A crispy cool draught of wind whips over a bombora, that same air catching a fragrance once the wave breaks. From that gust comes a light mist of brine, the ocean breeze coating people on the pier with a salty scent. Pochita catches a whiff of the smell while his owner's errant strands of hair are tossed as roughly as the sea beneath their feet. The rotting posts of the old pier creak with each step as they push through the rush of wind.

Izuku holds an ice cream cone in one hand and his dog's leash in the other. He earns a few looks as Pochita trots ahead of him, chainsaw mounted upon the mutt's head held high and proud like a unicorn's horn. The taste of a chocolate scoop is bittersweet as it melts and drips on the boy's hand. The sweltering sun beats down on them as much as it dries the wooden panels of the decking they walk on. A ferris wheel moves in slow dizzying spins ahead of the duo, marking the end of the pier.

Pochita yaps at a single seagull that pecks at scraps in a garbage can. The bird flies away frantically, disturbed by the noise. The fry that had been in the winged animal's beak falls onto the floorboards below, abandoned. Pochita picks up the piece of food with his tongue and swallows it for himself, licking his chops with what must be self satisfaction. The small dog's name tag sways with a jingle when he looks up at his owner for some sort of praise. Izuku just laughs and bends down to pat his pet on the back.

The vending machines occupying the guardrails hum as the two pass by. An elderly couple whisper while they occupy the bench by the ferris wheel. Izuku sighs as he finishes his ice cream cone. He remembers a time at the beach when his mom had sat there and waited for him to finish riding the amusement ride, a canned coffee in hand that came from those automats. A napkin stained with ketchup blows past, slipping through one of the spaces in the planking after a few uptakes and downtakes. Pochita whines, looking up at his owner with concern.

Izuku looks down before lowering himself onto one knee. "It's okay, boy..", he pets behind one of the dog's ears. "We'll see momma when we get home", the fur coat brushing along the boy's fingers is just as soothing to him as it is to the animal.

Izuku's nose inhales the smell of buttered popcorn, the added salty touch unclear of whether that's the snack or the sea still. A smile glosses the boy's mouth as he stands back up. He just had ice cream, but he figures he can share another tasty treat with his loyal companion. There's just enough yen in his pocket for the small serving size. Before he can approach the vendor to buy himself a bag though, the bliss of the beach is disturbed by alarming yells.

Izuku turns his head to see what all the commotion is about. Civilians flee from the back of the pier, racing past the boy and his dog. Izuku searches a bit with his gaze before spotting the reason why. The elderly couple from earlier are cowering under the long blade of what looks like a cephalopodic pirate. The child's eyes widen with shock. He knows what's happening thanks to watching so many videos on the internet, but he's never seen a villain attack in person before.

Reacting without a second thought, Izuku's legs move on their own. He lets go of Pochita's leash and runs towards the danger without any sense of how to help despite the desire to do so. The criminal's head turns, noticing him; the villain's face is the mantle of an octopus, tentacles trimming the bottom like a beard. The broad sword in one of the fiend's many suction cupped hands flicks from the seniors to the minor.

"Back off, stupid kid!", a gurgled threat comes from the villain's mouth as he does an intimidating prodding gesture with his cutlass. Izuku doesn't listen. He ducks under the blade and latches onto one of the pirate's high booted legs. Though small and light, the boy's improvised plan is to hold the criminal in place long enough for the seniors to escape.

"Run!", Izuku shouts as he interlocks his fingers to strengthen his hold on the villain. He closes his eyes as tight as his grip when the criminal tries shaking him off in protest. "Get out of here!", Izuku yells again in the hope that the elderly couple will listen and use his distraction as the chance they need to flee. When he hears the sound of feet pounding against wooden floorboards, he's relieved to know that he succeeded.

But the boy forgot about his own safety. The pirate shoves the kid off, knocking Izuku on his butt. The villain growls as he swipes at the air with his sword, "Brat! Now look at what you've done!" The old pair that Izuku rescued ran far enough away that the criminal can no longer victimize them. "They were going to be my pay day!", Izuku tries crawling backwards to also escape the villain's wrath but the pirate simply stomps after him.

