Chapter 1: Chapter 1, One Door Closes and Another Opens
Izuku stared at his phone with a bored expression. There was another hero fighting a villain in the Yavin district two stops from his apartment and he was missing it. Looking down at his hero analysis notebook he swiped on the news article relating to the fight causing the live news feed to play through his earbuds. He was halfway through adding to the page in his notebook for the up-and-coming hero, Mirko when his stop was announced.
Standing quickly, Izuku falls into the line of people exiting the train onto the platform. He tugged his All Might hoodie up around his neck a little more as the frigid autumn air nips at him.
The young boy always liked the northern part of Japan, having come up this way to visit his grandfather while the man was still alive. What he didn't like, however was the three-hour bullet train ride that it took. Coming to a stop outside the large house, Izuku scowls slightly. It was a nice house, on the edge of town so there was plenty of land, taking up three acres of land. Four bedrooms to the two-story house making for a roomy interior but his mother didn't want to have to switch him to a local school, so she let him stay in an apartment in Musutafu.
"Mom, I'm here" he calls out into the house as he slips his shoes off. When he didn't get a reply, he ventures further into the house.
He dwelled on the fact that his mother and him weren't close anymore, both in physical and emotional distance. He only came to visit on the first weekend of the month upon her request to get money for necessities and she rarely ever answered the phone when he tried to call her. The others at school found out and added that to the list of reasons they bullied him. And it was all thanks to one Katsuki Bakugo his former best friend.
It wasn't bad enough that they ridiculed him for being a quirkless "Deku", but they also joked that his own mother had to move hours away just to try and ignore the mistake she brought into the world.
Upon reaching the kitchen, he found an envelope on the counter with a note. 'Izuku, I'm heading to a friend's house for some business. Here's the money for this month. Sorry the amount is less than last month; work has been slow. Call me if you need anything.' Izuku sneered at the note. "Not like you'll pick up even if I do call" he dismisses as he throws down the note and pockets the envelope.
Wandering further into the house, Izuku figures he can grab a couple of his winter jackets before leaving. The only problem was, he had no idea where his mom was keeping his stuff.
Checking the spare rooms, closets and attic, Izuku wasn't able to find anything, putting him in an even worse mood. He had a really nice winter jacket that fit him perfectly. It was puffy, insulated and warm. Easily his favorite article of winter clothes that he owned.
Making his way into Inko's room, he checks her closet only to find a box in the back. Lifting the lid, he found needles, elastic bands and other various drug related items making his heart drop. He was able to recognize them after watching an interview with the hero Fatgum after a major drug bust. Izuku wasn't sure how long he stared down at the items in horror as sweat formed on his forehead.
The sound of something falling below him makes him jump bringing him out of his stupor. Scrambling to put the box back he makes his way out of the room. The door was still locked and even if it wasn't the banging came from below him while he was on the first floor.
Making his way into the basement, Izuku flicks on the light at the end of the stairs as the small space was illuminated.
The basement was too small for a house of this size, so Izuku makes his way over to the area he believed to be under his mom's room. Another bang came from behind the wall making the young boy step back. A small section of wall was clearly indented and painted over.
Looking around, Izuku grabs a screwdriver from the old toolbox his grandpa and him used to use when they would work on projects together.
Using the flat of the head he scored along the paint and pushed the wall to find that it slid backwards. An entirely new room only lit by small luminescent crystals that seemed to float on their own.
"What the" Izuku asks turning in a circle as he enters the room.
Something drops, and he jumps around to see a small mouse had knocked over a golden block. The block sat next to some strange item that Izuku couldn't even start to place the use for.
"So, that's what I heard. Not comforting to know that mice are living here too but good to know nobody broke in" he assures himself as he picks up the cube. A small electric shock passes from the cube to Izuku's hand making the boy yelp.
The strange item starts to float before splitting into four sections and separates leaving a shimmering blue veil connecting them. Without warning a small item poked through the veil and with great trepidation Izuku grabs it. The Item seemed to be a large key, easily the size of a TV remote and as thick as one of his notebooks.
A piece of paper was attached using tape and Izuku instantly recognized the handwriting.
'Note to self. Remember to show Izuku when he is old enough" his grandfather's handwriting says. A small smile spread across Izuku's lips thinking about it. His grandfather was always the kind of guy who liked to surprise his family with gifts, and it was fitting that he continued doing so from beyond the grave. The cube itself definitely would have been a surprise, especially considering it orbited him, now back in its original state. Izuku was now faced with a new problem, what did the key open and what was the surprise his grandfather wanted to show him. As if reading his thoughts the key trembled in his grip before being ripped from his hand by an invisible force.
Following it around a large stack of boxes, he finds that the key had inserted itself into a strange set of double doors.
"Is this... the surprise?" Izuku asks aloud. He couldn't help the curiosity that drew him closer as he pushed the door open.
