"Have you come to kill me again, All Might?"
Izuku's eyes snapped open and he lunged to his feet, looking around wildly. Where were the others? Where was the League? They had to get Kacchan and get out of there before anyone else got hurt!
When he wasn't immediately attacked, Izuku slowly began to calm down and take stock of his surroundings. One thing was immediately obvious: he wasn't in Kamino Ward anymore.
Instead of hiding behind the ruined remnants of a wall with his friends, he was standing in a room unlike any he had seen before. The room itself was longer than it was wide, with what looked like a locked gate of some kind in the wall nearest him. The gray walls, floor, and ceiling were all incredibly smooth and seemed to be made from some sort of metallic material. Four pillars of the same material were located in the corners of the room, covered by ornate stonework that was almost reminiscent of brain matter. On the other side of the room next to the door was a small pedestal that Izuku couldn't begin to guess the function of.
By far the most interesting portion of the room was at the rear of the chamber. An ornate tub made from the same black-and-brown stonework as the floor and walls sat in the rear-center of the room, with a large, glowing range hood extending down over the tub, leaving just enough room for someone to sit up.
"Okay, something clearly happened when All Might and All For One collided back in Kamino," Izuku muttered. "Did All For One use his teleportation quirk on us? No, that doesn't make sense; he said that it only brought others to and from his own location, and he didn't know we were there. Kurogiri's quirk, maybe? But he was unconscious. That couldn't be it."
He thought back. The last thing he could remember was All Might fighting with One For All. He frowned. Something had happened when they had collided. The air had... warped? Not like when Kurogiri used his Quirk; this had been something else. His brow furrowed as he tried to remember. The air had twisted around them... there had been a pulling sensation, and then lights. Many different lights near him, and uncounted others further away. He had drawn closer to one of them, a brilliant green-and-gold spark, while those closest to him had pulled away. He had reached out to touch the spark and then... nothing. He couldn't remember anything between that and waking up here.
Wherever 'here' was. He glanced around the room, eyes taking in the odd, curving stonework and the constellation-like patterns of red lights on the wall again before coming to a rest on the tub. "If I can get out of this room, I might be able to figure out how I got here. I wonder if that thing activates the pedestal or opens the door?"
He wandered over to the tub, squinting against the blue light that the hood and interior of the tub exuded. After a few moments of squinting, his eyes adjusted enough to see inside, and he gasped. Inside the basin, floating in blue liquid, was a man.
Izuku narrowed his eyes. "This is probably one of those people that All For One kidnapped. I need to get him out of here." He reached out to pull the man from the vat, and ran abruptly into an invisible wall. He frowned and pushed on it. The barrier didn't move.
"Okay, so he's trapped in there. Think, Izuku. There has to be some sort of controls to open the machine." A brief search revealed a small slot on the other side of the tub, though what went into it, he didn't know.
"I guess the key is somewhere else? Looks like I'll need to figure a way out before I can save him." He left the vat alone for the moment and went to examine the door, though it was unlike any he had ever seen before. Instead of something that swung on hinges, this door appeared to be made up of several stone slabs that slid into the top and bottom of the door frame when open. The problem was, he couldn't find a way to open it. Even channeling a small amount of One For All—a major relief to the boy, who had started to wonder if this is where All For One stole powers from people—to his hands didn't help. The door remained obstinately closed. Examining the pedestal didn't help either. There was some sort of slate or tablet engraved with a stylized eye resting on the surface, but it was clamped into place and didn't move at all when Izuku tried to wiggle it free. He was sure that that was the key to leaving, but couldn't figure out how to get it out without breaking it.
Finally, he sat back on the floor, stymied. He briefly considered using One For All to smash his way out, but quickly discarded the idea. If he was in All For One's lair, he wanted to sneak out if at all possible. Plus, All For One would have had his quirk in mind when designing a cell for him. For all intents and purposes, it looked like he was stuck here until somebody came for him or to check on the person in the tank. He sighed and pulled out one of his notebooks. If he was stuck here, he might as well be productive.
