Edit: You know, I went an entire week without realizing this never posted and for the life of me, I don't know why as the document was there in my doc manager. Please guys, if you see a date I say go by without anything, tell me because I don't get the confirmation emails from FF anymore, I don't get any emails from them and they can't see to fix it.

As I said in the previous chapter, this is the divergence point, but also means that I'll be switching the update time as posting two different chapters on the same day gives me too much work to handle with everything else in my life. Because of that, I'll be reworking my update schedule so that More Than You Think will remain on Fridays, Path of Waves will also stay on Thursdays but Path of Storms will be moved to Wednesdays with Quirkless Existence taking up the Tuesday slot, but as that last one is ending soon, I might just keep it where it is.

Chapter 6: Call of the Pyre

Even with Winter grip on the country only tightening, with snow already falling almost every morning and evening. Most people just shrugged it off, wore a couple extra layers and went about their days, others smiled and laughed as they went about shopping for the holidays. But for many heroes, it was just another day in the office as crime didn't rest just because it was cold, and so neither did that. That was the mindset of a 2nd year U.A. student as she entered the office of the number 9 hero, Ryukyu.

"Hey, Ryukyu. Have you had any luck; did we get any leads? I wanna know." Nejire Hado, hero name Nejire Chan asked, walking in like it was her friend's bedroom as she went up to the top-ranked hero. Of course, this was normal behaviour from Hado as if she didn't need to do it, she wouldn't show one proper respect, and Ryuko Tatsuma, also known as the Dragoon Hero: Ryukyu didn't care for such formalities to begin with.

Turning from the reports she was reading on her laptop, the blonde woman gave her a sad smile. "Not yet, Nejire. If anything can be said about these villains, is that they're smart enough to go to ground after the mess that was last night." They had been called to handle a fight between two villain gangs the previous night, standard fare as far as most things went but while they managed to capture one party, most of the other had managed to escape, including the leader.

The file they had on him included the standard fare including his quirk which allowed him to turn his skin's outer layer into hardened rock that resembled a pile of rocks. That along with his intelligence, ruthlessness and list of crimes landed him a C-rank according to the HPCS which wasn't the highest with All Might having crippled the criminal underworld, but that didn't mean villains that classed C and above weren't a pain to deal with.

"That's not good, is it? Smart villains are dangerous villains. Dangerous villains can really ruin your day." Hado noted, thinking back to her lessons on the topic she picked up in her first year under Eraser.

Ryukyu nodded, agreeing with that statement as while people normally thought villains to be arrogant and loud, those were the easy ones to handle, their stupidity made them both visible and predictable and often, they lacked the power to do much when confronted by a trained hero.

Smart villains didn't work like that, they were akin to ambush predators. They struck only they felt like they had a good chance, and left soon after. This was why she wasn't surprised when the police reported that they raided the known hide-outs of the missing gang members and found nothing. But that meant that they could be anywhere in the prefecture, perhaps in the block. "Right, which is why I've reached out to other heroes to see if they haven't seen anything that could point us in the right direction." At that moment, the door opened once more and another hero walked in, one of her side-kicks.

"Ryukyu." The grey-haired woman in a dark one-piece stated, her voice slightly muffled by the large scarf she wore over her lower face and mouth.

"Good timing, have you received anything?" The dragon hero asked, getting a nod from the woman as she quickly walked up and handed her a tablet with an open message on it.

"Jet-wing said that he saw a figure that matched the description of the gang leader not too long ago, but because he didn't realize he was a wanted criminal, he didn't pursue him." Ryukyu skimmed the report from the local pro, not holding him accountable for his failure to act, rather it was theirs as if they got the news out faster to the Hero Network, he would have known but she could think about that later, now they had a gang of villains to hunt.

"What drew his eye?" She asked.

"His attitude mainly, man acted like he owned the street he walked on, but didn't cause any trouble." Hado giggled at that, the villain was smart, but not smart enough to keep his ego in check. Good thing that being a prick wasn't illegal, but then again, if that was illegal, a lot more people would be in jail.

"Where was he last seen, and where was he going?" She skipped to the end to find the result for herself.

"He vanished northwest, into the wilderness but there is a town in that direction. It's small and pretty remote but if they need to gather supplies before going off the grid, I wouldn't be surprised if they hit it." She handed the tablet back to her sidekick with a quick thank you, getting up from her desk and walking towards the door, Hado quick to follow her.

