5

Chapter 5: Yesterday is Gone. Tomorrow Has Not Yet Come. We Have Only Today. Let Us Begin.

Chapter Text

When they arrive at the precinct, they have to wait in the lobby before they can be seen. The police are busy, scrambling around in a haphazard manner. Even so, every officer who passes them offers them words of gratitude for Izuku's return and safety. He doesn't even know these people, so it's touching that perfect strangers have worried over him.

Eventually Officer Hikarume comes to welcome them. Her bright eyes crinkle into a smile even as Izuku sees the bags hiding underneath. Her purple hair is still in a bun, but it's a little more frazzled then it was before.

"Ah, Ms. Midoriya. Izuku. It's nice to see you both. I hope you've been well?" She greets.

They rise at her appearance. "We've been good, thank you." His mom responds with a smile. "It looks like everyone is rather busy today." She remarks as her eyes follow around the bustle once more.

Officer Hikarume laughs. "I'm afraid it's always like this. Not that I mind. How about I take you two back and we can get started, yeah?"

His mother nods and they are escorted back to a different room in the building. Along the way, his mother and Officer Hikarume make small talk, but Izuku doesn't pay attention. He's looking around the precinct with curiosity, and perhaps a bit of trepidation as well.

They're led into a room that looks like an interrogation room, except it's a little more homey and lacks the one-way glass. There are even little waters for Izuku and his mom to enjoy. Despite that, Izuku can't stop the rising anxiety when he sits in the cold metal chair up to the cold metal table. His mom's presence beside him helps, but he still feels a bit too much like a prisoner. Like he's trapped.

Officer Hikarume sits across from the both of them, and not a second later Officer Tanaka enters with a manilla folder and sits beside her.

"The Midoriyas!" He greets enthusiastically. "Ready to knock this out?" He lays the folder on the table and Izuku barely catches his name on the front before it's flipped open.

"All we need is some signatures saying that Izuku is no longer missing as well as statements from the both of you. Then we can close this case and you can move on with your lives." He smiles, like he's told them great news. His mom returns it. He doesn't. In actuality, he's moving on with someone else's life, not that Officer Tanaka knows that.

The paperwork is a little lengthy, but his mom is eager and the cops are patient. Izuku supposes this must be one of the happier moments when dealing with missing persons cases. After all, sometimes there is no happy, tearful reunion.

They crack jokes, ask questions, share stories. His mom loosens up a little at the easy atmosphere. Izuku does a bit as well, but he is still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Alright!" Officer Tanaka says as the last page is signed. "Now all we need are your statements. We already have Ms. Midoriya's, so we just need Izuku's." And there it is, the other shoe.

Izuku plays it cool. "Um, what am I supposed to say? Didn't I already tell you everything yesterday?" He asks.

Officer Hikarume gives him an absurdly gentle look. "We know it might be confusing, and repetitive, but we just need you to recount to us once again everything you remember leading up to and during your...absence. While we've already heard it, this will be a more official and permanent record. Sometimes having time to think on it as well, reveals new details we might have missed before." She explains and Izuku realizes they're back to treating him like glass.

He sighs. "I'll try, but I doubt it'll change much."

"That's fine," Officer Tanaka reassures, "It's mostly a formality anyway."

Izuku looks at his mom, thinks of the truth once again, and promptly swallows it down. "Before the day of my disappearance, I went about life per usual. I went to school and came home. Sometimes I stopped to watch a hero fight or ran errands. On the day of my disappearance, there was a villain attack. The slime villain I mentioned before, but it was dealt with quickly. I remember going home and then living life normally once again. Although I also trained to get into UA too. And then I woke up yesterday morning in the woods and it felt a bit off, mainly because I don't usually sleep in the woods. But I found out I was close to my house and so I went there. I was a little disoriented, I called my mom and now we're here." He says, a shortened version of what he told them yesterday, with no new details.

He watches as they write it down on a form.

"It makes sense." Officer Tanaka muses, almost to himself. "Fits in with our theory at least." And Izuku exhales in relief, before the words catch up to him.

"Theory?" Izuku asks, curious.

"Er...yes." Officer Tanaka confirms, looking uncomfortable. "Judging from your circumstances, we have come up with a theory as to why you don't remember your time away. Although we can never be sure."

The pause that follows is a little awkward, but Izuku doesn't mind it. "What's the theory?" He asks. "I'd like to know." He steels his face into something serious. Officer Hikarume elbows Officer Tanaka rather harshly.

"Izuku, honey, are you sure?" His mother wonders worriedly. "It might not be pleasant."

But Izuku just nods that he is sure, because he already knows that it's unpleasant since he thinks he's guessed the theory.

