"Togata, wait up! Seriously slow down this is ridiculous-"

Momo's foot caught on her skirt and her tongue caught on her words as she face planted into a muddy patch of earth in the courtyard. It was preferable to smashing her chin into the cobblestone, but the taste of wet dirt in her mouth wasn't what she wanted either.

A hearty laugh greeted her as she lifted her head and pushed herself back to her feet. The tall, blond boy was holding his gut in side splitting cackles at the mess his cousin had made of herself. She kicked the mud at him in retaliation and spat the disgusting tastes from her mouth. Momo loved her beautiful dresses, but this is why she never wore them when trying to keep up with Togata. They were a terrible tripping hazard.

"I hate you," she scrunched her nose at him and shoved his shoulder.

He was an entire unit of a human being so it didn't even lightly budge him, but he gave her head a condescending pat as he wiped amused tears from his eyes.

"You'll keep up one of these days," he winked.

"Stop it," she knocked his hand away and took a seat on the half wall surrounding the little garden at the courtyard center, "Are you going to talk to me or not?"

Togata shrugged and sighed, giving up his game. She wanted to talk about serious things and he had been trying not to spoil his good mood. Of course his first recourse was to run and tell her to catch him if she could. It was hard to believe he was the older one. The one charged with commanding real armies. How did his men take him seriously with a fun loving, childish attitude like that?

"What's up?" he sat next to her, smiling like a ray of sunshine as usual.

"You haven't said anything about her since father said she was coming," Momo continued to rub the mud from her face, "You act fine about everything, but are you actually? This doesn't seem like the time to be forcing betrothals. We're probably all going to die in the next few months anyway and-"

"Hold up," Togata cut her off, "Who said we're all going to die?"

Momo grit her teeth and frowned. "I listen to the war counsels, okay. Father's trying to protect me, but I need to hear this stuff. It's my country too. I have to rule it one day. I should know how doomed we are, shouldn't I?"

"We aren't doomed, Momo," Togata shook his head, "The news from Dawnell is bad, but it's not world ending. We've fought off demon infestations before. As long as the Synod stands, we'll do it again."

Momo wasn't quite convinced. That hadn't been the tone of the last meeting she'd listened to. She'd rarely heard her father's booming, cheerful voice sound so solemn. The casualties were staggering and the request from Dawnfell begged for any spare resources the king could muster. The line was barely holding.

But like his uncle, Togata liked to protect Momo from those grave realities. Neither of them would ever be honest with her about the true state of the world. She wouldn't get him to admit anything different.

"You're getting me off topic," Momo glared, crossing her arms, "I was asking you about the Todoroki girl?"

Togata chuckled. "I don't know her, what can I say? I'm sure she's great. I think I saw her once while we were at Tarlson supporting refortifications last summer, but I didn't see much of the family in general. Outside of her father, of course."

"What was he like?" Momo swung her legs.

"He was amazing, honestly," Togata nodded, "I've never seen someone fight like him or lead so confidently."

It felt like there was a 'but' coming and Momo narrowed her eyes at him, waiting for it.

"But," he caught her look, "kind of a jerk."

Momo snorted an unladylike laugh. "The Lord of Tarlson is a jerk? That's the best word you could come up with to describe the most powerful Lordship in the country?"

Togata laughed. "It's true, though. He wasn't very nice and he frowned a lot."

Momo continued to giggle at the description and the amused frustration on Togata's face was only making it worse.

"Not everyone can be a pushover like you," Momo said, "Some people actually have to /command/ the armies they command."

"I'll push you back in the mud," he glared, struggling to feign severity, "How come when I'm actually trying to be serious you don't take me seriously?"

"Okay, okay!" Momo stifled her laughter and calmed herself, "You're right. I'm sure he's terrible. But does that concern you?"

Togata gave a half nod, half shrug. "A little. I'm going to do my duty, just like you, but I really hope she's not like her father. But on the upside, if she is, I have a whole war keeping me away from her!"

