Ten years. It had been ten long, torturous years since he had last seen her, since he had last heard her voice, since he had last held her.
Ten years since he lost hope that he would ever see her again.
Izuku went through multiple emotions when he realized where Ranni had brought him: happiness, nostalgia, sadness, and fear all at once.
His first act was to run towards where his old home had been. It took a few hours not precisely because they were far away, but because it took a while for Izuku to remember the way home from the park where they had appeared.
Izuku ran up the stairs until he reached the door of his home... and stood paralyzed for several minutes. Ranni had followed him silently, and likewise remained silent when he froze, letting him act when he felt ready.
While Izuku had his mind in a storm, he thought: what would he say to his mother? Would she still even live there? Would she be angry with him? So many questions, and he knew he would only get the answers if he rang the doorbell.
So, after an hour and a half, he did it. It is impressive how the one who was not afraid to face a being capable of summoning black holes felt terrified at the idea of seeing his mother.
When she opened the door and he saw her, he froze. His mother... had changed. she had lost weight, but not with a healthy thinness born of good diet and exercise. Her hair had also gained shades of gray and seemed to have aged several years... he supposed it was normal, it had been ten years after all.
She had not been blessed by Marika with the immortality of a Tarnished, contrary to him, so it was logical for her to age. But her thinness was not a natural aging process and seeing her like this made Izuku's heart sink.
He needed Ranni's touch on his shoulder to snap him out of his stupor, and when he did he figured it was better to act than just talk. So he took off his helmet, and when he did, just a few seconds later, his mother hugged him so tightly it probably would have made a more normal man grunt in pain.
He couldn't help himself from returning the hug, and when she started to cry, he couldn't help himself from crying with her.
The lands between had changed him. You don't survive and go far in a place like that with the mentality and attitude of a dreamy teenager.
But there were things that couldn't be changed, and one of those things is his ability to cry his eyes out.
Of course, now Izuku didn't cry as easily as in the past, but he had cried when his duel against Alexander ended, when Melina immolated herself, when Millicent let herself die, and when Master Hewg called him "lord" for the first and last time.
Embracing each other, mother and son cried for, the stars only know, how long, until Izuku felt his eyes swollen and his mother fall asleep on top of him. He picked her up gently, being careful not to hurt her, and quietly entered his apartment, Ranni just two steps behind him.
His mother still clung to him even in her sleep, refusing to let him go. He also had no desire to let go of her, so he sat on the couch in front of the TV.
He looked at his mother for a few seconds with a slight smile before looking in the direction of his wife, who, curious, was looking at the television and actually anything that seemed strange in the place.
"Sorry, I couldn't introduce you," Izuku said, his voice hoarse from crying so much.
"You don't have to say sorry," she said, dismissing his concerns. "You'll have time to do it later." Izuku thanked him with a smile.
Right now, the green-haired man was wondering if Ranni and Rennala had cried the same when he forced Ranni to visit her mother after her ascension to godhood.
When he had taken her to meet Rennala, he had given them their space by leaving the library and leaving them both alone. He didn't know what happened, only that after several days Ranni returned to him telling him that everything was solved. When he later visited Rennala, the woman seemed to have regained some sanity and will, beginning to put order in what was once her lands.
He wondered if they had cried hugging each other. Anyone would say that's not Ranni's style, the measured and stoic witch, but Izuku had learned that there is the Ranni she wants everyone to see and the real Ranni.
"This world of yours looks strange, it seems I have a lot to learn," she said, looking at the television and sitting next to him on the couch.
Izuku laughed at that. "Now you know what I felt when I arrived in the lands between."
Ranni just looked at him, giving him a slight smile. "So it seems."
Inko couldn't remember sleeping so well since… since Izuku disappeared. Whenever she slept she would wake up in the middle of the night running to Izuku's room, hoping to find him asleep, but every time she saw his empty bed she couldn't help but cry.
So it seemed strange to her that she had slept so well, and as she opened her eyes and her vision cleared, she remembered the dream she had had: her son coming back to her looking older. She thought it was another dream of Izuku's return, until her vision cleared completely and she realized that arms were surrounding her body. Looking up, she watched a man look at her with a slight smile.
