Sorry for the wait, I got pretty sick and had a rather awful couple of weeks. I can tell you, though, that reading all of your comments absolutely helped me get through it. Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy the chapter.

"So, what's this about a magical river?" Ochako asked, as the four members of the Mystery Crew strolled through the woods.

Izuku flipped through the pages of the journal. "Apparently, it's got strange properties that not even the author totally figured out. We've got some time until the Woodstick festival - I figured we could check it out."

Apparently, the Woodstick festival was held annually in Gravity Falls, featuring up and coming indie bands. Shouto had never been to a concert before, but the crew had been invited by Wendy and her friends, and he was excited to see what the hype was all about.

"Does this river have a name, or is it just called "magical river?" Mina wondered aloud, as they finally came upon their destination. The river in question was definitely off-looking, seeming to glow ever so slightly, the water a bit too clear and blue to be natural.

"It's called "Fluvius Cantus", apparently," Izuku said, leaning over to see the river better and getting out his pen. "Not sure what that means, but it sounds latin, I guess? Which isn't helpful because apparently the whole "understanding English perfectly" thing we got from coming here doesn't apply to a language like latin, even though English is derived from that."

It was still so strange, how they could understand English from coming here. At first, Shouto was sure everything was somehow being translated into Japanese for him. But somewhere along the line, he'd definitely started hearing the English in, well, English.

How and why did that happen? It seemed so strange, for them to become fluent in another language just by falling through a portal. Then again, the whole town was strange. Maybe that was just another aspect of it.

Shouto was broken out of his thoughts when Ochako yelled "Izuku, wait!" He turned to see Izuku touching the water.

There was a flash of blue, and a strange feeling, as though Shouto had been dunked in the river himself. When that feeling faded, it was replaced by another, much stranger feeling. Everything was louder, was… odder. Things felt different.

Instinctively, he reached up to feel the top of his head. Instead of just hair, he could feel two new fluffy ears sticking out.

"...What."

"W-Why is everything so big, all of a sudden?" Ochako's voice was a higher pitch than usual, and Shouto turned to where she was. Instead of a human girl, there was a small fairy, about the size of Shouto's hand, gossamer wings on her back. She gaped up at him. "Um, Shouto? You've… got more ears than usual. …Also a tail."

Instinctively, Shouto felt behind him, and yup, there it was. "And you're a fairy."

Ochako seemed to shiver at the reminder, fluttering her wings awkwardly, and slowly rising so that she was eye to eye with him. "Did… did the river do this?"

"What else could it have been?" They both turned to see Mina. Unlike Ochako, she didn't look that different, save for having one long horn instead of two tiny ones. She seemed to be poking at it awkwardly. "So, I think I'm an Oni, now? And Ochako's a fairy, and Shouto…" She got closer to inspect him. "Can you open your mouth?"

Awkwardly, he did so.

"Oooh, sharp canines. And the ears and tail, and the fact that one of your eyes is glowing-"

"Really?" Shouto instinctively brought a hand up to his eyes. Now that he was thinking about it, his left eye did feel weird. "Interesting." Hesitantly, he tried to summon his flames. Unlike how it usually went, they responded immediately, creating a small blue fire in his palm. When he thought about different images, they flickered to show them - a gnome, a time symbol, Quentin Trembley.

"I think… I think I'm a kitsune," he admitted.

"This is super weird," Ochako said softly. Then she stiffened. "Wait, where's Izuku?"

"Right here!" They all looked up to see him awkwardly flapping down towards them. Like Ochako, he had wings, but unlike her, they were feathery and vibrant, colored in red, orange, and gold. Where his feet once were, now there were talons. He landed awkwardly, and Mina reached out to steady him. "So, we all got turned into magical creatures because of that thing?"

"Looks like it," Shouto confirmed. "Would that make you a phoenix?"

"I freaked out and my wings burst into flame a little, so I think so," Izuku admitted. Shouto looked up again, and saw that some of the leaves and branches on the trees above them were smoking. "I'm so sorry guys! I had no idea that would happen!"

"Don't worry, we'll fix this!" Ochako encouraged, flying over to him. "We always do, right?"

"Right," Izuku agreed hesitantly, "It's just - the author didn't know anything about this, so we won't get any help from the journal. We'll need to figure out another way." He looked thoughtful. "Maybe we should explore the river a bit, and if we can't find anything to help, then head back to the shack and regroup there."

"Sounds like a good plan!" Mina encouraged.

Unfortunately, looking around the river turned up nothing. Izuku touched the water again, but they didn't go back to normal. Temporarily out of options, the four headed towards the Mystery Shack, Ochako riding on Izuku's shoulder.

