Izuku blinked as they emerged back into the sunlit ruin. They hadn't been in the shrine all that long, but the rumbling in his stomach reminded him that they hadn't eaten since their early breakfast that morning. He quickly pulled a wad of leaves from his jacket pocket, and from the wad of leaves he extracted some of the leftover fish from that morning's breakfast. He took a bite and turned to Link, who was examining his tablet. "We have the first two shrines finished. Where next?"

"The first thing we're going to do is get out of these ruins," Link said, tucking the Sheikah Slate away. "The next thing we're going to do is sit down and talk."

Izuku swallowed a particularly large bit of fish. His friend's voice had taken on a serious tone that he wasn't sure how to interpret. "T-Talk? W-What about?"

Link must have heard his trepidation because the blond gave him a small smile. "Nothing to be concerned about. We just haven't really gotten to know much about each other, and while I may not remember much about my past," his smile twisted downward for a moment before flitting back again, "I do know that I like to have an understanding of my companions."

Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. "That makes sense."

"We can start after we get out of here; I don't want to be interrupted by any more death lasers."

"How do we want to get out?" Izuku asked, eyeing the wall. "Back over the way we came?"

The warrior didn't answer. Instead, he stepped forward and placed a summoned bomb at the foot of the pile of rocks that was blocking the entrance to the room. He quickly stepped back and motioned for Izuku to do the same before thumbing the button on his tablet.

CRUUMPT!

The two ducked as rock fragments from the pile flew past them and clattered against the inner walls of the shrine. Izuku coughed and peered through the clearing smoke and saw that, thankfully, the turret robot Link had damaged earlier hadn't reactivated. It seemed like he'd actually managed to kill the thing.

"Well, at least I won't have to jump over the wall again," Izuku laughed. His grin slipped a bit when Link walked out through the arch without responding. I wonder what's bothering him?

Izuku hurried to catch up, and the two quickly left the same way they had entered. As much as Izuku would love to explore the ruins a bit more, he was worried that there might be more nasty surprises like the first sentry, and from the guarded glances that Link tossed around, he was sure his friend felt the same.

The two walked uphill a bit before stopping under a tree at the top of the rise whose branches were laden with apples. Link plucked one and tossed it to Izuku before snagging one for himself. "Here, eat up. We haven't had too much variety in our diet recently, so this should help."

Izuku caught the apple and nearly choked in surprise when he bit into it. While it was sweet and apple-flavored as he had expected, it had also had an underlying tangy flavor that underlined the sweet crispness. He swallowed and grinned. It was really good. He looked up and saw Link watching him with an arched eyebrow. "You all right?" he asked. "It looked like you were about to be sick.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. The apple tastes a little different from those back home."

Link glanced down at his apple and back up at Izuku. "Well, I guess this is as good a time as any. Tell me about yourself. You're training to be a hero; what does that mean where you're from?" He took a bite of the fruit and narrowed his eyes, giving Izuku the distinct impression that he was being analyzed. It was... unnerving, to say the least, like having his inner thoughts laid open like a book. Maybe that's what Kacchan means when he says I'm a nerd.

"W-well," he started, rubbing the back of his head, "back home, almost everybody has a power or ability of some kind. We call them Quirks. Some people have Quirks that let them do simple things, like float objects around. Others have more dangerous Quirks."

A look of understanding crossed Link's face. "That's what you meant when you said you hadn't used too much of Superpower. That's your Quirk?"

"Yeah, that's what it's called. Basically, I can channel an incredible amount of strength through my body, enough to create windstorms from the force." He thought back to his first disastrous attempt to use One for All and winced. "B-But I can't use it at full power without hurting myself. My body's not strong enough."

"That's something we can work on," Link said, patting his new sword. "Now, I imagine that having that many people with such a variety of special abilities means that there are those who abuse their privileges, right?"

He paused mid-bite, surprised. "Y-yeah, there are. How'd you know?"

"Because it makes sense. With that amount of power, I'm sure there are some who misuse their gifts. I assume, then, that that is what heroes do in your world?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Heroes protect the everyday civilians and fight villains."

Link arched an eyebrow. "Sounds like a worthy goal." He contemplated the remnants of his apple for a moment before tossing it aside. "You done?"

Izuku glanced down at his hands and realized that he had finished the apple and tossed the core away. Link nodded, reached up and snapped a pair of small branches from the tree, and started to walk out into the field. "Good. Come on."

