Fun fact, the events of this chapter were, according to my original outline, going to be chapter 6. Additional fun fact, with the posting of this chapter, EGMD is now the longest fic I've ever written. It's certainly the one I'm most proud of, as well.

Restful sleep had eluded Izuku, and he felt like he'd only just gotten into his bed when he woke in the morning. Weariness clung to his bones like ink to a page, causing his limbs to ache as he rose to a sitting position. He had little doubt that he'd returned to his nightmares after he had finally fallen back asleep; all the Godling could do was pray that they wouldn't continue to haunt him in the coming nights, else he'd surely slow them down and become a burden.

Somehow, though, Izuku doubted it'd be that easy.

A yawn split his face, accompanied by an uncomfortable cracking in his jaw. He massaged his cheeks as he slowly climbed to his feet, ignoring the dim protests of the rest of his body. When his vision finally focused enough to be aware of his surroundings, he saw Iida's bed empty with its covers scattered across it. Izuku frowned. It was unlike the nobleman to leave any area he inhabited untidy. Of course, there was a strong likelihood it had something to do with the news Izuku had delivered on behalf of The Unseen upon his return. He resolved to speak to him about it and see what was on his mind.

First, though, he needed to get a bath drawn. His skin was sticky with sweat, much like it had been when he had been wrested from the grip of his nightmares the previous night, and Izuku was certain that his friend wouldn't appreciate having a heartfelt talk while he reeked.

He half-heartedly donned clothing to keep himself decent while he went to find the innkeeper. Descending the stairs to the common room, he found her immediately, but was surprised to see nobody else present. "Excuse me, have any of my friends come down?"

The matronly woman nodded as she returned a table to its rightful place. "All of 'em! The first two didn't say much of anything about where they're going, but I know a drinking look when I see one. I think your noble friend was on his way to drown his sorrows."

Izuku frowned again. Considering how Iida had reacted to the news, him being upset wasn't terribly surprising, but he didn't take the Godling as a drinker. His concern grew, especially since there was no easy way to determine where he was.

"The nymph did ask me to tell you that she's gone to the Gardens, though. Something about tracking down one of those Godlings the Temples have been fighting about all month."

That, more than anything, was what drove his decision not to bathe. As much as he wanted to ensure he was properly clean, if Mina was looking for another Godling, someone needed to be with her to make sure she was okay. He doubted that she'd do anything brazen or foolish, but already he'd met several Godlings that were not what anyone would call 'good people.' She could be in significant danger.

Izuku would have done this for any of his friends, of course. He cared for them all and wanted to see them delivered to the Palace safe and sound. The fact that Mina was the one that he was currently worried about was just happenstance – she was the one seeking out another Godling, after all. Iida may have been getting drunk at an absurdly early hour, but he could take care of himself. The most trouble he'd have to worry about was mortals, and even a few tankards down, Izuku couldn't imagine him losing a fight to anyone else looking to drink at this time of day. And, even though he hadn't the slightest clue about what Uraraka was doing, that didn't mean there was any cause for concern. After all, she'd survived on her own before; it's not like the city posed any unique danger to her that she could not overcome with her prodigious magical talents.

Surely, Mina was in the most danger.

The innkeeper laughed, drawing his attention back to her. "You're sweet on her, aren't you?"

Izuku felt his face light up. Three sputtering responses all tried to leap from his lips at the same time, leaving nothing coherent to be heard.

"You've got worry written so clear on your face that I don't even think you'd need to know your letters to read it," the woman smiled. "Why don't I get you some bread and cheese, you can have something to eat something on your way to find her?" She moved towards a door at the back of the room which he knew led to the kitchen.

"Uhhh... Sure. I just... I'll be right back." He dashed up the stairs and back into the room he and Iida shared.

The Godling wet a cloth in the room's small water basin and quickly rubbed himself down with it. While far from the bath, it would at least get the sweat off of him, and maybe some of the smell if he was lucky. He quickly redressed after doing so and went to run back down to the first level. However, Izuku found himself halting at the door, a sour taste in his mouth.

He looked back at his bed – or rather, through it, to the object hidden beneath. Thinking about what he'd done with it only yesterday still made his stomach churn and his mouth dry out, but if Mina was in trouble...

He took a deep breath, marched back over to his bed, and retrieved the sword from under it. The blade felt leaden in his hands, but its weight on his mind was far greater. The sheath and wrapped leather hilt may as well have been solidified acid. The spatter of blood on the walls, on Mina, returned in vivid color to his thoughts.

No.

Izuku took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He forced Mina's bloodied body out of the dark space he had created and instead focused intently on the placement of pinpricks of light. One by one, he willed them into existence. It took longer than he would have liked; between each star, he had to banish the scene that haunted his memories once more. With ironclad calm, Izuku rebuffed his mind's assault upon itself until all that remained was a choice selection of the night sky and four words: Forgefire lights the way.

For the briefest of moments, Hatsume and Yaoyarozu's faces flitted through the image he had constructed, but were almost immediately replaced by Mina.

She was in danger. She had to know it. Why she had decided to go and seek this other Godling out by herself and without telling anyone but the Innkeeper was beyond him, but that didn't matter right now. All that mattered was getting to her and making sure she was safe.

Izuku opened his eyes.

All that was in his hands was a sword.

Before his mind could decide it was anything more or less, he lashed the sheath to his belt and descended the stairs. The inkeeper had moved another table and was sweeping the floor under it, but there was a small bundle of cheap cloth sitting on one of the ones she had already worked on.

"There's your breakfast," she said, gesturing to the table he'd noted previously. "Dinner will be ready by sundown, but I'll keep it warm for you if you aren't back 'til later."

Izuku grabbed the bundle, which by his estimation contained a good sized portion from a loaf of bread and a piece of cheese that was only a little smaller than his palm. "Thank you, uh, ma'am. I really do appreciate it." He was about to leave when he realized he wasn't entirely positive he knew the way. "Um. The Gardens are on the north end of the city, right?"