"And best case scenario you can just die a hero and she and your quickly produced heir can mourn you from the comfort of your parents' villa," Momo joked, "It's a win-win! Your line goes on, the Todoroki's get what they want, and you get to avoid being a henpecked old man listening to a griping Todoroki til you die in your sleep."

"I like it," Togata beamed a smile at her, "A solid plan all around. We should work out something for you too if Uncle Yagi picks someone horrible for you. But you'll be queen by then, so you could probably just have him executed or quietly disposed of in the night."

"Don't give me ideas, Toga," she said, "But I like the way you think,"

The two shook hands like they had made some sort of agreement and laughed the whole thing off. The moment they settled into the sort of comfortable silence that they had come to know well over the years Togata had lived with them there, horns sounded outside of the castle walls. They both stood, alert and anxious, knowing what they meant.

Momo turned a last concerned look to Togata, but he was as bright and cheerful as ever.

"Ready to meet your bride?" Momo asked.

Togata shrugged again, "Ready as I'll ever be. Race you?"

He didn't wait for her, even shoving her to get a head start and laughing as he took off across the courtyard. Momo recovered fast and hiked up her skirt to take off after him, red faced with amusement and anger.

"No fair! Wait up!"

"It's so beautiful here! Look at that tree it's shaped like a horse! It smells like pine, is there an evergreen forest nearby?"

"You have to stop talking."

Yo had been neither amused nor entertained by Izuku the entire trip. The weariness in his expression was starting to remind Izuku of Mater Shota, but with a vile sort of snear turning his lips. They had already been on the road for two days and Yo's patience with the traversal had died before the first was out. He'd snapped at Izuku to be silent more than a few times already, but it was hard for the mage fresh out of the Magesterium to quell his excitement with this world that was so new and interesting to him.

They'd passed a couple towns with the most incredible villages. One had rolling hills of grapevines and another had a statue of the previous Magestrate erected taller than a building. It was both ominous and awe inspiring as the Magestrate was always told to be. He hoped he could meet the real man himself someday and secretly, deep down, where he would never tell a soul, he wished to be him. The leader of all mages, the most powerful and inspiring presence in the world...how could he not want that? The change he could affect was unimaginable.

Izuku's years in the Magesterium had made him naive in many ways and he was aware of it. He didn't understand the proper greeting among village folk, how to till a field, or where to find a pub. But he could conjure power in his fist, address foreign dignitaries in their native language, hopefully detain a renegade mage and protect the innocents who lived in Landsleave from her loosed, uncontrolled powers.

A tall order, but what else had all these years of Magesterium study been for if not to defend the innocent and use the curse of magic to aid humanity?

"Sorry, Yo," Izuku smiled nervously, tapping his heel against the horse's flank to catch up to Yo's steed.

"Just shut up," the older boy rolled his eyes, "We're almost there."

As he said it the next roll of the land passed before them and the sight of long sweeping farmlands greeted them. Izuku gasped and smiled wide at the beautiful golden fields, freckled with wood and brick structures, homes and barns. Yo looked at it like it was nothing, but Izuku marveled. His heart sang of what interesting lives the people here must lead, the routines, the satisfactions of a good crop yield and the devastations of poor years. And all the while they lived in a sea of golden barley and wheat.

Yo glared at Izuku's bright attitude as they passed into the village and trotted past the first few homes. The clear, joyful air, and the brimming sunshine all seemed to sullen with each step further they moved into Landsleave, though. The eyes of the farmers and villagers lingered on them with a suspicious, even volatile haze and Izuku's smile began to fade. In the other villages they had passed through, people were cautious around them and a bit distant, but never so outwardly and pointedly negative.

Izuku's hand slid down to touch the hilt of his staff, secured to his back, finding that his charm with and trust of the villagers was quickly fading. He was glad to be following Yo. The older mage strode through with head-held-high confidence as the rode on a direct path to the home of the offender. Izuku hoped it wasn't far. There was a dark aura overlaying Landsleave and he was ready to distance himself from it as quickly as possible.

