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As Izuku came to his senses, he quickly realized that something was wrong. Everyone was shouting. Which wouldn’t usually be concerning at all but since not only Class 1-A (which is the Chaos Magnet Class) but also part of UA’s staff and Detective Tsukauchi were trapped in a bright white, box-like room, except for one wall that was painted black, the screaming was most definitely worrying.
The screaming was slowly starting to be overwhelming adding to the unknown place and to the situation and his anxiety was about to start spiralling when a warm hand fell on his shoulder grounding him long enough to take a hold on himself and stop the panic before it settled onto him.
“Ah… Thank you for this Todoroki-kun” Izuku whispered to him quietly. “Any idea where we are ?”
Todoroki nodded at his thanks and whispered back, “Nothing yet.”
And that's when the entire room felt their quirks vanish. Everyone there had Eraserheads quirk used on them at some point, no one panicked. The man in question was hanging balancing on Present Mic’s shoulders, and they were both pressed against the wall in the corner so Eraser could see everyone.
“Settle down, everyone. We’ve found a note left in here, explaining the situation.” Aizawa spoke loudly over the silence, hopping down from Yamada’s shoulders and turning to him with an expectant glare.
“Alright, Listeners! We’ve got this ROCKING note here that I’m going to read out loud:
Dear stranger,
I’m so, so sorry you got caught up in all of this! I bumped into you and accidentally activated my quirk, which sent you to this box. My quirk shows people alternate realities that they could’ve experienced, and it brings along anyone who could possibly be important to these universes.
I’m not sure however many it’ll show you, so be prepared. If you’re not sure who the affected is, it’s whoever is the main character of the universes shown to you.
No time will pass to those around you while you’re trapped in here, so don’t worry about that. Hopefully, whatever you find out can be used for your gain.
Good luck!
Tsuki”
As soon as Present Mic read the finishing words, the room erupted in chaos once more.
Aizawa waited a moment to see if the class would quiet down themselves, and when they didn’t he once again let everyone fall under his quirk before releasing it and announcing, “We believe the scenes should be starting soon, so everyone take a seat.”
Students began clumping together, some in the middle of the floor, and some seated against the wall. The Bakusquad all clumped together in the middle of the room, the Dekusquad in the back left corner, the teachers and Tsukauchi in the back right corner.
The moment the final person was seated, a projection began to play, the words “Musical Number” appearing in bold on the screen with a voice no one present recognized narrating the scene.
Izuku’s quirk is weird.
“Of course it would be about Problem Child !” Aizawa sighed, closing his eyes in pain.
“Why is this about the nerd ?” Bakugou fumed
“Well it’s a bit of a given, right ? I mean, it’s Midoriya, crazy things always happen to him, his quirk was bound to be just like him.” Joked Kaminari, the rest of the class following him in his laughter that only increased with Izuku’s weak arguments and the pout on his face when he understood it was useless.
There isn’t really any other way to describe it, it doesn’t make sense and more often than not it could be considered reality breaking; after all most quirks don’t break the basic understanding of free bodily movement and lack of hive mind in the general populous.
“What kind of quirk could do that ? Reality breaking and Hive mind what could possibly…” Izuku started mumbling, scribbling on a notebook.
“Where did he got the notebook from ?” Midnight asked in confusion.
Uraraka only shrugged, no one ever understood where they came from.
But if you were caught up in his quirk? It didn’t matter if you’d never heard a musical in your life, if his quirk focused on you or you were brought in as an ensemble you were singing and you were singing well ; as the laws of his quirk apparently dictated.
“A… Quirk based on musicals ? That’s…” Jirou tilted her head in confusion
For years it had been an annoyance, perhaps a bit of a joke at times with classmates requesting song requests at the end of a hard week or people joking that he wouldn’t need to ever actually fight a villain he’d just have to beat out their stamina with a long enough musical number. Originally he’d thought it was a rib at him; a remnant of the hostility he’d endured when it first looked like his quirk would never show up.
The arrival of One For All had been something between a blessing and a curse.
Izuku paled violently when his quirk’s name was said, locking eyes with his mentor in panic.
Most people in the room exchanged confused looks while Bakugou stared at him as if he stared long enough Izuku would give in and tell him like he used to.
On the one hand, he could play the strength off as a mutation of his quirk, after all he was almost always humming or singing under his breath so it could seem like he was channeling the reality bending onto himself. Alternatively it just made things worse.
Props appeared at complete random, only for him or the people closest to him though, and the musical numbers got bigger- more extravagant.
He accidentally managed to drag half a block into a rendition of Prince Ali from the pre-quirk Disney movie reboot once, it had caused traffic congestion and apparently Mufasta city had to create a pass that the police had to give out to people caught up in his quirk so that their absences were justified and that bosses the city over didn’t think people were pranking them by saying they got caught up in a flash mob quirk.
The room was silent before Kaminari started snickering, soon joined by the rest of the room at the image on the screen of half a block stopping on its track and starting dancing and singing.
