Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He couldn't take it anymore. The beatings, the torment, the despair, all of it. It all started as tiny jabs, but along the years, it escalated into physical and mental abuse, ranging from toxic verbal harassment, to bruises and burns. He was bullied, only because for the sole reason of wanting to be a hero without a superpower.

And if that wasn't enough, his only mental and emotional lifeline, his idol, All Might, just flat out denied him. He crushed his dreams, he crushed his hope, but most importantly, he crushed his soul.

Once All Might left through the stairs leading down the building, Izuku looked so lifeless that he might as well be mistaken as a corpse, or a doll. A few minutes later of just staring into empty space, he decided to act.

Taking one step right after another, he brought himself towards the edge of the building. The sun was nearly down, the darkness of the night threatening to consume the bright sky. Oh, how it resembled his current predicament.

All the memories, all the decisions, all the effort…

All the pain, all the humiliation, all the torture…

He couldn't bear it anymore. Not after what just happened. A human only has so much before he breaks after all. And Izuku Midoriya has now joined the society of broken humans all across the world.

Standing at the edge of the building, he saw the everyday civilians going about their merry way. He saw the Pro Heroes patrolling the streets in search of crime or even just there to protect the peace. Weren't Pro Heroes' job to help save anyone? And so, where is his saving? Where is his rescue?

Seeing the flaws of today's society, the flaws of the heroes, even All Might's, he realized that the world of heroes he believed in was just a load of bullshit. He cried, and cried, moments later, the pedestrians below noticed the sobbing child from above and their blood ran cold.

And they were right to do so, because within the next second, Izuku jumped, not caring for his life anymore. He might as well just take his childhood friend Kacchan's advice and hope to be reborn with a quirk in his next life.

The civilians screamed as Izuku plummeted towards the ground. They screamed for a hero to help save him. But nobody came to the rescue. All of them, calling for help, telling themselves that the heroes will save him.

They didn't even consider to save him themselves.

As the ground grew closer, Izuku's memories flashed before his eyes. He experienced once more, all of the pain, humiliation, and torture all in one sitting. His mind screamed release from the torment, but then he remembered his mother. What would she think if she found out that her only son committed suicide?

She would be devastated.

Forget about his pain, his trauma, and his torment. He didn't wish that upon his only loving mother. The flame of the want to live spiked and grew into a blazing inferno. His mind racing and only one thought looped through his thoughts.

"I WANT TO LIVE!"

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Izuku awoke from a sudden thud and looked around with caution. He was inside some kind of cell, an incredible dirty cell. One that has not been maintained for years. He spotted an out of place characteristic within the cell he inhabited.

In the center lie a dried-up corpse, dressed in only rags that covered its indecent parts. This got Izuku's mind racing.

"W-what in the world? W-where am I?" Izuku wondered nervously as a sudden shuffling of steps was heard from above. He directed his gaze towards the ceiling to spot some kind of hole, and on the other side of the hole was someone dressed in some kind of knight armor. Without even bothering to talk with Izuku, the knight vanished from his sight as the sound of footsteps grew quieter and quieter until no more could be heard.

"W-who was that?" Izuku anxiously stood up and shook his head. Then, the memories returned. The encounter with the sludge villain, then with All Might, then the crushing of his dreams… And then the memory of…

Jumping off a building…

Izuku paled and started having a panic attack. Why? Why would he do that? He knew himself best. He wouldn't do that. Not because for his sake, but for his…

"M-mom?" Izuku's eyes began to water. He would never see her again. Hell, he wouldn't be able to continue his dream of being a hero. But worst of all…

"W-what would mom feel…?" Izuku despaired, blaming his own self for causing more suffering to his mother. But then, he realized.

"W-wait… If I am here… If I'm still alive…" Izuku stood back up, calming his nerves. His shaking got less and less, until his beating heart calmed down and he began to breathe normally again. "I will return, mom."

And so, he took his first step towards freedom.

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His journey started in the Undead Asylum. After removing the key from the corpse that was dropped by that unknown knight, Izuku began traversing the dungeon of the Undead Asylum. He first encountered the unresponsive hollows in the corridor.

There were also writing on the ground, telling Izuku to kill them. He didn't want to, in fact, he never wanted to kill a person in his entire life. But in here, life means nothing. All of them revives, even if you kill them again and again and again.

The writing stated that if he didn't kill and collect the souls, he wouldn't even be able to survive an hour in this unforgiving place. So, with great hesitation, using a broken sword hilt that he had on his person, he swung the chipped and broken blade towards the unprotected head of the hollow.

The squelching of meat and groans of pain coming from the mouth of the hollow made Izuku blanch. Once the hollow was killed, Izuku straight out collapsed and hurled the contents of his stomach. He didn't even realize some souls entered his body after the kill.

It continued like that for a few moments, wallowing in the realization that he had killed a living creature for the first time in his life. The first time was always the hardest, and always the most challenging. He justified that the hollow he killed was nothing more than a puppet, a shell of a former living being and that it deserved mercy. To be put to rest from its eternal torment.

But no matter how much he justified himself, he just couldn't get over the feeling of killing someone. It disgusted him. He wanted to be a hero, he wanted to save people, he didn't want to kill people.

He remembered the reason why he was even doing this. He wanted to go back home. To return to his mother and apologize for doing the stupid things he did. Stacking excuse upon excuse upon excuse for the reason of his bruises and burns every time he returned home.

He didn't want to do that anymore. So with great determination, he stood back up and continued onwards.

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Izuku met the knight that helped him escape, Oscar of Astora, his name was. Seeing him at death's door brought out a torrent of emotions within him. He saved him, so he wanted to return the favor.

Sadly, the favor was never returned. Oscar lost his purpose, the only thing keeping him from turning into a hollow, like the one that kept on shooting arrows at him in another corridor right after running away from the huge, ugly demon that almost mashed him to paste.

He tried giving him reasons to live. Anything was good at all, but nothing sparked the flame of hope within the knight. With great reluctance, Izuku left Oscar and bid him goodbye. Oscar wished him luck and hoped that Izuku could make a change to this ruined kingdom.

Right after leaving him, Izuku recalled the information he gleamed from him. For some reason, he was not in Japan anymore. Hell, he probably wasn't on Earth. It seemed more likely that he really died back when he jumped and was reborn here.

He didn't know if this was the afterlife, some sort of purgatory, or another world in which he was reincarnated in.

He continued pondering on these thoughts until he was stabbed in the chest by a hollow. His body felt weak, blood draining from his wound every second. The pain was unbearable. He knew, he was going to die. He didn't want to die. Not again. Not until he was safe back at home with his mother.

So he gripped the Bandit's Dagger tight and retaliated with a stab towards the hollow's head. Too bad the hollow somehow dodged and launched more strikes, sending Izuku down into a puddle of his own blood.

"I-is this where I d-die…" Izuku was tearing up. He wanted to return so badly. He didn't want to give up. He forced his body to move, only for his consciousness to be reaped when the hollow stabbed him in the head.

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Izuku woke up in a shock and looked around. It was the flooded zone where he lit a bonfire earlier, just past the area where that huge demon was lurking around. He was confused, he died right? So why was he here, alive and breathing…

Except, he wasn't breathing.

Quickly, he checked out his arms and found something horrifying. His skin was rotting. It was dried-up, just like those hollows he killed. He was going into a full-blown panic, until he recalled Oscar's words.

"The curse of the Undead…" Izuku recalled every bit of information he got from Oscar's lips. He couldn't really die since every time he did, he would be revived at the last bonfire he rested at. But at the cost of losing all of the souls in his possession.

This gave him hope, that even if he did make mistakes, he could continue again and again. He wouldn't give up. He would find a way to make it back home. He will return, just as he swore.

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How long has it been since then…? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Izuku couldn't remember. Even his deathcount which he counted more than a hundred seemed to elude him in this god forsaken hellhole.

He has killed thousands upon thousands of hollows. He has killed demons. He has killed drakes, and even undead dragons. He even slayed Kalameet when he went back in time to Oolacile. He gave respite to Knight Artorias, gave his to soul Ciaran, killed Manus, and many more.

The only ones he remembered he didn't kill were Priscilla and Gwynevere.

He wanted to remember. After all, in this place, time is a concept that eludes even the veteran of Undeads. He wanted to remember the friends he made. He wanted to remember how they died. He wanted to remember everything.

But he couldn't. Undead or not, the brain of his body still belonged to a human. Even if he had the souls of Demi-gods raging within him, he couldn't seem to know why his body remained human. All he remembered was the reason why he kept going.

But that didn't matter anymore.

He was close. He could feel it. All that was left was to succeed Lord Gwyn and link the fire. Then, he could go home. Only one more… Just one more step…

Here it is, the final step. Ahead of him is the former Lord of Cinder, Gwyn. Readying his stance, Izuku got to work. Dodges, parries, attacking, fighting was now second nature to him. Exploiting weaknesses was also now deeply ingrained in his body that attacking the weakpoints was just that easy for him.

Couple that with years and years of experience of never-ending battle, death, and killing, and lo and behold, you have yourself a battle-hardened god.

They clashed with each other, both never resting, never giving each other the edge. Izuku didn't know how long this clash seemed to be. It could have been just seconds, but it could also be days. Just one mistake, and this fight is finished.

Then in an instant, Izuku noticed a brief opening in Gwyn's guard and took that opening in an instant, skewering Gwyn's body using the blades Ciaran gave him.

Gwyn heaved one last grunt before collapsing, life leaving his body as the soul of the God entered Izuku's body.

It was done. Finally, his journey has ended. Now all he needs to do was link the fire.

It was a mistake.

Pain, incredible pain, unimaginable pain coursed through his body. He was burning. And when he looked towards the exit, it was sealed shut. His only escape, cut off just like that.

He screamed. He cried. He pleaded for help. But nothing. He just burned. For seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, and years. That was all he felt. He wanted to escape never-ending inferno. He just wanted to go home.

Why is fate so cruel?

He spent the entire time burning. His voice long gone from all the screaming, his tears all dried up from the intense heat. He never wanted this. Slowly, the memories returned. The bullying, the torment, his dream.

His mother…

With one last push with all of his strength, even if his throat was no longer functioning, he screamed.

"I WANT TO GO HOME!"

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Izuku opened his eyes. When he looked around, he found himself lying on a hospital bed. Wrapped up like some sore of mummy. His hands were in casts, as well as his feet. Strange feeling though, since he couldn't feel pain from it. If he was injured, he sure as felt not.

"IZUKU!" a loud cry interrupted his pondering and he quickly turned his head to the side. Standing there, was none other than his mother, sorrowful tears gushing out of her eyes as she looked towards her son.

"M-mom…?" Izuku too, could feel the tears well up in his eyes. How long has it been…? How long were they apart…? How long was it since he saw his mother again…?

It didn't take too long for the doctors to realize that their patient was conscious and they quickly went to work. While this was all happening, Izuku only had one thought looping through his head.

"I've returned…"

Chapter Text

Only hours passed and Izuku was released from custody. The doctors were stunned. A quirkless teen was shoved into an emergency bay with fatal injuries, and then a week later, was diagnosed perfectly healthy without any injuries. It took them a few days before they could stabilize the unconscious teen's body for crying out loud!

His mother, Inko Midoriya, was notified about the incident and she quickly left everything at home, important or not. When she arrived, Inko was devastated.

Her son, her only son that she loved most in this world, was laying in an emergency room filled with doctors operating on his body. She got a few glances on her son's condition and it horrified her.

She lamented the situation. Why didn't she go strong on her son when she knew he was hurting? Why did she relent to her son's excuses, even though she knew it wasn't appropriate? Why did she never act when she knew her son was going through something horrible?

She failed him. She failed her son. She failed Izuku.

She didn't move from her spot in the hospital, always waiting the news of her unconscious son. The doctors were worried for her health, but she didn't even budge. Instead, they offered her food while she waited.

A few days later, she was finally given good news. Her son was stable, and he had no threat to his life at the moment. This relieved the mother so much that tears began dropping from her eyes.

She was given the permission to come and visit her son whenever she wanted, granted it wasn't that late into the night or too early in the morning. After spending a few hours on watching her son, sleeping peacefully on the bed, as well as hearing about the damage on his body, she broke into tears once more.

It didn't even help that the doctors said the reason for why her son was in this state.

Her son tried committing suicide. Her sweet, caring, and lovable child, tried to end himself. She didn't know what was going on in her son's life, but she knew when it drew the line.

So, after that day and getting a night's rest, she stomped off towards his school, Aldera Middle School.

She had a talk with the teachers, some of his classmates, and even the principal. This was no joke of course. If this suicide scandal was to be spread around, the reputation of said school would plummet.

Inko observed, listened, and concluded, that this school never gave a fuck about Izuku. Whenever she tried asking why he came home in bruises, they brushed it off saying that they didn't know, and that probably he was injured on the way home. Inko spotted a liar when seeing one. She was the mother of a genius, observant teen after all.

She was infuriated, but she knew if she ever filed a case against them without solid evidence, she would lose. She hesitatingly receded and then went on to find the only person Izuku considered as a friend.

When she saw him, he was busy bullying someone from another class with his usual entourage. Using his quirk nonetheless! The other students just passed by the group, even the teachers did so. This confused her, why was he getting away with it? Why did no one even bother to help the poor victim? Right after the bullying session which lasted about 5 seconds, Katsuki began walking away with his underlings. He was saying something…

And when she heard what came out his mouth, she was filled with rage.

"I wonder where that damn Deku went off? Don't tell me that weakling Deku ran away? Nah, that pansy won't run. If he did, I'll find him and blast him to kingdom come!"

She took a step forward, only to halt as she thought about what her son would say to her if he realized that his mother maimed a student, a friend no less. Even if the explosive teen deserved every second of it.

With great hesitation, the mother backed off, only to pull up her phone and call an old friend.

"Hello? Bakugou residence."

"Mitsuki, I have something to tell you."

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Izuku glanced around in his old jumpsuit, holding the hands of his mother. He longed for this. For many years. He thought that what happened was just a dream, but no, everything back in that world, back in Lordran was reality.

The reason being the strength he had back there, it transferred to here. Even his arsenal of armors, weapons, and items he collected and hoarded were brought here. Only, it became a part of him.

He tried it, only once in the hospital though when nobody was around. He found out that for some reason, the bottomless box, as well as that bottomless satchel that he had became some sort of dimensional inventory. He could pass it off as his quirk though, so no problem on that front.

The only problem was his strength. He was no longer a normal human. Heck, he could probably beat Endeavor in a straight-out fist fight. All Might though, now that was something else.

Then, there was also his pyromancy. He was at a loss on what to do with this. He has dimensional storage, superhuman strength, some type of regeneration, sorceries, and then his pyromancy.

Let's not forget the miracles… And if it did follow him, his pseudo-immortality.

All in all, it looked like not a quirk, but something a Demi-god could have. He was afraid. Back in that world, power and knowledge was all one needed, and nobody would bother you. Here though, you could pretty well be labeled as a freak show and hunted down by the governments for being too powerful to control if he just gave them a tiny, simple reason.

He was then brought out of his muttering (turns out he retained that same muttering habit) by his mother who nudged him in the head with a smile.

"Izuku, I'm glad you're safe," his mother gently relayed to the Izuku, who then responded by beaming a huge smile. One he had not done so in years.

"I am too, mom," Izuku hugged her, his emotions spiraling out of control from this hurricane of relief, love, and joy.

"I will never let you go, mom."

Chapter Text

It's been 7 months since Izuku's discharge from the hospital. He was currently in school busying himself with the work the teacher gave him. Basically, it was Math, and Izuku breezed through it like a walk in the park.

Don't get me wrong, he had trouble at the start since all he ever knew was fight for the past years… decades? Point being, he forgot general education. So, he had to relearn everything from scratch, but because of his enhanced mental properties which he had since birth, as well as the advancements of said properties in Lordran via souls, Izuku was now a genius that could rival even the scientists of old.

It was also an incredibly huge pain to reintegrate back to society after a circle of death. Paranoia does some things to you it seems. There was one time Izuku thought a Black Knight of never-ending chase was right behind him. Imagine Izuku's relief when it was just cosplay. Seriously, those knights chase you all the way to the bonfires.

It was even worse in school. Although it was minimalized by saying that Izuku got hospitalized by a villain instead of suicide, it was still torture.

Bakugou being one. The explosive blond won't leave him alone for a few days, and Izuku 100% evaded contact with said teen. Having had enough one day, Izuku did something no one in the whole school would expect.

He trashed him. Quite literally.

Imagine this, Izuku was sitting on his desk, minding his own business, when suddenly this obnoxious, arrogant, explosive blonde walks right up to him with a scowl. This rang warning bells in Izuku's mind, still not getting rid of that overused sense of paranoia. He did what most fighting veterans in Lordran did when a threat comes their way.

Ready… Get set… DASH! What? Those bonewheel skeletons at the bottom of the catacombs were hell for Izuku. Don't forget those Greatbow Silver Knights in Anor Londo.

In an instant, Izuku left the room since class had just ended. And also, since he didn't forget how much of a dick Bakugou was even in that endless cycle of hell, he gave him his just desserts.

By throwing rubbish at him as well as a dung pie. For some reason, dung pie no longer adds toxic in this world. Weird. Probably because of high hygiene standards.

Let's just say Bakugou was hella pissed as he screeched curses and colorful words into the skies. Most of them ending in 'DDDEEEEKKKUUUUU!'

Izuku had no idea though what Bakugou wanted to do, but that's a story for another time.

During the weekend, Izuku registered his quirk for the sake of appearances. He decided to use the dimensional storage as the quirk description. When his other abilities get out though, that's when he'll come clean, with great simplification though on his time in Lordran.

Just like that, time passed and we now see ourselves at the present, with Izuku passing over the Math test to the tired teacher. The teacher accepted that Izuku could finish all of his tests, even those at college level with perfect scores no less, and decided not to be a dick about it. It was just one time, one time, and his self-esteem was reduced to nothing but a grain of sand.

Izuku then spent the remaining time thinking on what to do with his weapons. He was still deciding whether to be a hero or not. Now that he had the strength, intelligence and experience to do so, it was clear he could be accepted into the Hero Course of U.A. no problem, but Izuku kept thinking, did he really want to?

Frankly, he was tired of fighting. Fighting day in, day out, no rest, with endless enemies. Dying, reviving, fighting, dying again, the process repeats. He just wanted to rest and enjoy the rest of his life with his family.

But that tiny part of him that still wanted to save people kept on urging him to continue. That want to be a hero that can relieve everyone with just a smile. He never got the chance to do so in Lordran, what with most of everybody dying. Oh, how he missed his sunbro.

Before he returned to Japan, Izuku's memories were hazy. Now that he's back, he began recalling some events which were horrifying to say the least. First off was Siegmeyer. That joyful, sir onion, succumbing to his death by his own daughter's hand. Then Rhea, how Izuku wept for the girl after he offed her in the Duke's Archives.

Then there was Solaire, his sunbro. He saw the signs, he was close to breaking, yet he wasn't able to find a way to help him. Imagine what he felt when he saw that same sunbro trying to kill him after getting brainwashed by a sunlight maggot. He kept shouting, kept trying to bring Solaire back to his senses, but to no avail.

In the end, Izuku granted mercy towards one of the close friends he had back in Lordran. That day was when Izuku lost all hope to be a hero. He did save Anastacia, but only for her to continue being trapped in that damnable cage!?

Izuku was ashamed of himself. How could he be a hero if those he tries to save ends up in the same position as they did, or worse.

The bell rung, and Izuku was brought out of his deep contemplation. Sighing, he got up and left before a certain explosive blonde goes after him.

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"Oh, Lord of Cinder, thy world's in peril."

"… What?" Izuku slowly opened his eyes, only to be met by some strange, hazy figure. "I could've sworn I went to sleep, is this a dream? No, it's too realistic to be one. And, wait, Lord of Cinder? How does it know? And who is it? I think it's a female judging from the voice… mutter, mutter…"

The hazy figure just stared at the supposed God before them. This God was one of a kind, they thought with a blink. Sadly, they didn't have time for this.

"Lord of Cinder, hear thy words. Etch them in thy heart of flame. The Abyss hath spread, and thy flame flickers. Thy flame must not extinguish."

Izuku was brought out of his musings when heard the hazy figure speak. He was confused for a moment, before he realized the implications of what the figure meant.

"… Don't tell me," Izuku held a in a gasp. If this vision he was seeing was 100% true, it could very well make Japan into Lordran junior! Although, most of it was the Gods fault. He also didn't know how the abyss works. Couple that with having the Lord of Cinder soul in his body, and you have a disaster waiting to happen when they come into contact with each other.

"Thy enemy lies within the hearts of dark. Minds of insanity and anarchy. Thee must find them, and prevent thy tragedy."

An image of U.A. High School came into view behind the hazy figure. Izuku now had an idea of what the figure wanted, but he also knew the consequences of not acting with this kind of threat looming upon him.

He might as well do so to prevent a second Lordran.

"Lord of Cinder, thy world rests in thine hands."

With a poof, the figure vanished and Izuku opened his eyes.

"… This is really bad," Izuku huffed out as he prepared his future plans. The vision could be false, but Izuku highly doubted it. This wasn't the first time he had this kind of vision. Izuku got his notebook with a label, 'For the Future' and got to writing.

1st Objective: Get accepted to U.A.

Chapter Text

"Finally, I'm here," Izuku thought as he approached the gates of U.A. while observing the other examinees. "Funny… How I dreamt to be here in the past, now…"

"DEKU!" Izuku was brought out of his soliloquy as an abrasive blond strode towards him with a fierce look in his eyes. Izuku paid no attention and kept on walking, ignoring the explosive blonde in the process.

This infuriated the blonde, although he stopped and shook his head.

"I'll get him later, for now, focus on the damn exam…" Katsuki muttered as he strode towards the building where they would have their written exam. While Katsuki went ahead of the emerald teen, Izuku strode to a halt as he sensed someone tripping right beside him.

In a quick series of movement, Izuku grabbed the person beside him and righted them up in a flash.

"Sorry 'bout that, but falling down means bad luck," Izuku said, recalling the experiences he had in Lordran about falling down. There was the time when he fell down a cliff, the other time when he stumbled because of a tremor then it led to his death via giant hammer by Executioner Smough. Let's just say that Izuku had bad memories about falling down. "Can't have you having any of those in the test after all."

"Ah!? T-thank you, whoever you are," the person that Izuku saved was a brunette teen, probably the same age (physically) as him, with permanent blushes on her cheeks. If Izuku wasn't so detached to his emotions when with others (excluding his mother), he would've blushed furiously. But his time in Lordran made sure that he would have an incredibly hard time forming expressions with strangers. Izuku also noticed some sort of pads on her fingertips.

"My name is Uraraka Ochako," the brunette said to Izuku as he continued to ponder on those pads of hers on her fingertips. Noticing this, the brunette shyly explained about her quirk. "Oh, these pads? They're my quirk, I can nullify the gravity of anything I touch with these pads."

"… Wonderful," Izuku praised with utmost respect. How he wished he had this kind of quirk back in Lordran. It would've been extremely useful there. Getting to out of reach places quicker, descending down without the fear of damaging one's body, then there are the enemies that rely on their feet to fight…

How he wished he had that when fighting against that asshole of Capra Demon. Do not mistake this, the Capra Demon was not that difficult, the difficult ones were the damned dogs! Those mongrels that chip away at your sanity and health while the Capra Demon smash you with its large machetes. Then, there was the Bed of Chaos... or the Bed of Bullshit! How many times had he died because of falling through a hole when that damned arm smashed him to kingdom come!

All in all, the most frustrating situations he had ever faced in Lordran. Nito was not that hard, once Izuku knew that Nito could literally kill his summons with a swing of its sword, or a blast of its spell.

Anyway, back to the present. Ochako blushed at the praise she got from the emerald teen. Sure, she had been praised before for her quirk, in fact, a lot of construction companies tried to scout her, but she was deeply loyal to her parents' company. That, and she loved them very much.

But then they said for her to follow her dreams, so she aspired to be a hero, to help her parents live it easy.

"Y-you're also awesome! How you moved to pick me up! It was like 'fwoosh!' and then 'bam!'" Ochako returned the praise with a compliment to how Izuku remedied the incoming incident. Although, Izuku had question marks popping over his heads on the description on how he moved.

"Am I a comic book character?" Izuku mentally thought as he imagined the scenario with the aforementioned onomatopoeias. Izuku then shrugged then checked the time. "By the way, if we stay here any longer, we're going to be late."

"Oh my god you're right! See ya, hope ya pass!" Ochako then dashed, letting slip her hometown dialect due to her rushing. Izuku then shook his head and sighed, then continued on towards the building.

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Izuku was now inside the orientation area after their written exam. It was dark… Not as dark as the Abyss, but dark nonetheless. There were countless of examinees occupying the entire area, each seated in their designated seats.

"And only about 40 can make it in the hero course…" Izuku sighed, then looked beside him. It wasn't Katsuki, thank goodness for that. It was someone he didn't know, but he know where he studied. "Divided by school? Probably."

The room then went silent when a loud, blonde man stood at the stage. A mike in his hand with a speaker strapped to his neck, this man is a Pro-Hero known as Present Mic. Before, Izuku would fanboy at the thought of seeing one of the Pro-Heroes, but now, he just ignored the fact that he was a Pro-Hero.

In Izuku's eyes, everybody here is human. Nothing more, nothing less. Not to be racist, but to be factual. As an undead, or a God, who knows, Izuku didn't understand how souls are supposed to work. What he just knew, is that everybody here has limits. Case in point, if someone from here was to be sent to Lordran as they are, no doubt they would hollow in just about a day or so.

"GOOD DAY EVERYONE! CAN I GET A YEAH!?" Present shouted into the microphone, trying to hype up the examinees. When silence is all he got, Present Mic mentally sighed. "It's going to be like last year huh?"

"I'LL BE GIVING Y'ALL THE RUNDOWN OF TODAY'S TEST! YA READY!?" he was met yet again with silence, making him grumble mentally.

"TAKING THE SERIOUS APPROACH? I DIG THAT, ANYWAY TIME TO GET TO BUSINESS," the examinees then leaned forward, their attention focused on the blonde hero. "ALL OF YOU'LL BE SEPARATED INTO DIFFERENT ARENAS AS SHOWN ON YOUR TEST FORMS. YOU ALL WILL HAVE 10 MINUTES WHEN THE TEST STARTS. WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING? EASY! SUBJUGATE THE VILLAINS!"

A huge screen appeared behind the Present Mic as he explained. The screen portrayed three types of robots, Villains, for them to subjugate. Each of the robots had a corresponding number right over their heads.

"So basically, destroy them and gather points," Izuku concluded while muttering all the while, coming up with different tactics based on the designs of the robots displayed on the screen. The other examinees beside him were creeped out for a moment, but when he listed the weaknesses, they strained their ears just to get a bit more information from the low-sounding mutters.

"EACH ROBOT HAS ITS OWN CORRESPONDING POINT! THESE ARE CALLED VILLAIN POINTS! RACK UP A GOOD NUMBER OF THEM THEN WELCOME TO U.A! IF NOT, THEN GOOD LUCK FINDING ANOTHER SCHOOL!" Present Mic stated factually. Izuku could nod his head to this. Direct, straight to the point orientation, no other formalities, although Izuku had a feeling that they were leaving something out.

"Excuse me!" a blue-haired teen wearing glasses stood up with his hand raised above his head. Present Mic acknowledged the teen then he began speaking. "You say that there are three villains, but on the forms, it's said there are four. If this is an error, then this is unbecoming of U.A! We are here to learn from the very best! And you!"

Izuku tilted his head when he saw the blunette point his finger at him with a stern gaze.

"Quit you're muttering, you're disturbing the others! If you're not taking this seriously, then I suggest you leave at once!" the blunette teen stated with force, causing those listening to the emerald teen's muttering to despair. They weren't done listing all of the information!

Izuku just tilted his head even further, then began to retort.

"I could say the same for you," Izuku just stated with a deadpan. "Present Mic was just about to explain that fourth villain, then you had to ask a question about said robot then continued to bash the academy. If that's not taking this seriously, then I don't know what is, except… Are you trying to be a hindrance?"

This got the blunette to stand in shock, while the other examinees who heard the verbal jab snickered. This prompted for the blunette to bow his head in shame towards Present Mic and sit back down.

"ERR… OKAY, EXAMINEE 7111 GOOD QUESTION! THAT PARTICULAR VILLAIN HAS 0 POINTS!" the screen showed the villain dubbed '0-pointer.' "IT IS AN OBSTACLE THAT GOES CRAZY IN TIGHT AREAS SO I SUGGEST YOU ALL RUN. IT'S JUST NOT WORTH IT. WELL THAT'S ENOUGH FROM ME!"

The screen turned black and all that was left on the stage was Present Mic.

"BEFORE YOU ALL LEAVE, LET ME LEAVE A PARTING GIFT! NAPOLEON BONAPARTE ONCE SAID 'A HERO IS ONE WHO OVERCOMES LIFE'S MISFORTUNES.' GO BEYOND! PLUS ULTRA!"

The examinees erupted into cheers as they shouted the school motto.

"NOW, GOOD LUCK SUFFERING!"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Izuku arrived at Battle Center B after riding the designated bus. He was busy warming up for the physical activity. As always, to prevent any kind of self-injury, warm up the body first. While he was busy warming up, he was approached by a brunette teen, the same teen that Izuku met at the gate.

"Ah! There you are!" Ochako smiled when she saw someone familiar in this suffocating test. "Sorry for calling you out so suddenly, it's just… I'm so nervous."

She was nervous as hell, trying to find anything to use as something to relieve her anxiety, and lo and behold, the perfect solution.

A talking partner.

Izuku could understand. Back in Lordran, if he was anxious about the future, a talking buddy was always the solution. It could even lead to some good tips. Like that Crestfallen Knight always sitting at the Firelink Shrine.

Too bad he turned hollow in New Londo and Izuku had to give him mercy.

"That's not a problem," Izuku stated. "Nervousness can lead to mistakes, so learning how to lessen it is extremely helpful in the long run. What I do to lessen my nervousness is to stretch. It helps you know."

Ochako beamed at the advice. She did the same and felt relieved, knowing that someone she knows is here with her, even as strangers. She smiled, then laughed, thanking the emerald teen for the advice.

"START!" Present Mic's voice reverberated across all of the battle centers. Once Izuku heard that, Izuku shifted into third gear and quickly ran towards the open gates, confusing the other examinees, as well as Ochako. "THAT EXAMINEE'S GOT A GOOD HEAD! WHAT? THERE ARE NO COUNTDOWNS IN REAL BATTLE! RUN! RUN LIKE HELL!"

In an instant, all hell broke loose as countless of teens scrambled towards the open gates, with Izuku way far ahead of them.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Izuku ran as fast as his feet could take him. The faster he could get in, the faster he could gear up and get his stamina back. Once inside the arena, he scouted the area, before finding a group of faux-villains at the center of the street.

"TARGET LOCKED-ON… VERDICT: ELIMINATE!" the robots shouted in unison as rocket launchers popped up on their shoulders. "FIRE!"

With a well-timed roll, Izuku dodged all of the missiles, while gearing himself up. In an instant, his whole body was covered in metal. A blue ragged cloak hung from his shoulders. On his head was a type of helmet, with cloth covering the sides, causing his face to be near unrecognizable due to the shadow.

On one hand, he held a greatsword with intricate designs. The blade was incredibly sharp as seen by how it punctured the pavement below it when it landed. Then on Izuku's other hand, a greatshield made of some kind of metal adorned arm. It was huge, but not that huge as it couldn't cover the head.

It was the Artorias Knight set.

In an instant, Izuku ran forward, two-handing Artorias' Greatsword and sliced a 2-pointer in half. With just a slice, the robot was cleanly bisected in two perfectly cut halves, but Izuku didn't stop to marvel at his work, instead, he continued with the massacre.

Grabbing his shield from behind, he held it in front of him, blocking two missiles that were about to collide with him. The impact was tremendous, and Izuku noticed that this particular shield was not fit for their types of attack, being most of it focused on impact instead of magic, so Izuku swapped his shield for another.

The shield he took was bigger than the last one. It completely covered his body behind its huge girth and height. It was like it was cut directly from a slab of stone, with chains strapped on its front. Just from a look, it was incredibly heavy, and Izuku was lifting it no problem!

This was Havel's Greatshield.

When the second barrage of missiles impacted the shield, the impact was noticeably weaker. Izuku retaliated, quickly switching to his two-handed grip, and bisecting another robot from the waist. Once he was done with destroying the robots, he made sure by stabbing it again, making sure it won't get up.

From there, it just continued.

Dodge, bisect, missile, blocked, bisect. He ignored the curious glances and continued with his work, as efficient as possible, without wasting anytime.

[][][][][][][][][][][]

Aizawa Shota was just another teacher here at U.A. Another teacher being one that has the most expelled students on his resume. Right now, just like the other teachers, they were focusing on one particular examinee. Most specifically, an examinee wearing a suit of iron (titanite) quickly cutting down the robots in an efficient manner.

He didn't stop, he didn't hesitate, and most of all, he was incredibly brutal and efficient, only using one cut on a weakpoint to destroy a robot immediately. Most of all, he stabbed a destroyed robot again just to make sure it won't get up!

"… This is gonna be a fun year…" Aizawa thought tiredly as he stared at the file of said student.

Name: Izuku Midoriya

Age: 15

Gender: Male

Quirk: Dimension Storage

"It's time," an animal hybrid spoke up from his high chair. On its hands, a huge, red button. "All Might, would you have the honors?"

"Of course, principal," an emaciated blonde man nodded and brought his hand towards the button, and pressed it.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Izuku continued on destroying robots here and there. He counted about 67 points when suddenly, a huge tremor began to encompass the area. The examinees panicked, but Izuku just sighed. His gut feeling was that something huge was about to appear.

And would you look at that, Izuku's gut was true! After years of honing his instincts, his gut feeling was almost at 100% accuracy.

First, the ground cracked and gave away, next, a huge red sensor appeared, then next came the body… A huge body… It's getting larger… By Gwyn's balls that's huge… It's even bigger than a giant… Are they trying to kill the examinees!?

Izuku mentally exclaimed at the sheer ridiculousness that is the 0-pointer. Who could mistake it with a huge '0' plastered on its body? Its size was even bigger than a skyscraper! Izuku's instinct told him to run, so he did.

He ran as fast as he could. Dodging the other examinees trying to run away from the metal monstrosity. But then, Izuku heard a shriek of pain.

"HELP!" the voice cried, and Izuku told his brain to look behind. When he did, his brain stopped. The brunette he met earlier, also named Uraraka Ochako, was trapped underneath the rubble. Izuku told himself all would be okay, it's just a test, right? But when the huge robot cocked its fist back up high, Izuku recalled his friends back in Lordran.

Every single one of them which he failed to save.

In an instant, Izuku took off all of his armor, and equipped the Grass Crest Shield, as well as the Mask of the Child. He ran as fast as his feet could take him, and arrived just before giant robot could land its fist at the two teens.

Without hesitation, Izuku equipped his most, heavily defended armor in his entire collection, the Havel's Set. With the Dragon tooth increasing his defense even further, as well as the rings that increased his defense, which were the Ring of Steel Protection, and the Wolf's Ring to prevent him from staggering.

