With the adrenaline that had accompanied his brief stint through the stratosphere leaving his system, Izuku practically collapsed.
"Hey, don't worry, I've got you." Justice flashed a confident grin.
"I know…" Izuku sighed, a deep breath he didn't realise he'd been holding slowly escaping as he did so, "Thank you…"
"Don't mention it. Now, next up on our tour…" she paused for a moment, her grin edging more towards teasing, "Hey, actually… what's that old threshold tradition again?"
"Tradition?" Izuku parroted back, while their travelling companions – who had shown up at some point apparently – wore confused looks.
"Well, I figured since we just crossed the threshold to Limbo-"
"OH!" Modeus enthusiastically interrupted, "I remember this! It's an old Roman thing where grooms carry their new spouse through the threshold to protect them from demons!"
"Hey, don't call Romans old!" Justice complained without losing her jovial attitude, "And as I'm a demon I guess it'd make sense the roles are reversed."
"… Sorry?" Izuku asked. It took Justice looking down at him to remember where he was: Completely relaxed, in her arms, in a position usually associated with-
"AH!" he quickly rolled out of her arms and onto the floor, before immediately getting up and dusting himself off.
"He tripped! That's bad luck!" Modeus gasped.
"I'MSOSORRYIJUSTFELTSOEXAUSTEDAFTERHURTLINGTHROUGHTHEAIRNOTTHATI'MCOMPLAININGIMEANNOWTHATITHINKABOUTITTHAT'SAPRETTYFASTWAYTOCLEARASHEERCLIFFLIKETHAT… But…" he trailed off after realising Justice was struggling to contain her laughter.
"I don't get it…" one Cerberus looked confused, the other shook her head, and the other pouted.
"A-anyway," Izuku was keen to move the discussion along and tried to suppress the heat in his cheeks, "Now that we're finished with Lust, what's next?"
"Isn't it too soon to say finished-" Justice thankfully finished laughing and started holding back Modeus.
"Next up is the last Circle of hell: The 'fields' of Limbo!" she gestured grandly away from the cliffs, where Izuku found…
"Is that… A city?"
As opposed to the icy tundras and parched savannas they'd passed through thus far, in the distance of Limbo Izuku found the first instance of genuine civilisation in hell. A sprawling urban city, one dyed a dark red from the mark of brimstone, infernal skyscrapers towering high as the spires of Gluttony, but only partially as ominous. Even from their distance he could hear a swarm of sounds whose origins were lost in the grand cacophony they created, the noise muted both by distance, and a field of chest-high white flowers that laid between them and the metropolis.
"Yup. Cityscape of Limbo." Justice confirmed, before reaching over to pick one of the white flowers, "In times of old these asphodels were the only thing you'd see in this Circle. A wide-open field that never ended. But time went on, the soul population increased, demons and mortal souls alike got bored, and so…"
"That's… Incredible…"
Even here, at their lowest point, their end of days, people were still fighting for something better. Building. Thriving.
"Why aren't the other Circles like this?" Izuku asked as their group started heading for the city, stumbling slightly as they entered the flower field.
"Because in other Circles the people there are all just consumed by their vices." Justice answered, "If they had the strength and will to work with others or build this, they'd have made it here already."
"What about Greed?" Cerberus asked.
"That's a part of the Circle's natural infrastructure, whole other story. This is where you go for fun, and not 'oh ha ha, torturing puny mortals is such a lark!' fun, actual fun." she paused, "Usually. With parties, sports, games… All that jazz."
"I'm kind of surprised people are allowed to do this…" Izuku muttered, "N-Not that I think it's bad! I just thought hell was geared for punishments…"
"Well, most of it is. But Limbo's a bit of an exception. Gluttony tempts your insatiable desires, Lust lays bare your carnal desires, but what do you think Limbo does?"
"Uh…" Izuku brought his hand to his chin in thought.
I've not said anything embarrassing that made me want to die again yet, I can't see any obvious hallucinations, I don't feel terrible or anything… his eyes narrowed, Although…
"There's… Something." Izuku tried.
