#to be fair the chef is immortal so afo should probably run this time

[hey-hamlet]

I just had an idea what if izuku was a part timer in the restaurant to another world before entering UA

Trying to work out if I have ever mentioned my love of this anime or if ur reading my mind.

Anyway that's such a good idea I'm rolling with it. For context if you haven't seen it, the show is basically what it says on the tin - normal seeming japanese restaurant gets visitors from a high fantasy universe on saturdays. Also i'm 90% sure the chef is voiced by aizawa's VA so

I could play this a few ways, but I think I want into to be mostly canon AU bnha, but the restaurant exists there and still opens into a fantasy world, still powered by magic, like in the show, not a quirk. Oooh - idea - its the same place as in the anime, but 200 years in the future - our chef got a few too many long life blessings and is still going strong.

Izuku, about 12, gets chased into a closed eatery by some bullies who lock the door behind him. He cries himself to sleep and wakes up to a concerned face and some eggs on toast. He ends up helping out in the kitchen that day before he heads home - he's a fine cook but an excellent baker and it's been a while since they had good cakes in stock. At first he doesn't realise the patrons aren't from his world - they look very european and don't seem to have many visible signs of quirks other that the mutant types but it could just be chance - and then someone does a little magic and he's invested in this new quirk. Then someone else does the same spell and hes confused about two people who don't look related doing the same thing.

Then the first guy does a totally different spell and he's looking at the chef like "SIR WHAT"

Anyway, he gets the ok from his mother to work in the restaurant on saturdays and grows up with a wealth of people who adore him - not despite his lack of quirk, they simply never cared about his lack of 'magic' in the first place, its rare to be a gifted magician, after all! He gets a mentor at a time he needs one, one who can teach him something that isn't the weight of the world on his tiny shoulders.

Basically, this is an Izuku who gets to be a kid who makes people happy by being himself and making sweets. Something nice and simple. He ends up with more magical artifacts, weapons and talismans than he can poke a stick at, and a very basic understanding of spell crafting taught to him week by week by a slightly tipsy wizard.

Does he become a vigilante? Perhaps. Not like anyone can prove it, anyway!