Branches and brushes grabbed and cut whatever skin it could grab as Izuku and his precious, precious cargo ran for their lives deeper in the mountainside forest. Betrayal burned deep in the greenettes hearts as he let Danger Sense lean his frantic steps.
All Might, Yagi-san He'd promise he would take care of Eri. He promised he would make sure she ended up in good hands.
That she would be raised like his own daughter. Once the war was over, she would have a normal childhood.
That she would never be used by anyone.
That she would never end up in the hands of those who wanted to exploit her.
'A lie… He lied… Why, Yagi-san, why did you have to give her to the commission? The president may be out, and Meera They are both in the same boat, and her quirk let her induce complete loyalty on those she kisses. Of course Meera would do everything in his power to get his nasty hands on Eri. I know you did it to save me from Tartarus or worse, but my life—I would rather my life be taken instead of Eri's smiles.'
Those smiles were gone now, and the little girl in his back had lost all faith in everything.
She had been betrayed by All Might; she had been betrayed by the Heroes' by the Vilain, the civilians.
She had lost all will to live, and Izuku knew that all the progress she had made with Mirio and CLass 1-A had been flushed down the drain.
But Izuku… He wouldn't let her fade away; he wouldn't let her die.
He would hide her; he would find a way to get her out of Japan, maybe Switzerland, or Sweden, perhaps Iceland or Finland.
Anywhere but here
He could hear those infernal dogbots getting closer. Shit, when had been the last time he'd slept? When had been the last times his limbs moved without the assistance of Blackwhip? When did Danger Sense become a constant buzz in his head, a pain so blinding, he'd lose feelings in his fingertips?
Izuku went deeper in the touted cursed woods of Colusukant; there, ancient graves, mounds that used to be Jizo's, and stone lanterns indicated the location of an old Shinto shrine, abandoned for millennias yet still standing, reclaimed by nature, yet still standing, still holding to power.
A power highly reminiscent of One For All.
Behind them, the hounds and the retrievers closed in on Izuku and Eri, and without any other options, the teen entered the ancient shrine. and promptly fell through the worm-eaten floor, landing on another floor; this one scuffed and battered with age and completely white.
"Wait, hold up." Katsuki said as he managed to pantomime, pausing just as doctor Yagokoro finished his examination. Apparently, a goddess by the name of Kakeyi had manufactured a new heart for the explosive quirk user and a pair of lungs. Both organs were working as they should; Katsuki's busted eyes got extracted and replaced by a moon jelly implant imported from Chandra and not from the grey rock the doctor had used to fool everyone. "So… All Might whiffed at being a hero. "
"Again."
"Lost our sweet baby Eri to known child abusers."
"I'm not ready to blame him for that yet; I haven't seen his side of the story."
"And you somehow managed to find her; free her. only for you to fall into a fucking hole like the rabbit you are.-"
"I know, right?"
"And now, what? Why was it all white? Did you fall into wonderland?"
Izuku grinned, and it struck Katsuki how older his old friend seemed at this moment.
"yes."
—-
Izuku looked around the room he was in. It was a shrine, an old one with the altar all burned and the Kami, a yin-yang orb, broken.
"What is this place?" The greenette asked, his eyes unable to leave the broken artifact. "Yoishi, got any clues?"
….
Nothing.
"Second? Third?" Izuku's heart started to hammer in his chest. "Banjo? Nana? NANA?"
He felt a little hand pulled on his cape; it was Eri.
Izuku turned around. Danger sense was deathly quiet. Everything was too quiet.
Worst still were the white people huddled together, their bodies practically melding with the white surroundings. It was so hard to make out what they were, for the only source of colour was Izuku's grim covered green and Eri's red eyes and pale skin.
"Umm… Hello?" The teen started, his voice too loud in the silent place.
But the barely detailed figures didn't move and didn't speak. They looked like a family waiting for the end, for the bomb to finally explode and their lives to end, among loved ones, thankfully.
"What happened here?" Izuku wondered out loud as he reached for a branch that grew out from one of the huddled figures heads. "Is this... a quirk? No, there never was a wide-spread illusion quirk—not one that the HPSC released anyway. And even then, what would be the trigger? Why the white room, and... who are those?" He touched the branch from his bloodied hand, and from the blood that had seeped from the damaged gloves, colours started to bleed back into the branch.
No, not a branch or horn.
—-
"Dude, that's ghibli shit right here." Shigaraki murmured as Izuku continued his narration, completely engrossed in the story despite Doctor Ekarani working on his own wounds and a rather unstable body.
