Chapter Text
For Midoriya Izuku middle school was a hopeful thing, he lies awake at night and imagines that maybe it'll be different than his current situation, maybe people wouldn't use him as the scapegoat anymore, maybe, despite his quirkless status, he would be acknowledged as human. Unfortunately, this isn't middle school yet as the sound of Kacchan’s yelling reminds him.
“Damnit Deku, didnt I tell you to stop with those weird notebooks? Hah?” The blonde haired boy currently pinning Izuku to the wall shouted, his permanent volume level, "Don't act like you weren't I saw you almost be late to class because you stopped to watch that villain fight.”
“Kacchan- I’m sorry, I’ll stop, just let me go please…” Izuku pleaded, he didn't know how much longer he could keep hiding these injuries from his mom. As Izuku attempted to get the stronger, tougher, better boy off him. When suddenly he fell backwards, as if the wall magically disappeared behind him and he saw Bakugou falling with him as well. As soon as Izuku hits the ground he’s scrambling to his feet, a skill he picked up from the constant tripping in the hallways, and looking around. They're in a grassy field with a few trees around but not enough to blot out the sun. Bakugou stands up not much later, brushing himself off and glancing around before turning to glare at Izuku.
“Deku, what the hell did you do?” He demanded stomping towards Izuku.
“Kacchan I- I didn't do anything, honest-” Bakugou finally reached Izuku and cut him off by hauling Izuku up by his uniform collar.
“Like hell you didn't! There was nobody else around and it's not like I did, I wouldn't have sent you here with me if I did” Bakugou retorted. Suddenly there was a shift in the air and Izuku could see behind Bakugou a tear in the air appear, many eyes- too many to count stared back at him before a tall lady in a weird outfit stepped out.
“Hello children, you're not supposed to be here.” She announced rather than introducing herself, Izuku yelped when Bakugou suddenly released him to use the strongest explosion he could muster only to see the tall lady completely unfazed by it. “Explosions? How interesting…” She mutters to herself while analyzing Bakugou's hand, which she held by the wrist.
“Kacchan! You can't just attack strangers!” Izuku scrambled to his feet to check on both the tall lady and his friend.
“Shut up Deku! Did you see that eyeball thing? Shes definitely a villain.” Bakugou responded, seeming confident in himself and Izuku looked back at the tall lady to try and see if he recognized her, the portal seemed vaguely familiar in his mind when it clicked.
“You’re the gap yokai!” He exclaimed, too caught up in his excitement to notice the tall lady’s expression of surprise that crossed her face for just a moment. “I’ve read stories about you, although I didn't think you were real…”
The tall lady turns to Izuku, “Oh? It has been some time since I've been recognized by that title, I am Yukari. Whats your name child?” The tall lady- Yukari- asked Izuku.
“Uhm I-I’m Midoriya Izuku and this is Kacch- I mean- Bakugou Katsuki.” Izuku introduced the two, trying to keep his voice even and preventing stutters, ignoring Bakugou's protests to not give names out to villains and to not speak on his behalf. “Uhm Miss- Miss Yukari where exactly are we- I mean I don't think that was you as I didn't see a portal nor was it a gradual opening like what you did with the one that brought you here…”
Yukari nods “Good thinking, I didn't bring you here. Instead, what happened was a rare instance where a person slips through to this place, this place being Gensokyo. Come now, I can take you back to your parents, I'm sure they’re concerned. Where do you two live?”
Izuku goes to answer before a caramel-scented hand is slammed over his mouth and Bakugou shouts “We are not giving our address to villains! We can take a train home.” Izuku notices Yukari does not appear amused however she does not frown either.
“Alright then, if you refuse to give me your address could you give me the nearest train station to your homes? That way I won't know the exact location and it'll reduce the length of the walk.” Yukari compromises and Izuku manages to get out Mustafu before the hand is silencing him once more with a hiss of deku “Ah, Mustafu train station, understood.” A portal appears beside Yukari, the eyes of it split between staring at Izuku and staring at Bakugou. “This will take you there.” Before Izuku or Bakugou can protest she's ushering them inside and they both hit concrete of an alleyway, the train station visible from where they are. Bakugo recovers first, stepping forward with a call over his shoulder of “We are never talking about this” before the blonde boy disappears from view.
Izuku hauls himself to his feet and begins heading home, trying to process everything that happened. Once he's home he's more focused on reassuring his mom that the bruise on his face is just from him tripping and falling, partially true, it was caused after he stepped out of the portal Yukari made and he fell. After dinner, when he's getting dressed in his pajamas he notices something in his pocket, upon pulling it out it's a phone number followed by a tiny note that simply reads ‘Contact this number if you would like to learn more-Yukari’.
Chapter 2
Notes:
Decided to post the second chapter today too so y'all have something to chew on. Enjoy!
Chapter Text
Izuku found himself staring at that phone number for a long while after his mom had made sure he was tucked in, debating what to do, on one hand interacting more with Yukari, a woman who is unfamiliar and potentially- almost certainly if he recalls correctly- dangerous. On the other hand, answers were but a simple few key presses away and Izuku is nothing if not curious. So, as a result, he sends a text. It simply reads ‘This is Midoriya Izuku, if you don't mind, I would like some answers, if the offer still stands please.’ It isn't long before he gets a response.
Y: What would you like to know?
I: What was that place?
Y: Gensokyo.
I: You say that name as if it has some importance, what is Gensokyo?
Y: Gensokyo is a region I set up a very long time ago to prevent youkai from fading away. It is nearly impossible to get in or out of.
I: Okay… Youkai are real?
Y: Yes.
I: What kinds of youkai are there?
Y: Far too many to list off here. Many of them even residents will never meet.
I: Will I ever be able to visit there again?
Y: That is a good question, however seeing as you were polite and there was no damage to the barrier, I suppose you could visit on occasion, you would have to remain under my supervision though.
I: Okay…Would I be able to come back to visit tomorrow? After school?
Y: I suppose that could be arranged, although, due to some chores I must attend to around my home, we will be at my estate, I hope that is alright.
I: That's perfectly okay! I- mean, you're already being very nice by simply answering questions and being able to ask questions in person would make things much easier.
After checking the time and realizing it was far past his bedtime Izuku bids Yukari goodbye and attempts to get some sleep.
Walking to school the next morning Izuku realizes that today is going to be interesting, it's not uncommon for him to get less sleep than intended, Inko keeps trying to fix that problem but it has been mostly unsuccessful, however it is rare for Izuku to be so mentally exhausted, which, he muses, is fair. He stayed up a long time jotting down questions to ask Yukari.
Upon entering his classroom Izuku realizes that today is even weirder than he initially anticipates, Bakugou doesn't so much as glance in his direction, no shouts, no shoving or comments, no deku so Izuku decides to enjoy this peace while it lasts and theorize more questions for Yukari. Classes pass by with little grandeur, and without Bakugou leading the teasing against Izuku the rest of the class were a little kinder to him too, probably out of fear as the last time someone bullied Izuku when Bakugou was like this they had their wrist broken. After classes he sends his mom a text to let her know he's hanging out with friends and makes his way to that same alley he and Kacchan got dropped into just the day prior. He sends a text to Yukari and a portal- gap he remembers, they're gaps - opens in front of him and he steps through.
The first thought that goes through Izuku's mind when he gets on the other side of the gap is ‘the floor is soft.’ After scrambling to his feet and glancing around, the first assessment he has is ‘traditional.’ Tatami flooring is a rarity now afterall and he feels his cheeks flush when he realizes Yukari had been patiently waiting for him to gain his bearings at the end of the hallway.
“Are you alright Midoriya? That was quite the tumble you took.” Yukari asks, Izuku can tell while the question was presented it was more of a formality than an offer to aid in case of injury, either way he gives an affirmation and follows Yukari further into her house. They end up at a Kotatsu and Yukari motions for him to take a seat across from her, which he does. “So, you have more questions I assume, ask away.” Izuku doesn't notice the amused expression Yukari gets at the notebook’s appearance.
“Okay so, you mentioned last night that Gensokyo was made to prevent youkai from fading away, how and what does that mean exactly?” Izuku asked, pulling a pencil out of his schoolbag and preparing to note the reasoning.
“Gensokyo was made to preserve youkai belief, youkai fade away if people don't believe in them and so the solution was simply to isolate a culture that believes in the creatures.” Yukari explained
“According to the research I did uhm don’t- don't some youkai eat humans…?” Izuku asked hesitantly, not comforted by Yukari’s nod.
“They do, some do it for survival while others like myself occasionally consume humans as a delicacy” Yukari answers, a little too cheekily for Izuku’s liking, despite that he continues.
“How old is Gensokyo exactly? I- how long has this just… been here?” Izuku read from his book.
Yukari hummed in thought for a bit “Time gets a little blurry when you've been here for as long as I have. Im not certain on the exact age however the barrier went up initially in 1885.” Izuku nearly did a double take.
“1885?! That's nearly 260 years ago!” Izuku exclaims surprised
“Now now, its not nice to remind a lady of her age.” Yukari chimes in and Izuku blanches before he hears a soft laugh from the youkai.
“I-uhm may I continue asking questions?” Izuku asks hesitantly, upon seeing Yukari’s nod he continues. “You said that for youkai to exist there had to be belief, this implies that it cannot be belief from other youkai so how do humans survive in Gensokyo?”
“Correct! There are humans in Gensokyo and while most live in a village some survive and protect themselves from youkai via danmaku.”
“Danmaku?” Izuku asked confused
“Danmaku, a set of rules for those using magic to have what are effectively sanctioned spars traditionally using magic as the primary weapon however other weapons can be used.” Yukari explained
“Wait- magic is real?” Yukari nods, expecting this, “and youkai just…obey these rules?” Izuku asked, bewildered at the idea.
“For the most part, they know the repercussions of breaking them at the very least.” Yukari answers cryptically, the statement mixed with the aura Yukari has to her activates his fight or flight but he's able to restrain himself.
“Now, Midoriya, I believe that's enough questions for now, surely you have a lot to think of and we wouldn't want you to run yourself in circles all night processing. I have some matters to attend to, you are free to explore the estate while I am away, anyone you encounter is a trusted associate of mine so don't be alarmed.” Yukari stands up after this and walks through a gap that opens beside her. A little surprised at the sudden freedom, Izuku decided to take his teacup (when did he get tea?) to the kitchen, so he randomly picks a hallway that's going away from where he entered the room from.
Beginning his walk he isn't exactly sure what he's looking for (maybe he can find one of those associates Yukari mentioned?) when a blur barrels past him, nearly knocking him over and ahead of him stands a tall, tired looking kitsune(?) “Uhm, hello? Are you the associate Yukari mentioned?” The woman perks up, suddenly alert and locks onto Izuku as if noticing him for the first time
“Oh, yes, Yukari did mention we would be having company, is there something you needed?” the kitsune asked.
“I was just wondering where the kitchen was, I wanted to return this” Izuku lifts the teacup to acknowledge it.
“Ah, the kitchen, follow me, I'm assuming that's where Chen was going…” Izuku obeys, falling in step behind the kitsune, the temptation to touch one of her tails is there but Izuku is far too used to mutation quirks looking very pettable to want to come off as rude. After a bit and far too many turns for Izuku to remember they arrive at a cozy kitchen, big enough for two people to move around comfortably in without it being unbearably cramped. On the counter is a small, young catgirl happily munching on some taiyaki, she looks around Izuku’s age and Ran lets out a sigh that reminds Izuku far too much of his own mom when he does something and disappoints her “Chen, down.”
The girl looks up and her ears immediately flatten when she realizes shes been caught. She shoves the last of the treat in her mouth and hops off the counter “Sorry Ran…” her voice is barely legible through her stuffed cheeks from the taiyaki and Izuku shifts on his feet, this causes Chen to take notice of him and her ears her up and her pupils dilate, she swallows her snack and speaks “Ran! You didn't say we had a visitor”
“I did, you just didn't listen Chen” Ran sounds tired, Izuku notes, he slips by and places the teacup in the sink.
“Didn’t do a good enough job of telling me then, you! Human, what's your name?” Chen- Izuku assumes- excitedly bounces.
“M-Midoriya Izuku…” He shyly introduces, somewhat scared of the hyperactive catgirl. It's now when Ran lets out a hum.
“Midoriya, it's nearing 5 O’clock, do you need to return home?” Izuku pales slightly at this information, he didn't realize that much time had passed and he nods quickly. Ran pulls out her phone, Izuku realizes she didn't check any clock to announce the time, and a gap opens beside her. Izuku waves goodbye to the two others and leaves, heading home.
Chapter 3
Notes:
Mostly fluff in this chapter, but we are setting up things still.
Chapter Text
Izuku woke up feeling a lot better than yesterday morning, he was too mentally exhausted to stay awake so after dinner he went to bed pretty early, as a result he woke up earlier and caught his mom drinking tea in the living room prior to cooking breakfast “Morning mom…” He greets Inko, still rubbing the sleep out of his eye.
“Oh! Izuku you're awake, y'know I was worried with how tired you were yesterday, must have had fun, huh? Inko asks, slightly startled.
“Oh yeah mom, I had fun” Izuku responds, to a degree he realizes it's true, Yukari, despite being scary, is pretty fun to talk to.
“I would like to meet this friend sometime then! I wanna known the people my baby are hanging out with!” Inko chimes as she moves to the kitchen and begins making breakfast, this causes Izuku to freeze up and he rushes to his bedroom to text Yukari about this development.
I: Miss Yukari? My mom might want to meet you now, what do I tell her?
Y: I will be available around 5pm, is that an okay time?
I: I…think so? Why?
Y: To meet your mother of course, if she wishes to meet me than I see no reason to deny this request.
I: 5pm is good.
Izuku is now slightly panicking, he isn't sure how this is gonna go plus he wants to tell Bakugou about the new intel he got about Gensokyo and he still has school! He scrambles to get his stuff together and admittedly does eat breakfast while trying to avoid his mother's questions about his new friend. After breakfast he leaves for school, making his way to his class. Bakugou is still ignoring him so the bullying isn't as bad (it won't stick, it never does). Classes go as normal but lunch is when Izuku is pulled aside by Bakugou.
“Deku, what did you do?” He asks, his tone still angry but his volume is quietened significantly.
