Izuku's eyes snapped open, revealing that he was still on the ledge of the roof, the helicopter spotlight burning his retinas. "Ah!" he screamed in shock, stepping away from the ledge, resulting in him losing his footing and landing on his back.

Recovering from the fall, he opened his eyes, revealing the upside-down figure of a man practicing his katana swinging technique: Start above the head. Step forward and swing down onto the opponent. Repeat. (The Kirioroshi Technique.)

"I knew you didn't have it in you," said the man matter-of-factly, not breaking his focus.

"W-What was that?" asked Izuku, trying to push himself off of the ground. "Ow!" he exclaimed, feeling tremendous pain in his right arm. He fell back on his stomach. "I'm bleeding?!" he exclaimed.

"I would hope so," said the man. "After being cut by a katana, anything would start to bleed. If it's alive, that is."

Izuku looked closer at the deep-red blade of the man. He saw blood flying off with each swing of his sword. "You cut me?!" he asked, "W-Why would you do that?!"

"It was either that or let you fall," he said, still laser-focused on his task. "Besides, you should be thanking me."

"Why would I do that?!" asked Izuku, now standing and holding his arm.

"For starters, you know that you don't truly want to die now," he began, "You just wanted to make a statement, right?"

There was nothing but silence from Izuku before he finally realized the truth to the man's statement. Before he was able to say anything else, the man spoke once more. "Did you know that high blood pressure can cause delusions?" he asked.

"Are you saying that… what I saw was a-?" began Izuku.

"A forced delusion," interrupted the man.

"'Forced Delusion?'" asked Izuku. "What are you talking about? Who are you?! Was that your quirk?"

The man finished his last sequence, turned to the boy, and sheathed his katana. "My name is Chizome Akaguro; The Blood Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corps."

"Demon… Slayer?" As if all at once, Izuku's memories of that fateful night all came rushing back to him. The night that robbed him of his life, and the night that his life truly began.


11 years ago...

"I'm sorry, you two, but it appears as though your son… is quirkless," said the Midoriya family doctor after having run a multitude of tests on their son, Izuku.

"What?!" shouted Hisashi Midoriya, standing up from his chair in the man's office. "How could my son be quirkless?!" he asked. "My wife and I both have quirks!"

"Hisashi…, please," said his wife, Inko, trying to calm him down as she knew this was infuriating news for him. "I'm sure that the doctor has a perfectly good explanation for this."

As he looked from the doctor towards his wife, he sighed and relaxed. "I hope so…"

Swiveling around in his chair to face his desk, he placed his clipboard and glasses down. Before turning back to look at them, face-to-face. "Well," he began. "The way that I see it, there are about three different reasons that this could have occurred."

The two parents paid close attention as he explained. "Firstly, it could be because of a mutation that could have happened due to some trauma that the fetus experienced during the second trimester. "

After hearing this, Inko did her best to think back to that time during her pregnancy. She wasn't able to remember anything that could have caused that kind of trauma. Like every mother, she made sure to be extra careful since it was her first pregnancy.

"Okay, that excludes that option," said Hisashi. "What's next?"

"Next," said the doctor. "This may be a problem better suited for a marriage counselor, rather than a medical doctor."

Hisashi narrowed his eyes at the man. "What are you saying, doc?" he asked, his breath getting hotter and hotter with each exhale.

"You and I both know what I mean, Hisashi," said the doctor.

Inko squeezed his hand to let him know that there was no way in hell this was a probable option for the source of their son's quirklessness. The man may have been a hothead, but there was one person in the world that he trusted and listened to: His wife. Sighing, he sat back in his chair. "You said it could be 'one of three reasons.' What's the third?"

Putting his glasses back on, he explained to them the final possible explanation. "It could be one of the rare cases of L.Q.D."

"'L.Q.D?'" the two asked, simultaneously.

"'Late Quirk Development,'" he explained. "This occurs later in the lifespan of a child who had shown no signs of quirk development when they should have. Rather, the individual forms a quirk factor after undergoing tremendous pain and an astronomical amount of stress."

The two parents were left stunned. "Why have I never heard of that?" asked Hisashi.

