Alright, I have to know, but am I the only one with notification issues? For some reason, fanfiction isn't sending the usual emails about chapter updates, or who's decided to follow or favourite me or my stories. I've made sure to ensure that I permitted them to do so in my account but I'm still at a loss. Hopefully, it resolves itself as I've already sent them an email about it, but that could take a while for them to get back to me. But at least it's been cooler these last few days, which makes both writing and just functioning as a human being with responsibilities and hobbies easier without sweating like a pig.
Chapter 4: Flame Temple Maiden
Waking up, Midoriya felt his stomach grumbling, which he hoped didn't become a running theme for him. Looking about, he saw he was still in the abandoned temple, feeling the breeze coming in from the door, he didn't shiver from the morning mountain wind, but it helped him remember that he was very much naked. "I hope there is something around here I can wear." He blushed, grateful that he hadn't had to worry about anyone seeing him in the nude else he might have burned the place down in embarrassment.
Getting up, he used the old rag remnants of the carpet he had slept on to cover his lower half, it wasn't as if he needed to worry too much about the cold when his natural body temperature kept him warm all year old, a reason why his mother never bothered buying him jackets and jerseys. With the light of the morning sun to illuminate the place, he was able to get a better picture of the place and like he suspected, it was well and truly abandoned for years if not decades with how much overgrowth and disrepair lay around him. Just walking on the wooden floors was a challenge as they creaked and cracked with every step he made, with a yelp, one gave out under him, sending him to the floor face first where his impact broke even more of the old rotten wooden flooring.
Groaning, he got up and wiped off the splinters from his body, making a note to find somewhere he could shower as 4 days on the street doesn't make for the best appearance, frankly it was a miracle that he wasn't made out in that crowd before he stole the bread but he supposed the coat hid the worst of it. Continuing on his inspection of the ground, he saw that whenever he passed by a window, if it was still present, it was fogged up, making it impossible to see what was on the other side. The area that served as the baths was a mess, with most of the piping rusty and unusable, while the kitchen was just as bad, with electrical sockets long broken or retaken by nature. Trying to switch on lights, he found that not a single one worked, though most didn't have a light bulb so he would have to remove one and carry it around to check.
When it got to the attendant's quarters, he saw that what appeared to be where the men slept was partially burnt out, it being the same building with the collapsed roof which made trying to scavenge for anything a challenge and in the end, fruitless as he couldn't find anything of use. Walking to the other end where the woman's quarters were, he saw some of the animals had returned, including a deer which stopped drinking from the small pond, and looked his way before going back to drinking, the animal having decided he wasn't worth leaving which he was fine with, it was a cute looking deer.
It took some build-up, but he managed to work up the courage to go through the women's quarters, rationalizing it as being abandoned and him needing whatever useful stuff he could find. The building was in better shape than the men's, with the rooms largely intact but most were empty, their occupants having taken everything with them when they left but he found some luck with the final room. Sliding the door open, he saw that it was more or less like the rest, but that the closet was still closed, when he opened it, he found a blessing in the form of some clothes.
They were worn, clearly meant for a larger person, and very much women's clothing but it was a hell of a lot better than the rag he was using at the moment. Because of that, he swallowed whatever misgivings he had about them before he ripped the rags off his body and quickly put on the clothing. In just a few minutes, he stepped out of the rooms and went to that pond he saw to inspect how he looked. Seeing his reflection, he couldn't help but feel…put together was the word. He didn't know why, but seeing himself in a white kosode and scarlet hakama left good, he was still embarrassed to be wearing women's clothing, and it was a couple of sizes too large, but it helped him feel less stress than he had been dealing with ever since the slime incident.
'Now, if only I could do something with my hair.' He wondered to himself, removing the little twigs and other pieces of dirt that he had in it, leaving his hair clean..ish, and very much untamed.
