Chapter Text
Packing the last minute is one of Izuku's bad habits. Despite being told two weeks in advance that he was chosen to be a part of Professor Toshinori's expedition to Hokkaido, he still manages to forget about filling his baggage with necessities. It's not like he was procrastinating, he had two dissertations due a day before the trip and he was too busy reading multiple reference books for him to even think about which pair of socks he should take with him.
As soon as he hit submit on his class webpage, he rushed to his closet to get his baggage out and stuff anything he can inside. He was surprised to get everything done by 12:45 pm and he triple checked everything in his list and went to bed. He felt like he just put his head on his pillow when he heard his alarm ring and it was already 6 am. He groans at the lack of sleep but gets up to get ready. He grabs his coffee and meets up with his uber driver and checks his messages. Uraraka and Iida were already at the airport and it looks like Professor Toshinori is also running late. This makes Izuku feel slightly better knowing his superior is also struggling to keep up with a hectic schedule.
Dr. Yagi Toshinori is a renowned archaeologist. He wrote several papers regarding his expeditions around the world such as the discoveries of hidden civilizations only told in folklore. For example, the City of Atlantis was discovered when he took an underwater expedition at 10,994 meters to explore the deepest point on Earth. Surprisingly, as he and his crew traveled down the Mariana Trench, they discovered that it could go further down than they initially measured. There, in the hidden path, was the top of what he could assume is a castle judging by the infrastructure before him. As soon as he discovered the underwater castle, the window of their submarine capsule cracked. The professor insisted on diving further to explore the small city waiting for them below, but his colleagues would rather keep their lives and not be crushed by water pressure. Eventually, they do uncover the lost city to the point where a museum in Tokyo was built to house all his findings for the public to enjoy.
Izuku closes his eyes and took deep breaths to calm his jittery nerves. He's not nervous to be around any potential danger his professor might put him in. Hell, he's been on a few excavations where he willingly put himself in danger to uncover artifacts. His excitement to reach Hokkaido needs to be dealt with in order to focus on his work once he lands there. Izuku reminisces on when he first heard of its history.
"Hokkaido was once a fertile land surrounded by the greeneries of mountains and valleys," Professor Toshinori says in one of his lectures. "The ports near the island were perfect trading ports for others to occupy," he flips to his next slide that showed an old painting of a flag with a red dragon as its symbol. "However, the group that took control of these ports were the old dragons of the north."
Izuku remembers reading that the leader of Hokkaido formed an alliance with the head of the dragon clan, however, political and economic disagreements soon made Hokkaido into a battlefield. Everyone fled the island and after a few years, winter overtook the land and remained like that to the present. It became inhabitable since average temperatures were around -30 degrees Celsius. He hopes that he can unearth the remains of the dragon clan that allegedly established their posts there. The only records of the clan ever being there were through written historical records.
After thanking his uber driver, Izuku rushes through airport security to the gate terminal where he spots his friends and professor waiting for him. Uraraka sighs in relief as soon as she spots his figure rushing towards their group.
"Izu-kun! Thank god, they just started boarding and we were getting worried!" Uraraka says as she hugs him. Iida chastises him about his tardiness while professor Toshinori looks at him empathetically.
After an hour and a half flight, they landed in Hokkaido. The professor leads them to a car next to a man with a sign that says 'Toshinori, Yagi'. The professor hugs the man in greeting and introduces him to his three pupils.
"This is my partner and long time friend, officer Naomasa Tsukauchi. He not only works with me at our excavations, but he also has a team of private police officers to guard our archaeological site against the prying eyes of the public and media."
"We look forward to your guidance," Tenya says bowing ninety degrees. Uraraka holds in her laugh as Izuku stutters to introduce himself.
Officer Tsukauchi laughs and waves his hand, "No need for formal introductions since Toshinori here talks about you all often. Don't be too nervous and just work hard, okay?"
"Yes, sir!" the trio exclaims.
After unpacking their baggage in their assigned rooms, the trio met up with their professor for their scheduled orientation. Officer Tsukauchi seems to be in deep conversation with their professor once they arrive and both cut it short to greet them.
"Welcome to our head compound! Please sit down before we get started," Officer Tsukauchi says. "As you all know, you're here for a month to assist me and Toshinori on our excavation near Hokkaido's ice pavilion. Your job is to assist the rest of our team in our excavation bellow Hokkaido's mountain. As you find and examine new artifacts, you will be allowed to use our lab near the base to analyze them."
The trio looked at each other in excitement, "You mean we get to use your state of the art equipment?" asks Uraraka.
"Yes, we have a separate station just for graduate students to use, however, there's a lab section accessed only by me and Tsukauchi. Unfortunately, students do not have access to it," professor Toshinori elaborates.