His green hair and eyes, the freckles on his face, he was her Izuku. He did come back, it wasn't a dream.
Inko couldn't help but cry again as she hugged him. "It's you, it's really you!"
He lightly patted her on the back as he hugged her back. "Yes, it's me... sorry I'm gone, mom," he said, his voice on the verge of tears.
The night before she had been very shaken and had let it all out the only way she knew how, which was to cry.
"You're not going to leave again, are you? You're not going to leave again?" She begged him, looking into his eyes and holding him tightly.
"No, I'm not going anywhere, I'm here," he said, giving her a smile.
She continued crying for several more minutes, until she finally felt calmer, or at least her mind was. Although questions began to take shape in her head and she couldn't help but ask them.
"Where were you?" She asked, not in an accusatory way, but with genuine curiosity.
Her son looked different, older, more than just nine months should have changed him. He was also taller and stockier, and the scars on his face worry her.
"I...it's kind of complicated," Izuku said, letting out a soft sigh. "But before we talk about that, I must introduce you to someone," he said, pointing to the side of the room.
Inko finally realized that someone else was with them: the same woman from the night before, a woman with blue skin and four arms, with a spectral blue face next to her normal face, which seemed to be made of porcelain.
A unique appearance, but she had seen stranger things.
Inko remembered her manners and quickly stood up from her son's lap, bowing slightly to the woman. "My sincerest apologies, I was not aware of your presence... were you the one who found my Izuku?" She asked, assuming that this heroine was responsible for her son coming back to her.
Although it confused her that the woman was at her house so early in the morning.
"You can say," she said with a smile and an accent that gave her away as a foreigner. "My name is Ranni," the woman introduced herself, lifting her dress slightly in a rather old-fashioned greeting that Inko had only seen in medieval movies.
Although she wasn't too surprised, the heroes are extravagant and get very into their roles.
"Mom," Izuku said, getting up from the couch and approaching Ranni, taking one of her four hands, one on which she was wearing a ring. "She is my wife."
The scream that Inko let out at this news could be heard five blocks around.
Inko Midoriya looked a lot like Izuku, not only physically, since it was quite obvious that Izuku's father left almost nothing of himself in his son.
They were also similar in certain customs, such as crying their hearts out. Remembering Izuku well, Ranni could recognize some things about the boy in his mother, although many of those things Izuku lost over time.
After her consort revealed the nature of their relationship, the woman let out a scream that would make a giant bat die of envy. It took her a few more minutes to calm down, but as soon as she did, she adopted an attitude unexpected to Ranni.
The small, thin woman showed an intimidating and defiant gaze directed towards Ranni. "My son is just a teenager!" she shouted, something that made them both blink.
"Teenager?" Ranni asked, looking at Izuku. Certainly, not aging had caused Izuku to retain a youthful appearance, but his growth in power had matured his body. There was a reason why Godfrey, being human, was huge. The body cannot easily contain so much power and, as a result, it grows.
The same reason her late brother was so gigantic, although many theorized it was because of some curse the giants placed on their father.
The reason why Izuku is not three meters tall is because, upon ascending to godhood, she had retained such growth. Being huge can be useful and intimidating, but it brings more problems than advantages in daily life.
In any case, right now Izuku is twenty-four years old. Sure, he would be considered young before her and her thousands of years, but nowhere near a teenager.
"Mom... I'm twenty-four years old," Izuku uttered, approaching his mother, trying to reassure her.
She looked at him confused and bewildered. "Twenty-four? But you only left nine months ago. How can you be twenty-four years old? What have you put into my son's head?" the woman shouted, now definitely furious.
Izuku looked at her and she looked back at him. A sigh escaped her lips. "I hadn't thought about how time may have passed differently here."
She had had to foresee that; That would have made this whole thing less confusing for everyone present.
"Okay, okay, let's all calm down," Izuku said, looking at his mother who was glaring at Ranni with such anger that if she could shoot lasers of frenzied flame out of her eyes, she would have already done so. He sat down in the dining room and motioned for both of them to do so.
Ranni did so immediately; Inko did so reluctantly.