The entrance exam is fantastic, it turned out that if he used his musicals quirk alongside One For All they balanced each other out allowing for him to use the enhancement without breaking himself into a thousand pieces (something he and and All Might found out a week after the exam when they were refining his quirk control) but it also turned out that his quirk was just too the left of weird enough to work on robots.
They couldn’t sing, but they had legs and legs were made for dancing.
“Okay, that’s, that’s funny as hell but it’s the second time this “One for All” was mentioned and what about that line about Midori and All Might knowing each other before UA ?” Ashido questioned loudly, earning a few nods.
Aizawa shot a look at All Might visibly panicking (or visibly for the Underground hero that is) and trying to stammer an answer but was saved by the Midoriya’s screen voice.
For the first two weeks of lessons everything goes well and there’s only one incident at all the first fortnight! Which is a record for Izuku!
But of course, everything goes to hell at the USJ.
Several students groaned at that.
“So it happens even in alternate realities ? Aww man” Sero complained.
Low level villains surround them, something evil and inhuman stares at them from the courtyard and he just knows something is going to go wrong so he just… lets his quirk take over.
Only two other times in his life had Izuku sung this particular song; but he’d never done it in any form of combat situation.
“ Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?”
“Oh man… This is gonna be awesome” Hagakure whispered excitedly.
Nedzu and Izuku both leaned toward the screen, very interested in the effect a song could have in a fight.
His classmates give him odd looks but he can actually see the surrounding area warp and start to turn hazy around them and it seems the others are seeing it as well, “Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.”
The stairs start to crumble and Aizawa-sensei moves away, seemingly debating shutting his quirk off before seemingly deciding against it, “Look up to the skies, and see…”
“Holy !” several murmured, amazed.
“What a mad banquet of darkness” Tokoyami said in chock.
Rumbling from the empty ceiling seems to startle everyone and Izuku can’t help but be grateful for his reality bending quirk, “I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy;” unwittingly his classmates start to join in and while he’s always held a distaste for the part of his quirk that forced others to join in but right now it didn’t seem that bad, “because I’m easy come, easy go, little high, little low… Anyway the wind blows doesn’t really matter to me… to me….”
“ Mama just killed a man, put a gun against his head,” Izuku made a gun with his fingers and aimed it down towards the courtyard below, ” pulled my trigger now he’s dead.”
A resounding boom echoed around the USJ and Yayozoru who had been standing next to him ‘meeped’ at the gunshot and turning his head to her revealed a literal smoking gun that had randomly appeared in his hands. In the courtyard one of the villains stumbled back from where they’d been hit in the shoulder.
Shoji and Jirou caught their ears in pain at the loud sound.
“What the actual fuck…” mouthed Jirou to Yaorozu who paled a little.
“This quirk is a literal cheat code, I swear” Kaminari whisper-shouted staring agape at the screen.
The green haired boy was writing intensely in his notebook
“At least the little listener did not shoot him in the head ?” Present Mic faltered weakly.
“ Mama life had just begun, but now I’ve gone and thrown it all away…” turning to the deputy rep he couldn’t help the giant smirk that spread across his face, “Mama oooh, didn’t mean to make you cry, if I’m not back again this time tomorrow, carry on carry on as if nothing really matters….”
The thunder above got louder as he continued and he could see the villains who were trapped in place, because Rhapsody was one of the better songs where people couldn’t dance to it growing more and more anxious as his classmates grew more excited, “Too late, my time has come. Send shivers down my spine, body’s aching all the time.”
“This is really impressive, I wonder what other songs could have as effects not only on Midoriya himself but his surroundings and the people in his team.” Mused UA’s principal.
“Thank god Problem Child doesn’t have this quirk here” muttered Aizawa tiringly, feeling echoes of the headache this Alternate Problem Child would give him.
“Goodbye everybody, I’ve got to go. Got to leave you all behind and face the truth. Mama oooh~”
Bakugou and Kirishima join in with a soft, “Anyway the wind blows…”
“Bakubro we’re having a duet !” cheered Kirishima.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP SHITTY HAIR !” Bakugou barked.
“ I don’t wanna die- sometimes wish I’d never been born at all…”
The rumbling suddenly stops and then changes, creating quick beats almost that bounced off of the walls of the USJ, the looks of fear were worth the build up, Bakugou, Kirishima and a rather reluctant Shoji join him as he starts the next verse, “ I see a little silhouetto of a man, Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango?"
“You have a great voice, kero” declared Asui.
“I’m pretty sure it’s the quirk’s effect” Shoji snorted dryly.
It’s at that line that his quirk’s hold lessens enough for the villains to start to move and they all start running back towards the mist villain but he can’t help the mile wide smirk as legitimate thunder clouds build up in the roof above them, “Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening me!”
«Galilée! La voix d'Uraraka répond cette fois et elle rebondit autour du dôme, d'une manière anormalement plus forte que le craquement de la foudre et le grondement du tonnerre au-dessus, « Galileo » «Galileo, Galileo figaro, Magnifico-ooo-»
Mina’s voice is the one that starts the echo call, “ Galileo!”