As soon as they arrived, it was apparent that something was wrong. If Stan's confused yelling hadn't given it away, the fact that Wendy looked like some sort of weird werewolf definitely would have.

"Are you… some sort of werefox?" Izuku guessed hesitantly.

Wendy sighed, looking extremely awkward. Not that Shouto could blame her. "That's my best guess. One second I was leaving the shop for some fresh air, the next I had different limbs than normal." She nodded at Shouto. "You a werefox too?"

"Kitsune," he corrected, pointing at his eye. "Pretty sure this is my hoshi no tama."

She blinked. "Hoshi-what?"

"Star ball. It's a kitsune thing."

"Ah," She shrugged. "I don't know much about Japanese magical creatures, so I'll take your word for it. Do you think everyone was affected by this weird thing?"

Inside, Stan let out another yell. "Probably," Ochako guessed. The five of them hurried inside the shack.

In the living room, they found both Stan and Soos. Stan's skin was now a dull grey, his eyes a glowing white, his ears pointed. On his back was a set of massive wings. Shouto suspected that he was some sort of gargoyle.

Soos, on the other hand, seemed to be made of more earthen materials, with the only major differences being what he was made of, and the fact that his name seemed to be imprinted onto his forehead.

Stan caught sight of them first and groaned. "You kids too? Just how many people got turned into freaks like us?"

"We're not sure if this is just a Mystery Shack thing, or if the whole town has been affected," Shouto admitted. "We could go into town and see."

"If it's just us, you'd get a lot of weird looks," Wendy pointed out.

"But the blind eye is gone, right?" Ochako said. "Without the cultists, we'll probably be okay." Wendy and Soos nodded, and so too did Stan - Shouto wondered if he'd known about the cultists beforehand. The memory of their leader saying that the cult stayed away from the Mystery Shack as part of their founding principles came back to him, and he wondered just what Stan had done to earn that reputation with the Blind Eye.

Their main question was answered as soon as they walked into town. Everyone, from pinocchio-Toby to little vampire-Gideon (who they ardently avoided) to gorgon-Pacifica had been turned into some kind of supernatural creature. Walking around were centaurs, cervitars, and unitars, nagas, kappas, and merfolk, ghosts, zombies, and demons.

"What would Mermando think of this?" Mina wondered, as they passed a mermaid in a tank, being rolled around by her leprechaun wife.

"No one seems to be particularly bothered," Izuku said hesitantly. "Then again…"

"-Most of them have addled minds already," Shouto finished. "We should still try and solve this as soon as possible."

Unsure of what to do next, they found themselves at Lazy Susan's diner, filled with all manner of creatures, and one suspiciously human looking guy, bottles of potions strapped to his waist and possibly real small white wings on his back.

Shouto nudged the others, and pointed to the man. "Considering he looks so out of place, maybe he was already magical and therefore didn't need to transform."

"Then he might be someone to ask about all of this," Izuku concluded. The four of them made their way over to his seat. Shouto sat down at the edge, trying to figure out how to make the booth work with the tail he now needed to worry about. "Um, hello?"

The man looked up at them. "Hello, you four. What can the Love God do for you today?"

Mina's eyes widened. "Love - oh! You're one of the incoming bands for the Woodstick festival. Wendy mentioned you." Then she frowned. "I wonder if all those people in those hot air balloons also got turned into magical creatures?"

Love God sat up straighter. "You've noticed, then? This town wasn't like this when I was last here, but no one seems to be bothered by it, so I wasn't sure when this happened."

Izuku chuckled awkwardly. "Um… like an hour or so ago? We found this strange magical stream and I touched it, and the next thing we knew, everyone was some kind of magical creature. And, we're not sure how to reverse it?"

"Fluvius Cantus?" Love God guessed. At their surprised expressions, he sighed. "Listen, I'm a cherub. And not because of a magic stream - I've always been one. I know a thing or two about crazy magic. You kids had no idea what you were messing with."

"Then, do you know how we can fix this?" Izuku asked, awkwardly trying to tuck his wings in a comfortable position behind him. "We can't just all stay like this forever."

"Well, I could whip up a potion that'll turn everyone back to normal, with some water from the Fluvius Cantus," Love God mused. "But it won't be easy. In order to transform an entire town, only one person needs to touch the stream. But to turn everyone back, a lot of people need to be hit by that antidote at once."

"That's very arbitrary," Shouto pointed out.

Love God snorted. "Complain to the magic stream. I didn't make the rules."

"Well, the Woodstick festival would be perfect for that, right?" Ochako hedged hesitantly. "If we hit everyone there with the antidote while the concert is happening, would that be enough?"

