Chapter Three:
Izuku knew his parents would be furious at him for disobeying them and going to the fae realm. But he had no choice except to come clean. The stakes could be too high. First, he cast a charm on himself to check for any magical tracking. Then he flew home with all the speed of his magic. By some stroke of luck, he did not run into any annoying human authorities to lecture him about using his "quirk" in public, because he wasn't in the mood.
Upon the sound of footsteps, Yoichi flung open the front door. His eyes were red and puffy from crying. His hair had turned jet black, which meant negative emotions had consumed him. Izuku had only seen that shade on his poppa a couple times in his entire life. The last time had been when Sanzou had taken a bullet to the stomach during a vigilante mission. Izuku's wings drooped. He'd been trying very hard to convince himself that perhaps there had been a misunderstanding over All for One's intentions and exposing his identity would turn out harmless. But Yoichi wouldn't be so upset without a very good reason.
"Izuku!" Yoichi flung his arms around his son and squeezed. Sniffling, he said, "I'm glad you're back. I know you must be busy on your first day of school, but when you ignored my texts and calls, I got…worried. I've talked to Kaiji and Sanzou. We've agreed to tell you everything. We should have sooner, and I'm sorry."
His parents didn't know he'd been in the fae realm. Of course they didn't know. Izuku squirmed. He ought to tell them right away, but…maybe he should find out what they had to say first. (Deep down, he knew he was stalling.)
Yoichi rubbed small tears from his eyes. His ears drooped. His tattoos had completely stopped moving, the dragon and tiger sheepishly hiding their faces from view.
Quietly, Izuku said, "I'm not as angry any longer. I know you must have had your reasons." And he felt too guilty to be properly furious.
"You're such a good boy! Too forgiving!" Yoichi swept Izuku off his feet in another hug. Half his hair turned white, streaks running through the black.
Taking Izuku by his hand, Yoichi led him to the living room. Kaiji and Sanzou sat on the couch.
Clearing his throat, Sanzou said, "I'm sorry. We both talked Yoichi into waiting longer to tell you the truth. We'd planned to tell you as soon as you were old enough to know how to lie. But after All for One got unsealed…we freaked out."
Kaiji nodded. "I'm sorry, too. For what it's worth, I've never lied to you about anything else." His face scrunched up in thought. "Except that one time I told you that I didn't know who'd eaten the last pocky, that was me. Oh, and once I told you that I was going out to the shooting range when I was shopping for your birthday presents. I think that's it."
Izuku barked out a small laugh. He sat down in the armchair across from his parents. "Please just spit it out before curiosity makes me do something else batty. No matter what you have to say, you're still my parents."
Yoichi settled on the couch between his partners. "It's a long story. Um, should I start at the beginning? Or do you want me to get straight to the part where we adopted you?"
"Please start at the beginning," Izuku said. A longer story would give him time to figure out how to explain his own reckless actions.
Yoichi began.
Once upon a time, two brothers and their mother lived in an impoverished village in an isolated corner of the Summer Realm. One day, they returned home from school to find their house had burned down. They knew their mother was dead because her body lay on the doorstep, face-down with a spear between her wings. Summer court soldiers swarmed the area. The older brother put a hand over his younger brother's mouth and cast a spell to conceal them long enough to slip away. The little brother was too young to fly, so the older one carried him on his back. The younger one pressed his nose into his brother's shoulder and tried to cry silently, tears streaming down his cheeks. The older brother reached up to squeeze his hand, and said, "It's just us from now on."
The two brothers had the blood of summer royalty, which was a death sentence. The jealous and grasping Summer Monarch brooked no challenges to their authority. The older brother said that the only way for them to be safe would be to overthrow the current monarch. They got disguises. The brothers joined the guard, which under the old monarch took even children. They rose in the ranks while hiding their true powers.
The older brother proposed that they swap names. Names held great power for the fae. All fae used fake names, because anyone who knew their true name could command them against their will. However, there were benefits to swapping names as well. If the brothers knew each other's names, then they could share their magic, they would know if the other one was in danger, they could find each other across great distances, and their healing and protective spells would have greater effect.
Different courts had different traditions for naming. The Summer Monarch decreed they would name each child so they could have total control. The brothers' mother had defied this order to name them herself, then afterward cast a spell to make herself forget their names. Good parents did this, bad ones kept the ability to control their children forever. Sometimes close families or partners would share their names so that they had equal control over each other, but could share the magical benefits. It took a great deal of trust, to believe the other person would never give you a false name, use yours against you, or carelessly give away your name.
The younger brother loved and trusted his big brother unconditionally, so he immediately agreed.
Kaiji snorted. "All for One was a bastard even back then."
"I don't think so," Yoichi said with a frown. "Big brother could have given me a fake name instead of his real one. Back in those days, he trusted me too."
Sanzou said, "Don't you two start that old argument right now. We have a story to tell our son." He gestured at Izuku. "Go on."
The older brother was clever and charismatic. He turned the loyalty of the guard to himself, slayed the previous monarch, and crowned himself the new king. The younger brother believed they would finally be safe and happy.
But the older brother claimed that it was not safe for his younger brother to venture out without a contingent of guards. The court should have grown safer over time as their power stabilized, but the Summer King's paranoia only increased, until he insisted that his younger brother stay in the palace. Insisted using his true name.
At first, the younger brother assumed that if his beloved big brother would use his name, then it must be important. He went along, though he kept asking if he could help his brother in any way. He was given some meaningless tasks arranging parties and decorating the palace.
The younger brother paid close attention to the political situation, and he did not like what he learned. When they'd been children, they'd talked about how they could spread prosperity across the summer realm and stop other children from ever being forced into the guard to eat. Instead the new Summer King seemed only interested in increasing his guards and expanding his power. He started encroaching on other territories. The younger brother felt very unhappy that there were still kidnapped human slaves working in the palace. Hadn't they been planning to save everyone? His older brother let him free a few of them, then kept the rest working out of sight.