"It's not the worst spot I could have ended up in," An hour later, Izuku stood in the courtyard, looking at the place having finished investigating. "Away from people, away from possible problems…away from mother." And he found that it was ideal for him, he hadn't heard any traffic or voices, the place was clearly off the beaten path and besides himself, he hadn't gotten any visitors in years. A perfect spot for him to lay low, away from anyone who wanted to do him harm, anyone who would make him feel scared, away from places where he could be an issue again but also away from his mother who must be worried sick about him, having not seen him in close to a week.
He hoped she was doing alright, it couldn't have been easy being connected to him, heavens knew what the media was saying about him after his latest screw-up. Would she face pushback? Would the police demand she pay damages? She couldn't afford that! What about work, what if they laid her off for being the mother of a villain-
"Focus, focus on what you can do, Izuku." He smacked himself, he couldn't let himself go down that rabbit hole, or else he wouldn't come out of it till he did something enormously stupid. Here and now, that was what he had to keep his focus on. That meant this run-down temple overrun by nature could collapse on his head at any minute, but he could fix that. "If I'm going to be staying here, I might as well clean the place up. Even if I wasn't it just doesn't feel right leaving this place to its fate." Yes, he might have not been the most religious-who was these days, but he wouldn't say he would disrespect a place of worship, certainly not when in need of restorative work.
So, he got to work, first making a list of all the things that needed to be done in order of what he was…pretty sure he could do the fastest, and what was the most pressing such as among other things, the fragile floorboards. He didn't have a pen, or pencil on him, but he had a piece of floorboard he ripped out and his blood. Was it off-putting to see a boy in shrine maiden's attire writing on a plank of wood using his bloodied finger as a pen? Yes, but it was the best thing he had, besides, he burnt himself every time he even heated up, so the slight pinch that came from having to bite his finger and keeping the blood flowing wasn't anything to write home about.
With that done, he pulled another plank of wood and using the first as a list of supplies, he made a second list of all the supplies he'll need to carry out said repairs and badly needed maintenance work, hopefully he'll be able to get the supplies he'll need to get running water again, though if there was a river or stream nearby, then he'll just need a tank and buckets. Electricity was also optional as while he got above average grades in science, he wasn't sure that he should be trying to either reconnect to the grid, not when there were sure to be tons of circuits and wiring that would need to be redone by a professional.
He also included stuff for the animals as he didn't mind so too much, but he would need to clear out pests like rodents. As he wrote that down, he felt something slithering up his leg, underneath his clothing with got a surprised scream out of him. Whatever it was stopped when he moved, with the boy scared now that he realized that he had been so out of it that a snake managed to sneak up on him, and unless he was willing to burn his only clothes left, he wasn't going to get rid of it. His fear only grew when he felt the snake start moving again, further up his leg and then onto his stomach before its head poked out of his top.
Upon its head poking out, both the reptile and Izuku froze as they observed one another. Izuku had already felt that it couldn't have been too long, as from how its body pressed against his own while it slithered, it couldn't be any longer than 80cm, a little over half his height. Its body was long, but also warmer than he would have expected from a cold-blooded creature, or perhaps it was merely absorbing the abundant ambient heat he naturally gave off. Its scales were striking in their pattern and colors as the scales along its back-dorsal scales if he was recalling biology correctly, were a bright green with leaf-like patterns across it with black blotches here and there. Its belly scales were creamy white, giving an eye-catching contrast between the two sides.
But it wasn't so much its beautiful scales that gave him pause, it was its eyes. They were a striking, fiery color, the red and orange within them melding like what he would see whenever he looked into a flame that he didn't create, but that didn't detract from their exquisite nature-if anything, it added to them as felt the same calm looking into those eyes as he would starring into a video of fire back home.
It would see that the snake agreed as it didn't move, he didn't know what made him such an attractive person that a wild snake would approach him, but it seemed to be as invested in him as he was in it, the moment didn't end there as without thinking, Midoriya raised his hand to his stomach, close to the snake but not grabbing, allowing it to make the choice. It turned its eyes to his appendage, then back to his face, studying him, trying to find any deceit or ill-intent but found none as it shifted, sliding up his arms, this time over the clothing as it slowly went up his arm before wrapping itself around his neck, where it settled with its head close to his cheek.
