"You?!" Izuku immediately snapped to attention angrily as a burning rage much like the one at the final exam began to course through him again, unable to believe what he'd just heard. "You're the one who has been ruining my life?!"
"Some hardship is hardly ruin." The Outsider tried to wave it off carelessly, not even looking at Izuku. "You'll live."
"Yeah! In misery! I trusted you!" The marked teen snarled as he felt power pool within him in his anger. The Outsider turned to him, looking completely unimpressed. "You were supposed to be my friend!"
"I'm a god, Izuku. I do what I want, and what I think is best." He said. "And I decided this was for the best."
"For your sick kicks?!" If Izuku's magic glow changed color in relation to his emotions, it would have been blood red right now as nothing but a rage filled him.
"For you to grow and understand your power. A few sacrifices had to be made for you to understand-" The god didn't even get close to finishing his lecture as Izuku stormed up to him.
"'Sacrifices'?! You ruined my relationship with Tooru, you made my classmates afraid of me, you-"
"You did all that. I just helped provide the circumstances. "
"BECAUSE THAT'S SO MUCH FUCKING BETTER?!"
"Your relationship will recover. You needed to get stronger and this was a way to do it. You're right on the edge of-"
"Of what?! A mental breakdown?! What makes you think I was okay with this?!" Izuku demanded and the response that he got finally broke the camel's back.
"You would have been too emotional to accept this was the right decision."
Izuku began running before he knew what was happening, overflowing with anger and power. He almost could have sworn a brief flicker of emotion entered the usually stoic god's face as Izuku rushed him.
"YOU DON'T GET TO MAKE THAT CHOICE FOR ME!" He screamed as he came forward, throwing a punch. The outsider tried to teleport away but Far Reach shot out and latched on and took Izuku with the god.
He rolled across the god and turned, rushing forward. The tentacle in his hand suddenly was banished by The Outsider but Izuku still reached him and his next punch landed on the outsider's chest hard.
If he wasn't so angry Izuku would be shocked when he realized he actually knocked the deity backwards and stunned him, but he was too angry to realize it right now so instead he kept going. A gut punch, and uppercut, a right hook.
A left hook would have followed if the Outsider hadn't grabbed Izuku's hand, and the next thing Izuku knew he was blasted backwards with an insanely powerful force, sending him rolling across the stony landscape of the void rock.
Said void rocks suddenly shifted and the next thing he knew he was pinned down with the Outsider standing over him. "Not what I had wished to do-"
"GET OFF!" Izuku screamed as he pulsed with blue energy and this time Izuku could be certain shock overtook the Outsiders expression for a moment as the void rock not only listened but suddenly blasted itself right at the deity who quickly warped out the way. "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING ELSE YOU HAVE TO SAY-"
Suddenly, he felt his weight be removed and the next thing he knew gravity was inverted and he fell into the sky at high speed, tumbling around and around until he slammed into a void rock with a groan and opened his eyes to see a sight he wasn't prepared for.
The Outsider alone floating in the midst of nothing, his dark eyes gleaming with more active thoughts and emotions then Izuku had ever seen, his empathy giving nothing but painful white noise in his head, equivalent to a cacophony of unsynchronized screeches. Void rock floated all around him in some kind of slow tornado, the back of the rocks almost looking as though they were taking the outline of wings.
The cry of a whale was heard as one casually floated by behind the god without him sparing it so much as a glance as the entire void seemed to bow to him, radiating power with just a look.
For the first time, Izuku could see nothing of the Outsider he knew and only the one that others would fear. Not the person, the personality… just the power and the presence.
The godly being that was The Outsider. The deity he'd just picked a fight with.
"You are being frustratingly foolish." The Outsider chastised only to get a pissed off glare from Izuku.
"I'm the one being frustrating?! Oh gee, because you've not been beyond aggravating these last few weeks!"
"You can't hold a grudge-"
Izuku's eyes glowed blue and the Outsider stopped, backing away a tad as the rock he was pressed against began to slowly shake.
"AND YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT I DO AFTER TAKING THE CHOICE FROM ME THE FIRST TIME!"
BOOM!
The rock the teenager was pinned against exploded and suddenly he was floating in the air but not falling, before the platform reformed beneath them this time and he breathed heavily, looking down in shock. 'Did I….'
He shook his head and looked up in time to see the Outsider send several shards of void rock at him. A single swipe of his marked hand and they disintegrated before they touched Izuku.