—-
Under Izuku's feet, the white round returned to be an old and well trodden tatami with patched together zabuton, and old Kotatsu and Blond who wield gunpowder-filled dolls, a red head oni, a blue-haired vampire and her silver maid, and a black and white witch. All of them were staring at Izuku as if he were the worst villain; the magic (because there was no other way Izuku could call what he'd smelled and felt as magic) filled the room like a tempest in a shot glass, and Danger sense screeched at him, causing him such pain; death seemed like the best option.
—-
"Deku… What in the ever-loving fuckis this quirk?"
"Danger sense; it saved my life more times than I can count. Also gave me enough migraines to last a lifetime, thank you."
"Shit, I'm so sorry, dude."
"Also, those ladies are all individual powerhouses who can level cities if they ever felt like it. Not that they ever felt like it, but they always keep this option open." Damodara explained with a smile; this had been one hell of an introduction. "Thankfully, since I happened to be a descendent of Hakurei Reimu, the load-bearing dream cornerstone of the pseudo-paradise, I could reboot Gensokyo. Apparently, her death had—how can I explain this in layman terms?"
"It froze the computer." Tenko spoke up.
…
"Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what happened. But the whole freezing thing only happened because the four sages sacrificed their time and magic to keep it as is until, well, they had no idea I even existed; it was just a desperate bid not to die. Yamuna, the greatest sage of Gensokyo,'s on her last leg; one sage just got erased from everyone's memory, and another one went from an all-powerful Oni to a weak human, and the last one went so insane, I had to but her down. Me dropping in the only known link from the dream to this phenomenal'reality' really was an act of God."
"Dude… that's… Like, if you say Final Fantasy, I willbite you."
"Sorry, Mon-chan."
"But yeah, my appearance in Gensokyo rebooted their world.
"Dude… I just think you have a harem, don't you?" Katsuki asked, catching Damodara flatfooted and causing Tenko to sputter.
"... I beg your pardon?"
"Yeah, man, see. I always thought I was the protagonist of this story; I was the hero, the cool shonen protagonist with the cool and controversial quirk. But no. You are the protag; I know that now. And I bet all of those uber powerful girls are all kneeling for you."
…
"Well, I do have a second fiancee. But, ah, right. While time restarted in Gensokyo, its effect got glitched. I knowI have lived longer as Damodara than what you think. But at the same time, I would never be able to tell you my true age because we all lost track of time. I do remember that I married my first wife a 'few years' after Eri and I arrived in Gensokyo. I know that because I have a daughter with her, her name is Kanaiya-priya, or just Kana, for short, and I know she is 'ten year' old, but the moment she stops growing, time will, once again, be foggy for us." Izuku explained as he let Ekarani scan him over.
Clean bill of health and in full power, whatever that meant.
Katsuki stared at his friend, now a stranger.
It was so jarring.
One moment Deku's right beside him, being bullshited away and ruining what should have been a dead easy fight.
And then next
"You're older than me."
"Logicaly."
"You're not Deku, are you? Why are you called Damodara?" Katsuki managed to ask despite his anger returning.
It was easier to control himself now; he didn't need to hurt his Deku because Katsuki was fucking sad about all this time they lost. He just needed to listen and
Yeah, find some time to blow up later. But not now.
Deku… Damodara worked his mouth, literally chewing his words seven times before speaking them.
"I am Izuku Midoriya, but in Bhakti-Yoga, we learn that we are not this body but eternal spirit souls in bodies made of matter. What I'm trying to say is that, Ah."
"Basically, you woke up from the MAtrix." Tomura interjected. "You took the red pill, and now you are aware that Midoriya Izuku was the Avatar and your not it."
…
"Yeah! Exactly!" Izu… Damodara exclaimed happily as he jumped to his feet, carelessly crabbing Tomura's hands. "Oh, Tomura, you're so smart; you got this concept first try; I don't know what you did in your previous life, but it's paying off right now."
Tomu… Fuck, Shigaraki looked as he was about to gloat, only for him to close his mouth and bashfully look down with a pleased blush.
"But yeah. Basically. Bhakti-Yoga is about waking from our illusion. We think we're this body. But really, we're not these bodies; otherwise, losing a body part and blood would change us."
"Like this one anime, Land of the Lustrous." Tomur… Shigaraki added, emboldened by Izu Damodara's praises. "The Gems, the new humans after the apocalypse, would lose their sanity the more damage they got. but…"
"That's a work of fiction."
"Yeah, and even then, they just got crazy, not, you know, dead. They couldn't die anyway; it was messed up." Shigaraki cringed.
"And how!" Izuku agreed. "Land of the Lustrous was like way too Buddistick for my taste, worshipping the Void, and that bliss is becoming one." Izuk-Damoidara cringed. "Urgh, I'd rather take birth on the lowest, grossest planet of hell, then become one with the Lord's light."
