PURGATORY

Izuku looked upon the high stone walls of the Purgatory Villain Hospital, crested with layers of barbed wire making the supposed hospital look more like a prison or an insane asylum. It stood upon the outskirts of the warrens, at the end of a road that stretched out to one of the rivers that split the districts of the city and sitting in a strange no man's land where neither the glittering lights of the neon nor the destitution of the warrens could be fully found. But while not inside the warren proper, it when compared to where he lived or even the scum ridden neon district looked horrid in comparison. The change was subtle at first but was noticed by the trio the moment they crossed over the bridge; a little more trash on the streets, a little less traffic on the roads and of the cars that did pass by most never stopped even at a red light. No doubt fearing the residents would take it as an invitation. Its buildings were dilapidated with boards hastily nailed into shattered window frames and collapsed roofs, leaking sunlight into battered bedrooms and kitchens. And of the residents of this place he stole quick glances of groups of heteromorphs huddled in alley ways or picking through the buildings. And in each of their eyes he could feel a sense of anger at their presence here as if they had violated some unseen rule.

A self-fulfilling prophecy though it was, Izuku could see why this place had been built here; saved the police time with transporting criminals.

The gates of the hospital were thankfully still open; each bar as thick as his arm as the three young heroes to be strode forth on the cobblestone path to the front entrance, their surroundings filling them with a subtle yet pronounced anxiety.

"How did you say, you knew about this place" Mineta asked, wringing his hands as his eyes scanned their bleak surroundings.

"There's a program that members of my church are a part off. They volunteer here to try and proselytizing to the inmates before they head to prison, offering their souls the good news." Shiozaki answered slowly, picking her words as if each were held in a mouse trap; dealing with her anxiousness with her faith, as she once more returned to pensively rubbing her rosary.

The area between the front gates and the doors encompassed a large, wide clearing devoid of anything that could be used for cover. Two guard towers sat on either wall and a quick radar pulse revealed a guard in each, watching them silently from behind tinted reinforced glass with hands wrapped around the outlines of what could only be guns.

Reaching the entrance he was about to pull open the door, itself heavy and thick with wire glass when he heard a voice.

It was one he had never heard before and the words made every hair on the young boys body stand on end.

"The anointed arrives, the anointed arrives" It said, its whispers echoing on the wind, the exited yet fearful voice sounding as though it had come a dry rasping throat.

Izuku whipped his head around, his eyes wide, back straight and hands tensing into fists as he tried to find who it had been; but saw no one in the courtyard yet finding nothing but his friends looking at him as he had grown a second head.

"Izuku are you aright" Mineta asked, concern and confusion marking his words like graffiti as Midoriya continued to stare out into the empty courtyard.

"Didn't you hear that" he asked quickly, sending out a radar pulse to see if the person had some sort of invisibility quirk.

Mineta looked to Shiozaki and both continued to wear a look of confusion. "Hear what? We didn't hear anything."

Hearing that Izuku thought for a moment, he had heard a voice, he knew he had but they hadn't, they were right next to him yet they didn't. Could it have been one of the guards… using some sort of localized sound quirk that only people in a certain radius could here, or had it been telepathy. He knew of at least one Hero who had such a quirk, a member of the wild wild Pussycats named Mandalay.

Letting out one more radar pulse to make sure and again finding nothing but his friends and the guards who made no attempt to show any reaction to him he slowly turned away and back towards the door.

"What did you hear" Shiozaki asked, her emerald eyes that reminding him so much of his former ones.

"A voice" he answered, licking his lips in trepidation. "It said that the anointed arrives"

The creases on his friend's brows grew deeper in confusion, Mineta looking completely lost but Shiozaki's eyes glinting with recognition.

"Anointed" she repeated to herself, scoffing but not dismissively. "Whoever it was, they basically called you divinely sacred" she answered, her face now written in stanch rejection of the connotation and Izuku agreed. He had no wish to be viewed in such a way.

"Well just one more thing to worry about" he shrugged; chuckling lightly to relieve the anxiousness that welled inside him.

"Yep, nothing like a haunted hospital to liven up your day" Mineta joked, though he too he could tell was feeling that growing pit of uncertainty. Knowing he wasn't going to get any answers standing there, unless the voice decided to be less cryptic he she shook his head to try and dispel the thought from his mind as he pulled open the heavy metal doors, letting the afternoon light pierce the dim lobby. And as the trio stepped inside they were immediately alerted to the sound of a woman talking. As the door closed behind them, the only lights left for them were the dying, blue tinted LED lights, their glass housing filled with the remains of dead insects. And standing beneath one of those lights were two figures. The first sat behind even more reinforced glass; a large pig faced guard with a missing tusk looking on annoyed at the second figure. This figure was that of a women who stood straight, arms cross and if he could guess, held an agitated look.

