In another world, Izuku Midoriya would go on to be the world's greatest hero. In this world... Well, with any luck, the Boy Born Without Individuality at least wouldn't destroy the world. At best, he might even rise above the Chivalry of Death
Not What A Hero Looks Like (MHA/Exalted) (Abyssal!Izuku)
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Prologue
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
—
The Boy Born Without Individuality, once, and occasionally still referred to by those who refused to accept his new title, Midoriya Izuku, Death knight in service of Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Water, walked down the street with the hood of his robe pulled low. People took one look at him and made way, some going as far as to cross the street to dodge him. He couldn't blame them, between his armor, daiklave and censer topped staff spewing acrid purple smog into the air, he looked like the villain of a pre-quirk book. Lord of the Rings or the like.
Finally stopping in front of the gate leading to his destination, he rang the bell and leaned on his staff.
—
Toga Ketsumaru watched as his wife, Chihime, let their… guest into the living room of their house, shivering slightly as they stood in the doorway, sickly green eyes staring out of the hood over their head. It took a moment to realize the boy wasn't trying to intimidate them and gesture for him to come in, "Take a seat, please."
"Thank you," the boy said, shrugging off his hood and pulling a sheathed, three foot long blade from his hip, falling onto the couch and resting the censer bearing staff against the couch, the acrid smell stretching through the halls.
"Can we got you something to drink?"
"I wouldn't say no to some orange juice, if you have it," the boy said, "but don't push yourself at my account. I'm your guest."
Chihime vanished into the kitchen, coming back a minute later with a glass of orange juice. The boy took it with a smile, "Thank you, Toga-san. Now, I suppose we should get to business, I'd be a fool to think you want to suffer me to impose longer than I must."
"We were hoping," Ketsumaru said, "that is to say our contacts… said you were capable of finding and making that monster, disappear."
"And by that monster, you mean your daug-"
"That thing," Ketsumaru snarled, "Is not my daughter. We did everything we could to smother the monster in her and make our daughter be normal, and instead-"
"You're a Neverborn damned cliche," the boy deadpanned, "Let me guess, you abused your daughter because she wasn't normal, and then reacted in surprise when she inevitably snapped? There's blood on your hands, just as much as there is on hers."
"Like you're one to talk," Ketsumaru snarled, "You're just a hired killer! You have blood on your hands too!"
"And you won't hear me deny that, unlike you," the boy said, "I'll make her disappear, don't you worry your delusional head about that. But you'll have to pay the money to the local funeral home. And you won't like what happens if you try to con us out of it."
—
The Boy walked down the alley, popping off the bottom of his staff, sliding it onto his back and leaving it as a direchain flail. With his other hand, he drew his daiklave off his hip, metal clad boots snapping against the cement alleyway, "Himiko Toga?"
The Midnight Caste mark, a black circle, appeared under his mop of hair. Essence flowed through the Boy's body as he settled, without even seeming to, into Savage Shade Style. Across from him, the girl looked up from where her jaws had been latched around the throat of a bleeding man, his dark eyes locking on Izuku's in a pleading glance. Save or run?
Either way, a quick exertion of Essence and the man's eyes became glassy and the thin threads binding him to life snapped. Saturn took him and the Neverborn claimed another victim as the Chivalry of the Dead was maintained. It was painless, and that was better than many could hope for.
The small part of the Boy only a few could drag out felt utter disgust at himself for it all. What he had done, what he was going to do. Better to have died when Kacchan accidentally pushed him than to serve the Silver Prince.
"Who are you?" Himiko asked, tilting her head like a cat.
A mistake.
"A Boy," the saber-like daiklave rose minutely, "Your parents sent me to kill you."
He watched pupils dilate, teeth bared slightly, before she dashed across the gap between them in milliseconds with a box cutter bared. Ten attacks were launched in half as many seconds, and nine were parried without any problem. The fact that the last slipped through, on its own, through the Death Deflecting Technique, would have been tell that this girl was destined for great, if terrible, things.
Against a Death Knight, against the Boy born Without Individuality,, it bounced off soulsteel armor and went wide. An eleventh attack came, only to be parried by a use of Broken Toys Riposte. Purple light ate the knife, and Toga was left staring as she jumped back from a threshing swing of the Boy's goreflail.
Gripping his sword, Izuku breathed in and used Ebon Lightning Prana. Kicking off at lightning speed, the Abyssal surged into Himiko's guard and swung his sword cleanly through her from throat to opposite hip.
Time seemed to slow, and Boy's heartbeat began to accelerate as he recognized this feeling. He knew it, he had felt this before. Years ago, earlier, it had been…
In turn with his better judgment, the Boy lowered himself onto one knee and bowed his head. He fought the urge to shake as a form he recognized, and had been taught to dread, stepped into the alley.
"Milady," the Boy said as the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears stepped into reality.
"Boy," she cooed, pushing the Boy's head up so she could meet his eyes, and he felt dread bubble in his gut as he realized his master's rival knew at least part of his title, "You're one of the Prince's pets, aren't you."
"Yes, milady," the Boy said, hiding his whimper of fear, "You're here for the girl?"
"She'll be a useful… toy," she said, "You would be too. You're certain you don't want to swear yourself to me?"
"I'm happily committed," Izuku said, forcing himself to affirm his name in defiance of his nature. He'd much rather serve the Prince than the Lover. And much sooner love Mina than her too.
"Too bad," she said, scooping down, taking Himiko and vanishing, "Goodbye, little pet, I'll be seeing you."
Not if he had anything to say about it, thank you very fucking much. The Prince had it easy, just sign a formal agreement that she wouldn't go within 8,000 miles of Skullstone. But the Boy, the Boy wasn't within that distance. Normally, the Bodhisattva wouldn't have risked him getting an Exaltation if he wasn't 1) young, and 2) apparently a valuable commodity for some reason he had never divined.
What was a Quirkless boy supposed to do to make himself valuable enough for one Deathlord to reach out to him, let alone race to recruit him?
—
.
The Boy Born Without Individuality, once, and occasionally still referred to by those who refused to accept his new title, Midoriya Izuku, Death knight in service of Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Water, walked down the street with the hood of his robe pulled low. People took one look at him and made way, some going as far as to cross the street to dodge him. He couldn't blame them, between his armor, daiklave and censer topped staff spewing acrid purple smog into the air, he looked like the villain of a pre-quirk book. Lord of the Rings or the like.
Finally stopping in front of the gate leading to his destination, he rang the bell and leaned on his staff.
—
Toga Ketsumaru watched as his wife, Chihime, let their… guest into the living room of their house, shivering slightly as they stood in the doorway, sickly green eyes staring out of the hood over their head. It took a moment to realize the boy wasn't trying to intimidate them and gesture for him to come in, "Take a seat, please."
"Thank you," the boy said, shrugging off his hood and pulling a sheathed, three foot long blade from his hip, falling onto the couch and resting the censer bearing staff against the couch, the acrid smell stretching through the halls.
"Can we got you something to drink?"
"I wouldn't say no to some orange juice, if you have it," the boy said, "but don't push yourself at my account. I'm your guest."
Chihime vanished into the kitchen, coming back a minute later with a glass of orange juice. The boy took it with a smile, "Thank you, Toga-san. Now, I suppose we should get to business, I'd be a fool to think you want to suffer me to impose longer than I must."
"We were hoping," Ketsumaru said, "that is to say our contacts… said you were capable of finding and making that monster, disappear."
"And by that monster, you mean your daug-"
"That thing," Ketsumaru snarled, "Is not my daughter. We did everything we could to smother the monster in her and make our daughter be normal, and instead-"
"You're a Neverborn damned cliche," the boy deadpanned, "Let me guess, you abused your daughter because she wasn't normal, and then reacted in surprise when she inevitably snapped? There's blood on your hands, just as much as there is on hers."
"Like you're one to talk," Ketsumaru snarled, "You're just a hired killer! You have blood on your hands too!"
"And you won't hear me deny that, unlike you," the boy said, "I'll make her disappear, don't you worry your delusional head about that. But you'll have to pay the money to the local funeral home. And you won't like what happens if you try to con us out of it."
—
The Boy walked down the alley, popping off the bottom of his staff, sliding it onto his back and leaving it as a direchain flail. With his other hand, he drew his daiklave off his hip, metal clad boots snapping against the cement alleyway, "Himiko Toga?"
The Midnight Caste mark, a black circle, appeared under his mop of hair. Essence flowed through the Boy's body as he settled, without even seeming to, into Savage Shade Style. Across from him, the girl looked up from where her jaws had been latched around the throat of a bleeding man, his dark eyes locking on Izuku's in a pleading glance. Save or run?
Either way, a quick exertion of Essence and the man's eyes became glassy and the thin threads binding him to life snapped. Saturn took him and the Neverborn claimed another victim as the Chivalry of the Dead was maintained. It was painless, and that was better than many could hope for.
The small part of the Boy only a few could drag out felt utter disgust at himself for it all. What he had done, what he was going to do. Better to have died when Kacchan accidentally pushed him than to serve the Silver Prince.
