Drageria

Ch.6: The Dark Gods Origin

Tachibana carried Izuku through one of the many doorways lining the foyer's walls. As they moved through the castle, he saw many more decorations, pieces of artwork, and architecture, as well as many of the servants who bowed before the Dark God and greeted him. To which he greeted them back by name. Izuku, even though feeling like jelly, was entirely surprised by this fact alone! He couldn't even be bothered to remember his old classmates' names. Quirks, maybe, but not names.

After a few minutes of walking, they came upon a smaller door with two sets of words he didn't quite understand. He tilted his head at the strange words, trying to see if he could make any sense of them, but nothing came to his half-dead mind.

Tachibana saw this and said, "They both say bathroom. The top is English, and the bottom is French. These are our main languages."

Izuku awkwardly and embarrassedly dropped a sweat while saying, "I can't speak those languages….wait a second. If the main languages here are English and French, then how are you and everyone else speaking Japanese?"

Tachibana opens the door and smiles as he helps him sit on a bench, saying, "I was wondering when you were going to notice that. I have a quirk that allows me to interact with the human brain in many ways. One of those is the ability to make a person hear their native tongue even when the other person doesn't know it, and vice versa. Drageria has people from all over the world."

Izuku's eyes glittered in wonder at such a fantastic quirk, and he gushed to the Dark God, "That's incredible! But why are we here?"

Tachibana rolls his eyes in amusement and says, "Of course, I will clean you up. But I won't unless you are uncomfortable. I just assumed you needed help."

Izuku took a brief moment to look around at the first part of the bathhouse, which looked similar to the changing room of a Japanese bathhouse. He rubbed his hands a bit and gripped one of his arms. Izuku was always good at telling what his body could and couldn't do, and right now, something as simple as bathing seemed like a task. He seemed friendly and respectful enough even if he had known Tachibana for less than an hour. He didn't know he would try anything, but it was still embarrassing.

He sighed and finally admitted, "Actually….I do need help. Even with….you know.", He motioned to his clothing.

Tachibana raised a hand and stated firmly, "Say no more. If I do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, just let me know; I won't be offended."

Izuku gives him a thankful nod, and Tachibana gives him a basket in which to put his clothes. Izuku was a lot weaker than he thought; even unbuttoning himself was hard. He had barely gotten through the first one before Tachibana had removed all the clothes on his upper half.

"Ah! It feels nice to get out of that suit." Tachibana sighed with relief while fanning himself with his wings.

Izuku couldn't help but notice that Tachibana not only acted and said he was a god but also looked like one from many forms of artist depictions of gods. Unrealistic perfection in his body. His muscles, the shape of his body, and the complexion of his skin. Tachibana was like a work of art. Something that people strive for but could never get.

Izuku also took notice of his arms. The black coloration didn't just cover his hands but worked its way up to his elbows before gadding off into normal-looking skin. He even had the same coloration around his neck. Izuku wondered what other parts had the same black color.

Tachibana saw him staring at him, and Izuku quickly looked away, asking, "Can't you just….manifest it away?"

Tachibana nods and replies, "I can, but where's the fun in that? I don't wanna be lazy.", Izuku couldn't argue with that logic. Sure, having sure power could be used in mundane things, but was it needed? "But before we continue, may I ask what's with that notebook? You've had a death grip on it since you got here. Must mean a lot to you.", Tachibana asked while pointing to the notebook Izuku was still holding onto.

Izuku hadn't even noticed that he was still holding his notebook; honestly, he had forgotten about it. He looked down at it and saw it nearly torn in half from how hard he had been clinging to it. It had even been bent in half from his vice grip.

He shuffled in his seat and replied with anxious disappointment, "Oh….this? It's…..it's nothing."

Tachibana raised an eyebrow and asked, "May I see your….nothing?"

Seeing no harm, considering it was nearly destroyed, he gave his notebook over to the Dark God. When it touched Tachibana's hand, a strange thing began to happen. Much like when Eri touched the wooden chair, which was reduced to logs, his notebook began reviving back to its original state! It was almost like nothing had happened to it at all!