"Dude, that's one hell of a mood here."
That's the vaishnava mellow, my dear."
Tomura grunted approvingly, and Katsuki could only stare slack-jawed at the bizarre interaction.
He looked left, then right. Nope, no fun cassette filled with painkillers, just an average IV bag.
Fuck.
"So that's the first part of Krishna Bhakti: we are not the body we are in, nor the mind that keeps running commentary on our life and pushes us to act in a certain way; we are eternal spirit souls, the source of the consciousness. The second part of the tenets of Bhakti Yoga is: God exists; He is the eternal person and the source of everything; He never took birth, never began, and will never cease to exist. He made out, as previously stated, eternity, pure consciousness, and pure, unadulterated bliss/love."
"Wait, God is made out of love?" Shigaraki asked with a dubious quirk of his eyebrow and a disgusted snear.
"Yes, Ten-chan. I know you've never experienced true love. No wait, how did you feel when I would cuddle up to you at night, when your dad would leave you outside without shoes and dinner? Did you love me when I licked your face and played with you? Did it give you pleasure?"
'What the hell!?'
And, for whatever bitchtard reason ever, Shigaraki honestly started thinking about it, his face screwing itself in concentration, then softening, then crumpling in grief.
"Yeah but…"
"I know, my death hurt you. That's the nature of love in this material world; it ends."
"Oh yeah, that's sweet'n all, but could we just, I don't know, get on with it?"Katsuki asked as he crossed his arms over his chest, idly noticing the hospital gown he was in, and he had to say
It was the most fucking mundane ass hospital gown he'd ever had the misfortune of wearing.
Izu… Izuku glanced apologetically at Tomura, who turtled himself back in his cow hoody, sending a baleful look at Katsuki (don't flinch, don't cringe, don't let him win).
"Ok, ok, I kind of lost the plot there."
"Yeah, no Shit Dek." The blonde bit his tongue. He may be annoyed by the talkative loon, but no, the name Deku, no matter how well Izuku reclaimed it, felt too heavy on his tongue.
Izuku grinned. "Ok, long story short, there's this one place in Gensokyo that's basically a dumping ground for lost things, and yes, Katsuki, I found you collector edition, silver jubilee. All Might Socks you tragically lost to the dryer when you were 6. I kept it safe, and I will hand it back to you after this whole drama is over. do survive by then."
"Oh, fuck you."
"No thank you." Was Izuku's cheeky reply. "So yeah, me and my wife; I'll get to it in a minute if I can go without interruption." Katsuki rolled his eyes. " And some other friends were trash-larking, looking for a neat lost thing for Kourindou: a shop kept by one of the rare youkai males worth talking about. That's when Yamuna, ah, Yakumo Yukari's Shikigami, Chen, found a whole box filled with those books about Bhakti Yoga. She took them to her place between dimensions, and one week later, she gaped a bunch of brahma-Madhav-gaudiya Vaishnava in the middle of the human village, and they all started to chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. And boy, those monks and Mataji's were glowing like the sun; they were blazing with bliss, and, ah, me and my Uttara, we got hooked; so many of us were. We weren't forced or coerced. It was just, Oh, it's the best, Kacchan. And then I read the Vaishnava philosophy, and boy, I wish this was taught everywhere."
"Oh yeah! Now that's your one of them; you're all for fucking brainwashing." Katsuki snarked, more than ready to blow whatever manipulation Izuku was about to unleash on him. His mom and dad had taught him better than that. He wasn't weakling.
Still, he knew he was responsible for Izuku's predicament.
A weird smile came over Izuku, as if he wanted to laugh and had more than one answer, but his answer wouldn't fly. "Actually, Krishna said in the Bhagavad-Gita as it is, chapter 18, verse 63: iti te jñānam ākhyātaṁ guhyād guhyataraṁ mayā
vimṛiśhyaitad aśheṣheṇa yathechchhasi tathā kuru"
"Meaning?"
"Wow, so eager, Kacchan." Izuku snarked back. "Basically, Krishna told his best friend Arjuna, in the middle of the battlefield of Kurukshetra, after revealing the eternal knowledge of the science of Bhatki-"
Katsuki averted his eyes, more than a little ticked off at Izuku's religious weirdness (there's nothing scientific about religion; all'miracle this' and 'God's beyond our comprehension' that).
"That, and get this: I told you everything about the three modes of material nature that control us all—the nature of the gross body, the mind, the ego, and the soul—the person covered by those three layers. Karma, both good and bad, the destinations conditioned souls can reach at the end of their lives and how to reach them, the nature of evil, Myself, the supreme personality of Godhead, and how to reach the supreme abode, Goloka Vrindavan. Now do whatever you want with this knowledge; I won't force you."
