Chapter Text
False Chase
Everything hurt.
Izuku’s feet pounded in protest with every stride forward he took, all his muscles screamed for just a moment of rest, and his lungs burned far more harshly than Kacchan’s explosions ever could. He ran further than he ever had before; his nine-year-old body was not used to the abuse Izuku forced it to go through.
But he couldn’t stop. He had to keep running, or else they would catch him, and they’d make him hurt far more than anything a simple run could do.
Sweat and tears in equal measure streamed down his face. His blurred vision made reading the street signs he was passing by difficult, but as long as they didn’t catch him, he could make his way back home eventually. And hey, maybe if he’s lucky, he could even talk to a Hero to help him get home…
A sob choked Izuku and made him stumble. ‘As if a Hero would want to talk to a Deku like me…’
He wove through a crowd of people with practiced ease, and as usual, every last one of them ignored him. Entire quirked families didn’t give him a passing glance, every one of them too focused on the kids that actually mattered. The line of cops continued shouting at the crowd, entirely ignorant of the one green-haired boy slipping between them all. Izuku nearly bumped into a young man wearing a costume that he didn’t recognize, but the new Hero was far too busy speaking with a policeman to stop the Quirkless child from breaking away and continuing his desperate run.
‘That crowd should keep Toume and Yubipachi busy,’ Izuku thought as he sprinted away. A rare feeling of hope bubbled up in his chest, despite how empty his lungs were. He just needed to hide somewhere safe until they forgot about him. ‘At least, until after the weekend.’
Izuku quickly swiped a hand over his eyes to clear his vision a little, just in time to see an alleyway coming up on his right and an even larger crowd of people being directed in his direction. The decision was made for him, and he slipped into the side alley.
And he ran directly into the legs of an older woman who was already there. The two immediately became entangled and crashed to the ground, both of them crying out in surprise and pain. All at once, Izuku’s body failed on him, and he went limp, gasping for breath. His body shook with weakness and exertion, making it impossible to so much as lift his head. In the back of Izuku’s mind, he prayed to any deity that might have been real that Kacchan’s friends weren’t right behind him.
The woman he had knocked to the ground reached out toward Izuku, and the young boy felt his body tense up. He would have held his breath too, if he hadn’t been wracked with a coughing fit at that moment. There was nothing he could do to ward off the unfamiliar woman, all his energy having been spent putting distance between himself and Kacchan’s friends.
In a rare show of concern, the woman hesitated before letting her hand gently rest in Izuku’s hair. She spoke in a language Izuku didn’t know, and the young Quirkless boy was immediately enraptured by how beautiful her voice sounded. It was almost musical, with an unusual vibrating effect to it as though it was two voices speaking in sync. Izuku couldn’t help but relax as the woman petted him gently. She spoke softly and shifted to a more comfortable position to watch over the exhausted boy beside her.
Even if they both knew that Izuku couldn’t understand her, Izuku could tell the woman was doing her best to help him calm down and regain his breath. More tears streamed down the Quirkless boy’s face as he cried as quietly as he could. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone besides his own mother did so much for him. Against his better judgment, Izuku continued to lay on the concrete, slowly regaining control of his breathing and soaking up as much affection from the stranger as possible.
Eventually, Izuku didn’t feel as weak as he had when he collided with the woman. He planted his hands against the ground and struggled to push himself up to his feet. His arms and legs shook with exertion, but he knew he couldn’t lay there forever. He had absolutely no idea where he was, nor did he know where Toume and Yubipachi were. He needed to keep moving.
The woman who soothed Izuku quickly understood what he was trying to do and helped him to his feet. When he stumbled for a moment, she gripped his shoulder to keep him steady. Izuku swallowed to fight against his dry throat, and croaked out, “Thank you.”
The woman nodded but said nothing in response.
Izuku’s legs still felt a little unstable, so the young boy took a moment to observe the stranger who calmed him.
She had a full-body mutation resembling that of a bee, one so drastic that she appeared to need a full custom-made wardrobe. Her legs were long and spindly, and they had an extra joint at the bottom of her calves so that she had to walk on her toes rather than the heels of her feet. She looked just a little thinner than Izuku’s mother, although the boy couldn’t be sure how healthy that would be if her legs were that thin.
The most obvious mutations of hers were just above her chest. She wore a bland short sleeve shirt that showed off the fact that her skin was made of a solid dark gray material, all of it covered in a wispy yellow fuzz. Izuku didn’t know what the material was called, but he did remember that almost every bug-like heteromorph had it to some extent. What was interesting to Izuku was that the material went all the way down to her hand and fingers. He was startled when he realized that her hands appeared to end in sharpened points, akin to claws.
The woman could have easily hurt him, considering that he was too exhausted to even lift his head, but she was still careful enough with her claws that Izuku didn’t even know she had them. Fresh tears welled up in the Quirkless boy’s eyes. He wiped them away immediately and looked up at the woman’s face.
Her head looked almost exactly like the head of a honeybee, complete with long antennae, a huge collar of yellow fluff, and sharp-looking mandibles. Her head appeared to be covered in the same yellow fuzz that coated her arms, though it was a little thicker, partly obscuring the dark gray material that made up her skin. The most interesting part of her head, however, was her eyes. Rather than the black compound eyes that Izuku expected, the woman’s eyes were a solid color, a very dark green just a couple of shades darker than Izuku’s hair. Two points of light shone from within her eyes where her pupils should have been. With the coronas from the lights acting like irises, the uniquely mutated face of the woman was still just as easy to read as any of Izuku’s more baseline classmates.