Several hours later, Izuku got up and stretched, groaning as his muscles protested the sudden change in position. He'd finished outlining what he knew about the League's powers and was ready for them when they came for him.
"Nothing to do now but look the room over again," he said quietly. "I wasn't thinking too clearly when I first looked over everything. I bet I missed something important."
Another few minutes of searching didn't turn anything up, except that he was pretty sure that the tablet thing in the pedestal could be inserted into the slot in the vat, though that left him where he started.
"I hope the others are doing better than I am," he muttered, staring at the person he couldn't reach. "If they've been captured too, then maybe they've found a way to escape by now. I wouldn't be surprised if Todoroki or Yaoyorozu have figured something out; they're really smart, and Yaoyorozu's quirk is really good for situations like this. Mina could have melted her way out, too, but that could also have triggered alarms..."
Izuku trailed off, thinking too fast for his muttering to keep up. As his train of thought began to spiral, he heard the first sound that hadn't come from himself in hours. Startled to attention, he listened, hoping that it would repeat itself. After a few moments, he heard it again. He frowned. It sounded like... a woman's voice. But where was it coming from?
"Open your eyes..."
His frown deepened. Open his eyes? They were already open. Did they need to be opened wider? Or maybe he needed to look at something. The tablet, maybe?
"Open your eyes."
Nope, not the tablet. What else could he look at? There wasn't anything else in the room except the vat. He squinted. Was it glowing more brightly now?
"Wake up, Link."
"Link?" Izuku stared blankly at the definitely-brighter vat. "Who's Link?" The sound of running liquid filled his ears, along with a sudden realization. "The man in the bath!" He murmured, creeping toward the basin. Ahead of him, there was movement as the man—Link, apparently—sat up, blinking his eyes and peering around blearily.
Link climbed out of the tub and turned to face Izuku, freezing when he saw him. Izuku raised his hand in tentative greeting. "Hey."
Now that he wasn't submerged in glowing liquid, Izuku could actually get a good look at his new cell buddy. The blond man was bare from the waist up, revealing toned muscles and a fit figure. Izuku blushed, thankful that whoever had stuck him in the vat had at least left him his shorts. His attention was drawn away from the slumberer's figure to his eyes. The piercing blue depths seemed oddly fragmented, as if he knew many things, but was struggling to piece them together.
Izuku blinked, realizing that Link still hadn't moved and was watching him. "I-I'm Midoriya Izuku," he stammered. "Y-you're Link, right? Do you know where we are?"
The man watched Izuku for a moment before relaxing. He opened his mouth to speak, but started coughing before he got more than a word or two out. Izuku reached forward to help, but stopped when Link held up a hand. He stepped back and waited.
After several moments, the coughing subsided, and Link tried again, his voice creaking from unuse. "I'm afraid that I have no more idea than you do, Midoriya." He coughed again. "Would you mind moving? I feel... compelled, almost, to reach that terminal."
"Uh, s-sure," Izuku said, stepping aside. He watched as Link stepped up to the pedestal with the tablet in it and reach out a hand. The pedestal lit up, blue dots connected by blue lines of light. The center portion of the pedestal rose out of the base and spun around, extending the tablet. Izuku stared curiously; the tablet had also lit up, with several pulsing orange lines converging on the central eye, whose iris had lit up a steady blue, like the rest of the pedestal.
Both Izuku and Link jumped as the woman's voice spoke again.
"This is a Sheikah Slate. Take it. It will help guide you after your long slumber."
The two stared at the Slate for a moment. "I guess I just... take it, then?" Link reached out and hesitantly plucked the tablet from its resting place. As he held it up, the center of the tablet lit up, revealing a screen emblazoned with the same eye. "Strange," he murmured. "I've never seen anything like this before, and yet there is something oddly familiar about it."
Izuku desperately wanted to see what else it could do, but before he could ask, he heard a quiet snik as the pedestal rotated back into its original position. There was a soft rumble, and the door slid up into the ceiling, revealing a hallway and some crates on the other side. He rolled his eyes. "Oh, so now it opens."