"Wow, Krishna sounds like super nice!" Shigaraki spoke up, his creepy red eye peeking through his cow-hood. "The Bhagavad Gita, is it, like a walkthrough for the game of life?"
"Absolutely, but if you want to have the integral version, you read the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the prima guide is the Chaitanya-Charitamrita. But that's for another time." Izuku said apologetically. "But yeah, the Cult of Bhatki is fully voluntary; if you want to join, you can, and if you don't see the use, well, you may leave, and you won't lose anything."
"I'd lose whatever respect I had." Katsuki groused as he crossed his arms, wincing at the pain in his chest.
It wasn't, like, a horrible pain, but it was there, like he'd pulled a muscle too hard.
Izuku scoffed. "Fame, infamy… The moment this body dies, it's gone."
"Wow… Yeah, because we don't remember when we reincarnate, right?" Tomura inserted in the conversation.
"That's right, ten-ten." Izuku cooed. "Beside, it's not like anyone respects Kacchan here."
"Oi!"
"They all fear him, except Ochako-chan; she's fearless."
Katsuki was ready to rebuke Damodara about how he didn't need their respect when, surprisingly enough, the explosive blonde began to use his brain and look back at his previous actions.
Yikes, no wonder Tomura wanted to make him a villain; Katsuki had practically been one.
It was rather sobering.
"So, now what?" Katsuki asked after some time, long enough that Tomura and Damodara had moved closer and Izuku was reading to him from a golden book. Izuku looked up with an inquisitive hum.
"Like… Why are you guys here? Where am I anyway?" The blonde gestured to the reddish wooden walls that surrounded them.
"Ah, well, as I said, with Hakurai Reimu's death, Gensokyo almost fell apart, and many beings who lived there desired to avenge her." Izuku explained. "Personally… I think I was fighting either a crazed Lunarien princess or perhaps a rogue leg-breaker from one of the three hell-Yakuza groups. But whatever happened, it caused my hidden doors to malfunction, and I was spat out back in Mustafa with a bad case of amnesia." Damodara explained with a wince. "Thankfully, it seemed that, with me out of the eastern wonderland, the dream border weakened enough that, well, Hakurei-san's friends all broke out for a vengeful festival." Izuku sighs as he rubs his face tiredly. "I'm so happy my security seals held up though; otherwise... Kacchan, you just don't want to know the sheer magnitude this tragedy would look like. And I'm not just talking from Gensokyo, the outside world; this level of reality would've been affected too... Think of it as Nagasaki all over again." The green haired youth said direly before breaking onto a smile once more. " Anyway, right now I'm just following along, since I'm not part of it. I did what I had to do, and this war was not my fight; it never was, really," he admits. "And since All For One broke the Golden Spell Card Rule: Don't kill the incident resolver, and don't kill Miko. Let's just say he angered plenty of Youkai and other beings-"
"So the Asshole's in deep shit now?" Katsuki grinned like a feral teenager, and Izuku enthusiastically nodded with a big grin.
Katsuki grinned back. "Good, that motherfucker deserved to be smashed by.."
"A bunch of frilly magical girls?"
"I wanna see that." Katsui declared as he got up to his feet only to wobble and fall back in the cot.
"Oof"
"Shut up, handjob!" Katsuki snapped.
"What did you call me?" Shigaraki asked dangerously, his red eyes shinning with madness fuelled by indignation.
"Alright, Shanti, everyone, Shanti." Izuku fuck, no, Damodara said as he got up from his seat and put himself between the symbol of fear and KEM. "I know you guys are feeling antsy and hate each other's guts."
"He kidnapped me!" Katsuki whined.
"He called me... Eww, don't call me that, please!"
"Katsuki, Tenko has a point; he doesn't want to be called anything so crude, and he did nothing to deserve that." Damodara crossed his arms over his chest and stood straight. "And while he did Kidnappe you durring the... yes, the summer camp up the mountains, right now, he'd not a treath and won't be as long as you are respectful to him: true heroes are always respectful, even to their enemies." Iz.. Damodara explained patiently. "A true warrior, a true hero never antagonize anyone, only demons do that. now, are you a Demon? or are you a Hero? and before you said he started it, saying Oof when you collapsed is not a reason to call him such derogatory name."
Oh…
The dad's energy overpowered Katsuki's bratness.
Fuck, not even his mom had the power to do that. Katsuki felt chastised, and by All Might, he wanted to argue but...
Well...
No, Damodara had a point, and god, that chafted him so much to admit that he'd been wrong.
