Chapter Three

Dákrya Idróta Aímatos

Goddess Artemis has been staying with us for a bit less than a week, and during that time I spent looking for a way to train for the UA entrance exams, which, for once in my life, I feel confident about. Confident that I might have a chance. School still sucked though, Kaachan being... Kaachan. AKA, exploding my stuff, yelling at me about how I am nothing but a useless Deku, and generally doing his best to make sure I'm not.

I recently remembered the beach that I found Artemis on, remembering how beautiful the waves were with the moonlight casting its reflection on the rippling waters. I thought it was a shame that no one would be able to see it without going through all that trash when it hit me. I could clean the beach! I asked Goddess Artemis about it, and she said that was a wonderful idea. Or rather-

{Flashback}

"H-hey, Goddess Artemis?" She peaked her head over her shoulder as she and Mom worked together on making lunch.

"Yes, Izuku?"

"Well, remember the beach where we met? I have been thinking that I should clean it up as a form of training-" I was cut off my Artemis carefully setting down the food she had been preparing and tackling me in a hug.

"Yes! That sounds like a wonderful idea! Restoring nature is the best thing anyone can do, in fact, back in my old world me and my familia-" she froze, choking up for a second as she thought of them. I still don't know much about my Goddess, but I do know that before I found her, she had just experienced something terrible. I hoped that one day, she could tell me. "S-sorry." She said, before giving a small smile, clearly bottling up the feelings she was experiencing.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea."

So yeah, apparently being the Goddess of the Hunt, among other things, she has values. One of which is the protection and restoration of wildlife and nature. She loves forests, but anything that could be considered natural she wants to protect and nurture. So when I told her about me thinking about cleaning the beach, she was definitely approving.

This brings me back to here, Takoba Municipal Beach Park. Where I met Goddess Artemis. Where I found myself picking up the shattered remains of my dreams and putting them back together. And now, I shall do the same for the very beach I find myself. Let's get to work! Plus Ultra, right?

Why the hell was there a whole damn truck? Okay, okay, baby steps. Let's get these tires done and over with. I managed to contact a local recycling center that was partnered with a small support company, Hatsu-something Industries, who is providing me with an industrial-sized dumpster, and they will collect the trash twice a week. Which is nice, I'm actually getting paid for this, somehow. Apparently, the recycling company will pay me for the usable scrap. It feels kind of dirty, getting paid for just doing something nice for the environment, but I won't complain.

I swiped my brow, clearing the sweat off my forehead, tears forming in my eyes as sweat stung at them, hauling an old speaker on my shoulder and running it to the dumpster, tossing it up and over into the bin. There was a lot of mundane stuff here, but honestly, some of it was ridiculous. The whole damn truck, a barrel, which isn't that bad by itself, but it was filled with live eels, gross, and a whole guitar, strings included. It was honestly terrifying and disheartening what people would toss out.

I suddenly heard a loud crash of multiple objects falling down followed by a scream, and I whipped my head in the direction of the noise, immediately bolting towards where I heard it. Turning a corner around a particularly large pile of junk, I saw a girl with pink dreadlocks and a pair of steampunk-esk goggles strapped over her face, pinned down by a metal rod oh god its imbedded in her shoulder!

The girl was just starting at it, a confused expression on her face. I think she is in shock. There isn't much blood, but that's likely because it pierced all the way through which oh god why is she so calm? I immediately approached, mentally panicking. And physically panicking.

"Are you okay? No, stupid question, you have a pole sticking out of your arm, why did i ask if you were okay when you're clearly not, I need to call someone-." The girl looked up at me as I started to fumble for my phone and dialed for emergency services.

"Hello! I'm Mei Hatsume! Who are you?" I looked over at her, shocked. She is way too cheerful for this!

"I-Izuku Midoriya- um… medical personel are on the way, Miss Hatsume-"

"Oh good! Having a pole in my arm would be detrimental to making babies!"

"What!"

"Oh yeah, I was working on a jetpack prototype modeled off of the Buster Hero, Air Jet! It was going so well, but one of the pipes for it melted, but it was cheap metal so I wasn't worried, so I needed a better alloy for it, which led me here! The best place to get any valuable scrap. Then I saw this beauty-" she gestured to the pipe in her arm, I felt faint, "and realized it was a Tungsten-based alloy, and I just knew I needed it. Tungsten is so hard to get!" Hatsume seemed to be rambling, and I suddenly understood how people felt when talking to me after I start mumbling about quirks. Huh. I suddenly feel bad.

Her rambling was probably helping distract her from the pole in her arm, so I just sat down in the sand and listened, keeping my eye on her to make sure nothing happened. So far, it seemed she was in pain, from the sweat gathered on her brow and the uncomfortable look on her face, but she was hiding it well. I don't know how long I just sat there, listening to this girl ramble on about her 'babies,' which I quickly realized were her inventions. Eventually, the ambulance showed up, they attempted to break the metal pipe but found that hard. Luckily, one of them had a quirk that let them cut things down to the molecular level, and they broke the pipe off at the shoulder and brought the girl onto a stretcher. As they carried her away, she lifted her head slightly and waved with her good arm.

