"Your permission to pass through." The guard said with a tired expression, looking at the assortment of people that were lining in front of the entrance to the castle dungeon. He didn't seem surprised or worried in any way, merely tired.
Atura fumbled in her pocket a bit, then Anna stepped forward and handed her an elegantly written parchment with the signature of the Prince. She snatched it and passed it to the guard, who merely nodded. "And I take you are all following her?" He asked.
Todoroki, Ojiro and Izuku nodded. They had not planned to visit the cells, at least not that day, but they had made the mistake of telling Atura about what had happened and she had immediately insisted for them to go to the cells. Itsumi had decided to stay behind with Kai, although Izuku wondered if she actually just wanted to avoid the prisoners for some other reason.
"Well, sign here and pass through. I'm not sure what you hope to achieve, however. They still have a Summoner's Crest, so they won't be able to give you any information."
"I just want to talk with them a bit." Atura replied, and the guard nodded and opened the door to the dungeon.
"They are in the cells for magic users and monsters, of course." The man explained, "I should also mention that the blonde giant is barely alive and was severely hit by frost bite. More than the girl we found completely encased in ice. Still, he is not going to cooperate."
"I understand." Atura replied, "I just want to speak to them, and if nothing comes of it, we won't have any problem."
"Suit yourself, ma'am." The man replied, and quickly opened the door. "Sir Nighteye is guarding the cells."
Atura nodded, though at that all three stiffened. Izuku didn't feel ready anymore. He was going to meet Sir Nighteye again? That seemed unreal…
They descended short stairs and reached a floor filled with cells. Izuku thought that, for a medieval prison, it didn't look nearly as horrible as some representations he had seen in the past. Sure, it wasn't well lighted, with only torches to illuminate them, but aside from that each cell had the closest equivalent he could think of the comforts a prisoner would have in his world. Each had a bed, clearly of hay, a pot for the prisoners to relieve themselves and enough space for them to move. No instruments of torture, no shackles on the walls, no one close to starvation asking pitifully for food, no corpses rotting into skeletons.
Most of the prisoners looked at them with either indifference, hatred, or looks that meant something else, mostly toward Anna and Atura but a few to them as well. Anna whimpered, but Atura just walked forward patting the younger girl on the head. She held herself straight and completely, utterly ignored the looks of the prisoners.
"Who goes there?" A voice called. A voice so familiar Izuku could basically see the face that had uttered those words. He slowly looked ahead, and there, walking towards them with a hand on a sword and an attentive look on his face, was the face of Sir Nighteye.
The Knight didn't look exactly the same as the Hero Izuku had known. This Sir Nighteye looked somewhat rough, with hair kept shorter and a more severe expression than even the Hero had shown. The glasses were missing, exchanged for a short stubble of the same black and yellow colors of his hair. The man walked with a less hunched pose than Sir Nighteye did, perhaps the result of not spending the same time working in an office. And yet, the facial features that mattered, those that were permanent, were the same, including his yellow eye. The other, however, had a purple iris, when Sir's eye would only take that color when used to activate Foresight.
"Hello!" Atura shouted, and walked forward with the piece of paper in hand, "This is signed by the Prince, to allow us to meet the prisoners captured in the recent raid."
"I see…" The man stared at Todoroki a moment, his hand on the sword. "Is there a reason why you have with you a changeling in the shape of the Prince when he was younger?"
"I'm not a changeling. I just look like this." Todoroki replied. The man studied him, then turned to Izuku.
"And you. You look like the Hero."
"It's complicated, Sir." Anna explained, "We assure you, however, this is all true."
"I have heard of the fact the Hero has brought with himself two men that share a resemblance with the Hero and the Prince. I assume this is what they meant. Is it true you come from a different world?"
"We…" Izuku started, but suddenly Sir stiffened. His eye started to shine, and he took a step back, staggering. "Sir?"
"So this is what my eye meant…" The man mused, once the moment passed. "Pardon me, I will not hold you much longer. I just wish Sir Izo would have informed me that he had gone to the Greywoods as my vision suggested."
"You had a vision for him?" Atura asked, surprised.
"Indeed. It is a coincidence that we meet, or perhaps this is destiny correcting the mistake of us missing each other, but nonetheless I have seen your future, young Izuku."
