Deku and little Tenko were certainly interesting, of that Amber was absolutely sure of.
It hadn't taken them long to build a friendship with one another, Tenko was a little ball of sunshine whenever he wasn't busy a nervous wreck around strangers, ever eager to point his older brother in a given direction and order him to do something like he was some kind of lumbering familiar or run his mouth with questions on this and that.
It was adorable, really, made her wonder if this was what it was like to have a younger sibling.
And then, of course, there was his older brother. Deku, as she had opted to call him, was much the same as Tenko but diluted in a sense. Where Tenko would run his mouth, Deku would mumble and ask measured questions. He was positive too, always smiling and infinitely yielding to whatever demand Little Tenko gave him. But he was tired and weary, she knew that, saw it in his eyes and body language every day. It wasn't physical exhaustion but something else entirely.
And she found that she could sympathize with him really.
Mental or emotional exhaustion was a bitch to deal with. Despite having lived on the run for over a year now, Amber still found herself missing Beacon, her friends, her teachers, and her old life, so much so that she'd cry herself to sleep sometimes. It wasn't often, at least not when compared to when she'd first begun 'travelling', but it was still an awful reminder that she yearned for a life that was taken away from her because of a war between 2 immortals who couldn't care less about who lived and died under their watch.
Salem was a monster, plain and simple, and so her character didn't hold any real importance in Amber's mind. How could it when she'd never personally met or spoken to the woman? Ozpin, however, or rather Ozma, was something worse than evil in her eyes.
A villain who truly believed himself a hero because of the duty he shouldered.
His intentions were good, she knew that, and his options were limited. Yet, his methods were questionable at best, downright callous at worst.
How many men and women had he sent to their deaths? How many people had he told about the truth behind the Grimm and its leader? How many of those people were truly honored after they so valiantly gave their lives away to a seemingly endless conflict?
They had desired to die heroes, to save the world and protect their families, to put an end to this Shadow War.
Yet what good had that done for them?
Summer Rose had gone missing some years ago, Raven Branwen became a paranoid bitch and was off doing Brothers knew what, Qrow was a bastard too invested and loyal to back out of the war and spent a majority of his time drinking himself to death, and Tai XiaoLong was a broken man who was barely holding it together if only for the sake of his daughters and who knows how long that was going to last.
At least, that's what she'd last heard of them anyway from rumors that floated around from gossiping Huntsmen and eavesdropping on Ozpin and Qrow, but all the same it horrified her.
To see a powerful Huntsman team reduced to a fractured mess after the revelation, it made her wonder how many others had gone through similar experiences.
Regardless of whether or not Ozpin intended for this to happen, it did not matter to her, what mattered was his lack of thinking of an alternative that didn't end up with him unknowingly using people as sacrificial pawns.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
Amber looked from the dark path ahead of them and towards Deku, who trekked alongside her, carrying a sleeping Tenko in his scarf sling.
It was night right now, and the two had decided to continue on their long journey, seeing as sleep was alluding them.
To anyone else, travelling at night in a forest with Grimm would have been idiotic at best, downright suicidal at worst, but between her Maiden powers and Deku's strength enhancement Semblance, which she need to ask the name of later, they were nigh unstoppable so long as an elder Grimm didn't cross their path.
"What makes you think I had something on my mind worth sharing?" She deflected quickly.
"Call it a gut feeling, but you're making a complicated expression, and usually people only make an expression like that when something's on their mind, so I thought that something was bothering you." He rambled an explanation that she listened to halfheartedly.
Right. She'd almost forgotten that, despite his normally gentle and relaxed demeanor, Deku was unnaturally observant about others if the times he guessed her mood accurately were anything to go by.
Didn't help, he sounded so full of concern either. It made her want to talk, confide in him really. He was like her. Strong but with no place to go, kind to a fault and entirely too caring of others.
"We've barely been together for two weeks, and you think you can already read me so easily?" She tried to redirect again.
He stayed silent for a few moments before.
"What if I told you a bit about my and Tenko's story?"