"Now," Damodara began. "Katsuki will remain here to recover; right now, Doctor Ekarani is dealing with a huge influx of patience, so you will have to wait, Katsuki. And because your heart and lungs were replaced, you got a much-needed exorsism and, well, spoke to me. I feel like an hour-long nap will be what you need, or perhaps, yeah, alright. Let's all have a good night's sleep before going back up and witnessing the convergence." The greenette said wiht the authority of someone raising a child.
"Wait, you mean..."
"Yes, Ten-chan. We all have some beef with AFO. Well, I personally moved on, but, well, I can't let what he did to you and your grand mother slide. My nature as a Raja-Rshi compels me to fight yet knows that I don't have to. Anyway, time spent in this room's faster than what's happening on the balcony, so we can rest and recoup. Tenko, you wanna come to my room or..."
Shigaraki got up slowly, his hands deep in his front pocket. "I... don't want to be alone." He quietly admitted.
"I get you. Kacchan, how about you? You need some time alone?" Izuku asked, once again being the mature adult.
It was weird thinking Deku was anything younger than Katsuki. but it was what it was.
Suddenly feeling tired, Katsuki mumbled something about being too old to co-sleep and turned to his side. "And close the damn light on your way out, Deku," he said with a tad more eloquence.
After some shuffling, and Izu... Damodara covered him with a thin, if warm, blanket, the light closed, and for the first time since his school year started, Katsuki fell asleep wihtout any issues.
His last thought was how Afo had lost. like…
How the fuck was the guy supposed to win against them now?
He fell asleep with a grin stretching his lips.
—-
"How is she?" Damodara said, nearly giving Ekarani Devi Dasi a heart attack. Not that it was ever possible, her being a true Lunarien, after all.
"Damodara Prabhu, what owes me the pleasure?" The Demi-goddess asked as she turned away from the crude form of her high school project. "You look a bit pale."
"Ekarani… Mirko…"
The Lunarien pharmacist felt a pang gnawing at her heart. "Yes, she is on her way to her new body. I...did everything I could." Yagokoro Ekarani cleared the stubborn tears that clung at the side of her eyes with the tip of her knuckle.
Under the Harinama shroud lay the cooled remains of one Mieruko, her first ever rabit/lunarien hybrid, something the superancient pharmacist had done for the pleasure of emperor Yomei and his two fiances.
She had lost her when she tested whether or not Mieruko could survive a trip to space and re-entry.
Well… Ekarani got her answer: Mieruko drifted all the way to earth from Rahu's head, crashed on earth, and lived among humans for the past 10,520 hidden in plain sight, despite looking like a tiny, jacked-up lunar rabbit.
Quite a feat!
Still, while her lifespan had exceeded Ekarani's expectations, her death was by no mere natural.
She had all of her limbs lopped off and decayed from her main body.
Still… Still…
"Damodara?" Ekarani addresses the shorter Vaishnava in the room, the only other souls that lurked there. He was paying his respect to Mieruko, bowing down to her and placing a handful of petals at her feet.
"Yeah, Yagokoro-sama?"
"Do you… You know, I have read in the Chaitanya Charitamrita that, due to Vasudeva Data's desire to take the sins of all the conditioned souls in this universe on his head, and thus being the last to leave this universe, forced to suffer for a lifetime of Brahma in hell to free us all, Bhagavan Sri-Krishna Chaitanya erased the karmic debt of all the souls currently in the universe at this time... Mieruko was, she's..."
"While it's just a wild guess on my part," Damodara slowly began as he carefully chewed what he was about to saybegan. "I'd say Gauranga already took her home, at least, in Nabadwip... Hmm, Probably in another universe when his Pastimes just started."
Ekarani nodded as she hiccuped, covering her mouth and her uncontrolable grin. something wholly inapropriate when dealign wiht a corps, she felt.
This was the best news she'd heard.
"But I'm sure it would be more prudent to talk to the honourable judge; she should know."
"I… I don't know how you managed to make friends with Shiki-sama. Even I am wary of her." The Lunarien Goddess said as she whipped off her tears.
"The same way I made friends with Uttara and everybody else, and I'm not afraid of death." Damodara said as he rubbed the now faded sunburst scars.
"And you went to bribe her with saffron socks."
"Best trade ever. Also, do we know who Shimura Nana is?" Damodara asked as he turned away from the cold body.
Ekarani grew grave once more. "Yes…"
"I see… So that's why I could wake Gensokyo up but not reestablish normality."
"Damodara I-"
"Rani-chan, you know I won't die." Damodara spoke to the ancient moon goddess with the same patience as a father. "It will hurt, but Reimu can't stay in me, not if we want Yamuna and Saigioguji to get out of Samsara."
"You…"
"Rani, you guys can't keep living like this; the Path of Bhakti is to learn how to die, how to leave our useless, material body behind the right way so that we can go back home, back to Godhead." Damodara explained. "Besides, isn't Houraisen-sama suffering from Quirk exaustion? She can't keep this up forever astonishingly enough." He smirked.