The other side wasn't what he expected. Instead of a basement or anything of the sorts, it was a brightly lit wooden interior of a house. A shudder runs through Izuku's spine as he passed through the threshold of the doorway.
The room was clearly a living room as it was filled with a couch and coffee table.
Making his way to the window, Izuku was confused as he looked out into an expansive lush green forest. "What the... Wasn't I just in Japan?" Izuku asks himself.
Noticing a journal on the table, Izuku lifts it. His grandfather's handwriting was scrawled across the front. 'A gift for Izuku' was the only thing written on the cover.
His head was spinning as he sits heavily on the couch. Opening the first page, he takes in the words written on the page. Multiple key words pop out to the boy. Other World, Magic, Owner of the doors we only a few. Overwhelmed and not sure what to do. Izuku rushes back through the doors and closes them before grabbing the key.
He made sure to replace the wall before rushing up the stairs and out of the house.
It was already midafternoon meaning at least four hours had passed since coming here. How much time had he spent in the house. Did what he read really hold any truth and if so, did the flow of time change in that world. Everything was so confusing and that wasn't even lumping in what he found in his mother's closet. He knew that he should turn her in to the police but then what would happen to him? Did thinking that way make him selfish? A pit formed in his stomach making him clutch his gut with the hand that wasn't holding his grandfather's notebook. He held it close as a comforting feeling settled in his heart.
Taking a calming breath, Izuku made up his mind as he flipped open the book to where he left off.
'I can only hope that the person reading this is Izuku Midoriya, my grandson' his grandfather wrote. 'My name is Tensho Kurose and if you're reading this then you found the door. Unfortunately, I don't have much time left' the letter went on making Izuku's breathing hitched.
His grandfather knew that he would die? Why didn't he say anything? He died when Izuku was only six and it's been another five years since then.
'My plan was to show this to Izuku when he turned thirteen' that was only a couple years away so at least Izuku was close to on schedule. 'The doorway you passed through leads to another world called Hominum. A land filled with magic, monsters and knights. I knew Izuku would have loved it there' His grandfather knew him so well he laughs.
'The main reason I want to show my grandson this world is because I found out that only the quirkless can wield the magic of this world. He always dreamed big of being a hero that can save anyone, and I gave everything to find a way for him to do that' his grandfather had done that for him? Tears began pricking at his eyes. 'I tried to teach myself magic but as it turns out the power that the mana holds clashes with the quirk I already possess. It's the reason I got so sick so quickly. The two powers clashed to such an extent that it tore through my body.'
So that was what his grandfather meant that he gave everything. His heart ached at the confession of his grandfather.
He needed to close the notebook in fear of breaking out in tears on the train.
Chapter 2: Chapter 2, Nothing Comes Easy
Sleep did not come easy to Izuku Midoriya that night. He laid in bed for a few hours, mind racing, before he was even able to fall asleep. The sleep he did get however was restless and when he woke up his eyes held deep circles under them. The first thing he noticed when he sat up was that the golden cube was still hovering nearby. "What do I do with you? I can't just show up with some strange floating cube" Izuku mutters as he runs his hand down his face. The cube seemed to respond with a spin as it fell to the ground. "Huh, that's useful" he says to himself as he picks the item up and slips it into his bag.
Breakfast, a shower and getting dressed all passed quickly. He dreaded actually going to school even as he walked out the door. His school uniform was still a tattered mess patched together due to not having the funds to repair it every time he's beat up.
Making his way through the street, Izuku stopped as he saw a large group of people gathering in the street. "What's going on?" the boy wondered aloud as he snaked his way through the gaps in the crowd. "Woah, it's a villain" Izuku gasps out. A tall man with crimson skin and bulging muscles lifted an ATM over his shoulder.
"Destruction of public property and theft. Sorry buddy but I'll be taking you in" the hero that showed up on scene announces. Izuku was enraptured as the hero and villain fought. The villain obviously had a strength enhancement and mild mutation quirk while the hero had a sort of elastic quirk.
"The villain is at a clear disadvantage. While he holds great strength, the hero is able to twist, stretch, and contort his body allowing him to minimize and negate blunt attacks. If the villain is able to somehow constrict the hero's movements, then he might have a chance, but he's already taken enough damage to make his movements sloppy" Izuku mutters out as he slips his notebook and pen from his backpacks side pocket.
Just like he predicted, the hero won after getting in several lucky punches and slapping some enhanced handcuffs on the villain. "Crap, I'll be late" Izuku gasps out as he looks at his phone. Rushing through the crowd, the boy offers noncommittal apologies to the people he pushes past. He was finally able to catch his breath as he passes through the front gates of Aldera junior high.
He slipped into the back of the classroom largely unnoticed by his classmates. Not surprising considering they overlooked the quirkless boy. He didn't mind all that much though since it meant he wasn't receiving any ridicule or weird looks.
