Comedy, Midoriya Izuku, paces back and forth, motioning as if they were verbally going over something in their head. No sound comes out, until they collect themselves and stop, uncertain. "I'd like to say that this is where the Tale of Midoriya Izuku continues on, but… that's not really my thing. I'm just trying to create a good ending, and that alone is not the basis for any tale of importance! The best of us may say that there is a plan for all of us out there, but I have no clue what I am doing! Let me see, let me see… what would Tragedy do in this situation?"
Breathing in, Comedy bites their lip, anxious of what should, what possibly could come next. Exhaling, they speak into the void, continuing. "To those who are here today and those who aren't, The Tale of Midoriya Izuku is not finished quite just yet. Whilst he has died, that is no lie, that does not mean his tale is done, for I have taken it upon myself to continue it in his stead. Do not worry, for though I am in Izuku's role, that does not mean that the story will change because I am here."
Flinching, Comedy looks to the ground. "...Does that sound correct? Like what a Narrator should say? I can only hope that it is." Exhaling once again, Comedy. No, Midoriya Izuku walks off, intending to find something to calm their nerves.
As they do, music starts to sink into the world, following Izuku's footsteps. As Izuku walks, as Izuku wanders, the crowd seems to sing along to the music just as they have before.
"Cuckoo! Cuckoo!"
They chime, the mimicry resounding in Izuku's footsteps. Izuku knows this song, knows where it goes, but they cannot truly stop it, can they? For it is true, is it not? Izuku walks down the road, and he heads to Dagobah Beach. Even though it is consumed, overrun with trash, it is quiet. For some reason, Izuku feels like he is supposed to be there, is supposed to be doing something there.
"Cuckoo! Cuckoo!"
He doesn't, he isn't. Nothing happens at Dagobah Beach, for all that Izuku feels like the story is meant to push Izuku there. Although, looking at the beach, seeing the trash and the dirt, Izuku decides that while they might not be able to clean the whole beach by themselves, they can pick a bit of it up, piece by piece. A small piece, every time they visit. It's not much, but it's something.
"Cuckoo! Cuckoo!"
It's more than Comedy could do for the original Midoriya Izuku. But it'll get better, they will get better. They'll give Midoriya Izuku the best life they could live, and prove Tragedy wrong. They will prove Tragedy wrong. That is why they're doing this, afterall. They aren't doing this for Midoriya Izuku at all.
"Cuckoo! Cuckoo!"
Thus, time moves on. Midoriya Izuku moves on, moving day by day, action by action, waiting for the other shoe to drop. For Tragedy to come back, to interfere. Izuku goes to school, goes home, and lives. It's a life, but it works, right? It's Izuku's life, but really, it's Comedy's life. Midoriya Izuku, as he was, is dead, and Comedy can only take his place.
It feels weird, moving through life without Tragedy to pester them, to tell them what they're doing wrong, that they can't do anything without messing up. That all they are good for is listening to Tragedy's schemes. Izuku moves on, moves away from Izuku's past life. Nobody else seems to know that Izuku is naught but a stranger wearing a new skin, and Comedy wonders if Tragedy was right afterall.
One day, Izuku decides to volunteer. And for once, in the time since Tragedy left, Comedy sings the same song that filtered in that day. "Ten silver spoons coming after me. One life with one dream on repeat." He thinks Izuku would want them to be a hero, to achieve the dreams he could not, but the Comedy that is Izuku knows that they would never follow through. For they could rewrite the world as they wish, but what is the point in that? It would get boring far too fast.
Then again, this life is boring. Far too boring for Comedy, but they cannot bring themselves to change it, for they are there to tell the story, not to write it. "I'll escape if I try hard enough. Till King of the Jungle calls my bluff." Perhaps Tragedy will come back, interfere, and then something will happen. But as time moves on, that seems more and more unlikely. Tragedy seems to be holding up their promise, and they simply aren't here.
But then, is Comedy really here either? Anything more than a mindless drone moving forward into life, living something with no purpose, no more story than what Tragedy had told up on that rooftop? "Oh, lord (oh, lord)" So Izuku resolves themselves to do something, anything that might become an interesting life. Volunteering is interesting, a large assortment of small stories told by the people coming in, little tales that could amount to something, someday. But Comedy, Izuku, who is not sure what to call themselves, knows that it is not enough. "I have been told, I have been told.."
They look for something more. "That I must take the unforsaken road… the forsaken road." Out at night, out in the day, whenever there is a chance, they follow the road down until it stops, searching for something more. Something exciting. Oh and how they find it.
Izuku finds the opportunity in a child, a small girl, followed by someone who is certainly not normal like society's standards. Someone like, but not quite similar to Izuku. The child likes Izuku, likes Izuku's never-ending patience with her, his welcoming smile. Oh, and how Izuku seems to keep running into that child, with her never-ending assortment of colorful followers who follow where she runs and takes her home. . "There's a fork in the road, I'll do as I am told." In a sense, Comedy knows that what is happening with her is wrong, but Izuku cannot help her as he is, so he does not help her like she needs.
But Izuku can help as they wish. Help her, comfort her, provide comfort from a situation both know she cannot escape from, no matter how hard she tries. But Izuku can be there for her. For little Eri, who does not give up. "And I don't know..." Will not give up like Izuku did. They will make sure of it.