His earlier fear gone, he couldn't help but softly laugh as he reached a hand towards its head and gently scratched it with a finger, the reptile snuggling closer to him. "At least I know snakes like me." His words received no answer, but it took that positively as the wild animal should have something by now, perhaps bite him, hiss at him, flee or never approached him to begin with.
But it didn't, and he was grateful for that, as it meant he now had a new friend, his first friend in almost 9 years.
"I wonder, are you a boy…or a girl?" The snake turned its head towards him, its face giving away nothing as he rubbed the back of his head, "Right, dumb question to ask when I'm not even sure you understand-Ow!" It smacked him with its tail, which hurt more than he would have expected as returned his gaze to it, seeing that again, there was no change but he felt like it was annoyed with him.
"Did…did you understand that?" The green and white snake finally nodded its head, making him lean back onto the tree trunk he had been sitting against while he made his lists forgotten at the moment. "Oh my God…I'm talking with an intelligent snake." Was this a quirk? Was he just insane? He didn't know, but he didn't care at the moment as another thought popped into his head.
"Wait, if you understand me, that means you understood the question?" He nodded again, which explained the tail slap but he didn't see it respond so why did it get made? "Okay, then what's the answer?" He asked again, again there was no emotion on its face, which he expected as it wasn't like it could emote like a human or even most house pets. Rather, it flicked its tongue out, pointing towards its tail. He looked at it, but didn't see anything wrong with it, turning back to the head-it flicked its tongue out again in the direction of its tail, so he looked again, trying to see if there was anything amiss about it.
Feeling its eyes on the back of his head, he didn't stop as the snake started to move its tail about like a worm, wiggling and waving it side to side which he found to be impressive, especially for a tail that was thinner than he was exp- "You're a girl?" He asked, recalling that male snakes tended to have longer, thicker tails when compared to females. At last, the snake seemed to confirm this by nodding its-her head, pleased with him as she went back to snuggling up to his warm cheek, leaving him to chuckle.
"Alright, now that I know your gender, what would work for a name?" He asked, tapping his chin before he looked at the snake. "Any ideas?"
He received no answer, as the reptile was content just snuggling against him for warmth. "Of course, Okay…" He looked around for ideas as he wasn't the most creative when it came to…anything really, but there wasn't much in the way of inspiration around them except for all the plants and broken-down buildings-wait, plants could do. "How about Koharu, it means 'green' or 'vibrant'?" He asked, smiling as the snake raised her head to watch him, slowly bobbing her head as if thinking-probably thinking if she was intelligent before she licked the air and snuggled up to him, closer than him and letting out a pleased-sounding hiss.
"Koharu it is then!" With his new friend newly named, he felt a lot better than he had been before. But now that meant he would need to include provisions and somewhere for Koharu to sleep as she couldn't always snuggle around his neck, even if her presence was very much welcome. "Now, back to those notes." Picking up the second plank, he bit his finger again to get the blood flowing to get back to his note-making.
Sometime later, Izuku, with Kaharu wrapped around his neck and shoulders, was seated in the main shrine, close to the heath that remained as cold as when he first got there. He sat cross-legged as he looked over both lists, the second one having needed him to use a 3rd plank to write all that he needed. He would be concerned for his health due to his blood's extended contact with an old, filthy piece of wood, but it wasn't like he could get sick and if he did, all he'd need to do was strip, standing away from anything that could catch fire, and set himself ablaze, no way any germ, bacteria or virus would survive being in his body when it burned at over 1,300°C degrees.
But his mind wasn't on that, instead, it was on the hearth, as no matter what, his eyes kept turning to hit, even when he shifted to face the other way, he couldn't help himself when his head turned to look at it over the shoulder. It was cold, heartless, silent.