"And you criticise my descriptive skills…" Modeus grumbled.
"Well that's the thing, I can't really describe it… Just… A slight tingling in my skin, the start of a chill up my spine, the feeling I've forgotten something… I can't think of a way to describe it, but now that I look back, ever since stepping into the field I just feel… Off."
"Got it in one!" Justice snapped her fingers and gave a thumbs up, "That's the curse of Limbo; it's designed as an imperfect version of heaven: You don't suffer, but it's not eternal peace. Demons aren't assigned here to hurt you – not explicitly, at least. There are cases, but attacking mortals here without reason is quick way to demotions or worse. Plus, mortal souls can do whatever they want, more-or-less… But something about it never feels quite right."
That's unsettling, but to be honest it's really tame considering the past Circles… It almost seems to good to be true for 'Hell'…
"So who ends up here?"
"Anyone who wasn't baptised."
There it is…
"So you don't have to do anything wrong to end up here? You just… Believe wrong?"
"Ehhhhhh…" Justice waved her hand back and forth, "Not quite. If you believe in a different religion you play by their rules." the statement cast Izuku's mind back to when he'd first arrived.
"So that's why Miss Pandemonica wished I was Shintoist…?"
"You catch on quick." Justice nodded, "If you're a different religion you're not our problem. But if you weren't a good little Christian boy and didn't get baptised, you end up here."
"Still seems a little harsh… And evidently it includes atheists…" he gestured to himself. If it was only those who followed a certain religion who ended up here, he wouldn't be here.
"Ah, but there're exceptions. If you don't believe in any religion, you're an unsorted soul. As are people who believe in small faiths with little-to-no socio-historical backing, so that weird Uncle who attends a summer camp with like 20 people worshipping their camp leader that definitely isn't a cult qualifies as unsorted."
"So no church of the flying spaghetti monster?" Izuku joked.
"Actually they got enough members to count a while ago. But if you're unsorted, it's…" she was struggling to put it in terms Izuku understood, before settling on a rough metaphor.
"Well, it's kind of like playing Russian roulette when you die. Except there's a chamber for each existing viable religion, each bullet is a religion which sucks for atheists and heathens, and most of the chambers are loaded."
"… I'm starting to think the afterlife is just rigged." Izuku sighed.
"Oh 100%" Justice agreed.
"Yup." the Cerberi nodded along.
"At least we ended up together!" Modeus exclaimed.
"But that's enough philosophy for one day, it's time to get to the important stuff."
"Right." Izuku nodded. He wasn't sure how big this city was, but it was imperative that they get through it and get out of Hell as quickly as possible.
"We've gotta get you some clothes."
"Yeah, we-" Izuku cut himself off with a blink, turning to face Justice.
"… What?"
The sun never set on the grand Iroquois empire. After thousands of years carefully building up four magnificent cities, a worldwide war had seen vast swathes of Ottoman and German land fall puppeted under Iroquoian control. Their historical iron reserves were now bolstered by German oil, and with the newly-discovered Ottoman uranium safely within their borders, Iroquois was almost prepared to eradicate the eternal French threat. Soon, they would pay for the razing of Grand river, for their banning of world-renowned Iroquoian whales, for stealing Geneva as an ally by a single point like seriously how much money did you waste on that are you kidding me-
"I have just received a report that large numbers of my troops have crossed your borders."
… Fuck.
Within mere turns of Ghandi's fearsome visage appearing on-screen, the Iroquois war machine was crippled. Puppets blown off the face of the Earth, mines and plantations rendered unusable by a sea of nuclear fallout, defensive units reduced to radioactive vapour…
By the time French troops pushed through the wastes, their target of conquest was a hollow facsimile of the formerly magnificent empire.
Well, that's about a dozen hours down the drain… Malina stretched her arms, feeling joints and muscles suffering from a long stint at the monitor. After loosening up she took a swig of vodka to wash away the bitter taste of defeat before opening the chat.