“I uhm…I went to Yukari’s house after school yesterday, she said I can ask questions…”
“Well? What information did you get?” He asks gruffly.
“Gensokyo is home to youkai, it was made nearly 260 years ago by Yukari, there's these spar things called danmaku and some youkai…including Yukari eat humans.”
“See Deku! I told you she was a villain! Eating people? That's insane, like that weird tooth villain from last month, lunarfish or whatever he was called.” Bakugo refuted.
“Well she didn't eat me and I was with her for a good amount of time with just me and her, so I think it's rare that they do anything like that at all.” Izuku argued back. Bakugou grumbles about it.
“Alright, well I want into Gensokyo!” He exclaimed.
“I can ask, but I dunno what Yukari would say.” Izuku agreed. Lunch for the most part passes quietly after this, and soon Izuku is watching the clock slowly approach 5pm as he gets more and more worried. He gave Yukari his address prior so she can just make a gap rather than having to walk.
5pm is here. Izuku is alerted to this via the knock on the door, he scrambles to his feet but Inko was already near there and answers it. “Oh! Hello there, come on in, I'll begin making tea- uhm- excuse me if this comes across as rude but where exactly…is-” Inko gets cut off by something blurring into the room, Izuku recognizes it after yesterday as Chen. He sees Yukari give him a smirk as Chen in all of her excitement drags Izuku away to his room for some reason.
“H-hi Chen…” Izuku greets,she seems like she's almost vibrating “I wasn't expecting you to be coming.”
“Oh, I didn't know I was until right before Yukari left, she said it'd be a good cover. Plus, I've never been outside of Gensokyo before!” She flops down, sprawling across his floor. She gestures at Izuku's hero merch. “Why is there so much of that weird man? Why is he smiling so wide?”
“I'm- wha- that's All Might!” Izuku speaks up, almost (very) offended “He's the best hero ever! Here, I'll show you.” Izuku goes over to his computer and pulls up a video, Chen bounces up and leans over him excitedly, the video playing is All Might’s debut. Both watch with rapt attention and after it ends Izuku spins around in his chair "ISN'T HE JUST THE COOLEST?!”
“...eh? I mean…you can do a lot of that with the right magic so it's pretty alright for a human I guess…oh! Are you planning on learning magic???” Chen asks excitedly.
“Learn magic…? That's something I can do?” Izuku asks, confused, the idea never even crossed his mind “Would Yukari allow it?”
“Hm…maybe? It's pretty hard to tell with her, I live with her and she still confuses me.” Chen adds, flopping back down onto Izuku's floor. Izuku still isn't 100% certain how to feel about the hyper energetic catgirl. As he's pondering this they both hear a call
“Dinner!” from Inko, both kids immediately scramble to their feet at the idea of food. They arrive to see Yukari helping Inko plate the table, its clear the two had been enjoying each other's company, potentially more than anticipated. Either way Chen and Izuku sit and both are delighted as Izuku and Inko got pork katsudon and Chen and Yukari got fish katsudon. Dinner is mostly silent until Yukari speaks up.
“So Inko, I was thinking…its rare I get to have dinner with other parents, so~ would you be willing to share some stories of Izuku here?” Izuku immediately flushes a bit and glances up at Inko in slight fear of her coy smile.
“Well, my little Izuku- “Mom no!-” my little Izuku was playing with another one of his friends, Bakugou is his name, anyway Izuku used to play the damsel in distress for Bakugou, I think I still have that dress from when you both used to play heros, Izuku.” Izuku turns beet red and buries his face in his hands, he can hear Yukari laughing which isn't that bad if it wasn't for Chen on his other side who is cackling between snorts of laughter.
“You know, I have some stories about Chen” The girl in question almost immediately stops laughing, “It's honestly surprising how much her quirk affects her tastes. I still remember when she was a kitten she decided she would go fishing as she heard of other cats doing it. So she's standing there on the riverbank just watching the fish until one turns to her and spits water at her, which scares her enough for her to jump a solid foot into the air and she comes crashing down into the river itself.” Yukari pitches in, a soft whine of protest from Chen before a thud of her forehead hitting the table, Izuku just reaches over and pats her on the head to console her. Dinner ends shortly after this and Yukari and Chen depart. While helping Inko with dishes she turns to him with a teasing grin.
“So you just so happened to forget to mention this friend was a girl, huh~”
“I’m going to bed.”
Chapter Text
Izuku wakes up Saturday morning, thinking of the week he spent balancing spending time at Yukari’s and school. Bakugou has been pushy about making good on his promise to ask so with all day being available to be spent in Gensokyo he heads out. A couple days ago Yukari gave him a pendant that if he says Yakumo then it'll open a gap to her estate. After telling Inko that he's heading out he arrives there. “Hey, I'm here.” He sees Yukari sitting outside, at a picnic table and he sits next to her. “Yukari, I promised I'd ask something, so I'm asking. Can Kacchan be granted the ability to come and go like I have?”
“That's a hard ask Izuku…but I'm willing to make it happen if certain criteria are met.” Yukari informs.
“What criteria?” Izuku asks, tilting his head to the side slightly.
“3 things. Bakugou must stop using that horrific, demeaning title for you. I will not protect him, he is on his own here, and you must tell me exactly what relationship you share with that boy is.” She says, making it clear these are non negotiable.
Izuku lets out a sigh “I kinda figured…me and Bakugou have a very complicated relationship…To put it simply he's my bully…it isn't too bad, and we were friends for a long time. I can tell he still cares and I think he's just trying to look out for me…he just, he just has a twisted way of doing it, it's about the same way his mom shows affection so I wouldn't be surprised if he just doesn't know. I'll tell him about your conditions. He’ll almost certainly accept, he wouldn't allow his pride to get in the way of getting stronger” Izuku responded, slightly surprised by Yukari suddenly ruffling his hair.
“I am glad you told me, I may not fully agree but if you trust him then I shall allow him to come and go as long as he does not stir up trouble. Is there anything else Izuku?” She asked.
“Actually there is, Chen mentioned the idea to me and well…I've been thinking about it for a while and I think I would like to learn magic if that's something you're okay with.” Izuku replied, somewhat hesitantly.
“Ah! I know of someone who would be able to teach you magic, her name is Patchouli Knowledge and she runs and maintains a library.” Yukari announces after a brief pause to think. “She already owes me a favor and last I was aware she was interested in getting a student…yes, Patchouli will do nicely.”
“When would I be able to meet her?” Izuku asked, eager to learn.
“How about now?” Izuku feels himself fall for a bit before landing on something plush, above him is a gap and from it Yukari’s voice rings out “Hello Patchouli, this is Izuku, he is interested in learning magic and I deduced you would be the best person to teach him. Izuku, use your pendant to return home when you wish and tell Inko I would like to have dinner again sometime, it was quite fun.” Izuku watches as the gap closes and he looks around, the air is musty, the smell of aged books thick. Bookshelves everywhere the eye can see except for a lone desk where a woman sits. She's dressed in sleep attire and looks quite confused but also alert, she's pale and her nightcap has a golden crescent moon on it. As Izuku stands and begins to hesitantly approach he swears her nightgown changes from having stripes to no stripes depending on how the light hits it.
“U-uhm h-hi?” Izuku spoke up shyly and Patchouli glaces him up and down before properly sitting up in her chair.
“A human? A human is under Yukari’s protection? Fascinating…and you wish to learn magic, correct? For what purpose?” She asks, her tone and expression is flat, giving away no emotion.
“U-Uhm yes, I'd like to learn magic for general use and for danmaku battles…if you'd be willing to teach me” Izuku responds, managing to get his stutter under control.
“I see, well here,” A large book, easily one of, if not the biggest book Izuku has ever seen lands in his hands. “This book gives a basic understanding of magic, read chapters 4-21 then we can begin learning how to apply it.” She says and ushers Izuku into one of the, admittedly extremely cozy, lounge chairs scattered around the library. He gets cozy, aware he's gonna be here for a while and Patchouli returns to her desk, reading from a large book Izuku is not able to get a glimpse at. Just as Izuku gets into reading the doors burst open and a woman walks in, she's in a green beret and has a matching green dress.
“Patchy! I heard someone got in!” The new figure exclaims and Patchouli silently points to Izuku in the corner and he curls in on himself slightly. “Ah! A human? How did you get in? I didn't see you!”
“He got in via Yukari, he's under her protection” Patchouli explains.
“He's under WHO’S protection? Yukari protecting a human other than the shrine maiden? Really?” She seems genuinely baffled but turns back to Izuku. “Hi, my name is Hong Meiling, it's nice to meet you!”
“I’m- I'm Midoriya Izuku…it's nice to meet you too…” Izuku greets back. Meiling nods towards Patchouli, some kind of confirmation before leaving. After a while Izuku is able to settle back into his book and after a long time in silence and approximately half a chapter of reading that Izuku halfway understands he falls asleep.
Izuku isn't sure how long he slept for but as he slowly rises, the sight he is greeted to is piercing red eyes staring down at him and two fangs protruding from her mouth, she's wearing sleepwear, not unlike what Patchouli wears “Hey you, you're finally awake” she speaks and some distant part of Izuku's brain is laughing at that line for reasons he's too freaked out to remember.
“I-hello…?” Izuku asks startled
“Hello! I am Remilia Scarlet, the owner of this mansion. I admit, I was curious when I heard from Meiling that a human was here and under Yukari’s protection, I had to see it for myself. I see she didn't tell you about me though, otherwise I feel as though you wouldn't feel safe falling asleep here even though due to a devil's contract I can't really attack humans anyway. Anywho~ carry on with your studies I simply came to see the human who has slept in the vampire’s manor." With that Remilia departs, Izuku relaxes a great deal and manages to get his breathing under control…Well time to continue studying.
Chapter Text
All things considered he should probably feel more endangered in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but Izuku can't bring himself to care that much. He's been here studying under Patchouli for a while now and he's grown fond of the place in that time. It certainly helps that it seems like Patchouli is growing fond of him as well, considering she was willing to explain her illnesses to Izuku, which is why Izuku is walking with a plastic bag in hand to the library. Due to quirks, the pharmaceutical industry became a bit weird with what could be bought over the counter now and what can't, either way he enters the library and walks up to the desk. “G-good afternoon Patchouli, I brought some stuff I think you would be interested in” He took the items out of the bag. “I brought Vitamin D supplements, it'll let you get vitamin D without needing to go out into the sun, some iron supplements as they'll help your anemia, and an inhaler for your asthma.” Izuku laid the three items out and Patchouli looked up at him with an unreadable expression.
“These are human medicines?” She asks.
“I-yes, I'm not certain if they'll work on a youkai but I just wanted to help…” Izuku responded.
“And they'll…just fix my illnesses?” She asked, a hint of disbelief creeping into her tone.
“Well, with the supplements it still would be better if you got it normally, like going outside rather than taking them, also with the inhaler from what I read it's more of a thing to use if your asthma flares up bad.” Izuku replied, recalling the websites he read while trying to figure out if this would even work. Izuku is slightly alarmed when Patchouli stands up, looking annoyed. “I didn't do anything wrong, did I?
“No, you did nothing wrong, I am simply going to ask Remilia if I can go kill a god. In the meantime, continue your reading, at the rate you're going by next month we can officially begin teaching you applied magic.” She leaves with the medicine in tow and Izuku can't tell if she's joking or not. Either way the idea of beginning magic soon is definitely good encouragement so he settles into his usual lounge chair (If there's a green ribbon on it that Patchouli placed there after realizing Izuku likes it so much then nobody else has to know).
Very few people come and go from the Scarlet Devil mansion so Izuku is surprised when he sees a figure he doesn't recognize. She's tallish (ignore how everyone is tall in comparison to Izuku) and wears a black and white maid uniform(?) and she's scolding a tall creature Izuku recognizes from some of his and Patchouli’s conversations, a fairy. It appears to be because the fairy knocked over a pot and Izuku begins heading in the other direction but he sees a glint of silver and suddenly the fairy is lying dead. Immediately Izuku rushes forward. “Wha- why did you-?” He knows some creatures in Gensokyo have almost no empathy but this is bad in his opinion.
“Ah, you must be the human that Lady Remilia mentioned. I have been wondering when I would meet you.” The chief maid(?) speaks and before Izuku can say anything the slain maid stands back up, the wound now completely gone. She bows to the other before leaving. “I am Izayoi Sakuya (why is she the only one in the mansion who introduced herself in Japanese format?), the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, it's a pleasure to finally meet you. Please forgive the fairies, they do well normally but occasionally need to be corrected.”
“I- was killing her necessary though?” Izuku asked, reeling from watching a creature get up after having her throat cut open.
“Fairies learn the best by dying. They’re immortal, weak and very forgetful however they tend to remember things that cause their deaths. They are all aware of the punishment and are free to leave if they wish.” Sakuya informed.
“Is- is there anything you need help with…?” Izuku offered after a lull in conversation.
“Ah, no, I have no need for extra assistance, I heard you were studying magic under Patchouli, you should probably get back to your reading.” She refused and Izuku nodded and leaves, heading to the library to continue his studies.
Time continues passing by and Izuku is nearing the end of chapter 18 when he hears a call for him from the desk “Yes Patchy? What do you need?” He asks, confused, she's looking much better now and gave him permission to use the nickname after she stood up for the first time and the world didn't spin in response.
“You have learned a good amount from the book so far, I believe we can begin the very very basics of applied magic. It'll be better to get a head start on this skill anyway since it's less about actually using magic but rather more about practice hours.” She announced, leading him outside into a shaded courtyard area. “It’s time for you to learn how to fly.”
“Fly?” Izuku echoed “You can fly using magic?”
“You…you've been here a month and some odd amount and didn't know that? Yes Izuku, how do you think Sakuya flies?” Patchouli asks, a mix of befuddlement and amusement in her tone.
“I very rarely see Sakuya move at all, she just teleports everywhere!” Izuku protests.
“Have- never mind either way. I'm not expecting you to get this immediately, however I would like you to be able to float a little bit by the end of this lesson, understood?” Izuku nods, eager. He never thought he would be able to fly!
It takes a couple hours but he's finally able to get off the ground! He cant move but according to Patchy it will take a while longer to get that down. “So, now alongside my reading I also should be practicing my flying?” He asks for clarification, and Patchy nods.
