It started with a flicker.
Not in light.
But in direction.
Eri stepped forward in her dream…
…and moved sideways.
She awoke standing.
Not in her dorm.
Not even in U.A.
But in a corridor made of pages.
Thousands of them.
Flapping. Whispering.
Each one had her handwriting.
Each one marked:
"DO NOT REWIND"
Wind tugged at her hair.
She turned.
At the end of the corridor stood a child.
Same height.
Same face.
Same voice.
But eyes—pure black.
And when she smiled—
Her teeth were wrong.
Too sharp.
"You're not me," Eri said.
"I'm the choice you never made," the other whispered. "The one who rewound it all."
Her voice echoed.
Deeper. Older. Too much history crammed into a child's lungs.
The walls trembled.
The corridor of memories began bleeding colors.
Scenes spilled out:
Shigaraki holding a baby Eri like a weapon.
Mirio, twisted by rewinds into something half-man, half-glitch.
Deku… in a hospital bed, never waking up.
All could-have-beens.
All almosts.
The other Eri walked closer.
"This place is called the Between."
"I've heard of it," Eri said softly. "The space echoes live in."
"No," the other corrected. "It's where the echoes wait."
In the real world…
Midoriya dropped his pencil mid-note.
Sweat broke across his back.
Bakugo looked up from across the class.
"What?"
"Something's wrong."
Todoroki stared out the window.
"She's gone again, isn't she?"
Inside the Between.
Other-Eri snapped her fingers.
The pages caught fire.
Not flame.Chrono-burn.Each sheet turned to memory-dust.
Eri stepped back.
"I stopped all this."
"No," said her echo. "You just paused it."
She leaned in.
"You left the gate open. And I walked through."
Then she opened her mouth wider than her jaw should allow.
And screamed.
The sound hit like a truck of glass.
Eri dropped.
Time shivered.
Pages curled and died.
And through the cracks, she saw other doors opening.
Too many.
Spirals within spirals.
A world where Bakugo died in her place.
A world where she became All For One's heir.
A world where every rewind took a soul with it.
The Between wanted her.
Because she was a door.
And now… they knew.
Eri screamed back.
Not from her throat.
From her horn.
It lit up—not gold.
Not white.
But red.
Blood red.
Time bent away from her scream.
The Echo fractured.
Other-Eri staggered.
"You shouldn't have that power," she gasped. "You gave it up!"
"I never gave it away," Eri hissed.
"I just… saved it."
And she stepped forward—
Each foot crushing a possible version beneath her heels.
A clock cracked in the sky.
The Between collapsed.
And in a heartbeat—
She was awake.
Back in her bed.
Sweating. Shaking.
Breath shallow.
But not alone.
Standing at her window was Aizawa.
He didn't ask what happened.
He just said:
"You didn't rewind, right?"
Eri shook her head.
"Good," he said. "Because something else did."
Elsewhere.
In a digital chamber beneath Tartarus ruins…
A monitor blinked on.
Line of code:
[ECHO_PATH_000: EXECUTED]
Another:
[SUBJECT REWIND CAPTURED]
Final line:
[NEXT HOST: SELECTED]
The screen flashed.
A face appeared.
A boy.
U.A. First Year.
Mineta Minoru.
To be continued.