Chapter 17: Musutafu City (I)
When he came out of the void the first thing Izuku did was shakily get off of his bed and check for the time on his computer.
3:33 A.M. | Monday | April 8th, 22XX
It was the same day… Izuku started silently sobbing.
He'd spent over a year in other worlds, and not a day had passed back home; just as the Gamer System had promised, time had apparently stopped. All it took was a moment, but Izuku had to Draconify his hand to ensure that he was, in fact, not dreaming.
He wasn't.
Moreover, thanks to his newest Perk the act of sleeping had just become optional. Timelessness would grant him the ability to live without any sleep at all as well as the ability to choose when he wanted to "sleep" and skip through up to eight hours like a video game character might.
Consequently, Izuku remained awake as he went about the long process of recalling where he stood in his Original World. Since he'd only gained Eidetic after he left Hell, he'd forgotten about the more mundane aspects of his old life. It also didn't help that for the month he'd spent in Vale, he'd studied his way well past the level of high school student.
As was the case, dawn slowly started to bring light to the day when he finally remembered enough to feel confident about having to leave for school. By then, enough time had passed for it to be appropriate for him to start cooking himself and his mother a breakfast meal.
It had been so long… But, after months of dread, anxiety, and suffering, he'd finally been able to put his Maxed Cooking Ability to use and treat his mother to the life she deserved. He recalled as he finished the last of the traditional Japanese breakfast how despite being one of the first to deny his dream, she'd been the only one to not give up on him completely.
While she might not have believed he could become a Quirkless Hero, she at least gave him the best upbringing he could ask from her. She had always loved him as her son and only wanted what was best for him as he grew up.
Now, it was finally time to start repaying her love in kind.
"Mom…" Izuku's eyes watered for the third time in months; all three times had been between now and his back-to-back battles against Legendary Ninja, Giant Kaijus, and Myths.
"Izuku? What are you doing up so early?" Inko asked as she looked at the clock and assured herself that it was, as she thought, currently 5:44 A.M.
"I'm… I'm just cooking us some breakfast," Izuku eventually managed to eke out.
He was dying to tell her about how long he'd been missing her. He only stopped as he understood the fact that speaking out would entail detailing his journey in other worlds and fighting city-destroying monsters. To his poor anxious mother, there would be nothing more dreadful, he was assured.
"Breakfast? Since when did you cook anything more than the occasional toaster strudel or microwave dinner?" She chuckled as she approached from the hallway. As she got closer and saw the gorgeous plating he was just about done with, she quickly stopped in a fit of shock.
"I've been… practicing to surprise you," He lied. Externally, without a trace of deception, but internally… He was heartbroken.
"Wow, sweetie!" Inko took a big whiff of the food and her smile grew tenfold. "If it's half as good as it smells I'll have to start leaving all the cooking to you from now on."
"Please…" Izuku quietly said. When his mother just silently looked at him, he added, "I'd love to make all your meals."
By the time he finished, he was presenting the packed box he'd made in advance for his mother to take to work. Knowing she practically lived at the hospital as a nurse, he'd made enough to last her through a light lunch and a full dinner, with plenty of snacks to get her through any cravings she might have throughout the day.
"Thank you so much, sweetie," Inko said as she happily gave Izuku a hug. If she noticed how he momentarily stiffened before he returned the hug, she didn't make it known.
They then ate their breakfast. Inko's surprise only grew with each bite, while Izuku slowly sunk further into his dread and acted out against his fears.
"Mom…" His voice was slightly hoarse as his hair covered his face; he was looking down at his plate.
"What is it, Izuku? You seem… sad, or maybe… just distant?" She struggled to articulate what she'd been feeling from her son throughout the entire morning.
"I… I finally got my Quirk," Izuku said, opting to rip the bandaid off in one decisive move. He raised his arm and fully Draconified it for her.
For a long time, she just looked between him and his transformed arm. It was only after Izuku undid the transformation and withdrew it back to his side that she hesitantly said, "So… Y-you took after your father, then. Thank god, yours seems to be a Transformation Type and not like his…"
"What?" Izuku immediately rebounded to his usual self as his mind raced at the implications. "What do you mean like his? Dad has a Fire Breathing Emitter-type Quirk." That much, he didn't even have to remember as he'd never forgotten.