"Should be," Love God agreed. "We'd need to be up high. Like in one of those hot air balloons. And by we, I mean you, because I need to be on stage."

"If we tell Stan he could benefit from it, he'd probably let us build a hot air balloon," Mina suggested.

"We'll get you the stream water to make that potion," Ochako promised, flying over to Love God so he could shake her tiny hand. "And then we'll take care of the rest!"

"Deal," Love God promised.

It didn't take them long to get the water Love God needed to start making his potion, and so they focused on their end of the bargain.

Thankfully, they didn't need to convince Stan - Soos had already done that for them, encouraging Stan to appeal to the incoming youth and think of them as a source of potential income, fangs, claws, feathers, scales, or none of the above. Stan laid out the blueprints for what he wanted, and they set to work.

Having talons for feet was probably the worst part of his transformation, Izuku decided. The wings were very pretty, and while bursting into fire every time he freaked out was annoying, he'd seen enough that not a lot got to him at this point. He'd even discovered a bigger benefit - while they were making the hot air balloon, Izuku had cut himself pretty badly - and the cut had healed itself in seconds.

If only he could've had that power when he was using One for All. Things would've been so much easier. Recovery Girl wouldn't have needed to keep healing him.

But the talons were awkward, hard to walk on, and meant he was technically going everywhere barefoot, which was just weird. He really hoped the antidote would work - he didn't want to have to get used to them.

Still, having wings was helpful when it came to fixing things up, as he and Ochako could reach places they wouldn't have been able to previously. Ochako didn't seem to have her amulet on her, but the powers stayed with the fairy form, which was useful when considering her now tiny size.

She rested on his shoulder for a moment, wiping her brow as they watched Mina lift a tree that had nearly crushed their project away with little effort. "I think this is near the top of my "weirdest moments" list. And we've had a lot of weird moments."

"Oh, agreed." Shouto and Mina seemed less bothered - likely because Mina seemed pretty much the same, save for the supernatural strength, and while Shouto looked uncomfortable with the extra appendages, being a kitsune meant he actually had a lot more control over his flames than before - but all four of them were ready for this to be over.

"Alright, Stan's balloon is all set up!" Mina finally said, dusting off her hands. "Now we just need the potion from Love God, the altered hose to spray it that Soos was making, and for the concert to actually start, and we're all good!"

"We're almost there!" There was visible relief in Ochako's voice. "I won't be small anymore! I mean, unless someone uses the shrink ray on me, but I'll try not to let that happen because it's really annoying the longer you stay tiny."

Shouto nodded at her, then looked at Izuku. "I'm surprised you haven't gone flying yet, since this'll be over soon."

Izuku frowned at him. "I have? You saw me fly up to attach those ropes."

"I meant, fly, fly. You know, soaring through the sky." Shouto motioned vaguely upwards. "If you're a phoenix, you should be able to do that."

…Shouto had a point. How many people without flying quirks could get this opportunity? "I think I'll try that," Izuku admitted.

"My wings aren't strong enough for that," Ochako pouted. Then she perked up. "Mind if I hitch a ride with you?"

"O-Oh, of course not! Alright, let's try this out." Izuku crouched a bit, then, on instinct, shot into the air, flapping his wings to get more altitude, hearing Ochako's delighted yells in one of his ears.

His wings caught the breeze, and the two of them were soaring up with the air balloons, over the town proper, looking down on everything below them, which now seemed so small.

"Do a barrel roll!" Ochako laughed next to him, and Izuku happily complied, feeling the rush of joy that came with a unique experience like this one. It was better than being floated via amulet, or that time Izuku and Shouto had ridden that inflatable balloon over to the shack. This was amazing.

…Alright, so there were some things he would miss when this was all over.

The balloon was exactly how Stan wanted it to be - his smiling face, with a sign above the face saying "I HEART KIDS" in bold letters. Perfect for attracting customers.

"You make sure everyone sees this, ya hear?" Stan said as they boarded the air balloon, the potion from Love God all set to be sprayed.

"Mina gave him a thumbs up. "You got it! And everyone will be looking up at us anyways, while we're spraying the antidote. That'll make them want to come to the shack even more."

"A good positive from all of this," Stan grumbled. "I'd like to go back to not being made of stone, thank you very much. And having Soos as a golem is just awkward. I'm not even a rabbi."

Mina wasn't sure what rabbis had to do with anything, but she guessed that golems were from Jewish tales, and Stan had occasionally spoken in what she thought was Yiddish, so she'd take his word for it.

Shouto ignited the air balloon with his fire, and the balloon immediately lifted into the air, drifting towards the concert. Then he turned to look at Izuku and Ochako, both seated in the balloon. "Couldn't you two fly over?"