The villagers didn't dare directly address them or approach, but their eyes followed them through to the other side of the countless acres, a twenty minute ride on its own. By the time the house came into view, so did the woods that crested Tarlson. It was a long, deep expanse that spread in many ways, according to the many maps Izuku had studied, but it was also the only thing standing between Landsleave and the protection and oversight of the Todoroki Lordship. It made it one of the safest and most profitable of farming towns. All the more reason to rid it of renegade mages.

They brought their horses to a stop at the edge of a barnyard that occupied nearly a full acre of land on its own in front of the quaint farmhouse. All around it were fields of crops, rustling with workers, while the forest lay very close to its back like a wall.

When the farmhands saw the two men on approach they stopped their work and looked on them with the disdain that they had grown familiar with here in Landsleave. But a couple of the men, upon seeing them, dropped their work and dashed headlong back to the house, a frantic pace in their running.

"Do they know why we're here?" Izuku whispered to Yo as they dismounted and took their staffs in hand.

"Of course," Yo pulled a snide grin.

"Then why do they look so unhappy with us," Izuku looked over the workers and then to the men bursting past the door to the house, "Shouldn't they be happy we're coming to remove a threat?"

"Farmers are stupid, kid," Yo twirled the staff as he stepped up to the door, "The witch girl probably played mind games with them. Made them her slaves. I doubt you've ever seen mind magic."

"Hitoshi used to use it a lot," Izuku stepped carefully behind him as Yo's hand lifted and a glyph started to form, "I know about it and I didn't like it…"

"Nice history lesson, but we have work to do."

The glyph burst from his hand and the door rippled and then crumpled under his hand to breach the entry. In the exact same moment a blast that felt as strong as a fireball slammed into both mages, throwing them off of their feet, away from the door.

Izuku coughed on dust and pushed himself onto his elbow as he tried to grasp what had just happened. Yo was holding his face and cursing viciously, using his staff to prop himself back up and face his opponent, now presenting herself in the doorway.

She was not slightly what he expected to see. They had spoken of a renegade mage, a mind bender, someone capable of learning dark arts, or becoming Fallen. But standing in the doorway, open handed and vicious as she was, was just a villager, just a young woman. Though she looked no younger than himself, she was small and soft looking. Her long brown hair seemed recently combed, while a light pink dress, embroidered with daisies, billowed around her feet, like he would have imagined any carefree young girl. She lacked the feral, wildling look of what he expected from an untrained, untempered mage. And that attack had not been an accident either. It was truly the only thing about her that kept his concern about her alive.

The girl stepped confidently out of the house, a severe glare in her large brown eyes as her family chased out after her.

"Ochako don't do this!" an older man pleaded, "Don't fight them, run!"

Yo smirked as he regathered his composure. "Why don't you go ahead and run little girl?" Yo said, patronizing, "Make this fun for me."

Izuku took a defensive stance, readying a dozen spells in his head, half to stop another attack and the others to counter. But Yo was not so patient and calculated. Another glyph opened and this time he slammed it into the ground. Even Izuku struggled to keep his footing with the ripple that shot through the land, cracking the front doorstep and ripping a small split in the ground.

The renegade mage, Ochako, lost her bearing and crashed to the ground as the earth in Yo's control attacked her. Her family were rendered helpless by the same attack, unable to keep their footing as the wood frame of their house splintered at them and the ground rumbled.

The girl cast a quick succession of defensive spells just to keep from being crushed and a few to stop the chaotic earth from harming her family. Izuku couldn't deny that he too was concerned about the innocent people who were in harm's way, but he had to trust Yo, had to hope that he knew what he was doing.

And Yo seemed pretty confident in his actions. He was getting obviously cocky; even Izuku in his inexperience knew that cocky, was sloppy.

Yo looked back to say something smug to Izuku and the boy saw a moment too late to warn him that Ochako had recovered her footing and was on the offense once again.