"We're heading out?" The teen asked her, getting a nob from the woman.

"That town doesn't have any heroes, does it?" Her sidekick shook her head. Heroes were most concentrated in large populated urban settlements, they had to be as most crimes happened in cities but that was a double-edged sword. Increased focus on cities meant towns and villagers were rarely if ever patrolled, never mind had a permanent hero that worked there.

All that meant that there would be no one capable of stopping those villains from doing whatever they pleased, and she wouldn't let that happen. Her voice carrying the strength of a dragon, she gave her orders. "Then send word to my sidekicks, they're to leave their patrols and meet us by the train station we need to be held to contain the villains and handle civilians that might be caught in the crossfire."

"Right." Her sidekick bowed as the hero and student left the room, walking towards the exit where she used the space to transform into her dragon form, ignoring the awe and shouts of the civilians who saw her, she took to the air with Nejire Chan following, propelling herself with yellow spirals of energy shooting out of her feet and hands.

"I hope that they don't do anything drastic before we get there." She thought aloud.

"Young man, how can you walk around like that and not catch a cold?" The woman running the grocery store told him with a laugh. It wasn't even midday yet but he had been awake for hours, first handling his responsibilities in the temple before he came down to buy what he needed. Like always, he wore his shrine maiden uniform, with the sole change being the green wool-lined haori, it wasn't thick enough to be much help, but he didn't need it to be.

Chuckling, he combed a hand through his hair, which he had allowed to grow to shoulder length and was kept in a finely kept bun with a comb through it, keeping it all in place. "I have a naturally high body temperature. It's not so bad for me." Koharu's head popped out from his haori, to say hello he was sure which the woman returned with a wave. She had long gotten used to seeing the lad with his pet snake wherever he went, it only made sense that when it was so darn cold, it would stick close to him.

Though if she was seeing things right, that snake of his had gotten bigger again. When she first saw her, she was maybe 90-95cm long but now, she was at least 1.7m long. If she didn't look so healthy, she would have perhaps advised him to take her to the town vet just to be sure.

"Heavens, I wish I had that. I would save an arm and a leg on heating." She continued to scan the things he picked. It wasn't much and if not for the regular checks, she would have suspected it wasn't enough for him. But in this chilly weather, he seemed to have picked out quite a lot of fish to eat.

"I would just start a fire in my backyard if I ever got hot, or pray by the shrine to keep me and Koharu warm." Izuku casually replied, Koharu nodding with him as she had come to appreciate the flames almost as much as he did.

"The boy and his snake, there is a story there, I tell you." She said to herself as she finished scanning and started ringing him up. "Speaking of, I hope you're taking care of yourself up on the mountain."

"Why's that? It's not like I've seen any predators to worry about." He did see plenty of deer, more than normal these days but he suspected that was because he set up a little feeding station for them. it helped make the place feel less isolated as if he couldn't live with people, then he'd leave live with the animals.

"Not predators, but there's been sightings of fire." She didn't see it, but he stiffened a bead of sweat formed on his brow. "People say it's like watching an inferno raging in the dead of night, my grandson compared it to that Endeavour fellow, like he'll ever come out this far." She muttered at the impossibility of a big-shot hero deciding to grace them, what was he supposed to do? Help Granny Mikasa find her cat? Help ensure kids got home from school on time?

Meanwhile, Izuku had to wipe away his nervous sweat before she saw it. dammit, he trained at night deep in the mountains so that people didn't see him. Most folk should be inside when he starts. "Either way, it's got people scared. Even the local fire chief has done a view drills to make sure we know what to do if it ever came down the mountain into town." He had met the man, he was nice even if his fire truck made him nervous, the sensation of cold water hitting him was never nice to him, it was quite the opposite.

"I wouldn't know much about that, I'm in bed pretty early you see. Need my sleep so I can wake up bright and early for my duties in the temple." He hoped that she would buy that excuse, as he thought now would be a good time to finish up and leave he got out his frog purse and collected the cash he would need.

"That's a good trait, my grandson could do well to learn it instead of staying up late playing video games." Lucky for him, she didn't pick up on his behavior as she took his money and completed the transaction.

"Well, he's young, why not enjoy his freedom? Anyway, thank you, have a nice day!" He quickly grabbed his stuff and left the store, walking to the side where he had left his craft, filled with his other shopping and untouched by others. If nothing else, he didn't need to worry about thieves as much in such a small town.