Tachibana sat down next to the starstruck teen, opened the now-revived notebook, and began skimming through it quickly.

"Oh my," Tachibana said while skimming and turning a page. "My word!" he exclaimed while browsing through another part. He then closed the notebook and asked, "Izuku. Did you write all this?"

Izuku, already feeling his shame sink deep within, anxiously replied, looking at the ground, "Yeah. I did, but it's nothing; it's just an old one."

"This is amazing!", Tachibana immediately interjected.

Izuku looked up from his shame and asked, "What?"

"Izuku, this is the most amazing combination of detailed personalized analysis sheets I've ever seen! Did you do all this?", Tachibana praised the boy.

"You…. don't think it's weird?", Izuku asked back, a bit on edge and feeling conflicted.

Tachibana looked at him strangely and replied, "Weird? Izuku, my country needs more people with your level of brainpower, intuition, and observation skills!"

He then stuck his face back into the notebook and began to read faster than Izuku could ever expect a person to do.

He then came to the last page and asked, "What's this?" On the two pages was a huge autograph with only two words. Tachibana narrowed his eyes, despite the size, and read aloud, "All Might? Did you get the number one hero of your country's autograph? That's pretty…... amazing….." He trailed off as he saw Izuku's expression.

To put it simply, Izuku was about to cry. He was just barely holding it back. It was like Tachibana had just unearthed an old painful memory, or maybe just a painful one. Tachibana knew this was where he should stop.

He put the notebook down and said, "Let's put ourselves in the tub, shall we?"

Izuku didn't say anything and instead nodded his head. Tachibana stood up and unbuckled his pants while Izuku still fumbled with his buttons, even more so in his emotional state.

Izuku finally gave up and looked up at Tachibana, who was wrapping a towel around his waist. Izuku also noticed his legs: like the rest of his body, they were beyond perfect but also had the same black coloration that ran up to his knees before fading to normal skin. Once Tachibana was ready, he noticed that Izuku hadn't even gotten started. He offered to help, and after an embarrassed sigh, he accepted.

Tachibana was gentle and respectful with him the whole time. After unbuttoning his coat and dress shirt, he let Izuku slip out of it himself and put it into his basket. After that came the most embarrassing part. Izuku steadied himself on Tachibana's back, and God quickly removed his belt, pants, and undergarments before placing them to the side and wrapping a towel around his waist. After letting Izuku settle for a long moment, he helped him get up to his feet and brought him into the main part of the bath.

Once inside, Izuku was immediately taken aback by what he saw! He fully expected a regular bathhouse fit for a king, but he had no idea "king" meant a football field-sized room with one huge pool and several smaller pools dotted around! The same marble pillars and stone walls with golden edging and artwork decorated the inside, alongside several statues of the dragons in every pool. Especially a large one located in the center of the main pool with all 6 of them in it!

"Woah!", Izuku expressed his shock and amazement.

"What?", Tachibana asked him coyly.

Izuku looked at him, like he asked a dumb question, and exclaimed back, "What do you mean, what? It's so huge!"

Tachibana laughed, saying, "Well, my kids usually like to bathe with me, so I had to accommodate them."

Izuku looked around more at everything and then asked something he should've done before. "Why does it look like a Japanese bathhouse?"

"I like to take different parts of other cultures and integrate them into my country. How better to learn about another culture than to live a part of their lives.", Tachibana explained briefly.

Tachibana then walked Izuku into the main pool and helped him settle in. Much to Tachibana's amusement, Izuku almost steadily sunk in like a stone. The water was nice and hot and had the distinct scent of lavender! It felt amazing on his skin and through his muscles and bones after all he had been through!

Once he was relaxed in the water, Tachibana made a bottle of shampoo float from another part of the bath and began to clean his head. Despite his huge and clawed hands, the Dark God was surprisingly gentle and soothing as he lathered his head up with sudds.