Responding first and thinking later, Izuku dove at Yo and knocked him clean of large rock, coming straight for his head. Yo was shocked, but Izuku spun back up the very next second and channeled that new power spell Master Shota had taught him. Green lighting burst over his arms and legs and he used the force of it to leap out at the renegade mage.

Her eyes went huge at the approaching attack and a shielding spell barely made it up in time to stop his overpower hand from knocking the wind clean out of her. But he thought fast and used the power in his legs to slam into the ground by her feet. It had nearly as much strength as Yo's original attack and a divet sliced through the earth, crashing into the house once again as frightened shrieks filled the air.

Izuku winced when he saw it hit, guilt flooding his chest at the thought of accidentally harming such a lovely little farmhouse and the innocent people who lived in it. The look Ochako had on her face, scared and panicked as it was, spoke of similar fears.

His hesitance gave her time to act, though and, before he could catch her, the renegade made a sudden retreat. A droplet hit Izuku in the face as she dashed away and he realized the next moment that it was a tear.

"Run, Ochako! Go to the forest!" the older man shouted after her, "He'll protect you!"

Izuku didn't like the sound of that, but Yo was already hot on her heels. He had to follow too. He could think later.

There was something sick in Yo's laugh as he chased the girl down through the smallest of the wheat fields, which sat between the house and the forest. The wall of trees looked darker and more looming than ever now that they were on fast approach and catching up to the girl. There was no escape for her. She wasn't fast enough and even if she was, all that lay on the other side of this forest was Tarlson and the people there wouldn't help her. On a word fromt he Synod the Lord there would send an entire troup after her to aid them. One way or another, she would be subdued.

And for some reason that made Izuku feel sick to his stomach. He didn't realize how soft he was until he saw the fear in her face and felt her tear strike him. All those years of brutal Magesterium training and he still lacked the cold nature of his brethren. Not even the Synod could destroy his warm heart and bright exterior.

Yo's hand was reaching for her when her voice cut the air, echoing into the trees in a broken cry. "Red! Help!"

The next moment she was face first into the dirt, a hand on the back of her head and a knee pressing into her shoulder. Izuku slowed with panting breaths as Yo laughed victoriously.

"Got you," he said, forcing her face into the dirt unnecessarily, "You're going to the Magesterium where you belong, witch!"

Whatever she tried to yell was muffled in dirt and Izuku's skin crawled to watch Yo's cruel behavior. This wasn't how you treated a defeated foe. She had put up a good fight, couldn't Yo respect that? Apparently not. Izuku didn't like to think ill of his own, but Yo was not an honorable person and this journey had done nothing to rectify that opinion.

The thoughts had barely formed in his head when the forest began to rustle. The entire forest. The air itself shook and birds screeched as they took to the air.

"What is-"

Izuku and Yo slowly lifted their eyes to the forest and then above it as the source of the earthly disturbance rose above it with the batting of wings that stretched as long as a house. Its angular head rose and turned with a slit, red eye onto the mages gathered at the forest edge. It's deep, animal voice cut the air with a roar that shook Izuku to the bone. The staff fell from his hand and he stumbled backwards, tripping on his own feet and choked on pure fear.

"Red!" Ochako screamed again, now able to lift her head since Yo had stood to face the red dragon hovering over them.

"Ha!" Yo stepped forward and away from Ochako, "A real dragon! And here I thought this would be boring."

He took an attack stance and Ochako scrambled to her feet. Yo suddenly seemed very unconcerned with her, his eyes on the larger, rarer prize.

"What do you think, kid?" Yo shouted behind him to the still stunned Izuku, "A dragon head would look good over the gates of the Center Magesterium, wouldn't it?"

Frankly Izuku had lost the ability to think outside of a blank, frozen fear. He'd never even seen a real bear and here, his first journey into the world of regular men, he was faced with a fire breathing beast of the air.

