Ok, so a lot of time is gonna go by in this chapter. You're probably gonna ask, wouldn't the U.S.J. have happened during this time?
Probably, but it doesn't. I don't think it's stated exactly when the U.S.J. incident happened, but it probably would have gone by, by the end of this chapter.
Izuku will still be part of the U.S.J. story, so please just don't ask about when it happens.
Izuku Midoriya wandered the streets aimlessly. The only thing keeping his identity secret and the people around him from panicking was a green hoodie.
He couldn't go back to the church as, even if he had teleported her there, he had no doubt Mizu had located where it was.
And he didn't have Eri by his side anymore either.
So now, he was homeless and alone.
No. Not alone. Worse than alone.
Damned.
"You curse me. Yet I have not forced you to do anything against your will in quite some time have I not?"
But you want me to. And you want to manipulate me into doing it more. Those weren't questions. Izuku stated them like facts. Because he knew they were facts.
Zarathos did not respond.
Good. Izuku wanted him to be silent.
Silence. Silence was good for thinking. And god did he need to think.
But not here. Here in the city, there was so much noise. Too much noise.
He needed to go back into the forest.
With his destination decided, Izuku walked.
Hours later, in the forest.
Once he had gotten a more than sufficient distance away from the city, Izuku started to relax.
What am I going to do now? Izuku thought.
He was so tired. Tired of everything.
At least when he had Eri he felt like he had a purpose. Something to do while he searched aimlessly for a solution.
But now...he had nothing.
Of course, he still wanted to rid himself of Zarathos, but he had absolutely no idea how to do that.
Izuku kept thinking. About his life. His situation. Everything involving it. Just looking for...anything.
And instead, he found more noise.
"Still no sign of him."
Izuku's eyes shot open. Is that?
He activated his soul vision and looked through the trees.
It was a pro hero. Because how could he forget he was one of the most wanted people in the country right now.
Izuku transformed and summoned his motorcycle. Speeding away from the hero.
No matter where he'd hide, heroes would always be on the lookout for him. Not like he could hide with villains either. Even if he wanted to he's pretty sure they wouldn't let him, due to the whole, being known for killing them thing.
So where could he go? Someplace where no one would think to look. Where no one would find him.
And then it hit him.
He rode to the mountains. His bike brought him there in no time.
After finding a nice, plain patch of land he unsummoned his bike and got to work.
He clawed at the ground beneath him, using his strength and speed to rapidly go deeper and deeper below the ground.
In only two minutes he had dug half a mile underground.
Feeling he was deep enough, he spawned chains from his back and swept all the dirt he had displaced, back on top of him.
Burying him. Deep below ground.
Where no one would find him.
Now, he could think in peace.
"And how long do you intend to stay here?"
Until I'm ready to leave. Now be quiet.
A day later.
"Are you not bored here? I thought children were supposed to be active?"
Izuku ignored him, still deep in thought.
Three days later.
It was so dark. And lonely down there.
But Izuku was convinced he deserved it. Convinced that he needed it. And so he stayed.
A week later.
Izuka. Always so controlling. But I think she just wanted to beat Kacchan more. Did she care for me? Or was I just some kind of damsel in distress in a game? Like I was the villain when me and Kacchan played heroes and villains. But I guess I was more of a punching bag than a villain...It's weird now that I have so much power...I'm playing heroes and villains with real villains. Except I'm hurting them a bit worse. I wonder if Kacchan ever thought about how easy it would be to kill me?
Another week later.
I wonder if other quirkless kids were hurt like I was. Izuku thought about that question.
He imagined it in his head. Some other quirkless kids getting beaten and ridiculed.
It made him angry. Furious even.
But…
When he imagined it happening to himself, remembering it happening to himself...he wasn't angry.
But why?
It was because he killed people right? That's why. He deserved that pain.
….
But didn't he think that before he started killing people?
So why did he think he deserved it then.
Because he was quirkless? Because he wanted to be a hero?
For some reason that logic made sense when applied to him, but when he applied it to anyone else it made him angry.
It was at that moment Izuku realized just how much he had been taught to hate himself. And how quickly he had taken in those lessons.
Another week later.
