Chapter 4: Undead Izuku vs Fairy King Taida.
-UA High training ground 2B-
Taida floated in front of Izuku as the two faced off, his support item, the Spirit Spear Chastiefol, was in its base form while it was pointed at the Sin of Greed.
"You should know that what happened back then wasn't me trying to get my quirk to evolve like this." Izuku said as a hole in his forehead sealed up.
"Then what exactly was it?" Taida asked with a raised eyebrow as his favorite support item spun a bit.
"It was me trying to save the girl I loved. Simple as that." The undead immortal replied, his three section staff at the ready. This got a growl out of the Grizzly Sin.
"Liar!" He yelled as he started moving his hand and made Chastiefol start attacking Izuku on its own. The green haired teen dodged as many of the attacks as he possibly could in the closed space, but that was made rather difficult so a few attacks hit home.
"You remember it all, right King?" Izuku said as he let his severed hand grow back. "We all lived in the same neighborhood. You, Ochako, me and Kacchan. One of our favorite pass times being playing King of the Hill with all of the other kids. Which you always cheated at." He added. "And then, it all changed when we were all gonna go to that Jr. Heroes Summer Camp. And Uraraka got sick. A good brother would have stayed behind and kept her company. But what did you do, Taida?" He asked as he delivered a flying side kick which the shorter boy was barely able to dodge. "You left her behind to go to that camp and play Hero! You left her alone!" He shouted angrily.
"SHUT UP!" King yelled as he transformed Chastiefol into its push knife forms and made it start swarming. Izuku started dodging and the impacts kicked up a dust cloud, which the green haired boy used to make an escape for now.
(Elsewhere)
-Observation deck-
"Wait, what was Midoriya talking about just now?" The spikey redhead, a boy named Eijiro Kirishima asked. "You know what he's talking about, Iida?"
"No I do not." The runner shrugged. He may know a bit of Izuku's past, but he had yet to be made aware of all of it.
"It sounded like the two had a falling out of some sort." Tsuyu Asui stated.
"Urg, that aside though, is anyone gonna talk about how gross it is to watch Midoriya regenerate?" A lightning streaked blonde, Denki Kaminari, said with a grossed out look on his face.
"Yeah, that's kinda disturbing to watch." Momo agreed with a disgusted look.
"Disturbing as it may be, Young Midoriya's quirk is still a useful tool. Take note students, he does not run from pain, but rather embraces and revels in it. That is what makes him unique." All Might told them.
"How does the saying go? 'No pain no gain'?" Fumikage Tokoyami, a bird headed boy, said as they continued to watch.
(Elsewhere)
-With Taida and Izuku-
Izuku panted as several deep gashes closed on his torso and a gaping hole in his stomach slowly sealed. And Taida was now in front of him with Chastiefol in its fourth form: a giant four armed teddy bear with the same pattern as its pillow form.
"Chastiefol, form four: Guardian." He said as the bear stood next to him.
"Seriously? You're just gonna deny every word I say of what happened back then and just go with what you know? You're just going to ignore the fact that you might be wrong?!" The immortal growled.
"Well then, why don't you tell me what happened in the three months me and Bakugo were gone before the accident then?!" The boy questioned.
"Fine, I will!" Izuku yelled as they lunged at each other again.
(Elsewhere)
Bakugo was currently leaning up against the fake missile and waiting for someone to come try and take it, expecting either Izuku or Uraraka. Uraraka, meanwhile, was behind a pillar and was waiting for the right moment to strike, though she hesitated when she heard Bakugo start mulling over ideas out loud.
"Okay so If Uraraka gets here first I should be able to take her down no problem. She isn't exactly that combat ready… But I'll probably have to hold back or else Deku might try to snap my back… Heh, but not before I snap his first." He said with a devilish smirk.
'Honestly, I'd rather not fight at all right now.' She thought with a sigh. Though as soon as she did, the blonde turned her direction.
"'Bout time ya got here, pink cheeks." He said as he walked towards her while cracking his knuckles. "So, you ready to fight for your life? Cuz if you don't go all out on me, I will kill you." He added with a crazed look in his eye.
'Great, he's getting into the role.' She deadpanned internally. 'And he's got a quirk to back that up, too.'
