Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
Izumi POV.
We had just finished the briefing session, Sir Nighteye explained everything that was necessary, even adapting halfway through after I gave him the addresses of the places that belonged to the Shie Hassakai that I had obtained from Issei.
So, we all had work to do—well, all except Mirko and me. Sir Nighteye was quite clear in pointing out that Mirko wasn't subtle at all and couldn't keep a low profile while investigating. In fact, she'd been ordered back to Nagoya, where we'd been, simply to avoid alerting the Shie Hassaikai to anything.
Mirko accepted completely furiously, after forcing Sir Nighteye to include her in the raid when it happened, so… yes, she had left leaving me here, she had practically finished my practice for the day, and now I was at a small table in the break room in Sir Nighteye's office surrounded by the other UA students, which was not important, the important thing was something else.
"Did you really insult Sir Nighteye?" I asked incredulously as a smile grew on my face while I looked at Tanya, who blushed slightly and looked away.
"I didn't insult him, it was... a lively discussion between different points of view," Tanya said, embarrassed.
"Ha! That's the elegant way of saying she insulted him and called him stupid to his face," Jinx said with a huge grin. I almost bounced in my seat.
"Wow, hell is freezing! You really insulted a superior! I'm so proud of you," I said with a bright smile.
"I didn't do it!" Tanya insisted, then I looked at her and gasped falsely as I realized something.
"Oh no! Your career prospects!" I gasped loudly, Tanya blushed even more and moaned loudly.
"I really hate that you know me so well," Tanya groaned in pain, and I burst out laughing along with the others.
"Yes, yes, yes, I'm sure your career prospects are still splendid." Visha tried to console her while suppressing a laugh, Tanya glared at her.
"You're not helping." Tanya grumbled dryly. Visha and I chuckled.
"And you, are you still embarrassed?" I asked Darkness with a smile.
"Of course I am! You said all that in front of dozens of heroes! In front of Fat Gum! I have an internship with her!" Darkness exclaimed, embarrassed, her face completely flushed. I just smiled broadly.
"Does that mean you don't like me?" I asked playfully.
"Of course not!" said Darkness, although I could see her tremble slightly, I chuckled.
"They're so funny!" Nejire laughed next to us.
"They're always like this, kero." Asui said, bowing her head.
"In fact, they're usually worse," Sinon said dryly.
"We're used to it by now, Miyamura has no shame." Uraraka laughed, though she sounded more tense; her smile didn't reach her eyes, she was looking worriedly to the side. Darkness blushed even more.
"I'm sorry," Darkness murmured, embarrassed. Mai snorted loudly.
"You're not fooling anyone, Dustiness." Mai mocked, making Darkness blush even more.
"Oh, you! You're a girl with a quirk that transforms you into a sword, right?!" Nejire asked excitedly. Mai opened her mouth, but Nejire continued. "What's it like being a sword? Can you feel things? Can you talk? Can you hear? Can you feel when you cut someone? Does it hurt?" Nejire asked quickly. Mai blinked a few times.
I snorted with amusement. Nejire was still as lively as usual, or rather, she was good at pretending. Her eyes were fixed on Mirio, just as Uraraka's gaze was fixed on Izuku. Both were worried, though they stood in complete silence, looking down at each other.
"You saw her weeks ago," Izuku said suddenly. He looked up and stared at me, his expression almost broken, on the verge of tears, yet he still looked at me intently. "You saw Eri when you saw Mirio, you said so," Izuku said, biting his lip. "Why—"
"Why didn't I say anything?" I asked, finishing his sentence for him. "Why didn't I do anything to save her? Why didn't I mention it to the heroes? Why didn't I just go to Osaka and cut everything in half until I saved her?" I asked, one question after another. Everyone remained silent, looking at us with concern.
"Yes," Izuku said bitterly. I hummed softly, rested my elbow on the table, placed my chin on my palm, and sighed.
"Do you know how many people I've seen die?" I asked Izuku, staring intently. Izuku's eyes widened slightly. "Millions, in case you were wondering." I said bluntly. Izuku went completely pale, and I could hear several heavy gasps.
"M-millions?" Izuku asked shakily, I hummed.
"I saw Jinx die." I said directly without looking away. "I saw her parents die, I saw her siblings die, I saw a war in Piltover where hundreds died, and finally, she died too." I narrowed my eyes, looking at Izuku. "I saw her daughter die, trying to save her." I said slowly. I could see Jinx stand up, but I ignored it.
