"So let me get this straight." Izuku said with a bored voice. "You were fighting a villain with... me, and the villain used his quirk to send you away. Then you end up here and fight a bunch of monsters on your way to Axel. Once you get there, everyone starts speaking gibberish and they point you to me. Did I get that right?"
"Yeah, that sums it up." Bakugo said.
"...huh. And you're sure you didn't die and some weird goddess lady didn't send you here?" He asked.
"No? What are you talking about?" He asked, weirded out by the response. Izuku just put a hand on his chin, his index finger rubbing his bottom lip. He looked weird. Totally different than he did before. This one had a weird sort of leafy hair thing going on with big wooden antlers growing from his head. His whole outfit screamed 'dnd druid' from the green cloak to the wooden nature-esque armor that covered his body. Looking around the room, they appeared to be in a dining room of some kind.
Izuku wasn't the type to invite one in for tea, at least, he didn't think he was. He also was much less friendly than normal, another odd quirk Bakugo was still adjusting to. There were also all these girls in this house going about their regular tasks and shooting him odd looks whenever they passed by. Deku was not a ladies man, he'd seen it first hand just how little game he had. This whole house was off putting, and Bakugo did not like waiting for answers here.
Izuku took a sip before he spoke. "My best guess? A villain with the power to send you to another world sent you here. But wait, you said you were fighting the guy with me? Then that doesn't make sense either. Maybe... hm... How familiar are you with the concept of the multiverse?"
"I've read a comic book before if that's what you're asking." Bakugo replied.
"This makes things sort of easier. Well, maybe not that much easier. I think you and I are from separate universes, and that villain sent you here." Izuku said with a matter of fact tone.
"But wait, does that mean I'm stuck here?" He asked, concern rising.
"Sort of? Man, there are a lot of things to explain. Hm. Wait here a second." Izuku got up and left the room, returning after a few moments with a vial of gray liquid. "Drink this, its going to make communication a lot easier." Bakugo was reluctant, but drank the strange concoction. Gross. Tasted like paper. His hearing distorted for a second before returning to normal. He was suddenly aware of the conversation happening in the other room, it no longer sounding like gibberish.
"What do you think their talking about?" A high pitched feminine voice asked.
"I dunno, but Izuku seems like he knows this man. Is it possible their old friends?" A lower pitched voice asked.
"Maybe, but I'm doubtful. We're around him so much, its hard to believe that he's interacted with someone this familiarly outside of us." She responded.
"Woahhh, what did you do?" Bakugo asked.
"It's a translator potion. Pretty simple brew, but I doubted we'd ever need to use it." Izuku responded nonchalantly. "I've never needed it because the useless goddess fixed mine before I came here. You on the other hand..."
"What's this about goddesses? You've brought it up several times now and its bothering me." He said irritatedly.
"Oh, well, its a long story." Izuku responded. "Basically, I kind of got... caught up... in a hero related accident trying to save, well, er, you? Does the sludge villain ring a bell?"
"Yeah, you tried to help me out but you didn't have One For All yet. You kinda just, gave me a moment to breathe before All Might saved me." He recounted the events.
"What's a One For All?" Izuku asked.
"Huh!? One For All? Your quirk!?" Bakugo asked incredulously.
"I've never had a quirk, Bakugo. I don't know what you're talking about." Izuku reminded him. "That must prove it then. We really are from separate universes. Wow."
"...Putting that all aside, that doesn't help me get home. Surely you've got some idea on how I can get out of here." He said, refocusing the conversation.
"I don't know if I can help you." Izuku said plainly. "I haven't exactly looked for a way back, and while this world's people suck, there are few that I've grown too fond of to let go of just yet."
"Ffffffuck. What am I supposed to do now?" Bakugo asked himself. "The whole reason I came here was to see if I could get help getting back, but you say you don't know. Damnit! And you were my only lead."
"Relax Bakugo, I just said I couldn't help you. I might know someone who can." He said.
"Who?" He asked.
"Well..."
"Hey, you're not too bad at this!" Midoriya said, ducking under a thug's swing at him. He promptly attached one of his glue grenades to the thugs chest before jumping away and letting the guy get incased in glue. "It's like staring in a younger mirror."
Izuku grabbed one of the guys with black whip and pulled him into another, causing them to knock each other out. His danger sense went off, letting him know a guy was swinging at him. He hit the guy with a backflip kick, sending him flying into a wall. "No offense to these guys, but they aren't exactly the toughest guys I've had to deal with. All For One's goons back home put up much more of a fight." He said. The thugs all had very poor quirks for this job. A jewelry heist smash and grab was already a bad idea, but doing it in broad daylight was an even worse one. These guys were disorganized, sloppy, and not very tough.
