"I can't wait for the show!" Kei cheered.
Quite a few of the Midoriya kids had gathered in a new building that had been built on Midoriya grounds.
The Midoriya Planetarium.
At a joking suggestion by Ochaco, Izuku had this place built, to allow the children to view the cosmos, study the stars, etc.
It also did something that no other planetarium did.
Opening portals to the collective unconsciousness.
The room was a large cylinder. On the bottom were beds, with the kids all lying down looking up, waiting for the show to start.
Above them was a glass. Very thick glass, meant to keep the heat and chaos energy from seeping down onto the onlookers. And behind it, the portal would open.
Meanwhile outside of that room, was another room filled with workers and machines.
Most of them were simply there to turn the machine on and off again, as well as related protocols.
Although a couple of them were there to monitor the event. And make sure nothing…unexpected happened.
Back in the viewing room, Kiba and Fu were lying down next to each other, waiting for the show to start.
"So are you excited to see the world beyond our own?" Kiba asked.
"Surprisingly, yes. About as excited as I can be." Fu shrugged. "I just hope it'll be pretty enough to make me feel something."
"The show is about to begin! Everyone! Get ready!" The workers announced.
Everyone could hear the sounds of the machines starting, and they all went silent, as the lights came off.
A crack in reality appeared above them behind the glass, before tearing open and growing larger, becoming a grand portal into the collective unconscious.
"Woah." The children looked up at the portal in awe. Staring at the infinite void of consciousness and things they couldn't possibly understand, yet thought were beautiful nonetheless.
"It's amazing," Kiba said breathlessly. Eventually, she turned to look at Fu. "So, does this make you feel something?"
"Y-Yeah." Fu stuttered, his face twisted in confusion. "Weird…I feel…"
Partner!? Kyosei asked in his head. He could tell something was wrong with Fu, Fu was feeling something that he couldn't.
As for what he was feeling, Fu could feel something inside him, something that was spread through his entire body, getting pulled and twisted.
And then everything went black for him, as his eyes rolled back.
"Fu? FU!?" Kiba cried out in a panic, getting everyone's attention.
Meanwhile, back in the control room, some of the scientists were looking at the monitors in confusion. "Something's wrong! There's a signal here I've never seen before! It's going through the glass!"
"Shit! Shut it down! Shut it down!" One of the other workers shouted.
The workers frantically worked to shut down the portal, turning off the machines that were keeping the portal open.
But even with that, the portal didn't close.
"The portal's keeping itself open so we can't close it!" Shouted one scientist.
"Get the kids out of there! Emergency! Code red!" Shouted another one, slamming his fist on a big red button.
Back in the viewing chamber, all the kids had gathered around the unconscious Fu, trying to wake him, when the lights suddenly came on and everything flashed red as alarms went off.
"That's probably not good," Inu said.
"Grab him and let's get out of here!" Yaba shouted.
Kiba went to grab him, but suddenly one of Kyosei's tendrils pushed him away. "What!? Kyoshi what are you-"
"They are talking," Kyosei said, using Fu's mouth to speak.
CRACK!
Suddenly a crack appeared in the glass above them, and they could see some glowing around the crack.
Then suddenly the portal closed.
The alarms continued to go on for some time, but none of the kids left, all too concerned about what was going on with Fu. And eventually, the alarms stopped.
"Fu!? Fu!? Kyoshi what's going on!?" Kiba demanded. Utterly confused and distraught by this unexpected development.
"I…don't know," Kyosei admitted. Something was happening inside Fu, but he had no idea what.
And then suddenly Fu's body came to life.
His eyes rolled forward, his body spasmed and his long-dead organs suddenly came to life. His heart is trying to pump the still blood through his veins.
"Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh!" Fu screamed, sounding like he was choking on something at the same time. Freaking everyone out further.
And then it stopped. Fu's body went still, once more, his eyes rolling back once again.
Everyone was silent for some time, none of them knowing what to say, or what to do. As none of them could even take a guess as to what was happening.
Until Fu spoke. "Hey guys, I'm ok. Probably."