But he could change that, making it warm, give it life, bring forth something that will roar and crackle.
He frowned, violently turning his head away from it, he didn't want to do such an idiotic thing, with his luck, he was more likely to burn the place to the ground…
Or at least, that is what he was supposed to think, but he didn't. after all…wasn't it only proper that in a temple to a fire God, a fire be lit? Why shouldn't he honor that tradition? He was already dressed for the part, wouldn't it only be logical and right to start the flame, to keep it burning, to care for it?
His mind made up, he got up and after placing his wooden notebooks off in the corner, he left with Koharu along for the ride. He returned maybe 30-40 minutes later, in his arms he carried a bunch of stuff that he believed would serve as good fuel for the fire as his quirk could start the fire, but it couldn't sustain- not unless he never left which was a no-go. Setting things up was the easy part, as even though he avoided fire for years, that didn't stop him from extensively researching it, so he knew to place the smaller, lighter stuff that would catch fire easier but burn out quicker in the centre of the pit, then surrounding it with heavier stuff like more wooden planks what'll take time to catch, but will burn for much longer.
Once he finished, he did a final check of the area to ensure that nothing that could catch fire was close by, with that done, he turned to his companion. "I'm about to do something crazy, Koharu. So please keep calm and don't bite me." She looked at him, her face passive and non-expressive, but he got the feeling she was confused by his request. Rolling up his sleeves, he took a deep breath to calm himself, and slowly channeled his power into his arms, keeping a harsh lease on it lest he burst out of his entire body like an inferno. It took some time, which he'd have to work on, but eventually, he felt his hands heating, the blood starting to boil underneath the surface before his hands caught alight.
Koharu leaned back with a hiss, shocked and fearful at seeing the fire. "Nononono! It's fine, Koharu, really!" She looked at him, then at his hands, before her gaze went back to his face, somehow conveying that he was insane, though the fact he was picking those vibes from a snake he just met lessened that effect. "Yeah, this is a thing that I can do." The serpent looked at him as if he was crazy, but eventually calmed down enough to return to her usual spot, though from how tense her muscles were against his shoulders and neck, he knew she was doing it more for him than any belief in his fire.
With his green flames in hand, he approached the heath and slowly placed them underneath the wood, grabbing into the loose twigs and dried leaves which caught lit quickly. Keeping his hands there for a moment, he slowly removed them and watched as the emerald flames started to grow, shifting to a warm yellow-red color as the nature fire grew from his quirk-induced one. Seeing the flames rise and grow, he felt himself calm as his heart continued to thump away in his chest from excitement, and affection. He couldn't quite place it, but he knew that in this moment of weakness, he liked it.
Like a curious toddler, he crawled forward, closing the distance while Koharu stayed still, though still tense as her eyes darted from the flames to his face, seeing the effect it was having on her human. Reaching out, he felt the pleasant warmth on his skin created by this beautiful fire. Moving his legs, he got into a seiza position, close to the flames and just watched them. Caring for it like one would a child without much thought needed as he merely acted, carefully adding stuff to the fire whenever it was starting to wan, blowing air to increase its oxygen, pocking at it to break up pieces so that they could burn easier.
He didn't know how much time passed, only stopping his thoughtless motions when the snake on his shoulders licked his cheek. "Something wrong, Koharu?" She looked out towards the entranceway, the dark entranceway.
"What the-" He got up and jogged to see what happened with the light and why the sun's rays weren't visible, only for him to see the night sky instead. "Did I…spend the entire day tending to the fire?" He asked both himself and Koharu, he thought maybe an hour had gone by, but if he was seeing things right, he had been in that one spot for at least 7 hours, not needing to drink, eat or use the bathroom. But seemingly as karma for getting lost in his task, he felt all three coming back to him with a vengeance as his stomach loudly grumbled as well as his need to find the most favorable spot to relieve himself.