With older Midoriya disposing of the second to last thug, he went to grab the last guy. It was now that Izuku got a good look at the tech his molder self was using. The suit he wore was strikingly similar, but he had this bright red backpack that held all of his support items. Metallic legs resembling a spider's grew from the back of the pack and seemed to be controlled almost from his will. He'd seen the backpacks ability to dispense various grenades through a chute resembling a bottom compartment. The other major difference was the helmet. It had green fins coming off the ears with glowing turquoise rings on either side. The face of the helmet resembles a screen, giving an added layer of disguise.
Midoriya grabbed the last thug by the hood, lifting him up and tying him with two other legs. The last one hovered dangerously around the thug, threatening to prod him if he tried anything funny. "Phew. Finally. There sure are a lot of you for a simple jewelry heist. Unless of course, you could tell me what you were actually planning?" He asked the suspended thug. There was simply no wya this much manpower was dedicated to a small time jewelry store heist. The guy simply thrashed against his restraints to no avail. "Hm. Let's try again." He pulled the last spider leg dangerously close to the thugs chin, its sharp point barely touching the scruff on the thugs face. "What. Was. The. Plan."
Izuku worried he may have missed something. What bothered him more was how cold the older him was acting. This style of interrogation was... violent. Nothing like the strategy he'd used on him. But older him wouldn't kill the guy... right?
"Alright, alright! I'll tell! I'll tell!" The guy shouted, obviously freaked out. "It was supposed to lure someone. We were never supposed to get away!"
"...Lure who?" Midoriya said, bringing the guy face to face with his cold unfeeling mask. He prodded just a little further.
"Agh! We were supposed to find some kid! Thats all I know I swear!" The thug said, shaking uncontrollably. With that Midoriya set the thug down, gently letting go of him. He reached under his bag, and a glue grenade was dispensed. He set it in the thugs frozen hands.
"Hold that for me." Midoriya said, walking back to the younger him. The grenade went off, instantly encasing the thug in sticky glue. "Sorry about that. I know the altruistic police way of interrogation works, but my way works faster. And I was never really going to stab that guy."
Izuku released a breath he didn't know he was holding. "You had me there for a second. Where did you learn to be so scary like that?"
"It's a trick I picked up way back in my vigilante days. Long time ago when I was knocking over bars hunting down Stain." He said casually.
Izuku wasn't sure what to think. Could he be like that. He knew that his time spent alone as a vigilante was scary for some. He recalled his second fight with muscular. He'd only seen it briefly in his reflection, but the water didn't lie. He took a mental note to try it out some time. He turned back to the older him. "Hey, what do we do now?" He asked.
"Well, how about you head back to the workshop, I'll clear up this mess." He said. "I've got a little more interrogation to do, and a lot of paperwork. In the meantime, you should catch up with Mei. If anyone can figure out how to get you home, its her."
He heeded the instructions, making his way back to the workshop. That was almost... fun? He hadn't remembered the last time he'd enjoyed just doing hero work. And what he said about Mei made him hopeful. He really needed to get back home, sooner rather than later.
"There is no way that you know a wizard." Bakugo said, walking with Izuku. "And there is no fucking way magic is a thing, either."
"You seriously don't believe magic exists?" Izuku asked. "Even after seeing my weird hair. Hell, even after drinking the potion?"
He made a good point. "Fucking, alright then, prove it. Show me some magic."
"Alright." Izuku accepted the challenge. He pointed his staff out, letting the green crystal at the end glow. Out shot a thorny vine onto the street that wriggled its way into the ground. "Surely, that changed your mind?"
"... Fuck you, Deku." Bakugo said with a cross of the arms. Izuku just chuckled to himself.
"You know, you're a lot different than I remember you. The Bakugo I remember was much... uh... worse is the best way to put it. Are we this familiar with each other in your world?"
Bakugo was taken aback by this. "Worse?" He recalled his earlier years with Deku. "Shit, I guess you're kind of right." He remembered what he wanted to tell Izuku. "... I was actually looking for him when I wound up here."
"Looking for him or looking for me?"
"Looking for him. He'd taken off to fight All For One by himself without really telling anyone where he was going. He was gone for weeks, and we were... ugh, whatever, it sounds stupid saying it out loud." Bakugo said, scoffing.
"No its okay. I've never actually seen you open up about, well, anything." Izuku said. "It's a nice change of pace." They walked in silence for a few moments before Izuku saw it. A small smile had formed on the usually dour face of Bakugo. He smiled to himself inwardly. It was nice to see his old friend after so long, which is not an emotion he'd expected to feel. After all of the nonsense this world had put him through, this was almost cathartic. Finally they arrived.
"This is the place? An antique shop?" Bakugo asked.