"If everything goes right, we'll get turned back to normal," Izuku pointed out. "I don't want to lose my wings while I'm this high in the air."

"Fair point."

They reached the concert, where Love God was currently performing onstage. "Everyone ready?" Izuku asked. "And… release the antidote!"

Mina inserted the potion and activated the hose, spraying the antidote down on the crowd. There was a moment of confusion as everyone seemed to wonder why they were wet, and then a large blue light-

-And Mina could feel her two normal horns on the top of her head. Izuku was standing there with no wings and bare feet, Ochako was back to her normal size, and Shouto had the normal amount of appendages.

All of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Then the blue flame sputtered, and in typical chaotic fashion, started burning out of control, quickly consuming parts of the balloon itself. The basket they were in jerked violently, and started going down.

"Hang on!" Ochako floated them out, touching down on the ground, and Mina watched as the previously cheerful balloon turned into a nightmare. The burning, melting face of Stan, below a banner that now said "I EAT KIDS", drifting down on screaming townsfolk who used very human methods to get out of its path.

Izuku winced. "Well, Stan probably won't be too happy with us."

"Are you kidding?" They all turned to see Stan and Soos approaching. When nearby people recognized his face, they shrieked and turned away. "Who needs to be loved when I can be this feared? It's great!"

"Isn't it bad for business, though?" Shouto wondered.

Stan waved him off. "Meh, they'll all be gone in a day or two. Doesn't really matter to me."

"So…" Ochako finally said, as the four of them retired in their attic bedroom. "That might be one of the weirdest days we've had. On the other hand, Some things did seem to stick." She took off her amulet, and then concentrated, watching her pillow rise with the same turquoise glow. "I can't lift much without the necklace, but some of that power seemed to stick."

"Same here," Mina admitted. "I was super strong as an oni. And I tried lifting that tree again, and I could still do it!"

Shouto lifted a hand, which lit up with blue flames. A second later, multiple things went flying around the room. "Looks like my control over this didn't stick. That's unfortunate, I was hoping it would."

Izuku looked thoughtful, before suddenly kneeing his desk as hard as possible. Ochako cried out, but then Izuku rolled up his pant leg, and the bruise faded before their eyes. "So, that healing stuck too. I really hope I get to keep it when we get home, then I could actually use One For All right."

Ochako shuddered. "Okay, but please don't hurt yourself on purpose again! I know you've broken bones, but that doesn't mean you can just bruise yourself to test something out."

Izuku blinked, then seemed to take in all of their concerned faces. He laughed awkwardly. "O-Oh, alright, if it really bothers you."

"It does," Shouto said firmly. "Please don't do that again."

"Even if you can heal after breaking bones, there's gotta be a better way to go about things," Mina agreed, looking a little shaken. "All Might doesn't break bones, so that's not normal. Maybe you're not using it the right way?"

Izuku blinked. "Then what would be the right way to use it?"

"The way where you don't break bones," Shouto deadpanned, rubbing the bandages on his arms. Ochako was suddenly struck with the memory of Cipher's note, how he hurt himself in Shouto's body for fun, and how he'd planned to throw Shouto off the water tower and make it look like a suicide. All that considered, Shouto was taking this surprisingly well.

"We'll help you figure it out," Ochako promised. "Just… don't keep hurting yourself, okay?"

"Okay," Izuku tentatively agreed. He still looked a bit perplexed. "I-I didn't realize it mattered so much to you guys."

"You're our friend, of course it matters!" Mina replied fiercely. "It hurts to see you hurt! It hurts to see any of you hurt - Izuku, are you crying?"

"I'm sorry!" Izuku sobbed. "It's just, wow, you guys really care a lot and I know we've been friends for months now and are also living together but that's still so different than what I'm used to and-"

Ochako's heart broke a little, and she went over to Izuku, wrapping him in a hug. "We are your friends, Izuku. And that's what friends do, we care about each other."

Izuku still seemed a bit unconvinced, and Ochako wondered if he was thinking of Bakugo. When they got back, Ochako decided, she was definitely going to punch the jerk in the face.

Mina joined the hug, and after a moment, Shouto did too, albeit awkwardly.

A strange day, ending on a strange note. But… it wasn't really a bad one. Maybe they really would be okay.

I couldn't see the Mystery Crew messing with love potions whatsoever. They'd know how messed up that was. So instead, they get a very odd Monster Falls-based day of their own. At least they're mostly enjoying themselves - things are about to get weird. Which, of course, is certainly helped by the couple new powerups, with Izuku and Mina gaining their own magical skillsets.

I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review if you're liking the story! Even the simplest comments make my day.