"Well," said the doctor. "Considering that less than 20% of the population are quirkless, a necessity for L.Q.D. and that the amount of pain and stress is equal to being crushed to death by the gravitational pull of the sun, it's not exactly common." Turning to face his desk the man finished, saying, "Not to mention that anybody who has ever been subject to L.Q.D. is dead."


"What do you think, Hisashi?" asked Inko after having put Izuku in his room to watch his favorite All Might video in hopes of cheering him up.

"I don't know what to think anymore, Inko," he replied, sitting on the family room couch, his head in his hands. "Regardless of 'why,' our son is still unable to fulfill his dream in life. He can't be a hero anymore, Inko!" Standing up, he made his way over to his wife, embracing her. "What kind of failure do I have to be to have already failed my son when he's only four?"

"Hisashi…," said Inko, tears welling up in his eyes after feeling the man's own tears drench her shoulder through her sleeve. A crash and scream rang out through their son's room; it was Izuku. "Izuku?!"

The two of them raced to their son's room, worried that he may have hurt himself.

Upon opening the door, the two watched in horror as some sort of beast with an extended tongue crawled towards their son, who seemed to have taken a hit to the forehead as he was bleeding profusely.

"Marechi!" it cried, lunging towards the boy before being enveloped in flames due to Hisashi's quirk. Realizing that it had more pressing matters and that the boy was not going anywhere anytime soon, it turned to fight the man.

It jumped on Hisashi, sending the two of them tumbling back into the hallway and out of the room. "Inko!" he called. "Protect Izuku!"

Closing the door, Inko tried her best to barricade it with whatever she could. She ran to her son's aid after pushing the bed behind the door. Luckily, she set her purse down in his room after playing the All Might video.

"Hold still, Icchan," she said, pulling out her emergency first aid kit and grabbing her gauze pad and a roll of medical tape. "This might sting a little, sweetie."

"W-What is that thing?" he asked, finally calm enough to speak. "It looked like one of the things from grandpa's stories."

"I- I don't know," said Inko as she finished wrapping her son's head. It was then that she realized there was no longer the sound of fighting coming from the hall. "Get in the closet, Izuku," she commanded. "Now."

The boy nodded and did as he was told. "Yes ma'am." After rushing to get inside the closet, Izuku closed the door until it was only open a little. He watched through the crack as two clawed hands penetrated through the top of the door, before scraping down to the base. The bed was no help if there was no door.

As the door's stability was shaken from the scratching, the beast came through, shattering the door to pieces. "Marechi!" it exclaimed again, heading straight for the closet. Izuku watched as the door shut violently, due to his mother's quirk.

"Stay away from him!" she yelled. He listened as the two of them wrestled in front of the door. One of the beast's claws scratched the door, resulting in a hole that was large enough for Izuku to look through.

As soon as Izukui looked through the hole, he watched in horror as the beast landed a strike on his mother's stomach, killing her instantly. "I'm sorry, I… zuku."

The beast looked worse for wear however as he was missing a limb and was covered in severe burns. That's when it happened. Something that no one should ever see. The creature started to ingest his mother's organs as small streams of steam began to rise from its burns. It was healing. Soon, a new arm sprouted from the stump of the last.

That's when it turned to the closet. Izuku could have sworn it locked eyes with him through the hole and smiled. Something that he would remember for the rest of his life. "Hehe," it giggled. "Marechi!" The beast lunged towards Izuku.

That was when it heard something that petrified it. Turning its head towards the voice, it was surprised to see nothing there. "First Form: Water Surface Slash!" exclaimed the same voice, now behind it.

It watched as the ground approached, or rather, it approached the ground. Rolling around on the ground, the decapitated head's eyes landed on Izuku. "Mar...echi..."

The small boy in the closet began to hyperventilate as it saw the tall silhouette figure sheathe its sword, soon before passing out.


About an hour or so later…

"What the hell happened here?!" exclaimed a police officer as he stood at the door to the room. "You might want to get in here!" he yelled to his partner.