Ekarani felt her moonlike cheeks reddened.
The house of eternity had survived without much change during the Great Whiteout incident, but Damodara was right; Kaguya, the eternal Lunarien princess, the main ingredient of the mundane elixir of immortality, was showing signs of fatigue and, worst of all, boredom.
"Besides, I won't die, not yet anyway." The Sage patted her on her overburdened shoulders. "Anyway, you need to break the news to Takami Keigo; he's the tengu with the artificial wings."
Ekarani cringed. "I'll make sure to contact Lord Tenma; I'm sure she will deal with this situation as the crime perpetuated requires."
"Oh, I do hope so. As for me... I don't know; I already took prashadam and bathed; is Kaguya resting right now?" Damodara asked as he reached in one of his backdoors to grab his Japa beads.
"She is, but keeping this place in a bubble of three-quarter time. Don;t worry about here, this is not like fighting against magical entropy." Ekarani said as she manifested a few flowers to place around Mieruko's cooling body.
"Nice… I have like, a whole week worth of missed Japa to catchback; like, I think I'm going to do two 64 Jap; this ought to fix me right up." He mumbled tierdly, feeling all of his inkown yeard and then some.
He didn't miss the outside world, or the war.
Ekarani chuckled. Truthfully, after what had happened to Damodara, she's considered his forceful ejection from Gensokyo to be reason enough not to chant all of his missed rounds, since his confusion post-ejection would absolutely count as a serious medical situation, like a coma or other such aliment.
But Damodara had nama-Ruchi, or the taste for His Name, that any and all reason where good enough to dedicate days to whole months to his Japa meditation.
Admittedly, she was rather jealous of this fact, but Ekarani was also spiritually younger than Damodara, having received her initiation much later than him.
"Yes, you do just that; also, Lady Renuka has kept some cakes, cookies, and other such treats for breakfast."
"Nice! alright, Haribol, Ekarani, We'll see eachother soon enough."
"Hare Krishna."
And with that, Damodara exited the room, leaving Ekarani alone with the prepped body of Mieruko for her auspicious burning on the bank of the Jalangi.
Ekarani sighed as she manifested a chair; perhaps the world outside did not feel the passage of time, but she did.
Taking her Japa, the ancient pharmacist, a student of Dhanvantari, chanted until she was needed again. Dreading the reaction of the broken tengu and praying for strength for the coming hours.
—-
Of course, before Damodara could go to bed and rest, he went to meet his mother. The poor woman was in all of her state, crying and screaming. Needless to say, learning that she was already the grandmother to a ten (tentative age)-year-old granddaughter was quite the shock.
Honestly, Katsuki should've known, since, you know, Damodara got a whole ring around his sacred finger and all that, and he knew that he wasn't the oldest of the two anymore.
Time displacement worked in a messed-up way, and the blonde hoped the Gensokyen would sort this whole flea circus out.
The morning was a bit awkward for Katsuki and Tomura also, since the blonde admittedly still had nightmares about his kidnapping and the first time they faced TomAFO.
Seriously, fuck that guy.
But somehow, it worked out well, and it was clear Tomura was as fearful and awkward as Katsuki and even more distraught.
Both had their own side of the bathroom; both remained where they were, and neither spoke. except when Shigaraki tried to give an apology.
Emphasis on try.
Anyway, there was cake for breakfast and plenty of other vegetarien goodies from different cuisines. As he and Shigaraki ate, Inko was crying rivers while Izuku awkwardly patted her back, lookingmotherfucking lost despite holding his own hag.
yes, both red eyes youth tryed their best to ignore the whole drama, Katsuki having more experence at this sport then Shigaraki. still, it was betet then anything on TV at the moment.
Then it hit Katsuki.
Izuku was older than Inko; the last he'd remembered about the woman was to hug her goodbye before going to war.
She was basically a stranger to him. One that happened to be a bit too...
Alright, so Inko was being a fucking helicopter right now. Like, yeah, Katsuki got it. She expected her son to be dead; he was changed, but alive and well. so she should be happy, if a bit out of sort knowing she didn;t know her daughter in law and her grandaughter but hey! she always moaned about how she would never have grand kids wiht Izuku being a Hero and all that crap, so she should be happy! But no,she kept complaining about how ridiculous he looked, how she didn't raise a dumb punk, and certainly not one to fall for a fanatical cult worshiping an adulterous pervet and his whores!
Yeah, Kudo's for Izu... for Damodara for not losing his chill. And for not being a fucking carpet when Inko started to throw shades at the doctor, then Damodara had gently, but rather firmly, requested the nearly hysterical woman to please return to the top and never to speak to him again until she leanred how to act like a proper human.