Izuku whimpers when the steel sword raised above him glints in the sun, the villain's shadow enveloping him in darkness to see its sharpness all the better. He fantasizes All Might coming to his rescue and defeating the fiend in one blow. He imagines some hero, any hero, swooping in to save the day. He thinks they should have been here by now. The police, at least, could come to his aid. The boy wishes for his mother to be there with him so that she can protect him. "Pochita!", but Izuku instead finds his pet dog jumping in between him and the villain.

The little orange animal snarls with as much intimidation as he can muster while protectively placing himself between the criminal and his owner. Pochita plants his feet and barks between growls, baring his fangs. The pirate hesitates, taken aback by the tiny creature's ferocity, but quickly recovers his own tenacity. "Why, you little mutt!", the villain points his weapon downwards and thrusts it forward.

The jab makes the blade spear Pochita, eliciting a yelp from the small canine. "POCHITA!", Izuku shrieks as he catches his wounded pet in his arms. Tears stream out in large sprays like the blood spewing from the dog's injury. Izuku rolls over to get on his hands and knees, one arm clutching Pochita close to his chest, so that he can make an effort to crawl away. The next yowl of agony comes from the blade passing through the boy's back and out the other end, stabbing into Pochita a second time.

"Damn dogs and kids!", the villain withdraws his sword and more blood leaks through the planks of the pier. He brings his blade back down so that it lances through Izuku's shoulder in order to express his rage, "I can't stand them!" Izuku howls in torment as he holds Pochita close to him, their life liquids mixing into a sopping mess of red. The dagger cuts through them both a few more times, chopping at the boy and his pet until their breaths turn as ragged as their bodies.

The villain cocks his boot back, winding up, and then kicks Izuku in the side with his pointed foot. The boy barrels through the wood railing of the pier, splinters raining down with him into the water below. He takes his dog with him, blood splashing against the ocean. Red blends with blue, the dark shades trailing behind Izuku and Pochita as they sink into the black depths of the sea.

Izuku's eyelids become too heavy for him to hold open. The boy's hands slacken as they become numb and he's no longer able to feel Pochita in his arms. He's colder than he's ever been before. The ocean swallows him and he succumbs to the void.

Izuku opens his eyes, finding himself out in the forest instead of underwater. The sun still gleams down on him, making him squint until he diverts his gaze. The heavy pressure that had been pressing down on his chest remains. He sees that the weight is coming from Pochita, the dog seated atop him. Both of their injuries are gone. Izuku wonders if he somehow fell asleep and took a nap in the middle of the woods. Except, he begins to recognize the part of the wilderness that he's in. It's the spot that he found Pochita at. It's where they first met.

"I've always loved listening to you talk about your dreams", a soft voice comes from Pochita's mouth that astounds Izuku. The boy becomes slack jawed, unable to form his own words to respond with. It seems that Pochita wants him to listen instead of speak anyways when he says more firmly, "This is a contract"

Izuku's chest blooms with heat, and he remembers the freezing ocean that had been killing him. "I'll give you my heart", Pochita leans in close and almost seems to sink into the boy's chest, "In exchange.."

The bond between the boy and his dog grows exponentially. Their life forces merge together and bring them back from the verge of death. Izuku's eyes close and he's once again transported to a different location. He's back submerged in blood and water, being baptized and reborn. He hears Pochita's whisper in his ear, "Show me your dreams", and wakes up.

A virulent transformation bursts forth from the ichor waves, the abrasive sound of chainsaws wailing upon startup. Blood oozes from deep gashes made by the chains of metallic teeth, but the lacerations from the villain's cutlass have miraculously healed. Jagged fangs bare themselves from within the demonic mechanical shape of a chainsaw for a head. Izuku's new form glowers at the pirate that cut him down through the harsh glow of amber eyes.

"What the fu–", the villain gets cut off mid sentence when Izuku swings one of his chainsaw bladed arms. Literally. A tentacle appendage flops to the floorboards, writhing as it gushes blood out of the severed end. A harrowing howl escapes the criminal's throat as he clutches the dismembered part of his body. Red liquid oozes over the suction cups that cling to his ripped raw flesh. "B- Bastard..", the pirate speaks with a tremor that matches his staggered steps away from the savage chainsaw child.

