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Midoriya gently cut away the last vines of tangleweed from the base of the old oak, placing it into a jar with the rest of his cuttings before screwing the lid on and placing it into his satchel. He looked up to catch a glimpse of the sky between the tree leaves of the forest, noticing how the colour had started draining from it. It would be night soon, he had better head home.
He stood up and grabbed his cloak, tying it around his shoulders to stop the increasingly chilly wind from biting at his skin. He stepped to head back in the direction he came only to freeze and curse when he realised he had absolutely no idea which direction that was. He had been too distracted on his journey by what ingredients he needed that he hadn’t paid any attention to his surroundings.
Groaning, he ran a hand down his face. His mother had warned him not to go into the forest by himself. Not because she was worried he would get attacked, they both knew he was perfectly capable of defending himself, but more so for this very reason. Midoriya was painfully lousy at directions. He’d assuaged his mother’s worries, claiming he would be fine since, after all, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d been in the forest. Thinking back on it, his exact words were, ‘I won’t get lost! I’ve been into that forest so many times that I’d have to be a complete idiot to get lost!’. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so hasty to make that claim.
A sigh escaped the boy as he spun in a circle, scratching at the recesses of his mind for some clue but coming up empty handed. Begrudgingly, he picked a random direction and started walking. In the end, no matter what direction he walked, he would eventually make his way out, even if he didn’t exit near his village. Right?
So, he walked. And walked a bit more. And then a bit further. It was gradually getting darker and his legs were starting to ache. The clinking jars in his satchel weighed down on his shoulder, he was beginning to wish he’d never made this journey.
Only when it was nearing pitch darkness did he stop for a moment. He pulled his final empty jar from his bag. Searching the forest floor, he picked up small twigs and leaves, breaking them up so they would sit a couples layers tall in the bottom of the jar. Once he’d done that, he moved on to conjure a small fire in the palm of his hand before pushing it to his fingertip. Poking his finger into the jar, he held it there until it set the contents alight. He blew out his finger and held the jar up.
The light emanating from the jar was just enough to enable him to see where he was stepping and to stop him from running into a tree. He was still walking an hour later (possibly, he’d never been a fantastic judge of time after all). At some point he stopped searching for the edge of the forest line, instead hoping to find a suitable tree to climb and stay for the night. He’d given up most expectations of making it out of there by morning.
He never did find a suitable tree, instead he caught a glimpse of a flickering light a few hundred metres away. He headed towards it, curiosity besting him. He soon came to a clearing. Staying in the shadows of the trees, he gained a better view of the scene before him. The silhouette of a burly man sat on the ground in front of a makeshift campfire. Overall, the whole clearing was set up as what looked to be a temporary, one-man camp. Midoriya’’s interest was piqued.
Pushing all his confidence to the surface, he took a step into the clearing, directly into the man’s eyeline so it didn’t seem as if Midoriya was sneaking up on him. He knew this was likely a horrible idea, he had no inkling of an idea as to what this stranger’s personality and morality would be like, but he was exhausted to the point that most of his self-preservation had gone flying out the window.
Midoriya smiled politely, “Hello there! You wouldn’t happen to know the direction of Musutafu village, would you?”
The stranger narrowed his eyes and snarled.
“Who the fuck do you think you are, huh?!”
Whatever response Midoriya had been expecting, it definitely wasn’t that. If there was one thing he hated more than being chased by a dragon, it was arrogant pricks with over-inflated egos (which was saying something if you considered his last experience whilst at a dragon’s hoard). His attitude flipped.
“Apologies, I didn’t know you would take a simple request for directions as an assault on your entire being,” he ground out, annoyance lacing his tone.
“What did you just say to me!?”
The man had stood up, tension flowing off him as he faced Midoriya. With a better view of his new ‘acquaintance’, Midoriya had a better idea of who he was actually talking to. As much as he hated to admit it, this guy was definitely easy on the eyes. Despite the fact it was an autumn night, he was outfitted in nothing more than bottoms and a red, fur trimmed cloak (maybe more accurately a cape, there was no hood), leaving his torso exposed. To say that the stranger was muscular wouldn’t be giving the sight justice, he noted as his eyes scanned over the guy’s chest and abs. He mentally shook himself. Looks didn’t matter if their personality appeared to have been stewed in raw sewage for a few weeks.
Rolling his eyes, he replied, “Can you just answer my initial question and then I’ll be out of your way?”
The stranger, who Midoriya had now dubbed ‘Asshole’, huffed. Midoriya almost laughed at the spectacle. He looked like a child ready to throw a tantrum. It was comical to Midoriya how someone could get riled up over something so simple.
“No. Leave.” Asshole snapped.
Midoriya sighed, he was exhausted and nearly at his wit’s end here. He almost felt bad for his next actions. Key word: almost.
Closing his eyes and reaching within himself, he grabbed onto a small orb of light and pulled it out. He shot it out of his hand, targeted at Asshole. The light surrounded him for a second, creating a soft aura before dissipating. Opening his eyes again, Midoriya looked to see the blatant fury on Asshole’s face, but also the thick layer of confusion and worry that was laced beneath It.
“What the fuck did you just do to me?” he demanded, concern exposing itself in his voice.