Izuku is slowly exhausting himself, he knows but since he's making such good progress on his magic he can't bring himself to care. He only has one more chapter of his book, plus he finally was able to move while floating! Admittedly it wasn't upwards but progress is progress. This is why, when Remilia requests to have tea with him he accepts easily because he could use the break. “So, Izuku, I am unaware if you know what my ability is,” In response to Izuku shaking his head she continues “I have the ability to manipulate fate. Although I rarely use it, and you intrigue me heavily.”
“How so?” Izuku asks slightly nervously but also brimming with questions.
“When I view someone's fate it typically appears as a timeline, I can see the events of a person's life and the impacts that they will have on the world. This is where your fate interests me. Izuku, I have no way of reading your fate, it's…a bit complicated to explain but it feels like all the pieces are shifting, the only thing set is your past but the future is not constructed at all, instead there are all these moving pieces of what it could be.” She explains.
“Okay… What does this mean for me? Why am I different?” Izuku asks curiously.
“I have no idea. That's what makes it intriguing though as there's only one other person who’s fate was like yours and it was Yukari…whose past was also shifting along with the future.” She continues, excited.
“I…huh. I'll mention it to Yukari later, she's having dinner with me and my mom.” Izuku hums in thought. “This is very good tea by the way, what kind is it?”
“I’m not sure, you would have to ask Sakuya, she's the one who buys and makes all my tea.” Izuku nods in understanding and seeing that the conversation has ended he decides to return home for dinner.
Going to and from Gensokyo is always an interesting thing, summoning the gap is easy, after all the command word for him to go home is his last name, but making sure to do it when his mom isn't looking is nowhere near as easy. Either way, stepping out of the gap into his apartment lobby’s bathroom he heads up for his apartment. Upon arriving, he sees Yukari and his mom laughing about something and Chen utterly fascinated by the television. He nods towards his mom(s) and sits beside Chen. “Hello, Chen, how have you been?”
“Hi Izuku, I've been okay, Ran’s been being mean to me though!” She pouts, Izuku and Chen have been keeping in touch via phone and he still visits Yukari as she is curious how he's doing.
“Oh yeah? What has she done now?” Izuku asks amused, the only reason Chen would be pouting is if she got scolded for something.
“Yeah, well I got excited and you know how I get when I'm excited I wanna go nyoom but Ran doesn't like it when I go nyoom and I went nyoom earlier and broke a pot so she took away the fish cakes you got me” She pouts and Izuku laughs.
“That’s fair, I used to get over-excited like that all the time, although according to mom I would apparently just…vibrate…how did I do that?” Izuku wonders aloud cut off by the call of dinner and both kids hop up rushing to eat. Since Izuku has started flight practice his appetite has begun to increase, although if this is due to him growing or the magic training he isn't sure. Dinner occurs without much note although Izuku and Chen are sending each other glances constantly as Yukari and Inko keep not-so-subtly flirting even if it seems like neither of them realizes.
The next time that Izuku interacts with Sakuya is a fair bit later. It's nearing the end of elementary school and the other children are becoming more aggressive, especially now that that new transfer student is around, at least Bakugou isn't part of it anymore but he isn't exactly defending Izuku. Actually now that he thinks about it Bakugou seems really on edge around Izuku at school…Yukari maybe? Anyways, Izuku is practicing his floating and moving somewhat when Sakuya passes by as he drops back onto the ground, the action causing his shirt to float up slightly revealing a dark bruise on his side. Sakuya immediately walks over. “Izuku, why are you bruised?” She asks, immediately reaching for something out of her uniform pockets.
“Bruised? I-just fell while floating and hit something, no big deal…” Izuku glances up to see Sakuya giving an unamused look.
“We both know you can't fly high enough to cause this bad of a bruise Izuku, if you don't want to tell me then you don't have to but I'm bandaging this either way.” She says, a little softer than her usual tone. And before Izuku realizes it the bruise has been bandaged. “Now, is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Uhm-actually, I was wondering if you could teach me how to make tea like you do…” Izuku trails off a bit, he always gets a little shy when reminded at school he is still a deku.
“If that's what you would like, its not a particularly complicated process.” She leads Izuku into the kitchen and grabs a stool for him to stand on so he can actually see the countertops. She leads Izuku through her process, patiently listening to any questions he has as he brews the tea with her. As they brew Izuku can't help but wonder what Bakugou has been doing.
Chapter 6: Bakugou's Misadventures in the Bamboo Forest
Chapter by The_Current
Notes:
So, you might notice that this chapter is different. That's because this is our B-plot chapter. These will show up occasionally, generally leaning more heavily towards crack, but they are still relevant to the fic.
Anyways, enjoy!
Chapter Text
Bakugou wasn't going to tell anyone, but he was excited to find out that he gets to explore this Gensokyo place. He still doesn't trust that Yukari woman (She's a damn villain De-Izuku! Are you seriously trusting her?), but her and her bullshit warp quirk is the only way to get here since it's definitely not on any map he saw and supposedly there's a barrier around this place. So! He's going to find this barrier, blow it up, and find the nearest hero and tell them about this weak-ass villain’s base of operations.
…Somehow he's now lost in this bamboo forest. Why is there so much bamboo here anyway? This is supposed to be a villain base, isn't it?! And if he tries flying above it with his explosions, some damn ball smacks him in the face and knocks him down like a minute later, and he can't fucking ever see it come or go. Whatever, he can just walk in one direction and he'll eventually get there.
…He's going in circles, he can't prove anything but he's sure of it now. Does this villain have a teammate with an illusion quirk? This fucking sucks. Wait, there's someone in the distance. She's got very long white hair, wearing a red hakama with suspenders, and probably 2 meters tall (has to be a villain, who else would be here?) and with that thought Bakugou attacks.
He wakes up in his bed, confused and disoriented. That…that had to have been a dream right? No way he got beat that bad. No way! He looks at his phone and sees a text from an unknown number. ‘Maybe at least try talking to the locals before attacking next time :)’ the text reads and attached to it is a picture of him unconscious beside the white haired villain who just looks confused. Fuck.
It's been a month since that first disaster and Bakugou has figured out a few things about the villain(?) that beat him:
- Her name is Mokou. Well, not just Mokou but that's all he bothered remembering
- She's always raring for a fight (especially against someone called Kaguya, but that can't be right) and she's really good at it.
- Not only that, she fights dirty. He doesn't want to remember all the times he's been hit in the dick. And she's basically immune to his explosions too! It's bullshit!
- Yeah, she lets him spar with her for some fucking reason, probably out of amusement (but why would she let him go home and heal if she's a villain?)
Needless to say, Bakugou is pretty fucking confused about this whole thing. What the hell even is her quirk? She's clearly not the illusion maker. Maybe he should bring De-Izuku and see if he can figure it out…wait didn't he mention something about youkai? Fuck, he might be dealing with a magical creature then and- wait why is he trusting D-Izuku's information from Yukari? He's better off just asking Mokou what her quirk is directly, she might humor him. Yukari clearly has been by letting him come and go from here.
“So what exactly is your quirk?”
“Quirk? Whaddya mean by quirk?”
“Oh come on! You been living under a rock? Quirks. Those powers that most people have that popped up over a century ago? Does that ring a bell?”
“Only a century? And most of the population have one? I was unaware of such a phenomenon. So that's how you make those explosions without magic.”
“You-You’re fucking kidding me. There are so many things wrong with what you just said. Are you seriously implying you're over a century old and that magic exists?”
“Uh, yeah? Magic is a pretty normal thing in Gensokyo and I'm- wait, are you an outsider?”
“To this Gensokyo place, yeah. But that's not the fucking point! The point is-(being watched) wait hold on one second.” Bakugou then looks around and sees a flash of green hair and yellow-and-green clothing. “Nerd, what the hell are you doing out here?” (And why were you wearing a dress?). No response. “Oh so it's going to be like that.” Bakugou mutters then shouts at Mokou, “We're going to talk about this magic bullshit later, I've got something to deal with right now.” As he runs off, Mokou ruminates “What a strange person, even for an outsider. And who was the “nerd” that he was calling out to?”
Bakugou confronts D-Izuku about what happened in the bamboo forest and the nerd has the audacity to look confused, and just says that he hasn't been anywhere besides Yukari’s house and the Scarlet Devil Mansion, wherever that is (Also really? You're still sure these people aren't villains with a name like that?). Bakugou finally has had enough and yells “Then who did I see? Because I'm fucking sure it was your short ass in a yellow and green dress out there.” Izuku sputters “Dress?! You can't be serious Kacchan!” Bakugou scowls, then smirks, “Oh? And if I were to ask Auntie Inko if you have a dress? What would she say to that? Huh, nerd?” Izuku just sighs and says “Please don't. I already get enough weird questions from her about Chen.” Bakugou cackles.
Ok so maybe Izuku was right about not being in the bamboo forest. Either that or the nerd's fucking with him using magic that apparently fucking exists. Yeah, Mokou actually was nice enough to give a rundown on how it works and Bakugou's been able to make his explosions more powerful by using it. It took a couple months to pull it off for the first time and it doesn't really help him in their spars but it's still pretty damn cool.
Anyways, there's definitely a mystery person that will show up from time to time while he's in the bamboo forest, and it would be one thing if that was it. It's not though, he's seen them when he's not in Gensokyo. And they're always watching the nerd when that's the case. It's fucking freaky. Maybe they're one of Yukari's subordinates? She has been warming up to the Midoriya family (He's seen how Yukari and Auntie Inko are starting to look at each other, and he's almost certain that the nerd has no clue. Hell, Auntie probably hasn't even realized yet). He just hopes that the mystery person starts appearing less with middle school starting.
Why is his life like this? Not only did middle school not deter the mystery person, they've seem to have gotten emboldened. They'll just be staring intently at the fucking nerd anytime Bakugou isn't expecting it. He looks out the window? They're off in the distance, barely visible. Izuku and him walking home from school one day? He saw them (her?) in an alley they walked by. And he swears one time she(?) was in the school’s ceiling. Fucking hell did Izuku get a goddamn stalker?! And the nerd doesn't even believe him about her being there! The worst part is that she (He's now almost certain that it's a girl) isn't even the scariest person he encountered recently.
That title would belong to someone else. He never actually got her name but she showed up in the bamboo forest one time after he lost another spar to Mokou (How is he never strong enough?) and said “Didn’t know you were one to beat up kids Mokou.” While he'd never admit it out loud, he jumped a bit when he heard her voice. There was real power in it, the closest comparison he could make was to All Might.
“W-Who the fuck are you?” he asked while Mokou simply responded to her with “He insisted, and it's fun watching him grow.” (She really thinks that?)
“Well anyways, where did you even come from, kid? Because I'm pretty sure you're not from the human village if you don't recognize me.” She questioned.
Mokou, noticing that he was barely coherent (He could have answered her question just fine!), answered “He’s from the outside world. Apparently Yukari lets him and someone else come and leave here as they please.” ‘What?!’ “Yeah, according to him, she said both of them doing this doesn't mess with the balance and she really likes the other kid.”
“Great.” She mutters, “Someone else that's going to cause an incident. If it weren't for the fact I'm currently dealing with one, I'd go give her a piece of my mind right now. On that point, do you have any ideas on what's with all the flowers? There's even out-of-season ones blooming."
Mokou looks puzzled. “No, I wasn't even aware that was going on, not many flowers bloom here in the first place.”
“ *sigh* Go figure. Well at least you just said so. I'll be on my way then” She grumbles before flying off.
After a moment, Bakugou asks “Who the fuck was that?!”Mokou’s answer sent a shiver down his spine.
“That was the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, the protector of Gensokyo.”
Chapter Text
Getting away from middle school for a while felt great for Izuku, he already got permission from his mom to stay at the Scarlet Devil Mansion over a week of the summer break so all he does is pack some clothes and say bye to his mom. His mind is preoccupied by a text he got from Yukari, it mentioned a summer feast although it was an open invitation, but admittedly Izuku would rather spend time with the Scarlet Devil Mansion and train. Summoning a gap to the mansion library he's greeted by Patchouli up and about around the library getting a collection of books. “Hey Patchy.” He greets as he sets his suitcase full of clothes down, he planned to simply stay in the library as he sleeps here very regularly when he notices his normal chair is missing.
“Oh, Sakuya and Remilia took your chair, something about a surprise whenever you arrived, I wasn't really paying attention as I've been organizing something.” Izuku perks up at that “It’s time for you to start learning dueling magic, I have a couple books (that damn witch stole all my preferred ones.) but I also want you to pick an element for a spell card.”
“Element…do you have fire? My dad (wherever he went) had a fire breathing quirk so I think I would like that” Patchouli nods, grabbing another book and handing him a bundle of books. They are smaller than the introductory book, however the bundle is still 4 books.
“This will get you started, now, I've heard your flying is coming along well. I'll let you work with the bullets and such on your own as the book will walk you through it. When you successfully make your first bullet I would like to get a progress report though” She explains and the doors of the library open and Sakuya slips inside.
“Hello Izuku, Lady Remilia has a surprise for you, please follow me.” Izuku nods in response to Sakuya’s greeting and begins to follow, looking over his shoulder to call out to Patchouli.
“Understood Patchy, first progress report after my first bullet.” Izuku follows behind Sakuya, she leads him down a hall across from the library and shows him a dark oak door, she gestures for him to open it and he does. Inside the room is all the things you'd expect from a bedroom (with the exception of a computer or a tv Izuku muses), its dark oak furniture with red and green accents, and he notices Remilia holding something sitting on a chair- his chair from the library- with a reading table in front of it.
“Izuku, since you seem intent on staying around me and Sakuya have arranged for your own chambers here in the mansion. This is your personal space and you may design or alter it as you wish” Remilia speaks, before handing him a plaque, it reads ‘izuku’ in a brilliant emerald green and Izuku can't help himself and promptly bursts into tears. Sakuya and Remilia both immediately panic seeing his reaction but Izuku calms down enough to reassure them it's happy tears.
Izuku was hanging out with Remilia during a break in his studies when Meiling rushes in. “Lady Remilia? There's a boy outside asking for entrance, he doesn't know danmaku, how do I proceed?”
“A boy? Let me see, would you like to come with Izuku?” Remilia asks. He nods curious and eager to see who it is. They step outside and Izuku is immediately greeted by yelling.
