Chapter Text
The woods in Musutafu were large and thick. The trees seemed to swallow whatever came in, which is likely why there had been a chain link fence placed at the entrance. There were a fair share of rumors and legends tied to these woods, stories of danger lurking deep in them, completely separating the hidden depths from the rest of society. Most people stayed away from these woods, leaving them well alone.
All the more reason Midoriya Izuku was running into them.
Now, he wasn't abandoning his home, oh no. His okaasan and otousan were too special to just up and leave. They gave him food and clothes and warm hugs and let him talk on and on about Heroes. They were great, wonderful parents.
Really, they were the only ones who respected him.
Izuku stopped running when he came across a wooden log that functioned as a makeshift bridge for the small stream that flowed through the woods. He stared at the log, memories rushing to the forefront of his mind. It was hard to believe that about three years ago, he tried to help out Kacchan and got slapped away in response. Kacchan hadn't quite been the same since that day. He seemed to enjoy messing with Izuku.
He was the reason Izuku ran into the woods today. He needed somewhere safe to be alone.
Carefully, he crossed over the log. Once reaching the other side, he kept running. He had no idea where he was going, which in hindsight might have been a bit of a mistake. He should have stopped once the trees stopped looking familiar. Yet he kept pushing on, trying to become as hidden as possible.
Eventually, he stopped running as his body screamed for air. He leaned against a tree, panting as he tried to regain his strength. He looked up and saw just how much less light came into the woods here. This wasn't somewhere he and Kacchan would play. This was new, and a bit scary to be totally honest.
He sat down, back against the tree. Curling his knees up to his chest, he decided it would be best to just stay here for a while. If he didn't know where he was, then surely no one else would either, right? He could rest up here and return home later.
The silence in the woods kept him from relaxing. Barely any animals made a noise, and even the wind was quieter than usual. It felt unnatural, weird. Maybe that's why no one came back here. He buried his head in his knees, hoping the woods would stop being creepy if he stopped looking at them.
Then something broke the silence.
Izuku pulled his head up and looked towards his right. Something was causing a bunch of leaves to rustle. The thing itself was making lots of thumping sounds, which only grew louder the closer it came. Was it a monster? Was there really a monster living in this part of the woods? Was that why it was so spooky?
Izuku stood up and prepared to run in case there was a monster ready to eat him. He leaned in closer to the noise. The same sounds were still there, though this time something new accompanied them. A weird sound, one of mumbling. Panicked mumbling at that. The thing, whatever it was, was nervous about... being late for something? How strange.
There was no way the thing could have known he was coming, so it wasn't like it was late to eat him. Did it even know there was someone else in these woods?
Izuku slowly approached the path the thing seemed to be approaching. Shortly after that, a bush started shaking and something fast and white burst out of it. The thing was small, though, so even though it was running for its life, Izuku could still get a good look at it. It was fluffy, with long ears, red eyes, and a round tail that looked a lot like a cotton ball. Despite it looking like a rabbit, it was standing upright and running on its hind legs. It also had on one of those fancy old-timey glasses that only covered one eye– a monocle, he later found out– along with a vest with one of those pockets with cloth sticking out of it. It also held onto a very pretty pocket watch, which it kept checking frantically.
Turns out this was the source of all the thumping and the mumbling. But how could a rabbit be doing all that? Was it another animal with a Quirk? They were very rare, but not impossible. Just about everyone knew UA was run by Nedzu, and Nedzu was an animal with a Quirk. Maybe this rabbit was like Nedzu after all? Izuku's mind kept buzzing with questions. Unfortunately, his mind was buzzing with so many that looking away for a few seconds to thinking about his questions let the rabbit leave his sight.
"Wait!" Izuku called out. He started running after the strange rabbit, following the sounds and the path it left behind. He just couldn't let this chance run away from him!
The rabbit was fast, but Izuku was faster, even after being tired from his first run. It certainly didn't hurt that he had longer legs than it. It wasn't long before Izuku was right on the rabbit's tail and lunged out to catch him.
By some miracle, it worked. As the dust settled, Izuku saw that he was now holding the strange rabbit in his hands.
"I actually did it!" He shouted. Then it hit him that he caught something that likely didn't want to be caught. After all, he would be angry if someone caught him. But he couldn't just let the rabbit go! It surely bolt away from him then! "I'm sorry, Rabbit-san! Please don't be too mad at me! I just wanna talk!"
"Well, you couldn't have picked a worse time to talk!" The rabbit said, squirming in his hands. The rabbit sounded very prim and proper, like the people in those strange English shows from England that okaasan liked to watch for some strange reason. "I'm very late, and Her Majesty is going to have my head if I don't get back to her royal court very, very soon!"
"You work for a queen?!" Izuku asked, bubbling with excitement. "I didn't know there was a queen here in Japan! Much less one who owns a rabbit that has a Quirk! Tell me more, tell me more!”
“First of all, I’m not owned by anyone!” The rabbit huffed. “And second of all, I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about by the word ‘Quirk’. Third of all, my queen isn't here in this place. My queen is back home, in Wonderland, which is where I need to be heading to right now." The rabbit kept squirming before suddenly stopping. It looked shocked, which Izuku didn't know rabbits could do. "Oh my stars, I wasn't supposed to mention that. Do me a favor and forget what I said."