Putting the bag into it, he looked into his frog purse and saw that he had just a single banknote and coin. "Down to just 1,500 Yen. Hopefully, nothing will come up." If not, then he'll just have to make do with what he had. Taking the reigns of the cart, he started pulling it as he made his way back home, waving at people as he went. Most didn't know all that much about him other than his first name and that was fine with him, the less they knew, the better. To them, he was just the strange kid who cross-dressed and managed a temple.

It was the tourists that gave him the biggest issue where most people went south for winter to try and have some fun on a beach, maybe even left the country, they dealt with people who wanted their slice of a winter wonderland. This meant that he had to deal with them walking up, getting surprised when they heard him speak and either awkwardly walking away, asking for a picture together, or getting even more excited as that one couple did.

It was far more than he was used to doing in terms of social interactions with strangers. But soon enough, he was out of town and on the road back to the temple. Around 15 minutes after he left, the door to the store slid open as another customer entered. The old lady turned to greet them with a smile, but that smile turned to confusion before it became fear.

The screams started not long after that.

Midoriya hummed a mantra as he pulled his cart, its weight barely affecting him thanks to all the manual labor and training he had been doing. Even with the cold wind hitting him, he couldn't bring himself to stop smiling as he thought of what he planned to make for dinner. He didn't just buy all that fish for nothing-okay, he did but it was special and he and Koharu could eat like kings tonight. He would have gone for pork as even just roasting it over an open fire would leave him a happy boy, but alas, she didn't have any.

"With the time, we should have time to relax for a bit before I need to get to any of my chores. Maybe I can get some reading down while I cozy up the fire with a cup of tea, that sounds nice, doesn't it, Koharu?" He asked, to which his friend bumped her head against his cheek, making him laugh, his earlier tension absent from his body.

"Yes, I'll make something for you as well, how could I think I wouldn't." Koharu seemed super happy about that, he didn't think that snakes would like tie, but he did try and add boiled leftover meat to it so perhaps that was the reason. It was at that moment that the wind shifted as before, it had been coming down the mountain, but for a moment it changed directions as it first died down, then came back by now racing up the mountain.

This would have normally not gotten much of a reaction out of the two, they understood that wind changed direction but this was not a normal day as Izuku's nose twitched. "You smell that?" He asked, Koharu nodded as she turned to face where the smell of smoke was coming from, freezing when she saw the source. Izuku did so when he turned and saw the town he had worked in, filled with people who helped and looked after him.

It was burning. "What the…fire…" Seeing that blaze, even in the distance sent a spike of ice through his heart, his hands dropping to his sides, along with the pull bar of his cart. His legs followed afterwards as they lost strength, sending him to his knees. He didn't even register that he was dirtying his clothes and that he'd need to wash them quirk to make sure they didn't get stains. That much smoke, that much fire could only mean one thing.

Villain attack.

B-but that was impossible! The place was so far away from anything, why would a villain show up? What would even attract them? it was a small town where being rich meant you had two cars for both working parents. There was reason for a villain to appear, one hadn't in the months he had been living in the area.

So why today if all days did one decide to change that?!

Before he knew it, he was back up on his feet, ready to rush over and help them-

Just like the last time

That memory, the image of seeing people angry, afraid of him more than anything left him rooted to the ground, his knees growing weak once more but he managed to stay standing, barely. Hugging himself, he could barely feel Koharu trying to get his attention as he got lost in his head. He hadn't thought about it for so long, he had thought he got past it but…but that was just him lying to himself.

He had tried to be a hero, tried to save someone and all that did was force him to flee, made so many people fear him, made All Might fear him. What sort of hero did that? None, they brought joy, they brought laughter, they brought….they brought…good things.

He didn't. He only made people feel bad, he did bad things. Just like a villain.

"I don't want to be a villain, I've been good, I've been good, I swear. I say my prayers every morning, do my chores, and even try to keep up with schoolwork. I'm not bad, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not! I'm not! I'M NOT!"

"Ow!" He hissed, seeing that Koharu had bit his hand, and got pretty deep. Releasing her jaws now that he was back in the present, she looked at him with sad, worried eyes. Why…oh, she was worried for him.

