Izuku took a deep breath as he stepped in the back of Emerald Knight's yard. The man, curious to see what his Teleport would look like, followed at a safe distance. "We will tell the League about this world once we make it back." He looked at his alternate self, and the tall man nodded.
"I will wait, but are you sure you want me as a Sitting Agent?"
"After what you told us? It's probably for the best." He paused, before sighing, "I really doubt the League will let you help me, however."
"Hey, one never knows, right? They might allow me to help."
Izuku felt like he knew. They had quarantined his universe on just the off chance All for Deku escaped, they probably would do the same to a universe capable of infecting other universes with a new source of superpowers. Still, no reason to be angry about it. It made sense this time, unfortunately. "Right. Thank you. I hope we can see each other again."
"Same here." The Emerald Knight replied cheerfully, "And good luck with your training!"
Izuku smiled back, then focused. Closing his eyes, he focused on the mental image of the Star Tower, and then jumped.
-x-
Deku stumbled in a clearing surrounded by trees. He gritted his teeth. "Damn it…" He mumbled. Another failure. This was a lot harder than he expected. The Teleport just didn't seem to want him to jump in the right direction. Or maybe it was a universe getting in the way? Theoretically, if there were currents, it wasn't inconceivable some of them would be in the right direction but force him to land in another place before. Then again, Star Might didn't make it sound like this was the case…
"Good thinking, but focus." Izzzuku replied, emerging from his head, "This time around I think I know where we are."
"Why doesn't that sound like good news?" Izuku asked.
"Oh, it might be. Depends which part of the forest we landed on. Epsi?"
Epsi lighted up, "I'm calculating… Yes, I think this would be the Yuuei Forest."
"Alright, that's… Well, it's better than the alternative, at least. But Yuuei means…" He groaned, "Alright, we are trekking for a bit."
Izuku had followed the discussion with increasing confusion, and finally dared to ask, once he registered the last comment was for him. "We are? Why? This universe is one you know, right?"
"Yup. EX-049, the Forestverse. Once again, Isaac's ingenious naming scheme shines." Izzzuku replied, sarcasm dripping from every word. Deku couldn't help but chuckle. He had figured out that Isaac's naming scheme was rather simple, just grabbing whatever feature of the world caught his attention.
"So why shouldn't we just leave?" He asked, "If you already know the world, we could just Teleport off."
"Try it." Izzzuku replied, entering his head. Izuku nodded, focusing once more on the Star Tower and activating Teleport. Then he opened his eyes, and found himself still in the clearing.
"What…"
"It's that plant." He answered pointing to a nearby shrub.
Izuku stared at it. It was a wild Chrysanthemum, black flowers extending from the ground, oddly in full flowering even if completely out of seasons. 'No wait, maybe it's October or November here, I don't really know how time works.' He stopped and looked at Epsi, "Why can't I Teleport?"
"Well, this is the Forestverse. You see, in this world evolution didn't favor vertebrates, and they went extinct eons ago. Invertebrates survived, but what really rules the world are… plants."
Izuku blinked, and stared around. The forest that surrounded the clearing was dark and silent. Very silent. There was no chirping of birds or sounds of animals moving in the underbrush, just trees and plants as far as the eye could see. He noticed how omnipresent in particular the black Chrysanthemum seemed to be, and had a realization. "When you say the plants rule this world, are you saying they are sentient?"
"Yes. Or well, sentient enough that mister Izzzuku can communicate with them."
"Only faintly. Plants don't really sleep, so they have no dreams I can enter into."
"Wait wait wait, I need to process this." He looked at the plant once again, "What universe is this? Quirk? Magic? Science?"
"Quirks."
"And the plants…"
"Yes, they have Quirks." She explained, "That's Shota Aizawa." She pointed at the plant, Izuku's eyes widening, "Unlike in your world, the way Quirks work here is that in the same species of plant all individuals have the same kind of Quirk. In his case, his Quirk stops other Quirks. Good to keep away more dangerous plants, hence why it develops a symbiotic relationship to plants with weaker Quirks."