"Well, yes, but if you go straight north, you'll just hit the lord's manor. Your best bet is to head up to the square, take East Street until you hit Temple Row, and then turn left. Follow the Row north and you'll find yourself smack in the middle of the Gardens, and you can look around for your friend from there."

He nodded. "Thanks again!" Sure of his way, the Godling of Strength left to lend his arm to a friend in need.

The streets of Hosu were not as crowded as Izuku would have normally expected for this hour. He had slept much later than he'd intended, leaving him merely two, two and a half hours before midday. Even so, his path to the square was unimpeded, giving him ample room to munch on his humble breakfast.

Cheese and bread was a meal he was more than familiar with. Before he had come of age to work for Wizard Nighteye, it was often all his mother could afford. This was far from a bad thing; in fact, Izuku thought fondly of the days he spent with his mother as he made his way towards the Gardens. It was then, with a pang of sorrow, that he realized he hadn't thought much of her since he'd left home. For all the tears they'd shed together when he told her that he had to go, her face had scarcely crossed the young man's mind afterward.

It wouldn't do to dwell on that, he decided. Izuku already had enough weighing him down between the Game, the lies, and... recent events. Besides, she wouldn't want him to be harsh on himself. In fact, she'd likely say something profound and grounding, like, 'Not thinking of me means you're thinking about the obstacles before you,' or, 'It's hard to think of someone safe at home when the people around you are constantly in danger and need your help.'

It made him wish she was here to say those things to him. Even with all the support he received from his friends and from Grandmother, Izuku felt he could use the encouragement. Something about it was different coming from his mother. It felt more... genuine. More real. Not in the sense that the others failed to provide actual help, but there was a part of him that never stopped believing that Inko was always right. All that was required for something to be true was for her to speak it, so to hear her say that he was doing well, and that the choices he'd made so far were good ones, and that she was proud of the man he was becoming on his travels, and that his friends were lucky to have him around –

The former scribe had to force his thoughts to other topics as he wiped his eyes with his sleeve. He had started crying somewhere along the way. He took a deep breath, whispered a prayer for his mother, and then ate the last of the cheese.

The central square of the city was in sight, and he had almost passed into it when he heard a voice from directly behind him. "What are you doing here?"

Izuku dropped the small remnants of bread he still held in surprise as he whirled about, finding himself face to face with Shoto Todoroki. He took a step back, fear flooding through him.

Todoroki didn't allow him to gain any distance. He took a step forward. "I asked you a question."

"I... Why does that matter?" Izuku asked defensively. "I'm allowed to travel where, um... Wherever I want."

A lick of fire danced up the demigod's right arm before fading out. "Because you were traveling with Godlings before. You may be traveling with them still." Another step forward. "Tell me. Who do you travel with?"

The threat of the fire did not go unheeded. Izuku glanced around for avenues of escape, but quickly realized it was futile. People around were taking notice. Some stopped to watch the interaction, perhaps smelling the potential conflict. If he tried to run, he might endanger them. Besides, Todoroki could just trap him in ice like he had the High Priest last time they had encountered each other. "I –" He swallowed his fear as best as he could. "I'm not telling you anything. I won't help you hurt my friends." For the briefest moment, he thought about drawing his sword, but the image of the dismembered bandit and Mina covered in blood caused his breath to hitch. The sword seemed to triple in weight in concert with that visage.

"You had Nezu's Godling with you," Todoroki said. He continued forward, forcing the green-haired man to give more and more ground. "He seemed very intent on your safety, even though you aren't a Godling. Why is that? What knowledge do you hold?" Izuku tried to continue retreating, but found his feet frozen to the ground. He almost fell, but his body was quickly encased as well. "What do you know about the All Mighty's Godling?"

The ice entombing him had nothing to do with his blood running cold. It was all he could do to keep the terror from showing plain on his face. How had Todoroki found out? He'd barely interacted with him, and he'd done nothing to so much as suggest he wasn't just a regular human! His friends had been around him for far longer and had no idea! "W-w-why would I know anything about him? T-them, I mean? I-I've never met that Godling!"

His assailant's blue eye bore into him, stared into his very soul from within the blackened skin around it. "I seek the Godling of Strength. I know that he is near, but I do not know where. To find you again, in the same city as my quarry, is an unlikely coincidence. I will ask you one final time: What do you know?"

His frigid prison closed in around him, pressing hard against his ribs and forcing the air out of his chest. "N-nothing!" he gasped. "I t-told you, I've never met that Godling! The only male Godling I've met is Iida – Nezu's Godling!"

"Liar." He raised his right hand with his fingers curled, as though preparing to make a fist.

"W-wait! No, I'm sorry, you're right – m-my childhood friend is the Godling of War, he tried to kill me! That's it, I swear!" Much to his regret, Izuku had become a fair hand at lying since meeting the King of the Gods. It was a subtle thing, and in his experience, it involved saying nothing about as much as actively speaking falsehood. In this moment, however, he had no idea how effective his lies would be – he was desperate, and it had to be obvious to anyone who looked at him.

Todoroki looked at him for a quiet, frightful moment. His face wasn't the impassive mask that he had worn for the majority of the time Izuku had seen him; no, the frustration was plain on his face right now. "Then if you wish to live, you will tell me of the Godling of War."

Surprisingly, Izuku was torn about this. On the one hand, Kacchan had tried to kill him, and would have succeeded if not for the timely intervention of Iida and Grandmother. He had murdered Izuku's master and destroyed the knowledge he had spent a lifetime collecting. On the other, Kacchan had still been his friend when they had been younger, before his parents had been forced out of Shizuoka. Despite what had happened since, part of him still considered that friendship important and hoped that they might one day reconcile. If Todoroki was on some mad quest to kill Godlings and amass power... "Are you going to kill him?"

