugging you forward. Intuition was such a fickle thing, and, after leading you astray enough times, you found it hard to trust.

You were about to turn on your heel and walk back to the station when you noticed a couple of bottles of water and a bag of chips still scattered on the ground. Picking them up, you trotted after the duo in hopes of catching them in time to return the forgotten items, but, when you peered around the corner, they were gone. The sidewalk was almost entirely empty, save for an older man who seemed to be fiddling with his smart phone.

With a heavy sigh, you walked back to the convenience store and left the belongings with the cashier in case the two came back for them. As you began your trek back to the station, you were going to send another report through your communicator before noticing the screen’s display. You frowned.

‘Server Error’

Quickly, you made a call to your agency using your cellphone, feeling you may have better luck that way. Your fingers were crossed as you waited to be directed to the automated message that would filter calls to their appropriate responders. There was a moment of silence and then a flat hum was all you could hear.

Your eyebrows pinched together.

Something was wrong.

Assuming the worst, you cancelled your plans to check in with the officers at the station and instead made a b-line for the agency. The only reason the phone line wouldn’t work would be due to outside interference. You could remember it happening once before when there was a group of villains attacking the building. It wasn’t outrageous to suspect that Dai Uchuu could have headed in that direction and initiated an assault on your colleagues.

Your legs were starting to ache from all the running you were doing, and you were sure they were relieved when you finally skidded to a halt in front of your agency—

Well, what should have been your agency.

Instead, you found yourself looking up at an old warehouse that seemed like it could collapse any second. You were certain you were at the right address. You knew this part of the city like the back of your hand.

So what the fuck was going on?

What do you do in this situation? Who do you call?

The cops were already busy handling that goon who was on the loose, so you figured they were out of the question. He couldn’t have teleported your entire building and swapped it with another one, could he? Everybody’s quirks had their limits.

Maybe…

Maybe you were just tired. Maybe you got the addresses mixed up after all, took a turn one block too early.

Maybe you just needed to go home and go to sleep. Too many nights of sleep deprivation can fog the brain, and you wouldn’t be surprised if that was the cause of your confusion.

Yeah…it was probably best if you just went home. You reported what you could, the police were on the case, and if they needed backup, there were countless other agencies for them to reach out to.

You were calling it a night.

As you slowly made your way back home, you were pretty sure you passed the same old man you’d seen by the convenience store earlier. Your eyes met, so you gave him a courteous smile. He grinned impossibly wide in response, causing your expression to falter. You walked past each other without further exchange.

Just when you thought the night couldn’t get any stranger, you found that your apartment building had vanished, as well. An empty gravel lot filled the space where it should have been, accessorized by two small signs. One announcing that the land was recently sold, and the other advertised the planned construction of a new apartment building.

Your apartment building. As if it hadn’t yet been built…

You were so tired, so tired and so confused and so frustrated you felt like you were going to break down into tears. Your heart was pounding. Your hands were trembling. And you could feel a tension headache pressing harshly against your temples.

You had no clue what you were supposed to do in this sort of scenario. It had gotten fairly late, and you needed someplace to stay. You knew she would be busy, but calling Toga was the best idea you could come up with at that moment.

You clicked on her contact and held your phone to your ear. Just as it began ringing through, the ringtone of someone else’s phone sounded off not twenty feet away from you. Having not noticed anyone around, you were mildly startled and glanced over at the source.

Your body stiffened when you saw the same old man you’d passed earlier, the same one that was nearby the convenience store. He fumbled with his phone for a moment and studied the screen. His eyes widened when he noticed your gaze honed on him. He slowly turned his phone off and slipped it back in his pocket before beginning to walk towards you.

To hell with it all.

You barely registered you were sent to voicemail as you whipped around to start hauling ass down the street. You were going to find whatever hotel or motel or bed and breakfast was closest and hunker down there for the night. Everything else could be sorted out in the morning.

If you remembered correctly, there should be a pretty nice hotel only a few streets down. You felt like kissing the ground when, finally , there was a building exactly where it should be. You’d never been actually been inside, but the familiar entrance was a sight for sore eyes. As you walked inside, the warm glow of countless lamps and chandeliers worked to soothe and dispel all the stress that had been building up within you.

Your shoulders went slack, and you dragged a hand across your face while making your way up to the front desk. Both receptionists were busy with customers, and there was one other person still waiting to be helped, so you took your place behind them.

It was a pretty stereotypical hotel. There was a small gift shop that doubled as a convenience store for the sorry souls who forgot a toiletry or two at home. There was also a common area with a large TV for folks to lounge and keep up with the news.

At the moment, they were reporting on the Overhaul raid that you helped with a few years back. It was pretty old news, so you weren’t sure why it was being brought up again unless there was new information pertaining to the incident. Perhaps it was due to the villain you were after since he was an asset to the gang during that fight. Your eyes squinted as you read the headline crossing the screen.