"I have… I have a lot of questions, but let's save them for later." He glanced around, and once more was in wonder at how silent the forest was. Desperate to see any animal life he stared at the ground, and finally spotted a group of ants walking on a line. "So uh, invertebrates, they are the only thing alive, right?"
"Yes. Any animal niche is just covered by bugs, spiders and crustaceans in this world. Let me be honest, you don't want to go anywhere near the water." When Izuku raised an eyebrow, Epsi just showed him a picture. At first he figured he was looking at a zoomed out sort of octopus, then his breath caught in his mouth when he saw Isaac next to it. That 'octopus' was the size of a blue whale. "Yep, real life Kraken, just for your nightmares." Epsi chuckled, "Don't worry, nothing that big exists on land. We just need to trek away from the territory of the Aizawa Chrysanthemum, and we can just Teleport away."
"The fact you feel like specifying 'that big' makes me worried." The teen commented, earning a chuckle from Izzzuku. Epsi didn't respond, instead showing him a compass on the screen, along with a map of a territory that Izuku couldn't recognize. It showed a river not far to the west and a mountain close by, along with a path through the woods. "How accurate is this map?"
"Unless there was a major disaster within the last year, it should be accurate enough to not get lost. One of our Patrollers loves nature, so comes around periodically to explore more of this world. We have maps for a decent area, and luckily we landed within it."
"… Out of curiosity, what would we have done if we had landed outside of it?"
"Start trekking north, find a mountain tall enough and climb, the Chrysanthemum only grows in the plains. If it grows there at all. We don't really know how far its range extends." Izzzuku supplied, hovering above his head again. Deku hadn't even realized he had left, but he seemed oddly on guard. Deku also noticed he seemed in a bad mood. He had been less jokey than usual, ever since they had landed here.
"Epsi." He whispered, unsure if that would help him listen.
"Yes?" She replied, lowering the volume in response, clearly understanding why he would whisper.
"Is something wrong with Izzzuku? He seems angry."
Epsi now appeared as an icon on the screen, biting her lip and looking away. "The truth is… Izzzuku lost someone here. It was before I existed…" She paused a moment, almost lost in thought, "Yes, it had to be. But yes, mister Izzzuku lost a Wanderer here. I think that's why he is so focused right now."
He nodded, glancing at the dream creature, who had sprouted eyes all around his head, forming a circle to watch in all directions. That was pretty terrifying, so it was good to know that at least it was to help him. He then looked down at Epsi. "Oh and, uhm, Epsi."
"Yes?"
"I… About what you said earlier to Emerald Knight…" He took a deep breath. It wasn't hard to say, but he was worried at how she would take it, "I don't think you are just a tool. I think you are a person and I-I consider you a friend."
He looked at her dumbfounded expression turn into a warm smile. "Thank you, Mister Izuku. I might have said some things that were… more revealing of my thoughts than I would have liked, but I assure you, I don't think of myself just as a tool. I'm a sentient being, and… and it's very kind of you to try and cheer me up like you would a real girl."
"You are…"
"I'm not. No real girl can be reprogrammed and even canceled on a whim. But… Thank you."
Izuku had no answer to that, and the three continued in silence. He didn't miss the glance Izzzuku threw at them. He found himself thinking that worried looks didn't suit him at all.
-x-
It didn't take long to Izuku to understand what the others meant with every natural niche being filled by invertebrates. A scarab the size of a rat skittered past him at one point, making him stumble back. On a tree he saw the shed skin of a cicada the size of a small bird, and not far off a wasp the size of an eagle. He was lucky it seemed already busy eating something, so he made it past it without any accidents.
One thing he noticed was how… silent this whole forest seemed. Even when the bugs were flying around, they were doing so in absolute silence, even those that in his world would have produced a buzzing. A bee flying next to him for a while – thankfully of normal size – didn't make nearly the same sound his world's version made.
"I told you, the plants are the sentient beings here. Do you like to have a loud bug around? All those got killed out by the Quirks of the more aggressive plants."
"Why are they tolerating us then?" Izuku asked back.
