HEY! Sorry for the wait. I got my wisdom teeth out and it was a whole shitstorm in the events that followed. I've been in pain for about week and have been asleep as the pain meds eased my suffering. Hope your considerate as I wrote most of this when loopy on pain meds.
Izuku gasped awake, placing a hand on his head as he tried to calm his breathing and rapid heartbeat.
He...he dreamed of that horrible day and how he came back to this world…
Huh, strange.
Thinking back he really didn't remember much on how he got back home….
Shaking his head he moved to get up, taking a few more calming breaths before he heaved himself up. He quickly got dressed, not even bothering with showering-a habit that was hard to knock especially when you're in a month long singularity…
Is it weird to say he missed it?
Shaking his head he left his room and tensed at...just the pure stillness of the place around him.
"Mom," he called out, silently heading into his room and grabbing his knife he managed to make from the beach.
He crept out of the hall and into the kitchen/living room area, eyes narrowed as he looked for something to indicate he was not alone in the house. Eyeing a piece of paper he silently made his way over and opened it, relaxing as it was her explaining she got called to two 12 hours and wouldn't be home for a while.
Shaking his head he placed it down and slid the knife into his thigh harness he managed to put on before getting out.
Well, he'll have time to go and look over the mages notes in more detail it seemed.
He quickly made something to eat on the go as well as some snacks for himself and the strays he found on the beach. He set off with a brisk jog and hummed as he wasn't really able to do that when he was in Chaldea...because Antarctica.
Shaking his head he slowed down his place and moved to head into the garbage ridden beach, he knew that they were moving everything to the warehouse they had found in the countryside only about an hour's travel. Hell if he wanted to, he could vanish and live there for the rest of his life and become a hermit again. It had a garden he worked on cultivating for months now and a stream nearby and he's gone months without tech before and he sure as hell can do it again; but for some reason he was unwilling to leave the junk riddled beach.
Almost like as if he knew something was going to happen….or he was going to meet someone.
For whatever reason he felt as if something was going to happen and because of that...he stayed with the beach.
Not that much was left inside it anyways...but that feeling.
Shaking his head he moved to head to the bus where their base was only to freeze at the sound of...other people inside of it. Dropping his back without a sound he took out his knife and crawled to the door, waiting for them to still and get a reading on the amount of people before he nodded to himself.
Only 2 and they seemed to be his age.
Should be simple to overpower and defeat them.
Getting in front of the door he kicked the door open and burst in, scaring the two other 10 years olds, the girl screaming as she went in front of….of the muzzled boy.
A muzzle.
Like one you put on a feral animal.
Hell no.
"Why is that on him," Izuku demanded tossing his knife to the side, his compassionate side taking over as he looked at the muzzled boy. So Inhumane! Gently he moved the frozen girl out of the way and placed his hands on the others face, jolting at how...gaunt he was. "What happened to you," he murmured, moving to unlatch the harness...only to freeze at the soldered closed latch. "Bastards," he breathed.
"W...we were hiding-"
"I will ask questions once this inhumane thing is off of him," he told the girl quietly. "Now, there is a scalpel in my bag. It's outside, please get it," he murmured, grabbed the boy's skinny hand and rubbed it. "You will be free soon," he murmured as the girl went and got his bag.
He took it and grabbed the scalpel with ease, moving to the boy's face who began to shake his head and his eyes pooling with tears.
"Shh," he hushed. "I want to help...please let me help," he begged, the boy's eyes flicking to him and the other girl for a moment before nodding. "Many thanks. Now, turn your body. I'll get rid of this from the back," he said, the boy compiling as he made quick work of the leather straps.
Once he felt it loosen up enough the boy ripped the muzzle off and sniffed before bursting out crying and moving to embrace Izuku.
"Thank you," the girl cried, holding his hand tightly. "Thank you so much!"
It was going to be a long day.
At least he felt right, in the end.
"So Mei," he asked the girl, Mei Hatsume, "Your Hitoshi's foster sister?"