"Izuku! You have to stop-"
"Just put me back and leave me alone, you bastard!" Izuku growled, focusing as best he could on the image of a plot of the land that could not be affected and suddenly a blue pulse escaped him.
A small bubble of blue, and void rock was replaced with green grass and a small, rushing river. A spot of life amongst the hollow darkness of the avoid. The outsider tried to wave his hand but the bubble barely wavered.
"How did I…" The question was quiet, as he hadn't expected the stupid idea to work but it had. Then, the outsider suddenly let out a yell, something incredibly rare for him and the bubble exploded sending Izuku backwards before suddenly he found himself right and rooted to the spot by magic.
He growled and tried to shake it but found he couldn't, his magic just rebounding back inside him. He was trapped as the Outsider finally formed against him… sweating?
He was seeing things right?
Why did the Outsider of all people look pressured?
"Now do you see the power you possess?" He asked simply but almost urgently, as he conjured a stone seat behind him that he fell onto. "Your power is nothing like those who came before you, in many ways it is so much more and yet you don't even realize how powerful you are. How dangerous you are. You need to let me speak to make you understand."
"I understand fine…" He didn't, but he just wanted this to end now. With some of his anger vented now though, the simple pain in his next words could be heard plain as day as his head dropped. "You're the bastard who betrayed me…."
"I only choose to ensure you were set on the right path." Izuku immediately looked up to chew the Outsider out for lying because there was no way this was the right path! But… his attention was instead taken up by the sudden web that spanned out infinitely behind the god. A web that in between every thread were moving images and some of them…
"Is that… me?" Despite his anger, confusion fully took over for a moment. What the hell was this?! "Wait, are those different me's?! Why is that one in a skirt- Is that one a girl me- Holy shit did that one just turn into a dinosaur!? The fuck?! WAIT DID THAT ONE JUST STOP TIME!?"
"Focus."
Izuku felt his jaw drop as he looked around the thing, before the Outsider threw his hand to the side and the web started spinning around, showing so many more versions, Izuku struggling to keep up, his voice a little awed. "What is this…"
"This is something incredibly important in creation. I once told you I came from another place. Another world. I told you the truth. Now you tell me, do you notice anything off about most of the web…." The Outsider paused, letting the images sink in. "Compared to this section?"
The very first group came back and this time Izuku could see what he meant. The web had far more threads within here, but it was going over the images, like it wasn't threads but… "Cracks?"
"Precisely. Cracks that will never be repaired. This is something unfixable, something many would consider to be impossible. Something not even a god should have the capability to do." The Outsider lectured, turning to Izuku.
"Then who…."
"You did." Izuku immediately looked down, now completely lost in his confusion instead of his anger. "This is the multiverse Izuku. These cracks are a result of when you lost it in the final exams and snapped."
"Wait that means… you're saying…" Izuku felt a pit in his stomach at what he realized, at what he was told. Something he never thought he'd ever hear be said to him seriously.
"That's right Izuku. You broke the multiverse." The Outsider said it was such a finality that left Izuku reeling. "This is why I needed to talk with you."
And despite the assumed severity of what he was just told, Izuku's head snapped up as the anger started to come back with that line. "Just that?! So you're not even done messing with my life then?"
"I did not say that." The Outsider walked up to Izuku with something almost akin to a glare. "This is not a mild situation and you need to get over yourself and understand the severity involved here."
"…I guess the Abbey were right about you, in some ways. You really can be a monster." Izuku growled quietly. "You're the one who made me lose it! This is your fault!"
"This is your power's doing and would have happened regardless."
"Then you should have warned me! Or tried to control it!" He snapped, only for the Outsider to whisk away and have them both back on normal land.
"Do you not understand that is what I've been trying to do? The power you possess is beyond anything I could have expected, do you not realize you attacked me within my own domain and forced an advantage? I was not able to affect you in that bubble and you rewrote my own land to your will." The Outsider pointed out, meeting Izuku dead in the eye. "You have to let me do what is required of me to bring you the power you need-"
"No… You have to find someone else to help you with your game." Izuku bit out quietly, tightening his fist. "You can figure out your multiverse problem alone. I'm done with you."
And with a deep breath and thought, and a lot of focus, the pull of the void faded from Izuku whether the Outsider liked it or not. Izuku never saw the creepy and small but present smile that wormed its way onto the Outsiders face as he disappeared, ignoring the angry glares of the previous holders of One For All. Nor did he hear the god's quiet whisper.
"I'm sorry. You will understand why it had to be this way soon enough."