“FINALLY! What took you so damn long?! I'm here to see the nerd!” Izuku recognizes that voice immediately.
“Kacchan?! What are you doing here?” Izuku asks in confusion
“Nerd! Mokou left to go eat food or some stupid shit like that so I came here to see what you were doing.” Bakugo explains
“And you got here…how?” Izuku asks, he never told Bakugou where the mansion is (admittedly he doesn't even know).
“Some history teacher told me how to get here when she visited Mokou.” Bakugou brushes off.
“Some history teacher…? Anyway uhm- Remilia he should be safe to let in…Kacchan if you break something I'm not saving you from Sakuya.” Izuku warns and Meiling opens the doors.
“Cool, whatever, she can't be as bad as your stalker or *shudders* the shrine maiden.” Meiling also shudders at her mention.
“I keep telling you, I don't have a stalker, and I don't know who the shrine maiden is- wait so are you just here to bother me?”
“Eh, kinda? You've been cooped up here anytime you come to Gensokyo and I was curious.”
“Because I don't want to die Kacchan, I've been here because I'm learning danmaku and youkai will kill us” Izuku replies, a slight bit of snark in his tone.
“Two things. One, what the fuck is danmaku, and two, I've been doing just fine out there.”
“Hang on- there's no way a human who has been to the bamboo forest and doesn't know what danmaku is ‘just fine’, what the hell?” Meiling asks, turning around to face Bakugou.
“And I'm saying that I am fucking fine. I just go over there and spar with Mokou before she decides to wander off to actually fight someone (should watch that fight sometime). I don't see why people make such a big deal about it.”
“Kacchan…the bamboo forest is where a lot of youkai who eat people live who- have you just been wandering around?! I'm not allowed to but I'm at least being taught some stuff by Patchy.”
“Yeah I've been wandering around, dammit! Why are people so surprised by this? The youkai just run off when I pop my explosions. Also I HAVE been taught stuff by that history teacher.”
“Like what Kacchan? Have you learned to fly yet without your explosions?” Izuku asked, somewhat challenging but also curious, then excited for a partner.
“Not yet nerd, but I have learned a lot about Gensokyo, including the fact that you're living with fucking vampires and never told me.”
“They cannot attack us-vampires? It's just Remilia, right?” Izuku asks, looking towards Remilia.
“YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT HER SISTER?! This is what I am talking about, dammit!”
“Remilia, you have a sister? Can I meet her?” Izuku asked, curious and excited.
“I…suppose you could meet her. Meiling, lead them to the dungeon, I'll be going back to my tea.” Remilia departs and Meiling begins leading them, looking a little nervous. After a little while they reach a large set of doors and after unlocking a couple too many locks for Bakugou to feel safe, the doors open. Izuku doesn't hesitate despite the pitch black of the stairwell and descends.
”Oh fuck no, I really don't like this.”
“C’mon Kacchan~ It'll be fine~” Izuku reaches the bottom of the stairwell and there's another smaller door. Izuku knocks and it opens.
“You were so worried about me dying to youkai out there and yet you have no self-preservation now when you're encountering an actual threat.”
“You say actual threat, Remilia hasn't attempted to harm me and they physically cannot attack humans so it's safer than anyone else in the mansion except maybe the fairies…” Izuku trails off, mumbling slightly as he steps inside and suddenly the room interior lights up.
“She could just ignore that, consequences be damned! And- wait did you say fairies? They're rea-”
“Unfortunately I cannot ‘just ignore’ a devil contract.” Izuku finally looks up to notice a girl(? How old is she?) standing in the center of the room, She's wearing a red dress, mob cap and has short blonde hair pulled into a ponytail.
“Oh, hello, sorry for not noticing you earlier. I'm Midoriya Izuku, this is Bakugou Katsuki.” Izuku introduces, ignoring Bakugou’s grumbles about not giving names out to vampires when Bakugou steps beside him.
“I am Flandre Scarlet, as you know Remilia’s younger sister” Flandre introduces with a wide-showman like grin “So! Why have you two humans come to visit? A duel perhaps?”
“Ah- sorry to disappoint but not the reason, Kacchan here is just following me and I-kinda live here somewhat now so I was curious. And no to the duel, I'm working on my magic but I still can't make bullets and Kacchan doesn't know magic either.” Izuku explains.
“I know magic you damn nerd…just not whatever the hell you're talking about.” Bakugou grumbles and Izuku immediately perks up.
“You do?! Show me, I've been trying for hours to make bullets but it's weird, I can't get the shape right for some reason.” Izuku says excitedly. Bakugou huffs and faces away from the other two people in the room before firing off a magic infused explosion, its a fair size, a good bit bigger than what Izuku remembers him capable of last he checked, when he hears Flandre hum.
“That was alright I suppose, I've seen much bigger explosions though…~” She giggles and Bakugou seems to get ready to yell before pausing and calming down. Bakugou's phone chimes and he pulls it out before sighing
“Nerd, my hag wants me home. I'll see you later.” Bakugou announces
“Would you like me to just open a gap for you?” Izuku asks and Bakugou leaves via a gap to Izuku's apartment building.
“You said you were living here, correct? How does a human get ties with Yukari and come to live at the Scarlet Devil Mansion?” Flandre asks, curious and slightly alarmed with Izuku's apparent connections.
“Slipped through, met Yukari, she liked me so I get to come and go…Why-Why are you stuck down here?” Izuku asks curiously, looking around.
“Remi doesn't want me to do destroy whatever I want. So I'm down here” She responds, not sounding all that upset about it. Izuku and Flandre talk for a long while before Sakuya retrieves Izuku for dinner, with a promise to Flandre to talk more often.
A couple days afterwards Flandre and Izuku are talking in the library, she explains that she's allowed around the mansion with supervision and Patchouli is considered valid supervision. They're discussing magic.
“So, you're saying to view it as a sphere rather than what I was doing?” Izuku asks and Flandre nods.
“Yep, so what you're doing is imagining a circle, that's why it's misshapen. Magic needs volume- it's 3-D.” Izuku nods and focuses, and after a moment a small dark forest green bullet sluggishly floats in front of his hand. “You did it, now we have to make it instinctive” Flandre nods approvingly and Patchouli stands and approaches
“Good work Izuku, this was much faster than I anticipated. Flandre is right, continue making them until its instinct and we need to know how many you can make. We can test that later. Since you're not youkai, you're gonna be exhausted due to using magic for the first time. Flandre, would you please carry Izuku to his room? It's just down the hall.” Izuku attempts to protest but he is hit with a wave of exhaustion, Flandre scoops him up and begins carrying him, gently lying him down on his bed as Izuku lets sleep take him.
A few days later, on Izuku's last day of his week while practicing flying with Flandre, Remilia walks in “Flan, I brought a tutor!”
“A tutor? Who is it?” Flandre asks, landing in front of her sister.
“I looked into the person that Izuku’s human friend mentioned. I found out her name is Keine and invited her here, she also said she would be willing to teach you as well Izuku if you'd like.” Izuku drops from the air, landing slightly roughly.
“I’d like that, thank you Remilia” Izuku thanks and as he does he gets a message from Bakugou, its a picture of a building with the caption ‘what the hell is this?’ Izuku doesn't recognize it but Flandre peeks over his shoulder and she does.
“Eientei, that's Eientei.” Flandre says flatly. Izuku simply hands his phone to Flandre to text Bakugou. Upon getting the phone back he sees that she sent it, however it is followed by enough enters to make the message fit on his screen three times over. Izuku can't help but laugh. This is worsened by Bakugou’s reply of ‘what the fuck’.
What-If Scenario
Bakugou finds the barrier
Bakugou decided to go through the normal looking forest because that bamboo forest looked annoying as hell to get through. He was making good time, especially since nothing seemed to be out there outside of one random shack. He would have investigated it, but the barrier should probably take more priority.
About an hour after seeing that shack, Bakugou runs into something. Not like it was on purpose or anything, it was fucking invisible. (This has to be that barrier) And he prepares the strongest explosion he can manage.
It does nothing. There's not even the facade of damage being done. The only sign that he had even tried was the ground in front of it being scattered. And how large is this barrier? He had been walking for like two hours just to find the edge of it. As Bakugou finally realizes that he's way in over his head, he hears “SPIRIT SIGN: FANTASY SEAL”
Notes:
Hello!~ thank you for reading. I am simply here to ask who everyone thinks Izuku and Katsuki are going to be paired with romantically. The only hint is that both are paired with a youkai. Have a wonderful day!
Chapter Text
Izuku’s second year of middle school was going well in his opinion, Bakugou has been defending him from the bullies as he sees it and Izuku has become a lot closer to those in the mansion. Sakuya has been hinting that she wants to teach him knives, but Izuku has a little too much on his plate right now (maybe next year). Izuku and Bakugou are walking around the mall in casual clothes when Izuku’s phone chimes with a specific text tone he set for Yukari, both boys immediately freeze and check.
Y: Hello Izuku, I apologize for asking this of you, but I am caught up in other matters as of right now. I felt the barrier shift and I believe that someone has managed to enter gensokyo via abnormal means. If you could do me a favor and bring them to the estate I would greatly appreciate it. From what I can tell she should be near Misty Lake.
I: Of course! I’ll be there as soon as I can.
“So are you gonna tag along?” Izuku asked Bakugou, already heading to an area where he can open a gap.
“Fuck yeah I am nerd. I'm not letting you run off on your own, you'll get yourself killed.” Bakugou responded, falling in step beside Izuku, upon entering the gap, they wind up in Izuku’s room in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Izuku explains what's going on to Meiling on the way out, and Bakugou leads the way, knowing around Gensokyo much better than Izuku does. Flying is still difficult at higher speeds for Izuku and he can't keep up with Bakugou’s flight but he isn't horribly far behind. As they travel Izuku runs through his head the spell cards he's learned, over the year he was able to learn two Fire Sign: Agni Shine,and Earth Sign: Lazy Trilithon despite in theory it being easy he isn't quite able to split his attention enough to use Fire & Earth Sign: Lava Cromlech. As they approach Bakugou slows, pointing to a girl Izuku can barely make out who seems drenched in water and fairies are scattered around her “Hey nerd, do ya think that's our target?” Bakugou asks and Izuku nods, flying until he's in range.
“You! I, Midoriya Izuku, challenge you to a danmaku duel!” Izuku announces, pointing at the girl. “2 spell cards each challenged gets first card, win condition: number of hits, if i win, you come with me to Yukari, if you win you can go free.”
The girl floats herself up, she's shaky, Izuku can tell and flashes a grin “I, Yanagi Sumireko accept your duel!” Bakugou floats away, backing up a good bit and Yanagi declares “Psychokinesis: Psychokinesis App”. Izuku prepares as she takes a deep breath and to his confusion pulls out her phone(?) when a bunch of clusters of garbage with a pink glow begin orbiting around Yanagi, picking up speed before launching outwards. Izuku manages to slip by them flying around the fast moving projectiles. Soon the spell card ends.
“Fire Sign: Agni Shine" Izuku declares, balls of fire begin orbiting him before breaking off in waves, going outward not unlike Yanagi’s attack. Bakugou is slightly caught off guard at the danmaku battle, entranced by it in a way.
“It’s pretty, isn't it?” He hears a soft voice beside him ask and he instinctively nods before turning in alarm, he hears a giggle and a flash of green and there's nothing beside him. Bakugou’s attention is turned back to the duel by a harsh sound, he looks up and sees Yanagi perfectly fine but with a pained expression on her face, and Bakugou can see embers on her outfit. Izuku is doing a small celebration, after that the fire stops and Izuku’s spell card ends.
“Gun Sign: 3-D Printed Gun” Yanagi declares and both Bakugou and Izuku both get identical alarmed expressions when Yanagi pulls something Izuku recognizes out, a 3-D printed gun. Before Izuku can say anything a searing pain hits him in the stomach. Yanagi fires, ending her spell card.
“Earth Sign: Lazy Trilithon” Izuku declares despite the pain. Yellow spheres clot together before flying at Yanagi, she dodges most and begins to celebrate before one final sphere she didn't notice hits her, sending her into the water as Izuku relaxes, clutching his stomach. “Kacchan, tell Yukari I won, I'll get Yanagi” Katsuki hesitantly nods, seeing no blood on Izuku's shirt as he retrieves the girl. After he does, he floats down to the ground beside Bakugou, who moves to a shore nearby.
“Yukari is opening a portal, Nerd, now, you!” Katsuki points to Yanagi who is standing, dripping in water “What the hell is wrong with you?! The nerd's mom is going to kill you!”
“Kacchan, I keep telling you, Yukari isn't m-” Katsuki interrupts.
“Not Yukari- well her too- but I was talking about Auntie Inko” Katsuki is interrupted by the girl clearing her throat.
“So, I'm not seeing any obvious mutations and most youkai don't have phones, so who are you two?” She demands, crossing her arms.
“We’re humans, from outside like you are, now c'mon lets go” Katsuki orders, feeling the air shift before the gap even opens.
“We’re here, we brought the infiltrator" Katsuki announces and Yukari stands up, immediately moving behind Katsuki to get a good look at both Yanagi and Izuku. She immediately points at Yanagi, Katsuki can feel an aura from her but Izuku doesn't seem to notice.
“You will wait. Izuku, are you alright?” She asks, kneeling down to Izuku's level.
“Y-Yeah, just- hurts…I'll be better in a bit” Izuku grits out, Yukari nods and faces Katsuki.
“Katsuki, use the pendant to take Izuku to his room in the mansion, I'll deal with this” Katsuki nods, not registering being referred to as his first name. He lifts Izuku after opening the gap and steps through. Upon arriving there he lies Izuku down on his bed and slips out to inform someone. He wanders for a bit, remembering where the library is during one of his previous visits. Upon entering he calls out.
“Bookworm, Izuku needs something, he got shot during a duel or whatever it's called.” Patchouli stands up, grabbing something from her desk.
“Danmaku, Bakugou, danmaku, here, it's a painkiller. There's no physical wound but there is pain. Give him this and tell him to drink it, after an hour bring him to me.” Patchouli hands Katsuki a flask and he heads back to Izuku's room.
