XxXxX
"Zuku! Are you up? It's nearly time to go to the medical center!" A feminine voice resounded from behind the doors to his room.
Even when he heard it quite clearly it took him a long time to process the meaning of those words. Laying on his bed, he peered around the room in a stupor.
A colorful collage of decorations greeted him. Action figures, posters and other merchandise of comic book heroes littered the place. The largest one featured a group of superheroes in 'heroic' poses, 'The Almighty!' written above them in a thick and funky font. Outside the window an enormous wall stretched from one end to another, creating what his muddled mind recalled as a constant sight in the whole town.
"Zuku! Are you ready?" The doors to his room slammed into the bookshelf that stood near them, his body jolting in fright and landing face first on the colorful carpet.
"Oh dear… are you okay? I thought you already got up." The same female voice from before sounded from much closer.
His hands moved nearly on their own, slowly propping him up with the added help of someone picking him up.
His eyes focused on the two arms beneath him, the pale flesh of his fingers feeling out of place for some reason.
"Izuku?" Turning his head to the side he saw a rather young woman, her soft features scrunched up in worry as her green eyes scanned his face. Her long, black and green hair were in a ponytail that despite looking perfectly normal felt somewhat off.
"Mom?" It took him a few moments to realize that they were his own words, his voice feeling alien.
"You played your video games till late again?" She asked with a huff, clearly displeased. "You better be ready in a jiffy young man or I'm going to confiscate that console of yours for a few days." She threatened, getting up after making sure that he looked okay.
It didn't feel right. He knew that something was wrong, but what?
Staggering back up to his feet he slowly made his way to the bathroom, somehow managing to get to the sink on wobbly legs.
The face of a young teen greeted him, a pair of shining green eyes staring back at him from the mirror with surprise and uncertainty. With a trembling hand he reached up to his cheek, gently touching one of his freckles he stared at his reflection as it looked back.
It felt wrong. He couldn't put it in words, he couldn't even identify that feeling in any way. But it felt so wrong.
He ran a bit of cold water over his hands, splashing his face to try and dispel that strange feeling.
An image flashed before his eyes.
A giant of steel and iron glaring back at him, a single green eye staring into his as if waiting for something.
Spinning back he only saw the doors to the bathroom, his heart hammering wildly.
Maybe he really did play too many video games last night in the end.
XxX
"Mel, get up! There's no time!" A frantically moving black blur yelled, waking Melissa up way earlier than the blonde would ever consider doing so.
Tiredly sitting up in the certainly too stiff bed of her friend, the young inventor squinted her eyes at the blurry image of Momo who with a yelp nearly face planted into her dresser after kicking the door frame to the bathroom with her pinky toe.
"Calm down Mo, you're going to wreck the place at this rate." The blonde said, reaching out to the nightstand to search for her glasses.
"Ugh… Just get ready, please. We need to go to Izuku…" Cradling her foot, the ravenette grumbled out with a pained voice.
Letting out an exasperated huff Melissa got out of the bed, sighing once more after she saw that the alarm clock read barely past 6 A.M.
"Momo, Izuku won't run anywhere. At least be careful." She started but remembering how her best friend was down lately decided to humor her.
It was already four days from the moment of activating the 'Nano Forge' that Hatsume from Izuku's original world sent their way, escorted by an adult woman who was now a six years old girl apparently possessing some kind of powers over time itself.
Groggily moving into the bathroom to wash her face, the blonde inventor couldn't help but feel that this should shock her more than it did.
The spectacle that was Knight's body being repaired took only two hours, all of the gathered people jumping in fright when the spherical shield around his body vanished with the cracking not dissimilar to the noise of breaking glass.
The spotless form of Izuku's Titan body greeted them, the light of the fluorescent lamps not acknowledging his armored skin. The deep red and black color scheme that was so reminiscent of Momo's gear covered him in full, making him look a bit… intimidating, if she had to find a word.
The strange cube disappeared, probably now a permanent part of the giant's chassis if she had to guess. The low hum of working machinery could be heard from Izuku's body, the dim green lights off the sensors around his body starting to glow just like before the fight.
Sadly, Izuku didn't wake up as of yet. Even with his body fully functional he remained motionless, his main eye closed and limply hanging down.
With a bit of struggling they managed to talk Momo into taking some rest, Melissa staying with her just to be sure that the ravenette won't sneak back into the workshop.
