Chapter Text
“Forward march, members of the Bakugou Hero Agency,” Kacchan crowed, waving a stick he’d picked up from the forest path they were marching along like a baton in front of him. His sidekicks trailed along behind him, sticking close to their leader as they followed him along the dimly lit forest path. Soon enough, however, they came to a break in the trees, the forest interrupted by a river that glinted in the bright sun. Luckily, there was a wide fallen tree connecting the separated forest paths.
Kacchan climbed onto the slippery log, and started to confidently stomp his way across. During his trek across, he misstepped, slipped, and crashed into the water.
“Kacchan!” Backwards hat shrieked.
“Hey, are you okay?” Spiky hair shouted from the edge of the river, panicked.
“It’s fine,” Wings said, smiling. “Kacchan’s real strong, see?” He pointed to Kacchan, struggling to keep above water in the foaming current.
Seriously? Couldn’t that idiot see that he was fucking suffering? The water was rushing around him, bitingly cold, and the moss clinging to the rocks made it incredibly slick, hard to grip onto the bottom of the river.
“Hurry up and get back up here,” Wings called, still oblivious to his leader’s struggles.
Wings must’ve been blinded by his awesomeness, Kacchan thought deliriously, trying and failing to catch a breath in the fast currents swirling around him. Kacchan saw a blur of green, blinded by the rushing water, and Deku rushed over, offering Kacchan his hand.
“Are you alright?” Deku asked, concerned, and it took all that Kacchan had to not grab his hand and punch him in the face. “Can you stand? It would be bad if you hit your head.” On second thought, though, considering that Kacchan couldn’t breathe , it would probably be a good idea to take Deku’s hand. Kacchan shot his hand out of the water, nearly sliding at the change in balance, and grabbed Deku’s hand.
As soon as he gripped his hand, Kacchan felt weightless. It was quick, incredibly brief, but in his fear-riddled mind, it seemed like it lasted for minutes on end. Soon enough, the weightless sensation ended, and he crashed onto dry, grassy earth. As Kacchan glanced around, he noticed the vast change in the setting they were in. While before, it was a hot, sunny day in a bright forest, now they were in the middle of a soft, grassy field in the dead of night. The grasshoppers’ chirps sounded mildly less annoying than usual, and the sky was scattered with spiraling constellations. The most noticeable difference, however, were the two moons in the sky.
“What. The. HELL?!” Kacchan squeezed Deku’s hand in a crushing grip, making him yelp in pain, and before either of them could realize what was happening, they fell back onto the shore, right beside Wings and Bad Hair. Kacchan snatched his hand back from Deku, and started to let loose a series of hair-raising explosions.
“DEKU!” Kacchan yelled. “What the hell was that?” Kacchan’s palms had started to crack and blister, so he stopped actively exploding them, small pops still occasionally emerging from his palms.
Deku started to pace, muttering up a storm about how, “...well I knew I had a quirk but I didn’t suspect it would be like that and what even was that, anyways? did i teleport us? why were there two moons..” Kacchan started to tune out of Deku’s panic, narrowing his eyes, and grabbed Deku’s shirt collar, starting to march back home.
“Uh, Kacchan?”
“What’re you doing? What happened? Where are you taking Deku?”
Kacchan ignored the extras, continuing to drag Deku towards Aunt Midoriya’s house. Deku kept rambling on and on, following Kacchan, only pausing his muttering to take breaths.
In what seemed like almost no time at all, the two arrived at Aunt Midoriya’s house. Kacchan pressed the doorbell until he heard frantic rushing to the front door, and dragged Deku into the front room when his mom answered.
“Katsuki? Izuku? What’s going on?”
“Deku found his quirk.”
Aunt Midoriya smiled, looking at Deku overjoyed. “Really? Oh, Izuku, this is great!” She picked Deku up, and spun him around, hugging him and setting him down after a moment. “What is it, sweetie?”
“I think it’s a transportation quirk! Here,” Deku held out his hand to his mother, and after she took it, he grabbed Kacchan’s hand. He made a face in concentration, and they were weightless, then suddenly in the same field as before.
Deku’s mom looked around, starstruck. “Izuku, where are we? Do you know?”
“I don’t really know where we are, but I’m sure there are people around we could ask!” Deku let go of their hands, and started to confidently march in the direction of the larger of the two moons.
---
After what seemed like forever, they finally came across a small stone path, and then, a man on a horse.