“Izuku, the bookworm said this’ll work as a painkiller, drink.” Katsuki uncorks the bottle and helps Izuku drink it, after he does Izuku slumps back into his bed and slowly relaxes. He heads to the library after the nerd fell asleep not dead he checked “Here, the bottle. The nerd fell asleep, I'm gonna go tell the others. Yukari is already dealing with the girl who shot him so don't worry about that.” Katsuki leaves, wandering around the mansion looking for any of the others (preferably not Flandre) when that exact girl approaches him.’
“Kacchan! Where's Izuku? He is with you, right?” She asks, tilting her head to the side.
“The nerd is in his recovering from a danmaku battle, he got shot.” Katsuki sees the vampire tilt her head to the side.
“What youkai did he fight who was using a bow…?” She asks.
“Not a youkai, a human, and not a bow, a gun. The nerd is asleep now by the way” Katsuki corrected and Flandre shrugged before flying off to Izuku’s room presumably. Katsuki continues and finds Remilia and Sakuya talking in a lounge area. “Hey, vampire, stand-user, Izuku's asleep. He got shot during a danmaku battle earlier, I gave him something the bookworm told me to and she said to bring him to her in an hour.”
After this Katsuki heads to the gate, not to leave but to bother Meiling “Oi, dragonborn, wake the fuck up.” From experience, Meiling won't wake up simply by yelling so he sets off an explosion right next to her head. She scrambles to her feet, alert.
“Bakugou, what the hell?!” She glares at Katsuki, who huffs a laugh. His laugh is cut off by a text tone that he has set for one person in particular, shooting a text telling them to wait an hour because he is finishing something important. He makes small talk with Meiling when the timer he set goes off, he waves to Meiling as he heads back to Izuku's room. Upon entry he sees in the far corner relaxing on the chair Izuku claimed from the library is Flandre watching Izuku sleep as she messes with her phone that Izuku got her. During Christmas Izuku gave each major member of the Scarlet Devil mansion a phone to keep in contact. Katsuki shakes Izuku’s shoulder slightly.
“Nerd, if you don't wake up I'm gonna take your rainbow-full art All Might Sir Nighteye team up card.” Izuku immediately jolts awake, grabbing Katsuki's wrist instinctively before relaxing.
“Kacchan, what is it?” Izuku asks groggy.
“Bookworm asked me to get you after you slept for an hour cuz of the medication she gave you, c'mon lets go see her” Katsuki helps Izuku up and Flandre falls in step with them. Upon arriving at the library Patchouli speaks up.
“Izuku? How are you feeling?” Patchouli asked, concerned.
“A lot better, there's no pain anymore.”
“Good, now there is a catch, unsurprisingly with how strong that potion was, for 18 hours you won't be able to lie.” Patchouli informed and Izuku nodded, unbothered, meanwhile Katsuki was groaning internally wondering all the ways this could go wrong.
“Alright, that's fine, Kacchan, we should head back to our parents, yeah? We really just said we’ll be going shopping.” Izuku asks.
“Nah, got an invite from someone in Eientei, I've already texted my mom, Auntie Inko is probably worried sick though.” Katsuki responds, Izuku nods and opens a gap, waving bye to Patchouli and Flandre and making his way to his apartment, after arriving Inko peeks in from the kitchen.
“Oh, Izuku! You're home, oh, what happened to your shirt?” Inko asked, taking Izuku's shirt into her hands, looking where the bullet hole was.
“Got shot.” Izuku replied and immediately realized he lied more than he thought he did.
“GOT SHOT, BABY WE GOTTA GET YOU TO THE ER!” Inko is immediately rushing around, grabbing her purse and other items she would need.
“No, mom. I'm fine see” Izuku raises his shirt “There's no wound, it was a danmaku battle.” Inko checks and sure enough there's no wound.
“Izuku, explain.” She orders, Izuku sighs and pulls out his phone.
“Let me call Yukari, she can explain better than I can.” Izuku then calls Yukari, requests her assistance in explaining everything to Inko, she agrees and it's not long before a gap opens in the living room.
“Hello Inko, hello Izuku. I'm glad to see you're better. I suppose I owe you an explanation, Inko.” Yukari says after stepping out of the gap. Yukari sits Inko down and explains everything, the first meeting all the way to youkai themselves. After a while Inko turns to Izuku.
“So you've been going to this place for over a year, making friends with potentially dangerous creatures, and have a home in a mansion owned by a vampire? Oh, and Katsuki knows all of this?” She asks.
“I’ve only been seriously injured once now, and I've learned a lot from Gensokyo mom! Kacchan can confirm.” Izuku replies and Inko backs down first.
“Alright, you can keep going, but I have one condition. I would like a house in Gensokyo as well so if you get hurt I don't have to go through Yukari to get there. They have internet there so I can continue my writing.” She explains and Yukari nods.
“That can be arranged easily, thank you Inko.” Yukari nods and leaves, afterwards Inko places her face in her hands.
“This is all very confusing Izuku, but I won't tell you no, just don't get hurt.” She pleads and Izuku nods, he heads to bed after giving Inko a hug.
Chapter 9
Notes:
Btw, I know it's not completely clear, but the first paragraph here is Yukari's pov. Anyways, enjoy the chapter!
Chapter Text
As it turns out, getting Inko housed in Gensokyo was much easier than anticipated. Yukari didn't even have to do anything as just like with Izuku and Katsuki, her presence didn’t affect the border at all. Sumireko would have been more difficult if it weren't for the fact she could now just project herself here while asleep, somehow. Damn occult balls and their strange side-effects. Sumireko was told that if she pulled a stunt like that against Yukari's son Izuku again, there would be no less than 5 people willing to kill her. She got the message.
In recent news, Izuku has now managed to pull off Fire and Earth Sign: Lava Cromlech, and Sakuya is training him with knives! Despite that, middle school is still an interesting experience. Things have escalated somewhat to physical abuse but Izuku has Katsuki to help him, he can't imagine how bad his mental health would be if he didn't. Currently, Izuku is hanging out with Flandre in his room and they're discussing whatever comes to mind.
“Zu, what even like- what is your plan for your future? You've never told me.” Flandre asks after a while, Izuku is laying in his chair meanwhile Flandre is floating in place, spinning slowly.
“Really? Huh, guess it never came up, so by now you know what quirks are. Basically I wanna be a hero…like those old pre-quirk comics about superheroes, basically that…It’s- it’s gonna be hard as a quirkless and I can't use my magic as doing so risks exposure…and Yukari banned me from it so I'm just gonna have to work harder…my dream as a hero is to work in villain rehabilitation- don't misunderstand I wanna help the civilians but those villains are people too, and many of them remind me of how either Kacchan or I was before we came here…” Izuku replied, fully thinking about it for the first time since elementary school. “I dunno- from what I've learned while in Gensokyo is that just because someone is the enemy means that they're a bad person, sometimes it's a misunderstanding or due to a bad situation but with how Japan’s justice system is there's almost no hope of rehabilitation.”
“Rehab? I suppose that makes sense, not everyone is bad. Unfortunate that you can't use magic though…” She trailed off.
Izuku was reminded of that conversation when the teacher brought up high school applications, Izuku knew the teachers weren't fond of him but Katsuki was in this class, he was fine. After class, Izuku and Katsuki discussed for a while what they've been doing in Gensokyo before parting ways. Izuku is walking with his head down mumbling when he hears something, before he can react he's covered in a horrid smelling sewage.
“Don’t resist, it'll all be over soon, I just need a hiding place fast.” It hissed and Izuku tried, he couldn't declare a spell card like this and regular bullets have almost no effect outside of danmaku, and he's too far stuck for flight to work, Izuku blacks out.
Izuku is awoken by someone hitting him in the face. He stirs awake and sees a bright wide grin and piercing blue eyes “I CAPTURED THE VILLAIN, ARE YOU OKAY CITIZEN" A figure Izuku immediately recognized- All Might- asked.
“I- yes, I'm okay I think, I have a question though…” Izuku scuffed his stupid quirkless-indicitive shoes against the pavement…
"AH, I'M SORRY CITIZEN BUT I'M RUNNING OUT OF TIME. YOU CAN E-MAIL ANY QUESTIONS TO THE Q&A EMAIL ON MY WEBSITE AND I'LL RESPOND AS SOON AS I CAN” All Might said, crouching down and preparing to jump. Izuku panics, he needs to know, if he gets told no he isn't sure what he will do but he needs to know. He grabs onto All Might's leg as he takes off. “WHA- CITIZEN LET GO!"
“If I let go I die!” Izuku screamed back, not the truth but All Might didn't need to know that, plus most people can't fly- why is that his immediate response a mile in the air?
"fuck RIGHT! THAT ROOFTOP, I'LL LAND THERE” All Might points to a rooftop and Izuku nods, after landing Izuku takes a deep breath.
“Can a quirkless person be a hero?” Izuku asked, not looking up and he heard All Might cough which makes him look up, in a poof of smoke All Might is replaced by this lanky skinny guy. “Oh… Transformation quirk then…interesting.”
“Honestly- no, a quirkless person couldn't be a hero like me" All Might begins but Izuku cuts him off-
“That wasn't my question, I don't wanna be a hero like you, just want to be a hero in general.” Izuku corrects which makes All Might pause.
“Yes, I think a quirkless person could be a hero, there is- if you know your role and know your limits, then anyone could be a hero. I truly believe that. However, there are risks” All Might lifted his shirt, exposing a nasty scar and Izuku can't prevent the hiss that he lets out through his teeth “This, is the type of injuries you have to be prepared for no matter what role you play in heroics, if you hold a license, villains won't care if you're a front line or intelligence hero it makes you a target, as well as any loved ones. This is half my respiratory system and my stomach, are you willing to lose that much of yourself every time you put that costume on and step outside?" All Might asked and Izuku didn't hesitate to nod, he takes bigger risks every day he steps outside the mansion in Gensokyo anyway. Izuku nods, tears in his eyes.
“T-Thank you, you're one of the first to say that” Izuku thanks and All Might leaves, while Izuku is composing himself he hears a sound he's heard countless times, it's one of Katsuki’s explosions, a big one, he can tell because the magic causes it to have a unique ringing compared to his normal ones, Izuku scrambles to his feet and rushes down the fire escape running as fast as he can to the location. When he arrives he sees the slime villain from before but he has Katsuki now. Katsuki is thrashing, but it's no use as the sewage is too thick to get out of. He doesn't hesitate, too used to danmaku, that hesitation is the difference between life and death, he rushes forward and reaches into his pocket and remembering his training with Sakuya he throws a pencil as hard as he can at the villain's eye. It hits and the villain yells out in pain and starts to flail about. Izuku ducks under the first swipe the villain sends his way and manages to grab Katsuki while jumping over the next and pulling as hard as he can, they get free due to Izuku pulling and Katsuki’s explosions and are sent back to the entrance of the alleyway. All Might steps in, blasting the villain away with a punch as Katsuki heaves for air. The ‘heroes’ that were on scene already approach, paramedics take Katsuki aside and they begin scolding Izuku for stepping in, how dangerous it was for him to and how easily he could have been killed. Izuku bites his tongue, not wanting to be seen as rude or worse- get a fine for interfering with a hero’s performance- He waits until Katsuki is discharged from the paramedics before heading home with him.
On the way home Katsuki and Izuku are talking when All Might steps out in front of him, too caught up in his head to notice the other person beside Izuku. “YOUNG MA-n I have a question for you.” All Might deflates halfway through the sentence and the ‘what the fuck’ Katsuki lets out seems make All Might acknowledge his presence for the first time “shit.”
“Do you always curse so much?” Izuku can't help but ask, he knows it's in English but still plenty of people speak English so it doesn't make that much sense.
"Uhm- not important, listen okay so, young man, did your legs move on their own?” Izuku nods, confused where this is going, he glances at Katsuki and sees the glazed over look in his eye that tells Izuku, Katsuki has mentally checked out. "I’ve been told moving on your own like that is a trait of a great hero, so young man, I would like to offer you the opportunity to be an even better one. Meet me at Dagobah beach tomorrow at hm…let's say 5:30 AM and I'll explain more and…bring your friend, I think he's gonna ask questions.”
Chapter Text
The next day is already interesting, Izuku and Katsuki meet up at 5 to discuss as well as for Izuku to catch Katsuki up on the situation. “So, let me get this straight, you got attacked by that sludge thing ‘uh huh’ met All Might ‘uh huh’ he revealed a national secret to you without telling you ‘uh huh’ then your dumbass ‘Hey!’ saved me from the same villain while a bunch of d-listers watched me suffocate ‘uh huh’ and now we are here? Izuku, are we sure you don't have a danger attracting quirk? Like- I thought it was bad enough that you kept getting attacked by that one human-eating youkai and that you have an actual stalker but now this? Not to mention who you have a crush on…” Katsuki summarizes.
“The Rumia thing isn't my fault and she isn't that bad…” Izuku defends himself “Also, when are you going to stop with that stalker nonsense?” It's not long after that when Izuku and Katsuki arrive at the beach and holy shit that's a lot of garbage. They see All Might already there, looking around before jogging over to them
”Ah, you've arrived- ‘Bakugou’ ‘Midoriya’ listen, apparently there's an emergency meeting at my agency that I have to attend so I'll make this short. Young Midoriya, I have a quirk that can be transferred from person to person, I would like you to inherit this quirk. If you agree then I will be working with you from now until entrance exams to get you physically fit enough to safely use it. To do this I would like you to clean half of this beach to serve as both a public service exercise and to build up muscle. If you have any questions, here's my personal number. Young Bakugou is also allowed to help if he wishes but remember this is for your training young Izuku, it'll be ineffective if young Bakugou does all the work, now I'll be off and I'll text you a diet and exercise plan young Midoriya. Have a wonderful day!” All Might hands them both a card with just a phone number on it and hops in a very old, very rigged up american pickup truck and leaves.
“I'm calling your mom,” Katsuki announces after a few moments of silence.
“You really need to clarify which one, I know my mom spends a lot of time with Yukari now that she lives right next to her but Yukari isn't my mom (yet).” Izuku responds and Katsuki simply flashes his phone screen which shows ‘Izuku’s (youkai) mom’.
“Yes Katsuki, what is it?” Yukari answers the phone.
“You know All Might, right? I know Gensokyo is a little out of dep- ‘yes I know All Might’ well he just offered Izuku his quirk.” Katsuki explains.
“Yagi did what?” Yukari asks, her tone going flat.