After several long moments of quiet comfort, Izuku realized that the ambient sounds from outside the alleyway had faded to nothing. He turned back toward the way he came in from, which prompted the heteromorph woman beside him to turn as well. The young boy walked back to the entrance of the alleyway and looked around.
The street in front of Izuku was completely empty. No matter which direction Izuku looked, he couldn’t see a single person, with or without a costume.
If Izuku was being honest, the sight of a street this abandoned was more than a little disconcerting. A cold shudder rolled down his spine, making him shake in instinctual fear. “I should… probably find a way back home now,” the young boy murmured to himself.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Izuku slowly turned the comfy chair he sat in so that he could look back at Mama. He couldn’t stop his body from shaking with emotion as he pointed at the computer screen playing the video of All Might’s debut.
Even with tears blurring his vision, he could see Mama tense up and shake from the same sadness which had numbed everything since the moment they returned from the doctor’s.
He still had to know. He had to ask.
“Can I…” Izuku whimpered weakly, “be a hero, too?”
Mama slowly took a step toward him. And another. And another. She rushed over to where her son was sitting and collapsed against him, hugging Izuku tightly. Tears freely streamed down her face as she sobbed, “I’m sorry, Izuku!”
Izuku felt something deep within him shatter into too many pieces to count.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A painfully familiar numbness weighed down upon Izuku, stifling his shaking and making the air in his lungs feel heavy. Fresh tears sprung to Izuku’s eyes, and he quickly wiped them away before the honeybee woman behind him could see them.
He’ll go back home eventually. His mother was probably enjoying a quiet afternoon alone, and he didn’t want to ruin that for her.
Izuku turned back around to face the heteromorph that had comforted him for who knows how long, and a detached part of the boy was surprised to see that the woman also had a pair of semi-translucent wings attached to her back. He hadn’t noticed them when he was still catching his breath. The woman had extended them as though she was prepared to fly off while his back was turned, something Izuku wouldn’t blame her for, after spending an unknown amount of time around a Quirkless stranger. Although, Izuku couldn’t tell why she hadn’t left yet.
As long as she was still there to listen to him, the Quirkless boy did the polite thing and bowed deeply to the woman. Izuku carefully enunciated his words for the foreign heteromorph as he said, “Thank you for helping me.”
When Izuku rose from his bow, he noticed the woman’s mandibles had parted and risen slightly, and he could barely see a small smile behind them. It was clear she still had no idea what he was saying, but she could still understand his gratitude. The woman bowed slightly toward Izuku, accepting his thanks easily.
With no more need for words between the two, Izuku left the alleyway and began to walk down the abandoned street, deeper into the now deserted ward.
The depressed child didn’t hear the mutant woman flying behind him.
Shrine Approach
Izuku stared through the torii gate, his mind a chaotic mess of far too many thoughts. The shrine beyond it was just as abandoned as everything else the green-haired child could see, but instead of looking creepy, the unusual silence felt unnaturally peaceful in that moment.
He wouldn’t say that he was a religious person, and in any other situation, the Quirkless boy would have kept walking without so much as glancing at the imposing archway. However, he didn’t need to be religious to appreciate the calming atmosphere that lay before him.
‘Would anyone get mad if a Quirkless person walked in there?’ Izuku thought glumly. He knew his classmates and teachers hated him because of his diagnosis, and he had overheard far too many of his neighbors apologize to his mother for being stuck with a Quirkless son. He’s read several news stories about Quirkless people being turned away from stores and even some smaller clinics. Would the same apply to a place that was meant for the gods?
The shrine and anything that might reside within didn’t answer Izuku’s mental question. With no one around to direct or berate the Quirkless boy, he felt drawn toward the peaceful stillness that lay beyond the torii.
“Pardon the intrusion,” Izuku muttered as he bowed before the torii gate. Nothing responded to his pitiful display of respect, and so he walked through the red archway and climbed the stone stairs beyond it. At the top, his feet automatically began to carry him toward a large stone basin with numerous wooden ladles carefully arranged around the edge. The purification basin, if he remembered correctly.
While the young boy and his mother weren’t very religious, Izuku remembered a time shortly after he was diagnosed as Quirkless when his mother took him to a shrine several times a month. He wasn’t completely sure why Inko kept bringing him there to pray outside of New Year’s, unless she was hoping that he would get a quirk through divine intervention, but he didn’t want to cause a fuss when his mother looked so sad during their visits. At least those visits taught him how to remain respectful at a shrine.
Izuku picked up one of the wooden ladles and scooped up some of the pure water from the basin before him. Carefully, he poured some onto his left hand. It was cold, clean, and clear, and it ran down the back of his hand, over his fingers, before falling to the ground below. Watching the water run down his fingers was almost hypnotic to Izuku, and his mind began to slow.
The young boy repeated the action with his right hand, this time letting the water run over his palm. Small flecks of grit from his earlier collapse were washed away, leaving both his hands as clear as the water he was purifying them with.
With his hands now cleansed, Izuku cupped his left hand and poured some water from the ladle into it. Slowly, he brought the water he was holding to his lips and took it into his mouth to rinse it out. The pure water sent a chill down the back of his neck, and he found himself drawing in a deep breath from his nose. He held his breath and the water for a moment before finally releasing both of them, letting both the water and his sadness fall to the concrete below.
An unfamiliar sense of peace settled inside Izuku’s heart, but he knew he wasn’t finished just yet. He held the ladle of cleansing water with both his hands and tipped it upright, and the rest of the water within ran down the handle freely. It flowed across both his hands, silently washing away the rest of his anxiety and casting it against the uncaring ground below.