"Ok thank goodness!" Kiba immediately threw herself onto him and hugged him. Crying tears of joy.
"Wait, why are your eyes still…you know… backward?" Yaba asked as she noticed Fu wasn't quite right. His eyes were still rolled over, and he wasn't moving anything aside from his mouth.
"Well, something happened. I don't know what exactly, but there's someone else in my body now." Fu explained. "And that person is also me."
"What?" Asked literally, everyone.
"Yeah, like I said. I don't know what happened either." Fu said. "Kyosei, can you get me to the lab? I can't move anything but my mouth, and even that's hard."
Kyosei sprouted tendrils from Fu's back and started walking him out of the viewing room. Taking him right to the lab.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"You told me that nothing bad would come from just looking at the portal," Izuku said, as he, Futaba, and Mai walked through the halls of the lab. "As long as we followed the safety protocols, they should have been fine. So what was that!?"
"I told you, specifically, that nothing from what we observed should have been able to harm anyone so long as you followed the protocols." Futaba clarified. "And let's not forget, you didn't ask me to chime in on whether that whole viewing room was a good idea, you talked to my department. You know how hard it is for cognitive scientists to find jobs, You think they're gonna argue with their boss?"
"Grrrr." Izuku was kicking himself. Futaba had taken one of her few days off when Izuku had decided to add that C.U. feature to the planetarium, and so he'd consulted her staff about the issue. He hadn't taken into account how meak cognitive scientists were.
"As for what happened. I can only tell that Fu somehow interacted with something inside the collective unconscious. And something came out of it, and into Fu" Futaba explained. "I don't know how, why, or really anything other than what I just told you."
"Physically his body seems normal half of the time. Although sometimes it tries to reanimate itself. And not in the normal way. Like it's trying to be fully alive again, rather than undead." Mai explained. "His chaos energy readings are all over the place too. Although despite reading that something went into him, we're not detecting any foreign chaos energy signatures. We couldn't figure out what was going on at first, but eventually, we threw up our hands and started observing his vestige. And then we found something. That something being a vestige. Which normally everyone has, except Fu. Fu notably didn't have one when we last checked, but now not only does he have one, but it's more…formed than all the others we observed. Figuring that was the source of the problem, we sent him to Dr. Murasaki. He's the one who's done the most studying on vestiges, remnants, and the like. He's looking at Fu now."
Eventually, they reached the room they were looking for.
They opened the white metal door and entered. Coming into what almost looked like room for surgery. With one bed in the center, where Fu lay limp, and a bunch of tools and scientific instruments filling the room.
And standing over Fu, was Dr Murasaki. He turned when he heard the door open. "Ah, Mr. Midoriya. I think you'll be pleased to know that I figured out what happened to your son."
"What!? What happened!?" Izuku urged the man, growing increasingly impatient the longer he was left in the dark. He just wanted to know that Fu would be ok. And if not, what he needed to do to make him ok.
"Well, it's a long story. Fu, could you tell us what happened when you passed out?" Dr Murasaki asked.
"Sure," Fu said, still with his eyes rolled back, and still unable to move.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
When Fu first opened his eyes after passing out, he thought he was looking in a mirror for a second.
After all, what else would you think when you were looking at yourself?
But he very quickly realized what he was looking at wasn't a mirror. Because while the person he was looking at did look an awful lot like him. He lacked white hair, dead eyes, and green skin. Instead having a completely normal skin tone, black hair, and very alive and expressive brown eyes.
However, what really tipped him off was the fact that the boy started screaming.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" The boy immediately jumped back, falling on his butt as he looked at Fu fearfully.
"Why does my life have to be so weird?" Fu sighed. He looked around. The two of them were currently in a small, white, featureless hallway. With two doors on either end.
What was weird, was that both doors gave him…feelings.
The door closer to him gave him a feeling of safety, while the other gave a feeling of dread and fear.
And for some reason, the boy getting closer to the dread door made him very, very nervous.
The boy scrambled to his feet and turned to run. Only to stop in his tracks.