Once he was practically covered from head to shoulders in soap, Tachibana moved him to the fountain and placed his head under, washing him clean. He then repeated the process, washing him clean and letting Izuku sit in the water before cleaning himself off. As they both sat silently, Izuku decided now would be a good time to ask some more questions.

Izuku, feeling embarrassed, lowered himself into the water till he practically covered his mouth as he asked, "Tachibana-san. Can I ask you a question? If it's not too much to ask."

Tachibana hummed in his throat and replied, "Depends on the question."

Izuku hesitated momentarily before saying, "What's your….you're…..you know. Your origin story? How did you go from normal human to Dark God of a self-made country with six dragons for kids?"

Tachibana stopped scrubbing himself as his eyes widened. He shot up while shooting over to Izuku and proclaiming, "Now that's a story!", his sudden burst of excitement initially took back Izuku. Seeing this, Tachibana backtracked and reiterated, "It stems back to my quirk. The strange side effect I told you about.", Izuku sat up a little straighter as he listened to him. Tachibana sat down and explained, "When I turned four, my quirk hadn't manifested visibly. But it did when my one-time reaction kicked in.", Izuku cocked his head at this, and Tachibana said, "I bet you're confused. Let me explain: my quirk came with a strange first-time usage additive. The soul of whatever I ate first, I would gain every aspect of that soul, and I mean every aspect! Physically and biologically."

Izuku's mind thought this through, and he finally asked, "What soul did you eat first?"

Tachibana giggled and said with a nostalgic tone, "Funny thing….I ate a spider."

Izuku mulled this information over, and after it did it, it dawned on him hard. So, with a gobstruck expression, he murdered out in surprise, "So you turned into a spider!? That must've been a hard adjustment."

Tachibana nodded while rinsing off his hair and stated, "It was. Relearning to walk, eat, and do just about everything without hands. It was kinda weird being naked, but I got used to that quickly."

Izuku sank into the water with a thinking expression and stated, "I can't even imagine, being only an inch tall...it must've been hard on your parents."

Tachibana giggled at his statement and told him, "Oh, I wasn't that small. I was a spider, sure, but I was a spider the size of a human child." Izuku's eyes widened at this revelation as he looked at the Dark God, who continued in amazement, "Shocking, isn't it? So we're my parents. But things didn't get better from there." He followed up with a sad tone, making Izuku curious.

Tachibana sighed as if digging up an old memory. He leaned back and took a moment to lament. Izuku patiently waited for Tachibana to speak, and they both sat there for several minutes, with the only sound coming from the gurgling fountain.

Tachibana sighed again while rubbing his face and began his story, "I was born in a pre-quirk era. Quirks were just starting to appear, but they weren't prominent or widely accepted. So, eventually, I was picked on all the time, kicked out of school, and ostracized by basically everyone. When I turned around eight years old, my parents decided they didn't want a freaky spider kid that caused them to be shamed, so they kicked me out."

Izuku nearly shot up from the shock and anger coursing through him but didn't due to nearly getting a head rush. Instead, he opted to shout in disbelief, "What?! That's-That's just horrible! Sure, it must've been hard, but kicking you out when you were a kid? That's unforgivable!"

Tachibana was still and silent at Izuku's outburst. He simply spun his finger in the water, forming impossible shapes. He gave a heavy sigh and told him with a calm tone, "It was a different time, Izuku—a time of change. And the one thing that scares people more than anything….is change. I don't blame them or hold it against them. I've learned to let go of the past and forgive those who have wronged me. It doesn't help to hold in all that hurt….trust me, I've lived long enough to know.", Izuku calmed himself down at his words and knew they held the truth. There were many, many times he was angry at others but always let it go. After all, what could he possibly do? Tachibana sighed again and straightened up while splashing the water, "Let's change the subject. To my kids and how I got so powerful."