"I know, but what if he wakes up and he's alone?" Momo countered, struggling with her shoelaces. A soft groan escaped the ravenette when in her haste she ripped it apart, forgetting about her strength.
"Momo, Izuku will be alright. You flailing around like this every single day isn't going to help." Walking out of the bathroom she replied with a sigh, catching her friend at using Creation to replace the destroyed shoelace.
"He's not fine… why does nobody else see that? Everyone treats him like some kind of robot, that he can just fix himself and everything's good…" The ravenette mumbled out, more to herself than to her friend.
"You know that I didn't mean it like that." Melissa interjected with yet another sigh leaving her. "We all are very well aware that Izuku isn't 'fine'. Luna is keeping him company non stop, she would immediately inform us of any changes."
Momo didn't reply. She just took her key to the room and impatiently tapped her foot while waiting for the blonde to get ready.
Walking through the dorms felt weird, especially as the whole building was empty and silent. Looking to the kitchen Melissa wanted to propose making some breakfast but decided against it when she saw that her friend was already nearly out of the building.
It didn't take too long for the two of them to reach the support department workshops, the campus eerily empty with most of the students and faculty sent home or participating in the HDF.
"Mo, wait a second." She called to her friend who, even if reluctantly, stopped and looked back with a questioning look.
"Let me at least buy something to eat, I'm starving." She said, gesturing to a nearby vending machine with snacks and drinks.
A bit of guilt flashed in Momo's eyes as she nodded with agreement. "Sorry…" She mumbled, looking to the ground and hugging her arm.
"I'm so going to tell Izuku how you acted while he was unconscious." Melissa smiled slightly, selecting a few snacks and a canned coffee after paying for it with her phone. Her smile grew a bit, seeing that the ravenette's posture relaxed slightly.
"I'm going to work a bit on Luna's Titan chassis, maybe I'll manage to bring it online. What are you going to do today?" The blonde continued, giving her friend a protein bar that the ravenette reluctantly accepted.
"I…" Momo hesitated, visibly conflicted. "Can I… help you?"
"Help me? In working on the 'Valkyrie'? I don't mind but… why?"
"... There was nothing I could do to help. I didn't even know what to do… All we could do was just sit there on the sidelines while Luna was scrambling to help… I don't want to feel that ever again… That uselessness…" Momo explained, biting down into her small meal.
Well… that was something she could stand behind. The ravenette was at least fighting and acting to the very end, she at the other hand wasn't at all useful in the whole fight.
"I don't see why not. I'm warning you though, I'm barely able to wrap my head around the technology Izuku uses, I'm not the best at teaching you all the ins and outs." She smiled to her friend who slightly reciprocated the gesture.
"Thank you…" Momo trailed off, facing forward with a puzzled look. "Do you hear that?"
For a moment Melissa was puzzled at that question but after straining her ears she could faintly hear something that didn't really belong in the workshops.
"Singing?" She asked puzzled, looking back to her black haired friend who walked closer to the automatic doors that were left open for some reason. They were alone in the whole wing of the school but shouldn't it be more secured?
"... and fear, can claim, what little faith remains.~" A certainly too young voice for such songs intoned, causing the two to stop just before the doors and look at each other.
"But I carry strength from souls now gone, they won't let me give in.~" The small, white haired girl sang, sitting together with Luna, a meter or two in front of Izuku's legs.
A pile of drawing paper surrounded them as the two were busy sketching something with the use of Mei's supplies.
"I will never surrender, we'll free the earthen sky.~" The small girl continued, her robotic friend humming to the melody.
"Crush my heart into embers and I will reignite.~"
That's… that didn't sound like anything that she ever heard. It was suspiciously fitting to their large friend in the background too.
Glancing back to Momo, she could tell that her friend could see that resemblance too. It didn't take a genius to realize that this has to be a song from back home, from their own world.
"I will reignite.~"
XxX
"Are you alright?" A sudden question ripped him from his thoughts. Blinking a few times he turned to the only other person in the room, his mother looking at him as if waiting for a reply.
"What?" He asked after a few more moments when it was clear that she wouldn't repeat herself.
"You seem absent, is something bothering you? Do you have problems at the academy?" The green haired woman asked back, clear worry in her eyes.
"Academy?" He tried out the word, somewhat unsure why it felt wrong. "No, Mom. I'm doing okay… it's just…" He stumbled over his own words, his mind feeling as if it was working against him. He poked the meal in front of him with the chopsticks, not really feeling any hunger nor thirst.
"Girl problems?" His mother asked with a slight glint in her eye.
"Mom, please." He heard himself whine.
"Don't give me that." She laughed. "I'm more than certain that I saw you with a beautiful young woman last week. When are you going to introduce me?" His mother cheerfully continued.
An uneasy feeling started to creep up his spine for some reason, as if he forgot about something that was important.
"You did?" He asked, feeling a sudden spike of pain that made him close his eyes shut.
"O̴f̴ ̵c̶o̸u̸r̴s̵e̴,̴ ̸y̸o̴u̷ ̸t̶w̴o̸ ̶l̸o̵o̷k̷e̴d̸ ̵s̷o̴ ̴a̶d̷o̸r̴a̸b̴l̴e̴ ̶t̴o̴g̶e̵t̴h̸e̵r̶!̸ ̶E̷v̷e̴r̶y̴o̴n̴e̴ ŵ̷̞͈̫̈́a̷͙̼̓̿s̸̯̣͊̍ ̴̝̓͐l̷̼̿o̴̬͋̀̀o̴̢͑̒k̸̘̓̚͝į̶͎̮͒̀͘ň̴͍͜g̸̯̦̒͠ ̸̞̑a̴͖̙̺͑t̵̻́̄͒ ̵̤̖̙̽͝͠t̴̜̻̾͘h̶͖̣̀̇ë̶̡͔̥̃̽ ̶̮̩̫͊̄b̵̰͔̈́̽̇o̵̧̮̘̚ẗ̴̠́h̴̪͂ ̵̢̛͕̎̊ǫ̴̜̽̅f̸̫̿ ̷̨͗̅ͅy̵͎̫̓ͅó̶͇̺̊ű̸̢̢ ą̴̰̺̳̖͈̔͝ͅş̷̡̹̲̱͍͂̇͠ ̷̟̞̑̄̕s̴̡̼̹͉͓͉̑͑̌̆̕͝h̶͍̭͔̻̼̩̦̑e̴͕̪̺͌͋̚ ̴̢̛̗̙̀͆̓̈͆̈́d̷͇̗̘̬̭͖̈́̌͂̐̾͋̎r̴̛̙͔̱̲̝̤ã̷̧͔̜͕̎ǵ̵̺̩̞͇̮̺̃̋ģ̵̱́ͅe̶͙̘̜̼͊d̵̡̛̠̗̭̬͍͈̋̿̎͋ ̵͈͇̏͜y̴̨̡̠̼̖͂̓ỏ̵̼ù̸͙̞̹̜͓͚̆̋́̉͘͜ ̸̳̏͒͆b̸̛̤͒̂͝ÿ̵̘̰̽̄̃̀̈́ ̷̥̤̝̺́͜t̶͈̖̼̫͔̓ͅh̷̬̅͋̎̈̀̕͘͜e̷͔͋ ̴̼̄͆͑̂̈́̍á̵͚͚͚̓̄̃r̴̪͊m̴̮̰̀̾́̈́͠ ̵̥̒ȁ̴̧̡̟͙̘̈͜ͅc̴̛̼͍̣̯̪̙̟͒̈́̌͂̎̓ŗ̴͚̺͂̌̐̿̊ǫ̶͌̂̇̽͘͝s̸͍̩͇͒̇̈̏̄ͅs̴̨̙̣̤̝̝͌̊̌͠ ̵̢̡̻̌̄́͒̇̏͘͜ͅt̶͕̔̐̾͘͠h̴̭͈̳̳͍̪̙̀̉̔̐͠e̴̟̟̪̞͐̆̊̆̑̈́͜͝ ̸͇͇̭̳̩̦͚̃̋̓̐̈́͘͝ť̵̩͕͚ơ̴̢͕̤͖̜͗́̆̚͜w̷͍̗̝̮̗̩͍̔̑n̷̡̖͓̺̩̓͠ͅ.̵̮̩̮͎̪̀̈̿̊͝"̷̰͖͗̈́̎͜͠͝
His mother's voice suddenly got garbled, as if she was speaking to him through a broken radio. With a pained grunt he gripped his head with his arms, the palms of his hands feeling like cold steel against his temple.
A series of grainy images flashed before his eyes.
A really small girl tugged on his finger, leading him through a miniature of a street. Equally small people looked at him with awe and surprise, making way for them both without making any fuss about it.
Why was everyone so small?
"... United we can break, fate once set in stone.~"
A soft melody broke through the noise all of a sudden. The voice of a young girl cutting away at the cacophony like a scalpel, setting him more at ease.
" Just hold the line until the end, 'cause we will give them hell!~"
Focusing on the song made it much easier to think, even if it still could only amount to walking through the thickest mud.
"Zuku?" The voice of his mother once more startled him out of his thoughts, this time less worried and more stern. "I swear, you are going to sleepwalk through your appointment at this rate."
Blinking with confusion he looked around, now in a completely different place. Gone was their dining room, replaced by the most stereotypical clinic waiting room imaginable, old newspapers on a nearby table included.
When did they arrive there?
XxX
"Nebraska Smash!" A loud shout precluded what one could only call a localized typhoon.
A twisting vortex of pressurized air exploded outwards, sucking in and picking up a large group of humanoid robots only to deliver them into a half collapsed building in the distance, doubtlessly destroyed or at least disabled.
"Haaaaahhhh…" Breathing deeply, Toshinori Yagi grimaced slightly when the same building in the distance crumbled into more rubble after receiving his attack.
It was so frustrating.
He spent the better half of the week fighting with marionettes, lifeless dolls that mindlessly threatened the lives of innocents.
Everything on a whim of a madman with too much power.
Hearing an unnatural swish of air he turned slightly, just in time to see one of his colleagues landing beside him with a heavy impact.
Thankfully one that the younger heroine intended by the look of things.
"Hey old man, still keeping up?" Mirko asked, her voice a bit muffled by the protective headgear that looked out of place on her.
Reaching to his own helmet he undid the few latches and took it off, smiling at the younger woman who crossed her arms.
"You know, we wear those for a reason. Not that I doubt you for a second but taking any sort of a risk in this situation is just plainly stupid." She rebuffed his attempt at being friendly, with a good argument too.
He couldn't fault her, especially as she too looked a bit worse for wear. The multiple impact marks of bullets on her own armored suit created a clear image of the fights she went through.
"Thank you for your concern, Usagiyama-kun. We are all tired but that never stopped us before, why should it now?" He asked with a surprisedly soft chuckle, somewhat subdued for the giant.
"Everyone has their limits. I'm just making sure you know where yours are. We don't need any more heroic sacrifices." She scoffed, thumping one of her legs into the ground with irritation.
Swiping the sweat from his forehead he fastened back his helmet, it gave him a few seconds to consider her words.
Knight's latest actions were on the forefront of every conversation as of late, not that it was strange in any way. The lack of information about the young hero only fueled the rumor mill, creating wilder and wilder stories.
"I got a message from Nezu last night. Izuku-san is steadily recovering, there's no threat to his life." He decided to inform her, especially when she was one of the people that the steel giant befriended.
"He'd fucking better be… He owes me a spar and I'm not going to accept any whining that he's crippled or some shit." The young woman turned her head to the side as if she meant to spit on the ground but stopped herself. At least he hoped she did, taking into account the full face helmet situation that was going on.
A shadow of something lunging at the young heroine stopped any reply from him, his whole body tensing for a fight, his instincts screaming for him to intercept.
It wasn't needed though, Mirko's body already twisting into a roundhouse kick that could shatter steel.
And shatter it did.
With a mighty impact yet another MLA Grunt was sent away, torn in two by her attack.
"It's like fighting cockroaches… how in the flying fuck MLA are able to just drop so much of their hardware on us like this? We are scraping every single tin they can send and there are still more coming…"
"Probably some kind of quirk at work." He replied, looking carefully around for more enemies.
"I would call bullshit but even we have the likes of Princess or Knight… It's not impossible for them to get a hold of someone like that…" Mirko begrudgingly agreed, flicking her leg to get rid of the hydraulic fluid that now stained her greave.
That wasn't a good thing in the long run. They already were stretching thin, running from one battlefield to the next in an attempt to help the JSDF stop the threat. It was working for now but how long could this last?
They already had to send Ryukyu to the back lines, the membranes of her wings not being able to withstand concentrated fire for long. She would recover swiftly and without a hitch but her large dragon form proved to be too easy of a target.
"We should take the fight to them, it's never going to end otherwise." She continued, starting to go back to her patrol route. "Keep safe out here, old man."
He gave her a nod and a thumbs up, the young heroine jumping away seconds later with enough force to crack the asphalt under her feet.
Turning the other way, Toshinori crouched down to launch himself too. He could feel the slight tug of his quirk, the feeling of raw energy that ran under his skin a bit weaker than what he was familiar with.
It wasn't much, barely noticeable. Like an old engine his quirk started with one cylinder misfiring, just to stabilize and roar with power.
Sighing to himself he pushed with his legs, shooting off into the distance like a meteor.
And like a meteor he would fall with devastating effect on anything that deserved it.
XxX
"Okay, hold this still!"
Straining her muscles slightly, Momo pushed upwards on a large metal panel on the lower back of her daughter's Valkyrie form.
Melissa immediately went to work on the other side, welding the new covering back into place.
"Done!" The blonde called, closing the access panel she had to nearly crawl into to finish their work.
"That's all?" The ravenette asked with a raised brow.
"I wish! That's just a bit of patchwork to get her running. We need her moved to where the ceiling crane can pick her up for anything more and we don't have anything small enough on hand to do it so Luna is our only bet." The blonde replied, throwing the welding gloves on a nearby table and wiping her forehead with a sleeve.
"Luna, can you connect to the Valkyrie?" She asked, turning to the workbench to return the rest of her tools to their places.
It took her a few moments to register that there was no reply.
"Luna?" She asked once more, this time louder.
The lack of response made the two of them exchange a worried glance. Taking into account all the things that happened to that point it would be understandable to start an alarm, if not for the fact that they could clearly see Luna's body together with Eri and amused Midnight sitting on the ground near Izuku's legs, their daughter gesturing wildly.
"And then… BAM!" The small robot exclaimed, clapping together her hands and making a loud clanging voice. "Papa showed out of nowhere with Uncle and was all Bang! Bang! Bang! Explosions everywhere! Then the bad guy was all like 'I had enough of your shenanigans!'." She continued shaking a fist to the heavens to mimic the 'bad guy'.
"Luna." Melissa called a bit louder, letting out a small sigh of relief.
"Yes Mom?" The A.I. stopped the retelling of an epic story, turning to the inventor in surprise.
"Can you connect to the Valkyrie? We need to hook it up to the crane."
"Oh! Of course!" The robot replied, standing up and walking away to their mild confusion. She stepped into her charging station, the light of her eyes flickering out as the small body was powered down.
Not even a second later the Valkyrie let out a rather unpleasant sound that made everyone cringe or wince, clearly something that the two girls missed in their repairs. With a few sparks here and there, the machine came to life with a whine of damaged motors and servos. Its centrally mounted eye flickered for a few seconds but ultimately turned on, blinking a few times.
"Warning. Catastrophic failure of the propulsion systems detected." Luna announced with her voice distorting slightly. "Vanadium Power Cell array at 3%. Entering power saving mode. What do you need me to do?" She continued in a booming voice, looking to her mothers for instructions.
Observing from her spot near the still unconscious Titan, Midnight let herself relax slightly. In any other time she would be thrilled to spend some time with those kids, even if it was supposed to be her job. Sometimes she felt like she was living through one of her favorite books, especially when she was working together with Knight during the sports festival.
Turning her attention from the now legless, round robot to her 'father' she frowned slightly. It wasn't every day you learned that one of your favorite students turned out to be a war hero from another dimension, a world where humans had to flee their homeworld to survive.
Gazing up to the limply hanging eye she could only wonder, what horrors did this young man live through. In the end he never visited her for any consultation, maybe she should have pushed a bit more at that time.
"Ummm… Miss Midnight?" The voice of the small girl that she looked after caught back her attrition, bringing a small smile to her face.
"Yes?" She gave her attention to the child, who she had to remind herself was supposed to be a grown woman.
"I think they need some help." The white haired girl replied, pointing a small finger to the other side of the room.
Snapping her attention to the rest of the students she shot to her legs immediately and started to move to assist the two girls. Running up to them she quickly helped Melissa to move a rather heavy table full of components and tools out of the way, Momo barely able to hold Valkyrie upright for long enough for them to do that. A few seconds later the round, legless robot fell over, one of its arms being too damaged to hold up that much weight.
"Hehehe… sorry." Luna's voice crackled slightly as she managed to stop herself from rolling any further with her other arm. "One of the actuators gave out midway."
"Don't worry sweety, it always could be worse." The blonde inventor sighed, walking closer to inspect the damage.