Fu could only assume that the boy felt the same feeling from that door that he did. "Hey, I know this is probably scary, but I need you to come with me."
"W-Who are you?" The boy turned around to face Fu. Still looking to be afraid of him, but far less so, than the door. "Where am I?"
"My name is Fu." Fu introduced himself. "And yours?"
"...Fuhai." The boy was introduced. The fear on his face was replaced with curiosity. "Do I…know you?"
"...You just might," Fu answered. Honestly, he'd felt a strong sense of familiarity with the boy as well. Like meeting an old friend.
And along with that, he felt a strong urge to protect him. And to make sure he went through the door on his side, rather than the spooky ominous door.
Given that they looked very similar, and had the exact same name, it didn't take a genius to figure out that this boy was Fu. Somehow.
This wasn't a dream. Fu didn't have those. Not to mention he was feeling more emotion than he normally would.
I have no idea what's going on, but probably best to go with the flow, and get through the door. Fu thought to himself.
"Look, I know you must be confused, and scared. But you see that door behind me." Fu said, pointing to what he was talking about. "Do you feel like that door is safe? Like you want to go through it?"
Fuhai looked at the door, and then back at Fu, and nodded.
"Then let's go," Fu said, reaching out a hand.
Fuhai looked hesitant for a moment, but the feeling of familiarity and trust erased most of the unease he felt towards Fu. And he took his hand.
The two went over to the safe door, and Fu pushed it open, revealing nothing but bright light.
"Here we go," Fu said. Hoping that this feeling wasn't a trick.
The two entered the light, and everything washed away.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
When Fu and Fuhai could see again, they were in a new place.
One both familiar and foreign.
It looked similar to Fu's room back at the house. But it was covered in decorations. Posters of heroes, T.V. shows, etc. As well as other decorations.
"Oh great, this is still happening." Fu sighed. He honestly hoped that once they walked through the door, that all of this would end.
He should have known.
"Is this…my room?" Fuhai asked, looking around and recognizing all his stuff. But the room itself was unfamiliar.
"Ok, well…let's…" Fu tried to think of what to do, but honestly, he was stumped. He had no clue what was happening, or why. So he couldn't even begin to figure out how to fix it. "Let's just sit tight, I'm someone will-"
SLAM!
Suddenly the door to the room slammed open, revealing more light behind it.
Fuhai was covered in light, and before either of them could react, he was whisked away through the door by some invisible force, before the door slammed shut.
"...Okay sure, I guess that might as well happen." Fu sighed.
And then the room began to shake. As if an earthquake was happening.
It lasted for a few seconds, before stopping as suddenly as it started.
SLAM!
Suddenly the door slammed open once again, and Fuhai was chucked back into the room. Trembling and gasping for air.
"Fuhai!" Fu immediately ran to the boy's aide, hugging him as his instincts told him to do. "It's ok. It's ok. You're ok."
"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-" Fuhai tried to put into words what just happened, but he couldn't say anything past his panic. Tears blocked his sight and snot filled his nose. He couldn't see. He could barely hear anything over his own breath. All he could do was feel Fu's presence.
A calming. Reassuring. Presence.
It was strange just how much Fu being around him calmed him down. And with him there, and after a few minutes, he managed to calm down enough to talk.
"I-I f-felt like I-I was dying!" Fuhai explained, still shivering and crying his eyes out. "I-I could feel everything! B-But it felt like I couldn't move! I couldn't breathe!"
"Did you see anyone? Hear anyone?" Fu asked. Having a strong feeling about what might have happened. "Other kids?"
"I…I think so." Fuhai said, trying to recall the background noise he heard as he spasmed about. "They…they were calling you."
So he did take over my body…our I guess our body? I don't know. Fu sighed. Still rubbing circles into the boy's back to calm him down. Well, I guess I know what to do next.
Fu took a few more moments to calm him, before moving back.
Fuhai looked at him with wide shocked eyes. Begging to feel his embrace again.
"Ok, I'm going to go through that door. And once I do. I'll find a way to help you." Fu told him. "Do you trust me?"