Izuku's ears perked up at this, and Tachibana took that as a sign to continue. "When I got evicted by my parents, I made my way to a cave to shelter for the night. Only it wasn't a cave; it was a deep underground cave system that was more similar to a labyrinth. So, seeing as I had nowhere else to go and no escape, I decided to stay at the time." Izuku intently listened to him as he spoke. Even getting closer with each passing moment of anticipation, close enough for Tach to ruffle his hair as he talked, "But this wasn't any ordinary labyrinthian cave; this one held animals, quirked animals!"

Izuku looked confused and asked, "But I thought animals with quirks were rare?"

Tachibana shook his head and continued, "Not in this cave. They were all over! Later in the years, people called it the Birthplace of Quirks or Cave of Origins, pick your favorite. Whatever the reason, I have no clue.", He shrugged his shoulders as Izuku inches in more and more, enough for Tachibana to pull him up to his lap like a child and their parents. "However, as I was learning to survive and thrive in this new and extremely hostile place, I found my kids in an autoclave on a sheer cliffside. They were nothing but eggs, so I decided to eat them.", He stated calmly with a smile.

Izuku immediately deflated from his excited state and fearfully spat out, "What?!"

Tachibana sucked air through his teeth at realizing his wording and reiterated, "I tried to eat them! Sorry, I probably should've said that first. Their shells were too hard for me to break. So after many failed attempts, I decided to care for them."

"Awwww.", Izuku cooed.

"Since I thought I could eat them after they hatched.", Tachibana added, making Izuku go stiff in his expression. Tachibana saw this and exclaimed, "What!? It was survival of the fittest! But then they hatched, and I felt a sense of kinship towards them. So instead, I decided to be their dad." He finished off on a happy note.

"Awwww. Wait, this is the part where you say something like 'you tried to eat them anyway,' right?", Izuku asked anxiously, and Tachibana shook his head, leaving Izuku to sigh in relief.

Tach blew out a raspberry as he reminisced, "I'll be honest, it wasn't easy. Feeding myself and about six other mouths that never seemed to be satisfied. But it helped me get stronger faster. The more difficult challenges I faced, the stronger I became and the more souls I ate. Until I had consumed enough souls from those animals that I had gained all attributes from them except physical.", Again, Izuku listened with bated breath and anticipation as Tag rubbed his head again. "After that, a hundred or so years had passed, and I and the kids decided to leave when humans started to nose around the cave, and I had to save some of my kids from them. Also, they were already bigger than Elephants, soooooo…..", he trailed off like it was relatable.

"Where did you go from there?" Izuku asked, like a child hearing a tall tail from their grandparents.

"Oh, far, far away. Far from my old home and the Cave of Origin. Out into the sea. I had actually thought my kids would leave once they could hunt and fight on their own, but they always stayed with me.", He recounted as Izuku's eyes glittered with wonder. "Anyhow, I knew that no place in the world would accept us, so I decided to make my own. Using the powers of Nidhogg and Fafnir, we made man-made volcanoes and created a new landmass. From there, we added more and more until a huge strip of untouched, uninhabited land was formed for us to live on. The castle I now live in is the very first volcano my kids created to form Drageria, and the huge mountain range in the back of the country are all old volcanoes that used to form more land.", He finished off his story with a clenched fist of excitement and tension.

"That's incredible!", Izuku ogled with amazement.

"From there, I had my other kids bring life to the new land, and Drageria was born," Tachibana finished while spreading his wings at his victorious claim.

"Wow!", Izuku stated with astonishment.

After that, Tachibana took Izuku aside and began to scrub his body. Izuku would've done it, but in his exhausted and relaxed state, he couldn't even get the soap to foam, let alone clean the grime from his body. He just sat there as the Dark God gently yet firmly scrubbed him until he was somewhat raw. Izuku sank into the water and felt all his clung-on sweat and dirt pull off his body.

