Should probably get this out now, rather than later.

- X Twelve Months Before the UA entrance exam X-

Viscous goo poured into Izuku's airway and lungs, forcing him to the ground and thrashing. Above him, a yellowish eye stared down at him, "C'mon, kid, just stop struggling! It'll be over sooner that way!"

Izuku's nails clawed at the ground, fighting for air. No, no, nononono. He couldn't- he couldn't die before he… he wanted to become a hero!

Above him flying in low circles, a black raven with… six red, cross pupiled eyes? What…?

{...weak…} it said, landing next to his head, {...we are both… weak… izuku.)

Izuku's vision began fading in and out as the raven landed on his chest. It tilted it's head, and leaned down.

{let us form a pact. because together, together we can be strong. countless eons of starvation will end for me, and the strength to see the end of this day and become a hero for you. say yes, you know you want to.}

Y-Yes!

The raven laughed, digging into Izuku's chest beakfirst. Red energy coiled around them, and the slime began to recoil.

"What's-"

"Mom!" A voice cried, thrashing and smashing into a door with wet sobs, "Mom, help me! I'm- I'm melting!"

"What are you doing?!"

"Who would want to date someone like you?" A pretty girl laughed, "You're literally disgusting!"

"Stop it!"

"I'm sorry," a man at a restaurant said, staring down at an application with a shake of his head, "I can't hire you. For sanitation reasons".

The sludge exploded off him and out of his mouth, the Villain coiling away from Izuku like he was rancid meat. Izuku stepped forwards, and they turned and rushed… right towards All Might, "Keep me away from him, please, please! He, he was in my head!"

All Might looked between the two as Izuku staggered, rushing away from the villain to catch him, "Don't move, Young Man! I'm going to call medical support now."

"Tha- thank you," Izuku rasped.

{You're welcome from me, as well} The Raven said in his mind.

- X Inko X-

Inko wrung her hands as she walked towards the desk with Mitsuki, "Thank you-"

"I'm worried about the kiddo too, Inko," Mitsuki said, "He's as good as family, as far as I care. I know Katsuki's being… a pain, and I'd get him to stop if I thought for a second he'd listen to me through that ego of his, but I still care about him."

Inko heavily suspected, if they weren't in a public building, Mitsuki would have called her own son 'an ass' without missing a beat or blinking. She had called others worse when irritated, and had complained, at length, that Katsuki's friends at school, and even his teachers, had only fed his ego to unhealthy levels. In Inko's mind, Katsuki's most vicious critic was his own mother.

"Excuse me?" Inko said, pushing the thoughts aside and holding out her ID, "I'm here for my son, Midoriya Izuku?"

The girl behind the desk took it with her clawed hands and gave a calming smile before typing something into the computer she was stationed at. She handed back the ID a moment later, "Room 304. Doctor Reiki will meet you there."

Inko nodded, rushing down the hall that the secretary had pointed. As she approached Izuku's room, a short man with blue hair and a white lab coat stepped between them from seemingly nowhere, "You're Izuku's mother, I assume?"

Izuku… not Midoriya? "Yes."

"I'm Reiki," he said, moving his hand in a strange move before bowing, which Inko returned, "I'm going to guess you want to see him, before anything?"

"Yes," Inko said, gripping the door and swinging it open. Immediately, she noticed Izuku's hair had changed. While before the… the attack, it had been green that darkened to near black, it was now a green that lightened to almost white.

Then she noticed the IV he was hooked up to and the oxygen canister, "Why is he-?"

"Safety," Reiki said, "Izuku had a lot of sludge shoved into his lungs and stomach. We'd like to keep him for a few days to make sure it doesn't become pneumonia or sepsis."

Into nodded, stepping closer and noticing that Izuku's skin had paled, the veins sticking out, "Why… why is he like this?"

"I can't say," Reiki said, "it might be a latent Quirk Factor activating. That happens sometimes, it's rare, but-"

"mom?" Inko whipped around, noticing that one of Izuku's eyes had become a deep red as he opened them blearily, "what? what are you doing he-"

"Don't force yourself to talk," Reiki ordered gently, "Your throat had some severe damage."