“All Might offered Izuku his quirk, apparently it’s- okay understood, be right there.” Katsuki cuts himself off when a gap opens right in front of them. He hangs up and both him and Izuku step through, now face to face with both Yukari and Inko. “He offered Izuku his quirk.”
“How are you two the most chaotic creatures I've ever met and still haven't caused an incident…? Either way, explain now.” Yukari orders and they explain yesterday and today with Inko listening, she's becoming somewhat used to the shenanigans Izuku and Katsuki cause in Gensokyo so she's not that surprised. “Okay, so Izuku, what do you want to do?”
“I thing I wanna accept, I mean, this is a great opportunity and I see no reason to not, unless you disagree.”
“No, One For All would be of great use to you, I see no reasons to decline, but ultimately it's your mother’s decision” Yukari informs, ignoring Katsuki’s mumble of ‘so that's what it's called.’
“I- well honey…I see no reason to say no. You're in more danger here in Gensokyo than you would be daily as a hero, even as a frontline-combatant so yes, I would accept it.” Inko replies after a small stammer. Izuku sends off an affirmation text to All Might and he gets a PDF of the training plan back.
“He just sent me the training plan, I will have to show Sakuya the dietary restrictions but its nothing insane, what does the training look like?” Izuku asks, showing Yukari the phone.
“I’m not well versed in muscle building or anything like that, but I have a friend who would know.” Yukari sends out a text and soon there's a booming knock on the door and a shortish woman steps in, a gourd in hand and a far-too-wide smile on her face, she has a white blouse on with a purple skirt. Two large horns protrude on either side of her head, and she has a permanent unnatural blush.
“Yukari! It's been a while since I've seen you, what do you need me for?~” She slurs and despite her obvious intoxication she walks perfectly fine.
“Hello Suika, would you mind taking a look at this for Izuku? You know more about strength training than I do” Yukari requests, holding the phone out to Suika, Izuku and Katsuki both recognize the girl from Keine’s lessons.
“Ah~ hm it's not bad, could use more time but I don't think that can be helped except one thing. Yur going into bein a hero, I can't think of many reasons you would need to gain this much strength this fast unless you were gonna fight and Imma be honest, you ain't gonna win nothin if you don't know how to fight, even if yur super strong. You hang out at the vampire’s place, ask Meiling to teach you and I can too between yur training.” She replies, handing the phone back to Yukari. “Yukari can give you my number, whenever you wanna train I'm free.” Just like that the oni is gone.
“Alright, I'm going to go to the mansion and tell everyone there, as well as give Sakuya the meal plan, Kacchan, do you wanna come with me?” Izuku asks, Katsuki shakes his head so Izuku opens a gap to the mansion and steps through. Looking at the time Izuku knows they’re having their nightly tea party (in reality an information sharing system) so Izuku heads to the lounge. “Hey,” he greets as he opens the door “so, I just got offered a quirk” Izuku sits in the open chair that's left for him.
“Really? Didn't you say those were biological? How does that work?” Patchouli asks, leaning forward.
“No idea, supposedly is it transferable, maybe its DNA transferred, hopefully he wont make me like eat his hair or anything- ew.” Izuku responds after a moment he couldnt imagine doing that, he would rather drink blood, disease be damned. “With that being said, Sakuya, are these meal plans too difficult to follow?” He passes his phone to her and she shakes her head.
“These are doable, a bit bland but doable- I have no idea why its unseasoned baked chicken and plain rice. Would you be willing to add a couple calories in exchange for flavour?” Sakuya asks and Izuku nods rapidly. He stands back up after taking his phone back.
“I know it's early, but I'm exhausted mentally so I'm heading to bed.” Izuku states before leaving, he's almost alarmed by Flandre being on the other side of the door if he didn't know she eavesdropped on every tea party. “Hey Flan” She falls in step beside him.
“So you're getting a quirk? That's great! What kind?” She asks, excitedly.
“It’ll be a strength booster, I may get to be as strong as Suika eventually with it” Izuku replies and Flandre's eyes widen considerably.
“On par with Suika? Jeez, that's a lot, you'll be able to help more with that too… anyway, I'm gonna go bother Meiling now, cya later Zu!~” Flandre flies off and Izuku heads to bed.
Chapter 11
Notes:
We got 1K hits! Excited to see that people are reading this fic! Anyways, enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Text
Fighting with Suika is hell, Izuku decides, the training for One For All has been going well and fortunately All Might was a bit more forward about how his quirk worked once asked, currently Izuku is lying on the ground, covered in sweat while Suika is bouncing around.
“C’mon Izuku, you gotta do better than that, you really gonna lose to a drunk person?~” She teases and Izuku takes the hint and hauls himself to his feet. They've been training for a while now, the beach is getting there and Izuku’s been developing rapidly, but training with Suika is miserable. When he is ready he throws a punch, Suika side steps it and Izuku follows it up with a roundhouse kick, she nods, a system that they can use mid-match to indicate good form before grabbing his foot and tossing Izuku over her shoulder, causing him to hit the (thankfully padded) wall and slide down it. “Alright, that's enough for today, your kicks are a lot better now, how many more months of training do you have again?” She asks.
“Two more…then the entrance exam.” Izuku responds standing up, already planning to head to his apartment for a shower then home to sleep.
Knife training is as it's always been, throwing practice and spars using danmaku to make it so no injuries are sustained, “Good block, Izuku” He barely gets a moment to duck before she's behind him and swinging a knife in an arc, he thrusts a knife behind him to stab but knows it's fruitless when there's a cut on his neck.
“Y’know, your time stop makes this nearly impossible to land a hit, right?” Izuku asks, backing off and Sakuya simply gives a smile.
“If you can't handle this then how will you handle a time manipulation quirk?” She asks rhetorically, appearing inches in front of him again.
“I don't think there exists a time manipulation quirk as strong as your bullshit!” He yelps out after a knife was suddenly launched his way.
Training with Meiling was surprisingly a lot more calm than the other two. A lot of the time she simply guided him through martial art stances, stretches and various meditation exercises, although the spars were very rough, her kicks hurt a lot. “Remember, for fighting it's not just the muscles of the limb you're using, it's your entire body, you gotta be loose to be smooth and smooth is good.”
Cleaning the beach is probably the easiest and most boring part. He respects All Might but doesn't idolize him as much as he used to. Overall it gets done roughly a week before the entrance exam. He cleaned about 3/4ths of the beach with the last quarter being Katsuki or this weird pink haired girl he didn't interact with much- she scares him- and once the last piece is done he takes off his work gloves and just…lies in the sand before sending All Might a picture with the caption ‘all done’. Within minutes All Might arrives, buffing down as he lands.
"Young Midoriya! Congratulations, I would offer dinner and a cheat meal but I would like to have you use One For All first to be sure it doesn't blow your limbs off ‘do what now?’ Now…EAT THIS” All Might plucks out a strand of hair and Izuku can't help but burst into laughter.
“I’m sorry- it's just I predicted this and admittedly while safer I would prefer another method, this is fine though.” Before All Might can take it back Izuku eats the hair and after a few moments…nothing “Was I supposed to feel something- oh wait, I have to wait for it to digest first. Well uhm…Guess I'll see you tomorrow Yagi?” Izuku asks awkwardly. Yagi nods and both part ways, eager for tomorrow.
Chapter 12: Katsuki goes to (Former) Hell
Chapter by The_Current
Notes:
Holy shit I forgot how short this chapter was. We haven't looked at these in a hot minute considering we're currently working on chapter 61.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Katsuki has had enough of this gods’ damned stalker. She's been pissing him off for years and he hasn't been able to do anything about it. So, after learning from Keine who the stalker was (Koishi Komeiji), a possible solution to get her to stop (maybe ask her sister?), and where to go (deep in the Underworld), he came up with a plan. It was, all things considered, a horrible plan.
The first step is relatively simple, since the Underworld is just directly underground of Gensokyo, all he had to do was find a way down. Easy, right? Wrong. Even with all the times he's explored Gensokyo (Don't ever go near the sunflowers), it took him a few days to find an entrance.
After that Katsuki’s gotta travel on the Deep Road to Hell (Yeah that's it's actual name. Real comforting). Along the way he saw some fucking psycho in a bucket, and he made damn sure to keep the hell (Hah) away from her. And don't even get him started on that fucking bridge keeper, she was so annoying and fake.
Once he finally makes it to Old Hell (Wait, where exactly is Hell now then?) and into the Palace of the Earth Spirits, he finally gets to talk to Satori (did she really not come up with an actual name?).
“I do not care enough to bother with such things, Bakugou Katsuki.” she bluntly states, catching Katsuki off guard for a split-second.
“Right, whatever, anyways I didn't travel all the way down here for nothing. Can you please do something about your sister? She's been stalking my friend for fucking years, and I have had enough of it.”
“...Huh, so that's what she's been spending most of her time doing recently. I must say that I'm impressed by your ability to perceive her. However, I do not control where she goes or what she does, so I don't see how you think I can do anything about your situation.”
“Could you, like, ask her to talk to us? At least then Izuku will finally believe me about him having a stalker.”
“Has your friend’s disbelief of the existence of a stalker really bothered you more than the very idea of being stalked?”
“Yes.”
“Fine, I will bring it up with her the next chance I get.”
“Thank you."
After that conversation, Katsuki decides to actually check out the city around the palace (Old Capital, man most of these names are shitty) to at least see if it would be worth coming back down here. And this is why Katsuki's plan was such a horrible one. Because he discovered that many of the oni down here love fighting.
So of course he tries to challenge one of them. And promptly get crushed. Because they outmatched him just as bad as Mokou did, except it's worse since they don't fight dirty like she does. You’d think this would make him reconsider the idea of trying to fight these people, make him realize that trying to win against them is a fool's errand with his capabilities, but no.
He. Just. Keeps. Trying. To. FIGHT. THEM.
And if Yukari forces him into a gap to just fucking go home and heal, well, then, nobody has to know about it.
Notes:
Oh by the way, this chapter takes place sometime during chapter 11.
Chapter 13
Notes:
Two chapters posted today because I would feel bad about just giving 12. Anyways, enjoy!
Chapter Text
“Well nerd, feel any different?” was the first thing asked to Izuku in the morning. Katsuki had wanted to tag along to the test to see Izuku’s new quirk in action. Currently they're heading for the beach, ready to meet up with All Might.
“Yeah, actually. In my chest right over my heart is this kinda…warmth I guess, it's hard to explain” Izuku responded, absentmindedly scratching at his chest. Soon, they arrive at the beach and Yagi is already there, sitting on his tailgate waiting. Upon seeing him he steps down and jogs over.
“Young Midoriya, how are you feeling? Any different?” Yagi asks and Izuku nods “Alright then! I suppose there's no reason to delay, just stand over there and throw a punch at the ocean!” Izuku nods and walks over, he takes a deep breath before pausing.
“Hey- uhm how exactly do I activate it?” Izuku asks, and notices Katsuki holding his phone out, no doubt recording for his mom(s). Yagi pauses for a moment before speaking up.
“Just clinch your buttcheeks and from the depth of your heart yell smash, that's what I've always done.” As soon as Yagi finishes Izuku can see Katsuki barely holding in his laughter.
“I’ve always envisioned hitting a detonator for my quirk, but then again it's not my quirk so it's up to you.” Katsuki chimes in.
“Alright then, here goes nothing.” Izuku closes his eyes and gets into the fighting stance he made via sparring with Suika, he takes a deep breath and opens his eyes. He already stretched prior to leaving the mansion so he's loose. He decides to try Yagi’s method first, who knows it may work. He draws his fist back and reaches into his heart (whatever that means)...and clinches his buttcheeks and throws a basic punch…nothing happens. “Alright, let's try another method then,” Izuku resets his stance and takes another deep breath. This time he focuses on that heat that's on his chest. He imagines poking at it and he feels a surge of…something. He can tell based on how that one poke went that if he goes all in it'll be too much, he will be lucky if he survives that so instead he imagines a valve and he opens it just a bit. He feels power flow through his blood, and Katsuki lets out a gleeful laugh seeing it. Izuku brings his arm up to his face, examining the lightning that's arcing over his skin, and Izuku throws the punch. A wave of air follows pushing the water backwards. Izuku lets out a wet laugh, tears gathering in his eyes as he stares at his body, lightning arcing all over him before turning back to Katsuki and Yagi. Yagi looks like he's glowing with pride albeit a little confused and Katsuki is grinning a feral grin Izuku’s seen before that indicates he's excited for a fight before pointing behind Izuku. Izuku turns around curious before letting out a yelp as he gets drenched in water by the miniature tsunami he caused by his punch and Katsuki is clutching his stomach laughing while Yagi looks amused.
“Young Midoriya, I'm assuming based on the shockwave that you were limiting yourself, how much power were you using?” Yagi asks and Izuku hums, activating the quirk again and turning it off for confirmation.
“4-5ish% I think. It kinda fluctuates and I dunno what the lightning is about but it should be about 4-5%” Izuku nods and Katsuki simply grins wider and ends the recording.
“So you do know we have to show the others, right?” Katsuki asks, and Izuku nods. Yagi nods as well. Izuku told him about telling his family already and Yagi was perfectly understanding of it.
“I’ll leave you two to go tell Young Midoriya’s family, make sure you get One for All registered soon. I am very proud of you young Midoriya, know that.” All Might leaves and after he does Izuku and Katsuki go to Yukari’s house. When they arrive Katsuki immediately shows Inko the video, after watching it she pulls Izuku into a hug, bursting into tears and Izuku allows himself to as well. Izuku also feels Yukari pull them both into a hug and Inko manages to speak despite her tears.
“Bakugou Katsuki, if you do not join this hug I will ground you.” He huffs but joins the hug, resting his head onto Izuku’s and Izuku simply relaxes into the warmth of those he considers his family.
“I think me and Kacchan are gonna go tell Remilia and the others,” Izuku speaks up after a few (15) minutes of crying. He summons a gap and tugs Katsuki through first and as he speaks up he calls back "I'll be home for dinner tonight mom, mama.”
Walking through the gap Izuku is immediately greeted by the Scarlet Devil crew awaiting him and Katsuki, they were already told about what was happening today and Remilia has organized a party for the occasion. Izuku steps aside, making some distance between him and Katsuki and fires up One For All again at 5% and Flandre immediately rushes over, circling him.
