189Izuku-The Hexblade Hero; Prologue, even though its chapter 1 and will jank the chapter setup on the sites I use. FML.
I swear, so expect that to be in this thing.
Izuku never knew a handshake could be so ominous.
Then again most handshakes didn't come from the strangely warm hand of a walking hole in the universe, its eye's literal stars glowing brightly against the speckled black of its body, clouds of stardust flowing across its torso and arms.
To make the simple action more odd, time seemed to stand still around the two in the wrecked museum, Izuku's middle school class frozen in various states of shock, fear, and burning rage in one case as a bull-headed villain destroyed hundreds of years of history, or would've been destroying if he could move.
"Our covenant has been sealed." The beings voice echoed deep within the bowls of Izuku's soul, almost causing the boy to flinch, "The both of us have much to learn."
And with that, Izuku blinked blearily finding himself back on the floor laying on a pile of shattered glass and metal, what was once an ancient sword was fragmented beneath him and embedded in his arm.
"Take a Piece"
The boy had enough sense to pocket a decently sized chunk of the ruined blade, even as the minotaur villain raged around the room, knocking over displays and people alike.
"Think I'm not good enough to work here!" The bestial man bellowed as he knocked over a suit of armor, "I'll show you!"
Izuku looked around the room as he tried to clear his head, slowly pulling himself up when he spotted a fellow student nearby, his desire to help others overpowering his hazy state of mind.
"Look up." The teen did as he was told, spotting a decorative chandelier above the circular room. "Pay close attention."
Izuku watched wide-eyed as a hand, almost completely invisible, formed at the top of the chandelier. The hand moved and grasped a piece at the top of the glass decoration. "Now pull."
The curly green haired teen realized with a gasp he could control the hand and did as the voice asked without thought, pulling a thin metal rod from the ornate decor.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the minotaur roared, and the mass of molded glass and metal silently dropped on top of the raging villain, The impact kicking up a cloud of dust and dirt, obscuring Izuku's vision.
The teen took a moment to marvel at the power he felt from the small act of magic, only for it to come crashing to a halt when the possible consequences of his actions occurred to him, and panic set in.
Izuku's head jerked up as he strained to see through the clearing dust, each moment building the boys anxiety. He was vaguely aware of the fact that most everyone in the room had tried to get as far away from the minotaur as physically possible, and said villain had been alone at the epicenter of the fallen decors impact.
Izuku was starting to hyperventilate. What if he had maimed the villain! What if they were trapped under all that glass and metal bleeding out! All might would reject him as a successor if he found out Izuku had accidentally killed-!
The swearing of the minotaur almost sounded like music to Izuku's ears, the villain was still alive, and well enough to throw a tantrum if the sound of glass and metal grinding against stone was anything to go by.
The green haired boy slumped against the wall behind him, his pulse racing in his ears. He had almost just killed someone. That's not how heroes are supposed to act. Hero's are supposed to subdue and-
"And now comes the second part of our lesson."
'What?' Izuku thought with a flinch, unused to mental communications.
"I have given a sliver of my power, I do not give my blessings for free." The voice ominously echoed.
Izuku gulped, hoping no-one would notice the blood draining from his face, 'You want me to give you something?'
"Yes boy, knowledge for knowledge. An equivocal exchange if you will." Izuku hated how the voice seemed to come from just behind his ear, a whisper but plenty loud enough.
'What do you want?' Izuku shakily asked after a moment.
The voice was silent for a moment. "A bagel."
Izuku sat stunned for a moment. 'A what?'
"A bagel, preferably an everything bagel."
Izuku blinked as he tried to process the request.
"If you do not believe you can provide me such an offering, then speak now."
'No, I'll be able to.' Izuku quickly responded, 'It just seems like an odd request.'
"I haven't seen your plane in well over a millennia, I have a long list of items I've heard about from my associates, and I wish to start checking those items off it as soon as possible."
'How long do I have to get you your bagel?' Izuku asked, his breathing starting to stabilize.
"A day should be more than enough time."
Izuku sighed as he hefted himself to his feet, he remembered seeing a food court somewhere in the museum. He'd see if they had any bagels there, and maybe no one would look too closely at his injuries. It would be just his luck for something as trivial as that to stop him from getting a damn bagel.
'I have the feeling the weirdest part of this deal is going to be your demands, isn't it?'
"You humans are entertaining when confused." Izuku's shoulders sagged at his patron's chuckle.
