"So, to be perfectly frank...no I don't think you can become a hero without a quirk.".

Those words kept repeating in Izuku's mind on a dark feedback loop from hell. His idol...former idol All-Might took no notice of Izuku's darkening mood as he slowly walked towards the stairwell of the building they were standing on.

"I can understand having dreams young man, but you have to be realistic as well. May I suggest joining the police force? They get a lot of grief for having heroes do most of the work for them, but it's a respectable profession."

And with his piece said, All Might exited the stairwell, leaving Izuku to his darkening thoughts.

Izuku couldn't help it, he let out a choked laugh, which turned into a sob after only a moment. Tears had always come easily to Izuku, but this time, it felt different, more final. All Might was his last shot and even He thought you needed a quirk to be a hero...which Izuku did not have.

What was he to do now?

Unbidden, another thought rapidly entered Izuku's depressed thoughts.

'Why don't you just take a swan dive off the roof and hope that you're born with a quirk in the next life huh?'

It was 'advice' from his best friend in the world; Bakugou Katsuki. And at the time Izuku had just shrugged it off as Katsuki being well... Katsuki. He never said anything that he meant, which made dealing with him difficult. But what if he was onto something?

What if...that was literally his only option? He had tried so hard to keep his spirits up and to be strong for his mom and for himself but…

He was tired.

No, more than that. He was exhausted. It was time to see if Katsuki's words had any modicum of truth to it. At this point, what did he have to lose?

An explosion off in the distance rang out solidly, but Izuku took no notice of it, slowly shuffling his way to the edge of the building, staring down at the edge of it dispassionately.

Did he really want to do this?

'No you can't be a hero.'

'I'm sorry Izuku! I wish things were different!'

'Why don't you just take a swan dive off the roof!'

All these thoughts and more ran through Izuku's mind and steeled his resolve. He was doing it. He lifted one foot off the edge of the building and watched it dangle over the ledge. It looked...further and more real than it did merely seconds ago.

Izuku paused for only a moment, to send a small apology to his mom before his other foot followed and Izuku plummeted to the ground. He didn't even have time to scream before he hit the ground and knew no more.

Izuku dreamed turbulent dreams, dreams in strange languages, dreams of home, of death. Odd bits of nonsense that spooled out in flickers of consciousness, swimmy and focused all at once.

A faceless woman was blowing something into his eyes, and Izuku felt the sensation of being immersed in warm water. Someone's voice, a girl's assuring him that everything would be okay. They were friends now, and that he would be safe. Then deep and dreamless dark.

The next time Izuku woke up, he was aware that he wasn't dreaming. But was he alive? He did a quick body inspection, surprised to find that he was in a nightgown, rather than the blood stained clothes that he expected to find. Someone had been taking care of him.

He wasn't hurt, but he was tired. His body ached in a way that he'd never felt before. He tried sitting up, but had to stop halfway in the attempt and rest on his elbows. A glass pitcher of water stood on a night table by the bedside. In one corner of the room was a large wooden wardrobe. And in the other…

Izuku blinked and rubbed his eyes. There was a man sitting there. Izuku's mind desperately struggled to understand what he was seeing here.

This was a man that couldn't seem to decide how he wanted to appear. Maybe it was quirk related? Half of his hair was slicked back, while the other half was cowlicked all over the place. Half of his face was scraggly and unshaven while the other was as smooth as could be. Even his clothes were half modern, half archaic.

"H-Hello?" Izuku tried uncertainly.

The man shouted, startling so badly that he fell out of his chair and fell onto the floor in a jumble. Izuk mumbled apologies as best as he could as the man picked himself up, waving off his apologies.

"Oh, my! Oh goodness!" He climbed back into the chair, eyes wide and hands aflutter. "You're awake!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!"

"Ah, no, it was my fault entirely," he said, smoothing his clothes and straightening his collar. "Please don't tell anyone I fell asleep watching you!"

"Who are you?" Izuku asked, after promising that he wouldn't say a word. "Where am I?" Izuku asked as his mind started clearing fast, and quickly began to fill with questions. "Is this heaven?"

"Right! Yes!" The man said, looking flustered. "I might not be the best equipped member of the household to answer...questions…"

He whispered the word, as if questions were forbidden. "But!" He pointed at Izuku. "You're Izuku." He pointed at himself. "I'm Nim." He made a whirling motion with his hand. "And this is Mr. Morningstar's house. He's very eager to meet you. In fact, I'm to notify him as soon as you're awake."

Izuku squirmed up from his elbows to sit fully upright, the effort nearly exhausting him. "That...raises more questions than answers." He said finally.

