Chapter 5: Learning your demons.
After returning home and having dinner, the boy went back into his room to start experimenting.
"First, there is Epitath, the ability to see what fate has in store for you." Diavolo sounded proud. "Try calling it out."
Izuku's forehead began to itch. When he tried to scratch it, he felt something was off. After looking in a mirror, he laughed out loud. There was a smaller face, just like the one on his quirk. The little face started projecting light on a wall, as if they were in a cinema. The short video showed his mother entering the room with a mop in her hands.
Immediately after projection was over, Inko did exactly what was showed. Her clothes, facial expressions and mop were replicated perfectly by Epitath.
"Honey, I need you to leave your room for now, so I can clean the floor." She stared at the little face. "Is that another side effect of your quirk?"
"I think so, yes." He smiled innocently.
"I hope it's not permanent either. If you want to go outside, wear a cap over that thing."
Izuku went to the living room.
"Now, onto time erasure. It can be difficult to notice its effects. Best way to measure it is to record yourself. Get a camera."
The green head took his phone, opened a camera app and began recording himself.
"Now, imagine you're holding a string with both hands. You need to snap it with one decisive motion."
"String, snap…" His body felt a small shock, not too dissimilar from when The World stopped water in the sink.
"Try to grab that TV remote."
Despite the child's attempts, he was unable to even touch it. He had to wait until the strange feeling went away before he could lift the remote. When reviewing the recording, he noticed that his futile attempts at touching the TV controller were missing from the video. It's almost as if that part was edited out.
"Diavolo-san, your ability is great! No wonder you were so successful as a villain!" He exclaimed.
"I know, it saved more times than I can count."
Inko came to into the living room with a worried look on her face.
"Did you feel that, my baby?"
"Feel what?"
"Feel that something happened to your memory. I forgot how I exited your room, even though I remember everything before and after that."
"Tell her you don't know anything, Midoriya!" His guest's tone was strict.
"I-I have no idea, mom!" Izuku said with a trembling voice
She got visibly sad.
"I am you mother. I need to know what's happening to my child." She started crying. "Please, Izuku, don't lie to me. You are breaking my heart!"
"Don't listen to her, kid" Diavolo's voice got angrier. "You should keep that ability's secret to yourself."
Izuku began crying as well.
"I am sorry for lying, mom! I didn't to upset you! My quirk must have affected your memory!"
"Apology accepted." His mother wiped away her tears. "Promise me that you will be honest about your quirk, no matter what it will do to you or to others."
"I promise!"
After calming down, the boy explained to his mother that he can predict future and "erase time", which seems like a memory loss to other people. Inko bit her lip. On one hand, she was happy that her son got a powerful quirk, but on the other hand, it was getting out of hand. She feared that her son might become arrogant or hurt someone by accident.
Izuku went to bed. To his delight, there were still only 3 people. Each was doing their own thing. The kid decided that he needs to learn more about them.
First was Diavolo, who was rummaging through the kitchen.
"You need to learn how to keep your mouth shut, kiddo. My ability becomes less useful the more people know about it."
"I can't lie to my own mother! But I will try to be more careful with others."
"All right. Where do you keep the booze?" He asked while still searching. "I haven't had a good drink in ages. "
Izuku looked in the freezer and in the shelves. He noticed that all the food was something he ate or drank before, including a bag of frozen blood.
"Diavolo-san, I think this place only has food that I am familiar with."
"Great" The mafioso rolled his eyes. "I'll have add wine to my list of demands."
Next was DIO. He was reading a perfect copy of Izuku's quirk notebook.
"Do you like it?" The child asked.
"I have to say, most of the literature here is quite boring. This is probably the only worthwhile thing. It's certainly important to keep track of your potential enemies."
Izuku had mixed feelings. He didn't appreciate the vampire calling heroes "enemies", but he was relieved to see calm DIO. Perhaps this is an angle he could work with.
"If you want, I can go to the library and pick a book for you."
"Yes, this is definitely something I want."
"Dio-san, would you mind telling me more about your life." He sat next to DIO.
"Fine, I will give you a brief summary. It all started in when my father died and I got adopted into a wealthy Joestar family. They treated me well, but not well enough. One day, I tried to poison my adoptive father; however, my step brother Jonathan foiled my plan. I got desperate and used an ancient stone mask to become a vampire. But even with all of my newfound might, I couldn't defeat Jojo in a fair fight. I had to decapitate myself, then sneak up on Jonathan and ambush him. I ended up stealing his body for myself." He pointed at the scars on his neck.
"My head hurts, sir. Is that all?"
"That's barely a half, you brat!" DIO raised his voice before lowering it again. "After a century in a coffin at the bottom of the ocean, I resurfaced in Egypt. There I met several important people, including Enya, an old woman who taught me about stands and gave me one, and Pucci, a young man with I shared an important secret with." He grinned. "But then Jonathan's descendants tracked me down, killed most of my followers and even me. After by body was burned by the sun, I woke up here."
Izuku was baffled. Compared to Diavolo-san, Dio-san lived a much more strange and unbelievable life. If it wasn't for the rule against lying, he'd never believe such a tale.
"I am sorry to hear that, sir."
"Don't be. I do not need your pity." He took a sip from glass. "Remember, you'll need more blood in the future if you want to have the best stand in the world. "
"A-Actually, sir, I don't like your ability all that much."
"WHAT?!"
"D-Don't get me wrong, sir." The boy took a defensive stance. "The World is an amazing quirk, even without stopping time, but becoming a vampire is very troublesome. I couldn't even walk outside in daylight."
"So what, you can just walk during nights. Are immortality and nigh invincibility not enough for you? You think a fortune telling pimple or a pocket bomb can match my power?"
"They probably can't, but consider this: if my friends were attacked during the day, I would want to help them. It would be hard to do if I couldn't leave the house."
"You and your stupid selflessness." DIO face palmed. "You remind me of Jonathan. Get out of my sight. I need some time alone."
Izuku went to visit his last guest. Kira was drawing a replica of Mona Lisa with colored pencils.
"It looks great, sir!"
"Thank you. Now, I imagine you want to ask me some questions."
The boy nodded.
"Are you a villain, too?" He was hoping to get a negative answer.
"I am afraid so, although I am not nearly as bad as that Diavolo guy." He put the pencils down. "Are you sure you want to learn more? You will not gain anything except more disappointment."
Izuku was heartbroken. The only person he thought was nice turned out to be bad guy as well. He tried really hard not to cry.
"Tell me, what crimes did you commit?"
"Murder and identity theft." Kira deadpanned.
"Why murder?"
"Whenever I met a pretty woman, I couldn't help but want her hand. Only her hand."
"How many people did you kill?"
"48 for their hands, plus 4 who stood in my way."
This explained Kira's first request from a few days ago. Apparently he was a serial killer obsessed with hands.
"Did you die because of your villainy?"
"Indeed I have."
Satisfied with the answers, the green head went into his room in the mind space. The revelations about his "neighbors" (especially Kira) put a dent in his enthusiasm. He decided to take a break from learning about his quirk and focus more on the outside world.