"Who are you?" Himiko asked, tilting her head like a cat.
A mistake.
"A Boy," the saber-like daiklave rose minutely, "Your parents sent me to kill you."
He watched pupils dilate, teeth bared slightly, before she dashed across the gap between them in milliseconds with a box cutter bared. Ten attacks were launched in half as many seconds, and nine were parried without any problem. The fact that the last slipped through, on its own, through the Death Deflecting Technique, would have been tell that this girl was destined for great, if terrible, things.
Against a Death Knight, against the Boy born Without Individuality,, it bounced off soulsteel armor and went wide. An eleventh attack came, only to be parried by a use of Broken Toys Riposte. Purple light ate the knife, and Toga was left staring as she jumped back from a threshing swing of the Boy's goreflail.
Gripping his sword, Izuku breathed in and used Ebon Lightning Prana. Kicking off at lightning speed, the Abyssal surged into Himiko's guard and swung his sword cleanly through her from throat to opposite hip.
Time seemed to slow, and Boy's heartbeat began to accelerate as he recognized this feeling. He knew it, he had felt this before. Years ago, earlier, it had been…
In turn with his better judgment, the Boy lowered himself onto one knee and bowed his head. He fought the urge to shake as a form he recognized, and had been taught to dread, stepped into the alley.
"Milady," the Boy said as the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears stepped into reality.
"Boy," she cooed, pushing the Boy's head up so she could meet his eyes, and he felt dread bubble in his gut as he realized his master's rival knew at least part of his title, "You're one of the Prince's pets, aren't you."
"Yes, milady," the Boy said, hiding his whimper of fear, "You're here for the girl?"
"She'll be a useful… toy," she said, "You would be too. You're certain you don't want to swear yourself to me?"
"I'm happily committed," Izuku said, forcing himself to affirm his name in defiance of his nature. He'd much rather serve the Prince than the Lover. And much sooner love Mina than her too.
"Too bad," she said, scooping down, taking Himiko and vanishing, "Goodbye, little pet, I'll be seeing you."
Not if he had anything to say about it, thank you very fucking much. The Prince had it easy, just sign a formal agreement that she wouldn't go within 8,000 miles of Skullstone. But the Boy, the Boy wasn't within that distance. Normally, the Bodhisattva wouldn't have risked him getting an Exaltation if he wasn't 1) young, and 2) apparently a valuable commodity for some reason he had never divined.
What was a Quirkless boy supposed to do to make himself valuable enough for one Deathlord to reach out to him, let alone race to recruit him?
—
.
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Chapter 1
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Kirishima Eijirou walked out of the building of Mustafa Private High School when he noticed a teen standing on the edge of the property, typing into his phone with one hand with the other in pants. He was wearing a black shirt that said, in white, 「シャツ」 or "Shirt", and had messy green black hair falling into his eyes, which had obvious bruises from lack of sleep around them. He looked, not quite Yami Kawaii, how did the Americans put it? Emo?
"Hey," Ejiro said, walking towards the teen carefully, "Can I help you?"
"Mh?" The boy blinked, apparently snapping back to reality and focusing on Ejiro, "Sorry, what was that? I'm looking for someone."
"I asked if I could help you," Ejiro repeated, "Maybe I could help you with who you're looking for-"
"Mina!" The teen called suddenly, a wide smile crossing his face and his eyes, which had returned to scanning the courtyard a second after focusing on Ejiro, locking on someone, "Over here!"
"Wha- Izu!" A familiar voice squealed and next thing Ejiro knew he had been shouldered aside by Ashido Mina, who threw her arms around the teen, "Izu" and was lifted into the air, "What are you doing here?"
"Had a job that took me to Chiba earlier today," Izu said, planting Mina back on the ground and looking like he had morphed completely as she pushed the hair out of his eyes. They were still shadowed, but brighter now, happier, "Decided to stop by and see you before the test next week!"
"You're done work for the day, then?" Mina asked.
"...No," Izu said quietly, fist tightening. Did he hate his job or something, "Gotta go do it soon. Just wanted to stop by and say hi, in case we didn't see each other before the Entrance Exam."
"Oh, are you going for UA too?" Ejiro said, feeling like a third wheel. There was something here, he could feel it in his bones.
"Yeah," Izu swept down, hugging Mina and sighing, "Anyways, I should probably get going, gotta work for a couple of hours. The Sail is docked in the marina and probably will be until tonight, if you wanna come over."
"I'll bring a couple of friends. Hey, uh, Ejiro, right? Do you want to come with me?"
"I, ah, sure?" Ejiro blinked, feeling suddenly on the spot.
"Cool, got some soda in the fridge. Meet you there when I'm done work," Izu said, waving as he walked away.
—
You have to do this? the Boy bit back a tired sigh as Mina talked to him through Screaming in Silence. He had switched into his outfit, Éljúðnir appearing with a flow of Essence on Void Sheath Technique.
Yes, the Boy replied before cutting off the link, stepping into the building and walking towards one of the apartments. Standing in front of it was a smoking criminal, who stopped and looked him over, before hiking a finger over his shoulder and stepping aside.
The Boy stepped into the room, looking at the three bodies within. Young men, older than him, but still young. Too young to be dead, in his private opinion. Professionally, there wasn't such a thing, unfortunately. A Death Knight didn't care about age, just the Chivalry.
Luckily, the Boy had managed to avoid applying the Chivalry to children, so far. They were more of use to the Silver Prince alive, where their souls could get stronger.
Sometimes, The Boy got the distinct impression that, given that they had been at this for thousands of years, the Deathlords had very little desire to actually see Creation razed to the ground. Had they even done anything since the Mask of Winters took Thorn?
The Dowager and Walker maybe, and there were rumblings of something changing in the last few years from the few occasions the Boy had met with other Abyssals.
He hated when he had to work with other Abyssals. Much rathered when the Boddivista let him do his own thing, which was more often than not, so long as he sent quarterly reports on what was happening in Japan…
Which was weird because you would think he would have a Day caste do that, but The Boy supposed you had to make do with what you had.
At some point, as a Death Knight, you shrugged and accepted that you were only ever going to be let into a minute amount of your master's grand plan, if they even had one. And The Boy had long passed that point. Let the Silver Prince plot his plots and plan his schemes in Skullstone, it left the Boy as free as an Abyssal could be. Which wasn't massively so, but it was better than having his every action monitored.
The Boy pulled out of his thoughts, staring at the newly made pile of dismembered body parts and raised his hand. An utterance of Ama-tsu-mika-boshi's name sent flames snapping out and consuming the corpses, the acrid smell of burning bodies filling the room and the Boy carefully wrapped up and pocketed fifteen bloody fingers as he waited for the supernatural flames to do their work, reducing the bodies to ash and leaving the bones. Essence rose at the Boy's call, consumed by Oblivion and causing the flames to turn purple and decay the bones to meal.
Turning, the Boy walked out and glanced at the perturbed guard, "Fifty Thousand yen, nearest funeral home. Don't make me come for it personally, I'll be very cross."
"How the fucked someone your age become such a comfortable cleaner?" He asked.
"Death is always with me," The Boy said simply, walking away to find a place to change back into his day clothes, "No point in being uncomfortable with it."
—
Mina led Aiko and Miho, alongside Kirishima and his two friends, Hibiki and Ryōta, down the docks of the marina, eyes scanning for the Dead Man's Sail with a hum. Her Moonsilver tattoos were hidden under a charm as she carried her swimsuit over one arm.
"So this boat has a pool?" Aiko asked, "Your boyfriend must be loaded."
"His boss pays him well," Mina said, about the only good thing she could say about the Bodhisattva whatever-the-hell (her lessons by her senior in the Sliver Pact had given her all the Deathlords' names, but they were all so conceited she basically forgot them immediately). He at least paid Izuku well for his service when he didn't strictly need to pay him at all. And sure it wasn't normally in money but various artifacts and junk that Mina didn't care for, but they made Izuku happy enough. And hey, if occasionally that led to a yacht with a pool acquired through means that probably were best not to ask about (Izuku's words, not hers), she wasn't gonna complain!
"Not gonna deny he's your boyfriend?" Miho teased, "you know you could get in trouble for that, Mina!"
Mustafa Private High School had a relatively strict ban on dating, "That's why he's not my boyfriend until we graduate, silly! Izu's just a friend right now."
"A friend that shows up outside of school and offers to let you throw a party at his boat? You realize how unlikely anyone is to buy that, right, Ashido?" Ryōta said, "Like, chances of any of us other than you getting into UA low!"
"Hey!" Kirishima elbowed him in the gut.
"Right, sorry, Ei, forgot you were applying for a second there," Ryōta wheezed out as they finally found the Dead Man's Sail. A ship that hid its danger, a pair of high yield Essence Pulse Cannons in the front, under the relatively pretty facade of a modern, swan necked yacht, "Wait, this is where we're going? He owns a friggin' yacht, Ashido? Who'd he have to kill to get this?"
More than you cared to know. More than anyone should have to.
Luna damn whatever, or whoever, had put Izuku is a position to sell his life away to a villain as a kid. He had always been vague about it, just commenting that you shouldn't play near stairs.