"So, yesterday you made a deal with some eldritch being during the attack on the museum your class went on a trip to?" All Might sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, currently in his deflated form and trying to fight off a migraine from his green haired student's predicament.
The sun was setting on the pair as they finished their routine work on the trashed Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, the last rays of the day casting the skeletal man in an almost ghastly light. The beach was significantly cleaner than it had been two weeks ago thanks to Izuku's hard work, but it was still a mess.
"Yes, sir," Izuku muttered, unsure of how his teacher was going to react. The teen nervously picked at his bandaged arm as he avoided looking the pro-hero in the face.
"Shit." The symbol of peace leaned his head back against his truck, the bed of which was stacked with a large amount of trash, "funnily enough, this isn't the weirdest thing I've dealt with in my life."
"R-really?" Izuku recoiled in shock, not expecting such a nonchalant answer.
"Kid, there's a lady who can grow into the size of a skyscraper, and the number two hero is a walking pyrotechnics team." All Might explained neutrally, "And that's on the normal side of the spectrum."
"But those are quirks, biologically phenomena!" Izuku sputtered, "Scientifically explainable occurrences in DNA brought about by evolution, not some eldritch being that exists on another plane!"
"I'd be offended if this wasn't funny." Said eldritch being voiced its two cents as Izuku's rant devolved into muttering.
All Might placed his hand on the muttering boy's shoulder, snapping him out of the small trance. "Kid, when you've been a hero as long as I have," The blonde took a breath as he rapidly expanded and continued in a shout, "You see some shit!"
"Now let's get this trash properly disposed of!" The hero shouted encouragingly before deflating back to his sickly form with a bloody cough. Izuku blinked as his mind still tried to process the conversation. "We can debate what to do about your "pact" tomorrow."
"Isn't this something that should be dealt with as soon as possible?" Izuku asked as he slid into the passenger side of his idol's truck.
"Well, you were fine with waiting a day to tell me about it." All Might muttered as he started the vehicle, "So it can wait till tomorrow when you start moving the heavy stuff."
Izuku gulped at the prospect of moving what his idol considered 'heavy stuff,' his scrawny arms barely able to stand the current weight of trash. "Besides, you said it's demands for offerings have been pretty benign so far, right."
"It's only demanded one thing from me so far though, what if it wants something extreme!" The boy tried to reason.
"I have pronouns you know." Izuku's patron echoed in his mind.
'And what are they?' Izuku made the mistake of asking, regretting it immediately as a high pitched ringing echoed from the base of his spine, accompanied by what sounded like a bass boosted air horn resonating in his sinus. The whole experience felt like it lasted for several minutes to Izuku, but a quick glance at the trucks clock revealed the event hadn't even been a one.
'Do you have anything I can pronounce?' Izuku asked hesitantly.
"My friends call me Thou Whom Agony is Time.'" The voice happily replied.
'You have friends?' Izuku couldn't stop himself from thinking the insulting question.
"Alright, one friend and several acquaintances." The eldritch void seemed to either miss the accidental insult or ignore it. "And yes, I know its a mouth full."
"We'll deal with the offerings as they come, you said he seemed to be willing to negotiate on what he wants as well," All Might continued, oblivious of the conversation occurring in the seat next to him, "Try getting that list he mentioned, then we can prepare somewhat."
"But-" Izuku tried to raise another point, only for All Mights calloused hand to cut him off with a pat on the back.
"Relax, everything will work out." The hero said encouragingly, "Why, Because I am here!" The Hero shouted expanding into his buff form again, causing the car to jerk to his side due to the change in weight.
"Speaking of offerings." Izuku paled slightly at the segway from his mental hitchhiker. "I want a red ink pen."
Izuku slumped forward, letting his face fall into his hands.
"I promise to teach you something really cool." Thou Whom Agony is Time tried to sweeten the pot so to speak, causing Izuku to groan.
"Young Midoriya, are you not feeling well?" All might asked in an almost fatherly tone, seeming more concerned about this than the prospect that his pupil may have accidentally sold his soul.
"You didn't sell your soul, only your privacy rights." Izuku's patron said entirely too cheerfully.
"Are you ready for lesson number two." Thou Whom Agony is Time shouted as Izuku's dream deteriorated around the wound in space.
"But I need to sleep!" Izuku tried to argue as his patron grabbed him by his shirt collar and started dragging him.
"Don't worry, you're still asleep." The walking wound in space tried to placate. "This is all a dream."
"This doesn't make sense!"