The first thing Izuku was able to comprehend when his eyes opened was how much anger he could still feel left over. The second was that the sun was making his eyes hurt and as he opened them he hissed as the sun stung them.
"Oh hey, you're awake." Kyoka sounded happy at first until he turned and the smile on her face was immediately wiped away. "Dude? What's wrong?"
"Nothing… I'm fine." He grunted, ignoring how obvious a lie it was. He winced at how it came out as well, far ruder and more harsh then he intended. The fact Kyoka just stayed quiet and didn't call him out on it just made him feel worse.
"We're almost there." She said, sounding more subdued now. Shit now he'd upset her, hadn't he? Fuck.
As if on cue with her words as well, the bus stopped and Aizawa looked up. "Everyone off."
They all shared looks but got up and walked out, Izuku taking up the very rear of the line. Right as he was about to go out a hand landed on his shoulder and he turned to see Aizawa.
"Bakugou will be at camp, he's still registered in class and he hasn't broken the new system implemented yet. Three strikes and he will be thrown out. Thought you should know." The man hummed, before also nodding awkwardly, not meeting Izuku's eye properly. "And… sorry."
"….Sorry too, about your back." Izuku got out shortly, not too keen on talking to the man one on one at the moment. He'd messed up bad and Izuku wasn't really fond of the idea of talking to him again. Not to mention in amongst his still present anger…
Worry and anxiety were beginning to build up as he realized what he'd really done. He'd just been told by a god his power was far more dangerous, unstable and powerful then they realized and he'd run from the only place he could control it.
He didn't want to be anywhere near the outsider but what if he messed up again? He'd refused to help someone, a hero didn't do that… He'd refused to help and what… what if the multiverse thing was more serious then he realized.
As much as every last part of him only wanted to be angry at the Outsider, worry took over instead over the potential repercussion of this all. So distracted by this in fact he almost walked right into Tooru by accident and the way out and they both jumped before awkwardly walking around each other as Izuku's heart ached further as all he got was a quiet "Sorry" from her.
"Hey Eraser. Hello class 1-A!" A voice spoke up and all eyes turned to see four similarly dressed heroes. Well three heroines and a hero, all in multicolored skirts and vests, with big furry boots. "Look out! Cause the Wild Wild-"
And despite the fact he would usually nerd out so hard right now, Izuku tuned them out. Their intros used to be really cool and amusing to him.
But right now? They were likely just going to add onto his frustration with their eccentricity. Now was not the time for fun loving or nerding out, his brain was convinced. It was time for panic about what might happen and anger over what definitely had already happened.
He tuned them out and focused on these thoughts so much in fact, that it felt like time skipped forward when he finally came out of them as he heard a rumbling. His hand ached very briefly and then…
"See you at camp."
The floor gave away and they went tumbling down the cliff, the entire class shouting in surprise or panic as they went sliding to the ground below. Izuku himself had tried to throw out Far Reach only to trip over a rock then the next thing he knew he landed on a person.
He only knew that because of the 'oof' she left out as he landed on something… soft. He immediately gulped and shot up, almost cursing aloud when he realized it was Hagakure.
"Sorry…"
And he quickly ran away to the other side, near Iida who suddenly froze. "Wait… something's moving…"
"What?" Izuku blinked before going wide eyed and immediately forming Far Lance just in time as a giant made of dirt charged them. Several people jumped and shouted while others charged but Izuku was faster than them all, sliding to their knees and effortlessly taking out its legs with his lance before using a One For All powered fist to strike its head, causing the dirt to pull apart.
"Behind you!" he turned in time only to dodge a punch from another dirt creature which Iida suddenly appeared above, decimating with a powerful kick.
This continued on for a little bit more and more as more came out and they realized they'd have to fight through them, all tripping over each other a little due to the tiny space in which they had to fight together.
And that meant people kept bumping into each other… like Izuku and Hagakure, making him more and more on edge and worried, worried she was going to think it was intentional.
And when he ended up walking right into her as they both had gone to check ahead of the group… He finally couldn't take it, and before he knew what he was doing he ran ahead.
Ahead of everyone. Enough holding them back. Of worrying about them or getting in their way.
He'd just do this alone. He'd learned well enough over time how to handle it. Why was this any different?
One answer came to him as he reached his dirt monster to take on solo… A quiet choked sob at the back of his throat about why he was doing it alone this time.
That's what was different. But the whole camp couldn't be this bad? Right….
Right?