Chapter 92: Chapter 92: The Fool
"Thank you for coming Mr. Akira," Izuku said to the young man, sitting across from him.
Izuku was currently in his office, with none other than the therapist known as Ren Akira.
The two were in Izuku's office, sitting on the two couches with the table between them, drinking some coffee that Ren had brought along with him.
"No please the pleasure is all mine," Ren said, his voice as smooth as the coffee he brought. "I have to say, I'm very much a fan of your work here. It's all rather remarkable."
The man was by all means, physically not too remarkable in most ways. His short black hair wasn't exactly uncommon, and his thinner frame didn't seem too impressive.
However, he had a rather attractive face, that worked well with his glasses, and his outfit, consisting of mostly black clothing with some red thrown in, suited him very well. Not to mention the man was dripping in confidence and moved with a laid-back elegance that was rather charming.
"I'm glad you think so," Izuku told him cheerfully, before taking a sip of the coffee. The moment the brew hit his tongue his eyes widened. "Mmmm! This is amazing! This is the best coffee I've ever had!"
"I'm sure it is," Ren said confidently, taking a sip of his own coffee. "I run a coffee shop on the side. It's called Arsene."
"I'm surprised I never heard of it. Considering how good the coffee is." Izuku told him, taking another sip. "Honestly it must be pretty hard being a therapist and running a coffee shop."
Ren gave a deep laugh, that almost sounded faintly sinister. "That's a riot coming from you. Considering you literally went to the hospital for overworking yourself. I'd dare say you've had more on your plate than I've ever had. And that's saying a lot."
"Right, I've heard you were falsely accused once, and that it took you quite some time to get acquitted," Izuku said, giving him a sympathetic look. "I'm so sorry that must have been difficult for you."
Ren shrugged, like the worst part of his life was no big deal. "You're not wrong. It was definitely a harrowing experience, but one I'm ultimately glad I went through. Once everything was said and done, I walked away a different man. A better man. But, we're not here to talk about me. No, the opposite actually. I believe it's time for us to get started."
"I suppose your right." Izuku nodded, putting down the coffee and giving Ren a confused look. "S-So do we just get right into it?
"Not quite. My quirk isn't something you just dive into. It can be both painful and even deadly if it's used improperly." Ren warned. "First, I'll start with a detailed explanation of my quirk. I know I have an explanation about it on the website, but I'm going to go through it again, just to make sure you know exactly what you're getting into."
"Alright, that seems smart," Izuku said, regretting his recklessness. "My apologies."
"It's no problem," Ren told him. "Now, my quirk is called, The Velvet Room. It allows me to connect my mind to others via sleep. All I need to do is sleep anywhere within a 50-mile radius of my target, and I'll be able to enter their minds. Now, what my quirk does is that it physically manifests a material realm, inside a cognitive space, building a world out of your mind. Do you understand this so far?"
"Pretty much, basically your quirk turns metaphorical aspects of myself and creates a world from them. So let's say that my mental issues would turn into some kind of monster." Izuku said, trying to understand as best he could.
"That's about right." Ren nodded. "The mind, however, is too big and varied that creating one big world is beyond my quirk's capabilities. So what it will do is it will create various smaller worlds, based on certain aspects of your mind. Typically memories of places of importance to you, but through your own lens. I call these Palaces. Because it sounds cool. These Palaces are filled with people that you know or are acquainted with in some way, but once again they are through your own lens. They're going to act as how you view them to act. Some are harmless, and some are incredibly hostile and will attempt to harm you. I call these Shadows, and they're the reason I don't work with suicidals. You see, for the most part, even if your mind is hostile towards you, let's say you have a Persicuteion Complex, and you constantly blame yourself, the shadows in your mind will attack you, but it's still your mind, and so long as you don't want to die, they won't kill you."
"I see…I figured that might be the case." Izuku had done his own speculation on Ren's quirk, and it looked like some of his theories had been correct.