'N00Bduster: gg sucks we got nukeboy'
'sourimp: gg next time we pick the AI'
'N00Bduster: we could probably find other players if you got the dlc' Malina rolled her eyes at the suggestion.
'sourimp: I told you I cant' she was lucky that she'd even been able to bring back a device that could play games across the mortal world's internet. Something able to get new games and/or add-ons was a bit too far.
'N00Bduster: I could buy it for you. got a bigger allowance recently'
'sourimp: sorry no can do'
'N00Bduster: fine. wanna play mnm3?' Malina smiled slightly, before the sound of the front door opening stopped her reply.
"Hey Mal!" Justice's eager voice carried through from waiting area, "Got a customer for ya!" the counter-top bell started ringing incessantly.
'sourimp: sorry customers just showed up. ttyl'
'N00Bduster: damn. seeya'
After putting the computer to sleep Malina trudged out to the store-front. Surprise, surprise, it was Cerberus spamming the desk's bell. But while it was only mildly surprising to see Modeus accompanying the other two demons, and distinctly less surprising to see her and Cerberus browsing outfits, what was a surprise was the sight of a green-haired, wide-eyed mortal in a crappy costume amongst the group, taking in the store and regarding her with a mixture of fear and inquisitiveness. Even more surprising was how a Cerberus seemed to be almost stuck to the mortal like glue, and batting at his hand occasionally for some reason. But all that really mattered to Malina was why they were here.
Given the condition of the costume was worse than the fallen Iroquoian empire, it wasn't hard to guess.
"Hi Malinda!" she chose to ignore the excitable dog that seemed insistent on getting her name wrong.
"Standard suit?" her simple question was met with the mortal hesitating back slightly, evidently still wary of demons which, fair, and edging ever-so-slightly closer to Justice for safety. Malina took this to mean Justice would be the one she needed to speak to if she wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, and shifted her attention appropriately.
"Not quite." Justice had a punchable grin plastered on her face, "I want a custom job for my… new assistant here."
"Oh! Yeah! That's what he is!" the Cerberus by the mortal added. That they were lying wouldn't have been more obvious if LEDs were soldered to their foreheads advertising the fact.
Lucky for them I'm not paid to care.
"Sure. Materials?" after a prompt from Justice, Malina passed over a pair of faux-flaming scissors for use.
"Is that…" the mortal piped up in a quiet but curious voice, "… hihi'irokane?"
"Oh, you're Japanese?" Malina absent-mindedly noted, more interested in the fact that he could identify a material he'd probably thought only a fantasy seen in games and anime within seconds of seeing the real deal, "Yeah, it is, though usually we just call it scarletite. One of the only things decently strong against the supernatural."
"Just tell him all our secrets why don't you? Why not bring up celestial steel or soul disruption?" Justice sarcastically asked while cutting off a small handful of her hair with the scissors, before focusing a small fragment of her demonic energy into it.
"Eh." Malina shrugged, "Not like knowing that would help against a high demon unless he's also got some super-secret power booster to hand or something. And just call it cold-iron like a normal person…"
I swear if I hear one more demonic smith start picking apart naming conventions with 'wEll AcKtuAlly' I'm gonna drain their blood and use it for coolant…
"Oh! Oh!" Cerberus didn't notice her comment and instead hyper-fixated on the scissors, "I wanna give some too!"
"Yeah!"
"We wanna help!"
"Ooh, I could lend some power, so long as it goes to the right places…" Malina rolled her eyes at the comment.
I guess I can incorporate her hair into the trousers. If she asks for underwear I'll tell her to shove it up her-
"While they're doing that," she was keen to get these idiots out of the store, "You." she nodded to the mortal, "Come with me."
"Wha? Me- That's, um-"
"Need to measure you for fitting." she pulled a tape measure out of a pocket to emphasise the fact, "Unless you're wasting power on a self-fit charm?"
"Nah." Justice shook her head, "Don't have one anyway. Izuku, you go with her, it won't take a minute."