"Yes," Fuhai answered almost immediately, much to his own surprise.
Fu nodded, before turning to the door. It was still open and emitting light. He walked towards it and attempted to go through it.
Only to hit what felt like a wall.
"Oh come on." Fu groaned.
He pressed his hands up against the invisible wall and pushed. Feeling his hands sinking in slightly. It wasn't like a solid wall. More elastic. Maybe he could push through it.
And so Fu tried, pushing his entire body against the invisible wall. Pushing. And pushing. And pushing.
Until his head came through.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"After my head went through, I could speak again, but I still can't see," Fu explained. "I still can't move either. And no matter what I do, I can't get the rest of my body through the barrier."
"Fascinating isn't it?" Dr. Murasaki said, looking absolutely over the moon. "Taking his story into account, and looking over all my research, I've come up with the answer. Simply put, the Fu you've known. The one that's been around ever since that car accident. Isn't Fu."
"...What?" Izuku asked, completely lost.
"I'm…not me," Fu said, equally confused. "Gonna have to explain that."
"When Fuhai was hit by that car, his quirk was still developing. Not fully formed." Dr Murasaki explained. "So when he was dying, his half-baked quirk attempted to force itself into fully forming to save him. But it failed. Fuhai's soul had left his body, by the time his quirk finished forming. Just before it could save his life. However, it still fixed him up. And it still tried to save him. But with his soul gone, his body needed something else to run it. His vestige."
Mai's eyes widened. "Of course! A vestige is almost like a second soul, left behind in the body after it dies! It has memories, feelings, thoughts, and most of the things from the original soul. If someone wanted to bring back a dead person, they would use their vestige to reanimate them. The process has never been perfect, but if it was, it could almost be like the person was brought back in full. I thought the closest thing we saw to that was Kurogiri. I never suspected Fu would be…but that would explain a few things."
"Like why we couldn't find his vestige at first." Dr Murasaki explained. "Because he WAS the vestige. And why some of his emotions and sensations are dumbed down or missing. If it was just because he was dead, he shouldn't have been able to feel ANYTHING, it shouldn't be that weirdly selective. It would also explain why his quirk is the way that it is. Why bring him back as a zombie? Why make him rot? It's because this Fu was never alive to begin with. He was born dead. So why wouldn't he come back as a zombie? An incomplete soul, born from a cosmic mistake."
"So Fu's been…a clone?" Izuku couldn't believe what he was hearing. "His quirk just replaced his soul with a backup?"
"Basically." Dr Murasaki confirmed. "Since it no longer had the original, it had to make due. However, when we opened a portal to the collective unconscious that changed. That place doesn't just possess the minds and souls of the living, but the dead as well. Fuhai's soul likely possessed some trace of his quirk, and if an opportunity arose, it would attempt to revive itself. We provided that opportunity, and Fuhai's soul and body called out to each other. That hallway you saw was likely your mind trying to comprehend the soul bridge you two created. The door you didn't choose led to death, which is why your survival instincts told you to avoid it. The other door leads back to Fu's body, bringing the long-dead REAL Fu, back into the world of the living."
Wow, I thought the only thing that could make this day worse, was being told I'd be stuck like this. Fu thought to himself. But no. My day found a new, creative way to get worse.
"However, there were issues." Dr Murasaki said, looking back over Fu. "Fu's body isn't the way it used to be. Hell, it's not even the same body the original died in. His body's been rotted and destroyed, completely replaced time and time again. Reborn as a living corpse. His body is still trying to put the original soul back in charge, but the body is no longer suitable for it. And the copy can't take control either because the body outright rejects him, so long as the original still stays inside his body. The only reason he can do this much is because he's had control for so long."
"So what do we do now?" Izuku would deal with the whole, copy thing, later. For now, all he needed to know was that he had two kids to save…two kids that were the same kid but again, deal with that later.
"Assuming you want both souls to have their own bodies, we have one solution." Dr Murasaki said. "Rip out the original's soul."
So yeah some big revelations. And a new character. Kind of.
If you have questions, leave them in a review, and have a nice day.