There were flashes and bangs and screams, but for once Izuku didn't feel triggered by any of it. No, because these were cameras and party poppers and people cheering them on. This was graduating at the most prestigious hero school of the country, even after all the setbacks they faced. The League, Shigaraki, All For One... They hadn't been easy to defeat, not this time and not the times before that. And the fact that Jikan had seemingly disappeared didn't settle well with Izuku, either.

Someone turned his head, holding onto his chin as they grinned at him.

"We fucking did it, nerd," Katsuki said. He was almost as happy as he was when they graduated for real during their first lives. Well, Izuku supposed they hadn't really been able to graduate in any of the other time loops before... And it was a really nice feeling. "We showed them we still fucking got it."

Ah, that's right. They went through extensive therapy during their first year of high school. It took a while before they could fully trust each other again, to be able to depend on each other in a way that didn't compromise their personal autonomy. Yet here they were, together again and stronger than ever.

"That's the Wonder Duo for you," Izuku laughed, leaning into Katsuki's touch. He was happy the way things were now, tried not to let his thoughts about Jikan ruin what they were celebrating today. No, Izuku needed to savor these little victories while he could. There was no need to worry about the uncertainties of the future, not right now, not today.

"Hell yeah," Katsuki laughed, leaning in to kiss those wobbly lips as Izuku started to tear up. Yeah, this was perfect. So so close to perfect. He should've known they'd fuck up somehow, sooner or later. Izuku blinked as he awoke to the doctor after being so so close to actually stopping Jikan from using the machine. They'd gone into hiding abroad, making it such a mess to track them down. So while the heroes were buried in legal applications and paperwork, they were happily tweaking away at their rewind machine.

And now they had to try all over again.

And again.

And again.

And...again.

There was a timeline in which Izuku had tried to convince Tenko he could be a hero, and it failed. There was another where he succeeded, but failed to stop the Jikan nonetheless. There was a timeline in which he won the sportsfestival three times in a row. One where they had arrested basically all Jikan members, thinking it was all over, only for one to remain and activate the machine when they least expected it. There were timelines filled with dates and hang outs and cuddles and movie nights, and there were timelines filled with battle and blood and trauma and scars.

Izuku blinked, staring blankly at the doctor, watching his mouth move without actually hearing the words. How long had it been by now? How many loops had they circled through? How many times had he dreamed of the vestiges for the first time? Had he seen the worry in their faces when they realized what was going on? How long had it been since he brought Kacchan's memories back before middle school..? Because that was a whole other thing, wasn't it? Izuku started procrastinating on reminding people of who they were.

He was hesitating each and every time again, spiraling back into the bad habit of carrying the world alone. Of trying to do everything by himself, of trying to spare his friends and family this trauma, this experience they never asked for. In the end, he always ended up telling Kacchan one way or another. A simple 'Jump off the roof and die' would do the trick every time. And wasn't that just cruel? To have that moment be the trigger? To force Izuku to remember the worst thing Kacchan had ever said to him and say it back to the ash blonde over and over again.

Then there was Jikan, whose members tried to sabotage his life at every corner. Interfering with the quirk transfer, with his missions, his internships. Everything they could possibly mess with. Izuku tended to try and act oblivious to it, pretending like this was his first run through as to not give away when he regained his memories. Because that was the one edge he still had on them: they didn't know when Izuku awakened, just like Izuku didn't know when or where they had set their point zero, the point to which everything returned to.

In fact, they knew very little about how the machine worked. They only knew Eri's quirk was used to make it work and that there were probably other quirks at play, too. Which ones and what kind of quirks were hard to tell from the messy schematics they managed to steal from Jikan a few times. They never had enough time to fully analyze them and they couldn't keep the documents with them whenever time resetted, either. Then again, the Assembly members weren't exactly experts... Neither were UA's engineers. Time travel was thought to be impossible for so long, nobody had really specialized in it. Well, except for Jikan, unfortunately.

"Say bye to the nice man, Izuku," his mom prompted, pulling her son out of his own head.

"Bye doctor," Izuku said, trying not to be disgusted by that man's smile so as to not draw any attention towards himself. They needed someone who was specialized in time travel or time manipulation quirks in general. But every person Izuku could think of was either a Jikan member or the doctor he hated. Convincing a member of Jikan to join their cause would be possible in theory, if not for the fact they were a group of extreme fanatics who hated Izuku's existence. And the doctor wasn't an option for obvious reasons.

No, they needed their own person. Someone who could do research, who could delve into this stuff, who had the motivation to-

"Everything okay, Izuku?"

Izuku glanced up at his mom, feeling her squeeze his hand just a little bit tighter.

"You've been quiet," she continued. "I know this isn't what you wanted to hear...and I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, Izuku. This is-"

"It's okay," Izuku said, startling her. "It's not your fault, mom."