Now purified, Izuku set the ladle back down against the cleansing basin and turned to travel deeper into the shrine.
A soft buzzing sound broke through the silence of the abandoned shrine, startling Izuku. He whipped around, an apology and excuse for trespassing on his tongue.
No one was behind him. Nothing was around him. Desolate silence settled upon the area once again, as though it was never broken at all.
“P-Probably just a lost bug,” Izuku whispered to himself before turning away and continuing down the stone path. He passed by a board covered in the wishes and prayers of countless visitors before him with barely more than a glance before coming to a stop in front of two large fox statues made of stone.
Again, hesitation and guilt squeezed Izuku’s heart. He had never acted so selfishly before, trespassing upon the shrine when he should have left the city altogether. What would the priests think if they saw him? What would the kami say if they could speak? Worse yet, what would his mother say if he ever told her about what he was doing?
“Does it even matter?” the depressed Quirkless boy thought aloud.
The kitsune on either side of him were just as silent as the rest of the world. Izuku was well and truly alone.
Nothing was around to protest when Izuku’s feet carried him past the guardian statues. The doors to the hall of worship opened easily, having been left unlocked when the shrine was abandoned. After a moment of hesitation, Izuku decided to err on the side of respect and slip out of his shoes and backpack before entering the hall.
Just as the green-haired boy stepped through the doorway, an explosion went off somewhere behind him, muffled into a gentle boom by distance.
Izuku blinked. He looked over—
A tall figure tackled Izuku through the doorway and sent both of them crashing to the shrine’s floor.
Izuku cried out and immediately thrashed to try and throw his attacker off of him, but he flinched violently when the villain was consumed by vibrant green fire. He squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself for the burn he knew was coming.
Unfortunately for Izuku, the fire vanished just as quickly as it ignited, barely even brushing him with a hint of heat. Before the young boy could react, something grabbed hold of Izuku’s wrists and forced them behind his back. It was an unusual sensation, as the Quirkless boy could feel something very firm press against his wrists, something that slightly molded itself to be almost flush against his skin, and an invisible force instantly gripped his arms tightly just beneath the villain’s touch.
Izuku tried to struggle against the villain’s grasp, and he almost freed his right arm, the force keeping the villain’s appendage attached to Izuku weakening severely after a particularly violent jerk. “Get off me!” he yelled desperately, his voice echoing around the abandoned shrine.
As though in response, more explosions rang out in the background, each one getting progressively bigger and more violent.
The villain ignored Izuku and sprayed something warm and incredibly sticky against his back. In moments, Izuku’s forearms were encased in an unyielding goo-like substance, trapped against his back no matter how hard the Quirkless boy thrashed. It took no time at all for the villain to move down to their victim’s ankles and bind them together with the same sticky goop.
Fresh tears leaked from Izuku’s eyes, and he continued to struggle against his bindings to absolutely no effect. He couldn’t believe he was so stupid as to believe he was truly alone in the abandoned ward, and he was finally paying for it. The nine-year-old boy was bound and helpless during a real villain attack. He flinched when he heard the rumble of a crumbling building roll through the abandoned shrine.
The same firm appendages that grabbed Izuku’s arms touched the boy’s side and, with a grunt of effort, rolled him onto his back, allowing Izuku to finally get a good look at the villain that had captured him.
Except it wasn’t a villain. It wasn’t even human.
The creature, at first glance, appeared to be an odd mix of a small horse with a small horn jutting upward from its forehead and a bug the size of a large dog. Its entire body, from the tip of its slightly curved horn down to the bottom of all four of its hooves, was covered in the same hard material that coated the honeybee woman’s arms, although the creature’s body was an oily black rather than a dark gray. A deep red frill extended off the back of the creature’s neck, as well as behind its body like a small, leathery tail. Its back was covered by a green shell that almost appeared metallic, and two translucent, fragile-looking wings extended from around where the creature’s shoulders were.
The similarities between common animals Izuku knew and the strange creature ended there, however. Instead of hard bone, all four of the creature’s hooves were made from the exact same material as the rest of its legs, yet they all clicked noisily against the hard floor of the abandoned shrine. Its head was almost similar to a horse’s, (if Izuku ignored the small, curved horn growing from its forehead,) except its muzzle wasn’t nearly as big, and it had two large fangs that hung down from its mouth. Its eyes looked almost identical to the heteromorphic woman’s eyes, being just as large, with a glowing point of light in the middle of them in place of pupils. The only difference between the two was the color; while the woman’s eyes were a very dark green, the unknown creature’s eyes were a much lighter emerald green that matched Izuku’s own eye color.
The most alien part of the strange creature, however, was how worn down it looked. It had very large holes scattered across the bottom half of all four of its legs like Swiss Cheese, so large that Izuku could see right through all of its legs. There were also a few holes on the creature’s wings and frills, all of which also appeared frayed at the edges. Even its narrow ears looked like they had been torn in a couple of places.
A pang of sympathy cut through the terror Izuku felt, easing his nerves like a soothing balm. What had the unique thing been through to be so desperate to attack a human? Was it hungry? Were there others like it that were just as hurt as this one was?
Green light drew Izuku’s eyes up from the holes in the creature’s legs. A toxic green aura had enveloped the horse-bug’s curved horn, and its face was twisted into a look of intense concentration. Tiny green sparks popped away from the aura as it grew brighter and larger.
