"Ugh. Where am I?"
"How nice of you to visit?"
"The fuck!?!"
"Humans. Hehe. Always so amusing"
"Um..."
"Sigh. I should have expected this"
"A-Am I-I-I d-d-dead?"
"I feel sorry for you"
"h-huh??"
"You're a pathetic excuse for a human"
"Just look at you! You want to be a damn hero with this attitude!"
"W-Wha-"
"DON'T INTERRUPT ME!!!" The green-haired boy gulps "AND DON'T YOU DARE CRY!" he holds back his tears
"You want to be a hero and you think it's just going to be an easy road? Fuck That! You haven't worked for shit! You could've been a hero no matter what shitty power you were born with. You're depressed and think everyone owes you something because you were born without a useless power.
Are you a child or just stupid?! It doesn't matter if you're quirkless, anyone can be a hero if they work hard enough... yet here you are... waiting for a power to manifest itself. You've never worked hard in your life, you think you can be a hero without working hard?!?!
You can't do shit without working for it?!?! The way you are now, it seems like you're closer to killing yourself than becoming a hero" Izuku flinches, he remembers the words of the boy before "Yeah. Even that brat that constantly beats you is better. Know why?
He actually worked to get where he is. You think his power just appeared. HELL NO! He had years to work on that and all you did was sulk about not getting anything. You're worthless. A real piece of shit if I ever saw one"
The green-haired boy has his eyes shut with tears rolling down his face. Both his fists are clenched and you can see the way his body is shaking. He thinks about everything the orange fox in front of him has said and he realizes something
"You're right" He stops stuttering
"I'm worthless" His fists are clenched so hard that a bit of blood flows down it "I-I haven't d-done a-anything worth it. I d-don't try. I-I'm always s-scared. T-The o-only thing I h-have is my w-will and even that is a-almost gone. I. Hate. Myself"
"I'm not a hero and right now I don't deserve to be one" He opens his eyes and glares at the figure in front of him. The fox smirks back because he has successfully done what he needed to. "but... I Will Be A Hero"
"Congratulations! You've grown a pair"
"Wha-"
"You can leave"
"h-hu-"
Before he can do anything his vision turns black and he feels himself awakening? Izuku opens his eyes and sees himself being surrounded by a green, sticky, semi-liquid thing. His eyes widen and he realizes he can't breathe. He starts trying to escape and that only makes him suffocate more.
"Only a minute more before you're mine. Pity you're worthless but a body's a body... even if no one cares about this one"
Izuku feels his lungs burning and his vision starts blurring. He's about to lose consciousness when
'You really are pathetic. A hero? HAH! What hero dies to this lowlife'
For some reason, the boy suddenly feels angry, really angry. So angry that he refuses to pass out. His body is screaming and telling him to rest but anger and adrenaline overpower the need for basic human needs. He's just angry and because of this, he glares at the sludge... who laughs at him.
The boy scans the villain and finds what he's looking for. With speed he never had before he reaches out and grasps the creature's eye. Once he holds it in his hand, he squeezes it until liquid flows out of the eye. The creature screams and lets him go. Izuku squeezes the eye until it bursts into liquid or something similar.
"Ahhh!!" The green creature glares with his one good eye "You're dead kid. I was gonna show mercy and make you a slave but now, you're dead" The sludge lunges at the boy and Izuku tries moving but he can't feel his body anymore, the best he can do is glare at the slime. Before the villain reaches his target, a huge gust of wind smashes into it.
"NEVER FEAR! WHY? BECAUSE I AM HERE!"
Izuku would definitely have his book out asking All Might for an autograph but his body won't let him do that. His vision blurs and he sees the roof of the tunnel before he even thinks about moving. The last thing he remembers is a chuckling. From who? His new companion... His only companion.
...
He once again awakens in front of that giant gate with those giant red eyes staring at him, almost tauntingly. For some reason, he feels like punching whoever is behind those bars. He would definitely do it if he wasn't shit scared of the creature.
"You don't die easy. Pity"
"Fuck you" Izuku says without thinking
"Oh? Wanna say that again?"
"I'M SORRY!!" The creature huffs
"What a coward?"
"Well, your chakra networks are open" The bored yet terrifying eyes tell him
"H-huh? C-Chakra n-network?"
"Yep, you didn't think you resisted that scum by yourself did you? HAH! What a joke? Nope, you forced my chakra through you, which is impressive. It would be more impressive if you didn't fuck yourself over less than 1%"
"Waitwaitwait! This is a bit much to handle. I'm unconscious now so I passed out after All Might burst through that sewer"
"Hmm, very perceptive. At least you have that" Izuku blushes at the compliment "Seriously!"
"I forced less than 1% of your 'chakra', whatever that is, into myself and then collapsed. How much chakra do you have?"