After some time of silence, Tachibana leaned to his ear and whispered, "But let me tell you a little something. As a secret between you and me.", Izuku looked back at the Dark God and nodded his head. Tachibana smiled, looked around, then cupped his hands to his ear and whispered, "My kids are far more special than anyone could expect. There's more reason for them being elemental dragons other than just diversity.", Izuku's eyes widened once more with intrigue and amazement. He excitedly explained, "They didn't just bring life to this land. They created it! Those weird horses you saw pulling the carriage. They are one of the many by-products of my kids' powers. That's also why the Cave of Origin had so many animals with quirks, or at least that's what I think.", Izuku's mouth was open with awe at this revelation!

The last bit was a theory at best, but the other parts! Wow! Creatures with power, when combined, can create entirely new life forms! Not just that, but environments and whatnot! If this ever got to the public, then who knows how everyone would take it: scientists, the Government, and the Public. It would change it and bring new theories into the construction of life itself!

Tachibana saw Izuku get increasingly excited about everything he said and knew it would lead to more questions. So he quickly stopped him by stating, "But there are enough questions and stories. Dinner will be in a bit."

The glitter from his eyes faded, and Izuku nodded. Tachibana went to one part to scrub off his body while Izuku went over to the edge, where he laid his head and arms. After being so relaxed, he never understood just how tired he was. And with the hot water and calming atmosphere, he was ready to sleep right there.

After a while, Tachibana noticed Izuku's strange behavior and asked from the side, "Izuku?", The boy replied with a tired grunt. "Are you tired?"

Izuku tried to raise his head and open his eyes but couldn't, so he tried to speak out and replied unconvincingly, "Wh-? No-no-no. I'm….I'm good. Honest."

"No, you're not.", Tachibana said back to him while rolling his eyes. He then got up and moved to Izuku, where he scooped them up into his arms. He said, "Come on! Let's get you out and into bed."

"What about dinner? I don't wanna be.", Izuku tried to interject, already half asleep.

Tachibana scoffs and says reassuringly, "You won't be rude. You need rest, and that's final."

"Okay.", Izuku finally submits while letting his head rest on his shoulder.

Tachibana then leaves the baths and enters the changing room, where he grabs a large towel and wraps Izuku in it. Much to the green teen's pleasure as he all but falls asleep in the embrace. Tachibana then takes Izuku out of the locker and into the castle, where he tries to seek out a servant. But instead, he got something better: his second in command, Cherry, walking past.

"Ah, Cherry.", Tachibana calls out to him.

The soft-voiced man hastily approaches the Dark God and bows, "My Lord. How was your bath?"

Tachibana stretches and flexes his wings with a deep sigh and replies, "I feel like a new God. Could you take Izuku to his room and get him into bed.", He tells him while holding out the sleeping boy.

"Of course, my-oh my.", Cherry accepted with a smile before averting his gaze at the dark God. This initially confuses Tachibana until Cherry says, "My Lord, you seem to have forgotten to…"

Tachibana looked down at where Cherry was motioning to and realized that somehow his towel fell off, leaving him exposed!

"Oh! Whoops!", Tachibana yelped out with a deep blush as he used two of his wings to cover himself. He-he-he, sorry about that." Tachibana apologized to Cherry, who only chuckled. He manifested new clothing, the same as the original, on his body and said with an embarrassed tone after handing off Izuku, "I'll just go back to my paperwork."

Cherry giggled to himself the whole way up to a new room made for the castle's newest guest. He opened the door and gently placed Izuku on the bed. From there, he went to the closet and pulled out some blue pajamas, which he changed the sleeping boy into. After discarding the towels, he placed the young teen under the covers and tucked him in.

Just before he left, he felt a hand weakly grasp the cuff of his shirt. "Cherry.", The boy said in a half-asleep voice.

Cherry leaned down to him and replied in a quiet tone, "Yes, master Izuku?"

"Can you tell Tachibana...thanks….", Izuku tried to say to him in a muddled speech.

Knowing what he was saying, he put the teen at ease by saying, "Of course." The teen relaxed and finally drifted off to sleep. Cherry pattered his head before quietly saying, "Sleep well, young master."

With that, he turned the light off and left the room, where, for the very first time in a very long time, Izuku slept soundly with no stress, fear, or nightmares to plague him—only silence and calm.