"No, sweetie… Your father's Quirk… It's… It's complicated." Inko said.
"What more could there be to it?" Izuku narrowed his eyes as his anger began to spark with embers.
"Well, um… I never planned on having to tell you this, but seeing as you inherited aspects of his Quirk, I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you that Hisashi used to be a vigilante."
Izuku kept an emotionless mask as he nodded for her to continue. His reaction more than scared Inko, but she continued explaining nonetheless. She said, "On the surface, your father only showed that he could breathe fire, but the extent of his Quirk let him absorb and expel fire from his entire body."
"He… He wasn't like you, in that he never wanted to become a pro hero. But, his terrible luck led him into situation after situation, where he was forced to either use his Quirks for good or let himself and the innocent people around get hurt. Everything was fine for the most part, since he never actively sought out situations to use his Quirks against others, but then… there was that incident when you were three and he was forced to leave Japan."
"After the incident… Where he almost died protecting us from the collateral of one of All Might's fights against some classified S Rank Supervillain… Hisashi's Quirks evolved or awakened or something, I don't really know. All I know is that ever since, his body slowly started changing into that of a dragon with every use of his Quirk. Like, permanently…"
"Is that… why he never video chats with us? Because he looks like a dragon and not the man in the only picture we still have of him?" Izuku asked.
"Sweetie, it's been years since even I last saw him… The last time I asked about it, I could hear the pain in his voice as he described himself as nothing but a monster. He knows that I still love him, and I always will. But… This is just one of those things that you'll never be able to understand unless you experience it firsthand."
…
After the tense conversation Izuku had with his mother during breakfast, he left for school in a terribly irritated mood. He had a lot to think of and a lot to plan for. Unfortunately, now that he was back in his Original World, he was neither a Demon Killer, Monster Hunting Adventurer Grimmslayer, Kaiju Combatant, nor the man who bested the Star of God.
Now, he was just Quirkless Deku.
One of his bullies tried to shoulder-check him as he walked down the hallway.
Thud!
The idiot would have better been served walking into a brick wall as even with his Stats reduced ten-fold, Izuku was still dozens of times physically stronger than any other Quirkless person.
Izuku didn't even pay him any attention as he continued to stew in his thoughts on his way to his classroom. The boy he humiliated, however, wasn't about to take that from Quirkless Deku of all people, so he rushed to his feet and sucker-punched Izuku on the back of his head.
[Update!
Health: ~87% → ~86%]
Though he had recovered mostly from his fight against Kokabiel with the help of the blond teen's healing aura back in the Supernatural World, Izuku was still far from being back to the pinnacle of health. Regardless, the sucker punch managed to register as a full percentage worth of damage. Perhaps, it was a rounding error, given that Izuku barely even felt the impact.
In any case, Izuku barely even moved from the hit. He took it with minimal knockback and retaliated with the worst kind of attack his already crumbling morals could tolerate. Looking around at all the faces of the bystanders just waiting for him to get the beating that was coming to him, for him to be hurt physically and verbally once again… There was not a single sympathetic face among them, Izuku bitterly assured himself.
He withdrew his Presence Concealment and at least a third of everyone unfortunate enough to be looking in his direction instantly collapsed as they couldn't even breathe.
The most Willful of the fallen could only look on in horror as Izuku became their greatest nightmare realized, while the luckiest were sapped of their consciousness before they could even process what they had glimpsed at.
The worst off had to be the ones with enough Will to not succumb to their fear in utter shock, yet still be swayed enough to soil the underwear or be locked in a state of hysteria as they cried for help of any kind to rescue them from the monster before them.
"Hmph," Izuku snorted as he veiled his Exposed Nature with another application of Presence Concealment. He didn't know exactly how much worse it was getting, only that with every new battle won and with every greater enemy killed, it became steadily more potent.
Before the first bell rang for the day, rumors had spread far and wide to steer clear of the "horrifying Quirkless kid," and after another incident passed within his homeroom… Everyone Izuku even remotely interacted with on a daily basis understood that he would no longer tolerate any kind of harassment.
Everyone except…
"Deku!" The ever-familiar, if slightly distant, voice of wrath incarnate called out to him.
Izuku merely looked up to see how much worse his day could get.