As the younger brother became more upset, the older brother started commanding him more. He was ordered to stay within the palace walls at all times and fight anyone who tried to take him out. He was ordered to sit still for grooming and hand-feeding at his brother's whim. He was ordered to wear certain clothes like a dress-up doll. He was ordered to stop complaining about the slaves and stop helping them escape.
Fed up, the younger brother screamed, "I order you to stop giving me orders, H—"
But he could not finish the name, because first, the older brother bound the younger one to eternal silence.
Throughout the Summer Realm, the Summer Prince was known for being beautiful and frail. He made appearances at banquets and festivals dressed in fine clothing and jewelry, always close to his brother's side. He carried a pen and notebook with him to write in. The Summer Prince couldn't speak.
"He what?!" Izuku shrieked. "I'm going to kill him!" Izuku couldn't believe he'd had a civilized meal with the fae who'd bound his poppa to silence. He should have stuck a fork into All for One's eye.
"That's my boy," Kaiji said with a laugh, wiping a tear from his eye.
"Why not just make you forget his name?" Izuku asked. "Wouldn't that have been easier and safer?"
Yoichi said, "We could only share magic and know each other's locations because we had each other's names. If big brother had made me forget his name, then he would have lost that. He wanted the benefits without the risks of trusting me."
Sanzou clarified, "Not that they shared magics—All for One drained Yoichi of all his power. He was always obsessed with power. Later he figured out how to turn fae into mindless servants by draining them of their magic, and it all went downhill from there."
Izuku asked, "Couldn't he have just bound you not to speak his name? And couldn't you have written his name down?"
Yoichi said, "He ordered me not to write his name, or give anyone clues, or a whole long list of loophole closers. And yes, he could have let me speak as long as I didn't say his name. He'd just gotten tired of arguing with me."
"Narcissistic asshole," Kaiji muttered.
Yoichi said, "Since we're all being honest, I should tell you that I'm not technically banned from the fae realm like Kaiji and Sanzou. In fact, my brother's people would actively drag me back if they found me. But I can never return or my brother would use my name against me again." True names didn't work in the human realm. Fae whose names became too widely known would flee over.
"He wouldn't be able to use your name at the marketplace, that would count as an attack," Sanzou said. "Even so, I wouldn't risk it. I'd be nervous to even take you into the winter court."
"I'm glad I don't have that problem," Kaiji murmured. Names held no power over humans, fortunately for them since they spread their names around so easily.
Izuku had been named Mikumo Akatani by Yoichi. Then Yoichi had taken a potion to forget the name as soon as Izuku was old enough to know it himself. He wondered why All for One hadn't named him. He nearly asked. But then his papa started speaking.
Kaiji said, "My turn, next." He bit his lip, tensing.
When the story began again, Izuku felt relieved to forestall his admission a bit longer.
Once upon a time, there was a boy who never stopped being angry.
The boy was human, but the fae realm was all he could remember. He'd been stolen away from his parents as a baby, a sickly fae changeling left in his place. The fae took human children to obtain helpful slaves who could handle metal tools, for entertainment, and because they could. No one in the human realm knew about the captives. No one was coming to save him.
An elderly human woman looked after the boy, until her mind started to go. In a forgetful state, she dropped a dish. Their annoyed fae owner ordered her to dance until she fell over dead. That was the boy's earliest memory. It was the first time he felt angry. It would not be the last.
When barely out of diapers, the boy was put in charge of looking after other stolen babies. Frequently the children would be sold off and taken away. The boy tried to fight back every time one of his children got taken, and was beaten every time. Each time, his anger and hatred grew deeper and more vicious.
The boy was sold and sent to work in the fields when still pre-pubescent. He hated it and did as little as possible, no matter how many times he got lashed. The overseer got annoyed and enchanted the boy to work until he fell down, so the boy jumped off a barn roof and broke his own arm. He would rather hurt himself than be any use to his captors.
The other field slaves kept their heads down and tried to avoid attention from the fae. Sometimes, nobles came by and hunted the slaves for sport. A human life was worth less than an insect in the fae realm. The boy tended to stand out, which was not a good thing. Once he bumped into a fae while running away and got cursed with boils all over his body. Another time, a laughing fae woman stripped him naked because she wanted to see what a human body looked like, then cursed him to dance nude for her amusement. He made several escape attempts, even though he had nowhere to go. The fae found his defiance so entertaining that they let him live. Once when he hadn't been doing anything except working, a group of fae teenagers pushed him into a lake and threw rocks at him every time he tried to swim to shore. He sank down and barely managed to hold his breath long enough for them to get bored and wander off. That night, the boy tossed and turned with lurid fantasies of escaping home to his fellow humans, bringing back an army, and killing all the fae.
The boy's anger was so hot and dangerous that even the other slaves avoided him for fear of getting dragged down with him. Like most humans, he had a quirk—a minor ability that let him change the speed and trajectory of small items. He used it to toss pebbles at the overseer without getting caught. The pebbles also let him open latches. He ruined several shipments of grain on-purpose by letting the insects in, before he got caught. Then he was whipped so badly they clearly meant to kill him.
The other slaves tended to the boy the best they could with no medicine, then left him in bed as they returned to work. The boy tossed and turned, feverish and knowing he would die soon. He didn't want to die in a narrow cot in a windowless shack. He wanted to see sunlight one last time. So he crawled out of bed and staggered down the dirt road. He did not know where he was going or how long he walked. He simply wanted to die free. Finally, he collapsed.
The boy woke up to the buzzing of flies around his injuries and the smell of horse dung near his nose. A soldier dressed in the livery of the Summer Guard knelt over him. The boy punched on instinct, knocking the soldier's helmet off. The fae had shoulder-length white hair and green eyes with white pupils. He was only a child himself, about the same age as the human boy.