"Alright, let's get changed!" Mina chriped, typing in the code for the gangplank to lower. Her birthdate, 6/30/21XX. The security guard that had been following behind them at a respectable distance peeled off the minute he watched the terminal connect to the Sail and cause the staircase to lower with a hiss. Climbing aboard, Mina slipped into Izuku's quarters and looked around with a fond smile at her fanboy of a bond mate. Plastered across the walls and desk were posters of All Might, Edgeshot, Miruko, Ryukyu and half a dozen other heroes.
Switching out of her school uniform, she paused as she heard a heavy clunking towards the room, followed by a yelp and the door opening, "Hey, you can't go in the-!"
"Hi, Izu," Mina said, continuing to change as Izuku walked into his cabin, stopping to glance at her. A deep flush appeared across his palid face as he seemed to realize the state she was in.
"Wait, that's your boyfriend?" Miho said, "I thought he was like a guard for the boat or something. Where'd you even come from?"
"Below deck, I was dropping something off. Do, uh, you want to put on your top already Mina?"
"See something you like," Mina teased.
"You know the answer to that," Izuku muttered, "Have fun out there, I'm gonna study for the Entrance Exam."
"You're no fun sometimes," Mina pouted.
"I-" Izuku pulled out a phone as it went off, eyes turning flat, "Need to take this. Sorry. Uh, it's private."
—
"Hello?"
…
"Yes, Milord."
…
"Is it to your liking?"
…
"I figure it will give Skullstone a strong basis in Japan, should I do well."
…
"Thank you, Milord. How goes the war against Leviathan?"
…
"I'll sink any ship from Luthe should I come across them, of course."
…
"Long may you reign, milord."
"Hey," Ejiro said, walking towards the teen carefully, "Can I help you?"
"Mh?" The boy blinked, apparently snapping back to reality and focusing on Ejiro, "Sorry, what was that? I'm looking for someone."
"I asked if I could help you," Ejiro repeated, "Maybe I could help you with who you're looking for-"
"Mina!" The teen called suddenly, a wide smile crossing his face and his eyes, which had returned to scanning the courtyard a second after focusing on Ejiro, locking on someone, "Over here!"
"Wha- Izu!" A familiar voice squealed and next thing Ejiro knew he had been shouldered aside by Ashido Mina, who threw her arms around the teen, "Izu" and was lifted into the air, "What are you doing here?"
"Had a job that took me to Chiba earlier today," Izu said, planting Mina back on the ground and looking like he had morphed completely as she pushed the hair out of his eyes. They were still shadowed, but brighter now, happier, "Decided to stop by and see you before the test next week!"
"You're done work for the day, then?" Mina asked.
"...No," Izu said quietly, fist tightening. Did he hate his job or something, "Gotta go do it soon. Just wanted to stop by and say hi, in case we didn't see each other before the Entrance Exam."
"Oh, are you going for UA too?" Ejiro said, feeling like a third wheel. There was something here, he could feel it in his bones.
"Yeah," Izu swept down, hugging Mina and sighing, "Anyways, I should probably get going, gotta work for a couple of hours. The Sail is docked in the marina and probably will be until tonight, if you wanna come over."
"I'll bring a couple of friends. Hey, uh, Ejiro, right? Do you want to come with me?"
"I, ah, sure?" Ejiro blinked, feeling suddenly on the spot.
"Cool, got some soda in the fridge. Meet you there when I'm done work," Izu said, waving as he walked away.
—
You have to do this? the Boy bit back a tired sigh as Mina talked to him through Screaming in Silence. He had switched into his outfit, Éljúðnir appearing with a flow of Essence on Void Sheath Technique.
Yes, the Boy replied before cutting off the link, stepping into the building and walking towards one of the apartments. Standing in front of it was a smoking criminal, who stopped and looked him over, before hiking a finger over his shoulder and stepping aside.
The Boy stepped into the room, looking at the three bodies within. Young men, older than him, but still young. Too young to be dead, in his private opinion. Professionally, there wasn't such a thing, unfortunately. A Death Knight didn't care about age, just the Chivalry.
Luckily, the Boy had managed to avoid applying the Chivalry to children, so far. They were more of use to the Silver Prince alive, where their souls could get stronger.
Sometimes, The Boy got the distinct impression that, given that they had been at this for thousands of years, the Deathlords had very little desire to actually see Creation razed to the ground. Had they even done anything since the Mask of Winters took Thorn?
The Dowager and Walker maybe, and there were rumblings of something changing in the last few years from the few occasions the Boy had met with other Abyssals.
He hated when he had to work with other Abyssals. Much rathered when the Boddivista let him do his own thing, which was more often than not, so long as he sent quarterly reports on what was happening in Japan…
Which was weird because you would think he would have a Day caste do that, but The Boy supposed you had to make do with what you had.
At some point, as a Death Knight, you shrugged and accepted that you were only ever going to be let into a minute amount of your master's grand plan, if they even had one. And The Boy had long passed that point. Let the Silver Prince plot his plots and plan his schemes in Skullstone, it left the Boy as free as an Abyssal could be. Which wasn't massively so, but it was better than having his every action monitored.
The Boy pulled out of his thoughts, staring at the newly made pile of dismembered body parts and raised his hand. An utterance of Ama-tsu-mika-boshi's name sent flames snapping out and consuming the corpses, the acrid smell of burning bodies filling the room and the Boy carefully wrapped up and pocketed fifteen bloody fingers as he waited for the supernatural flames to do their work, reducing the bodies to ash and leaving the bones. Essence rose at the Boy's call, consumed by Oblivion and causing the flames to turn purple and decay the bones to meal.
Turning, the Boy walked out and glanced at the perturbed guard, "Fifty Thousand yen, nearest funeral home. Don't make me come for it personally, I'll be very cross."
"How the fucked someone your age become such a comfortable cleaner?" He asked.
"Death is always with me," The Boy said simply, walking away to find a place to change back into his day clothes, "No point in being uncomfortable with it."
—
Mina led Aiko and Miho, alongside Kirishima and his two friends, Hibiki and Ryōta, down the docks of the marina, eyes scanning for the Dead Man's Sail with a hum. Her Moonsilver tattoos were hidden under a charm as she carried her swimsuit over one arm.
"So this boat has a pool?" Aiko asked, "Your boyfriend must be loaded."
"His boss pays him well," Mina said, about the only good thing she could say about the Bodhisattva whatever-the-hell (her lessons by her senior in the Sliver Pact had given her all the Deathlords' names, but they were all so conceited she basically forgot them immediately). He at least paid Izuku well for his service when he didn't strictly need to pay him at all. And sure it wasn't normally in money but various artifacts and junk that Mina didn't care for, but they made Izuku happy enough. And hey, if occasionally that led to a yacht with a pool acquired through means that probably were best not to ask about (Izuku's words, not hers), she wasn't gonna complain!
"Not gonna deny he's your boyfriend?" Miho teased, "you know you could get in trouble for that, Mina!"
Mustafa Private High School had a relatively strict ban on dating, "That's why he's not my boyfriend until we graduate, silly! Izu's just a friend right now."
"A friend that shows up outside of school and offers to let you throw a party at his boat? You realize how unlikely anyone is to buy that, right, Ashido?" Ryōta said, "Like, chances of any of us other than you getting into UA low!"
"Hey!" Kirishima elbowed him in the gut.
"Right, sorry, Ei, forgot you were applying for a second there," Ryōta wheezed out as they finally found the Dead Man's Sail. A ship that hid its danger, a pair of high yield Essence Pulse Cannons in the front, under the relatively pretty facade of a modern, swan necked yacht, "Wait, this is where we're going? He owns a friggin' yacht, Ashido? Who'd he have to kill to get this?"
More than you cared to know. More than anyone should have to.
Luna damn whatever, or whoever, had put Izuku is a position to sell his life away to a villain as a kid. He had always been vague about it, just commenting that you shouldn't play near stairs.
"Alright, let's get changed!" Mina chriped, typing in the code for the gangplank to lower. Her birthdate, 6/30/21XX. The security guard that had been following behind them at a respectable distance peeled off the minute he watched the terminal connect to the Sail and cause the staircase to lower with a hiss. Climbing aboard, Mina slipped into Izuku's quarters and looked around with a fond smile at her fanboy of a bond mate. Plastered across the walls and desk were posters of All Might, Edgeshot, Miruko, Ryukyu and half a dozen other heroes.
Switching out of her school uniform, she paused as she heard a heavy clunking towards the room, followed by a yelp and the door opening, "Hey, you can't go in the-!"
"Hi, Izu," Mina said, continuing to change as Izuku walked into his cabin, stopping to glance at her. A deep flush appeared across his palid face as he seemed to realize the state she was in.
"Wait, that's your boyfriend?" Miho said, "I thought he was like a guard for the boat or something. Where'd you even come from?"
"Below deck, I was dropping something off. Do, uh, you want to put on your top already Mina?"
"See something you like," Mina teased.
