hero's shadow // mha

34) flipped in reverse

(warnings: referenced child abuse and alcoholism)

Izuku is a master at hiding. Just as he is a master at running.

It used to be a game between him and his father; a simple hide-n-seek, if you will. Though it never felt very fun to Izuku.

No. It never felt fun at all.

The thing about regular hide-n-seek is that once the hider is found, the game is over. The participants switch roles and the game is restarted. It's an endless cycle of mystery and fun, and in all senses Izuku should have enjoyed it.

But it's hard to enjoy a game when you get punished for losing. Izuku was always the hider when they played, and he really, really didn't want to be found by the seeker.

Well, at least it was good training, no matter how scared it made him feel.

That's just how it was then. That was All for One's definition of fun.

Izuku learned very quickly on how to not get found. And he also learned how to run when he did.

Which leads him to now.

There are moments of impossibility in this world, moments that once made will echo for all of eternity even if no one is there to witness them.

Every moment in history is but a cascading chain of coincidences that, when looked back upon with the perspective of time, would make sense.

Izuku read that in a library book once maybe a year or so ago, and he's reminded of it once again as he stands in front of his crumbling home. Well, what was his home.

Small flecks of ash flutter from the upper levels and settle on his skin, some of them landing on his head and some by his feet. It's almost funny, he thinks, how it would all almost look like snow from a distance—just a peaceful, cascading snowfall to passersby who wouldn't know any better. Except whereas snow is cold and a promise of something new, these ashes are warm and a symbol of Izuku's loss.

He can still smell the burning wood and smoke. He can still feel the stifling heat and air so thick that for a single moment he wonders if he could cut right through it.

And then he's somewhere else, drenched and shivering from the pouring rain of a storm as lightning shakes the earth. Transported to a different time, if only in his mind, Izuku stands in front of his father's first facility and watches through younger eyes as flames scour his old home.

The sky turns a bloody red, waging a war against itself and clouds of inky black. It reminds Izuku of the copper that now sits permanently at the back of his throat.

And this was the first fire Izuku ever started. It's only fitting that All for One finally got him back in the best way. That's the one thing Izuku will admit he got from his father: his pettiness.

Everything feels like it's been turned upside-down, but in that it also feels like everything's been flipped in reverse.

He blinks back into the present, the phantom pain of his previous injuries coming back to him in a dull burn. He stares up at his not-home, teeth biting at the insides of his cheeks. While his building was never something pretty to look at, it never looked like this.

With scorched walls and remnants of black smoke permanently stained near the areas closest to the blown-out windows, his place looks destroyed.

It looks like someone painted their anger out onto his canvas of a building, and the result of it is nothing short of a fiery hell.

Déjà vu has a whole different meaning now.