"I have been waiting for hours to see my niece and I'm thoroughly done with it" she hissed, looming over the guard, who seemed less than worried by her.

"As I've told you ma'am, fresh arrives are not allowed visitors for the first forty-eight hours" he droned, as if he had been saying the same thing for hours. "If it's too much trouble you can always leave" he added with a small disgusting smile.

"Hana Imatsu" the woman said coldly, letting the name hang as the smiling guard turned to one of confusion and little bit of shock.

"Your little girl correct, cute little thing goes to… Aldera Junior High" she added slowly, letting the words sink into the guards mind as the look of surprise turned to one of growing anger.

"How do you…" he tried to bark but was cut off by the woman.

"She's had such a hard life, mother died of an overdose forced to live in such a horrid place. It would be a shame if her father went away as well for selling things he wasn't supposed to from the hospital to pay to go to such a nice school" she said, feigning concern in her voice.

The guard was furious now; red in the face as he stood up from his chair so fast it fell over with a hard bang, his large nostrils flaring and fogging the glass as he stared bloody murder at the woman.

Now it was his turn to hiss "I don't know why the fuck you think you are but…"

But again he was interrupted.

"I am the one who knows your secrets, I am the one who could turn your life to ash and can make certain you never see your little girl again unless you do as I say and let me see her" she finished, her last words barely above a whisper that stretched across the room like a spiders thread.

In that moment Izuku could see it, the fear in that man's eyes as if a lowly scavenger had gained the attention of something much much bigger than itself. Slowly he reached down and pressed a button on his desk.

"Iori, I need you to take Ms. Kizuki to room N2" he shuttered, trying to keep his voice even as the static of the intercom buzzed in the air.

"Are you sure, that's not…" a female voice on the other end tried to ask.

"Just to it" he growled between his teeth before taking his hand of the button.

"That wasn't so hard now was it" she intoned lightly, chuckling lightly as the small squeak of a sneaker finally pulled her attention away and the three of them. The three just stood there in silence, struck speechless and motionless by what they had walked into.

Izuku had felt his breath catch in his throat as the woman looked to them, her striking appearance only adding to the pressure of her gaze. Her skin was a greyish blue, her hair a light purple with dark, whiteless eyes and green iris's that almost seemed to glow in the dim light like twin lanterns.

But those features, as striking as they were, did seem strikingly familiar.

And as those eyes fell over Izuku himself they softened almost instantly as if the mask snapped back to its proper place like an elastic band as she gave the boy a warm smile. But whether or not the smile or the threats were the mask he could not tell.

"Izuku Midoriya; Mina has told me all about you" she said, walking towards the smooth, even steps and he had to supress the urge to step back as she reached out her hand.

"I've so wanted to meet you" she purred as a deep intensity grew behind her eyes.

Izuku didn't even realize he had lifted his hand until her hand has wrapped around his as she chuckled once more, seemingly amused by his behaviour as those piercing eyes surveyed his friends.

"And you both must be Minoru Mineta and Ibara Shiozaki" she beamed all the brighter, looking between the two of them as they tried to introduce themselves. As they finished another woman wearing a nurse uniform arrived from a large set of doors.

"Ms. Kizuki, you may see your niece now." The nurse said quickly and realizing exactly who they had been talking to.

Kizuki didn't look at the woman at first though, keeping her back to her as she instead continued to look at them.

"Good, come on kids. Let's go see her" she finally answered, turning back around and waving for them to follow her. The three of them were stunned by the sudden offer.

"I assume you came to see her, so what are you waiting for" she nearly joked as with one last look back, the woman named Kizuki began walking down the halls. The rest of the hospital was much the same as the lobby, with lights that seemed so dim yet blinding were you to look at them directly. The walls painted off green and peppered with holes from fists and scratches from claws. All adding more pressure to this place.

This place, it all felt…wrong.

With a click and a squeak the door he didn't even realize they were in front of was pulled open, revealing a girl that looked like Mina.

"Auntie Chitose!" the girl nearly squealed; her eyes going wide with excitement as her smile lit up the dim room like a lighthouse.

"I'm so happy to see you're okay" Chitose smiled back, striding towards her bedside to give the Mina a hug which she eagerly accepted. The three students however were still in the doorway, the change in appearance so great that even Izuku was forced to pull his mind away from all the strangeness of this place.