"You know the answer to that," Izuku muttered, "Have fun out there, I'm gonna study for the Entrance Exam."
"You're no fun sometimes," Mina pouted.
"I-" Izuku pulled out a phone as it went off, eyes turning flat, "Need to take this. Sorry. Uh, it's private."
—
"Hello?"
…
"Yes, Milord."
…
"Is it to your liking?"
…
"I figure it will give Skullstone a strong basis in Japan, should I do well."
…
"Thank you, Milord. How goes the war against Leviathan?"
…
"I'll sink any ship from Luthe should I come across them, of course."
…
"Long may you reign, milord."
Last edited:
It's always a delight to see a new Exalted fic, thanks for writing!
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
If you had to pick one for Reiko, which of these would fit her the best, do you think?
• Aspects of Blood: These Liminals are born from lust, greed, and ambition. They are wellsprings of passion and vessels for forces that bind.
• Aspects of Breath: These Liminals arise from regret or repentance. Breath Aspects are reflective and reactive, and alive with the power to possess, motivate, and animate.
• Aspects of Flesh: Flesh Aspects are forged in rage, madness, and vengeance. Aggression and lust move them, and metamorphosis is their hallmark.
• Aspects of Marrow: Curiosity and obsession creates these Liminals. They are calculating and analytical, and see easily to the secret nature of things.
• Aspects of Soil: Soil Aspects are born in sorrow, blackest despair, and heartfelt yearning. They are introspective creatures of revelation and omens, masters of the cycle of decay and rebirth.
And yes, I am aware this is giving away I'm considering having Reiko be a Liminal. I've wanted to do something with spoopy ghost girl for a while, and now feels like it would be a good time. Contrast 1-A and B by having both have an Exalted of Undeath, but of the two drastically different types
• Aspects of Blood: These Liminals are born from lust, greed, and ambition. They are wellsprings of passion and vessels for forces that bind.
• Aspects of Breath: These Liminals arise from regret or repentance. Breath Aspects are reflective and reactive, and alive with the power to possess, motivate, and animate.
• Aspects of Flesh: Flesh Aspects are forged in rage, madness, and vengeance. Aggression and lust move them, and metamorphosis is their hallmark.
• Aspects of Marrow: Curiosity and obsession creates these Liminals. They are calculating and analytical, and see easily to the secret nature of things.
• Aspects of Soil: Soil Aspects are born in sorrow, blackest despair, and heartfelt yearning. They are introspective creatures of revelation and omens, masters of the cycle of decay and rebirth.
And yes, I am aware this is giving away I'm considering having Reiko be a Liminal. I've wanted to do something with spoopy ghost girl for a while, and now feels like it would be a good time. Contrast 1-A and B by having both have an Exalted of Undeath, but of the two drastically different types
Chapter 2
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Alright, I'm gonna be real. Writing the Entrance Exam again is kicking my ass against the wall. Like, seriously. So I'm gonna do it in bursts to get it done with and hopefully onto the story I want to tell more.
---
Inko hurried around the small house, desperately making sure everything was clean for the fourth time that day. Izuku looked up from where he was frying a pork cutlet for some Katsudon with a fond sigh, "She's not gonna leave because everything isn't perfect, mom."
"I just… I… I can't believe you got a girlfriend, Izuku!" Inko said, offering him a wide, proud smile, "Ever since the accident, you've been so withdrawn, I never thought you'd reach out to someone like that!"
The "accident", had been a fight between Izuku and Katsuki that had spiraled too far out of control and left Izuku down a staircase at Middle School with a broken leg bad enough to leave him with a limp for a year after. He had recovered, obviously, but Inko still remembered the heavy clomping of his foot through the apartment. Katsuki had been grounded for two weeks after that incident, and Izuku had become… different. quieter, more withdrawn from the world, though she thought part of that had to do with unlocking a "villainous" Quirk that day.
"She's… she's too good for me, Mom," Izuku said fervently, "I don't know what I did to deserve her as a- a girlfriend, but she makes me happ- that's her now!"
Izuku jumped up at the knock at the door, rushing to it and pulling it open. His face lit up, and he gestured for the young woman standing in the door to come in. Inko took a second to drink in the appearance of Ashido Mina for the first time.
She was a pretty young woman with light pink skin broken up by bluish-silver marks that swirled around her visible skin and vanished underneath her clothes and curly pink hair. A short sleeved t-shirt with the word "Acid" on it in English, short shorts and neon, multicolored stockings under ankle length boots. Hanging from one shoulder was an overnight bag, but the minute she entered the house she dropped that to pull Izuku into a hug, one he returned, resting his chin in between her yellow horns.
After a minute where they seemed to be in their own little world, Izuku stepped back and turned towards her, "Mom, this is Ashido Mina. My- my girlfriend."
Why had it felt like he had swapped words at the last second there?
"Hello!" Mina chirped, bowing at the waist, "It's nice to meet you! Is it alright if I give you a hug? I'm a bit of a… touchy person, if that makes any sense?"
"Of course!" Inko said, catching the hug a second later, "Welcome to our house!"
"Thank you for having me!" Mina said, "I'll be staying on the couch?"
"Of course not," Izuku snorted, "You'll use my room, I'll stay on the fold out."
"Really, Izu, you have the opportunity to sleep with a pretty girl in your bed and you decide to sleep on the couch?" Mina deadpanned, breaking from the hug to stare at Izuku blankly. Inko couldn't hide the laugh that came up at that.
"Chivalry is Chivalry," Izuku said, "I won't assume if you don't want me too-"
"Luna damn it, of course I want you to, you lug," Mina said.
…
"Oh," Izuku's voice was devoid of emotion at first, before his incredibly pale face suddenly exploded with color, "Oh."
"Just… don't do anything naughty, please?" Inko begged lightly even as her heart soared, "I'm too young to be a grandmother and it would ruin your attempts to get into UA."
—
The Boy summoned Éljúðnir and Hallfreðr with Void Sheath Technique, pacing at the front of the pack waiting to enter the UA training ground. Thrusting the daiklave into the ground, he opened up the goreflail-cum-censer and sprinkled in a fistful of finger bone meal, the name of Ama-tsu-mika-boshi igniting them and causing an acrid scent to begin to drift over the area and calm his slowly beating heart.
Grabbing Éljúðnir as the doors swung open, the Boy rushed into the city and kicked off the ground, lifting himself in the air and coming down like a meteor, Hallfreðr smashing into the drab green robot and shattering it in a shriek of the damned. Slamming his feet into the chassis, the Boy hurried forward and onto the next robot, Éljúðnir flashing the trapped soul within and splitting the robot into two.
Here they were, at UA, the greatest Hero School in the country. And all they had to do was destroy as many robots as possible. He could do this, he could become a Hero, despite being a Villain.
Invoking Namazu, the Boy tossed Éljúðnir into the air and brought down Hallfreðr in a two handed grip between three grouped up robots.
Catfish Shaking the Earth.
Time seemed to stop around the point of impact, just for a second, before shockwaves rushed out of the spot Hallfreðr had shattered, forming into a sinkhole that sent all three robots tumbling in as the Boy caught Éljúðnir with his mainhand again. Spinning around, he lunged forwards with Ebon Lightning Prana to split a fourth robot just before it could charge a boy with a mohawk of purple balls where his hair would be.
He wondered how Mina was doing? Or Katsuki, for that matter.
He'd have to ask her how she did when they were done here. Even if he was sure they would both pass and (hopefully) be placed in the same class. Fifty-fifty odds were good, in his opinion!
But now he should probably conserve his Essence, he didn't want to go get points shaved off for draining someone in the middle of the exam because he had run out. That would be… embarrassing.
So regular sword strikes and flail swings it was. It wouldn't be that hard. He just needed to pay attention to the fight ahead, there was nothing more dangerous than an Abyssal on a Death March.
—
"What's that kid's quirk, exactly?" Higari asked, leaning forwards, and watching the boy swinging a flail and sword around with the best of them. Each swing destroyed a robot, sending hydraulic fluid spraying out and wires crackling into the air.
"It's called Abyssal, according to his file," Nemuri, "general body enhancement and necromancy."
"Sounds a bit on the villainous side," Snipe said, "Think he's gonna be an edgelord hero like Odd-Eye?"
"Which student is this again?" Nezu asked.
"Say it like you don't know, boss."
"I was trying to be polite," Nezu said, not breaking from his cheerful tone as he sipped his tea, "Midoriya, Izuku. Age 17, first time trying the Entrance Exam… and an agent of the Skullstone Archipelago in some regard."
"That's a pretty big accusation to level at a kid," Higari said.
"It isn't without reason, they made no attempt to hide his connection to them. I was contacted by the Skullstone Royal Armory last week, and informed that when, and I want to stress that was their wording, not mine, he passed, they would make his outfit."
"We sure we want him then? That's mighty suspicious boss," Snipe observed.
"If he's good enough, and he does appear to be making a good argument for it," Nezu said, "I'm not going to reject a potential hero because he has ties to a foreign nation. Skullstone is part of the WHA, afterall, even if they're very isolationist. That, in fact, makes it all the more remarkable that they have some sort of agent applying to UA."