The ice tightened just a bit more around him. It felt like his lungs would be crushed, and he wheezed while the other Godling spoke. "I desire to know about him so that, if we meet in battle, I will have a further advantage. Now, speak or die."

He was surprised to get that much information. Based on how the rest of their conversation had gone, Izuku had honestly expected to be told 'speak or die' and nothing else. "His n-name is Katsuki Bakugou – please, I can't b-breathe.." The pressure released slightly. It was still difficult to talk in between the short, ragged breaths he could manage, but it seemed best not to press the issue and just accept what he was given. "He... I think he just intuitively... knows how to fight. Maybe how to use weapons? I don't... don't know. When he tried to kill me... He just created explosions... Like fireworks, but right from his hands... He wants to be King... please, that's all... All I know..."

Todoroki considered what he had heard. "How did you live?" There was a surprising lack of hostility in his voice, compared to everything else he had said thus far. "If you're just a human, how could you stand against a Godling and live? You don't even have any scars." He sounded genuinely curious.

"H-healer... Iida was there, he pulled me out of... out of a burning building... and got me to a healer..."

With a noncommittal, "Hm," from the twice-mantled Godling, the ice around him cracked and began to fall apart. Izuku fell from the crumbling pile and landed on his hands and knees, shivering and desperately sucking in as much air as he could. From his low vantage, he saw Todoroki's feet begin walking towards him. He flinched and curled up tight around himself, unable to properly move due to the shaking of his limbs. It had been so cold in there, but it seemed so much worse now that he was free of it. However, no blow or assault came.

"W-w-wait," he called behind him. "Why are y-you hunting the Godling of Str-Strength?"

The footsteps halted. "You ask too many questions for your own good."

Izuku faced his unknowing enemy without rising to his feet. "I... I just... It really s-seems like you plan to k-kill him."

The neutral expression had retaken its place on the other man's scarred face. "So what if I do?"

"It's... I... I've only just... t-taken my first life yesterday. A b-bandit. I've never f-felt so... disgusted with myself. So... afraid of... something I've d-done. That was... someone who was trying to k-kill me. You..." He managed to get up onto one knee. "I can't imagine what y-you have to have g-gone through... Killing your own sister... I don't underst-stand why you'd want to kill again."

He wasn't sure what he expected Todoroki's reaction to be. He couldn't quite understand the man, even at his most basic level, and with social intuition already not being high on Izuku's list of skills, his behaviors and motivations made even less sense. However, nothing could have ever prepared him for the look of raw, unadulterated fury that bloomed in the wake of his last statement. Even when the Neyan priests had been all but spitting on him for his fratricide, Hellfire's Godling had looked almost bored.

Todoroki stormed back to Izuku and, with his left hand, grabbed the kneeling man's collar. Fire exploded from his fingers, causing the grappled Godling to cry out in fear and pain from the sudden heat. "Do not dare to speak to me of death as though you understand it, mortal. You know nothing and you are nothing. If you so much as speak another word to me, I will leave your charred skeleton in the middle of this street." With that, he threw Izuku back to the ground, turned on his heel, and stalked towards the square once more.

In a panic, he slapped at his burning collar. The flames, not having had time to truly take hold, did little more than singe the edges of the cloth and add to the burns his neck had received when Todoroki grabbed him. Izuku tenderly poked at them; they stung horribly, but it wasn't nearly as bad as when Kacchan had left him for dead in the manor. Hopefully that meant that they weren't severe. He'd see Grandmother about them, but that would have to wait until after he found Mina. If Todoroki was the Godling she was looking for, it'd be best for everyone involved if she failed to find him.

As he stood, neck screaming and teeth chattering (it seemed horribly unfair that he could be burned and cold at the same time), he looked at the crowd that had gathered around during the altercation. It had diminished from the full size he had seen from his peripherals, but some people were still lingering. It was strange, having so many people watching him. At least when something was actively happening, it made a kind of sense, but the demigod had left; now, it was just him, shivering next to a pile of shattered ice. He was unsure what to do about it, so he flashed an awkward, shaky smile at those still watching and started off in the direction of the square. The fact that Todoroki had also left in that direction was unnerving, but he'd keep an eye out to ensure that he kept a respectable distance in case they wound up close enough to see each other again.

Izuku hadn't wondered much about the actual presence of the guards in the city. The gate guard from the yesterday had mentioned they were mostly patrolling internally, but their numbers hadn't seemed overly increased compared to what one would expect from such claims. Having begun to walk Temple Row, he now understood why that was.

Each temple had at least a single squad of armed men at its doors. Priests who left their temples tended to have no fewer than two escorts, more if they were traveling in groups. The energy of the street was entirely different than anything he had ever experienced before. Usually, the air about a temple was warm and welcoming; perhaps if the God it was dedicated to tended towards more serious or somber affairs, it might be austere, but it never felt volatile. Walking this way reminded Izuku of the fireworks shows Kacchan's parents would put on before Nighteye had the practice banned – while there was an undoubtable beauty to take in, there was also danger about, and everyone walking the Row felt it.

As he moved towards the Gardens, Izuku found himself apace a group of priests and their guards. Judging by their garb – not robes, which would be standard, but instead brightly colored costumes – they belonged to the Temple of Yamada the Bard. Being near enough to them, he practiced listening like Uraraka had taught him back in Musutafu. He didn't learn anything important, as they were only speaking of each other, but they all seemed in a merry mood. The behavior of the group shifted as a pair of Nosferatu's priests departed their temple and began heading towards them.

Several quiet comments, too low for Izuku to hear over the din of the street, were exchanged. The group laughed, and then one of them moved closer to the Priests of Death and called out, "Hey! When your God dies, does he have to haul his own sorry ass to the afterlife, or does the new guy get the pleasure?"

While the Godling was stunned by the blatant disrespect towards a God, the effect this had on the man's target was immediate. Izuku could practically see the vein bulge from his head and he unleashed a torrent of foul language back. It was quite shocking – of course he'd heard people swear and curse many a time, but this behavior from a priest was unheard of. One of the Nosferatan's escorts was forced to restrain his red-faced charge as he made a break for the Yamadans, eliciting a chorus of hearty laughter from them.

