Chapter Text
The village was quiet. Only the sound of the wind echoing between village buildings and ruffling leafy bushes and trees could be heard. Maybe if you really listened, you could hear the faint, faint music and laughter coming from the pub.
Most all the children were in bed, or being put to sleep. Though one child in particular had a question he wanted answered before submitting to a dark slumber.
“Is there really a God for everything?”
Mitsuki Bakugou looked up from where she was tucking the covers under her son.
She had to think for a second, “Well, I don’t know about everything, but most things, at least, yes.”
The seven-year-old under the covers huffed, his lip jutting out in a youthful pout.
“Why? Is that a bad thing?” his mother asked.
“This year, a Gods and Goddesses unit is gonna be included in our classes,” her son explained, and she smiled, already knowing where this was going. Her son always loved getting ahead of his class. Loved to show off his knowledge and hard work. Flaunt that he didn’t actually need to be taught anything and could figure it all out on his own. “If there’s a God for almost everything, then I have to do so much studying to get ahead!” the little blond child groaned.
Mitsuki affectionately stroked her fingers through his hair, a soft smile resting on her features, “Well then, better get some shut eye if you want to get up bright and early to study, right Katsuki?”
The boy sharply nodded once in confirmation, determinedly closing his eyes tight. His mother smiled at the display, shutting off the nightstand lamp and exiting the room.
𓇢𓆸
An expanse of pure white made up the environment's floor. Not flat, but rather fluffy. Conversely, The ceiling was endless and bright, illuminating a pale shade of blue.
Actually, it wasn’t a ceiling at all, and the floor wasn’t really a floor.
Currently, Gaia was under the sky, her feet abnormally (to a human at least) stood atop a cloud. One of many that littered the airspace.
“Izuku? Izuku, honey, where are you?”
Gaia called out, her eyes scanning the vast expanse, though there was nothing but clouds as far as her eyes could see. Maybe that meant he was down below?
“Izuku?” She called again, peeking her head out from the edge of the cloud.
Still, there was no sign of her charge; the forest’s tall Redwood trees almost completely obscured her view. She worried that even if he was there, she might have not recognized him since his hair could so easily be camouflaged with the greenery.
But finally, an echo of laughter drew her to crane her neck to the right.
If she strained her ears, she could hear the sounds of birds chirping and little giggles coming from that direction.
Gaia descended from the cloud, following the noises until she made it to a small clearing that she somehow missed in her search.
The little area was lush with grass––the soft kind, not the rough kind that could sometimes leave cuts on your fingers if you ran your hand through it––and colorful flowers that peeked their buds out in arbitrary areas like a fetching disarray.
To her right was a tiny pond. Not big enough for fish to live in, but enough for water lilies to take form.
In front of her was a fallen tree. Perhaps it was blown over when it was still just a young tree, as its trunk was much skinnier in comparison to the surrounding Redwoods. Juxtaposed, the fallen tree looked like a mere log. A hole was born into its middle, chipmunks, sprites, and bunnies playing about it.
And finally, to the left was her son, a bountiful source of light and joy itself.
Izuku was laughing and smiling at a legion of birds that flew around his head. Gaia watched as one by one, the birds departed and scattered, each plucking a flower just to come back and weave it through the boy’s hair.
Curious, her son moved to run towards the direction of the pond, not realizing his mother was in the crosspath.
“AHH!” he shouted, nearly slamming into her but stopping himself just millimeters away from disaster. “Mom?” he smiled up at her, “What are you doing here?” Then, like he just remembered something, his face lit up and he continued running to the pond. “Wait! Sorry mom, I want to see what the birds did to my hair!”
Reaching the body of water, he quickly skidded to his knees and looked over the edge at his reflection.
With a gasp, he turned back to his mother, “Mom! Mom! Look! The birds made me a flower crown!”
“Yes, they did,” she responded affectionately, “Why don’t we go home so you can show your dad? I’m sure he’d love to see it.”
With a noise of excited agreement, Izuku grabbed his mother’s hand and they made the journey back to Mount Olympus.
“We’re home!” Izuku and Gaia called out at the same time.
A grunt sounded from somewhere in the tower, and seconds later, a man with long black hair came out. He turned to his wife and son, blowing at the hair falling out of his half-top and quirking a brow at them.
“What?” he grouchily responded.
“Aw, don’t be like that, Dionysus. Izuku wants to show you his crown.”
The man turned to his kid, gaze softening ever so slightly as he crouched down to meet the boy at eye level.