One day, after little Eri seems to run to him one too many times, Izuku is given an offer. Not exactly the one that they had been waiting for, one full of excitement, but this one is interesting enough. A paid job looking over little eri? For a quirkless child who has no experience, no less. Interesting, right? "Don't know," There's a little bit of them that nags at them, screaming that Eri has no choice in the matter, that they can save her like they had failed with Izuku. But that would mean interfering.
One day, in the middle of working, of taking care of little Eri, Izuku knows that something is a little off. While they have finally accepted that they are Midoriya Izuku now and not Comedy, will not turn back into Comedy and become a Narrator like Tragedy, something still feels off. And Izuku cannot place a finger on it. "Don't know,"
But it's there.
One day, Izuku listens to the world. It is silent, a whisper, a whimper of what Izuku thinks that it could be. He stands at the beach and looks out over the horizon, and questions what could have happened had Izuku not left that rooftop that day, had they been able to save them. "Don't know,"
One day, Izuku learns why the assortment of characters that accompanied little Eri felt so interesting, felt new and exciting. Izuku looks around, at the world, at little Eri, and then at the world again. The world as it is is boring, too set in it's ways to allow something to change without the change tearing it down around them, and this? This is far too interesting to leave alone. And changing it feels like admitting defeat. "Don't know… "
Izuku watches, looking on as these people, this cast of characters does their work. Izuku wonders what they're doing… just a little peak… No. That would be cheating as much as changing it would… even though they must admit there was a bit more than luck involved in getting Eri to keep coming to them. But then, what can Izuku do? What can Izuku be? While it's interesting, being here, looking after Eri and watching, it feels… almost pointless. It feels wrong, but Izuku doesn't know how to fix it without feeling like they had lost to Tragedy. "Who, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, I want to be."
"Cuckoo!"
It's been some time since Tragedy has left, Izuku knows. Enough time for him to become comfortable in this new life, enough time for him to wonder, was this worth it? It has to be, he thinks, it has to be, for I stood against Tragedy - against my only true companion for this. It has to be worth it. Izuku looks down at little Eri, and smiles, but it's empty. This is worth it, right?
"Cuckoo!"
He knows it's worth it for Eri, at the very least. Worth it to stay here for Izuku, for the kind boy who stays with her, who doesn't think of her as a curse. It's worth it, for her. For Izuku? He isn't quite sure yet.
"Cuckoo!"
Izuku sighs, and looks for something else, someone else, who is just as interesting. For something else to do that doesn't feel like Izuku is just going through the motions. Kacchan… Bakugou is interesting enough, but he is too rash and angry to ever be considered worth it. He's barely worth going to that school for.
"Cuckoo!"
There's an old man at the beach near where he walks to work at, who looks out at the sea, as if he's lost something. Izuku knows that the man is All Might, be he does not approach. Will not approach, for if he does, Izuku isn't sure he can hold himself back from breaking down on the man. That in and of itself is interesting, but not something he will do unless given no other choice.
"Cuckoo!"
There's a teenager like him who he sees every once in a while, who watches the hero and villain fights as much as he does, who is interesting enough. Kirishima, as he calls himself, wants to be a hero, and that is enough for Izuku to think him the same as everyone else. Although, Izuku is sad when he cannot seem to find him again after that conversation.
"Cuckoo!"
Izuku finds himself going through the motions once, and hates himself for it. He didn't pick up the story to just go through the motions. It's meant to be interesting, after all… but it isn't really being all that interesting. Then, aren't there parts of stories where it's meant to be boring? Izuku hopes there is, despite never truly finding them himself.
"Cuckoo!"
Izuku wants to give in, to tell Tragedy that they were right, that this should have ended where it did and that it should not have been continued, but he does not. Izuku isn't entirely sure as to why that is.
"Cuckoo!"
Izuku hears Tragedy's voice sometimes, in the background, mocking him. They aren't actually there though, they never are. Izuku knows they aren't for they would have revealed themselves to him already - Tragedy is a showoff like that. "You say Y-E-S to everything. Will that guarantee you a win?" Their voice sings, whispering in their ears, laughing at him. They tell him to give in, give up. That this story will never get better, that he was a fool for even trying. "Do you think you will be good enough, to love others and to be loved?"
There are times where Izuku thinks that he will believe them. That it won't get better, but he holds out hope. That it will get better no matter what Tragedy says, no matter how much Tragedy says it. "Oh, lord! Now I can see… the cutlery will keep on chasing me!" Their voice will follow them for as long as they try this, they know that. But even still, Izuku knows that they have a point, no matter how unwilling he is to accept it. "There's a fork in the road, I'll do as I am told. And I don't know, don't know, don't know, don't know, don't know… Who, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, I want to be."
Tragedy cackles, their voice mean at this, poking and prodding at him to just accept the truth, just accept it! He will never be good enough to make the story interesting enough for it to have been worth it! Never! "We are the spoons, metally mean. We scooped our way into your dreams, to knock the knives out bloody cold...And lead you down the unforsaken road! The story won't get any more interesting that it has already become. It can only get worse from here.
Izuku sighs, accepting it. But then, he has always been spiteful. It may never get any better, but Izuku will live it to the fullest. As full as a quirkless child who was lucky to be a babysitter can be, at least. "There's a fork in the road, I'll do as I am told, and I don't know, don't know, don't know, don't know, don't know who, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, I want to be!"
"Cuckoo!"