"Koharu…I'm…I'm sorry." He didn't want to look at her and perhaps see disappointment in her eyes as he looked away. "I know that I should go and help…but am I the right one for the job?" She shifted her position so that she was back in his line of sight, her tongue flicking out. conveying words and feelings that only he could feel, almost as if he was having an entire conversation with her.

Shaking his head, he tried to grab the pull bar and start moving again. "Someone will come…right? When villains appear, heroes also appear to that stop, they…they'll…" He couldn't do it. he didn't need to see it; he didn't need to hear it as his mind conjured up a scenario in his head about what could be happening. "They aren't here yet." A villain wouldn't have appeared unless they were fleeing the heroes, how long would it take for one to arrive? An hour, or 2? How many people would be hurt, if not worse by them?

Koharu licked his cheek, drawing his attention to her as she looked back towards the town, her message clear as day. Fire…he had been told so many times that it was bad, that he was bad for using it, for loving it, for wishing to see it spread but… He spared Koharu a glance, recalling how he healed her. He remembered how much the fires around the temple didn't just calm him, but made him so happy. He remembered how he felt when he trained, so much so that not even the threat of someone discovering him could discourage him from doing it.

Fire… could do so much good too, it can help people.

That nugget burrowed deep into his head, banishing his hesitation and fear, and with it he moved, slowly but quickly gaining in speed as he ran back to town, stream starting to leak out of his nostrils and mouth as he increased his body's performance. Soon enough, he was a steaming projectile speeding down the mountain back towards town, Koharo wrapped tightly around him but not burning from his inhuman body temperature.

He might not have it in his cards to be happy, but he could at least ensure that others did.

Back in town, the scene was a mess as people ran away from the fighting and chaos. Fires had broken out almost as fast as the villains' attacks thanks to stray fire hitting a small gas tank and spreading from there. While the local firefighters dealt with that growing problem, law enforcement and others helped get people away from the thick of it. They had tried to stop the villains earlier but had been rebuffed by them.

With the villains, the gang of 11 are scattered across the main street, looting what they can from the stores and homes. "Have you found anything?" The biggest among them, a man who was at least 2.2m in height and could weigh as much as 130kg asked one of the gang members next to him.

"Just canned food and some camping supplies." The smaller man replied as he looked through the stuff they had stolen, nothing of real value, aside from a few laptops and a phone.

"That'll do, we're getting the hell outta here. I don't need the damn heroes chasing us." The leader replied, wishing to get out of this nowhere town and move on to bigger things. It was already humiliating enough that they had been forced out of their territory, now they'll have to move to another city and set up shop there, at the very least, he'll have the chance to fight his way to the rightful place.

"Hold it! Hands in the air, now!" He turned to see something that made him laugh. Some no-name cop was trying to arrest them, seriously? The man looked like he was close to crapping his pants even with that little gun in his hand.

"Oh, this is cute." He cracked his neck, the cop looking like that act alone scared him which only made the villain smile. "Where's the heroes, copper? Sorry, this is above your pay grade!" His arm turned into a rocky mess before he swung it at the cop, pieces of it flying out towards the man who dived for cover along with the rest of the cops that he knew were 'waiting for their chance.'

"Watch this." One of the others created a small ball of energy in their hand, shaping it onto a disk before he tossed it at the police. The attack missed and instead struck the side of a building that was already close to toppling over. This was dangerous as there were still people in the area, with a small group right in the crossfire.

"Oh no!" The police screamed out as the people crawled up into balls and hoped that would save them. However, their end was averted when a mass of swirling yellow energy smashed into the side of the falling building, sending it to the side and saving them.

"Whoa!" The people, police and villains looked up to see the source of that attack as a blue-haired girl who had just arrived on the scene. "That was a close one, good thing we came here flying." She landed close to the people and helped some of them back to their feet.

"Y-you're a hero?" One of them asked, shocked that a hero would appear right when they needed it.

Hado smiled at the question, continuing to help them to safety. "That's right, I'm Nejire Chan. And I'm not alone." Right as she said that another large object came down to earth with a rough landing on the other side of the street. When the dust and smoke cleared, they saw that it was a dragon.

"You help get the people to safety," Ryukyu sparred Nejire Chan a glance, to which the girl nodded as she continued to get people away from the fighting. "I'll handle the villains." Ryukyu turned her gaze to the villains, most of them now looking scared of her.

"Shit, is that fucking Ryukyu?"

"How the hell did she get here so fast?"