It was at this point Izuku was fully aware that he was the only thing keeping himself down here.
At any point, he could burst from the ground and end this...this misery.
But he didn't. He wasn't ready yet.
It made him think though. What else was he doing to himself?
He was incredibly powerful now. So powerful that even All Might couldn't stop him.
Why couldn't he see his sister? Why couldn't he see Eri? Who was going to stop him?
Of course, Izuku shruked that train of thought pretty quickly.
Sure the heroes couldn't stop him but he didn't want to hurt them either.
But could he stop them without hurting them? They were so weak compared to him, was it possible for Izuku to simply defeat them without a real fight?
The heroes did it to the villains sometimes. Take them down and restrain them in seconds, without doing any real damage to them or the environment.
So if he had such great power then why couldn't he do the same?
Well, the answer was obvious. It's because heroes had years of training on how to control their quirks and how best to utilize them, while Izuku didn't even know the true extent of his power.
He had spent so long running and hiding, crying and shaking in fear of his power...well...Zarathos's power.
...No...no it was his power now right? According to Zarathos, their souls were fused. Meaning his power was now Izuku's.
If he had trained with this power, could he have stopped Muscular and saved Hosu?
Izuku starts to think about what he knows about his powers. And what he could do with them.
Two days later.
Izuku wonders if he could stop Zarathos from peering into and messing with his thoughts.
And if not, Izuku wonders if he can peer into his.
Five days later.
Izuku was back. In the fiery hellish landscape that was apparently Zarathos's(and his) realm.
"You called me here," Izuku said. "Why?"
"You have been attempting to peer into my mind." The demon growled from atop his throne.
"No. I already have looked into your mind." Izuku revealed. "I was wondering if you knew, but apparently just like when you look into my mind, the person whose mind is getting peered into is completely unaware."
Zarathos slammed his fist down on the arm of his stone throne. "We may be one. But I am still your elder!"
Izuku didn't seem phased by Zarathos. If anything he seemed...board.
"There wasn't much in there," Izuku said. "You're a being of pure rage. A demon created by...something, god maybe? But you were created to devour the souls of the guilty. And that is the only reason for your existence. You're not really a living thing, more like a machine."
"Watch your words boy," Zarathos growled. "I will not be compared to a simple automaton!"
Izuku ignored him. "But there was some useful information. It seems like even you don't know the full extent of your powers. You never really needed to after all. Your power was so great you never needed to experiment with what you could do. So long as you can kill sinners, that's all you care about. That explains why you fought All Might so...savagely. You could have won that battle much easier if you-"
"Enough!" Zarathos sent chains from his hands that wrapped around Izuku. "I have been lenient. It seems too lenient! I must remind you who I am! I am Zarathos! Lord of hell and devourer of souls! I am-"
"A part of myself now." Izuku transformed, and broke the chains apart. "Mephisto sealed you away in the void between life and death. In order to trick the spell, you fused your soul with mine to trick the spell into letting you free. However, this means that you are me now. It doesn't matter that you were a demon lord and that I was a powerless, quirkless human. We are now something different. And you hold no power over me."
Zarathos seemed shocked, although his expression could only reflect this so much(his face was a skull after all).
Izuku transformed back into his normal form. "But fighting won't do us any good. Not here."
The green-haired boy looked out into the fiery hellscape.
"At first I thought that this was some kind of...mindscape like you see in Anime and T.V. shows. But it's not. This is a pocket dimension that exists inside of us. Our personal realm that we have full control of, that houses the souls we've eaten. We also appear here, but not physically, but as souls." Izuku explained. "I was wondering, why do we appear as two separate beings in here if we share one soul?"
"Because I will it so," Zarathos answered.
"Yes, due to our mastery over this realm, we are able to do things here that we wouldn't be able to do elsewhere," Izuku said. "But we're still the same soul. We can't destroy ourselves so no neither of us can really do anything to the other given our healing abilities. But-"
Izuku made a knife appear from thin air, and cut his cheek with it. "Even if we're more powerful here, we're not all-powerful. Especially not with some of our power still trapped in the void."
"What is the point of your prattling?" Zarathos tried to look into Izuku's mind, but what he found was...madness. Scattered thoughts, starting and ending before they could even make sense, random unrelated words and ideas being thrown around in nonsensical fashion. "What...what is this insanity?"
"You tried to look into my mind." Izuku deduced. "From what I can tell, neither of us can stop the other from looking into their mind. So instead I started changing my way of thinking to be...harder to read. It's like trying to listen to my muttering. Times a hundred. You can still listen to my thoughts, but you won't get anything useful from them."
The demon continued to growl and glared. "How have you progressed in such a way?! You were nothing but a cowering pathetic being, not but weeks ago!"
Izuku turned towards the demon and smiled. "Because for once in my life, I thought for myself. Also because I looked through your mind and took all the useful information I needed Now, I need to go back to thinking."
"Oh? What about the people you need to save?" Zarathos could not allow Izuku to make any more "progress" so he must distract him by finding people to save.
Zarathos accessed his powers and tried to find a place where innocent blood was split, particularly with an alive victim.
But as he tired, he was suddenly filled with...despair.
Sadness, grief, pure undiluted emotional agony.
The demon had never known such emotions, it was...overwhelming, confusing, he could not focus.
"What is this?!" Zarathos cried.
"Sadness. My sadness." Izuku explained. "I told you everything you can do. I can do as well. You can influence me with your emotions. I can do the same."
"Cease this!" Zarathos felt like he wanted to claw the feeling out of his own skull. The new emotion felt like it was eating his soul!
"Then stop trying to distract me," Izuku told him.
The feeling's left Zarathos, but the threat was clear. If he tried to directly influence Izuku's mind. Then Izuku would fight back with his own influence.
Not wishing to go through such...unpleasantness, Zarathos choose not to interfere.
All he could do now was wait for Izuku to finish his thinking.
One Month later.
Zarathos hated this.
Ever since Izuku had his apathy, he had been unable to do anything. Of course, such a short amount of time was nothing to him, but he did not enjoy this nonetheless.
Izuku has visited the hellscape a few times since then. He seemed to be...familiarizing himself with the hellscape. As well as testing his power.
What could he be up to?
Three days later.
Power.
Kacchan had taught him that power was one of the most impotent aspects of the world.
With power, you could get away with almost anything. Enforce your will upon the world.
All Might was powerful. That was how he became the symbol of peace. Izuku wondered how many people like All Might there were in the world? Good people who would gladly do what All Might would if only they had the power.
Was Izuku like All Might? He wanted to help people. That was all. He didn't care about anything else. (Except his sister and Kacchan of course.)
But he didn't have power before.
But he did now. He had so much power. It coursed through his very being, no. It WAS his very being.
He was beyond human now. Now he could achieve his dreams and more.
All he had to do was get rid of his inner demons.
Both metaphorically, and literally.
The next day.
Izuku appeared in the hellscape, with Zarathos sitting on his throne as usual.
"Have you finally finished your thinking? Or have you just gone mad from the seclusion? If I recall, you humans are social creatures if I recall." Zarathos snarked.
"Yup!" Izuku said with the biggest smile on his face. But Zarathos could see the hate in his eyes and he glared at the demon. The hate, and...excitement? "I've been thinking a lot as you know, and I've come to realize that my old way of thinking would never allow me to achieve my goals."
Well, that sounded promising to Zarathos. Perhaps he had finally come to agree with the demon and would start devouring souls.
"So from now on, I'm a new me!" Izuku stated proudly. "One who won't be tied down by all my self imposed limitations! I don't need to hate myself! I don't need to feel like I'm pathetic! All that self-loathing! No more!"
Again, this was good. Zarathos quickly got annoyed by Izuku's comments about how much he disliked himself, so getting rid of that would only be a good thing.
"I also need to stop being so unsure of myself!" Izuku proclaimed. "I've always wanted one thing. To be a hero. That's never changed and it never will! From now on I'll dedicate myself towards that goal!"
Izuku paused and briefly looked back at the hellscape, before looking at Zarathos with a malicious smile. "And the first step of that plan. Is to get rid of you Zarathos. Forever."
Looks like Izuku finally has a plan? Or has he just gone(even more) insane!
Find out what Izuku intends to do with Zarathos in the next chapter!