Her skin was now a patchwork of Pink and white, the closest thing for comparison would be if she had developed vitiligo overnight. Her once pink hair was now the colour of snow and was substantially longer than when they had last seen her; though it still couldn't compare to Tsu's.

But the changes continued on; her horns, neither her small antennae nor the large ones were there anymore and her black eyes were now perfectly white with irises of amber. From all appearances she looked normal, more normal than she ever had and all but confirming the thoughts that had been circling inside Izuku's head since the church.

The Ray sphere wasn't just giving powers it was taking them away. But why only some, he couldn't see any connection between all the conduits he knew. Tsuyu was a heteromorph, Bakugo was an emitter, Mina was an emitter with heteromorphic traits and he himself was quirkless. Was it truly all just random change or was there something he just wasn't seeing.

"Oh hey, you're all here to" Mina gasped in surprise pulling him from his thoughts. Finally releasing Kizuki from her squeeze the woman looking like she was taking in a much needed breathe as she collected herself.

"We wanted to make sure you were doing alright" Shiozaki calmly answered with a generous smile.

"Oh I'm fine. I just look like someone splattered paint on me" she tried to joke but even Izuku could see that her smile didn't reach her eyes as she looked down at her multicolored arms. Grabbing the covers she threw them off and attempted to stand.

"It might not be a good idea for you to stand miss" the nurse cautioned. "You've been through a lot and the tests we ran…"

"Were booooring" she interrupted, whining jokingly as she rolled her eyes and used her arm to keep herself steady.

Chitose then looked to the nurse and an unreadable expression played out across her face, far removed from its earlier happiness yet also not quite the look she had given the guard "What kind of tests did you run?"

"Blood tests, CT scans, MRI, X-rays" the nurse told her but was interrupted again by Mina, whose now showed, not a fearful plea but a tired wish.

"All the tests showed I was in the green" she told her before turning back to her aunt and stressing perhaps to hard "I just need to get some food."

In the end though her aunt nodded her head and the nurse relented.

"I'm guessing you want to know when you can take her home" the nurse asked and Chitose wordlessly nodded. "I'll check with the doctors, though she should be allowed to leave" the nurse finished before leaving the room.

With the nurse gone and the final click of the door closing behind her a tense silence flooded in. The once loud and cheery face was Mina grew unsure, her right thumb anxiously rubbing her left hand.

"Mina…do you remember what happened" Shiozaki asked as Mina looked to the ceiling, eyes closed and brow furrowed, trying to remember.

"I remember that monster, big as a garbage truck… it punched me through a wall" she began to say, her fists clenching in phantom pain as she remembered how that thing hit her.

"I remember the building, it was on fire and then… it collapsed and… and" she began to stutter, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Shiozaki walked up to her, resting a reassuring hand on the girls shoulder, her aunt doing the same. Izuku knew what she was feeling, remembering back to his first fight with the Reapers. That realization after the dust settles that you were so close to death.

"I'm sorry" she huffed, wiping the tears from her eyes. "After that everything went black. Next thing I remember is waking up here and the doctors running tests." she admitted as she looked to Shiozaki then to Mineta and then to him.

"What happened to me?"

"Tsuyu said you came out of the fire zone; you had… you killed two villains" Izuku began, remembering what she had told him and doing his best keep the more gory details out. He didn't wish to force any guilt onto her as in truth death was probably a mercy. "Then All Might showed up, you fought him and he knocked you out."

Still her eyes went wide though; a small inhale of breath as she lifted a hand to her mouth, her mind coming to grips with what she had done. She looked to Chitose, a look of fear in her eyes.

"It's okay Mina" you were just defending yourself, no one is blaming you" She said supportively even as she looked at her hands in utter disbelief at being capable of doing something like that.

"H…how" she stuttered out.

"You transformed Mina" Mineta told her, his voice doings its best to keep her calm.

It did not work.

"Transformed, what do you mean I transformed! I wake up in a hospital bed and you're telling me I killed people!" she cried out; her eyes widening, her breaths quickening, her voice deepening?

Oh no.

"Mina you need to calm down" Izuku urged, trying to keep his voice from betraying his sudden fear. If she transformed here there would be hell to pay.

"Don't tell me to calm down. You didn't kill anyone" she said, nearly hyperventilating as Chitose and Shiozaki backed away as she began to grow. It was as terrifying as it was intriguing, his animal brain telling him to run clashing with his power obsession telling to take notes.