(Elsewhere)
Back with Taida and Izuku, as the two fought, the immortal was angrily recounting the time that he and Uraraka spent together before the accident… the time that his quirk, Fox Sin, was known by another more simpler name: Snatch.
(Flashback)
-Izuku's old hometown, ten years earlier-
It was a couple days after Taida, Bakugo and other kids had left for the Jr. Heroes Summer Camp in Osaka, and Ochako had just gotten over her cold, but was devastated that she couldn't go. Her parents had spent a lot of time saving up for it, and she wasn't able to let them see her off.
As she continued to sulk on the top of a jungle gym with a glass of her favorite bubble milk tea, she heard someone singing a simple tune while climbing up the rock wall.
"Just a drop on your tongue adds ten years to your life, a big swallow gives you a hundred more! Drink it all and you'll live forever!~" A voice sang as a younger Izuku climbed up to the top of the jungle gym and eyed the travel glass of delicious tea and immediately knew how he wanted it to play in his new game. "Ha ha! There it is! The fountain of youth! Eternal life and immortality here I come!" He grinned as he rubbed his hands together and licked his lips.
"No! No immortality for you! Shoo!" Ochako said without thinking.
"Huh?" The boy said before he suddenly recognized the girl in front of him. "Hey Uraraka, whatcha doin' here? Why aren't cha at the summer camp with Kacchan and King?" He asked.
"I got a cold right as I was supposed to go. I'm over it, but I can't go to that camp now." She said in a depressed tone.
"Oh, that sucks." He said while sitting down and patting the ground next to him. "Wanna talk about it?" He asked.
"No… Why aren't you at the camp? Heroes are your favorite thing in the world." The girl asked.
"My mom lost my permission slip a week before it was time to go, can you believe it?! And I heard All Might was supposed to be visiting it too~!" The boy whined.
"Aw…" Ochako whined. "Well… At least we have each other." She sighed.
"Yeah… So, you wanna play a new game I came up with?" Izuku asked.
"Sure. What's it called?" His friend asked.
"It's called 'the Bandit and the fountain of Youth'. I play the role of the bandit trying to steal the fountain." He explained while pointing to the girl's bubble milk tea. "And you play the role of the holy woman guarding it." He added.
"And my tea is supposed to be the fountain?" Ochako asked with a grin.
"Yep." Izuku chirped. "Now just get ready and we can start." The girl did so and he climbed up the gym again while singing the same tune from earlier but this time when he saw Uraraka, his expression was confused again. "Hey little girl, what're you doing here? You lost?" He asked her, looking down at her as there was roughly an inch difference between them height wise.
"Little girl?! I'll have you know I'm the guardian of the fountain!" She replied indignantly, getting into her role surprisingly well.
"Really? Huh." He said.
"Yes, and I'm protecting the fountain from people like you." She nodded as she touched him and her quirk activated and he started to float off into the distance quickly before dropping into a nearby sandbox.
"Oh sh-!" The boy yelled as he fell but was relieved as he landed on the sand.
"Well, that's done." The girl giggled as she sat down before…
"Just a drop on your tongue-WHOA!" Izuku sang as he started climbing again before he was knocked off again but this time by a kick to the face and was luckily saved by being caught on a rock on the climbing wall.
'What the-? Does he have a luck based quirk or something?' Ochako wondered idly. Sure, she was glad her friend wasn't seriously hurt, but she couldn't help but think that based on what she just saw.
"Darn it, will you just stop?!" Izuku questioned as he climbed over the edge.
"You're the one who needs to stop around here! How are you even alive right now?! No human can survive a fall from this height!" She questioned incredulously.
"Just lucky, I guess." The green haired boy shrugged. "But now I think it's about time that I got serious." He added. He then pulled a small pair of two toy nunchucks and started whipping them around before they glowed pink and as he whipped it towards the cup, Uraraka was unable to block as he took it from behind her and into his hand with a whip of pink energy.
Izuku sniffed the cup before shrugging. "Not bad. Doesn't smell like soda though, but I guess it'll do." He shrugged. "Well, bottoms up. And when I say here's to my health, I mean it!" He chuckled as he was about to take a drink…
"Noooo!" Uraraka yelled as she ran and made him float again and took the cup before it hit the ground.
