Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya was never considered a “normal” kid. He was Quirkless, and therefore ostracized by practically everyone around him. His dad left when he was five, leaving his mom to raise him by herself. But most importantly, when he was nine, Izuku disappeared off the face of the planet for five whole years, coming back as a completely different person.
To the rest of the world, it seemed as though he had simply picked up whatever skills he needed to survive in whatever wilderness he had been stranded in. But only his mother knew the full truth - how he had been dropped into another world, a world of kingdoms and Rangers.
Halt, arguably the most infamous member of Araluen’s Ranger Corps, was expecting yet another boring day of patrolling Redmont Fief alongside his newest apprentice, Will. Having watched the boy during his fifteen years in the Ward (for reasons he would never admit to anyone other than Pauline), he had seen buckets of potential, albeit locked behind a timid exterior.
However, fate seemed to have other plans in mind, because there was a muted thump off to his right, the sound of a person hitting the grassy floor of the forest. Halt swiftly settled into a defensive stance, Will following suit mere seconds later.
Suppressing the well of pride in the boy’s progress, Halt slowly approached the area where the other person fell. “For someone waiting to ambush a Ranger, you’re not doing a very good job of it. Now come out here where I can see you.”
His sixty-kilo longbow stayed stock-still, only dropping when he heard the whimpering of a small child. Slinging the weapon over his back, he motioned to Will to stay put before silently approaching. He glanced into the small clump of bushes, and nearly missed the source of the noise.
The child had green hair that blended perfectly into the shrubbery around him. Even more startling was when the boy looked up at him, and Halt felt those piercing green eyes staring into his soul.
The boy spoke in a strange tongue, but switched to what sounded like broken Araluen upon seeing Halt’s confused expression. “Wh-where am I? Wh-who are y-you?”
Halt exchanged a worried glance with Will, before turning back to the small child before him. “Redmont Fief. I’m Halt, the assigned Ranger. Now, what is a young lad like you doing so far from the village, and climbing trees, no less?”
The boy tilted his head in confusion. “B-but I w-wasn’t c-climbing the t-trees. I was s-sitting at h-home when I st-started f-falling, and th-then I was in th-this f-forest.” The boy hissed in pain and clutched at his left knee, which Halt suddenly noticed was lightly bleeding. “I th-think I s-scraped my kn-knee on a b-branch.”
Halt hummed thoughtfully, before turning to Will. “Run back to the cabin and prepare some of that salve I showed you yesterday.” He turned back to the child. “Well, we’d best get that knee patched up. Can you walk?”
The boy nodded with tears in his eyes. “I th-think so.”
The day only got stranger from there. Once the lad’s knee was bandaged, Halt brought him to see Baron Arald, with the possibility of putting him in the Ward. Any question of that was squashed when the boy looked up at Arald and asked, “Wh-what’s your Quirk?”
They exchanged confused glances. “What’s a Quirk?”
The boy’s eyes widened, before he brought a hand to his mouth and began mumbling too fast for either of them to keep up, and in a language neither of them understood. Halt laid a hand on his shoulder, and that seemed to snap the boy out of his rant. “Um, w-well, I think that this might be a different world from where I was born.”
They exchanged more confused glances. “And why is that?” Arald asked.
“W-well, before I came here, I lived in a place where basically everyone had some kind of power, or ability. Like breathing fire, or creating lightning. We call those Quirks. But you don’t have those, which means either I’m in a secluded country that never developed Quirks, or this is another world.”
Arald looked too confused to say anything, so Halt spoke up, “Well, the kingdom is called Araluen. If that doesn’t ring a bell, I’d say it’s the latter option.”
The boy nodded in agreement. Halt looked the baron in the eyes. “So much for keeping him in the Ward. If this situation were to get out to anyone, the citizens would panic. We need to keep this under wraps.”
Arald nodded. “Well, how would you feel about looking after the boy? I’m sure young Will could use someone around his age, and besides, who better to keep a secret than a Ranger?”
Halt hummed, before nodding. “Reasonable enough.”
The boy looked up at him with stars in his eyes, though for whatever reason, it was tainted with a hint of fear. Well, something to tackle once we’re back at the cabin.
“If that’s all, then we should probably leave you to the relatively small business of running a fief, sir.”
Arald chuckled. “Of course, of course. Goodbye for now, young…”
“Izuku. Please call me Izuku.”
Will, of course, was ecstatic about the prospect of having another young boy in the cabin. Halt was, of course, aware of the fact that one could only be around someone like him for so long. Though, he was slightly amused by the fact that Will needed to be consciously reminded that he was cooking for three people now.
Unfortunately, Izuku wasn’t nearly as quick to adjust, and it revealed some worrying aspects of the boy’s character. Most notably, when Halt went to wake up the pair the following morning, Izuku’s eyes flew open and he scrambled to put his back to a corner, until he recognized the figure standing in the doorway and relaxed slightly.
As Will got dressed and began his daily training routine, Halt observed Izuku’s little patterns with a frown. The boy would always make a note of where the doors were, as if he always needed to be prepared to make a hasty exit. He was never comfortable in a room with Halt or Will in it, and it seemed to be worse whenever he watched Halt advising Will about his technique.
Of course, Halt was never one to beat around the bush. So, after lunch, he sat down across from Izuku while Will headed outside to practice his archery. “Izuku.” The boy’s head shot up. “Forgive me for being blunt, but I have to know - how horribly were you treated before you came here?”
The boy shrank in on himself. “W-well, you know how I said that almost everyone had a Quirk?” Halt nodded. “Well, I’m one of the few who doesn’t. I was diagnosed as Quirkless when I was four. And almost everyone reversed the way they treated me. All of my friends turned around and started calling me Deku, which means ‘useless’. Since I didn’t have powers, nobody believed I could do anything. The only person who really supported me was my mom.”
Halt winced. “I can’t imagine how horrible that must have been. And you’re how old now?”
“Nine.”
“So they’ve been belittling you for five years?”
“Yeah. And it was starting to get worse when I came here.”
Halt hummed in sympathy. “Well, rest assured, no one will treat you like that here. Not me, and certainly not the other brat. After all, you’re the same as us, right? No reason to be insulting.”
Izuku looked at him with tears in his eyes, before running around the table to catch him in a tight hug. Halt was caught off guard initially, but he quickly leaned into it as Izuku seemingly cried away all of his anguish.
The next day, Izuku was much less defensive when he woke up, although it hadn’t gone away fully. Still, Halt counted that as progress. More importantly, Izuku seemed to have taken interest in Will’s training regiment. He watched with awe as Will shot arrow after arrow, each slamming into their respective target within a fraction of a second between them.
Halt watched with amusement, before calmly noting, “You seem interested in Ranger training. Want to try some of that for yourself?”
Izuku whirled to face him with stars in his eyes. “Please?!”
Halt chuckled. “Fine, but you’re starting a bit lower than that boy. After all, you’re a good six years younger.”