A Quirk Through Time/Villain Swap AU

Teacher vs Student

Shigaraki and Izuku stood across from each other, the wind blowing dust across the empty arena. Pulling out his knives Izuku meant to strike first but a gust of wind sent him flying back. Shigaraki had all the power to keep Izuku back and Izuku could only rely on his single quirk.

Izuku began to readjust himself expecting Shigaraki to stay at a distance, but after the initial blast, Shigaraki decided to close in. Izuku swiped at him with his knife but the hero easily dodged and grabbed his wrist making it decay. The skin started to peel off and turn to dust along with everything around it, Shigaraki quickly backed off causing the quirk to stop, leaving Izuku in pain.

"I never knew you could stop your quirk," Izuku stated as he clenched his wrist. He'd seen videos of the quirk continuing to decay once used.

"You can't exploit or throw the challenge, you'll have to overcome it like a true hero. You must go beyond, Plus Ultra!" Shigaraki yells.

Izuku clenched his knife in his hand, his fingers numb and pain shooting up his arm. As long as Recovery Girl could heal it anything was allowed.

Shigaraki sends another windblast over making Izuku fly back. He gets up and charges forward towards the hero as Shigaraki meets Izuku head-on. Izuku slashes again and throws his other knife, predicting where Shigaraki would dodge. Shigaraki barely avoids the knife but it still scratches along his cheek, his finger rubs the cut as he punches towards Izuku. Another windblast knocks Izuku up into the air as he lands on his back.

"I give you credit for scratching me but you'll need to do a lot more," Shigaraki states.

"If you want me to do more then you'll need to start doing less," Izuku remarks as he pulls out another knife.

"How many of those do you have?" Shigaraki asks.

"Minus the one I threw I got three, the two in my hands, and one in reserve," Izuku replies nonchalantly.

Izuku throws another knife and jumps into the air, Shigaraki easily dodges the knife and sends another blast towards Izuku. The blast sends him further into the air. Orienting himself Izuku rolls as he lands and quickly gets his feet before bolting towards the goal. Since Shigaraki dodged the knife he was at an angle when blasting Izuku and launched him further away.

Izuku's advance was still halted but he threw another knife and jumped again. Shigaraki not falling for the same trick twice closed in and prepared to attack when Izuku landed. Shigaraki raises his hand to catch and Decay more of him, but Izuku reaches forward pulling on something in front of him. A thing metal line glimmered in the light as one of Izuku's knives was attached to a wire and when he pulled it back Izuku wrapped the wire around Shigaraki's arm.

"Look what I caught," Izuku smirked.

Shigaraki quickly tried to bring his other arm around but Izuku quickly stabbed Shigaraki's hand before tackling Shigaraki to the ground. He quickly stabs Shigaraki's other hand pinning both to the ground and cuffs Shigaraki moments before time runs out.

"I can't believe you got me," Shigaraki states with a surprised look.

"I got lucky," Izuku said. To knock Shigaraki down and overpower him Izuku had to use a strength increasing quirk, he was glad Shigaraki didn't seem to notice.

Izuku pulls the knives from Shigaraki's hands and collects the others, as he does he notices the weights on Shigaraki were all focused on the arms. Izuku realizes that without those weights Shigaraki would have grabbed him easily. Even before that just being touched in the beginning would have been an instant defeat.

"I hope you understand why we had to single you out," Shigaraki says.

"It was obvious, you're trying to show me the flaw in my thinking but I just don't agree with the unending optimism," Izuku replies.

"Well, wouldn't you winning be seen as optimistic?" Shigaraki says trying to encourage Izuku.

"No, it was simply a miscalculation you made. If I was with someone else it would've actually been harder; you would've been more alert to something unexpected. Making the battlefield barren, having me face you alone, and telling you how many knives I had. The more restrictions you placed on me, the more comfortable you felt, and that's why you didn't notice something as simple as a wire," Izuku explains.

"That's enough boys," Recovery Girl says as she walks onto the field. "Now come here," She kisses both of them allowing their wounds to instantly heal.

"Despite what you may think you still turned a defeat into victory and that's what heroes do, congratulations," Shigaraki smiled.

"Thanks," Izuku turned away and forced a smile. This victory felt too hollow for him to enjoy though, next time they fought it would probably be One for All vs All for One.

As Izuku stepped out from the arena he was immediately greeted by Uraraka and his other classmates. "Congratulations," Uraraka said cheerfully.

"Still not as good as my victory!" Bakugo bragged.

"Oh, and how did you win?" Izuku quickly asked.

"We fled," Ojiro stated.

"Taking my advice are we?" Izuku gloated.

"We fought All Might to a stalemate and tactfully retreated!" Bakugo roared.

"He got his ass kicked multiple times before finally admitting he couldn't win and launched Ojiro like a rocket," Kirishima stated, having watched the match.

"Damn you," Bakugo growled at Kirishima.

"At least you passed," Kirishima said in a defeated tone.

The others around all talked about their matches and Izuku pretended to join the conversation. Izuku couldn't find any reason not to talk with them since knocking Bakugo down felt somewhat satisfying.

"Everyone, gather inside the classroom we're going to talk about what you will all be doing over summer break and what punishment the ones who failed the exam will face," Shigaraki stated.