‘One week since Overhaul’s arrest’

You had barely any time to process what all that statement entailed before one of the receptionists called you forward. You booked your room and handed over your ID and credit card while throwing occasional glances back at the flatscreen. You thanked the receptionist after he handed you the keycard to your room and turned your back on the TV.

Overhaul was in detainment. If he’d gotten out, you certainly would have heard about it. Especially if a whole week had passed. They were likely replaying an old broadcast at the request of a customer, and if that wasn’t the case, it was a problem for tomorrow.

As soon as you’d gotten to your room and your head hit the pillow, you were out.

♡

You’d think after getting a full night’s rest you’d be able to get a good grasp on what was going on. However, the scowl on your face grew more and more prominent with each t-shirt you flipped through. Frankly, you were offended that the hotel you lived so close to for the past year sold clothing that donned some of the most notorious villains you knew.

The owners themselves must have rooted for them during the war. That was the only thing that made sense. It was either that or they had a really sick sense of humor.

Who in their right mind would sell merchandise for villains? Especially out in the open?

Seeing as you didn’t want to be walking around town in your soaked hero suit all day, you would have to make a decision sooner or later. Pick the lesser of…way more than two evils. You didn’t bother sparing a glance at one you recognized immediately as All Might.

That guy could pound sand. He was certainly one of the worst villains you had to face. He and his little protege were the whole reason there was a war in the first place. They were the reason your life was as fucked up as it was.

Maybe you’d buy it just to desecrate it in whatever way you could. It could serve as therapy!

You pulled a shirt and a pair of inoffensive shorts from the rack and checked out at the counter. The cashier gave you a weird glance, avoiding direct eye contact with you much like many of the other hotel-goers. You weren’t sure if it was because you were in full hero garb or because your clothing was soaked to the bone.

Either way, you couldn’t wait to get into something dry. Wiggling into your tight, wet suit this morning was one of the most skin crawling sensations you’ve experienced. You did, however, blow dry the shit out of your bra and underwear. It was less tedious than doing your entire suit, and you weren’t about to go commando top and bottom for the whole day.

After changing, you officially started your day with the complimentary breakfast buffet the hotel offered. As you ate, you had only that massive flatscreen to entertain you, so you followed along to whatever the news was reporting on. A half an hour of that left you recognizing an odd pattern.

Every ‘hero’ you’d see was supposed to be a villain, and for some godforsaken reason, they were working towards the arrests of people you knew to be true heroes. How they managed to brainwash all of society—or at least that particular news station—you had no clue. Maybe you really were just staying in some pro-villain hotel that played propaganda to please their pro-villain occupants.

That was what you wanted to believe.

However, that wouldn’t explain why your agency and apartment building were AWOL. A single, pro-villain hotel wouldn’t cause all of the police at the station to reappear out of nowhere—which you were embarrassed to admit you hadn’t even noticed at first—or the sudden change in weather. There was no way to explain why there wasn’t even a hint of rainwater left on the sidewalk last night even though there had been a downpour not five minutes earlier.

It was as if you were on another planet. It was similar enough for you the recognize, but everything was so wrong.

Oh—

And the icing on the cake?

Apparently, you went back in time roughly three years. At least that’s what the dates on the news suggested. They also implied that you were nearing the end of summer when you knew for a fact that spring had only just sprung.

So, again, you wanted to believe that the hotel you were staying at was the cause for all of your confusion. However, you knew damn well that wasn’t the reason why everything was screwed up and backwards.

It wasn’t like you could just turn around and ignore the situation that had unfolded all around you, so you opted into delving deeper into the chaos. If you wanted to understand what was going on, you’d have to do some digging into what the new ‘status quo’ was.

How many villains were now considered heroes and vice versa?

You began by searching for the first thing that caught your eye since arriving at the hotel, Chisaki Kai’s arrest. One of the first articles you selected saved you some time by answering a few of your burning questions. You didn’t have to read very far before you were introduced to a prominent villain organization. It was like the universe wanted to rub it in your face that nearly all the people who had worked alongside you for years were no longer considered the heroes.

Skimming over the rest of the article confirmed more of what you suspected. The villains you remembered fighting when infiltrating the yakuza’s hideout played the roles of heroes instead.

Your next search was ‘the League of Villains.’

There were several public databases that listed all of the members’ names, quirks, photos, and any other information gathered on them. Your frown deepened as you scrolled through one of them. You recognized your old friends immediately. Toga looked like she was back in high school, but the uniform she was wearing didn’t belong to UA. Spinner’s outfit was also the only thing really different about him.