What? Izuku scrambled after Link, trying to figure out how that, of all places, was a good end for the conversation. "W-Was that everything you wanted to know?"

"Not even close." Link spun around and tossed one of the sticks at Izuku, causing the boy to stumble backwards in surprise as he tried to catch the stick. "Before you can walk, you have to learn to crawl. This field," he said, gesturing around him with his remaining branch, "is the domain you protect. And I have come to spoil it." He swiped at the ground with his branch, sending clods of dirt and grass spraying everywhere. "Oh, that was easy. You want to be a hero, Midoriya? Well, you seem like a good kid, but I don't know if you have what it takes. Defend yourself!"

What is happening? Izuku gaped at Link as the man lunged at him with his branch, only barely twisting out of the way in time. "W-What are you doing, Link?"

The man didn't answer, instead lashing out again in a slashing motion.

Thwack. Izuku hastily got his branch up to try and deflect the attack and winced as the force of the blow sent shivers up his arm. Link didn't give him time to recover either, flowing quickly from one slash to another and constantly forcing him to give ground.

Thwack... Thwack... Thwack... Swoosh...

Izuku dodged away from the latest attack and scowled at the grim-faced warrior. All right, to hell with this. He dodged past the next attack and swung his branch at Link's side.

Thwack... Thwunk...

"Ooof." Izuku stumbled backward. Somehow, Link had managed to deflect his attack and use the moment to get a solid hit in. He gritted his teeth and attacked again.

Thwack... Thwunk... Thwack... Thwunk!

Izuku crashed to the ground, fighting back the blackness that tinged his vision. He looked back up at Link, who was just watching him, sword-branch at the ready. So that's how he wants to play? Fine. Let's go Plus Ultra, then.

Izuku triggered Full Cowling, feeling the familiar surge of energy and strength race through his body. Feeling energized, he sprung back to his feet and lunged at Link, confident that the increase in his strength and speed would throw him off. He glanced up at Link's face just in time to catch the brief, cruel smile. Oh no.

Thwunk!

The force of the blow drove the air from Izuku's lungs and sent him sprawling in the dirt. He definitely saw bits of black in his vision this time. He took a big gasp of air and started to get up, but froze when he felt something touch his neck.

"Dead."

Izuku felt the tip of the branch withdraw and heard it whirl over his head. He rolled over—no easy task, thanks to the big sword strapped to his back—and looked up at Link, who was watching him thoughtfully. "Are you done?" Izuku asked, trying to keep his voice level.

"For now."

"Then would you explain what the hell that was about?"

Link's smile returned. "I needed to feel you out to know how to help you."

"What do you mean, how to help me?" Izuku demanded, though without as much force as before as he tried to process the entire chain of events. From what he'd learned about Link, he didn't seem to be the kind of person to just lash out at people or behave frivolously. Everything he did was practical or had a purpose. They'd been talking about Quirks and fighting, and he had said something about walking and crawling...

Link must have seen the realization cross his face. The man nodded and sat down beside Izuku. "That's right. I needed to know what your limits are in order to help you. Getting forced into an unexpected fight causes a lot of stress. I knew that if I kept pushing you, sooner or later you would use your Quirk, and I would see just what you could do."

"You couldn't have just asked me to use it?"

Link shook his head. "No. I wanted to see what you would automatically resort to in moments of stress."

Izuku waited for him to say more, but Link was silent, apparently lost in his thoughts. "And? What did you learn?"

The warrior shook his head. "That the claymore isn't the right weapon for you."

What? "W-What do you mean?" Izuku asked, feeling his heart sink a little. He had been excited to learn and be helpful and actually had a weapon that seemed like it would be more practical for him.

"Think about it. Claymores—swords in general, actually, are meant for offense. Sure, you can defend with them, but at the end of the day, someone's going to get stabbed." Link pointed at Izuku. "You are a defender. You like to plan and protect, only striking when you're good and ready—or when you're frustrated enough with your opponent. I'm only guessing here based on your reaction to the bokoblin's death, but I assume that normally you try to disable rather than kill. For someone like that, the sword isn't the right weapon."

Izuku frowned, thinking. In the past, he had more often than not been fighting defensively. When he had saved Kota, he had only fought when absolutely required. The same was true to an extent with his match against Todoroki, and he could see it applying to dozens of other training scenarios as well. "I-I think you're right," he sighed. "Shoot, I really wanted to be helpful in fights."

