Hey! Stop Reading This Fic On Here! Go check out the full version on AO3

/works/24652015/chapters/62416312#workskin

Having been given the delightful news—his quest being very near—Izuku had assumed that he would be getting to his destination within the hour. Oh, how much of a joke that was. It had turned out that the red dots on his map were aggressive animals, and they had littered the mountain. How did Izuku figure that out? Well, luckily, he had only run into a strangely dirty raccoon that had tried to attack him. Why was that a good sign? That's for you to figure out. Random dimension… yeah, ther're probably evil demon creatures laying about.

At first, Izuku had thought that the red dots were bugs and mushrooms, but once he ran into the devilish raccoon, he was quick to return to the guideline handbook— {Red dots: Aggressive Creatures! Make Sure To Take Advantage Of This Feature!— and wished that he had looked more into it.

Oh! You might be wondering, what happened to Izuku? He ran. Once Izuku had come into the encounter with the raccoon, he instinctually blasted it with an 'Ice Ray' which ended up, not only freezing the raccoon's feet to the ground, but also leveled up his Frost Bite to level two. According to the handbook, this allowed him to use the spell for a longer duration and used up fewer magic points. After freezing the raccoon in place, Izuku didn't hesitate to get back onto the trail and continue his quest. Of course, he would try to explore a little bit on his own, that numb-skull!

[58.22 m]

A sudden smile seemed to crawl onto Izuku's face. Unknowingly, he had been following the luminescent green string for quite some time and had ended up reaching an endpoint. The problem? The string was now entirely wedged into the side of the mountain. Not only was there no slope , but it was a wall of dirt, moss, vines, flowers, and strange stones around the entrance . Despite this, Izuku moved around a bit and noticed that the string had been leading at an upwards angle, almost 70 degrees to be exact, through a crevice in the wall.

Being stuck in the loop was starting to, in a sense, scare Izuku. He had been pondering in place for a short while, staring and analyzing the situation, but had come up with nothing. This continued for some time, until Izuku finally had the epiphany…

Staring long and hard at the wall of dirt in front of him, Izuku called out to his innate abilities, "Analyze."

[Lesser Hidden Passage: This strange bundle of dirt and nature is actually a hidden shortcut to the top of the mountain! Good eye!]

[Analysis Has Level Up To 9!]

'It was a p-passageway?' Izuku thought, moving closer to the dirt wall. He softly layed his palm against the wall, feeling its edges, before accidentally pushing it inwards. Strange. Trying it again, but with more force, the wall began to give in, almost like a double-door. In fact, it was exactly like that, and the door started to open, revealing a somewhat long staircase going upwards. Izuku was hesitant to enter at first, but quickly made his ascent after analyzing the inside a little bit more; both naturally, and ' quirk given. '

Make Sure To Check Out The Original Here! artwork/QRR4E

Once Izuku reached the top of the stairs, he was delighted to see the green string come to an end, yet not quite finished. It was certainly nearly faded out but had extended past a conveniently tall bush that stood just a yard from the exit. First, he checked for stickers, or any strange oils on the fauna, but found nothing. After a quick Observe and Analysis , he had actually learned that the bush was a 'Mountain Whipper,' originally named after the death of somebody by the name of Geronimo Kentavis III. Izuku had no clue who that was but remembered to write it down in his notebook just in case. You have leveled up Note Taking!

Then, he stepped on a branch, and his quest popup flashed red—his map, too. He hadn't realized it before, but there had been a small green dot just a few meters in front of him. {Green Markers: Friendly Or Non-aggressive Entities} That was the moment he remembered his other quest, "Find Love."

"Ha—" a feminine voice began, making crunching sounds beneath their feet as they moved around. "Hello?" the voice continued. Izuku seemed to sweat at her voice, taking a step back from the Whipper bush, only to step on another stick. His map lit up, and his eyes turned.

"This is not a joke! State your presence, immediately! Or else! "

The previously green dot had suddenly become orange. {Orange Markers: Entities That Are Slowly Becoming Aggressive. If Not Dealt With Soon, This Will Turn Into A Red Marker}

'C-crap…' Izuku thought, giving in to his misfortune. And, as hard as it was, he put his hands above his head and passed through the bush. Finally passing through the Whipper, his quest screen appeared before him, congratulating him for finishing one of the quests, but not the other; he would've checked, but kept his eyes on the blade that was pointed directly between his eyes, merely a yard away. His eyes seemed to close in panic."I-I d-didn't mean to s-startle you!"

Now wielding a sword in hand, an eyebrow raised, she began, " how did you find this place? And state your name and birth-nation before coming any closer; for all I know, you may be a spy sent by the N-allë federation." The-what now?

Shaking, Izuku dared to open an eyelid, taking a glance at his capturer—his mind went numb. For the first time in his life, his heart had skipped a beat, several, even. The only problem was that this wasn't fear, joy, sadness, panic, shame, or even embarrassment. It was something entirely new, and it would be edged into his mind for eternity. His body went frozen, and he could feel an aching pain in the depths of his heart. He started to crack. Uh oh.

