Izuku sat on the roof of the clinic, Sir Ratsudon cuddling into his side.

He'd been cleared to leave his room after a couple of hours when it became clear that he was no longer unable to move his legs like he had been after the [Heroic Surge]. He wasn't sure of the… specifics of why he was okay, but it might have been because…

Congratulations!

You have reached Level [21]

[Stat Increases Locked until the Second Class is chosen]

To level up from a fight he only sought out to save Sir Shield… who was having his levels drained. It was so ironic he could have cried. Had cried, even, laughing and sobbing at the hilarity of it into the wee hours of the night, having used [Earth Strider] to get up onto the roof, to ensure that he was truly alone.

He sniffled and wiped the small strand of snot that was trying to escape his nose away with his sleeve. Sir Ratusdon wriggled slightly at the moment, and Izuku let his hand drop down to pet the summon.

"This is all just so crazy."

Sir Ratsudon didn't respond, not that he could. Izuku shook his head, letting himself fall backwards onto the roof, staring up at the starry sky. His menu told him that it was about 5 AM. He would be exhausted tomorrow, having stayed up this late, but he just… couldn't sleep.

Less than a month.

It had taken less than a month since leaving the tiny village he'd grown up in for everything to get flipped upside down. From the dungeon runs, to making friends with Mei and Melissa, to the incursions, to whatever was happening with him and the dungeon…

Or him and the system. Or both. He couldn't be sure that they weren't working together, or the same thing, even, but the limited contact he'd had with the dungeon… it hadn't felt the same as what had helped him in the void where All for One attacked him, because he was sure now that it was All for One.

He wasn't sure how he knew, his memory of the whole thing being fragmented at best from the pain, but he knew. The energy, the intent, whatever he had sensed, was different. But the whole thing, the whole situation he was in…

It almost made him miss that tiny, unnamed village out in the middle of nowhere, where the worst thing to happen to him was a little bit of neglect, and whatever attention Kachaan and his friends gave him. Was being neglected better than being targeted by a force you weren't strong enough to fight, yet?

A shudder went through his body, and he felt his mouth dry up. Shaking his head, he sighed to himself. Had he really just been missing that place? It was almost too odd a thing for him to believe he was doing. In stark contrast to before he arrived at Mustafu, this month, this crazy, hectic, terrifying month… Was the first time in a long while he actually felt alive.

He certainly hadn't in that village.

"I'm really tired, Sir Ratsudon…"

His sigh disrupted Sir Ratsudon's comfort, apparently, the summon letting out a small chittering sound as he clambered onto Izuku's stomach, curling into a ball. Izuku let out a sigh and scratched the summon.

And the worst part was that his busy days weren't over. In fact, with all of the revelations he had been told the day before, he knew deep down that everything might start to get busier fairly soon.

'I can't wait to get the chance to just… run through the dungeon like a normal person again.'

It was the next day, and he was feeling tired.

He'd only been up on the roof about an hour before he dropped back down and went to bed to get some sleep, and he was up and awake again by 10 am for an appointment he knew practically nothing about.

Hell, the only reason he knew it was on at all was because Rumi had set an alarm for him on the small clock next to his bed and stabbed a letter explaining she'd be out for the day on the door.

While he was grateful for the warning about the appointment, the time it was at meant that he had only gotten about four hours of sleep that night. And for someone who had a fairly normal sleep schedule, usually, it was hitting him harder than he had ever expected it to.

'Man, sleep deprivation sucks.'

His mood was not improved by the fact that everyone in Mustafu had apparently decided that staring at him was a new national pastime. By now, he knew that word of who had been the one to kill the dragon would likely have spread throughout Mustafu, but he hadn't been prepared for the sheer level of attention that would bring.

When he had gotten downstairs from his room at the Sleeping Boar Inn, the innkeeper had declined any sort of payment from him, giving him his meal for free. Then, Izuku had to spend the whole time eating being watched by everyone in the sitting area as they whispered in not-as-quiet-as-they-thought voices to each other about his battle with the [?] dragon.

And it hadn't stopped there.

The eyes had followed him from the Sleeping Boar Inn to Hatsume's Forge, where he had gone to say hi to Mei and check up on her after all the craziness had ended. She'd been too locked into the process of making what looked like the outer rim of a shield for him to get her attention, but Otto had been happy to inform him that she was doing well if it got him out of the Forge sooner.

He didn't know why Otto had suddenly started to not like him, but he had made Mei stress and worry about him, so maybe… Was he just being an overprotective brother? Izuku didn't have a lot of knowledge in that area for obvious reasons, but it might be the case.

Even now, with almost everyone in the city at work, school, the Dungeon, or wherever else they spent their time around midday, everyone in the town square had their eyes on him. Whether that was fleeting glances, outright staring at him, or even trying to approach him, it was a little uncomfortable.