"Oh come on!" Izuku exclaimed indignantly, but he was clearly having fun.
"I'm through with trying to make you people understand!" She snapped. "But if you take away the fountain everything here will wither and die. So give up your quest and leave this place now!" She ordered.
"Eh, alright, fine." The boy shrugged nonchalantly, causing the brunette to be caught completely off guard.
"Um… What?" Ochako asked, unsure if she heard that right. 'This is fun!' She thought happily.
"Honest." He chuckled, good naturedly. 'Good, she's liking the game.' He added mentally.
"Who are you, anyway?" She asked, letting him down.
"Can't ya tell? I'm a bandit. But Bandit Izuku is my handle around here. What about you? What's your name?" He asked while rolling his shoulder.
"Oh, I'm Ochako, guardian of the fountain." She 'introduced' herself.
(Flashback End)
Izuku skidded to a halt as he blocked a hit from the giant teddy bear. Then started flailing his staff around to make it back up.
"So you guys just played a role playing game that entire time? Kinda sounds cliche to me, Izuku. A little too perfect." King said as he promoted the status of a cut on the boy's arm.
"Urg. We didn't do just that, I also showed her my favorite Hero Soda box trading card collection. She seemed to like it, and I even let her try one of my favorites. Heh, it was great." He retorted as he sent another punch which got him caught in Guardian's tight grip.
(Flashback)
Uraraka was waiting on the jungle gym for Izuku to get back as she looked at his collection, with a smile on her face.
"I don't know why but, I wouldn't mind Izuku taking me away like he was going to do with that tea… I bet it would've been nice…" She said to herself while not noticing that he had come behind her.
"Huh? Should I do that too, then?" He asked as he was eating some gummy candies he brought with him. Ochako jumped in surprise and turned to face him.
"Oh! Sorry, Izuku. Didn't hear you coming." She said sheepishly.
"It's okay." He shrugged before he grinned. "So you wanted me to steal you away huh?" He teased, which caused the girl to blush.
"No, that's not-!" She stuttered before looking away which caused him to chuckle.
"Well I'll tell you what, when we get older and start training together to become heroes, I'll do just that and take you as my own. How's that?" He asked, holding out his pinky finger.
"Promise?" She asked as she joined her finger to his.
"Promise." He replied with a reassuring grin as they shook on it.
(Flashback End)
"I made a promise to her that I would make her mine, and I intend to keep it!" The immortal yelled as he tried to punch Guardian but soon found himself restrained by it. King floated in front of him before waving his hand.
"Form five: Fossilization." Taida ordered as a golden two pronged spear pierced Izuku's chest from behind and he suddenly slowly started turning to stone!
-Observation Deck-
"What the-?! He's turning Midoriya to stone!" Iida exclaimed in alarm.
"Okay, is anyone gonna make any remarks on how romantic Uraraka and Midoriya's story is? I mean I know he didn't say a lot about it, but from what I heard it sounded really romantic." Mina Ashido, a pink skinned girl with little bug-like horns, chimed in.
"It is cute, but we should be focusing on the fact that MIDORIYA IS TURNING TO STONE!" Yelled Kaminari in fear as the process completed.
(Elsewhere)
With Uraraka and Bakugo, the explosion boy was currently trying to avoid getting hit by an oil drum that the girl hurled at him. He had been having her on the ropes for the past few minutes due to his mobility, however as soon as she got some stuff to use as weapons, his usual fighting style went out the window.
As he skidded to a halt, his grenade gauntlets glowed red. "I'm all loaded up." He grinned in glee as he got up and pointed his gauntlet at her.
"What are you doing?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I dunno if you still remember how my quirk Explosion works but, my sweat glands produce a type of sweat that's like nitroglycerin which I can blow up. So imagine what I can do if I have a lot of it." He grinned as he pulled something on the gauntlet back. "These babies aren't just for show, they've been storing my sweat for one massive blast." He added as a pin popped out the side of his gauntlet.
"Oh boy…" Ochako gulped, knowing full well how her old friend's quirk works.
"Just promise me that you'll dodge. If something bad happens to you, Izuku's gonna wring my neck." He requested with a shudder.