“Isn’t it pretty?” Izuku spun around to show off the head accessory.
Dionysus smiled, but his eyes caught on a browning flower that stood in contrast with the rest of the vibrant ones.
He picked it out, “Hm, this one’s dead.”
Izuku gasped and took it out of his hand. “Oh no!” he cried.
“It’s nothing to cry about,” Dionysus consoled.
“It looks just as pretty without,” Gaia comforted.
But the boy only glowered at the wilting flower with a heavier frown.
His parents looked at each other in concern, ready to coax the boy into letting it go, but their words didn’t get to leave their mouths.
Izuku, with a face still upset but determined, exuded an aura different from the childlike air he held prior. It was concentrated in a way they couldn’t explain, but they didn’t need to, when Izuku suddenly brought the flower to his mouth.
And blew.
The breath he let out smelled, quite literally, like a breath of fresh air. It smelled of morning dew and freshwater. Of flowers, rain, and pine. Life itself.
Slowly, Izuku’s parents watched as the petals transfigured from yellowish brown to a vibrant pink; how its wrinkled stem grew thick and straight.
For the first time, Gaia and Dionysus watched as their seven-year-old son breathed life into a flower.
𓇢𓆸
“Your tests from last week’s Gods and Goddesses unit have been graded. Yaoyorozu, please pass these out.”
The teacher’s assistant rose from her seat, took the stack of papers from their teacher’s hand and got to work distributing them to her classmates.
A minute later, Katsuki had his test in hand, a big red “A+” and “100%” scribbled at the top.
“Bakugou! What’d you get, man?” Kirishima Eijiro asked from his seat next to the blond.
“A hundred,” came the smug reply.
“Wow, really?” his friend inquired, “But some of these questions were so niche! Like, how were we supposed to know that Athena wasn’t born normally? It was never mentioned in class!”
Katsuki scoffed, “It was part of the second book we were told to read. If you actually took the effort to properly read your books instead of skimming like they’re just another assigned reading, maybe you would’ve caught on to the multiple occasions where it was mentioned how Athena miraculously sprouted out of Zeus’s forehead, fully grown.”
Kirishima blinked as he processed the new information, “That’s seriously weird, dude.”
Katsuki furrowed his brows, “Fuck you, it ain’t like I’m responsible for it!”
A muffled “nerd alert” sounded from the other side of the classroom, evoking another hearty “FUCK YOU”, which the class responded to with fits of laughter, the sounds of their teacher’s reprimanding over his foul language being the underlying noise.
“Trying to disrespect when you probably got a shitty score like fifty-six or something is bold,” Katsuki insulted the nameless student, unintentional but not surprised when he hit the nail right on the head.
So maybe he enjoyed the Gods and Goddesses unit a little more than the rest of his class; had since he first started learning about them seven years ago, when the unit was first introduced in second grade. It wasn’t weird or anything, everyone has their favorite subject at school.
Katsuki glowered in his seat after the ordeal calmed down. We’ll see who’ll be laughing when they’re finally in high school and grades actually matter. He’ll make sure he ends up on top of every subject.
He didn’t like the term “nerd,” but he’ll let them have their laughs for now. Come next year, he’ll make sure the insult will be undeniably swapped with “prodigy.”
𓇢𓆸
Viridian eyes welled up with tears as he watched the scene in front of him.
Classes ended just half an hour ago and he had wanted to spend time at his favorite place before heading home, maybe even practice his magic a little more.
He had not expected to find a group of some of his classmates––who had suspiciously been absent at the Academy today––stomping around his garden.
His garden. Which he had been cultivating for the past seven years.
He stood there, frozen, as he watched a kid with dusty auburn hair set fire to a berry bush at his left, only putting it out once it was burnt to a shriveled crisp. Another with light blond hair trampled all over his favorite pink cattleya orchids to the right, throwing random pieces of them into the tarnished pond, which they seemed to have filled with something brown and slimy.
A girl with bright red hair––one of Persephone’s daughters, Izuku concluded, seeing as the Goddess was the only one with red hair like that––used her power over the control of spring to drain the life out of all the flowers.
Izuku’s heart shattered where he stood.
He could only be glad that the critters that usually littered the area were nowhere to be seen, hopefully having gotten away before the students got to them, too.
Just as he was getting lost in the vision of the destruction around him, a shout made him jolt.
“Hey! Are you crying?” Persephone’s daughter taunted.
His eyes widened in horror at being seen. The Godlings had been ignorant to his presence until now and he didn’t like this new development.
But also, that was a stupid question. They were destroying his garden. His little private getaway. Of course, he was crying.