The huge metal fist met the shield, and a huge smoke cloud erupted from the impact. Ochako shut her eyes, accepting her death. But when she felt no pain, she opened her eyes, and what she saw took her breath away.

A huge figure towered above her, standing still with his shield refusing to budge from the giant's fist. The figure looked like he was covered in rock. He refused to move from his spot, all to save this girl behind her.

"TIME'S UP!" Present Mic shouted from the safety of his tower. "THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING. RESULTS WILL BE SENT TO YOU VIA MAIL NEXT WEEK! SEE YA'LL NEXT TIME DEAR LISTENERS!"

Izuku smiled. Knowing that right now, he has finally saved someone from death or despair.

Chapter Text

After a few seconds of agonizing pain, Izuku dropped to his knees. The impact he withstood from the giant metal fist was unlike anything he has ever had experienced before!

It was like a giant's tantrum attack all combined into a single punch!

"D-Deku!" Ochako called out and tried to rush towards Izuku. Who else would the stone titan be other than Izuku who she saw running towards her earlier? But rather than being able to run straight into the stone titan, Ochako fell back down to the ground because of the sprain on her ankle as she hissed in pain.

Izuku on the other hand popped a vein when he heard the degrading nickname. So, without even turning his head, more focused on trying to catch his breath, Izuku let out a single sentence which quickly denied the nickname.

"My name's not Deku," even though it didn't affect him that much than before, being called useless still stings a bit, what with him being unable to save the people back in Lordran. Basically, he didn't want that nickname to spread, ever.

"Note to self, whack Bakugou when you see him," Izuku thought as he got his strength back. Ochako however had a confused face. Izuku turned towards her and saw the confusion on the brunette's face.

Izuku unequipped the Havel Set and returned back into his track suit. This made Ochako wonder what kind of quirk Izuku had. But forgetting that for a moment, Ochako quickly bowed her head towards her savior, or in this case, perform a dogeza.

"T-Thank you for saving me, boy who's name I still don't know," Ochako stated with fierce emotions. Seeing this, Izuku's lips twitched slightly upwards, relishing in the fact that he had finally saved someone from certain doom.

"By the way, how did you know my nickname?" Izuku asked, curious about how she knew that degrading nickname.

"O-Oh, that?" Ochako blushed and rubbed behind her head. "You see, I heard it from that loud blonde who called you at the entrance."

Once he heard this, Izuku rubbed his temple with an irritated look. A few seconds later, Izuku stared at the brunette with an expressionless gaze.

"And? Do you know what it means?" Ochako blushed even harder, embarrassed and shamed on the fact that she called someone useless. Other than that though, Ochako had other thoughts.

"I know it means useless, but to me, it sounds like 'You can do it!'" Ochako stated with a shy smile. Izuku raised his right eyebrow in amusement, only to be called by someone right beside him.

And that someone was an incredibly short granny.

She wore something like a mix of a doctor's uniform and a hero costume. Helping her walk was a solid, wooden cane, though Izuku guessed that it was more than a walking instrument.

"You good there, sonny?" the granny asked, concerned about Izuku's well-being. Well, anyone would after seeing him tank that goliath of a fist made of metal.

"Yeah, all good," Izuku just nodded, making the granny raise an eyebrow.

"Huh, you have a good body under your head, sonny," the granny complimented while she headed towards the downed form of Ochako. After inspecting the injury on said teen, her lips stretched and kissed the injured ankle, grossing out Ochako. Izuku, not so much, Blighttown was more gross than this scene.

"Oh!? I'm healed! But I feel so tired…" Ochako beamed up, only to feel drained after a few seconds of joy. Ochako was then handed a gummy bear by the granny.

"Eat up, you'll need it," Ochako nodded and nibbled at the treat, smiling in glee once she found the taste just right. Izuku just watched it all with indifference. He had the Estus Flask, and some Green Blossom for that job. Only, it was too early to show them.

Rather, he really hoped he didn't have to show them.

"Anyway, scurry along now, the test's over. You'll get to know the results in a week," the granny said and walked away looking for more injured examinees to heal. Seeing that there was nothing left to do, Izuku went on his way, back to his loving mother.

Only if Ochako didn't stop him.

"Hey, wait up!" Ochako called out to the emerald teen who was on his way to meet with his mother. "Don't leave me like that! I still didn't get to know your name."

When Izuku heard that, he knocked his head upside down for not introducing himself earlier. Solaire did it, Siegmeyer did it, Andre did it, and hell, even Lautrec did it!

"Sorry," Izuku apologized to the curious brunette. "My name's Midoriya Izuku of Musutafu."

This earned an even more curious expression from the brunette, causing Izuku to curse his old habit.

"Sorry, force of habit," Izuku explained with an indifferent face. This got Ochako even more curious, but relented for the sake of the emerald teen.

"So, Midoriya, mind if I call you Deku?" she asked, causing Izuku to almost tell her off, almost being the keyword. With what she said earlier, Izuku found that nickname not full of negatives anymore. So instead, Izuku nodded in agreement.

"Yay! By the way, can we exchange contacts?" Izuku nodded once again before exchanging their contact addresses. Once that was done, both of them went their separate ways and Izuku was going to plan for the future for if he ever met with an anomaly.

[][][][][][][][][][]

Fast forward to a week later.

Izuku was busy organizing his Dimension Storage since he took a fancy to that name, when he heard a loud shuffling coming from outside his door.

"I-I-Izuku! I-I-It's h-here!" the stuttering of her nervous and flustered mother brought a smile to his face. He was really relieved that she hadn't changed ever since his suicide attempt.

For the record though, Izuku refrained from speaking about his experiences in Lordran. That, he would bring with him to his grave if possible. He doesn't want his mother to learn about how many times he died in horrifying ways back there.

Izuku opened the door while leaving the sorting of the Dimension Storage for another time. Once he did so, he saw the figure of his nervous and anxious mother just outside the doorway. Izuku smiled and took the letter from his mother's hands and closed the door.

He could hear her pacing back and forth outside, which made him chuckle a bit.

"Please don't change, mom," Izuku muttered as he opened the letter, which resulted in a mechanical disk falling to the ground. Izuku was a little confused, but his gut didn't warn him of any danger, so he just let it be.

A few moments later, a hologram popped out of one side and in it, the number one hero, All Might.

"Everything is fine now! Why? Because I am here!" and without even hearing what came next, Izuku tuned him off completely. He still held a grudge towards All Might for crushing his dreams like that. Not that it mattered anymore. Izuku doesn't hate All Might, instead, he respected him for continuing being a hero after he had that kind of injury. But really, he could've laid him down gently instead of flat out denying him!

A few more seconds and the results were finally brought to life. He was first in the rankings, with Bakugou being the second.

"If I see your face in class Bakugou, I will whack you if you call me Deku," Izuku swore in his heart. He wanted to throw a dung pie, but after doing it before, he refrained from doing it again. Seriously, the smell stuck with Bakugou for a week!

With that out of the way, Izuku went back out the door and told his mother the good news.

[][][][][][][][][][]

Fast forward a couple of weeks later, Izuku now found himself standing outside U.A. once again, this time, not as an examinee but as a student. Following the map that was plastered near the entrance, Izuku found the door leading to his class.

"Class 1-A… That's a huge door…" Izuku looked at the door that was about three times his size, then shrugged. "Not the biggest door I've seen though. Those belong to Anor Londo."

Without hesitation, Izuku went inside to greet his classmates, only to see the blunette teen that berated him in the orientation arguing with Bakugou.

"Great…" Izuku sighed, tuning out the argument of the two teens and went to find his seat. Once he took a seat however, he found the blunette teen standing right in front of him with a glint in his eyes.

"What do you want?" Izuku asked, wanting to just get this over with.

"Forgive me for my rudeness back in orientation," the blunette bowed in a 90-degree angle, surprising Izuku for a moment, though he didn't let it show on his face. "If it's okay with you, may we start over?"

Izuku pondered before nodding. He seems polite enough.

"Alright, name's Midoriya Izuku. Nice to meet you," Izuku stated, this time without revealing his hometown. He did it once, he didn't want to do it again.

"Likewise, my name is Iida Tenya," Tenya held out his hand and Izuku grabbed it, both shaking hands. Bakugou who saw this just stared at Izuku.

When they were called to the principal's office back in Aldera for congratulations, all Bakugou thought was Izuku. How he bullied him, how he…

Almost killed him…

If it weren't for his mother blasting his ears off back in the house, he would've never realized what his childhood friend tried to do, and he would've continued to torment him for being weak.

That was not what a pro-hero does. That's a villain's doing, and if anything, Bakugou detested villains.

The teachers and his classmates never tried stopping him, so he thought what he was doing was right, that the strong trampled on the weak. But after having that ear rape of a sermon from his mom, he realized that he was incredibly wrong.

And with his newfound morals, Bakugou wanted to make things right. Sure, he might be loud and obnoxious, and toxic… incredibly toxic, but he too has a conscience, one that did not pop up for most of his life until Izuku's attempted suicide did it for him.

It made him feel incredibly guilty, and thus, wanted to apologize to the emerald teen. But every time he tried doing so, Izuku avoided him, one time throwing shit at him that the smell stuck on him for a week. And he knew, he deserved it.

But now, now is the chance to do so. But before Bakugou could act, someone interrupted the entire class.

"Ah! Deku!" a brunette chirped happily as she skipped towards the emerald teen. Izuku just nodded back towards the brunette while Bakugou had his mouth open in shock.

"Deku is okay with his fucking nickname!?" Bakugou just had his mouth hanging most of the time, but then another hindrance just popped up from nowhere.

"If you're all here to make friends, then I suggest you get out and leave," the voice silenced all students that were chattering in the room. Once all was silent, the man who said it walked up to the desk and began talking. "8 seconds, that's how long it took for you all to shut up. It's not rational, all of you are here to learn to be heroes, and time is limited. My name is Aizawa Shota, you're homeroom teacher."

The man took out track suits from his… yellow… caterpillar… sleeping bag and laid them on the desk, not minding the shocked looks of the students.

"Put these on and meet me at the sports track. And do not keep me waiting," Aizawa stated then went on his way towards the sports track.

The students quickly scrambled for the track suits and got into the locker rooms separated by gender.

"Oh joy… Looks like U.A. will be fun after all," Izuku said in his mind, amused at such a scenario.

Chapter Text

"A QUIRK APPREHENSION TEST!?" most of the class shrieked in unison at the sudden bombshell Aizawa dropped.

"But what about orientation!?" Uraraka exclaimed as she had this mild nervous look in her eyes.

"If you want to be heroes, then we have no time for formalities," Aizawa said as he took softball from somewhere on his person. "You've all heard about the freedom on campus, well that freedom also applies to us U.A. teachers."

"Meaning, we get to teach you in any way we see fit," Aizawa threw the ball towards Izuku who was just listening in with an indifferent face who caught it with ease. "Softball pitch, standing long jump, 50-meter dash, endurance running, grip strength test, sustained sideways jumps, upper body exercises, seated toe-touch. These are all activities you all did back in middle school. Physical tests where you were barred from using your quirks."

"Midoriya, you got the highest score on the entrance exam, how far could you pitch a softball in middle school?" Aizawa asked with a glint in his eyes.

"About 58 meters," Izuku answered truthfully. He did get that score, only he half-assed it on his attempt. In truth, he could probably throw that to about a few hundred meters with only arm strength alone.

"Try using your quirk this time. Anything goes as long as you stay inside the circle. And remember, DON'T HOLD BACK," Aizawa stated as he guided Izuku towards the circle. Izuku nodded and stepped inside, thinking if he should really go all out or not. But a glance at Aizawa's face made him decide to go all out.

"All right, everybody, hold on to your legs," Izuku said towards the group of teens and teacher as he tossed the softball high in the air. As he did so, he took a giant, wooden, club from the Dimension Storage, shocking everybody present, including Aizawa.

"Holy shit! That's a huge ass stick!" Kaminari Denki, a teen with blonde hair muttered under his breath, which was heard throughout the whole group.

"Kaminari, language, or detention," Aizawa calmly stated, but inside, he was surprised as well at the sight of a boy shorter than him wielding a giant club at least as tall as the door to their classroom. Kaminari nodded in fright in response to Aizawa's warning.

Izuku brought the Giant Club +15 in a batter's position, and when the softball fell down, just at the tip of the range of the club, Izuku swung.

The swing was fast, as if it was made of paper in the hands of the short boy. The club touched the ball, and the ball was sent flying into the sky. The swing also generated a mild shockwave that pushed the group of students and teacher back a few feet.

The students gaped in shock, while Aizawa raised an eyebrow. Checking the device used to measure the distance the ball flew, Aizawa had to suppress a grin.

"Before anything else, one must know what they're capable of, and this test is designed to show your limits," Aizawa stated with that same face of tiredness. When the students got a look at the results, their eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"2010.25 meters!?" most of the students exclaimed while the others were just too shocked too comment.

"So manly!" a redhead (dyed) exclaimed while punching his fists together. "I'm getting pumped up!"

"Awesome! This looks like fun!" And when that particular comment reached the ears of the ever so stoic Aizawa, he grinned and put an end to the dreams of the students before it gets out of hand.

"It looks fun you say? So… You all were planning to spend your three years here having a good time while making friends? What happened to being a hero?" Aizawa's tone made the entire group fall silent and shudder as metaphorical ice crawled down their backs. "All right then, new rule. Those I deem unfit for the Hero course… Will be instantly expelled."

"Wha!? But that's not fair!" Uraraka tried being the voice of reason, but that reason was instantly shut down by Aizawa's cold facts.

"Unfair? Then what about natural disasters? Massive accidents? Or how about the Villains?" Aizawa denied their hopes and dreams for a fun, easy high school. "All kinds of unfairness are hurled at heroes on a day-to-day basis, and it's our job to turn that unfairness around. If you were expecting to have a friendly chat at a fast-food joint right after class, then you're sorely mistaken. From now, for the next three years of your life in this school, U.A. is going to be throwing one hardship after the next at you. This is 'Plus Ultra.' I expect you to overcome these hardships and climb to the top."

"Welcome to the Department of Heroics! Time to step up to the plate," Aizawa finished his dream shattering speech and beckoned the students towards the first trial.

TRIAL 1: 50-Meter Dash

"Iida Tenya, Asui Tsuyu, you two go first," Aizawa said as he waited at the finish line.

The two students got ready, and when the signal shot off, both of them took off. Iida was the first one to reach the finish line because of his quirk, Engine. Tsuyu came in 2 seconds later while running on all fours.

"Next two, Uraraka and Ojiro."

"I'll make my shoes weigh less, and my clothes too," Uraraka thought as she activated her quirk on her clothes. Once the signal went off, both of them ran. Even with the less weight on her body, there wasn't a significant increase, but she was at least faster than back in middle school.

"Aoyama, Ashido, your turns."

Aoyama is a Japanese blonde who had an obsession with the French and Ashido is a pink-skinned teen who had two horns jutting out from her pink hair, with black sclera and yellow irises.

When the signal went off, Aoyama turned around and used his quirk, Naval Laser to propel himself towards the finish line, only to stop a second later because of the consequences. He got himself back up and propelled himself again towards the finish line.

Ashido on the other hand skated towards the finish line using her acid as a makeshift water board. She got in first because Aoyama stopped once.

"Midoriya, Bakugou, on the starting line."

Izuku just walked towards the starting line as he equipped the Mask of the Child and the Green Crest Shield (Weed Shield). Bakugou on the other hand, just stared at Izuku with a conflicting gaze.

He wants to apologize now, but tries to put it off because of the test. Mentally kicking and punching himself, Bakugou put it off for the moment. For now, he needs to focus on the test, he doesn't want to be expelled.

"Start!"

Izuku took off to a sprint, while Bakugou propelled himself forward using the explosions he generated with his sweat.

"2.89 seconds!" Bakugou was stunned for a moment before he continued, earning himself a result of 4.23 seconds. Iida on the other hand, looked shock that he was beat in terms of speed.

"He really is my better, I must strive to become faster!" Iida swore to himself to push himself to his limits while he is here in U.A.

"De- Midoriya, meet me later after class," Bakugou said towards the emerald teen as he huffed away. Izuku on the other hand stared at the explosive teen in wonder.

"Did he finally grow a conscience? I hope so…" Izuku thought as he continued on with the trials. He didn't hate Bakugou, in fact, he respected him, so much so, that if he was the one who was thrown into Lordran, he would've been able to overcome the challenges thrown at him with ease, though he doubted he would link the fire.

[][][][][][][][][][]

"Alright, since time is precious, I'll just show you all the results," Aizawa said as he pressed a button, causing the screen behind him to emit light and show the rankings of the class.

Izuku looked for his name and he saw himself place second. Not that he minded it that much. When he checked the last placer, he found the name of that invisible girl. Figures, this was a pure, physical test, and that girl had no outstanding score whatsoever. If that perverted midget didn't get that score on the sidesteps, then he would've been last.

The class looked nervous, hoping to high heaven that nobody would be expelled.

"… You all did well," Aizawa nodded while the class heaved a sigh of relief. "Since we're all done here, class is dismissed, although, you give me a reason to expel you, then I will."

Leaving those ominous words behind, Aizawa strolled towards the building, leaving the relieved but anxious teens in the sports track.

"Oi, Midoriya, follow me," Bakugou tapped Izuku's shoulders and Izuku nodded. Once the both of them were isolated from the group, Izuku looked at Bakugou's face, which was full of conflicted thoughts.

"Ok, look Bakugou, I know what you're trying to do, and forget it," Izuku stated with an expressionless face, making Bakugou shocked speechless, his mouth wide open. "I won't forgive for what you have done, but frankly, I don't care. At least, you're changing. We may never be friends again, but there are still a lot of students you could get along with in this class. Just tone down that pride and narcissism of yours then you're good. Don't, and I repeat, don't make the same mistakes twice, it's you who'll suffer, not me."

With his piece said, Izuku left the flabbergasted explosive teen and headed towards the exit, only to be stopped by a brunette and a blunette.

"Deku!" Uraraka exclaimed with a happy face.

"Midoriya! You clearly are my superior! I shall work harder in order to surpass you!" Iida stated while doing his signature robotic hands.

Izuku just sighed as the golden trio walked their way towards the train station.

Meanwhile, Bakugou was contemplating on the words Midoriya left him with. He was a little bit disappointed that he wasn't forgiven, but that was his own fault for being an asshole.

"Goddamnit! I'm a fucking idiot!" Bakugou mentally kicked himself and he trudged towards the exit, only to be met with a redhead teen.

"Yo! You're Bakugou right? Man, your explosions are so manly!" the redhead stated with a determined expression. "My name is Kirishima Eijiro, hope we get along!"

Bakugou stared dumbly at the hand Kirishima put out, and then Izuku's words floated within his mind for a second.

"You goddamned right you are spiky hair! Mark my words, I'll be number one! And not one of you will be fucking stopping me!" Bakugou exclaimed with fervor, while Kirishima just smiled.

"Damn it Bakugou! Even with that mouth of yours, I can't help but feel your determination! That's just so manly!" Kirishima just grinned as the both of them kicked it off.

"I won't make the same fucking mistake twice, you hear me Midoriya!" Bakugou mentally screamed. "I will become the number one hero! And I will show it to everyone in the world!"

And with that, the first day of school in U.A. has concluded.

Chapter Text

Izuku arrived back at home after the not-so-grueling day of school. After having dinner and a small chat with his mother about how was school, he went to his room and slept.

A few minutes later, Izuku opened his eyes to see that same hazy figure that occupied his dreams before that warned him about impending doom.

"Lord of Cinder, may the flame blessed thee."

Izuku just nodded and waited for some kind of news to pop up. If this is happening again, then the time may come sooner than intended.

"Thy Abyss cometh. It brings an army of Knights. Thy are the reincarnation of Artorias the Abysswalker. Farron's Undead Legion, the Abyss Watchers cometh."

A few more seconds later, Izuku opened his eyes once again, noticing it was daytime already.

"Reincarnation of Artorias? How long has it been back in Lordran?" Izuku mused out loudly as he got ready for the school day. "Whatever it is, I'll be ready. Once they arrive, I'll have to come up with a plan on how to quickly dispatch it, otherwise…"

Izuku kept on muttering as he ate his breakfast with his mother, who just sighed tiredly at the habit her son had. After a quick breakfast, Izuku went on his way towards U.A.

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"Man, can't wait to see who our Heroics teacher is!" an excited Kirishima could be seen talking with a snickering Bakugou. Izuku smiled a bit that Bakugou is finally redeeming himself from his old, horrible ways.

"Deku!" Ochako called Izuku while he was staring at the duo of spiky haired teens. "Do you know who our Heroics teacher is?"

"Hmm… Based on my acceptance letter… I'd say he is…" Izuku didn't get to finish because laughter that everyone here is familiar with was heard all throughout the room.

"No way!"

"Really!"

"Oh, this is gonna be good!"

Various students exclaimed in excitement as they now had a hint on who would be teaching them Heroics. A few seconds later, the door burst open, revealing a huge, buffed up blonde hero, who was none other than the #1 Hero of Japan, All Might.

"I AM COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" All Might revealed as he walked towards the teacher's desk.

"All Might," Izuku finished as he chuckled at the sight of a flabbergasted Ochako.

'That's not how a normal person walks through a door though,' Izuku thought to himself as he recalled the moments' he opened doors back in Lordran… Yep, slow and steady, checking every corner to see if there are any hollows that would ambush him once he went inside a room.

"Welcome to Foundational Hero Studies, or as I would like to call it, Heroing 101. Today, we'll be skipping straight to why you're all here," All Might stated as he brought out a card from his person. "Battle Trial!"

While everybody was celebrating on the reveal of their Heroics teacher, Izuku just nodded in agreement to straight out combat to teach the students on how to defend themselves.

"Sir All Might! If I may, why combat at the start of the semester?" Iida, being the by-the-books teen that he is, asked the question that everybody is thinking right now.

"Now, now, Young Iida. The reason is simple. There is no better teacher, than experience!" All Might exclaimed while Izuku nodded in agreement once again. Who cares if you're strong? If you don't have the experience to back it up, then good luck staying alive when you encounter your match who have higher experience than you.

"But before we begin, it's also a hero's job to look fashionable on duty," saying that, All Might clicked a button on some sort of remote and the wall beside the teacher's desk opened up, revealing compartments housing some cases, each labeled with a number. "Once you're all suited up, come meet me in Ground Gamma! But remember, THE FASTER YOU ARE, THE MORE LIVES YOU SAVE!"

With his piece said, All Might blitzed right outside, on his way towards Ground Gamma. Izuku just stared at his excited classmates about wearing Hero Costumes. Since Izuku knew that everybody here was supposed to submit a blueprint of their hero costumes, Izuku just opted for a skintight suit that is incredibly light and won't impede his movements when wearing his armor. That, and it also doubles as a barrier towards the uncomfortableness of wearing armor over your bare body.

After the initial celebratory mood, all of the students filed out and headed towards the locker rooms.

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Inside the locker room, Izuku observed his classmates, or more specifically, their body. They had muscles in the right places, even the perverted midget. But mark his words, if Izuku ever sees him sexually harassing the girls again, he'll get a dung pie to the genitalia.

And lo and behold, for said perverted midget was trying to peep through a hole that leads to the girls changing room. Quickly moving, Izuku intercepted the line of sight of the midget, prompting said midget to cause a tantrum, and without wasting a beat, Izuku took out a dung pie and punched the midget's genitalia, smothering it in the creamy goodness that is the dung pie.

This caused the midget to shriek like a girl in pain. He had it coming, even yesterday, he didn't stop harassing the girls.

The other male students just snickered at the sad fate of the midget as Izuku went on his way to suit up. While doing so, Kirishima took a glance at Izuku's body and stared in shock.

"Dude, what the hell happened to you?" Kirishima asked, garnering the attention of the other students who also stared in shock at the body of Izuku.

I mean, who wouldn't? His body was littered in scars, and there was one very nasty one near his neck, where his body impacted during his attempted suicide. It's a miracle he even survived that fall.

"It's a secret," Izuku said to them while Bakugou looked all the more guilty. After about 2 minutes, everybody was all suited and geared up and they all headed towards Ground Gamma.

"HOLY SHIT WHO THE HELL TOOK A DUMP AND BROUGHT IT HERE!?" a female teen with earphone jacks exclaimed at the horrifying smell coming from the… diapers… of the perverted midget, who just looked dead on the inside.

'Heh, you try snooping again, you know what'll happen,' Izuku relayed this to the midget with a silent, but cold stare while the midget just flinched.

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Minoru Mineta was not having a good day. Why? It's because of an emerald teen who punched his dick and scattered shit all over it.

'That damn asshole!' Mineta cursed as he glared at the emerald teen. One day, one day he'll get his revenge.

He never knew that he couldn't because everybody there, even Kaminari since peeping was a new level of bad, was actually thankful towards the emerald teen for punishing the perverted Mineta for going too far.

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"They say the clothes makes the pros, and lo and behold! You all are mighty fine examples!" All Might shouted with joy towards the students filing towards the briefing area. "Now then, let's see what you got you zygotes!"

Chapter Text

"Before we start, what is this awful stench?" All Might asked when his nose picked up a smell that is very… VERY disturbing to the nose.

"Mineta crapped his pants, or is that a diaper?" Jiro jabbed at the midget while pinching her nose. The smell was damn awful! The others nodded in agreement as they took a step farther away from the diaper-wearing midget.

"Oh, come on! That was Midoriya's fault!" Mineta tried to retort, but the other students just shrugged and glared at the midget.

"He did that because you were peeping on the girls!" when Kirishima said that out loud, all of the female students glared harder, causing the midget to flinch.

"Well… I-I-I…" Mineta was trying hard to come up with an excuse, but clearly, no one was on his side at the moment. It looked like the whole female group was ready to murder the midget, until a cough brought them out of the bloodlust.

"Ahem… Anyway, let's just continue on with the trial. We're losing time here students." All Might said while tapping his wrist. "Also, young Mineta, if you ever try to sexually harass the female students again, I'll have Aizawa deal with you," Mineta just cowered in fear while the females smirked.

"Anyway, before we begin, any questions?" All Might asked the group of students, and a hand raised from the class.

"Sir! Are we going to be conducting urban battles again?" Iida questioned as he looked upon the battle arena, which was a full-blown city!

"Good question young Iida! But not quite, we are going to be skipping ahead two steps!" All Might stated with fervor. "Indoor Battle Training!"

Hearing this, Izuku groaned. 'Why? Why must it be indoors where my weapons can bounce off of walls?'

"Villain cleanup is usually done outside, but statistically speaking most of the villains conduct illegal acts within closed boundaries. Imprisonment, house arrest, backroom deals, in this hero-saturated society, any villain with a capable mind lurks in the shadows!" All Might explained while the students just listened in awe and determination. "For this test, you'll be separated into 'Villain' and 'Hero' teams for a two-on-two battle!"

"What about foundational training, kero?" a teen with dark green hair questioned. She was Tsuyu Asui, the girl with a quirk known as 'Frog.'

"This is foundational training! Only this time, your opponents are living, breathing, human beings! No robots to smash ad destroy I'm afraid," All Might replied with a grin. "Remember students, the best teacher for a hero is experience. The more experience you have, the better your chances of coming out ALIVE," All Might put an emphasis on 'Alive' to better let the students know what they're getting into, which made said students flinch.

Izuku on the other hand, just nodded in agreement. He should know, really, how it feels to have experience teach you in the hellish place that is Lordran. 'Without experience, you're just a toddler fighting grown-ups in the real world, or in my case, bloodthirsty hollows that attack you no questions asked.'

"So how do we determine who wins and loses?" Yaoyorozu Momo, a girl with raven-black hair styled in a spiked ponytail asked.

"Can we blow 'em up?" an excited Bakugo asked while making tiny explosions in his hands.

"Is there a threat of expulsion like with Aizawa-sensei's exercise?" a nervous Ochako asked with an anxious expression.

"Is we're separating in groups, what's the best way to do so?" a heavily armored Iida questioned with a hand raised in the air.

"Isn't my cape fabulous?" a sparkling Aoyama asked while twirling his cape to and fro.

All Might however, just sweat-dropped at the barrage of questions heading his way. "Hng! I'll answer your question all at once! First, I'll explain, second, don't go too far, third, no, forth, I was just getting to that, and last, yes, it is fabulous."

The students who had their questions answered relaxed and let All Might continue. "The situation goes as is, the villains have a nuclear weapon they are guarding they intend to deploy while the heroes must stop them from doing so. If the heroes capture the villains or reach the bomb before the time limit, they win. If the villains however, manage to keep the bomb safe until the time limit or capture the heroes, they win," said All Might while reading a piece of paper he got from his pocket, causing the students deadpan at the hero.

"Your teams and opponents will be chosen via lottery," said All Might as he took out a raffle box. Iida however, looked confused, "Is that how we'll really do it!?"

"Iida, think for a moment, pros mostly have to work with other heroes on the spot during a crisis," Izuku just stated with a deadpan. Even though he has no more interest in heroes, he still has knowledge on how heroes operate, that, and he still writes on that notebook on quirk analysis, recording both heroes and villains, as well as some quirks he saw civilians use from time to time. Better knowledgeable than ignorant if someone whose quirk's the same come running at him screaming 'MURDER!'

"I see! Once again you have proven yourself better than me! I will strive to be better!" Iida exclaimed as he turned towards All Might and bowed. "Forgive me for interrupting!"

"Well done young Midoriya. It seems who have a good mind on your head. Anyway! Let's start!"

Team A: Midoriya Izuku & Yaoyorozu Momo

Team B: Mezo Shoju & Hagakure Toru

Team C: Minoru Mineta & Koji Koda

Team D: Katsuki Bakugou & Shoto Todoroki

Team E: Mina Ashido & Yuga Aoyama

Team F: Rikido Sato & Mashirao Ojiro

Team G: Denki Kaminari & Kyoka Jiro

Team H: Fumikage Tokoyami & Tsuyu Asui

Team I: Iida Tenya & Uraraka Ochako

Team J: Eijiro Kirishima & Hanta Sero

'Hmm… The creation girl, wonder if she could create Titanite?' Izuku pondered as his teammate approached him with a steady gait.

"Your Midoriya Izuku, right? Pleased to have you," Momo bowed towards Izuku, and Izuku bowed as well.

"Likewise," Izuku replied as he brought his head back up. Meanwhile on the other side with Iida, Ochako was pouting a bit for not being Izuku's partner. On the other hand, Mineta was screaming his lungs out why his partner had to be a boy, while said teammate was inching away further in disgust from the stench.

"And the first two pairs to do combat will be the following!" All Might exclaimed as he shoved his hands into two ballot boxes and took two balls with a corresponding letter written on it.

"TEAM A v.s. TEAM D! With Team A as the heroes and Team D as the villains!" Izuku just nodded while Bakugou grinned.

'This time Midoriya, I will show you, I will not make the same mistakes again, but I will still be number one!' Bakugou declared as he headed towards Shoto who was still indifferent to everything around him

"Oi! Half-n-half bastard!" Bakugou called out to Shoto in his own Bakugou way. Shoto turned his gaze towards the explosive blonde and deadpanned.

"Do you really have to curse?" Shoto said with an expressionless face.

"I can talk to you however I want Icy-hot! Anyway, we need to come up with a plan. Ponytail and Midoriya will be a tough fight," Bakugou stated with a serious expression, making Shoto raise an eyebrow.

"And why is it going to be tough?" Shoto just asked, curiosity in his voice. Bakugou sharpened his glare, but answered anyway.

"Don't underestimate Midoriya you half-n-half bastard," Bakugou snarled. Ever since his conscience grew, he somehow understood Izuku's strength, his uncanny observational skills what with all those quirk analysis books. Then there was the sudden quirk manifestation after his attempted suicide, which made Bakugou flinch for a bit for remembering his mistake. "Anyway, we need a plan. And I think I just have the perfect one."

Meanwhile, with Izuku, Momo was asking about his quirk.

"That? Its name is 'Dimensional Storage.' I can store anything inside it without any limit or consequence," Izuku calmly replied while he equipped the 'Elite Knight' set of armor. "I also have some armors and weapons already made inside my quirk, which I can equip instantly, ranging from swords, daggers, maces, to bows, crossbows, and some other range weapons."

Momo just stared in shock at the versatility of said quirk. Sure, it's no 'Creation' quirk, but you could literally have a person carrying an arsenal of dangerous weapons with none being the wiser. Then there was the feature of instantly equipping anything. If that was right, which she just realized was right since Izuku was now standing inside a suit of full plate armor, then he could immediately switch to any type of weapon and armor based on the situation.

"How about you? Yaoyorozu? What's your quirk?" Izuku asked with curiosity laced in his tone. I mean, come on, its called Creation for Gwyn's sake!

"Well, I can create any non-living thing using the lipids in my body. To create one, I must first know the chemical composition of said object," Momo stated while creating a Matryoshka doll.

Izuku almost went to cloud nine after hearing her quirk. 'If I had that back at Lordran, then I could've just made Titanite every time of the day… Problem is… I don't know what Titanite is made of…'

Just then, an idea popped up in Izuku's head.

"Yaoyorozu, I'm going to show you something that you must not, absolutely not, share to anyone. Do you think you can do it?" Izuku asked with a serious expression that caused Momo to flinch.

"Why? Is it dangerous?" Momo recovered and asked with a curious face.

"It's not that dangerous, but very dangerous in the wrong hands. If the knowledge of this item is spread, I could pretty much turn you and I into a target for villains and some questionable companies in a single day," relaying that kind of information gave Momo pause, then a horrified expression came over her face.

"It's that bad?" Momo asked with a terrified gaze, while Izuku just nodded. It was Titanite for Gwyn's sake! An ore made by a blacksmith deity who gave it for the mortals in Lordran to use. Basically, it's super-god-ore.

Momo hesitated for a moment, but her curiosity beat her frightened mind. She nodded, and Izuku just took out a Titanite shard. When Momo got a good look at it, she was confused, but then surprised at the seemingly ordinary ore.

"This… This isn't an ore I know… And I know all of the ores because of intense studying…" Momo murmured as she touched the ore, causing her to jolt back in surprise. 'There's something pulsing within!'

"I-I'm afraid I can't create that ore…" Momo replied with an anxious face while Izuku just sighed in disappointment.

"I see, well, it was a try at least," Izuku just replied as he placed the shard back in his storage. "Anyway, you come up with a plan yet?"

"Hmm… I may have, but I want to hear your input first," Momo asked with a serious gaze. Both of them finally focusing on the test at hand.

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"Man, can't wait for them to duke it out!" Kirishima stated as he looked at the screens on one side of the wall. All Might was staying at the front to better observe the fight so that he can grade the students accordingly.

"Who do you think's gonna win?" Hagakure asked an excited Mina as they stared at the screens.

"Hmm… I don't know… There's Yaomomo and Midori on one tea, and Bakugou and Todoroki on the other… All of them are strong…" Mina thought hard as she wracked her brain for an answer.

"Deku'll win!" Ochako grinned as she exclaimed towards a serious Iida.

"You don't know that yet Uraraka, their opponents are strong as well you know," Iida stated with a scrutinizing glare towards the screens. On them, both of the teams could be seen conversing, probably coming up with a plan.