"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," the fae solider said gently. He extended his hand, green light glowing. The boy's back already felt less painful, and as the light touched him, his bleeding cuts healed. To his shock, he realized the fae was saving his life.
"Leave me alone!" The boy pushed the fae away. "I don't want help from a monster like you! I'd rather die!" Secretly, the boy longed for death. He wanted to kill as many fae as he could, or at least take one of the bastards down with him, then die himself. Then his suffering and anger would finally be over and he could rest.
The child-soldier landed with a grunt. Picking himself up and dusting off his bottom, he said, "Don't be ridiculous. You're a human, you don't have to repay your debts. If you hate fae, then you should take anything you can get from me and use it to get revenge."
"You want me to take revenge on you?" the boy asked, dumbfounded. He would be certain that there must be some trap, except fae couldn't lie. They could commit all manner of cruelties and deceptions, but no outright lie could pass their lips.
The child-soldier shrugged. "Hopefully not me in particular, but…I wouldn't blame you. Not after the things I've seen happen to humans. I don't want to be in the guard, but I have to eat."
It was the first time it had ever occurred to the boy that not all fae were wealthy nobles or slave-holders. Some fae didn't have enough to eat and had to work under masters they disliked. He felt uncomfortable with this revelation. It had been easier when he could just hate all fae. His anger had sustained him through the misery of his life.
While the boy was stunned in shock, the child-soldier took advantage to grab his shoulder and finish healing him. He said, "There are escaped human slaves living in the forest. We've been sent to hunt them down a few times, but I led the others astray. If you go there, you'll find shelter." He drew a map in the dirt. "Erase this after you've memorized it." Then the child-soldier turned and walked away.
The boy leapt up and shouted, "Hey, you! I hate fae, so I refuse to be in debt to you! Someday, I'll save you in return!"
The child-soldier shot a cynical look over his shoulder. "Do your best to stay alive to keep your promise." A smile flashed across his face, transforming the baby fat in his cheeks with a hint of future beauty.
The boy's heart hammered. For the first time in a long time, he felt an emotion that wasn't anger.
"I fell in love with you at first sight," Kaiji said, kissing Yoichi's forehead.
"Aww! My hero!" Yoichi hugged him in return.
Sanzou chuckled. "You fell for the first person who was ever nice to you. That's understandable."
"You're a cynic." Yoichi elbowed Sanzou. "It was destined love."
"Papa!" Tears streamed down Izuku's cheeks. He'd seen the scars on his father's back, so he'd had some idea that Kaiji had a hard past, but hearing the cruelties his father had experienced as a child broke his heart. Izuku leapt over the coffee table, half taking flight, and flung his arms around Kaiji's neck. "I'm so sorry!"
"It was a long time ago," Kaiji said, patting Izuku's back.
Izuku wept hard enough to soak his father's shirt. "I'll never forgive anyone who hurt you!"
"I settled that score a long time ago, too," Kaiji said.
The boy grew into a young man. The man became the leader of a gang of human rebels. Whereas before the humans had only been trying to hide and survive, their new leader was determined to fight back. He led attacks on fae travelers, stealing weapons and magical items. The fae court used cold iron in the walls around their territory to repel attacks, and the humans stole chunks of it. The leader sought out two things above all else: weapons from the human realm, and a way home. Though rare, some fae had artifacts letting them snag items from the human realm. The leader learned the locations of several portals in the courts, if they could rally the other slaves and break through. The fae didn't even bother to count their slaves or keep close track of them. Fae had a very low opinion of human intelligence or threat potential, and besides, the fae assumed the humans had nowhere to flee. Rebels were able to slip in amongst the slaves, spread word of the escape plan, and gather information.
The rebels targeted nobles, seeking out the items they needed. When the Summer Prince's caravan passed through, there was a brief discussion about if it was worth attacking. The rebels believed not. The guards were too heavy. But their leader could not let such a rare chance pass—a chance to steal treasure and a chance to kill one of the hated royals.
Late at night, the leader used a stolen invisibility cloak to sneak into the prince's tent. He decided it would be better to kill the prince first, to remove the risk of him waking up during the theft. He knelt over the bed, an iron dagger raised. The fae underneath him was hauntingly beautiful, but the leader hated too much to care. He hesitated because something in those perfect features seemed familiar.
Green eyes snapped open. The leader gazed into the white pupils of the same fae who had saved his life years ago. His hand froze, dagger hovering in the air.
Soldiers burst into the tent, and the leader realized by attacking the prince, he must have triggered a magical alarm.
The prince moved the fastest. He shoved the leader under the bed and cast a spell to cloak him from sight and magical detection.
Soon soldiers filled the tent. The leader crouched low to the ground, his heart hammering. How had that scrawny, ill-fed boy become a prince? And why had he saved a human criminal again?
A commander with a plume in his helmet asked worriedly, "You didn't attempt to harm yourself, did you, Your Highness?"
The prince shook his head and mimed falling out of the bed. He wore a pale nightgown that left his legs bare. The light silk clung to his body. All of the guards except the commander turned their eyes away from him. It surprised the rebel leader that the guards even dared be in the prince's chambers at all. Where did they get their nerve?
"We have to check you for weapons. That's the protocol."
The prince nodded and held out his arms. The leader watched in astonishment as the prince was patted down. Since when could common soldiers treat royalty like this?
After the soldiers left, the leader emerged from under the bed. The prince wrote a note and held it up.
"Sorry, I can't read," the leader said.
The prince's face fell. He looked very sorry. His mouth opened but no sound came out.
"You can't talk?" the leader asked. Funny, there had been nothing wrong with his voice last time they'd met.
The prince shook his head. He scribbled on his notepad again, then held it out. There was a crude drawing of the camp with stick figures indicating guards. An arrow drew a path to the best escape route.