[Observed Status
Title: Kacchan
Level: 102 | C Rank (Original World) | | 4/10 (Absolute Scale)
Name: Katsumi Bakugo
Stats
Health: ~100%
Stamina: ~100%
Strength: ~40
Constitution: ~80
Dexterity: ~75
Agility: ~80
Intelligence: ~120
Wisdom: ~100
Will: ~100
Charisma: ~150
Description: Your childhood friend/bully/protector. You already know almost everything about her, except for the fact that she nearly died yesterday. She seeks to take you somewhere private to question your sudden change in attitude among other things. Telling you how she currently feels would be too complicated even with the current Level of Observe.]
"Good morning," Izuku snickered as he finished digesting his "precious" Kacchan's Divined Description.
"Good— What?!" Sure enough, anything and everything could set off Katsumi Bakugo, Izuku thought. "Come with me, you Quirkless bastard!" She demanded as firecracker explosions danced against her palms.
"Hmm… Maybe after school," Izuku offered, his subsiding anger still prevalent enough to leave him testy in the face of the person who "just yesterday" was advising him to kill himself.
"...Fine!" To his complete and utter shock, she actually agreed; if only after firing off a decent explosion and stomping off to her seat. His anger evaporated and in its place, he was consumed by confusion to such an extent that for the rest of the day, he didn't think about anything else.
Why? He wondered for the nth time. Why did she agree? Why didn't she do more to force him like she always did? If anything, his resistance to her demands should have made her more agitated than she constantly was. So… Why?
The hours passed and so too did the lectures on Math, Science, English, Japanese Literature, and even lunch. When Izuku's class was brought outside for their daily exercise and Physical Education class, however, Izuku's autopilot led him astray.
His body, as weakened as it was, allowed him to outperform literally everyone when it came to "Quirkless" exercising. He could perform push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and sit-ups until the end of time and never see his Stamina decrease by a single point. He could run faster and longer than even holders of Speed-Enhancing Quirks. And when it came time to pump iron…
"Deku, what the fuck is going on!" Katsumi demanded.
Crash!
Izuku just looked at her confused as he failed to recognize how absurd it was for him to be benching three times his body weight for three reps and still barely be exerting himself enough to be sweating. Was it any wonder, when normally, he trained with boulders that weight dozens of tons all under the effects of heightened gravity courtesy of his Semblance?
"What the hell, what?" Izuku scoffed as he looked around. "If you want a bench, there are plenty all around us."
"Bench? Who gives a fuck about a bench?! I'm talking about you, Deku! Last Friday, you could barely even lift the bar alone, and now you're up over four plates on either side? What the fuck kind of drugs are you taking?!" She seethed.
"Huh?" Izuku looked back at his bar and realized his mistake. "Oh… Uh, I sort of got my Quirk yesterday. Even when I'm not using it, I'm still much stronger than I used to be," and technically that was true. He felt bad enough to give her an example by Draconifying his arm like he'd done to show his mother.
"Yesterday…" Katsumi's aggression died faster than Izuku had ever witnessed before. He could see how her microexpressions changed to fit over a dozen emotions in the span of a second.
"I…" Katsumi started but never finished. She looked so pitiful as her eyes slightly watered just before she turned and slumped away.
'...Strange,' Izuku thought before simply returning to his limited physical conditioning. 'What the hell kind of parallel dimension have I been dropped into,' he started churning out some more reps. 'The only thing that should have changed is the fact that I now have a Quirk, and with just the slightest bit of confidence in myself, everyone is suddenly treating me differently? How sad.'
He let the barbell crash back into the safety bars.
'Mom sees my Quirk and suddenly feels the need to tell me things about dad that I should have known years ago. The average person here is well over Level 25, making them all susceptible to my Exposed Nature, and yet despite most of them being hero hopefuls barely even a tenth can stomach looking at me when I'm not actively concealing my presence.'
'Even Katsumi… The last person I'd ever think would change is suddenly toeing the line of etiquette when it comes to interacting with me. Suddenly, just because I'm no longer a pushover Quirkless loser, she wants to try to be more understanding and patient?'
Had he not experienced what he'd seen firsthand the treatment of Faunus in Vale when he had been in the Broken World, he wouldn't have been able to understand. Now, though, the answer was as clear as crystal.