Hitoshi Shinsou. Quirk Brainwashing. Activated by speaking to him after answering a question.
"I was," she murmured, looking out the window. "Mom and Dad didn't like his quirk and muzzled him. When he tried to escape they beat him black and blue, I found him in the morning and then...last night we….we ran," she sniffed, taking the offered tissue. "But I still see him as my brother! Even if they tell me to forget him!"
"And you very well should," Izuku hummed, drinking his tea as the boy slept on the futon Izuku brought over. "I am ashamed to admit that I am currently unable to provide you with funds and necessities to continue with your escape-"
"You a genius or something," she interrupted, Izuku blushing as he realized he began to get into his...political persona.
'Habit," he coughed. "Sorry."
"It's fine," she giggled. "I have to go back to my parents anyways….I want to be a support course student at UA and their recommendations will help boost-" She looked so uncomfortable and the line so rehearsed, Izuku stopped her.
"You really want to be backed by discriminatory assholes," he asked, the girl stuttering to a stop before blushing and shaking her head. "They may be your parents, but if they did that," he motioned to Hitoshi's skinny and bruised body. "To him because of his quirk...what will they do to you if you don't live up to expectations?"
"I….I…," she didn't even bother to protect or defend her parents.
"I am moving my base of operations to a warehouse," he began, the girl looking up. "It is safe and has its own power and utilities," he began, the girl jolting. "I am quite into gardening and have been working on one there since we found it," he took a breath, and gasped when she burst up to hug him.
"Thank you! Thank you so much," she cried, Izuku tensing as he was unsure of how to continue. "You're so nice!"
"Not really," he sighed. "The only reason i'm doing this is because of the way that Hitoshi has been treated is barbaric," he huffed, the girl moving back to look at the boy. "Being treated less than human is something I found myself experiencing more than once and no one deserves that."
"You have a…'villains' quirk," she scoffed at the term, Izuku finding himself smiling lightly.
"How about no quirk," he raised a brow, the girl gasping. "So Hitoshi has it a bit better than me...maybe…"
'Do you want to be a hero," she demanded, getting up in his face with a gleam that Izuku could only call….Da Vinci like.
"Maybe," he offered, the girl smiling and he shivered as memories he'd rather keep buried resurfaced.
"How about this," she leaned back, the glint was still there. "Hitoshi wants to be a hero! I want to be a support tech! If you want to be a hero too, I can make your gear for UA! This junk yard has to be full of beauties!"
"Indeed," he offered, smirking as he grabbed a small lead ball and tossed it to the girl. "May I?"
With a confused look she tossed it back and her eyes widened as he easily crushed it under his grip.
"I usually don't make deals with people that I have just met," he began, placing the cup down with a clink. "But I can see that you both mean no harm and really do...want a new life," he smiled, the girl looking to her sickly foster brother before nodding. "I will train Hitoshi as I was trained, you will provide both of us with equipment, I will as well teach both of you and...you'll help me with...certain objectives."
"Nothing...bad right," she murmured, looking at him in apprehension.
"Define what 'bad' is too you," he cocked his head to the side.
"Like...mass murdering and r...rape," she whimpered.
"More like stealing artifacts and killing a person here and there," he raised a brow as she relaxed. "Not too concerned with the killing?"
"Well...it's just a single person right? And if you are as rational as you seem you must always have a reason," she murmured. "Besides...all these villains in the prisons are just a breeding ground for a mass catastrophe waiting to happen," she sighed, Izuku perking up.
Maybe this would actually benefit him in the long run.
"Well, I think we might get along...well enough," he smiled.
Mei merely looked to Hitoshi, the boy fast asleep and he knew that she wanted nothing more than a good life for the kid and herself.
"What would our roles be?"
"You'd be the control center," he smiled, her body flashing into Da Vinci for a moment. "As well as our main toy maker." He winked. "Perhaps one day I may explain myself fully to you-"
'Me and Hitoshi have our secrets and you have yours," she interrupted. "Your respect us, we respect you. Deal?"