Officer Tanaka sighs then bites his lip. "With you having no memories of what has happened to you over the past few months, we have reason to believe that a memory manipulating quirk has been used on you or maybe even some psychological reaction to block unpleasant memories. This is enforced by the lack of brain damage found when we got you CAT scanned. Coupling the amnesia, or false memories, with the extensive breakage we found in your x-rays, we're led to the conclusion that you were kidnapped...and likely tortured." He sighs again. "Of course, nothing can be proven, but all evidence points to this assumption. Until you get your real memories back, we might never know. But, if we are to believe this theory, we still have no idea what their aim was or if they will try again, with you or someone else. In response, we're upping the patrols around the area and opening up old kidnapping and missing persons cases. Probably for the best to cordon off that forest as well to investigate. Ms. Midoriya and I have also talked about putting in place a curfew for you and contacts in case of an emergency. Additionally, someone from the precinct will come by your home frequently to check on you both. Hopefully we'll get a lead or scare them away."

This new information has Izuku sighing internally. There is no villain or kidnapping so there will be nothing to find. It's going to be a pain if he has to spend his time here walking on eggshells. He can wait it out to the best of his ability, but he isn't going to be stopped. He has precious knowledge of the future to act upon and an other dimension Izuku he has to find. That will definitely involve breaking curfew.

Officer Tanaka glances at him worriedly when he doesn't respond soon enough.

"I see. That's good that it's being handled." Izuku says. He can tell his words shock everyone present, but he's not in any danger. Even if he had been kidnapped by villains, Izuku has dealt with villains for a while now, it's not really as shocking as it once was. Which is worrying, but he's not gonna dwell on it.

"Ok then. I guess that's it." Officer Tanaka concludes, throwing up another easy smile. "We'll keep in touch with you and you let us know if you need anything."

"Thank you," His mother says, "Thank you both so much."

Officer Hikarume smiles. "You're welcome any time. It's not like we did much besides paperwork anyways."

That earns a laugh from the adults and then they are led back out to the lobby. The mood is bright, but Izuku keeps stealing glances at the folder held in Officer Tanaka's grasp. It's his folder. Did they have any leads before he showed up? Any clues as to what actually happened to the other Izuku? He could've really been taken by a villain, or kidnapped in general. He could be dead as well, or maybe he just ran away? Izuku doesn't know. It's frustrating, but what's more frustrating is not knowing why either. If it is someone else's fault, in the cases of a kidnapping or murder, he can understand that. But what he can't forgive is if the other Izuku left of his own volition. Not if he left his mother grieving like this for him. But Izuku wouldn't do that, right? So now he has to find the truth.

"When I...disappeared," Izuku starts, and all eyes are on him. "Did you know where I was last? Who I was with? What I was doing?"

Officer Tanaka blinks before opening the folder and sifting through the papers within. "I'm afraid we never found any leads. The last place we were able to verify your presence was at the middle school, by Bakugou Katsuki, Tsubasa Kōmori and Sutoretchi Yubi. They told us they saw you at the end of the day, but then left before you did. And no one saw you past that. That's it."

There wasn't anything at all he could use from that. It matched almost exactly with what happened before. But, in his timeline the sludge villain attacked, which it didn't here. He doesn't even know if he met All Might or not. Oh god, was he killed by the sludge villain? It was a possibility, but that didn't seem like something that could be hushed up. He'll have to put a pin in that one.

His only other option from the info then was to talk to Kacchan. Not that Kacchan would talk to him, considering they were still in the past where he was bullied by the blonde daily. Still, Izuku has had plenty of time in the future to move past that and forgive Kacchan, becoming something close to friends. Maybe there was a chance the blonde would tell him what he knows.

"Izuku, don't worry about what happened before. You're home now and that's all that matters." His mother says to him, grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze. She thanks the officers for their time and Izuku nods in agreement. They smile and offer their own thanks and services for the future. It's a moment that perfectly resembles 'All's well that ends well', thinks Izuku. And even he is put at ease by the feeling.

They go home and it isn't as awkward for his mom and him to make conversation. They still avoid the topic of his disappearance, but Izuku no longer feels guilt closing up his throat when his mom keeps her eyes trained on him. He still has a million burning questions, but she isn't the one that has the answers. There is one thing, on the forefront of his mind-

"Mom, did I apply to any high schools?" He asks. If the timeline matches up, he should've applied to UA before the sludge villain incident. But, with some things being... off, he wonders if he did in this world or not.

His mother gives him a strange look. "Izuku, why are you asking me that?" She starts to look a little worried, so Izuku hurries to explain himself.

"I mean, my mind is just a little fuzzy and all my memories seem jumbled. But, I did apply to UA, right?" He clarifies, a little apprehensive at her answer.

His mother exhales in relief, but still looks confused. "You did apply to UA. It's the only school you applied to. It's been your dream since you were small. Honestly I don't know how you could forget that. Are you sure you're okay?"