Clawed paws landed on the ground in front of Yo and the ridge running up the dragon's back frilled like a cat poised to fight. The sun glinted blindingly off of bright red scales rippling under stacks of muscles and a head that was filled with the sharpest teeth Izuku had ever seen.

One large red paw lifted in a swipe and Yo threw up a protective glyph right away. The claws crashed into it as an angry roar shook the fields. It's maw opened and Izuku expected a burst of fire to follow. Flames did appear, but only a pathetically small gust that might not have toasted a stalk of corn.

It did too little and Yo had no problem casting another attack, pulling a sharp spire from the dirt to stab at it and force it back like a spear. The dragon was only pushed back a moment before attacking viciously again, Yo's counters coming fast and would have been incredible to watch if the entire thing were not paralyzing terrifying.

Ochako had made it to the forest edge and stopped then to look back at the brutal fight taking place between the mage and the red dragon.

"We have to go! Red!" Ochako screamed desperately, catching the dragon's attention.

It was a bad move for them. Looking away for even a moment gave Yo the opportunity he needed to summon a glyph that Izuku recognized as a Lightning Shrike attack. It would be a devastating blast and could knock Yo out completely by casting it he wasn't careful.

It was too dangerous and it scared Izuku enough to instinctively move to stop him. But he wasn't fast enough. And neither was Yo. Apparently the dragon understood what was happening too and struck with viper speed.

Jaws wide open, the dragon lunged at the mage. Yo disappeared behind razor teeth and flared nostrils. The huge mouth bit down on Yo's middle and whipped its head like a rabid animal attacking the first meat it had seen in weeks. Izuku choked on vomit as Yo's body ripped in half , his lower body flying across the field as the rest of the bloody, mangled mess that remained of Yo's body fell from the dragon's teeth.

Blood splattered across onto the dragon's face as it howled into the air, and its forked tongue flailed in the air. It's head swung violently back and forth as a pained yowl left its bloody maw. It's claws pawed at its head and the creature shook all over in clear irritation, it's tail swinging as it stomped craters into the ground.

Izuku could hardly believe he had just seen his companion ripped in half, let alone that the dragon that had killed him was seemingly losing its mind. He could only assume he was about to be crushed or eaten in the rabid mania of the world's most terrifying beast.

The girl at the edge of the woods did not seem scared of it though, and she had her hand out to the creature, eyes wide with worry, calling it to her. But it didn't listen, just continued to thrash around until it finally took to the air and dove back into the forest, shaking the earth when it crashed to the ground once again behind the forest line. Ochako was chasing after it immediately.

And Izuku...was still not moving. Never in his life did he think he would be the one to freeze. And because he did, there were two bloody, fleshy patches of ground before him that were once Yo Shindo. A dragon had done that. A DRAGON!

They were sent here to retrieve a young mage...not fight a damn dragon! Did the Synod know? Did Master Shota or Master Shinji know they were sending the two boys into the mouth of a wild creature?

Izuku needed to run, but that thing had killed his companion and the renegade mage had gotten away. He could explain the failure, certainly, but it wasn't fear of his mentors that finally got him back onto his shaky legs. It wasn't pride that took the staff back into his hands and propelled his feet to carry him after the girl.

Truthfully he had no idea what sent him chasing a renegade mage and dragon into the forest by himself, besides insanity, adrenaline, and wonder.

He had no idea what he was doing or what he was going to do when he caught up to her and every logical thought in his head told him to turn back and ride as fast as he could back to the Center Magesterium. He couldn't do this on his own...but what was the Synod going to do with their resources spread so thin either? If he didn't follow now, he might lose her forever. Some irrational impulse told him he couldn't let that happen, no matter his crippling fear of the skyworthy lizard.

The shadows of trees fell over him and he could hear his blood rushing in his ears. That and the continued thud of massive feet against the earth. He was an absolute fool, but he followed that sound. The girl was running towards it last he saw her so it made sense to go towards it. Not for any self preservation sense, but for finishing this already botched mission.