"It was nice talking to you Midoku! I hope to see you again sometime!" and my face went blood red at the sudden nickname. Maybe she just forgot my name? I lightly waved back, extremely confused at the whole matter. The medics asked me some questions— why were you here, why was she here, did you know her, what was her condition when you arrived at the scene— and I answered to my best ability. I really hope that girl will be okay.

After I answered her questions, I decided to go home, deciding that was as eventful of a day as I could handle. Hopefully, Mom won't question why I have some blood on my pants.

A deep rumble, the cold embrace of slumber slowly being disturbed. There is something out there. Something familiar, something old. Ancient. A child? No… Grandchild? Great Grandchild? Yes… Great Grandchild… one of his. Traitor. All of them. Traitors. Abandoned me. It is dark. Cold. Lonely. Even my… wards left me. Nobody. Nothing but my pets. My family. Left to me by my brothers. Cousins? Sons? Daughters? Were they even family? I don't remember… so cold… so dark… so alone...

This… child… she's returned. Weak. Pathetic. Easy to exterminate. Revenge! I must have my revenge! I shall… I shall… I'm tired… I think I'll take a nap first… so cold… so lonely… what's this? A child…? Precious to her… kill it. Kill it, kill it, kill it! Eradicate them both!

Go. Go, beloved children of mine? Do mother's bidding? Don't betray your mother. Yes… good… my sweet little birds.

"... Multiple small-scale earthquakes rocked the southern coast of Japan last evening, along with one large scale that shook the entire nation early this morning, fissures actually being opened along the streets of Chiba, some residents actually claiming there was fire spewing from them! However, after investigations were made by some local pro heroes, it was discovered that a small gas line had been ruptured and that there was nothing else going on. On other news, All Might has recently been sighted far away from his agency in Tokyo-" the TV was turned off by Mom, as I laid shirtless on the couch, Lady Artemis laying on my back. It has been a week since I saw that Hatsume girl, and I am getting my first status update.

"Okay, Izuku. There is a large chance that you may not get much of an increase, and if there isn't, I'm afraid leveling up will be very difficult for you." Lady Artemis said, dropping some Ichor from her finger, my back igniting with blue lights and words in a language I couldn't understand, as I craned my neck around to try to get a glimpse of the process.

"W-why do you say that, Lady Artemis?" I asked, a pit forming in my stomach. Does that mean I can't actually get stronger? Lady Artemis must've heard my thoughts, as she replied:

"Don't worry, Izuku, you're still able to get stronger, and you're already stronger than your average human just from your falna alone. However, how you level up your falna is by gathering excelia, which I explained as experience. You don't get much excelia just from… training… oh?"

"What is is?"

"It seems I was wrong, you have gathered quite a lot of excelia from cleaning up that beach… I wonder why… oh! You got a new skill! Iroikí Parémvasi. Quickened growth as long as desire remains in place. Growth quickens with greater desire. Comes with a side effect of increased resistance to fear and adversity... the desire must be your desire to be a hero! This is great!" Lady Artemis grabbed the sheet of paper Mom supplied and copied my status onto it once again before hopping off my back and handing it to me.

"Let's see…"

Izuku Midoriya

LV 1

STR I 77 → H 102

VIT I 13 → I 33

DEX I 93 → H 103

AGI I 148 → H 172

MAG I 0 → I

MAGIC:

SKILL: Argonaut

Elios Passion

Iroikí Parémvasi

"It is strange though…" Lady Artemis mumbled.

"What is?"

"Most people don't develop any skills level one, yet you have three! It's… unusual. I wonder what makes you different?" Lady Artemis trailed off, before shrugging and smiling towards me gently. "It doesn't matter, as long as my child is getting stronger!" Inko huffed.

"He's my child…" she pouted, and Lady Artemis giggled.

"You know what I mean, Inko." Mom smiled and giggled with her, and I just sighed. This is my life now. Hmm… Artemis never did explain to me what the other skills I had did.

"Lady Artemis? What do Argonaut and Elios Passion do? You never explained those two…" Lady Artemis looked surprised at herself.

"I didn't? Well, Argonaut is actually something I'm familiar with, as… someone I knew had the same skill." Lady Artemis looked a bit sad when she said someone she knew had the same skill. "It allows you to charge a counterattack for adversity. It requires four minutes for a full charge and can sound like a small chime or a grand b-bell depending on the power needed. Essentially, it will give you to power to be the hero in face of overwhelming odds!"

"That sounds amazing! Always having the power to save people sounds like a dream come true! What about Elios Passion?" I gushed at the idea of having the ability to save anyone, though I knew that realistically I couldn't save everyone.

"Elios Passion… well, your agility is slightly raised and temporarily gives you the development ability Escape when being chased."

"What's a development ability?" And the two of us discussed skills and development abilities for quite a while, the topic eventually straying to quirks. I gushed a lot. It was kind of embarrassing.