"And you will be." Izuku looked back at Link, who was smiling. "Just because the sword's not the best weapon for you doesn't mean you won't be helpful. I have a particular weapon or two in mind that I think might work well for you. We just need to find them."

He held up a finger, forestalling Izuku's comments. "The first option is to augment your natural fighting style. You're clearly a punchy guy, so something like brass knuckles or gauntlets could work well for you. The main downside to that is you have to get extremely close to your opponent in order to use them, and if that opponent is armed, then you have to put yourself in danger in order to get the hit in.

"The second option," he said, raising another finger, "is to teach you how to fight with a shield. This will give you the defense you need to keep you safe while still enabling you to get close enough to lash out with your other hand. We might even find a way to use your Quirk with it."

Link paused before laughing to himself. "The final option is to forego the knuckles entirely and try to help you learn how to fight with a pair of shields."

Izuku had the sudden mental image of himself fighting off a bokoblin with a pair of ramshackle shields like Link's and he couldn't help but grin as well. "I don't know how effective that would be."

"You would be surprised." Link stretched and stood, offering Izuku a hand, which he took. "In any case, we'll see what we can do to help you out, starting with this." As he spoke, he unslung the shield he had won and held it out to Izuku. "This should at least help you get close enough to use your Quirk."

Izuku stared at the shield. "B-But what about you? D-Don't you need something to defend yourself with?"

"Ideally? Yes, but I've much more skill with the sword than you do. I should be able to use that for now."

Izuku hesitated for another moment before taking the shield and sliding it on to his arm. "T-Thanks, I think." He hefted it around and, trying to get familiar with the weight. It wasn't bad, but the irregular shape of what he now realized was little more than tree bark with a handle made balancing the thing a bit more difficult. Still, he thought he would get used to it pretty quickly.

Link watched him quietly as he shifted it around, and once Izuku was finally comfortable, the warrior picked up his makeshift sword again. "All right, let's give you some practice. Follow my instructions and we'll get the basics drilled into your head. And don't be afraid to use your Quirk. I can take a hit." He grinned. "If you can land one on me."

Izuku smiled back and picked up his shield.

Hours later, the sun had started its descent above the two heroes, and Izuku couldn't help but groan. They had spent most of the time practicing, and the effort showed. Every muscle in his body ached from the strenuous activity that Link had put him through/ They had gone through stance exercises—who knew that there was a certain way you had to stand?—some basic foot stances, and recovery. They had sparred a bit toward the end; Izuku had managed to keep Link from hitting him most of the time, but a few had still gotten through, mostly whenever he had attacked. The blond had somehow managed to jump out of the way of every attack.

"Good job today," Link said from behind him.

He just grunted in response. The man didn't look like he had just spent the last few hours training at all, a fact that Izuku normally wouldn't care about but in this instance found irritating. Still, he had to admit that it had gone well. It was just the basics, but he already felt far better equipped to deal with any bokoblins that they ran into.

Thankfully, he didn't think he'd have to put those skills to the test today. He squinted up at the sun, trying to gauge what time it was. His best guess said that it was probably close to four or five in the afternoon, which didn't give them a whole lot of time to go after the next shrine. "Where do you think we should go, Link? I think it's too late to go shrine hunting, and I'll be honest, I don't know if I'd make it up the mountain, even if there is a pass somewhere nearby."

Link shaded his eyes and began looking around. "We should probably head back. There are monsters that roam around at night that I would rather not have to deal with right no—"

The warrior's sharp inhale caught Izuku's attention. "What is it?"

The only response was a pointed finger. Izuku rolled his eyes but refrained from saying anything, instead turning to look in the direction that Link was pointing. It took him a few moments, but he soon saw what Link had noticed.

Ahead of them, the hills surrounding the old ruins and Ja Baij's shrine leveled out into a lightly wooded field. A scattering of trees and what looked like the remnants of fences and walls stretched out to the far end of the plateau where the trees got a little bit thicker. Just on their side of the deeper tree line, a line of smoke trailed up and dispersed into the sky. That wasn't there when we started training.

"I think," Link said, startling him, "that we need to investigate that. It's not that far away; we can check it out and be back just after dark, I think."