"Did you not hear me? I said, what's your name—"

"I-Izuku!" his hands found their way to his mouth as soon as he had shouted the words. There was an innocent look in his eyes as he bowed slightly, "s-sorry, I-I didn't m-mean to y-yell at you." A small silence passed, and the breeze seemed to pick up their hair, drifting gently in the wind. A tiny bundle of flower petals found themselves in that current, whizzing by them.

The girl in front of him seemed to lessen her handle on her rapier after this, but kept a firm grip non-the-less.

"Do you have a heritage name?" she asked, her voice becoming raspy in the cold mid-day air. 'A… heritage name? A last name?'

Izuku raised his head, "Izuku Midoriya… a-and I'm not from around here if that's what you mean," he lied. What was he supposed to say? I'm from another world? Was he even in another world to begin with, or was this still a big joke being played out by very unfortunate events? He wouldn't know. After saying his piece, he noticed that the orange marker had faded back into green, but it didn't seem to mean that the girl in front of him would put down her rapier. It might've gotten closer, actually.

With quick precision, she looked at Izuku's outfit and nodded approvingly; his uniform was similar to that of the scholars at the Kingdoms Magical-High. At first, she had assumed that it was a college uniform, but his punny appearance said otherwise.

"How did you get up here. This location is forbidden to the scholars of Bladelbem, you know?"

'Scholars of… Bladelbem? Like a school inside the kingdom, perhaps?' Izuku wondered. However, he was quick to respond, "W-well… you see, I-I u-um…" man, he hated lying, "I kind of got lost?" His heart started to pound again.

The girl seemed to raise a smirk at that but remained chivalrous with her stance—her brows started to loosen up. "Lost?" she sneered, only for Izuku to nod his way out of speaking.

"I-I figured t-that I could find my way back if I could get somewhere high enough… so I climbed the mountain—?"

"—Impossible. The only way to get up this mountain is by taking the passageway; how did you find it?"

That's when another bead of sweat had started to make its way down his face again. Would she even understand if he told her? No, probably not… looks like he's stuck with lying for right now.

"My… my quirk sensed it?" he replied. The girl seemed to tilt her head.

Liar Skill Has Leveled Up!

"Your… quirk? " she questioned, "Is that just another way of saying 'ability?' or 'Magic,' perhaps? "

Without going too far into it, he nodded again, agreeing, but he couldn't shake off the fact that… 'Do they call quirks magic or special abilities here?'

"Well, in that case, sorry for my sudden aggressiveness," a sudden chuckle made itself known, lightly tingling Izuku's ears. He'd never heard a more beautiful voice…

"Yeah, let's just keep this between us. Sorry for making it a scene—I won't tell the overwatch that you were here as an apology." Quickly, she slid her rapier back into her side holster and bowed her head. This was something that Izuku has never had the luxury of being a part of; nobody had bowed to him before, so it was only natural for him to do the same—only to end up hitting his head against hers in an audible Bonk .

VIT Has Leveled Up!

Instantly, Izuku's face turned bright red, and his heart seemed to sink—only for it to rise back up when the girl in front of him smiled. And laughed… 'Cute…'

Wait. Did he say that out loud—

His process of thought was cut short by a sentence-cutting cough. Looking back up at her, he could now see the red that had stained her face— "A-are you g-getting cold? S-should w-we… leave? " Now that he thought about it, and now that he'd brought up the subject, he hasn't felt cold since he arrived… He knew that it was, but it didn't poke at him, rather, he felt kind of at home.

" No ," she replied simply, "I'm an Ice-mage, just like you, actually." Izuku propped up at that, and she was swift to notice; "O-oh! My bad!" she apologized, "I could tell because of your fingers—also, your hair and eyes also give it away." There was that beautiful chuckle again.

'My eyes… and hair?' Izuku wondered, moving his hand towards his hair before tugging at the front. To his surprise—and absolute terror—his hair had turned into an icy light blue. In fact, as his fingers caressed his tangles, he could see and feel the comical snowflakes falling off. What would his mother think of this!? Then, his mind went backward as it remembered two very important things.

Appearance Has Changed Due To The Combined Arts Of Frost {ACTIVATED}

Description: Due to your permanent proficiency in the Arts Of The Cold, your hair has turned into an icy blue, replacing the forest green, but not the blacks. Due to your enhanced immunity to the cold, your eyes have changed to an icy blue, and your skin is now normally measured at 30 Degrees Fahrenheit. Bonus: When you are asleep, you form a protective shell of ice around your body to protect yourself, and those that accompany you for bed, from harm. This ability can be turned off in the settings menu; appearance is permanent…

And finally;

"I promise to bring you back as soon as I can!"

"Are you alright, there?" the girl asked, "you went, er, very pale for a second, y'know?"

"I-I'm fine! I-it's j-just that… th—uh, you n-never told me your name?"

" My name?" she asked, almost as if curious herself, a finger on the tip of her rapier's handle; she replied anyway, but not before covering the handle in ice.

"I'm Hina Katsuma , and I'm a Senior at Sentaba, the school for upcoming Elemental Mages."

She gave him a warm smile. Izuku returned it, albeit awkwardly.

"Would you care to tag along? I have to head back anyway; good thing it's the weekend—we should both get back to our studies before dawn."