Chapter Text
Inko had one hell of a day thus far.
It had all started when Hisashi had decided to turn up on her doorstep, demanding of her to let him stay because their apartment effectively belonged to him. Inko had fought with him over him being a deadbeat dad for the whole twelve years of her son's still-young life, eventually drew the short straw and decided to pack their things and leave to live with her aunt out on the countryside for a while. On the way there, the engine of her car had stalled, which had left Izuku and her stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Up until this point, she might have been unlucky, but at least events had still been somewhat normal.
The second the two of them had stumbled upon the ghost town inhabited by actual ghosts, was when things really began to get weird. Just when she thought it couldn't possibly get any worse, she had gotten turned into a sheep, ended up caught in a fight between two dragons, had been forced to watch one of them take off with her son, and got knocked out of the sky along with the other.
Needless to say, it took her a while to get her bearings.
She was still dizzy from being shaken around while the two dragons had coiled and twisted around each other in mid-air. Being in a sheep's body didn't help, either. The feeling of wrongness, of being wrapped in wool, of her limbs bending at odd angles, her fingers being unable to move while her ears moved too much, was causing her a great amount of discomfort. And yet … No amount of discomfort could keep a parent down for long when their child was missing and in danger.
Inko shook and blinked the dizziness away, and the traditionally built mansion she had glimpsed from above came into view. Except that one half of it had given way and caved in when the huge golden dragon had dropped down on it. She imagined she had tumbled out of his claws like a ball of yarn. She certainly felt like one.
Shakily, she pushed herself up from the grey rocks and dead grass that surrounded the mansion. Step by wobbly step, Inko made her way over to the still intact part of the mansion's porch. She could've sworn the dragon that had tried to save Izuku and her earlier had been so large that he'd be impossible to miss, but for some reason, she couldn't spot him between the rubble. Maybe because she was even shorter than usual now. She also didn't feel particularly comfortable – or sane, for that matter, – seeking a dragon for answers, but … beggars can't be chooser and all that.
Besides, the dragon had said something about wanting to help them when he'd swept them up, and he had radiated a strange aura that had made her feel warm and comfortable, like lying on the warm earth and basking in the sun on a summer's day. The feeling had lasted only for a moment in-flight, but it certainly had made the golden dragon seem far more trustworthy than the white-and-red coiling monster that had come after them, demanding Izuku like her son was his possession.
Something stirred among the rubble and Inko froze in place. There was a dragon there, all right. But a much smaller one, maybe only as long as a bus or a train wagon and a little taller than a grown man. His legs seemed to be studded in yellow scales while a layer of short, white fur covered his body, safe for the pink and gnarled scar tissue that stretched all across the left side of his chest and stomach. It was quite the unpleasant sight, much like the dragon's overall state of health. Unlike the powerful, divine creature that had tried to save Izuku, this one looked malnourished. There was not a gram of either muscle or fat on him, just plenty of bones visible.
Groaning, the dragon raised his head out of a pile of broken shingles. His cheeks were hollow, eyes but two pinpricks of blue shining from overshadowed eye sockets, and his left horn had broken off. His blonde mane looked matted and disheveled, just like the tuft at the end of his tail. The tip of which was also bent in a way that indicated a dislocated vertebra.
Cautiously, Inko stepped behind a still-intact wooden pillar while the dragon scrambled out of the debris.
“Oh. You're still here?” the dragon asked in a deep, somewhat raspy voice. “That's strange. When they've been turned into cattle, usually they flee the first chance they get. Did she get injured?”
He'd seen her. Curse this sheep body. Her backside must've stuck out from behind the pillar. Plucking up her courage, she peeked out at the dragon, who was approaching her slowly. She wasn't quite sure if he was just trying not to startle her or sneaking up on her to pounce.
“Baa-aaah -!” (Please, don't -!) Inko startled herself with the bleating, completely unused to her new-found disability to form words.
The dragon tilted his head at her, pointed ears flicking forward. “What? Eat you? Don't worry! I don't have a habit of eating humans. Or anything that can take human form.” He smiled broadly at her, rows of sharp teeth glinting in the light of the setting sun.
She took a step forward. “Ba-” (You-) “Baa Baah?” (You can understand me?)
“Wait a minute!” he exclaimed, startled by this realization. “If I can understand what you're saying, and you can talk to me in whole sentences, then that must mean you still have your human mind! That'll make it so much easier for me to help you.”
Inko felt confident enough to puff out her chest and take a step forward. “Baaa!” (Then please; Take me to my son!)
