Chapter 2
Combustion Bonds
Izuku was a dragon. He was young and spritely with a warm heart and a lively spirit. He was galloping through a forest with his siblings, other dragons like him who were roaring in excitement and pawing at each other playfully. Then Izuku was fighting an older dragon, one who looked powerful. He fought every morning with this older dragon, leaping in the air, twisting, biting, and flying. He beat the air with his small wings, curling his tail underneath him so that the older dragon could not catch hold of it to pull him down. He fought until he finally pinned the bigger dragon beneath him with a fighting move that he had never even seen before. A kind of twirl where he caught the older dragon under the chin by approaching the blind spot, using a flash of shadow to distract the older dragon and then flipping him over by pressing all four of his paws into the dragon's wings and two pressure points at the base of the wings. He roared in victory and looked down at the older dragon who laughed and nuzzled him.
Suddenly there was blood everywhere, he was in a cage with another dragon pup. He knew this dragon as his best friend, the one who had always been nice to him despite the other dragon pups making fun of Izuku for being born without claws. Dead dragon bodies stained the forest red and bones stuck up like thorns in the foliage. He peered through the bars to see cloaked men holding weapons and striking down anything that moved while taking all of the pups and throwing them into cages.
Then everything was dark, he tasted blood on his tongue and felt a warm sticky liquid on his paws. More bodies were here except none of the blood would go away because instead of soaking into the soft earth of the forest floor, it would just spread across the metallic flooring that had replaced the spongy ground of his home. That was when a bunch of random images started flooding his brain at once, moving from a dark cell to a booming city, from visions of dead dragons that looked like him to images of a man with gray hair, cracked lips, and hands covering his body, standing over him with a whip. The whip was raised high above the hand man's head before it came crashing down with a clap. He felt the pain rip through his back and felt the blood spill over his wings and run down his legs.
"You will obey." The hand man said in a scratchy voice before raising the whip once more.
Izuku woke up panting, his throat raw from the screaming. His eyes were wide and sweat was streaming down his face and back. His hands were gripping the front of his shirt to the point that his knuckles were white and his fingers were starting to bruise. He gulped in air as if he had been stuck underwater, looking around at his surroundings in fear and faint curiosity. He was in a hospital room, hooked up to a monitor. His mother was sitting in a chair against the wall, asleep. He looked to his bedside table to see cards and flowers from all of his classmates in class 1-A. He glanced around to the other side of the room and saw his two best friends also sitting in chairs. Tenya Iida was fast asleep just like Izuku's mother, his mouth open as he snored and his glasses crooked on his face as he leaned his head back against the chair. Ochako Uraraka, on the other hand, was wide awake and reading a book by his bedside. It took Izuku a moment to realize that she was reading the book aloud. She paused when she saw him looking at her, her mouth open to read the next sentence of the book.
Immediately, she shut the book and dragged her chair closer to his bedside, her eyes wide with worry.
"Deku!" Ochako whispered. "How are you feeling?"
Izuku looked into her face and analyzed every feature, from her beautiful brown eyes to her soft skin, touched by the adorable blush marks on her cheeks. He blushed when he realized he was ogling her and she was waiting for his answer.
"I'm feeling a little shaken up but otherwise fine," Izuku said. "What happened, Uraraka? I can't remember much."
Ochako's face darkened a little and he felt his anxiety rise with it.
"It was a dragon attack, Izuku. We don't know where it came from but we just found you, bleeding and shaking in a tree. Your mother got worried when you didn't get home on time and so after waiting a while she called the police. We came along to look for you. All Might said that he often saw you take this scenic route home so we searched there first. It took us almost three hours."
"I was hanging from a tree?" Izuku asked.
"No, not hanging, you were actually resting on a bed of leaves, that was why it was so hard to find you, your green hair blended in with the canopy and your body was obscured by the branches and leaves."
"Oh," Izuku thought for a minute, allowing the room to fill up with silence. "Was the dragon there?"
"No, thank god," Ochako murmured. "We were scared enough already, but I think the bloodthirsty beast was just looking for some extra prey to hunt for, saving you for later. I was really worried for you, we thought you were already dead," Ochako scratched the back of her head nervously. "I was the one who found you. It was horrible, I was using my gravity quirk to float above the forest for a better bird's eye view and I just saw you tangled up in the branches like a doll." She shook her head, tears in her eyes.
"Thank you for finding me, Uraraka, I'm okay I promise," Izuku pulled her into a half hug and patted her shoulder comfortingly. She nodded against his shoulder.
"I believe you, it was just really scary. I can't believe you faced off with a dragon on your own and didn't get torn into little ribbons."
"Yeah... I can't believe that either."
Izuku then placed his hands down on either side of him and tried to sit up, his back numb from laying down for so long. His body was sore but nothing seemed too badly injured. He didn't know what to think. Maybe the part about the dragon saving him was just a dream? Or maybe the dragon had some sort of quirk that made him see one thing when really he was actually experiencing another? Dragons were known to have quirks, a lower percentage of them did when compared to humans, only about 60% of them had powers but it was still common enough for it to be a possibility. He put weight on his hands to push himself up.
That is when he felt it. A slight shock of pain shot through his hand and a flash of an image of a large black wing briefly obscured his vision, causing Izuku to jump a little and look at the back of his hand.
"Is everything okay Deku?" Ochako asked him as a flash of worry crossed her face.
"Yeah, I'm alright my hand just felt strange for a second there."
"What do you mean strange?"
"Um…"
Izuku didn't know what to say as he turned his hand over to examine his palm. Ochako leaned over and gasped as she saw his hand from over Izuku's shoulder.
"What the hell is that?" Ochako asked in alarm.
"I don't know."
Sitting on the side of his palm directly beneath his thumb on his right hand was a circular swirl shape that looked as if it had been engraved into his palm. The skin around the shape was raw and pink but Izuku didn't believe that that was the source of the pain as the pain he had felt a moment ago felt deeper than that. Maybe he had been poisoned? Izuku tried not to panic at this sudden development and took some calming deep breaths.
"Would you like me to get you the doctor?" Ochako asked, her eyes shining with a mix of worry and fear.
"Yeah, I think that would be a good idea."
As if on cue, the door to the hospital room opened and the doctor walked in holding a clipboard and wearing a bright smile on his face. Izuku's mother and Iida jolted awake at the sound of the heavy door shutting behind the doctor.
"Oh, sorry to wake you two! I just thought I would come and check on young Midoriya's progress. It's good to see you awake young man." The doctor said turning to face Izuku.
"Izuku!"
"Midoriya! You're awake."
Iida and his mother stood up and moved on either side of him to get a better look at him.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better than I thought I would," Izuku said with a sigh. "But my hand…"
The doctor said nothing when Izuku raised his hand and showed his palm to the people assembled. His mother gasped and Iida's eyes widened but the doctor remained silent. Raising a hand to stroke his beard, the doctor hummed in thought and squinted his eyes at the strange marking.
"Does it hurt to touch it or apply pressure to it?"
"Yes, but not surface pain. Although it looks raw I don't feel any pain when I touch my skin but when I apply too much pressure I feel a pain deep inside myself. I feel it in my bones and lungs rather than my hand. I also have been seeing some strange images when the pressure is applied."
"Images?" The doctor asked as he scribbled some notes on a notepad.
"Yeah, like memories that are not mine."
The doctor nodded and finished his writing before he spoke again.
"Alright young Midoriya, thank you for telling me this information. I want to help you but it is not my area of expertise so I am recommending you to a friend of mine who specializes in animal quirk related injuries. I don't know if that is what this is but she has worked with dragons before and may be able to help you."
"Thank you so much, Doctor," Izuku's mother said, her eyes watering. She leaned forward and held both of her son's hands in hers. "I want to get this figured out as soon as possible and I want to find the dragon that did this to my son so that it can pay for what it has done to him."
Izuku knew she was just being protective and that she didn't actually mean any harm to the dragon but even so, for some reason, he felt a slight rise of panic in his chest at the thought of the dragon being slain.
"Young Midoriya, did you see what kind of dragon it was? If I knew that then I may be able to better determine what kind of damage was done to your body," the doctor asked, his pen resting against the stubble on his cheek.
Izuku thought for a moment. He could not remember much but the image of the sleek black dragon with a panther like face and a wolf-shaped body that was covered in wounds seemed to be permanently burned into his brain. That image triggered a little bit of his memory as he thought about it, and he remembered what a man had said out of the fog swamping his mind.
"I think it was a dragon called a Night Fury," Izuku said.
The reaction was like that of a bomb going off in the room. The doctor gasped and tripped backward into some medical supplies, sending them crashing to the floor. Inko Midoriya shrieked and launched at her son, enfolding him into a rib-crushing hug. Iida's jaw dropped and he called out Izuku's name in shock. Ochako and Izuku were the only ones who did not understand the reaction of the others.
"Are you sure Midoriya?"
"Yes, why? Why is that so hard to believe?"
The doctor rubbed his face and took a deep breath.
"Because never in the history of the existence of humans, quirk or no quirk, has anyone ever survived an attack from a Night Fury. Not much is known about those dragons, only that they are vicious, bloodthirsty, extremely intelligent, and powerful. Nobody even knows what they truly look like! Those dragons never steal food, never show themselves and they never miss."