—
Mina skated into the zone, acid spilling from her feet to let her do so. She couldn't wait to get those shoes she had designed for her hero costume, it was so much easier than doing this barefooted.
The Changing Moon danced through the first five robots in as much time as it took to blink, throwing out handfuls of acid and melting legs as quickly as her Quirk would let her. Her index fingers burned lightly as the low viscosity and high strength acid was secreted from them, cutting through metal like a high speed blade. Before her Exaltation, that amount of Acid would have burnt the skin off her fingers.
Luna, she loved him/her for giving her extra powers. It might come with some downsides, but it came with so, so many benefits. She basically had a bunch of Quirks!
Of course, it was a bit hard to justify "turn into an animal" when your Quirk was "Secrete Acid", but you took what you could.
For example, quills made of Acid with Needle Quill Technique! Quickly forming darts of condensed acid, Mina threw them at another robot and watched it melt.
Rolling onto her back as a three pointer charged her, Mina let it rush over her before coming up in a handstand and drove her acid-covered foot into the robot, breaking through it and planting her foot on the ground in a half cartwheel. She could do this, it was gonna be easy.
—
Bakugo Katsuki was, to put it simply, a complicated person. Blunt, but emotionally charged. Which was why Deku pissed him off so much. There were so many emotions tied to him he didn't even know where to begin.
Anger. Some hatred. Self loathing. Frustration. And as little as he wanted to admit it, the tiniest dose of admiration.
It was hard to forget the day things had changed, where he had, even by his own standards, undeniably fucked up.
"Taking notes on me again, Deku?" Katsuki asked, tearing the notebook from Deku's hands and looking at the contents. Deku blushed and flinched, and Katsuki looked down at it.
How To Avoid Making Kacchan Angry:
No Mumbling
No Quirk Analysis
No Talking About Being A Hero
No-
"Give it back," Deku said, voice quiet as Tsubasa chuckled.
"What did you say to me?" Katsuki said, looking up from the stalkerish list.
"I said, give it back!" Deku lunged forwards, grabbing the notebook and tugging on it, stepping backwards to continue the force. Katsuki rolled his eyes, and dug his feet in, pulling the notebook towards him as he did.
"You're the one writing weirdo lists about me, Deku," Katsuki snapped, hands crackling and he burned the notebook to ash and drove the other into Deku's chest to get him to let go. Deku's grip got tighter for a second before slipping through the burned paper and-
Oh, fuck.
Deku staggered back, arms pinwheeling as his foot suddenly didn't find purchase on the ground and he fell backwards. His neck, his back, his arms smacked against the staircase with a loud crack, followed by another as he went ass over head, landing head first on the stairs and head going at an awkward angle before he finally slammed into the floor below with a final crack and his femur sticking out of his leg, unmoving, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling from an odd angle.
"Deku!" Katsuki barked, storming down the staircase and shaking him roughly, "Deku-"
A hand suddenly latched onto Katsuki's arm, and Deku's eyes snapped back to reality. Haunted, like they had seen a ghost.
"K-Kacchan?" He croaked out like a death rattle.
—
---
Inko hurried around the small house, desperately making sure everything was clean for the fourth time that day. Izuku looked up from where he was frying a pork cutlet for some Katsudon with a fond sigh, "She's not gonna leave because everything isn't perfect, mom."
"I just… I… I can't believe you got a girlfriend, Izuku!" Inko said, offering him a wide, proud smile, "Ever since the accident, you've been so withdrawn, I never thought you'd reach out to someone like that!"
The "accident", had been a fight between Izuku and Katsuki that had spiraled too far out of control and left Izuku down a staircase at Middle School with a broken leg bad enough to leave him with a limp for a year after. He had recovered, obviously, but Inko still remembered the heavy clomping of his foot through the apartment. Katsuki had been grounded for two weeks after that incident, and Izuku had become… different. quieter, more withdrawn from the world, though she thought part of that had to do with unlocking a "villainous" Quirk that day.
"She's… she's too good for me, Mom," Izuku said fervently, "I don't know what I did to deserve her as a- a girlfriend, but she makes me happ- that's her now!"
Izuku jumped up at the knock at the door, rushing to it and pulling it open. His face lit up, and he gestured for the young woman standing in the door to come in. Inko took a second to drink in the appearance of Ashido Mina for the first time.
She was a pretty young woman with light pink skin broken up by bluish-silver marks that swirled around her visible skin and vanished underneath her clothes and curly pink hair. A short sleeved t-shirt with the word "Acid" on it in English, short shorts and neon, multicolored stockings under ankle length boots. Hanging from one shoulder was an overnight bag, but the minute she entered the house she dropped that to pull Izuku into a hug, one he returned, resting his chin in between her yellow horns.
After a minute where they seemed to be in their own little world, Izuku stepped back and turned towards her, "Mom, this is Ashido Mina. My- my girlfriend."
Why had it felt like he had swapped words at the last second there?
"Hello!" Mina chirped, bowing at the waist, "It's nice to meet you! Is it alright if I give you a hug? I'm a bit of a… touchy person, if that makes any sense?"
"Of course!" Inko said, catching the hug a second later, "Welcome to our house!"
"Thank you for having me!" Mina said, "I'll be staying on the couch?"
"Of course not," Izuku snorted, "You'll use my room, I'll stay on the fold out."
"Really, Izu, you have the opportunity to sleep with a pretty girl in your bed and you decide to sleep on the couch?" Mina deadpanned, breaking from the hug to stare at Izuku blankly. Inko couldn't hide the laugh that came up at that.
"Chivalry is Chivalry," Izuku said, "I won't assume if you don't want me too-"
"Luna damn it, of course I want you to, you lug," Mina said.
…
"Oh," Izuku's voice was devoid of emotion at first, before his incredibly pale face suddenly exploded with color, "Oh."
"Just… don't do anything naughty, please?" Inko begged lightly even as her heart soared, "I'm too young to be a grandmother and it would ruin your attempts to get into UA."
—
The Boy summoned Éljúðnir and Hallfreðr with Void Sheath Technique, pacing at the front of the pack waiting to enter the UA training ground. Thrusting the daiklave into the ground, he opened up the goreflail-cum-censer and sprinkled in a fistful of finger bone meal, the name of Ama-tsu-mika-boshi igniting them and causing an acrid scent to begin to drift over the area and calm his slowly beating heart.
Grabbing Éljúðnir as the doors swung open, the Boy rushed into the city and kicked off the ground, lifting himself in the air and coming down like a meteor, Hallfreðr smashing into the drab green robot and shattering it in a shriek of the damned. Slamming his feet into the chassis, the Boy hurried forward and onto the next robot, Éljúðnir flashing the trapped soul within and splitting the robot into two.
Here they were, at UA, the greatest Hero School in the country. And all they had to do was destroy as many robots as possible. He could do this, he could become a Hero, despite being a Villain.
Invoking Namazu, the Boy tossed Éljúðnir into the air and brought down Hallfreðr in a two handed grip between three grouped up robots.
Catfish Shaking the Earth.
Time seemed to stop around the point of impact, just for a second, before shockwaves rushed out of the spot Hallfreðr had shattered, forming into a sinkhole that sent all three robots tumbling in as the Boy caught Éljúðnir with his mainhand again. Spinning around, he lunged forwards with Ebon Lightning Prana to split a fourth robot just before it could charge a boy with a mohawk of purple balls where his hair would be.
He wondered how Mina was doing? Or Katsuki, for that matter.
He'd have to ask her how she did when they were done here. Even if he was sure they would both pass and (hopefully) be placed in the same class. Fifty-fifty odds were good, in his opinion!
But now he should probably conserve his Essence, he didn't want to go get points shaved off for draining someone in the middle of the exam because he had run out. That would be… embarrassing.
So regular sword strikes and flail swings it was. It wouldn't be that hard. He just needed to pay attention to the fight ahead, there was nothing more dangerous than an Abyssal on a Death March.
—
"What's that kid's quirk, exactly?" Higari asked, leaning forwards, and watching the boy swinging a flail and sword around with the best of them. Each swing destroyed a robot, sending hydraulic fluid spraying out and wires crackling into the air.
"It's called Abyssal, according to his file," Nemuri, "general body enhancement and necromancy."
"Sounds a bit on the villainous side," Snipe said, "Think he's gonna be an edgelord hero like Odd-Eye?"
"Which student is this again?" Nezu asked.
"Say it like you don't know, boss."
"I was trying to be polite," Nezu said, not breaking from his cheerful tone as he sipped his tea, "Midoriya, Izuku. Age 17, first time trying the Entrance Exam… and an agent of the Skullstone Archipelago in some regard."
"That's a pretty big accusation to level at a kid," Higari said.
"It isn't without reason, they made no attempt to hide his connection to them. I was contacted by the Skullstone Royal Armory last week, and informed that when, and I want to stress that was their wording, not mine, he passed, they would make his outfit."
"We sure we want him then? That's mighty suspicious boss," Snipe observed.
"If he's good enough, and he does appear to be making a good argument for it," Nezu said, "I'm not going to reject a potential hero because he has ties to a foreign nation. Skullstone is part of the WHA, afterall, even if they're very isolationist. That, in fact, makes it all the more remarkable that they have some sort of agent applying to UA."
—
Mina skated into the zone, acid spilling from her feet to let her do so. She couldn't wait to get those shoes she had designed for her hero costume, it was so much easier than doing this barefooted.
The Changing Moon danced through the first five robots in as much time as it took to blink, throwing out handfuls of acid and melting legs as quickly as her Quirk would let her. Her index fingers burned lightly as the low viscosity and high strength acid was secreted from them, cutting through metal like a high speed blade. Before her Exaltation, that amount of Acid would have burnt the skin off her fingers.
Luna, she loved him/her for giving her extra powers. It might come with some downsides, but it came with so, so many benefits. She basically had a bunch of Quirks!
Of course, it was a bit hard to justify "turn into an animal" when your Quirk was "Secrete Acid", but you took what you could.
For example, quills made of Acid with Needle Quill Technique! Quickly forming darts of condensed acid, Mina threw them at another robot and watched it melt.
Rolling onto her back as a three pointer charged her, Mina let it rush over her before coming up in a handstand and drove her acid-covered foot into the robot, breaking through it and planting her foot on the ground in a half cartwheel. She could do this, it was gonna be easy.
—
Bakugo Katsuki was, to put it simply, a complicated person. Blunt, but emotionally charged. Which was why Deku pissed him off so much. There were so many emotions tied to him he didn't even know where to begin.
Anger. Some hatred. Self loathing. Frustration. And as little as he wanted to admit it, the tiniest dose of admiration.
It was hard to forget the day things had changed, where he had, even by his own standards, undeniably fucked up.
"Taking notes on me again, Deku?" Katsuki asked, tearing the notebook from Deku's hands and looking at the contents. Deku blushed and flinched, and Katsuki looked down at it.
How To Avoid Making Kacchan Angry:
No Mumbling
No Quirk Analysis
No Talking About Being A Hero
No-
"Give it back," Deku said, voice quiet as Tsubasa chuckled.
"What did you say to me?" Katsuki said, looking up from the stalkerish list.
"I said, give it back!" Deku lunged forwards, grabbing the notebook and tugging on it, stepping backwards to continue the force. Katsuki rolled his eyes, and dug his feet in, pulling the notebook towards him as he did.
"You're the one writing weirdo lists about me, Deku," Katsuki snapped, hands crackling and he burned the notebook to ash and drove the other into Deku's chest to get him to let go. Deku's grip got tighter for a second before slipping through the burned paper and-
Oh, fuck.
Deku staggered back, arms pinwheeling as his foot suddenly didn't find purchase on the ground and he fell backwards. His neck, his back, his arms smacked against the staircase with a loud crack, followed by another as he went ass over head, landing head first on the stairs and head going at an awkward angle before he finally slammed into the floor below with a final crack and his femur sticking out of his leg, unmoving, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling from an odd angle.
"Deku!" Katsuki barked, storming down the staircase and shaking him roughly, "Deku-"
A hand suddenly latched onto Katsuki's arm, and Deku's eyes snapped back to reality. Haunted, like they had seen a ghost.
"K-Kacchan?" He croaked out like a death rattle.
—
Another great chapter! I'm somehow not surprised that "King Explosion Murder God" provided the inciting incident for Izuku's abyssal exaltation, although I'm somewhat interested to see more of his perspective and whether he fully realizes what he did or managed to write Izuku's broken neck off as not actually having been as bad as it looked or something.
Unfortunately, Liminals are probably the aspect of the Exalted setting I know the least about, and while I'd consider myself passingly familiar with MHA I had no idea who Reiko was until I looked her up, and still don't know all that much, so I don't think I can provide much useful input as to a good aspect for her.
Unfortunately, Liminals are probably the aspect of the Exalted setting I know the least about, and while I'd consider myself passingly familiar with MHA I had no idea who Reiko was until I looked her up, and still don't know all that much, so I don't think I can provide much useful input as to a good aspect for her.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
He wrote it off as not as bad as it looked, though considering Izuku's change in personality afterwards, he still regrets it, even if he'd never admit it because it's Katsuki, who's very emotionally constipated.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
- Location
- the Literature Club
I've only ever read Second Edition so I look forward to learning what a Liminal is.
That said, I'm extremely happy to see this fic, because for some reason everyone just kept pumping out Infernal fics to the exclusivity of all other Exalted, and I'm glad to see the abyssals get done right.
That said, I'm extremely happy to see this fic, because for some reason everyone just kept pumping out Infernal fics to the exclusivity of all other Exalted, and I'm glad to see the abyssals get done right.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Liminals are, from what little we know (they're one of the three new types of Exalted alongside Gemini (the "Badguy" counterpart to Sidereals) and Exigents (Basically what happens when when a god that isn't strong enough to have it's own type of Exalted is allowed to make one (so, you may be Exigent of the God of Dice, or the God of a Field, or Masks) by the Unconquered Sun) the "good" counterpart to Abyssals. When someone tries to perform an act of true resurrection, which is impossible by Exalted standards, occasionally the body is revived as a Liminal by something dwelling in the underworld known as the Dark Mother.
They're basically Frankenstein's Monster-esque, though they don't necessarily start that way, with the ability to gain abilities by, say, tearing off a body part and stitching on a liar's glib tongue, or a swordsman's deft hand (though they only look like the dead they are when their Anima Banner is going, otherwise they look like a normal person). They're also borderline immortal, with only the destruction of their brain or drowning being enough to premakill one.
If an Abyssal is the dead who made a pact to gain power and not stay dead, a Liminal is a dead body given true life.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
...Part of me is really regretting not making Izuku a Midnight Caste, honestly. There may be an Orwellian retcon towards that.
Chapter 3
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Mina slid back on trails of Acid, back bumping against Izuku as she did so, "How are you doing?"
"Good," Izuku grunted, thrusting his sword into a robot and twisting the blade, "Wish there was some sort of leadership element to this thing. Building a team to fight villains instead of doing it myself. Anything that would make me feel less like a Dusk Caste pretending he was a Midnight."
"You're still fighting though," Mina said, "You're scary good with that sword, Izu."
"Boarding actions are a thing in privateering," Izuku said, swinging his flail into another robot, "They aren't fun, but they're necessary. How long until they release the Zero Point robot, do you think?"
"Any minute now," Mina slashed through two robots with waves of Acid, "What are we gonna do when it's released?"
"Dunno," Izuku gave a grunt as several bullets whumped into his gut, making him attempt to stagger backwards and braced on Mina. Pushing off her, he split the robot in two in a single swing of his sword, "We'll deal with that when it happ-"
Mina looked up at the rumbling in the distance and tensed.
"It happened," Izuku said, sighing.
"Yeah," Mina nodded.
"Well, time to figure out how to deal with it," Izuku turned his eyes to the building sized robot. After a second where he sized it up, his eyes turned to the side and he spoke mechanically, "Hey, you. Iida, right?"
The blue haired young man stopped and stared at Izuku and Mina, "Uh, yes! Iida Tenya. May I ask how you know?"
"Blue hair and Engine Quirk," the Abyssal said, "Listen, I need you to- what was that?"
Mina's head twisted in the direction of the call for help, swallowing. That was the direction of the robot. It was taller than that villain in middle school, the one that almost killed Aiko and Miho.
"Help!"
"We can't just leave them," she said in horror. Even if there was no way UA would let someone die, they had to do something.
"We're- We're not gonna," Izuku coughed, "Hey, all you! With me!"
"What? Why?" A blond in the middle of a pelvic thrust said.
"Just do it!" Izuku snapped, Caste symbol appearing on his forehead and his Anima flaring. A skeletal giant being crawling out of a black void towering behind him.
—
Aoyama Yuga watched the boy walk towards the robot with absolute confidence. Like All Might, but… different…
Where the Symbol of Peace had a flowing blond mullet, the boy had curly black-green hair. Where All Might had glowing, glimmering blue eyes, he had dull, tarnished and tired green. Where All Might was tall and built like a wall, the boy was… well, still of average height but thin, willow-y, almost.
And yet he still exuded the same casual confidence as All Might. Even as he basically intimidated Yuga into following him and his pink skinned friend with a skeletal giant, he seemed approachable. Like he was only forcing the issue due to some great conviction.
And when the four of them came across a girl trapped under some debris, Yuga knew the boy had been right.
"Zero Pointer is coming," Pinky said.
"I've got it, you get her ou-" before he could finish the sentence, the Zero Point Robot's hand slammed into him. Time seemed to stop as Yuga expected the boy to go ragdolling away, body broken.
Instead, the hand stopped in the sound of groaning, rending steel. For the first time, Yuga's eyes were pulled, truly, to the sword in the boy's hand. He hadn't wanted to focus on it before, something about it made him feel on guard, off, sick. Like there was a wrongness in his very bones as he stared at it.