"It doesn't have to!" The sealed god popped off cheerfully, "Ask me nicely and I'll teach you a spell to do this with other people later."
"If this is a dream, why are you dragging me?" Izuku asked as he started to calm down slightly, his patron still dragging him to god knows where.
"I thought it would be funny."
Izuku chose not to dignify the poor justification, content to let himself be dragged around the undefinable void he found himself in.
"You said you're going to teach me something, right?" Izuku asked after a moment of silence, resigning himself to the coming events.
"Oh, right." The eldritch being let go of Izuku, causing the teen to drop to the floor, "In our last lesson I taught you one of the most simple types of spell, a Cantrip known as Mage Hand," Thou Whom Agony is Time lectured pulling a chalkboard out of the depths of Izuku's dreamscape, "Even in your current… condition, you should be able to use this spell repeatedly with little to no problems."
Izuku chose not to react to his patron's jab, watching as he began drawing simple and complex diagrams at a rate faster than should've been reasonable.
"At your current skill level you should be able to learn and use another cantrip easily enough," The being turned to look at Izuku, "That'll be your next lesson, think of this lesson as an introduction to magic theory and practice."
"If I were to assign you an arbitrary number for your skills using my blessed power," Izuku Marveled at his patron's humility, "I'd say you're close to being level one out of twenty."
Before Izuku could ask for a comparison for those numbers to mean anything, his patron decided to give him just that.
"To give an example, when you get to around level ten, you should be able to go toe to toe with anything that could destroy a country." Izuku gulped, almost afraid to voice the question rising in his throat. Luckily, or unluckily depending on how its looked at, Izuku's patron seemed to know what the teen was debating on asking.
"If you ever manage to make it to level twenty, you'd be powerful enough to affect the whole world." Thou Whom Agony is Time time turned away from Izuku as he continued drawing diagrams on his chalkboard, which seemed to expand the more the being used it. "I plan on you being at least level six before you enter that academy your striving for, strong enough to defend or destroy a city."
"Isn't that a little excessive!" Izuku cried in worry.
"I ain't gonna deal with no pussy shit. I've been mocked by my acquaintances for the last several millennia for being sealed in a weapon on this plane, My return needs to make a splash." Izuku's patron said straight-faced, "We'll slow down once your school year starts up if you're worried about overloading on this."
Izuku somewhat relaxed at the promise despite still being apprehensive about the whole deal.
"Beside's, you're aiming to be the next "Symbol of peace," right?" The eldritch being asked with finger quotations, "You should appreciate the power boost, even if I exaggerated the examples a little bit."
"How am I even going to explain this, someone's going to know somethings up when I show up doing magic after spending my entire life quirkless?" Izuku muttered, sulking somewhat at his patrons mocking of his dream, missing over the latter half of the beings statement.
"As a quirk, duh."
"That doesn't help!" Izuku shouted.
Thou Whom Agony is Time shrugged, "Not my problem, work it out with All Might."
"B-but!" Izuku sputtered, searching for words.
"No buts!" The wound, in reality, cut the green haired teen off, "Now that we've covered the basics, we can move onto lesson three!"
Izuku only had a moment to glance over his patron's writings, eyes widening at the abundance of magic theory on the board, before almost letting out a shout of surprise as his patron flipped the entire thing over revealing a blank side.
"I didn't get all that." Izuku cried. He actually hadn't gotten much of it at all, having been stuck on the multiple schools of magic segment on the board.
"Now we're going to learn a personal favorite Cantrip of mine, Eldritch Blast." The eldritch being's glowing eyes danced with glee as it ignored the anxiousness filling his impromptu student's eyes, as well as his verbal outcry "Then we'll cover the shit only I can give you."
"I'm not going to sleep tonight, am I?" Izuku resigned himself further to his situation.
"That's the beauty kid, You're already asleep!"
Izuku bit back a groan at his growing migraine.
I'm becoming the thing I hate, an author who spends more time starting stories than working on existing ones. Hopefully, some fresh storytelling will jumpstart the desire to work on my other projects. (Sorry to anyone who's a fan of BreakDown. It's my most neglected story, yet my most popular one.)
I'm a little worried I made All Might a little too flippant about Deku boy's situation, but this was honestly meant to get the ball rolling for this story.
Internet cookie for anyone who finds the hidden joke. There will be plenty more in the future. Feel free to yell at me in the comments.
Have a good whatever now!
Edit: Title in doc change. Nothing major, just something that bugged me.