"Of course! Answers…"

He flapped his hands like little wings while his eyes darted from side to side, as if he might find answers in the corner of the room.

"Where am I?" Izuku tried again.

"My name's Nim!" He squeaked. "And I'm to notify-yes, under strict instructions…"

A panicky thought flew into Izuku's head. That maybe he hadn't fallen to his death, maybe he had been kidnapped, and he was going to be sold for spare parts.

"HELP!" Izuku managed to shout. "IS SOMEONE THERE?!"

Nim went blank and plopped back into the chair. A moment later feet came pounding down the hall. A man in a white coat burst into the room. "You're awake!" he exclaimed. Izuku could only assume that he was a doctor.

"Where is this!" Izuku asked. He tried to swing his legs out of the bed, but they were as heavy as logs.

The doctor rushed to his side and pushed him back towards the sheets. "Don't exert yourself, you're still recovering!"

"Recovering from what?"

The doctor ordered Nim to go find Mr. Morningstar. Nim ran out, bouncing off the door knob and flopping into the hall. And then a girl was at the door, out of breath and beaming, brown hair flowing down her shoulders in a bob.

"Izuku?"

At the sight of this girl, a burst of strength coursed through Izuku and he sat up, pushing the doctor aside.

"Do...I know you?"

"You're awake!" She said, running to him.

"Careful with him, he's delicate!" The doctor warned.

Checking herself, the girl gave Izuku the gentlest of hugs, then sat on the edge of the bed next to him. "I'm sorry I wasn't here when you woke up. They said you'd be out for hours more…"

"Where is this? Who are you? What's going on?" Izuku asked instead of stammering badly like he wanted to. Apparently not knowing what was going on did wonders for his focus and his ability to speak to pretty girls.

And to speak in general.

The girl sitting on his bed had a slender build. She was fair skinned and had a perpetual blush on her cheeks, as far as Izuku could tell. Her eyes were brown, and large and round, with thick upper eyelashes.

Her hair was brown as well, and shoulder length, cut in a bob that curved inwards at the ends, with two long bangs framing her face on both sides. All in all, she was the prettiest girl that had ever spoken to Izuku.

And she was here, sitting with him!

She glanced at the doctor. He was writing in a small notebook, but obviously listening. She turned her back to him and lowered her voice. "We're in the ninth circle of hell, known as Devil's Acre. Someplace hidden. You've been here about a day, a day and half more or less."

"No way...hell?!" Izuku squeaked. "But I…"

"Jumped off a building, remember? That's…"

"You had four broken ribs and torn shoulder," The doctor interjected.

"They have a woman here," The girl continued. "A healer, with a powerful healing quirk…"

"And a double concussion," The doctor continued. "Nothing we couldn't handle in the end. But-you,boy-you were nearly dead when you arrived!" And then he laughed at his own joke, ignoring the look the girl shot him.

Izuku patted his chest, his stomach, all the places that he'd felt damaged upon impact. No pain. He lifted his right arm and rotated his shoulder, and then did the same with left. No problem. "It doesn' hurt at all." He marvelled.

"You're lucky they didn't give you a new body," Came another voice-said a enormous cloaked man, ducking to fit his full height through the doorway. "In fact, it's a shame they didn't give you one, because apparently the body you've got now is full of sawdust! What were you thinking?" He towered over Izuku, wagging a long, white finger in his face.

Izuku flinched at the finger, his face rapidly losing color to match the man's finger. He squeaked, but nothing came out of his mouth.

"He was lucky." The girl said.

"Yes-lucky I was there! Lucky my soul catching cousins were available that evening and I was able to catch them before they'd had too much to drink! They don't work for free, by the way. I'm adding their services to your tab, along with the damages YOU did to my boat Uraraka!"

"Fine, fine!" The now named Uraraka said. "Settle down, alright?"

"What were you thinking?" He said again, his awful breath settling over them like a cloud. "That wasn't in the records at all."

And then what he had been thinking had come back to him and Izuku lost it. "I was thinking that life wasn't worth living anymore!" He fired back. "That all I've wanted to do was to be a hero and I don't have the means to do it! And NO ONE lets me forget that! I just wanted…"

A sudden, crashing wave of exhaustion hit Izuku as his vision unfocused.

"I wanted…"

He shook his head, tried standing up again to spin, but the room had begun to spin. Uraraka held his arms and the doctor pushed him back gently onto his pillow. "We're helping you because Mr. Morningstar asked us to." He informed tersely. "What he wants with you, well, you'll have to ask him yourself." He then turned to the tall man. "He can't be allowed to meet Mr. Morningstar like this."

