Pretty excited to finally be writing this up! I've been meaning to for some time now, but I wanted to be sure I had everything worked out before that. Anyway, I'm glad to finally be sharing all the ideas I've had for Ryuki!
A quick note here: Throughout this story, events from the anime will be taken and written out with changes to account for my original character. That includes dialogue. Plenty of the dialogue from actual scenes in the anime has either been taken word for word from the English dub, slightly altered to suit the needs of my story, or added on to. I am not claiming any ownership over scenes/arcs/storylines from the anime, dialogue featured in those scenes/arcs, or canon characters. The only thing I claim ownership over are the original scenes/storylines I've added in, additions to existing scenes/arcs, and my original character.
The cover art was made by theanonymousmau on Instagram! A very special thank you to him and please go check him out!
Our story starts in the middle of episode 2 of the anime or closer to the middle of chapter 1 for the manga.
Disclaimer: I do not own BNHA, just Ryuki Tatsuko.
Izuku walked along the sidewalk miserably, looking through his burnt and damp notebook with none of his usual eagerness while the words of one of Bakugo's companions echoed in his head. He flipped the page over to Mt. Lady and then to the next one, which had All Might's signature written across it in big, bold letters.
What his hero had said came back to him, and he closed the book as tears welled up in his eyes. "A hero needs a Quirk. Even All Might said it," he thought, sniffling and reaching up to wipe his nose with the back of his sleeve. "Don't cry, dammit. Deep down, you knew this all along." Despite his command, he still found it difficult to keep the tears from spilling out. "You've just been avoiding reality. That's why you were trying so desperately to prove yourself wrong."
There was a loud rumble from across the street that brought him out of his depressing thoughts. Looking to where the noise had come from, he saw smoke rising from around the corner and a crowd gathered in front of it, transfixed by the disaster before them.
"Why am I-" His train of thought was cut off as a girl ran past him, bumping his arm as she went and nearly making him drop his notebook.
"Sorry!" she called out as she ran, glancing over her shoulder to make sure she hadn't made him drop anything. After seeing that he hadn't, she ran across the street and joined the crowd.
The girl peered over the crowd, trying desperately to get a good look at whatever was going on. She saw glimpses of the sludge villain through the people and the fire, and the captive that he was trying to overtake. "Damn, this is bad," she muttered as she pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed Midnight's number. Her phone didn't even ring once. Instead, it went straight to voicemail. "Great. She must be out dealing with something already," the dragon said with annoyance, beginning to type her mother's number now.
While it rang, Midoriya joined her at the back of the crowd, but she was too focused on alerting her mother of the situation to notice him. "C'mon, pick up," she said impatiently.
Finally, it stopped ringing and her mother's voice came over the phone. "Ryuki? Is something wrong?"
Before she could reply, the sludge villain yelled loudly as he launched another attack at one of the heroes. "Yeah, a villain. I tried Midnight's, but it went straight to voicemail. I need you to tell her," Ryuki answered, standing on her toes to see over the heads of the people and keep an eye on the action. "The pros that are here can't do anything. The guy's got some fluid Quirk, and no one here has got a good counter."
"She's already busy with another villain," her mother said, her voice calm and steady despite the information she was just told. "Stay out of the way. I'm sure someone else who can deal with it will show up soon. I'll tell Midnight so she can head that way when she's finished with the first."
"Alright," she frowned, hanging up. Her brows furrowed as she directed her attention back to the chaos in the street. Who knew how long it would take for Midnight to get there. She could take care of a villain quickly, but that didn't mean the travel would be any shorter.
"Why aren't the heroes doing anything?" a man in the crowd asked another.
"It looks like they've met their match," the man beside him answered. "Plus, the villain captured a kid. Things aren't looking good for him."
"Bitch move using a kid as a shield," Ryuki thought, her frown deepening with disgust. "Whoever he caught isn't going to last much longer. They've got to be suffocating in his weird body."
"Wait, I'm confused," another started. "Isn't that the villain All Might was chasing earlier today?"
"What? All Might?!" another, closer to the front, exclaimed. "No way he lost. Where is he?"
"Well, can someone call him or something?" the lady next to him asked anxiously.
"Seriously!" the one next to her seconded. "Why hasn't he shown up to help the heroes?"
"All Might? Is he really here?" Ryuki wondered to herself. It wasn't unbelievable, but he was usually in Tokyo, not Musutafu.