“Cursed you,” Midoriya offered carelessly, as if it wasn’t a big deal, “I’ll break it if you show me how to get to Musutafu village.”
“You’re probably lying.”
There was doubt in his voice, Midoriya exploited it.
“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. You won’t know until it’s too late. So are you really going to take the risk? I either leave here without you and you potentially get stuck with a curse you don’t know how to break or we leave together and you end up with no curse on you shoulders. I really do hope that I haven’t overestimated your intelligence that much that you make the obviously incorrect choice.”
Midoriya didn’t know when the deal had morphed from simply being told directions into being escorted home, but he wasn’t backing down now.
There was a beat of silence between the two, one of them sporting a shit-eating grin whilst the other may as well have had steam rising from his ears.
Asshole narrowed his eyes, “What even are you, anyway? Some sort of fucking warlock or some shit?”
An affronted gasp left Midoriya’s lips before he could stop it, “How stereotypical. I’m nothing like those warlocks. I was born with raw magic within me, I’m a sorceror. I don’t have to exploit animals to do magic like a warlock. Those self-centred dicks,” He mumbled the last part.
Narrowing his eyes, he accused, “Don’t tell me you call pixies ‘fairies’ too.”
Face scrunched up, Asshole went to defend himself but got cut off.
“Anyway, what are you supposed to be? You look like a some sort of fucking barbarian.”
“I’ll have you know I’m a fucking fighter from the kingdom of U.A.” he snarled defensively.
Midoriya couldn’t think of a reason why a fighter of U.A would be in a forest off of the small village of Musutafu. It wasn’t even as if there was any species of dragons, ogres or goblins in these parts. Musutafu and the surrounding area was and always had been a place of relative peace. Ignoring his curiosity for once, he decided to let his questions go unanswered in that field.
“We’re off topic now. Deal or no deal?” Midoriya pressed, holding out a hand.
Within a few moments of waiting, a rough, calloused hand roughly shook his.
“I’m glad we could come to an agreement,” he smiled mockingly.
“We’ll leave in the morning, it’s a days walk from here,” Asshole spoke, ignoring Midoriya’s statement.
A day’s walk. That meant that Midoriya had been walking in the opposite direction of the village the whole time. He almost felt the need to bash his head into a stone, maybe then he could knock some common sense into himself. At least he now had Asshole to guide him. As much as Midoriya didn’t like him, he knew that he was guaranteed to be better at directions than he was.
“What do I call you? I can’t keep calling you ‘Asshole’ in my head.”
“The name’s Katsuki Bakugou, Deku.”
Midoriya sputtered, “Deku?!”
“Yeah, that’s what it says on your satchel,” Bakugou grunted.
Looking down, Midoriya ran his eyes over the ‘Izuku Midoriya’ embroidered on the flap. Despairingly, he realised that you could in fact read the kanji of his first name as ‘Deku’.
“It says Izuku!”
“Eh, Deku suits you better. I’ll stick to that.”
Midoriya pouted, “If you’re going to give me a nickname, then I’ll give you one too, Kacchan.”
Midoriya was surprised when no objections were voiced, the only displeasure shown being the way his face scrunched up oddly.
Seeing that this seemed like the end of the conversation, Midoriya said, “I’m going to go find a tree to sleep in at the edge of the clearing, wake me up when you’re ready to leave in the morning.”
With that he left. He climbed an old oak and sat on a thick branch, resting his back against the trunk. Placing his hand against his chest, he cast a simple protection spell just in case he had severely misjudged his new companion’s character and he tried to murder him in his sleep. With everything in order, he finally allowed himself to drift to sleep.
Free-falling through the air wasn’t how Midoriya ever expected to awaken. He prepared for a hard impact on the ground rushing towards him, but was relieved when he instead slowed and rested on something spongy. Suddenly, he was awfully thankful for the protection spell he had cast the previous night.
Now sitting on the grass, he turned to a figure he quickly identified as Kacchan. The first thing he noticed was the large stick the man was holding.
“Did you push me out of the tree!?” Midoriya exclaimed, incredulous.
Kacchan grunted a noise of confirmation, not deigning to offer an excuse of any kind.
With that, Kacchan threw a pack onto his back and started walking through the trees. Jumping up, Midoriya rushed after him, all remnants of sleepiness forgotten.
The majority of the journey was relatively average. They stopped a few times to drink from a river and eat something from each of their own packs, but other than that the whole walk was spent in a somewhat comfortable silence.
It was nearing nightfall once more when they emerged from the trees onto a green hill, overlooking a small village below. Midoriya was elated, he could see smoke rising from his small cottage that he lived in with his mother. He went to run towards it but was stopped by a harsh hand gripping his wrist.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, we had a deal.”
Midoriya grinned, “Oh, the curse. About that, I never cursed you. I don’t know how to do that yet. Though, it’s definitely something I’m going to get my mentor to teach me now!”
Kacchan stood frozen. Midoriya was unable to decipher the emotions on his face, which was probably for the better.
Excitement of returning home overtaking him (and a little bit of fear of Kacchan’s reaction), Midoriya took off down the hill, calling over his shoulder, “Thank you, Kacchan!”
He didn’t hang around to see Kacchan’s reaction. He had a mother to go comfort and hugs to receive.