"But…" 'Izuku' hesitated, "That's…"
"Either we do this in the fitting room, or you strip in front of everyone here-"
"Oh! That one! Choose-"
"Fitting room." the green-haired mortal quickly – wisely – nodded, following Malina while Modeus was held back by…
Cerberus? That's a surprise…
The fitting room was a modest space, large enough for comfortably taking someone's measurements but small enough not to feel overly exposed, the only objects of note being the few mirrors and a handful of spare outfits for testing sizes.
"Ok, let's get this over with." Malina sighed while pulling out her fitting notebook, "Clothes off."
"Wha-" the mortal immediately flushed red.
Great. It's gonna be one of those fitting sessions… she ran a hand up her face and over her hair in irritation.
"Look, I need to take your measurements accurately for this to work. This isn't some plain cotton or silk suit, we're infusing it with demonic essence, it needs to be precise. The sooner you take that ratty thing off the sooner we're done."
"I- That's… I just-"
"Ugh." Malina groaned, not wanting to deal with a whole episode and instead simply swiped at the half-demolished hero costume. In a flash, it was safely in her pocket and she could get to work.
"Hold your arms up."
"How-"
"Arms up." he eventually did as he was told, silently lifting his arms so she could get on with it. Thankfully she was practiced; it wouldn't take long.
… Wow, for a scared kid this guy is ripped…. Has he already figured out projection manipulation or- oh, probably just a hero student…She made sure to take in the toned muscles and the equivalent adjustments she'd need to make subtly and quickly, not wanting him to get the wrong idea nor deteriorate into a nervous wreck. Still, once they were done with the basic measurements and onto wearing a standard outfit to see how he moved in it she couldn't help but joke a bit.
"You know, for a meek Japanese kid you'd probably make a decent Stronghold barbarian." she made a note of the shoulder movements as he walked and tried to get a decent idea of his range.
"Ahaha…" he laughed awkwardly, "I like to think I'd fit into Tower more…"
"Yeah, well-" Malina froze, "You play Heroes 3?"
"Ehhh…" Izuku trailed off, "I tried for a bit, couldn't really get into it."
"Oh." her interest disappeared in an instant, switching back to the last checks needed for his outfit.
"Sorry, I'm more of a Grand Strategy fan, so…"
"'Grand Strategy'?" her raised eyebrow betrayed her interest shooting through the roof in another instant. Another strategy genre? One she hadn't heard of before?!
"Yeah!" Izuku perked up more than she'd seen thus far, "It's… Well it's kind of hard to describe-"
"Try." her flat statement prompted him to laugh nervously for a moment.
"Well, I guess it's kind of like 4X games, but also sort of combining some real-time elements to an extent, but the main thing is that it's usually got much more in-depth diplomacy and economy mechanics. The focus is generally more on making it feel just a bit more like you're running a real nation than on typical tactics or expansion, plus they usually have a lot of mechanics which are weirdly convoluted and take ages to figure out." he nodded at the summary with a slight chuckle, "I mean, that's oversimplifying by a lot but it's the basic point."
"Mhm…" Malina nodded while finishing up her notes.
Better diplomacy? Economy management? Needless convolution? She nodded a final time and closed her small notebook.
I need it.
"Any suggestions?"
"Huh? Oh! Sure!" he gave off a few game ideas, a couple of 'simpler' ones that would only take a few dozen hours to really get to grips with and some of the more fun ones. She also managed to get some more details on what some were like, and it sounded as if they were incredibly varied depending on where the game's focus was: From countries to people to species, it sounded like a wide genre.
"- But unfortunately most of them are borderline-unplayable without the DLC which-"
"Hey!" Justice slamming open the door interrupted his thoughts, "Are you gonna be finished anytime this year?"
"Oh, I was just talking to Miss Malinda about-"
"It's Malina…" she rubbed a hand over her face – if Cerberus' crappy attention span got one more person calling her that name- "Oh, and you can drop the 'Miss'."
I'm not a 'Miss'… I'm not even 2000… she blinked, Wait, or am I now…? Eh, Whatever.
"Oh, uh-" Izuku stuttered
"Whatever." Jusitce interrupted, "How much longer is this gonna be?"