"Dude, that was fucking cold." Katsuki wasn't shy about calling out his friend over the treatment of his mother.
Izuku, who had been applying this golden clay U-leafed glyph on twelve places of his body, and Tomura's body, for some obscure reason, turned to the blond with an inquisitive humm.
"Deku, she's your mom, you know, the one who fed you, dressed you, and shit?"
"Like your's?" Damodara pointedly asked a very shamed Katsuki.
Right, the blonde had no place to stand when it came to treating his mom right. But apparently, Damodara felt quite chatty this morning.
"Yes, she is one of many and hopefully my last." Damodara explained tierldy, probably feeling rather worn by the tornado called Inko. While he spoke, he dressed Tomura up in his non-vilanous outfit, all with the same clay marking that adorned Damodara. "I know she loves me, but she loves me for the pleasure I give her, and now she thinks because I'm following another faith, she won't get the pleasure of babysitting me. For God sake, I'm pretty sure I'm older than her. I got married, I got a cute girl, and I'm about to get married a second time and I am a Vaishnava, a gaudia-Vaishnava and she hates that because it's not normal to worship anything then failable Heroes in this fallen day and age. – Yes, polyamory is allowed in Vedic culture IF, and that a big IF, you can maintain all of your wives and satisfy all of them, and tolerate their bickerings and murder attempts, which, in this day and age, is near impossible. I mean, most of everyone I know can barely be called couples. Like, I'm sure your dad's so afraid of Aunty Mitsuki; he's living like a ghost at home and would probably divorce her if she didn't have enough blackmail on his addiction. But hey, they all got married out of lust, so I'm not that surprised that those marriages are breaking at the seams and leaving broken kids behind. Tomura, stay still; I'm almost done tying your Kanti-mala. Meanwhile, my marriage was arranged when the Mistress of Old Hell noticed me and her pet bird got along super well; heck, if I am to trust MIL Savitri, my Uttara went to robotically..." Damodara trailed off as he noticed the shocked expression surely slacking Katsuki's face.
…
"You married a pet bird."
"Hottest Chick around." Deku gave this disgusting, saucy shit eating grin. "Ok, Tenko, I'm done. No more boos will take you over, and if you die now, you'll go to minimum Vaikuntha."
"Vaikunta?" Tenko (Cutesy name for the most terrifying motherfucker.) repeated, tasting the name on his lips. "Mon… Damodara, will you go there?" He asked like a child, and Katsuki really had to wonder what Crazy Deku did to the symbol of fear for him to be so fucking vulnerable. Like… ouch!
"Yeah, I'm aiming to go to Braj myself. Better grabbed Mahaprabhu's feet tough, one does not simply walk into Chandra-Nana's gate n' all that."
…
At this point, Katsuki stopped caring, Deku went bonker, and you know what? Fair! His childhood friend is saddled with a shitton of trauma and nasty uno reverse tricks. Everyone would go absolutely bonker sooner than him.
"Ok, so Ekadasi already forewarned those who needed to know about your situation, Kacchan, including your mom. Also, your mom needs to meet my mom-in-laws for a bit. Your behaviour may have been affected by like a dozen bhoot and assorted nasty spirits, but Mistuki's behaviours are also pretty toxic. I mean, my Krsna-Priya can be a little buckhead pest, and I will sometimes spank her. But not like your mom does; I mean, for Joshua's sake, kids are not meant to be our personal punishing bags, disciplining them if fine when nothing will pierce their thick heads and emotions, but—"
"Damo-ni!" The white-haired maid exclaimed as she ran to Izu. to Damodara Das. She was a young thing, barely older than Katsuki, and yet...
She was upsettingly familiar; perhaps it was her voice or perhaps her red eyes. She curiously reminded the explosion-prone teen of Eri...
But Eri was kept...
…
Oh, hey, Kirishima (His hair wasn't shitty, just the amount of hair gel to be used and the brand, but not his hair.) was crying. Well, all of his classmates were distraught over the fact that they'd seen him dead with his chest wide open. Somewhere still green around the gills and his mom-
Oh God, he had to deal with her as a normal, healthy human being, didn't he?
"Damo-nii, I told them all what happened to us and Bakugou-nii." Maid-san said before facing the blond wiht a mad glint in her eyes and smjile that made Himiko Toga look cute and very aprachable. and she was right there so the comparasion was easy to make. "Bakugo-nii… If you hurt Damo-nii again, there will be hell to pay."
Bakugo nodded as he swallowed thickly. Now that those ghosts were gone, he now knew full well how big of a dick he'd been to Deku. not to everyone around him.