The question caught her off guard, such that she stumbled in her steps.
In truth, she knew next to nothing about the two, no less than that, they were both complete unknowns that didn't make a lick of sense to her.
They didn't know about Remnant, or Grimm, or Semblances, or dust, or anything really.
Now faced with the opportunity to understand the anomalies before her, she found herself sorely tempted.
"There are some things that are better left unknown." Still, she wouldn't give in just yet.
"There is," he agreed with a nod, "However, I'm someone who can't help but poke my nose into people's business."
She chuckled, "You sound troublesome."
"I am." He laughed awkwardly, "But being troublesome comes with being a hero."
"A hero, huh? Aren't you too old to think about something so silly?" She asked, curious.
"You'd be surprised." He answered, "But that's beside the point." He looked at her now and asked again, a smile on his face. "What's on your mind?'
Amber wanted to tell him that it was nothing to worry about, that he should just mind his business and leave her alone and yet... something in the way he said that sparked something in Amber and before she knew it her mouth was moving as if it had a mind of its own.
"Fine, I'll tell you... But first, you've got to tell me your story," she caved and Deku's smile grew for it.
Looking away from her, she watched as Deku looked ahead of them, eyes clouded as he dug up memories he'd probably kept buried.
"Before Tenko and I came here, we got caught up in a war," Amber felt her breath hitch at the frank admission, looking towards the sleeping boy with a concerned look.
Deku waved her off her concerns, "He doesn't remember anything of the war," That, was a relief. "Didn't mean he didn't suffer."
"Tenko's Qui-Semblance is powerful, really powerful." He says, gesturing towards the gloves on the boy's hands. "[Construct] allows him to turn anything he touches into dust and remake it however he wishes. But he never had control over the latter half, so he'd usually end up destroying anything he touched," He explained.
"I always did wonder why he wore those, they're really cute on him." Amber mused aloud, impressed with the boy's power and trying to inject some levity into the dark atmosphere.
It worked, if only a little.
Izuku chuckled, "Yeah, he was really excited to get them and be able to touch things without destroying them."
"The vill- Monster of human that had Tenko had seriously brainwashed him, turned him into a different person using manipulation, trauma, and Tenko's hatred. Made him the perfect killing machine," Amber found herself surprised at the venom that laced the boy's words when addressing the person who used Tenko.
That kind of hatred wasn't something you could just get as an outsider looking in. No, that kind of hatred was something personal.
"And where were you?"
His smile dimmed.
"I was on the team that stood against that monster."
It didn't take a genius to understand what implications his words held.
Amber felt sick when she'd digested his words, and felt even more so as the boy continued.
"It was a tough fight and I almost killed Tenko for the greater good," his smile never wavered, but didn't disappear, yet his eyes began to water. "I thought it would be the only way for me to save him."
"He was too far gone, too Inhuman. But I couldn't give up on him, not when I saw that behind that monster was a little boy who looked like he wanted somebody to save him!" His voice sounded raw as tears fell down his cheeks, his smile shrinking and taking on a sad edge.
Amber walked alongside him in silence and allowed the boy to silently cry to himself even as he continued to keep up his smile. She didn't blame him or think him lesser for it.
Ever since she'd met the two of them, they seemed close, and Little Tenko was such a bright and loving child. The fact that Deku had, at one point, been pushed to end the life of someone who so earnestly looked up to him now probably broke something inside him.
Guilt was an ugly and cruel thing, and right now, she was sure Deku was drowning in it.
"It was a miracle that I'd been able to reach him back then," Izuku said after taking a few deep breaths to compose himself, "It's stupid for feeling guilty about something like this, I know that, but every time he looks so happy I can't help but feel disgusted with myself for thinking that at one point I had no other choice but to kill him."
Amber took some time to digest all that she had heard and silently felt her respect for the green-haired boy go up.
Izuku Midoriya wasn't sure what to feel about Amber in the beginning.
She was a kind girl, pretty too.
He was a sucker for brunettes sue him.