"You saved my life again. I'm grateful." The leader wanted to ask why, but it seemed cruel to ask complicated questions of someone who couldn't talk. Instead, he settled for a yes-or-no question. "Are you a prisoner?"
The prince nodded.
"You could escape with me. My invisibility cloak would fit two people. It wouldn't be safe for you back at my camp, too many people hate fae, but I'd take you anywhere you want to go."
The prince sighed. He walked up to the edge of the tent, then froze with his leg raised.
"You can't leave." The leader frowned. "Did someone—it must be the king—magically bind you by your true name? Is that why you can't speak?"
The prince nodded.
The Summer Prince, the jewel of the summer court, had been trapped and enslaved. The leader felt shook. "You've saved my life twice, so I'll definitely return the favor next time I see you. Do you want to come to the human realm with me? Then no one will be able to use your name against you."
The prince eyed him with one raised eyebrow. The leader got the impression the prince would have discouraged him from risking himself, except he wasn't taking the offer even slightly seriously. The leader scowled. "Though I may not be a fae, I still keep my oaths." He crossed his hand over his chest. "I swear that I'll free you."
The prince laughed, a completely silent sound, but it made his face even more beautiful. He hurried the leader out of his tent.
Yoichi said, "For the record, my note was trying to warn Kaiji about how much danger he'd be in if my brother caught him, tell him that all the items in my tent had tracking magic on them so he shouldn't steal them, and give him instructions on how to escape."
Kaiji shook his head. "I'll never understand why you saved me after I came to kill you."
"I didn't blame you," Yoichi said.
"That's the part I don't understand." Kaiji put an arm around him. "But I'll always be grateful." They kissed. Yoichi's hair turned bright red and his flower tattoos bloomed. Sometimes his hair color gave his son a little bit too much information about his emotional state.
Izuku rolled his eyes. "You two and your PDA."
Yoichi snuggled over to Sanzou and kissed him passionately.
Izuku rolled his eyes all the way to the back of his skull. "You three and your PDA!"
Leaning against Yoichi, Sanzou said with very little enthusiasm, "I suppose it's my turn."
Once upon a time, a changeling was left in place of a stolen human baby. The changeling came from a branch family of the royal autumn court, but he'd been born with a lung illness and the court healer decried that he would not live longer than a year. It was customary among the fae to leave sickly babies in the human realm and take a strong, healthy human child instead who could at least be used as labor. Sometimes if the babies survived, the parents would come back for them, but this changeling was one of a huge family and quickly forgotten.
However, the changeling's human parents did not give up on him. They dragged the baby to doctors around the country and nearly bankrupted themselves paying for expensive surgery abroad. His mother stayed up late at night holding his hand when he had coughing fits. His father tinkered with his leg braces to make them fit better and decorated them with colorful stickers together with his child. They tried out different meal plans until they found foods that his sensitive stomach could digest. Under their tender care, his health steadily improved.
The changeling was a solemn-faced, often silent child whose inability to lie frequently put him in awkward social situations. His parents believed he had autism, so they read countless books and enrolled him in therapy. (The therapist later concluded he was not autistic but he still found the sessions very helpful.) The parents fought a legal battle with his school to get accommodations for his allergy to iron, after his teachers assumed he was faking it.
His quirk was a very strange one. It let him do all manner of things: he could decay organic material with a touch, yet his vegetable garden yielded the best harvest in the neighborhood. The trees in their backyard just kept growing bigger until the neighbors complained. He had supernatural reflexes and could summon gusts of wind. His mother borrowed his ability to send her to sleep with a touch to combat her insomnia. He could hypnotize people looked into his eyes. Like many mental abilities, his was considered villainous. He wouldn't have messed with anyone's mind because he hated deception, but the other kids didn't believe that. His parents fought two more legal battles over quirk discrimination and bullying.
After trying a couple sports, the changeling settled on fencing. He loved the strategy of battle and training his body to move as he desired. He was very good at it. His parents attended all his matches, even though neither of them had ever been interested in sports. His mother knitted him a lucky headband to wear. After his coach called him a prodigy and recommended him for special training, his father quietly sold off his stamp collection to pay for it. In the same year that he graduated college, the changeling won an Olympics gold medal in fencing. His parents gave him a functional samurai sword, specially made without iron, as a congratulations gift.
The changeling often had difficulty adjusting to human society, but he considered his childhood happy, because he grew up surrounded by the warm and unconditional love of his parents. He might have continued in blissful ignorance for the rest of his life, if he hadn't run into another fae at a fencing competition who told him everything.
It would have been one thing to learn that he'd been adopted. It was another to learn that he'd been swapped at birth, his parents' real child stolen away. From what he heard, humans were treated as slaves and entertainment in the fae realm. It made the changeling sick to the stomach. He could no longer receive hugs from his parents without being overwhelmed by guilt. He decided he had to tell them.
His parents had trouble believing it, at first. But the other fae had taught the changeling a bit of magic to show them. They told him that he was their son no matter what, and they loved him just the same. As they hugged him, he had no doubt they meant it.
But late at night, the changeling overheard his mother crying. His father asked him with tears in his eyes if human children were loved in the fae realm. The changeling had never wished so hard that he could lie. His parents treated him the exact same afterward. Their love did not change one bit. But he could tell they were wracked with guilt for never even noticing that their son had been kidnapped. His mother in particular seemed to feel that she was a failure for not being able to tell the difference and for not protecting her baby. She sank into a depressed state and struggled to leave her bed.
The changeling wandered around his family home, looking at the faded wallpaper and out-of-date kitchen. He wondered if they would live in a nicer house if they'd had a less difficult, expensive child. He went to his room and looked around at the awards and trophies. Everything he had received, all the love and care, had been stolen from the silly humans who had raised a cuckoo chick as their own, while their real child suffered as a slave. His stomach twisted. He could not take the guilt any longer. He had to make this right.