"I saw Ruby commit suicide because they made her believe it was the best option," I said, recalling what happened in Ever After and the Ascension. "I saw Ruby's mother die, and some of her close friends die too. I saw Penny die, twice. I saw Taylor get shot twice in the head, I saw Tanya get hit by a train, I saw my grandfather die."
"I've seen the deaths of people too powerful to seem real. Half of the Draw Sword Guild were dead, including Goto Ryuko. I saw Yuri Orlof dead, Alexandria dead, Eidolon, Star and Stripe dead, the National Rank Hunters, all dead. I saw hundreds or thousands more heroes, every single one of them dead."
"I saw tens of thousands of dead, do you want a list? I saw Newfoundland destroyed and gone beneath the ocean, I saw Kyushu shattered and submerged, I saw Vale completely overrun by Grimms, I saw Atlas totally destroyed, I saw the total annihilation of the United Kingdom, the devastation of Canada and the United States, several times over, huge fires in Russia, and much more."
"Do you want me to continue? Because I really have a lot more," I asked emotionlessly, looking at Izuku, who was completely pale and trembling, just like everyone else. The deathly silence enveloped us. I just sighed. "A large part of that stuff should have already happened, but it didn't. Another part isn't going to happen anyway, since it's impossible for it to happen. And only a small part is really what I should be worried about."
"But... you can't save everyone," I said with a grimace. "For starters, I don't know which parts of my visions to trust or not. I have to constantly ignore them and be in a state of, 'They're false until proven otherwise.' That doesn't mean I can't prepare, that I can't... be ready in case something happens."
"I can't just go and tell anyone about my visions, no one would believe me, especially if it turned out to be false, and I can't just go out and try to save everyone immediately, not only is it... inefficient, but it's also illegal, I could only save a few people before some group of heroes stopped me, or something."
"Without a support network, without any kind of preparation, trying to go and save people is... stupid, it would end up doing more harm than good. So that's why I'm at UA, to learn, to prepare for any situation that is 'real', to have the resources to help when it's really needed."
"It's really not... what I would have preferred, not really, but... it's the best I can do. Help when I can, with all my strength. And that's what I'll do for Eri. If I have to cut through Osaka to find her and save her, I will." I said firmly, a glimmer of determination in my eyes. Everyone stared at me.
"You know, that's very rational of you," Aizawa said, appearing nearby. "I thought I'd have to come and stop you or Midoriya or any of you from doing something stupid, but I didn't expect to find this." Aizawa said casually, and I shrugged.
"As I already said, I've... made peace with that," I said with a melancholic sigh.
And I was being completely honest. Really, once I'd decided to be a hero and stopped panicking about the whole multiple apocalypses that might or might not happen, I'd started taking notes and writing down everything I could remember about the canon of all the series that made up this ridiculous world.
And I did it, I noted and wrote down everything I could, even if my mind was sharper in this world than it was in my previous world, I wrote everything down so as not to forget anything by mistake, by carelessness.
It was complicated, and it became even more so when I tried to reassemble and combine all the storylines into one, and failed miserably.
Chaos theory and the butterfly effect were and are a real pain in the neck. Many TV series plots begin long before I was born, by dozens or hundreds of years. The changes made during that time greatly influenced the history of this world and continue to change it left and right.
Yes, there are many similarities, many parallels, but there are so many differences that it was really annoying trying to predict what would happen or what would change. I had no shame in admitting that I wasn't smart enough to accomplish such a thing.
So I had few options, and that was to help where I could.
The plots always followed the protagonists, always showed the important events, and to intervene, to help in those situations, all you had to do was be in the right place at the right time.
And the only option was to prepare myself. To train and be ready to face any situation that might arise, any challenge that might come my way.
I had toyed with the idea of mentioning things anonymously, of sending it to some heroes I trusted anonymously, say, All Might, but I was sure that even with my Selfless State to hide, I would have been discovered sooner or later, and I would have to explain things I really didn't want to explain.
But most importantly, I really had no idea what was going to happen, what wasn't, or what was going to change, if anything at all. In the worst-case scenario, people die because of me, they prepare for an attack in one place, when the same attack I'd seen happen in the canon actually happened in a completely undefended location, or similar things, causing the heroes to prepare for one set of powers when they were completely different, catching them off guard.
In the worst-case scenario, I ended up like Cassandra from Greek mythology, a prophetess who had the gift of seeing the future, but no one believed her prophecies, or like the children's story of the boy who cried wolf, who, in his boredom, repeatedly deceived the villagers by shouting about a wolf and they finally stopped believing him, and when the wolf really appeared, no one helped him.
That would mean, if I were wrong enough, anyone I kept telling them would simply stop believing me or trying, and by the time I was finally right, no one would believe me, no one would help me.