Too bad only All Might can hear their conversations.

"What is Midoriya's quirk anyway?" Tsuyu asked towards a calm Jiro.

"Can't say for sure. Only thing I know is that he can get some weapons and armor from somewhere… A transporting quirk? Or a storage one?" Jiro analyzed as she relayed her guess towards Tsuyu, who just nodded in agreement.

"Ah Midoriya, I know, you hold a deep darkness within you. Your face says it all," a raven-headed teen monologued. He never knew how right he was on this one.

"Dude, stop being a chuuni," A teen with tape dispensers for elbows retorted with a deadpan.

"Nonsense, can't you see? His hidden past? He locked it all away with that indifferent face," the raven-headed teen replied with a huff. He was right again… he just didn't know it.

"…" The tape-dispenser teen just kept quiet and let the raven-head monologue.

"All right, your 5 minutes are up. Let the trial begin!" All Might spoke towards his mike, causing the students to shut up and stare at the screen, scrutinizing every detail they could get to gain an advantage.

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Once the signal went off, Momo and Izuku quickly went to work. First, Momo created some flashbangs, nine-bangers to be exact, and Izuku stored them in his storage. Once that was done, Izuku and Momo went inside and Momo made another item.

A thermal scanner. One that could scan through walls.

"First floor is clear. I see heat signatures on the third and fourth floor," Momo relayed the information and Izuku nodded.

"All right, Momo, you know what to do," Izuku said as the both of them split up. Izuku headed upstairs towards the third floor and Momo towards the second floor. Once they reached their destinations, Izuku quickly made a loud sound, garnering the attention of Bakugou a few rooms away.

"Damn it, he's earlier than I expected. Icy-hot, change of plans, freeze the building right now!" Bakugou shouted towards the transceiver, causing Shoto to almost have a burst eardrum.

"Don't shout!" Shoto scowled as he placed his right hand on the wall. Once he did so, ice spread, starting from his hand, and encompassed the entire wall. Then the floor, and the roof, and in just a few seconds, the whole room was coated in ice, except the bomb.

A few more seconds and the entire floor became coated in ice. It spread even further, making the other floors become coated in its own frost.

This surprised Izuku and Momo, but Izuku having dealt with a lot of bullshit situations before, quickly adapted and jumped just to avoid the wave of ice from covering his feet. Momo on the other hand was not so lucky.

"Momo, you got stuck?" Izuku asked while Momo just replied with a stuttering 'Yes' through the transceiver. "How long until you get yourself free?"

"Give me a-about 30 s-seconds," Momo replied and Izuku responded with an 'All right.' All of a sudden though, Momo shouted through the transceiver with a flustered tone.

"I-Izuku, a heat signature is coming your way!" Izuku just got his stance ready, hoping to Gwyn that he won't slip in all this ice.

"Midoriya!" Bakugou came blasting through the doors and saw a fully armored Midoriya wielding what looked like a wooden club on his right and a metal shield on his left.

Izuku just stayed silent and stared at the blonde, looking for weakpoints and openings. Bakugou noticing the slight shift in demeanor on his childhood friend narrowed his eyes and did the same.

'Midoriya will expect me to use a big right, I'll feint it!' Bakugou thought as he launched himself towards Izuku.

Seeing the straightforward assault, Izuku prepared himself for the incoming hit. He saw his right-hand twitch and got ready to parry the blow.

That was a mistake.

Bakugou quickly redirected his right hand downward, cancelling his big right haymaker, and blasting the air with an explosion, causing Bakugou to fly overhead Izuku due to the recoil. During his overhead flight, Bakugou used his left hand and blasted Izuku's head, disorienting Izuku from the impact.

Izuku staggered a little bit, but quickly recovered and thrusted the club towards Bakugou's stomach. Bakugou coughed out a bit of spit as he was sent flying a few feet back. He however, landed on his feet, using a couple of explosions to soften his landing.

'Damn, that's some hit…' Bakugou thought with a bloodthirsty grin.

'He got me…' Izuku just sharpened his glare towards the blonde. 'Looks like I'll have to throw some assumptions out in the air.'

"Momo, how much longer?" Izuku whispered towards the transceiver. Since his head was covered, Bakugou had no idea whether Izuku was talking or not.

"A few more seconds," Momo replied through the transceiver while using a blowtorch to melt the ice around her feet.

"All right," Izuku responded and just stared at the blonde teen before him. "Just give me the signal when you're ready."

"Roger."

"Oi, Icy-hot. I don't see ponytail anywhere, just be ready," Bakugou said through the transceiver while Shoto just murmured a 'Yes' from the other side.

After a moment, Izuku sprinted towards Bakugou with speed that a person in full-metal armor shouldn't be able to achieve. Bakugou sprinted as well, his hands behind him to propel himself using the explosions in his hands.

Izuku swung the club, but Bakugou dodged by using the recoil from his explosions, but Izuku took that situation in mind and quickly made counters.

Since Bakugou dodged left, Izuku used his shield to bash Bakugou's head, concussing him. Then in a swift motion, Izuku kicked him in the gut, sending Bakugou skidding a few feet away.

"Izuku, I'm ready!" Once Izuku heard that, a chance to finally finish this one-on-one came into view. Equipping the Havel Set, Izuku brought out the Giant Club +15 and jumped.

Then smashed the floor near Bakugou, causing it to collapse.

"WHAT THE FU-!?" Bakugou cursed in surprise, while the audience back in the observation room had wide eyes and slack jaws.

In an instant, before Izuku could land, he unequipped everything and landed on a soft trampoline. Bakugou however, landed on a net and was quickly tied up.

"NO FUCKING WAY!" Bakugou snarled, the debris that came down with them sucked inside Izuku's storage.

Without missing a beat, Momo tied Bakugou's hands with the capture tape.

"Good job Momo, time to finish this," Izuku said while Momo nodded in agreement.

Needless to say, the whole audience, including All Might was stunned in surprise and shock at the calculated plan that was made into action before their very eyes.

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Omake #1: What if game mechanics transferred as well.

Bakugou launched himself towards Izuku. Izuku held up his guard.

Then flicked his shield.

"HUH!?"

Once he did so, Bakugou lost all control of his body, while Izuku took advantage, smacking his gut with the club in his hands.

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL!?" Bakugou was crumpled down on the floor, then tried to get back up. Tried being the keyword.

Izuku circled around him then smacked his backside. During this, Bakugou lost all control of his movement again.

"WHY CAN'T I FUCKING MOVE!?"

"Riposte and backstab ya filthy casual!" Izuku snickered as he continued to troll the casual before him.

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Omake #2 ROLL TO VICTORY!

"TEAM A (Villains) – Midoriya and Uraraka vs TEAM D (Heroes) – Bakugou and Iida!"

"Hey, Uraraka, do you care if I roleplay for a bit?"

"Roleplay?"

A few moments later.

"SOULS FOR LADY URAVITY!" Izuku yelled as he equipped the Knight of Thorns set and attacked Bakugou and Iida on their way towards the bomb.

By rolling towards them.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

"WHAT IS GOING ON!?"

"ROOOLLLL TO VICTORYYYYYY!" Izuku yelled as he kept on rolling, damaging the two with every roll.

Chapter Text

After having Bakugou out of the equation, it wasn't that hard to finish off Todoroki, though it was still harder than average.

First, before entering the room, Izuku wore the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring and told Momo to wait by the door to capture Todoroki. Izuku kicked the door down then threw the nine-bangers Momo gave to him earlier. Thanks to his helmet, just turning away for a second negated the flash about to blind his eyes. The ringing noise however, was overcome due to getting used to the noise back in Lordran.

There were a lot of loud enemies back there after all.

Todoroki however, was another matter. First of all, there was no noise when the door opened suddenly, and when he did get a good look at the attacker, a bright flash assaulted his eyes and a loud ringing sound raped his ears. Couple that with it ringing 9-times, it was incredibly painful for Todoroki.

Because of that, Todoroki lashed out, sending ice all over the place in a desperate attempt to hold back the attacker before he could recover. He couldn't see, nor hear because of the nine-bangers, and Izuku took that advantage over the dual-colored teen.

Since most of the waves of frost and ice were haphazardly flying around, Izuku had to dodge those coming towards him by rolling and sidestepping some barrage of ice. Partner that with his ring, then he was totally silent, even while wearing that heavy armor. No sound could be heard from his running.

Once Izuku was close enough, he grabbed the confused and flustered blind teen, and threw him towards the door, where Momo was waiting with the capture tape. After wrapping his arms with it, Izuku touched the plastic model of the nuclear bomb they were supposed to capture.

"HERO TEAM WINS!" All Might screamed in the microphone after the intense, but pitiful battle.

'Todoroki… You're holding back… I can sense the fire inside you,' Izuku thought as he stared at the dual-colored teen right next to Momo. "By the way, sorry for getting on a first name basis during the match Yaoyorozu. Time is precious after all."

"Oh, think nothing of it Midoriya," Momo smiled at the emerald teen. "After all, a single second in battle can be a drastic change for those involved."

Once the two were done untying Todoroki, who was cursing the two of them because of using those utility bombs which did a number on him, they then headed towards a tied up Bakugou who was busy snarling and… biting, at the net that was wrapped around him.

"Seriously Bakugou?" Izuku said with an exasperated face.

"Shut up! Try being tied up in this piece of shit net!" Bakugou growled out towards the emerald teen, who just shook his head in response as he cut the net open, freeing Bakugou from the trap.

Once all four of them were up and moving, they then headed back towards the observation room where the rest of the group was waiting. After a few minutes of walking, the four arrived at the room with most of the students staring at them with shock, specifically, the emerald teen who was expressionless as always.

"Now then, for this match, the MVPs are none other Young Midoriya and Young Yaoyorozu." All Might stated towards the gathering of students, who in turn, nodded in agreement at the result. "Could anyone elaborate as to why?"

"Sir!" Iida raised his hand among the gathering of students who were busy coming up with an answer. "It is because of the plan they came up with. During the fight, Midoriya was baiting Bakugou into a particular spot. That was probably the first step in their plan. Next was how to capture Bakugou."

"Destroying a floor to catch an opponent off-guard is not a viable plan because of how destructive it is to the surroundings and how it can harm those below the floor as well. Depending on the weight as well, it can even cause the next floor to break and continue all the way towards the ground floor."

"But Midoriya took that into account. He used just enough force and weight to crumble the specific part of the floor he wanted destroyed, and using his quirk, he was able to negate any type of damage towards the floor below them, as well as securing the safety of himself, his partner, and the villain."

"Once Bakugou was caught in the trap, capturing him became easy and fighting Todoroki 2 on 1 was a definite win in terms of combat capability."

"W-Well done Young Iida, I couldn't have said it better!" All Might exclaimed, a little taken aback by the analytic capability of the blue-haired teen before him. "Anyway, Young Bakugou, Young Todoroki, your mistake was only relying on one plan. Remember this, students, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Now then, shall we proceed with the next group?"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

After having all of the groups finish their fights, the students went back to their classroom all tired and a little bruised.

"Man, can't believe I made that mistake," said a gloomy Kirishima.

"Cheer up man, we lost because we couldn't find Hagakure," said another gloomy Sero.

"Yeah, that was a bad match-up," said Shoji who was with Hagakure trying to cheer up the two gloomy teens.

"Y-You can get us next time! Just increase your spatial awareness!" Hagakure said with a flustered expression, which was lost on everybody because of being invisible.

The two gloomy teens just staired at the duo before them, before faceplanting on the desks.

"Yeah no, you two are a scary combination…" Sero said with his face on the desk.

"I agree with you man," agreed another faceplanting Kirishima.

It happened like this, Shoji stayed at the ground floor, relaying the locations of the two teens using his enhanced senses to the invisible girl. Once Hagakure knew where the bomb was after carefully ascending the stairs and corridors full of tape, she gave the signal for Shoji to cause a ruckus.

This prompted for Kirishima to head towards the sound while leaving Sero behind. With the training Hagakure had in grappling techniques when she was younger, she neutralized Sero and tied him with the tape, then proceeded to capture the weapon.

While that was happening, Izuku stared at his once best friend Bakugou who was thinking to himself quietly. Izuku shrugged and when the bell rung, headed back home.

"I wonder what's for food tonight?" Izuku wondered aloud. 'Even though I no longer need food to sustain myself…'

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Next Day…

Izuku was having a bad day… A very bad day… First of all, there was his alarm clock not sounding off, making him 10 minutes late on his preparations, then there was a ruckus outside his house, which delayed him a few more minutes for trying to fix said ruckus. After that, the train got delayed because of a villain fight, causing even more minutes.

Then, there's this…

Dozens of reporters swarmed the outside of U.A. High School after hearing rumors about All Might having a teaching job at the school. Having had enough of this bullshit of a day, Izuku went inside an alleyway then took out a catalyst.

Then used the sorcery Hidden Body.

Although it won't give him total invisibility, at least it made it harder to notice him. Equipping the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring again, Izuku dashed towards the gate and towards an isolated area where the spell effect can disperse safely without anyone knowing then proceeded towards class.

[][][][][][][][][][][]

"All right, before we begin, all latecomers will not be penalized for the day," Aizawa said to the students who came in late, who sighed in relief, because of the vultures known as the media. "Seriously, this is ridiculous."

Izuku nodded in agreement. Disrupting the schedule of students whose goal is to be heroes is not something to be taken lightly. They're learning how to protect the populace after all, which included those vultures.

"Anyway, let's get to business," Aizawa stated, making most of the students tremble in nervousness. "You'll be picking a class representative. How you do it, I don't care. Take your time."

Aizawa said while he took out the sleeping bag and slept inside of it. Once Aizawa took position, the whole class erupted into shouts saying it should be them who should be class rep. Izuku just ignored the whole class and contemplated on what to do about the message about the Abyss Watchers coming.

While he was mulling his thoughts over, a paper was passed onto him from the front. He noticed all of the students were getting one each. And when he saw a name being written on the paper, he deducted that the decision was put into a vote.

'Pay attention next time Izuku,' he berated himself for locking himself away into his thoughts. Without making a second thought, he wrote Yaoyorozu Momo on the paper then folded it and placed it on the box at the front where other students were doing the same.

"Well then, shall we see who got the position?" said an excited Iida.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Not a single vote…" Iida said with a depressed atmosphere hanging around him while eating his food at the table. Izuku just shrugged and Ochako just giggled nervously. Next to the three sat Momo, Kirishima and Bakugou.

"That's why you're an extra," Bakugou stated as he munched on his very spicy burger. This did not reassure the blue-haired teen who just further slumped down into the seat.

"Oh, come on Bakugou, try being a little bit nicer to Iida!" an annoyed Ochako grumbled.

"Yeah, not manly at all!" shouted an equally annoyed Kirishima.

"… Whatever," Bakugou just turned his gaze away from the two teens' eyes. Izuku just smiled a bit at the improvement of his childhood friend.

'Looks like he's improving,' Izuku thought to himself as he continued eating at the same pace. Momo however, just stared at the emerald teen with curiosity.

"By the way, congratulation on getting voted as class rep Deku!" Ochako bubbly said with a hint of joy. Momo nodded in agreement and congratulated the expressionless teen before her as well.

"Thanks," Izuku thanked them with a tiny smile, hoping to Gwyn's fiery ass that his day won't get any worse.

Ironically, Izuku's bad day streak just get worse.

"WARNING! SECURITY BREACH LEVEL 3! PLEASE EVACUATE PROMPTLY!" the siren blared and a mechanical voice echoed through the PA system. Needless to say, everything went to chaos in just one second.

Screams of panic and anxiousness echoed around the giant room. Students rushed to get to the exit faster than anyone, causing some other students to be trampled and injured. Izuku and the others were no exceptions.

'Why?' Izuku just thought in irritation at the very bad day he's been having. Luckily though, a floating Iida sped through the air and calmed the students by pointing out the reason for said warning.

'… Should I trash those cameras?' Izuku thought darkly as he glared at the reporters, only to notice something that shouldn't have happened.

The gate was decayed and crumbling.

'Looks like something bad is gonna happen soon,' Izuku grimly thought as he and his classmates went back to class.

Chapter Text

12:50 PM

"For today's foundational hero class, it was decided you'll be supervised by a three-man team comprising me, All Might, and somebody else," Aizawa explained towards the class who were quietly listening.

"Sensei! What'll we be doing?" asked a curious Sero.

"What every hero needs to learn, the trial of rescue!" Aizawa replied while holding out a card with the word rescue written on it.

"Rescue, huh? Sounds a bit difficult this time around."

"Totally!"

"C'mon dumbass. That's what a hero's whole job is! I'm chomping at the bit!"

"If it's a flood, then that environment's my specialty, kero."

"Don't get ahead of yourselves," Aizawa silenced the class which were about to erupt into chatter and noise, which he didn't like. "As I was saying, this time, it's entirely up to each of you whether or not you wear your costume."

"Some of your costumes probably aren't adapted to the task at hand, after all," Aizawa said while glancing at Izuku. Izuku knew what he meant. His gear wasn't suited for rescue after all. Guarding and protecting however, that was a different story.

That didn't mean Izuku would just sit and stay still while the others did their job. Even just helping with clearing rubble and lifting heavy objects may be the difference between saving a life or losing one, after all.

"The training area is fairly far away, so we'll get there by bus," Aizawa said while he got ready to leave the room to prepare. "That's all, go get prepared."

"Rescue, huh…?" Izuku recalled some of the memories where he failed to save his friends back in Lordran.

'No, stop it. It wasn't your fault,' Izuku mentally kicked himself while Ochako briefly saw a change of emotions in Izuku's eyes.

"Deku? Are you okay?" Ochako walked up over to Izuku who was slightly trembling at the bad memories. Izuku noticed his slight change in demeanor and quickly covered it up.

"Yeah, just some bad memories, nothing much," Izuku calmly brushed off the question as he got up and headed towards the door with his other classmates. Ochako just worriedly trotted next to him.

'Nothing much my ass…' Izuku mentally hissed as he unconsciously clenched his fist tight. Why was he remembering it now of all times? It was in the past… It was time to let go. He was back in his homeworld where undead and hollows never roamed the lands in search of a purpose or humanity, yet, he couldn't.

'Not when they're coming…' Izuku steeled himself for the hell that was approaching. He didn't notice that a certain ash-blonde was staring at the face of the emerald teen while he was lost in thought.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

On the bus, the students were chatting while Iida was downtrodden once again. The reason being that the bus layout was not what he had in mind, so his plan was teared to pieces.

"Dude, you gotta chill out," Kaminari said to the downtrodden Iida while Jirou nodded in agreement.

"Don't be too stiff, Iida," Jirou added as she fiddled with her earphone jacks.

"Hey Midoriya, I always say what I think no matter what's on my mind," Tsuyu said to Izuku who raised an eyebrow. "Your quirk, it's pretty weird."

"When were quirks not weird?" Izuku replied with an expressionless gaze. "Take for example, Yaoyorozu can create anything from her lipids. Your quirk lets you have biology similar to a frog."

"Hmm. Point taken, by the way, where do your, armor and weapons come from?" Tsuyu asked what was on everybody's mind, including Aizawa who was quietly listening from the front.

"No idea," Izuku replied while staring at the group of teens who were shocked at the revelation. "Although, I know how to work metal because of maintaining these things, but yeah, other than the fact that my armor and weapons materialized out of thin air within my quirk, that's all I can do."

"But then, how can you lift that giant stick from the quirk apprehension test and the battle trial?" asked a curious Sato who was the most buff member of the class, and was undoubtably, the strongest physically.

"Training," Izuku said towards the flabbergasted teens again. "You guys have no idea what a human can reach with just training."

'Although, I am no longer human,' Izuku thought as the class descended back into chatters of their own, while sometimes discussing about Izuku's prowess. Momo stared at Izuku for a moment, recalling the memory where he showed her that strange ore, and Bakugou was shocked at the revelation.

'I wonder what was…' Momo closed her eyes as she began contemplating theories about the ore.

'Training? He was a wimp 10 months ago! How did he get strong that fast!?' Bakugou growled a bit at the thought. Sure, he is regretful about bullying Izuku, but 10 months of training can get him that strong? Even if he pushed himself, that wasn't possible time-wise.

"Everybody, quiet down, we're here," Aizawa stated, silencing the class as the bus grinded to a halt. "Alright, everybody out."

The students filed out of the bus and marveled at the huge dome in front of them. When they got inside though, they were even more excited.

"AMAZING! Is this Universal Studios Japan!?" an excited Kirishima screamed with a huge smile. The other students nodded in agreement and excitement.

"Flood wrecks, landslides, fires, etc." a voice called them from the side. Turning their heads, they spotted a figure dressed in a puffy, astronaut suit.

Izuku blinked. '… I thought I just saw Siegmeyer for a moment…' Izuku sighed depressingly. If Ochako wasn't that focused on her favorite hero, she would've noticed Izuku's sigh.

"I call this place, the Unforeseen Simulation Joint!" the figure exclaimed with fervor.

"It really is USJ!" a bunch of students screamed out, causing the astronaut to pout.

"It's Space Hero 'No. 13!'" Ochako exclaimed with exhilaration. "They're my favorite!"

Aizawa headed towards Thirteen to discuss something about missing an instructor. Thirteen in response raised up three fingers, which wasn't lost on Izuku.

'I'm assuming All Might used up his time,' Izuku thought as he recalled the memory where All Might revealed one of his secrets. Thirteen then came in front of the students and began a speech, but Izuku was focusing on something else.

'Something… What…? This… This feels like that portal that sent me back into Oolacile…' Izuku tensed up when he felt a familiar energy pulsing from the center of the dome. Ochako noticed the tensed Izuku and felt worried.

"Deku? What's wrong?" Ochako asked, but Izuku just responded by equipping the Artorias Knight Set and got into a combat stance, shocking everybody in the area.

"Dude, what the hell!?"

"Oi! Chill down!"

"Eek! That was dangerous!"

"Midoriya! What's the meaning of this!?" Aizawa exclaimed in fury as he glared at the fully armored Izuku who disrupted the peace. Izuku replied, although not verbally. He pointed towards the center of the dome, where a fountain could be seen.

Aizawa followed his hand, but found nothing. Once again enraged, Aizawa was about to discipline for inciting a bit of panic, but stopped when a black portal emerged from thin air. Thirteen noticed the portal as well, and knew that it wasn't one of them since there were no plans about that happening.

"Aizawa," Izuku began, catching the attention of everybody in the area. "We need to evacuate now, I can feel it, their bloodlust."

Aizawa was now incredibly alarmed and nudged Thirteen to handle it.

"Students, get outside right now! Don't waste time!" The students quickly turned their back and ran. But everything came crashing down from that.

"No… No no no! Not now!" Izuku screamed as he saw a huge wall of fog blocking their exit. Some students were a little surprised at Izuku's outburst but continued running nonetheless. The students noticed the fog and attempted to run through it, but stopped and crashed like they ran towards a brick wall.

"What the fuck!?" most of the students cursed while Izuku was having a bit of PTSD.

'No… Why now…?' Izuku mentally broke down as he noticed a figure covered in dismembered hands moving out of the black portal.

"Eraserhead and Thirteen… But where's All Might?" the figure spoke in a creepy way, sending metaphorical ice down the backs of the students. "Welp, we'll just see if the final boss comes out after killing the mobs."

The figure cackled while Izuku mentally steeled himself.

'This bad, very bad… I'll have to…' Izuku made a decision as he called Aizawa looking ready to beat the living daylights of the villains below.

"Aizawa," Izuku's low voice captured the attention of everybody again, this time, not in a good way. "Escape is impossible, we'll have to fight back."

"What do you mean escape is impossible?" Aizawa growled but Izuku just pointed his thumb towards the fog.

"That's the reason. You can't get past that, no matter what you try," Izuku stated as if saying a fact, which confused the students and teachers. How could he know that? Does he know what that fog is?

"And Aizawa…" this time, Izuku's voice caused shudders to everyone present. "Prepare for something really bad to come. Worse than these villains."

"What do you mean worse than these villains?" Aizawa asked as the emerald teen pointed back towards the fog gate.

"Whenever that happens, something incredibly strong will pop up and beat the hell out of people," Izuku stated while he took out the Dragon Tooth +5 and equipped the Ring of Favor. (A/N: Ring of Favor mechanics work like DS3 RoF)

"And that something could kill probably thousands if left alone for too long," Aizawa was mind boggled at the proclamation of this emerald teen. The same could be said for the students.

"Deku? What do you mean?" an anxious Ochako asked while approaching Izuku.

"… You'll see it for yourself later, right now, I suggest we stick together," Izuku said while Aizawa nodded in agreement, who told Thirteen to be at the defense of the students.

Since Izuku said that there might be an incredibly powerful 'Villain' in this area, Aizawa thought twice before rushing into the heat of battle. It was one thing to fight thugs and common villains, but another for trained and smart ones.

Suddenly, a portal formed behind the group, catching their attentions.

"Unfortunately, we can't have that, now can we?" the portal spoke towards group. "That would put a wrench in our plans."

"Greetings, we are the League of Villains. I apologize for the presumption, but we took it upon ourselves to enter U.A. Academy, the base of heroes, in order to make All Might take his last breath."

"But I don't see him anywhere here, was there a change in schedule?" the portal said while warily glaring at the group, presumably, Eraserhead.

Aizawa quickly used his quirk on the portal, shutting down their quirk, but quickly took his gaze off as something fast flew right past him, wounding his cheek a little.

"Tsk tsk, Eraserhead, still full of flaws. Don't worry, I'll take good care of your students," the portal said as a bunch of villains emerged from the portal.

"OH NO YOU FUCKING DON'T!" Bakugou, Kirishima, and Ojiro leaped towards the portal and villains, but was stopped by a force that struck them sent by a villain that was next to the portal.

"Terribly sorry for this, but I can't have you disrupting anymore," the portal said as it expanded its body towards the students. Aizawa tried to use his quirk on him, but the villains made sure to block his sight whenever he did so.

Some students were petrified in fear, unable to move, while others were busy fending off the group of villains approaching them with deadly eyes.

Izuku could be seen fighting as well. It took no more than one hit too put a villain out of commission with the Dragon Tooth, though he made sure it didn't kill them, just enough to knock them out unconscious… And break some bones… A lot of bones…

"EVERYBODY DODGE TO THE SIDES!" Izuku screamed as he got held up by a villain, becoming unable to dodge with the rest. The same could be said for the other students. Thirteen tried to use his quirk, but was countered by the portal by placing a portal in front of the blackhole and place its exit point just behind Thirteen, destroying his suit and back in the process.

Most of the students cried while Aizawa was busy getting ganged up on by villains who surprisingly had combat practice. The same could be said for Izuku and the other combat capable students.

"I believe that's enough time wasted, goodbye, future heroes!" the portal exclaimed as the students who were unable to dodge, as well as Aizawa, got sucked up into the portal. The other students who were safe from the portal heaved a sigh of relief, but was quickly replaced with horror.

"DEKU!" Ochako screamed as she saw Izuku get pulled down into the dark. Iida was busy fending off some of the villains with his speed. While the others who were unaffected by the portal was busy fighting villains that wanted their heads.

That was the last scene Izuku saw before he got sucked into the dark.

Chapter Text

Izuku was falling. He could feel the air rushing into his armor as he fell from an incredibly high place. When he opened his eyes, he saw a huge body of water beneath him.

'This is bad!' Izuku mentally screamed as he unequipped everything he had on his person, except for his hero costume. Once that was done, he crashed into the water. Opening his eyes once again, he saw a shark-mutant coming straight at him.

Gathering upon the pool of experience he had hidden in his mind, he got ready to take the attack head on, which was a massive jaw.

"Sorry kid, nothin' personal!" the shark-man said under the water, which Izuku heard loud and clear as the shark-man tried to chomp his head off. Tried being the keyword.

Izuku grabbed the mouth of the shark-man with his two hands and held it open. The shark-man, surprised at the resistance, tried chomping down harder, but he could not win against the strength of Izuku.

He could lift the Dragon's Tooth with one hand after all, which was incredibly heavy. Couple that with the Havel Set, then Izuku could probably lift a car no problem.

The shark-man also noticed one thing. The emerald teen wasn't suffocating under the water. It almost looked like the teen didn't need air to survive.

Which he was totally correct about, not that he knew it.

Izuku forced the shark-man's mouth open, and blew. A purple fog which mixed with the water went inside the shark-man's mouth, causing the shark-man to retreat and cough up blood.

A lot of blood.

'Huh… Apparently, poison works better on humans…' Izuku thought as he swam upwards, ignoring the shark-man coughing up huge amounts of blood. 'He would probably die in less than a few seconds… I'll have to limit its use… Hope nobody connects it to me.'

Izuku reached the surface, and was pulled onto a boat by a long tongue, a tongue whose owner was his classmate.

"Midoriya! Are you alright?" Tsuyu asked with worry as she stared at the soaked teen. Izuku began simulating coughing noises to disguise the fact that he didn't need air to live.

It was too early for anybody to learn this.

"I-I'm fine… I'm l-lucky that one o-of the villains bumped into t-the one who was t-trying to kill m-me," Izuku said between coughs as he stared at the water. Tsuyu seemed incredibly worried at their situation. Suddenly, another scream pierced their ears. The two of them looked for the source, which seemed to be inside the body of water.

A purple-haired teen swimming for his life away from another villain could be seen on the water. Tsuyu immediately went into action and jumped into the water to save the purple-haired teen.

While she did that, Izuku was busy formulating a plan to escape this deadly predicament.

In all honesty, Izuku could just blitz through everybody on the water since he didn't need to breathe. All he needed to do was equip Hazel's set and sink to the bottom. The villains who came too close would then be subjected to the brutal end of his Dragon's Tooth.

But with his classmates here, that option was thrown out of the window. Izuku needed to create a plan where his classmates would survive. Just when he was about to finalize his plans, Izuku heard a thud beside him and saw terrified, purple-haired teen bawling his eyes out.

"I'M ALIVE!" Mineta screamed as he hugged the frog teen, and touched her breasts, which then prompted the frog teen to throw him onto the deck, hard. "ACK!?"

Seeing this, Izuku had a migraine.

'Is this what Patches saw in undead and humans? If it is, then I understand why he would kick anybody down a cliff,' Izuku thought as he glared at Mineta.

"You know, we're in a dire situation right now, and you still had the guts to molest a classmate?" Izuku snarled at the small teen, who retreated back in to a wall.

"A-Ah! I-I'm sorry! Won't happen again!" Mineta wailed as he pleaded mercy, which Izuku granted him for the moment because of the villains down in the water.

"Anyway, Asui, how fast can you swim?" Izuku asked Tsuyu, who corrected him by letting him use her first name instead of her family name, in which Izuku just relented.

"Tsuyu, how fast can you swim?" Izuku asked Tsuyu once again as Tsuyu contemplated on her speed in water.

"To be honest, not that fast," Tsuyu honestly responded. "At least, I can't outswim the villains in the water."

"Hmm… All right, I have a plan," Izuku called Mineta who was still cowering beside the wall, when he suddenly burst into irritation.

"HOW CAN YOU TWO BE SO CALM IN THIS SITUATION!?" the grape-headed teen exclaimed as he pointed towards the two teens who seemed too calm. Izuku just sighed while Tsuyu closed her eyes.

"I am scared," Tsuyu replied, arms shaking a bit in fear. "I'm just doing my best to stay alive and help others. That's what heroes do right?"

"Well said, Tsuyu. As for me… Let's just say I have a switch inside my head whenever danger approaches," Izuku said as he pointed at his head. Back before he was teleported, he was panicking a bit at the sight of the fog gate, thus the lack of action against the portal mutant back at the entrance.

'That was stupid of me,' Izuku berated himself. It was only during the transfer that the switch inside his mind was flipped. Normally he was a kind and caring teen, albeit a bit expressionless and aloof, but when his mind was flipped, be wary since this is when the ruthless and terrifying parts of him come out.

He isn't afraid to kill. He isn't afraid to dirty his hands in blood, there's too much of it already anyway. He won't show mercy towards enemies, no. In the past maybe, but his experiences in Lordran made him a firm believer of, 'If the enemy is dead, there is nobody that can backstab you if you turn your back.'

Although he will try to hold back since his enemies are humans, beings incredibly inferior to undead. That, and he doesn't want to let anybody know that he killed people, since it's a very strict law in this world.

"So, Mineta, you manning up? Or you staying a wuss?" Izuku taunted Mineta, who was grinding his teeth so hard, Izuku could hear it from a few meters away.

"GODDAMN IT! I CAN BE A HERO TOO!" Mineta exclaimed as he approached the two, resolve present in his eyes. Izuku smiled at the teen.

'Everybody can be redeemed, though some are too far gone to be redeemed. It seems that Mineta can still be a hero… Although it would be better if his habit would just be erased,' Izuku thought as he tried to open his mouth, but didn't get the chance to because the boat they were on was split in half.

When he looked at the water, some villains could be seen glaring at the three, or more specifically, Izuku.

'It seems they figured out who killed one of them,' Izuku assumed as he locked his gaze on Tsuyu, who was panicking with Mineta.

"I'll buy time, you two head for the shore as fast as you can," Izuku took out Caesti and equipped it on both hands.

"Are you crazy!?" Tsuyu exclaimed as she stared at Izuku with wide eyes. "If anything, it should be me who buys time! I'm better at underwater combat than you!"

"True, but you're the fastest swimmer, and Mineta has his sticky balls to delay the villains," Izuku retorted as he pressured the frog girl as the boat was sinking deeper. "We don't have much time, just trust me on this, I'll meet you at the shore!"

Izuku quickly leapt off the deck and left the two shocked teens. As Izuku plummeted to the water, he was met by a villain wearing some type of scuba gear with claws on his hands.

"Well looky here, the trainee who kills villains, ain't that fantastic?" the villain scoffed at the emerald teen who just glared at the group of villains. "Before he died though, he specifically told us, that you can hold your breath underwater for a long time, wonder how long could you last?"

The scuba wearing villain cackled madly as the group of villains dashed towards Izuku. Izuku however, noticed that the villain was separating the villains, the other half probably after the escaping two.

'Not on my watch!' Izuku once again puffed up his chest, and released the poison fog, only this time, it was larger than before and mixed with the water. The villains were shocked at the volume of the poison, which then affected every villain approaching Izuku.

"What the hell kid!? Are you really tryin' to be a hero!?" the scuba wearing villain exclaimed, flabbergasted at the scene.

"Heh, funny you should ask," Izuku chuckled and glared at the villain. "Who said that heroes aren't allowed to kill?"

'Although I won't try too hard...' Izuku mentally told himself.

From there, the slaughter commenced.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

While Izuku was busy in the flood area, Aizawa was busy fighting in the main plaza. There were a bunch of villains encircling him. Here he was, alone and cornered. But most importantly…

He wasn't there with his students.

This enraged him. Aizawa may be strict, but that was because he cared. He didn't wish to see one of his students kicking the bucket this early.

Aizawa dodged an incoming punch and broke the villain's elbow, while erasing the quirks of ranged attackers. Quicky following up on his erasing quirk, Aizawa rushed towards the group of ranged attacking villains while dodging the occasional jab and hook, never letting his eyes leave the group.