And blame Ochaco while you were at it.
Didn't mean he trusted her right off the bat. She was an unknown and possibly an enemy, someone whom he would have never interacted with on his own.
In truth, had things been different, he would have flown off using [Float] the moment they ran into each other. Some random pretty lady in a forest was all kinds of suspicious, no matter how you sliced it.
That or he would have avoided her entirely had the circumstances been different..
But things weren't now, were they?
There was a reason why Izuku had decided to stick with Amber.
It wasn't for her power; he was strong enough as is without her, nor was it because the vestiges told him to; they had long since disappeared after One for All's purpose for existing had been complete.
No, it was because of Tenko.
His enemy, turned adopted little brother, was the one thing he had left of his previous world outside of his hero costume and the items on his person.
He had to protect him, keep him safe.
And Amber was the perfect medium for him to use to ensure that. So what if he fraternized with a villain? He could always just remove her from the picture later if she proved to be a threat. Until then, however, he was content with using the girl to get an understanding of this new and strange world he found himself in before splitting off at whatever civilization they found themselves in.
Was it out of character for him do this? Yes. But, necessity breeds innovation as they say.
It was a perfect plan.
And one that was ultimately doomed to fail, given the type of people he attracted.
He was a naturally empathetic person after all, a trait he had gotten from his mother that only strengthened as he went through life. It was why he had the capacity to see the good in others, whereas everybody else only saw their evil.
Not like that was a good thing all the time, but still, the point stood.
And he saw good in Amber, A lot of good.
She was a kind person, if somewhat rough around the edges, caring to a fault, and yet so too did she have a short fuse if her frustrated rants about the Grimm and her over-the-top attacks on the poor soulless creatures were anything to go by. In short, a person who was quick to extend you a helping hand and quicker still to punch you with that same limb.
It almost reminded him of kacchan in a way...
And Tenko couldn't get enough of it, and neither could he.
If he didn't end up befriending Amber because of Tenko, he was sure he would have done so of his own volition.
Not to mention that the last remaining Shimura absolutely adored the girl, even telling him on occasions that he saw her as a scary but kind older sister.
It took every ounce of willpower in Izuku's body not to die of a heart attack in those moments. Tenko was just so adorable!
However, Amber wasn't as... stable as his childhood friend had been. She was the confident and expressive kind of person who was unafraid to wear her heart on her sleeve if she believed you to be trustworthy.
So to see her so listless at times was a dead giveaway that something was wrong.
And so Izuku did what he did best.
Help people get things off their chest
He didn't expect it to become a trauma exchange, though.
...
On second thought, maybe he should have expected that given his track record, but hey, hindsight is, as they say, 20/20.
"Well, I guess it's my turn, huh? Can't just say nothing after you spilled you're guts like that," Amber said, looking away from him and at the broken moon. "To give you some context behind all this, the Grimm, those monsters we kept running into, have a leader who's immortal and is fighting against my teacher, Ozpin, a reincarnator."
"-or?" He asked, confused by the odd addition to the word at the end.
"Yeah, he's reincarnated several times." She admitted, much to Izuku's astonishment. "They've been fighting a Shadow war, so to speak. One that spans several centuries, Izuku absolutely twitched at hearing that. Whether or not Amber noticed was something he didn't care about right now.
After all, the way she was describing this 'Shadow War' was hitting far too close to home for comfort...
"Among a few others, my power was highly sought after as it allowed me absolute control over the elements," She gestured with a hand and a flower grew just as the walked by "Unlike normal semblances, the power of a maiden can be passed along by thinking about a person in your final moments."
"...That's... a rather morbid way to pass on your power." He said, disturbed, even if his feeling of kinship for the girl continued to grow as she recounted her woes.
Amber laughed, yet she didn't sound amused. "It really is, isn't it? That's why I can't let Ozpin or Salem find me." She continued, "If I'm caught, then I'm either dead or a weapon to be used and discarded, no in between."
Amber continued to stare at the broken Moon, taking comfort in its ethereal rays like she'd always done as a kid.
