Chapter Text
When Sasaki was a little boy who was only experimenting with his quirk, he looked into the future of his pregnant cat. That night, she’d get run over by a car. He tried to keep her inside but fell asleep. Only one of her kittens survived, though with a missing leg.
Another time, he saw his neighbor break his hip while he carried groceries. He tried to help, but the man still fell and broke his hip. Sasaki had gone over as often as he could to help him as he recovered, becoming a family friend and eventually the babysitter to his niece a year later.
The only thing his quirk was good for was giving him time to brace himself. To let him have time to mourn. To give him time to prepare for the consequences following the event he saw.
He hated it. He hated how difficult it was to prevent his quirk from activating. It took time to refrain himself from using it. He was grateful for the limit at the time, it made it easier to cope when he’d accidentally see someone get shot or killed. When he’d see a crime scene or an active villain chase.
He only went to UA to become a businessman or work behind the scenes for heroes.
Then Nezu came up to him and practically coerced him into having a therapy session with Hound Dog. And as aggravating as it is, he has to admit that that session convinced him into pursuing the hero career.
He didn’t go the route that people would expect. He paid for a specialized tutor recommended by Nezu and trained with the teachers available. He didn’t step into the light in UA. He chose to sit back and take the permit and license tests without the help of the school. He was better in the shadows. Better as an informant. Better as an Underground hero.
Then he got scouted by All Might. He was the one who did things in the shadows for the man, letting All Might shine and blind people enough for him to slip away from the cameras. He did get a bit more publicity, so he had to rework his fighting style and look to match his lowkey sidekick/twilight hero position.
It really was the best position to observe All Might in complete awe. He got to see it all and even wore a smile during it all. He was also the one who started a merch franchise that actually gave profit beyond the necessities. It was a fun side project that made All Might a bit disturbed. Some of the merch did uh… get lower in quality at times.
All that time had blinded him to the reality of his quirk. And it came to a head the day All Might got badly injured fighting with his mentor against All For One. Sasaki had seen into All Might’s distant future and saw it. Saw yet another death.
Desperate, he was desperate to stop it from happening but… but he couldn’t. He knew he couldn’t no matter how much he tried. And it hurt. It hurt him badly. He lost a lot that day. He lost his childish view of All Might, the one where the man was immortal and couldn’t be defeated. He lost his friend. He lost one of the few lights in his life that still remain lit after all this time.
Maybe he lost more of himself than he had thought. It was only when Mirio came along when he felt that familiar strain of a smile, the one that had only existed back when he saw All Might on TV for the first time. He saw the shock on people’s faces when he treated Mirio with the barest hint of affection.
It was a goddamn PR nightmare and he had to go as far as to admit that he felt a father-son connection towards the student.
And then his last mission, his last rescue, his last fight, his last everything happened. Kai Chisaki, Eri, the gang, the bullets, the drugs, that whole fiasco-
It was then that he discovered that the future wasn’t set in stone like he believed. Midoriya was an outlier, someone he couldn’t predict. It was the first thing that gave him joy in his last moments. The second was that Mirio would get his quirk back and become an amazing hero.
He got to see All Might again, he got to say that he doesn’t regret anything or resent anyone. He got to share that the future could be changed with enough willpower. He got to reassure Mirio and wish him the best.
He got to see a future he wasn’t scared of.
It was everything he ever wanted. And the whole mission was a success too, everyone was safe. He was the only one who wouldn’t make it, and what a relief that was. This was the best way for him to go. This was his ideal end, surrounded by everyone he cared for, reassured about Mirio’s future, and his fear of what he thought of as the determined future torn apart. His quirk wasn’t always right, and he was so thankful that there was a possibility that All Might wouldn’t be killed. That there was a possibility that he could die of natural means. That Sasaki’s quirk wouldn’t be the reason why he died.
There was no reason not to smile as his vision blurred and he drew his last breath.