His senses were honed, and he trusted it with his life. He could sense an incoming punch with only his ears. And he could sense whether a villain was incapacitated with just a kick or punch to the right area.

That's how experienced he is. As a hero with only a supporting quirk, Aizawa had to learn the hard way on fighting villains. And with his unique weapon, he was a nightmare to fight against one on one.

But this wasn't a one on one, it was an army versus a single man, and it didn't look good. Aizawa's breathing was getting heavier and heavier, but as he continued beating up the villains, he could see the end.

Sadly, the villains weren't done yet.

"Aizawa, is that how heroes are supposed to fight villains? Using excessive violence?" the cerulean teen covered in hands asked the pro. "What a load of bull! Categorizing one part of violence as justice and the other as evil! It's not fair!"

The teen just madly howled as his insane eyes glared at the pro.

"Whatever, Nomu, time to end this mini-boss," in an instant, Aizawa found himself in front of the huge, black creature right next to the teen. He used his quirk against the creature, but it was ineffective.

"GAH!?" Aizawa howled out in pain as the creature grabbed his arm, and snapped it like a twig. Aizawa retreated quickly as he dashed towards the cerulean teen.

'If this teen is the commander, then!' Aizawa used his other elbow to quickly dispatch the teen. The elbow landed, but the result wasn't as he expected.

"Tsk, tsk, Aizawa. You're supposed to fight the frontline first before going to the backline! It's just common sense, rIGhT?" the teen's insane laughter could be heard along with the decaying of skin.

Aizawa gritted his teeth in pain. Suddenly, Aizawa found himself faceplanting on the floor, hard. Aizawa resisted the incoming blackness trying to creep up on him. He was exhausted, he was hurt, he was dying.

"That all you got? I guess Aizawa is lower than a mini-boss. Couldn't even fight against a Strength build," the teen muttered under his breath.

Aizawa mustered up his remaining strength, but wasn't able to as his vision blurred. The last thing he saw was a pointy, steel helmet.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Midoriya! Are you fine? No major injuries?" Tsuyu asked Izuku who was bringing himself onto the shore after a few minutes of slaugh- I mean, fighting.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Izuku replied with a smile. "Anyway, we should regroup with the others."

"I'm just glad you're safe," Tsuyu sighed in relief as Mineta stared at the teen.

'I guess he isn't that bad after all,' Mineta nodded as he stared at Izuku.

"Let's go," Izuku led the two, stealthily going around the place, but when they reached the plaza…

What Izuku saw made him snap. And a few seconds later, made Izuku fear.

'No… no no no no no… NO!' Izuku nearly had a mental breakdown, for in his vision, a legion of knights could be seen fighting against each other and the villains.

Farron's Undead Legion, the Abyss Watchers have arrived.

Chapter Text

Moments earlier…

"Nomu, finish him," the cerulean teen commanded the hulking, black beast to end Aizawa's life. The beast nodded and brought its arm up, but was stopped when it heard something hurling itself towards its master. In a split second, the Nomu leapt in front of the projectile to prevent it from hurting its master, which was above him.

The cerulean teen looked up and saw Nomu blocking something from killing him unexpectedly, and this got the teen to smirk. After the brief exchange, the Nomu landed on the ground, while the mysterious attacker landed a few feet away from them.

What the teen saw was a person wearing what seemed to be leather armor with a ragged cape. They wielded a blade as long as a pole on their right, and a short, curved dagger on their left. But the most eye-catching feature of the person was the pointy, steel helmet that obscured the person's face.

All in all, he looked dangerous. But not as dangerous as the Nomu.

"I don't know who you are," the teen said while grinning madly. "But you made a mistake trying to kill the backline before the frontline first. Nomu, kill him."

The Nomu roared and rushed towards the unknown figure, who made a gesture unique to them, by tilting their head down and pointing their sword towards their opponents, while crossing their left arm holding the dagger above their right arm.

In one second, the Nomu reached the unknown figure and punched them with great force, sending them back meters away, a good crunch sound was echoed, causing some of the villains to recoil.

"That's what you get," the cerulean teen boasted as he eyed the corpse of their unknown assailant. Suddenly, a portal emerged from beside him, and his protégé emerged.

"Shigaraki, we need to leave," the portal man said. If you could read minds and emotions, you will realize that the portal man was panicking.

"Why, Kurogiri? Isn't the final boss going to appear sooner or later?" the cerulean teen, revealed to be Shigaraki, asked while glaring at the portal man, also known Kurogiri. "Don't tell me we need to kill more mobs to summon the boss?"

"No, it's not that," Kurogiri replied while eyeing the corpse of a familiar assailant. "We have a third-party intruding."

"Oh? Then more toys for Nomu to break," Shigaraki cackled as he scanned the area, trying to find any unknown trespassers. Kurogiri tried to reason with the man-child, but until Nomu is gone, Shigaraki won't relent.

The Nomu sensed another assailant coming for it, so the Nomu got ready. When it saw the attacker, it was another one, but had the same costume. Shigaraki also saw this and raised an eyebrow.

"Hm? Are they heroes?" Shigaraki questioned, mostly to himself, while Kurogiri just stayed in defense for his master. The Nomu winded up its right hand, and struck the incoming assailant, blasting them to who knows where while snapping their neck in the process.

While the Nomu was distracted with the other attacker, the Nomu felt a piercing pain coming from its back. When it shifted its head backwards, it saw another one of them. The Nomu retaliated by elbowing them in the head, gripping them in its giant hands, and crushed it like an egg.

The headless corpse fell down, blood pooling at the ground.

Shigaraki just smiled at the masterpiece that was the Nomu. The Nomu was made to counter All Might, no other hero could match up to it.

And that was a mistake Shigaraki would forever etch in his mind.

The corpse of the earlier attacker suddenly reanimated itself launched themselves towards the Nomu, brandishing their greatsword. Going on full offense, the attacker dodged a punch coming straight at them, and sliced at the Nomu.

"What the hell!? They have a healer on their team!?" Shigaraki screamed in irritation and frustration. "That's not fair! But it's okay, Nomu's still here… Yeah… Everything is still good…"

The Nomu grunted in pain for a moment, before launching a kick towards the overextended attacker, launching them into the air, then followed up with a haymaker, destroying their torso. And then, another one attacked the Nomu. It was the one who was sent flying to somewhere with a snapped neck.

With a grunt, the attacker effortlessly sliced of the limb of the Nomu. It recoiled in pain for a moment, giving the attacker an opening to continue its onslaught. Using the dagger, they stabbed the Nomu's eye and used their greatsword to stab through the huge body of the Nomu.

Then the headless corpse rose, a new head forming, then quickly swung, amputating the legs of the Nomu. It released a pained cry from the overwhelming sense of pain overload through its system.

Shigaraki, who saw this couldn't help but cry in frustration. "WHAT THE HELL! THAT'S CHEATING! CHEATERS! YOU EVEN USE BUGS! HACKERS!"

Shigaraki noticed one of them hurling towards him, and he held his hand out.

"DIE! YOU HACKERS!" Shigaraki caught the sword, but for some reason, the blade didn't decay. "What the fu-"

"Shigaraki!" Kurogiri made a portal behind Shigaraki and pushed him in, teleporting him to safety, but was a bit too late. On the spot where Shigaraki once stood, another assailant with the same form as the others appeared, along with a bloodied arm on the ground. They then rushed towards Kurogiri, who teleported himself to safety, back to where eyes couldn't see in this hell of a dome, and where they teleported, a pained scream emanated from Shigaraki who was clutching his stump of an arm.

But for the surrounding villains, hell just came.

"F-FUCK! KILL THEM!" a mutant-quirk villain screamed while charging towards one of them. He was rewarded with a quick stab towards his stomach and a gouged eye. His friends also followed suit, only to find their limbs separating from the bodies, courtesy of another attacker.

The villains panicked, and tried to run, but was stopped because when they looked on over, their faces paled in horror.

In front of them, about a dozen similar costumed attackers blocked their vision, all wielding the same weapons. But some of them had red glowing eyes and they were attacking the others in the same costume.

This confused some of the villains, but thought that they were on their side. Their morale shot up and helped the red-eyed attackers kill the other normal ones.

Another huge mistake.

Once a normal one was killed off, the red-eyed attacker then turned on the villains and hacked them to pieces. Screams, shrieks, cries, and groans echoed around the main plaza. All of this was visible towards the heroes-in-training above the stairs…

Where half of them were injured with grievous wounds, and the other half were not that injured and trying their best to stabilize their classmates.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Tsuyu, listen to me," Izuku told in a low tone towards the shaken frog girl. Of course, she would be shaken, the violence displayed in front of them could be nothing short of horrendous. Dismembered body parts, pained screams, dying groans, this type of situation happening in front of your very eyes could be nothing less then traumatic. "I want you to take Mineta, and when I give you the signal, take Aizawa and run as fast as you can towards the others in the entrance."

Tsuyu nodded shakily while Mineta couldn't help but release a bit of bile, but he repressed it from going out of his mouth, for fear of making a sound to attract the… Villains slaughtering their kin.

"And when you get Aizawa, whatever you do, don't look back," Izuku stated as he fished out his Knight Artorias set. In an instant, Izuku leapt into the fray, ignoring the screams of pain coming from the thugs and common villains. "GO NOW TSUYU!"

Tsuyu grabbed Mineta by the waist and carried him while leaping through the bloodied battlefield full of screams and agony.

There was one Izuku saw who was crying while clutching her stump of an arm, then there was another one dragging his body on the floor, leaving a trail of blood.

'No doubt about it, I'll have to go all out,' Izuku steeled himself and brought out Artorias Greatsword. Thanks to Artorias' soul briefly inhabiting his body, Izuku was able to gleam from it some information on how Knight Artorias fought. And Izuku noticed something familiar about these knights slaughtering every villain, and sometimes, even their own red-eyed compatriots.

'They move like Artorias, but more aggressive,' Izuku thought as he jumped over a corpse of a woman clasping her wound on the side, eyes wide with tears. 'I need to stop this now!'

Izuku dodged an incoming strike from a knight and retaliated with one of his own, stabbing the knight through the chest. Quickly moving, Izuku swept past the corpses of villains and knights alike, never looking back since he knew, these knights revive after a set amount of time.

'The abyss has overtaken them… Just like Knight Artorias…' Izuku thought as he decapitated a red-eyed knight and continued on, ignoring the extremely large amount of blood pooling on the floor.

A few more seconds later, Izuku came face to face with a rampaging Nomu destroying every knight in its path. Using its punches, kicks, and sometimes, its beak to tear apart the bodies of the knights. Everytime a wound was done upon the beast, it retaliated 10-fold. As if that wasn't enough, it even regenerated.

Suddenly, Izuku felt a huge pressure coming over him. When he looked over to where the pressure was coming from, he saw another knight with the same armor and weapon, only, Izuku knew, this knight was the strongest out of all of them.

Their blade ignited, and in a swing, decapitated the Nomu. Without relenting in their attack, they shredded the body of the Nomu, while having the other knights help with killing this huge beast for good.

The black body of the Nomu was reduced to shreds and finally, it collapsed to the ground, never to get up again.

The knight then blocked an attack coming from behind it. A red-eyed knight glaring at the normal knight. Without hesitation, the knight stabbed their swords through the body of the red-eyed knight, who then collapsed to the ground unmoving.

Noticing Izuku, the knight then turned their gaze on his form. Without words, the knight made a gesture towards Izuku, head tilted down, right arm extended forwards, sword pointing towards Izuku, and their left arm crossing over their right.

It was here, Izuku knew, there was no escape to fighting.

Chapter Text

Izuku was tired. It's been a very long fight. Swords clashed, shields buckled, blood spilled, but the two fighters were still going strong.

"Shit!" Izuku cursed towards the knight before him as he barely dodged a leaping strike. The sword landed on the ground, flinging stone and dust away from the impact. If that wasn't enough, the knight used his limp hand to throw some kind of black ooze towards Izuku.

"Gah!" Izuku got hit and was forced back. He quickly got his bearings before dodging another strike towards him. "Please stop! You can still overcome it!"

The knight paid no heed to Izuku's words as black aura manifested around him. In an exploding manner, the aura burst and the knight went on full throttle. Izuku blocked, dodged, and countered while getting a few hits on him as well.

Drinking from his Estus Flask after getting a good distance away from him. Izuku again shouted his name.

"KNIGHT ARTORIAS!" Izuku screamed from the top of his lungs. He was hoping for his words to get through. Izuku however, readied himself instead when he saw Knight Artorias getting ready for a charging attack.

He dodged the thrust and took a step back, in fear of getting that black ooze attack again. But suddenly, Izuku heard something that would forever cement his mind on what to do to end Abyss-corrupted entities.

"Pl..ease… E…nd… M…e…" Knight Artorias said in broken speech as he lunged again against Izuku, who in turn blocked with his Grass Crest Shield. "Be…for…e… I… Ha…rm… An…yon…e… El…se…"

Hearing that, Izuku steeled himself and gave everything on his last attack. In a single thrust, the sword penetrated Knight Artorias' armor and through his body. The Knight fell to his knees, and uttered one last thing towards Izuku.

"Th…ank… Y…ou… Kin…d… Und…ead…" The Knight fell on top of his blood puddling on the ground, his last words barely a whisper. Izuku could do nothing as he stared at the corpse grimly as the soul of the Knight once hailed as a hero entered his body. Tears began pooling at his eyes, one sentence going over his mind once again.

'Can I not save anyone…?'

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

(BGM: Dark Souls 3 - Abyss Watchers OST)

Izuku stared at the unknown knight before him… That is, until something in his body connected with the being before him.

"… Knight Artorias…?" Izuku muttered under his breath in shock as he stared at the unknown knight. The soul, even if different, felt the same as the soul of Knight Artorias that once inhabited his body.

The unknown knight however, perked their head up when they heard the name of their idol. They also felt the connection with the child, prompting the knight to speak up.

"…You… Have the soul… Of the original… Wolf Knight…" the knight assumed as they readied their weapon. "Wonderful… This may be… our last chance…"

"We… are the Abyss Watchers… Fighters against the dark… Shields against the Abyss…" the knight broke into a run and rolled, delivering an overhead slash towards Izuku, who dodged at the last minute. "Please… Free our souls… Before we corrupt… Everything else…"

History repeats itself… This was a saying that was lauded in the history books as a reminder of why history should be studied to prevent the same from happening in the future…

Apparently, even if you studied it… No matter what… the same result happens…

History ALWAYS repeats itself.

'If it is always destined for heroes to fall from grace… THEN WHY AM I SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE TO END THEM!?' Izumu screamed mentally as his brain processes grinded to a halt. Reliving the past was very painful for Izuku. Reminded time and time again, that he was powerless to save anyone. "WHY!? WHY CAN'T I SAVE ANY OF YOU!?"

"Save… You are already… Saving us… Tiny Wolf Knight…" the Abyss Watcher began as they did their signature pose, the Legion Etiquette. "We wish to die… By your hands… If you kill us… Then you save us…"

"Because the Abyss… Cannot spread any further…" the Abyss Watcher lunged in again, Izuku dodged by a hair's breadth. "We live to fight… against the Abyss… But we are corrupted… Locked into… An eternity of battle… Amongst ourselves…"

"Only you… Holder of the… Original Wolf Knight's soul… Can spare us from our… Doomed fate…" swinging the dagger this time, it landed a solid hit on Izuku's arm, causing blood to drip on the floor. Without stopping, the Abyss Watcher made another swing with their greatsword, but Izuku blocked it on time with the Cleansing Greatshield. "Please… You are our… Only hope…"

Izuku gathered himself once the pain of being slashed registered in his brain, and when Izuku learned what it meant to be alive for the Abyss Watchers, Izuku could only nod solemnly as he leapt a few meters back.

'Is this what it feels like… To feel that you could not do anything to save them but kill them…?' Izuku thought as he swung the Artorias Greatsword, leaving a large gash across the body of the Abyss Watcher before him.

"Alright… Abyss Watchers… My name is Midoriya Izuku, savior of the Abysswalker, Knight Artorias, and I hereby swear…" Izuku swore as he copied the gesture the Abyss Watcher did before fighting him. "I will put an end to your suffering."

"You have… Our thanks… Tiny Wolf Knight," the Abyss Watcher smiled under their helmet and mask, before all semblance of intelligence vanished from their eyes. With a guttural howl, the Abyss Watcher lunged towards Izuku once again.

Izuku dodged the swing and proceeded to backstab the Abyss Watcher. The blade lodged perfectly onto their body, and Izuku twisted the blade, and pulled it out. The Abyss Watcher collapsed on the ground, but got back up and ferociously swung the sword and dagger towards Izuku, who in turn blocked and dodged the incoming attacks.

Suddenly, Izuku felt a searing pain on his shoulder from behind. When he looked back, he saw another Abyss Watcher ganging up on him. Izuku gritted his teeth, but made a mistake looking away for a moment.

The familiar sensation of being stabbed through the body took the strength out of Izuku's legs as he collapsed on his kneed, blood pooling on the ground.

As all this happened, everything that happened there was visible from the top of the stairs, where horrified classmates had their mouth hung open in terror and dread.

"DEKU!" Ochako cried out in worry and tried to jump in, only to be stopped by Iida who was lying on the ground, injured beyond hell, grabbed her foot.

"Uraraka! Don't! You'll just risk… yourself more!" Iida said between pained coughs. Around them laid the bloodied corpses of the villains. Some of the students as well were hanging between life and death. Shoji had 5 out of 6 of his tentacles cut off. Sato had a lot of stab wounds, and was bleeding, and Ashido had one of her horns broken off, with multiple lacerations.

Thirteen however, was a lost cause. She was no longer breathing, a huge sword stabbed through her body.

Iida on the other hand, probably had it easy, but he was still worse for wear. His engines were decimated, but it could still be healed, Shoji's tentacles as well. Sato and Ashido though were teetering on the border, and they needed a healer ASAP.

"Besides! We need all… the help we can… get for the injured!" Iida exclaimed while Ochako was having a mental breakdown.

"What the hell happened here!?" a terrified Mineta screamed in shock as he laid his eyes on the precarious situation that he and his classmates landed in. "Wait… No nonono! WHY IS THIRTEEN DEAD!?"

Mineta was now hyperventilating. Of course, he would, countless dead bodies of villains, blood everywhere, almost dead classmates, and now, a dead teacher.

"This is bad… Very bad…" Tsuyu anxiously croaked as she laid the unconscious Aizawa on the floor next to her classmates. "Midoriya and the others are still fighting… Where are our reinforcements?"

"We can't get a signal, nor can we contact them. The fog's in the way," Iida weakly stated, but kept his grip firm on Ochako's leg.

"DEKU!" Ochako screamed in pure terror as she saw Izuku get stabbed once again. Now, two swords were going through his body, and she knew, it was too late for him.

It would for an ordinary human.

"A fight in numbers… Shit… This is bad…" Izuku weakly mumbled as he brought out his Pyromancy. "But… I WILL STILL SAVE YOU! AND MY CLASSMATES! EVEN IF I HAVE TO DIE AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!"

Izuku brought his hand down on the ground, and channeled deep within his soul. The result was giant flame pillars jumping from below the ground, incinerating every Abyss Watcher on the field near them.

A flame pillar even exploded from beneath their feet, burning Izuku as well. A few seconds later, the flames subsided, and all around the area, charred corpses of the Abyss Watchers could be seen lying on the ground. Izuku's burnt corpse as well.

"DEKU!" Ochako screamed and ran, forcefully breaking Iida's grip. She ignored the shouting coming from behind her and ran. Ran towards one of her close friends. A friend who saved her from death.

It was only right to save them as well, right?

Back to Izuku, he stirred, and stood straight back up, his skin burnt and dried. And once again, the familiar look of being hollow graced him as he saw his reflection on the blade of his sword.

"… I don't need a bonfire to revive…?" Izuku asked himself as he brought out a humanity sprite, and crushed it in his hands. "Some things to study later, but for now…"

Izuku was brought out of his musings when he saw blood coagulating on the body of the strongest Abyss Watcher. A few moments later, their blade embered, and flame spouted. Their eyes no longer normal, but red eyes, reminiscing of the Abyss corrupted beings.

Izuku knew this was far from over.

Chapter Text

(BGM: The Abyss Watchers OST – Second Phase)

Izuku bit his lips, switching his armor to his Elite Knight set. Izuku grabbed the Black Knight Shield for fire damage reduction, and a practical Longsword. Getting ready for the oncoming fight, he ate a Green Blossom and applied a Thunder Resin to his sword.

The Abyss Watcher dashed, giving Izuku no more time for preparation. Izuku swiftly dodged and strike while the Abyss Watcher's back was turned. The sword lodged deeply in the body, but Izuku was surprised by the flame that followed while the Abyss Watcher paid no heed, and swept their Greatsword behind them.

Quickly, Izuku held up his guard and blocked the incoming strike, but it pushed him away a few feet back. Taking this as an opening, the Abyss Watcher did an overhead strike, which Izuku blocked as well.

But he held his guard down too early to block the flame that followed.

Izuku was scorched and was staggered, and the Abyss Watcher slashed him with their dagger, wounding Izuku's forearm. They also followed up with heavy swing, gashing Izuku's chest, searing it with flames. If that wasn't enough, the delayed flame arc scorched him once again.

Izuku retreated and took our an Estus Flask. He gulped once then charged again, this time, ready for the delayed flame arc. The Abyss Watcher jumped over Izuku's attack with perfect timing, leaving Izuku vulnerable, and slashed again with the Greatsword.

Izuku quickly brought up his shield, but the hastily placed defense crumbled down from the sheer power of the swing, causing Izuku's knees to buckle under the pressure. That was enough for the Abyss Watcher to follow up with a devastating attack.

In one fell swoop, the Abyss Watcher did a slash to further buckle Izuku's defense, followed up by a flame arc, scorching Izuku under the armor, and another slash, breaking Izuku's guard, followed up by another flame arc, then the Abyss Watcher lodged the dagger inside Izuku's shoulder, causing him to grunt, and finally, they stabbed through Izuku's armor, the blade protruding from his back.

Izuku held in a pained scream and gripped the Longsword with all his might and thrusted it towards the defenseless body of the Abyss Watcher. The strike aimed true, piercing the chest of the Abyss Watcher.

Both of them stared at each other in the eyes, emerald colored eyes met ominous, glowing red. Both of them were at a standstill, knowing that one wrong move, then the other dies.

'Crap crap crap! I may be strong, but against someone equal, my main power is learning!' Izuku cursed in his mind at the predicament he was in. He may be a fighting God, but his main tool in fights was the ability to do it over and over until he got it right.

That was how he fought in Lordran, predicting the moves of the enemies and punishing them. But here he was, a new opponent to fight, and no redo's… One mistake and either his opponent or his classmates die.

Both of them were at a deadlock, swords piercing each other, until a shout alerted Izuku.

"DEKU!" Ochako came running in, hands at the ready to grab Izuku and run. Izuku however, saw a chance.

'If she could nullify the gravity of the Abyss Watcher… then!' sadly, as much expectation Izuku held, it all came crashing down when Ochako grabbed him instead and pulled him off.

"NO! OCHAKO!" Izuku screamed, but it was too late, the sword lodged deeply inside of Izuku was pulled out, and the Abyss Watcher was able to move again, which they did immediately.

By attacking the panicking girl right beside a terrified Izuku.

He did all he could to raise his shield and block, but without gravity to help him fight against the pressure, Izuku was flung away a few meters, and watched horribly as Ochako got impaled in the chest by the Abyss Watcher.

Ochako had a fear and tear-stricken face, while getting paler and paler by the second. Blood pooling down beneath their feet as Ochako lost the life in her eyes.

She collapsed, her eyes wide with terror.

All the while Izuku watched, helpless because of the nullified gravity.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Izuku screamed, the frustration, the guilt, the helplessness… It was Lordran all over again. One day he could see one of his friends chatting with him, the next day, he could see them dead in a ditch somewhere.

Here however, he had the power to protect everybody. He had miracles, the strength, the pyromancy… He even had techniques. If he just went all out, he should've…

Why did he think he still would be accepted in this society? He did everything he could, he just wanted a normal life. But he should've realized that the moment he was sent to Lordran, a normal life would forever be out of his grasp.

He didn't want to worry his mother… He didn't want his secret exposed… He didn't want to be branded as a freak of nature…

He just wanted to be a human accepted by others, and protect those he cared about…

"No more…" Izuku gritted his teeth, flame burning within him. "Forget acceptance, forget secrecy…"

Izuku grabbed a talisman from his inventory, as well as a sorcerer's catalyst. And with that, he held them in both hands.

"I accept my fate as a Lord of Cinder," Izuku brought up his catalyst high and blue 5 blue orbs hovered above him. "And my duty, is to sacrifice myself for the sake of others."

"No matter if I burn out."

Izuku made a Crystal Soul Spear and hurled it towards the Abyss Watcher. The Abyss Watcher tried dodging, but the spear was just too fast to dodge. After that, the orbs followed, each of the orb striking vital areas on the body.

If that wasn't enough, from the talisman, Izuku gathered his faith and conjured a Lightning Spear, once used by Solaire, and hurled it towards the staggering Abyss Watcher. The bolt landed true and the Abyss Watcher was brought to their knees.

Once the Abyss Watcher did so, Izuku quickly swapped out to the Washing Pole and dashed, two-handing the long blade and slashing the Abyss Watcher. Blood was spilled and Izuku didn't let up on his attack, slashing twice, thrice, and on the fourth swing, Izuku used pyromancy once again and hurled a Great Chaos Fireball towards the face of the Abyss Watcher.

It exploded, leaving a lava pool behind, and the Abyss watcher was soaked in it. If it weren't for the powers of the Lord of Cinder, the Abyss Watcher would've already given up after the Lightning Spear, but here they were, still standing.

Izuku changed his shield to the Black Iron Greatshield, and his armor set to the Black Iron set. Izuku blocked every attack, grunting after every strike. After a certain strike, Izuku swapped his Washing Pole to a Zweihander. With a yell, Izuku brought all his strength into that one attack, slashing off one hand of the Abyss Watcher.

Without letting up, Izuku brought his body back, and with a final grunt, thrusted the Zweihander into the head of the Abyss Watcher. The Abyss Watcher let out a final gurgle before they collapsed to the floor. Izuku felt the souls entering him, and he saw the memories of all of the Abyss Watchers.

(BGM End)

Fighting against hordes of Abyss creatures, returning back to their barracks, tired, exhausted, and some of them missing. Training to be in top shape, learning about another Kingdom stricken with the Abyss. Journeying there and burying the Kingdom to prevent the spread of the Abyss, and returning back to the barracks, a lot of them missing again.

All the while nobody gave them praise. They just did it to prevent the spread of the Abyss, following Knight Artorias footsteps…

They also gave themselves up, all of them burning in the Kiln to prevent the fire from fading. To make sure that humanity can prosper once again without the fear of the Abyss.

"You… Are true heroes…" Izuku muttered underneath his breath as he bowed towards the corpses of the Abyss Watchers.

Izuku then moved towards the corpse of his classmate while drinking an Estus Flask. He had one final method to bring her back alive, but it was also something he didn't want to do.

"Fear not! For I am here!" a loud booming voice echoed across the dome, a scowl on his face before it turned into horror. "What the…"

All Might quickly grabbed a phone and called the principal. "NEZU! CALL AMBULANCES NOW!"

Izuku just ignored All Might from the top of the stairs.

"… Alright, you better not regret this, Izuku…" Izuku said to himself as he grabbed a part of Manus' soul and placed it on Ochako. A few seconds later, a circle began forming on Ochako's exposed back, and it was very familiar to Izuku's eyes.

The Darksign.

Moments later, Ochako's eyes fluttered, but for some reason, she didn't look hollow, but she is an Undead. A voice entered his mind, and he muttered out loud.

"Ashen one…?"

Chapter Text

The USJ was a disaster. For being a composed and intelligent being, Nezu was having a mental breakdown, trying his best to keep calm with the incredibly grave situation at hand. One that could spell doom for the whole of U.A. Academy.

"What in the world has happened here?" Nezu asked himself with growing unease. "Nevermind that, I'll have to make the students have appointments with therapists ASAP."

While that was going on, All Might, as well as the other heroes could be seen cradling the grievously injured students towards the ambulances that were rushed towards the USJ dome. Some were close to death, but thanks to immediate treatment, they would survive, albeit with permanent damage.

But that wasn't all, some students were injured, yes, but then there's Thirteen.

A dead Thirteen.

One of the heroes, found dead during an assault of villains against heroes-in-training, and if that wasn't enough, there was the death count of the villains. Yes, the VILLAINS! The villains that led the attack!

There were about 50 mutilated bodies, almost all in bad shape. There were some survivors, most notably those away from the Plaza, but those found within the Plaza all had gruesome deaths. And those mysterious costumed villains…

If the media found out about this…

"No, they must never know," Nezu muttered as he used every string he had in the society to cover up as much as he could regarding this incident. Although, it wouldn't cover much.

[][][][][][][][][][][]

A few minutes earlier…

Ochako was in a daze. The last thing she remembered was being stabbed in the chest and losing consciousness. Then she found herself waking up, and the first thing she noticed, was that she could no longer feel warmth.

Yes, she no longer had any body heat whatsoever.

She also had a feeling of connection towards Izuku, or more specifically, the warmth within him. It felt like a lifeline for her. She felt that if the warmth within Izuku didn't exist, she would be no longer within the realm of the living.

"… Ashen one…?" she heard Izuku mutter under his breath due to how close the two of them were. Izuku was kneeling beside her, while Ochako was lying down on the cold floor.

Under a pool of blood, more presumably, her blood.

This got her panicking. Actually, scratch that, make that hyperventilating. Seeing what was happening, Izuku took it to himself to calm the brunette undead down.

By slapping her in the face.

"Hey! Snap out of it!" Izuku half-yelled towards the shocked brunette. Ochako just stared at the greenete with wide eyes at the way he slapped her to put some sense into her. A few moments later, Ochako visibly calmed down and shakily raised her upper body to get into a sitting position.

"… What h-happened…?" her voice was still shaky due to how surreal this situation was to her.

"Listen to me Ochako, do not panic, unless you want to be slapped again," Izuku warned the brunette. "You're a walking corpse."

"…" Ochako stared at Izuku like he had grown a second head or something, before she deadpanned. "You're pulling m-my leg, right?"

Izuku just gazed at her with a serious and grim face, causing Ochako to reel back in confusion. "Y-you're serious…?"

Izuku nodded in affirmation as he used the Darksign branded on him to show Ochako one of his deepest secrets he refused to show the world. His skin started wrinkling, his eyeballs began to darken, and his body shriveled to a husk.

Once the transformation was complete, Izuku took off his helmet to let Ochako stare in horror at the state of the face of her crush.

"W-wha- B-but… How…?" Ochako was once again panicking, soliciting another slap from Izuku.

"I warned you," Izuku sighed as his normal appearance once took hold over his body. "Anyway, yes, you are a walking corpse, just like me."

"L-like you…?" Ochako asked with unease, and Izuku affirmed her suspicions.

"Let's stop here for a moment. I'll explain later, along with the rest of the class, for now, let's just get back to them," Izuku said as he hefted up Ochako back on her feet. Gaping holes could be seen on her costume, both at the front and back where the huge blade pierced her body.

Realizing that this may set up warning bells, Izuku quickly took a coat from inside his storage and draped it over Ochako, covering up both of the holed.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

The trek back towards their class was silent. Surrounding them however, were numerous corpses, all mangled beyond repair. Blood soaked their boots leaving bloody footprints as they walked.

Once they got up the stairs, they were greeted by heroes who just arrived doing everything they can to stabilize the bodies of their classmates. Seeing that his classmates wouldn't survive another minute, Izuku took it upon himself to heal them, calling upon a Miracle to heal his classmates.

To hell with being secretive. Lives were on the line, and Izuku vowed to no longer hold back during situations that may endanger a life. He didn't care if the government dropped a nuke on his head, he would stand back and face it all over again if it meant saving a person. However nonexistent the chance may be for a nuke to drop.

Once the chime and aura of light washed over his classmates, some of their wounds began closing up, garnering the attention of the heroes, as well as the students who were doing their best to stabilize the students. They stared in shock at the iron-wearing student holding some kind of talisman while a few whisps of light traveled around him as it vanished into the air.

"I'll explain later, just… Please… Treat their injuries first before going to questions," Izuku pleaded as he plopped onto his butt, exhausted from the ordeal. It was a long time since he had to go all out, and he was a little bit rusty. Ochako soon followed, the shock of dying washing over her as she stared blankly at the ground.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

All Might could be seen surveying the area in the Ruins zone, along with some other heroes for any surviving Villains. The whole place looked like a goddamned warzone! While he was searching though, he heard a sound coming from one of the buildings. When he cautiously entered the building, he saw two of his students holing up in one of the rooms, relief climbing their face when they saw All Might.

"All Might!" the students shouted.

"Young Kirishima, young Bakugou, come on, you're safe now," All Might said with his trademark smile, although faltering due to the gruesome scene back in the plaza. The two of them had frowns on their faces for some reason though.

"… Are they gone…?" Kirishima asked with fear laced in his voice. Bakugou however, was silent, although there was unease building up within his emotions. "Those sword wielding villains…?"

Upon close inspection, All Might noticed the both of them have wounds that resembled one made by a blade. Large ones at that. Thankfully, they were able patch them up before more blood was lost.

"Yes, no more villains will pose a threat," All Might reassured them and both of the students slumped down in relief, yes, that included Bakugou, before fainting from exhaustion. All Might hoisted the two of them up on his shoulders gently as he took them back to the entrance.

'Thankfully, they won't see the gruesome scene in the plaza,' All Might grimly thought to himself as he brought the two of them towards the rest of the class.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Yaoyorozu Momo, Kyoka Jirou, and Kaminari Denki could only say one thing about the recent events in the plaza.

Horrifying.

Thankfully, those sword-wielding villains didn't show up in the landslide zone, because if they did, the three of them would have died before the heroes arrived.

"… Am I even ready to be a hero…?" Momo muttered to herself with anxiety while Kaminari paled upon realizing the grave implications of being a hero. Kyoka was deciding whether to drop out and pursue a musical career instead of being a hero, or continue trying to be one.

"H-hey, guys, let's… let's just g-get back to our class… O-okay…?" Kaminari said while trembling in fear. He was now having second thoughts on being a hero. Being a cool hero was worth nothing if he died a horrible death.

"… I agree, come on," Momo agreed while she led the two down the rocky surface, legs trembling in fear and anxiety. Once they reached the bottom, they had to traverse the plaza littered with corpses and an overwhelming amount of blood. The trio unnervingly traversed the area, bodies tensed and their guards all the way up, all the while fear was cranked up to 11.

Kyoka however, had the worst of it. Because of her empowered hearing, she could hear the moans of agony from the still surviving villains in the plaza, further traumatizing her, as well as making her decision to drop out increasingly higher than her will to continue being a hero.

Once they arrived at the top of the stairs, along with the others, the three of them collapsed and drifted into a deep sleep.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Izuku watched as his classmates all dragged themselves back to the top of the stairs, some alone, others with company, and more with heroes carrying them. After they got laid down safely, Izuku got to work, calling upon a Miracle to heal them just enough to make sure they won't die. He still needs to reserve some of his energy since for some reason, miracles use a crap-ton of energy in this world than in Lordran. Probably something to do with the Gods being absent in this world, and the lack of faith.