"So I ran away, didn't want to be part of that whole fiasco anymore, not when the assholes in charge can't even see me as a proper human being... But... My power is a necessity in the war, and the longer I stay on the run, the more people die because of my inaction."
"I'm not a bad person, y'know, I don't want to believe myself to be one, so is it bad that I don't want to be either? Maybe it might be a greedy way of thinking, but... Is it really so bad to want to live? to want something more than what others dictate you should have?"
Izuku didn't answer, couldn't, and Amber continued to look towards the moon, speaking as though she was talking to herself more than she was him.
"I'm a person too with my own wants and needs, I miss hanging out with my friends, I miss laughing with my classmates, I miss being able to live."
He heard her voice warble, heard how she tried to keep her voice and emotions stable, and heard her fail spectacularly.
"I just want to go home." She choked out with a sob.
In that instance, Izuku understood.
Amber was just like him, and yet, so too was she different.
He had seen it in her eyes when she'd looked at him, and saw the same thing in her eyes that he saw when he looked in at his own reflection.
She was tired, oh so very tired and barely holding on. Clinging on to hope because to let go meant giving up.
Yet, that's where their similarities ended and their differences began.
Izuku knew he was a weapon, no matter what others said or believed he knew in the grand scheme of things he was nothing more than a tool that would be used and discarded. Did that mean he didn't believe himself to be a hero? No. He was still a hero but the meaning behind his purpose was still the same.
That was the reality of his situation, of his purpose in life. To defeat evil and protect the innocent.
Was it an unhealthy way to live? Yes, it was, and he knew that.
Didn't mean he could change that.
Yoichi had acknowledged as much when he told All for One that a core part of him desired to save people.
In contrast, Amber summarily rejected such a reality.
She wanted to live for herself and die for herself.
Didn't want to just be some kind of puppet playing on invisible strings.
Where he accepted his role and marched on, she'd run away when reality proved to be too much to bear.
In short, she was him, for in her, he saw another path he could have walked had he abandoned the war against Him.
All because she still saw herself as human, something he'd long since abandoned, thanks to the environment he grew up in and the things he'd gone through.
"Izuku Midoriya is trying to take on the burden of his power, but he still has a lot to learn. He's just a normal high schooler!"
Ochaco's speech hadn't just affected everyone else, it had an impact on him as well.
It had allowed him to see that in his world, where he was nothing more than a weapon for the greater good, there were still others who viewed and cherished him as something more than a disposable asset.
"You're not in the wrong, Amber," Izuku said finally. Amber didn't look at him, still shedding tears, but she was listening nonetheless.
"You have every right to put the value of your life over others, to want to live a normal life free of burdens. But you can't have that kind of reality, can you? not with the power you wield"
The girl didn't answer.
Izuku was fine with that.
"So instead, why not find an alternative?"
Here at last, Amber looked to him, and he smiled at her.
"You feel guilty for putting your life above others, for having the power to help them but choosing not to do so because it would mean being tracked down by Ozpin or Salem."
"No shit Sherlock!" Amber snapped, her eyes alight with the power of the Fall Maiden. "You think I'm happy knowing that families I could have helped are being torn apart!? That, my friends, MY TEAM, are probably already six feet under because I wasn't there to help!? I hate this! HATE TRAVELLING AND FEARING FOR MY LIFE! AND MOST OF ALL! I HATE THAT I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!" She roared at him, her emotions hitting a peak she never thought she'd reach as her mouth continued to say the words buried deep within her heart.
"Then what if I tell you... that you can do something about it?"
Both teenagers stopped in their tracks, burning rubies staring into glowing emeralds.
Izuku's smile was genuine as he spoke, "You already avoid Ozpin, and I doubt you will see Salem as a potential Ally anytime soon. So what's stopping you from helping others and doing as you please?"
"That's..."
"A crazy idea?" Izuku cut her off with a laugh. He didn't know why he was laughing though, maybe something had gone wrong in his head when he'd ended up in this world or maybe sleep deprivation was finally getting to him and he was having fits of hysteria again. Who's to say really?