And Izuku releases his own sigh at her words, sagging in relief. He's not sure what he would have done if he hadn't gone to UA. Not only for the chance at meeting his friends again, but the school would also be instrumental in his plans to change the future.

"It's okay mom, I'm fine." He assures her. "That's exactly what I thought I did. It's just-" And he smiles a little sadly, "The whole situation has got me questioning what is a real memory and what might be a fake, implanted one." He looks down, not able to look his mom in the face as he lies to her. He sells it though, if the way she leaps at him and crushes him in a hug is any indication.

"Izuku!" She sobs, already crying, "It's okay. I'll help you, so if you have any questions about your memories, just ask. I'm sure it'll wear off eventually."

Izuku pats his mother's back and resists his own urge to cry. It'll be helpful though, to have someone who might know the difference between this timeline and his own. And the cover story the cops came up with gives him a perfectly logical reason to be asking.

"Thanks Mom." He finally says. He stays in the embrace for a long few minutes until his mother releases him.

They don't talk as much after that, even as they eat lunch together and watch some TV. His mother tells him she took off from work and will be home for an indefinite amount of time to help with Izuku's "adjustment period". After his visit to the hospital, all of his mom's co-workers know the details of his "kidnapping" and are more than understanding. He doesn't know how to feel about it. Not that he doesn't enjoy spending time with his mom, and time off for her is rare, it's just that he has a bunch of things he needs to work on immediately. It might be hard to do that if she's around. It's not as if she can stay at home with him forever.

But, he can't just wait it out either. If only his mom is like how she acts in the future, where she trusts him. He's already had plenty of physical and quirk training from his time at UA. Although his mother doesn't know it, Izuku is perfectly capable of handling himself.

After a while, Izuku retreats to his room. It's still jarring, to be in his room from before, but he's quickly getting used to it. He leaves his door open and starts deep cleaning the whole thing. The dust flies everywhere and he ends up coughing quite a bit. He even rearranges some of his things so it feels just a bit better. He still can't find his red sneakers and that makes him upset because he wears those literally everywhere.

Maybe the other Izuku is still wearing them?

And that could be something, a clue of some sort, except he isn't sure how he can use it. He picks up his backpack and pulls notebook 13 from it's depths. It's burned edges are the same as he remembers all that time ago. When it was burnt, it was close to being finished and Izuku had ended up just buying a new one for his term at UA. He had come to associate it with his mindset. Before UA, things didn't look so good for him. He was quirkless and quickly losing hope, burned both literally and verbally by others. But after entering UA, he was given a fresh start, a chance to be more. A chance to continue his story.

Izuku pages through the notebook fondly and eventually closes it, returning it to it's empty space on his bookshelf after #12. It finally feels like things are falling where they need to be.

And now that he's got a clear workspace, Izuku is ready to solve a mystery. Where did he go? Or the other him go? He pulls out a notebook-not one of his nice ones- and begins to write.

He starts by writing everything he can remember that happened on that day originally. It will pay to know how much this timeline differs, and where.

Hero fight observed with Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady

School

Walking home- almost dying by the sludge villain

Meeting All Might for the first time

Walking home, sludge villain incident with Kacchan almost dying

Run into All Might for the second time

Home

That was the basics. And if word of mouth was trustworthy, his last known location following this order of events was the school. So the next question is, did he encounter the sludge villain? And what had happened from there? Was he saved by All Might? Or did something terrible happen? Ah! He could ask All Might! And then All Might would tell him if he remembers anything strange. Izuku has his phone in his hand in an instant and browses through his contacts without thinking.

Except All Might doesn't know who I am. Izuku thinks with dawning horror. He knows that, or he should have known, but it's so easy to forget when he was taught by the man for so long. It's almost ingrained in his head to go to All Might whenever he has a problem. Now though, he has no way of knowing where All Might would be to get his attention, until UA. He also has no guarantee that All Might would even remember him if he actually was saved by the number one hero. After all, getting One For All was by chance and therefore getting to know All Might probably wouldn't happen again unless under similar circumstances. Even when they met under that tunnel, Izuku was starstruck with the meeting and then the autograph had been more than he hoped. Never would he have dreamed of being his favorite hero's personal student.

A thought occurs to Izuku. The autograph. The autograph. The one that All Might gave him after saving him from the sludge villain. It should be in his notebook.

Izuku hurriedly yanks #13 off the shelf again, bits of paper flaking away in his carelessness. He's so focused he doesn't really care right now, although he'll probably regret it later. He flips towards the back of the book and to the page he knows it rests on, or where it's supposed to be. He reaches the page and-

It's there. Written in bold, black permanent marker. All Might's signature. Seeing it still makes Izuku smile and he clutches the notebook a little closer to his chest, letting out a shaky breath.