Stepping out of the shrine, he stuck close to the walls as he didn't have much light to work with, but upon seeing his long shadow being cast by the healthy blaze behind him, he turned back to it for a moment. "Hey, Koharu…Do you think I can be like it one day? The fire I mean?" He asked his friend; the snake seemingly being confused by his question as he added some details. "It's pure…bright, innocent." He wished he could return to that, but alas, it was lost to him.
After his bathroom break and drinking from the same pond as the deer from earlier, Midoriya turned in for the night, taking a corner of the shrine so that he would be able to remain close to the fire while Koharu slipped off him and went to sleep in the old rag he had brought with, he would need to get her a proper bed.
When he woke up the following morning, he was still hungry but he felt…better than he had in the last few days. Upon seeing the list of things he had to do, he huffed and set to work, quickly falling into routine as he cleaned the outside of the temple, cleared away debris and other garbage which he couldn't find a use for, while also regularly checking on the fire, from time to time, feeding it pieces of decayed, rotten wood as he couldn't chop down trees at the moment, and the flames needed fuel.
There was more to it, his grumbling stomach made it clear that he had to find something to eat, which was only hammered home when he saw Koharu with a rat in her mouth, slowly swallowing the creature. She looked at him, as if surprised he caught her while she ate, but then went back to with what he was sure was a giggle when his stomach grumbled. As he didn't like feeling anything that could compared to jealousy that his friend had a rat for a meal, he went out into the woods to try and find something to eat. In an hour, and quite a ways away from the temple, he found some fruit barring trees and root vegetables.
He thanked the heavens for his find and plucked what he could before returning to the temple where he washed the fruits and ate half of them, only sparring the seeds so that he could hopefully start growing his own. On his second look around the temple, he found an old storage shed, busting the door open revealed that most of whatever was once inside was gone, but he did find a couple of old wooden buckets. He could use one for cleaning and the other for storing water will he got another solution.
When he asked Koharu on a whim if she knew where he could get some fresh water, to his surprise, she slithered onto his shoulders and started directing him up the mountain. It wasn't the best ride, as he had to think about her signs or face being tail whipped, but after about an hour, he started to hear it, running water. Breaking from the tree line, he found a small mountain stream, the water crystal clear and shallow enough that he could have to pull his pants up to knee level to walk through it. The stream even had fish in it, small but healthy fish which he could come back to get later and have a proper meal, and from how Kokaru eyed them, she was just as eager as he was to taste them which only made him laugh as he couldn't wait to have a meal with a friend, but that need him to prepare the kitchen.
With a water source found, food collected, and a place to rest every night, his routine became set and as the days went by, he got better at handling them, bit by bit while it was still tiring to collect a bucket a water every morning, it felt rewarding and served as a good exercise to keep his mind off things. He even found a clearing about 15-minute walk from the temple, large enough for him to practice without having to worry about destroying anything, and like the temple-far enough from any other person that he didn't need to worry about seeing him in the nude as he really didn't want to damage the only set of clothing he had, so he would remove it and place it a hollow space of a tree.
Slowly, his mind started to clear, and his heart didn't feel as heavy as he from sunrise to sunset, he worked, trained or cleaned the temple grounds, taking breaks to care for the fire and to hang out with his friend, who he realized was part of the reason he didn't need to worry about rodents as she was an expert at catching them as he felt like he would see her with one at least one a day. After one of those worked days, he lay on the floor of the shrine, the warm glow of the fire lighting up the space as went to sleep, happy as even his nightmares seemed to have faded into nothing but pleasant dreams, where he danced and rolled about in flames.
"Inko…You should eat."
"I'm not that hungry."
Mitsuki sighed, having expected that response from Inko, even if the plate in front of her was still half full of food. To put it bluntly, the woman sitting opposite to her was a mess. They hadn't been as close as they used to be due to circumstance, but she liked to believe they were still friends which was why Inko called her after she spoke with the police after little Izuku's outburst. She was with her in that the boy couldn't be held completely responsible for what happened with the slime villain, and she eagerly waited for the call about how he came home so that she could be there for them through whatever legal bullshit needed to be done.