Sir Ratusudon had taken to orbiting him as he stood and watched the city workers doing their jobs, cleaning up the area around the [?] dragon's corpse, keeping the citizens away from him.

While they did that, he stood in the middle of the town square, staring at the bisected corpse of the [?] dragon that he had killed with his eyes wide. Even having the memories of the fight in his head, having had to recover from it for days, it still felt unreal to him that it had happened.

It didn't help his already foul mood that the couple-day-old half-a-corpse of the [?] dragon was both a grizzly sight and a disgusting smell. How on earth were the workers not dropping like flies from the stench?

"Ah, there you are. Good morning, Mister Midoriya. Did you sleep well?"

Even though the words felt distant to his ears in his sleepy state, the sudden appearance of a voice next to him reminded him of why he was awake after only four hours of sleep, and Izuku felt his focus shift as he turned to the speaker. He didn't recognise the man, but he was dressed in simple clothing, and holding a clipboard with the symbol of Mustafu's Council on the back.

"What?"

The man just smiled politely at his confusion, and Izuku shook his head to clear his mind from his thoughts. "Sorry, good morning. I was told by a friend of mine that you wanted me to come here and confirm something about the corpse?"

The clerk nodded at him, his eyes scanning his clipboard. "Indeed. As you are aware, there was an incident yesterday that has halved the corpse of the monster you slew. The other half of it has… Evaporated… And will be unavailable for you to claim, as it no longer exists. Luckily it was a relatively 50/50 split, so the council has been able to put together a few options on how to move forward!"

The tone of the man's voice made it clear that he at least half-expected Izuku to yell at him for the missing parts of the dragon, but Izuku had no interest in, or intention to do that. "I'm in a Party with Rumi, the adventurer who split the dragon. I know what happened."

The clerk seemed a little surprised at his lack of anger, but coughed into his fist, nodding as he smiled at Izuku. "Excellent, that makes things simpler. We have 3 available options for you and the others with a claim on part of it to agree on."

Izuku motioned for him to continue and the clerk did, tapping his pencil to the clipboard under three dot points. "Firstly, you could all just accept the same percentages as before, just with the smaller actual amount. Secondly, you all come together and negotiate the portions of your claim, with you getting the first pick, of course."

The clerk suddenly looked a bit worried as he reached the third dot point, and when he said it, Izuku understood why. "Thirdly, you all have the option to abandon your claim entirely, giving the other recipients a portion of your share, or, in the scenario where all parties abandon their claims, the corpse will become the property of the Mustafu Council."

Izuku's shock at that option must have shown on his face because the clerk tucked his shoulders in slightly as he almost seemed to try and hide behind his clipboard. "I understand that the third option seems a little… Audacious of the council, but I am still required to inform you about it."

Izuku sighed, shaking his head. "It's fine. No downside on their part of asking, I guess… I'll say that I'm okay with the first and second options. If the others vote for the first, then just do that, but if they vote for the second, I'm happy to meet and talk."

The clerk nodded rapidly, smiling as he scribbled something down on his clipboard and flipped the paper, only to pause. "Oh, uh, actually, Mister Midoriya, it looks like my coworkers were able to contact the other claimants earlier, and it looks like you will be going with the second option, according to your preference alongside all the others."

Writing a bit more down, the Clerk smiled at him and Izuku saw him glance to his left as his menu appeared mid-air. "Would you be willing to come back here this afternoon, around 4 pm? We should have everything ready for you all by then."

Thinking, Izuku glanced over to Sir Ratsudon, who had abandoned his self-imposed guard duty in favour of receiving pats from a couple of the workers. A small smile grew on his face and he nodded to the clerk. "Sure, I'll be back in a few hours, then. If I'm late, check for me at the Sleeping Boar Inn."

Izuku turned and walked away after that, barely even registering the clerk's acknowledgement of his words. Was it rude to storm off so suddenly after a talk like that? He didn't know, but maybe Melissa would? She was a noble, and they had to know stuff like that to get by in their circles.

As he walked, Sir Ratsudon returned to his side, and Izuku was happy to have the summon's presence nearby. Everyone he passed continued to stare at him, whispering behind their hands or openly pointing at him as he went past…

Gods, he'd almost forgotten how uncomfortable it was, being the topic of town-wide gossip. Not that there'd been much gossip about him in his old village after he was old enough to cook for himself and not die without supervision, the people there just kind of ignored him, for the most part.

Izuku turned the corner of the street he was on, heading back towards the Sleeping Boar Inn to take a quick nap before he had the talk with and froze on the spot as he found it empty… Except for one person.

Was this some of a cosmic joke? Was it because he was thinking about his old home for all of 30 seconds? Whatever the case was, Izuku found himself in fight or flight mode as red eyes met his green, an angry scowl on the other boy's face as he stared at him.

"Hello there, Deku."