A soft whimpering came from beside her and looking over, she saw the boy she had nearly run into on the other side of the street, hands cupped over his mouth and a guilty expression on his face. "Wonder if he knows the guy who got captured…" she thought, unsure as to why the boy beside her was reacting the way he was.
Turning her attention back to the villain, Ryuki strained her eyes, trying to catch any glimpse of a person inside the mass of green sludge. Finally, she spotted a spiky, blond tuft sticking out of the sludge. The villain's mouth had moved in place of the boy's, and his eyes rested on either side of the kid's head, ready to cover him over completely soon. The boy struggled in a vain attempt to break the sludge's hold on his face before he turned pleading eyes towards the crowd, begging someone, anyone to help. "Where are all the other pros?" she thought impatiently, wincing sympathetically at the terror in the boy's eyes.
Suddenly, the boy beside her dropped his notebook and broke through the crowd, sprinting past everyone, including the heroes. "What the hell are you doing?!" she yelled after him, eyes wide.
"No, you idiot! Stop!" Death Arms yelled. "You're gonna get yourself killed!"
The green-haired boy didn't acknowledge either of them and only continued running towards the villain, narrowly dodging the flames from the buildings and the debris that littered the ground.
"You're toast, kid!" the sludge villain yelled, preparing to strike with his hand.
To Ryuki's amazement, he still didn't stop. "Take this!" he shouted shrilly as he grabbed one of the straps of his backpack and swung it in the villain's direction. Some things flew out of his bag, one of which hit the villain in the eye, making him rear back and groan. The boy who had been captured gasped and coughed as the sludge pulled away from his mouth, allowing him to breathe once again.
"Kacchan!" Izuku yelled as he reached the villain and began clawing furiously at the rest of the sludge that still kept his friend imprisoned.
The other boy, Kacchan, said something, but Ryuki couldn't make it out, no matter how hard she tried. She couldn't understand anything of what was said until the blond suddenly yelled, "Get the hell off me!"
"Just a little bit longer, kid," the villain soothed sickeningly. "And I'm done playing with you!" he roared, pulling one of his massive hands back to smack Izuku away and likely kill him.
"Save the boy! This thing'll kill him!" Death Arms commanded, springing into action along with the other heroes.
Ryuki gasped in horror as the villain threw his hand down, striking what she thought was the boy so hard it created a gust of wind and a smokescreen that prevented them from seeing. Once the smoke cleared, though, she could see the villain hadn't struck the boy, but the number one hero, who had jumped in to take the blow himself at the last second. "Holy crap! He is here!" she thought as her jaw dropped with shock.
"I really am pathetic," he announced as he held back the villain with little struggle. "I told you the traits that make a great champion, but I see now I wasn't living up to my own ideal," he shouted, pulling his arm free of the sludge and snapping the ropes of liquid that had wrapped around it. He grabbed both boys' arms in an iron-tight grip. "Pros are always risking their lives! That's the true test of a hero!" the pro yelled with blood spurting from his mouth as he spoke, pulling his arm back in preparation for a punch.
"Damn you, All Might!" the sludge villain yelled, spreading his hand out for one last-ditch attempt at an attack.
"Detroit Smash!" he cried, launching his fist at the villain full-force. The second it made contact, the villain was blown away by the strong shock that surely would've blown the civilians away if it weren't for Mt. Lady taking the brunt of it and the other heroes if they weren't holding onto one another. Ryuki shielded herself, still feeling as if she were going to be knocked down by the strong wind despite the cover Mt. Lady was providing.
Once it had finally stopped, she slowly uncovered herself, peering through the crowd to see All Might in the middle of the street, now no longer ablaze thanks to the strong winds, panting with both boys on the ground beside him.
The sky darkened suddenly and a moment later, drops of rain began to steadily fall. Blinking in confusion, Ryuki glanced up to the sky that had been bright and sunny just a minute before to see it covered with swirling, gray clouds much to her amazement.
"Don't tell me all that wind just now was…" an onlooker said with astonishment.
"Look at the clouds. They're moving!" another gasped.
"Holy crap. He changed the weather," Death Arms said, looking between the sky and the hero in the street.
All Might finally stood up to face the crowd, his usual broad grin on his face, and the people cheered loudly, many of them expressing their awe at his feat. "All Might saved the day again, he's amazing!" someone cried.
The hero moved to raise his right arm and had to steady himself before proceeding to lift it all the way up to form his victory pose, making the crowd go wild with cries of joy and excitement over their hero's success. Ryuki smiled to herself. Even though the crowd was cheering for All Might and he was the one to save the day, he wasn't the one she was thinking about at the moment.