"Young Bakugo, stop! You'll kill her!" All Might yelled over the speakers.
"Oh she'll be fine as long as she dodges!" The blonde said as he pulled the pin and caused a massive blast to shoot towards ochako and blow a massive hole in the side of the building, causing the surrounding area to tremble.
-With Taida-
The floating boy had just finished turning Izuku to stone when the building trembled. He really hoped Bakugo hadn't gone overboard with his sister and if he did, there would be hell to pay.
"This is a fitting fate for you, Izuku. Not able to die, or find peace. Just the perfect punishment for your failure." Taida stated. He understood now that Izuku didn't cause the accident, but it was his failure that resulted in Ochako dying. As he turned Guardian back to its spear form, he started floating away to help Bakugo.
In Izuku's mind, he was completely aware of what was going on, but couldn't move. But just when things seemed hopeless, he suddenly saw something. In a haze of nebula-like colors, he saw eight faces looking at him that all had glowing yellow eyes. And as they stared at him he could feel the power of One for All coursing throughout his entire body without him even doing it and…
*CRACK! SHATTER!*
The stone casing around shattered like glass. Taida whirled around and looked at the now free Izuku in complete shock.
"What?! How did you get out of the fossilization?!" He questioned as Izuku looked down at his hand.
"I don't know, and I don't care." The Fox Sin said as he turned to him. "Now come on, Fairy King Taida. We're ending this now. It's time we patch things up the hard way." With that, he charged forward.
-Observation Deck-
"He managed to get free?! Thank goodness." Iida sighed in relief.
"Please tell me Taida is getting an earful for turning him to stone!" Kaminari pleaded.
"Oh, he'll get more than that…" All Might said seriously. There was no way he was letting something like this slide.
-With Izuku and Taida-
Back with the two boys, Izuku managed to grab onto Chastiefol and spin on it to kick Taida into an adjacent wall. He had a plan now, and it involved Uraraka being right where he needed her.
"Uraraka, are you okay?!" He said into his earpiece.
"I'm fine, even if Bakugo sent a huge explosion at me." She replied as she took a few heavy breaths.
"He what?!" The boy yelled as his teeth began to grind.
"Whoa! Easy! You can slug him later!" She tried to placate, not even bothering to deny that Izuku would give Bakugo a black eye later. "What do you need me to do?" She asked.
"Get to the pillar in the right hand corner and hang on. I'm about to blow the roof off this joint!" He told her as Taida turned his spear into its many small versions again.
"What the hell are you planning?!" The self proclaimed fairy king questioned.
"Simple, Grizzly Sin of Sloth, I'mma about to raise the rooftop off this ice cube stand!" The scarred boy grinned as he started channeling One for All through his arm.
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" King yelled as he blasted towards him, the two boys poised to strike at full power.
-Observation deck-
"Oh man, they're gonna kill each other!" Kirishima said as the two charged.
"Shouldn't you stop them?!" Mina added.
"Yeah this is seriously going sideways real fast!" Kaminari chimed in.
"I would, but young Midoriya can take the punishment, and I can already tell that he'll hold back for young Taida's sake." The symbol of peace stated.
-With Taida and Izuku-
As the two were about to clash, the green haired boy switched from a right hook to an uppercut position. "Uraraka, now!" He yelled as he delivered a full power punch to the ceiling above, which caused an air blast which destroyed every level including the roof.
With Bakugo and Uraraka, the gravity controlling girl grabbed onto the pillar she was told to grab, which confused the blond exploder before the airwave blasted through the roof, creating a large amount of debris… Which became Ochako's ammo.
"Alright, special move: the comet home run!" She cheered as she sent the debris towards Bakugo with a hit from a pillar and then used her quirk to make herself float over the gap and onto the dummy weapon while Bakugo was distracted. "Got it~!" She sang.
"Fuuuuuuuuck!" The blonde yelled as rocks kept falling on his head.
Down with the two boys, Izuku currently had Chastiefol in his chest as King looked at him in shock.
"I told you King, now that she's back, I'm not letting Ochako go. Never again. So if that means I gotta trust her to get things done… That's what I'm gonna do." He said as he coughed up some blood.
"You…" King tried to say, but couldn't.