"Shut it!" The leader shouted at his people, wishing that they'd have a little backbone. "She's here, so we deal with her!"

"I'll advise against that; it'll be better for everyone if you surrender." She told them, she didn't wish to waste time fighting and further endangering the people here, but her warning fell on deaf ears as the villain only smirked at her, his quirk growing to cover both his arms before he swung them at her, sending pieces of rock her way.

Ryukyu wished that they had listened as with the leader throwing the first shot, the rest followed suit. Their attacks weren't the strongest, and she could handle most of them in her dragon form, but the problem came from the fact the buildings around them couldn't, many were already damaged by the fire and like the last one, could fall over with one stray attack. So, she took to the air to avoid them, keeping their fire away from property and the people while also looking for ways to handle them.

Unfortunately for her, whenever she swopped down to try and take one out, they would dive to the side and otherwise evade her, turning this into a game of cat and mouse. The villains were quick to pick on this. "Aim for everything else, boys. This entire nothing town is out shooting range!" The leader yelled to the rest, much to the shock of the heroes.

"No!" Ryukyu yelled at that, but they again didn't listen.

"Yeah!" They shifted their focus from trying to hit her to wrecking the place, getting a yell from the pro as she dived down, faster than before to stop them.

Watching this, Nejire Chan wanted to help, seeing her mentor was in a pinch which could easily be handled if they attacked them from two directions, she was even smaller and could easily tag a few if she wanted to. 'She could use some help, but I'm needed here. It'll take maybe 30 minutes for the rest to get here but we don't have that kind of time.' She had to focus on saving lives over fighting the villains as the fires were only getting worse as the firefighters started to get overwhelmed, if things didn't change, she might have to switch to handling that issue.

'If they're going to play dirty, then I have to get creative.' Ryukyu thought to herself in her latest attack, switching things up so when she came down, she reverted to normal and rushed one of the villains, who was shocked she would do that. She didn't give him time to act as she kicked him into his ass, she might normally fight in dragon form but that didn't mean she slacked off in other areas. With the villain down, she changed into a dragon again, this time grabbing onto the downed villain and using him as a projectile to take out another, sending both tumbling down like a house of cards.

She repeated this a couple of times, charging in either dragon or human form, keeping them on their toes and slowly taking one out after the other. This went on till it was just the 4-left standing, the rest groaning in pained piles on the floor.

"What the hell? Is this all it takes to take you out?" The villain leader yelled at his downed people, but not one got back up which only enraged him. when this was over, he'll just cut these fuckers loose and find more capable gang members!

"Useless!" He barked as he started to change, his entire body growing as the rock covering him increased, going from his arms to his chest and soon his entire body, increasing his weight and height. "If you want something done right, you do it yourself!" When the change was done, the villain had grown to nearly 3m and put in another 90kg. When Ryukyu came down to attack him, he didn't move and stood at his ground, catching her claw in his hands, putting up a stronger-than-expected resistance against her strength thanks to the physical boast his quirk granted him. it wasn't made easier by the fact he was practically made from jagged rock now, her only option was a quick takedown, or running down the clock as the file said he could only maintain this form for 10 minutes at best.

With this increased strength, the villain could fight her on her more equal playing field, but she still had the mass and power advantage. Looking around, he spotted a car and without much thought, he picked it up and threw it at her as hard as he could, sending the multi-ton vehicle sending towards her. She dodged the blow but realized a moment too late that while it wouldn't hit her, it would crash close to where Nejire Chan was evacuating people.

"Nejire Chan, incoming!" Her work studies student turned to see the car and prepared to handle it, charging up her quirk to send it flying to the other side of town, but she didn't get the chance.

"Serpent's Fireball!" A voice that sounded like a volcanic eruption mixed with rocks being pummeled to pieces of a drill cried out, at that same time, a massive fireball just as big as the car hit the flying vehicle, causing an explosion of fire and heat that knocked half the car off course, while the other half was burnt to ash and floated away in the wind. From the direction of the fireball, a creature coated in fire and ash was fast approaching, jumping from rooftop to rooftop before landing in the middle of the new ruined street.

With the smoke clearing from their form, they could all see that appeared to be a mutant class of quirk user, as their entire body was covered with purple stone-like scales with what looked to be flowing green lava in between the cracks, their lower half was just a serpent-like tail, with the tip giving off a consistent, small but bright green fire like a freshly lit match. Their fingers were long, clawed with glowing tips which hero and hero student could tell most likely meant their fingertips were hot to the touch.