"Okay… then it's time to answer questions," Izuku said. "Mom, you asked me where I've been these last...nine months did you say?" She nodded at his question. "Well... I was in... I know it will sound crazy, another world, called the lands between," he said.
His mother obviously looked at him completely bewildered.
"Yes, I know, it sounds crazy and, frankly, I don't blame you. I had trouble accepting it too, but it's the truth. And if you need proof..." Izuku raised his hand, lighting a fireball in his hand.
His mother's eyes widened when she saw him. "Izu-Izu-Izuku, you have a Quirk!" she shouted.
He shook his head with a bitter smile. "No, this is an incantation." He exchanged the flame for rays, then the rays for a halo of light. He took out his magic staff and, channeling its power, managed to summon some sorceries.
Ranni didn't quite understand why he showed so much, but she let him do it.
"People can only have at most two Quirks, obviously not counting the secondary Quirks necessary for their power to work," Izuku said. "Here I showed you how I made fire, lightning, light, pulled objects out of thin air, and summoned blue energy... each thing made would be considered a Quirk on its own. I don't think there is any case of someone with that many Quirks, right?" " Izuku said, looking at his mother who didn't seem to be able to close her mouth.
"H-how?" was the only thing she managed to say.
"I traveled to that world. In that place, people don't have Quirks; they gain power through hard training and learning... although when I arrived, people used something else to make themselves more powerful." Ranni approved of Izuku not telling her about the runes. It would be difficult to explain to the woman that her son became strong through constant murder.
Inko Midoriya stood still at her son's words, her mind probably debating whether to believe him or not. But in the end, after several minutes, she seemed to come to a conclusion.
"I…I'm not sure I even begin to understand all of this…but then…why do you say you're twenty-four?" she asked.
"It seems that time passes differently in both worlds... we had not anticipated that. I spent ten years in that place, although only nine months passed here... it is complex because technically my body is still fourteen years old despite everything," Izuku explained.
Inko seemed to be fuming as her brain tried in every possible way to understand what was being said to her. Probably, if Izuku hadn't shown her everything he can do, she wouldn't even be trying to understand and would have dismissed it all as pure imagination.
"I... I've gone crazy. This must be another dream," the woman said.
Izuku pinched his mother's cheek, making her let out a small scream. "It's not a dream," he said, smiling at her.
"But...but, how is all this possible?" she asked, caressing her cheek.
"To be honest with you, mom… we don't even know. I just showed up at the place and Ranni brought me back." He said that last bit while looking at her and smiling, a smile that she returned.
"So... you're not fourteen anymore?" Inko asked.
"Well, legally yes, physically too, mentally no, mentally I'm twenty-four years old," the boy admitted.
"And if it's any consolation, we got married when Izuku was twenty-two," Ranni said, finally jumping into the conversation.
"They've been married for two years now!" the woman shouted at this new surprise.
They both nodded.
Inko seemed to melt in her seat. "I…I'll need some time to understand all of this."
"It's okay, mom, I understand… sorry about all this. If we had known about the weather, we would have prepared better," the boy said, stroking his mother's back comfortingly.
Inko nodded, although she seemed to realize something, as her expression of confusion changed to one of concern. "But... how are we going to explain this to the authorities? They will know that you showed up again."
To that question, Izuku said something that Ranni had rarely heard him say: "Shit."
Greetings, this is the author speaking, well I guess it's time to make some quick clarifications.
First of all, thank you for reading this story and leaving a Review that means a lot to me.
The second thing is to answer some questions that some may have.
Will there be ships?: Not with Izuku, he is married to Ranni and as you have seen in this chapter both are happy with their relationship, i may make some ships with secondary characters but the main ones are already married and happy.
Did Izuku experience the events of the DLC?: Yes, but in order not to spoil it for people who have not yet experienced it, I will make few mentions of the events of this one.
How powerful is Izuku and Ranni?: Yes
Will more Elden Ring characters appear?: Only in flashback
I suppose that these are questions that some may ask themselves and I will go ahead and answer them now, if you have any more you can ask them and I will answer them to the best of my ability, unless they are questions that could generate a spoiler.