So unfortunately, I had to be careful about what I said and what I didn't. Although… now less than before, Nezu, the girls, and the others knew that my visions weren't entirely true; it was something I had slowly cultivated, so now I had a huge margin of error, which was a real relief.
So, putting all that aside, that, that was only in the really important situations, really specific situations, most of the things the protagonists were involved in were really dangerous things, it didn't help at all in normal situations, situations of everyday crime and villainy, in helping normal people as much as possible.
So yes, even though I prepared myself for everything that would happen, I could still help other people in the best way I could, one by one, after all, I was a hero, and that's what I did.
But I wasn't so altruistic that being a hero consumed my whole life; I was selfish enough to maintain a full and satisfying life.
"You're really mature about that, Miyamura," Aizawa said, giving me a strange look. "It sounds odd to use the word 'mature' to describe you," Aizawa said, shuddering slightly. I just stared at him blankly.
"Ha, ha, ha, that's funny, Aizawa-sensei." I said dryly. Aizawa allowed himself a small smile. Then he looked at Midoriya, crouched down in front of him, and punched Izuku in the chest.
"Listen to Miyamura, Midoriya. Even your father can't save everyone in the world, no matter how hard he tries. So focus on what's important—saving everyone in front of you. Right now, there's a little girl waiting to be saved. Focus on that, look ahead, and keep going." Aizawa said matter-of-factly. Izuku's expression trembled slightly before he stood up.
"Yes, sir!" Midoriya said firmly, and I sighed in relief. Aizawa stood up and nodded in our direction.
"You too, Togata, stay positive, we'll save her," Aizawa said confidently. "Return to UA, rest, and prepare yourselves. You'll be called back in the next few days when everything is sorted out," Aizawa said with a nod, then left. We all stood up and started walking.
"Are you really...okay?" Darkness asked. I could see the other girls' worried expressions; I just nodded and smiled.
"Of course," I told them easily. "I already told you, and I mean it, I... I made a compromise with my own visions a long time ago. Talking about them doesn't bother me; I'm really okay," I assured the girls. I could see several sighs of relief. I looked at Tanya, who was just staring at me. She was the only one who really understood everything. Finally, she just nodded, and I smiled at her.
"So... a daughter?" Jinx asked, trying to look indifferent, although she squirmed slightly, I smiled through my teeth.
"Now, if I tell you about her, where's the fun in that?" I said with a mocking smile. Jinx complained loudly.
"Oh come on! You can't do that to me! You can't just mention something like that and then stay quiet!" Jinx said incredulously. I burst out laughing.
"I can and I will." I said through gritted teeth, mainly because I didn't even know if Jinx was going to meet Isha. Jinx was 19 when she met Isha, if I'm not mistaken, and Isha was in Japan now, so... it might never happen. I looked at Jinx, who was biting her lip. "I promise you nothing will happen to her," I told Jinx, who shuddered and grimaced.
"Who's worried?" Jinx snorted dismissively, though her posture relaxed.
"Wait, does that mean you saw our children?" Darkness asked, surprised, changing the subject. I hummed.
"Some, yes, others no, I mean, I saw Maki's grandchildren," I said with a wide smile, Mai's eyes looked at me incredulously.
"Grandchildren?! Like, plural?!" Mai asked, surprised. I laughed and nodded. "Wait, were they yours too?" Mai asked, and I could see all the girls turn to look at me. I smiled broadly.
"Yes, I do have something to say about it, yes," I said with a cheeky smile.
"Oh, oh, now me, now me! I want to know my future!" Nejire said, butting into the conversation. I hummed softly.
"I didn't really see much of you," I hummed. Nejire pouted hard. "Although... you know, I remember seeing someone named Lemilion as the Number One Hero, in a few years." I said with a wide smile as I glanced over my shoulder at them. I could see them all freeze in place, their eyes widening, especially Mirio's.
"Wait, is that like one of your false visions, or is it a lie, or is it really going to happen?" Jinx asked quickly. I burst out laughing.
"Who knows?!" I said cheerfully. "Although whether it's true or not, I definitely won't make it easy for him." I told Mirio with a wide smile. Mirio's eyes widened, his face hardened before he smiled broadly; the worry was still there, but his posture had relaxed considerably.
"HA! Do your best!" Mirio laughed, smiling.
"Hey! We're competing too!" Uraraka interjected with a determined expression while raising her fists.
"A-a me too!" Izuku chimed in. I chuckled as the others started arguing. Yeah, let's see how this all turns out. I guess it was time to save Eri.