The changeling trained his magic. He heavily researched the fae and integrated himself among those living in the human realm for the sake of obtaining more information. From one of the refugees, he purchased a charm that used two drops of his parents' blood to track their son. He took his samurai sword and tied his lucky headband around his forehead. Then he went to the fae realm to bring back his parents' stolen child or die trying.
Izuku had always assumed that his grandparents came from Kaiji's side of the family, since they were human. However, his grandparents had treated all three of his parents like their own children. Kaiji, Sanzou, and even Yoichi referred to them as Mom and Pops. Izuku visited his grandparents in their house up north every holiday and had many fond memories of them. His grandfather loved quirk analysis just like him, and his grandmother hand-sewed clothes for him with wing holes. They had both doted on him.
Sanzou said, "Your grandparents never understood much about the fae realm. They don't know that you're a summer royal, or what that means. You mustn't blame them, they never lied to you."
Izuku nodded. "I don't blame them."
Kaiji ran his fingers through his hair. "I never told them the details about my past. I thought it would be too upsetting." He shrugged. "Besides, I'm not big on talking about it."
Yoichi said, "Now we get to the part of this story more relevant to your past." He swallowed. "My next part."
It was a total coincidence that the changeling arrived in the fae realm on the same day that the Summer Prince decided to seal away his brother.
The prince had been bound with many orders: not to harm his brother, not to harm himself, not to try to escape. After a careful analysis for loopholes, the prince concluded he could not possibly kill his brother no matter how much he wanted to by that point. The king had ordered his brother "Do not attempt to harm me by my own definition of harm." The fae used such language to prevent loopholes. However, if his deluded older brother could claim to be protecting him by locking him up, then the prince concluded that a nice long nap would clearly not count as harm by his brother's own definition. In fact, maybe it would even improve a certain someone's grumpy temper!
It took years of planning. The prince carefully requested gifts with the magical materials he needed. He created a paper charm with his brother's true name using a collage of letters, since he could not write the name down. He smiled and played along like a compliant doll. Not only did he allow his brother to handfeed him and snuggle him like a stuffed animal, he encouraged it. One night, as his older brother slept with his arms around him, the prince cursed his brother to sleep forever, then raised up a glowing coffin around the bed to prevent anyone from interfering with his spell.
And it was once again a total coincidence that the Summer Court found their king trapped in eternal slumber on the same day that the human slaves revolted.
Izuku raised his hand. "Is this why you three keep a glass case of mystery charms in the basement, next to a label In case of psychotic brother, break glass and a hammer?" He'd always assumed that had been a movie reference or a joke.
Yoichi coughed and twiddled his thumbs. "The glass protects the charms from being exposed to cold iron. I've been creating charms to seal my brother every month since I learned he'd woken up. They're time-consuming and it's a waste of magic, but—"
Sanzou reached over and squeezed Yoichi's hand. "It's not a waste of magic if it makes you feel better."
Kaiji muttered, "At this rate we'll need them."
Yoichi told Izuku, "I'll teach you how to use a sealing charm later. It should be easier to put All for One to sleep after I laid the groundwork with the first sealing. The problem is getting close enough to touch him. I gave one of my charms to King All Might, but he hasn't succeeded yet. I don't dare get within range to let my brother control me again."
Kaiji said, "Before the magic lesson, let's finish our story."
The rebels stole an enchanted bag that let them snag items from the human realm, and they used it to bring in thousands of guns. They made their own bullets from pure iron. They distributed the weapons among the slaves. Critically, they obtained several machine guns. And the humans rose up in an angry, armed mob determined to slaughter any fae between them and the portal to the human world.
The fae were not prepared. Most of the local fae had never even been to the human realm, except in the brief moments necessary to steal a baby. Many had never even heard of guns. In fae eyes, humans were pitiable and laughably weak.
The entire fae realm would never forget the sight of the Winter Queen lying dead at the feet of a mere human with iron bullets swirling in the air around him.
Using a pair of stolen gauntlets, the rebel leader could use his quirk to manipulate iron bullets with precision. The iron all over his body protected him from magic. After killing the queen, he took a golden apple off her body that healed the worst of his injuries. While leading the attack to free the slaves in the winter mines, the leader slaughtered his way through enough nobility that a half-human, orphaned changeling later rose to become the next winter monarch for lack of anyone else to put on the throne. This bloodbath earned him a name that the fae would only speak in whispers: "The Iron Maelstrom."
As the rest of the slaves fled through the portals, their leader made his way to the Summer Palace, alone. He did not intend to put anyone else's life at risk, not with his comrades so close to their freedom. But he had a promise to keep.
"That's why there aren't any slaves in the fae realm today," Kaiji concluded.
"Phew." Izuku had been hoping so, since he hadn't seen any humans at the marketplace. He canceled a couple plans in his head.
Sanzou said, "After that, new laws were passed with heavy punishments for fae who revealed their existence to humans or brought any humans to the fae realm."
"Not out of compassion or any remorse for their crimes, mind you." Kaiji snorted. "The fae nobles realized if they got their asses kicked by a slave revolt, they weren't going to win a proper war with humanity."
Yoichi said, "It was the first time most fae had come into contact with modern human weapons. Time moves slowly for fae. In the past, a single fae could usually beat even a large number of humans in a fight. But quirks were a game-changer."
"Guns were even more of a game-changer," Kaiji said dryly. "To say nothing of nukes. Even more importantly, humans outnumber magical creatures ten thousand to one."
Sanzou murmured, "Not that war would necessarily occur if the truth came out. I think quirks have made humanity more accepting of people in different forms. Not universally, there's still discrimination, yet we here can all testify that a society with room for all kinds of powers has room for magic too. But if humans first learned of the fae by finding out their children were being stolen…nothing could possibly anger any species more than a threat to their young. They would have come with an army."
Feeling a little nervous, Izuku asked, "Why didn't the freed slaves tell everyone?"