He heard her voice shouting over the displeased animal noises and the wild stomping, something authoritative, yet concerned in how she spoke.

"You have to calm down!" she said, "I can't help you like this! Red, please!"

The stomping gradually stopped, but there was a dog-like whimper in its place.

That was the same moment Izuku came upon them. He took a cautious position before some brush to view the rough clearing, if it could even be called that. It was an opening from the trees, but it was rocky and overgrown, wild and unkempt. The dragon stood at its center, head still wagging in a pained and irritated fashion, though it had at least stopped thrashing its body about as the girl cautiously approached.

Izuku frantically cycled through his options, trying to figure out what to do. Should he attack them? Yo had tried to fight it and failed in a bloody, maimed disaster, Izuku certainly couldn't do better. That was an entire dragon and he wasn't even a year into being a Synod apprentice!

Follow her, maybe? He wasn't a spy... he didn't even know cloaking spells and only the Upper Synod mages knew the spells to track mages. He blended fairly well with the forest, green hair, dull colored robes...but the girl had a dragon, they could simply fly away.

Was there nothing he could do except run?

"That's good," Ochako said sweetly to the unhappy dragon, hand out in a cautious approach, "Now come down to my level so I can see what's wrong."

The massive red head shook wildly and a forked tongue flicked out towards the girl. The large slit eyes looked watery and the sounds it made were gut wrenching.

"I can't understand you like this," Ochako sounded almost like a chiding mother, "I need you to be able to talk to me. Tell me what the problem is."

One more shake of the dragon's head and suddenly its body starting to shiver and ripple. No, not shiver...shrink? It's scales folded back and its wings shrunk into it as the entire regal form of the fire breathing beast shifted and morphed into...a boy?

Every priority and duty for his mission dropped to the back of Izuku's mind as his studious, scientific nature took over and he barely held back an awed gasp. A shapeshifter! He'd never seen one before and he'd never expected to see a man who could turn into a dragon of all creatures! But here one was before his very eyes. One moment a dragon, the next a stark naked, red haired boy, teary eyed and holding his mouth in a fit as he fell on his ass, all of that threatening, terrifying presence of his magnitude, disappearing on pitiful sob and large watery eyes.

Ochako was kneeling in front of him immediately, neither surprised nor embarrassed that the boy was entirely nude, as if it was entirely normal, which it probably was for a shapeshifter. Clothes did not shift with the body from what he understood of the magic.

The mage girl forced his hands away from his mouth, looking over his flustered, pained face with a doctoring eye.

"What'd he do, Red?" she held his hands away with one hand while she pried open his mouth with her thumb, showing that his teeth were still jagged razors like they had been in his dragon form.

"My mouth burns!" his voice came out childish, not so deep as it had been before, no hair raising roar escaping that tongue, "Why did you let me eat a mage? It hurts and I'm going to die!"

Ochako shushed him, rolling her eyes at his dramatic reaction, fighting him to hold still so she could see the damage. "It's just poisoned blood, not a spell. You'll be fine, you aren't going to die. Let me see your tongue," she ordered and he opened his mouth.

It was far smaller than when he was a dragon, but it was still forked and not entirely human. Ochako held a hand over his mouth and a light blue glyph formed.

"Hold still," she demanded, "I have to be quick before the other one comes after us."

The once-dragon bounced impatiently in his seat until the glyph activated and a soothing light shone on his mouth. A toxic looking mist lifting from his mouth, like a venomous cloud was being purged from him. Izuku's eyes widened on it. He'd studied healing magic as all Magesterium students did, but he'd never seen one that sucked poison. He wished he had his notebook with him. It was amazing and he wanted to know more.

The boy she called, Red, calmed instantly as the mist left him and drifted away into the air. When her hand pulled away, he panted relief and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Thanks," he said, "I knew I shouldn't have bitten him, but I thought he was going to kill me! Or he might've killed you and I was going to be alone and I don't know what I'd do if you-"

"Red, this isn't the time," Ochako grabbed his face, shaking him out of his frantic rambling, "Either shift back or grab your pants, we have to go."