But he would sooner cut his tongue off than yell that back at them.
“Ha!” another kid laughed, “What a fuckin’ crybaby.”
“Stupid Izuku! Seriously, what are you even good for?”
“Right! He’s literally just another nature god. We have enough of those. And at least they can use their powers!”
“For real. ‘The God of Flora and Fauna’ yet all you can do is attract animals and make a flower bloom once every five months. What kind of crap is that? Plus, Lady Demeter is already the Goddess of agriculture and plants, and Lady Artemis has all the beasts and animals handled!”
“Exactly! We don’t need him, we have enough!”
They spoke like he wasn’t right there, like they weren’t chipping away at his self-worth with every venomous word.
“Hey, what’s that one word the humans use to refer to a useless person again?”
“Deku?”
“Yeah! That’s the one. He’s a deku!”
“Pfft, it even sounds like his given name, it was meant to be.”
With smirks too cruel to be on fourteen-year-olds’ faces––and fourteen-year-old Godlings at that––they finally turned back to Izuku.
“So, stupid Deku,” a girl started, inching towards him, “When Ikenah day comes, you better choose human.” Her face was inches from his, her yellow eyes tracing the wet lines on his face in satisfaction before eventually locking eyes with his, “It’s for the best. Unless you wanna embarrass yourself by becoming the weakest God to exist. Y’know, since no one’s gonna waste their time praying to a second rate God that’ll have little to no contribution to the world.”
She beamed a fake smile at him. It might’ve looked sweet and charming if Izuku hadn’t bore witness to the past ten minutes.
She patted him on the shoulder in a faux friendly gesture and walked out and away, her friends following closely behind and snickering at him on their way out.
It wasn’t until another five minutes later that he found himself on his knees in the middle of his former paradise, crying and mourning his destroyed garden.
𓇢𓆸
The students of Class A squinted and shielded their eyes as they transitioned from the fluorescent lights of their school to the ever brighter, ever stronger, burning light of the sun. They followed their teacher, who was leading them out to the grassland behind the school.
It was the second to last week of school and officially the start of the Sports Festival season. Katsuki could hardly wait. The season took place from the end of spring to the middle of summer. The first week consists of all the classes alternating between the four stations of the four different sporting events. The second week is when you pick (a) favorite(s) and practice. By the third week, each class votes on representatives to participate in the real Sports Festival. The representatives then have a month to train and practice for their assigned event(s). A student can participate in no more than two events, even if the voting results exceed that limit.
Caldervein High’s courtyard was prepared and split into three sections: the bridle path, the archery targets, and the numbered patches of grass. The dirt bridle path made up the entire perimeter of the greenland, and within it was where the archery targets and numbered grass patches were, targets on the left and patches on the right.
The fourth event was to be held in the forest outside the greenland’s perimeter.
Most of that didn’t matter though, not to Class A at least. Because much to Katsuki’s pleasure, they were only scheduled to try Archery today.
Their homeroom teacher, Aizawa, led them to the targets before stopping to turn around and address his students.
“Listen up. You all should be at least somewhat familiar with a bow and arrow since you were introduced to them a few times in the past during Physical Education. I’m sure you don't want me to go over all the rules and safety guidelines and quite frankly, I don’t want to either,” the man rubbed the space between his eyes, “But I know if I don’t at least give some sort of warning, someone’s going to end up with an arrow stuck in their ear or something, so I’ll just keep this short:; don’t aim at any students, stick to one target unless you’re in the advanced practice stations, and for the gods’ sakes, do not try anything stupid like ‘sword swallowing’ the arrows.”
Everyone pointedly looked at Kaminari, who turned a bright shade of red.
“In my defense…I was ten…”
“Shut up, Dunce Face. Even Eri knows that was an idiotic move. And she’s six.”
Kaminari pouted and the class snickered until Aizawa cleared his throat, “Speaking of the arrows, we’re a little short on supply at the moment ‘cause our order for fresh ones got delayed. For now, please refrain from breaking or losing them. Keep reusing unless it becomes defective. I’ll be observing to make sure there isn’t any funny business and maybe give a few pointers if needed. Are we clear?”
The class gave their affirmatives, migrating to pick their targets and equipment once they were dismissed.
While everyone else opted for the normal target arrangements, Katsuki beelined for the advanced target setup at the far end of the area.
With a grin, he slid the duffel bag he was carrying off his shoulder, ignoring the general use bows on the stands and pulling out his own personal bow and quiver matching set. He did, however, grab the general use arrows in the barrel.