The other dark-robed priest did not seem to heed the jeers thrown their way for a moment, but then he spoke loudly and clearly: "Don't sully your hands with them, brother. After all, despite their claims of honeyed words, naught but shit flows from their mouths, just as from the mouth of their God. You wouldn't want to be close enough that it gets on you."

Izuku almost didn't hear the last sentence. The moment he had accused the Bard of... speaking in excrement? Outrage had kindled among his priests. The man who made the instigating comment, in particular, seemed ready to go over and get physical over the matter, much in the same way his original target had. As the two groups began to yell increasingly derogatory insults to each other and slander to the others' God, all of the guards sprung into action, attempting to restrain the lot of them. However, there weren't enough to have each Yamadan held by his own guard, and two managed to slip away and make it to their rivals.

As they crossed the distance between the groups, Izuku was forced to decide. Should he intervene? He could potentially prevent the violence. However, he didn't know how long it would take him to find Mina when he reached the Gardens, or what of his strength he would need when he was there. Surely, they wouldn't require much of it, but it was still a distraction. Besides, doing so could get him tied up with the guard for who knows how long, and –

His decision was made for him. Several guards patrolling the street had moved to assist in containing the fledgling brawl, and they were not kind in doing so. While the escorts had attempted to restrain their charges and prevent violence from occurring, this group had no qualms with issuing physical punishments from the beginning. Before even a half dozen blows were exchanged between the two escaped Yamadans, the Nosferatans, and the guards attempting to ward the God of Death's priests, the new arrivals had come with clubs drawn. All four of the involved clergy were swiftly and soundly beaten into submission. The followers of the God of Song who had been held back suddenly lost their will to fight, though Izuku could see the rage simmering within them. Once those who had engaged in the brawl were unconscious, the patrol grabbed them and began hauling them back to their respective temples.

It made Izuku feel sick. He tore his eyes away from the spectacle, cast them downward, and picked up the pace down the Row.

It seemed like a coin flip as he passed other groups of priests on his way to the Gardens. Heads, and the passing groups would ignore each other, maybe exchange some sour looks at most. Tails, they insulted each other, slandered the Gods and their Godlings, or attempted to accost each other. While no other interaction escalated to the degree the first he had seen did, it was entirely clear that hostility reigned over Temple Row.

He just couldn't understand it. There was a point to which it made sense – the Gods were dying. This was, in recorded history, an unprecedented event. It was normal that people would be upset and afraid. They didn't know who their new Gods were going to be, and more importantly, they didn't know how their new Gods were going to be. But these temples had existed in proximity to each other for, well, almost as long as the city of Hosu had existed. Just like the Neyan High Priest Kaoru had known the priesthood of Hellfire long before his antagonist, Minato, had taken up the cloth, many of these folk had to have known each other, even been friendly with each other, up until this point. There would always be some hostility between some members of each body, but it was now to a degree that Izuku couldn't even fathom. It'd been such a short period of time, scarcely over two weeks since he had received his own mantle, and likely less since the Gods had disseminated this news to their ministers. How had so much gone so wrong, so quickly?

Had it really only been two weeks?

The urge to stop and take a breath nearly overcame him, but he managed to keep moving. It felt like lifetimes had passed since his meeting with the All Mighty. He had to have known Iida, Uraraka, and Mina for years by now, how could it possibly have only been two weeks? Working for Nighteye, months of his life at a time would flash by, leaving him wondering where the time had gone. Now seemed the exact opposite, with even a single day taking an age to go by.

As he considered this, however, the more important question occurred to him. Who had he become in two weeks?

Izuku felt very little in common with the scribe who struggled to lift that chest onto the reliquary shelves on his eighteenth birthday. The fixtures in that other man's life – the mansion, Wizard Nighteye, Awata, home, his mother – were entirely absent from Izuku's, as was any sense of normalcy. Instead, he was a Godling in the company of Godlings, grappling with forces beyond a scribe's comprehension in order to become the King of the Gods. He didn't even have the truth to keep him company anymore. Still though, that was not to say that his new life was without merit. The conflict was largely indicative of the positive change he was helping to enact in the world around him, even if it was on a rather small scale. He had also never had friends like he had now. While they weren't privy to the reality of his situation, he did feel confident that at least Mina and Uraraka would be understanding and accepting when the truth inevitably came out. Iida... Well, he was still working on that.

No closer to the solution, either.

He closed the door on that somber thought as he passed the last temple in the Row and a very nice sign welcoming him to the Gardens.

It didn't take him long to locate Mina. As it turns out, nymphs were already rather uncommon within the bounds of the city, and not only was she brightly colored, her branches gave her a very distinctive appearance that people found easy to remember. Within twenty minutes of entering the district, he was on his way to a recent sighting and had found her within thirty.

Mina was sitting at one of several public tables in a rather nice park within the Gardens. Well-kept flowerbeds ran alongside the cobbled paths leading up to the grassy area the tables were set upon, and there seemed to be some sort of a crowd gathering. She noticed him before he had managed to close the distance and leaped from her seat to run over to him. "Izuku! I'm so glad you're here, you have to meet this guy!" Her smile nearly reached her ears as she seized his hand and started pulling.

"Hey, wait, what's – what guy? What's going on? The innkeeper just said you were out looking for a Godling!"

An almost sinister giggle escaped his friend's lips. "Ohh, just you wait until I introduce you to him! You'll..." Mina trailed off as she looked back at him. "What happened to your neck? And your collar? Are you okay?"

Izuku opened his mouth to answer, but then thought better of it. With all of the people around... "I'm fine. I'll explain it later, when we're not... in such large company."

She didn't look wholly convinced at that and stopped to face him. "Those are burns, right?"

He nodded. "Uh, yeah."