"Deal," he smiled, perhaps things were looking up.
FEW FEW WEEKS LATER
"Hey," Hitoshi whispered, using his voice still foreign to him.
"Hmm," Izuku said in response as he placed the last box down in the warehouse. He smiled at Hitoshi as he grabbed his gardening gloves and moved to the garden he had made.
"A...are you serious about like...training me and stuff," he asked, accepting the basket that Izuku handed him.
"Yes, I am," he nodded. "I will start off light, because you need to build up strength," he winked, tossing a tomato to the other who caught it.
"You know...when I saw you with that Bakugou kid...you were really scary," he murmured Izuku humming as he thought back to it.
He...may have gone a bit overboard in pushing Katsuki away as the others near constant hovering was getting to the point of being ridiculous.
"Does he always act like that?"
"You mean over protective and overbearing," he hummed, looking at some of the items in his garden. "I am a quirkless child who went missing...he feels responsible for me I guess."
"You….you seem like the type who can take care of himself," Hitoshi murmured.
"Where I come from I had to grow up fast," he admitted, looking down to the ground. "I either had to cower and allow people to fight my battle for me or I got up and fought with them...and I am sick and tired of hiding behind people."
"H...how'd you get that courage," he asked the other meekly, Izuku turning to the other as he fiddled with the handle of the basket and he could only wonder.
Is this what they saw?
Did they see a small child begging them to teach him, on how to fight, survive and live?
Maybe.
"I learned that to live in this world you need to have balls of steel and an iron will," he shrugged. "You learn not to give a damn pretty early on," he assured the boy.
"How...how come you seem fine with me and Mei," he asked now, looking through his lashes. "You push everyone away...why not us? You could have taken off my muzzle, gave me and Mei some food and then kicked us out….why do you continue to help us?"
"Hmm." Izuku contemplated the thought before turning to the other with a soft smile. "I guess you both remind me of some people I lost…People that I lived and loved as my own family."
"Oh," he said, looking a bit flushed as he held the basket out to allow Izuku to place the items in their.
"Don't think too much on it," Izuku gave the other a reassuring smile moving to head back inside as the other basked in the sunlight. "Besides...you're not annoying," he winked. "You are my type of person...but I am just waiting for the crazy to come out," he huffed, Hitoshi jumping lightly. "People I tend to like spending time with usually have the craziest personalities for real."
"You got me there."
Izuku merely smiled.
"Strange of you to make friends of your accord," the priestess hummed as she looked at Izuku.
Currently Mei was in the basement level of their new hideout, tinkering with god knows what and Hitoshi was sleeping off the infection he managed to get from the cuts the muzzle had given him.
"Well, you did push them in the direction of the beach a few weeks back," he gave her a knowing look that she merely smiled at him.
"I thought that perhaps if we are endeavoring to have a New Chaldea here, we might as well have a new Tech Commander-"
"I think you mean new Da Vinci," he sighed, sitting down. "She's eager to pick apart and go through the workings of the Chaldean Computer that was left behind."
"Ahaha! See she is perfect," The Priestess smiled.
"Hitoshi...it will take some time before he grows into himself," Izuku shook his head.
"It will be like old times...but this time the roles are switched," she smiled, Izuku humming in response as he thought about it.
"I guess so," he shrugged. "Better Hitoshi than Bakugou."
"Bakugou is becoming a bit of a problem," she commented, Izuku grunting in response as he took out the block of wood he was sanding to make a practice sword. "He seems to take to following you on weekends now."
"I have been going off on my own more and more now," he sniffed, looking at the sword before grabbing the sander again. "Mother is now having to take more and more shifts at the hospital as the time of my...capture, wanes."
"I see...this is either going to bode well for us or create a problem," she breathed.
