He did it, after all that teasing, all of those taunts, all of that old life, he finally took that swan dive off of a roof. Well, it was a cliff, but why be pedantic now? At least he finally did something to make Kachan happy. Nice to know he gave one person a smile before he died.
Mom was going to be upset though, so that sucked. So would Grandpa, after putting in all that effort. Couldn't have been easy to secure souls like that. Oh well, maybe some other poor quirkless kid could use a family.
And his friends, man it was going to suck when he left. They could probably move on soon, hopefully, unlike this drop. He's been falling for a while now, when was the-THERE'S THE BOTTOM! He felt his entire body sting in agony.
"Pain … so much pain." Huh, he figured there would be a bigger splat, maybe a little blood, but no. Just what felt like pain all over, and a sprained leg. Was it sprained? He pressed and felt a massive surge of agony. Definitely sprained at the very least….
"Alright Lizzy, status report." He was greeted with silence. "Lizzy, don't joke around, I know you didn't like the smell but they needed help." The silence continued. "Lizzy, I get it, I have a bleeding heart. Lesson learned, now come on." Still nothing.
"Of all the times for the silent treatment...I know you hate me, but you don't need to be a dick about it."
"Oh, but why wouldn't they?" He heard a voice, turning to see Ameri standing over him. What was she doing here, she was a second year right? The festival didn't really do anything for her. "After all, you're just a pathetic piece of trash." W-what? "I can't believe I ever considered the notion of being around you."
"Ah...what?" This, this didn't sound right. Well, actually he half expected this from her when they initially met, but he liked to have thought he impressed her somewhat. "Ameri, what are you talking.."
"I just wisened up, and so has everyone else. Now don't talk to me again or else." She punched a wall hard enough to leave cracks. That-after everything, she was just walking away? What was going on?
"I should've known you couldn't be the hero." Eiko? What? Did she abandon Lied? "To think of how many hours I wasted being in that asinine battler! I could've used that time to make a name for myself! Instead I'm stuck at the bottom with the rest of you losers!"
"Eiko, what are you-"
"Shut up! One for All? That's just horrible, you can't be there for a single person, none of us have seen you for barely a month on end and you spend the first moment trying to leave us! It's disgusting you think we would care and admire someone as terrible as you so much." What, none of this was like Eiko, she was so nice!
"Like you know her at all, meatsack." Gaako!? Wasn't she on the other side of the jungle? "You stole my best friend from me and roped me into this lunacy! She could've been a normal person with a decent future, instead she's stuck being your lackey for all time, because you made her feel sorry for you!"
"Gaako, I never meant.."
"You're constantly going out of your way for dangerous situations involving helping others! When are you going to get it through your thick skull that no one needs your help!? No one wants you around!"
"But, that kind of crippled thinking is probably part of his DNA." Azz, please, what's going on? Why is all this happening! "After all, he's just a worthless human." Wha … what?
"How, when did you, why would-"
"You think we're so stupid that we wouldn't notice?" Azz spit on him. "All the lies, all the sob stories you gave us just to m pity you when we should've torn you apart the moment we realized how utterly useless you truly are."
He saw her, Clara. She would be there right? His friend, his best friend... "Clara, please." He reached out his hand, only for her to slap it away.
"I don't like liars, Deku-kins. I can't ever be friends with someone like you."
"Guys … please." They began walking away. "Please don't leave!" He tried to chase them, his leg acted up, angry at the pressure, as the group began to fade. "Please don't go away!" They were gone, the only people he could truly call friends.
"It's funny, you think you could have friends." Kacchan spoke up, moving in closer with crackling palms. "But that's just what a pathetic Deku like you deserves, nothing."
"Shut up! You don't get to decide who I am!" He tried punching the bastard in the face, but the pain prevented him from getting up.
"He didn't decide, you did, you were born like the broken abomination you are." A man he recognized from family photos stood there. "You decided to be born, didn't you?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. "To ruin me and force me to sell you away for any chance at a decent life?"
"No, you can't be here … you physically can't be here!" This was some sort of magic, an illusion, He needed to wake up! "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" He tried to pinch himself.
"I'm afraid it's true, Izuku. There's no point in letting this cerade continue." Grandpa! Please, get him out of here! Please, don't leave him with this bastard. "Don't worry, I'll bring everything back to normal." Thank you, thank you so much. "I'll bring you back to the human world." … No … Nononononono. "Come on now, we both know there's nowhere to run."
