Clockwork Rewrite

Chapter 1: Prologue

A/N:

Hey everyone! Sorry that it's been so long since this book has gotten an update, but I just couldn't stand to continue from where I'd left off because I wrote it when I was like nine-years-old, and I feel that I've improved a lot since then so it was kind of embarrassing to continue the story as it was.

Just in case there's any confusion, if I skip multiple lines between some paragraphs, it usually indicates a change in POV, a time skip, or a scene change.

If you guys have any ideas on how to improve the story, or any constructive criticism, I'd love to hear it! I'm still a novice writer and I'd like to improve in any way I can!

I hope you enjoy the story! :)

Chapter 1: Prologue

Izuku had always been ambitious.

It started with his dream to become a hero, and when that didn't work out, he became just as ambitious in his new career. His determination worked wonders in securing him a permanent spot at the top of the Japanese scientific community. He was good, and everyone knew it. A jack of all trades in every field apart from the one thing he excelled in, the field where no one could even hold a candle to his genius.

Quirks.

Ironically enough, the famed quirk scientist was the only prominent public figure who lacked one. It made his success so much harder to achieve, while simultaneously making it infinitely more satisfying.

With quirks still being relatively new, not much was known about them before he entered the field. Now, he had uncovered more than anyone thought one person could throughout the past few years. Heck, he had even discovered that the extra toe-joint in someone's pinkie-toe didn't actually have anything to do with whether the individual possessed a quirk or not. That discovery impacted him the most by far. After all, he himself had been pronounced quirkless solely because of the existence of that extra bone. Knowing that there was a possibility of him having a quirk all these years was rattling, and had he been told that years ago he would've clung to that knowledge like a lifeline, but things were different now. He was still far from happy with his quirklessness and the treatment it'd caused, but he had learned to accept it.

He had managed to succeed in spite of it, after all.

Though even after all of that, there was still one thing he had yet to discover that was constantly gnawing at him.

"Just a little bit more... there!" He sighed in relief, brushing away his viridian curls that just never seemed to want to cooperate.

He plopped down in his desk chair, abandoning the trolley he kept his tools in in favor of a well-deserved break. He nursed a cup of blissfully warm coffee as he shifted his gaze down to the papers splayed out on his desk, comparing the sketch to what he had done so far. Credit for his inventions should honestly go to Starbucks with how much he relied on their coffee to get him through his grueling work hours.

He had been creating this machine for months now. It was a lot of work, but luckily for him the foundations for transtemporal travel had been established for decades, so it wasn't nearly as much work as it would've been in the past. His invention could shake the entire scientific community with all the opportunities it brought, yet he only cared for one of them.

How quirks came into existence.

One popular theory was that they were all part of evolution, but no one really knew for sure with all of the chaos during the time of the first generation. Quirks are like limbs; they're weaved into your very existence and work in tandem with every organ in your body to be able to function efficiently. They grow stronger with each generation, so they could've hypothetically been the result of two genes mutating or merging in the first quirk user, since they appear to be passed on in a form of Mendelian inheritance. Though rare, they can even mutate int entirely different quirks. There are just so many opportunities for study! After he finishes this machine the name Izuku Midoriya would be known all over the globe, not just in Japan.

He took a sip from the porcelain mug, a content smile slipping onto his face. He carefully placed the mug back down on his desk, quickly getting back to working on calculations. He worked for a few minutes before noticing something strange. The liquid in his mug was sloshing around, and he noticed that his desk was vibrating ever so slightly. He quickly rose to his feet, rushing over to the machine. With Hosu being one of the more populated cities in Tokyo, they had more frequent villain attacks than in Musutafu. He had to quickly become habituated with them to get by living there, and usually he wouldn't bat an eye, but this was a different situation. There was most likely a villain with an earth quirk out there, and if they kept up the tremors, the building could collapse on itself. Thankfully, Izuku was the only one in today with it being a Sunday, and Izuku being a grade-A workaholic.

The tremors were picking up, and just as Izuku was attempting to turn the machine off, a piece of concrete fell from the ceiling and hit the control panel. It wasn't large enough to completely destroy it, but it was enough to make it go haywire. The board was glitching out, and wires were sparking. Izuku scrambled to fix things before a fire started, but while his attention was on the board, he didn't notice another piece of debris breaking off from the ceiling. It hit his abandoned tool cart and sent it hurtling towards him. All of the sudden, it slammed into him and knocked him off balance, straight into the machine.

Never had Izuku ever hated his job so much.

The heroes got to the scene too late.

The villain had already fled the scene, buildings had crumbled to the ground, and the casualties were numerous. Luckily, the attack was isolated to the outskirts of Hosu while the majority of their population resided in the center.

Nonetheless, it was another failure on the heroes' parts.

They spent hours picking civilians out of the rubble, along with collecting statements from witnesses and victims. Paramedics and police flooded the streets, rounding up injured civilians to tend to their injuries. It was total chaos.

While searching through the rubble, they came across the remains of what should've been a laboratory. It was completely destroyed, but when gathering statements, the locals said that there shouldn't have been anyone inside during the attack. Though, they decided to check anyway because they weren't entirely incompetent.

Fortunately or unfortunately, after thoroughly searching the laboratory, they came up empty handed. With no body to confirm a death or injury, they ceased the search, and wrote it off as if he had escaped the building before it collapsed.

Nobody would've thought that would be the last day anyone ever saw Izuku Midoriya...

in this world at least.