"I've got his measurements." Malina stated, "Gimme a couple of hours to get the clothes ready. Grab some lunch in the meantime or something I don't know." nor care.
"Then what the hell took so long?"
"Yeah, and why couldn't I be a part of it?!" Justice pushed Modeus back out of sight where she belonged, before walking over and giving Malina samples of their hair infused with demonic energy.
"Oh wait… Let me guess." she looked towards Izuku, "You play strategy games, don't you."
"How did you know-"
"Because I have ears and a brain. Now come on, I'm not keeping an eye on these two by myself any more…" the idea almost had Malina wincing at the thought. Cerberus' high energy was difficult to deal with on its own, but add in wrangling Modeus? Correction, holding back a Modeus that was in one of her aneurysm-inducing obsessions, currently focused on a guy one room over?
I thank you for your sacrifice… Justice headed out and dragged Izuku with her.
"It was nice meeting you, Malina!" were his last words, accompanied by a smiling face and a happy wave, before being pulled out of the store. Glancing at the empty door frame for a few moments, she let out a sigh and got to work; the faster she made this outfit, the faster she could investigate this new genre.
I could ask dusty, but they're probably offline for a good few hours now…
Information-gathering would probably be as difficult as it was infuriating, owing to the inability to use most of the internet nor get any games that were in any way new, so she instead focused on the task at hand: Weaving Justice's hair into a new red shirt and Modeus' into a pair of trousers, Cerberus' fur into a waistcoat… The suit jacket would have to be lacking infusions, but half the high demons didn't even wear that and he might not want to wear one either, so who cared. But having every major base part except the tie empowered felt like she was crafting an incomplete set. Frustrated by the idea, she flopped her head back before bringing it half-forward again, when the scarletite scissors caught her eye. Considering the idea, she briefly ran a hand through her hair.
… Guess it's getting kinda long anyway…
Traversing the streets of Limbo, Izuku couldn't help but feel most of the people were trying to avoid him. Souls walking through the streets with purpose in their direction veered away – he'd seen a number of stalls, shops, and workshops, so clearly Limbo had something resembling a functioning society, apparently. But even those that seemed to be meandering aimlessly made efforts to stay out of his way.
It wasn't until a pair of other demons walked past that he realised it wasn't him people were avoiding – they probably barely registered he was there – but rather the demons he now kept as company. Just as most 'mortals' avoided them, so too did they avoid any demons. And just as the humans avoided all demons, other demons all avoided them. But while the humans seemed to do so out of fear, with the demons it seemed to be more a feeling of… Respect? Reverence?
"Sorry if Malina was a grouch." Justice brought him back to the present, "In her defence, she was probably drunk."
That's a defence?
"Don't worry," Izuku replied, "I thought she was nice!"
"Of course you did." Justice chuckled, before lowering her voice to a mutter "You'd probably say the same about Az given half a chance…"
"Where are we goinggggg?" Cerberus moaned.
"I'm boreeeeeeed…"
"Pet meeeeee…"
"I can think of something-"
"We're getting something to eat." Justice provided the group before glancing back at Izuku, "We've been going for over a day now."
"Really? It feels like weeks… Months, even…"
"Fair; no day or night, high stress, new environment. Basically, your mind could use some decent grub, even though you technically don't need it down here. Ideally something familiar… Let's see, familiar… familiar…" she began scanning their surroundings, before soon snapping her fingers on a direction, "That way."
Following Justice into a towering building that didn't seem to end in any direction, Izuku soon found himself in the middle of the largest, most international food court he'd ever seen. Upon entry he spotted some Italian restaurants, before Justice led him past Indian takeout, Brazillian cafés, British 'food'…
"Here we are!" she exclaimed upon arriving at a Japanese diner. On the one hand, Izuku felt like going out of their way like this was a little condescending. On the other, he'd swim through Tentatio all over again for a halfway-decent katsudon right about now.