Their head was covered by a flaming cobra-like hood which formed from their back and shoulders, atop it were two green and white spots that looked like eyes. Their face, like their body made from stone, shaped to look like snakes with scaled patterns covering the entire thing with bright green flames leaking out of the divide that served as their mouth and the two holes that formed their eyes. Coiling around them, was an actual snake, which was quiet and muscular, almost like a baby constrictor which despite the heat the newcomer was putting out, hadn't hurt by being in contact with them in the slightest.

"Are you…okay?" The figure asked, their voice so off-putting when compared to anyone else's, same as their appearance while Endeavour was covered in fire for intimidation purposes, one could still see him as a man underneath it. Whoever this was seemed to be made of fire and earth.

"W-we're fine!" With their attention on them, the people shakily waved back at them.

The newcomer smiled, or at least, they appeared to smile. "…Good…" Izuku had been worried that he had taken too long helping others, so much so that when he saw the car flying, he didn't hesitate and transformed fully to handle the problem.

But that all led to here and now, with him turning back to the problem that had caused this, to the people that made so many others suffer for selfish reasons. He would be lying if he said he didn't feel an anger burning in his chest. "Surrender." He kept it short.

"What the hell is this, more of you?" The villain leader scoffed at him, looking him over and deciding that he was more intimidating than he looked. Even how he stood was crude, untrained and inexperienced. Whoever this punk was hadn't been in many fights.

This lack of experience was also apparent to Ryukyu who didn't recognise them as any hero she knew of. He could be a rookie, but he seemed far too raw for that. "Stay back, leave this to the heroes!"

Izuku ignored both, keeping his fiery gaze on the villains before him. "Surrender or face the flames." The flames around him increased, with Koharu glaring at them which made the lesser villains feel like rats about to be devoured.

Their leader felt no such thing, smacking his stone-covered chest with his arm, leaving him open to attack. "Come at me, punk! Let's see if those flames of yours are worth a damn!" Izuku was quick to take him up on that invitation, and despite Ryukyu yelling for him to stay back, he rushed the villains, moving faster than any had expected from a person with a snake lower half, but he crossed the distance regardless, a fist pulled back but his attack was crude, easily seen and therefore, countered.

The villain smirked as he dodged the strike with barely any effort, before backhanding the surprised Izuku and knocking him aside but Izuku was quick to react. He might not have dodged the blow, but when he had a tail over 2m long, he didn't need to as, like a viper strike, his tail shot out and wrapped itself around the outstretched arm of the villain. Koharu was quick to jump in, leaping from him onto the closest villain with her jaws wide open, biting down on their arm and quickly wrapping them up, scaring the shit out of her target and the rest as they watched this go down.

While his friend used her serpentine body to restrain her target, and continually bit them, Izuku merely allowed the ambient heat of his body to increase, heating his target while his stone-like skin offered him increased defense, like with any rock-while it was slow to heat, it was great at retaining it. While the villain tried to get him to let go of them, he caught their other arm and hugged it close to his chest as he moved, with the arm in hand, he found himself behind the villain, keeping the villain in check as he continued to heat him.

"Caught you. I don't need to fight you; I just need to burn you." He whispered to him, seeing the growing anger but also fear in his eyes as he continued to try and break out, the heat started to get through his defense.

He didn't know who the hell this guy was, but he wanted out of his damned furnace grip right the hell now. "What the-get off my you freak!" He yelled at him, but despite his best efforts, he couldn't use any of his arms as one was being cooked while the other was held behind his back while the weirdo just continued to smile at him, as if they found this entire thing amusing! What sort of hero smiled while they cooked people?

"No. you should have listened, but this isn't so bad." Izuku told him with a smile, shifting to release the man's arm which fell to his side, before he could do anything with it, He wrapped his arm to his body in his tail, increasing the temperature more as the man kept struggling, his screams of pain increasing as the heat finally made it through to the soft underbelly.

Hearing this, Ryukyu couldn't just sit there and let him kill the man. With a beat of her wings, she closed the distance and glared down at the boy and his screaming captive. "Let him go, now and get the snake to back off as well."