"I will have more freedom for sure….but getting away from the Bakugou's will be a problem," he informed her, looking at his masterpiece once more as he added the final touches. "I am basically invalid in that home and when she works on school days she expects me to go to their house."
"Not good...they report back to her…"
"They are worried family friends," he snapped back before clamping his mouth shut.
"Defending them," she raised a brow as Izuku merely sighed and placed a hand on his head, flinching. Her heart rate increased and she could only hope that he didn't remember.
"Oi, Priestess," he murmured, voice soft as he tried to collect his thoughts. "What...exactly happened when I came back...my memory is all fuzzy."
"You came back after your 18th birthday," she explained calmly. "You decided it was a good idea to get absolutely drunk and wish upon the greater grail to return him and 'get it over with', as you drunkenly called it."
"Are you sure," he murmured, looking confused as he pressed his palm to his head. "I could have sworn….I could have sworn that it was shortly after Ritsuka's execution that...that I came back...I..I was in a church...A chapel…"
"No," the priestess insisted, the tone of her voice making him jolt. "It was our 18th birthday party...you where in Japan-"
"I was in England at the time-"
"No! You weren't Izuku," she insisted the boy looking at her in shock as she nearly screamed at him. "You were in Japan. It was your 18th."
"What are you hiding from me," he demanded, the woman merely getting up and leaving. "WHAT HAPPENED," he screamed after her, but all he received was silence.
"Izuku…," Mei asked as she came out from the basement. "Are you-"
She froze in fear at the absolutely rage filled and cannibalistic look on his face.
"What aren't you telling me," he murmured.
CLOCK TOWER, LONDON
YEAR-20XX
"What is this," Izuku demanded as he took the paper out of Ritsuka's hand. "An execution order?!"
He was a tall boy for his age, despite just turning 18 he staggered at 6'5", having taken a more than few suspicious potions provided by Paracelsus. And they worked, he was tall lean and held in high regard as one of the best fighters of the Clock tower as well as a formidable foe.
Back on the subject...
All he received as a blank and tired look as she turned to him.
"Izuku...go home...you don't have to die in this world," she sighed, looking outside the window. She looked so weary...so old.
It was wrong.
"Leave you to the wolves while I go back to a society that pushes me down and would call my training a 'good effort'," he mocked, looking at her shocked. "What a joke."
"Chaldea has been shut down for half a year now, the summoning system destroyed and the staff dissolved. Mashu has been put in charge of caring for the facility…" She trailed off, eyes dull and no longer holding the spark they once held.
It wasn't right.
"But they ordered for you to die," he stressed, shaking the paper clenched his hand angrily. "Do they not care that you have suffered enough! Do they not see that you are the reason they even live!?"
"They don't care," she whispered, trying to calm the boy. "Izuku-"
"No," he stopped her short. "No! I do not want to hear you justify your death or even defend these fucking bastards! I thought Goldolf was going to get us under the protection of the Musik Family!"
"You are Izuku," she murmured, the boy stopping. "Once he gets word of your execution order he'll put a stop to it. But it is me who will be killed. I asked not to be put under the protection of the Musik Family."
"Ri...ritsuka," he breathed, stumbling back a step. "Why?" He could feel tears welling up in his eyes. "Mom why?" He demanded, the first few tears slipping down his face.
"Izuku they are afraid and ashamed," she shushed, placing a hand on his cheek. She wiped away the few tears that managed to escape, but more began to fall the more she continued to speak. "I am a mage with no lineage and I lied about my...achievements…"
"It's not fair," he sobbed, tears of frustration flowing down his face. "Why should we die?"
"No," she murmured, hugging him. "Go home, after Musik gets you out of the execution," she murmured to him. "You can live and be the hero you are meant to be in your home."
"Come with me," he begged, but he knew the answer.
It would be the same answer up until she died.
"No...I can't," she sighed. "You know that. They need someone to punish and blame." In anger he pushed her away and snatched up the order again, he gave a small closed mouth scream of frustration before turning her.
"I...why would you leave me," he demanded..no, he accused, ripping the order up.