The Godling of Revelry looked around, her expression that of a child who knows they're about to do something wrong and wanting to make sure they didn't get caught. She seemed satisfied by whatever she saw – perhaps what she didn't see? – and quickly fastened her hands around Izuku's neck.

There was a brief moment of panic as his instincts screamed at him that he was about to be choked, but of course the painful pressure never arrived. Mina wouldn't do that to him. Instead, a cold, syrupy substance leaked from her palms and settled on his neck. The burns stung wildly from her touch, but as she massaged the Nectar into his skin, the pain dimmed and the heat transitioned from his neck to his face. After a brief moment, she moved to the underside of his jaw. It was for the most part untouched, but the fire had licked up to and across where his jawline and neck met. The end result of her treatment was that Mina's hands were cupping his face, fingers lightly stroking back and forth to work the salve into the last of his burns.

"M-Mina...?" he stuttered. The whole of his head could have been engulfed in Todoroki's fire and he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference (not to mention that the burns would have left him less red than the blush currently advancing up his face).

"Hmm?" She finally finished applying the Nectar and let go of him. "What?"

"I... It's..." Izuku swallowed. It helped his ability to speak, but the raging inferno was no closer to leaving his face. "So, what were you saying about, uh... a person? Meeting, maybe?"

A mischievous smirk appeared on her face. "Oh, yes, you just have to meet him. Come on!" She grabbed his hand again and hauled him back to the table she had been sitting at.

There were many people around this table, but it was immediately evident who Mina wanted to introduce him to, considering he was the center of everyone's attention. He was very clearly similar in age to Izuku, but oddly short. In fact, if he was five feet tall, the Godling would have been surprised. His hair was black, but the barest trace of purple dye along the edges could be seen. This was particularly surprising to Izuku; purple dye was expensive, and while he had heard of people dying their hair, even applying a small amount in such a temporary fashion was an ostentatious display of wealth. His clothes were of good make, though lacking the level of quality and ornamentation that he would normally have suspected from someone rich enough to dye parts of their hair purple.

"Izuku, this is Minoru Mineta." She gave him a look that was supposed to be very serious, but undermined by the constant twitch at the corner of her mouth, and continued, "He's the Godling of Revelry."

As Mineta gave him a smug, superior look, Izuku gained a complete understanding of the day's events thus far. Somehow, Mina had heard about the Godling of Revelry being in the city, but it wasn't her. Knowing that this was impossible, she went to find out who was impersonating her, leading her to the Gardens. Upon seeing a young man clearly putting on airs, she decided that she was going do... Something. Perhaps complete was an exaggeration, but whatever was going to happen, it was going to be horrifically embarrassing for the faux Godling.

He belatedly realized that Mineta, and by extension, the entire crowd, was staring at him expectantly. Mina raised her eyebrows at him with a sparkle in her eye and her mouth ever-so-slightly curled upward.

Well... Who was Izuku to ruin her fun?

"It's, uhm... An honor to meet you?"

Mineta was not impressed. He looked at Mina and said, "Well, if this guy being there is what gets you to come to my revel later, I guess he can come." He leered at her in a frankly disgusting manner before continuing, "But the after-revel is for ladies only, if you catch my meaning." It was fortunate that he chose that moment to look away and focus once more on the crowd of other people trying to attract his attention, because Mina's face was very quickly torn between revulsion and anger.

The two actual Godlings were quickly forgotten by the crowd as they returned to peppering the small man with questions, compliments, and praise. He shone with unearned pride and false bravado as he answered the questions, and it wasn't long before Izuku was as disgusted by the impostor as Mina was.

"What was it like to become a Godling?" one young man called out, successfully gaining a response from Mineta.

"Well, I don't want to get too in detail. It's a very... personal... experience, after all."

"Did you meet Lady Midnight?" asked another.

The black-haired man smirked and said, "Well, like I said, I can't say much. But I suppose I can say that I did a lot more than meet her."

A chorus of male voices rose from the crowd, cheering for the perceived conquest. It made Izuku want to vomit. How could he speak falsehoods about a Goddess like that? How could they encourage the behavior? They couldn't know that he was lying, but still...

"What kind of powers did Lady Midnight give you?" came a woman's voice. This caught Mina's attention as well, and she watched him with intense focus.

"Well, I've become much more talented in the things I was already good at. I can hold my liquor better than any mortal, and my, haha, prowess has increased as well." Mineta waggled his eyebrows. "I've got other powers that make me excel at reveling as well, but they're not as important."

"Really?" asked Mina. She leaned forward. "I'd bet being able to create alcohol by the gallon would be pretty helpful there." There was a predatory look on her face that was mildly frightening to Izuku. She looked like a great cat, ready to crush its unsuspecting prey between her jaws.

Her quarry was none the wiser and scoffed. "Well, of course! That's simple."

"Oh, I can't imagine it'd be a challenge for the Godling of Revelry," she purred. "What about drugs? I've heard some humans crush plants into powders or extract liquids from them to enhance sensation. Can you create those, too?"

It was with some horror Izuku realized that Mineta thought he was winning Mina over with these answers. "No problem. I, uh, make drugs all the time. Like you said, for... sensation." The disgusting little man waggled his eyebrows again.

"Well, one thing I always thought," she continued, placing a finger over her lips thoughtfully, "is that the Goddess of Revelry must be where Ambrosia stems from. If you're her Godling, you must have the power to create Ambrosia?"

The entire crowd went silent and held their breath as they stared at him, waiting for the answer. It was impossible to tell whether he realized he was being trapped or merely thought this was a dangerous line to cross, but the question caused the false Godling's expression to fall. His eyes darted around as he searched for an easy way out of the question, but between the rapt attention his audience paid and the curious look on Mina's face, he found none. "Well, ah... No, I can't do Ambrosia. After all, Ambrosia is the drink of the Gods, right? I'm still part mortal, I won't be able to make it until I ascend."