He tried it anyway. "You can't! You promised! You promised mom! You said you would always take care of us!" He couldn't stop the tears from falling even if he tried. "Don't take us back! Please, I can't go back! I can't go back to the human world! I don't belong there!"
He fell against a corner, seemingly safe for now. "Wake up Izuku, wake up!" He banged his head against rock, multiple times. He kept it up even as blood drew. "Wake up damn it, wake up!" Please, wake up, get out of this nightmare. Get him out of it!
"That's the problem, isn't it?" Oh shit, Kalego! "You don't belong anywhere, Midoriya. You foolishly thought you could escape all your problems by living in the netherworld, but the fact is that your mere existence creates chaos for everyone. Demon's can never be friends with humans."
"Well at the very least, you can help me right?" Balam, no, Izuku trusted you! "I need a new ginnie pig, and a quirkless human seems like such an interesting subject to analyse."
"I should have taken you away the moment I suspected as such." No, he can't find out. Henri CAN'T FIND OUT! "I'll just leave him to you then."
"Don't leave me alone! Please, I'm begging you!" He pounded on the ground. "I don't want to be alone again!"
"Oh, you're never alone Deku." A sissling hang grabbed his shoulder. "I'm always here to kick you down when you need someone to remind you how pathetic you really are." This was an illusion, it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt! "At least Auntie Inko can rest easy now."
"Don't you dare call her that, you son of a bitch!" He tackled the illusion. "Don't you dare say you loved her like that after all that you did!"
"Well she wouldn't care anyway." The voice was there, even though he wasn't. "You're the one standing on her resting place after all." … He slowly looked up, a tombstone gazing back at him.
"'Here lies Inko Midoriya. Suicide'". No, please no, not her. The ground cracked. Please not her!
"You asked too much of her, young Izuku." Opera walked up from behind him. "Caring for a quirkless child with dreams of delusion carries a heavy toll on everyone. She couldn't take it anymore."
"No, she's not dead, she's not dead!" The ground broke, he fell onto a cold body, covered in blood. Looking up he saw lifeless eyes and a bloody neck looking back at him.
"... Why … were you … born?" It asked in a hushed tone that broke him.
"Mom..no….mom...no…..NO! Please, come back! I'm sorry for being born! I'm sorry for being quirkless! I'm...I'm sorry for being human!"
"You can … always … join me!" Her hands were on his throat, squeezing the life out of him. "Apologize in the afterlife, maybe you could be born as something with value to match those stupid dreams of yours!" He couldn't breathe. He couldn't, he struggled.
Izuku released his own hands from his neck, panting and looking around with tears in his eyes. "This … isn't … real!"
"Isn't it?" Kachan asked. "I don't think you know what's real any more. Down here, how much of this is actually going on?"
"How much longer are you going to keep hiding the truth, Midoriya?" Azz looked down at him. "You've kept it inside this entire time. Why don't you just admit it?"
"All the delusions, all the notetaking, all the planning, they're just your escape from reality." Eiko talked with her back turned to him. "You're always trying to be what you're not."
"You could be exceptional, but you always cut yourself short." Ameri stared at him. "Why would anyone take notice of an ordinary, quirkless human?"
"Just say it, Deku-Kins. Say it and give it all up." Clara was crawling closer to him. "Say what we already know."
"Say that dark little thought bubbling inside." Gaako spoke with predatory eyes. "That thought you really know for a fact beyond anything else."
"I … I …" He held his knees tightly, head buried into his lap. "... I hate being born like this! I hate being born Quirkless! I hate being born a human!" Why did everything go wrong?
Why couldn't he have been born in the netherworld?
"Why-why couldn't I have been a demon?"
"Because you're just a Deku." Kachan spoke. He was right, he was always right. "Now why don't we talk to that little guy inside, that you and I both know you try to ignore. Why don't we talk to Deku?" Izuku was confused.
They were talking to him now. Just like always, they were talking to the cough useless boy cough cough who couldn't do anything cough cough who's throat was itchy, and bubbling. COUGH COUGH COUGH the one regurgitating their very emotions as he vomited BLURG a black goo, miasma, something poured from his throat, sfiting and writhing from it's own existitance, coloring itself, shaping itself, cracking and screams as it formed into a single figure.
"Yeah, buddy, I'm pretty sure they're talking about me." A figure that looked like him, except with sharper eyes, horns, tail, and wings, came from it. "We never formally met before. I'm Deku, nice to meet you, Izuku."
