~O~

"What the—?!" Izuku was in midair when he gasped, his eyes widening.

The terrain shifted.

Izuku was surrounded by darkness.

He gulped, brows knitted together in bewilderment. As far as his sight stretched, all his saw was pitch black.

"Why...?" Izuku mumbled, looking down at the keys, "Why did it happen?"

Did his alter ego free itself from Kacchan? Was he in danger?! Could they be fighting? The ash blonde couldn't fight it, it's just too strong to be defeated in a physical battle. Would he be safe? That thing wouldn't hurt him, would it? It wanted Izuku to kill him so it wouldn't hurt him, right?

"Please be safe, Kacchan..." Izuku prayed as he made his grip on the keys tighter.

Emerald green eyes darted across the darkness in hopes to find something, anything. But standing in one spot did no good on his side so he began walking forwards slowly and carefully while keeping an arm stretched out in front of his frame, just in case so he wouldn't crash into something.

Eventually, Izuku's hand collided with a cold, flat and vertical surface that spread from left to right.

He gulped as a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. This place, his body, everything was getting so cold. It was so cold, he wondered if this place could be completely built out of ice — but no. It wasn't just getting cold.

He was getting cold.

Something was... Something was freezing him from the inside. Breathing became too difficult. His frame was shivering in the cold and the dark. Teeth began clattering against each other — it wasn't supposed to be this cold. His fingertips were hurting from the cold. He took in deep, heavy breaths as he rubbed his hands over the opposite arms in an attempt to produce some kind of warmth.

No luck.

Izuku figured this was just another one of the aspect of his quirk. The coldness of his body in the real world had increased so much that it was affecting him in here. The only way to stop it would be to get out of this place as soon as he coul—!

His head shot up, eyes moving in all direction.

Izuku heard a faint voice....

Something — someone was calling him. Who? Where? How? Why? He had many questions. But none of them were the top concern right now. Questions could wait. Answers could wait. As much as he urged to write down everything he found out about this quirk in one of his notebooks — he had to wait. Because it wasn't only him in danger anymore... Bakugou was still with the alter ego.

Izuku heard it again. It was so faint, he couldn't make out the words that were spoken. It was out there but blocked by something.

But unlike that voice before, that was a little deranged version of his own voice, this voice undoubtedly belonged to a female.

And he might not have made out the words correctly, but he could tell that it was calling him towards it. It was asking him to follow it. Find it... Almost in a way a mother tells her child to come to here for comfort.

The green haired boy did remember everyone from his life now and he was sure as hell that this wasn't his mother's voice. This was someone else. Someone he didn't know.... Yet he felt some sort of connection. Like he did know who it was. But he really didn't.

And it made him want to know who it was.

"Okay... Okay... Let's see." Izuku breathed in. For a moment, he ignored everything else and focused on the direction of the voice as he pressed his ear against the cold vertical surface. He assumed it was coming from his left and was behind this... Well, uh, wall?

Izuku moved left, hand passing along against the smooth surface of the wall. The voice eventually died out and Izuku was left with no other guide. But he still kept walking in that direction until he felt a change. The smooth yet cold surface of the wall underneath his hand soon was replaced by a rough and wooden surface.

"A door?" Izuku assumed.

He let his fingers slide across the surface. He found a knob — definitely a door. And moving upwards he felt something carved onto it. He traced his fingers over the carved letter in an attempt to make out what they said.

"Me... Mo... Ry. La.... Ne..." He said before putting the letters together in a more logical sense. He smiled brightly and exclaimed, "Memory lane?!"

Wasting no time, Izuku took the keys and directed them towards the knob, trying them on it one by one, until he heard a click and felt the knob turn as the door opened slightly.

He pushed it aside rather forcefully out of pure enthusiasm.

But sadly there was no woman he could say the voice belonged to. Neither was there another call.

But Izuku found the memory lane! He could connect to his actual body or find an exit now. That's a good thing. Right?

The place was dimly lit, yellowish in color by a source he didn't know of. Probably fire torches or lanterns but there were none in his sight.

He walked ahead, taking in his surroundings.

Books, photographs, boxes and trunks filled with all kinds of things. There was everything he had ever owned lined up as a lane. A lighthearted chuckle escaped his lips when his eyes landed on the All Might figurines — old and new.

And at the far end there was a full length mirror, the maroonish red metal frame of whose appeared to be rusted a little. Dust particles rested on the surface of the mirror — Izuku never owned a full length mirror like this one or any other.

The green haired boy took slow steps and neared the mirror. He placed his scarred hand on it, brushing off a little dust with his hand. He hoped to see his own face affected by the freezing process going inside his body. Anyone would've hoped to see their own face in a mirror. But this one was... Just a little bit different.

Izuku saw his own freckled and now pale face for sure.

But what else he saw, made a small crooked smile crawled onto his lips.

There in the mirror was not only his reflection, but also some others — seven to be exact. A young man with straight white hair which was covering one of his eyes. Another man, bald and dressed in a black hero outfit. A young man with black hair and kind eyes. Another whitehead with two scars lining across one of his eyes. Two people behind them, Izuku couldn't properly see their faces. And finally, the one closest to the green head was a beautiful black haired lady. Out of all of them, Izuku only knew her name by the few times All Might had mentioned his predecessor — Nana Shimura.

All of them smiled upon seeing the green haired boy while the boy replied the gesture with a brighter smile of his own.

There was a moment of silence as Izuku didn't say anything. He was sure that they could see him. But could they hear him? Even if they can, what should he say? He wasn't sure. Could they help him out? Was it Shimura's voice that was calling him? What was she saying?

The green haired boy was snapped out of his thoughts when Shimura placed a yellow gloved hand against the surface of the mirror from her side. Izuku didn't quite comprehend what she meant so he just stared at her, hoping for an answer of some sort.

The black haired woman pointed at her gloved hand on the mirror with a look from her eyes. Izuku might not have fully understood but he slowly lifted his right hand placed it where her own one rested. Just as the two hands met, divided by only the surface of the mirror, Shimura said what she has been wanting to convey to the boy from the beginning.

"Wake up..." She said with a humble expression and a calming tone.

The mirror cracked.

~O~

Bakugou had been in air ever since Izuku told him to.

He still had a tight grasp on the damned alter ego while one hand continued emitted explosions to keep him airborne. There was an endless series of snowy mountains underneath them. It almost felt like they weren't just endless, but the terrain was repeating itself. Possibly, the ash blonde had reached the end of this mindscape or a part of it which the alter ego controlled.

Out of the blue, the green haired boy's alter ego grabbed Bakugou's shoulder and yanked him down with full force, ruining their trajectory and making both of them crash down in snow.

"What the hell?!" Bakugou said immediately standing up on his feet and preparing an explosion to attack just in case the alter ego had decided to put up a fight.

But he was met with something else that made his angry expression fade away.

That damned thing was there on the snow covered ground, crouching and looking at it's hands with a face of fear and terror. It's figure was shivering horribly with widened dull green eyes.

It was mumbling something. Bakugou didn't understand what it was saying until he walked closer to it, still ready to attack if needed.

When the ash blonde was just a few steps away from it, he heard what it was saying.

"Th-They're f-free... Th-They're f-free... They're free..." It mumbled over and over again.

Bakugou wanted to ask who were these 'they' it had been talking about. But just as he opened his mouth to talk something went wrong.

There was some sort of chest piercing pain and everything appeared to be a blur.

Bakugou was forced back to his own mindscape.