"Sigh, I have to measure that by human standards. I've been asleep for a few thousand years so I have around a quarter of my original power. I'll most likely get everything when I return to my dimension in a few decades. We beasts measure our powers according to our tails. When I say one percent, I'm talking about one tail and I am the strongest of the beasts. The Nine-tailed Fox"
"Well fuck. So in human standards that should be around 900% but since you have so little of your original power and that one percent my body moved way faster, so 900% will be enough to destroy almost anything. I'm also guessing that every time a new tail is used the power is more potent so it's actually more complicated than just 900%..." The fox listens to the boy.
He doesn't know if he should be impressed or annoyed. The boy just figured out how most of his power works and it's been less than a minute. Maybe this brat can actually wield his power.
"You're annoying" The boy has the decency to actually look bashful
"Ah, m-my bad. Are we like partners or friends now?"
"We are definitely not friends" He ignores the boy's heartbroken face "We're not partners. For now, we are in a mutually beneficial relationship. I teach you how to control this power and in exchange, it will be easier to return to my realm"
"H-How so?"
"You were chosen at random as my host. If you die right now, I'll be temporarily dead for another thousand years before I'm ready to accept another host. It'll be easier for you to just not die, makes things easier for me"
"Hmm. I see... Then before anything. M-My name is Izuku Midoriya. Nice to meet you"
"Hmm..." The fox was not expecting that "Kurama. You can call me Kurama. It was not nice to meet you"
"So, how is this going to work?"
"See the line of water under you" The boy looks down, he nods "That's all of your chakra"
"SERIOUSLY!!!"
"Hmm, humans have forgotten how to use this power so their bodies aren't adapted to it. It seems like you're the same. More work, wonderful!"
"My finger could literally stop this entire flow. How do I deepen it or get more?"
"It happens naturally. Since this is the first time you've accessed this it's going to take a while before you will be able to feel it. Before you even try to use my power, you will have to learn to control your own power"
"My own power?"
"This is one advantage of being quirkless, I guess. Since you haven't 'evolved' to get a random power you can access chakra. I don't know how that works. Chakra has many uses, it's inferior to my own power but for the weak... I guess it's useful. I didn't care about what it does before but there are a few uses to it. From my previous user I remember that the more chakra control you have the easier it will be to enhance your body, there's Medical Ninjutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and a few others"
"WOW!! And I can use all of that?"
"HAH! Of course not. You just learned that chakra exists, you really think you can use any of them. The only thing you might be able to do is strengthening your feeble body. Those elemental powers might destroy you if you use it"
"Ah... still, strength enhancement. This seems pretty useful. When can I start?"
"When you wake up from your coma"
"Oh, when will... HUH?!?!"
"Chakra exhaustion, that's why this river's so small. You fall into a coma if you use too much chakra. If it happens too much you can die which is inconvenient for me"
"Inconvenient?! That's all! I almost died!"
"Not my problem" Izuku sighs. He stops trying to argue. He knows he won't get anywhere with this.
"Okay. Calm down" He looks up to the fox "Can you tell me everything you know about chakra, control, and how I can use it?"
"Not like I got anything better to do"
"Thanks"
"First thing you need to do is connect to your chakra. Right now it's just there. It's in your body and you can see it but you aren't connected to it. You need to awaken"
"How do I do that?"
"Drown" Well that was dark
"When this.." He glares at the small stream ".. gets deep enough for you to submerge yourself in it then do it. Your body needs to stay there until your body becomes familiar with it. You will lose consciousness and when you awaken you'll feel the difference. You obviously won't be able to control it"
"Sounds like I have a long time before I wake up or do anything"
"Yep"
"Can you tell me what I can do with chakra now? And maybe what I can do with your chakra?"
"Fine. Let's see, you can...
...
While Izuku and Kurama are in the mindscape learning and teaching, there's a bit of a commotion happening in the outside world. If we go to the hospital we find Izuku sleeping on a bed, machines beeping around him, wires attached to his body, and a tube down his throat. Why is he like this? Simple, they're extracting the parts of the sludge that got stuck in his lungs. The thing did try to kill him, it's only natural that he needs to recover.
Most of the wires and tubes are taken out the next day, the only thing that is attached to him is a heart monitor and a feeding tube. His mother is silently crying next to him and the doctor is looking over his charts. The doctor sighs
"I-Is he okay?" Inko Midoriya, the mother of Izuku Midoriya, asks
"I want to say that everything is fine but.."
"But what?!" She asks fresh tears running down her face. Amazingly, this room isn't flooded yet
"We have no idea how long he's going to be like this. He was attacked and his body reacted to that. Right now, it's protecting him by keeping him unconscious and fighting off anything. How long will this process take is the problem? We don't even know if he'll be okay after that. The villain could have done something to him that we can't see. All we can do is wait"
...