Turning to the hero, he noted that she seemed mad, but he didn't understand why. He was helping, saving some lives and capturing the villains. Oh, of he figured it out. "Oh, don't worry about them. Koharu isn't venomous, they'll just have the typical bruised muscles and bites to worry about." He supposed seeing a large snake coiled around someone biting them like that would be strange, he should know as he once found her around a deer of all things while he was fetching water. She didn't eat it, at least at the moment but did insist he bring it back which led to them eating deer for 2 weeks.

"And him? You're roasting him!" Ryukyu would have sooner ripped him off the man but saw how tightly wrapped it was. She needed to force him to release him, failing that, convince him to.

Izuku cocked his head to the side, finding the feeling of the man's heating stone skin quite pleasant, maybe this was why Koharu liked to nap on rocks he left close by to the shrine fire. "Roasting? That's one way to see it, but don't worry about a thing. I'm helping, as I helped before," He turned back to the squirming man, who was tearily looking up at him for…mercy? Strange fellow. "As for you, don't fear the fire." He didn't say more before he breathed out a deluge of fire, bathing his captive in it as his screams rang through the air, shocking everyone at just how callously he killed someone.

But that turned to confusion when the flames died out and the man was fine, his quirk was inactive but he didn't have a burn on him as Midoriya unwrapped himself from him and gently placed the man down. "See? The fire helped him too!" He turned to the stunned hero while Koharu returned to him, slithering up his body till she was resting around his shoulders. "We did good!"

Ryukyu was perplexed by this situation. She had never seen a quirk like this, but she couldn't refute the evidence as he moved to save people, and seemingly took down the villain without serious harm or damage to the surroundings. Still, she couldn't give him complete trust, not yet. "It would be best if you surrender."

He slapped his tail against the ground, growing frustrated with that demand. "No, surrender is for villains. I'm not a villain, I helped! My fire helped!" He pointed to the downed villains, the ones the Kohao handled moaning on the floor in pain.

Ryukyu could tell there was something more to this, especially when she finally recognized him from the Tatooine incident. She didn't think she'd run into two different villains today, but looking what she was sure was just a boy over, and mulling over his words, she wasn't so sure he was a villain. Still, this was a situation that needed to be handled carefully. "Why don't you explain yourself then, I'm missing some clues here."

Hearing that, Midoriya paused. He had been ready for her to argue, to call him mean things, for the voices in his head to go out of control but even they seemed surprised by this. "Explain?" Perhaps he was hearing things wrong.

Ryukyu disproved that as she repeated herself. "Yes, give your side of things. Seeing someone be burnt alive and be told they're fine is not normal." The image that was being painted to her about the boy was starting to gain some pieces, and it didn't reveal something pretty to her.

"This is the first time someone asked," Midoriya muttered, looking at Koharu who did the snake equivalent of a shrug, just as lost as him. He didn't notice that Ryukyu seemed saddened by that reveal as he tried to explain himself.

The only problem was that he didn't know how. How do you explain something so simple to someone else? Fire had always been bad(or was it?) to him. For almost his whole life, he loved the flames(which was why others shunned him) he knew how much good they could bring(yet no one else saw that). He now understood how hard it would be to explain something as simple as what the color yellow was to someone who was blind, but he had to try.

"Fire…fire is good. It can help people, help them a lot and can make them feel better, it can make them be better." His stone hole that serves as eyes widened, reaching for his head, he felt the thumping, and heard the voices again, yelling, screaming, dismissing and mocking him. What was he doing here? Didn't he come all the way here to avoid getting into stuff like this? Why, why couldn't he just do that for once?

Ryukyu looked worried when Midoriya started acting funny, his body started to give off more heat than before. "I…I have to go now…goodbye." He looked away, getting ready to flee.

"Wait!" The top pro wasn't given a chance to capture him as he opened his mouth and breathed out steam, and lots of it. it was as if he opened a portal inside a powerplant as it started to cover the entire place, cooling into a mist. Even when she took to the sky to try and blow it away with her wings, it barely made a dent. By the time she managed to clear some of it, she could tell that he was gone.

Izuku for almost 9 Years: Manages to ignore his 'urges' and live a semi-normal life.

Puberty enters the chat

Izuku in less than 1 year: Let's loose and has a blast doing so, only for years of trauma to ruin it, like a bad hangover after a night with the boys.

No, but seriously, there was going to be a breaking point sooner or later, better it be now when he's young and still a minor than when he's Twice age as he…yeah, he just had the worst luck.

The next chapter is already up since this was SUPPOSED to come up last week

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