"It is, and completely impossible." Amber rebuked.
"It's only impossible until somebody does it." Izuku replied, "And I can tell you firsthand that I have done it before."
At this, Amber's eyes widened.
"You what!?"
"Any government moves and acts on behalf of the people." Izuku continued, ignoring Amber. "Especially in societies where people have powers that can be used to overthrow said government. People in power like to stay in power after all."
With each word that left the boy's lips, Amber felt something within her shift, an idea she'd only ever considered once and discarded as an impossibility or seeming more and more appealing by the second.
"So long as the people favor you, so will its leaders. They will hate you because they can't control you or monitor you. But they will see you less as a potential threat, a necessary evil."
"And what if they try to take me out? What if I can't handle something on my own and need their help?" Amber queried, that idea sprouting with new life in her mind as the words of the boy continued to sway her in a direction she'd have never taken otherwise.
He hesitated a moment but firmed his resolve, eyes shining with determination as he answered, "Then I'll be there to stop them and help shoulder your burdens."
"Why?" She couldn't help but ask.
"Do I need a reason to help someone?"
Amber couldn't help it.
She really couldn't.
She laughed. Laughed hard and loud.
Here was a perfect stranger offering her an alternative to her situation, but she never thought to consider it for obvious reasons.
It was stupid.
It was idiotic.
It was mind-numbingly idealistic.
So then why could she not even fathom the idea of turning it down?
'Because he offered you companionship.' For once in its life, the voice in her head spoke the truth.
Oh, but he offered so much more than just company!
A path ahead that wouldn't end in a roadblock.
A chance to help those she'd turned a blind eye to.
An opportunity to see the world that had been denied to her.
And most importantly of all, a way to keep her Freedom.
Even if this decision led to her untimely death, Amber found such an end far more satisfactory than the ones given to her before.
She made her decision then and there. Her hand snapped forward and grabbed the boy's own. She ignored his startled yelp and held his hand in a firm grip.
Tears were still streaming down and a crooked her face as she desperately clung to this new idea, fighting with the part of herself that screamed that it was a bad one, that he was giving her false hope, that he would use and abandon her like everyone else.
"You... are you being serious right? You promise that you'll stay with me even if it will make you an enemy of Remnant, of the World." She stressed, hoping beyond hope that his words were as genuine as they sounded to her in her fragile state.
Determination shone in his eyes as his slack grip tightened.
"If it means saving others and getting us a better life, then becoming the world's enemy seems like a small price to pay."
She didn't know what exactly the boy meant by 'us', if he was referring to his brother or her, but that didn't matter.
No, what mattered is that she'd finally found a comrade that would fight and die alongside her to achieve what he desired, they both desired.
A better life.
A/N: I finally remembered how to use line breaks.
Yea so this chapter was more or less establishing Izuku's and Amber's friend/relationship with each other and how they both see each other as well as how they think.
In all honesty, both Izuku and Amber are both characters that I feel would probably understand each other the best (Ruby and Jaune are a close second) since their stories and personalities are so similar.
That's if Fanfiction is to be believed anyway -_-
For anyone who has a problem with how Izuku's thought process is in this fic just remember:
1. How Izuku thinks and sees himself isn't something neither the anime nor the manga explores and all of his thoughts are about the wellbeing of others, so I took some creative liberty to make Izuku in this manga think in a similar fashion to how I imagined he would think when he was a vigilante.
2. Re-watch Mha and then try to tell me this Man does not see himself as a disposable Asset.
3. It's a FANFICTION emphasis on the 'FAN', I am NOT Kohei Horikoshi just some rando that like Mha so don't expect a perfect 1:1 Deku that thinks and acts like the real one.
Same goes with Rwby Characters.
AS always, hope your reading experience was enjoyable, criticism is always welcomed.
(Chapter edited)
CHARACTER AGES
IZUKU - 17
AMBER - 18
TENKO - 6