Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia or the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
He Who Protects
Chapter 1
"I was there," he whispered. Times filled with laughter and light flashed through his mind. "I was there, the day All For One slew All Might."
It was a good story, a long one.
"A story lost amongst the centuries."
His eyes traced the horizon. Buildings of silver and gold glinted in the weak, waning light. They reached unto the heavens but were lost amid multi-hued clouds of smog.
Metallic clangs and buzzing machinery from the distant manufactorum reached his ears in his tower of gold. His hands clenched, a lump lodging firm in his throat. 'How I miss her laughter.'
Gaze shifting to his hands, he took in the radiance coiling around them like iridescent mist. 'And how I curse him for gifting me this existence.'
The chronicler's fingers tapped against her thigh, her body buzzing in excitement.
'So very loud.'
"Your loyal subj-" She flinched as his eyes darted to her and nearly fumbled her recording apparatus. "The people have long been asking for your story, my Lord. I'm sure it will astound them. Again, thank you for gifting me this opportunity."
"My tale is not for the light of heart, Chronicler Tanaka." He sighed and unclenched his fists. "It is fraught with sorrow. Such the same as the title that was bestowed upon me, one I had wished to avoid."
His red robes swirled about his feet in the cold breeze wafting through his window. He heard Himiko Tanaka shiver behind him, forgetting, once again, how the elements affected those of normal constitution.
"Surely it is a most glorious tale, my Lord." Tanaka stood and joined him. Her hands fumbled at her side, as if unsure of what to do with them. "You saved humanity, brought us together. Is that not something worth recording and celebrating?"
Ignoring her platitudes, he asked, "Where would you prefer we begin, Chronicler Tanaka?"
Tanaka nibbled on her lower lip for a few moments before a beaming smile wrinkled her cheeks. "Perhaps with your name, if you would allow. There's no record of it anywhere."
"Yo, Green!" Her usual hail was distorted and distant. Her pure, white tresses flitted before his eyes, her sun-kissed face blurred and featureless. Pain lanced his heart.
He turned from Tanaka. "Midoriya," he muttered. "Izuku Midoriya."
"I AM HERE!" Golden locks replaced flowing white. Izuku brought a hand to his forehead, willing the images to cease. "HAHAHA!"
"I'm sorry, Izuku!" Her tears cascaded into his hair, dripping onto his face. They mixed with his own, only to fall and darken the carpet beneath them. "I'm so sorry!"
'Mother…' A lone tear escaped the confines of Izuku's eyes. 'That's not what I wished for you to say.'
"The story of The Emperor, but where to start?" Tanaka whispered.
Izuku jerked at the moniker. A sigh escaped his lips as the voices of his past retreated. He'd not thought of them for so long.
"We shall begin where all great tales do."
The Emperor of Humanity turned, forcing a great, beaming smile upon his face.
"At the humble roots of a nobody."
Tanaka's face vaulted. "Surely, you jest, My Lord."
Long strands of curly green hair obstructed his view as Izuku shook his head. "To comprehend my story, Chronicler Tanaka, you must first understand that men…"
◹†◸◹†◸◹†◸◹†◸
"...are created equal, huh?" Izuku thumbed the charred and waterlogged notebook in his hands. A dry, burnt flake chipped off and fell at his feet. "Fat lot of good that did me today. Stupid Kacchan."
Izuku kicked a stray rock lying in his path. It clattered over the concrete and under an overpass, finally clanging to a stop atop a manhole.
"So you wanna go to U.A. too, huh Deku?" Kacchan's voice rattled in Izuku's skull, bringing him to a halt. "Just stay the hell out of my way! Besides, how's a quirkless loser like you gonna get in? It'd be better if you took a swan dive off the top of the school."
His class's resulting laughter roared in his ears. As usual, Izuku's teacher had done nothing to stop the torment.
Biting his lip against the pooling tears, Izuku clenched his fist and looked to the sky. "I'll show you, Kacchan. I'll show all of you! U.A. will have two students from Aldera Junior High this year!"
Izuku took one shaking step forward, then another. "I don't need a quirk to get into U.A. I just know it! I'll be a hero, smiling and protecting everyone just like All Might!"
Shadow fell over him as he walked beneath the overpass. Izuku turned around and looked at the fading sun as it began its descent beneath the horizon. A watery smile stretched across his face as he thrusted his left fist in the air.
"HAHA…ha?"
Metal scraping against concrete ground against his ears and Izuku jerked around. Tendrils of green slime flowed through the open manhole, grasping for purchase against the dark concrete.
Izuku's jaw fell, his uplifted arm trembling. "A villain…"
Grunts echoed up the manhole as more tendrils appeared.
"Finally escaped that maniac." A single eye surrounded by green ooze popped into Izuku's view. "That was a close call."
Without a thought, Izuku slid his backpack off his shoulders and hurled it at the strange figure. Notebooks and paper flew from the open container, fluttering in the air as his backpack struck the villain in its large eye.
"Shit!" The sludge monster lost its grip on the pavement and disappeared from view with a distant splash. "I'm gonna kill that brat!"
"Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit!"
Izuku's legs pumped and tremors wracked his body as he vaulted to the nearby manhole cover. With a grunt, he began to drag the heavy piece of metal.
"I'm gonna kill you for that, kid!" The villain's roar reverberated around him.
'It's getting closer. Gotta go faster.'
Body buzzing and heart pumping with adrenaline, Izuku dropped the cover back into place and collapsed butt-first atop it.
"What do I do?" Tears flowed from Izuku's eyes when the villain began to pound its tendrils against the cover amidst muffled curses. "What do I do? Please, someone… anyone… HELP ME!"
"Run, you idiot!" Kacchan's voice drowned out the din beneath him. "Nobody's coming and your quirkless ass can't do anything… Run or die, Deku!"
Izuku looked around, desperate, but didn't see a single soul. Kacchan's voice roared at him to move his legs, but he couldn't.
A loud bang quieted Kacchan before Izuku was sent hurtling through the air. The manhole cover clanged to the ground nearby, a grunt of pain escaping Izuku's lips as his body impacted the wall.
Izuku clenched his eyes shut against the pain, his heart hammering in his ears. 'I can't breathe!'
His muscles screamed and his body trembled as he tried to stand. Izuku fell to the cold, hard ground. 'I can't move!'
Wet plops and gurgling laughter met his ears. 'I'm gonna die.'
Izuku forced his eyes open. He wished he hadn't.
"Your body's a little scrawny, kid." The sludge villain's gurgling words make Izuku's stomach lurch. "But it'll do just fine."
A light green, viscous tendril crept toward him at a snail's pace. Izuku's arms trembled as he tried once more to stand. With a pained huff, he fell to the ground again.
'This is it,' he thought. 'This is how I die.'
Izuku had often heard of a person's life flashing before their eyes when they thought they'd die. Time slowed and he waited.
'Nothing… Just another lie.'
The tendril wrapped around his ankle and the villain laughed. "I promise this won't hurt too much, kid. It'll all be over in a few seconds."
'It's gonna kill me.' An image of his crying mother flashed in his mind's eye. Fire filled his veins. 'No! I refuse! I'm gonna be a hero! Does a hero just give up when things look bad?'
Everything flipped as the villain held him aloft. Izuku clenched his fists, his eyes darting to the charred notebook in his hand.
With a yell, he threw the notebook at the villain's eye.
"Ow!"
The villain released him. Air rushed around him and Izuku fell to the ground with a sickening crunch.
Izuku's body vibrated as he stood, his left hand reaching for his right shoulder. 'I don't feel it, but I know I broke something. Must be the adrenaline from the fight or flight response.' He shook his head. 'Enough! I need to get out of here.'
His eyes darted around the overpass. There was nothing nearby except his scattered books, but he knew the villain wouldn't fall for that a third time.
The villain moved its tendrils from its eye, blinking rapidly. It was blocking one of the exits. Izuku whipped around on shaking legs. 'Gotta move!'
He took one step forward before his vision was filled with oozing green.
"Not so fast kid," the villain hissed. "You're my ticket outta here. So stay still AND DIE!"
With no other option available, Izuku surged forward and punched with his left hand. His arm went through the villain and was submerged up to his elbow.
"Did you really think that was gonna work, kid?" Wet, popping laughter gurgled from the thing's throat.
"Bad idea," Izuku muttered as he attempted to pull his arm from the villain's body.
"And now you're mine!"
Izuku took a deep breath, preparing to scream for all he was worth, as countless tendrils wrapped around his body and dragged him beneath the villain's surface.
He opened his eyes to be greeted by a green world. Izuku kicked his legs, the slime around him jiggling with the villain's laughter.
Arms flailing, Izuku's lungs began to burn. He fought the need to open his mouth. 'Can't…get…out. I can't swim.'
"Won't be long now." The world began to blur as the villain moved from the overpass.
'Muscles getting…weaker.' Fire coursed through Izuku's body. Darkness crept from the corners of his vision.
His limbs stilled and his mouth opened of its own accord. Cold, rotted slime shot down his throat and into his lungs. Izuku's hands shot to his throat. His eyes bulged in their sockets, feeling as though they would soon burst.
But the pain faded. His panic fled. 'It's been too long. Nobody's coming.'
Izuku twitched at the villain's rumbling laughter. Tears leaked from his eyes, lost amidst the slime. 'So this is how I die? Some hero I turned out to be.'
Darkness consumed him.
"TEXAS SMASH!"
'It sounds…so far away.' The world around Izuku rumbled and roared. He felt as though he was flying. 'Just…my imagination… So tired.'
His body impacted something hard. Moments later, something else pushed against his chest.
Slime spewed from Izuku's mouth, his oesophagus consumed by flame. Air rushed into his burning lungs with wracking coughs immediately following.
Izuku cracked his eyes open and winced against the sudden, bright light.
Someone was above him. A blur of gleaming gold and white.
Izuku reached out, his arm quivering.
But the dark returned.