“You’re glowing! How does it feel? Are you able to beat Suika now?” She asks, rapidly and Izuku lets the power stop.
“It's odd, and no, I cannot beat Suika, maybe eventually but my body cant handle the entire thing so im just using a fraction of it now. It's still a bit tiring to use though but it's comfortable, also I don't think the lightning conducts electricity cuz I got drenched in water earlier and it didn’t.” Izuku responds, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “So the plan is me and Kacchan study with Keine, we take the entrance exam (Yes Sakuya I submitted the form about my knives), and then while waiting for results I'm probably gonna practice my Wood Sign card in the meantime”
“When are you gonna fight me then nerd?” Katsuki asked, already getting impatient.
“Knowing our luck we will be paired up to fight during the first battle exercise in UA, calm down” Izuku replied, letting out an amused huff. “Anyway, so party then sleep is probably my plan for the day, mom already called in sick for me for school.” After that announcement they begin the party, in reality it's more of a feast than anything although Flandre does invite Izuku to a dance-in reality it's more of just spinning than anything- and afterwards he heads to bed.
The rest of the week is uneventful, after school Katsuki and Izuku get tutored by Keine and before either feel fully ready the two boys are standing at the gate black gakuran on and Izuku may be panicking a bit “Kacchan, what if I forget something? Or somehow the form about my knives being accepted was denied.” He continues mumbling before he's nudged by Katsuki.
“You’ll be fine nerd, damn. C'mon, we gotta get going, we don't wanna be late.” Katsuki hauls Izuku by his collar inside, after a while of debating where to go (they knew Nedzu liked to watch the examinees try to find their rooms according to the forums online) they finally find Izuku’s then Katsuki's.
All things considered the written test isn't that bad, Izuku was actually surprised with the amount of pre-quirk history on it- thank the gods for Keine- and afterwards Izuku finds his seat in a lecture hall beside Katsuki. During the presentation given by a hero (Present Mic?) Izuku relieves his anxiety by playing with the knives Sakuya got him. They are silver with a green hilt and small pieces of green and red shards are embedded in the pommel. Once they're released with an explanation about what to do Izuku gets changed into his sparring gear (a t-shirt tucked into athletic shorts with his knife holsters mounted on his waist and thighs because he has like 10 knives, sue him) he gets on the bus, clutching the bag with the knives themselves.
After arriving at the testing site Izuku begins to strap his knives on and he hears murmurs spark up around him. Izuku does his best to ignore them until he's suddenly touched on the shoulder “You! Why do you have weapons on the school grounds?” A tall blue-haired bespeckled boy asks.
“They’re support gear? I filled out a form…” Izuku responds, trailing off.
“Support gear? They look like normal knives to me. What kind of technology do they contain?” He asks, voice booming around the area.
“Nothing, they're just normal knives-” Izuku is cut off by the announcement that the exam has started after just a fraction of a second, not quick enough, he takes off running drawing two knives as he does. He tries to recall what Sakuya taught him about fighting non-humanoid foes as he runs, eventually running into 3 1-pointers and a 2-pointer. Izuku immediately rushes into battle figuring out whatever the metal they're made of provides almost no resistance against his knives so with 4 decapitated robots behind him Izuku keeps running.
The majority of the exam goes like this, decapitating robots and pulling those out of the way who are in danger. Izuku has no idea how many points he has as keeping track of that takes brainpower away from slicing. Izuku is trying to take note of where he may have gotten hurt but it's hard (damn danmaku making him used to ignoring pain) when the earth shakes and a warning about 2 minutes left is declared. After just a moment there is a large-skyscraper tall robot dwarfing the entire mock-city. Izuku turns to follow the crowd-away- before he hears a cry for help. He spins around and sees a girl with brown hair trapped under a piece of rubble and he feels himself rushing forward without thinking about it.
“It would be easier to take out the zero-pointer than to get the girl up as if she's been impaled by rebar or anything then I'd have to move the rock as well.” He mumbles and so runs past the girl instead activating One for All as he drags a knife through what should be the ankle of the robot. It provides significantly more resistance than the other robots do but he cuts through. After cutting through he waits until it attempts to take a step using the now-severed foot and reaches up, opening the valve for One For All even more as he pushes upwards which sends the bot tumbling back since it's not capable of that level of self-stabilization. After it tumbles, he approaches the girl. “Hello, are you okay? Is there any place where it's stabbing you or just crushed?” Izuku asks, putting away his knives.
“I- I'm not impaled or anything like that, just crushed” She replies and Izuku lifts the boulder off of her leg, wincing at the unnatural way it's bent.
“Here, I'll get a nurse, don't move or let anyone move you.” Izuku calls and he runs off, following the call for a hero he recognizes well, Recovery Girl. “Recovery Girl, we have a broken leg over here” The hero nods and Izuku leads her to the brunette. After she gets healed, Recovery Girl insists upon healing Izuku so he reluctantly obliged (he was looking forward to working on the Fire & Wood sign). He meets Katsuki at the entrance, somewhat tired due to the healing (he bruised himself as he pushed his quirk past his current limit). Katsuki is currently glaring directly across from him as if there was someone there who has personally wronged him.
“Kacchan, how did your exam go?” He asks walking up beside the admittedly much taller boy.
“Fine- some of these idiots seemed like they were throwing themselves in front of attacks. I had to pull so many people out of the way of obviously telegraphed attacks.” He huffs “Ready to go? Your girlfriend is probably been annoying the shit out of Remilia wondering when you'll be back.~”
“She’s not my girlfriend! I will light you on fire.” Izuku blushes bright red and threatens. Its not long before they were back in Gensokyo.
Chapter Text
Yukari was worried. Not about Izuku (for once) or Katsuki (She still hasn't forgiven him for that stunt in Old Hell a few months back), but about Gensokyo. There hadn't been an incident since that Sumireko girl appeared, and that had barely been an incident considering Izuku played a major role in solving it (Nothing against him, he's just nowhere near the level of the actual incident solvers). This silence in Gensokyo has made even Reimu paranoid. But now there's an incident right around the corner, almost certainly a major one if that new Occult Orb Marisa found and the thing that crashed into Youkai Mountain are connected. Hopefully the boys are fine without her watching over them for a few days so she can focus on this upcoming incident.
Waiting for results is hell, Izuku decides, not because of the anxiety involved in waiting but rather who has taken an interest (kidnapped) him over the wait. Marisa snagged him for training the day after the exam. He's heard of her from Patchouli (no good things, mind you) but he never encountered her. However, she saw him practicing his magic and immediately challenged Izuku to a duel. Izuku being Izuku accepts and she wipes the floor with him (This may have been the worst he has lost ever.) and she basically demands to train him in her magic. She never sleeps and is loud constantly, but she's good at magic, surprisingly the spell card she's been trying to teach him isn't horrible, it's essentially raw magic focused into a beam, the problem is he needs a focus, and this gets him thinking. As a random test, Izuku decides to activate One for All to see what would happen, and he follows what Marisa told him, stabilize yourself, concentrate on the palms of your hand, and dump all the magic you can into them and a beam should form. Suddenly, when he pushes the magic a thin white beam of light appears followed by a massive laser, accompanied by a deafening roar. Izuku lets out a breathless laugh before promptly passing out from magic overuse.
Waking up at Yukari’s house is always interesting, it almost always means he's gonna be scolded as he rarely ever falls asleep there. Getting out of bed, he sees Katsuki talking to Chen who seems to be excitedly rambling about…something. Ran is in the kitchen (he can see her tails peeking out) and Inko and Yukari are giving scolding glares at him. “...morning?” He squeaks out.
“Izuku, what were you thinking? You knew you didn't have enough magic for that and to fly home. I don't see why I let Marisa train you to begin with- it's because she's one of the only people Reimu actually trusts- but still, you should know your limits by now!” Yukari scolds, Inko nodding beside her. Izuku swears he saw Katsuki shudder and blanch at the mention of whoever Reimu is.
“Sorry mama… I just got excited cuz I had an idea” Izuku looks down somewhat and notices Katsuki holding something. “Wait- we got our letters?!” Izuku asks, and Inko nods, handing the letter to him. It's heavier than you would expect and has the UA seal on it.
“Finally you woke up damn nerd, you've been asleep for like…half a day now at least.” Katsuki teases "Haven't opened mine yet, wanted to see yours first.” Izuku nods, and opens his letter and a disc falls onto the table and All Might’s projection appears before deflating into Yagi.
“Hello young Midoriya! I am here to announce how your test went. On the written you passed with a wonderful 96%, however I'm assuming that's not what you're here for. On the practical you scored a solid score of 31 points, however, we also award points for helping those in danger! Thanks to your heroic efforts you earned an additional 66 rescue points. I would display the leaderboard here but I have a feeling young Bakugou will be opening his letter with you. Either way I shall see you in your first heroics class as a member of UA Izuku Midoriya!” The hologram shuts off and Katsuki is already ripping his open. This time it's a scruffy, lanky, exhausted looking man who appears.
“Hello, I am Aizawa Shouta, Bakugou, you scored a 96% on the paper exam, enough to pass and on the practical you obtained 77 villain points. However we also commend you for your heroic saves and thus you were awarded an extra 20 hero points. Welcome to class 1-A” The man announces monotone and he is replaced by a leaderboard. Both boy’s let out a squawk at who placed 1st in the exam. It was a tie between both of them, scoring the exact same total score amount. They're brought back to reality by Inko laughing.
“I can't say I’m surprised, you two have always been far too similar for your own good. Now, there should be a supplies list attached, me and Yukari will be working on something while you two go shopping for school supplies.” Inko instructs and both boys nod, using the pendants to open a gap outside of Gensokyo.
Izuku is a ball of anxiety for the first day of school, Sakuya managed to fix whatever he did to his tie (thank the gods) and leaves to meet up with Katsuki after breakfast. “Kacchan, are you excited?~” Izuku asks, almost vibrating due to a mix of anxiety and excitement.
“Yeah yeah you damn nerd, c'mon. After classes we need to find a place on campus to set up a warp anyway.” Katsuki huffs and they get on the train. After pulling up the map (now they provide a map?) they find their class. Once entering they are greeted by the tall blue haired boy at the entrance exam.
“Hello! I am Iida Tenya, it's a pleasure to be your classmate for this year- oh, it's you! I did some research and I apologize about the knife incident, since then I have actually educated myself.” Iida introduces, Katsuki gives him a weird look but Izuku ignores it.
“I'm Midoriya Izuku and this is Bakugou Katsuki. Its nice to meet you too.” Izuku greets and Iida seems content with that so they move to their seats. People slowly file in over time, generally simply finding a seat and Izuku and Katsuki both notice a yellow…blob(?) at the door. Katsuki seems content to ignore it, instead staring out the window at…something, meanwhile Izuku is mentally recounting his fighting stances he learned via Suika and Meiling. Eventually after the bell rings the blob stands up and out emerges the man from Katsuki's result hologram (Aizawa was it?).
“30 seconds, far too long. I'm Aizawa Shota, your homeroom teacher,” He throws a bunch of uniforms on his podium, “Put these on and meet me at the PE grounds, use your maps.” With that he leaves and after a moment Izuku is following Katsuki who is leading the class after they got changed. Once they arrive Aizawa speaks up “We will be running through the physical tests your school provided but with quirks. Midoriya, Bakugou, who had the higher score quirkless?” Izuku points to Katsuki “Alright, Bakugou, throw this ball as far as you can with your quirk. Stay in the circle.” Katsuki shrugs but nods, taking the ball. With a deep breath Katsuki rears back and a loud boom echoes out, Izuku can feel the ringing that indicates he put a lot of magic into that throw. Aizawa nods and the device he is holding beeps. “1150.3 meters. Good, get back in line.”
“We can use our quirks? This is gonna be fun!” A voice from the back exclaims excited and Izuku sees Aizawa turn around with a glare.
“Fun? You think this is fun? Hero work isn't fun. If you aren't capable of understanding that then fine. Last place gets expelled.” He threatens and Izuku can feel his anxiety spike.
Overall having a strength quirk tends to make physical exercises like the ones Aizawa runs them through pretty easy. One for All is used in almost every one (The one Izuku doesn't use it for is the endurance run and that's because he knows his is abnormally high and he will get quirk exhaustion if he does.) Izuku scores a decent 509 meters in the ball throw by kicking the ball.
The scores are as follows:
- Bakugou Katsuki
- Yaoyorozu Momo
- Todoroki Shoto
- Midoriya Izuku
- Iida Tenya
- Tokoyami Fumikage
- Shoji Mezo
- Ojiro Masahiro
- Kirishima Eijiro
- Ashido Mina
- Uraraka Ochako
- Koda Koji
- Sato Rikido
- Asui Tsuyu
- Aoyama Yuga
- Sero Hanta
- Kaminari Denki
- Jiro Kyoka
- Hagakure Toru
- Mineta Minoru
“Oh, by the way, nobody’s expelled. At your desks should be all the things you need for classes. Go eat lunch and go home” Aizawa announced. So, fueled by a desire for food, everyone heads back to the classroom. From there they head to the cafeteria.
“Hey Midoriya!” He hears behind him while talking to Katsuki so Izuku pauses, seeing the brown haired girl (Uraraka) run up to him “I just wanted to say thanks for the save in the entrance exam and was wondering if would like to walk to the station with me?” She asks, Izuku and Katsuki share a glance.
“No problem- and sorry but me and Kacchan were planning on doing some other things after this. Thanks for the invite though.” Izuku responds and Uraraka nods before leaving. After lunch Katsuki and Izuku begin exploring, trying to find a place to connect a gap to. Eventually they decide upon the closest bathroom to the classroom and leave for home from there.
Chapter 15
Notes:
You might have noticed that this chapter was posted a little earlier than usual, and that is because I decided we will be posting a chapter every 2 days now. Hope you enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Waking up in the Scarlet Devil Mansion is always an interesting experience. He stirs slowly, rising and floating down from the rafters where he awoke. He makes his way to Flandre’s room for some late night (early morning? Who cares, it's 3am) sparring. After some light sparring and overall just talking about whatever comes to mind, they're called for breakfast by Sakuya. After breakfast typically he spends time reading the latest book Patchouli assigned to him or he spends time with his moms until Katsuki shoots him a text saying he's ready. Now that school has started this schedule doesn't change which leaves Izuku at Yukari's house witnessing an unfortunately common debate.