Because now it's presence has cleared a few things up. He has now moved up the confirmed timeline to 'Meeting All Might for the first time'. So either he met All Might in a different way, which seems unlikely, or it's safe to confirm the sludge villain didn't take the other him, or kill him. Which is good.

Realizing he could probably just look it up, Izuku searches the date with 'All Might'. It takes some scrolling, but Izuku finds it. It's a small article, not much fanfare, about how All Might brought in the sludge villain. There is no Kacchan, no battle on the streets, but no mention of Izuku either. Thinking back, he doesn't think his first experience with the villain was ever officially recorded. So, this is where the timeline diverges.

Somewhere between his first meeting with All Might and the initial capture of the sludge villain and the villain escaping to get Kacchan, something changed. Did he never interfere with All Might and inadvertently set the villain free, like last time? Or did the bottle holding the slime never fall this time? Or did the villain escape and just never capture Kacchan? Was he instead found later, without ever encountering another would be victim?

It still seems as if All Might will give him the answers he is looking for, if only he could think up a way to talk to him. He could always wait until he goes to UA, but that would be such a waste of all the time he's been given. He doesn't even know what to do with himself in the meantime if the investigation doesn't progress. There are other things that need his attention, but Izuku knows he'll still end up with free time that could be better spent tracking his other self down.

That's his biggest priority. Doing so will allow him to move more easily and feel more comfortable in sharing information. Not to mention reuniting his mother with her actual son. But, there are other things that Izuku has to address as well.

First, how to get back to his own timeline. If he even can. He doesn't have any leads for this, no ideas as to why he suddenly traveled back in time. It could very well end up that he is stuck here in this alternate dimension. He'll have to look into interdimensional travel or time travel and maybe hack into the quirk registry to look up possible holders of such a quirk. And if it's the result of a device he'll have to investigate support and engineering companies.

Secondly, Izuku intends to exploit the fruits of his future knowledge. The rise of the League of Villains is imminent. UA has experienced firsthand the struggles caused by them. With Izuku interfering, he may be able to change the future. Maybe All Might doesn't have to give up his place as the symbol of peace. Maybe Eraserhead and Thirteen don't have to get injured at the USJ. Kacchan won't have to get kidnapped at the training camp. All of their problems could be solved, if Izuku only dedicates his time to plan ahead.

Lastly, he needs to keep things relatively the same. Now, he did just say that he would change things, and he plans to, but changing too much will present to him a timeline he can't predict. It would defeat the whole purpose of having future knowledge. Like the butterfly effect, or wanting a nail, he could alter something so much that it becomes catastrophic. Izuku also still wants to make some of the same choices he made in the original timeline as well. He wants to befriend everyone he did before, and help those that he did once again. Like Todoroki. And Iida.

The list of all the things he has to do, alone at that, leaves him feeling restless. He's already cleaned his room, organized his thoughts, but he wants to do something. A run sounds nice, maybe through some of the locations in the city that All Might shows at often. If his mom would let him, of course. He's not sure she'd agree to him leaving her sight, especially around the area he initially disappeared from, but it would help him clear his head and burn some energy.

"What are you up to, honey?" His mom calls from the doorway making Izuku jump. He didn't hear her approach. Her eyes scan over his newly cleaned room and rest on the notebook in front of him on the desk. Izuku adjusts himself so that he covers it up, although he doubts she can see what's written from her vantage point anyways.

"Oh. I'm just doing some cleaning." He says a little too cheerily as he gestures to the room around him. His mother hums in response, studying him intensely. Izuku tries not to squirm under her gaze.

"Of course." She responds, but instead of leaving him alone, she walks into his room. Izuku swivels in his seat to track her movement while inconspicuously leaning over his notebook. She's facing away from him, looking all around his room, her hand brushing over his All Might figurines and furniture. When he catches a glimpse of her side profile, her face is uncharacteristically blank, her eyes a million miles away.

"Is something wrong?" Izuku asks her, worried about her strange behavior. She is usually quite easy to read, as is he, and the change bothers him.

His mom turns to him again and he watches how her eyes rake over him. They land somewhere to his right, below eye level and Izuku knows that she's staring at his scars. Ever since he received them, Izuku has never wanted to hide them. He was proud of what they represented. Now, he shifts uncomfortably and wonders if he should switch to longer sleeves.

"No. Nothing's wrong." His mother replies eventually. It's almost a whisper, the way she says it. "Not anymore."

Izuku watches her and the way it seems as if she's trying not to cry. It must be hard for her, to lose her son and then to get used to him being around again. She's missed him, still plagued by the fear that he'll disappear again and here he is, already wishing for her to be out of his hair.

He swallows over a lump in his throat. "Hey Mom. You want to watch a movie together, or something?"

She smiles at him and he wonders when it will be genuine. "I'd love to."

And so he closes his notebook, still in the midst of his theorizing, and decides to fix something a little closer to home.