"k." Izuku rasped, staring at Reiki like he had two heads.

"Miss Midoriya, and… ah…"

"Bakugo," Mitsuki said.

"Would you mind giving me and Izuku a few minutes alone? I'm sure he has questions," Reiki said, handing Izuku a clipboard with blank paper, "Maybe you can do the paperwork for his care?"

Inko nodded, squeezing Izuku's hand and stepped out of the room. Her heart felt slightly lighter, having seen Izuku. He would be fine, he would recover.

- X Izuku X-

Izuku stared at the man who seemed to flicker between a short man with blue hair and a short, blue skinned, fanged man with four fingers on each hand.

{Of course,} the voice in the back of his head deadpanned, {of all the spirits that would survive the End War, we would have the displeasure of the yordles being one of them.}

"A… Yordle?" Izuku asked, wincing at his voice.

"I was serious about not talking," the man said, "use the clipboard, but yes, I'm a yordle. I assume the spirit bound to you now told you that?"

Izuku nodded, before his mouth moved on its own, {"I'm not one for seizing control of my host lightly, yordle-"}

"Excuse me for being skeptical about that when you just lightly seized control of Izuku," the yordle, Reiki according to his nametag, snarked. Izuku growled, before continuing.

{"-but you can tell what I did. I know you can."}

"And that is the only reason I haven't called for the Unforgotten yet," Reiki shot back, "And stop talking, I may be a yordle but I'm still a doctor and I will not have you harm my patient. You'll likely be here for a few days to recover before starting the physical therapy-"

Will I be alright in time for the UA entrance exam next year? Izuku hastily wrote as he regained control of his body.

"Likely," Reiki said, "and with Raum, you're not likely to have many problems even if you weren't."

How do you know my name?

"Did you think a yordle just happened to be working in a suburb so close to where you rested, demon?" Reiki asked, "I was watching for you, as we do all of them."

And how are my siblings?

"The River King has been in the bayou and Evelynn in Kowloon last anyone heard," Reiki said, "and it hasn't left the sealing since it was done. I couldn't tell you the others. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get Izuku's medical care sorted out."

{"I don't know where those are,"} Raum growled, sending spikes of pain through their throat as he raised his voice, "{AND THAT'S AN EXCU-!}"

- X 11 Months before the UA Entrance Exam X-

{I can't believe we're doing this,} Izuku bit back a sigh at Raum's deadpanned response, walking down a shadowy path.

You agreed we would do this my way, Izuku responded.

{I can agree to do that and still find it baffling, Izuku,} Raum responded. Izuku shrugged, stepping into the strange not-light that had opened, and out into Shizuoka. Walking a short distance, Izuku checked the address he had been given and walked towards it. Slowly, he pulled up the hood of his… well, his hoodie and approached the door of the western manor. Knocking on it, he shifted his arms several times. In front of him, in his pockets, behind him. None of them felt quite-

"Can I help you?" The door swung open, an middleaged woman peering down at him carefully.

{Sleeps with the mistress of the house,} Raum said, and Izuku dutifully ignored him.

"You called me," Izuku said, hiding the wince at his own voice. He still wasn't used to the damage his vocal cords and lungs suffered from the Sludge Villain. Dr. Reiki was confident he would make… most of a recovery, though it'd also probably never go back to his original pitch.

"You're… you're the exorcist then?" She asked, carefully.

"Yes," Izuku nodded, pushing mana into his left eye and letting it glow a deep red from the hood. He was a short, scrawny thirteen and three quarters year old wearing a slightly oversized black hoodie, he needed what 'impressive' factor he could get.

{We need to get you a long coat,} Raum commented, more as an afterthought than anything, {I didn't agree with Jericho much, but there was something imposing about a man in a long coat. Far more than you currently look.}

Thanks, Izuku said, anything else we should get while we're at it?

{A raven,} Raum said, {but that's easier. Anyways, back on topic.}

"Explain what's been happening," Izuku said, fingers fumbling with the sign language he had been practicing. The less he talked, the more likely his throat was to recover.