"The Hero Team WIIIIIIINS!" All Might yelled through the speakers.
(Later)
As everyone gathered back in the observation room, All Might started to talk about the exercise. "Now despite the results, the MVP of this battle was Taida." The man told them.
"How, exactly?" Mina asked.
"Shouldn't it have been one of the heroes?" Tsu added.
"Mmm, valid question. Why didn't I choose one of them? Who has a guess?" The Hero asked.
"I can." Momo pitched in before she went into a long and very detailed explanation of the fight. "As you stated before, Bakugo's move against Uraraka was a poor move, and similarly Midoriya's strategy was also poorly thought out. And Uraraka's last move was extremely risky, had this been real she would not have used such an imprecise move. Taida on the other hand spent his time trying to capture Midoriya and distract him from getting to his partner and nearly succeeded in doing so. Even if his judgement was compromised by a grudge against Midoriya." She explained.
'Wow… She's certainly got quite the analytical eye.' The large hero thought in surprise.
"Pft." Both Izuku and Bakugo scoffed indignantly, but the green haired boy did notice that her words were a massive blow to his friend's ego, so he put his arm around his shoulder to comfort him.
"Anyway, with that out of the way, let's proceed to the next battle simulation!" The man said.
(Elsewhere)
Two of the other students, Mezo Shoji and Shoto Todoroki we're entering their building as the tentacled boy made several ears and a mouth on them.
"They're on the second and third floors. The invisible one is definitely barefoot." He told Todoroki.
"For your own safety, go outside." The two toned boy said. "Our opponents may plan to fight a defensive battle, but we've already won." He added as he suddenly started freezing the entire building.
-Observation room-
"Wh-What the-?! Are you kidding me?!" Izuku gasped as they all saw what was going on.
"I want to call that ridiculous, buuuut…" Taida trailed off.
"He did get in on recommendations." Tsu noted.
"He incapacitated his opponents without endangering his teammate! Take note students." All Might told them.
-Back with Shoto and Shoji-
Shoto walked into the room where Ojiro and Hagakure were in and sure enough the invisible girl wasn't wearing shoes… or any other clothes for that matter, so her feet were stuck.
"Ugh, this sucks." She complained.
"It's not your fault, we're just playing on different levels." Shoto told them before putting his left hand on the weapon, signaling that he won.
"The Hero Team wins!" All Might yelled.
Shoto then melted the ice, which caused Hagakure to start hopping on different feet.
"Yikes! Hot hot hot!" She squeaked.
"Damn!" Ojiro cursed in dismay.
Back in the observation deck, everyone was absolutely blown away, especially Bakugo, who was on the verge of hyperventilating at how crazy strong everyone was at this school and the fact that he was now not the strongest anymore… Yet another blow to his ego.
"Easy, Kacchan." Izuku said as he grabbed his friend's shoulders. "UA is full of the best of the best, remember? Just because one guy seems strong doesn't mean he's better than you at everything. Stay calm, you'll be fine." He reassured his friend.
'Right… Right…' Bakugo thought, trying to calm his nerves with little success. The matches went on in rapid succession after that and then everyone went to their afternoon classes when All Might left in a hurry, which Izuku knew was because of his time limit.
(Later)
Izuku was getting a soda from the school's drink machine when he then bumped into Taida again. "Oh, hey King." He said as he started opening his drink.
"... You never did finish the story you told in the simulation." The floating pillow lounger said after a moment.
"What's to tell? I promised Ochako that'd I'd make her mine one day, and then a couple weeks later the accident happened and I failed to save her." He shrugged, sipping his drink. "Honestly I would've been dead too if my quirk hadn't awakened." He shrugged.
"Awakened?" The fairy king asked.
"Yep. My quirk was originally known as Snatch, my power sapping ability, it wasn't until I nearly died that it evolved or 'Awakened' into what we know today. I didn't plan on it, either. I didn't even know how to plan for stuff like that." The immortal sighed. "... I even got survivor's guilt afterwards." He added quietly.
"Oh." The boy replied. "...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so closed minded. It wasn't fair to you."
"Water under the bridge, now. I didn't have any opportunities until today to give you the story from my side. Still…" Here, Izuku's tone turned serious. "We need to figure out who brought Ochako back. If it was somehow a villain, then we have a lot of work to do to figure out who." He stated.