Its blade, alone, was over one hundred and twenty centimeters, made of a black metal that seemed to manipulate the very light around. Not drink, not eat, but do something more. Some of the light was sharpened into the outline of a curved sword, some occasionally reflected a screaming face along the black metal blade that went along with the noise coming from it, but most of it died on the blade. That was the only way Yuga could accurately describe the weapon he was looking at. Regular weapons brought death, this one was death hammered into the shape of a sword.
It made Yuga sick just to look at it, and he forced himself to look away as the boy flicked his hand and sent the robot's open palm flying back the way it came without any sign of exertion. The robot focused on him, and brought its hand down on him full force.
—
Ochako closed her eyes against the wind as the hand way brought down on the boy who had come to save her. Peeking through her eyelids, she watched in awe as he held the hilt of his black sword against the palm. Muscles bulged through his tracksuit and he threw the hand back and into the air.
"Get her out, I'll deal with this," the boy said, running towards the wall and, in defiance of gravity, ran up it diagonally and leapt onto the robot as it swept its arm at him. He became a blur, abyssal black blade sending shards of metal flying through the air. Finally, he reached the top of the shoulder, leaping off it and onto the head before bounding off that.
The black aura grew behind the boy again, blotting out the sun as the skeletal giant raised both arms so it the flail that made up the end of one arm dangled down. Then it mimic'd its creator, flail vanishing in motes of darkness even as the real flail crashed into the Zero Point Robot's head with a shockwave that rattled the teeth in Ochako's mouth.
The rubble around her leg shifted and was lifted by the pink skinned girl, a hand offered to her by the boy with glasses. Ochako took it, scrambling onto her feat as the green haired boy twisted in the air. Then he seemed to bound off air, plummeting and hitting the arm he had already cut with his sword before walking towards them, the arm coming crashing down a second later.
The other arm came down, before Ochako could warn the boy, and the sword came up to deflect it.
"Apparently," the boy said conversationally, "This thing won't stop until it's dead, wanna help me?"
"Not gonna keep showing off on your own?" Ochako shot a look at the pink girl, only to see a teasing grin on her face as she did. Oh, it was a joke.
"Figure we'll look better if we do it together," the boy said.
"Then let's do it," the girl said, before turning to Ochako and the other two boys, "You coming?"
Ochako nodded, immediately.
—-
"Good," Izuku grunted, thrusting his sword into a robot and twisting the blade, "Wish there was some sort of leadership element to this thing. Building a team to fight villains instead of doing it myself. Anything that would make me feel less like a Dusk Caste pretending he was a Midnight."
"You're still fighting though," Mina said, "You're scary good with that sword, Izu."
"Boarding actions are a thing in privateering," Izuku said, swinging his flail into another robot, "They aren't fun, but they're necessary. How long until they release the Zero Point robot, do you think?"
"Any minute now," Mina slashed through two robots with waves of Acid, "What are we gonna do when it's released?"
"Dunno," Izuku gave a grunt as several bullets whumped into his gut, making him attempt to stagger backwards and braced on Mina. Pushing off her, he split the robot in two in a single swing of his sword, "We'll deal with that when it happ-"
Mina looked up at the rumbling in the distance and tensed.
"It happened," Izuku said, sighing.
"Yeah," Mina nodded.
"Well, time to figure out how to deal with it," Izuku turned his eyes to the building sized robot. After a second where he sized it up, his eyes turned to the side and he spoke mechanically, "Hey, you. Iida, right?"
The blue haired young man stopped and stared at Izuku and Mina, "Uh, yes! Iida Tenya. May I ask how you know?"
"Blue hair and Engine Quirk," the Abyssal said, "Listen, I need you to- what was that?"
Mina's head twisted in the direction of the call for help, swallowing. That was the direction of the robot. It was taller than that villain in middle school, the one that almost killed Aiko and Miho.
"Help!"
"We can't just leave them," she said in horror. Even if there was no way UA would let someone die, they had to do something.
"We're- We're not gonna," Izuku coughed, "Hey, all you! With me!"
"What? Why?" A blond in the middle of a pelvic thrust said.
"Just do it!" Izuku snapped, Caste symbol appearing on his forehead and his Anima flaring. A skeletal giant being crawling out of a black void towering behind him.
—
Aoyama Yuga watched the boy walk towards the robot with absolute confidence. Like All Might, but… different…
Where the Symbol of Peace had a flowing blond mullet, the boy had curly black-green hair. Where All Might had glowing, glimmering blue eyes, he had dull, tarnished and tired green. Where All Might was tall and built like a wall, the boy was… well, still of average height but thin, willow-y, almost.
And yet he still exuded the same casual confidence as All Might. Even as he basically intimidated Yuga into following him and his pink skinned friend with a skeletal giant, he seemed approachable. Like he was only forcing the issue due to some great conviction.
And when the four of them came across a girl trapped under some debris, Yuga knew the boy had been right.
"Zero Pointer is coming," Pinky said.
"I've got it, you get her ou-" before he could finish the sentence, the Zero Point Robot's hand slammed into him. Time seemed to stop as Yuga expected the boy to go ragdolling away, body broken.
Instead, the hand stopped in the sound of groaning, rending steel. For the first time, Yuga's eyes were pulled, truly, to the sword in the boy's hand. He hadn't wanted to focus on it before, something about it made him feel on guard, off, sick. Like there was a wrongness in his very bones as he stared at it.
Its blade, alone, was over one hundred and twenty centimeters, made of a black metal that seemed to manipulate the very light around. Not drink, not eat, but do something more. Some of the light was sharpened into the outline of a curved sword, some occasionally reflected a screaming face along the black metal blade that went along with the noise coming from it, but most of it died on the blade. That was the only way Yuga could accurately describe the weapon he was looking at. Regular weapons brought death, this one was death hammered into the shape of a sword.
It made Yuga sick just to look at it, and he forced himself to look away as the boy flicked his hand and sent the robot's open palm flying back the way it came without any sign of exertion. The robot focused on him, and brought its hand down on him full force.
—
Ochako closed her eyes against the wind as the hand way brought down on the boy who had come to save her. Peeking through her eyelids, she watched in awe as he held the hilt of his black sword against the palm. Muscles bulged through his tracksuit and he threw the hand back and into the air.
"Get her out, I'll deal with this," the boy said, running towards the wall and, in defiance of gravity, ran up it diagonally and leapt onto the robot as it swept its arm at him. He became a blur, abyssal black blade sending shards of metal flying through the air. Finally, he reached the top of the shoulder, leaping off it and onto the head before bounding off that.
The black aura grew behind the boy again, blotting out the sun as the skeletal giant raised both arms so it the flail that made up the end of one arm dangled down. Then it mimic'd its creator, flail vanishing in motes of darkness even as the real flail crashed into the Zero Point Robot's head with a shockwave that rattled the teeth in Ochako's mouth.
The rubble around her leg shifted and was lifted by the pink skinned girl, a hand offered to her by the boy with glasses. Ochako took it, scrambling onto her feat as the green haired boy twisted in the air. Then he seemed to bound off air, plummeting and hitting the arm he had already cut with his sword before walking towards them, the arm coming crashing down a second later.
The other arm came down, before Ochako could warn the boy, and the sword came up to deflect it.
"Apparently," the boy said conversationally, "This thing won't stop until it's dead, wanna help me?"
"Not gonna keep showing off on your own?" Ochako shot a look at the pink girl, only to see a teasing grin on her face as she did. Oh, it was a joke.
"Figure we'll look better if we do it together," the boy said.
"Then let's do it," the girl said, before turning to Ochako and the other two boys, "You coming?"
Ochako nodded, immediately.
—-
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
There's definitely gonna be a big change, with the spy in the core of the of the Dekusquad here.
Interlude 1
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
The Boy stepped into UA with his back held high, clutching the suitcase with his uniform with one hand as he did so. Next to him, Mina practically danced in place, eyes sparkling as she drummed his shoulder repeatedly, "We're here, Izu, we're here!"
"Yeah," the Boy breathed, eyes sparkling, "Yeah, we're here. 1-A, right?"
"Double checked last night, we have the same class,"
The Boy nodded, and they made their way through the halls of UA, finally stopping at the pair of giant doors marked 1-A. Made sense, people with gigantification Quirks were well liked as Heroes. Look at Mount Lady. Though there were… other reasons people liked her.
Whatever she wasn't as pretty as Mina, as far as the Boy was concerned.
Mina threw the door open, looking around the college lecture hall with a grin, "Weird we still have home room and junk."
"It lets them keep track of us easier," the Boy responded, "And let them keep the employment roster as low as possible. Not every hero wants to be a teacher too. C'mon, let's grab seats together before we run out.
"True," Mina said as they sat next to each other, and she rested her head on his shoulder, "That's why you're the smart one in this relationship."
"Hey," the Boy reproached gently, resting his head on hers and ignoring the whine from the hoy with purple balls for hair, "You're plenty smart, you got into UA, didn't you?"
"Because you helped me study, silly," Mina shot back.
"Tell me you're not gonna be like this all the time," Katsuki growled out from where he was sitting with his legs on the desk, ignoring the lecture from Iida, "You might as well be screaming that you're fucking each other."
