Chapter Text
Izuku could not speak and could not move.
It wasn't anything new this time, though.
He looked at the intimidating figures before him, familiar now.
The ghostly figure of his mentor sat across from him, beside the first user of his inherited power.
Izuku looked around, feeling uneasy when he realized they were not moving.
They didn't shift, blink or breathe.
None of them moved to speak.
Izuku's gaze nervously ran over them all, trying to figure out what was happening.
Everyone was frozen, more steady than the chairs they sat upon before Izuku realized something had changed from before.
The two that always faced away from him were pointing to the door that always seemed to be behind the first.
Izuku nervously moved forward.
He had never been able to move this freely and, as he got closer to the door, the encompassing fog that gripped him started falling away.
The door opened before him and Izuku nervously looked behind him.
Unsure if he should be going forward like this when the previous successors we scarily frozen like that.
Before he could loose his nerve, he felt two almost phantom like hands push his back.
Izuku barely managed to catch the shifted positions of the second and third.
Stumbling forward, Izuku blindly walked around in the dark until he noticed there were whispers all around him.
Cries, pleas, and anger.
The whispers were louder and louder until a single gunshot rang throughout.
Izuku startled when a coffin made of flames came alight.
He stared at the young, flame masked man laying in a bed of white flowers.
How much older was he than Izuku?
Reaching out, he was about to brush aside a flower too close to the man's cheek when another figure came alight.
He looked eerily similar to the man in the coffin.
Suddenly more figures came alight and Izuku felt very small with all the weapons pointed at him.
Though a fork wasn't very intimidating, it being in the almost uniform like blaze all the shrouded people used, was frightening.
"Your resolution has been denied".
Izuku looked at the man with glowing fists who stood almost protectively over the coffin.
Two figures came from behind him.
"I accept him."
"I deny him".
Their flame shrouded figures snuffed out.
And like candles all the people surrounding him went out until he was left with the coffin.
Izuku suddenly felt helpless.
Knees weak, he collapsed in grief.
Resting his cheek against the man's torso, Izuku noticed something familiar through his tears.
The ring on his finger...
Izuku reached out and startled when a grip suddenly strangled his wrist.
Izuku woke up in a sweat.
He was incredibly thirsty and had a pounding headache.
It wasn't the worse condition he'd ever been in but his racing heart made everything so much more pronounced.
The moonlight was blurry.
Izuku ran his hands over his face and realized he was still in tears.
They wouldn't stop.
Couldn't.
Izuku felt like a balloon covered in static.
Floating over a surface, forcibly clinging but not able to touch.
Groaning, he sat up and rested his elbows on his knees.
Remembering this type of thing... it wasn't a dream was it?
Who were all those people?
Izuku felt grief in his chest at the memory of the man in the coffin.
He held out his arm and carefully looked over his wrist, expecting bruises.
Instead his mind flashed to the ring the man had been wearing and Izuku tossed the covers as he stumbled to his desk.
Memory guided his hands to a drawer and to a small box.
Opening the box, Izuku wasn't sure how to feel when he pulled a half of the ring he had seen on the man's hand.
He had been accepted by one and denied by the other...
Did he need both parts of the ring?
Was this related to All for One?
Izuku's stomach rolled at the idea of sharing this with All Might.
Maybe...
Maybe if he had the whole ring then he'd be able to find out more?
Izuku's nerves turned to dread as he recalled how he'd gotten his half of the ring in the first place.
His mind flashed to a four year old Katsuki, handing him half of his precious birthday gift as they vowed to become heroes.
"Fuck."