"Because we aren't buzzing around any of them. We are unknown animals, so they won't attack us so long as we don't attack them." He grimaced, "And let's hope we don't bump into any angry one."
Izuku nodded, suddenly feeling watched. It was just so… alien. Up to this point, he had only seen worlds he could compare to his own. Granted, he had heard of Izzzuku's world or Zuzu-9's AI dimension, but those were stories. It was different to work through a world that was so radically different. This world was silent, and yet he felt watched with every step. He could see the Chrysanthemum still growing everywhere, but there were other plants he saw using Quirks.
A short shrub with dark green leaves started to spin when he got closer, each branch rotating like a drill. A pale green climbing plant, whose tendrils extended to it, started doing the same. They both only stopped when they walked past it, but Izuku recognized Sen Kaibara's Quirk, Gyrate, and Monoma's Copy. When he felt a rock inside his shoe and tried to put his hand on a tree to hold himself up, he felt a sudden heat, and Izzzuku shouted a warning just in time before the tree just burst into fire. It stopped soon after, unaffected by the flames, but Izuku decided that he wasn't about to try again, instead taking several steps back. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he heard the tree creak and twist in the wind, despite the wind itself not being nearly strong enough. He ran to quickly get out of there.
Finally, after a while, they reached the river. Like everything else, the river too was surrounded by trees, although bugs were around too. A bug similar to a grasshopper but the size of a deer, the largest insect Izuku had seen so far, was drinking from the river, and even if it eyed him as he passed by it made no motion to act against him or even run away. It clearly didn't have any concept of what humans were, so didn't feel intimidated by him, merely jumping away once it was done drinking.
Izuku started to walk away, following the river to his destination, when he saw something ahead, sitting under a willow tree with odd, luminous leaf. A human figure was sitting there, looking at the water, battered and bruised, his blonde hair covered in ash and blood.
Bakugo.
"Bakugo?!" Izuku rushed forward, ignoring Izzzuku's startled call, and rushed directly for the tree, before something pulled on his arm, and he looked back to see Epsi had shot a spiderweb toward a nearby rock, slowing him down. "What are you doing Epsi?!"
"Izuku, stop and close your eyes!" Izzzuku responded, and entered in his head. Izuku groaned and looked toward the tree, only to see Bakugo was gone, and the willow tree was moving, the branches agitated like by a fierce wind.
"That was close…" Izzzuku murmured, "I'm so sorry, I almost…"
"What was that?! What is going on?!"
"It's a Camie Willow Tree." Epsi replied, "It uses bioluminescence, sweet scents and illusions to attract preys and then…"
Like on cue with a shaking of the ground, a large grasshopper, like the one they had seen earlier, jumped under the tree. The branches moved as one, ensnaring the bug completely, surrounding it like a spider's webbing, until the shape was gone completely, replaced by a cocoon, formed by all the branches tangling around him. The light on the leaf disappeared, and the willow tree went still, it's macabre feast still thrashing wildly and hopelessly until it stopped completely.
"I… I thought there was…"
"A friend in need, a family member, a lover, food for the starved, medicine for the ill… Those willow trees will show you anything to trick you. Luckily I can dispel the illusion." Izzzuku groaned, "I'm so sorry, I…"
Izuku took a shuddering breath. He had almost fallen for it. He had almost been eaten alive. Would he have been able to use his Quirk to escape before that Grasshopper killed him? Then he stopped, "Why isn't that plant affected by the Chrysanthemum? In fact, why were the other plants we saw earlier unaffected too?"
"Selection of the fittest. As time goes on, the Chrysanthemum's Quirk stops working on some plants, and those have an higher chance of surviving. In response, since it needs the symbiotic relation, the Chrysanthemum's powers grow stronger and work again. Unlike most worlds, there is no combining of the Quirks since they exist in different species, and with no combining the progress can only be linear." Epsi explained, after cutting the spider web she had used to stop him. "If that wasn't the case, we would have been far worse off. Imagine that willow tree, but everywhere."
Izuku shivered, and accelerated his steps. He could now spot more of those willow trees, even if none of them seemed to be active, unlike the first one. Perhaps, those were unable to resist the effect of the Chrysanthemum, or perhaps they were just not hungry. He was just thankful for it, as he felt the terrain start to grow uphill. He climbed for a while, until Izzzuku nodded.
"Alright, we should be out of their range." Epsi commented, "Mister Izuku, if you will?"
Izuku nodded, but before using Teleport he stopped to stare down on the forest below. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. From the elevated position he was on he saw a forest that extended further away, far beyond what the eye could see, on hills and valleys, the river itself disappearing into it like swallowed by an enormous mass of green. A swarm of giant wasp passed above the tree line, and those were pretty much the only living things, aside from the plants. Izuku watched enraptured, unable to fully understand what he was looking at. This was the first Universe that had felt truly alien. Truly incomprehensible. He paused, and looked at Epsi.
"But where am I?" He asked, purely out of curiosity, "Where is the Izuku of this world?"
Epsi smiled. "Look down." She replied, and Izuku did, to the grass he had been walking on all this time, "All of this is Deku Grass. The weakest of all plants, and yet without it no other plant could have developed this well. It has no Quirk of its own, but it has a will to help the other plants grow stronger at its own expenses. It does so by transporting nutrients through its roots to them, and by emitting pheromones that induce parasites and herbivores to eat it instead of the other plants. It is the most selfless being in the Multiverse. And it's also us."
Izuku looked down to himself. He wondered what the plant was thinking. And what it said about himself that his plant was the smallest and weakest. Maybe it was useless, in truth, a small being with nothing to offer. Or maybe it was just doing its best, little as it was. "And All for One? And One for All?"
"Fungi, the only existing ones in this world. All for One is a parasitic fungus that grows by absorbing plants until nothing but a husk remains, gaining their Quirks as it does, One for All is a symbiotic fungus that expands by developing a symbiosis with other plants and protecting them from All for One." Epsi chuckled, "If you are curious, the Deku Grass is the ideal host for One for All, actively encouraging it's growth, and cannot be affected by All for One, since it has no Quirk. The Multiverse is rather poetic."
Izuku nodded, and then closed his eyes and focused once more on his target, the Star Tower.
They disappeared, leaving behind nothing but the natural silence of that alien world. The grass righted itself, erasing the footprints of the human. The trees nearby creaked for a moment in mild curiosity before returning to their ancient position. Bugs skittered by now that the mysterious creatures were gone.
And the eternal forest kept growing, its silence only broken by bugs and bursts of Quirks, knowing and uncaring of the being that just passed through it.
-x-
Izuku opened his eyes and, for his disappointment, he found himself once again not staring at the Star Tower. Instead, he was looking at the main building of UA. Or well, what was left of UA after what seemed to be the passage of a horde of vandals. The walls were covered in graffiti, and many of the windows were smashed. The once pristine school had several cracks on its walls. Izuku stared for a moment in bewilderment.
"Hey, you!" A voice shouted, and he turned around in time to see a familiar golden blonde, dressed conspicuously not in his uniform, wearing instead a pair of jeans shorts and a white shirt with the sleeves tucked up, despite being on school grounds, walking towards him, a smug expression on his face. Monoma smiled as he put an arm around Izuku's shoulder, "Now, it's not right to just walk in our high school without asking, isn't it?"
Izuku was still trying to figure out what was going on, so he almost answered on autopilot. "Uhm… I'm sorry?"
"Yes, you are. So, what gang are you affiliated to?"
"Uhm… What?"
"Your Gang. Or family, or group, or squad, whatever you fancy yourself as. Or are you a full newbie? You seem a bit hold to lack an affiliation."
Izuku leaned a bit away from him, moving his head close to Epsi and murmuring through a forced smile. "Help me…"
There was no response from Epsi, but there was from Monoma when he noticed his bracelet, a grin growing on his face. "Ooooh, fancy toy you have there, mind if I…"
"Y-Yes, I do actually, sorry. It's an old gift, you know how it is…" Izuku started, but Monoma's arm moved slightly, starting to close more around his neck.