Touya, though…

Touya looked so different, you couldn’t tell it was him at first. His hair was no longer white and fluffy, and the horrifically burned skin that hung onto his face by a handful of staples was a new addition. At least his eyes were the same. The only reason you didn’t scroll past him was because his quirk was listed beneath his name—a name which did nothing to help you identify him.

Dabi.

Not once had you ever heard him be referred to as that.

You paused once got to Magne. Within the extra information on her profile was a statement proclaiming her deceased. You shouldn’t have been terribly surprised to read that. You knew Magne was killed in an altercation with Chisaki. Though her role in society was different, it seemed her fate remained the same.

However, your heart grew light as you read the information under Jin. He was alive. It made sense considering the war was still on the horizon at this point, so you shouldn’t have gotten as excited as you did. But it was years since you last saw him. You scrolled back up to revisit Touya’s profile to see he hadn’t died yet either.

If they were both still alive and well, that would mean that Tenko…

You flew down the rest of the list to find him. You completely scrolled past Astuhiro and Muscular and that mustard gas kid that ended up flunking out of his internship. You didn’t even spare a glance at profiles containing people you didn’t recognize. You reached the end of the page, but there was nothing on Shimura Tenko.

But just below some guy with a mop of light blue hair was a profile that you were certain belonged to you . You were listed under your hero name instead of your real one, and your quirk was also described to a T. Your age was estimated, but it was pretty close, and, in the photo they had of you, your face was almost entirely obscured by a mask.

Out of pure curiosity, you looked up your name next. The very first result made your hair stand on end. It wasn’t a link to another article, but a picture. In this one, your face was clear as day, but what caused you concern were the bold red letters above your head, spelling out ‘MISSING.’

A frenzied few minutes of scanning article after article on your apparent disappearance gained you only a minimal amount of information. The most notable was that the last time you were seen was just before Chisaki’s hideout was infiltrated. You could recall you were pretty messed up from that fight after one of the yakuza members nearly killed you with a moving pillar.

This time around, however, no hospitals reported taking you in as a patient. It was entirely possible that—if you were a ‘villain’—you were taken to one of the underground medical facilities instead. Hospitals that helped criminals and kept it confidential were far and few between, but it was no secret that they existed.

That was your best guess as to where this version of you could be. That fight had rendered you bedridden for weeks, so the timing added up.

With that somewhat squared away, the last thing you looked up was Tenko. According to everything else you’d seen, he should still be alive, but the results of your search proved you to be quite wrong in that assessment.

They all dated back 18 years—well 15 years if you were going off the date circled on the receptionist’s calendar—and reported on a ‘terrible accident’ that resulted in the death of the entire Shimura household. Officials believed it to be due to a villain attack, but there was no hard proof of anything due to the nature of the incident.

Everything you read made your blood run cold and your heart felt as though it was being constricted. They had invited you to countless family dinners and holidays. Their house was still standing, you knew that for a fact. There was no way they could all be dead.

That never happened. Those articles were bullshit. Everything you’ve seen in the last 24 hours was bullshit .

You didn’t know why everything was so backwards and messed up, but you knew that none of it was real. You were experiencing some sort of delusion, likely caused by that villain you got caught up with last night. Having more than one quirk was rare, but everything started going wrong after your brief altercation.

You had no clue how long your situation would last, but your best bet was to find him and make him put an end to it. You figured it could be a while until everything went back to normal considering you had no idea as to where he could be. When pursuing a villain with a quirk like his, you needed to be prepared to play the long game.

Your dishes nearly clattered to the ground as you haphazardly bussed your table.

It was time for a day out on the town. The last time you went on a shopping spree had to be when you were moving into your apartment a year ago, and that was only because you had to get the ‘necessities’ for basic living. Silverware, shower curtains, and what have you. It was mostly due to lack of energy and motivation that you shut yourself away with the same pair of sweats until you wore holes in the thighs.

With confusion and panic rattling around your head, the adrenaline was fueling you into productivity. Even if it didn’t last the whole day, it could at least get you to the shopping district. You needed an outfit or two that didn’t have you repping a guy who felt no remorse for blowing out people’s eardrums.

A toothbrush and toothpaste would also be nice.

The commute was shorter than you expected, but you weren’t complaining. After you got everything you needed, you planned on connecting with any hero agencies that weren’t villains in disguise. Your fingers were crossed at least one or two of those still existed. If all else failed, you’d call the cops or something.

As you walked out of the train station, you checked your bank app to see what kind of price limit you’d need to put on yourself for the day. You were a successful hero, but your industry didn’t have the funding like it used to. Even though your pay wasn’t bad, you still needed to be on top of budgeting.

You felt your stomach twist from the surprisingly small number looking back at you. Your checking account was at a fraction of what it should be. There was no way you spent that much since your last paycheck. Sure, you ordered a lot of delivery, but that could hardly break the bank. You checked your transactions to find your hotel room deposit had already processed along with several other purchases you couldn’t recall making.