While the last of his classmates returned, the sounds of sirens alerted the heroes and conscious students inside, and the medics began filing in, stretchers in hand.

What they saw inside made some of them lose their lunch. Sure, they may be used to gore, but not on the scale of battlefields. The stench wafting through the air alone was nauseating enough that it could let any normal person reel back in disgust.

Each of the students were laid on the stretchers and quickly placed inside an ambulance, then sent to the hospital. Izuku was the last one, but seeing that he was mostly fine, he was first questioned by the police in what the hell happened inside.

"Can we hold the questions back for the moment… I'd like to think to myself for a little while…" Izuku said as he entered an ambulance dedicated to him and drove him off to a hospital where it would accommodate the entirety of class 1-A.

While Izuku was busy pondering to himself, most of the students who were conscious to watch Izuku fight was thinking to themselves.

'What the hell is Izuku/Midoriya…?'

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Inside a room, a body laid on top of a table. A puffy astronaut suit could be seen on the sides, a huge hole torn in the center on both sides. The body was female, with a huge stab wound in her chest. Some heroes were mourning the loss of the female hero who was an inspiration to rescue heroes alike.

Only until the seemingly female corpse opened their eyes with confusion.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Inside a morgue where bodies of villains were to be placed until it was their turn to be cremated, a large number were secretly stashed, away from public eyes. It was only a moment later when most of the bodies twitched and began moving. Eyes darting everywhere and most of them tensing up for a battle, only to realize that they were actually comrades in the raid earlier.

"… What the hell…?"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Omake #1: What if Game Mechanics transferred as well part 2…

In this timeline, the Abyss Watchers didn't show up and Izuku could be see fighting against Nomu after chopping off Shigaraki's hand. Kurogiri was battling an irate Katsuki for getting the drop on him earlier.

The Nomu lunged and did a huge right swing towards Izuku, who in turn, just rolled towards the attack.

Yes, rolled towards the huge fist that could one-shot him to death and back to the bonfire. However, the huge fist, instead of hitting Izuku, phased through his body.

For a puppet without free will, the Nomu was shocked and confused about what happened. The law of physics stated that when one object with mass collided with another object with mass, the object with higher force would win and push the opposing object away.

But then this happened. It isn't a quirk since the emerald teen had a dimensional quirk. So how could he phase through the Nomu's attack!?

"INVINCIBLTY FRAMES BITCH!" Izuku yelled under his armor as he circled around the Nomu and gave it a backstab. Shigaraki upon seeing this went livid, calling Izuku a hacker, a cheater, and some other derogatory terms.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Omake #2: Dark Souls 2 > Dark Souls 3

Another alternate timeline where Izuku fought against Nomu, Shigaraki, and Kurogiri all at once. Izuku was losing bad, and he needed an escape.

"No escape now scrub! DIE!" Shigaraki yelled as he dashed forward, hands held at the ready. Izuku dodged to the side, but was teleported by Kurogiri back towards the path of Shigaraki's dash.

The Nomu as well dashed forwards, raising a bloodcurling shout. Izuku needed to act fast, and luckily, he spotted his ticket to freedom.

A huge double door which led to the inferno zone beside him. So without further ado, like any Dark Souls Veteran with a brain who was cornered, all Izuku had to do…

WAS RUN! And take advantage of a paranormal activity which rendered him invincible against all attacks.

And that was opening a huge double door. Izuku didn't hesitate and threw his body towards the door and placed both hands on it, slowly pushing and opening the double doors. Shigaraki scoffed in amusement.

"AS IF YOU COULD OUTRUN US!" Shigaraki grabbed ahold of Izuku, only for his hand to phase through. "WHAT THE FU—"

And then got punched by Nomu instead when the Nomu tried to do a haymaker against the defenseless Izuku.

Overhead Izuku, a sign could be seen.

Dark Souls 2 > Dark Souls 3

Door Mechanics

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Omake #3: How to Pacifist SHA – The USJ

What you need: Rapport. Ashen Estus Flask. Pyromancy

What you get: None

What you Kill: Shigaraki Tomura

Step 1: Equip pyromancy and Rapport before entering USJ. MAKE SURE TO HAVE PLENTY OF ASHEN ESTUS FLASK CHARGES

Step 2: Enter USJ and wait until cutscene finishes

Step 3: Realize you have been paired with the useless in combat midget and gesture Collapse

Step 4: Wait until boat gets torn in half while said midget yells at you for being useless while frog teen nervously shakes in anxiety and fear

Step 5: Once close to water, Rapport strongest enemy, a.k.a. Shark dude. And watch as he tears every other villain to pieces.

Step 6: Once all villains are dead, Shark dude is left, allow allies, a.k.a. purple midget and frog teen to deal with last villain.

Step 7: Return back to shore and see sleep deprived teacher get busted by huge black mamba.

Step 8: use rapport on the huge black mamba and watch as it maims hand dude.

Step 9: Face the camera and do the dabs (Don't do mods kids)

Congratulations, you have pacified The USJ.

Next up, pacifying Sports Festival…

Chapter Text

Izuku arrived at the hospital along with the other students. Once there, all of them were ushered into rooms according to lethality of injuries. Izuku was placed with those who are less injured, those included Ochako, Momo, Kyoka, Kaminari, Mineta, and Tsuyu.

"Damn it…" Izuku cursed aloud. Reason being more than half of the class were injured to the point where they needed extensive healing. This got the attention of the other students who were pondering about their grim situation.

"Hey, Midoriya, you okay?" Momo asked while sitting on the bed. There were wraps on her hands indicating some minor injuries. Nothing too serious.

"No, I'm not," being honest about the current situation, Izuku replied with a downtrodden head. This got the other present students to tilt their heads in confusion, save for Ochako.

"… You know something, don't you?" Kyoka said while playing with her earphone jacks. This got the other students in the dark, a.k.a everybody except Ochako to stare at Izuku with intensity. Izuku didn't flinch and nodded, eyes unfocused from too much pondering.

'I wonder…' Izuku brought his eyes up and met eyes with the other students, staring at Izuku as if he would croak up information. Well, they were right.

"Listen, you all might not believe me, so we'll wait for the police to come take our inputs," Izuku stated with an accepting face.

"Why not now Midoriya?" Tsuyu asked with a finger on her chin. Izuku glanced at her before closing his eyes.

"Because… I don't like repeating myself," Izuku said, hiding his rising unease. Unease not from the fact that his secret would go out, no, unease from recalling his suffering rather. After all, nobody would want to go through hell over and over again.

The tone in Izuku's voice prompted the other students to relent from their questioning. A few minutes of silence, the door to their hospital room opened and in came two people. One wearing a trench coat, and the other wearing a police uniform.

"Good morning students. I am Detective Tsukauchi. Mind if I gather some of your inputs on the… incident?" this got some students to tense and recall the… horrible event with fear.

Tsukauchi then began with the closest, who was Momo, then Kyoka, Tsuyu, Mineta, and Kaminari.

The information given were all truth, as stated by Tsukauchi's quirk. But there was one underlying point that ALL of the students stated once and kept quiet.

Izuku and Ochako.

"Now then, Ms. Uraraka, we'll start with the simple questions first," Tsukauchi said while Ochako nodded weakly, still shaken up about her death.

"Name?"

"… Uraraka Ochako."

"Mhm… Age?"

"15."

This went on for a few times until they finally arrived at the important ones.

"What happened in the USJ?" Tsukauchi asked while twirling a pen with his right hand and a notepad held tightly in his left.

"… I-It just happened s-so fast… There w-was that portal villain, t-then those… sword wielding… villains?" Ochako questioned herself. "H-huh…? I-I can't remember…?"

Once she said that, Izuku's eyes widened. He gritted his teeth, but made sure that he didn't show it.

"Hm?" Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow at the sudden claim of amnesia. And most important of all, his quirk registered it as TRUTH.

"I see… Well then, thank you for your cooperation," Tsukauchi said as he glanced around the room, noticing that the other students were staring wide-eyed at Ochako.

"How about you Mr. Midoriya?" Tsukauchi said before being stopped when Izuku got up on his feet and stared at him, then glanced around the room before going towards Ochako who was having a problem with her memory.

"Ochako, what can't you remember?" Izuku inquired while giving Ochako a relaxing smile. Ochako locked eyes with him for a moment before racking her brain for any missing memories.

"… I know that we are 20 s-students in class… but I can't seem to r-remember you…" Ochako replied as she pointed at Mineta. Hearing this, Tsukauchi's quirk registered it as truth, while the other students were plain shocked that Ochako forgot the most memorable classmate in their entire class for the wrong reasons.

"…" Izuku stayed silent for a few seconds just staring at Ochako who was silently trying her hard to remember the purple haired teen in front of her.

"Okay, Detective Tsukauchi, you wanted my input, right?" Tsukauchi nodded, pen and paper ready, and an audio recorder recording in his pocket. Izuku sighed before showing everybody in the room the cursed circle.

He first took of the hospital gown. Thankfully, he had shorts on. His toned body full of scars on every part of his body exposed towards the people inside the room, shocking everybody except for the males who already saw it in the locker room.

Then on his chest, a circle manifested. Burning flames licking Izuku's skin, causing it to sizzle. Then it happened. Skin wrinkling, body thinning, it was like seeing a person drying up in just seconds.

The students had to hold in their barf just because of how disgusting it is. Tsukauchi however, had incredibly wary eyes glaring at Izuku.

"How are you connected to those sword-wielding villains?" Tsukauchi quickly asked, shocking the listeners again.

"Heh, funny you should ask," Izuku smiled weakly as he recalled the memories of the Abyss Watcher. "First and foremost, you should know that they aren't villains."

If Tsukauchi ever thought to drink himself silly someday, this day was the day. Because what Izuku said was registered by his Quirk as TRUTH! So by this, it means that Izuku really believed that those unknowns weren't villains.

"… How do you know that?" Tsukauchi asked in response.

"… You know what, do you have a contact that can read minds and memories…?"

Chapter Text

The days passed and Izuku found himself standing in front of the person who would read and record his memories for all his classmates and teachers to view.

Before this event happened, Izuku and all of the students, as well as heroes, who were involved in the USJ incident were given therapy. No doubt, a couple of students wanted out of the hero course, that included Mina, Aoyama, Kirishima, Mineta, and Shoji. Reason being 4 of them were the most horribly injured out of 5, while the other was suffering from depression and anxiety attacks.

For some reason, the media weren't able to notice just how horrible the USJ incident went. All that was said was there was an attack and all of the students were safe and alive. The villains however, was subjected to a traitor in the villain ranks, causing 80% of the attackers to lose their life.

At least, that's what was described on the news. But U.A. will forever engrave in its memory the horrible and horrifying incident that was the USJ.

Anyway, back to the therapies, Izuku was under heavy scrutiny because of the encounter with Tsukauchi. There was no doubt, Izuku set off warning bells in the therapists' heads because of how nonchalant he was about the incident. There was no emotion on how he recalled the events, just like it was a daily occurrence him. If being in a battlefield full of death and corpses counts as a daily occurrence, then what the hell happened to the teen?

He was left alone for the time being, seeing that at the present there was no way to help him with his abnormal mental state, but this did not mean they weren't doing their best to help him.

The other students however, were busy bawling, crying, shivering, pretty much any negative emotion and action when asked to share some thoughts about the incident, including a certain blonde who kept on yelling death threats towards the therapists telling them that he is fine, so go fuck themselves. Therapists recorded that he needed help, a LOT of help just under Izuku's huge red file of ASSIST IMMEDIATELY.

Then there was one who was still in recovery after having his left arm chopped off. And that person was Todoroki Shoto. Even though he was still recovering, thanks to state-of-the-art healing quirks and Recovery Girl, he was deemed physically fit by the doctors to attend classes. He was told to make sure that he doesn't overexert himself for the next couple of days.

When he arrived at school with a missing arm, every student was shocked. Son of Endeavor, the number 2 hero, lost his arm in a villain raid. This prompted some students (a.k.a. Monoma Neito) to sneer in contempt at the aforementioned son of the number 2 hero.

Izuku who noticed the looks given, scowled at the idiots who thought they could do better against the knights. That and apparently, Shoto was given a wake-up call towards left side.

Because he hesitated, because he refused to use his left side…

He almost died…

He thought he could be a hero using only his mother's side, he was dead wrong. In the real world, every advantage count, every weakness can be exploited, and it took an arm for Shoto to realize that.

He would use his left side, even if he dislikes doing so, to make sure nobody else will go through the same experience as him.

And now fast-forwards a few more days and Izuku is now facing a person a head taller than he was with a…

"Why do you have a camera for a head?" Izuku asked with interest.

"Comes with the quirk. Name's Tsuchigimi Kenta, my quirk's name is 'Story of your Life.' Cheesy, I know, but it's the only name I could come up with," the man, Kenta, replied while fiddling with his extension chord that was connected to said camera head.

"So how does it work?" Izuku asked.

"Heh, that's easy. I plug this in your body, don't worry, it won't hurt, and I can process your memories into a video and have it playing on a screen. Downside is I can only process about 2 hours a day before I have to rest for a week," Kenta said with a shrug. Izuku stared at the man when he asked the most important question that could mean life or death for the man.

"Can you feel the emotions of a memory?" Izuku asked with a steady gaze, in which the Kenta responded with a smile.

"No worries, I can't feel what you were feeling at the time of the memory, so don't worry about me breaking down in madness," Kenta snickered as the door to the room opened, revealing Nezu, perching on top of All Might.

"I believe it is time Izuku. You've been secretive about your past after telling Detective Tsukauchi some bits and pieces. Plus, you know more about those unknowns than us if Detective Tsukauchi's report is true," Nezu said with a cheery, but menacing smile which did not perturb Izuku in the slightest.

"I know, so," Izuku gazed to the man who was holding the chord with his right hand. "How do we do this?"

A few minutes later…

"… Holy shit, kid… This is no joke…" Kenta said with a very pale face. This got the interest of Nezu and All Might. "Give me some time and I can cut the parts. Also, I swear this won't get out, if it did, well… Let's just say Tartarus will be like heaven compared to this."

And with that sentence, both Nezu and All Might recoiled in fear.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Class 1-A were ushered into a room shaped like a theater. At the request of Izuku, the current viewing will only be watched by his classmates, teachers, and principal. Future viewing participant will be decided by Nezu depending on the reactions towards said viewing.

Which Izuku knew will be the top heroes because of how world-threatening it is.

"Ochako," Izuku called out to his seatmate who was busy thinking about her current status. Ochako moved her gaze towards Izuku who was looking at her with a worried expression. She smiled weakly in response as she clenched her fists tightly.

"It's just… I'm not… human anymore… right?" Ochako asked, tears threatening to spill out from her eyes. Izuku just stared at the emotionally and mentally scarred brunette in front of him.

"Why are you here?" Izuku asked with a raised eyebrow.

"… E-excuse me?" Ochako stared confused at the emerald teen before her. "I-I don't understand."

"Why do you want to be a hero?" Izuku asked again, expression never changing. Ochako understood what he meant by now.

"Why I want to be a h-hero…? I want to earn money so I can let my parents live an easy life," Ochako said with a blush, ashamed at the less than noble goal from the occupation. Izuku smiled in response while patting her head.

"That's good, never lose sight of your purpose," Izuku said as he turned his head away and muttered under his breath. "Lest you go hollow…"

Ochako didn't quite hear the last words, but his words calmed her down, if only for a moment.

"Thanks, Deku," Ochako smiled wholeheartedly at the person who saved her twice from death.

"If I may have your attention," the speaker went loud and on the stage Principal Nezu perching atop All Might greeted the students, as well as the teachers which included, Present Mic, Eraserhead, Midnight, and Cementoss. "We will be starting shortly. Once again, for those who wish to switch courses, now is the time to walk away. As per agreement, those who watch may never switch to another course, or rather, any school."

The students looked at Nezu with an anxious, yet determined gaze. Apparently, therapy is effective towards their trauma.

"No? Then let's start. Please engrave the viewing into your minds as this involves one of your classmates' past, as well as the reason for those unknown villains attacking the USJ," Nezu said in a somber tone as he recalled the scene of utter death. The students, and some teachers visibly shook in disgust and fear.

"…" Izuku silently stared at the screen with an indifferent face, brushing off the stares coming from his classmates and teachers.

Nezu hopped off All Might and went to the front of the seats and took a free one. All Might promptly excused himself as Nezu had a job for him. In place of him, his secretary, Yagi Toshinori will view the viewing while taking notes.

The students went into chatter mode for a moment until the screen lit up.

Izuku stood up at the edge of a building, eyes dead, tear stains visible on his face. The next second, he jumped. When he was nearing the ground, Izuku's face lit up in horror, desperation taking over his body.

"… What…"

"… The…"

"… Fuck…"

The students and teachers looked horrified that Izuku tried committing suicide. All of them looked towards said teen, but he was looking at the screen like it was no big deal.

"Uhhh, Midoriya, you okay?" Kirishima asked Izuku with a frown. Izuku nodded, causing most of the people inside to recoil in shock.

" I WANT TO LIVE!"

Izuku awoke from a sudden thud and looked around with caution. He was inside some kind of cell, an incredible dirty cell. One that has not been maintained for years. He spotted an out of place characteristic within the cell he inhabited.

In the center lie a dried-up corpse, dressed in only rags that covered its indecent parts. This got Izuku's mind racing.

Some students went queasy at the sight of a dried-up corpse. Those who saw Izuku's hollowed form, not so much.

" W-what in the world? W-where am I?" Izuku wondered nervously as a sudden shuffling of steps was heard from above. He directed his gaze towards the ceiling to spot some kind of hole, and on the other side of the hole was someone dressed in some kind of knight armor. Without even bothering to talk with Izuku, the knight vanished from his sight as the sound of footsteps grew quieter and quieter until no more could be heard.

" W-who was that?" Izuku anxiously stood up and shook his head. Then, the memories returned. The encounter with the sludge villain, then with All Might, then the crushing of his dreams… And then the memory of…

Jumping off a building…

Izuku paled and started having a panic attack. Why? Why would he do that? He knew himself best. He wouldn't do that. Not because for his sake, but for his…

"Deku…" Ochako stared wide-eyed at the teen beside her. "D-do you… not care about your life at all…?"

In response, Izuku just chuckled darkly. This got the attention of everybody inside the room.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Izuku darkly said with a tired smile. Everybody went back to focusing on the screen.

" M-mom?" Izuku's eyes began to water. He would never see her again. Hell, he wouldn't be able to continue his dream of being a hero. But worst of all…

" W-what would mom feel…?" Izuku despaired, blaming his own self for causing more suffering to his mother. But then, he realized.

" W-wait… If I am here… If I'm still alive…" Izuku stood back up, calming his nerves. His shaking got less and less, until his beating heart calmed down and he began to breathe normally again. "I will return, mom."

"… This is depressing to watch…" Kaminari said without tact, making Jirou stab him with her earjacks.

"Quiet!" Jirou snarled towards the electric blonde, who in turn raised a shaky thumbs up.

And so, he took his first step towards freedom. After removing the key from the corpse that was dropped by that unknown knight, Izuku began traversing the dungeon of the Undead Asylum. He first encountered the unresponsive hollows in the corridor.

There were also writing on the ground, telling Izuku to kill them. He didn't want to, in fact, he never wanted to kill a person in his entire life. But in here, life means nothing. All of them revives, even if you kill them again and again and again.

"Wait what…?" Everybody in the room voiced their question.

"Are those zombies? Or are they human?" Sero asked. Izuku shrugged and pointed at the screen.

The writing stated that if he didn't kill and collect the souls, he wouldn't even be able to survive an hour in this unforgiving place. So, with great hesitation, using a broken sword hilt that he had on his person, he swung the chipped and broken blade towards the unprotected head of the hollow.

The squelching of meat and groans of pain coming from the mouth of the hollow made Izuku blanch. Once the hollow was killed, Izuku straight out collapsed and hurled the contents of his stomach. He didn't even realize some souls entered his body after the kill.

The room went silent. Pure horror etched on everyone's face except for those used to some deaths, a.k.a. heroes and Izuku. The students and teachers worryingly looked at Izuku who was again, indifferent towards the video.

It continued like that for a few moments, wallowing in the realization that he had killed a living creature for the first time in his life. The first time was always the hardest, and always the most challenging. He justified that the hollow he killed was nothing more than a puppet, a shell of a former living being and that it deserved mercy. To be put to rest from its eternal torment.

But no matter how much he justified himself, he just couldn't get over the feeling of killing someone. It disgusted him. He wanted to be a hero, he wanted to save people, he didn't want to kill people.

"… He could've been the perfect one…" Toshinori muttered under his breath, nobody hearing his words. 'And I took it all away…'

He remembered that boy, the boy whose dreams he crushed. He didn't think that it would lead to his attempted suicide.

'I'm a failure of a hero…' he thought grimly.

He remembered the reason why he was even doing this. He wanted to go back home. To return to his mother and apologize for doing the stupid things he did. Stacking excuse upon excuse upon excuse for the reason of his bruises and burns every time he returned home.

"Wait, you were bullied Midoriya?" Kirishima asked with an uneasy voice.

"Yes, anything else?" he responded so casually that almost everybody stared at him in pure shock.

'Just how mentally scarred is this teenager?'

He didn't want to do that anymore. So, with great determination, he stood back up and continued onwards.

A few more meters ahead, a rumble overtook the corridor. Izuku gripped the broken sword in alarm, scanning the area for any enemies. When he looked towards the huge area that was visible from his place, Izuku trembled in fear.

"Holy! That's one ugly motherfucker!" Kaminari exclaimed in pure disgust. The others nodded in agreement, looks of horror and disgust evident on their face, save for some others.

"Language Kaminari! Another one and you're getting detention," Aizawa chided within his mummy wraps.

" W-what the hell i-is that!?" Izuku nearly fell down on his ass if it wasn't for the huge monster not noticing him through the bars. "C-calm down… It can't g-get you… You're safe here… Yes… Just d-don't look at it then y-you'll be f-fine…"

Izuku shook in fear as he walked forward, encountering another hollow leaning on the wall. It was unresponsive, like the earlier hollow. With great hesitation, Izuku approached and stabbed it through the eye and brain. Izuku almost hurled, but kept it in and headed on forward, hands trembling in disgust, horror, fear, and anger.

Another hollow sitting inside a pool of sewage. Izuku just left it alone seeing that it didn't seem to want to fight him.

Following the linear path, Izuku scaled a ladder leading up. Once he was out the dungeon, Izuku spotted a seemingly ordinary bonfire in the middle of a clearing. Not knowing why it was there, Izuku approached it and realized he had no kindling, or anything to kickstart a fire.

"Why is there a bonfire there?" Todoroki who was silent, piped up in confusion. There were monsters, corpses, and then there's a bonfire… How disparate the image was when brought together.

"I'll explain after the viewing," Izuku responded, in which Shoto nodded.

Izuku was at a loss until a feeling emerged from the bonfire, drawing him in. It felt warm, safe, like it was home. Izuku held his arm up towards the bonfire, and in response, it lit up and fire emerged.

Izuku looked confused. 'Why did it light up? Did I do that? That's impossible. I don't have a quirk…'

In a thinking spree, minutes passed by until Izuku realized how long he was busy sitting down, enjoying the warmth emitted by the bonfire. He stood up and continued onwards. Exploring the area, he found an iron grated door, but it was locked from the other side and his hand is too big to fit through the holes.

"BREAK IT DOWN!" Bakugou screamed, causing the others to flinch in surprise at the sudden loud voice, with Jirou reacting badly.

"Shut up!" she exclaimed in anger while Aizawa glared at the ash blonde.

"Bakugou, quiet down or you're getting kicked out," Bakugou nodded and sat down with a huff.

The iron door looked very rusty and brittle, so he could probably kick it down. He winded up his leg and gave his strongest kick, but instead of the door being kicked down, Izuku instead felt like kicking down a mountain.

" W-what the…" Izuku muttered in disbelief. The door looked like it didn't get any dents, actually scratch that, it literally stayed the same. "This isn't the way then…"

Izuku backtracked and went towards the huge double door leading towards the huge building. Izuku gulped, 'Can I even open this door?'

Izuku huffed and placed both hands on the door. Gathering his strength, Izuku pushed, and the door slowly opened. Izuku was grinning a bit, thinking at how a scrawny kid like him could push a huge, heavy door open.

"… I don't think a normal human can open that door without a strength-augmenting quirk," Momo said in a matter of fact tone. The others nodded in agreement while Izuku snorted quietly.

" O-okay… Where am I now?" Izuku muttered under his breath. He found himself inside a huge room. Vases littered the sides, and on the middle part of the room, more writings were found.

When he read it, a pit formed inside his gut. He looked back and saw the door shut firmly, and a huge hulking behemoth dropped from the ceiling.

Izuku trembled in fear.

Chapter Text

The beast was huge. My legs were shaking, my palms sweaty. My brain was going into overdrive to find a solution to my predicament. I quickly recalled the words that were written on the ground.

"Is that the thing we saw earlier!?" Kaminari exclaimed in shock at the familiar demon. Same goes with the other occupants. It was huge, probably as tall as a two-story house.

"That looks like a goddamned pig!" Bakugou exclaimed with a sneer.

"Bakugou," Aizawa glared at the angry Pomeranian. "I'll see you after class."

"Tch, whatever," Bakugou shrugged, Kirishima looking a little bit worried at the actions of said blonde.

RUN!

Before the huge beast could move, I quickly turned around, only to see the huge doors shut tight. Panicking, I ran and pressed my hands on the doors. The ground trembled, and I did not dare to turn my head around because of fear.

"Come on! Open! Open!" I shouted hysterically, my vision focused solely on the door.

"Rookie mistake…" Toshinor muttered under his breath.

"Indeed, a case of tunnel vision can be very disastrous in high-risk missions," Nezu agreed with a cheerful tone, although those who were close knew the grim thoughts behind it.

The heroes shivered.

I called upon all of my strength to pull, push, anything, but the doors stayed shut. Suddenly, the trembling of the ground increased in intensity, and I looked back.

The beast was in front of me, hammer raised above its head.

"RUN!" Almost everybody yelled inside the room.

My survival instincts kicked into overdrive and I jumped out of the way of the incoming giant hammer. The hammer landed, and the shockwave and the ground cracked, pieces of rock flying due to the shockwave.

I was also sent flying a few feet because of the shockwave, rocks pelleting my body with force enough to cause bleeding. One rock even got lucky to lodge itself inside my arm.

"That's gotta hurt," Jirou winced at the injury. Some other students did the same as well.

"Arrrggghhh!" I screamed. The pain was too much. My vision blurry due to the tears escaping my eyes. "Run… I need to run… Where…"

I crawled upwards, adrenaline pumping into my veins, negating an amount of pain from the injuries. The beast turned its vision towards me, causing my body to stiffen in return.

'Move! Why can't I move!?'

'Oh no…' all of the heroes thought the same.

"Of all the time to freeze in fear," Aizawa mumbled with grim eyes. There were many cases of heroes retiring early after all due to the same phenomena.

My body was stuck, refusing to listen to my brain to move and get the hell away from this giant beast. The beast wasted no time and swung the hammer towards me. My body lurched backwards on instinct again, causing me to land on my ass.

The hammer passed my face only inches away and crushed the pillar beside me, as well as some vases around it. Some shards found itself lodged in my side. I hissed, the pain was too much!

"Hrrkk…" Ochako paled at the state of Izuku in his memories. The other students recoiled at the thought of being punctured by those shards, while the heroes winced at the thought of one of their students going through this horrifying experience.

'I need to run! Run! RUN! RUN RUN!'

I quickly got up, ignoring the pain in my arms and my sides, blood leaking out of the wounds. The beast roared in rage, probably angry that I was still alive after its attacks. I didn't pay it any attention. All my focus was turned into one thing.

Survive.

I tried to find a door, a hole, anything just to escape this room. But since it is not that huge, the way was clear to me. An open passageway going down. Without any thought I ran towards it like a man possessed.

"Come on…" Ashido whimpered, familiar at the situation. She rubbed the stump of a horn on her head with a grimace.

It happened to her after all back at USJ.

'Run run run run run run!'

That was the only thoughts running through my mind. Sounds of rumbling, ground trembling, and a roar of anguish I heard behind me. I didn't care. I just ran. Don't care. Run. Just run. Faster! FASTER!

The door seemed like it was an eternity away, my body sluggish due to the injuries. But I didn't care.

RUN!

The door was close, but I heard it. The beast behind me was closer. Not knowing it was doing, I jumped towards the door. But it was farther than I thought.

"NO!" the whole room erupted into a panic at the sight of one of them dying.

'No! nonononononONONONONOONO!'

I was so close! I don't want to die! I don't want to die! I want to live! I want to see my mom! I don't want to die! idontwanttodiediediedieDIEDIELIVELIVELIVE!

'Holy shit…' Bakugou grimaced at the inner machinations of Izuku's mind during a life or death situation. He wondered what was going through Izuku's mind when he was still being bullied by him, which made him feel disgusted with himself.

"Never again…" Bakugou muttered, but Kirishima heard the mutter.

The hammer landed a few feet behind me, ant that was enough to push me through the door tumbling down the stairs. My wounds flared up in pain, as well as my whole body. A few more seconds later, I landed with a splash, and it just made my wounds hurt even more!

'I don't want to diiee…'

My vision blurry, my body sluggish. I brought the last of my strength to push my body above the water. Then I saw it…

A bonfire…

"… Warmth… Home…"

My voice weak, I crawled pathetically to the bonfire and reached my hands towards it. Tears dropping from my cheeks towards the ground. Then the bonfire was lit.

My wounds healed, my body recovered, and my mind refreshed.

The whole room that was silent finally made noise after everybody heaved a sigh of relief.

"AH!?" I stood up in shock, only to fall down back on the ground, trembling in fear. Tears once again dripping from my face.

"… I almost died…" I said weakly, my voice barely a whisper. Now that my body was at its peak again, I was able to process what happened.

"… This is bad…" I went through everything that happened, even if it had my body trembling. No, don't focus on the bad, focus on why my body reacted like that.

'Damn it…' I couldn't come to a conclusion on why my body reacted like that, but I knew I couldn't continue like that. And if absorbing souls is what it takes to fight against that feeling, then that's what I would do.

"Again… This is depressing to watch," Kaminari said, hoping to lessen the tension in the room.

"Not. The. Time." Jirou jabbed him with her earphone jack.

I stood up, gripping the broken sword tighter than ever. Scanning the room, I found myself inside another sewer. Some more words written just near another passageway. I looked towards the ascending staircase, and promptly ignored it.

I walked towards the written message and read it.

GRAB YOUR SHIELD

I looked around, there was nothing here, so I peeked towards corridor outside, only to be met with an arrow flying to my face. I quickly retracted my head and saw the arrow strike the water.

"Ranged weapons… This just got harder…" a few heroes muttered.

Peeking once again, I saw another hollow wielding a bow and arrow. A few seconds later, another arrow found itself heading towards me. I retracted my head once again, and once the arrow passed me, ran out quickly. I found an open cell just after exiting and quickly dived inside.

Inside, I saw another corpse, a shield on its arm. This was probably the shield the message was telling me about. I approached the corpse, and slowly, slowly yanked it out of its arm. I cringed in disgust. Blood was steel coating its handle, and the smell was horrible.

"Oh god…" I placed it on my off-hand. The shield was small, a protrusion on its center and 4 small circles littered corners of the protrusion.

Some students not used to icky, yucky, and plain disgusting things turned green at the sight.

"Small, not that good for blocking… For deflecting attacks maybe?" I reached into a solid conclusion about the shield. Not waiting for anything more, I headed back outside and sprinted towards that annoying hollow shooting arrows at me.

"Hm, good deduction," Nezu said with a sparkle in his eyes.

I brought the small shield in front and predicted the arrow's trajectory. The arrow was knocked loose, and clanged with my shield. The hollow then retreated once I got too close, while I chased.

While chasing however, I stumbled upon another corpse, this time, a dagger clasped in its hand. I plucked it out of its hand and continued chasing the hollow.

"Finally, a working weapon," Momo said with relief.

I chased it all the way towards a foggy door. Ignoring that fog for the moment, I lunged at the hollow and sliced its body with a sloppy slash. I made a large wound on its chest, but not that lethal, so I continued and slashed at its throat. This time, the sound of flesh and blood spurting from out of its neck, as well as its dying groans reached my ears.

I cringed in disgust once again.

The hollow fell limp and stopped moving. I stared at the body, stared…

'I'm becoming a monster…' I grimly thought as I approached the fog door.

Chapter Text

After having my grimly thought soliloquy, I approached the fog door, gate? I don’t know… Anyway, ignoring that fact for a moment, I pushed my hand through the gate. My hand sunk through the fog, covering it up to my elbow. Once it reached my shoulder, the fog dissipated and my view became clear.

A rusted iron cage door came into view. Within that caged room, the same knight that helped me escape my prison was lying down face up.

“Oh! It’s that knight!” shouted Uraraka as she pointed at the screen.

“Is he trustworthy though?” Aizawa drawled as he observed the memory.

“Hey! Over here!” I called out, but he/she didn’t reply. The door was rusted shut, and rubble was making it impossible to access. I looked for a way in but found none. Leaving him/her for the moment, I move forward. A terrace greeted my view when I did so, the bonfire sitting at the dead center of the open area.

‘Wait, there was a rusted door over there earlier…’ I thought and continued. The right pathway led me to a staircase going either down, or up. I choose down since I know for a fact that the rusted door was sitting in that corner quietly.

An lo and behold, it was right there, and there was the bolt lock. I grabbed it, unlocked the door, and opened it, the fire from the bonfire looking like it was inviting me to join its warmth.

“…” everybody was silent when the rusted door that refused to budge earlier just easily opened like that… by turning a bolt lock that wasn’t even locked, to begin with…

“Logic?” Present Mic asked with a twitchy grin.

“None,” Izuku replied with an amused smirk.

I ignored the bonfire for the moment and continued upwards. I went up the staircase when suddenly, I felt a rumble, then a loud thud. I looked up the stairs and saw what any who watched the movie Indiana Jones knew of.

“Don’t tell me…” Kaminari said with dread. The same could be said for the others watching the memory.

The dreaded boulder… If it’s one thing you respect in that movie, it’s the boulder. Never fight the boulder…

“I knew it…” everybody collectively said with a sigh, while Izuku chuckled.

“You haven’t seen Sen’s Fortress yet,” Izuku’s words put a nasty thought into everybody present.

Pushing my body to its limits, I jumped to the right and hoped for the best. I tumbled down the stairs as I heard a loud smash from above, but that didn’t stop my tumble down.

“Ack! Gah! Argh!” agonized screams escaped my lips as my body felt pain every time I bumped into a rough stair ledge. Once I reached the bottom, my body felt very sore… very, very sore…

Everybody who watched Izuku tumble down the stairs like that winced.

“That’s gotta hurt like hell man,” Kaminari said with a sympathetic frown. The others nodded in agreement.

Izuku took it all in stride, waiting for their reactions to his first death.