"Really?" Mina asked, faux confusion in her voice and upon her face. "That's just so weird, because I can make Ambrosia." She held out a single finger and a drop of liquid pushed up from her skin to rest upon it.

Izuku blinked. His brain tried to perceive and make sense of the Nectar on her fingertip, but it just... couldn't. It was colorful, certainly, but he couldn't tell what color it was. Or maybe it changed colors? It was always a bright shade, but beyond that, no details would come to mind as he studied it, causing him a small headache as he tried. The sunlight hit it in the most spectacular way, and he doubted anyone in the crowd would be able to miss it. Even stranger about it was the smell, however. There was only the tiniest drop of it, but he was close enough to just barely catch a whiff. It was maddeningly familiar in a way he just couldn't place, and he had to swallow several times as he began to salivate at a frightening rate.

Mineta looked like he finally understood at least the smallest truth about the situation he was in, and he seemed about to protest or make some excuse, but he couldn't. He, like everyone else in the crowd, was too enraptured by the Ambrosia to do anything besides stare at it.

The spell was broken when Mina took her finger and placed it in her mouth, licking the tantalizing substance off and swiftly removing the digit. Her eyes immediately dilated a small amount, and a small, pleased noise escaped her. "Delicious, every time," she said, looking at her now-clean finger before returning her attention to Mineta. "As you might have guessed, you vile little worm, I am the Godling of Revelry, and I do not appreciate being impersonated, especially by the likes of you." She jabbed him in the chest, causing him to fall over backwards. He scurried back, still on his rear, and the crowd parted to make way for him. Mina followed, menacing over him with narrowed eyes. "Now run, little worm, as far and as fast as you can. And if I ever hear so much as a whisper that you're pretending to possess my mantle again, I'll create a lot more than Ambrosia to prove you a fake." The pale green Nectar Izuku had watched her form when she fought seeped from her outstretched hand, landing on the ground between Mineta's legs with a sinister hiss.

The phony heir to Lady Midnight's power scrambled to his feet and ran, tears flowing down his face the whole time they were able to see it.

Mina's expression brightened as he turned tail. She clapped her hands together and said, "Well! I don't think he'll be a problem again, and that was a nice diversion from yesterday." She flashed Izuku a brilliant smile.

He returned it and was about to respond when the heavy air around him gave him pause. As he looked, all of the people who had previously been so enthusiastically interrogating Mineta were now wary and fearful, watching Mina intently to see what her next action would be. Many still had their eyes locked on the patch of ooze-covered dirt that the grass had dissolved into after the Nectar landed on it. Others watched the nymph herself, the question of whether to run written plainly on their faces. "M-Mina's not really like that!" Izuku found himself saying. The silence broken, he couldn't find it in himself to stop. "She's very kind and always looking for ways to help people, and, and her Nectar isn't always harmful! She can do a lot of amazing things with it, like heal burns and seal up wounds to prevent blood loss and bring down welts and sores! It's just that, um, that other guy –" How did the name escape him now? He had literally just been thinking it! – "was impersonating her, and if people thought he was the Godling of Revelry, he could, um, he could give her a bad reputation." Outright fear no longer dominated the expressions of the crowd, but they seemed unsure of what would come next, still on the brink of flight. "R-right, Mina?" He looked back at her hopefully.

She had been looking at him with a curious expression, a lilac shadow cast by her hair from the sun behind her head. At his prompting, she looked about her at all of the other people. "Yeah! No, I have no interest in harming anyone, I was just trying to scare him away so he would stop pretending to be me." Her face scrunched up a bit in thought. "Well, pretending to have my powers, anyways. Trust me, I find humans really interesting, I don't want to hurt you guys. Sorry if I scared you!"

Silence reigned for a tense moment. Izuku wondered what effect this would have on her reputation and whether Mineta's would be preferable, but then one of the young men from earlier quietly asked, "So... What was it like to become a Godling?"

Mina winced. "It hurt. A lot." She sat back down at the table. "I don't think it does for humans. At least, Lady Midnight said that it was different for nymphs. Unlike humans, all nymphs can do magic. We're born with the ability, and we instinctively understand how to use it. When I got my mantle – that's what it's called, the thing that makes you a Godling – it hurt more than anything else I'd ever felt in my life."

Izuku blinked. He hadn't heard about this when she had previously talked about it.

"Whatever the mantle is exactly, it doesn't like to coexist with other magic. One of my friends, who is also a Godling, was a wizard before she met the Thirteenth. After she got her mantle, she couldn't cast spells like she used to anymore. She said that she reached out for the magic, and it just wasn't there. She couldn't feel it like she could before." Mina sighed. "It wasn't like that for me. Humans reach out for their magic, feel it in the world around them and make it do what they want. A nymph's magic comes from inside of her." She held a hand up to her chest, over her heart. "So, when the mantle went in, the magic that I had... my magic needed to come out. My connection to my tether, all of the things I had been able to do my entire life, was ripped out of me." She looked very seriously at the people around, ending on the man who asked her the question. "I thought I was going to die."

"Was it worth it?" an old woman asked.

Mina smiled. "Absolutely. I may have left my old life behind me, but I carry part of it with me wherever I go." She raised her hand up to the pink-and-blue petaled flowers still woven into her hair. "This was my tether, before I became a Godling. Sometimes I think about where I used to live, and my mother and siblings, and I get sad. But then I think about all of the incredible things that have happened to me since!" She held her arms out excitedly and kicked her legs up. "I've gotten to meet other Godlings and travel with some of them, and I've learned more about humans than I thought there was to know!" Mina looked directly at him, which confused him until she continued. "Izuku is just a human, but he's one of the most outstanding people I've ever met." He felt a pang in his chest as she said that, and more as she went on. "He's saved my life on multiple occasions, and I never would have gotten to meet him if I hadn't been chosen. I've had the chance to save other people and see magics I'd never even conceived of! And I've got even more ahead of me – finding the Palace of the Gods, crossing the threshold and ascending..." She leaned back with an odd expression on her face. "Honestly, for all the pain getting the mantle has caused me, it's made up for it with everything since."

