Reset and Rewind

Chapter 43 - Documenting

Izuku hated this. Hated that he was here, copying documents for Nezu while the rest of the class went off to their respective internships. Kacchan went with Shoto to the Endeavor agency, like they did in the past. Tokoyami went with Hawks, Tenya even went to the Ingenium agency this time around. It was a whole thing and Izuku was missing out! All because his stupid quirk was working against him!

"I get that you're upset, but please handle those pages with a little more care, Mr Midoriya," Nezu called out, making Izuku realize he was clenching the paper, making it wrinkle.

"Sorry," Izuku apologized, laying it down and running his fingers along the crinkles, smoothing it out. "I have a lot on my mind."

"I can imagine," Nezu hummed, sipping from his tea. "It can't be easy for you, seeing the circumstances, but I can assure you I value your work! These documents are important for your little project, after all."

Wait, what? Izuku frowned, looking down at the paper in his hand. He hadn't really been paying attention to what he was scanning in, but now that Nezu mentioned it... The name on this page seemed familiar...

"This is research on Jikan," Izuku gasped.

"Movements, interactions, locations," Nezu listed. "I thought you might want to feel useful digitizing these papers so we can share them with all the heroes involved in this operation."

"This... This is..." Izuku choked out, feeling his hands tremble a little. Ever since he lost control over his quirk, losing access to it and exposing his poor mental health, he'd been feeling useless. Izuku wasn't able or allowed to help out in the way he wanted to, needing to rest and recover and unable to go out on the field in his current condition. Scanning in documents wasn't the most exciting work, true, but at least he could be useful like this. He could help their cause, bring them one step closer to finding a solution.

"I've also asked someone else to help you, since it's quite a lot," Nezu added, making Izuku look up again. Help? Who? Someone who knew? Another teacher? "Mirio is in a similar predicament, and I didn't think you'd mind bringing him on board, so I took the liberty of informing him of the basics. He'll be here shortly."

Mirio..? Of course, he was temporarily quirkless now, too. And with Sir Nighteye investigating the Jikan for them, it only made sense to involve Mirio. He was trustworthy and smart and Izuku couldn't find himself to be bothered by the fact Nezu told him without asking first, hoping he'd at least talked with Sir Nighteye before doing so. He'd been getting more used to change, to the variables of this new timeline, even if it meant disaster was coming their way. Well, disasters have always come their way, that was nothing new. The moment Izuku had realized that fact, he'd found it easier to accept the changes all around him.

What happened with Tenko still set him off, though... Izuku really hoped he'd be able to help him, to have him redeem for his actions, to pull him out of the darkness and into the light. He should've known it wouldn't be that easy. Setbacks were to be expected, really, but still... It really threw him off. He shouldn't have told him about One For All. Not yet anyway, not when he was so close to convincing him that there wasn't only bad in this world. That sometimes people were good, that this society had its flaws, but that it could still be good.

"Heyo!"

Izuku blinked, looking at the door, where Mirio had just entered.

"Ah, glad you could make it," Nezu smiled. "You two know what to do, I'll leave you to it!"

Izuku wasn't sure whether he liked Nezu's nonchalant approach to this. Then again, he'd always been like this. Reckless and carefree, as if he knew everything would fall into place just the way he wanted. Izuku wished he could have that confidence... He wouldn't be in this mess if he had.