Both his bow and quiver were a shiny and sleek black. The quiver had intricately sewn leather pieces embedded into it that were dyed orange. The set was a gift from his father, handcrafted by the man himself.
Katsuki scanned the layout of the targets. There were five that were normally set on the ground, and in between each one were beams on which more targets stuck out at varying lengths. He could see that some targets appeared to have thick strings attached to them, probably there so that a new target would fling out when the attached target was hit. Above his head were more beams, poles, and strings that made the whole structure look like some sort of scaffolding.
Color him impressed. He had requested a more advanced arrangement for archery practice so he could actually push his limits and hone his skills, but he didn’t expect this.
With a smirk, he clicked on his stopwatch, shoved it into his pocket and grabbed three arrows from his quiver, lining them up with his bow and aiming at his first targets; one on the ground and the two on the beam next to it.
He fired in such a confident manner that he didn’t even watch as his arrows hit the yellow centers almost simultaneously. By the time the arrows were airborne he was already grabbing another three, this time shooting for three floor targets.
Three more bullseyes.
Soon after, he hit a beam target and, as he suspected, the string attached pulled another target out to his left, which he immediately hit within a matter of seconds.
By the time he reached the final target, his stopwatch hit a minute and thirty seconds. He hit the center of it again, breathing out and moving to stop the timing device, but an odd Clack! had his eyes snapping upwards again.
Another target––the real final one––was in the middle of swinging downward. It must have been attached to the last target, Katsuki not having noticed, but whoever made the contraption must have screwed up because the string was interfered with and the target hit one of the beams on its way down, causing it to spiral off course…
And right towards Katsuki’s head.
With reflexes that could only be acquired through years of practice and training, the blond ducked and rolled on the floor, out of the target’s trajectory. He pulled an arrow out and aimed at the swinging target, taking a deep breath, exhaling, and firing.
The arrow hit the red ring around the yellow center, and Katsuki scowled at it.
A few whoops and cheers brought his attention back to his surroundings and he made to stop his stopwatch. A minute and fifty five seconds. Pretty good for a supposedly two-minute-and-thirty-second course.
He looked back up to catch Kirishima’s awed smile and thumbs up, as well as the sight of his teacher walking up to him.
“What happened? The swinging target was supposed to be opposite of where the archer is supposed to stay standing.”
“The stupid string was positioned wrong and got caught on something, I guess,” Katsuki grumbled, still bitter about missing the last bullseye despite it being an out-of-control target.
Aizawa nodded, “I’ll go get Maijima to reset the course and fix that. Watch your classmates while I’m gone.”
Katsuki’s lips thinned, but he nodded nonetheless, walking back to the normal targets and mindlessly observing his classmates. He watched as Asui helped Kirishima get a more stable grip on his bow, guiding his aim, before his thoughts drifted to his own practice.
He was amazing at hitting motionless targets, even if they were popping out of nowhere, but him falling short at the swinging target made him realize that he’s had little to no practice with moving targets.
He made a mental reminder to practice that, almost hitting himself for not even realizing that it could be part of the Archery section of the Sports Festival.
A tap on his shoulder jolted him out of his thoughts.
Asui was standing in front of him, a very red-faced Kirishima in tow.
“Kirishima shot an arrow into the forest,” Asui informed, direct and straight to the point.
Katsuki gaped, “What the fuck? Seriously? The forest is in the exact opposite direction of the target you guys were at,” he stated disbelievingly.
The redhead flushed further, “I’m sorry, man! I really didn’t mean to, I’ll go get it even.”
Katsuki shook his head, “Don’t. Keep practicing. The gods know you need it, I’ll get the arrow. Which direction did you somehow manage to shoot it off in?”
Asui pointed to the path that led to a clearing in the forest that was owned by the high school, “There. It probably landed somewhere in the glade.”
Katsuk nodded, “‘Kay, I’ll leave you to watch the rest then. You’re… somewhat decent at archery.”
The girl smiled at him, knowing the (half) compliment was genuine and a rare show of respect and acknowledgement.
He told the rest of his classmates that Asui was in charge (the second switch in the span of five minutes) and made his way into the forest.
He wasn’t worried. The forest was home to many creatures––powerless, magical, harmless, and dangerous––but this specific section of the forest was protected. The glade was the area that the school used most, but outside of what was visible from the glade was a fence that marked off where the school’s property actually ended and the wild forest began. It was meant to dissuade unwanted creatures from entering.