In the eyes of everyone in his Original World, his former Quirkless self wasn't a subhuman animal like the Faunus were to the Humans on Remnant. He was, instead, a vulnerable cripple. The easiest of his peers to victimize. The fastest one to become a scapegoat for the benefit of others. The weakest, who needed to be coddled and protected at all costs…
As he reflected, he thought back to Katsumi's Divined Description and his newfound understanding was consolidated as memories of their upbringing rushed to the surface. Before they turned four, they had been friends. Afterward, he slowly realized that she'd turned into another one of his bullies. But… Somewhere along the lines, perhaps from the very start… She'd actually been acting out the role of his "protector;" in her own demented way, that is.
Izuku frowned as he tried and failed to recall even a single incident where she ever did anything more than threaten him with her harsh words; clear for everyone else around to know that he was her's to push around. There were plenty of times he could remember where she implied she'd physically hurt him for defying her, but since he'd never had the gall to do so, he'd never tested the extent to which she'd go through with her threats.
Still, Izuku's eyes narrowed as he could clearly recall the most hurtful words she'd ever told him. No amount of rationalizing would be enough to explain why she'd ever think she was protecting him when she'd told him to go kill his worthless self.
So, Izuku waited for the day to end, to confront Katsumi about it.
The rest of the school day passed quickly enough as he worked on studying college-level material from his laptop through the remaining classes. When the time finally came for the two to hash things out, however… Izuku watched as Katsumi left without sparing him so much as another glance.
"Excuse me," Izuku's voice steeled as he stopped her by the school entrance. "Were we not going to talk after school? Even if you don't want to demand answers from me, I do from you," Izuku's words were laced with venom.
"Get the fuck out of my way, Deku. I'm not in the mood, today," Katsumi grumbled, very much out of character for her as she usually yelled her every demand.
"Yeah? Well, I don't give a shit," Izuku said as his tolerance for bullshit had been cut tenfold due to his Doomed curse. "You know, you're the last person I imagined would see me differently just because I got a Quirk. Whatever happened to eternally helpless, worthless, and weak Deku, huh?"
"Seriously… Fuck off!" Her crimson eyes glimmered as Izuku actively sought out her wrath.
"Why don't you fucking make me?!" He nearly spat. "Or have you always just been all talk?" He stared her down.
She made a run for it which he could have easily stopped had he been inclined to do so. But… The heartbroken expression on her face as tears freely streamed down her face, snapped him out of his muddled state and left him rooted on the spot.
For a while, Izuku remained exactly where he'd been left when Katsumi ran from him. He stayed long after most of the students in Aldera High left the premises and any attention from them, he ignored. Eventually, though, he felt the sun start to edge over the horizon and lead the day into night, and his connection to the sunlight reminded him to get going before he started worrying his mother.
He wanted nothing more than to get answers from Katsumi, so as he began his trek away from his school, he sent his mother a message letting her know where he'd be. He sent another one asking his aunty Mitsuki if he could visit her home for the first time in years.
When she easily accepted less than a minute later, Izuku asked if she'd told Katsumi.
"No, should I?" A string of emojis formed an undecipherable message.
"Please don't, the last thing I want is for her to run away from me again."
"Wow, I really should have expected this," Mitsuki ominously texted back without another response.
'Seriously… What the hell is going on?' Izuku thought as he approached the Bakugo household.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
BrightDawn
BrightDawn 1) Did you notice the lack of System prompts? That's here to stay at least for the rest of this arc. Like, Izuku's Status — a cleaned-up version of it too — is only going to be shown only once in its entirety in like the next chapter or two. He's still going to get a hell of a lot stronger, I'm just not going to explicitly write out every god damn improvement in System Formating when a simple sentence or two is good enough.
2) Fanfiction for me is 80% an excuse to kill time and entertain myself, and 20% an exercise in experimentation. One day I want to write my own original novel that's just a tenth as good and complex as a story like Chainsaw Man. I was amped up on the experimentation part of my writing equation for this arc; just saying, as a heads up.
Next Arc Progress: 0/? Chapters complete. I'm currently in the middle of writing Chapter 24.
Anyways, This has been your boy, A Quirked Up White Boy Who's Goated With The Sauce, signing off.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone