Guess what's back ya'll? I saw some confusion over on Fanfiction over the last chapter, but let me clear that up. Because of a delightful writer called TheIdeaGuy, a wonderful campeign to kill Izuku has come underway! With his, and eventually others hopefully, permissions, I'll be posting them over on Fanfic so everyone can enjoy! Now, let's dip into semi-original content, neh? The following is a fanbased parody, K-Whoops, wrong disclaimer! I The Train stops rolling now!
It was a beautiful day. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming, and a train looking fresh out of Hell barreled across the countryside, a flame merrily burning from its smokestack and wearing the largest of grins.
Inside said train was a scene most wouldn't expect either, but for different reasons.
Izuku stood, panting in the center car, now shaped into a wider training room, and was patiently waiting for Mari-Sensei to stop staring and start help get Sheer from the wall he was currently smashed through. The fact that she did so without simply breaking the wall around him in a bigger explosion was already a marked improvement in the name of magical extractions.
Since she had joined U.A two days ago, things had been...not tense, but slightly awkward. His students still listened to him first, and seemed to not know how to really treat Mari-Sensei, with the exception of Megumin, who approached her with her regular devil-may-care personality regarding ways to improve her Explosion...which were apparently few.
For all that Megumin claimed regularly to be a genius, it wasn't really something the others had considered until she started talking with their new Magic teacher, starting a conversation Izuku deeply wished he had been able to record, but would have to settle with the written notes for now. Unfortunately, alongside the stream of information being shared back and forth, most of it went over his other students heads, so it was a mixed bag.
So, until a baseline was established to make sure everyone understood the terms used, and general ways to improve their Mana pools, Mari-Sensei was relegated to potion distributor/ training assistant, to allow her to judge how each student needed to practice what.
On the bright sides, it let Izuku go all out for practice now, both due to his student's rising skill levels, but also due to not needing to leave one standing enough to help the others. The downside was his students sudden intensifying of curses and that Mari-Sensei kept getting caught in the splashzone when one of Chris' knives tore through his arms before deflecting off the bones inside, or when his students coughed up their own from their suddenly uncrushed lungs.
What he was doing was completely overwhelming, brutal beyond sensible standard, and would have him jailed for child abuse if he tried to do even a fraction of it in his old world. But he had to. Because this wasn't his old world.
While both had serious problems, had people risking life and limb to save lives against foes in the bright of day and dark of night, but there were still stark differences.
Heroes were there to help the people, a populous who looked up to them and were ready to join the fight themselves, even while Villains came and went. Here, it was the opposite. A select few truly fought against the everpresent darkness headed by an overwhelming Devil King who has gotten to the point of literally requiring divine intervention to overcome. There wasn't the time that others had, no Symbol of Peace to guide the way and hold the line while the next generation comes to succession.
Izuku would break bones, vomit blood, and suffer anything else he had to if it meant people could live with smiles on their faces. And if his students had to suffer some of the same he did during training, so they didn't get worse later, while being able to be healed immediately after?
Then he'd beat the weakness out of them, while refining himself into something worth calling a Hero.
Izuku let his muscles relax again, shaking away the train of thought as his adrenaline began to die down, leaving only the stinging itch of the cuts along his arms and back. Part of the blase reaction was from his own experiences with even more excruciating pain ruining the scale, but the majority of his issues stemmed from the his current Lichdom. Which in itself was a very interesting discovery.
The day following Mari-Sensei's... hiring, Izuku decided to get some questions answered from his now readily available Magic specialist. The answers themselves...were interesting.
As a Lich, Izuku was an existence that defied Capital-D Death while side-stepping True Life. What that actually meant, neither really knew, but it's side-effects were much more well known. Liches, did not need the standard tenets of life to exist. They didn't need to eat, breath, or even really sleep, though the later was recommended just as a way to destress the mind and stave off long-term insanity. The only thing a Lich really 'needed' to live was Mana, and that reason was threefold.
With Mana in the air, or whatever said Lich fought, it allowed them to continue or fortify their technically fragile existence. Every skin cell was energized, bones become thickened, and the soul inhabiting its container can increase itself in any number of ways. That wasn't, however, to say that there were only upsides to being a Lich.
To start with, you have to have died. Or at least, come close enough to it that the difference was minimal, which is generally a tricky thing to do regardless. Once you actually become a Lich however, things get...tricky. The body moves, and thinks, but isn't alive, which is just as big a change as you could expect. Spells that target the mind or body either fail to work, or misfire due to lacking properties, both good and bad, potions had a terrible chance of working as the stomach barely dissolved anything and blood barely flowed. Weather of extreme cold or heat had a much greater effect than a normal person, as well as take longer to 'heal' the damage.
It was all incredibly informative, and made logical sense when Izuku thought about it, making him grimace at the miss. A habit of analysis regardless, it was still possible to miss details, especially when it was about yourself. Speaking of self though...
The most important aspect about Lichdom...was personality. With so few blockades between the Soul and reality, Liches...felt MORE. Which wasn't a bad thing, but it made it especially important for a Lich to be around people to keep them in check. Laughter was sweeter, Love was everlasting, and Joy was contagious...but Anger was apocalyptic, Grief maddening, and Sadness was soul-crushing. Far more often did Liches succumb to emotion more than actual enemies.
To say it shocked Izuku was an understatement, but...it made sense. He was always a passionate person, willing to go above and beyond for his ideals and dreams no matter the cost, but since he came to this new world? Starting a school, teaching people how to be 'heroes'? It still sent waves of panic through his system, but not in the same way it used to. Izuku had changed...
And he wasn't sure if he could truly go down that rabbit hole. Not yet.
"Oi! Sensei! We're nearing a town, it looks like! Well, either that or a really elaborate trap!" Izuku heard Andrew yell, remarkably clearly for someone who'd had their jaw dislocated in three places not 20 minutes ago, snapping him out of thought, the already shallow cuts having now sealed closed and the blood being wiped off with a piece of torn fabric.
Well, that sounded like a good distraction.
END OF CHAPTER
Sorry for the lack of real action right now, I mostly wanted to make a scene happen while travel actually took place, but...nothing really felt or flowed right. It was originally going to be a scene of Mari-Sensei observing a good ol fashion Izu-beatdown, but that wouldn't have really accomplished what I wanted. Then I considered taking a page from Fate/Stay fanfiction and loading up a chapter of Quasi-babble before breaking it down into usable info for a gag, but that just seemed cruel and kind of stupid, so it was just alluded to.
Instead, we get a lesson on 'What Makes A Lich', with the pleasent sound of fists breaking faces and the frantic handling of bottles in the background. Not the most satisfying, but it does its job of getting exposition out of the way, getting us to Latis, and us into what I affectionately call, 'The Weather Arc' Enjoy, and make sure to comment! And, as always, omakes CAN, and DO, effect the stories I write.