"How do you know my name?" He asked. He had no problems accepting that Sir Nighteye was seeing in the future, since that was just the same power he had in his own world. But the Nighteye of his world had to go through a process to do it.
"I am Makir Sairas, of the Sairas family, descending from the Heroine of the Blessed Sight. Magic runs in my family, and the rare gift of clairvoyance was bestowed on me, hence why I took the name of Nighteye, like to my grandfather before me. I cannot decide when a vision will strike me, but I assure you such vision will always prove useful." He replied with a proud smile. "I have seen a glimpse of your future, Izuku Midoriya. Might I speak with you for a moment?"
"Do I… Do I make it home?" Izuku asked as he followed the Knight a bit further away, stopping the others from following him with a quick gesture.
"Alas, that I cannot say. It was but a few images, and they are as unclear to me as they will be to you. I could direct Ser Izo because my vision led to a place I knew of, the farm of Sir Sorak and the forests that extend from it, where he would meet someone that would be of great importance for the future."
"What about my vision then?"
The man observed him. "Are you sure you wish to know? Ignorance is not always a curse. Ignorance of the future is a blessing in disguise."
"I… I think I should know. If Izo hadn't heard about your prediction, he wouldn't have been there to help us." Izuku replied.
The man nodded sternly, a grim expression on his face, "Very well then. I have seen four visions, and I can't tell how far in the future they will be, only that my visions were never beyond the year. You will look scared, terrified, as someone else describes to you a bitemark of some kind. You will meet a man and a woman that dislike each other, and I can tell you are to either pick a side or find your own way. You will walk through a city of the dead, running while carrying a wounded, crying woman. And finally, you will fight an enemy I could not clearly recognize, but this fight will take place in an ever-shifting location."
"Is that… all?"
"Indeed." He looked at him, "My clairvoyance is but a shadow of my ancestor's. She could have seen your future in detail, I can only offer you warnings. Do not let yourself be burdened by those visions, however. Whether they come true at all will depend on you."
"It's not a given?" He asked, in surprise. Sir Nighteye's future vision had been always absolute, until the very hand. It had taken him and Eri's combined power to change the future to allow Izuku to survive and the girl to escape.
"Of course not. If they were, there would have been no need to inform Ser Izo in the first place of where he was supposed to go. If you locked yourself in one of our cells for a year, you could avoid the predictions entirely. There is no future that is set in stone, I merely see the most likely outcome of your actions."
Izuku nodded. "I… Thank you. Although I don't know what those predictions mean."
"Neither do I in truth. My ability is weak, which is why I took up the sword instead of the pen. Good luck to you, Izuku Midoriya." He replied, before bowing respectfully, before saluting the others and continuing his patrol around the cells.
Izuku took a deep breath once they knight left. Ojiro stared at him. "What was that?"
"I think… I think his power is similar to Sir Nighteye's from my world. He has seen my future."
"Yeah, that much I got. So, did he tell you if you get back home?"
"No, he said some things but… None of them made much sense. I think we can only wait and see where they go."
Todoroki shook his head, "Not much of a use there. Let's go then."
Izuku nodded, though the predictions remained in his head.
-x-
Atura and Anna's examination of the prisoners went smoothly. Mustard, as they had guessed, was from Itsumi's universe. Muscular, still recovering from his almost fatal wounds in a cell built to hold larger demons, was from another universe the two recognized. They called it J-093, the Armorverse. "A Science Universe… this is very important." Atura commented.
Ojiro blinked, "Why?"
"Because it means the magic of Lord Arkin could go against the Great Current." Anna explained.
"The What?"
"As we told you before, we theorize the Multiverse is traversed by something equivalent to currents. There are too many of them to map, and it's assumed that universes orbit like planets, so they are most likely not always influenced by the same currents. But according to Isaac there is one major current that seems to traverse the entire Multiverse, following a pattern that has been tested enough to be reliable. Quirked universes lead into Magic Universes, Magic Universes lead into universes that utilize on some form of Science, and Science-based Universes lead back into Quirked Universes. This is what we call the Great Current, a circular force of unknown origins." She pointed at the various cells, "You can notice that pattern even in the Summons, where the majority of them, as you described them, seem to come from either Magic or Quirked universes, with a majority from the second, all in accordance with the Great Current. Therefore, if we have one outlier, that's something we need to take not of."