Link was looking through the opening, a look of open curiosity on his face as he explored the new room. Izuku followed him, figuring that anywhere was better than being trapped in that room for any longer.
The second room was a bit longer than the previous room had been, and was designed in much the same way. The doorway they had just walked through opened onto a platform that contained several crates. A ramp connected the platform with the floor below. Once again, the most interesting part of the room was the door on the other side—larger than the one they had just gone through—and the pedestal beside it.
Izuku went to examine the pedestal. Unlike the last one, it didn't appear to have any sort of slot for the Sheikah Slate, though it did have similar orange lines surrounding another the familiar blue eye. He ran his hand along the surface and frowned. It felt like a screen. He poked around the sides of the terminal, but couldn't find any way to interact with the screen. Maybe the Slate had an app for that.
Thump.
Izuku jumped at the sudden sound and looked for its source. Behind him, Link was crouched next to a chest and shaking his hand, cursing. The chest beside him sprung open, as if in open mockery of his pain. "Are you—
"Don't worry about it." Link grimaced and extracted an old pair of pants and shoes from the chest with his other hand, which he immediately put on. Izuku noticed another chest in the other corner and pointed it out to the slumberer, who found a shirt to wear as well.
Once Link was fully clothed—Izuku stifled a laugh as he realized that everything was a little short for the man—he joined the hero-in-training at the terminal. As both were staring at the terminal, the woman's voice chimed in again.
"Hold the Sheikah Slate up to the pedestal. That will show you the way."
"You know, I feel like I should know that voice," Link commented as he did as the voice instructed. When the two connected, all the eye pulsed a brighter blue, and the orange lights faded and were replaced with blue ones. A quite, mechanized voice then spoke.
"Authorizing... Sheikah Slate confirmed."
The chamber shook, and another eye illuminated in the center of the door, which slid apart into the walls and ceiling. Beams of sunlight flickered in and out as the door opened until the entire room was fully illuminated. Izuku squinted in the sudden light; he hadn't realized just how dimly lit the interior had been. Beside him, Link was similarly blinking and squinting, trying to see into the light.
"Link... You are the light—our light—that must shine upon Hyrule once again. Now, go..."
Hyrule? Where was that? It wasn't in Japan, as far as Izuku was aware. Maybe it was on the mainland, or an island near Japan.
"It's beautiful," Link murmured, moving into the sunlit corridor. Izuku followed him, noting that the corridor, while made of the same too-smooth stone, was more worn than the previous rooms. Dirt and dust has piled up in the corners and along the walls, and the stairs, while still smooth, were chipped on along the edges. More strangely, about halfway up the stairwell, the stairs just disappeared. Link splashed his way through a large puddle that filled the corridor up until it ended abruptly in a small ledge, which Izuku could only assume was the top of the old stairwell. He whistled quietly to himself as he pulled himself up the ledge; exposure to the elements had not been kind to this place.
Izuku stepped out of the cave, and his first impression was just how green everything was. The cave entrance was surrounded was surrounded by trees and tall grass. Birds were chirping quietly above him. The contrast between the clearly very high-tech rooms in the cave and here was pretty stark.
"This place is gorgeous," Izuku murmured, looking around before focusing on something off in the distance. His eyes widened. "Wait, is that an active volcano?!"
"I don't think it's active," Link replied. Izuku turned to face him and discovered that link was looking out over a ledge. The man gestured away from where he was standing. "Or maybe not yet. I don't think that's the biggest problem at the moment.
"What do you mean, 'not the biggest problem?'" Izuku demanded, moving to see what the blond was talking about. When he at last saw over the ridge, he stopped short, eyes going wider.
A magnificent vista of rolling hills and small forests spread out beneath him. Occasional plateaus broke up the landscape, and mountains could be seen in the distance, the largest of which surrounded the volcano Izuku had noticed earlier.
All that, he took in at a moment's glance, but nothing really held his attention for long. No, what he focused on was the amount of ruins he could see. Massive crumbling walls jutted out of the land testifying, and off in the distance, Izuku could see what looked like the silhouette of a castle, though not much more than that.