Izuku did exactly the opposite. This rabbit had mysteries to it, and he wanted to know more. Especially since it seemed completely ignorant about Quirks. "I wanna know more! Please, please, please tell me more! I'll help you find your way home if you do!"
The rabbit stared at him with its big beady eyes. "I can't tell you right now, since I'm late and all, but I suppose I could come back someday and tell you more."
"Really?" Izuku said, his eyes sparkling with excitement. He pulled the rabbit in closer for a hug. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Now could you let go of me?" The rabbit said, pressing its hind legs against Izuku's chest. "This is no way to properly interact with Her Majesty's best servant, the White Rabbit!"
"Your name is White Rabbit?" Izuku asked, pulling the rabbit away from him. "Can I call you Shiro-san? You can call me Izuku-kun in return!"
"I suppose so," the rabbit– Shiro– said. "Now if I could be released now, that would be splendid."
"Oh, right! Sorry, Shiro-san!" Izuku brought Shiro down to the ground before releasing it. "By the way, what should I call you?"
"I thought you were going to call me 'Shiro-san,' human," Shiro said, brushing off the clothes before pulling out the small, fancy watch on a chain.
"Izuku-kun," Izuku corrected, "But it feels odd to call you an 'it.' Should I use 'he' or 'she' or 'they' or something else?"
"'He' is just fine," Shiro said, tucking his watch into his pocket. "Now if you can help me find the hole, that would be marvelous.”
"A hole?" Izuku asked. "Is there something special about this hole?"
"Indeed there is," Shiro said, puffing out his chest. "That hole, which has this lovely wooden gate covered up by vines, is how I get back home, as well as visit this place that you call home."
"A magic portal!" Izuku exclaimed.
"Yes, a portal," Shiro said. "However, I, unfortunately, cannot relocate it. I've only been up here a few times, and this time I lost track of so much time that I ruffled all my feathers and forgot how to get back to the hole."
"I'll find it!" Izuku declared, placing a fist over his heart, "You can count on me."
"Very good, Izuku the Human," Shiro said. "Now, we can't waste any more time."
The two started winding through the forest, Shiro hopping alongside Izuku as he kept a steady walking pace. This section of the woods might have been new to him, but surely there was something here that looked like a hole. Shiro had mentioned it was covered with vines, so maybe it was by a tree? Or maybe it was a bush of some kind. The hole was likely in some kind of big hump of dirt, since it had to support a door and all. He doubted that there would be a door over a typical rabbit hole that went straight down into the ground.
The lack of light made it kinda hard to see, but Izuku kept looking all over the place. No stone would be left unturned if he meant helping his new friend. Well, hopefully his new friend. Shiro hadn't called Izuku a friend yet, after all.
Eventually Izuku saw a large lump of dirt shooting out of the ground like the hump on a camel’s back. A large tree was bending over it, as if it was trying to hide the lump. The branches dripped down, covering the tiny hill even more. They looked a lot like willow trees, even though only pines and oaks grew in these woods. Honestly, the more he looked at the branches, the more they resembled vines.
Wait. Vines...
Izuku rushed towards the tree, Shiro muttering complaints while trying to keep up. Izuku would have walked, but this hunch wouldn't let him slow his pace.
He reached the vine-like branches and got down on one knee. Pushing them away, he saw a pretty wooden door that seemed to be covering a hole. The door had a black metal handle, and someone had carved in all the playing card shapes into the wood.
"Hey, hey," Izuku said, gesturing for Shiro to come over.
"I must say, Izuku the human," Shiro said. "You're not very good and being considerate of other people's speeds."
"Sorry," Izuku apologized. "But look! Is this your door?"
Shiro pushed up his monocle before smiling. "By the Queen's mercy, it is! It is my door!"
Izuku watched as Shiro walked up to the door and opened it up. He was happy for Shiro, but also sad that he was going so quickly.
"Shiro-san?" Izuku asked. "You'll come back, right? Like you said you would. You told me that would explain things to me."
"I did, didn't I?" Shiro said.
"I don't have a lot of people to hang out with," Izuku said, looking down at the dirt. "People think I'm too weird to be friends with. I was hoping that by helping you find your way home, we could maybe start a friendship?"
Shiro stared up at Izuku. Izuku tried to read the red eyes, but it was so hard to read rabbit eyes. He couldn't tell if Shiro was mad at him or sad or glad or anything else.
"You seem like a good enough kid," Shiro stated. "I suppose I can make time to come back and hang out with you. After all, it is rude to not honor one's word."
Izuku gasped. "You'll really come back?!"
"I will," Shiro nodded. "But I can't say when. Her Majesty never keeps a proper schedule, always changing it when she feels like it. I should be able to come sometime in the next two weeks..."
"Deal!" Izuku said. "I'll be waiting out here in this part of the woods for you! That is when I don't have school or have to eat or sleep or be with my parents. But other than that I'll be here!”
"You're an odd kid," Shiro said, walking into the hole. "I like odd." He closed the door behind him.
Izuku stood back up, brushing the dirt off his knees. Maybe it was a good thing he came this deep into the forest after all. If he had known a new friend was back here, he might have come sooner.