Izuku was stunned, not just on the incredible magic he had witnessed. This wasn't any image of a renegade mage he had ever imagined. She had a gentle firmness, and even though she had been rough trying to hold the boy still, there was sweetness in how she handled him. And the dragon boy wasn't what he expected either. He was just a kid really, maybe a couple years younger than him, scared and worried for the people he cared about.

Red scampered up to his feet and crouched by a spired rock, reaching underneath and pulling out a bundle of fabric. In a hurry put his breaches and clothes on while Ochako stood back up on unsteady feet and swept a cautious eye out over their surroundings.

Izuku had been too fascinated with the dragon boy to notice that she was back on the lookout and didn't duck in time before her shout caught him.

"He's here!" she yelled and a nearby rock flew at Izuku with terrifying speed.

His shield glyph went up just in time, but it was absolutely, nerve-wrackingly close.

"Wait, stop!" he shouted, not knowing why this was his first recourse rather than counter-attacking. The dragon was in a diminished form now, he had a chance to take him out and grab the girl...but that felt so wrong all of the sudden. The longer he watched them, the less he wanted to enter an altercation with them.

"Red, run!" Ochako shouted and raised her hand in preparation for another spell.

"Seriously, hold on!" Izuku jumped out of the bushes, hands and staff raised over his head, "I won't try to hurt you, just don't attack me."

Red crowded her side, fully dressed now, and baring his teeth, defensively.

"I'm just an apprentice, I'm not half as dangerous as Yo," Izuku said, hoping he could convince them he was not enough of a threat to just kill without question, "You don't need to be afraid of me. I'm pretty sure the dragon could eat me in one bite if he wanted."

The red haired boy stuck out his pronged tongue in disgust. "Ew, no! No more mages!"

"Apprentice or not you came here to take me away from my family and I'm not going," Ochako held her spell at the ready, shaking a bit through her body. He recognized it. The healing spell had taken more out of her than she was showing. It didn't mean her next attack couldn't kill him, just that she may not still be standing afterwards.

"I won't try to take you anywhere, let's just all try to calm down," Izuku said tentatively.

Was that true? He didn't even know. He didn't really have a plan here. He knew he couldn't let her get away and nothing else seemed like it work. So his first recourse was to...talk it out?

"You're lying," the girl frowned.

Izuku slowly lowered his staff and set it on the ground, a soft, encouraging smile on his lips, compelled to try and get some trust from the girl instead. His conscience was a powerful thing and he knew what evil looked like. There was a room in all Magesteriums where minor demons could be conjured on demand for students to practice fighting techniques. He'd seen every kind of horror come from that well. In the years among mages, he had seen the good and the bad in men, women, elf and human and a bad mage was worse than any rotten layman. Even a few of the kids he grew up with had Fallen and within the very walls of his home he had seen necromancy and possession. There was no way to be a mage and not witness the worst that the world had to offer. It was what soured so many of his kind, that and the overall negative aura the Masters beat down on them; a practice as important as their training when considering the power they wielded and the corrupt of its existence.

But Izuku didn't see evil in this girl. And, despite what he had done to Yo, he didn't see evil in the dragon boy either. If anything those eyes were terribly innocent. To treat them like they were evil felt wrong. To treat her like Yo had done, felt awful. He didn't doubt that the best place for her was the Magesterium, untrained in magic was a nightmare waiting to happen, but he didn't believe that dragging her there kicking and screaming and dripping in the blood of her dragon friend was how to do it.

It made him wonder if anyone had ever just tried to talk to the mages labeled "renegade" rather than just treating them like deserters and criminals, before. Maybe they would be reasonable. They were really just lost mages who didn't know any better, weren't they? Just poor cursed souls without guidance.

"I don't want anyone to get hurt," Izuku said, feeling his confidence grow, feeling that this was the correct path to take, "Yo shouldn't have been so aggressive. We should have just come and talked to you. I'm sorry about that. I don't want to fight."