“Galileo!”
Uraraka’s voice answers this time and it bounces around the dome, somehow unnaturally louder than the crack of lightning and rumbling of thunder above, “Galileo”
“ Galileo, Galileo figaro, Magnifico-o-o-o-”
Sero, Kaminari and Mina joined loudly with Jirou and Hagakure more quietly, barely heard above the trio.
Warp gates open up under them but Izuku’s smirk doesn’t leave his face, even as he crashes into the water zone and even as they get surrounded on the boat. The thunder still rumbles above and the lightning still flashes. And him? Izuku may not have ‘centre stage’ right now but he’s still singing.
“This quirk is amazing” Izuku breathed his eyes not leaving the screen with a sort of longing in them, the worried looks Iida, Uraraka and Todoroki shot him going unnoticed as well as Asui’s curious look.
His quirk dictates he gets to the end of the song and he will.
The timing though is impeccable because they land in front of the courtyard just in time for him to belt out the next verse, “ So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?”
He slams his fist into the proclaimed Nomu and with the added bonus of a lucky lightning strike the creature jumps away from them, “ So you think you can love me and leave me to die? Can’t do this to me baby!”
“Damn Problem Child” could be heard being muttered from the teacher’s section
Asui and Mineta run over to their sensei, starting to move him out the way and Izuku increases his volume, hoping that whatever logic defying facet his quirk is working on will understand what he wants, “ Just gotta get out. Just gotta get right out of here.”
A few snickers escaped the group at Screen Midoriya’s thoughts.
Nomu comes hurtling towards him, his mind wholly focused on him and him alone. His friends are safe, his friends are going to make sure their sensei is safe.
And so, he takes a deep breath and braces himself, lowering his volume so that he’s singing more to himself than anyone else, “ Nothing really matters, anyone can see…. Nothing really matters…. Nothing really matters to me….”
Before anything can land though, the symphony that never quiets down in Izuku’s mind shifts dramatically and All Might throws the Nomu away from him just in time for his quirk to demand he continue singing, “ Gosh it disturbs me Gaston, seeing you look so down in the dumps. Ev’ry guy here loved to be you, Gaston even when taking your lumps. ”
His mentors grim face twists into something between bemusement and understanding and so Izuku shifts himself away from the epicentre of the fight, content to fill the support role of bard right now, “ There’s no man in town as admired as you you’re ev’ryone’s favourite guy, ev’ryone’s awed and inspired by you and it’s not very hard to see why… ”
The snickers increased to turn out into a full laugh at the change of song.
“It’s fitting,” pondered Ojiro, making Yagi blush in embarrassment while Tsukauchi hid a laugh behind a cough.
Behind him the stairs have finally decided to return to what they’re supposed to be and he spots Asui and Mineta about half way up them, “ No ones…. As slick as Gaston! No ones as quick as Gaston! ”
“This must be the weirdest thing I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life” Midnight said, astonished.
“I can think of a few things weirder than that” affirmed Sero, his head tilted in a thinking motion receiving weird looks from several people clearly wondering what could be stranger than that.
“I wonder how I could get such a quirk, my mother’s is a minor telekinesis and my father’s is fire breathing. But since it’s another universe they can have different quirks too or be totally different people but since I look exactly the same it could not be…” Izuku thought out loud, earning affectionate looks from his friends.
“Is no one going to go back to this “One for All” thingy or the fact All Might knew Midoriya before UA or why he needed to lie about getting some super strengh or like who is the blonde skeleton with the teachers ?” asked Jirou “Am I the only one curious ?”
“No, you are right, I would like some answers as well” Yaorozu agreed, focusing on the green haired boy, waiting for answers.
“I- well I don’t know ! How sh-should I know ? It’s a whole different universe ! I-It’s probably only true in this- this one o-or maybe a few others too !” stuttered Izuku moving his arms in panic, his eyes wandering everywhere but on the people in the room.
“You can’t lie for shit Deku so tell the fucking truth !” Glowered Kacchan small explosions coming from his hands.
Izuku took a step back, sending distressed looks to his mentor “I- I”.
“Stop it ! Deku-kun is obviously uncomfortable with this, leave him alone !” shouted Uraraka angrier at the minute, couldn’t they just leave him alone ? He would talk about it whenever he wants to.
“I agree. Midoriya has a right to keep the burden of his darkness to himself” nodded Tokoyami “ But we are here to ease this burden as well, there is no need for you to be Atlas” he continued staring at the freckled boy.
A few people seemed ashamed and sheepish at that but others had a stubborn look on the face, seeking answers.
As Bakugou was about to start shouting again Aizawa activated his quirk to have their attention.
“Silence. The blonde skeleton, as you called him Jirou, is Yagi Toshinari, he works at UA and is All Might’s secretary, I don’t know why he is there and not All Might. Now onto the rest of your questions, as Problem child said it could be specific to the universe we watched. Now shut up and let the next one roll.” The Underground Hero explained deadpanned before rolling back in his sleeping bag next to Present Mic.