On top of everything else that was happening, of course your bank account would get hacked. You probably swiped your card through one of those tapped readers, and now some basement dweller was going to town with your money.

You suppressed a heaving groan as you put away your phone and changed your first stop to the ATM machine that was conveniently down the block. Whoever was using your money should only have access to your checking account. However, when you went to transfer money over to withdraw as cash, you noticed your savings was also significantly depleted. You groaned and took out as much money as you could, leaving nothing left for the freeloader.

The shopping district was bustling with people, some shoving past each other around to get where they needed to go while others wandered aimlessly as they window shopped. The thought of fighting your way through a crowd was enough to sap away a good bit of your energy. Yet you still had enough to dive your way into the pool of people.

Instant regret.

You were jostled around like pinball as you pushed forward, cursing at every elbow and shoulder that jabbed into you. As long as you could make it to even one clothing store, you would be satisfied. Once you bought what you needed, you’d run for the hills.

A rough hand wrapped around your neck just when you thought you’d found a way through. It held you in place, frozen as people swarmed around you. Instinctually, your hands flew up to grasp at it and pull yourself free, but it only tightened as a result. You winced as you attempted to look over your shoulder to see who your assailant was with no success.

“Stay quiet or I won’t think twice about killing you,” the person growled, his words hot against your ear. His thumb dragged up your throat until it met the edge of your jaw. “I suggest the next time you steal someone’s identity you should at least have a basic understanding of their ideals.”

Your stomach lurched at the sound of the man’s voice. It was both familiar and foreign.

“What are you talking about?” you asked in a harsh breath. Again, you tried to look back at the man, but his hand tightened around your throat to hold your head in place.

“Don’t be stupid. She wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a garbage t-shirt like that,” he hissed. His face was so close you could feel your hair shift as he spoke.

You looked around, trying to catch the eye of any passerby, but no one spared a glance at you. They just shifted around you and went on with their business.

For a hero, you weren’t a big fighter. Your quirk had more strategic uses, none of which helped much with physical altercations. If anything, it was best used for defense. In the scenario you were currently stuck in, it would be minimal help. Freezing the clothing of the man behind you would further trap you in his grasp.

“I mean, it wasn’t my first choice, but I didn’t have many options,” you strained out. If you couldn’t wiggle your way out of this ordeal, you’d have to rely on whatever charisma you had left in you. “It beats me why a place would sell clothes that rep some of the worst people in today’s society.”

“Are you trying to be convincing?” He put pressure on the back of your neck, forcing you to start moving forward. “You didn’t even recognize me last night. It only takes the bare minimum amount of research to at least get that right.”

Last night?

You ran into a bunch of people. You couldn’t be certain which one he was.

“I was a bit preoccupied last night. Maybe if you actually let me see you, I’d know who you were—”

He twisted your head around to face him.

You weren’t expecting him to be the young man from the convenience store. The woman he was with had behaved strangely, but he didn’t seem to think twice about you from what you could recall.

You scoured your brain for any hint of where you would know him from. Once again, he was wearing a mask to obscure his face. His complexion was unfamiliar, but…

His voice.

You knew his voice from somewhere. You knew it right away, but you couldn’t put your finger on where it was from. Your eyes bore into his as if they would tell you.

The corner of your lips fell along with your heart. You wished you could say you found your answer, but that would contradict all the articles you read.

His voice was raspier than you remember, as if he was sick, and the skin condition around his eyes took over a larger portion of his face. Despite that, it was undeniably him.

“Tenko?” you whispered, leaning closer to him as his grip around your neck became noticeably weaker.

His eyes went wide as his head jerked back slightly. “How—”

“Oh my god.” Your throat grew tight of your own accord. You swiped at your eyes as your vision began to blur.

Were you really seeing clearly?

Was any of this even real?

You didn’t care. If all of this was a build up to a dream, you hoped it would last forever.

“Oh my god,” you cried. He stumbled back as you threw yourself against him. You wrapped your arms around his torso and pressed your face into his neck. You clung to him like your life depended on it. It felt too real to be a dream.

His body was stiff as he looked down at you, alarmed. “What are you—”

“How are you here?” you choked out before leaning back to look at him. “How are you here ?!”

He glanced around at the people who had begun staring at the two of you. Grabbing a fistful of your shirt, he hauled you out of the crowd.

You pushed away from him, taking several steps back. Your hands dragged up your face and through your hair as your eyes darted around your surroundings. Hot tears were streaking down your cheeks.

“What is happening ?” you sobbed.

♡ ♡ ♡

➨ Chapter Three

taglist: @boogiemansbitch @multisstuff

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