Upon entry he couldn't help but agree that this was exactly what he needed. The diner and its stimulii brought a sense of familiarity in this otherwise completely alien experience. The sight of ramen, natto and a dozen other dishes made it feel as if this could be an eatery just down the street from his house. The smell of ginger and soy sauce wafted from the kitchen, along with a hundred and one miscellaneous but recognisable herbs and spices that brought a sense of belonging he'd been sorely lacking this past day. The throng of people who weren't demons helped to make him feel that little less like an outsider – similar souls in more casual clothing.
Before long the group had found seats at a bar-like counter-top facing the servers and kitchen area; Izuku would've preferred a table at which he could hide from the world and everyone in it but eh, pot-ay-to pot-ah-to. They'd barely even sat down before a server arrived at the bar to take his companions' orders.
"Oi." Justice called before they could leave, "You gonna forget my assistant?" she gestured towards Izuku.
"O-Oh! I'm so sorry!" the poor server hastened to take his order, even throwing in a free portion of takoyaki for their 'grievous error'.
"T-That's fine!" he tried to wave off the offer, "I'll just have some katsudon, p-please…"
"Katsudon and some takoyaki for the table, coming right up!" they darted off, oblivious or, more likely, uncaring towards Izuku's attempts to assure them it was fine. Evidently, the local residents' change in attitudes didn't stop at making way for his companions in the streets…
"I don't know how I feel about this…"
"What?" Justice asked from his right, "Not authentic or something? Pretty sure the cooks are Japanese…"
"N-No, not that… Isn't it kind of an abuse of authority to get free-" his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of chopsticks dropping to the floor behind him. He glanced that way out of simple instinct, but as soon as his head swivelled round, his eyes were glued to the utensil's owner. A red-white haired boy with a burn scar over his left eye, whose attention was similarly ignoring his bowl of zaru soba to focus squarely on Izuku.
"… Midoriya?"
"T-T-" Izuku had to walk over to the individual to make sure he wasn't in a hell-induced hallucination.
"Todoroki?!"
A/N:
And so we're on to the last Circle. Fun fact: I was originally planning to have each Circle be a single chapter, but then Gluttony ended up a little long at 10k words and Limbo ballooned to over 16k, so I split them up for better readability. I'm so looking forward to the next arc, like the introductory arc always takes way longer than I first anticipate because there's always just so much more to get through than I'd realised. Not that I dislike writing this or anything, but behind-the-scenes I'm so close to reaching the end writing this arc and now I really just want to get there already, especially as I got distracted this week. Like all it takes is thinking 'oh hey this would be neat idea, maybe I can just write the start of the intro chapter', and then OOPS, you've written 15k words of an entirely new WIP, and the fic you're trying to update regularly got less than a thousand.
Other fun fact: The fact that Izuku knows Todoroki's name here could, if you really push it, be considered a plot hole, as we don't know for sure that he remembered everyone's names by the third day in school (or was battle training the second day? I'm honestly not sure). I don't think anyone reading would have thought about that, nor cared, but I thought it was funny. Also Todoroki is the 1-A student I asked people about what feels like oh-so-long ago now.
Other than that, feel free to comment with feedback, thoughts, critique, hopes, etc. etc., and hope everyone has a great day!
EDIT/UPDATE:
So someone on AO3 commented that they don't recall me asking if anyone had any thoughts on MHA characters they particularly wanted to see, especially anyone in 1A. After looking through the notes on AO3, FFN, and Spacebattles, I've come to the conclusion that they don't remember me asking about this because I never did. Like... I distinctly remember writing the comment down, and later being surprised that no one responded and thinking 'oh ok I guess no one's really fussed about seeing anyone in particular', only to find out that NOPE, it never happened, and I feel like I'm losing my mind.
So I'll ask here: If anyone has any characters from MHA, especially 1A, that they'd like to see included in some way, shape or form, feel free to comment. A decent chunk of the story is kind of decided in my mind, so I'm not saying they'll definitely be included, but there's a decent amount still in flux so I'll happily take any requests into consideration.
So yeah, now this is actually written, have a great day, and thanks to gearsky for pointing this out!