The world shimmered.
Not the world of his adulthood — with fractured realities and burning skies — but the clean, untouched skyline of Musutafu. The smell was different here. Fresher. No trace of cosmic battlefields, no metallic tang of infinity-blood in the air. Just the scent of sakura in the distance, warm concrete beneath the morning sun… and the faint aroma of grilled taiyaki from a street vendor down the block.
Izuku Midoriya stood still for a moment, breathing it all in. His green eyes scanned the familiar street — small houses, the rust-colored fence, the laundry swaying gently in the breeze.
He looked down at his hands.Small hands. Child-sized. Skin smooth, unscarred, unmarked by a lifetime of battles against gods, dragons, and omniversal tyrants.
"...Five years old," he murmured to himself. His voice was lighter, higher — the voice of a boy who hadn't yet learned to shout "Smash" into the teeth of destiny.
His heart didn't race; his mind didn't panic. This wasn't a dream. It was a deliberate choice. He had run through the walls of causality itself, through timelines and origins, through the beginning and ending of everything, and arrived here. Back to where it all began.
Back to the day the world had once told him he was powerless.
Morning in the Midoriya Apartment
"Deku~! Hurry or we'll be late for the doctor's!"
The voice pulled him from his thoughts — warm, loving, familiar. His chest ached in a way not even the Phoenix Force could burn away. Inko Midoriya. His mother, still young, still vibrant, still untouched by the years of quiet heartbreak she would one day endure.
"Coming, Mom!" he called out, his voice bright but steady.
He stepped into the small kitchen, where sunlight spilled across the table. His mother was packing a small lunchbox, humming softly. Her hair was tied back messily, and there was a smudge of flour on her cheek from making breakfast earlier.
She turned — and froze for a fraction of a second. Izuku noticed it, of course. The Speed Force made every microexpression clear to him now. She was staring at him with a puzzled look, as if something about him seemed… different.
He smiled innocently. "Ready to go!"
Inko blinked, shook her head, and smiled back. "My, my… you're full of energy today."
If only she knew.
The Quirk Test
The doctor's office was the same as he remembered — pale green walls, motivational posters of smiling heroes, the faint antiseptic scent that always reminded children of needles. But this time, Izuku's perspective was different. The last time he'd been here, he'd been filled with hope and nervous excitement… only for it all to be crushed.
Not this time.
Dr. Yamada was a pleasant-looking man in his late thirties with oval glasses and a receding hairline. He greeted them with a warm smile. "Ah, little Midoriya! Here for your quirk assessment?"
"Yes, sir!" Izuku chirped, swinging his legs as he sat on the examination table.
The doctor chuckled. "Well, let's run a few checks first. Reflexes, grip strength, bone structure… You know the drill."
Izuku nodded, letting the man take his small hand and measure his fingers. When the doctor pressed the little grip strength meter into his palm, Izuku decided to give them just enough. He squeezed — not with the force that could shatter planets, but enough for the needle to slam past the "expected" range and into the "impossible" zone for a child his age.
The doctor blinked. "Huh… that's… unusual."
Inko tilted her head. "Is that… good?"
Dr. Yamada cleared his throat. "Very. But let's not jump to conclusions. How about you try running across the room as fast as you can, Izuku?"
A Little Shock
Izuku hopped down from the table and positioned himself at one end of the room.He took a breath, letting the Speed Force hum just under his skin — not enough to blur into nothingness, but enough to make the air ripple faintly around him.
He ran.
The entire room seemed to shift as he moved — to him, it was a leisurely jog, but to everyone else, it was a streak of green and white that crossed the space in less than half a second. His sneakers barely touched the floor.
When he stopped, Inko's mouth was slightly open. The doctor stared at his stopwatch, tapping it as if it had malfunctioned.
"F-fast," Dr. Yamada said. "Very fast."
Demonstrating Flight
The doctor rubbed his chin. "Speed is one thing, but do you have any… other abilities you've noticed?"
Izuku tilted his head, feigning curiosity. "Hmm… maybe this?"
He concentrated, letting the faintest whisper of his flight capability manifest. His body rose gently off the ground, floating a few feet in the air as if weightless.
Inko gasped, clapping her hands to her mouth. "I-Is that—?!"
"Flight," the doctor said softly, his tone somewhere between awe and disbelief. "At his age… without support gear… remarkable."
Izuku drifted back down, landing lightly. "Was that okay?"
"More than okay," Dr. Yamada muttered, jotting notes furiously. "Strength beyond recorded limits, incredible speed, and now flight… This could be a very rare — possibly unique — mutation-type quirk."
Izuku smiled, hiding the truth: this was only the surface.
The Hidden Storm
The rest of the examination went smoothly, though the doctor kept glancing at him like he was trying to solve a puzzle. Izuku didn't mind. He'd given them just enough to rewrite his "origin story" in their eyes. No more "quirkless" label. No more childhood isolation.
But his real power — the infinity that lay beneath his skin — stayed quiet for now. The flames of the Phoenix Force slept behind his heartbeat. The strength of gods and titans waited in his muscles. The Speed Force coiled like a serpent, ready to uncoil at the first sign of danger.
If he wanted, he could have walked out of the office, flown into the upper atmosphere, and rewritten the very laws of this reality. But not today.
Today was about planting seeds.
Walking Home
As they left the clinic, Inko kept glancing down at him, her hand holding his just a little tighter than usual. "Izuku… you were amazing in there," she said softly. "I… I always knew you'd be something special, but…" She trailed off, her voice trembling slightly.
Izuku looked up at her, smiling warmly. "Thanks, Mom."
Her eyes shimmered, and for a moment, he saw the same deep pride she'd shown him the day he'd been accepted into U.A. years from now. But this time, there was no shadow of guilt behind it.
A New Beginning
That night, as he lay in his small bed, the moonlight spilling across the floor, Izuku stared at the ceiling.
He could hear the heartbeat of the city, the hum of power lines, the whisper of the wind outside. He could feel the threads of time stretching infinitely in every direction, each one a road he could run down in an instant.
In one timeline, he had been quirkless until All Might gave him his chance. In another, he had clawed his way to power through endless struggle.
But in this one…
This time, he would start at the top.Not for arrogance, not for domination — but to protect. To save more people than any hero before him.
He closed his eyes, letting the infinite energies within him settle. Tomorrow, he would begin shaping his legend in this world. Slowly. Carefully.
But tonight… tonight he was just a boy again. A boy with a secret that could shake the multiverse.