"Not an antique shop, a magic shop. Wiz owns the place. She's probably the most advanced magic user I know." Izuku said. "She's probably got something that can help you on your way."
Entering the shop, Bakugo was immediately off put by the smells. There was an overwhelming munger of scents floating around in this place. The shelves looked all disorganized, having piles of junk littering them. There were some tables, also displaying more piles of junk. There was a desk near the back with a curtain disguising a back room to the store. There was a large vanity on one wall of the room, which seemed almost out of place in the bizarre store.
"Deku, this place is a dump." Bakugo said flatly.
"Have a look around, I've got some stuff to discuss with Wiz before we can actually get to what we're here for anyways." He said. He started walking to the back are of the store. "Wiz? I'm coming back there" He called, and with that, he disappeared into the back of the store.
Left to his own device, Bakugo wandered the store. A lot of this seemed like actual junk. Even the stores in games he played didn't look anything like this. Where were all the potions? Where were all the weapons? Bakugo picked up a brightly colored red feather. What was this even supposed to do? He set the feather down, walking over to the vanity. He looked at himself, leaning over the desk under the mirror. He didn't look too good. Bags had developed under his eyes, and he just looked all around pretty rough. Suddenly, the image of himself in the mirror shifted and warped, until it was black.
Suddenly, the moment of him and Izuku near the bridge played. The first time someone ever dared to reach a hand down to him. He flinched away from the cold reaction he'd given Izuku. The image faded and another was shown. The two of them were standing face to face, Bakugo's gaze was threatening, and Izuku's scared. The image spoke. "You know, I know a way you can get a quirk. Try taking a swan dive from the window and hope you get a better quirk in the next life. Hah!" The image faded again. Had he really said that? The sludge villain incident played. Izuku was desperately trying to help him knowing full well there wasn't a damn thing he could do. He though about the very same day, mere hours before the incident, what he'd said to Izuku.
The image faded, and the next was him at the sports festival. He was standing on the first place podium, chained to the stand like a rabid animal. He cringed at the sight of himself. Did he really act like that? Next up was his failure at the provisional license exam. Another short coming on his part. Another time he was surpassed. These memories weren't making him angry like they used too though. He recalled how he felt in each of those moments. Was he... the bad guy? Finally, the last image showed him and Izuku getting separated by that villain. That damn villain. Finally the mirror seemed to stop, and sighed to himself.
"Wow, that's uh..." Izuku said. Bakugo whipped around to see him standing there with a taller lady. "Not a great highlight reel."
"How much of that did you see?" Bakugo asked with his head bowed.
"Only the important bits." Izuku said. "Wiz, you can stop staring at the marble now."
Suddenly, the lady snapped out of her trance. Bakugo got a good look at her. She was tall. Taller than him. Maybe even as tall as four eyes back home. She had long brown hair tha flowed as much as the purple robes she wore. The robes left little to the imagination, as he quickly snapped his vision away from her... assets. Looking back up at her, she hadn't seemed to notice, being much more fascinated by him than he of her. He was suddenly very conscious of how rough he looked, only adding to the embarrassment of the situation.
She turned to Izuku. "Your friend has quite large mana pools." She said. Her voice sounded light and feathery, matching her airhead personality. Wait, what did she say. He wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed, offended, or both.
"Wiz, you can't say that. He doesn't know what those are. You'll make him upset." Izuku joked.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." She said, bowing her head. "I meant no offense by it."
"Uh... none taken?" Bakugo was so confused. "Izuku says you can help me out?"
"Oh yes, right." She said, her tone snapping from concern to excitement. She kinda reminded him of ponytail back home.
"Bakugo is not from here, and I don't mean Axel. Just like me, Bakugo is from another world." Izuku explained. "He need to get back, and since you know more about universal travel, I was hoping you could help."
"I might have something, but its very complicated, and we'll need a few things. I suggest you and Mr. Bakugo go and retrieve them, and I will cast the spell." She said.
"Well, I already got the list. What do you say, Bakugo?" Izuku asked.
"... Fuck it, let's do this."
When I said infrequent uploads, I should've said inconsistent. I've got a lot of time on my hands still with summer break and everything but that's gonna change when I head back to college. That said, I have no intention of giving up on this story.
I'm trying to juggle canon Izuku and canon Bakugo but, to be honest, the story I have for Bakugo is much more interesting in my opinion, so I might focus on him more in the next chapter. I'm gonna use his setting to tell a more fantasy story and Izuku's to tell a more detective story. My goal is to replicate the feel of both of those stories while adding my own twists. I know I mentioned a lot of other stories, and don't worry, we'll get to those.
The last think I should mention is this isn't my main focus as far as writing his concerned. I have a fantastic original story in the works over on Wattpad, so if you need something to tide you over, look me up there. Thats my main project, and it has my attention more than this does.