I n the end he chose to both as he made note of her changes as he slowly back away.

He watched as her muscles began to expand; the gown that she was once swimming in was now straining against her arms. Her eyes began to blacken once more and her canine teeth grew into finger sized daggers. Steam escaped her mouth with every breath as she ran black clawed fingers through her hair, her eyes flickering between man and beast.

"Mina look at me" Chitose spoke, soft but even as Mina now towered over them, she was still not as big as she was at the USJ but still big enough to flatten her aunt like a grape. Izuku let a few arcs of electricity bounce between his fingers and he could even Shiozaki beginning to cover her arms in bark. He even saw Mineta slowly reach up to his grasp one of his hair balls. Even with all three of them he didn't like their odds.

Chitose however stopped them with a raised hand, not taking her eyes of Mina for even a second, evoking the look of a parent who had just found their toddler pointing a loaded gun at them.

"Mina you're scaring your friends." She whispered as Mina turned and looked at them, her steps vibrating up their legs. Her eyes glowed like twin eclipses and Izuku felt the hairs on his body stand on end. For a moment as was still and silent in that hospital room before her eyes widened with look of sudden realization.

"I…I" she repeated as she suddenly seemed to realize how large she had gotten, looking down at her massive frame and taloned hands. It was then that she turned and looked to a small mirror that hung from the wall, her eyes growing to the size of saucers as she became almost transfixed; stepping towards it with steps that rattled its frame as she began to touch her face, picking and prodding at it like it as if it were some foreign, alien thing.

"What the fuck" she wheezed out as she began to shrink back down to size, the monster sinking back beneath her flesh and bone until only the girl remained.

She turned around and Izuku had never seen an expression of such sheer confusion and horror in his entire life. It was beyond shocking, to see the girl that was never without a smug and a smug remark reduced to this.

"How is this possible?"

"It was the blast Mina. It gave me my quirk" he answered, lifting up his arm and wreathing it electricity.

"It happened to me too" Shiozaki added, showing her bark covered arm. "It gave me a second quirk but it took my first one"

Her eyes cast back down to her hands, her lips miming the last of Shiozaki's words before they saw her flex her arm and a small pool of acid formed in her palm.

Instead of relief she was met with pain as she yelped like a struck dog as her acid burned the normal skin on her palm. She grit her teeth as she reflexively shook the acid off her hand, letting the caustic droplets splash across the ground in hissing furrows.

Chitose reacted near instantly, rushing to her nieces side, grabbing her hand and was ready to rush her to the washroom to wash the acid off. But instead of blackened skin, blisters or even simply irritated skin she found nothing. The damage the acid had inflicted was healed as quickly as it had happened.

As the reality set in the door suddenly opened, revealing the nurse and a middle aged man with a creased brow hollow eyes. But both his and the nurses eyes went wide when they saw Mina in her current state.

"It's okay, she just got a little scared" Chitose hurriedly explained, rising a hand to try and assuage their fear.

The pair of them remained silent for a couple more seconds before the doctor finally regained his wits, visibly shaking them back into his head.

"Of course, my name is Dr. Shino; I've been the one taking care of Ms. Ashido" he explained, getting closer to them and craning his neck to look Mina in the eye. "You are free to go but I would suggest now that you're… in your current state that we run some further tests." he explained.

"You can come with her and it will be quick, just enough to compare to her…normal form" he reassured, looking both to Chitose and Mina.

"…only if she's okay with it" Chitose eventually replied, looking to her niece as she slowly nodded her head.

"If you three would please come with me" the nurse asked, frustrating the three of them but they understood, whatever room they going into they would just get in the way.

As all of them left the room, giving Mina some last words of encouragement and being told to wait out in the lobby Shiozaki turned to the nurse and asked her where the prayer room was.

"Down the way we came, but take a left once you reach them main hallway." The nurse explained as the two groups parted.

"Well that could have been bad" Mineta said, being the first to break the three way silence.

"It's good that she's being taken care of, doubly so in such a place as this" Shiozaki agreed' though Mineta chuckled in response.

"I was thinking more in that fact we didn't get squished when she started freaking out."

"Well if we did, it would have been fitting end for you grape man" Izuku joked, trying his hand at letting humour relax him.

"Haha" Mineta said sarcastically, flipping Izuku the bird.

"Her new form grants her a terrifying strength; I thank God that her aunt was here. Otherwise we would not have lasted long" Shiozaki added.

"Why were you asking for the prayer room anyway" Mineta questioned as they turned a corner.