"That was not a question, newbie. If you have no gang, that means you have no protection. You are food for the sharks, and I'm on top of the food chain, got it? The sooner you figure that out…"
"The sooner you are safe. For that matter, Monoma, remind me again who is on top of the food chain here?" A female voice commented. Izuku, still absolutely lost, turned around together with Monoma, both staring at Kendo. Well, Kendo after she joined a biker gang, since she was wearing a white coat that extended all the way to the ground, the collar kept high instead of folded, and under it a plain black top that left most of the waist uncovered and long black pants. Her red hair was kept in her usual style, and her face was the total opposite of what Izuku had seen from Kendo before. She had always been annoyed at most by Monoma, but her face here promised murder. For both of them, Izuku felt.
"A-Ah, Kendo, I was just introducing the newbie to our fine establishment. Right, newbie?" The teens tone had gone from menacing to almost begging.
"Right… Well, as a member of the Council, I think I can take the 'newbie' from here. Get out of here and go back to the loser's club."
"We-We are the Monoma-4 and…" He stopped when she shot him another glare and let go Izuku scramming away, not without shooting one last angry look at him. Leaving him alone with a girl that looked about to beat him to a pulp.
'Izzzuku, anything?' He asked.
"I have been laughing for the past several minutes, this situation already promises to be hilarious and I need it after that bummer of a forest." 'Anything to help, I meant.' "Oh. Listen to her before she beats you up, assess the situation, and remember you aren't in danger and can just leave at any point, though I'd like to add your alternate self from this world as a beacon."
"So, now that the pest is gone, let's see what we have here…" She leaned closer, observing him up and down, even going as far as patting his arms, shoulders and chest, "Not bad, not bad, you are hiding some muscles behind that 'deer caught by the headlights' look. Good for you. You also remind me of someone I know, but you are too young and innocent to be him." She sighed in annoyance, "Alright, before you get jumped again by one of the other Low Rankers, you are a UA student, right? You aren't here to issue a challenge, yes?"
"Y-Yes. I mean no. I mean, I'm not here to challenge you!" Izuku answered, and she sighed.
"Yeah I figured, no offense but you aren't the messenger type, nor the 'Challenge the whole school' kind. Well, move your legs and follow me. I'm taking you to the Council first." She started walking, opening a bubblegum wrap and shoving the content in her mouth, quickly blowing it into a bubble before munching it back. She turned around, without stopping to munch, looking at the dazed Izuku and throwing a glare at him. "Today."
He nodded and started to walk, following her inside the school, still completely oblivious. "Uhm, sorry to ask…"
"If you are sorry to ask shut up, it's probably not important anyway." She answered, chewing idly on her bubblegum.
"Uhm, I just wanted some more… information… on the school."
She sighed, "Of course. So, congratulation for landing at the last train station of Japanese education, Yuuei High School. Our dropout rate is 80%, our delinquency rate is 100%. The teachers are spineless, the principal is MIA and has been for ages, the grades are virtually non-existent, and you will likely fail anyway because of the environment."
Izuku was speechless. "That's… kind of terrible."
"Meh, better this way for most of us." She blew the bubblegum into a balloon once again, continuing to munch on it as she escorted through the familiar yet alien environment. "We would just feel restrained in a more ordinary school."
Izuku stared around. The graffiti outside the school were nothing compared to those inside the school, a mosaic of what were probably generation of symbols racing from offensive to actually kind of impressive. The students loitered around in the corridor, some smoking despite being underage for it. 'What do I do?' "Play along. Epsi can't really talk so long as she is nearby." 'She never had a problem before.' "It never was a problem before. It's one thing to talk or light up the screen when you are just someone in the crowd, people would just assume you are calling someone or answering a message and ignore it. It's another when someone is watching you and would probably listen in."
Of course. She was a delinquent too, and Izuku wasn't eager to get into a fight, and even less to risk accidentally dragging someone with him when jumping universes. Plus, they didn't even know if this place was known to the League for All. Izzzuku knew a lot of universes, but not all of them. It was entirely possible some Patroller had stumbled on it, and it just never came up again after being registered.