"Elliot," the woman said, stepping aside and letting Izuku in, sufficiently impressed… or desperate, "the son of the Nightray, has fallen ill since they moved here. We've tried everything, hospitalization, traditional medicines, and now-"

"Now you're desperate enough to call for me," Izuku said, following her, "Symptoms?"

"Fits," she said, "nightmares, amnesia…"

What the what did traditional medicine have to do with fixing those? No, not important, Raum?

{A little demon, most likely,} Raum responded, {if it was Nocturne, we'd have sensed him by no- ah, looks like we might be a little late on this one.}

What did that mean?

{You'll see,} Raum said.

"I'll take it from here," Izuku said, gripping the doorknob, "It shouldn't be more than a few minutes."

"Thank you," the woman bowed, and Izuku slid into the room as she stepped away. Standing over the bed, wearing a mask over the upper side of his face and hand resting on a sheathed katana, was a pale man. The same ashen tone Izuku's skin had become since his deal with Raum was visible under the bandages and red and black hakama he was wearing. Immediately, Izuku's hackles were raised and eldritch energy crackled in his hands.

The man turned towards Izuku, glowing purple running over his frame. Slowly, he moved his hand off his sword to give a bow, "Hello, I do believe we're after the same prey this day."

Yone was tired. Not that such a thing was strange for the ancient azakana hunter. The Unforgotten, as he was ironically still called in the few dark places that remembered the world before the End, rarely slept. Even when he did, unless Lillia was near, it was plagued with nightmares more often than not.

The door swung open behind him, and Yone turned, resting his hand on his koshirae. Standing in the closing doorway was a short boy wearing a hoodie, and if it weren't for the fact that there were less than a dozen men and women with enough vastayan blood to show their heritage still alive, and that Yone personally knew each one's name, he would have assumed the boy was one. For the heavy white wings and equally white plumage that overlaid his neck in the Spirit World, if nothing else.

So, once again, Raum had found a host to rest in and do the hunting for him. Hopefully, the world would not burn in the footsteps of this one's ambition, as Swain had unintentionally done.

The feathers and wings visibly, though likely unintentionally, bristled, red energy leaping from them like Zaunite Hextech. The same happening from his hands, however, was likely deliberate.

Yes, it probably was a reasonable response to a strange, pale man standing in a random boy's room with a hand on a sword. In fact, outright attacking him probably would have been an equally reasonable response. So Yone moved his hand off the sword, bowing at the waist, "Hello, I do believe we're after the same prey this day."

He hoped so, at least. If the boy was here for some reason other than the azakana, things would probably take a turn for the violent very fast. And while it wouldn't be the first time Yone had cut down someone as young as him, he loathed it every time it happened, especially in this day and age.

"Are you here for the little demon?" The boy said.

"The azakana, yes," Yone stood, "I am Souma. You are?"

Names held power. That was especially true for those who dealt with Spirits in general and demons in particular. There was a reason Tahm Kench and it did not use their true names, just monikers they had stolen or been given.

"I am-" the boy stopped, jaw jumping visibly, "Je… Jericho?"

Yone chuckled in spite of himself. That wasn't a very good one, but for a first attempt at a fake name it would work, "I'm sorry to put you before the sword like that, 'Jericho'. Hopefully, the next time we meet, you will have created a mask of your own. Remove the demon, I will take the mask."

'Jericho' stepped forwards, red magic coursing through his hand before he plunged it into the boy's face. A ghostly, red specter, Regret, appeared centered around a gray mask. Latching his other hand to it, Jericho flexed both hands and tore azakana from mask. Crushing the demon with his left hand and inhaling the energy, he threw the mask to Yone with the right. Yone caught it, smiling.

"Thank you," he said, "Tell me, would you like to meet me somewhere next week? I can tell you're new to our world, and could use some advice, but need time to create your false name. The one you used is not one to use lightly."

"Yeah," 'Jericho' nodded, "Yeah, sure…"

"Good," Yone smiled, "Then allow me to give you the location we'll reunite…"

Thoughts, questions and opinions?