An elderly man in a cloak stood in front of a blank mirror. It didn’t reflect, but it looked as though it held depth, as if it were a dark tunnel.
“Tonight is his ascension to becoming an Ancient being. Isn’t that exciting?”
The narrow view expands and many floating eyeballs in cloaks come into view.
“Clockwork, you cannot interfere with the major event that is coming.” An eyeball somehow spoke.
“He does not wish to be king, and you have no king for him to be the knight of. Him becoming an Ancient is the only equivalent,” Clockwork informed.
“He shall not be a king, a knight, an Ancient, or anything else! His future is forever dark! He will not be a savior, he will be the destroyer or dimensions! He must be exterminated and erased from each dimension!”
“You proclaimed it yourself!” Another eyeball adds, “You’ve even been the one to End him while he was king before the reign of tyrants! You know more than us that when he becomes corrupted, there will be nothing left of existence except for the void!”
“That is only a possibility.” Clockwork reminds them.
“One that far outweighs the possibility of it being otherwise!”
“With my guidance-”
“You are not allowed to interact with the mortal realm.”
“I am when something grave will come to be.”
“Not with this. If you continue to interact with the mortal realm, we will be forced to seal you away.”
“Mm… Oh but, what will you do without someone to control time and space? I’m not quite sure that anybody could handle either without a core specialized for it or an affinity through their obsession on top of having a constitution of an Ancient being without already becoming one. Time is a very stressful thing to keep watch over, is it not? And Space… Do you wish to play God?”
Clockwork turned around, his blue skin and fully red eyes being seen in the film. He had a smug smile and his posture showed that he was simply stalling for time, covering the mirror behind him with his own body to shield whatever or whoever he was spying on.
An eyeball stood tall and somehow gave off the feeling that it had it’s chin raised up, all snotty and annoying.
“There have been recent additions to concept-based ghosts. Planets have been given life, and do not all have too many duties to fulfill despite their status being similar to a city spirit. They should be able to handle the burden of space if it’s spread among them. For Time, we have negotiated with a multitude of time wielders. Things will run on a shorter loop, but it will still be eons long, nobody will notice.”
“It sounds as though you all were conspiring for quite some time now.”
“Don’t speak as though you haven’t realized. The fact that you haven’t interfered is reason enough that you agree, at least to a degree, with us.”
“Well, it’s what it was meant to be. It would’ve happened sooner or later. It’s simply more fruitful for it to happen now.”
“And what kind of fruit will it produce? Will it rot before it fully ripens, or picked apart by pests before it’s marketable?
Clockwork smiled wide, showing his sharp teeth.
“It is time.”
And all of a sudden, glass rained from all directions, a laugh bouncing off the walls was accompanied by shrieks, shouts, and chants.
And as quickly as it started, it ended with chains shackling Clockwork, dragging him into a purple orb, his staff falling on the glass covered floor in deafening silence.
"How long do you think he could last?"
"With him only having a partial spiritual bond to supplement him, I'm not really sure."
"... Then we should just cut his last strings-"
"Maylen!"
"He's going to die anyway! I bet even a few slaps should do the trick!"
"We can't do that! What if his quirk isn't passed over because we were too hasty?"
"The poison's spreading! He's still in surgery- They've nearly lost him twice in the last hour! We can't wait much longer!"
"What if-"
"Could you two be any louder?"
Over the stretcher with a new patient, there gathered a pink cloud with sharp blue eyes becoming more solid with each blink. Not long after, the 2 ghosts quickly aided the man, sending waves of ectoplasm to help him form faster. Only minutes later, the man was fully formed, his ghost having it's infant skin tone of his deathly paled skin tone and his color scheme the default inverted color palette.
"Of course Sir Nighteye's wearing a perfectly ironed suit and beautiful hair after he died. Is it so much to ask for a hero ghost to carry over their greasy hair and hospital gown with them? It's like we're the common characters and they're epic tier!"