“It… Hurts…” I complained with wheezing breaths. It wasn’t like the pain before when I ran from the monster, but it was still pain.

And pain hurts, whether emotional or physical…

Bakugou winced at Izuku’s thought.

I slowly got up, careful not to put any more pressure on my body, and trudged up the stairs. Once up, I saw a huge hole from where the boulder probably crashed into. I head inside and saw the same knight sitting on a pile of rubble.

Everybody tensed, bar Izuku.

He noticed me, as seen by him/her tilting his head ever so slightly towards my visage. I heard him/her heave a sigh of relief when he saw that I wasn’t hostile.

Everybody relaxed, bar Izuku again…

“… Oh, you… You’re no Hollow, eh?” the knight started with a very obvious male voice. “Thank goodness… I’m done for, I’m afraid…”

“W-what do you mean d-done for…?” I asked, voice still shaky from my tumble down the stairs. The knight leaned his head against the pile of rubble in response.

“I’ll die soon, then lose my sanity…” he said solemnly, causing my breath to hitch. ‘Die? He’ll die? No! I need to help him!’

“Wait, what!?” most of the class 1-A yelled in shock. Death? He was there right? Wasn’t he just resting?

“The monster…” Momo said with a frown, getting the attention of the other students. “Maybe he fought that thing and lost…”

Everybody shuddered, except Izuku of course.

Before I could do so, he shifted his gaze towards me for the second time, this time though, I felt something drawing me into those helmet eye-sockets of his.

“I wish to ask something of you…” he begins, prompting me to stay quiet and listen, my previous thoughts are forgotten in lieu of listening closely. “You and I, we’re both undead… Hear me out, will you?”

“… Nani the fuck?” everybody, even the teachers had to say that out loud. Hell, even Nezu wasn’t exempt from that curveball.

My mind crashed… ‘Undead? As in, those zombies in the zombie movies I saw? Those undead?’

Shaking my head to rid of those thoughts, I focus on the words of the knight. He will die soon, and I have no other way to help… then…

“Typical Izuku…” Uraraka and some others who were saved by Izuku muttered under their breaths.

“A-all right… I’ll h-hear you o-out…” I stutter through shaky breaths. The knight nodded, probably smiling underneath that helmet of his.

“… Regrettably, I have failed in my mission… But perhaps you can keep the torch lit,” he reached for his satchel that was strapped to his side and began fumbling through it. “There is an old saying in my family… Thou who art Undead, art chosen… In thine exodus from the Undead Asylum, maketh pilgrimage to the land of the Ancient Lords… When thou ringeth the Bell of Awakening, the fate of the Undead thou shalt know…”

“… The plot thickens…” Kaminari joked, before getting stabbed by Jirou’s ear jacks.

“Kaminari, I swear, another bad joke, I’m sticking these in your ears,” Jirou threateningly levitated her earphone jacks and Kaminari shut up.

I stood there, speechless at his words. I was confused, racking my brain for anything to make me connect the dots, but nothing. Ancient Lords, Bell of Awakening, what the heck are those!?

“Well, now you know,” I snapped out of my thoughts when his voice entered my ears. “And I can die with hope in my heart… Oh, one more thing… Here, take this…”

He pulled his hand out of the satchel and in it, a vial of orange liquid. I took it from his hands, my arms slightly shaking from the pain earlier, but now more manageable.

“An Estus Flask, an Undead favorite… Oh, and this…” he gave me another item, a key this time. “Now, I must bid farewell… I would hate to harm you after death… So, go now… And thank you…”

After having said his piece, his head slumped down, unmoving. I stared at him… no… his corpse, in shock… Dead… just like that… no warning… in just a moment… he died…

“…”

Silence… The teachers gave a mental salute, while the teens were flabbergasted.

I touched his armor, but no movement… I cried…

“N-no… T-this isn’t happening… I-it’s a-all just a d-dream…” I slumped to my knees in defeat, continued to cry, and let the tears flow.

“I was wondering where his denial went…” Yagi muttered under his breath.

The others winced in sympathy at the teen. Who knew what they would’ve done in his situation.

A few minutes later, I got up and bowed towards the corpse.

“Thank you…”

A simple word of thanks towards the man who might’ve saved my life. I checked the vial of orange liquid, inspecting it closely.

“An Undead favorite… then…” I pursed my lips and opened the lid. I took a sip of it and felt my entire body burn. I coughed. It felt like my throat was on fire, my tongue like it was sizzling in boiling water, but a few seconds later, that was all gone and the pain subsided. Not just the pain from drinking the infernal abomination known as Estus, but from the rough drop from the stairs…

“… Recovery Girl will be pleased to hear about that vial, Midoriya Izuku,” Nezu said with his sly smile. Izuku chuckled in response.

“I don’t think Estus will work with humans,” Izuku replied with a bitter smile.

“Hm… Fair point.”

“Wow…”

One word was all I needed to describe the feeling. I felt fully rested like I was never in any pain, but the thought of Oscar’s death had me contemplating about stuff a teen shouldn’t.

While I was absorbed in thought, I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I hissed and looked at the cause, and saw something sharp lodged inside it. I froze, and looked at the person… or thing… that stabbed me.

Everybody paled. That was a fatal blow, there was no chance of recovery. All of them looked at Izuku, but in response, he chuckled lightly and told them to look back at the screen.

‘It hurts… Can’t breathe…’ I pulled myself off the broken sword, blood gushing out of my chest wound. I tried to attack back, only to miss, and the ‘thing’ retaliated with more slashed, sending me down into a puddle of blood.

“I-is this w-where I d-die…?” I muttered with a shaky breath. I didn’t want to die. I don’t want to… I want to return… Back to home… Mom…

I forced my body to move, only for my vision to turn black after an excruciating pain hit the back of my head.

Chapter Text

“…” everybody was silent at the memory of Izuku dying. They all looked at him with stupefied expressions, while Ochako looked at him with worried eyes.

“Get used to it, that won’t be the last time I die,” Izuku said solemnly with a tired grin.

“AGH!” I wake up panicking, touching the location where my chest got stabbed. I patted it down and saw no hole, no blade going through it, no blood leaking, heck there wasn’t even a hole in my clothes.

“What happ--!?” I took a good look at my arm with wide eyes. My mouth was hanging open, too shocked to even comment about what happened. My skin was all dried up, thin and frail, what’s more, it felt cold to the touch.

“What the hell…” Yagi murmured in shock at the appearance of his student. The horrifying visage of Izuku was similar to his, bar the rotten skin.

“Dude… That’s…” Kaminari tried forming some sentences but was unable to, while Mineta was busy gaping at the form of their strongest classmate.

All the girls blanched, turned green, and asked for paper bags, except for the heroes and the girls who saw Izuku’s form in the hospital.

“What the hell…” I murmured under my breath, my arms shaking from pure shock and fear. ‘Why is my skin dried? Why do I look like those… Undead in the corridors?’

I just stared at my skin; The rotten, dried skin plastered on my body. Then I noticed something else…

I couldn’t breathe…

More specifically, I didn’t need to breathe. It was like my body refused to take in the oxygen and use it to supplement nutrients to my organs. No, it felt like it was unneeded. I surveyed the area around me. It was the bonfire area just past the room with the giant monster.

“Die and head back to a bonfire?” Aizawa questioned with surprised eyes. Even if he was used to some dark things, seeing a teen die like that in the first person was terrible.

“The last bonfire used,” Izuku corrected, in which Aizawa nodded.

“… Wait… Didn’t Oscar say that I’m an Undead as well?” just remembering that important detail from Oscar, I try to recall the writings outside the cell where I was kept.

“… Undead revives…” I mutter, and for the first time since I arrived in this hellhole, I felt relieved. Relieved that I won’t die permanently, and hope that I can get back home no matter how long.

“I’m going home… Just wait…”

“That’s… Not a good mindset…” mumbled Present Mic while Aizawa nodded in agreement.

I stepped forward and into the corridor where the Undead, no, Hollow with a bow was posted in.

“Ghk!?” I winced in pain, an arrow suddenly lodged inside my shoulder. Looking up, I saw the same Hollow that I killed earlier, getting ready to shoot another arrow at me. I ducked into the cell where I picked up my shield and pulled the arrow out of my soldier with great difficulty.

Everybody winced at the action. Heroes knew how painful it was to forcefully rip out something lodged inside your body during hero work, so they could empathize with Izuku here.

“Khk… Gh… ARgghhh!!” I yelled as the arrow was pulled out and tossed into the floor. I slumped back on the wall, the pain from being pierced still on my mind. “Aghh…”

I rustled through the satchel that was on me since I arrived and took the Estus Flask. I took a sip, endured the brief pain of burning, and sighed contently as the pain began to disperse. Once the pain was gone, I placed the Estus Flask back in my satchel for future use.

“Very useful indeed,” commented Nezu with a chuckle, and in response, Izuku gave him a laugh.

“It is, isn’t it?”

The other students who were glancing at Izuku were incredibly worried about his nonchalance, but they didn’t know the full story of Izuku yet, so they shut up for now.

“Note to self… Never let your guard down…” I established my first rule, and probably the most important rule when traversing these lands. Peeking out to the corridor, another arrow flew past me and hit the wall nearby.

“Good, never let your guard down. A lesson I will teach every one of you in class,” Aizawa stated to his students.

It was at that time, I ran forward, never stopping. The Hollow knocked another arrow and fired. I raised my shield and blocked the incoming projectile. Seeing that its attack didn’t work, it begins to run away, but I didn’t give it a chance to.

I sprinted and held the knife in a reverse grip. Once close, I gave it a backstab into its neck, the Hollow instantly crumpling down to the ground.

I look at the corpse for a moment, the feeling of repulsion slowly dying and fading into oblivion. Before, I would feel horrible, but now, after tasting death and extreme pain, I felt indifference.

“… Should we be worried?” asked Sero with a twitchy frown.

“Not really,” Izuku said with a stoic gaze. “You’ll know why soon.”

‘I don’t want to die again… I don’t want to feel that kind of pain again…’ I thought as I continued upwards and into the arch where the fog gate was at before. The cell door was still impossible to open due to the rubble still giving me the sight of the corpse of the late Knight Oscar.

I ignored the corpse, for now, it wouldn’t do to waste time and headed up the stairs, and then the rumble started.

“You’ve got to be kiddi—” I dodged to the side, only this time, I stuck the landing and avoided the tumble down the stairs. The boulder smashed into the wall inside the sewer where Oscar’s corpse lay still. I look up and see the same Hollow that killed me earlier with its broken sword.

“So… Everything gets reset when you die?” Ochako asked with a curious face.

“Either I die, or I rest in a bonfire, everything gets reset. Don’t ask how, I have no idea either,” Izuku stated, causing the students to sweat-drop at his claims.

I growled in anger, which surprised me. ‘I haven’t expressed, nor retaliated against those who physically and mentally abused me. Heck, I didn’t retaliate against Kacchan… Katsuki even when he used his quirk on me daily, so why now?’

“… Bakugou,” Aizawa’s chilly voice echoed throughout the classroom. The students who heard the chilly voice froze in fear. “Meet me with the principal after this.”

“Indeed,” Nezu chirped cheerily from the side, though if you looked at his eyes, you would notice that he wasn’t cheerful, not at all.

Bakugou nodded nervously. He may be an arrogant asshole, but he knows when to be nervous, as shown by his nervousness when his mom blew a fuse at him when Izuku’s mother told her of his suicide attempt.

Shaking my head to forget that thought for the moment, I focus on the Hollow with a dangerous weapon in hand. I slowly trek up the stairs, dagger gripped tightly in my hand. Once close, the Hollow lunged at me.

I sloppily blocked the attack with my shield, surprised at how heavy the attack was. My shield-arm was pushed down due to the blow and I staggered. I noticed the Hollow moving in to attack, but I was too slow to respond because of how extremely inexperienced I am when it comes to fighting.

It wasn’t too surprising that the Hollow managed to stab me again. What I wasn’t expecting was for it to stab directly into my eye.

“Holy fucking shit…” Kaminari murmured with wide eyes, while the rest were too speechless at the violence ongoing on-screen.

“ARRGGHHH!!!!” I yelled out, stumbling back into the ground due to the extreme pain I was currently experiencing. ‘Flask! Flask! Where’s the FLASK!?’

In my panic to grab the Estus Flask out of the satchel, the Hollow stepped in to deliver another attack. I noticed, but due to my haste, I tripped and the blade slit my throat. I collapsed into the ground as I lay there, bleeding to death.

“…”

“… All of you okay?” Izuku asked with the same expressionless gaze.

“Are we okay? How about you!? How the hell are you ok after that!?” Mina, the usually cheerful and bubbly teenager who was scarred by the horrifying events in the USJ screamed out. “I lost a fucking horn and almost died, and I still can’t get over it!”

“Mina, calm down!” her friend Hagakure Toru said while holding her shoulders.

“Trust me on this, you never get over it,” Izuku said with the same expressionless gaze. Mina thought as if his eyes were staring deep into her soul. “You learn to ignore it, and get used to it.”

His words dropped the entire room into a chilly silence.

‘Therapy won’t work with Izuku, he’s too far gone,” Aizawa thought grimly. Mina sat back down while tears were dropping from her eyes, her mind reliving the time where she was almost killed by those sword-wielding villains back at USJ.

Todoroki Shoto, who was silently observing the interaction, pursed his lips and looked at his left arm, or what was left of it.

After a few more seconds of unexplainable pain, I blacked out and opened my eyes again to see the same sewer area where the bonfire was located at. I patted my eye, then my neck to see for any damage.

“Hehehe… Hahahaha… HAHAHAHA!” I laughed maniacally. ‘What the hell was I thinking? Hope? No matter how many times I die? FUCK THAT!’

I cradled myself in the corner, crying silently at my horrifying experiences with death. ‘The pain Katsuki gave me wasn’t this painful! The feeling of slowly bleeding out… The feeling of having your eye punctured…’

“JUST WHO THE HELL CAN ENDURE THAT KIND OF PAIN AND SUFFERING ONLY TO RETRY AGAIN!?”

Everybody who heard his outburst winced at his emotional distress. No teenager, hell, no person, hero, or villain, should go through what Izuku has gone through.

‘I was just too hopeful… If I just knew how to fight… Instead of just copying notes… Katsuki was right, I really am just a Deku…’

I stayed in that corner for who knew how long until I ran out of tears to spend. It seems that even if my body is dried up like a corpse, I can still produce liquid, a.k.a. tears and blood.

“… I’ll… try again…” I stood up, my eyes unfocused. I headed into the corridor where the Hollow with the bow was again, and this time, instinct kicked in and I sprinted towards the Hollow. I dodged one arrow and quickly slit its throat. The corpse fell but I ignored it and headed back up into the stairs with the boulder.

‘He’s breaking,’ Yagi thought with a grimace. Aizawa had the same thought, as well as the other heroes present.

I dodged it, then climbed back up the stairs to see the Hollow swinging that damned sword towards me. Instead of blocking the attack, I let it slide right beside me by using my shield and stabbed its eye with my knife.

It crumpled down to the floor unmoving, beads of sweat dripped from my chin and into the floor, and in an instinctual rage, I kicked its head once, twice, and thrice to get my frustrations out of my head.

“… Haah…” I breathed out the air I kept in. I may not need to breathe, but human instinct prompted me to.

I notice a green aura at the spot where I died. Now that I wasn’t focusing on not dying, I remember that there was also another green aura when I came back here before I died last time. I held out my hand towards it and noticed the blood pooling below the green aura. When my hand came in contact with said green aura, it flowed right into me and I felt souls coming into me.

“Hmm… Interesting,” Nezu commented with an ever-present smile on his face. “Could you explain to us what that is, Midoriya?”

“It’s a bloodstain, MY bloodstain,” Izuku said with a shrug. “When I die, I lose all the souls within me, and I only have one chance to get them back. As for the use of souls, they used as currency, or to strengthen me up using the bonfire.”

“Interesting… Very interesting indeed,” Nezu chirped and narrowed his gaze at Izuku. “Then, could you tell us how strong you actually are?”

“Hm… Physically, I’d say a level below All Might,” Izuku said with a stoic gaze, while everybody in the room stared at the teen with wide eyes. “Overall, though, All Might wouldn’t win against me, I have many tricks hidden within me. That includes my semi-immortality.”

“So you still revive, even here?” Nezu asked seriously, his smile now gone replaced by a frown.

“Happened in the USJ,” Izuku replied.

At the bombshell, all the students and heroes stared at the teen with wide eyes, and most with an open mouth.

‘I’ll have to keep an eye on him,’ Nezu thought as he focused his gaze back on the screen.

After that, I headed towards the iron door that was blocking my path and tried to open it, only to find out that it was locked.

Fumbling through my satchel again, I grab the key Oscar gave me before his death and insert it into the keyhole. The lock clicked, and I opened the door and into a new area.

It looks like I was at the top of a wall with degrading parapets. Looking to the walkway to my left, I see three Hollows, two with swords, and another with a bow. The Hollows notice me and I jumped back to cover before an arrow flies past me and into the wall. The two Hollows follow me and I get ready for a fight.

Just like the Hollow earlier, the both of them lunged at me with an attack. I realize that I had no chances with blocking or deflecting/parrying, so I opted to jump back and watch as their swords clang into the ground. Taking that to my advantage, I sprint into one Hollow and thrust my knife into its under-jaw, killing it instantly.

The other Hollow ignores my killing of its comrade and decides to attack me instead. I try to dodge but was stabbed through the arm because of how slow I was, the blade protruding out the opposite end of my arm.

“That has gotta hurt,” Kaminari winced as he rubbed his arm, along with the others.

“Come to think of it, why hasn’t Midoriya used his quirk yet?” Mineta asked with his hand on his chin. At this, Bakugou winced one more time.

“I’m Quirkless,” Izuku landed another bombshell into the room.

“Of course you are…” Aizawa said with a frown. Now his attempted suicide made sense.

“GHHHHHH!!!!” I grit my teeth and endured the pain. ‘I’m not dying again…’

I bash my shield on its head, causing it to let go of its sword from the concussion. I then kicked its head to push it back while I remove the foreign material from my arm.

“…Khh…. ACCKK!!! AAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!” I yelled out as the sword was painfully removed and clanged into the ground. I shakily grab the Estus Flask from my satchel and gulped down the fire. It burned, but the pain receding was a welcome effect.

“… We need something like that…” Yagi mumbled under his breath.

“Maybe the unknown villains have something like that, I’ll have Recovery Girl research them to replicate a similar effect,” Nezu whispered to All Might. “We might be able to heal you back to your top shape.”

“Thanks, Nezu,” Yagi replied with a smile.

Now fully healed, I looked at the Hollow that was about to lunge at me again. Since it didn’t have any weapon, I had it impale itself with my knife during its lunge. The Hollow stumbled back and I gave it a swift death via slit throat.

Once the two of those hollows were dead, I sprinted into the other Hollow with the bow after I jumped out of cover. An arrow flew past, but I blocked it with my shield and stabbed it through the head.

I look at the fog gate to my left after the Hollow collapses on the ground. There are more writings on the ground telling me to try a drop attack, but I ignore it for now in favor of looking at this other room in front of me.

Inside was another Hollow, but more well-equipped than the other Hollows I killed. It notices me and rushes towards me with its shield raised. I tense up, ready for an attack coming for me. It gave a quick thrust, and using my shield, parried it high into the air exposing its body for an attack. Not giving it time, I lodge the knife into its neck and killed it instantly.

Another door was in my view and I try opening it, only to realize it was locked, and the key Oscar gave me didn’t fit. With that area blocked off, I headed back towards the fog gate readied myself before going through it.

“… Is it me, or does that place look familiar?” Tsuyu asked with a finger on her chin.

“It does most certainly look familiar,” Iida replied with his signature robotic movement.

‘This place looks familiar…’ I thought and looked around. Only when I looked down did I see the monster staring back at me with menacing eyes. Fear taking over my body, I try going back through the fog gate only to bump into it, the fog not giving me passage.

“W-wait… Y-you can’t b-be serious…” I squeaked and looked behind me, only to see the face of the monster in front of me, its huge hammer raised above its head. “S-Shi—”

Most of the class squeaked in terror at the looming monstrosity visible via Izuku’s memory.

The hammer struck and the floor crumbles, the hammer managing to hit my left leg in the process. I fall and land with a loud thud, my ears ringing and vision swimming. Only when I got my bearing together did I feel the excruciating pain in my lower body.

“AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!” I scream out, the stump of my leg bleeding out at an alarming rate of blood. When I look at the monster with a fearful gaze, I see it readying its hammer for another blow. I try to crawl away, but that was bad judgment on my part. I should’ve just let it squash me to death, instead, I made my suffering longer.

The hammer landed, crushing my lower body to paste while my upper body was sent flying into jars and vases. They broke and the shards pierced my skin and flesh, my left eye, and my cheeks, giving me more pain to feel. I don’t even know why I wasn’t dead yet!

Mina and Todoroki looked at the screen, horrified about what happened to Izuku. It was worse than theirs! Granted, he didn’t have permanent damage, but the pain must still be incredibly brutal!

“Holy shit, dude…” Jirou said with her mouth hanging, some bile rising to her throat. Ochako and the rest blanched.

I couldn’t even come up with any coherent thought due to how painful and agonizing it was. I kept on screaming, my voice growing weaker and weaker by the second. The hammer of the monster gave me respite as it smashed against my body for the last time.

“AAAHHH!!!” I got up quickly, patting myself down for any injuries. Legs, arms, face, body… Up to date, that was the most agonizing way to die. The pain felt was unlike any I have ever faced.

‘I can’t… I just… I can’t do this…’ I slump on the ground, crying once again. ‘It’s too much… Too much…’

Everybody stared at the figure of Izuku who was expressionlessly looking at the screen. Everybody switched their focus back on the screen of the crying Izuku lying on the ground, clearly traumatized.

‘What the hell did he endure to not care for any of that?’ was the thought of everybody present.

I stayed like that for an amount of time, not moving, just crying and laying down, refusing to move due to the horrifying experiences.

‘I wonder what Mom’s doing right now…’ after exhausting myself emotionally, I thought back to my mom, what she’s doing, what she thought of me, how she looked like…

‘How does mom look like again…?’ I get up, racking my mind, my memories for any hint of how she looks like, but no dice. Hell, he couldn’t even remember the true name of his tormentor, his childhood friend turned bully Katsuki.

“Are you… Losing memories? Deku?” Ochako asked with a worried face.

“I recovered them all when I came back,” Izuku replied with a shrug. “I just wish I can forget those I lost back in that place…”

Everybody heard his words, further signifying what happened to him back then was incredibly unpleasant, horrific, brutal, and unforgiving.

‘What’s happening…?’ the revelations of missing memory scared me. I didn’t want to forget. I refuse to forget. If what Oscar said is true, then…

“No… I refuse to become Hollow…”

I got up again and rushed through the building, killed the Hollows, recovered my souls just outside the fog gate, and entered.

I remember the writings, try a drop attack, so I did. Once through the fog, I dropped down towards the head of the monster and stabbed its head. It roars in pain and pries me off by grabbing me and squeezing me, breaking my bones in the process. A handful of squeezing later, it threw me to the ground, my head impacting the ground headfirst.

I woke up in the sewer area again, and gave my death no thoughts, I redid the whole thing, killed the Hollows, grab my souls, and fight the monster again. I died a few times, namely;

Death by smashing, death by sharp objects, death by dismemberment, death by broken bones, death by falling, and death by being eaten alive.

‘It’s official, Izuku is too far gone for therapy,’ Aizawa and the heroes thought in unison. ‘No way in hell will therapy fix those problems…’

After a handful of tries, I finally beat the monster. I memorized its patterns, memorized its attacks, and memorized its movements. Once I got that down it was just an act of attacking and dodging. How I killed it? I let it bleed to death.

It dropped a key, and some kind of black and white sprite. Packing the black and white sprite in my satchel, I inserted the key to the door leading outside. I opened the door and I was greeted by some ruins. I trekked up the path, and on the edge of the cliff, I was snatched by a giant crow.

“And that’s it for the moment. Class is dismissed, Bakugou, come with me to the principal’s office,” Aizawa said as he got up, along with the rest of the teachers. “Go ahead and ask questions, provided that Izuku willingly answers them.”

Bakugou followed the teacher nervously with a twitchy face, while the rest of the class remained back in the class with Izuku.

“… I’m going home…” Mina said with a grim frown, her cheerful personality now replaced with gloom. She grabbed her bag and headed home, accompanied by Hagakure who followed her.

“All right, ask you questions, and I’ll answer them,” Izuku said and thus started the question spree.

Chapter Text

Izuku sat on the desk with in impassive poise which signified his total disinterest about the incoming Q&A, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t answer to the best of his efforts though.

“Midoriya!” yelled Iida, who was in the process of doing the robot arms in front of Izuku. “I must ask, how long were you trapped in that… horrifying place?”

“Hmm… I don’t know,” Izuku said with a sigh, recalling the sun that never fell from the sky. The others who remained and listened in were curious about the length of the time Izuku spent in Lordran. “You see, in that place, Lordran, time is… convoluted…”

“Convoluted? How so?” the edgy teen Fumikage, who had a raven’s head instead of a human’s asked with his signature emo pose.

“Well, it’s just that… convoluted… You can’t make sense of the time, the sun never sets, there wasn’t even a night time in Lordran,” Izuku said with a frown. He wanted to learn about how time worked there in the beginning since he wanted to know how long he was away from Earth, but gave up after dying a few more times. “I gave up trying to understand the time there, but I counted to a few years before I did so.”

“Wait, few years?” Momo asked with wide eyes. “You look the same age as us, didn’t your body grow?”

“Apparently, I never grew up physically,” Izuku said while stripping his clothes, leaving him in only shorts, causing some girls to blush at his muscular structure, but then blanched upon seeing the dozens of scars, big and small, that littered the entirety of his body. “And also, I came back here and learned that only a week had passed here instead of the years I spent in Lordran.”

“So, how did you return, ribbit?” asked a curious Tsuyu with her finger on her chin, as usual.

“… Do you really want to know?” asked Izuku with a stare that reached deep into the depths of her soul. Frankly, this terrified Tsuyu, but her curiosity won in the end which prompted her to nod agreeingly. “Hah, alright. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Everybody held their breaths at the approaching words of Izuku. Izuku looked around and saw that all of them had resolute expressions. ‘… I wonder how they’re going to react?’

“Okay, first, I’ll explain the Chosen Undead’s – which is me by the way – quest in Lordran. The Chosen Undead is the Undead that is supposed to link the fire to prolong the Age of Fire, or the Age of the Gods, and to do so, the Chosen Undead would have to succeed Lord Gwyn’s place, the Lord of Sunlight and Cinder by fighting him to the death,” Izuku paused for a moment to let the words sink in the minds of the young students, who were paling considerably. “May I also inform you that Gwyn was a deity, or more specifically, the God of Sunlight and Cinder. FYI, I won.”

A few seconds of silence, and then outburst.

“Wait, what!? You fought a GOD and beat it!?” screamed Mineta who was now rescinding his thoughts about revenge against the God-slayer Izuku who looked like he was a bit amused at their reactions.

It amused him just a bit.

“Dude, if it wasn’t for the terrible memories I saw, I would call you the manliest man on the planet!” yells Kirishima whose thoughts split between worshipping the land Izuku steps on or being afraid of said person who was stronger than All Might.

“A truly magnificent tale, Midoriya. Your darkness knows no bounds,” stated Fumikage with his edgy pose. Izuku may or may not have cringed at the display. Not because of the actions, but because of the words that Izuku may have related because of his experiences.

“Tokoyami, please don’t underestimate the darkness,” Izuku said with a slightly manic tone.

“… Why? What’s wrong, Deku?” Ochako asked with a slightly worried tone, while Fumikage looked at Izuku with visible confusion.

“It’s about something that lurks deep within the lands of Lordran. We call it ‘The Abyss.’ It swallows everything in its path and continues to grow without pause,” Izuku said with unhidden terror. Call him what you will, The Abyss was still frightening, and Izuku still has terrible memories about that fight with the Four Kings and Manus.

It wasn’t fair, like at all…

“O-oh, forgive me then, Midoriya,” Fumikage bowed his head towards Izuku, who responded with a nod.

“Anyway,” Kaminari, who was observing the whole thing while not hiding his awe towards Izuku for beating a GOD piped up. “After beating the Gwyn, what did you do next?”

“I linked the fire,” this got the students curious. “Then burned alive for who knows how long.”

Everybody paled Izuku mentioned the burning alive part.

“D-did you feel pain…?” Ochako just had to ask about that, which Izuku smiled bitterly.

“Yes, every second of it...”

You could feel the atmosphere getting heavy by the time Izuku finishes his sentence. The students all gaped at him in horror.

“Well, I guess that’s enough for today,” Izuku cut them off before they could continue with the questions. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow, have a safe trip home.”

Izuku got up from his seat and left his stunned classmates back in the room. It wasn’t until Izuku’s figure vanished from their visions did they finally move.

“… We need to get him some help…”

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The hustle and bustle of the city was deafening to the figure who was moving and ducking within the alleyways. Looking around, the figure who had a very eye-catching bald head, scratched his chin with an irritated groan.

“Ugh, what the hell is this place? This isn’t Lothric…” the bald man dressed in what seemed to be clothes that favored agility and dexterity above armor looked at the dumpster he woke up in. He saw a ladder going up into the roof of a building beside said dumpster and approached it.

“Whatever the hell this place is, it’s teeming with greed. I can feel it,” he said as he traversed the semi-rusty ladder that goes upward.

While the bald man was ascending the ladder, another figure, a long distance from the bald man, leaps from roof to roof, a peculiar hat that covers his entire face adorning his head. He wore ragged clothing with many holes in it and wielded a sharp dagger in his right hand.

“Many riches, and many poor…” the hooded man said while hefting a large bag filled with knick-knacks, money, food, or whatever daily necessities humans needed to survive. “Even if this isn’t Lothric, the least I could do for the needy is sell them some cheap wares…”

Another figure was also on the move during the other two as well, only this time, luck was not on his side.

“Freeze!” an unknown hero yelled at the figure armored with what looks like an onion and held an incredibly long sword.

“Now, now, I mean you no harm! As a Knight of Catarina, you have my word that I won’t harm any denizen of your country!” the armored onion man yelled while lowering his Zweihander to the ground.

‘Don’t worry Yhorm, old friend, I will fulfill my promise,’ the onion man thought as the unknown hero brought him into custody while a gathering of curious onlookers surrounded the duo.

Back in Izuku’s apartment, Izuku felt that something huge was about to happen.

Chapter Text

The next day, Izuku could be seen sitting on one of the desks in school, surrounded by his classmates who were urging him to follow them. Izuku decided to humor them and followed them right after school ended.

The students within the group consisted of Izuku, Ochako, Tenya, Kyoka, Tsuyu, Eijiro, and Momo. The others were busy doing other stuff, and the rest went home (Mina and Toru).

“So, where are we going?” Izuku asked with a deadpan, while the others ignored his sudden question.

“It’s a surprise!” Ochako bounced around with energy, temporarily forgetting about the dark memories of Izuku she witnessed yesterday. If it was for Izuku’s mental health, she would do anything… To repay him for saving her life against those… Sword-wielding villains…

Izuku might’ve said that they were no villains, but in the students’ eyes, they were none other than villains that wanted to kill them. They can’t break out of their hero-villain mindset that easily, even with a near-death experience.

“Anyway, could you tell us about your weapons inside that… Dimensional storage or whatever your quirk is?” Eijiro clasped his hands behind his neck as he walked, his carefree motion a signification of his ‘focus on the present’ mentality.

“Hm, I could, but not here,” Izuku looked around, spotting various pedestrians walking about, going about their businesses in their everyday lives. “When we arrive at the place you all wanted to show me, then I’ll show you.”

“Sweet,” Eijiro chuckled with a fierce grin. Momo was also smiling, albeit for another reason.

‘Those weapons… Maybe I could try to replicate them if I understand the ores capabilities better,’ she cupped her chin, her bountiful mammaries swinging underneath her arms.

“That said, Midoriya?” Tsuyu called out with a curious expression.

“Yes, Tsu?” Izuku shifted his gaze from the front towards Tsuyu in an instant, causing the frog-like girl to blush at his sudden use of her nickname with no hesitation whatsoever.

‘Finally, someone who calls me that without hesitation,’ her heart fluttered within her chest, joy coursing through her veins at one of her requests fulfilled by the scarred teen who saved her life back in the USJ. “Can you tell us about your other abilities? What you did back in the USJ… I know it was you who killed those underwater villains…”

Tsuyu dropped a bombshell at the group of students, while Izuku shrugged, not minding the sudden question.

“I knew you would figure something out,” Izuku honestly smiled at her straightforwardness. Other people would skirt around the topic, introducing other points of interest before getting to the point.

Not Tsuyu though.

“In reality, I just don’t have my dimensional storage,” Izuku paid no heed to the shocked faces of his classmates. “There are other skills I can use, some might even pass as a quirk, but most of them I know are deadly, capable of easily killing a person.”

The group of students blanched at the idea of freely killing people. Villains or not, killing was something they detested, something they grew to hate and not do. Meanwhile, Izuku did grow up like that, but being exposed to the world known as Lordran, his views on killing were now moot at this point.

“Look, I know as heroes, you don’t want to kill people, but I’ll have you all know that sooner or later, you will have to kill someone to save the others,” Izuku recalled the time he killed Lautrec and his cronies to save Anastacia, he grimaced. “Anyway, let’s ignore that topic for the moment and focus on walking, alright?”

The group that descended into an uncomfortable silence moved on, all of them silently observing the scarred emerald teen while the noise and chatter of the people in the background filled their ears, cars moving along the street and the occasional yelling person due to a villain…

Wait, villain?

Izuku looked towards the commotion, as well as the other students. A collective amount of people blocked an alleyway, with sounds of struggling happening within. The students, being the curious group that they are, rushed towards the group of people swarming the entrance of the alleyway.

Izuku and the others pushed through, not minding the grunts and yells of anger from the other people who were blocking the pathway. Izuku and the others pushed through, and their efforts were rewarded at the end of the grunts and shouts of annoyance.

When they got there, however, Izuku stopped wide-eyed at the scene.

“What the hell is he doing here!?” Izuku burst into a sprint towards the fighting figures within the alleyway. He didn’t care for the shouting of his classmates, nor the shouts of panic coming from the bystanders, nor the heroes. His body moved on its own and pressed forward, not minding the consequences.

The hero who was currently in mortal combat with the villain-looking figure stopped and saw the figure of Izuku rapidly approaching.

“You! Kid, what are you doing here! Stay back, it’s not safe!” the hero grunted as he blocked an attack from a spear coming from the villain-looking figure, who now closer, could be seen with a bald head.

“Please, stop fighting! Patches!” Izuku burst into the scene while hefting a huge shield to stop an incoming blow from the now named Patches. The bald man, Patches, quickly stopped trying to puncture the kid who suddenly sprang right in front of the greedy bastard who was almost dead.

“What the!? I know you!” Patches jumped back, spear and shield lowered to the ground. “You’re that Undead kid who I sold my stolen- erm… I mean stuff I collected in my travels too!”

“Patches, do you still remember me?” Izuku stored his shield as well, right after Patches lowered his.