Izuku couldn’t help but marvel at the display of power. He couldn’t even begin to understand what the creature was or what it was doing, or how it could have multiple quirks. Or if the goo that was "keeping me tied up something it can naturally do? But it still had that fire, and was it related to the woman from earlier? Wait, I can easily read its expression, so it wouldn’t be an ‘it’, would it? ‘They?’ ‘He?’ ‘She?’ Would it be rude to ask?"
The heteromorph(?) must have finished whatever they were doing, and they brought their horn close to Izuku’s face. The Quirkless boy tried to shuffle away from the horn, but the horse-bug stepped on his face to keep him still.
The horn touched Izuku’s forehead, and the boy gasped as his entire life flashed before his eyes.
Izuku playing with Kacchan before either of them were old enough to speak.
Izuku squealing as Mama lifted him up and flew him around the room like All Might would.
Izuku staring, awestruck by the popping sparks that erupted from Kacchan’s hands.
Izuku feeling his world shatter when the doctor told him to give up on his dreams.
Izuku never getting an answer when he asked Mama when Dad was coming home.
Izuku being pushed to the ground when he tried to help Kacchan out of the creek.
Izuku trying to ignore the looks of pity and disdain from everyone he knew.
Izuku swallowing his words when he saw his mother crying quietly over the mail.
Izuku watching so many heroes with so many quirks fight so many villains.
Izuku backing away in horror when two of Katsumi’s friends promised to “teach him a lesson he’ll never forget.”
Izuku running faster than he ever had before, Katsumi turning away from him burned into his mind.
And then it was over.
Izuku gasped for breath and squeezed his eyes shut, desperately trying to will away the headache that filled his skull. So many memories danced behind his eyelids, and every last one of them reminded Izuku of just how absolutely pathetic he really was.
Fresh tears leaked from the Quirkless boy’s eyes, and his chest ached as he stifled his sobs. All he had ever been was a burden no one wanted to deal with, and now he was going to be food for some quirked bug-horse thing. “I’m so sorry, Mom…” Izuku cried.
“You don’t need to worry about her, Izuku Midoriya,” a young male voice cooed with sadistic glee, his voice almost musical with an unusual vibrating effect, as though he had two voices speaking in sync.
Izuku’s eyes shot open. The alien creature had a sadistic and prideful smile on their face, their large fangs practically glistening with untold power.
The alien was slowly consumed by vibrant green fire. The fire changed everything it touched, and in moments, a bound and helpless Midoriya Izuku was face to face with a cruel and cocky Midoriya Izuku.
“Our mother won’t even know you’re missing,” he taunted in Izuku’s voice, the vibrating effect nowhere to be found.
“Thank you,” the bound Izuku said breathlessly, giving the alien Izuku a weak smile. With a seemingly perfect replica of himself taking his place, he wouldn’t be giving Inko any more reasons to cry for him. Maybe the shapeshifting bug-horse would even be a better son than he ever was.
The other Izuku recoiled in shock and his jaw dropped. “Wha…? Why are you thanking me? I just stole your face!”
“My mom deserves a son better than me. Or, our mom, I guess,” the original Izuku lamented before laughing mirthlessly.
Other-Izuku stared at Izuku for several long seconds. His eyes twitched as he scanned the face he had stolen and his brow furrowed, clearly caught entirely off guard by his victim’s appreciation.
Suddenly, Other-Izuku burst into green fire, almost instantly reverting back into his quadrupedal form, and clutched his head with a foreleg. He groaned in pain through gritted teeth and stumbled backward, his eyes screwed tightly shut. A deep indigo liquid started leaking from the bug-horse’s nose.
Alarmed, Izuku struggled against his gooey bindings, trying his best to at least sit up. “Are you okay?” he asked the pained creature.
His captor shook his head violently and focused on Izuku once more. The lights in his eyes had shrunk considerably from the pain, but quickly regained their usual brightness once he blinked several times. With his unique double-voice, he incredulously asked, “Did you seriously just ask if I was okay? After everything I did to you and everything I’m going to do with your life, you’re really… concerned about me?”
Words slipped from Izuku’s lips before he could think about them. “Everyone deserves to be saved.”
“All Might…” the quadruped murmured. “What is wrong with you humans?”
Another sad laugh escaped Izuku. He, too, was trying to figure that out.
A particularly violent explosion bellowed out in the distance, its shockwave so powerful that both Izukus felt the ground quiver from its force. Both the alien and the human were startled by the feeling, and the bug-horse looked over his shoulder worriedly.
After several long moments of tense silence, a new feeling wormed into Izuku’s chest. A crushing weight drew all the air out of his lungs and squeezed his heart so powerfully that Izuku thought it would burst. Nearly forgotten instincts screamed at the Quirkless boy that he had to stay still or It would find him and hurt him worse than anything he could possibly imagine and his body quaked in terror and struggled to decide between being still and running as fast as it possibly could.
His skin crawled and writhed beneath the touch of something that didn’t exist and he felt sick and empty and a tiny piece of Izuku that he had never noticed before wailed in anguish as it was forced to endure the unrelenting horror of something that should not exist and the entire world groaned from the pressure that was assaulting it.
Then Izuku noticed that the alien quadruped was standing protectively between him and whatever was insulting the entire world by existing. All four of his legs were spread in a stabilized stance, his head was lowered, and a green glow emanated from in front of him.
And the pressure subsided. Izuku took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He could still feel something cursed pulsating in the far distance, but for some reason, behind the otherworldly creature that had attacked him just a few minutes ago, he felt safe.
