An eerie creak sounded through the dark expanse Izuku had managed to find himself above. The darkness under the rickety floorboard he was standing on did not help with the rapid beating of his heart… At times like this, Izuku wondered why this city was so fucked up. He had headed around the bottom of the tower and fell about ten feet onto a stone boulder, which cracked most of his ribs and broke three. But a blood vial and a snack fixed him up enough to explore the new area… And then he fell off the wood that made the bridge to the other side of the building the moment he entered the room. He did land on another semi-broken scaffolding, but he broke a leg and bruised his hip bone.
Then that wood gave out.
Really he was going to need to talk to the architects of Yharnham with all the stone buildings. Why use wood that broke so regularly for stairs and floors?
Thankfully it was his final fall, breaking his leg, again, on the more sturdy platform and leaning against the door… with no way to get to other than fall because of the sheer lack of floor in this tower. So when Izuku's leg finally healed enough to stand and open the door, he did.
But what awaited him caused Izuku's breath to hitch. It was The Hunter's Dream… except not. The expanses of flowers. The ones that the Doll and the little messengers took so much of. Were wilted and dying. Their silvery, soft petals dried and wilted. The tombstones were caked in dust, and the stones he walked on cracked under his weight. It was not right.
The place where he bought materials from the messengers held only a chest with a set of the Doll's clothes inside. And the tombstone the Doll took such care of had an old bone placed on it. He took both and gave them to the messengers. Whatever the items meant and why they were here. He would need to ask Gerhman.
The interior of the Hunters Workshop, the place he had spent the last months in. Was, cluttered with old dusty books, most destroyed beyond repair. But some he had seen in the Dream when he first got there… In the corner, sitting still, was the Doll, only it did not move. No matter how much he prompted it too. It sat still, its porcelain skin stiff and lifeless. It was like staring at a corpse. It looked exactly like her. While the dream Doll's face could emote and her eyes held a little shine of mischief when she told him stories the other hunters once told her. The body's glass eyes only seemed to stare lifelessly at him.
It was not the Dream. It had to be the original workshop. The one Gerhman used to teach the first hunters how to kill their prey efficiently. Where the hunt officially began. But why was it hidden away? Lost under the new workshop, buried under the charred floorboards to the building its entrance was held in. He had fallen… what, sixty feet to get to the doorway? A height fatal without quick response.
In a cabinet, an ornate hair clip sat, dusty and forgotten… Written in smudged paint was a name; was it the Doll's name? Was it the person who she was made in the likeness of? He pocketed it. The Doll always seemed to be moving hair out of her face anyway she could use it.
On one of the workshop tables, a thick fleshy black piece of meat sat in an ornate bowl. It was slimy to the touch, much like cold blood dew, and hidden underneath the fatty tissue were clots of eyes that stared blankly out at Izuku. Something told him he would need it, and as much as he wanted nothing more than to throw it away from him. He took it.
—
After attempting to find a safe way down the vertical shaft of broken flooring and wood beams, Izuku had made it to the bottom, of course not without a couple deaths here and there but death meant progress… No matter how scary falling through darkness was. Now saying the bottom level was safe was a fucking lie. There was a god damn fire beast! It stood like… two people tall and shot fire everywhere. It also guarded the only exit out of the pit Izuku had climbed himself into. The battle itself did not take all that long. After nearly getting his hair burned… and getting a couple second-degree burns, the beast fell with a great thud. Izuku did get another stone rune from its corpse.
The area outside of the tower Izuku had climbed down was… confusing. It was a small town. It was either where people that worked in the hunter's workshop used to live... Or it had some other purpose that Izuku could not comprehend.
In the town, there were a couple members of the hunting mob. A few of the infected dogs... they were really starting to get on Izuku's nerves… A few carrion crows and some new enemies. One of them had a… large bag? They were somewhere near eight feet tall at a glance and held a giant bag over their shoulder, kinda like Santa. Izuku had the jump on the only one in the small village area. But as he sliced through the lanky monster's limbs, it seemed to go into a sort of battle frenzy; its swings with the massive sack became faster and harder to predict… one hit probably would have killed Izuku easily. On the body of the monster was one of the more rare bloodstones that Izuku had found. A stone fused with another during the crystallization process. Much more precious than normal bloodstones, and the pool of blood had only granted him a couple handfuls in all.
Now the second enemy was also pretty wacky, at the end of one of the small streets. Next to a well and looking at a corpse and twitching in place was a very pale creature. Its skin was so pale it seemed to glow a frosty blue it wore ragged robes filled with holes. Not wanting to be a victim to whatever debauchery the monster had, Izuku attacked it from behind. Using his cane as a spear, Izuku slammed the monster's body against the wall it stood near. It flailed violently, trying to push the young hunter away but was quickly silenced with a knife piercing its head.
Checking over the beast, Izuku found where a face should have been was a set of tentacles, where the suction cups should have been was sharp barbs, the rest of the head was flat, but on top of the head was a soft layer of skin, that when removed allowed a long tentacle to emerge. This specific one with a drill-like set of teeth and a mouth… It could easily dig through a skull to get to the brain.
After double-checking the small alcove of houses, Izuku headed to the only way out he had found so far. An elevator, now he had put off his thoughts long enough. How the hell do they have elevators that move so fast without them breaking? Like the one in Central Yharnam was acceptable because it went like twenty feet. But the one he had just boarded ascended at least one hundred feet in seconds! Another reason to yell at the architects of this god damn city.
Once the elevator finished its ascent, somehow Izuku was not launched upward due to the sheer momentum of the elevator… once again a mystery. Izuku's entire mental conversation was derailed. He was on the other side of one of the gates in the Cathedral ward. One of the ones he couldn't for the life of himself figure out how to get around… WHAT THE HELL WAS YHARNAM'S LAYOUT?
—
Opening all three gates in Cathedral ward? A cakewalk. Convincing a whore who was fearing for her life to go to the chapel for safety? Easy. Convincing some conniving asshole that thought he was lying about everything? It was like trying to work with an alternate work Katsuki. Like the asshole did not believe the work he said! "The chapel is safe!" Why else would he even tell the asshole to go there?
So ya, he did tell him to head to the clinic Izuku woke up in. If he died… it would weigh on Izuku but not NEARLY as much as the conversation itself was. The guy both poked at the fact that he was a child... And that he was an outsider…. Seriously why is all of Yharnam xenophobic? Only like, the disfigured dweller, Eileen, Alfred, Guilbert, the Doll and Gerhman, and now the whore lady… Arianna, if he remembered correctly. He could not really remember after the sheer amount of flirting she had in her… NOT TO MENTION THE INNUENDOS! She was worse than when Izuku met Midnight…
God, now he had two ladies flirting with him burned into his memories… his face will be red forever. This was the end for him, Izuku Midoriya hunter extraordinaire killed by embarrassment. Hell, when he gets home, he could just put that down as his quirk. Embarrassment whenever the subject thinks about something even mildly sexual their head becomes a red space heater… Hell, it could even work.
Did Izuku sit in a dirty alleyway for nearly an hour to stop his face from blushing? Yes. Did he finish searching through all of the cathedral wards? After a while, yes.
He had fought another one of those brain-sucking pale things and ran into a large graveyard absolutely filled with cathedral giants. Specifical the nearly two-story-tall ones with the giant axes, sure there were only three but, when all three of them were chasing Izuku, it felt like there was a small army of them.
As much as Izuku wanted to explore the big cathedral sitting on top of the highest staircase Izuku had ever seen, he had learned enough about Yharnam to know it was likely death waiting inside. So he headed back to the Chapel he had sent all the survivors to. Izuku's legs ached in pain. He had been flung with by one of the giants. But it seemed a bit too trivial to use a vial on.
However, a familiar… beak? Caught Izuku's attention, standing just outside the side exit from the Chapel was Eileen! Izuku's aching legs moved faster to speak with one of the only people alive who was kind to him in Yharnam.
"E-Eileen! H-Hi how have you been?"
"Oh! Didn't think I'd see you again so soon, young hunter." Her voice sounded… tired? "I've been good. But I must warn you, do not go to the tomb below this chapel. An… old friend Henryk has gone mad." She let out a sigh, shoulders sinking down lightly, "And he's my mark."
"A-Are you sure? I-If he's gone mad… wouldn't you need help? A-And you s-sound tired! Y-you should take a-a nap or something!"
"Oh shush you! I may be tired… but he would not be all that tough of a fight. Henryk's even older than me!" She spoke confidently, her voice kinda like Recovery Girls from the conference a week before he… But her entire body seemed weighed down, the hunch in her back and shoulders telling him that she was REALLY tired. If he took out the target first, then she could rest a little longer.
"Oh! O-Okay, I guess I'll talk to you in a while? I, uhh, need to do some... hunting things." With a quick hop from his position, Izuku headed into Oedon Chapel. And straight down the staircase into the tomb.
It did not take long to make it to the tomb's upper area. Looking down at the clusters of tombstones and random cobblestones scattered across the soil of the graveyard. Izuku spotted the 'target'. In a set of really yellow hunters garbs was a… well, a hunter if Izuku had to guess. In Henryk's left hand was a pistol much like Izuku's old one and a saw cleaver in the other.
Izuku took aim from on top of the stone walkway high above Henryk. It was an easily defensible position. The only way up was the staircase on Izuku's left. And that was a distance from Henryk. Aiming the clunky pistol carefully, Izuku shot. A surprised grunt of pain filled the air as the older hunter spun on his heel to face his attacker, quickly raising his gun in response to being shot; Only for another bullet to pierce him before he could pull the trigger. Henryk, however, was an old hunter of every account, pushing through the pain and firing into Izuku's leg.
Just as a vial bit into Izuku's leg to forcefully heal the bullet out, a third party entered the battle. Just as Henryk made the final distance up the stairs of the tomb, aiming to fire at Izuku again. A pair of twin daggers flashed into his side, as well as their wielder taking advantage of the momentary lapse in concentration to wrench the blades out and stabbing in for another quick hit.
Just as the second stab went into Henryk from the twin daggers wielded by Eileen, he responded in kind. Using his entire body to twist around Eileen, placing her between him and Izuku. He struck with his cleaver. A spatter of blood soaked into the dry stones as Eileen stumbled back, pulling a vial of her own to stop the bleeding. But she was not fast enough the cleaver came in for another deep cut, only to be shot off course. The bloodied cleaver dug into the stone wall next to Henryk as a second and third shot were placed in his arm.
Izuku saw the blood fall from Eileen and wanted nothing more than to rip the old hunter's limbs off. But cutting him apart would have to do. After he shot the third shot and a small prayer, Izuku ran at the old bastard, his cane glowing brightly in joy at its wielder's bloodlust. By the first strike with Izuku's cane, Henryk had dug his cleaver from the old stone, but every attempted attack was stopped by the cane-sword finding its mark in the old man's joints. Only for an even sharper pair of blades to find their way into his back.
While Izuku was distracting Henryk, Eileen had made her way around the two and struck. A massive spray of blood coated Izuku as twin daggers pierced through Henryk's heart and out his chest.
—
Izuku's day had been hell. He probably said something in his mumbling or… or was it just the mumbling itself that made Kachaan mad? It was hard to tell. Izuku was up late the night before listening to old pre-quirk music, which made his situational awareness terrible when it came to his mumbling.
So here he was, stumbling down the dirty alleyway Kachaan had left him in, the song that he found and liked quite a bit playing in his head.
"I see the crystal raindrops fall
And the beauty of it all
Is when the sun comes shining through
To make those rainbows in my mind
When I think of you sometime
And I wanna spend some time with you."
It was hard for Izuku to not get his hopes up when he listened to music. Some songs made him hope to meet someone who cared about him. Some songs reminded him that… that it was likely impossible.
"Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us
(Just the two of us)
Just the two of us
Building castles in the sky
Just the two of us
You and I."
Izuku had never heard of soul music before. Perhaps it was lost in pre-quirk genre's or perhaps it was only recently lost. It hardly mattered. Putting one foot in front of the other the massive burn screamed in agony, a small trickle of blood making itself known.
"We look for love, no time for tears
Wasted water's all that is
And it don't make no flowers grow
Good things might come to those who wait
Not for those who wait too late
We gotta go for all we know."
Izuku was a little light-headed. He forgot how long he had sat still after Kachaan finished his daily beating, but it was long enough for his stomach to yell and scream in hunger and a large puddle of blood to be left where he originally sat. Hopefully, the rain would clear the blood.
Izuku remembered when Kachaan promised to be a hero with him. When they planned to take the world by storm, Kachaan's explosions and Izuku's quirk… a quirk that never came.
But when his dad left, when his mom just… stopped loving him. When Kachaan gave up on him and when his calls for help were forgotten, Izuku had music.
"Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us
(Just the two of us)
Just the two of us
Building them castles in the sky
Just the two of us
You and I
I hear the crystal raindrops fall
On the window down the hall
And it becomes the morning dew
And darling when the morning comes
And I see the morning sun
I wanna be the one with you
Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us
(Just the two of us)
Just the two of us
Building big castles way on high
Just the two of us
You and I
Just the two of us
(We can make it, just the two of us)
Let's get it together baby (yeah)
(Just the two of us)
Just the two of us
(We can make it, just the two of us)
(Just the two of us)
(We can make it, just the two of us)
(Just the two of us)
(We can make it, just the two of us)
(Just the two of us)
(We can make it, just the two of us)
(Just the two of us)
(We can make it, just the two of us)
(Just the two of us)."
The quiet humming echoed through the empty alleyways, those who looked turned away quickly from the scene. A nearly twelve-year-old Izuku stumbled along the maze of alleyways, stained in his own blood with a meager smile on his face. Perhaps he was broke way before Yharnam.
When he arrived home, plastered in semi-dry blood and caked in dirt, a flash of memory hit him. Coming home with a bruise on his knee with hot tears cascading down his cheek as Kachaan led him to his mom. Small pinprick tears in kachaan's eyes out of the concern and the small fond smile on his mom's face… Perhaps it was because in the kitchen with, a look of concern was his mom. But she did not stop him from trudging his way into the bathroom. She did not scoop him up in her arms and tell him that everything would be okay.
But that was fine. Izuku had survived for more than four years without his mom helping with his cuts and bruises… even though the size of the burn was daunting, it was not Izuku's worst burn. It was not the first time and, it would not be the last time she saw him like this.
The shower stung as Izuku rinsed out the burns and cuts, lathering lightly with soap to hopefully help his wounds. Taking a breath, Izuku poured the medical alcohol on the almost eleven-inch wide burn on his back.
Inko would not be able to sleep after the screams from the bathroom. And Izuku would not be able to sleep because of the pain. But he went to school the next day... he always did.
—
Nedzu was a creature of pettiness and revenge. When the board refused to give him funding to increase the school defenses twofold, he authorized a defense test in front of the media. When all his teachers broke into UA. With little to no problem and the media recorded the whole thing. Well, he got more funding than he asked for.
When they decided to make All Might the Heroic's teacher for the next school year, well… Let's just say he managed to squeeze out a raise for all his teachers. Much to the delight of Midnight and Present Mic.
But when they refused to let in Young Midoriya a year early? Well, he was pissed. Most students that move up a grade into UA do not even have half of Midoriya's scores. They usually flop halfway through the first two months and get moved back to a whole lower grade level. The only student he had the hopes of teaching and, poof! Now he needs to wait an entire year to teach a kid world domination. Not to mention that he had to fight for years to allow quirkless children to apply to the heroics and support courses, and now THIS!
But Nedzu was also a patient creature. So what if he already bugged the boards, homes, clothes, favorite restaurants, and vehicles. Who knew what kind of… quirk-est things would be said behind closed doors? Blackmail was Nedzu's personal favorite weapon. And anyone worth their salt knew that.
And if he was filing a myriad of lawsuits against young Izuku's school after hacking into their security systems... Well, who could blame him? Not like the poor kid's mom would do it.
—
Eyyy! It's me! Hi! Sadly this is not as long as I would have hoped but I got what I wanted out of the chapter! Sorry, it took so long, I finished another couple of chapters of the hollow hero rewrite and hopefully will be uploading that soon as well as a few new chapters of stuff for it!
I kinda summarized Cathedral Ward as it is in my opinion the most boring area in the game, other than the Oedon Chapel because of NPC's. We will see where Izuku goes next with hopefully a few more glimpses into the past in the next chapter.
Once again if you see anything I missed in my editing of this chapter tell me! This one was kinda filler because the real shit is starting soon. You have been warned!
Hopefully, the next chap will be up in the middle of next month at the latest!
Oh! And the song is: Just the Two of Us, by Grover Washington Jr