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Izuku shouldn’t be out here. Creeping through the undergrowth, getting dirt all over his clothes. He shouldn’t be, and yet here he was.
Finally he breached the thick hedges surrounding the asylum and ducked under the rusting metal gate.
They’d been rumours of the things inside here for ages. Rumours of monsters with huge teeth, whispers of creatures with their brains outside their heads.
Izuku had heard of demons. Had seen books with images of the spectral creatures embedded on the front, hidden half-shoved under his parents bed. He’d known of demons, but he’d known just as well that he wasn’t supposed to know of them.
His parents had always dodged the questions, dodged his need to know. But Izuku saw through them. He knew what they did, knew what they went out to hunt when the moon arose. And he knew, with the fullness of his heart, that they kept it from them in order to keep him safe.
But Izuku didn’t want to be safe, he only wanted to know.
So he was here with only a torch and a camera, in the most haunted place in Musutafu, to find out the truth.
It was nighttime, and the only light shone from his chunky torch. The beam swept across the building, catching off the windows and metal frames, but inside there was nothing. Not even the calling of an owl.
Izuku held his breath, and all he could hear was silence.
Outside, he wouldn’t find anything. He had to enter the building.
The door was wedged closed, one hinge ripped off so it could never again be shut properly. There was graffiti strewn across the door, messages from all the other lost souls searching for the same knowledge Izuku was looking for right now.
Izuku prised the door open carefully. It fell off the hinge with a massive creak and Izuku coughed from the plumes of dust kicked up in its wake.
Stepping inside felt like stepping into a freezer. Izuku shivered, and pulled his thick winter jacket closer around him. Here, his footsteps echoed like drumbeats on the concrete floor.
He had to go deeper.
Izuku had looked at the floorplan, and had planned to go right, into the residences homes. That was were most of the photos in those forum posts were taken, blurry images with light streaks that looked more like dust specks than demons. But still, evidence was evidence and the evidence pointed there. So, Izuku went, lead by the dowsing rod of the internet’s guiding hand.
He entered the first room. A rotting sofa was pushed up against one wall, the other huge floor-to-wall windows, all cracked and shattered. Izuku could imagine what it once must have been, sunlight pouring in, the room orange and cosy. Now, it was cold and dark, cobwebs obscuring the very corners of the room so the feeble light from his torch couldn’t break through.
In its prime this place must have been beautiful.
A great roaring echoed through the halls.
Izuku spun on his heels, aiming the torch out of the door. He couldn’t see anything. Yet his heart pumped faster, a mix of fear and excitement. This was it, this was his demon.
He darted into the hallway, torch light swinging back and fro. He caught the glimpse of a tail flicking around the corner, and Izuku ran after it.
Shadows tugged at his side, cobwebs clinging to his clothes, and yet Izuku did not stop. Could not stop, now he’d seen it. He only needed to get close enough to take a photo and then all of this would be worth it - all of his life’s worries would be over.
Something slammed into his side and Izuku flew backwards. The air was knocked out of his chest and Izuku choked on dust and cobwebs. The sound of glass shattering pierced the air.
Oh no. Izuku dropped his camera.
But there wasn’t time to think about that, for something was pressing down on his chest. His torch had rolled away, out of his hand. All he could do was stare, terrified into cold yellow eyes as a clawed hand reached up into the air, and like a pendulum began to fall -
And then all that came down was dust. Dust covering Izuku’s clothes. Dust coating him, floating down to be bat away by the frantic beat of his eyelashes.
Dust, harmless dust.
He looked up and was caught in a red eye’s gaze.
A man stood above, hand outstretched. Not to hold, but forced out in a claw. Exactly where the demon had been.
“Did you do that?” Izuku stammered.
The man blinked down at him. Dimly, Izuku registered the rest of the man’s appearance. Black clothes, with hands decorating his body. Another hand covered his face, for all but one eye, peeking through the cracks in his fingers.
Hands. Those hands… Izuku had seen that before. A tiny sketch, fallen out of a book shoved away behind closed doors.
“Are you a demon?” Izuku breathed.
The man snorted, and spun around, bringing up a wave of dust in his wake.
Izuku scrambled to his feet and ran after him.
“Wait! I have so many questions for you!” Izuku cried.
“Then leave them to someone else, brat,” The demon spat back. His voice was cracked and hoarse.
“But there is no one else! There’s so much I don’t know, so much I haven’t been told - “
The demon swung back around, and Izuku’s mouth clicked shut.
“Why are you not running away screaming?” The demon hissed.
Izuku paused. This demon didn’t sound angry, just confused. Izuku might have been the first person ever to not immediately flee or try to kill him on sight. How must that feel? The isolation, the loneliness?
“You’re an animate demon,” Izuku began softly, “Not like the other. I - I don’t know much, but I know there’s a difference. That was a creature formed from twisted emotions, but you’re not like that, are you? You’re someone who just made a very bad deal with a very bad dealer. You won’t hurt me - not unless the dealer wants it so. And you’ve already tried to save me, so right now, I don’t think you’re under any orders. You’re not going to hurt me, so why should I be scared of you?”
The demon was still, the sound of Izuku’s breathing the only noise in the room. Around them the dust shifted and settled.
“Am I correct?” Izuku asked, “That’s all I could get from what I saw, I wasn’t even supposed to see that but - “
“For a brat, you got an awful lot right,” The demon replied, and Izuku’s heart rose.
He knew it! He’d tried his best with what limited information he had, and he’d been right! His parents had thought he wouldn’t be able to take it, well. He could, and he did.
Izuku scampered closer. The demon didn’t move, following him with a steady look from his glowing red eye. That was basically permission, right?
Izuku pulled out his notebook from his pocket.
“So, do you mind if I take notes?”