“Remember you? Of course, I remember you!” Patches honestly smiled at Izuku. “You’re the first bloody Undead who rejects Greed! You’re just like me, fellow Undead devoid of all worldly wants.”

“… Yeah, I do remember you saying that…” Izuku shrugged at Patches who was recalling the days of trading between the two.  “Anyway, what are you doing here?”

Patches was about to speak until movement from the corner of his eyes brought him back up to high alert. Izuku noticed his action and shifted his gaze towards the hero, who was about to apprehend the Patches for being distracted.

Izuku moved to intercept but stopped when he heard the sounds of sirens coming from the direction where the bystanders were. Then he realized, he wasn’t alone. He was so busy in his memories with the man that he forgot about the grim situation at hand.

Looking closer, he could spot officers about to cuff him as well.

“… This did not go as planned,” Izuku sighed defeatedly, ready to get cuffed, not until his classmates rushed in to defend him. The officers pushed through the students and cuffed Izuku anyways, not taking NO for an answer for hindering the job of a hero and the act of vigilantism.

The students protested, but Izuku sighed in defeat. He allowed them to cuff him and haul him into the police car, begging Patches to follow his lead. As one of the few Undead he has ever trusted, Patches sighed as well and followed suit.

They shoved the both of them into the car, Izuku annoyed at their forcefulness, while Patches snarling at the officers, causing them to back off. They then drove off towards the office station, which coincidentally held a certain onion knight as well.

Gears began turning, and a new cog shifts in…

Chapter Text

Izuku stayed silent throughout the drive towards the nearest police station. Patches – who was quite surprised at the comfiness of the seat – glared at the police officer who was visibly flinching underneath the sleazy but trusty Undead merchant.

The car stopped and the police hopped out of the car. They opened the doors to the backseat where Izuku and Patches were cuffed on.

“Come on, out!” the police yelled at the two Undead with a visible vein on his head. “And no funny business, am I clear?”

Izuku stayed quiet while Patches snickered when the police officer turned his back. The metal circle cuffing his hands is quite weak, so he could get out at a moment’s notice. However, his old pal, Izuku of Musutafu – who was leagues above his own strength – followed their lead, so he complied.

Not that he enjoyed it, no… It reminded him of the dungeons in Lothric Castle.

‘Where the hell is that thief, anyway?’ Patches would’ve scratched his bald head if it weren’t for the cuffs obviously restraining his arm movements.

The two of them were led into the lobby of the station, officers of different ranks busy roaming about their jobs and businesses. The moment they entered, however, all of them stared at Izuku. Sure, they dealt with villains and whatnot, young and old, it didn’t matter. What caught their attention, however, was his impassionate face, as if all of this was like an annoyance to him than a threat to his current life.

They ignored him a few seconds later as they had jobs to be done. The officer leading the two Undead, one a potential criminal and the other a potential vigilante, stops for a moment and turns towards the two.

“You, kid,” Izuku looks at the officer – who he would forget in a few more hours – with a stoic face. “I don’t know why you tried playing hero, but public Quirk usage without a license is still a crime. You might get away with a slap on the wrist, but make sure you don’t do that again and put your life in danger.”

Hearing that, Patches couldn’t hold it in any longer and begins laughing like a madman. The officer glares at Patches and readies his baton in case the bald man becomes aggressive.

“You… Haha… You… Really think… hehe… That this guy right here,” Patches pointed at Izuku with his hands still cuffed in between snorts and bouts of laughter, “was in any danger? Oh… By Gwynevere’s giant cow tits… I doubt the entirety of guards in this place could take him down, least of all touch him.”

Izuku deadpanned at Patches pouring oil on the fire, as observed by the red face of the officer in front of him. To be demeaned by a villain who said that the wannabe hero – who was still in his U.A. uniform, mind you – beside him was stronger than the whole Musutafu police force combined, was incredibly insulting.

The officer was about to yell and hit Patches with his baton for disrespecting the badge, but was stopped when a gloved hand grabbed his shoulder.

“I’ll take it from here, officer. Dismissed,” Detective Tsukauchi with his signature detective coat, a faint frown adorning his face, said.

“Y-yes, sir!” the officer saluted and walked off, not looking back at the grinning face of Patches.

“I must say, Mr. Midoriya, that you being here must be so unfortunate,” Tsukauchi took a key from his pocket and unlocked the cuffs that were restraining Izuku’s hands.

“Thanks,” Izuku elicited a brief nod of appreciation at the removal of his restraints.

“You, however,” Tsukauchi pocketed the key, “will keep those on.”

Patches grumbled in response to that.

“Don’t worry Patches, you’ll get it off soon enough,” Izuku smiled faintly at the sleazy Undead merchant, which in turn caused Tsukauchi to lock onto Izuku’s face.

“Do you perhaps, know this man?”

“Yes, I do,” Izuku’s smile faded away and his impassive face returned. “He is Undead, like me.”

“… This just gets worse and worse…” Tsukauchi rubbed the bridge of his nose with a sigh. His Quirk was telling him that yes, Izuku did not lie, and this man was indeed, the same as Izuku.

‘Once this case is over, I’m asking for a vacation,’ Tsukauchi looks at the door leading to his office, then the iron doors towards the holding cells housing a certain Onion Knight.

“All right,” Tsukauchi turned his back and walked towards the area with the holding cells. “Follow me.”

Izuku and Patches complied, one free from his restraints, and the other still bound. The three of them walked past other busy officers and into the holding cell area.

“Sometime yesterday, we apprehended a strange fellow,” Tsukauchi suddenly talks, grabbing the attention of Izuku and Patches. “He wore what seemed to be Onion-themed armor, and a giant sword which he hefted like a plastic sword.”

‘Wait… Onion-themed armor?’

“Detective, could you please tell me what his name is?” Izuku asked with unbidden hope.

“He said his name is Siegward,” Tsukauchi replies with his back still turned, unknowingly causing Izuku’s hope to be kicked, trampled upon, burned, buried, and reduced to an atom before being subjected to the Big Bang explosion.

“… Oh… Okay…” Izuku’s face fell, his lips forming a frown. “Does he say where he comes from?”

“Yes, he did say that he was a Knight of Catarina,” Tsukauchi rubbed his chin. “Whatever Catarina is.”

Izuku was a little bit glad that the hometown of Siegmeyer was still standing strong against the plague of Undeath in Lordran. Patches, however, knew the Onion Knight they were talking about.

‘… Wasn’t that the guy I trapped in the well?’ Patches recalled the time he kicked an Undead into a well after stripping him of his armor.

The three of them then proceeded along with nary a sound, the only audible sound being their footsteps echoing in the silent walls. Most of the villains here were already transferred to a different prison, so the only occupant was the said Onion Knight, who they had no idea what to do with.

After a few more seconds of walking, the three of them arrived in front of a cell that holds the said Onion Knight without his armor on. He was athletic and buff, a result of wearing that huge and fat armor like nothing. His face though, was what drew in Izuku’s attention.

He had a mustache above his ever-present jovial smile, and black hair covering his head. All in all, he looked like one of those kind uncles in the neighborhood.

His eyes opened and he saw Patches.

“You!” his face twists into a frown. “You were that thief that stole my armor!”

“Did I?” Patches, in an effort to direct the attention off of him, slunk away, only to be grabbed by Izuku.

“Really, Patches? Still not done with that?” Izuku deadpanned at the Undead Merchant.

“Hey! I may be sleazy, but I sure as hell ain’t a greedy pig!” snarled Patches while he stomped his foot on the ground, causing a visible crack on the floor. Tsukauchi looked on with surprise at the strength of the stomp.

“I am no greedy pig!” Siegward retorted with a huff. “I have a goal, and it hasn’t anything to do with greed!”

“Oh really, you bumbling Onion?” Patches grinned and recalled a memory from the time he kicked the man down the well.

“Alright, enough!” Tsukauchi yelled with force, causing the minor, but amusing, dispute to grind to a halt. “Mr. Midoriya, can you please explain to me what your relationship is with… Patches?”

“Sure, just uncuff him and let Sir Siegward out,” Izuku said with a hint of a smile forming on his face before it came into a complete frown. “We need them for the future.”

Tsukauchi noticed the quick shift in demeanor, so he complied and hope that upper management won’t bite his ass too hard once they realized he released two unknowns free.

Chapter Text

While Izuku and Patches were busy reuniting with the Onion Knight, Ochako and the others were panicking at their current situation.

Namely, reporters trying to get their word on why a U.A. student was apprehended by the police and the heroes.

"Who was that U.A. student?"

"Is he in the hero course?"

"What is his quirk?"

The questions came on and on, without stopping. The victims, a.k.a. Ochako and friends, were trying too hard not to go ballistic and punch all the vultures' lights out.

'We don't have time for this!' Ochako mentally raged as she forced a nervous smile in front of the cameras and people with notebooks.

She sends out a grateful nod at Tenya and Momo – who were somehow used to paparazzi due to their social status – that were receiving most of the questions and attention.

Kyoka, who was walking beside her, hid a scowl by tilting her head down and bringing her bag up chin level. Eijiro was beside her as well, a frown on his face instead of his usual friendly grin.

'What the hell was that?' Kyoka scratched her head with her jacks as she recalled the scene she witnessed earlier. Izuku running into the scene without any thought, blocking an attack meant to kill, and then having a conversation with the said offender?

It's like he knew him for a while now…

"Oh… Shit…" Kyoka brought her hand to her face as she quietly cursed out her realizations. Ochako and Eijiro heard this, while Tsuyu was busy trying not to use her quirk to jump out of the vultures' line of sight.

"What?" Ochako narrowed her eyes in worry at Kyoka's paling face. "What's gotten into you?"

"Yeah," Eijiro briefly closes into her, grabbing her shoulder with his hand and bringing them closer. "I'll try to cover you as much as I can."

Eijiro just did that. He brought himself next to Kyoka and shielded the bodies of Ochako and Kyoka from the reporters. The damned vultures…

Kyoka gave Eijiro an appreciative nod as she redirected her gaze towards Ochako, who was now physically closer to her than before.

"I have a hunch," Kyoka brought her lips close to Ochako's ear, to make sure that the reporters, nor the civilians near them wouldn't hear them. Ochako leaned in closer, attempting to hear clearer and keep the information as secret as possible. "I think that the bald man is Izuku's friend… From that world…"

Ochako had her eyes widen at the information, then proceeds to mull over it.

"… You might be right," Ochako glared at the reporters, who were still impeding them from moving away properly, and scowled. "We need to get this information to the teachers or principal."

Objective set, the U.A. students began their march towards U.A. Highschool, with the vultures circling them.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Tomura," a voice called out from beyond the glass. Shigaraki's eyes opened to see himself submerged within liquids, a mask clinging to his mouth and nose that was hooked into oxygen tanks to ensure he can breathe underwater. "How are you feeling?"

Shigaraki looks at the figure beyond the glass. A respirator that clings to his face, and a mask that hid the upper portion of his head. Despite the figure's head being covered, Shigaraki could still imagine the frown on the figure's face, and the disappointment it held for him.

'S-Sensei…' Shigaraki tried to move his mouth but wasn't able to due to how weak his body is.

"No need to talk, Tomura," Shigaraki felt the concern from their voice – however small it may be – and shut his eyes, his body relaxing from the tension. "I only wished to check up on you."

The figure moved closer towards the glass. Now closer, Shigaraki opened his eyes for a minute to take in the figure… no, the man in front of him. He wore what seemed to be a business suit, prim and proper. However, even Shigaraki could not deny him feeling down at the man being strapped to a stretcher that held him upright, various tubes digging under his skin and connecting to other liquids required for a body to maintain function.

"It might take a while, but that new arm of yours," Shigaraki focused his gaze on his new arm, black like that of the Nomus, with a metal brace that wraps around the part where his skin met the black arm, "courtesy of the doctor, might take a while to get used to. It will feel the same as your old arm, however, you won't be able to manifest your quirk on the said arm as well."

Shigaraki's eyes widened.

'I can… touch things again…?' his train of thought was stopped because of the man that was moving farther away. 'N-no… Wait… Sensei…'

"Don't worry, Tomura. Rest, I will see you soon," the man vanished from sight, leaving Tomura alone, floating silently within the tube full of liquid.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Useless," a man wearing a plague mask stretches his arm out and grabs a man's face. A moment later, the man explodes into bits and pieces of flesh. In his grip, a scared, white-haired child with a singular horn on her head, watches the scene fearfully, tears in her eyes.

"Tch, filthy," the man puts on a glove and tugs the scared child along forcefully. He looks at the child before scowling. "See, this is what happens when you try to run away, you cursed child."

The white-haired child felt her tears dripping down her cheeks.

"It's time for your punishment," later on that day, within a compound, the cries and screams of a child could be heard all across the night.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

On top of a certain rooftop, a figure could be seen crouching on the ledge. He wore a red scarf, a tank top, and baggy cargo pants. He was also geared in everything sharp; a katana, knives, and more.

"This is strange…" the figure looked below. It was just a normal alley, if you discount the corpse of a hero that is. Beside the corpse was another corpse. However, what stood out from the corpse was not its figure, nor its quirk before its death, but what it wore.

Tattered metal Armor that covered only the chest, incredibly tattered metal leggings that only looked like an ankle bracelet, and a helmet. It held in its hands a sword and a shield. If that wasn't all, before its death, it already looked like a dried-up corpse.

"The era's shifting… Soon… All the fake heroes will be purged…" the man stood up and leaped to another rooftop, vanishing from sight.

Chapter Text

Izuku trudged through the bridge, a being made of some kind of ore laid behind him. Its head was missing, as well as one of its legs. In its hand, it clasped a long pole easily three times as long as Izuku's height.

'A little further…'

After having defeated said being, Izuku continued. An area previously unexplored awaited him. A bonfire in his mind, hoping to catch even a glimpse of it so he could rest.

Lost Izalith was a dangerous place after all, and right now, he is running out of Estus.

'A little more…'

His steps echoed through the bridge, gouts of flame occasionally sputtering from beneath the stone passage. Ahead of him lies a huge entrance to a cave.

'Further…'

He slashed at a parasite who was running away from him, rendering it dead and sucking in the souls it had.

'More…'

He killed another one as he descended the steps, huge roots from a giant tree sometimes impeding his advance.

'Almost there…'

His clunky footsteps echoed reverberated through the dimly lit passageway. A few more steps and he heard a voice.

"… Hrgg… Argghhh… … Finally… I have found it, I have! My very own sun…!"

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"… Ahh… It's over… My sun… It's settling…"

…

…

…

"It's dark… So dark…"

…

…

..

…

…

…

Izuku screamed.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Izuku was brought out of his memories by a poke to his head.

"Oi, what you standing around like a statue for?" Patches poked him with the sharp end of his spear again. "Come on, we don't have all day."

"While I appreciate you making an effort to stay at the topic at hand," Tsukauchi glared at the bald merchant. "I'd rather you not unintentionally wound him with that weapon of yours."

"Like my weapon could do squat against him, eh, ol' buddy?" Patches grinned as he brought his spear back, bringing it to his side. Izuku deadpanned at the antics of the undead merchant. Humorous he may be, it still rubbed him the wrong way sometimes…

Actually, scratch that, if it weren't for his lawful good alignment that somehow survived Lordran, Izuku would be extremely annoyed with Patches.

"Anyway, where was I…? Ah right," Tsukauchi tapped his chin then snapped his fingers. "Principal Nezu was calling for you. You can thank the media for that. Your classmates are also waiting for you back at U.A."

Izuku nodded and glanced at Patches and Siegward.

"They're coming with, right?" Tsukauchi nodded at his question, causing Izuku to relax, his expression was unshifting.

The four of them left the jailing area, causing most of the police on duty to tense at the sudden sight of the suddenly armed Patches.

"At ease, they're innocent," Tsukauchi made good use of his current power, which he knew would be taken away for some time after this is all over. "That said, the hero who apprehended these men," Tsukauchi pointed at Patches and Siegward, "please give me their names and place them on my desk. I'll be looking through them later."

The officers in the station relaxed and saluted. His subordinate, a feline officer quickly moved about to take care of the task he was given.

"Alright, let's go," the four of them continued on and into a parked car just outside the station, then drove off towards U.A.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Nezu was annoyed. In all of his years as the principal of U.A. High, this year was the most migraine-inducing. I mean, come on, villain deaths during their raid against their STUDENTS! If that wasn't a massive scandal waiting to be unboxed, then there's another one. This one though was streaming to the public through a news station.

[U.A. Student caught defending a villain!]

[U.A. Student arrested for vigilantism!]

And worst of all, the general populace was eating it up like honey. Nezu glanced at the monitor displaying a live feed from the entrance gates. Dozens and dozens of reporters were waging war to get the scoop, pushing, pulling, charging, hell, some of them were using their quirks in inconspicuous ways just to get a lead.

"Oh, dear…" Nezu sighed, eyes closed in contemplation. He wanted to sic the heroes and police on them, he really did, but it wasn't worth the infamy it would garner. He was already in debt due to pulling strings about the USJ incident, he didn't need more.

"Principal," All Might in his skinny form piped up from the couch in front of him. Nezu opened an eye and stared at the skinny blonde. "Tsukauchi called, he's bringing Midoriya here, as well as two more like him."

Nezu faceplanted on the desk, earning a shock from his employee. Nezu has never done said faceplanting in the entirety of his career teaching.

'High Spec, you better work…'

"… Alright, bring them in through the back door. Contact all available personnel in case hostilities ensue, and All Might," All Might stood up and looked at Nezu, awaiting his orders. "I think it's time for you to pass the torch. Our society will no doubt be upheaved by the incoming events."

All Might grimly nods and heads outside the room. Nezu closed his eyes once again, his brain going into overdrive to lower the negative results of the false information scandal the press has caused yet again.

'I guess it's time to pull the skeletons out of their closets,' Nezu smiled sadistically as he grabbed the phone.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"We're here," Tsukauchi called out from the front seat, Izuku seating beside him in the passenger seat, while Siegward and Patches were both arguing at the backseat. What they were arguing about wasn't due to the past they shared, no, it was pettier than that.

"Oh, come on! My body is getting squished to the door! Your fat armor is literally killing me right now! Was it really necessary to wear that inside here, you bumbling onion!"

"Well, if it wasn't for you who stole my armor in the first place, I wouldn't be wary of you from the start! And the Armor of Catarina is designed like this for a purpose!"

"Yes! To make other kingdoms assume that all of you knights beneath that armor are obese pigs!"

"Don't you dare bring up that topic, thief!"

Izuku deadpanned at the other two behind him. It's been going on for as long as the trip has continued. Tsukauchi had a vein popping in his forehead, but was maintaining a stoic appearance. Izuku however, felt refreshed at their actions, discounting Siegward since he didn't know the man.

To Patches, however – who kicked him down the cliff in Tomb of the Giants, and almost got him killed by rotating the bridge in The Catacombs – a man who lives for the sake of punishing greedy bastards, his words, not Izuku's, to banter against a former victim of his crusade of kicking people on their asses to make them fall off ledges, was a refreshing breath of air.

Though, he could really do without them bumping into his seat, causing his body to rock back and forth as they argued.

"We're almost there," Tsukauchi murmured as his stoic face was beginning to slip, his eyes beginning to dilate from the anger he was experiencing.

'This is my car… And they're wrecking the back seat…' let it be known the Tsukauchi will never let those two on the same ride… Again… Ever…

Izuku kept silent during the whole debacle, his thoughts wandering to his past in Lordran, which he immediately closed off. He may be mostly unaffected by now, but the memories still hurt.

The car came to a stop, another gate – this one for personnel only – just ahead of them. In front of the said gate was Aizawa who was sporting a very irritated scowl. The passengers of the car got off and Tsukauchi bid them farewell as he drove in the opposite direction, finally free from the two monsters who desecrated the back seats of his precious car.

"Problem child."

"Aizawa-Sensei…" Izuku replied in greeting with a nod. Aizawa then settled his irritated gaze on the two Undead.

"Come in, Principal Nezu's waiting."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Ochako and friends, who were waiting with Principal Nezu after they got through the damned press, heaved a sigh of relief as they saw Izuku enter the gates. Ochako not minding the other people ran and glomped down Izuku.

"Deku! I was so worried!" their friends had the urge to whistle, but controlled it because some of the teachers and principal were present.

"As much as we would like to celebrate your reunion and Izuku's bail from captivity," Nezu snickered a bit at the words. "If you would all enter the building?"

The teachers consisting of Ectoplasm, Midnight, Eraserhead, and Present Mic surrounded the trio of undead while Ochaco was separated from them and back into the group of U.A. students. Nezu led the group inside of the building and directed them towards an unused room with soundproofing walls to make sure their conversation does not reach unwanted ears.

"Now then, all of you take a seat," Nezu said from his chair which was provided by the staff and himself. Quick notice, it was a high chair because of his short stature. The others were given normal chairs, even the undead, while the 1-A students barring Izuku were left sitting on some chairs away from the round table.

"I assume all of you has some kind of inkling as to why this meeting has come to pass?" Nezu glanced around the room, starting from the teachers, to the students, then to the Undead. All of them nodded, except for Izuku and the other Undead, which prompted a sigh from Nezu. "As you can see from this live feed," Nezu pressed a button from his controller, the television hung on the wall booting up and displaying the present news, "your actions, Midoriya, is leaving a bad reputation for U.A High as a whole, and as principal, it is my duty to ensure that your actions do not cause further unrest."

Izuku nodded in agreement, while the teachers observed the emerald teen. His classmates, however, had horrified looks on their faces. They were about to complain, but a look from Eraserhead prevented that mishap.

"That said, Midoriya, you will be punished because of this incident," Nezu stoically stated with his hands clamped together and his elbows propped up on the table. "As for your punishment, we have decided that you will not be able to attend internships after the Sports Festival, and instead, be applied to a supplementary class with Eraserhead for the duration of the week."

Eraserhead shrugged while the 1-A students looked more horrified. Ochaco, in particular, was very, VERY, upset that the damned media costed Izuku's internships. Izuku, however, looked nonplussed at the declaration.

"Now that your punishment has been decided, I think it is time for the main topic of this meeting," Nezu brought his eyes towards the two Undead who were sitting beside Izuku, a scowl on the bald Undead, and a still Onion Knight. All of those present in the meeting perked their heads up in curiosity at the two Undead, some in minor hostility, others with just plain interest.

"I may assume that you two are from Lordran?" Nezu questioned with a narrowed gaze, but the reactions from the two Undead were not what he was expecting, nor the others.

"Lordran? You mean that Kingdom where the first Undead linked the flame?" Siegward scratched his chin while recalling the teachings back in Catarina. Patches, however, had a smirk on his face.

"Now ain't this a surprise," Patches continued to chuckle to only himself, garnering the attention of everybody within the room. "I guess that you all would be focused on that time era, seeing that the first Undead that linked the flame," Patches pointed at Izuku, causing Siegward to instantly direct his gaze at Izuku, while the 1-A students who heard his story about burning alive for who knows how long blanched, "was the one who gave you the information about that unforgiving world."

Izuku tilted his head at Patches.

"What do you mean by that?" Patches smirk grew even further.

"It's just that the cycle has been repeated for numerous times already," Patches sighed exaggeratedly. "If I'm not mistaken, it would be… About 5… Maybe 6 millennia since this guy right here linked the first flame."

The room went silent. Everybody inside the room was busy staring at the declaration of Patches with wide eyes.

"… Ugh… I knew that linking the flame to prolong the Age of Fire wasn't the solution to their problems…" Izuku facepalmed, just realizing that all his efforts were for naught. He didn't save jack squat during his time in Lordran, nor did he save anybody because of his decision. It would've eaten him up inside, if not for him already being too scarred to even care anymore.

That said, if he had the power to save someone in front of him, he would still do it with a heartbeat.

"I… See…" Nezu hummed in thought. "May I ask what Kingdom is it called now?"

"If you must know, it is called Lothric," this time, it was Siegward who piped up from his seat.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

After the meeting was finished, every occupant was on their way home, except for the students and the Undead. The Undead were not to exit the school boundaries because of damned media and glory-seeking heroes, at the same time being monitored by the faculty of the school.

The two of them separated from the rest and were given jobs for the duration of their stay by Principal Nezu. It took quite a bit of pressuring… actually, not quite a bit, make it a mountain load of pressuring from Nezu and Izuku to make them finally cave into their offers.

Siegward was a little hesitant to agree, but since Yhorm wasn't in this realm yet, he had nothing to do but accept. Patches, however, was a different story.

Patches lived for the sole reason of punishing greedy fools, as well as maybe try to rehabilitate them, as seen by him kicking Izuku off in the Tomb of the giants and into corpses with a Skull Lantern. So, requesting him to pause his crusade in favor of teaching brats on how to fight was a load of work.

At least he accepted at the end since he didn't want to be confined in a cell again, and this time, there was no Greyrat to help bail him out.

Currently, Izuku was walking alongside the other students on their way home. Ochaco has been very clingy these past few minutes, and it didn't take Izuku a lot to see that Ochaco had feelings for him.

At least he didn't know about the budding feelings of the other females, but that's for the future, not the present.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

In an undisclosed location, a man with a damaged face covered with an iron mask in a business suit could be seen walking along the various human-sized tubes housing various types of Nomus.

"How is the research going, Doctor?" the man, All for One, directed his gaze at the man wearing a lab coat and goggles with a green tint on them.

"It is proceeding slowly, sir, but that specimen your underlings caught for me is incredibly splendid!" the Doctor, Kyudai Garaki, a.k.a. Daruma Ujiko, glanced at the tube housing a specific dried-up corpse that refuses to die. It kept on banging on the glass without stopping with no results to show for it. "It has no Quirk, that I can say for sure, but even when dead, it still comes back to life, no matter how it was killed!"

"Hmm… Interesting," AFO strolled over the glass. He has a quirk that can sense emotions from the years of gathering them, so without further ado, he reached out to it. What he felt made him shudder in excitement, as well as dread.

"KILL! HUMANITY! GATHER! PROTECT! LORDS!"

"Interesting… Very interesting…" AFO walked away from the still banging on the glass Undead, noticing some kind of symbol etched on its stomach.

'I think it's time to move, the era's shifting again,' AFO hummed in his thoughts.

"Doctor, have some Nomus prepared, we might be needing them sooner than I thought," the Doctor nodded in response.

"Of course, sir."

AFO teleported from the underground facility and back into his hideout, grabbing the phone from his pocket to make a call.

"Giran, tell me everything about the Shie Hassaikai and the Quirk of their leader, Overhaul."

'Soon, the Age of Heroes will come to a close, and your dream of equality will come,' AFO glanced at the armor that was propped up by a stand, a logo of a sun decorating its chest piece.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Izuku cried and cried at the death of Solaire. The man that he made a friend with, the man that was slowly going into a cycle of madness, the man that he failed to save.

'Why!? WHY!? Why does it always end like this!?' Izuku screamed from the bottom of his heart, his pain, his anguish, his frustration at the cruelness of Lordran breaking him over and over.

'I SAVED SIEGMEYER! I SAVED ANASTACIA! I SAVED REAH! I SAVED LAURENTIUS! I SAVED LOGAN! AND YET, WHY ARE ALL OF THEIR FATES SO CRUEL!?'

Izuku slumped on the ground. His tears not welling up. His thoughts recalled every person he saved, yet failed them.

Siegmeyer, dead by his daughter's hands…

Anastacia, forever trapped in a cell to be a firekeeper…

Reah, kidnapped by Seath's underlings and hollowed in the Grand Archives, dead by his hand…

Laurentius, hollowed in the swamps of Blighttown, dead by his hand…

Logan, driven insane in Seath's lair, dead by his hand…

And now… Solaire… the man who wanted to find his own sun, yet failed and driven insane by a parasite…

Dead by his hand, as well…

It wasn't fair… Everything here… It didn't matter how long… Fate would always find a way to destroy Izuku's hopes…

Izuku stood up, finished wallowing in his despair and frustration. What remained, was a broken vessel, forever doomed to continue this cycle of saving and killing those he saves until the fire is linked.

He turned around, and trudged, his mind broken into a million pieces. His goal, to link the fire and be done with it.

He never noticed a black portal consuming the corpse of the dead Solaire…

Chapter Text

'Why is this happening…?'

Screams of terror run rampant amongst the crowds gathered in the stadium. Bloodied corpses, glinting steel, squelches of flesh… Chaos spreading through the area…

'How did I not see this coming…?'

A quick turn of the head immediately gave him the view of his fellow students' bloody corpses on the ground. Accompanying them were corpses of various Hollows, their bladed weaponry still in hand.

His head lurched forwards, a blunt impact causing his brain to juggle. He quickly got his bearings back and retaliated against the unknown foe.

One quick slash with his golden dagger found its mark, decapitating the Hollow behind him, blood spurting out like a fountain.

"Deku!"

A scream from the stands alerted his mind. Izuku looked up and saw one of his classmates struggling against Hollow, her bare hands barely a weapon against the armed adversary.

It didn't take too long before a blade plunged into her chest, her pained and silent scream illustrating the pain and agony she was experiencing.

Izuku howled and dashed towards the stands, the remainders of his class fighting within.

'I WILL NOT LET ANYONE ELSE DIE!'

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"So… how're you feeling?" a feminine voice piped up from his side, bringing him out from his thoughts. He craned his neck backward and released a sigh.

"Physically, never been better… Mentally, I feel like shit…" Izuku responded while looking at the ceiling. His classmates trailed behind him, the visages of his fellow Undead not among the group.

"I… can see why," Ochako gave a sheepish smile. The mere thought of having classes as a punishment during their internships was a horrifying one, and if that wasn't enough, the person handling the class was none other than their professor who threatened them with expulsion every day.

The both of them were on their way to school, each wearing some kind of mask to disguise their faces.

After the incident yesterday, the video blew up and U.A. was suffering an unprecedented amount of backlash. They were just thankful the USJ incident wasn't that known thanks to the principal's quick thinking as connections, otherwise, they would get more than just backlash.

"If you're thinking about the punishment, then you're wrong," Izuku closed his eyes as he calmed himself from the surging emotions. Sure, he didn't care anymore, doesn't mean he can't feel emotions about it.

"O-oh… is that so…" Ochako sheepishly smiled, her fingers twitching at the uncomfortable silence between them.

"Oh, is that you? Midoriya? Uraraka?" Tenya spotted them from a few meters away and quickly caught up to them.

"Iida?" Ochako and Izuku looked at their glasses-wearing classmate. "I thought you would've been at school already?"

"… The… meeting yesterday made me a bit unaware of the time," Tenya paused for a moment before bouncing back to his original personality, namely, waving his arms like a robot. "Nevermind that. Hurry! Students should always be 10 minutes early!"

Tenya grabbed both of their arms and ran, dragging Ochako with him, while Izuku kept up easily.

"W-wait! Iida! I said wait!" Ochako complained between breaths as she struggled to keep up, only being able to because of Izuku and Tenya holding her arms with tight grips.

"Nonsense! We are already 5 minutes late!" Tenya kept on running, disregarding the pitiful state of his female classmate.

"IT ISN'T EVEN TIME FOR CLASS YET!" Ochako yelled between gasps.

Izuku observed. True, he might not have made a difference back in Lordran, but here… here he could. He would protect them… He would give up his life for them…

Because it's the only thing keeping him sane…

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Alright class, I have an announcement to make," Aizawa and his glorious mummified appearance shocked most of the class, but not the 7 who were at the meeting yesterday.

The class had pits in their stomachs because of their unease at Aizawa's sudden announcement.

"First of all, you're fight is not over yet," this got the whole class to make an uproar.

"What!? You mean more villains!?" most of the class exclaimed, while their resident pink-skinned, joyful party-maker kept quiet while she shivered.

"Hey, you okay, Mina?" her best friend, the invisible girl Tooru, patted her back with her unseen hand. Mina continued to keep quiet while trying her best not to shed a tear as she relieved the moments during the USJ.

"No, it's just the Sports Festival coming in the next two weeks," Aizawa naturally stated while he shrugged. This got the whole class to sit back down, exasperated at their teacher's sense of humor.

"Next announcement," again, the whole class tensed. "You will be having two new teachers to teach alongside All Might during your Heroics class."

Izuku faceplanted on the desk, causing everybody inside the room to look at the teen.

"Is Patches one of the teachers…?"

"… Unfortunately, yes…"

"… Great… Just great…"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Look, I know principal Nezu gave you jobs while the both of you are staying here… But teaching hero students…?"

Patches and Siegward look at Izuku with amused expressions, not that anybody could see the armored Onion Knight's face. Seeing the two Undead's body language, Izuku facepalmed, causing Patches to let out a snort and Siegward to chuckle good-heartedly.

"Yep. Damn rat got us teaching your class how to be heroes," Patches grinned, causing most of the class to wince at his somewhat malicious face. Bakugou took it as a challenge and snarled.

"… Sooo… You gonna teach us how to kick people off of cliffs and buildings?"

"Eh, pretty much," Patches shrugged while Izuku proceeded to smack his head on the wall. Ochako came running worryingly at the sight of Izuku slowly losing his sanity.

"Bet it takes a few days 'fore Midoriya loses his sanity."

"Deal," Mineta and Kaminari exchanged handshakes while the majority of the class looked upon the two with disgust.

Back to Izuku and Ochako…

"Heroes… Don't… Kick… People… Off… Of… Buildings…" Izuku monotoned every word after a good smack against the wall, not that it hurt him, instead, the wall was taking physical damage every time said smacking sound echoed.

"First time for everything," Patches gave a snarky reply while chuckling to himself. Siegward shook his head, a little miffed at his temporary partner's teasing.

"I AM HERE! READY TO TEA- What is Young Midoriya doing?" All Might barged into the group of teens with a confused smile.

"Just Patches being Patches," Izuku replied after he stopped smacking his head against the nearly destroyed wall.

"… Anyway, like I was saying," All Might coughed into his hand, gathering the attention of everybody in the group. "WELCOME TO ANOTHER CLASS OF HEROING 101! TODAY, WE'LL BE HAVING COMBAT TRAINING, BUT THIS TIME, YOU WILL ALL BE FACING THESE TWO GOOD MEN!"

All Might pointed his hand at the two Undead, one menacing with his Onion-themed armor, while the other was somewhere in between cunning and idiotic. The class nodded with the 6 who knew about them being Undead recalling the memory of Izuku's first encounter with monsters in Lordran.

"By the way, Professor, are you sure these two can keep up with us? No offense to you two," Kaminari, in all of his denseness and dumbness, naively remarked with a grin. Jirou facepalmed, not gathering the effort to try and poke him with his jacks, instead, she inwardly cackled to herself at his expense.

Namely, being subjected with a pointy spear at neck-point, courtesy of the bald Undead. Most of the class who didn't know they were Undead from the horrifying world of Lordran were shocked at the speed the bald man moved.

"So, you think you can take us, eh?" Patches retrieved his spear and held it firm on his side, a manic grin on his face. "Too bad, you'll probably be getting a spear through your throat if I really did want to kill ya."

"PATCHES! STAND DOWN!" All Might yelled from his spot, frozen due to not being able to react to Patches' speed, much to his chagrin. 'I'm getting old, and weakening… I need to give it soon…'

"All right, all right… Don't get yer panties in a twist," Patches smirked while he retreated to the side of the Onion man.