"Right." Taida nodded as they started to head back to class. Though once they did, they were suddenly swarmed by everyone else in the class. Who started introducing themselves one after the other.
"Hey, I'm Eijiro Kirishima. It's nice to meet cha. I gotta say guys, your fight was super manly!" Kirishima told them.
"I'm Hantā Sero, hey." Sero added.
"More importantly I'm Yuga Aoyama-." Aoyama said before he was interrupted by Mina.
"I'm Mina Ashido, and I just gotta say your story about you and Uraraka was really romantic!" She gushed.
"Tsuyu Asui, but please, call me Tsu." Tsuyu introduced.
"Hey, I'm Sato." The heavy set boy told him.
"Um… Hi?" Taida said with a nervous chuckle as he hid behind his pillow while floating in front of the group.
"Hey, gang. What's up?" Izuku greeted casually before noticing something off. "Where's Kacchan?" He asked.
"Oh he left earlier, not sure where he went though." Kaminari shrugged as he and Uraraka walked up to them.
"Shit, I better go find him. See you guys later!" He said as he went to find his friend.
(Elsewhere)
As Izuku ran out to find Bakugo leaving, he decided to call out to him. "Hey, Kacchan! Wait up!" He called as the blonde turned back to him. "Hey what's wrong man? You left without telling me." He added.
"You saw all those fights, especially that two-faced guy. How am I supposed to compete with someone like that?!" He growled.
"Kacchan, listen to yourself. You're being too hard on yourself, you know you're talented, I know you're talented, so why don't you just keep proving it?" His friend stated.
"That's easy for you to say! You got crazy strong over the past ten months! I mean seriously how did you even manage that?!" The blonde snapped.
"By cleaning a beach." The immortal replied, causing Bakugo to pause.
"... What?" He asked blankly.
"It's true. Seriously, you should've seen how much garbage there was. Hell, there was even a wrecked truck, for fuck's sake!" He exclaimed at the memory of said occurrence.
"You can't be serious. That's it?" Bakugo questioned.
"Well, not all of it but… well I also got a power boosting power from… Someone else, recently. I can't say who I got it from or what it is, but I want you to know that I'm not trying to hide anything from you. And what little I do hide, is for your own safety." The immortal told him.
"Why? Having trouble controlling it or something?" The exploder asked with narrowed eyes.
"Sorta? It's hard to explain." The boy shrugged while scratching his neck nervously. "But regardless, I just want you to know that if you ever need someone to take your frustrations out on, well, you know where I am." He added, holding out his fist to his friend. Bakugo stared at his fist before he smirked and bumped his own fist with it.
"Gotcha." He chuckled. Though this moment of comforting bromance was interrupted when All Might suddenly blasted onto the scene, his pupils both sweat dropping while his protege facepalms at his mentor's inopportune timing.
"YOUNG BAKUGO!" The mountain of muscle exclaimed as he held onto said boy's shoulders… Before he noticed the atmosphere. "... Did I come at a bad time?" He asked, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Ya kinda did, yeah." His protege told him, hand still on his face.
"There's nothing to talk about All Might, I'm over it." Bakugo said as he started walking away. "Just make sure you're ready for class tomorrow!" He called back with a half wave.
All Might nodded awkwardly as he cleared his throat. "So, Young Midoriya, what were you and young Bakugo talking about when I arrived so heroically?" He asked, getting a shrug from his successor.
"Nothing too serious. Just helping get his act together." He replied.
"Oh. Okay, then." The No. 1 Hero shrugged.
It was a good day so far, with so many issues neatly resolved.
(Elsewhere)
In a bar in a shady part of town, a man with hands all over his body was reading the paper. "Hey." He said to one of his companions. "What do you think would happen to the world if the Symbol of Peace… Was killed by the villains?" He asked as he caused the paper to decay in his hands.
Dragon Emperor0: God that ending is so ominous… Perfect for Halloween week!
ThermalsniperN7: Oh yeah. Just wish my internet didn't blackout for the early parts of the day. At any rate, it's already past midnight, so I'm gonna go to bed. See ya!
Dragon Emperor0: See you guys next week! And happy Halloween!