Other than that defense, regular patrols and scannings of the area were done by the head of security, Mr. Inui, and his staff.
So yeah, Katsuki wasn’t scared.
He reached the glade in no time, giving the meadow a once over and willing the arrow to just come to him. It didn’t happen, of course, but he could hope.
The glade was huge and the grass was tall and Katsuki dragged a hand down his face with a drawn out groan at the thought of having to look through all of it. Hell, what if the arrow didn’t even land here?
He began his search, starting at the edge, and luckily for him, he spotted the feathered end of the arrow peeking out from a bush five minutes into the venture.
He jogged towards the bush, now recognizing it as a blackberry bush, and pulled the arrow out by the shaft when he heard rustling.
He froze.
Creatures did come into the meadow from time to time, usually a bunny or a squirrel squeezing through the gaps between the planks of the fence. Katsuki felt the tension leave his body when he remembered this. Dangerous animals were kept away.
He turned around, ready to head back, but nearly jumped out of his skin when a mound of black fur met with his shins.
The blond stared dumbfoundedly at the black bear cub at his feet that was eyeing the blackberry bush behind him, brain not quite computing its presence.
Then all too suddenly, more rustling came from behind him and the color drained from his face.
Ever so slowly, he turned around and was face to face with a fully grown black bear. The mother.
He stayed deathly still. They learned about black bears in class; they typically avoid humans altogether unless provoked.
So, letting his rational thinking kick in and ignoring the heavy instinct to make a break for it, he didn’t move a millimeter. Didn’t even breathe.
For a minute the mother bear actually looked like she didn’t see him as a threat, facing away from him and cooing at her cub to come to her.
But then she saw the arrow in his hand.
And she roared.
Katsuki didn’t even hesitate to sprint, full speed, back to the path out of the forest, hoping––praying––to the gods that he could miraculously outrun a fucking bear.
But he assumes he made no such luck in reaching them, because the bear cuts his path off and he has to change course to the opposite direction.
With the help of his quick thinking and reflexes, he manages to weave through trees and foliage to somewhat get ahead of the bear, even if it could run three times faster than him, and he keeps going until the fence is in sight.
Okay, okay. If I make it to the fence I can climb over it and quickly hide before she gets to me and mauls my face off to the point where it becomes unrecognizable.
He curses his brain for the mental image, doing just as he planned and climbing the fence like it was a short ladder before he jumped to hide behind a tree.
Panting, he peeks his head out and watches as the bear didn’t follow his exact pathway, veering off course to a fucking destroyed part of the fence that he hadn’t noticed earlier.
He quickly took off again, just running and weaving as far as he could in hopes of losing the bear, but he could hear her paws crunching on the branches and leaves of the forest floor coming louder and louder.
Chancing a look behind him, he yelped when he realized the bear was less than twenty feet behind him and totally missed the fact that he took a turn straight for a steep escarpment.
By the time he was facing the right way around, it was too late.
He screamed as he tumbled downhill, trying to position himself to roll in a minimally harmful way, but ultimately failing when he felt a sharp, stabbing pain.
His eyes blearily blinked open, distorted vision overtaking his consciousness when he tried to get up and realized that he couldn’t.
“Fuck.”
He made a few more attempts to stand, or at least sit, up, but all they resulted in was the realization that he couldn’t control his left arm properly.
He realized that he was probably in worse shape than he felt at the moment; the adrenaline rush from the bear chase seemed to have stove off the pain temporarily.
Speaking of the bear, where was it? At least it wasn’t chasing him anymore?
But death by stupidly falling off a scarp was a whole lot lamer than death by a bear.
Shit. He was gonna die.
He squeezed his eyes shut at the realization. His body was growing cold and he didn’t think it was just because of the breeze.
He was only seventeen. He hasn't even broken the twenties yet. And fuck, he was finally able to participate in the Sports Festival.
And what about his friends? His parents? Sure they were used to his antics, most of them probably knew how to read him at least somewhat and knew that he did have a deep rooting of respect and care for them despite him outwardly denying that. But he never got to make sure the ones he cared about most knew that for sure.
Katsuki gulped, trying to swallow a foreign lump that was building up in there, but it didn’t go away.
He let out a shaky breath, opening his eyes once more to the bright blue sky. The solid expanse was interrupted by little blobs of green from the tall trees around him. It was beautiful.
A tear escaped his waterline as he felt himself losing consciousness, and his last thought was how weird it was that one of the trees’ crowns seemed to have grown exponentially larger in the blink of an eye.
And he could’ve sworn he heard the tree call out ‘Hey!’