"And then of course there is the ruler shadow." Ren continued. "Aka, you. The ruler shadow is, as you can probably imagine a version of yourself, a fragment so to speak, of you that runs that Palace. Think of them as Monarch. The Monarch dictates the entire reality of the palace. If something were to change about the Monarch, that would be reflected in the palace. If the Monarch dies, then the whole palace will cease to exist."
"And what happens to the person in real life if you kill the Monarch?" Izuku asked.
"No idea." Ren shrugged. "Given that it's part of someone's brain, it's probably not good. As such I haven't tried it. I'm sure you can tell that my quirk is not something I can just screw around with. If I mess around I could seriously harm someone's, maybe even kill them. Not to mention I'd be hard to find some to volunteer to let me do experiments in their brains. And entering people's minds without persimmon is not something I'm willing to do."
Izuku nodded. "I guess it's best someone like you got this quirk rather than someone with more dubious more standards."
"Eh, you couldn't really hurt too many people with it before the police catch you. But you could definitely get away with ruing one person's brain, and probably their entire life." Ren said. "Now what you want to do when you enter a palace with hostile shadows, is fight against the shadows, and overcome the Monarch."
"So, how does fighting in that palaces work?" Izuku asked.
"Well, strength in palaces is typically indicated by willpower," Ren explained. "The stronger your willpower, the more powerful you are. Of course, your actual abilities in the palaces are dictated by your abilities in real life. Mostly quirks, but as someone without a quirk, I'm curious to see how it will affect you."
"So am I." Izuku's mind was running wild with all sorts of possibilities, about how his quirk may work in tandem with his own mind and lack of quirk. He couldn't deny, he was kind of eager to just jump into it.
"Now then, I need to ask you. Do you have any suicidal thoughts or feelings?" Ren asked him seriously. "I've read your file, as well as you're physiological profile. And I have to say, I have my doubts. Just under a year ago, you were seriously depressed, you didn't even leave your house. And you were on the verge of being placed on the suicide watch list. And while a lot of things have changed in that time, it's highly possible that those feelings still linger. And I don't want to risk sending you to your death."
Izuku paused, taking a few moments to think, before giving his response. "Back then, I had almost nothing. My dream was crushed and I…I just didn't feel like I had a reason to live. I spent my whole life with only one goal in mind. My whole life. It just felt like my whole life was…pointless. If things had gone on like that for much longer, those thoughts may have crossed my mind. Given enough time I may have even actually done it or at least tried…but that all changed when I met Eri. People like to say that I saved Eri that day, but in reality, she was also saving me. I felt like I had a purpose again. Like there was a reason for me to exist. And the more kids that came into my life, just confirmed that THIS, what I'm doing now, was my reason to live. Taking care of children, ensuring their happiness, and making sure they have a bright future, was what I was meant to do. Even if it wasn't what I originally wanted. I won't lie, I have a hard time when it comes to thinking about my own health. Which lead to my collapse. But after seeing the aftermath of that incident, I could never dream of allowing that again. I may not value my own life all that much, but the people I care about do. And so I would NEVER dream of hurting them like that. I swear."
The two of them stared at each other for a while, looking into each other's eyes, testing Izuku's resolve.
Eventually, Ren smiled and leaned back before taking a sip of coffee. "Very well then. I think it's time we moved on to the next part."
Ren then took out some pills from his pocket. "Now we can start using my quirk."
Izuku took two pills and held them up to his face. "So I'm assuming this is to put us to sleep?"
"To put you to sleep. I've learned how to force myself to sleep by now. It's kind of a really useful skill when you have a quirk like mine." Ren smirked. "For multiple people to enter into the palaces, you have to be touching me while my quirk is active. And you have to be sleeping too."
"Ah, I see," Izuku said. "Alright. Let's begin."
Izuku took the pills, and the two of them laid down on the floor, with Izuku touching Ren's shoulder.
He closed his eyes, and let the pills do their thing.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
When Izuku opened his eyes, all he saw was velvet.
He was in a cafe that was entirely covered in velvet. The walls, the booths, the stools, the ceiling. Everything.
The sounds of a piano and a woman singing could be heard through the whole cafe, but he couldn't find the source of the music.
Izuku was currently sitting on one of the velvet stools, at the velvet bar, under the velvet lighting.
And in front of him, was a small girl, looking slightly older than Ken or Nara. She had long blonde hair and wore a velvet hair band that matched her almost completely velvet outfit, with only some hints of black to spice it up.
She stared at him kindly with her golden yellow eyes and gave him a soft smile. "Greetings, Izuku Midoriya. Welcome to the Velvet Room."
"...Huh?" Izuku was, more than a little confused right now.
He felt a hand touch his right shoulder, and he looked over to see Ren on the stool right next to him.
"I told you my quirk creates a bridge between my mind, and yours. This is that bridge." Ren explained. "The Velvet Room."
"Oh…Oh, that explains the name of your quirk." Izuku said, realization washing over him before he curiously looked around the room. "Although why is it Velvet? And why a Cafe? I assume that has something to do with your own Cafe. But um…who is this?"
"Ah, how rude of me. I have yet to introduce myself." The girl said, before giving him a curtsy. "My name is Lavenza. I am the embodiment of Velvet Room itself. I am what you call, a sentient quirk."
"Organizing the human mind into a plethora of palaces, shadows, Monarchs, is a bit too complicated for a human to properly do," Ren explained. "As such, my quirk needs to have its own mind to do that. Hence Lavenza."
"Fascinating," Izuku said, taking another look at the whole place. One thing he noted in particular, was two doors. One at the front of the cafe, where the exit would normally be in such a place. And a back door at the end. "But why is everything Velvet?"
"Because I like Velvet," Lavenza explained.
"Like I said Lavenza is the embodiment of the place, so naturally she has some element of control over it. Although my mind is what gives the place its shape, Lavenza can decide things like the color of everything, what decorations get put up, etc." Ren explained. "And it's been covered in Velvet for as long as I can remember. I'm really not sure why she loves this color so much though."
"We all have things about us that we don't understand. Like how you can eat so much curry and coffee despite what it does to your insides." Lavenza told him.
"Anyway, we should probably get going now," Ren said, quickly changing the topic. "Since this is pretty much a dream world, time here passes differently. So we have plenty of time. But still, it's best if we do what came here to do."
"Very well." Lavenza politely bowed, before gesturing towards the back door. "I've already picked out a rather troublesome palace. It will be beneficial to clear this one, but it shouldn't be too overwhelmingly difficult for a newcomer."
"Perfect. You're as great at your job as ever Lavenza." Ren complimented her.
"Considering it is my only job, it would be rather shameful of me to perform any less than perfect," Lavenza told him.
"Not true, you keep me company when I'm bored," Ren smirked at her, before patting her on the head.
Lavenza smiled at him fondly. "That's not a job, it is my pleasure."
Izuku watched the whole exchange awkwardly, feeling like he was kind of intruding on the moment.
Lavenza noticed this and backed away. "It appears our guest is begging to feel uncomfortable, I'd say he's been more than patient."
"Ah, sorry," Ren said, apologizing to Izuku before he got off the stool. "Seems I got carried away. Well, shall we finally get going?"
"Ok," Izuku said, getting off the stool, and following Ren towards the door. He turned to Lavenza and gave her a quick bow. "Thank you for your help."
"It is of no bother to me. I am just glad to be of service." Lavenza said.
"Alright, one last warning before we go. This isn't gonna be painless. Even you won't die, you'll be confronted by your own inner demons given physical form. And at the end of the day, YOU will need to be the one to overcome them. Are you ready?" Ren asked him.
Izuku gave him a look of determination. "Absolutely."
"Well then. Let's go." Ren said.
He opened the door, which let off a bright glowing light.
The two walked in, and the door closed behind them
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone