Chapter Text
Izuku jerked up in his bed and immediately fell flat again. There was a sudden pain in his chest, and he could not find the strength to stay sitting up.
“Careful!” A voice said, and a bony hand floated over to rest on his shoulder. The pressure was just enough to communicate—he should stay where he was.
“Where is this?” Izuku said. He did not recognize the ceiling, but he was not quite worried yet. A lot of ceilings looked the same.
“You are in my house,” the voice continued. It was a woman’s voice, old like the gnarled oak he had played under as a child. “And I am Eri, the white dragon. Here.”
With that, the woman reached over and lifted his head just enough to pull his hair out and over the pillow. It had gotten caught under his shoulders when he sat up.
That was puzzling—Izuku’s hair had never been that long.
“What is your name, human?”
Izuku turned his head to face her, only he had not meant to move. With a start, he realized that he could not control his body at all.
“Shimura,” his mouth said.
Izuku would have laughed if he could. Of course—this wasn’t his memory.
“Child, you hold a strange power,” Eri said. She was wrapped in shawls like the slightest draft would finish her, and her face was wrinkled like an unmade bed. Her hair, at least, fit her moniker. What could be seen of it through the blankets was whiter than the sun.
“Human magic is strange,” Shimura said.
Izuku couldn’t tell if that was an acknowledgement or a challenge.
Eri grabbed a cup of tea from the top of the bookshelf beside her and took a long sip. Then she set the cup back, sighed and licked her lips. “Humans,” she said, “are strange. Often they bring strangeness upon themselves. They are not content, you see, with what they have been given. They will steal and kill for even the hope of holding more. So I ask you child—guest in my house—where did your magic come from?”
“My people have a saying,” Shimura said, and Izuku could hear the waver in her voice, “the power in me—it is like the layer of leaves resting on the forest floor of my homeland—as it decays, it feeds the growing trees, and so the new leaves have life.”
Eri frowned, and Izuku waited with dread for her response. He did not know what battle Shimura had just fought, but he knew it had left her helpless for a time. He could feel her pain. She was at the mercy of this woman—this dragon.
And of course he knew it turned out. Shimura Nana had to live to pass her power on to him. But that did not make this any less stressful to watch.
“That is no human saying,” Eri said finally. “I have heard it already—from Kirishima, the red dragon. He brought that wisdom up from his haunt in the forest, and perhaps he did learn it from humans there. I cannot say. But that was well before your time—and your people are from the plains.”
“I am well traveled,” Shimura insisted.
“Stop lying to me,” Eri said, “Humans are not born with a life force as strong as yours. So tell me true—were you born with your power?”
In the ensuing silence, Izuku heard the wind howling outside. Maybe a storm was coming.
“No,” Shimura muttered.
Eri nodded. “And what did you do to get it?”
“Nothing,” Shimura said, “I was just—in the right place. There was an attack on my village, and my master was crushed in the rubble—and he gave it to me, this power.”
While Shimura spoke, Eri’s face changed. Izuku got the sense that this was the first unexpected answer she had heard in the whole exchange.
“And this master,” Eri asked, “what happened to him?”
“He died,” Shimura said, “He might have been dying anyway—but for a human to give away their life force, that's fatal. That's why I'm here—I have his memories, and there is this necromancer that I have to defeat—”
“You speak truly,” Eri interrupted, like the thought had suddenly poured down over her and her heart was not deep enough to hold it in. “Life only comes by dying—and when you receive life, the way you live is changed. Tell me—how will you die?”
“If I can't defeat All for One?” Shimura said, uncertain. “The same way, I suppose. I’ll give this life force to someone else, and they will continue this quest.”
“You know how to do that?” Eri asked, leaning forward in her seat.
“Yes,” Shimura said, “Yes, I carry inside me the knowledge of all who came before.”
Eri nodded. “You are able to give life because life was given to you.”
“Will you help me?” Shimura blurted, and Izuku could think only of the emptiness of the room behind him. Did Shimura have no party to care for her?
Eri smiled, and there was something hidden behind it, like the flower bulbs that wait buried under the snow. “How could I refuse when you are so close to understanding?”