"We negotiated a hefty compensation with the new monarchs to keep our mouths shut." Kaiji shrugged. "A war would ultimately have been bad for both humans and fae, and I got my chance to shoot slave owners on my way out. I killed anyone who tried to stop me from escaping and left those who cowered with an iron bullet in the leg to remember me by. We wanted vengeance and got vengeance—any more would have been dragging in uninvolved parties. But honestly, if I hadn't met Yoichi, then I might have started a war and to hell with the consequences." Kaiji glanced at Yoichi with a gentle expression. "I had an unhealthy amount of hate in my heart, back then."
"New monarchs." Izuku counted mentally. "Papa took down the old Winter Queen, and Poppa put the Summer King to sleep. What about the other two?"
"My group never attacked Spring. They only take abused human children, and raise them as their own. They even sheltered escaped slaves, despite pressure from the other courts to turn us over. We had no grudge against them. They've always been the good court, at least by fae standards. As for Autumn—" Kaiji pointed. "Sanzou took down the Autumn King. It was a big help to our revolt, let me tell you that."
The changeling returned to the autumn court greeted with a banquet in his honor. After all, he was lost royalty. When he'd been weak, he'd been worth nothing, but now the other fae saw a strong and capable prince. The various political factions of the court were quick to court him. His parents welcomed him as if they'd never thrown him away.
In the autumn court, each baby fae was named by the king to ensure he could control them. His memory was kept perfect by magic. The changeling didn't consider it anything personal when he put his sword through the king's back. He'd simply needed to kill the only person who could stop him.
The court rose up, baying for blood. The changeling had an escape route prepared but found it blocked by a giant oak tree sprouting from the ground. He took down two royal knights before he was cornered.
Then the changeling went berserk.
The autumn fae were the children of the twilight, the dying of the summer as it turned into winter, the border between life and death. They had a special gift. Autumn fae were generally considered weaker than summer or winter. But at the price of draining their lifeforce, an autumn fae could summon a brief burst of incredible power as a dying gasp.
As the berserker rage filled the changeling, his hair grew longer, his nails turned into claws, and his entire body glowed. A trail of leaves, a howling wind, and a smoky burning scent followed in his wake.
When an autumn fae went berserk, for a brief window until they died, nothing except a royal could halt their rampage. And when a royal autumn fae went berserk, all four courts fled to hunker down from the storm.
The changeling had learned that it was forbidden for human slaves to leave because they knew the existence of the fae and might expose magical creatures to humanity. Since he would not be able to buy his target's freedom, he'd used his final option. He'd already lived longer than he ever would have without his parents' loving care. Even if he died in this place, then he would ensure that his parents still had a son afterward.
Rather than fight a walking catastrophe, the fae hid and waited for the berserker to die on his own. The changeling who they would later call the Omnicidal Prince moved toward the summer court, following his tracking charm and leaving a trail of decay in his wake.
After sealing his brother's bed under every layer of magic he could summon, the summer prince sat in an armchair and waited. His brother's orders still bound him. He could not try to escape this room. He did not know what would happen to him after the court uncovered what he'd done. His brother's followers might want vengeance, though they would fear to kill him. His brother's enemies were more likely to do away with him in order to clear their path to power. But he did not fear death compared to an eternity as a living doll.
It was strange that no one had arrived yet. The sound of commotion drifted from the outside.
The door fell with a spray of splinters. A human stood with his foot raised from kicking it down. Flashing a smile, the leader said, "I'm here to repay my debt, Your Highness."
The prince had a million things he wanted to say, yet nothing came out of his parted lips.
The leader laughed at the shocked expression. His armor was smudged and covered in icicles. He had bruises all over his visible skin. A tattered bandage wrapped around his side. In that moment, that grimy face was the most beautiful sight the prince had seen in his entire life. Extending a hand, the leader said, "Come with me, and I'll get you out of here."
The prince longed with all his heart to take that hand, but then his orders took over. A vine rose up and slapped the hand away. He could barely control himself from stabbing that vine into the human's heart while his guard was down.
Frowning, the leader dropped his hand. "You don't want to leave? I'm not gonna force you."
Tears filling his eyes, the summer prince frantically shook his head.
The leader's eyes widened. "You can't leave! You've been ordered to fight anyone who tries to take you away."
The prince nodded.
"Ugh, your brother is a whoreson. No offense intended to you or your mother. Very well." The leader cracked his knuckles. "I've already defeated one royal fae today, let's make this two for two."
The entire wall blew in. The changeling stood wrapped in darkness, only his eyes glowing. When he took a step forward, he left a hole in the ground. Wind howled around him, carrying dead, black leaves. He was terrible yet magnificent. A bloody sword hung from one hand. Raising his other arm, he created a glowing portal in the air. His voice emerged as a creaky rattle: "This will take you to the human realm. We need to hurry, I don't have much time left. Mom and Dad are waiting for you."
"Who?" The leader blinked. "Um, you've got the wrong person. I'm a bit busy at the moment repaying a debt."
"Our parents' blood led me to you," the changeling insisted. "Come with me. Whatever debt you have, I'll pay it for you or kill who holds it."
"No killing! I'm here to rescue him." The leader pointed at the summer prince. Magic seizing his feet, the prince leapt away.
The changeling frowned. "He doesn't want to come with you, though?"
"He does! He's been bound by his true name to fight anyone who tries to take him from this room," the leader explained. "He can't speak, either. I need to take him to the human realm so the bindings on him will break and he'll be free." The prince nodded frantically to express his agreement with this plan.
"So if I help you kidnap this other guy then you'll let yourself be kidnapped by me? Deal!" The changeling cracked his knuckles. "I've already taken down one royal today, I daresay I've got enough juice left for two."
"That's my line," the leader said, and charged.
Against his own will, the prince summoned up a wave of vines to stop them. He could not defy his orders, but he sent them around wildly, trying to be as ineffective as possible.