"His brain is addled," The cloaked man said. "If the girl and I could just talk to him in private, I'm sure he could be brought around. Might we have the room to ourselves?"

Reluctantly, the doctor left. When he left, Izuku opened his eyes again and focused on Uraraka, who was looking down on him. She was really pretty.

"Am I dead?" He whispered.

Uraraka made a face. "No, not yet."

Izuku considered what that might mean-what might have happened to him, but he couldn't bear the thought. "Not yet?"

"Despite your best efforts, you're still alive. Technically. But that could end pretty soon." The man butted in.

"Go away." Uraraka waved him off. "I want to talk to Izuku in private."

"Why? So you can run away again?"

"We won't go anywhere," Uraraka responded, gesturing to Izuku. "He can't even get out of bed. Where would we go?"

The man wasn't swayed. "I'll go to the corner and mind my own business," he said. "That's my best offer." He went and perched himself on Nim's one armed chair and began to whistle and clean his fingernails.

Uraraka helped Izuku sit up, and she pressed her forehead against his, causing Izuku to redden quickly. For a moment, Izuku was so overwhelmed by her closeness that all the questions flooding his brain vanished and there was only her hand touching his face, brushing his cheek, his jaws…

"My name's Ochako Uraraka," She whispered. "I'm really glad you're here."

"I'm...okay?" Izuku whispered back. He knew he hadn't been, but he felt fine now. More or less.

"You weren't. You might still not be. You should apologize to the doctor."

Izuku nodded at that, and then she looked away. Her eyes drifted briefly to the wall, and when they returned, a new hardness glittered in them.

"You weren't supposed to die a few days ago. That's why you're not in heaven...or actual hell right now. And since Mr. Morningstar got to you before anyone else...there's a chance that you can come back from this…"

Her hand found his atop the sheet. Their fingers knotted together, without Izuku giving it another thought. "I was there when they pulled you off the ground, after you…"

She let out a shaky breath and shook her head, as if chasing the memory away. "It's…"

Izuku squeezed her hand and searched for something more to say, but she spoke first.

"I need you to promise me something."

"Anything."

"I need you not to die again."

Izuku stared at her, but Ochako stared right back at him. "You can't. After this, you cannot die again Izuku. If we lose you...promise me."

"I'll...do my best."

"That's not good enough," She whispered. "Promise me."

"Okay. I won't die."

"Say, 'I promise.'"

"I promise. You say it too."

"I promise," She repeated.

"Ahh," The man said airily from the corner, "The sweet lies, lovers tell…"

They broke apart, both of their faces fairly red. "You're not supposed to be listening!" Ochako stammered, hands covering her face.

"That was long enough," He said, dragging his chair loudly across the floor and planting it next to the bed. "We have important things to discuss. Namely, the apology you owe me."

"For what?" Izuku grumbled, growing tired of the man.

"She impugned my character and reputation."

"Every word was true." Ochako said. "This place IS full of scumbags, and you ARE a money driven scutz."

"Although, thank you for saving me."

"Around here you learn to look out for number one," He said. "Everyone's got a story. A plight. Everyone wants something from you, and they're always lying. So yes, I remain unapologetically self directed and profit motivated. But I deeply resent your suggestion that I have dealings of any kind with someone who trades in flesh. Just because I'm a capitalist doesn't mean I'm a black hearted bastard."

"And how could I have known that?" Ochako said. "I had to beg you and bribe you to help Izuku remember?"

He shrugged. "That was before I realized who you were."

Izuku glanced at Ochako, before pointing at himself. "Me?"

"You, my boy. Mr. Morningstar's been waiting a long time to speak to you. Since the day I first hung my shingle as a boatman-fifty odd years ago. Mr. Morningstar ensured me safe passage in and out of Hell if I promised to keep an eye out for you while I did it. I was to bring you to see him. And now, finally, I've kept my end of the bargain."

"You must have me confused with someone else," Izuku denied immediately. "I'm a quirkless nobody."

"He said that you would survive the well. And you did. How many people do you know that can do that?

"But how can-?"

"That's why it took me some time to put it together," He continued, ignoring Ochako. "I had to go see Mr. Morningstar about it personally, which is where I've been. You don't fit the description, as you weren't supposed to die for quite some time. All this time I've been waiting for an old man."

"An old man."

"Right."

"But still me?"

"As I said."

Ochako tightened her grip on Izuku's hand and they exchanged a look. Izuku didn't have any idea what was going on, and Ochako wouldn't talk with this man in the room. Izuku swung his legs out of bed, charged with a new energy. "I would like to talk to this Mr. Morningstar guy. Right now please."