He gulped. He definitely wasn't in Japan anymore.
"Link," he started, trying to keep his voice from trembling. "Where exactly i-is Hyrule?"
The man was silent for a moment. Izuku looked over and saw Link frowning. "Like I said earlier, I don't know. I don't remember much, except my name."
So he was trapped in a foreign land with an amnesiac. Wonderful.
Link looked over his shoulder at Izuku and stiffened. "There are others up here with us."
"What?"
"Turn around slowly. There are two men down the path from us."
Path? Izuku did as instructed and gawked. A wide path he hadn't noticed earlier wound down the side of the ledge they were on and ran in front of a towering structure that looked like it had been a temple at one point. There were smaller ruins in front of it; possibly the homes of those who had lived here before?
Link nudged him and gestured again. A little ways down the path, two men were sitting by a fire they had built under an overhang. The smaller of the two was staring into the fire, while the larger was watching them. When he saw that he'd been seen, the large man waved the two of them over, and turned back to the fire.
Izuku squinted, trying to get a better look at the smaller of the two, when the man looked up, his sunken eyes wide. Izuke yelped and scrambled down the path toward the man, ignoring Link's surprised calls to come back.
"All Might!" he yelled, tears streaming down his face as he collided with his mentor. "What are you doing here? I-I didn't th-think I-I would s-see you again!"
"Speak for yourself! Where did you come from, Young Midoriya?" All Might responded, holding the boy tightly. "And who are you, young man?" he said, addressing Link, who had cautiously followed.
"I'm Link," he said simply. "You two know each other then?"
Izuku separated himself from his hero and attempted unsuccessfully to wipe the tears from his eyes. "He's my teacher and mentor. He's been helping me get stronger so I can become a hero."
"Yes, he has mentioned a great deal about you, Young Midoriya."
Izuku turned to face the last person, an old man who was a little on the larger side. He was staring into the fire, clutching a crutch-like cane with a lantern hanging from the handle. His face was hooded, hiding all but is white beard. The man looked up and smiled, his eyes twinkling in the depths of the hood. "Still, it is a bit strange to see another soul in these parts, let alone three."
Link crouched and stared across the fire at the old man. "Who are you?
"Me?" The man asked, placing his hand on his chest. "I'll spare you my life story. I'm just an old fool who has lived here, alone, for quite some time now." He shifted around and looked at the three of them. "So, what brings several bright-eyed young men to a place like this?"
Izuku scratched his head. "That's just it, we're not entirely sure. Where are we, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Answering a question with a question," the man mused. "That is fair enough. As I cannot imagine our meeting to be a coincidence... I shall tell you. This is the Great Plateau. According to legend, this is the birthplace of the entire kingdom of Hyrule."
The man climbed to his feet and pointed to the old temple with his cane. "That temple there... Long ago, it was the site of many sacred ceremonies. Ever since the decline of the kingdom a hundred years ago, it has sat abandoned, in a state of decay." He turned back to face the three. "Yet another forgotten entity. A mere ghost of its former self..." He trailed off, staring back into the fire.
Izuku waited for a moment. "Um, is there anything else to you can tell us?" That didn't really answer our question...
The old man didn't respond. Thinking maybe he hadn't heard, Izuku repeated his question. Still no response.
All Might put his hand on Izuku's shoulder. "I'll talk with him, see what else I can learn. Why don't you two go check out that temple? Maybe there's something there we can use."
Link nodded. "I was thinking the same thing."
Izuku looked back and forth between the two of them for a moment before nodding as well. "A-all right, we can do that. We'll meet you back here, okay?"
"That should work. I'll come down to you if I learn anything important."
With that, he sat down again next to the old man and started talking about some of his Hero days. Link looked mildly curious, but didn't stay to listen. He walked down the hill toward the temple, his head high. Izuku followed, relieved that whatever happened, he at least had All Might. With the Number One Hero there to help, everything would be okay.