An older man entered the room. "Holy…!" he blurted, viewing the scene. On the floor of the room, there was a dead body: a female. Accompanying the body was about a gallon or so of blood sprayed all over the room.

"Who could've done something like this? Even for a villain, this is too much," said the first man, stepping into the room and turning on his flashlight.

The older man stooped down to check on the woman. His heart sank to his stomach upon a grave discovery. "More like 'what,'" he stated. "Take a look at this."

The younger man left his position in front of the closet to inspect the woman's corpse. "What are you talking about?" he asked, squatting to get a closer look. His eyes must be deceiving him. "What… what is this?!"

The woman's corpse was sliced vertically from the neck to the waist revealing her internal organs; the internal organs that she was missing. The only remaining organ was her liver, about one half of it.

"Is that…," began the younger.

"A bite mark?" finished his partner. "Yep." The two of them stood up from their positions as the younger reached for the radio on his shoulder. "Dispatch, this is unit 4-56 reporting from Higashi Azabu 1-8-1, we were called for a 'rancid smell' by a neighbor and..." Sighing, he continued. "We've got a 1-87."

"10-45?" asked the radio. (Patient's status?)

"11-44," he responded. (Deceased, coroner requested.)

"10-4," replied the radio. (Understood.)

"You know what did this... right?" asked the older man, looking towards his partner.

"Most likely a villain with some sort of transformation quirk," sighed the man. "That would explain… all this," he said, gesturing to the amount of blood in the room.

"Or…," began the man. "It was a demon."

"'Demons?'" asked the younger. "What are you talking about? What demons?"

"Don't tell me you've never heard of them," said the older. Sighing, he began his tale. "Four-hundred and six years ago, during the Taisho Period, demons plagued Japan, feeding off of the human population. All while under the command of their leader; Muzan Kibutsuji.

"The demons would have conquered all of Japan, had it not been for the Demon Slayer Corps."

"The Demon Slayer Corps?" asked his partner.

"That's right," chimed the elder. "They were an organization of master swordsmen that utilized breathing-styles and special katanas fitted for the sole purpose of killing demons via decapitation. The two forces raged on fighting for centuries. Suddenly, demons stopped appearing after the death of their leader. After the fall of Muzan, the demon slayers went their separate ways as they were no longer required. Some of them passed down the tale of their adventures to their children, and their children to theirs. Due to their obsoleteness, the breathing styles used by the Demon Slayers have all but faded to time."

*Sniff* The two men froze in their places.

"What was that?" whispered the younger man after a lengthy silence.

"I don't know," mouthed his partner. "I think it came from there," he said, pointing towards the closet.

*Sniff*

The two men looked towards each other, then back towards the closet. Nodding, they placed their hands on their tasers and slowly approached the door.

Arriving, the older placed his hand on the knob, slowly twisted, and threw the door open, immediately aiming his weapon inside. "Freeze!" he yelled. The two of them were stunned to see a small child cowering in the corner in the fetal position.

Quickly holstering his weapon, the man approached the small boy. "It's okay, son," he said, kneeling.

The boy's eyes drifted towards the corpse of his mother. Only to be blocked by the officer, who was beaming with a comforting smile. "What's your name?"

"I- Izuku," he replied. "Izuku Midoriya."

"Well, Izuku," he began. "Let's get you out of here. And I know just the place." The man led the child out of the room on his shoulders.

"Hey," said his partner. "Why have I never heard anything about the demons or demon slayers?" he asked.

The man smiled. "As I said," he began, the moonlight shining through the window, its light beaming onto his badge: "Officer Kamado."

"It's passed down orally through the generations," he finished.


AN: I know that these past two chapters were really short, but I don't know how much more I could take of coming up with more plot and lore. LOL. Anyways. I promise that the whole story won't be this dark, and I'll try to work more on making sure that I keep at least some of the plot from MHA in there.

Also, I know that Izuku seems a little more depressed in this story, obviously, but don't worry, I'll have him back to where he should be soon enough. (I've been getting a lot of comments in my other stories about him being "too different" from his original character, so I thought I would say this now for those of you who it bothers.)

Thanks so much for reading. I'll have another chapter out in about a week or so (it will be longer than this one).