The dragon sighed quietly. “I'd love to. Trust me, I really do. But Lord Akatani got him, and he's far more powerful and dangerous than any of the spirits around, including myself at this moment. Don't be afraid, though. I'll find a way to reunite the two of you.” He nodded at the building behind him without actually turning around. “Until then, why don't you stay at my place for the time being? It's a little run-down, I know, but you'll be safe here.”
A rumbling sound made both of them turn their heads to the old mansion only to see another part of the roof cave in next to where the dragon in his much stronger form had crashed into it earlier. The dragon cringed at the sight, and Inko huffed at the absurdity of his suggestion.
“Okay, change of plans,” he relented and lowered his head to her level. “You can come with me to the bathhouse. But I need you to stick close, and if anyone asks, you're just an ordinary sheep.” A fierce determination shone from his eyes.
Being so close to the dragon's snout made her uncomfortable all of a sudden. Inko nodded hesitantly.
He turned and began to walk away with a seemingly clear destination in mind. “I'd fly us back if I could, but as things are, we'll have to take the train.”
On unsteady legs, Inko followed him slowly. She was still not used to walking like this, in this body. Sheer necessity drove her forward.
The dragon stopped and turned back around, waiting for her with a puzzled expression. “Are you coming? You're … Oh! Are you scared of me?”
He seemed to have mistaken her unsteadiness for fearful hesitation. Inko wasn't given any time to respond before he continued.
“I'm sorry. I should've noticed sooner. Let me try to change into a less frightening form.” As if to free his front paws for a magic trick, he sat back on his haunches.
Inko just stopped and watched, unsure of what she was supposed to expect.
A soft glow spread from the dragon's chest over his body, though it didn't seem to quite reach all the ends of his limbs. When the glow faded, he hadn't change at all, except … A yellow and orange patterned haori had popped into existence around his shoulders. It wasn't tailored to fit a dragon, but fit anyway, possibly since he was so scrawny.
Inko raised her eyebrows at him, though maybe it wasn't visible on a sheep's face. “Baa?” (What was that?)
“Uhm,” he uttered. “I'll try to change forms in a few minutes again. My energy is still drained from fighting that snake. Let's just … hurry to the train station, shall we?”
~~ ~~
It was when they entered the train wagon that the absurdity of her situation hit Inko once more.
She had just boarded a train that was seemingly unoccupied and operated by no one, from a platform in the middle of a rocky wasteland. Next to her sat a disheveled and gaunt dragon, whose head atop the long neck bobbed up and down in time with every light shake of the train wagon. He kept his tail wrapped around him as if to politely leave space for other passengers. – Even though the only other passenger in the wagon was her, currently stuck in a sheep body and utterly unable to even climb into one of many available seats with her hooves. Given the kind of bad luck she was having right now, Inko was just happy not to tumble through the wagon whenever the train followed a bend.
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Inko had a thousand questions to ask, but she still didn't trust the bleating noises she produced whenever she opened her mouth, and besides, she feared that no explanation would really help with the plain weirdness of it all. Izuku was her priority. Next came getting her body back. Anything beyond that didn't matter.
She looked up when a soft glow engulfed the dragon, just like when he'd tried to change forms before. Except this time, the haori stayed and the rest of him changed. A second later, and Inko found an equally gaunt man standing in place of the gaunt dragon. Although he had retained the horns, pointed ears and tufted tail of the dragon, his mostly human appearance was a comforting sight. As was the soft smile on his face when he turned to her.
“Much better,” he said, sitting down on one of the seats behind them.
Slightly envious, she huffed at him. Not that he'd noticed.
“You must have a lot of questions,” he said. “Let's see … What would you like to know first?”
“Baa.” (Everything, really.)
“Right. Of course.”
He began by telling her about the spirit world. Normally, humans weren't able to see the spirit realm, but in certain places of the world, when the sun sat, both worlds merged, and the living crossed over. Akatani, the dragon lord who had claimed her son, ruled the town she had stumbled upon and the bathhouse next to it with his influence and the fear he instilled in the residents. He had devoured other powerful spirits to obtain their traits and attributes, as well as humans that had gotten lost in the spirit realm, for their life force. To make the latter even easier for him, he had cursed the food that was laid out for the bathhouse guest to turn humans who “stole” from him into cattle. His tyranny had gone on for centuries, apparently, and Yagi – so the good-natured dragon's name – had once fought him successfully, when he had still and truly been as powerful as the form Inko had first seen him in. Back then, people had called him the golden dragon, All Might.