Izuku nodded, understanding. That made sense, he supposed, at least as much sense as the Multiverse would ever make.
"Let's see. The girl is hard to pin down." Anna continued, pointing to Reiko's cell, "She seems rather angry with us, so she won't tell us who has All for One and One for All in her world. The summoner is from EX-187, Summonverse. That can be pinned down due to the magic. The samurai is another unknown. The One for All wielder is a certain Midoriya Izuo. It's either an unknown universe or one that was never listed in our documents. Then there are the three people that escaped."
"Any guess?"
"A few. The girl seems fitting for a number of universes, but I can't pin her down without capturing her and asking. The gunman is from EX-450, Frontierverse, since Isaac Green was easy to pin down, and I have no idea for the so-called Claw. Honestly, I'm not even sure if I should mark her down for a purely Quirked universe or for a mixed one." She sighed "Still, it's enough to send in a report. They'll send a patroller to clean them up and return them to their home universe. Since they all seem to be villains, we will give them to the authorities. Except for Mustard, who we will let walk free if he really completed his sentence."
"What about the Summoner's Crest?" Izuku asked.
"Kikora and the Prince will take care of it." She replied, "And whoever the League sends will help. Don't worry about it. You guys already helped taking away their ability to summon more with Kai, I think that's enough."
"If you say so…" Todoroki shrugged, "So, aside from this, is there anything else we need to know about the Multiverse before trying another leap?"
Anna looked at Atura, who was gushing examining a piece of Muscular's armor she had snatched from the man's body. Apparently, the armor couldn't reconstruct itself without the materials, so right now he only had enough to cover an arm at most, everything else having been broken by either the fire melting them or the ice entering the circuits. "Uhm, ma'am, are you ok?"
"This is so complex…" She commented, staring at the nanomachine on the tip of her finger, "Who built this, a minuscule man? How can you make something like this?"
"I guess not…" Todoroki replied, ignoring Anna's apologies, "I think we are done then. We took you to meet the prisoners, and I suppose you told us everything."
"Mostly. Technically, I should warn you four of the dangers of the Multiverse and advise against jumping once more without support, but you wouldn't listen to that, right?"
"Without knowing when someone will come around? I will take my chances." Ojiro commented.
"I agree." Izuku added, "After all you gave us the right instructions, correct?"
"Yes, and the League for All agrees it's generally better to direct people with Guide and Teleport, and only hold people that lack the former. You have both, even if not in one person, so, good luck to you."
"Will we lose consciousness again?" Izuku asked.
"Not if you do it right, thought you will be very tired." She shrugged, "If you could use Teleport properly, you would be fine. Teleport is technically more fit at traversing the Multiverse naturally."
"It is?"
"Isaac's theories seem to say so." Atura chimed in, suddenly interested, "See, Teleport follows the Currents, which is usually a bad thing, but if you can control it, it means you will theoretically experience only a mild fatigue at worst, since you will be moving naturally. Guide, on the other hand, cuts through the Currents in what we can only suppose is a straight line. Which is why often users end up very tired, or at worst fall unconscious."
Izuku nodded, and they started to head out of the dungeon. "Should we have supplies?"
"We will provide something. I'm sure the Prince will happily give you some food, water and clothing. You shouldn't need them, but better safe than sorry."
"Already did for the latter." Ojiro said, pointing at his current shirt, "Although I have to admit, I will not miss this old fabric once we are back. It stings."
"I just want to see a toilet once more." Todoroki grumbled, and Izuku and Ojiro couldn't help but chuckle. Apparently, even the ice-and-fire user was getting less broody. Perhaps because of the fact they were going home soon, although Izuku felt like it was more the idea of finding help. After all, Todoroki had been clear: he was going to ask the whole League for help in dealing with All for Deku. Atura and Anna had seemed… worried when he said that, but had just said they weren't sure of what the League was going to say about that.
Once they made it outside, Atura and Anna walked to the Castle entrance, followed by the three. "We will be back by tonight with a copy of our report. If you make it to JUS-001 you can just pass it to Isaac, he will send the League in to recover the prisoners." Anna said.
Atura nodded, "And please tell him that I want him around when we test the engine next week."