The leader shot bullets from his gauntlets, using them to sever the vines. He avoided hitting the prince, but just the proximity of iron decreased fae powers. The changeling swung his sword, severing the vines.
The prince tried to contain himself, he truly did, but his power exploded from him. Creepers leapt up from the floor, tangling the men's legs. Hissing vines with stingers leapt from the walls. A massive tree sprang up between them.
The greenery around the changeling decayed. The tree trunk nearly fell on him, but he jumped away. He deliberately directed his trail of destruction to avoid hitting the other two, and it rebounded on him. He groaned, cracks forming down his face. "Are you sure you gotta have this guy, bro?"
"Don't call me bro, you weirdo, I don't even know you!" the leader cried. "We don't need to defeat him, just get him through the portal."
"Got it." The changeling slammed his foot down, and the floorboards decayed. The prince fell forward.
The leader leapt, grabbing the prince and hauling him toward the portal. Against his own will, the prince's hand raised, fingers turning to claws. He wanted to scream a warning. He wanted to cut off his own hand to stop himself. Yet still his claw slashed down into the leader's face. With a supreme effort of will, the prince stopped himself from ripping the human's head clean off.
Despite the blood pouring down his face, the leader locked his arms around the prince and screamed, "Now!"
The changeling shoved them both through the portal, falling after them.
As the air of the human realm hit the summer prince, his bonds fell away. A strangled cry erupted from his rusty throat. For the first time in years, he was free. He crawled over and touched the leader's bloody face, inserting healing energy to seal over the cut.
Next to him, the changeling thrashed. The stench of death radiated off him. The prince grabbed his head, summoned all his power, and healed.
It felt as if he was pressing against a mountain. The prince hissed and summoned more power from his exhausted body. More and more light injected into the darkness, until he could finally see the changeling's face under the mass of shadows. Only then did he let himself collapse.
Izuku realized now why All for One had been able to say that Yoichi had been dragged away fighting—because it was technically true. Thinking of how he could have lost all three of his parents made him shudder. He reached out and took Sanzou's hand.
"I'm fine now," Sanzou said, squeezing. "Yoichi's healing ability is amazing. I was the first fae to survive a berserker rage in a hundred years. Actually, the previous one ended up in a permanent coma, so I'm not sure that counts."
"It was a close thing," Yoichi said, his face unusually sober. His hair shifted to a sedated grey. "With all my healing power, I could barely drag Sanzou back from death. And I'm considered one of the strongest healers even by royal summer standards."
Sanzou said, "I've only recovered maybe five percent of my old magical power. That's why you've never seen me do anything particularly royal." He shrugged. "It'll come back in a century or two."
"Because I had to heal Sanzou, I couldn't completely erase my hero's scar." Yoichi touched Kaiji's face, his fingers tracing the deep red line. "But I adore your scar. It gives you such a rakish charm."
Leaning into Yoichi's touch, Kaiji said, "Whenever I see my scar, I'm reminded of how feral you are and it turns me on."
Yoichi giggled. "Not in front of Izuku!"
"Yes, please, not in front of me," Izuku groaned.
Sanzou said, "I helped the other two adapt to the human realm. My parents took in an extra fae without even batting an eye. By the time they were ready to leave the house, we'd all fallen in love, so I went with them."
"Now you finally now how we all got banished to the human realm," Yoichi said. "Except for me—I'm encouraged to return by my dear brother. But I can't, because he'd use my name against me again. He'd rather everything go back to how it used to be. All for One never admitted that I'm the one who sealed him away. He blamed it on Kaiji, actually." Yoichi scowled, a swirling darkness like a hurricane running through his white hair. "Both of you got cool nicknames, and I didn't even get credit for my deeds! I disrupted the order of the fae realm, too."
"I'd let you have the Omnicidal Prince title if I could," Sanzou said. Turning to Izuku, he said, "No one in the fae realm understood why I killed the Autumn King, so I got a reputation as a psycho killer. Kaiji's rep is even worse. He's the boogeyman that fae use to scare their children."
Face serious, Yoichi said, "There are enough fae who want revenge on us, and Kaiji in particular, that it's critical to keep your identity secret. We wanted to wait to tell you all of this until you were old enough to deceive people and hide your powers. Then All for One woke up, and we got paranoid. We were terrified to let you visit the fae realm, we couldn't come with you…and it was easier to tell you that you couldn't go. I'm sorry."
"Wait!" Izuku raised a hand. "If you sealed All for One away, then how did he become my father?"
"That's where the story gets weird." Yoichi sighed.
"How did you realize that All for One is your father?" Sanzou asked with a sharp look.
"Process of elimination made me suspect it," Izuku said weakly. "I'm a royal summer fae, and there aren't any other around except Poppa and All for One." This was true, it simply didn't reveal how his suspicions had been confirmed.
Sanzou still looked suspicious, but didn't say anything.
Yoichi explained, "You weren't born the conventional way. You were created by magic. You appeared next to All for One's sealed tomb as a baby. The summer court believed that All for One created you by accident while trying to break the seal. He separated a part of himself to create a vessel that would either hold his consciousness or break him out. But the magic got severed too early, and it created a baby."
Izuku took a moment to digest this. "I'm a clone?" Damn, today just kept getting freakier.
"Not exactly. Children created from magic aren't identical to their parents like a science fiction clone," Yoichi said. "By the laws of the fae realm, you're considered All for One's son. You should have been the next summer king. But you'd been created to free All for One. How do I put this diplomatically? Not all of the summer court wanted my brother back."
"No need to be diplomatic." Kaiji snorted. "All for One was a cruel king, and the fae do not use the world cruel lightly. It says a lot about him that summer preferred to remain leaderless over him. They had the other courts gnawing at their territory and still didn't want him back."
"So the summer court left you in the human realm," Sanzou said.
Kaiji said, "You're lucky no one killed you or gave you a name to enslave you. A royal slave would have made a lovely puppet king."