The crowd exploded into questions after that. Questions about Lady Midnight, about her powers, about the quest for the Palace, about what kind of Goddess she wanted to be, about the things she'd seen, she'd done... They went on and on, until she held up a hand and looked to Izuku.

"You can go, I'm sure this is really boring for you," Mina said cheerfully. "I'll see you back at the inn."

Part of him wanted to stay with her, both to keep her safe and because he genuinely enjoyed her company. However, there was a weight bearing down on his shoulders that threatened to crush him if he did.

Just a human. One of the most outstanding people I've ever met. Saved my life. Never would have gotten to meet him.

He gave her an uneasy smile. "Uh, sure. I'll see you then."

She winked at him, making his heart speed up, and returned to answering questions.

He left, dragging the weight of his shame and lies behind him.

Finding Iida proved to be a much more difficult task than finding Mina had been. For one, he lacked her bright coloration, which had been a very easy way to find her. The Godling of Intellect just didn't stand out like the nymph did. Secondly, he had no earthly idea where his friend had gone beyond maybe to go drinking, which generously narrowed the search down to 'potentially any inn or tavern in the city.'

All in all, between heading to the Gardens, encountering Todoroki, locating Mina, and staying with her through the first several rounds of questions the crowd had for her, Izuku had spent no more than an hour and a half on his pink friend. This only made it more discouraging when he hadn't found Iida in the following seven.

Izuku sat in the common room of the inn with a bowl of soup hot enough that it had nearly burned his hands through the bowl when he took it to his table. It was exactly what he needed after a long day of trudging around the city and he could not wait for it to cool down enough to eat it. Across from him, Uraraka happily chirped about her day in the city, which had been much less eventful than his.

"...because my father was a mason and a carpenter, and I really didn't want to get them in trouble for accepting help from outside their guild. Fortunately, the foreman agreed that their contract didn't have any provisions for divine intervention, and since I wasn't asking for any pay, I was able to help build the house!"

"So what did you do? Use magic to move stones and wood around?"

"Mostly! But they also let me help shingle the roof, which I haven't done since I was a little girl." She smiled and checked her soup, which was still far beyond a palatable temperature. "My father used to let me help him fix things when our house needed work done. When I was really little, it was mostly hitting pieces of wood with a mallet while he worked, but a few years before I started my apprenticeship as a wizard, he taught me how to do actual repairs. After..." Her eyes darted up at him for a moment. The words weren't spoken, but he heard them nonetheless. "Anyways, it seemed like a good thing to do, and it was nice to do something simple and..." She thought for a moment. "Kind."

Izuku stirred his soup, watching the small cuts of beef and vegetables swirl around in the broth.

"Sorry."

"It's not your fault," he replied. "I've got to live with it. I can't expect everyone to dodge around the subject for the rest of my life." He brutally forced back the images threatening to come out of the back of his mind. Izuku briefly considered heading back upstairs to stow his sword under his bed where it couldn't taunt him with the memory of the man he killed... at least not directly. His growling stomach protested, demanding that he consume the wonderful smelling meal before him first, heedless of the danger it posed to his insides at its current temperature.

There was an awkward silence until Uraraka finally spoke again. "So, you think Mina is still hanging around those people you left her with?"

The corner of his mouth twitched. "Considering how close it is to sunset, I figure... she's probably either on her way back or, um, she's started a full-on revel somewhere."

Izuku could tell the laugh was a little forced, even if there was genuine mirth somewhere in it. Another silenced reigned, this one more palatable than the last, but not by much. At yet another rumble in his belly, he decided he couldn't afford to wait much longer. He fished a strip of meat and some carrots from the soup, blew on it to try and cool it off enough that his tongue would forgive him, and ate it. His mouth was scalded, causing him to immediately regret the action. He hastily chewed and swallowed, following with deep breaths to try and bring relief to the burns he now had within his body to match the burns without. As unpleasant as it had been going down, though, it felt like a furnace had been lit in his stomach, causing a soothing warmth to emanate from his core.

This laugh was genuine. "Come on, you had to know that would happen. What, are you planning to burn your mouth on the soup and then go have Grandmother Nighteye heal it?"

He had never quite gotten over his habit of flinching at the Goddess' name. Even though he knew that Uraraka and Iida would always follow it with her false last name, them saying 'Grandmother' always made him feel like he was on the edge of discovery. "Not, uh, not quite. I've just been running around the city all day, and I'm famished..." He looked back at his bowl, wondering if it was worth it to chance another bite. His tongue violently ached at the thought, so he decided not to bring that pain back upon himself. "I think I will go put my sword up, though. The soup... probably needs a few more minutes anyways."

"Sure, I'll make sure nobody tries to start a fire with it or anything." His fellow Godling idly stirred at her own meal while grinning at him.

"Thanks."

His sword shouldn't have had the weight of an anvil behind it. It had been fine when he had strapped it on this morning, and he'd carried it for the better part of the day without significant issue. Lifting it now made the same panicked thoughts he'd quashed before setting out claw their way in, and it took significant force of will to not visibly react in front of Uraraka. Still, Izuku fought them back with each step he took, first towards the stairs, then up them. He couldn't stop and envision the stars of his friend's portent like he had earlier in the day without raising suspicion, so he merely denied every image as it appeared in his head.

The Godling of Strength still struggled to right his mind when he opened the door to the room he shared with Iida, but the surprise of seeing the man in there left little room for much else besides relief and a touch of frustration that he'd spent so long looking about the city. "Iida! When did you get back?"

The nobleman was sitting at the foot of his still-disorderly bed, looking at the floor. "Several hours ago."

"Sorry, I... I didn't know, or I would have come to talk to you. The innkeeper didn't say anything..." He looked back over his shoulder in confusion.