"Alright, here we are." Kendo suddenly said, snapping Izuku out of his thoughts just in time to stop before he just bumped into her, for which she would have probably killed him. Ignoring that, she looked him up and down. "Word of warning, you look a lot like the President, so don't get surprised. Greet the Council President, then the Vice-President, then the Treasurer, and finally the General Affair Administrator. You can easily tell which is which. You are talking to the Secretary, so don't worry about that."
He nodded, and in response she kicked the door open, slamming it and walking in. "Sup losers." Kendo saluted mockingly, sitting down on one of five chairs.
Izuku followed her inside, and stared at the circle of students around the table, gulping in surprise.
His other version was standing at the other end of the room, slouched on a chair. He was wearing part of the school uniform, specifically the grey jacket and the black pants, but it was unbuttoned, with no tie in sight, a plain white shirt under it… No, not plain, the word 'delinquent' stood in the center in simple black kanji. They looked almost the same, with freckles, green hair and eyes, and about the same height, but in hindsight it wasn't surprising no one had connected the two.
Because she was a girl.
"Student Council President, Izumi Midoriya." She said, and her tone was already annoyed, "And you are?"
'Oh boy.' "Well Izuku?"
Izuku bit his lip, deciding quickly, "My name is Izuku Midorikawa!" He shouted, bowing his head. He hoped the alternate self he had borrowed the family name from wasn't going to get upset.
"Boooring." Izzzuku replied, and Deku found himself wishing for the first time that his mood had stayed low.
"Uhm, day one and already groveling." An ash blonde student sitting to Izumi's right grumbled, and the golden blonde teen further down the table chuckled. "Bet he ends up in some shitty faction. Maybe we get the Monoma-5."
"Bakugo, you shouldn't judge a book by his cover. I bet the guy has spirit." Mirio, the second who had spoken, sporting a large tattoo that apparently extended around his arm and to his back, covered only by a plain white shirt, General Affair Administrator's armband on his left arm, commented, without taking his eyes up from the book he had been reading since Izuku entered.
"Bullshit. If you took your eyes away from that book for three seconds you could see that."
"I've seen him, thank you. And if he can put up a better show than what your Squad pulled off yesterday, he is already a better acquisition for the school." The older student chuckled, a shit-eating grin completely out of place from anything Izuku imagined when thinking of Mirio forming on his face.
"Kirishima against Tamaki was never going to be fair." Bakugou grumbled.
"Oh yes, and I bet Kaminari and Jirou attacking from behind didn't change the odds at all." Mirio chuckled again as Bakugou slammed a hand on the table, but Izumi said nothing. Before Kendo could speak up, the Treasurer, who had been silent so far, spoke up.
"Can you two stop jumping at each other's throat? You make me want to kill you myself…" Tomura, a younger one, just a year or so older than Izuku was, murmured, his voice still the same hoarse tone, without rising his eyes from the console he was playing on, and Izuku noticed both boys stiffen. He couldn't blame them, considering who was talking and the tone of his voice, even if apparently here he wasn't a criminal. Or maybe they all were, they were pretty open about fighting each other.
Izuku stared at the council table, that mess of people that were just not behaving right, his brain screaming at him this was totally wrong. Thinking back at the last couple days, he found himself go through a new thought.
'In hindsight, I really wish the Vestiges never showed up. I really don't think it's worth it.'
(xx)
So yeah, the Forestverse. It has been a long time coming to show an answer to 'how weird can things get in the Multiverse?' and the answer here is, very. Very much. A lot if you will.
Yes, there is a plant for every quirk (except OfA and AfO, that as explained are fungi), or you could say a plant for every person. Yes that means there is a plant that causes Decay and one that removes gravity. And yes, the plants are actually sentient. They knew what was happening around them. Is just that they didn't really care, because trees and flowers won't really care about the weird fleshy thing that is walking around. So long as it doesn't bother them.
And if you are still wondering yes, very dangerous world. The Camie willow tree isn't the only plant that wants you dead.
But then, we move to the Delinquentverse. And boy have I been waiting for this one. If the Forestverse is a universe I've been dying to introduce, let's just say that Izumi is one of the three characters I have been dying to make appear in this story.