The paper scraps pitifully fell to the ground, neither of them bothering to look at them as they did so.
"Izuku," she sighed, she looked so tired. "Be the hero your world needs. Show them what they have abandoned."
"In the end is it worth it?"
She was silent, and he knew his answer.
MARCH XX, 20XX
His heart was pounding in his chest and ears, thumping and ever present as he tore down the hall of the association; tears flowed down his face as he pushed the mages down. Bulldozing past them as he went deeper and deeper into the den of the beasts.
"Where are you," he cried out in the hall, the Mages pointing at him with their blank faces.
He could feel them mocking him, with their jeers and sneers, their cold eyes looking at the frazzled Chaldean.
He long since gave up being a child of the land of the rising sun. He was a child of the cold warmth that was Chaldea, his true home. No matter its location.
"RITSUKA," he roared out, tears streaming down his face, his hand found its way into his hair and he frantically began to pull at it as he took off down to the center chamber. As he grew closer and closer to the place he heard her soft voice and hope began to spark in his heart as he drew closer and closer.
It broke at Lorelei's words.
"Any final words?"
Izuku roared when he heard Ritsuka's voice and the confession she had to make.
One that Mages was not worthy of hearing.
"I forgive you, I forgive all of you from the bottom of my heart," she said. Izuku amped up the speed and slammed into the door with such strength and speed that they slammed into the walls and provided something to cover up the sound of Ritsuka's head being taken off.
Not worthy to live.
Not worthy to die in private.
Not worthy of anything.
"Well, this saves us the time and resources in attempting to find you," Lorelei commented as she turned to look at Izuku. "I see that taking her away from you in the middle of the night provided us the needed bait."
"You Bitch," he snarled, tears flowing into fat rivers on his face. "How dare you? HOW DARE YOU!?"
"I say we have every right to go through with this course of action, despite some people," she eyed the Muisk family head who glared back at her with hatred. "Tried to stop our noble actions."
"Noble," he scoffed, tears never letting up. "You just say what comes out of your ass huh?"
"Silence," she boomed, eyes narrowed. "Get him."
"Windstoß*," he screamed, and the power from the spell sent them all flying back the boy rushing out with one tearful look to the limp body of his beloved mother and mentor, his body forcing itself to the limit.
On the way out he passed a solemn Musik family, the entire clan merely murmuring a prayer for the boy.
He didn't give them a second glance and they knew it was only right for him to do so.
They failed.
And they lost the one person who truly called them friend because of it.
Izuku panted as he stumbled into the Chapel that was next to the Clocktower's secret entrance, one that was out in the shook the oil off of him from the defense mechanisms machines that he managed to take out on his way. He was sniffed and hastily tried to wipe the snot off his nose as he looked up at the Cross and glared.
"She believed in you," he whispered, eyes narrowed as he stared at the thing. "She believed in you and you abandoned her," he accused.
No one answered.
Izuku didn't even bother to move when a new presence behind him appeared.
"Funny that some mages still believe in a god, huh," Izuku merely sighed at the voice.
"Kill me here, I don't care," he admitted, his arms slumped at his side.
"You would die in the house of the God you insulted," he asked, Izuku giggling lightly at the sound of a gun cocking.
"And a mage is using a gun to off me," he scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"Shut up," he snapped.
Izuku merely turned around and faced the man, arms spread out as he took a step forward.
'So it," he snapped, tears pouring down his face as desperation took over. "I would rather die than go back to that place," he whispered. "I would rather be dead in this world than in a one that pushes me down! So, DO IT," he screamed with such ferocity that the mage took a step back.
"T...hell," he whimpered as he beheld the crazed Izuku.
"Well," the boy demanded. "What are you waiting for huh," he yelled, glaring at the other. "SHOOT!"
BANG
All Izuku remembered was a bright white light.
"YOU BITCH!"
"GET THEM!"
*Gust of Wind
Comment on what you like and what happened!