After the orientation ended, the students were assigned specific tasks for the excavation. Uraraka assisted another professor, Nemuri Kayama, in polishing artifacts that were unearthed and categorizing them. Iida worked with professor Yamada in trying to locate new areas of the field to excavate without damaging the possible artifacts within the earth. Meanwhile, Izuku is out in the field collecting the artifacts with the guidance of professor Shota Aizawa.
"Midoriya. You almost chipped the chalice. Be more careful when you're removing the hollow cusp," professor Aizawa says tiredly.
Izuku wipes the dirt from his forehead and nods in affirmation at him. He glances at the surrounding rubble and occasional ice that they unearthed to find the artifacts they were looking for. So far, Izuku enjoyed the excitement of discovering new pieces of the dragon tribe's existence and exchanging ideas with professor Aizawa on what they were and which class of the hierarchy they belonged to. Sometimes he gets a little too carried away and rambles until his professor tells him to stop in his monotonous voice. He silently thanks professor Aizawa for tolerating his mumbling antics by doing most of the heavy lifting. Izuku began building his upper body strength once he realized in his first excavation that he lacked the arm strength to lift ruble out of the way. Artifacts they unearth tend to be exposed to the harsh conditions of the world above after being preserved deep in the Earth for so long that if they're exposed to the air any longer, it would begin to deteriorate if not put inside preserve containers.
"Professor Aizawa," a research assistant called. "Professor Toshinori is calling you and the other professors into his lab, it's an emergency."
Aizawa raised his brow at the summon but said nothing and hopped out of the 4-foot hole he and Izuku made. He tugged his scarf closer to his face, "Midoriya, keep working. If I'm not back within the next few hours, you can finish up here."
"Will do, professor," Izuku said.
After a half-hour of excavating the site, he heard Ochaco call out to him.
"Izu-Kun!" Uraraka made her way to him with Iida in tow. "Since we were dismissed from our duties because of the announcement, Iida and I figured we would help you out here if you don’t mind."
Izuku grinned and said his thanks and handed them a pickax and some gloves. After hours of searching with no results, they decided to go back as the sun began to set.
"Let's head back and freshen up before dinner you guys," Iida said, "It's too dangerous for us to keep going without the professors' guidance after sunset."
"Okay, let's just put these in the suitcase and we can go," Izuku says.
As he packed up, he noticed something strange in the uncharted site next to theirs. An iridescent glow of red was peeking out from the ground.
"Do you see that?" Uraraka and Iida turned to look at where he pointed.
"See what?" Uraraka asks. Izuku looks at her with a puzzled look.
"There's something coming from site 34," Izuku points out, "It's right there! You can't miss it."
Uraraka and Iida exchange a look and turn back to Izuku. "We don't see anything, Midoriya-kun," Iida says.
"Are you okay, Izu-kun?" Uraraka puts her palm on his forehead to check his temperature. Izuku shakes her off, "I'm fine! How do you not see it? It's literally right there." He stares at the glowing red light emitting from the patch of soil and ice. It was even brighter due to the lack of sunlight.
"I think we need to head back, Izu-kun's starting to see things. He might be getting hypothermia from staying out here for so long," Uraraka says and assists him in the direction of their camp.
After a few more minutes of protesting and trying to convince his friends, Izuku gave up and let Uraraka lead him to camp. Iida assists Uraraka by taking all the tool bags and together they walked back to their quarters. As they walked away from the site, Izuku looked back longingly at the glowing patch. He shook his head and turned around, maybe he really was just seeing things and needs some rest.
After tossing around for the nth time, he checks his phone. 1:17 am. He couldn't stop thinking about the glowing patch. Uraraka and Iida lead him to the infirmary and Dr. Shuzenji confirmed that he is perfectly fine and suggests he go back to his room to shower and head to bed.
Fuck it.
Izuku sits up and grabs his pants and coat hanging from his chair. He brings his flashlight and keys and heads to the excavation site to prove to himself that he was just seeing things. He flashes his student pass to the security gate and it slides open for him.
He heads to site 34 and inspects every nook and cranny to find the glowing patch. After going around in circles for the third time, he concludes that he was just tired from a long day of working in the field. Izuku decides that he can finally sleep easy knowing he wasn't crazy.
When he turns to go back to camp, he slips in a patch of soil and falls to the ground. Izuku groans and massages his right arm that breached his fall. His eyes widen in surprise as he comes face to face with the glowing patch of soil he saw before. He grabs his bag in a hurry and takes out his shovel to dig through the soil and snow. He uses his gloved hands to take out the glowing object and pats away the remaining soil hanging onto it.
It was beautiful. A red jewel in the shape of a fang hangs from a black thread as a necklace. The base of the jewel was adorned with gold markings and the tip of the jewel was carved to a sharp point. It looks like it was in pristine condition like it wasn't eroded within its millennium of rest at the foot of the Hokkaido mountain.
Awed by his finding, Izuku rushes to professor Toshinori's lab to tell him about the fang jewel. He knows the professor tends to stay up later than others, especially if there's been a significant finding. He sees that the lights are still on in professor Toshinori's lab and runs to the door.