"He'll see you when he's ready."

"No," Izuku said, surprising himself with his firmness. "Now."

As it happened, at that moment, there was a knock at the door. The man opened it to find Nim. "Mr. Morningstar will meet our guests for tea in one hour," he said, "In the library."

"We can't wait an hour!" Ochako said. "We've wasted too much time here already."

"At this, Nim went a bit red and puffed out his cheeks. "Wasted?"

"What I mean is," Ochako backtracked, "Is that we have another pressing engagement elsewhere that we're already late for."

"Mr. Morningstar insists upon meeting you properly," Nim said. "As he always says, the day there's no time for manners, hell's lost to us anyway. Speaking of which, I'm to make sure you're dressed appropriately." He went to the wardrobe and swung open it's heavy doors. Inside were several racks of clothes. "You may choose what you like."

Izuku threw back his covers and Ochako helped him out of bed. To his surprise, his legs took his weight. He glanced out of the window at an empty street enveloped in yellow murk, and then with Ochako holding his arm, went to the wardrobe to pick out an outfit.

"Can we have some privacy to change, please?" He asked.

The nameless man looked at Nim and shrugged. Nim's hands flapped. "It wouldn't be proper!"

"Ahh, they're fine." He said, waving his hand. "No monkey business alright?"

Izuku turned beet red. "I have no idea what you mean!"

"Sure you don't." He shooed Nim out of the room, then paused at the doorway. "Can I trust you not to run away again?

"Why would we?" Ochako said sweetly. "Izuku wants to meet Mr. Morningstar. But why are YOU still here?"

"I was asked to keep an eye on you."

"That must be a pretty big favor you owe him," Izuku said.

"Massive," he replied. "I owe the man my life." And bending himself nearly in half, he squeezed out into the hallway.

"You can change clothes in there," Ochako said, nodding towards a small bathroom. "I'll change in here. And no peeking okay?"

"Of course!" Izuku squeaked, before locking himself in the bathroom. It was a standard bathroom, all gleaming white tiles and heavy iron fixtures, and he leaned over the sink to examine himself in the mirror.

He was a mess.

His face was puffy and crosshatched with angry pink lines, which were healing quickly but still there, reminders of what he'd tried to do...or did. His chest was a mess of bruises, painless but ugly. Blood was caked into the folds of his ears and his hair. The sight of it made him dizzy and he had to grip the sink to stay upright.

He turned on the tap to wash his face. The pipes shuddered and groaned, but after a moment, it producing brown water. It wasn't seeing the brown water that really highlighted the fact that he was in hell.

What was he doing here?

Better question; Mr. Morningstar had said that he was always expecting Izuku to come here, but he was early. How did he know Izuku would be here? What did he want with him?

Izuku put on the clothes left for him, surprised that they fit perfectly. As Izuku was putting on his shoes, Ochako knocked.

"You doing alright in there?"

He opened the door to a blast of fuschia. Ochako looked miserable in an enormous fuschia colored dress. She sighed. "It was the lesser of many evils I promise. She stepped into the bathroom and crossed over the window and looked out.

"Yes. Good."

"What's good?" Izuku asked.

"This ledge. It's huge and there are handholds everywhere. Perfect."

"And that's important why…?" Izuku asked carefully.

"Because Caliban is watching the hall, so obviously we can't go that way."

It looked like Ochako sometimes had whole conversations with Izuku inside her head, and then she would get exasperated when Izuku appeared confused when he was finally let in on them.

"We can't go anywhere," He said instead. "We've got to meet Mr. Morningstar."

"And we will, but I'll be hanged if I'm spending the next hour twiddling thumbs in this room. Mr. Morningstar's an exile hiding in hell, so that means he's likely a dangerous lowlife with a past. I want to have a look round his house and see what we can find. We'll be back before anyone notices we're gone. I promise."

"We're dressed perfectly well for stealth too,"

"Cute."

Izuku was in hard soled shoes that made noise with every step, and Ochako was in a dress that was the brightest fuschia possible, and Izuku had only recently been able to walk under his own power, but Izuku still agreed. She seemed to have a better idea of what was going on here than he did so he would follow her lead.

"If someone spots us, so be it." She said, "He's waited forever to meet you apparently. He's not going to kick us out now for giving ourselves a tour."

She opened the window and climbed onto the ledge. He stuck his head out cautiously. They were two stories above an empty street. Directly below us was the law office. She offered her hand to Izuku. "I don't think you're afraid of heights but I won't let you fall."