We return to the mindscape a week later and find our main hero pacing next to a river. During the week the line of water has somewhat grown and got deeper. It got so deep that he's now a bit afraid to enter it.
"Brat. I swear to... myself. I'll kill you"
"What if I die?!"
"Who gives a fuck"
"Hey! ... Good point but still" The boy has grown a resistance to the jabs he gets from the ball of fur
"You can't die in here. It's your mind! Can't you get that through your head?"
"Sigh. Fine. What do I have to lose... apart from my life"
He takes a deep breath and jumps into the lake in front of him. Kurama said that he didn't have a lot of chakra so it shouldn't take too long to actually connect with this... unless it's easier to connect when you have more chakra. He keeps swimming deeper and deeper until he can't even see anything. Surprisingly, he hasn't drowned yet.
He stops when his head hits the bottom. He figures that this is the final point so he gets into a meditative position and sits on the floor. Around an hour later and he feels something. He feels his body burning yet freezing. He feels himself become heavier yet he feels lighter than ever. The things he's feeling make no sense at all but before he can think about that he feels the ground beneath him crack. Before he can ready himself he falls deeper. he slowly loses consciousness.
...
It's been around 2 weeks since Izuku Midoriya was admitted into this hospital. He has been in a coma ever since that day. Some of the doctors there refuse to treat him because of his quirkless nature but others simply don't care about that and see him as a fellow person. There are certain times when family and friends are allowed to visit.
During this time, there are only 3 people who actually come and visit him. His mother, Inko Midoriya. Mitsuki Bakugo, his mother's best friend who he considers his aunt and Masaru Bakugo, his aunt's husband. They didn't visit every day, only when they have time. But all 3 of them visited today and they would remember this particular day for the rest of their lives. It is fuel for both their nightmares and happiness.
Today marks the start of the weekend and the around the 2nd week since Izuku entered his comatose state. The 3 adults sit in their chairs and simply stare at the boy when they arrive. After a while, they try making small conversations but the atmosphere doesn't seem right so they let the silence overtake them. It is at this point something happens.
The machine monitoring his heart starts going off. All 3 of them look towards the machine and see it steadily rising. The 2 women run to the bed and start calling the boy. Masaru rushes to the door and screams for a doctor. One of the few that were treating Izuku rushes to their aid. He motions for the two women to give the boy space. His heartbeat has risen far above the normal rate.
"What is happening to him?" The doctor asks and calls for a nurse to get him sedatives. The doctor injects it and the boys' heartbeat stops going higher and it slows down. He sighs in relief but then the machine starts beeping again and starts climbing a lot faster until it just stops. "Shit. Nurse, attach these patches. We need to restart his heart fast!"
The nurse attaches the patches and the doctor takes out a weird-looking machine "Ready!" He screams and pushes it onto the boy's chest. Izuku's whole body lifts up then falls back down. The doctor does this for the next minute always increasing the charge. He stops after a minute and sighs
"Time of death, 10:23. Cause, heart failure" The woman in the back screams the boy's name and the doctor gives them a sympathetic look before he goes to sign the death certificate. Minutes of crying and all the occupants, including a nurse, hear a beep.
They all turn to the bed and see the boy. His breathing has returned to normal and his heartbeat is just a bit faster than usual. The room was flooded with tears the very next second. The nurse rushes to get the doctor who is stunned by the scene in front of him.
...
...
Izuku opens his eyes and is blinded by a white light. He moves his hand to block the light but another problem arises.
"Fuck" Not just his hand, his whole body hurts. It takes him a few seconds but his memories come back to him and he tries getting up only to be pushed back down by... his mother?
"Izuku"
"Oh, hey Kaasan. Um, what's going on?"
"You died! Are you okay? Does anything hurt?" Fresh tears make its way down her face
"Oh. Cool and everything hurts" He flops his head back on the pillow. He sees the other two occupants that he knows "Hey Mitsuki, Masaru"
"Finally dropped the Uncle and Aunt. Weird time to do that brat" The woman says wiping her tears away while the doctor walks in
"Izuku Midoriya. You are a very lucky man"
"Uhh sure... Why?"
"This is the first time someone has come back from the dead. You were dead for 6 minutes and 21 seconds"
"Am I a zombie now?" The doctor snorts and laughs while the others are a bit worried about how the boy is acting. He's always been afraid of people, this isn't really normal
"You wouldn't be here if you were" Izuku snorts this time "What's the last thing you remember?"
"Um... I remember talking to a fox"
"..." their concern for the patient has increased
"What do you mean?" The doctor starts writing something
"It feels like a long lucid dream, I guess it was. Um... before my dream the last thing I remember is the sludge"
"So you were dreaming? Interesting. It doesn't seem like you have any memory loss. You're going to have to do a few more tests. Physical and mental. You'll have to go for therapy for the next few months too"
"Hmm," He says and yawns. His eyes flutter closed before he falls asleep again