A/N: Hello! I haven't written fanfiction in a while, and it feels great to be back. It'll take me some time to get back into the swing of things, and I hope that you guys will join me along for the ride!
Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia, and all the rights belong to Kohei Horikoshi. Although I have written this fanfiction, I have taken some inspiration from Kohei Horikoshi's fantasy AU.
I hope that you all enjoy my own little take on said AU, and I'm looking forward to writing the next chapter!
Chapter One: Dreams in the Moonlight
In the summer heat, the dull thumping of two wooden swords echoed throughout the woods. After a somewhat one-sided battle between two young boys, one with blonde hair and the other noticeably smaller with green hair, the latter's sword clattered out of reach, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"I win again!" The blonde boy cried gleefully.
"You were amazing, Kacchan!" the other exclaimed, happy that his friend had won. "I wish I was as strong as you!" he gushed, while the blonde basked in the glory.
"I bet they'll sing my praises in the future," the blonde said, attaching his wooden sword to his belt. "One day, I'll be as strong a hero as All Might! Just you wait, Deku!"
The green haired boy, Deku, squealed in delight. "I'll be a hero too!"
Kacchan looked at him sideways, his expression darkening. "You wish. It's going to be me, and only me, that'll leave this small village and be a hero. It'll never be you."
Confused, Deku asked tentatively, "Can't we both be heroes? Together?"
Kacchan's eyes flashed red with anger. "No." he replied coldly. The sentence, although simple, had hit home. Deku's eyes welled up with tears, and the once perfect summer day was long gone.
"But… But why? That's mean, Kacchan…" Deku mumbled weakly as he scrubbed the tears from his face. Kacchan glowered at him, but before he could open his mouth to hurl another insult at Deku, he was gone.
In an instant, he had been plucked from the ground like a daisy (although he was anything but one) and carried off by a dragon. The wooden sword slipped from his belt and plummeted to the ground and fell neatly next to Deku's sword that had fallen not ten minutes earlier.
Izuku "Deku" Midoriya woke up in a start. Unnerved by the dream, he tossed and turned nervously in bed. He rolled over, the moonlight spilling out from the window a few feet away from him. This time tomorrow night, he'd be sleeping underneath the stars, with the very same moon shining over him.
After years of hearing stories and songs shared by passing bards about the legendary hero who went under the name of All Might, he had been inspired to pursue adventure like him. He had longed to explore the world outside of the small village he had grown up in, along with… Kacchan…
Deku's thoughts turned to the dream he had woken up from a few moments ago. As kids, the two boys had yearned of being heroes, yet Bakugo (or as Deku called him, Kacchan) had never seemed to like Deku. Despite all the torment that he had subjected Deku to, Deku still saw Bakugo as his best friend.
It had been nine years since Bakugo had been carried off by the dragon, never to be seen againl. Mitsuki, Bakugo's mother, although extremely distraught, forced herself to smile every day and carry on as she always did. Deku still heard her cry on Bakugo's birthday every year.
Deku often thought about Bakugo, and tried to drown out the sickening, churning feeling of fear that he was most likely dead with the hope that perhaps, Bakugo was still out there, somewhere.
"I'll find Kacchan, I promise." a young Deku had vowed to Mitsuki later that day all those years ago. Between tears, she smiled wistfully. Deku's mother, Inko, who was hovering protectively over Deku's shoulder in a rather motherly fashion made eye contact with Mitsuki and smiled reassuringly.
Deku's eyes shot open again. He rarely dreamt of the past, despite it being on his mind all day. Why was he feeling so nostalgic? Whatever feelings of nostalgia were soon replaced by large pangs of guilt when he realized that had Bakugo not been killed… no, carried off by the dragon, the two would have set out on their journey together. Well, it would have been more along the lines of Bakugo setting out on his own, and Deku tagging along, with Bakugo reluctantly letting him follow after a stream of indignant and angry protests.
That's how it usually was, and how it always had been… Deku sighed. Hoping for sleep to take over at this point was useless. He stumbled out of his bed in the dark, and felt his way around the dark house.
His mother turned in her sleep but did not wake. Deku eased open the door. The floorboards beneath his feet creaked. He froze, in fear that he had woken his mother. He paused, waiting for an indication that she was awake, but none came.
He tiptoed out the door, and closed it gently behind him. He sat on the front step, gazing up at the stars. Would it be like this every night after he left the village? No roof, just the stars? He didn't really mind that, in fact, the idea quite appealed to him.
Having filled his lungs with fresh air and cleared his mind, Deku stood up to return to bed, but stopped upon seeing a familiar figure illuminated in the candle-lit window of the village inn.