But then Izuku didn't come home that night, which was highly irregular as while most boys his age liked to act independently, skipped curfew or if they were especially reckless, try any one of the many night-life districts, Izuku wasn't like that at all. From the moment she met the kid when he was just a baby in his mother's arms, he had been obedient, easy to handle and rather introverted, far too shy to ever attempt staying out late.
Because of that, she didn't find it odd when Inko filed a missing person report with the police before she went to bed, worried sick for her son. That worry only increased when she awoke the next day, followed their advice to try and continue with her day as normal and for no news to come about Izuku's whereabouts. Both women were understandably worried, even her brat, Katsuki seemed to be a little off put by his friend's disappearance. It would take 2 whole days since he was the last scene for him to be spotted, and it wasn't pretty as his next sighting was another incident, this time there were injuries though thankfully, no deaths.
Ever since, Inko had been falling ever deeper into her anxieties and fears, even with all the police in the prefecture and the two putting up dozens of missing person posters across town, even in the next 2 towns over-there was no word about it.
Days turned into weeks.
Weeks into months.
Now 2 months since he was last scene, there hadn't been a single lead pointing to where, not if-she refused to entertain the if, Izuku vanished off to.
Because of that, Mitsuki had been coming over regularly, at first just to talk, and keep Inko's spirit up, even being with her when she either called the police or went to the local precinct for updates on the case but after a while, she needed to ensure that she was still taking care of herself such as what she was doing now as the woman had lost at least 15kg, and not in a healthy way.
Inko, for her part, couldn't bring herself to eat the meal, she knew it was good-it was a favorite, and that her friend made the effort to make it for her, but everything she tried to touch the chop-sticks, she couldn't help but remember sitting at this very table with her husband and son, one gone-divorced because he couldn't handle things, and other…she didn't know. She prayed that he was alive- somewhere out there, but it didn't stop the nightmares of the police coming to inform her that they found a body that they needed her to identify, or worse he had forgotten himself and fallen to his temptations.
Her eyes went to her arms, seeing the bandages that covered every part of them, leaving no visible skin. She didn't need to wear them, but she still did. Despite that, she was still compelled to slowly start to unravel them, barely paying attention to Mistuki's surprised objections and concern as she continued to remove the white bandages before at last, her flesh was visible once more, and it wasn't pretty sight. From the very tips of her fingers to her upper arm, it was nothing but scar tissue. Burnt scar tissue. Mistuki, who was used to seeing this, didn't flinch but did reach over with her hand, which Inko appreciated, even if that was diminished by how she was unknowingly giving her a picture of the stark difference between the two.
Where her friend was blessed with a quirk that gave her eternally youthful, soft and smooth skin, with finely done nails with just the smidge of nail polish to them, Inko didn't have nails to polish, as they had to be removed post the fire, while her flesh was dry, old and wrinkly, seemingly stretched too thin in some spots and too baggy in others. Her skin, once pale, was nothing but a collection of reds and orange.
Remembering the cause of it didn't help as it had been so…normal. Izuku's 6th birthday was coming up and his quirk hadn't come in, so she booked another appointment with the doctor to see if they could see a specialist about it as they were both worried, but then that same night, Izuku developed a fever out of nowhere, his body temperature spiking so high she thought the thermometer was broken, as she grabbed that she would need before they left for the hospital, she kept giving him chilled water and soaked a cloth but it seemed to heat up as well, so much that it was like she placed the wet cloth on a hot plate with how much steam it was giving off.
Then as she picked up her son, he burst into flames, at or least parts of him did, shifting and changing as his flesh and bone melted away, replaced with….volcanic limbs. But what scared her the most wasn't that she was severely burned, but it was how Izuku didn't seem to realize what had happened, as even before he just said he was 'little hot'. Seeing her burn, he looked as if she had tried to explain high school-level chemistry to him. What he said next haunts her.