"C'mon…" she mumbled to herself, looking this way and that as she walked down the neighborhood street briskly. By now, the sun was setting, making the surroundings of rural Musutafu beautiful as always. After that villain attack, she had tried to get close to the boy, the one who had been beside her, but he was quickly swept away by the pros so they could scold him for his rash actions.
Ryuki stepped out into a more narrow walkway of the neighbor, looking down it in search of the boy. "I could've sworn I saw him go-" She cut herself short when she spotted him further down the path. Breaking into a run, she called after him, "Hey!"
The boy stopped and turned around curiously to see who was calling to him. When he saw that it was a girl, his face warmed and his cheeks turned red. "A girl?! A girl is talking to me?!" On top of that, it was the girl who had bumped into him on her way past. Now that he got a good look at her, he could see short, spiky black hair with long, parted bangs. Uneven patches of scales were visible down the sides of her neck and thighs, and a little reptilian tail, the same color as her scales, could be seen behind her.
She came to a stop in front of him, panting slightly. "Hey, I wanted to talk to you."
"Y-you do?" he stuttered, feeling himself get nervous and self-conscious. He hadn't really talked with any girls his age. He was basically treated as an outcast and avoided, ignored, or made fun of by the girls in his class, so having one chase him down just to talk was new.
"Yeah, about what you did back there with the villain," she nodded.
His face went crimson and his expression turned to one of mortification. "I-it was pretty dumb, I know!" he admitted, now anticipating that she was just there to scold him. "The Pros already told me, and they're right. I could've just gotten in the way or made more work for them by getting captured myself. Besides, I could've gotten seriously hurt and-"
He stopped his mumbled rambling when the girl snorted and snickered a little at his overreaction. "You sure do talk a lot." He blushed heavily at her comment. He knew it was true, but he couldn't help but be embarrassed that he likely made a fool of himself with his habit. "And you're right. It was stupid," she went on, putting her hands in the pockets of her shorts. Midoriya's eyes looked to the ground shamefully at her comment, now feeling even worse. "But it was pretty brave, too," she followed up with a smile. He blinked and glanced back up, thinking he had heard her wrong. "You've really got what it takes to be a hero if that's what you want to be."
Once she had finished, his spirits were knocked back into that depressing pit he had been in before the incident, and his expression noticeably dimmed as his grip on his backpack strap tightened in a poor attempt to not let his emotions show. Ryuki tilted her head a bit, confused by his sudden change. "Hey, is something wrong?" she asked, concerned.
Before he could answer, footsteps were heard behind them along with a yell. "Deku!" Turning their attention behind them, they both saw the blond, Kacchan, who had been captured earlier.
Izuku gasped softly, seeing his 'friend' running up to him. "Kacchan?"
The boy halted himself a few feet away from them, panting hard from running. After a moment of catching his breath, he clenched his fists and cast his gaze down so that his spiky hair covered the top half of his face, shaking slightly. "Listen," he started. "I would never ask for a weakling like you to help me. Don't think you can look down on me." He turned to look up at the both of them, his eyes sharp and filled with fire as his mouth formed an odd, particular scowl. "Huh? Got that? I was fine by myself. You're just a Quirkless failure who won't even cut it as a rent-a-cop. You didn't help me. You did nothing. Don't forget it." Having finished his reminder, he turned suddenly and stalked off. "I don't owe you anything!"
By now, Ryuki was livid, a firm frown and glare placed on her face. "What an asshole," she said aloud, not caring if the boy heard her or not. "You'd think he'd be more grateful, the jerk."
"Ah, Kacchan is… not very nice," Izuku said, sweat-dropping as his 'friend' stalked off. All things considered, the boy didn't seem very fazed by what the blond had said. He seemed more surprised that he had run after him to yell at him in the first place.
"I can tell," she replied, looking after the other. Sighing, she turned back to Izuku. "I guess I'll see you around. I don't live too far from here, so let me know if he gives you any more trouble. I'd be more than happy to knock him down a few notches," she said with a fanged grin as she walked away, giving him a simple wave goodbye as she headed off back to her own home.
As she left, the boy's eyes suddenly went wide with a realization. He had just talked to a girl! Not only that, but she had come after him just to do so! "Holy woah!" he thought as a broad, awkward grin spread across his face. "I just talked to a girl!"
Alright, first chapter down. I actually had a lot of fun with this! I'm also excited for the other things that'll happen later on, but until then, I'll keep my mouth shut to avoid spoiling anything. I hope you enjoyed!