“C’mon Yukari, he’ll be fine~ A little sip won't hurt him none.” Suika slurs. This is a normal occurrence, Suika stops by and continues offering Izuku alcohol. The only interesting thing is since Suika is actively dodging either Inko’s attacks with some kitchen utensil or Yukari's halfhearted magic attacks it shows Suika's fascinating magic ability to manipulate her density, thus becoming mist to be invulnerable and moving from place to place like that.
“Suika. We are not getting Izuku drunk. He's a growing boy, later on it's whatever he wants but not until he's at least done growing.” Yukari scolds while Inko is throwing a small pan at Suika every time she materializes and calls it back with her quirk after she misses. Izuku feels his phone buzz with a text from Katsuki and he stands up, already walking out with his schoolbag slung over his shoulder.
“Bye mom, bye mama, I'll text either of you if something goes wrong, if not I'll see you both tomorrow.” Izuku calls out over his shoulder and enters the gap he and Katsuki set up for UA yesterday to see Katsuki already there leaning against a wall.
“C’mon nerd, we got actual class today.” Katsuki and Izuku make small talk about various things outside of Gensokyo they saw on the news before class begins.
You would think classes in a school like UA would be new and exciting but really its nothing different than how a school should be (without the bullying). Classes go by, they eat lunch, more classes go by, before ending on the class that does make the day interesting: heroics. Everyone begins talking in the period between classes about who the teacher will be and what they'll be doing when the door is slammed open.
“I AM COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON.” All Might announces as he comes through the door in perhaps the most abnormal way physically possible. He presses a button on a remote and a wall recedes to reveal a shelf with suitcases that have numbers on them. “HELLO THERE, TODAY IS Y'ALL'S FIRST HEROICS EXERCISE AND AS YOUR TEACHER I WILL BE LEADING IT. GRAB A SUITCASE, THEY CORRESPOND TO YOUR SEAT NUMBER, GET CHANGED AND MEET ME AT GROUND BETA.” Everyone scrambles to a suitcase and moves to get changed. Izuku hasn't actually seen his costume yet, Yukari told him she would handle it and wanted it to be a surprise. All Izuku got to request on it was some kind of symbol to act as a tribute to both Yukari and Patchouli. After getting changed, Izuku is pleasantly surprised. His costume is a mint green tracksuit with a metal respirator that hangs in front of his neck. He has his knives just like for the entrance exam. Over his sternum is an eyeball design above an open book and he couldn't ask for better symbols for his mentors up until now. As Izuku walks with Katsuki to the training grounds he contemplates what symbols he could use to signify lightning.
“NOW YOU LOOK THE PART! TODAY WE WILL BE DOING BATTLE TRIALS. YOU WILL BE PAIRED IN GROUPS OF 2, ONE DEFENDING AND ONE ATTACKING. QUIRK USAGE ENCOURAGED. YOUR PARTNER WILL BE DECIDED VIA RANDOM CHOICE. THE RULES ARE AS FOLLOWS: THERE WILL BE A 5 MINUTE WINDOW WHERE THE DEFENDING TEAM WILL DECIDE THE LOCATION OF A PAPER-MACHE BOMB. THIS TIME WILL ALSO BE FOR THE ATTACKERS TO STRATEGIZE. AFTER THAT THE ATTACKERS ARE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE BUILDING. THE GOAL OF THE ATTACKERS IS TO SUCCESSFULLY APPREHEND THE DEFENDERS, DONE VIA WRAPPING THEM UP IN CAPTURE TAPE, HERE,” All Might shakes a box full of rolls of tape “ANOTHER WAY FOR THE ATTACKERS TO WIN IS TO PLACE A HAND ON THE BOMB. DEFENDERS ARE TASKED WITH DEFENDING THE BOMB FROM THE ATTACKERS UNTIL THE TIME LIMIT ENDS OR BY CAPTURING ALL THE ATTACKERS. ANY QUESTIONS?” All Might asks and Iida raises his hand.
“All Might, why are the teams random?” Iida asks and the girl with the big black ponytail chimes in.
“Well most of the time isn't this kind of thing somewhat random?” She asks and All Might nods.
“INDEED IT IS YOUNG YAOYOROZU, SOMETIMES IF IT IS AN ORGANIZED RAID THEN IT CAN BE CHOSEN. HOWEVER IF SOMETHING COMES UP DURING A PATROL OUTSIDE OF WHATEVER SIDEKICKS OR OTHER HEROES THAT ARE WITH YOU IT'S ENTIRELY RANDOM. NOW WE WILL DECIDE TEAMS AND THEN THE ATTACKERS WILL GRAB A FLOORPLAN OF WHATEVER BUILDING THEY WILL BE RAIDING WHILE THE DEFENDERS SET UP” All Might announces and a hand shoots up, its from a blonde guy in a leather jacket, he has a lightning bolt like design in his hair.
“Wait- so this isn't an organized thing but we have floorplans? How?” He asks. Reasonable question all things considered.
“GOOD QUESTION YOUNG KAMINARI, WHEN MAKING A BUILDING THERE HAS TO BE AN EVACUATION PLAN MADE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY. EVERY BUILDING MUST HAVE THIS PLAN SUBMITTED TO GET APPROVED BEFORE IT CAN BE BUILT AND THERE IS A DATABASE FOR HEROES USING THIS EVACUATION PLAN WHERE YOU CAN ACCESS THE FLOORPLAN. NOW, IT IS TIME TO DECIDE TEAMS.” All Might explains and begins drawing lots, Izuku gets ‘D’ and Uraraka walks over to him.
“Midoriya, we got paired together!” She cheers and Izuku nods up at her before pausing.
“Did- are- are those heels..?” Izuku asks, dawning horror on his face.
“Yeah, they are, why?” She confirmed.
“How…How are you planning to fight in those?” Izuku asked, bewildered.
“Uhm…I was kind of planning on being a rescue hero…” She responded, a bit sheepish.
“You would still have to run to be a rescue hero. I don't want to tell you how to do it or what to do about it as it is your costume but I wouldn't want you to get injured or hurt a civilian from falling due to having heels.” Izuku responded and looked back up at All Might, he realized he missed the actual teams but he knows that he's fighting team ‘G’ and Izuku is an attacker, and he's up next. After ‘A’ and ‘C’.
Izuku watches as the red and white haired guy and a pair of gloves(?) grab a floor plan from All Might and the purple haired girl with the weird earlobes and the girl with the pink skin carry the bomb into the building. The invisible (Izuku is assuming) person seems to be getting frustrated with the other boy while the defenders find a place for the bomb. They place it in a random storage closet on the top floor. After the time limit is up the half-and half boy stomps his foot and the entire building is covered in ice. Neither Katsuki nor Izuku are all that impressed, they've seen a fairy do better. Both the pink girl and the earlobe girl manage to free themselves from the ice (How did the ice break like that around the earlobe girl?) They seem to wait, although the pink girl is rubbing her arms. The ice boy enters the building, completely relaxed as he climbs the stairs. The invisible person follows behind him, looking very uncomfortable and occasionally slipping on the ice as they move, shivering. When the ice boy (the scar kinda reminds Izuku of Zuko) reaches the top hall, where the pink girl and earlobe girl are, he seems surprised but immediately a large ice structure is emitted, trapping both girls but with (something that looks like) a scream (Izuku can't be certain, there's no audio) it all shatters and the earlobe girl perks up before kicking in front of her, and wrapping…is that the invisible person- in tape. All Might hesitantly calls them out and the ice boy repeats his attack. This continues for a long time, a couple minutes at least before the pink girl gets close, the ice boy’s eyes widen and he throws a somewhat sloppy punch, it connects but he recoils as if burned and the pink girl wraps him up in the tape, and All Might declares that Todoroki (must be the ice boy) has been eliminated and that the defenders are the winner. Occe they all return back to the viewing room All Might begins speaking again.
“SO! DOES ANYONE WANT TO TELL ME THE MVP OF THE MATCH?” All Might asks and Katsuki speaks up.
“Jiro, she took out an invisible opponent and she was able to stall and distract long enough for her ally to move in and take down the more obvious threat.” He answered, Izuku is surprised he remembers anyone's name and Izuku also sees the ponytail girl (Yaoyorozu?) nod along to his explanation if not re-examining him seemingly. All Might nods.
“THAT IS CORRECT YOUNG BAKUGOU, HERE,” All Might takes Katsuki’s gauntlet, the revolver cylinder design he and Izuku came up with and places a star sticker on it. “HAVE A STICKER! NOW COULD TEAM ‘G’ TAKE A BOMB AND HEAD TO BUILDING B WHILE TEAM ‘D’ TAKE A MAP, I WILL ANNOUNCE WHEN PLANNING STARTS.” Izuku steps forward and takes the floor plan and he sees Iida grabbing the paper mache bomb with Katsuki following. Iida leads the way to the building as they walk and after All Might declares the start of the planning phase, both defenders disappear inside the building.
“Okay, so, I'm gonna let you know now, Kacchan is going to be hard targeting me. I'm gonna need you to capture the bomb more than likely. I'll be working on getting as close to the center of the building as I can, otherwise Kacchan will blast me outside and I'm at a disadvantage if he does that. Can you use your quirk on yourself?” Izuku asks, remembering her zero-gravity(?) quirk and she shakes herself out of staring at his costume (wonder what she was looking at).
“Uh, yeah, but I won't be able to get that high up,” Izuku hands her a pair of knives “What do you want me to do with these?”
“Climb up the building to the second to highest floor. Once you hear an explosion enter the nearest window and check the top floor. I don't want you to get caught by Kacchan before he finds me.” Izuku explains and at that moment the timer buzzes.
Izuku puts his respirator on and enters the building slowly, wanting to be careful. He hears the heavy footfalls of Katsuki as he whirls around the corner before hesitating for just a moment. Instinctively, Izuku kicks out, managing to activate an unknown amount of One for All in his kick to get Katsuki away and judging by the sting in his leg it was just a bit more than he can handle, nonetheless Izuku runs, activating One for All to go faster and get closer to the center of the building. He can hear explosions behind him and as he's running he draws a knife out of his sheath, stopping to spin around and throw it. Katsuki yelps but blocks it, hitting one of his gauntlets and destroying a chamber of it. Izuku gets into a well practiced fighting stance and lunges forward with the maximum percentage of OfA he can handle, it's a glancing blow and Katsuki uses the opportunity to set off an explosion in Izuku's face. Izuku, now slightly blinded, throws a roundhouse kick and he feels it hit Katsuki and send the taller boy flying. Izuku spends the time recovering his vision and hearing when he sees the barrel of the gauntlet, the non-damaged one, leveled at him.
“You wouldn't dare…” Izuku says low, being cautious of the siege-level weapon aimed at him.
“Oh I dare!” Katsuki shouts and pulls the trigger, a bright red heat suddenly envelopes Izuku as he does his best to run away from the brunt of the attack. He can feel his skin on his hands beginning to welt- a background part of his brain realizes his costume is fireproof- and Izuku attacks again.
“You BITCH!” Izuku lets gravity take him as he delivers an axe kick onto the shoulder Katsuki’s undamaged gauntlet is on, he feels something crack under his heel and Izuku follows that kick up with a straight kick. Katsuki, now very clearly in pain, gets launched backwards but quickly recovers, they both go to lunge at each other when All Might's voice rings out.
“URARAKA HAS CAPTURED THE BOMB, ATTACKERS WIN!” this causes both boys to immediately drop their stance.
“I cannot believe you fired that damn gauntlet at me. My hands are burnt now.” Izuku huffs, with a smile and despite the pain Izuku can see Katsuki trying to suppress a grin. As Izuku grabs his knife off of the ground- one of the hits must have dislodged it- Katsuki speaks up.
“I cant believe you broke my shoulder you asshat.” He says. They step outside and await their teammates.
“In my defense, I didn't know it would be that strong.”
“Okay, well in that case I didn't know my gauntlets would be that strong.”
“Touche…touche…” Uraraka walks out first and immediately pales upon seeing both of them. Izuku realizes he can feel places on his face that are almost certainly burned now that the adrenaline is wearing off. She slips Izuku his knives and Iida follows, looking downtrodden and lets out a squawk upon seeing both other boys’ states. They head back to the viewing area where the rest of the class is looking at them in disbelief.
“YOUNG MIDORIYA, YOUNG BAKUGOU, YOU TWO HEAD TO RECOVERY GIRL. THERE'S MEDBOTS ON THE WAY. NOW, WHO WANTS TO TELL ME THE MVP OF THE MATCH?” All Might asks and Izuku and Katsuki both get placed on stretchers and are escorted out before they can hear the answer.
The nurse's office isn't as bad as Izuku thought it would be, except for the fact that Recovery Girl is gonna have to heal him for brain damage if she hits him in the head one more time “I cannot believe you two, how can two people be more oblivious to the limits on a match, it's almost like you two train to fight to the death.” She grumbles when Izuku and Katsuki arrive, she gets a syringe “Here, this is a painkiller, then I'll use my quirk on you both to heal your injuries then both of you will probably have to sleep, understood…yes, Midoriya?” She asks, seeing Izuku raise his hand.
“This painkiller doesn't have any truth-forcing side effects, does it?” He asks, completely serious.
“I-no? Boy just take the painkiller.” After that they're both given a kiss to heal and it's not long before they fall asleep.
Katsuki never anticipated Koishi would be able to stalk Izuku beyond Gensokyo but here we are, it's almost daily that he sees her tailing them and it wouldn't be so annoying if A. she didn't creep him the fuck out, and B. the nerd would actually believe him.
That being said despite stalking Izuku for roughly 3 years now she's never gotten close, not once. So Katsuki is a bit alarmed when he stirs- sleep still in his eye- and sees her standing over Izuku, caressing his face and pressing her weird heart tassel thing to his forehead, and, as if she can sense Katsuki waking up, she giggles and disappears, like always. Katsuki sits up, frowning at the way his bandages tug at his shoulder as he checks his phone and blanches. 3 missed calls from Yukari is not a good sign.
Notes:
Ok, so, after looking at the fights, we might need to change the fic rating to mature. This fight is not an example of that btw. Once we post a chapter with one of those fights, I'll ask if that change is necessary.