"Sure." Ojiro said, and the two started to walk away, when Izuku suddenly remembered something. "Oh, miss Atura, miss Anna!"
Atura and Anna turned. "Yes?"
"What's the Alignment? You mentioned it but never really explained it."
Anna chuckled. "You are, Izuku Midoriya."
"Me?"
Atura cackled before ruffling his hair, "You see, there is one thing that remains constant no matter the universe. At some point in time, Izuku Midoriya, All for One and One for All are all in the same location for an important reason. Whether you are the wielder, or even whether your presence there changes the result of the encounter of the two powers, can vary, but that specific event is such a common occurrence that we take notice of it." Izuku stared at her with wide eyes, but she just shook her head, "Ah, don't look so worried, it's not like it's that big of a deal. Isaac told me of one universe where a police officer called Izuku Midoriya was simply the first to handcuff All for One after he fought the One for All user, and another where Izuna Greengrass was the tenant of the apartment where the users of the two powers lived, and a good friend of both. It doesn't mean the universe revolves around you or anything."
Izuku nodded, taking a deep breath to calm down. "Isn't that still… really odd? Is there anything else like that?"
Atura scratched her chin, thinking. "There are some recursive traits. He is usually connected in some way with fire, ice, or both." She explained, pointing at Todoroki, "But not many to be honest. Sure, Clusters tend to be similar, but leave those and everything can be completely turned on its head. As Isaac once said, 'The only way to know the Multiverse is to see it firsthand. There is no describing it accurately."
Izuku nodded. "I see. Thank you." He replied.
"No problem, no problem. Just make sure to bring Isaac around next week!" They replied, waving as they left.
Izuku nodded and started to think. Hizuku was married to a One for All user. Isaac Green had a gun called All for One. All for Deku had both Quirks. Him and Izo were both One for All bearers. It made sense the pattern was constant, even if it was also scary. Still, in a way it was good to know there were some rules to follow.
-x-
Itsumi and Izuku spent the afternoon training with Kai. He still couldn't manage the Full Cowling, but he had understood the basics. For a ten years old, he was smart and understood the instructions easily, even if it seemed putting them to practice was going to take far longer. Izuku wished him luck. He knew how hard the road ahead was for someone that had become the One for All bearer without a proper body. He was still impressed Kai could hold it at all in fact. 'Must be a difference between our two universes.' He decided, even if he didn't have any hard evidence. Either that, or he had been as fit for One for All as a ten years old after ten months of training, and he had to admit that would have been a bit insulting.
He also trained a bit with his magic. The Dancing Light hadn't really been useful in the fight against Isaac, and Tongues didn't seem needed back then. He wondered if everyone was actually speaking Japanese or if somehow One for All made him understand one language from the world he was teleported into. He hadn't understood the language of the Flind back in the village, so it certainly didn't translate universally. 'Is it based on the amount of people that speak it? In that case I should be able to speak Chinese or Spanish. Then again, maybe it's influenced by the language spoken by a One for All user from that world. Kai and Izo speak the same language, so it's possible the Quirk makes me able to understand that. In that case, Tongues would be a lot less useful than I originally thought. I should probably try to test it once we reach Isaac's world, since I will be in America. Maybe…"
"Izuku you are scaring Kai. Also, Kikora is here." Itsumi's word cut his mumbling. Izuku looked up and stared at Kikora, the elf smirking slightly.
"Yeah I can see the resemblance with Izo even more." She commented, "I hear you four are leaving tonight."
"Already?"
"Itsumi told me." The elf pointed her thumb to the blonde girl, "She wanted to make sure I knew I'm now on full duty taking care of Kai, until we find a way to take him home."
Kai sighed, hugging Itsumi. "Do you two really have to go?"
"We do Kai, yes. We need to return to our homes, like you."
"Will I meet you again?"
"I'm sure we will. We are all going to be Hero after all."
Kai nodded, though there were still tears in his eyes, before he turned around and walked up to Izuku, holding his hand up to him. "Thank you for your help, mister Izuku."
Izuku had to admit, for a brief moment he was hesitant to take the kid's hands. While he knew that his Overhaul was not always active, and knew the kid had perfect control when it came to keep it in check, how could he not be scared. He had seen what Overhaul could do, he had fought two monstrosities created by Chisaki. But the moment passed. This wasn't Chisaki, this was Kai. A kid that had been in a situation not dissimilar from Eri's, a kid in need of helping. Izuku shook his hand with a smile. "Don't worry about it, Kai. One for All users should always help each other."