But the peace he had brought to the spirit realm hadn't lasted for long. Lord Akatani – or “the snake” as Yagi called the more serpentine river dragon – had tricked him. With the powers of a phoenix that he had obtained prior to their fight, he had returned from the dead and hid in the shadows until he had built enough strength to fight Yagi again. And in their second battle, Yagi suffered a devastating defeat that had left him as weakened as he was to this day. Apparently, he'd grown so weak that not even Lord Akatani still recognized his former arch nemesis. Which was a small boon, given that he'd lost the ability to fly and could summon his old strength only for small periods of time.
Still, Yagi had vowed to use whatever strength he had left to save lost humans from the dragon lord.
“Baaaah?” (How long until you can use your strong form again?)
“A couple of days at least,” Yagi responded with a frustrated sigh.
“Bah! Baaa.” (But then -! Izuku will be …)
“He'll be all right,” Yagi claimed, looking out of the opposite window at swamps and lakes flying by. “Akatani wanted him for himself, so he won't eat him or let him fade away. He'll be safe. For a time, anyway. The snake's like that. Sometimes he snatches human children because he believes them to be his son reincarnated, but so far, it never ended well for them.”
“Baah.” (He must be delusional.)
The sound of the door to the adjacent wagon opening caught Inko's attention. An oni, a real-life oni, looking like ones depicted in old folk tales, walked past them.
“Oh, he absolutely is.” Yagi nodded. “We'll have to get into the bathhouse, and work our way up to his living quarters from there to find your son.”
The oni stopped next to them, giving Yagi an odd, questioning look. “You talking to the sheep? You know it doesn't understand you?”
The skeletal dragon-man turned to the oni, his tail flicking in annoyance. “Please mind your own business.”
Seemingly impressed by the dragon's glare, the oni walked on by, and eventually disappeared into the next wagon.
Inko could not help but stare after the fairy tale devil, somewhat unable to believe what she'd just witnessed. It was another one of those moments in which she felt like she couldn't even begin to wrap her head around her entire situation. Maybe, if she went to sleep, she'd wake up in her bed at home, and the entirety of this day had just been a nightmare. Now, that would make a ton more sense. If only it didn't feel so real.
“Now, where was I?” Yagi asked.
“Baa?” (The bathhouse?)
“Yes. Akatani lives on top. That's where he'll keep Izuku. Coincidentally, I know that he also keeps train tickets in his bureau that'll make this train take you to the place Akatani banned his brother to. My mentor once told me that Yoichi is good-natured and willing to help any human who has lost their human form so they may return to the realm of the living.”
That sounded good. Hopeful, too. There was just one thought that bothered Inko. “Baa-aah?” (Why are you going to such lengths for us?)
“For a number of reasons,” he said vaguely. “Too many to list, really.”
Inko nudged his leg with a finger, well, hoof. “Baa.” (Name me one.)
“Well, uhm.” He didn't spare her a glance, just balled both hands on his knees into fists. “I was once human, too.”
“Ba-aah? Baah?” (You were cursed, too? To turn into a dragon like that evil lord?)
“No, not like him! He's a true born river dragon spirit. I just, ah …” As he continued to struggle with the right phrasing, Inko nudged him again impatiently. “I stayed too long in the spirit realm.”
She stared at him wide-eyed. Did that mean the same was going to happen to Izuku? Her boy would turn into a spirit?
Yagi held up his hands as if the gesture would do anything to placate her. “Look, I know you're worried about your boy.”
Wow, first time he guessed right, she thought to herself.
“But this process takes time,” Yagi continued. “I didn't want to put it so bluntly, but humans can't really exist in the spirit realm. Either they fade from existence when night falls, or they ewt food a spirit has offered to them, which will cause their bodies to slowly adapt to the spirit world, turning them into spirits themselves. Your curse spared you from either fate.”
This time, Inko put both of her hands – hooves – up on the seat next to Yagi to read the answer to her question directly from his face. “Baa-aa-aah?” (Then what about Izuku?)
He furrowed his brows. “As I said, Akatani won't let him fade, so that means Izuku will turn. The process takes a couple of weeks, however. That's plenty of time for us to get him out.”
Cold dread sunk into the pit of Inko's stomach as she settled back on the ground. Her son, her poor boy … Not only was he in the hands of that monster, he was going to lose his human shape, too. She didn't want him subjected to the horror and discomfort she was experiencing, and the thought of Izuku permanently becoming a spirit, like Yagi, terrified her. After all, if Yagi was still here, and a dragon, that meant he couldn't go back to the human world, didn't it?
Tense silence stretched between her and the dragon.
“Look on the bright side,” Yagi piped up again and turned to her with a smile. “No one is going to suspect a sheep to steal a child out from under the snake's watch.”
