Where was he?
He didn't know where he was, or how he had come to be there. He had been…floating. Floating, as if in water. Floating, and gently swaying, the sound of waves in his ears.
"Hold on, little one. Almost there."
He was flying. The wind was cold on his cheeks. Someone was…someone was carrying him.
How did he get there? What had he been doing before?
"Rest here, little one. You're safe now."
He felt himself slipping, as if he were relaxing in a hot bath. The world, vague as it was, seemed to drain away.
And he saw.
A hideous mass of tentacles, tentacles that looked like human fingers, coiling around each other, lashing out like snakes. At its centre a smirking face with no eyes, a corpse face already dead and crumbling.
And behind it, a pair of wide, frightened eyes.
"Tenko!"
Tenko. Yes, he knew that name. The name of someone he had never seen, yet yearned to save. Someone trapped within the soul of another. Another, who sought to destroy the world.
The horror, spreading and erupting, its fingers grasping for his flesh; for one touch to end him forever.
An explosion, throwing the fingers back. A hot wind washing over him, the roar tearing at his eardrums. A familiar shape, leaping in front of him, arms thrust out. More explosions, buffeting the monstrosity and driving it back.
"Kacchan!"
Kacchan? Who was Kacchan again? It was a name he knew, but from where?
"Kacchan!"
"Get it together Deku!"
Kacchan. Bakugo Katsuki. His rival, who had driven him to greatness. His enemy, who had bullied and belittled him.
His friend, who had saved his life.
The fingers erupted, engulfing Bakugo. Their mass crushing him, his flesh turning to ash.
"Deku…don't die here…"
And he was gone.
Gone. Gone in the blink of any eye. Gone forever.
He saw only red.
He screamed a scream that rent the air. His soul erupted, blazing like a new-born star. He felt himself flying, fist outstretched. His fist struck the face, and plunged through it, down into the black morass, into the depths of the horror. The monstrosity exploded, his power blasting through and out of it, burning it out of existence.
Yes. He had won. That thing he had fought, that thing that had sought to destroy the world. He had destroyed it, and only he remained.
A human figure, corpse-pale, spiky hair the blue of dead flesh. Its eyes empty, as if the soul behind them was already long gone, half of his skull missing due to the blow he had landed.
And a big wide grin appeared on his face, teeth bared despite.
"
You lose."
And then it was gone. A circle of pure darkness, erupting from within its chest. Bigger and bigger it grew, all around it vanishing into its void. The wind rushed around him, sucking him towards the darkness, drawing him in.
"Deku get away!"
He turned away, trying to fly away, to leap. But still it drew him in. He could see them screaming, crying, reaching for him.
"Midoriya!"
"Aizawa-sensei!"
Aizawa was reaching for him, his scarf flying from his hands, flying through the air towards him. His eyes were wide, desperate. He grabbed for the scarf.
He missed. And he fell, his dark tendrils too late to latch on.
And fell.
And fell.
(X)
Darkness.
A black void, over a grey wasteland.
He had been there before. It was a place that was not a place, for it only existed within himself.
He knew it. As he knew the figures standing before him. Eight figures, for his eight predecessors; the eight heroes who had borne One for All. The eight heroes, who had saved his body, and his soul, from the power of All for One.
Of those eight, all but one was dead. And of the eighth, he did not know.
"Is that it?" he asked, looking from one to the other. "Am I dead?"
He was certain that he should be. After all that, he had to be dead.
He wanted to be dead. He deserved to be dead.
He knew facing All for One in the stronger and younger body of Shigaraki Tomura may come at the cost his life but... he had hoped it was only him that fell. Not others...
"No," said the Second User, whose name he did not know. "You are not."
"But…"
"What you saw was a warp," said Shigaraki Yoichi, the First User. "A trap, left by my brother, for the one who defeated him."
How like All for One. How like him to destroy his own puppet to take down his conqueror, in one last act of spite.
"But if it was a warp, where did I go?"
"We don't know," said the Sixth User, another whose name he did not know. "We can't tell."
"All for One did not know," added Yoichi, mournfully. "He did not care to know."
"Does that mean…?"
"You won," said Shimura Nana, the Seventh User. "All for One is destroyed, and his stolen quirks along with him. You have done what none of us could do." She gave a small yet sad smile. "You have saved the world."
The words rang hollow. They had no meaning. This wasn't like some video game, ending in fanfare and joy. He had done the impossible, and it tasted like ash in his mouth.
"But I…how did I win?" he demanded, tears welling in his eyes. "I screwed up so many things! I was late to the battle! I couldn't save Tenko!" Nana's face winced a little, Izuku feeling the guilty swell within him like a monsoon. "I let Kacchan die! And All for One's old body..."
A cold dagger in his heart. A dagger of shame. How could he call himself a hero if he couldn't be there when his friends needed him? When All for One still lived in his old body? How could he be the saviour of the world, when he couldn't save his friend?
Save a single child...
"My brother's body is beginning to fail. Your comrades, Endeavor and Hawks, succeeded in their plan to destroy his life support Mask somehow." Yoichi murmured. "He is being to fade, I can feel it... why else would he desire a younger and stronger vessel?"
"He will die, and that will be the end of it." Banjo Daigoro, the Fifth User, shrugged. "Still kid, take the win, at the least."
"None of us can judge you," said Shinomori Hikage, the Fourth User. "We all failed, and I didn't even try. We all lost friends, and loved ones."
"You alone made good our mistakes," added Yoichi, his voice sad, his eyes full of the pain with which All for One had filled his life. "You alone redeemed our failures."
He gulped down a lump in his throat, as tears ran down his cheeks.
"Then…can I just die now?" he asked, his voice hoarse. "If it's over, can't I just go?"
He didn't want to live on, not like this. Not without his mother, and his friends. And how was he to explain about Kacchan anyway? What was he to say to Kacchan's parents?
He looked up, through tear-blurred eyes. The man who stood before him was not the hero he had revered, not All Might. It was Yagi Toshinori, the Eighth User, as he had seen him on that fateful day. Gaunt, lanky, drained, his eyes cast in shadow.
"All Might," he whispered, in spite of himself. "I…I let Kacchan die."
Toshinori's shade did not reply. It just stood there, regarding him with sad eyes.
"Bakugo made his own choice," said Nana gently. "He followed his own heart and made his own sacrifice. You could not have stopped him."
"I…I'm so tired…" He hung his head. "I just want to sleep. Forever."
A hand rested on his shoulder. A warm hand, like the hand of a father, the father he had barely known, and had found again in Yagi Toshinori.
He looked All Might in the eyes. The shade was smiling gently.
"It's too soon for you to die," said Nana. "You have carried our burden, and now your burden is laid down." She offered another saddened smile as she joined Toshinori in placing a hand upon his other shoulder. "You have your own life to live, and your own legend to make."
"But how?" he sniffed. "I can't even go home."
And he couldn't. He was being sent to another place, a place even these Vestiges, who had outlived death, did not know. Even if he survived, he might never return home.
He might never see them again. His mother, All Might, Aizawa-sensei, his friends.
Uraraka…the look in whose eyes he had only just begun to understand.
"You are a hero," Nana went on. "You have more claim to that title than anyone, even us. Wherever you go, wherever you end up, you will still be a hero. The only person who can take that away from you is yourself."
"Miss Shimura…"
He felt himself slipping away. The dark world around him was fading, as were the Vestiges.
"You must live on, Deku. The story of One for All isn't over yet."
Izuku tried to reach out towards her, as the Vestiges stood side by side and spoke as one.
"Awaken…Midoriya Izuku."
(X)
Light.
He blinked. There it was again. Light, low and gentle, streaming in from one side.
His eyes fluttered open. He was staring at…a ceiling.
He drew in a breath. His mind was coming back online, but he felt numb all over. He had been in such pain before, like nothing he could have imagined. But now it was gone.
He tried to move, but his limbs would not obey him. Had he finally ruined his body, as All Might feared that he would?
If so, it was no more than he deserved. A fitting fate, for a man who had saved the world, but could not save his friend. Perhaps it was a fair trade, his once-mighty body, for having defeated the Demon Lord of the world. One moment a mighty hero, the next an invalid.
He heard something beside him. He tried to turn his head, and his head moved, easing sideways to follow the sound.
It was a figure, kneeling on the floor beside his bed, humming to itself as it did something. He blinked, willing his eyes to focus.
It was a woman. A very tall woman, with very long white hair, clad in a white kosode and red hakama; secured around the waist by a nio-dasuki in white and purple, tied in an enormous bow around her back. She was kneeling down, her eyes fixed on a pestle, rolling back and forward within her hands, grinding something in a mortar bowl. .
She was quite tall; make that very tall. There were red horns reaching up from her temples, framed by her long white hair, which turned teal about halfway to the tips. Her eyes, still fixed on the pestle and mortar, were orange.
He opened his mouth to speak, but it would not obey him, and only a low groan came out. The woman paused, and turned her head to look at him.
"You're awake!"
Her eyes sparkled, and her smile lit up her face.
"That's good! I've just finished this tincture!"
She scooted over to the bed, almost bouncing with excitement. Izuku watched as she laid down the pestle, and scraped something from the bowl with a long pale finger, and began to lay it onto his arm. He looked down, and his stomach clenched at the red, swollen skin.
"Don't worry!" she declared confidently. "You'll be healed in no time!"
Once she was done laying the tincture, she began wrapping a bandage around his arm. She seemed so very happy, so energetic and enthusiastic, as if his being there was a joy, a cause for celebration.
It reminded him of Uraraka.
"Who...?" he croaked, the words degenerating into a gurgle.
"Don't talk now," she said, putting a steadying hand on his chin. "Your jaw is broken. I'll tie it shut for now."
She took a strip of bandage, looped it under his chin, and tied it atop his head, holding his mouth shut.
"There we go!" She smiled a smile that shone like the morning sun. "Don't worry little one, I'll take good care of you."
She laid a very large hand on his head. The skin was hard and calloused, the hand of a fighter. But her touch was warm all the same; a touch that made his sorrow ease.
"You look like you've taken quite a beating," she went on, removing her hand, and looking him over. "Was that your first big battle, little one?"
He wanted to speak. He wanted to tell her his name, and to ask for hers. He wanted to know who she was, and where they were.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," insisted the woman. "I've patched myself up often enough. And no one comes here. There's nothing whatsoever to worry about."
Izuku stared at her, unable to tear his eyes away.
"Oh, I forgot." The woman shifted to face him, hands on her knees. "I am Yamato, and this is my homeland. The island of Onigashima, in the Land of Wano."
So yeah, instead of waiting for 5-6 hours I decided to post Chapter1 anyway. When Izuku met Yamato. As you can see... No Recovery Girl means our boy is going to need time healing.
On Onigashima of all places.
And as you can see, we are going with 'Final battle' Izuku, who can control 45-50% of One for all currently, but with Fa Jin, can go to Faux100%.
Like I said, short chapters. Hope you glean on whats up in them.