The kid nodded, then returned to Kikora, who awkwardly took his hand. She blushed slightly as Itsumi chuckled at the image. It was pretty fun, Izuku had to admit. Kikora didn't seem to know what to do. The girl huffed at their expression. "Whatever… Anyway, I'll take Kai to my room tonight. The Prince agrees that we want to hide him, so we will lie to everyone and say you took him with you. He will stay tucked in my room until we figure out a way to get him home or Atura and Anna deliver on their promise of someone helping us."
Izuku looked at Kai. "What about his training?"
"Prince Shor gave me a larger room, so he will have enough space to train. So long as he doesn't use his full power, that's fine, and we don't want him to use it to begin with. I asked the Prince to procure me the Potions to heal him if something goes wrong."
Izuku nodded. "Hopefully he can go home soon."
"Hopefully." She smiled, and shook both of their hands, "Good luck you two. I know you will need it."
"Hey!" Itsumi shouted, and Kikora laughed before walking away, waving her hand. Kai did the same to her side.
"She really likes to have the last word on everything, uh?" Itsumi looked at her leave, and smiled, "You know, I will miss this place a bit."
"Me too. Although, I do miss some modern comforts."
She thought for a moment before agreeing. "… Fair enough. I will probably never look at an isekai the same way."
He chuckled, "Still, we helped, that's what matters."
"It is."
-x-
In the end, the rest of the afternoon was rather simple. Prince Shor thanked them once more for their help and rewarded them with provisions, water and a stack of gold coins that made Ojiro almost tear up. Most likely because it really felt like the reward of a game, rather than any sort of greed. "I also wish you good luck, and ensure you I will take care of returning young Kai to Nion. Perhaps it's time our two nations come to a peaceful agreement." He concluded. Izuku nodded, thanking him for the kind words. The others did the same in their own way.
Then came the night. Under a starry sky, the four left the main halls of the palace and moved to the inner garden. The Prince had suggested it for it's isolation: normally, he would have organized a feast to celebrate their leave, but with the matter of Kai, it was better if they just disappeared, unseen. That way, the story of Kai going with them would be more likely.
Atura and Anna were waiting there once they entered the garden. It was a beautiful place, flowers of many different kind, some alien and some known to Izuku, decorating well kept grass and a large well. Izuku wondered what it looked like during the day. He had spent all his time in the castle or the courtyard, so the place was new to him.
Atura interrupted his thoughts walking forward, papers in hands, and shoving them in his hands.
"Alright, here is the report." She said to Izuku, who quickly put it in his bag. "Make sure Isaac gets it. And good luck. The League will keep an eye on you once you are back home. Probably even send someone to train you, if they have the resources."
"Really?!" Izuku's eyes grew wide. He hadn't considered that.
"Sure. Did you think they were just going to tell you 'Lock that power away forever'?" She made the latter part sound purposefully off, "Oh Izuku, it's not like we are some sort of secret cabal that wishes to keep the Multiverse for themselves. We just want to ensure you will be fine if this happens again. The League will teach you how to tell at a glance which universes are dangerous, how to control your powers, and eventually, if you wish to, you will be set up as a Patroller."
Izuku hadn't thought about it. In his mind, the League for All was just going to take him back home and tell him to never use those powers again, but logically, if they had Patrollers, they had to have a way to teach people to use them.
His talk with Itsumi from a few days before came back to his mind. The Multiverse had been scary, but there was so much he could have done if he was able to move freely. Help Ojiro and Todoroki, for one, and come back to see Izo like he had promised. Even seeing Itsumi and Kai again. Discover other worlds too sounded intriguing, at least if he ever achieved victory against All for One and Shigaraki.
"I see." He finally managed to say.
"No problem. Now, everyone look at the picture and focus on it. Don't get distracted."
Izuku nodded as Itsumi took out the photo. He used Blackwhip to tie himself to Ojiro and Todoroki, before Itsumi placed a hand on his back. All four looked at the picture, Izuku concentrating on it, ignoring everything else.
Teleport went off.