"Security breach level three detected! Please gather in the designated evacuation spots immediately and await further instructions!" A synthetic voice suddenly announced, an alarm starting to blare immediately after.
"God fucking damnit! That wasn't an invitation!" Melissa exclaimed, nearly as loud as the alarm itself.
XxX
"It seems that they already know about our presence." A tall and slim man commented, his fingers flying across the keyboard of a portable computer connected to a nearby terminal.
A few seconds later the alarm stopped, not that it would change the situation.
"Good." A giant of a man replied, a white mask and a dark cloak covering him fully. "We won't have to search this whole place if the heroes come to us."
"That may be so but please remember to keep at least one of them alive, we need to find the target ASAP." The first man ordered with a resigned voice, turning to a large blob of grey matter that suddenly materialized in the middle of the large building they were in. A mass of robotic soldiers emerged, hundreds of killing machines standing at the ready in neat rows.
"Our cannon fodder is here. Let's begin." The first man declared, grinning from ear to ear.
XxX
"See, it wasn't that bad. Our unusual green hair is the only 'meta ability' in our family, there's nothing to worry about." Izuku's mother happily stated, switching off their small electric car.
Grunting in agreement, Izuku got out of it and took a few bags of groceries that they stopped for on the way. All in all it was just a normal day, yet something gnawed at him from the moment he woke up.
"Why don't I make you Katsudon for being such a brave boy?" The green haired woman giggled, getting the last few bags and following after him to the stairs.
"Moooom… I'm already 2̶̰̮͚̊͂7̴̩͋̈́̀͒̑3̵̮̤̓͊̈́͠, I'm not a little kid any more." He whined, slowly climbing to their floor.
"I know, I know… you are a fine young man You grew up way too fast." Hearing the fondness in his mother's voice he couldn't help but roll his eyes good naturedly.
"Now it's only a matter of time before I'll have to entertain a bunch of grandbabies… Ohh! I can hardly wait!" Seeing how his mother started to nearly literally glow from happiness he decided to not comment on that, opting to just perform nuclear fusion on his face in silence.
It didn't take too long for the two to unpack the groceries, the mother and son duo settling into a familiar routine.
Being sent away from the kitchen by his mother, Izuku plopped into the soft cushions of the couch, turning on the TV that was mounted into the wall just opposite to him.
As he jumped from channel to channel everything seemed so dull and boring, his mind not even registering what the last channel was about after he switched to the next.
(̴̨̙̋=̴̟̼̂D̷̺̓̇i̷̤̞͂͆r̸̝̣̂ė̶̜̐c̸̥͙̎t̸̥̀̀ͅi̶̦̔v̸͚̔͒e̶̞̔ ̸̟̹͒͘0̶̜͒ ̸̻͇̐̎'̶̲̝́̓Ḱ̷̮e̵̙̎̏ë̸̡͔́p̷̦̪̉ ̴̗͔̀̐h̵̖̭̉̎ȇ̴͔̳̒r̵̟̓͑ ̸͆͝ͅs̷͍̱̐ä̶̯͚́̔f̵̬̲͝é̶̲̪͌.̸̜̱̍͠'̸̜̞̽̿=̷̯̖̈́)̷̧̛̮̏
Pain suddenly spiked through his head, as if someone was trying to poke and prod his brain with a needle. A hazy image of a black haired girl flashing before his eyes.
(̵̥͇͘͝=̵̝̤̒̎P̶̜̩̌̑ȇ̶̜̀r̴̮̮̽̽s̶̮̞̏̾ọ̸̚n̴͍̐a̵͔͎̿͝ĺ̶̟͘i̶̡̅̕t̶̨̤͛͘y̸̯̘̕͝ ̸͇͓̂͋M̸̘̲͝ȁ̵̤̐t̸̥͇͝͝r̶̳̎̑ḯ̶͇̆x̴͓̿͜ ̷̡̻͗o̶̺͆f̵̘̪̓f̸̱͑l̵̖̝͝i̶͈̪͌n̵̲̼͠͠ë̸̠́͆.̴͈̑͜ ̸̜͇̓͝A̵̧͂͘t̵̹̔̌t̵̠͛̊è̸͖m̴͈̅͒p̵͉̩̈́t̸͈͝ḯ̵̲͋n̸̡̢̈̿g̶̳͋́ ̸̱͊r̸̢̥̈́ë̴̻́͝s̸̠̔̀t̷̘̤͂̀ã̸͙̝͂r̷̝̓t̸͙̃̎.̵̛̮͕̕≠̩̖̓)̶̼̱̀̽
Cradling his head into his arms, Izuku doubled over in a sudden rush of agony.