Honestly, the explosive blond also wondered what type of madness made all those powerful magical girls, goddesses in every sense of the word, not kill him on sight since it was clear Damodara was well liked, even if he married a bird.
"Great, that means he prologes over then." The green-haired tee and the greenette said with a clap. "Now, let's find our seat, relax for a bit, some Extras aren;t here yet, and my Uttara's not in my arms either. but I guess we can have another one of you have a go at the Oaf."
"Jaya! I'm next!" the maid girl said before she flew off to the cleared-out battlefield before the tempher could stop her.
"Oh God… Damo… Please don't tell me you won't let this tiny maid tween face that arshole!" Katsuki begged, praying to whatever deity those Vaishnava worshiped that Deku was joking!
"Well… I mean, it's not a very fair fight, but Ekadasi's free to do what she likes; Se's not even the legit Head Maid of the SDM, you know, she just likes the place so much she chose to pick up the title once Sharada Mataji went back home, back to Godhead. Anyway, let her have a go; after that, it's all about the extras.
Bakugo sat down away from his own extras (they were just way too loud). Like, why were those clowns even considering Bakugou a friend if they hated bullies so much?! It made no damn sense.) and noticed that a raised platform—an altar, really—had been set up in the middle of the belvedere.
On it was a set of three distinctive deities. The dancing twins dressed in blue and gold were Gaura-Nitai (it was written at the basses they were on). where on the far left, at the far right, a set of three deities from Jagannath Puri, Katsuki knew them. Well enough, since his dad brought them to his son as a souvenir from his trip to Orissa a few years back.
'Oh Fuck, that's a God.' He thought, since those were not All Might and looked freaky as fuck, the explosive blond had shoved them under his bed. only to know, have it click in his bastard brain that those were fucking divinites.
Jagannath, Baladeva, and Subhadra: Jagannath being black with huge round eyes like mister Popo and the lips that he was well known for and a pair of dumb stumpy arms with a conch and a wheel painted on them. The smallest one had no stumpy arm and was golden yellow (it looked derpy as fuck.), and the last one was white, had a multi-hooded snake on his head, had a blue body, and sideways tears eyes. At the side was a white and red pole with a wheel (a chakra.) painted on it.
And in the middle was the cynosure of an art book his dad got him in Odissa also.
It was the black flute player Harem Protag and his main girlfriend. Krishna and Radharani, standing there in all of their divine glories.
The book his dad had given Katsuki was all about Radha and Krishna and how he was worshipped around the world. It was a Japanese literature published by Dai Nippon Press to celebrate the first print of the Krisha book 200 years ago.
"Dekuuuuuuuuuu…" Katsuki trailed off as a hundred eyes belonging to the esoteric apex predators fell on him with a clear warning. "Damodara, who's on the altar?" He asked as he felt his sins crawling off his back. Sure, he knew, butDamodare had been worshipping them for well above a decade, so logically, he knew more about the Katsuki.
Al For One had nothing on those bitches.
"Oh, that's—well, you already know them, don't you? " Damodara asked wiht an amused smirk. "that's Krishna, Balarama, and Subhada. In the middle is Sri Sri Radha-Govinda, who's also Krishna, and at the far left is Nitai-Gaura. Gauranga is the last recorded and predicted Avatar of Radha-Krishna that descended on earth 700 years ago, more or less, then there's Nityananda, who's Balarama, Krishna's elder brother." Damodara rambled one before he paused, ripping his eyes away from the altar and back to Katsuki, something otherworldly shining in his bright, green eyes.
Eyes that held true hope, a hope with split knuckles, a bloodied nose, a broken jaw, swollen eyes, and broken fingers, yet were still willing to fight on broken legs.
"He wants this, Krishna came to destroy the miscreant and please his servants. It should be Mahaprabhu's mercy that rains down, but the Demons had to be taken out; somehow, that is another side of Krihsna's mercy."
Katsuki slowly turned his head to fully face his insane friend, staring at the greenette as if this was the first time he'd met the odd, odd creature.
"Hah?!"
"Listen, if God wants a war, he's going to have a war; if God wants to have peace, then he'll have peace; and if Bhagavan wants to see the biggest, baddest Danmaku exhibition match in known history, then by Radha's Lotus feet, we're going to have the biggest, baddest, most colourful Danmaku exhibition match in known history." Damodara swore as the Sparks of One for All danced in his eyes. "And we will all keep up until spring arrives and Yakumo-chan gets up from her hibernation!"
"Huh, alright then," Katsuki said noncommittally as he edged towards his extras. They were, well, pretty forgettable (to him). but at least those still made more sense than Deku right now.
Little did he know how insane things were going to get after this point.
As they say, famous last word.