“Sir?” Aunt Midoriya asked, “We’re lost. Could you tell us where we are?”
“I would ask how you got lost in a kingdom as small as this, but I can tell it would not be appreciated. We are currently in the Kingdom of Krairis,” The man proclaimed, “It is not one of my favorite stops, but I am able to give directions.”
“Oh, thank you so much!” Inko smiled at the stranger.
“Follow the river-” He gestured to a small creek just off the side of the path, “Downstream, until you come across the estuary-”
“What the frick is an estuary? ” Kacchan mumbled.
“-and then you will be able to spot the village.” The man laughed, the crows feet next to his eyes wrinkling in a smile. “I’m heading there, myself.”
“...Kingdom?” Aunt Midoriya glanced to her son, and then back up to the man. “Thank you for the directions, sir.”
The man suddenly stopped laughing, sobering up for a moment. “You do have water-breathing aids, do you not?”
“...What?”
“Oh dear.” The man shifted, and got off of his horse. He faced them, and said, “We are on our route to a Water territory. If you do not have anything to help with breathing underwater, you will be unable to enter.” He glanced to the side, seeming to think for a moment. He hummed, and started to go through one of the saddlebags on his horse. “Luckily enough, I recently obtained a surplus of these charmed necklaces.” He held out three glittering beaded necklaces with a single shell strung onto each one, and smiled. “Here. I surely won’t be able to sell all of them, surely three missing won’t hurt.”
Aunt Midoriya blinked, and took the three necklaces, handing one each to Deku and Kacchan. “Thank you, sir!” She put hers on, and whispered, “What the hell. ”
Deku stared at his necklace, as Kacchan opened the clasp on the back and put it on. Hey, it’s sorta girly, but what the hell, it might be magic, Kacchan thought.
He didn’t feel any different.
“Those should work!” The man exclaimed. “Just don’t be afraid to breathe in the water. I know I sure was the first time I wore one.” He smiled, and heaved himself back up onto his horse. He waved goodbye, and trotted away.
Deku fiddled with his necklace, and exclaimed, “There’s a river over there! Maybe we can try and see if these things work?”
He ran over to the creek, but was stopped by his mother grasping onto his shoulder, and saying, “Izuku, how about I test this one out first?” She seemed nervous, and sat on the shore of the small river, trying to work up the courage. Kacchan would interrupt, or exclaim for her to ‘get it over with already,’ but he knew that he could only get away with that with kids his own age. Plus, he didn’t want to get in trouble with his mom again.
After a few moments, Aunt Midoriya seemed to finally get over herself, and moved over to the very edge of the river, quickly forcing her head under. She breathed in, and quickly removed her head from the gently swirling current. She looked shocked, stating in a trembling tone, “It.. works?”
“Woah!” Deku sprinted over, and shoved his head under the water.
Kacchan wanted to see if it worked too, so he ran to the deepest part of the river he could find, and cannonballed into the water. He could actually breathe underwater! ‘This actually works?!’ He tried to yell, but all that came out were a lungful of bubbles. He swam to shore, and exited the river. He was drenched, and his eyes stung, but he was completely amazed.
“Deku!” He shouted, running over to the other boy and shaking him. “Is this your quirk? You teleporting us to this magic place?”
“I-I mean, I guess?”
“That’s awesome! What if you can take this magic stuff out? Can I use my quirk in here?” Kacchan looked at his hands, now without the blisters and cracks from overusing his quirk from before, and lit up a few explosions. “Ha! I still got it.” He looked up to Deku’s mom, and asked, “Hey, can you use your quirk too?”
Aunt Midoriya blinked, and motioned pulling a small rock on the ground towards her. It shot towards her, incredibly fast, and stopped at about an inch from her still outstretched hand. “That was.. fast.”
“Hey Deku, do you think you can use magic?”
“...Maybe.” Deku motioned towards a stone, trying to move it towards himself, but gave up after a few seconds of nothing. He sighed, frustrated, but froze in amazement when he saw the signature glint of an ember in his exhale. “Mom!” Deku blew out, making a weird face in concentration, and the air in front of him lit up in flames. “I have Dad’s quirk!” He paused, and then asked, “And the teleportation one? Can you have two quirks..?..or is this a part of the first quirk..?”
He started to ramble, and Kacchan started to ignore him. Could Deku really have two quirks? Or was it something to do with this magical world of his?