"AS YOU CAN SEE, YOUNG KAMINARI, THEIR SKILLS ARE UP TO PAR WITH HERO STANDARDS."

"I-I can s-see that…" Kaminari shivered as he could still feel the steel directly at his neck. Jirou was cackling while Mineta beside him promptly wetted himself slightly.

Good thing the diaper hid the stains.

"WELL THEN, ON WITH CLASS. EACH OF YOU WILL BE DIVIDED INTO 5 GROUPS, EACH HAVING FOUR MEMBERS," All Might brought out a familiar box that was used in their first day of Heroics class. "THE RULES ARE SIMPLE, CAPTURE THE VILLAINS. IF THE HEROES ARE UNABLE TO DO SO AFTER 15 MINUTES, THE VILLAINS WIN, AND SIMULTANEOUSLY, IF THE HEROES ARE UNABLE TO CONTINUE, THE VILLAINS WIN AS WELL."

"Professor!" Iida raised his hand straight up. All Might recognized the action and Iida began. "Do the Villains have capture tapes? From what I can discern from your explanation, they are encouraged to knock us out instead of capturing us."

"THAT IS CORRECT, YOUNG IIDA," All Might's response caused the majority of the class to shiver. "THIS IS PART OF YOUR TRAINING AS HEROES. NOT ALL VILLAINS WILL BE CAPTURING YOU WHEN YOU ARE DEFEATED. MOST WILL END IT THERE AND THEN, AS YOU ALL EXPERIENCED BACK AT THE USJ."

Now, most of the class were looking at the ground, their eyes going empty as they recalled the horrifying moments of the USJ. All Might looked at them with pained eyes.

'It was too early for them to experience.'

After a bit of cheering up from All Might, the class was now separated into their groups.

Team A: Mina Ashido, Toru Hagakure, Tenya Iida, Hanta Sero

Team B: Mashirao Ojiro, Tsuyu Asui, Shoto Todoroki, Momo Yaoyorozu

Team C: Minoru Mineta, Rikido Sato, Kyoka Jirou, Ochako Uraraka

Team D: Mezo Shoji, Katsuki Bakugo, Yuga Aoyama, Izuku Midoriya

Team E: Fumikage Tokoyami, Eijiro Kirishima, Koji Koda, Denki Kaminari

After being split into teams, all of them were led into a room where they couldn't see what the current team was doing against the two Undead.

"THIS TIME, YOU WON'T BE OBSERVING THE FIGHT, ALL OF YOU WILL REVIEW IT ON HOMEROOM WITH PROFESSOR AIZAWA TOMORROW MORNING," All Might declared, causing most of the class to disagree, but was promptly shut up with All Might's stern glare. "NOW I KNOW YOU WON'T BE LEARNING ANYTHING IF YOU DON'T SEE THEIR TACTICS, BUT THIS IS LEARNING IN AND OF ITSELF. I WANT ALL OF YOU TO LEARN HOW TO GO IN SITUATIONS BLIND, USING THE TINY AMOUNT OF INFORMATION GIVEN TO TURN THE WAVES IN YOUR TIDE."

"NOW THEN, FIRST TEAM, FOLLOW ME," Mina, Hagakure, Iida, and Sero followed All Might into their testing area.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"How do you think this will go?" Mineta asked, a little scared about going against those two who seemed they were out of their leagues.

He was right.

"If all of you underestimate them, you will lose, badly," Izuku replied nonchalantly.

"Such darkness in their hearts, do you perchance know of them, Midoriya?" Fumikage tilted his head, somewhat like a bird would do.

"Yes, they are Undead, like me," Izuku tapped the gold dagger that was currently on his lap. "Survivors of that accursed land."

"… We're fucked," Bakugo promptly declared. He was mellowing out, and with the experience in the USJ, now knew when and where to back out. That said, he still won't give up if there was no other choice, that, and his mouth was as bad as ever.

"Uh, hello, do you see who's in your team?" Kaminari exaggeratedly pointed at Izuku who was busy maintaining the weapons he was about to use in the upcoming fight.

"… Let me rephrase that, you're fucked," Bakugo declared with a straight face, causing Kaminari to cringe.

"… Good thing Iida isn't here. Wouldn't want to start a verbal war right now," Sato gently held a pack of sugar in his pack.

It was a few minutes later that the next team was called to head upon the testing area (slaughterhouse).

"Hey, isn't it weird that they're not coming back?" Kaminari said with unease visible, sweat pooling at his back.

"Duh, doofus, of course, they're not coming back. They aren't allowed to share information about the fight," Jirou poked at him with her jacks.

"Gah! Stop poking me!"

"Hey Deku, how strong are they anyway?" Ochako asked with an innocent face. Izuku saw through the façade and countered.

With a gesture of zipping his mouth.

"… Drat…" Ochako silently cursed under her breath.

'It's a learning opportunity, you need to learn how to go in blind, fellow Undead,' Izuku thought while checking his armor next. The various mistakes he made by rushing in blindly back in Lordran a very stark reminder as to why learning how to go in blind is a very crucial component of staying alive on a battlefield.

After a few more minutes of waiting and the next team was called upon. Ochako made one last-ditch effort to coax information out of Izuku, only to be rewarded with silence.

The rest of the time was spent in silence, either psyching themselves up or maintaining their gear. Tactics and strategy could be discussed upon seeing the area where they are located.

At last, it was time for the next team. Izuku, Bakugo, Aoyama, and Shoji all stood up and headed towards their destination.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"All right, oi, Midoriya, you know the both of them more than we do," Bakugo started while he stared at his gauntlets, before settling back on Izuku.

"Yes, yes, I know," Izuku looked among the group. Katsuki for damage and aggro, Aoyama for pokes, and Shoji for recon. "Patches won't fight conventionally, he will do everything inside a book called, 'How to fuck with your enemies and laugh while they struggle 101' to mess with you, and then finish you. Siegward, however, I have 0 experience with, although if my hunch is correct, he is most likely a tank that can soak up damage while dishing out equal pain with that huge sword of his."

"… Question, is that book real? Cause I want it," Bakugo replied with a straight face, causing Izuku to chuckle, while the two who heard the title of the book and its sheer ridiculousness paled with fright.

No matter what, Bakugo must not have that book if it is indeed real.

"Who knows," Izuku turned around and took a closer look at the building. "Anyway, the plan is simple, Shoji will keep an ear out for any noise, smell, or anything that can pinpoint where the locations of Siegward and Patches are. If Patches arrives, I will handle him with Shoji assisting me. You two will stay back and be ready in case Siegward comes, and in that case, Bakugo, you go up close and personal to hold him off while Aoyama provides support fire."

All of them nodded at the plan and waited for the signal to start… That said…

"There is no signal, huh?"

"… We've been waiting for 2 minutes, so yeah…"

"… Alright, let's go."

Chapter Text

The group of teens and one Undead hurriedly rushed into the building. Once they entered, all of them stopped and listened for any kind of signs which could pinpoint earlier activity.

"Shoji, anything?"

"None so far," Shoji used his tentacles to mimic noses and ears to get a better grasp of the surroundings. There was no sound nor smell out of place in the building.

"Strange, I hoped that since they were Undead, they would smell like corpses," Shoji muttered to himself, which Izuku managed to pick up with his superior senses.

"Careful Shoji, thinking of Undead like that would cost you," Izuku apathetically stared at Shoji, much to his chagrin. "I'm not talking about feelings, I'm talking about cunning and wits, and if Patches is anything to go by, one misstep and you're done."

"... Noted," Shoji gulped air as he redoubled his efforts to sense the surroundings for the two Undead.

"... Alright, looking for them is a death sentence in and of itself," Izuku whispered to his group. Who knew if Patches was close by listening to their every word? "Bakugo, blast some holes on the walls but don't touch the pillars. I don't want this whole building crashing down on us."

Bakugo nodded in affirmation and his sweat that was already on his hand sparked. The next moment, he blasted a hole in the wall leading to a room nearby. One glance at the hole and everybody was able to see the insides of the room.

'Alright, 1st room clear,' Izuku brought out a catalyst, specifically, Logan's Catalyst. It basically looks like a wizard's staff if found on a movie set, but if looked closely, you could sense the lingering aura of the now-deceased great sorcerer and seeker of knowledge, Big Hat Logan.

After having killed Logan as an act of mercy (Izuku hated every second of it), he found this staff inside a small library room in the Duke's Archive.

"Gather here, now." Izuku's no-nonsense tone had the other teenagers quickly gather around. With a wave of the staff, the bodies of the group of students glowed for a second before vanishing. Another wave of the staff and their bodies became transparent.

The group of teenagers – sans Izuku and Shoji who had a mask on – had their jaws drop to the ground.

"... Wha-"

"Quiet, now listen carefully," Izuku glared at Aoyama, who was having panic attacks at not being his usual glittery self. "I've masked our sounds and made our bodies harder to see. With this, Bakugo can move up to a wall and blast it without being noticed. That said, the blast will still have noise, but your approach won't."

"... Hm, useful," Bakugo smirked as a maddened glint appeared in his eyes. The endless possibilities!

The remaining two shivered in fear.

"... Follow the plan," Izuku warned and everybody nodded.

So, like that, they rushed through the first floor and second floor, blasting walls to make holes big enough to see enough of the room to get a confirmation it was empty.

It wasn't until 7 minutes into the match where they encountered a heavy armored Siegward visibly combat-ready with his trusty Zweihander in his right hand and spiked shield on his left.

"Hmm... I must say, you young ones have so much energy. Breaking walls to potentially catch my... co-worker off-guard, as well as clear the room of suspicion," Siegward pointed the pointy end of his Zweihander towards Izuku, a smirk on his face hidden by the onion-themed helmet. "Hmm... Truly, marvelous, I tip my hat, or in this case, my helmet to you, fellow Undead."

"... You really are alike," Izuku muttered under his breath, his helmet hiding his genuine smile. In case you were wondering, Izuku was wearing the Elite Knight Set. He sometimes switched between the Artorias Set for speed, Havel Set for Defence, and the Elite Knight Set for general use.

Sure, he could use other armor that was just clothes to lighten him up more. Hell, if this world had no laws, he would go full-blown naked just to get that extra speed needed to dodge attacks.

Ahhh... He still remembered killing those damned Bell Gargoyles with nothing but the Drake Sword and a loincloth.

Good times...

Anyway, Izuku mused long enough to himself. He gestured towards Bakugo, who was beginning to get antsy for action if his twitching hands were any indication.

Taking this as the go-ahead, Bakugo forgot all restraint and went HAM on Siegward, with Aoyama occasionally blasting a beam of pure light and glitters at the Onion Knight.

Loud explosions echoed throughout the room, halls, building, and the general area where they were battling. Siegward, a veteran of life and death battles, effortlessly parried, blocked, and dodged Bakugo's relentless attacks.

Although the body obscuring sorcery as well as the muffling sorcery was a bit irritating to the Knight, it wasn't enough to drastically impair his battle senses.

That's how Siegward was able to survive in that desolate place.

The only reason why Izuku was hit by Bakugo during their Battle Trials was that Izuku was becoming rusty. 10 months of no fighting would do that to any veteran.

That said, he recovered from his fight with the Abyss Watchers. Now, Izuku was sure no one in his class could touch him, well, maybe Bakugo, Iida, and Todoroki could, but that was if they were lucky and Izuku wasn't paying attention.

Which would never happen.

He wrote off Momo because of her self-confidence issue, as well as her sub-par decision-making due to said self-confidence issue. It can be fixed in the future, making her a possible threat if they ever fight, but right now, she was nothing more than an insect compared to Izuku's hardened skills.

Bakugo blasted himself to the right using his explosive sweat. Not a moment later, the business end of a giant sword was piercing where his stomach would've been had he not dodged.

Bakugo was sweating, he knew a losing battle when he saw one. Sparkles was already down for the count, his stomach roaring in protest at the abuse it was going through.

'Heh... Fucking hell,' Bakugo launched propelled himself to the air, his eyes not leaving the figure of the Onion Knight. One look at his posture and Bakugo saw that he was holding back considerably. In the past, this would've sent him on a warpath, but now...

'Goddamn, fucking Onion Teach's no ass,' Bakugo grinned as he pumped himself to full throttle. 'But that's even better!'

"PLUS ULTRA!" Bakugo roared as his senses went into overdrive. He was pretty sure he would collapse once this fight was over, but he didn't care. He was fighting against an incredibly powerful opponent, and this was a very huge opportunity to fix the mistakes in his fighting style.

For all of his life, ever since he got his Quirk, everybody always praised him, fueling his ego until it got big as Jupiter itself. It was only until recently that he had a wake-up call, but that wasn't the point.

The point was that there was no one willing to fight him at full power, Izuku doesn't count.

Now though, there was a living training dummy that used a huge ass sword that could take his hits and come out none the worse.

It was the perfect opportunity.

Bakugo dodged a stab and countered with a blast to the legs. It was dodged and he was briefly blindsided by a shield that hit his side. Spit came flying from his mouth, but he took this as an opening.

Grabbing the shield arm, Bakugo blasted himself upward while tightly gripping on said arm. Siegward was briefly surprised before using his strength to regain his center of balance. However, due to the sudden jerk of force, Siegward failed and was briefly hoisted up in the air.

Bakugo grinned at his success, then proceeded to rain down explosions on the Onion Knight's armor, his eyes never leaving the upper half body of Siegward who was defenseless against the explosions.

Sadly, Bakugo forgot one rule in battle, and that was to never let your enemy out of your sight, even if it was just half of his body.

Sharp pain on his nether regions caused him to cry in shock and pass out due to the pain.

Shoji, who saw this covered up his balls and whimpered.

"... I didn't think you could do a high kick with that armor..." Izuku winced in sympathy towards a Bakugo who was frothing at the mouth.

"Oh! Er... Forgive me, young lad," Siegward quickly crouched down to appease the frothing teen. Sadly, Bakugo was completely unconscious due to the pain.

Meanwhile, All Might was seen coughing up large amounts of blood due to the... trauma-inducing scene before him.

Back to the fight...

Aoyama was paled-faced as he bore witness to the jewel crushing that happened to his teammate. Couple that with the pain in his bowels, he passed out on the floor.

"... I hope the blonde lad forgives me... Hmm... Quite a pickle indeed," Siegward muttered as he sat down and brought out a flask, the famous Siegbrau drink.

"... Great Gwyn above... I'd hate to be that guy," a voice piped in from the sideline. Shoji quickly snapped towards the voice to see a fully armed Patches. "Ah ah ah, unless you want one of yer limbs amputated, you best stop glaring at me like that."

"That said, I would still cut it off either way," Patches tapped the ground with the butt of his spear, a large tower shield, capable of hiding his entire body behind it on his left arm.

Izuku made a split-second decision to dash towards Patches and slash at him with his broadsword. Patches deftly blocked the slash and countered with a stab with his spear. Izuku spotted an opportunity and parried the stab skillfully with his shield.

Patches lost his center of gravity due to the parry and tried to recover, only to get the business end of the broadsword to his side, and with his armor being simple cloth, a huge gash formed on his body, blood dripping from the open wound.

Patches winced and chuckled, before getting a kick to the face, courtesy of Izuku, towards a shocked Shoji. Quickly taking the hint, Shoji used his massive strength to knock out Patches who was lying on the ground due to a concussion.

Being kicked with a metal boot on your unprotected bald head would do that to you.

A few seconds later, Patches could be seen unmoving on the ground with a huge slash wound at his side and a bruised face. Izuku then looked towards Siegward who was finished with his drink.

"As a Knight of Catarina, an honorable duel with a Lord of Cinder would bring me great joy," Siegward raised his Zweihander to his shoulder. Izuku knew his weapon would not work with his current enemy, so he swapped the broadsword with something better for this situation.

He brought out Smough's Great Hammer.

Shoji paled at the huge hammer, imagined himself getting hit with that... thing. He quickly shook it off. Siegward however took it in stride, although, he knew he was at a huge disadvantage.

Izuku was the first to move, his speed mind-boggling for a figure wearing full body armor and hefting a giant hammer twice the size of the wielder. Izuku brought down the hammer against the Onion Knight.

Siegward dodged to the side and brought out a talisman while Izuku stopped the hammer an inch just before hitting the floor. The strength of the strike brought out a strong gust of wind that was able to push back Shoji who was a heavyweight.

A quick prayer and Siegward's body began to glow before the light faded. Izuku had no idea what it was but prepared for the worst.

Izuku once again charged, and instead of smashing it downwards, Izuku swiped it sidewards. Siegward backstepped the attack, before counterattacking with an overhead swipe.

Izuku used the force of the hammer to continue into a sideward roll since he knew Siegward wouldn't be able to change the course of his sword due to its weight.

The sword landed on the floor causing cracks to appear. Izuku ignored this and continued with his swing, and since Siegward had no choice but to block it with his shield, he just did so.

A sickening crunch later and Siegward found himself soaring through the sky out of the building.

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"What a fight, fellow Undead!" Siegward boisterously claimed as he shared his Siegbrau with Izuku, who in turn accepted the drink with a smile. "If it wasn't for my miracle, I would've ended up dead again!"

Izuku nodded as he partook in the drinking festivity with the Onion Knight. From what he could garner from his fellow Undead Onion Knight, the miracle he used was called Sacred Oath. It enchants his sword, shield, and armor to deal more damage, as well as take more punishment.

A fine miracle to use against countless other adversaries.

It was the day after they fought, just a few minutes before class. Siegward was waiting in class, probably ordered to as a hero assistant.

The other students who went up against him shivered.

It was no wonder why they did so. None of their plans, schemes, and attacks worked. Whatever countermeasure they had in mind failed utterly against the Onion Knight who had a vast amount of experience in life-or-death battles.

Especially against grouped enemies, the major reason why he chose to use the Zweihander in the first place.

As for Patches, he was smiling smugly at the rest of the teens. His injuries yesterday were patched up and healed by the Undead's favorite drink, Estus.

Uraraka hated him to the bone if a kick off the window was any indication.

Thank God for Zero Gravity, the same couldn't be said for her stomach.

A few minutes later of pointless banter and Aizawa came in, his mummy cosplay still in effect. He headed to the teacher's desk, just beside the two standing Undead, and registered his student's faces.

'They look like they had fun,' Aizawa rolled his eyes towards the students, a smirk hidden behind the bandages.

"I've reviewed your battles, and from what I could observe, all of you are sorely lacking in improvisation," Aizawa remarked while showing a few scenes of their defeat against the two Undead. "That said, you all were up against a foe that you could not beat, but that's par for the course in the Hero business."

Most of the students' winced at Aizawa's harsh words, but could not refute any due to how true they were. Hero business was no longer their career to quick fame, richness, success. Instead, it was now full of traps, obstacles, and death waiting at every turn.

"Anyway, I've scolded you all enough, here are the videos of your beating," Aizawa clicked a button and a huge Television screen lighted up, before showing a scene of Team A fighting against the two Undead.

"Your plan was solid, with little to no flaws," Aizawa paused the video right before they started fighting. "But your opponents were not conventional fighters, I suggest you brush up on your creativity in planning before trying to undertake a fight against a cunning opponent."

A quick view of Iida distracting Siegward came to view, with Sero throwing tape around the area in hopes of trapping the bald Undead, but not too much that it would hinder the speed of their speedster.

Mina was with Hagakure, the pink-skinned teen throwing sticky liquid instead of harmful acid towards the heavily armored Onion Knight in hopes of slowing him down more, while the invisible teen was waiting for the right time to strike against the bald Undead.

The first mistake was thinking that Siegward would slow down from the hindering liquid.

He did not.

The next was using tape to trap Patches, who was wielding a very sharp spear that could cut through it easily from a distance.

And whoever thought that they could not sense invisible enemies were just waiting to be blown into the next universe.

Siegward threw the liquid towards Iida using slashes that voluntarily missed, slowing the speedster in the process. Sero saw this and tried to wrap the Knight in tape, but was foiled by a collision, courtesy of his naked, invisible classmate.

Patches then proceeded to distract Mina while Siegward pounded Iida to the moon with the hilt of his Zweihander once he caught him due to his slowness. Once Iida was unconscious, Mina was next, and you could say the both of them triggered a bad memory inside Mina's head, which caused her to fight like a rabid animal while flinging lethal acid everywhere without any inhibitions.

Sad to say, her classmates were hit, though not that bad since the two Undead were able to subdue the rabid student. Iida had to repair his suit, Sero was lucky since Hagakure was on top of him, but the same couldn't be said to the invisible girl.

The reason why she was currently absent with Mina feeling incredibly guilty.

'Note to self, continue her therapy after class,' Aizawa mentally stored the information in his brain. Sure, the rest of the class were still receiving therapy, but most were already beginning to recover.

The next scene proceeded to play.

"Okay, first off, I would like to remind all of you to remember your teammates' weaknesses and strengths," Aizawa showed a clip where Tsuyu went into hibernation mid-fight against Siegward while Shoto was using his flames to simultaneously attack Siegward and warm the hibernation frog-teen. "If this ever happened in the middle of a real fight, there would be a disastrous consequence."

"Next off, practice your split-second decision making, as well as adaptability," Aizawa then pressed another button to show a clip of Momo taking too much time to react against Patches, thus getting bonked in the head with the butt of his spear, leading to her crashing on the ground. After that, Ojiro was ultimately beaten down with skills and unpredictable moves because Ojiro could not get into a stance to counter said attacks.

The clip continued to the next team.

"Mineta," Aizawa's icy tone froze the midget in his place. "One more stunt like that, and you will be expelled, no questions asked, understand?"

"Y-y-y-yes-s s-s-si-siirrr!" Mineta shook uncontrollably while glares of disgust radiated off from Uraraka and Jirou, as well as the two Undead.

The clip won't be shown to the students, but what happened was Mineta tried to help, but instead, got distracted with the... jiggling boobs of the brunette due to Patches playing around with her, and not in the lewd way mind you.

That distraction was enough for Patches to knock him out with a solid kick to the head.

"Also, more brawn does not necessarily equate to more chances of winning, if the said consequence was the degrading of your mental faculties," Aizawa showed the class a clip of Sato ingesting too much sugar to increase his strength, only to fail at fighting Siegward due to being easily exploitable from his predictable attacks.

Kyoka was, all in all, doing good, but her good was not enough so she was knocked out by Siegward as well. She was just outmatched, the same could be said for Uraraka who had no hand-to-hand combat experience as she tried to grab ahold of the slippery bald Undead.

"Piece of advice, learn some type of CQC (Close Quarters Combat) or CQB (Close Quarters Battle). It might save your life one day," Aizawa stated with a glare. Uraraka nodded meekly, with Jirou looking sheepish.

Another click and the next video was playing.

Aizawa remembered this one, and winced sympathetically towards Bakugo's suffering... Although, this could be good to troll the class, so why the hell not show it to them?

"For this team, I suggest better teamwork," Aizawa eyed Midoriya, though, from the viewing, he could tell that he was a lone-wolf type. "And also, Aoyama, try and ask the Support Department to see if you can remove that side-effect, or if not possible, lessen it instead."

The now not-so-sparkly teen nodded solemnly.

Then the video arrived at the part where Bakugo had his balls crushed by a metal boot. Needless to say, Bakugo cringed at the sight. The feeling was not pleasant, AT ALL. The rest of the males, sans Izuku, drew back, feeling phantom pains, while the females expressed their condolences towards the explosive teen.

Then it showed Izuku demolishing the two Undead with skills and strength far superior to them if the giant hammer was any indication. Their eyes widened at the sight of Siegward flying out of the building from just a swing of a hammer, granted it was a giant one.

The next team clip was next and it showed Fumikage being beaten by a rejuvenated Patches, with Eijiro falling from fatigue by holding back Siegward, who was a bit shocked by Kaminari sending his entire brain cells to oblivion from one massive electric attack.

"Wheeeeyyyy!"

It hurt like hell, but nothing the Onion Knight couldn't handle. Koda was completely useless because of no animals in sight and his refusal to use his quirk on bugs and insects, not that it would deter the two Undead in combat.

Living as a walking corpse would do that to you.

"Koda, my advice to you is to get over your fear of insects. Kaminari, don't rely on one big attack that would send you out of commission. You never know what your opponent could do if he endures the attack. Tokoyami, also try to get some experience on CQC and CQB, and don't always rely on your quirk. Kirishima, don't always tank the hits, if you can, dodge it to avoid losing more stamina."

Aizawa clicked one more button and the T.V. shut off.

"Anyway, reviews are over. Wait for your next teacher to come in. In any case, dismissed."

A quick round of "Yes, sir!" was heard throughout the room and Siegward and Patches followed Aizawa out of the room.

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A few minutes before lunch...

Izuku had a tick mark on his head. One thing he remembered fondly while he was back in Lordran was eating, and the annoying students who were perched outside their classroom blocking their route made him want to bring out Smough's Greathammer and smack the nearest student into red paste.

"Excuse me, but can you please move aside?" Izuku politely asked the students who were blocking his way. "I'm hungry and lunch won't last long."

Nobody moved. All of them were curious as to what happened at the USJ. All of them, as well as their parents, were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements about the whole incident that sent a whole class of Hero students to the hospital, with others in very, very bad states.

For Todoroki though, who lost an arm, a cover-up was quickly made. A training accident happened, and in Hero careers, it was not uncommon to lose a limb due to a mistake, although the amount of flak U.A. got from it was pretty harsh, it was a better outcome than showing what truly happened at the USJ.

It was at that moment a purple-haired teen began walking up to them with a scowl. He took a glance at Izuku, then towards his posse, a.k.a. Bakugo, Uraraka, Kirishima, Jirou, and Momo.

"Are you Hero students? You don't look like much," and with one sentence, Izuku already didn't like the student. If he had to guess, he was a General Studies student that was rejected from the Hero Course.

One glance and Izuku scoffed. Bakugo as well, scowled at the purple-haired teen.

'This damn extra, mocking me! I went through hell to get here!'

Bakugo approached the teen and gave him his best menacing glare. The purple-haired teen winced slightly but schooled his expression into a disinterested look.

"What's it to ya, damn extra? If you think you have a chance in fucking hell to get into the Hero course, think again creepy weirdo! Not with that body, you ain't!" Bakugo poked a finger at the stomach of the purple-haired teen, feeling soft, flabby flesh instead of rock-hard abs. The teen took a step back from the poke and glared at Bakugo.

'This is what he is? Pathetic, fucking extra.'

"Bakugo, enough, let's go," Izuku calmed the explosive teen and went on their way towards the cafeteria.

"Oh, you'll see," the purple-haired teen muttered to himself as he was left behind by the ground. "I will prove you all wrong."

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The two weeks came and gone. Students in and interested in the hero course trained and practiced, in hopes of having a fair chance at winning the whole festival.

Izuku sat on the bench, briefly thinking about what the future holds.

'I know the Abyss Watchers were all made into a Lord of Cinder, and if so, are others coming here?' Izuku was brought out of his musing when a hand grasped his shoulders.

"Come on, Deku, the festival's starting."

Izuku stood up and faced the speaker, the rosy-cheeked brunette smiled at him, which he returned slightly.

"Alright," Izuku followed. No use thinking of it now since there weren't any leads to them.

It was while they were walking towards the gate did they get stopped by a certain half-and-half teenager.

"Midoriya, a minute please," Shoto tilted his head sideways, a curious but stern gaze directed at Izuku.

"Ochako, leave us for a moment," Izuku focused on the one-armed teen. Once they were alone, with no one to witness their interaction did Shoto speak.

"You're stronger than me, and probably the strongest student here," Shoto began, Izuku staring at him with curious eyes. "But that will not stop me, I will beat you, with both my powers."

"Hm, challenge accepted," Izuku replied, an amused smile hanging on his face. With that, Shoto made his way back to the entrance gate towards the stadium. Izuku followed incredibly thick silence gracing the two students as they continued.

Ochako, as well as the rest of her peers, saw the two teens gracing their presence with their silent personas.

"Finally, you're here," Bakugo grinned madly, an excited glint in his eyes told Izuku everything he needed to know. "I will beat you, and I will prove I am better than you!"

Izuku made a silent reply, and that was an accepting nod.

"Dude, what the hell are with these declarations of war?" Kirishima sweatdropped, a little bit taken aback by the happenings in his class, but then rebounded into a hint of excitement. "But it's so manly! Midoriya! Everybody! I won't lose!"

The rest of the students who are in class 1-A nodded with enthusiasm. So, what if they were dwarfed by some of their peers, they won't give up, not when everybody here was giving it their all.

"AND NOW! THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! GIVE IT UP FOR THE HERO STUDIES! CLASS 1-A AND 1-B TAKE THE STAGE!"

It was a few hours later, everything went to utter hell.

Chapter Text

"Come in, come in," a voice from behind the door prompted Izuku to enter the room. The door opened, leading to a sight of a white-furred animal hybrid. "Now, sit down. You wanted to meet me?"

Izuku took a seat from across the table. A little while later of trying to get comfortable in his seat did Izuku relax and direct his full attention towards the white-furred animal hybrid.

"Principal Nezu, I have a... proposal to make for the Sports Festival," Izuku ignored the sudden cease of movement from the principal, his ever-present grin still on display for everybody to see.

"Hmm... A proposal you say?" Nezu hopped off his seat and headed towards the side of the room. Within that part, a table was laid with a pile of paperwork on top of its desk, its staggering amount a look into the principal's ever worrying job. "What kind of proposal? As you can see, various other proposals are sent to me from our sponsors, which in turn dictates how the Sports Festival goes."

Nezu walked back to his highchair and climbed atop it, his eyes no longer held mirth and amusement, but instead frustration and disappointment.

"It may come off as aggravating as it sounds like, but U.A. would just be another school without said sponsors," Nezu leaned back into his chair, a myriad of emotions passing through eyes as Izuku gleamed through dead eyes.

"This is the reason why I wanted to make this proposal in the first place," Izuku motioned to the pile of paperwork. "Something is telling me that the Age of Heroes is coming to an end, and no, I'm not referring to the retirement of All Might."

"Is this about your memories from the cursed place?" Nezu propped himself back up, his elbows resting on the table as he focused on Izuku's eyes. "Or is it from the USJ incident?"

"Both, actually," Izuku admitted with a sigh. "I've been having visions, one with a future where no form of life walks among the Earth. You may not believe me, but based on evidence alone, you know I am correct."

Nezu pondered to himself the harsh and very controversial topic Izuku decided to bombard him with. He was right, the pieces of evidence were all there: The viewing, as designated by the students, the unknown Villains, or as Izuku called them, Heroes of a forgotten era who sacrificed everything to protect those they cherished, and most of all, Izuku himself.

His very existence is an anomaly this world is better off without, in Nezu's opinion. He alone could decide whether to burn the entire world or nurture it into a brighter future.

"... Very well," Nezu conceded to the Undead being in front of him. "Tell me, what would you like changed in the Sports Festival."

"Is it possible to let the events focus solely on combat?"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"AND NOW! THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! GIVE IT UP FOR THE HERO STUDIES! CLASS 1-A AND 1-B TAKE THE STAGE!"

Izuku and the rest of the Hero Studies Program walked out the tunnel with their head held high, although it could be said that some others would like to be anywhere but there currently, namely: Mina Ashido and some others who were still traumatized by the USJ incident.

The stadium erupted into cheers, though, not to the extent of an Olympic event. It was because of covering up the USJ incident that only a significant amount of people attended the event personally. It was mostly the Second-Years and the Third-Years that drew the most attention of the populace due to how entertaining it is.

For the most part, the First-Years were no slouches either, but comparing them to the other years was like comparing a toddler to an adult.

There was a reason why most First-Year events lasted either too quickly, or too long.

"NEXT! THEY'RE AMBITIOUS, THEY'RE RELENTLESS, AND MOST OF ALL, THEY WON'T STOP GUNNING FOR THE HERO CLASS! GIVE IT UP FOR THE GENERAL COURSES! CLASS 1-C, 1-D, AND 1-E!"

As the group of Hero students continued onward towards the center of the stadium, the next batch of students entered the stadium through a different tunnel, all of them glaring at their Hero Study counterparts while wearing the same PE uniform as them.

"IF YOU ALL THINK QUIRKS ARE EVERYTHING, THINK AGAIN! WITH WITS, SMARTS, AND INTELLIGENCE WITH STRENGTH ENOUGH TO LUG AROUND HEAVY MACHINES, IT'S THE SUPPORT COURSE! CLASS 1-F, 1-G, AND 1-H!"

The moment the Hero Studies reached the center, a new batch of students entered the arena, this time, all of them lugging around some kind of contraption to use in the event.

"AND LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST, THESE STUDENTS WOULD BEAT YOU ANYDAY AT MATH, AND MATH, AND ESPECIALLY MATH, LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE BUSINESS COURSE! CLASS 1-I, 1-J, AND 1-K!"

With this final announcement, the rest of the students of the First-Year petered in through another tunnel entrance. Instead of the usual P.E. uniform of U.A., they were instead dressed in smart-looking clothes, the type a businessman would wear.

Once all the students were in their place at the center of the arena, Midnight, who was now the main center of attraction, mainly to the males, brought out a whip and smacked it to the ground, hard. This caused most people to jump at the sound of a crackling whip.

"Now that I have your attention without it being in the gutter," a bunch of females glared at their male company who shied away from them, "let me officially announce the start of the Sports Festival with a bang."

A bunch of explosions lit up the morning sky along with the roar of the crowd.

"Now, onto the first list of things, a speech!" Midnight licked her lips, then followed it with a crackling snap from the whip which she held.

'She's not bad at using that,' Izuku recalled the times he used the whip in Lordran. There was a greater number of times he hit himself with the whip instead of the enemy, which prompted him to drop using it altogether.

"From our top student from the Entrance Exams, Midoriya Izuku!"

This got the attention of everybody in the stadium. They all wondered who the top scorer of the exam was, and now they were going to see him in the flesh.

Izuku took it as the signal to move, so he moved through the crowd of students who parted to give way to him.

He walked up the stage then grabbed the microphone from Midnight's hand. He scanned the crowd, students and audience alike. All of them were waiting for his so-called speech.

So, he gave them one.

"Git Gud."

With that single phrase, Izuku returned the microphone towards a stunned Midnight as he retreated to his original spot, amongst the stunned crowd of students, while Aizawa was at his spot on the commentator's seat giving him a look of approval.

Everything was silent until Midnight decided it was best to continue the event instead of waiting around in silence like a moron.

"W-well then, with the speech done, if that ever was a speech, we can now commence the first event for the Sports Festival! Everybody excited?"

Midnight snapped the whip back at the ground and licked her lips seductively towards the audience, causing no small amount of nose-bleeding among the crowd.

"Allow me to direct your attention to the Jumble-o-Tron to the side of the stadium," Midnight pointed at the finger, with most of the crowd following said finger with... not so Christian thoughts.

"Our first event is where most of the competition will be weeded out, so if you aren't able to advance, then better luck next year," Midnight snapped the whip on the ground once more. "The Hero Business is a dog-eat-dog world and my words of encouragement to you all. Plus Ultra!"

Most of the students yelled in determination, along with the crowd seated in their seats.

The Jumble-o-Tron began spinning. A few seconds later, it stopped and the result was shown for everybody watching to see.

[Battle Royale]