Yoichi slapped Kaiji's arm. "Don't say that!"
"It's true. He ought to know the danger." Kaiji rubbed his wrist. "I'd assume they just wanted you far away to avoid waking All for One up. Since I'd promised to return if the fae started stealing human children again—" He bared his teeth "—they struck a deal with a human family instead. A man named Kotaro Shimura had a quirkless son. He struck a deal to look after you until the court wanted you back, and in exchange they gave magic to his son."
Yoichi shuddered. "It ended terribly. Kotaro didn't tell anyone that young Tenko had a bit of tengu blood. He's actually Nana's grandson. Fae and yokai power do not mix well together. There was a nasty explosion of power, but fortunately I detected it from a distance. I arrived fast enough to stop anyone from dying, then sealed Tenko's destructive powers. That's how I found you." Yoichi beamed. "For lack of any other awake relative, I considered myself to be your legal guardian. We quickly left before the summer court or the human child protective services could dispute our claim."
"And we've got no intention of giving you back just because All for One woke up," Kaiji growled. "I saw what he did to Yoichi. That bastard isn't fit to be a father."
"That's assuming All for One even sees you as family," Sanzou murmured. "He created you as a tool. He might even kill you as a threat to his throne."
Yoichi reached out and took Izuku's hand. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner. The fact that you found out about your heritage on your own proves that we waited too long." He cast annoyed glances at his partners. "Can you forgive us?"
"I'm sorry," Sanzou said. "I told the other two you'd be happier not knowing that you were adopted, but I think I was projecting my own issues on you. Being adopted isn't a bad thing. It's not like you found out that you'd been swapped as a baby while your parents' biological child was enslaved. That would be bad. Someone could hypothetically still feel guilty about that one years later."
"I'm sorry, kid," Kaiji said. "I honestly just didn't want to talk about my past, and I was afraid it would make you see me in a different light."
Three pairs of pleading eyes turned on Izuku. He swallowed. "After everything the three of you went through, I understand why you'd be paranoidly protective. I forgive you. I'm not even angry any longer."
"You're such a good kid!" Yoichi tackled him with a hug, then his other two parents dragged them into a group hug. Yoichi's hair turned pink with happiness. "Now that you understand, we can figure out a way for you to safely visit the fae realm."
Oh, no. Now Izuku would have to come clean about what he'd done. His ears drooped. "About that! I have good news and bad news. The good news: All for One doesn't want to kill me. The bad news: I know that because I took a little trip to the fae realm and he told me so himself." Izuku widened his eyes adorably. "But I forgave you, so you'll forgive me too?"
Yoichi's shriek exploded the window.
OMAKE TIME!
Omake: If Yoichi's Wit Hadn't Been Bound to Silence
Yoichi: So if Kaiji is here to kidnap me, and Sanzou is here to kidnap Kaiji…then I'm going to kidnap Sanzou!
Sanzou: Why?!
Yoichi: I just thought we should close off this circle.
#
Omake: What Happened to Sanzou's Biological Parents
All for One: Apparently if a certain pair of idiots hadn't swapped their child for a human brat, then Kaiji would have never entered the fae realm and Sanzou would have died of his illness as a baby and I could have been rid of both spiky-heads before they stole my brother. Naturally I exterminated the fools responsible.
#
Omake: War Averted by Power of Love
Young Kaiji: I'd never fall in love with a fae! I hate them!
Adult Kaiji: Think about how furious the fae courts would be that a mere slave scored two hot fae princes.
Young Kaiji: …How hot are we talking?
#
Omake: Oopsie
Sanzou: Since humans aren't allowed to return home after learning about the fae, I had no choice but to go on a rampage and commit regicide to bring Kaiji back.
Yoichi: Actually, plenty of humans have returned from the fae realm. Usually they're supposed to take a memory erasure potion or be enchanted not to speak about us. But there have been exceptions. Frankly that rule didn't get taken all that seriously before Kaiji himself made the fae way more wary of humans.
Sanzou: …Huh. I didn't know about that. I feel like history could have gone very differently if my knowledge of fae law hadn't been so spotty.
Yoichi: I got freed so I'm going to say it all worked out for the best.
#
Omake: Savagery
Sanzou: I used to think that my parents would have lived a happier life if they had a less difficult child than me. Then I met Kaiji, and I realized they would have been in for a rough time either way.
Kaiji: Hey!
#For the record the parents do not agree #They're both such good boys who call and visit regularly with the adorable grandson #But seriously Kaiji would have been the more difficult kid despite being human #Sanzou was winning Olympic gold medals as a young adult #Kaiji would have been getting arrested at protests
#
Omake: All for One's Revenge
All for One: Even though my traitorous little brother imprisoned me, I arranged for it to be blamed on the Iron Maelstrom so the dear child would be able to return to my loving arms and everything would return to normal.
Yoichi: I got no credit because of you! I wanted a cool name just like Kaiji and Sanzou. I could have been the Family Slayer Prince or Summer's Doom. Instead I just went down as a footnote in history, the tragically kidnapped or dead victim. Stop pretending you did it for me—I know you just didn't want to admit your foolish little brother got one over on you.
Author's Note: The Dad for One week quote "Not all those who wander are lost" seemed perfect for the flashback chapter. Despite what All for One claimed, Yoichi isn't lost—he's found his home and his family.
Today's art from Possiblycringe (tumblr) / BucketOfMud (Ao3) / Popsicles (discord) is based off the Deltarune meme "More than Three Heroes: a human, a monster, and a prince from the dark." The caption of this picture is A human, a monster, and a prince of the summer. This is also one of my favorite pieces of art for the story—I'm a huge sucker for trioholders. I love how this picture captures the spirit of the chapter and how the trio first met. The shading is beautiful. Delete the spaces to get the tumblr link:
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If the tumblr link doesn't work, here is the discord link to the same picture:
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