He felt cold as if frozen, he felt hot as if someone had thrown him into a volcano.
A few more images flashed in his mind.
His mother crying in the doors of their house.
Him being as tall as a house.
An unending tide of monsters swarming in his direction.
Sending off the people that were with him to safety.
The pain of his body breaking down.
The agony of his body being put back together.
"̵.̴.̵.̵ ̷T̷h̷e̷n̸ ̷b̷e̴ ̵m̸y̴ ̵K̶n̶i̶g̸h̶t̵,̶ ̵M̸i̵d̸o̴r̵i̶y̷a̵ ̷I̷z̴u̷k̵u̸.̶ ̶B̴e̶ ̵m̵y̶ ̵s̸w̷o̶r̷d̵ ̸a̶n̸d̵ ̸s̷h̴i̶e̶l̷d̸ ̴a̸n̷d̴ ̶I̴ ̴w̸i̷l̶l̴ ̵u̷s̵e̶ ̷y̸o̴u̷ ̸t̸o̷ ̸t̵a̵k̵e̴ ̴b̵a̴c̵k̶ ̸e̷v̶e̸r̸y̵t̶h̷i̸n̷g̷ ̴t̶h̷e̵y̶ ̴t̵o̷o̵k̵ ̴f̷r̴o̵m̶ ̴y̶o̶u̵.̶"̸ ̶
A black haired girl wearing a military uniform spoke, extending a hand to him.
(̵̘̿=̷̀͜ ̴̳͝E̷̝͌ṙ̸̦r̸̪̄o̷̒͜r̸͓͝!̷̣̾ ̷̗̕A̴͕̕t̷̐ͅț̸̿e̴͇̋m̷͇͒p̴̦̄t̵͈͒ ̸̭͊i̶̼͊n̴̛͔c̶̬̏o̸̡͊ņ̶̀c̸͕̏l̴̮̍u̷̠͗s̸̠̅i̵͒͜v̸͚̋è̶̼.̶̘̅ ̸͔̇=̶͍̔)̵̦͗
̵̩̒(̴̨̕=̶̜̓ ̵͖̅Ả̶̜n̸̡͘á̸͜l̴̯͐y̵͚͗z̵̞̀e̶͓̅-̴̟̂A̶̯̐d̴̠́a̶͎̒p̶̫͐t̸̼̿-̷̮̂Ơ̷̼v̸̘̽è̵͍r̵̥̉c̷̥̍ọ̶̋m̷̼̈́e̸̞̍ ̴̳̈́p̶̤̈́r̷̦̆ó̵̠t̴̥̎ỏ̵͙c̷͔̊ò̶̲l̶̖͑ ̷̦͑i̵͉̕n̷͓͌ḯ̵̗t̵͙̎î̸̳a̷̺͛t̸̻̉ë̶͇́d̵̨̋.̷̖̂ ̴̧͋≠̟́)̴̲͋
̶͔̅(̸̭͌=̷̮̚ ̷̦̑S̷̛͖o̸̖̾l̶̖͆u̴͈̾ţ̵̓ǐ̵͖o̵̮͝n̴̠͘ ̷̠̒f̸̬̈́ő̵̪u̷͇͊n̷͕̑d̴̰̃.̷̤͊ ̵̼̍≠̤̈)̶͈͛
After a few more moments passed, the intense pain ebbed away. With his eyes clenched shut he awaited for more pain but thankfully it didn't come.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Dig in!" The voice of his mother jerked him out of his stupor, and nearly out of the chair he was sitting in.
A mouth watering smell turned his attention to the table, a steaming bowl of food in front of him.
When did he move from the couch?
With the chopsticks already in his right hand he scooped a bit of the food, blowing slightly on it before biting in.
It tasted good, perfect even.
Maybe he should rest some more, because for some reason even his favorite dish felt wrong.
XxXxX
Song used by Eri : Malukah - Reignite on YouTube.
Author's Note: Hello! I'm still alive! It's hard to find time to write, especially with how tired I am at the end of the day. There's a few more months like that on the horizon but with a bit of luck I'll be able to write more after that. Sorry for the long wait if anyone was waiting at all :p.