The girl and the dragon boy looked to each other suspiciously and Red's grit teeth softened some. Ochako held a more aggressive stare and after seeing that she was not so easily taken in, he mimicked her expression, as though without her he wouldn't know how to act.

"If you don't want to fight then why are you here?" she asked.

"I…" Izuku had to think about it, "I don't really know. I just know I don't want to hurt you, I don't want to fight and that I've never seen magic like that before. I mean, he turned into a dragon and you retracted poison with magic! I was terrified out there and I can't believe he Yo, but I understand that you were protecting yourselves...you don't seem to be evil and neither does your friend, so I want to talk and try to understand."

"Understand what?" Ochako scoffed, "That I can be a functional mage without the Synod breathing down my neck every second of my miserable life? Or that I've haven't already ripped your head off for coming here to kill me or drag me off to some indoctrination prison!"

"We didn't come here to hurt you!"

"Didn't you?" Ochako challenged, "Then what are you here for? To pat me on the head and tell me what a good job I'm doing? I don't think so."

Izuku felt like this wasn't going very well towards convincing her to come with him peacefully and he had to center himself, keep from getting angry at her ignorant accusations.

"We wouldn't have killed you," he said, "That wasn't our assignment. The Synod has to keep track of mages so we were sent to bring you to the Center Magesterium, not a prison."

"Same thing," the girl's hand got a little higher, threateningly.

Izuku held up his hands stiffly, scared that she might actually incinerate him with a fireball, "Hey, seriously, I'm not going to do anything, okay? Please, can we just talk?"

He stepped completely away from his staff, hands reaching to the sky as hard as he could. He was sure he looked ridiculous, but they needed to understand he wasn't a threat to them.

"Can we?" Red asked Ochako big eyes wide on her. She returned his stare narrowly and then frowned at Izuku.

"Grab his staff," she told the boy, "And maybe we'll talk."

Red beamed a big smile at her and then got very serious again, taking cautious steps towards the mage's weapon, big red eyes on Izuku the whole time as he crouched down and lifted it into his strong hands like it was nothing more than a toothpick, despite being taller than him and made of thick, solid birch.

Red rushed back to her side and turned a forced glare to Izuku. He kept glancing at Ochako while he did and adjusted his face every few moments to try and hold her same level of intensity. Izuku would have chuckled at it, if he wasn't terrified for his life.

"Alright," Ochako lowered her hand and took the staff. She paused when it fell into her hand and at first she sagged under the weight and her own weakened body. But could see a glint in her eye as she straightened up and composed herself, looking at the staff with this look of...thrill? Amazement? Either way she quelled it fast and held the staff like she truly had no idea what she was doing with it, which didn't make her any less dangerous. It was a weapon after all. It amplified spells and if she casted anything it would be more powerful than she was expecting or could likely handle in her state. A misplaced spell might set the entire forest ablaze and turn where Izuku stood into a crater.

"Thank you," Izuku sighed, not exactly relieved yet, but getting there.

"Sit down," she ordered, the commands hard to take seriously with how high and girlish her voice was, "I don't want any funny business."

Izuku nodded and slowly did as he was told, falling into a cross legged seat on the ground, hands still up. And as soon as he did, Red dropped down to sit too, but a sharp look from Ochako got him back on his feet as soon as he sat. The dragon boy seemed a bit oblivious, worse than the adolescent mages at the Magesterium and they weren't even allowed weekly visits to the village like the older students. Socially inept didn't begin to cover this.

Ochako nervously ran her nails along the staff and Red stood very close, like proximity was protection. In this form he wasn't much bigger than her though, so it didn't seem like much of a threat. Though that didn't change what he could turn into at a moment's notice.

The girl tilted the staff towards him and he got very worried that she might accidentally fire off a spell without realizing it, but he held his ground and stayed still.

"Alright then, apprentice, let's talk."