"Umm." Izuku looked back and forth between Link and the smoke column. "D-Didn't you want to get back before dark? B-Because of monsters?"

"Originally, yes. That fire has me curious. It's not a bokoblin fire, so there has to be someone else up here."

The man watched for a few more moments before starting down the hill, leaving Izuku, once again, to scramble after him. "Some day," Izuku muttered, "I'll be the one walking off purposefully." More loudly, he asked, "How do you know it's not a bokoblin fire?"

"Bokoblins tend to make large fires to dance around, and they'll get wood from anywhere to do it," Link explained. "A lot of the time, that means green wood, which combined with the large nature of the fire makes the smoke much blacker. That smoke trail belongs to a campfire, and a small one at that."

Well, I can't argue with that logic. Izuku followed his friend through trees with white trunks. While they weren't very thick—Izuku thought he could wrap his arms around the largest he saw—there were many of them interspersed throughout the field. With their high branches and tree-top leaf tufts, they looked a lot like the aspen trees from back in Japan, a realization that made him feel a bit more at home with this strange world that he had found himself in.

Tirwip.

Even the birds sounded similar to those back home, though he didn't doubt that there were a host of differences in their calls. Izuku spotted the song bird, a small dark blue poof, and smiled. If only Koda were here. I should take some notes when I get a moment. Koda might appreciate the information.

Tirwip.

The bird calls followed them through the widely spread trees, and Izuku could see Link relax the more he heard. He took that as a sign that they might be safe for the time being and relaxed himself. There were terrible monsters about, he knew, but for now, he would enjoy his trip.

Eventually, Izuku was able to make out a shape at the base of the pillar of smoke, a shape that slowly gained definition as they approached until, after circling a large rock, he was able to finally see it for what it was. An old hunting lodge lay nestled at the woods, ivy covering its walls and several of the large, tasty mushrooms growing at its base. More importantly, Izuku could smell roasting fish coming from the far side of the building, and his mouth immediately began to water. "Whatever that is, I want some."

"Agreed," said Link, who, Izuku realized, had also paused to appreciate the scent.

"Well, let's see if whoever's here will share some of their meal." Izuku didn't wait for Link's response, instead quickly hurrying through the woods and around the side of the building. The sight of familiar drooping blond hair stopped him short. "A-All Might? What are you doing here?"

The Number One Hero looked up from the fish he was roasting. "Young Midoriya! It looks like you found us all right. Why don't you and Young Link come and join us? We're just about done preparing dinner. All that's left are the fish."

Izuku stood stock still, trying to process the scene in front of him. All Might and Rhoam were somehow settled in front of the fire, roasting fish. Rhoam was preparing some kind of stew as well and seemed perfectly at home on the log resting in front of the house.

He heard a rustling sound and turned to see Link come up behind him. "Ah, I thought this might be the case," the blond said. "We're safe here?"

Rhoam nodded without taking his eyes off of the stew. "This is my lodge. I can camp for a few days, but eventually I have to come back here. I'm old, and my back and joints aren't quite what they once were. There's a bokoblin encampment in a small ravine back the way you came, but they have left me alone ever since their first raiding attempt went poorly."

Izuku couldn't help but be impressed. Rhoam must be much tougher than he appeared. Beside him, Link just nodded and replied, "I think I'll go investigate later tonight, when they're sleeping. You should come, too, Izuku."

"M-Me?" Izuku squeaked.

"Yes, you. You need more practice, which is why we'll hit the camp at night. It should give you a bit more practice. For now though, we'll enjoy the company of our companions."

With that, Link strolled over to the fire, where he picked up a stick and speared one of the fish to roast for himself.

Izuku hesitated for another moment before his rumbling belly urged him toward the fire and the food. He took the stick All Might offered him and took over roasting the last fish.

"When we're done here," Rhoam said, waving toward the shack, "there's a place for everyone to rest that isn't out in the open. It's not common, but we do get some storms that roll this way. Best to rest in doors. We can discuss your next move then."

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Wow, it's been a while since I've been able to get a chapter up. Good news, though; the semester's over and I don't have any university until January, so I've got much more time to devote to writing this. There's some exciting stuff coming up that I'm looking forward to showing off. Thanks a lot for your comments. I enjoy hearing what you guys thing and the ideas that you all have thrown out, and would love to hear more, if you've got them. Y'all are great. Stay safe, and see you all next time.