Izuku grabbed her hand, noticing that she had strange pads on her fingers. He said nothing about that however and shimmied along the ledge with her.

When the ledge turned a corner, and they felt fairly certain that they were out of Caliban's view, they tried opening a window.

It was locked. They shimmied and tried another, but it too was locked. As were the third, fourth and fifth windows.

"We're running out of building," Izuku said. "What if none of them open?"

"The next one will!" Izuku said.

"How do you know?"

"I'm psychic." And with that she kicked it, sending shattered glass into the room and tinkling down the front of the building.

"No, you're a hoodlum,"

She grinned at him and knocked the last few shards from the frame with her hand. She stepped through the opening and Izuku followed, somewhat reluctantly, into a dark and cavernous room. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust.

The only light came from the window shade they'd just broken, it's small glow revealing wooden crates and boxes climbing to the ceiling in teetering stacks, leaving only a small aisle between them.

"What do you think's in them?" Izuku wondered aloud.

"We'd need a crowbar or something to find out," Ochako told him. "These are sturdy."

"I thought you were psychic."

She made a face at him and they hurried through two more rooms filled with dust covered displays, and then arrived at a utilitarian staircase, which they climbed to the next floor. It seemed to go on forever, its regularly spaced doors and repeating wallpaper creating a dizzying impression of endlessness.

They walked along peeking into rooms. They were all identical. It would have been impossible to tell them apart if not for the plaques nailed to the doors, which gave each a unique name.

Maybe fifty rooms lined the hallway, and they were halfway down its length, when a blast of air rolled over them. It was so cold that it prickled his skin.

"Where did that come from?" Izuku said, hugging himself.

"Maybe someone left a window open?" Ochako suggested.

"It wasn't that cold outside though," Izuku pointed out, and she shrugged.

They continued down the hall, the air chilling more the farther they went. Finally they turned a corner and came to a section of hall where icicles had formed on the ceiling and frost glistened on the carpet. The cold seemed to be emanating from one room in particular, and they stood before it watching flakes of snow watft, one by one from the crack beneath the door.

"Is this normal?" Izuku asked, shivering.

"No by my standards."

They looked at the plaque on the door. It read, the 7th Circle; Tundra.

"Maybe it's a hyperactive conditioner," Ochako suggested.

"One way to find out," Izuku said, reaching for the know and turning it, but it wouldn't budge. "Or not."

Ochako put her hand on the knob and held it there for several seconds. Then she twisted the knob and pushed the door, but it opened only an inch; snow was piled up on the other side. They put their shoulders to the surface and shoved. The door flung open and a gust of artic air slapped them. Snow flurried everywhere.

Shielding their faces, they peered inside. It was furnished like the other room but everything was buried under heaps of snow.

"What is this?" He asked, shouting to be heard over the wind. "Another Circle?"

"It can't be!" She shouted back. "It doesn't work like that!"

Leaning into the wind, they stepped inside for a closer look. Izuku had thought that the snow and ice was coming from an open window but as the flurry abated, he saw that there was no window at all, not even a wall on the far side of the room.

Ice coated walls stood on either side of them, but where a fourth wall should have been, there was an ice cave, and beyond that there was open air, open ground, and an endless vista of white snow, and black rocks.

It really did look like a tundra.

A single track of shoveled snow led through the room and into the whiteness beyond. They shuffled down the path, out of the room and into the cave, marvelling at everything around them.

"This is amazing!" Ochako laughed, bending down to scoop up a handful of snow, that she then tossed at Izuku. "Isn't this amazing!"

"It is…" Izuku said, through chattering teeth, "But where did it come from?"

They threaded through giant icicles and emerged into the open. Looking back, Izuku could no longer see the room at all; it was perfectly camouflaged inside of the cave.

Ochako hurried ahead, then turned back and said, "Over here!" in an urgent voice.

Izuku shuffled through the snow to her side. The landscape was bizarre. Before them was a flat white field, past which the ground fell away.

"We're not alone," Ochako suddenly said, and pointed to a detail that Izuku had neglected. A man was standing at the edge of a crevasse, peering down into it.

"What's he doing?" Izuku asked.

"It looks like he's looking for something…"

They watched him walk slowly along the crevasses, always staring down. After about a minute, Izuku realized that he was so cold that he could no longer feel his face. A gust of snowy wind blew up and blanked the scene.

When it died down a moment later, the man was staring at them.

Ochako stiffened. "Oh no."

"Do you think he sees us?"

Ochako glanced down distastefully at her bright dress. "Yes."