The bug-horse slowly raised himself from the defensive stance he took, and the glow from his horn dissipated. He shook himself out, all the way down to his tiny frill-tail, then looked back at Izuku.
“Did you feel that too?” Izuku couldn’t help but ask his captor. “What was that?”
For some reason, the alien elected not to answer the Quirkless boy, instead muttering to himself in a foreign language that sounded terrifyingly similar to the honeybee woman’s language. ‘He can change shapes,’ Izuku realized, ‘so what if the woman WAS him?’
A small, stubbornly resilient part of Izuku wondered if they could have been friends. Maybe they could even play Heroes together.
Suddenly, the alien’s eyes widened as though a lightbulb had flickered on in his mind. An excited smile stretched across his muzzle (Izuku marveled at how expressive the hard material on his face was for a moment) and his horn was enveloped in the same vibrant green aura as before.
After a moment of concentration, a small green flame ignited on the ground between the human and the alien. It was joined by two more on either side of it before even more fires sprang up to form a circle of dancing green flame around Izuku.
Part of Izuku wondered why the flames didn’t feel scorching hot despite being less than thirty centimeters from his head before a larger part of Izuku realized he probably should protest the use of whatever quirk the creature was using now. “W-Wait, hold on, what’re you doing?!”
“I’m taking your life,” the horse-bug said as he lifted his head in a grand gesture. The circle of flame around Izuku intensified, towering over the bound, prone human. The tops of all the flames came together and solidified into a glowing green forcefield. “It’s only fair that I give you mine!”
Izuku felt himself sinking, despite being prone on the floor. He struggled against his tough bindings until he saw that he was falling through the floor as if it wasn’t even there.
All at once, he realized the true weight of the situation he was in. An actual alien from another world had just copied his face and voice, and it was sending Izuku to some alien planet with more of its kind.
More of its kind that didn’t know or care that a bipedal, green-haired alien didn’t have a special ability.
Izuku ceased his struggle, closed his eyes, and smiled. ‘I wonder how hard it’ll be to learn their language.’
Midoriya Izuku, born without a quirk, disappeared below the shrine floor, and Midoriya Izuku, born with true magic, left the abandoned shrine wearing a yellow backpack and bright red shoes.
New Skin Who Dis
‘Thank the Ancestors that Chroma taught me how to walk on my hind legs,’ Izuku thought to himself as he continued walking away from the sounds of violence and destruction. The memories he had lifted from the human nymph probably would have been enough to walk among their kind, but the spell he had cast upon the boy didn’t even try to touch his muscle memory. The first few steps would have been awkward and embarrassing, especially with the clunky red things around his hooves.
Feet. He had shoes on his feet and he absolutely must not forget such simple facts.
Izuku sighed as he dragged a hand down his muzzle-less face. Not for the first time, he wished that he hadn’t been separated from his mentor. Waking up in an entirely different world that was almost completely inhabited by unknown bipedal creatures was bad enough, but to be forced to face it alone was ridiculous.
He had tried to find Chroma in the first few hours of his arrival, but that hunt was swiftly overshadowed by the realization that every form he could have changed into would have stuck out like a wasp in a beehive.
His first disguise was a confusing nightmare useful for a time, and the changeling would definitely have to refine it once he had settled into his role as Izuku. After all,
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Your fangs are showing, nymph,” Chroma said without looking up from her helmet.
“W-What?” Izuku stuttered. His hoof shot up to his furry muzzle and felt the teeth filling out his mouth. Plenty of grinding teeth and a couple of pairs of canines, barely sharp enough to tear open the soft muscles of a fish. His fangs were nowhere to be found.
“The fact that you had to check means you failed.” His mentor looked up at him, her heterochromatic eyes boring deep within Izuku’s currently magenta ones. “Your prey isn’t going to give you a second chance. You gotta take them yourself, and often.”
Izuku changed back into his natural form and walked up to the older changeling. “How, though? I’m still working on the spell that accesses short-term memory…”
Chroma rolled her eyes and leaned against her helmet, resting her foreleg against her cheek with a smirk. “Not like that. Every infiltrator worth their love would tell you that forms are meant to be changed. What they won’t tell you, and what nestmothers fail to remember, is that forms should be changed in very subtle ways, especially new ones. Noling gets it right the first time, so it’s your job as an infiltrator to fix it before anyone and anything sees the flaws. Get a mirror put up in your cell and take a good look at your disguise from all angles. And this time, don’t just look for your chitin. Look for things to make the form more natural, like you grew up with it your whole life. Every time you check your disguise is one more chance you earn to
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Pain ripped through Izuku’s head and squeezed his brain in a powerful vice. With a cry of agony, he stumbled and gripped his mane hair tightly in hopes that the new sensation would drown out the ache permeating through his skull.
A particularly powerful explosion rocked the city Izuku had followed the human child into, causing the ground to quake with terrifying force and sending the changeling crashing to his knees. He curled up on the black stone path, its rough exterior and subtle vibrations scratching at his senses.
Izuku had no idea how long he lay there until everything that assaulted his senses faded away and he was able to shakily stand on his hind legs once more. Fresh blood rolled from his nose, and the changeling swiped it away with the back of his hoof hand, staining it a deep indigo.
“<Ponyfeathers,>” the false human swore in his native language. He knew that the prototype spell was incomplete and unfit to <share with the rest of the hive, but I had no idea memory conflicts hurt so much, I need to fix the spellform or add something to it to help blend the memories better, or would that ruin both sets of memories? Could I separate the two sets, or would that make recalling the new memories too slow, which won’t be too bad if it’s something I can think about anyway, but automatic responses would be melted and if I have to think about my name I’ll be busted instantly, no, forget separating, I just need to sort the memories when I’m back at Izuku’s home.>
The changeling shook his head to scatter his thoughts and focus on the journey ahead of him. It was a boon from the Ancestors that his current disguise was the same age as himself, one that he couldn’t afford to squander. A single mother would be able to offer him more than enough love to stay fed while he waited for the rest of his hive to find him. He could even eat food (real, fresh food!) to extend how far his love could go.
“<I wonder if I could taste if food is really made with love…>” Izuku wondered aloud.
Before he could test that rumor, he had to find his way out of the abandoned city. The human Izuku had replaced was planning on using an incredibly advanced piece of technology he called a ‘cell phone’ to look for a map, so the changeling simply had to figure out how to do the same. Without triggering another crippling flashback.
Izuku hoped that his mentor was having a much easier time in this alien world.
Homeward Bound
The lost changeling could hardly believe what humans had achieved without the aid of magic. Towering structures loomed over Izuku as well as the horizon, the biggest ones looking as though they could scrape the sky. Noisy machinery flew down black stone pathways under their own power, putting carriages to absolute shame. The cell phone in the palm of Izuku’s hand promised more information than his entire hive had ever known, perhaps even including the Queen’s personal library. Navigating it was a chore that the humans had long since learned how to manage, but with a little luck, the disguised changeling could figure it out swiftly.
For the time being, Izuku was sitting inside a train that rushed across the country several times faster than any he had heard of. The ‘bullet’ train was a marvel of human engineering and comfort, and it gave him the chance to sort through a few of the memories he had stolen without drawing attention to himself.
‘For the most part,’ Izuku thought with a subtle grimace, his attention drifting a few seats back and across the aisle. A rather unkempt male human with long black hair, a fully black outfit, and a winding gray scarf slouched in his seat, pretending to be asleep. When Izuku had finally arrived at a train station and found the town of Musutafu on the map of train tracks, the scruffy human had offered to pay for the ticket in the changeling’s stead. Accepting his offer was good practice with speaking Japanese, but then the adult had decided to follow him onto the train when Izuku wasn’t looking.
Considering Izuku had done exactly that not even an hour ago, he probably should have been more worried than he felt. It was hard for the disguised changeling to be cautious around the human, however, as Izuku got the same feeling from him as he did with the guards back at the hive. Something about how the man carried himself made it clear that he was well-trained and ready to jump to violence at a moment’s notice, his sharp eyes wandering with purpose even as he relaxed his expression into something disarming, or perhaps even fond for the nymph he was escorting.
Izuku looked out the train’s window and watched the alien world blur past him. Almost all of it was entirely unrecognizable to the young shapechanger, with so many unique sights, smells, and sounds. Even the magic field felt different in a way that Izuku couldn’t begin to describe.
He couldn’t find the words to describe how, but a cursory search through the human child’s memories easily gave him a why.
As far as these creatures knew? Magic wasn’t real. A ‘quirk’, as they called it, was merely a poorly understood but perfectly natural part of human anatomy that suddenly appeared and allowed them to alter the world using the power of their bodies and souls.
Izuku shook his head in disbelief. ‘A civilization that defines a creature’s entire worth based on their magical talent, and they still don’t believe in magic. Unbelievable… And extremely useful, actually. If they don’t believe in magic, they’ll never believe that I’m anything but a magicless human boy.’
A small but confident smile began to stretch across his lips. “<An easy source of familial love, a whole country that doesn’t believe I could ever exist, and the perfect disguise that can grow with me,>” the young infiltrator muttered to himself. “<And my nestmates thought I was too soft to find my own prey. I can’t wait for Chroma to see what I found…>”
Feeling Good by Michael Bublé
By the time the train arrived at a city called Musutafu, Izuku had sorted through what he felt were the most important memories, mostly ones involving Inko Midoriya. Well, Midoriya Inko, technically. Why would these creatures say their second name first? Something to look up whenever he had a chance to figure out something called the ‘internet’.
According to the memories, Inko was an anxious and rather emotional woman, a trait she shared with her original son.
Copying his mannerisms should be a simple task for the young infiltrator. His nestmother always said that he was unusually emotional for a changeling.
Izuku couldn’t help but chuckle as he walked through Musutafu’s train station. ‘Similar colors, prey that wanted to be replaced, a personality that I’m uniquely prepared to adopt…’
A quick glance over his shoulder revealed that the scruffy-looking hero (his outfit was way too worn down to be something their military would allow, so he had to have been a professional hero) hadn’t followed him out of the train, seemingly content with Izuku making it to his stop just fine.
‘…and the only one that could possibly catch me will be too busy feeding me to figure it out.’
The disguised changeling came to a stop just outside of the train station, his fingers idly rubbing against the straps of his yellow backpack. Bird and bugsong blended together with Japanese voices and mechanical sounds to create an entrancing harmony, and Izuku felt a sense of peace settling within his heart. Sunlight streamed from high above him and warmed the skin on his face gently, the feeling so close to how it felt against his chitin, yet entirely new and so relaxing.
He couldn’t help but hum a wordless tune to himself as he continued walking toward the Midoriya apartment. A cool breeze brushed through his bushy dark green hair and danced across his school uniform gleefully. To Izuku, it almost sounded like a violin shaking with anticipation.
And why wouldn’t it? It was a new dawn for him. A new day. An entirely new life, all for Izuku.
‘And I’m feeling good.’
His feet skipped across the concrete walkways between immense buildings, naturally following a choreography like he was always destined to do so. Dramatic trumpet sounds punctuated his joyful dance, each note swinging lazily into the next one, calmed only by a bouncing piano track that made Izuku’s heart sing freely.
He snapped along to the tune that surrounded him, humming the melody that washed over his being and carried it through Musutafu’s residential zone. It felt just as natural as a fish swimming through the sea, as simple as a river running free. Like a blossom on a tree, the music bloomed around his soul and danced alongside him.
It was a new dawn for Japan.
It was a new day for Izuku.
It was a new life for the changeling.
“~And I’m feeling goood,~” Izuku sang aloud to no one but himself.
Izuku smiled brightly as he spun and danced freely under an increasingly orange sky. The words continued to tumble out of his mouth, perfectly in tune with the music provided by the world. “~Dragonfly out in the sun! You know what I mean, don’t you know?~”
“~Butterflies all havin’ fun?” he sang, watching a pair of butterflies flit about a beautiful bush covered in flowers he had no name for yet. “~You know what I mean!~”
He laughed gleefully as he passed them, spinning to enjoy their wonderful aerial dance just a little longer. “~Sleep in peace when day is done, that’s what I mean…~”
“~And this old world, is a new world! And a BOLD WORLD!~” The trumpet song rose in intensity, and excitement within Izuku’s heart swelled alongside it. He was surrounded by aliens of all shapes and sizes and cultures! So many new sights and sounds and experiences!
“~FO-O-O-OR ME!~”
His musical number led him to a series of tall, blocky buildings made mostly of concrete. A huge number of living quarters were visible on the side of the buildings, with most of the balconies decorated with laundry or plants or things Izuku couldn’t name quite yet. An older man stood outside of his home, watching the setting sun from where he stood.
Izuku and the man waved to each other as the song reached its instrumental section, the passionate trumpet solo blaring into the disguised changeling’s soul. It carried him into the second apartment building, the same one matching the memories of his current home, and into an elevator to ascend to Midoriya’s floor.
As he rose, so too did the music; the trumpet’s call rose in both pitch and volume, and Izuku’s excitement swelled alongside it. He danced in the small metal room for an audience he couldn’t know were watching alongside the music that no one else could hear.
The elevator arrived at the correct floor, its bell drowned out by the musical number the changeling was deep in the middle of. He burst out of the elevator singing, “~STA-ars when you shine… You know how I feel!~”
“~Scent of the pine…~” He took a deep breath and tasted a whole host of emotions lingering in the well-lived hall of homes. They were all far too faint for him to name, young as he was, but it was such a huge difference from the almost sterile air of his original home. “~You know how I feel!~”
“~Oh, FREEDOOOM! It’s MINE! And I know how I feel,~” the disguised changeling sang joyfully and danced down the hallway toward his destination.
“~It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life!~” Both the music and Izuku’s excitement built up to a roaring climax, its feverish energy bounding alongside him down the hallway. Were anyone else to hear the tune, they, too, would undoubtedly get swept up in its overwhelming jubilance and dance alongside the changeling. “~It’s a NEW DAWN! It’s a NEW DAY! It’s a NEW LIFE! IT’S A NEW LIFE, FOR MEEEE!!~”
“~An’ I’m FEEELiiinn’...~” Izuku stopped in front of the apartment that had been scattered all throughout his stolen memories. His excited energy, and the song that was inflating it, tempered into something calmer and more comfortable. A smile rested upon his face as countless half-formed memories played out in his mind. Memories of solace and pride and anxiety and sad and numb all culminating in an image of an adult woman with green hair and an enormous god-like human in bright clothing.
The nymph sighed and shucked off his backpack before searching it for the key the human child used all the time. As he searched, the last of the lyrics slipped from his lips, and the music the world had given to him drew quiet, but not wholly silent. “~...good.~”
When he found the key, it took him a couple of tries to manipulate it properly to unlock the apartment and let him inside. He only barely made it into the entryway when Inko rushed around the corner. “Izuku!” she cried, tears already forming in her eyes. “There you are, I was getting worried!”
Before Izuku could respond, he was wrapped up in a warm, tight hug by her. Instinctively, he drew in a small breath through his mouth. His eyes widened as he tasted raw love flowing from the woman. The familial love of a parent was so rich, so filling, so warm as it filled his soul and calmed an ache in his stomach he had long since forgotten was there. There was plenty of fear as well —anxious and scared, something in the back of his mind tells him— and a hint of anger, but it was hard to focus on those other emotions when the rich and unfiltered taste of love drowned his tongue.
Inko was saying something about a natural disaster and him being late, but the words were lost on Izuku as he drowned in the love she was freely giving him. The longer she talked, though, the more fear defiled the delicious love, its revolting taste clawing at his senses slowly, yet steadily.
“Mom, Mom,” Izuku interrupted, gripping Inko by her shoulders. He pushed her away ever so slightly so that she could look into his eyes, and he offered her a reassuring and content smile.
“I feel so good.”
His words seemed to have caught Inko off guard for a moment, but then she returned his smile with a watery one of her own. The two Midoriyas embraced, both of them finally content with the warm affection they shared with one another.
‘Ancestors, if you can see me, please give Izuku my thanks for such a perfect disguise.’
It’s been several days since Chromatophore and I arrived in this alien world,
“There’s another one of them?” a masculine voice interrupted, his urgency only tempered by a perpetual exhaustion. “After we finish here, I’ll start looking for reports involving shapeshifting quirks.”
A young, feminine voice with a strange, almost musical accent, quickly said, “Just a moment, Detective.”
and already our assignment has gone wrong in ways I didn’t think were even possible. The most important thing to report, I feel, is that Chromatophore is missing. We were separated from the moment we arrived in this alien city. If she arrived at all.
“The changeling is very young,” the woman with the musical voice explained. “A nymph, I believe the term is. It doesn’t make sense that he would be left alone for so long.”
“Unless something rather unfortunate happened to this… Chromatophore, you mean?” another woman continued, her voice much more mature with a naturally sultry lilt.
“Exactly.”
When I first woke up, I was entirely alone, and no amount of searching has led me to wherever Chroma would be. Launching a flare into the sky was not an option, either, as I found myself in the middle of a city inhabited by creatures I had never seen before.
“Does he say where he woke up?” Detective asked.
“Uh…” the younger woman took a moment to read ahead. “No. That would be the proper procedure, but it seems like he hadn’t been taught that yet.”
They are even more diverse than us, coming in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and colors, some familiar and others entirely unique. I will be doing research into their species and add what details I can about them in my reports.
“He seems to go into more detail about your species in his next entry. You are… bipedal and omnivorous? Interesting…” the woman with the strange accent murmured partly to herself.
A higher pitched masculine voice piped up, “Despite my appearance, I am as well!”
“Really?” the foreign woman said with academic excitement starting to bleed into her tone. “I’d love to ask you more about your species, Principal.”
Detective cleared his throat, breaking the moment apart. “I believe you two can discuss that later. Princess, what did he write next?”
“Oop, sorry. Hm. He scratched this part out.”
I have been given stolen a unique perspective into these creatures thanks to the prototype spell I had created before leaving the Hive.
Princess paused, shocked at what she had just read aloud. “He made a spell by himself? Wow…”
I haven’t come up with a name for the spell, but I must say as clearly as possible: THE SPELL IS TOO DANGEROUS TO BE SHARED.
In forcing the victim to recall their entire life and copying all of it into my own memories,
“Oh dear,” Principal said suddenly, careful to keep his emotions from his voice. “Surely such an act would cause conflicts in his memories?”
“Yes, actually. Bad ones,” the foreign princess confirmed.
numerous memory conflicts occurred, resulting in immense pain in my head, a fuzzy feeling of being detached from yourself, and bleeding from the nose. I had to spend a couple of days sorting through everything to prevent headaches caused by flashbacks.
“Truthfully, I have no idea how he survived the process,” Princess admitted. “Spells that affect the mind are heavily regulated, and for good reason.”
“Do you think it has something to do with his unique physiology?” Principal suggested.
“I can only guess…”
I have ideas on how to fix the spell, but my current situation, being completely alone in a body that can’t use magic, has made it difficult to fix.
And how can I even test the spell? Taking more memories from a completely different
Again, Princess paused her reading. “I don’t know this word. He wrote it phonetically… ‘Nin-gen’?”
“It means ‘human’ in Japanese,” the mature woman responded.
Taking more memories from a completely different [human] would cause even more conflicts and
I don’t know what they would be called in our language, but they pronounce their species name as [human]. At least, these [humans] do. Their world is bigger than anything I thought was possible, and I can’t possibly add all of it into a single report.
Because Chromatophore and I have been separated, I’ll try to write reports on what I have done and learned to hopefully supliment
“I can’t believe he was so young when he wrote this…” Princess said softly, her tone an empathetic mix of concern, sadness, and awe. “I mean, I CAN believe it, because this word is spelled wrong, but…”
“It makes you wonder what might have happened to him if he hadn’t found Midoriya-kun,” the mature woman finished with a sigh.
Princess whined almost inaudibly. “Even if he is a changeling, I don’t want to think about that…”
what I have done and learned to hopefully supplement Chroma’s reports. With both of us living among the [humans], we should be able to understand them well enough to assist with starting a new hive on this world when the Queen finds us.
“I knew it,” Princess snapped. “I knew he was plotting something.”
“Just a moment, Princess,” the mature woman began with a placating tone of voice. “He’s been a wonderful student in my class, and the moment he had with Hagakure-san was entirely genuine. Do you think his priorities have since shifted?”
The younger woman took a moment to consider the more mature woman’s words. “...maybe. We’ll have to read the entire journal to find out.”
I don’t know how I can send this journal home, so I’ll keep it hidden until I can contact another changeling, and I will add to it whenever I can do so without getting caught.
P.S: I felt magic from home for a few minutes when I was replacing the [human] nymph child I’m current[ly] acting as, so I was able to send him through the beacon system.
“Which one?” Detective asked suddenly.
“He doesn’t say.”
I don’t know which beacon I sent him to, though, it was all so far away.
“Dammit…” Detective swore.
“See if you can convince him to talk to me. As soon as I’m back home, I’ll find all the beacons Midoriya could have been sent to,” Princess declared sincerely.
“Thank you, Princess.”
If I find a way to send this report home, and the [human] child is still alive, can you try to find him? He was actually happy that I was replacing him, and I want to thank him.
“He forgot to sign it,” Princess concluded.
Principal hummed thoughtfully. “Perhaps he was interrupted by Midoriya-san.”
“Honestly, I’m more concerned about Midoriya-kun’s mental state,” Detective said solemnly. “We need to find him, and fast.”
The woman with the musical accent sighed, muttering, “At least this changeling knows how to show kindness…”