"He comes, Child of Fate, deliverer of death" it stopped him in his tracks as a pressure began to form around his head, like wearing a hat two sizes too small. But now the voice had something it hadn't before.

Direction; and he turned his head to a set of doors he hadn't seen on the walk to her room as well as the plaque that stood above them.

-Psyche ward-

"Hey Izuku you good?" Minoru questioned, stopping mid stride.

"The voice, it's coming from their" he said, pointing a single finger towards the door and Mineta could immediately see the look in Izuku's eye.

"Don't tell me you're thinking what I think you're thinking" he warned anxiously but Izuku was still feeling that pressure on his head.

"We are in a villain hospital man; it's probably a villain trying to body snatch you or something. And what if someone catches you" he whispered, looking up and down the hallway for fear that someone was watching.

"I'll tell them I got lost looking for the bathroom. I'll meet you guys back in the lobby" he whispered back, already taking steps towards the door.

"Izuku, Izuku!" Mineta said, straining his voice while trying to keep his voice low but it was no use, Izuku pushing the doors open.

As the door swung behind him he felt a sort of pull, as though someone had hooked his shirt and was tugging him along. The psyche ward held a more eerie atmosphere than even the rest of the hospital, the squeak of his sneakers echoing around him, made even louder by the apparent stillness in the air.

In fact the only sounds he could hear was the constant hum of the fluorescent lights that lay above and his own breathing as he began his walk, letting that pull guide him.

He understood what he was doing was incredibly risky, the image Mineta's words evoked of some mad villain trying to take over his body was not out of the question. But the last words it had spoken had forced his hand.

"Deliverer of death"

Whoever this voice belonged to it knew something about that night, it had to. Or at least that was what he dared to hope. But perhaps this voice was only playing him, being somehow capable of reading his mind as well as speak into it.

He shook his head free of such thoughts, if that came to pass he would deal with it but the very chance he could learn something was something he could not pass up.

The more he walked the harder the pull felt and the tighter the squeeze he felt on his head. So hard in face that as he nursed his head in his hand he almost didn't notice the utter lack of…everyone. No nurses, no doctors either and every padded cell he passed by was empty.

The squeeze was becoming unbearable now, him clutching at his head and using the wall for support.

"Stop" he hissed to the voice and as his head passed a small glass window, the pain disappeared. It was a welcome relief and he let out a relieved breath as out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of someone, the first someone.

He was staring at the wall and it was a he, sitting with his back was turned to him. He was wrapped in a typical straightjacket, what little hair he had left were nothing but long oily strands, like molding seaweed. And even as Izuku stared at him he could see no movement, not even small adjustments in such a restricting thing or even the steady rise and fall of his shoulders with each breath.

"So you come" he man said, not through his lungs, through the air and muffled by glass and metal, but in his mind as before.

"Who are you" Izuku questioned, his heart beginning to pound in his chest, his hands growing sweaty.

The man refused to answer for a long moment before finally speaking.

"Just a star gazer" he whispered, like blowing through the trunk of a hollow tree. "I watch and they speak. You'd watch to if you could."

"You called me the deliverer of death" Izuku affirmed, trying to understand exactly what felt so wrong about this man, besides the fact he was clearly insane.

"I did not, the stars did and they only speak as it truly is. You sound troubled; why, does the wolf mourn the sheep, does the hawk recoil at its name" the lunatic replied, wearing down Izuku's quickly fraying patience, being led around this creepy haunted hospital and forced to play twenty questions with a madman.

"Just tell me what you…" he raised his voice but didn't get to finish his sentence as the old man was in front of him now, his face less than an inch from the glass. Had he blinked, there had been nothing, no movement, no steps, no sound. And his eyes; wide like saucers and white as the moon… was he blind?

No, no he wasn't blind he couldn't be. He wasn't just looking in his direction he was looking right at him!

"Harken to these words Izuku Midoriya, fate dances around you like moths dancing before the flame, leaving long shadows upon the wall. Before you lay a path that stretches to the end of everything; Gotterdammerung, the twilight of the gods shall soon be upon us, the bodies will pile higher than the tallest mountains; the blood shall drown the world."

"So laugh and dance naked in the streets and be merry beneath the stars for your wish has finally come true."

"So wail, slit her throat and throw yourself into the sea and let its darkness take you from the stars, it would be a kinder end."

AUTHORS NOTES

Hey everyone, sorry for the long absence, went through some personal stuff that left me will little time to write but i hope these 2 chapters work as an apology. I'll be doing my best to get back to my usual upload schedule.

P.S

happy belated Christmas and new years.