"... So this is the breaking point, I've officially gone insane." Izuku leaned back. "They broke me … into a useless piece of garbage that can't even think straight."
"I mean, I'm sure I could get you certified somewhere if you want." 'Deku', laughed at his expense. "Boy, that was quite the magic you've been exposed to. Bloodlines can be so complicated compared to Quirks, can't they? Now we can finally talk face to face."
"If you think this is the part where we start fighting for control of my body, then you can just forget it." He slumped in his spot, just accepting the reality as it was. "They made their point. I'm not needed here. I never was."
"True, you were never needed here before, and given the whole face to face thing with so many questions, I might be able to take over your body, however this thing works." 'Deku' smirked, leaning against a wall. "It would all depend though, on say, how this thing works, because if it was just tied to the caster it would have been over the moment you fell. And if it was tied to you it would have ended about … an hour ago? Hard to tell time." His double shrugged.
"In quirk theory, it would be based on physical conditioning, though given the psychological aspect of it, it would be more mental training than anything. Whoevers bloodline this was probably built up through reading, expanding his general knowledge and expanding his mental capacities."
"But he wouldn't be doing this if it was just him, nobody could know that much about you unless they're you or me, so it's all in our head and he's unaware of it, tied to something around us … a little spark in those illusions may be real after all."
"... I really mumble, don't I?" Izuku asked tentatively. This was a bit … calmer than he expected.
"Yes, that's an undeniable fact. We say what's on our mind about what needs to be said. No one will listen otherwise. We don't take praise well either, but we like the facts. So here's yours." Deku turned on him with serious eyes. "We have people waiting on us, for the seed, for our might, for revenge against the asshole that might be doing this to Nafra or other students. And here you are wasting your time wallowing in self pity."
"...Why are you helping me?" Something like this shouldn't even be possible.
"I prefer to not take action, let others do the work for me, ya know?" He shrugged. "You ever wonder if this is how All Might feels sometimes? Going out, doing everything by himself, working to the bone keeping everyone safe, all while trying to keep that smile on his face?"
"Yeah, but he's All Might! He was born with an amazing quirk.."
"And yet he's as human as you are." Deku rolled his eyes. "We saw how much strain Ameri-chan puts on herself just to keep the school stable. Imagine what that must be like doing it for the entire world. Can't be easy."
"I'm starting to see why Clara is terrified of you … did you really kiss Ameri on the forehead?"
"Let's be honest, it's going to be the closest we ever get to kissing a girl." Fair enough. "Now then, I'm pretty sure my time is up. So stop being sad and start saving people, hero-" 'Deku's head was blown off, black goo covering Izuku and the ground.
"... New nightmare image … yay …" It didn't matter anyways because the bastard had one point. The time for self pity was over.
"So what? You think just because some part of you doesn't believe you're useless, you get to walk out of here?!" Kachan confronted him, the image growing bigger, his body growing larger and darker, more bloody and monster-like. "You're still Deku! You still can't be a hero!"
"Yeah, I am Deku. So what about it?" Using all the strength he had, he forced himself to his feet, ignoring the pain. "I'm also the honor student, the tamer of Cutthroat Valley, the winner of the execution cannonball, the president of the Magical Apparatus Battler, leader of the Misfits and Calamity Cult, and One For All! Quartz-Quartz!" He took his bow out and formed an arrow.
"You're still shaking in your boots! You're still afraid!"
"I know." He recalled words from both Opera and Barbatos. "It's when I'm afraid that I get excited." He gave a fierce smile. "It's knowing that I will die at any moment that all my strength comes through, when I'm at my most focused!" And boy, he faced death practically every day!
"Now hear these words I wanted to say to you since day one!" The arrow was pulled back, charged to its maximum output, about to fire with a single slip of his finger. "Get over yourself, you utter, asshole of a bastard! PLUS ULTRA DIE!" He shot the illusion, rocks breaking apart as light overwhelmed the entire area. He sighed in relief, taking deep breaths to calm himself.
Looking up he saw the cause of all his utter despair. "I got so worked up over a spider?" He asked himself in confusion. "Man, I was a moron." He let out a light chuckle. "Alright, leg still bruised, what about-"
"IZUKU-KUN!" Lizy grabbed onto his head and squeezed. "You're finally awake! I was so worried, you weren't responding to anything and were being super weird!"
"Lizzy, it's great to see you." He told his friend. "I'm glad you're with me."
"Duh, we're soulmates, literally. I'm sure I'd die without you." He'd take it.