"The common room was empty when I returned."

That made enough sense. Izuku went and stored his sword beneath the bedframe and then sat next to Iida. "I, um... I noticed your bed wasn't made when I woke up. I figured something was wrong." His friend didn't respond. "The innkeeper said, um, that she figured you were going to drink?"

He nodded. "I did, yes. I had three drinks over the course of the day."

Izuku hadn't suspected that the other man would be a heavy drinker, but he still sighed in relief at the low number. "It's about your brother and the vampire, isn't it?"

Upon his return the previous night, he had woken all of his companions and gathered them in his and Iida's room. He related the events of the night (sans his visit to Grandmother, of course, as he didn't have a good excuse for it and didn't care to try and make one up on the fly) and delivered The Unseen's message as instructed. Iida had not taken it well and had shared some small details, but nothing exhaustive.

"...Yes, it is. It doesn't sit well with me. Besides my worry for Tensei, that makes two vampires hunting Godlings. Two seems too many to be coincidence, considering their rarity, shared goal, and proximity, and I shudder to think who could command more than one of the beasts."

Tomura came straight to Izuku's mind. He knew that the Godling of the Great Devourer had more monsters under his command than just Toga, but a second vampire did bode ill for their chances of preventing him from amassing mantles. That wasn't even considering the difference in strength between them. He had hardly gotten a look at this new vampire, but it didn't take much more than a glance for his instincts to scream louder than they had when he had first seen Toga at the revel.

"If he's anything like you, Iida, he's going to be fine." He placed a hand on the other man's shoulder. "The Unseen seemed very certain about their plan, and I wouldn't be surprised if, um, if it had originally come from your brother."

With a frustrated sigh, Iida replied, "I wish I knew more about the relationship between him and The Unseen. I don't know if they can be trusted."

"They risked being attacked by a vampire to make sure I could get back to you. I think that... Um, if they were just trying to trick us, they probably wouldn't have put themselves in that kind of danger. But we'll know all about it tomorrow, right? You'll be able to talk to your brother and then you can ask him."

The Godling of Intellect finally looked up from the floor and smiled over his shoulder at Izuku. "You're right. There's no sense in worrying about it when I'll be seeing him tomorrow... morning..." He narrowed his eyes. "What happened to your collar? ...Are those burns on your neck?"

His mood had been trending upward as Iida seemed to be feeling better, but the reminder of his earlier encounter caused it to darken. "Yeah. I ran into Todoroki again today."

"Here? But why?"

Izuku's heart quickened. How much information was too much? He needed to tell the truth here, but did it endanger his secret? "Um... He said he's looking for... for the All Mighty's Godling. He thought that, um, since I had been traveling with Godlings last he saw me, that I must know something..." He swallowed. "I managed to convince him to leave me alone, but he did attack me for... for a minute."

Iida scowled. "That bodes ill. He's already killed one Godling, and I can't imagine that he's looking for the Godling of Strength and Justice to make friends. We're going to have to be careful around him; if he was willing to attack you, I'm sure he'll eventually look to do the same to the Godlings among us." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fate has conspired against us since we arrived, barring our rescue of Hatsume."

The green-haired man furrowed his brow. "Why do you say that? I mean, sure, things have been a little unlucky, but I wouldn't say it's that bad."

"Think about it, Midoriya. There are two dozen Gods, and how many countless people in the world? We've already met between us nearly half of their Godlings, if you count Todoroki as two. There were four of us in Musutafu all at once, and with your second encounter with Todoroki here, nearly all of them are currently in Hosu. That's over a quarter of the Godlings. Out of all of the places in the world, more than twenty five percent of us are in one city. Doesn't that strike you as odd? Statistically speaking, it should be almost impossible for even two of us to cross paths, at least until the end of the Great Game, where it would be more understandable to have us clustered around the Palace. No, mark my words, some greater force draws us together in improbable ways. I don't know to what ends, but I don't care for it. Don't mark me as ungrateful for Uraraka and Miss Mina's aid, but fate does not seem on our side."

Izuku hadn't thought of it like that. Iida made a compelling argument, even if his numbers were less one Godling. He ignored the twisting of his stomach at the lie, but couldn't bring himself to consider that maybe bringing all of the Godlings together was a positive act of fate. Between Bakugou, Todoroki, and Tomura, they had three Godlings out for blood, and as they got closer to the Palace, he suspected even some of the less violent of their number may strike out against the others to ensure they would claim the throne. But what could cause this to happen? No one God could do such a thing without breaking the Law. Perhaps it was because of the Law? The Gods certainly had to follow it; must reality and fate fall in line as well?

Always the questions, never the answers.

He shook his head. "M...Maybe. But there's only so much we can do about it, so... Let's set aside the whims of fate and, uh... get some soup. Food is ready downstairs, and," he chuckled, "might even be safe to eat by now."

Iida sighed. "You raise an excellent point. I've had little more than bread and beer today, it would behoove me to eat something more filling." The two of them rose from the bed, but as Izuku went to the door, the nobleman stayed behind. "I'll be right behind you, I'm just going to make my bed."

Despite the lies, the danger surrounding them in Hosu, and the uncertainty of the future, Izuku smiled. A made bed made the world seem a little more right.

And I return! Sorry for the extended absence, my life has been hectic lately. I almost bought a house, found out my realtor was trying to screw me, had to hunt for apartments, and then move back in with my parents for a month while we wait for our apartment to be available. Hopefully my update schedule will stabilize a bit and return back to normal, now.

No lore corner today, and possibly no more for the near future. As I was considering what I'd be including for today's lore corner, it occurred to me that the only things I had were either already adequately explained, will be so shortly, or are more properly introduced in the future. They were originally included to help familiarize readers with this original fantasy world and smooth out wrinkles that might otherwise prevent immersion, but I think by now, we're pretty well immersed.

We're also getting very close to the part of the story I've been most excited to write, so stay tuned! Until next time, folks!