"I wish," Mina said quietly, causing the Boy to blush before his eyes landed on a sleeping bag inching its way into the room. What, by the abandoned names of the Neverborn, was that.
"Excuse me?" The Boy said.
"Good awareness," came the mumbled response from the floor, before the sleeping bag rolled over and sat up, revealing a disheveled man wearing a black shirt and pants, "the rest of you should learn from that. Look under your desks, there are gym uniforms there, get changed and meet me out front. You've got a free period next and I don't think anyone wants to miss it because we didn't wrap up my preliminary work before it started."
—
Momo frowned as she breathed in through her nose and mouth, eyes flickering to the couple chatting away, one marked with silver markings across her body who smelt of acid and fur, and the other… The other was a strange mixture of smells that her sifu had shown her, but she had never expected to be useful except for the last two.
Brine. Grave Rot. Paper, both new and old. Righteousness and Wickedness in equal measure.
What, who, was he, to smell like those things? Why was someone that smelled of so much wickedness at UA, trying to be a Hero?
"Alright, everyone's here," their teacher, who smelt of more simple things, cats and litter and artificial juices, said, "Midoriya, you got the highest score at the Entrance Exam in Villain Points, but Ashido got the highest counting Rescue Points. Since you're obviously close, I'll let you decide who I use for this example."
A silent conversation seemed to whirl between the two, and finally the pink one stepped forwards as the pale one took a respectful step back.
"Alright, Ashido," their teacher said, pulling a ball out from under his scarf and offering it to her, "Throw that as far as you can. You can use your Quirk and anything else, so long as you don't leave the circle."
"Sounds fun," she chirped, drawing a red eyed glare from their teacher as his hair and scarf began to float in defiance of gravity. Momo reached behind her back as Grave Rot, Midoriya, tensed and began to step forwards.
"Fun. You think this is fun? This is practice for being a Hero, and if you think being a Hero is all autographs and press conferences, you're an idiot who can get out of my school."
"Don't you-" Midoriya growled, low, beastial, as he rushed forwards then. Their sensei whipped around and wrapped Midoriya in his scarf.
"What, you think that me lecturing your girlfriend is unfair, Midoriya? Get used to it, this world is unfair. Criminals, typhoons, earthquakes that wipe out entire cities, they're not going to play fa- HURK!"
Midoriya somehow unwound himself from the binding in the time it took for Momo to blink and reversed it so now their sensei was on the floor, his scarf cutting off airflow as he lay there with Midoriya, smelling of pure Righteous fury, towering over him.
"So you're saying it's our duty to fight you?" Midoriya snapped, "because that's what a Hero does to those things, Sensei! We go out and face down villains, we risk our lives to reach a boat that didn't get to dock before the typhoon came in, we rush out before the aftershocks have finished and risk being crushed alive to make sure other people aren't! That's the Chivalry Heroes are bound to, and you're equating yourself to our enemies! Doesn't that make you our enemy, Eraserhead?"
Eraserhead gave a manic grin, undoing the scarf just as easily as Midoriya had, "Good response! No, I'm not your enemy, but I'm glad someone in this class has a good handle on what it means to be a hero!"
"But at the same time," Midoriya continued, "If you think being a hero is nothing but being a stone faced protector, you're an idiot. People need to be able to trust you, being willing to do autographs and press conferences is why All Might is so well loved. So…"
Midoriya pulled a notebook out of nowhere, flipping it open and turning it towards Eraserhead, "Can I get an autograph?"
—-
"Yeah," the Boy breathed, eyes sparkling, "Yeah, we're here. 1-A, right?"
"Double checked last night, we have the same class,"
The Boy nodded, and they made their way through the halls of UA, finally stopping at the pair of giant doors marked 1-A. Made sense, people with gigantification Quirks were well liked as Heroes. Look at Mount Lady. Though there were… other reasons people liked her.
Whatever she wasn't as pretty as Mina, as far as the Boy was concerned.
Mina threw the door open, looking around the college lecture hall with a grin, "Weird we still have home room and junk."
"It lets them keep track of us easier," the Boy responded, "And let them keep the employment roster as low as possible. Not every hero wants to be a teacher too. C'mon, let's grab seats together before we run out.
"True," Mina said as they sat next to each other, and she rested her head on his shoulder, "That's why you're the smart one in this relationship."
"Hey," the Boy reproached gently, resting his head on hers and ignoring the whine from the hoy with purple balls for hair, "You're plenty smart, you got into UA, didn't you?"
"Because you helped me study, silly," Mina shot back.
"Tell me you're not gonna be like this all the time," Katsuki growled out from where he was sitting with his legs on the desk, ignoring the lecture from Iida, "You might as well be screaming that you're fucking each other."
"I wish," Mina said quietly, causing the Boy to blush before his eyes landed on a sleeping bag inching its way into the room. What, by the abandoned names of the Neverborn, was that.
"Excuse me?" The Boy said.
"Good awareness," came the mumbled response from the floor, before the sleeping bag rolled over and sat up, revealing a disheveled man wearing a black shirt and pants, "the rest of you should learn from that. Look under your desks, there are gym uniforms there, get changed and meet me out front. You've got a free period next and I don't think anyone wants to miss it because we didn't wrap up my preliminary work before it started."
—
Momo frowned as she breathed in through her nose and mouth, eyes flickering to the couple chatting away, one marked with silver markings across her body who smelt of acid and fur, and the other… The other was a strange mixture of smells that her sifu had shown her, but she had never expected to be useful except for the last two.
Brine. Grave Rot. Paper, both new and old. Righteousness and Wickedness in equal measure.
What, who, was he, to smell like those things? Why was someone that smelled of so much wickedness at UA, trying to be a Hero?
"Alright, everyone's here," their teacher, who smelt of more simple things, cats and litter and artificial juices, said, "Midoriya, you got the highest score at the Entrance Exam in Villain Points, but Ashido got the highest counting Rescue Points. Since you're obviously close, I'll let you decide who I use for this example."
A silent conversation seemed to whirl between the two, and finally the pink one stepped forwards as the pale one took a respectful step back.
"Alright, Ashido," their teacher said, pulling a ball out from under his scarf and offering it to her, "Throw that as far as you can. You can use your Quirk and anything else, so long as you don't leave the circle."
"Sounds fun," she chirped, drawing a red eyed glare from their teacher as his hair and scarf began to float in defiance of gravity. Momo reached behind her back as Grave Rot, Midoriya, tensed and began to step forwards.
"Fun. You think this is fun? This is practice for being a Hero, and if you think being a Hero is all autographs and press conferences, you're an idiot who can get out of my school."
"Don't you-" Midoriya growled, low, beastial, as he rushed forwards then. Their sensei whipped around and wrapped Midoriya in his scarf.
"What, you think that me lecturing your girlfriend is unfair, Midoriya? Get used to it, this world is unfair. Criminals, typhoons, earthquakes that wipe out entire cities, they're not going to play fa- HURK!"
Midoriya somehow unwound himself from the binding in the time it took for Momo to blink and reversed it so now their sensei was on the floor, his scarf cutting off airflow as he lay there with Midoriya, smelling of pure Righteous fury, towering over him.
"So you're saying it's our duty to fight you?" Midoriya snapped, "because that's what a Hero does to those things, Sensei! We go out and face down villains, we risk our lives to reach a boat that didn't get to dock before the typhoon came in, we rush out before the aftershocks have finished and risk being crushed alive to make sure other people aren't! That's the Chivalry Heroes are bound to, and you're equating yourself to our enemies! Doesn't that make you our enemy, Eraserhead?"
Eraserhead gave a manic grin, undoing the scarf just as easily as Midoriya had, "Good response! No, I'm not your enemy, but I'm glad someone in this class has a good handle on what it means to be a hero!"
"But at the same time," Midoriya continued, "If you think being a hero is nothing but being a stone faced protector, you're an idiot. People need to be able to trust you, being willing to do autographs and press conferences is why All Might is so well loved. So…"
Midoriya pulled a notebook out of nowhere, flipping it open and turning it towards Eraserhead, "Can I get an autograph?"
—-
Last edited:
- Location
- Sweden
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Here is why it is your heroic duty to do autographs....
So can I get your autograph?
lol
So can I get your autograph?
lol
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Shit, half the interlude is missing! Brb, fixing that.
He is also, let it be reminded for a record, Midoriya Izuku. He is a huge, unashamed, hero nerd. He has high standards of what a Hero is, and that includes being a guy who signs autographs.
It's why I love writing this story.
Izuku is an abomination against nature designed to destroy reality.
He is also, let it be reminded for a record, Midoriya Izuku. He is a huge, unashamed, hero nerd. He has high standards of what a Hero is, and that includes being a guy who signs autographs.
It's why I love writing this story.
Man the juxtaposition between nerd and eldritch abomination is hilarious, I can't wait for Izuki to loose it and go full death knight, the whole class to be freaking out along with a bunch of "hero's" and then Mina to just waltz up give him a kiss on the cheek and tell him to calm down. The looks on peoples faces would be priceless!