"I know you're sad, you don't have to pretend to-"

"I'm not pretending!" Izuku exclaimed, smiling at her. "Quirk or not, I'm still going to be a hero!"

"Oh Izuku..," Inko forced out, tears welling up in her eyes. Izuku knew what she thought, knew she just wanted to protect him. She wouldn't tell him his dreams were hopeless and unreachable, not directly, not in a way that could hurt him. She'd discourage him in her own ways, though. She'll be worried once he gets his quirk, when he goes to UA, when he faces off against the greatest evil in this world. Some things had gotten pretty predictable over the course of multiple lives, and one of those things was definitely Inko Midoriya. And Izuku loved her. It pained him so much to make her worry about him all the time, but if he were to become a hero, well...

Izuku tried not to think about the implications of his quirkless diagnosis. It wouldn't matter in the long run, anyway. Instead he focussed on trying to find someone who could help them figure out Jikan's time machine. He used the computer at night to try and find research about the concept, but the best articles and papers were blocked behind paywalls so he had to spend some extra time figuring out how to bypass them. But even those finds turned out pretty useless in the end. And when he searched for applications of rare quirks in the use of machinery, all he found were papers regarding specialized support engineers. None of them time related, though.

He was tired when his mom dropped him off at kindergarten the next day, almost forgetting about the fact he was quirkless now. That is, if their teacher hadn't gone on a whole spiel about it. Going on about how fragile he was and that they should be careful when playing with him- As if any of that mattered at this age. Izuku shouldn't be surprised Kacchan became the way he was if this was the kind of nonsense adults fed their kids from such a young age. He was used to it, though. There was nothing he could do about the blatant quirkless discrimination, not when he was literally four years old.

"Is that true, Izuku?" Kacchan asked after her speech was over. "You're not going to get a quirk?"

"I'm sorry, Kacchan," Izuku told him, forcing a smile. Kacchan wasn't smiling, though.

"But how are we going to be hero partners then?!" he whined. Of course that's all little Kacchan cared about. "You can't be a hero without a quirk!"

That much was true. No one could be a hero without a quirk, not in this society, not with the way it was structured. The Hero Commission wouldn't hear it. Izuku had a quirk though, or he would get one at least. Did that make him a hero? Izuku didn't feel like a hero. Not right now, not when he failed to capture and stop the same villains so many times in a row. Not when he kept failing everyone he cared about. No, a quirk did not make a hero, and Izuku Midoriya? Well, maybe he was never supposed to have a quirk at all...

His friends would always berate him for thinking like that, telling him how amazing he was, how good he was. But was he really? Yeah, he could wield One For All, he could go head to head with All For One if given enough preparation, too, but so would any other wielder after All Might, he was sure. They might not be able to pull out the quirks of the vestiges, but they'd be strong. Strong in a way Izuku never was. And he'd thought about it. A lot. About not accepting the quirk, about staying quirkless. He'd told All Might as much, one time. His mentor had instantly called his therapist.

Izuku didn't know what was so hard to understand about his reasoning, though. Jikan wanted All Might to stay at the top, to remain the pillar of peace. And Izuku ruined that ideal. So what if All Might just didn't pass on his quirk to Izuku at all? Would it be enough to break this continuous time loop Jikan forced upon them? They'd tried so many things in various ways, so why was this any different? Maybe if they didn't have their memories- If they never knew Izuku in the first place- Maybe things would be different, then?

"i wanna be partners!" Kacchan whined, still upset by the whole ordeal.

"We can still be partners," Izuku beamed, an idea popping up in his mind. Oh, it would be like hitting two birds with one stone! If this worked, great! If it didn't work and time got rewinded again, he'd have a plan! He'd have knowledge! "I can be your support, Kacchan! I can make you all super cool gear and stuff! The bad guys won't stand a chance!"

If Izuku opted for the support course in this lifetime, maybe he could figure out the quirk integration technique Jikan was using. Maybe he could find out what made their rewind machine work, which parts they needed, how long it would take to build- He could let UA track the unique pieces to find out where their hideout was- Yes, if this timeline didn't work out, Izuku was determined to gather new knowledge and bring that with him into the next loop. His friends would be mad at first, he was sure of that. But this was what was best in the long run! They would see that too, eventually.

"Really?" Kacchan gasped.

"Yeah!" Izuku nodded, almost as excited as Kacchan. This was going to be new to the both of them, something Izuku had never tried before, and somehow that in and of itself got him brimming with energy. "I could work with auntie and uncle and make you look super cool! Even cooler than All Might!"

The moment he could see that little twinkle in Kacchan's eyes was the moment Izuku knew his friend was sold. They'd make this work, no matter what. Quirk or no quirk, they were going to be hero partners in the future and no one was going to stop them. And if Jikan tried to separate them, tried to keep Izuku as far away from All Might as possible? Izuku would let them. He'd give them their little victory if it meant he could win this war. Yeah, this was only the beginning.