The bumps of papillae covering the anthropomorphized octopus begin pulsating around the amputated area. Collagen fibers stretch over the torn tissue and begin regrowing skin around the epidermis. "You're lucky that I can regenerate lost limbs!", the pirate curses under his breath as the tentacle that was taken from him gets replaced. The new appendage is a duller shade of pink from the rest of his cerisen body.

Izuku primes the chainsaws protruding from his arms, revving them with the one attached to the base of his skull. "Good..", his voice sounds as demonically distorted as he appears. The villain feels his skin prickle from the chill of the ocean air as the monstrous mutation minaciously growls through the grating noise of chainsaws, "Then I don't have to feel bad about chopping you into calamari!"

The villain turns his sword to block another haphazard swing of Izuku's bladed arm. The moving teeth grind into the steel, gradually chipping away at the metal. Exhaust fumes seethe through the boy's sharpened teeth before he chops upwards with his other arm. The pirate's cutlass snaps in two from the combined sawing motions. The tip clatters against the pier's planking while the other half remains clasped in the criminal's suction cup grip.

Izuku slashes at the villain with wild broad strokes, giving his target a chance to evade. That doesn't ease any of the pressure on the criminal though, "Oi! Christ, kid!" The trimming of a chainsaw knicks where the cephalopodic man's deltoid should be, ripping into flexible webbing instead. Blood splatters the deck, spilling from the wound. Izuku heaves forward to get another cut in, but misses when the criminal side steps. The villain kicks the crazed child away with a desperate shout, "Are you trying to kill me?!"

Izuku's feet slide across the pier's slick surface, only stopping when he stabs the boarding with his arm's saw blades. The boy's body bends inward but his modified head raises itself to glare at the villain. Spittle flies from the living engine's maw, fangs razor sharp and gnashing together. "You killed Pochita!", Izuku roars with the sound of his chainsaws.

"A grudge over a dog?!", the villain stares incredulously as the boy tears his saw blades free from the deck. Terrified and without a weapon to defend himself, the octopus hybrid spews a jet of black ink from his siphon-like mouth. The wall of darkness blinds Izuku momentarily, allowing the criminal to scramble out of the raving chainsaw's reach.

Suddenly, a boat comes through the tide beneath the pier much to the villain's relief. The ship is steered by a fellow cephalopod criminal. "Innsmouth!", the octopus twin bellows to his partner from below.

"Brother!", Innsmouth waves his arms high to signal for the boat to turn back around for him. Izuku manages to wipe away the ink covering his eyes just as the villain grins with newfound confidence. Dark rings smudge the green under the yellow orbs of the chainsaw mount as the boy watches the villain run for the railing. "Pray we don't meet again, kid!", Innsmouth hops off the pier and lands on his brother's boat below in order to escape.

Izuku takes a step forwards to chase after Pochita's killer, but his leg gives out and he winds up falling forward onto his knees. All he can do is watch helplessly as the villain gets away. The chains on the saws stop running and he lets out a wet cough. The blades begin to retract. Izuku's baby teeth replace the elongated fangs and his face morphs back to its normally freckled state. He's left a sobbing mess in the middle of the blood stained pier.

Dangling from Izuku's sternum, is the same pullcord that had been Pochita's tail, the only remaining part of his dog.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

F in the comments for Pochita. RIP to the best boi.

So, Innsmouth is an anime-only villain from the Froppy filler episode. I decided to go with him for the origin since I needed a villain that could regrow limbs and not be too affected by the chainsaws to preserve Izuku's childhood innocence. Innsmouth worked considering octopi have the ability to regenerate lost tentacles. I would have gone with the sludge villain since the saws would be slicing through the slime without much effect and the same could be accomplished, but this event also needed to take place when Izuku is much much younger and that event happens at a particular point during canon.

That being said, it's time to read reviews!

To Kaiser Thanatos:

I dunno who Inazuka is (I know who IZUKU is lol) and I've actually never seen or read Soul Eater, but I'm glad you find the story interesting enough to read five chapters anyways!

Now excuse me while I mourn the loss of Pochita once again and the lack of an official Chainsaw Man chapter today.