'Why are you crying, mommy? It's just some fire.' She took a breath, and as instructed by her therapist, she cleared her mind before she spiraled. She couldn't afford to lose herself to that memory, even as she recalled how despite her pain and panic, he was only panicking because she was, the fact his body torched itself seemingly not even registering to him. They had to wait for the firefighters to arrive to handle him, thankfully they had been notified by their smoke alarm so they arrived with little delay, though they had to use fire retardant foam as the water hose proved ineffective at putting Izuku out.
She, like the emergency responders, was worried about him, and what he'd look like after being subjected to such intense heat with no protection, but when she woke up the following morning, her arms covered in casts, she was told he didn't have a scratch on him, which he proved when he walked in with a 'get well' present he picked out with Mitsuki who had to explain to him why the fire even hurt her. After that, she established the rules and made sure he knew them and he followed them, for years with few incidents such as the entire mess with the class hamster, or when she caught him with small animals.
But it seems she might have been kidding herself.
"That useless Deku, he was hiding his true strength this entire time!" Katsuki growled as he landed another strike on the training dummy. It was a weekend, so he decided to do what he always did, train himself till his muscles were sore so that he could achieve his dream and become the number one. But lately, all he could think about was less his goal and more his not-so-useless classmate. Asshole hasn't been seen in 2 months after making a mess of things, and he couldn't stop thinking about that day, that look, and what he felt when he saw Deku.
The villain had been scared of him and mentioned someone that only afterwards he realized was Deku. That meant that the asshole tried to go after the nerd, failed and then went after him and was able to beat him-meaning that he was weaker than Deku! That pissed him off so much that his next blow was an open-palmed explosion, shredding most of the reinforced training dummy. Ignoring the gym owner yelling at him for breaking equipment, he went and collected one of the many spares that the gym kept in stock.
"Not only was a head screwy, but he could turn into that….thing" He would never admit it, but even after all this time, he shivered when he recalled that day, and how Deku burst into flames, burned himself to what should have been ash and bone but instead became a walking, breathing volcano. "He was strong…stronger than me." He had struggled for like 5 minutes with no results, those pros didn't even bother because they knew they were useless, yet Deku…didn't even try that hard, he just ripped him clear before torching the bastard with that smile on his face.
'Those eyes….bastard was enjoying every second of it, laughing at me for fooling me for years!' He remembered how pleased he looked when he burnt the villain into a puddle, even when he turned to see the crowd, he could see how much Deku was flaunting his power, thinking he was better than him when he was nothing more than a villain, he even fled from All Might just like any villain would.
When he thought about it, Auntie had been wearing those bandages around her arms since he was 6 or 7, that was when Deku's villainous quirk came in, and he could think of only one reason why she would. His anger grew, be barely held back the explosion as he punched the new dummy, as he wouldn't have thought of it before, but it made fucking perfect sense that the villain that Deku was would burn his mother.
"I'll make you pay, Deku. I'll be the future number one, and I'll start that by making sure you rot in a prison like you belong." He swore to himself, a glance at a calendar hanging on a wall showed that it was July, he had 8 more months to train before U.A.'s exam, and he planned to ace it which meant even harsher training, he'd need it so the next time he saw that villain, he won't be the one stunned by awe.
I'll stop writing here as I wanted to show that Izuku made a new friend, and how the people he knows are handling his disappearance as we only got All Might last time. Also, there is more to the fire that scarred Inko, but I'll keep the rest in reserve for when it would make sense to tell it as what I revealed here was plenty. As for Bakugo-of course he takes Deku's power and restraining himself as him looking down on him.
Anyway, that's it. the next chapter will be out November 2nd but if you like, just head on over to my p-a-t-r-e-o-n at p-a-t-r-e-o-n / Ducksmakegreatminers and you be able to read chapters a week early, join me on discord, and offer up ideals for commissions I can write for you.
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