He knocks on the door, "Professor! I'm so sorry for the interu-" Izuku stumbles in-between his knocks realizing the door was slightly open. He collects himself and let out a gasp at what he saw.
A metal bed was placed in the center of the room with four headlights turned on and turned towards the specimen laying on the bed. It's a man. His sides were mostly covered in ice, but his face, torso, and legs were exposed. He had blonde hair and a well-defined jawline. Judging by his face, he must've died around his early 20s. He's probably the same age as Izuku.
His body was adorned with jewelry ranging from a necklace made of, what Izuku could guess, shark teeth to two other necklaces decorated with small jewels and beads. Other than his jewelry, the man was practically naked and Izuku silently thanks his professor for putting some coverage on the man's private parts.
Awestruck, Izuku took a few more steps towards the man's ice capsule to get a better look at him. Suddenly, he felt a low burning sensation from his hands and looked down to see the fang jewel glowing even brighter. He thought the tremor from his hands was coming from his nerves, but as he held the necklace up he noticed that it was the one vibrating.
He jumps at the sound of ice cracking and he backs away as he notices the sight of the man with his eyes wide open, glowing the same shade of red as the fang jewel. The resurrected man turns his head slightly to observe the room he's in and stops at the sight of the jewel. His expression turns in to scowl as he growls at the necklace. He twitches his hands and uses his strength to break his right arm free from the ice. The rest of his limbs followed suit until he was sitting up and holding his head from the headache he experienced from being brought back from the dead.
Izuku couldn't move his body. He felt his whole body freeze when he saw the man struggle to get out of the ice encapsulating him and he still couldn’t feel his limbs when the man sat up. Was it because of fear or wonder? He couldn't make up his mind because the glowing pair of ruby eyes suddenly shifted from the necklace he was holding to his own pair of emerald eyes.
The sudden shift of expression on the man's face was instantaneous. The wrinkles on his forehead creased into smooth lines of disbelief. As if Izuku was the one that was suddenly brought back from the dead. The man took a step towards him. Izuku knows he should be running away from the man since he might be dangerous. However, his body betrayed his rationality and he stayed put. Even as the man brought up his hand to caress his cheek, Izuku unconsciously leaned towards it as he stared at the glowing orbs that enraptured him.
"Min kjaerlighet," the man whispered in disbelief.
Izuku looked at him with a perplexed expression, "What?"
"Hey, who's in here-," professor Toshinori stopped at the sight in front of him. "What-"
Suddenly, the unknown man hissed at the professor and took a defensive stance between him and Izuku. After a brief pause, the professor slowly raised his hands up to show he wasn't a threat and slowly backed away. Before he could raise his hands all the way up, his fingers swiftly pressed the emergency button near the doorway to alert security. Professor Toshinori then took two slow steps towards the man, but he only growled in warning and proceeded to hide Izuku behind him.
"Calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you," the professor said. The man spat a venomous response that neither the professor nor Izuku understood.
"Izuku," the professor called to get the boy out of his trance of fear, "are you hurt?"
"I-I'm fine. I just-" Izuku glanced at the man's side profile, "I was just l-looking for you, a-and then h-he just woke up."
The man looked at Izuku briefly and furrowed his eyebrows at Izuku's trembling form. The professor then took this chance of the man looking away to throw the nearest textbook at him.
"Izuku, run!" the Professor yelled and kept throwing the nearest objects he could find towards the man.
He tried to run towards the exit when he accidentally tripped on one of the books his professor threw. He let out a yelp as he landed on his side. The man then looked at his form on the ground and roared with rage and pounced on the professor.
"No!" Izuku stumbled to get up and tried to pull the man's body away from his professor.
"Stop!" he cried as he grabbed on to the man's biceps.
The man seized his assaults and turned to look at him, "Min kjaerlighet?" His watery eyes met glowing crimson ones before him in desperation.
Izuku sniffled, "Please, stop."
The man infuriatingly looked between him and the professor with his arms up acting as a shield. He screamed in frustration and got off the professor to capture Izuku in a hug.
"Why are you crying, min kjaerlighet?" the man said lowly. He then pushed Izuku's trembling form to his front and examined him. "Did he hurt you?"
Izuku pushed him away and the man could only look at him shocked. He scrambled away from him to go to professor Toshinori's side. He checked the professor for injuries and let out a sigh of relief to find none. While he was taking care of his mentor, the man ran his eyes throughout his body and silently analyzed him.
"Min kjaerlighet," the man called out.
Before Izuku could lash out on him he heard the lab door open. Professor Tsukauchi and the security team barged in and stopped in shock at the scene in front of them.
"The ice," Tsukauchi breathed out.
The unknown man let out a fierce growl and jumped to attack him. Before he could blink, Izuku heard a loud bang and found the man's figure crumple to the ground. He muffled his scream through his hands as he looked at the blonde's unmoving body.