"Everybody put your homework on my desk before we start class today" the teacher, Ishimiya, announces as he walks in. Of course, Izuku couldn't go unnoticed forever. As he walked to the front of the class with the packet in hand, one of Katsuki's lackeys' trips Izuku. "Midoriya, stop making a scene" Ishimiya scolds. "Sorry, sir" Izuku mutters as he scrambles to his feet. At least this was his last year before junior high and he'd be away from this set of teachers and onto the next. But Izuku knew even that was wishful thinking. After that initial incident the school day fell into its typical pattern. When nobody wanted to answer the teacher would automatically pick Izuku to answer. If he got the answer right, he would be scolded for not volunteering to answer if he knew it and if he got it wrong then he would be scolded for not trying hard enough. Either way, everyone would laugh.
When lunch rolled around, Izuku took his bento and rushed out of the classroom to the front courtyard. The other students either went to the rooftop or the cafeteria so he knew that only stragglers would find him there.
The money his mother had given him, having been less than the usual amount, wasn't enough to get all of the essentials for the month so he had to limit his already small lunches. The stray thought that if he had proper meals maybe he's put on some weight played at the back of his mind.
When the warning bell rang, Izuku lazily stood and shuffled his way back to the classroom keeping his head down in hopes of going unnoticed.
"Hey, freak" someone calls out making the green-haired boy flinch.
Looking up, he was met with the sight of pitch-black hair that hung around the shoulders of some girl he didn't know.
"You really think you have a chance with me?" she demanded waving some letter in his face. "I don't know who you are" Izuku mumbles back with scrunched eyebrows. That was the wrong thing to say because she slapped him across the face. "Don't lie just to cover your ass now" she sneers as she crumples the letter and throws it at him. "No woman will ever love some quirkless reject like you so don't even try" she grits out before stomping away.
Everyone in the immediate vicinity was watching with shocked faces as multiple students laughed openly.
Scooping the crumpled letter off the ground he unfolds it only to find a letter addressed to who he assumed was the girl named Mika Hoshikawa. Not only was this not his handwriting but who in their right mind would sign something like a love confession letter as 'The quirkless freak Izuku Midoriya?'
Letting out a sigh as he holds his stinging cheek, Izuku ignores the other students and slips into the classroom just hoping that the rest of the day would go quickly. He was tired, annoyed and honestly scared of what his bullies would do at this point.
"Dude, that was pathetic" one of his classmates laughs openly as he holds his stomach.
Izuku just ignored him since responding would only make the situation worse.
Thankfully the afternoon classes weren't the worst since instead of actively discriminating against him, the teachers tend to just ignore him outright.
So, by the time the final bell of the day rang, Izuku was practically itching to get out of the classroom. Of course, it wasn't that simple as Katsuki and his so-called friends surrounded his desk.
"So, Deku thought he could get a girlfriend" Katsuki sneers rhetorically. "As if anyone would want to be with some hero-wannabe who's gonna amount to nothing. Your own mother doesn't want to be around you" the ash-blonde boy continues mockingly. Izuku honestly stopped listening at this point, which probably wasn't the best move but hey, it can't get much worse.
A hand slams onto his desk as smoke rose from under it. "Don't you fucking ignore me, shitty Deku" Katsuki growls. "Why? So that I can listen to you berate and belittle me? It's honestly repetitive at this point" Izuku replies without thinking. "The fuck did you just say to me you little shit?" Katsuki growls as more smoke curls from under his hand.
Izuku didn't reply in fear of making the situation worse.
"Listen to me, Deku. I'm gonna be the only one from this backwater district to make it big as a hero. These other losers will be lucky to even become sidekicks. But you're even worse, you would get killed on the first day if you even got into a hero school. So, do yourself a favor and stay out of my way" the blonde bites out before stomping away.
Heaving a sigh, Izuku slips his backpack on and trudges out of the classroom.
His walk home was, thankfully, uneventful which meant he was walking in his door only ten minutes after leaving the school. Less foot traffic and no villain attacks meant that the roads were practically empty. Izuku stopped on a dime though as he walks down the hall to his room because built into the wall as if it had always been there was the set of ornate doors from his grandfather's old house. Slipping his backpack off, he quickly changes out of his school uniform and into some more comfortable clothes.
The last time he had gone through the doors, it was warm, so Izuku changed into shorts and a shirt with the kanji for adventurer on the front.
Taking a breath, a familiar shudder climbs his spine as he walks through the doors and back into the warm wooden room. Everything was the same as it was before, so he figured that nobody was living here.
"What is this place?" Izuku asks as he sits on the couch looking around. The golden cube comes floating into view pulsing as a blue screen pops up in front of it. Turns out the item was called a dimensional pocket and it currently had three items in it. His grandfathers journal, a portion of some kind, and a mages crystal.
Opening the dimensional pocket, all three items drop from the glowing blue opening and onto the table. he was already familiar with the red leatherbound journal with his grandfather's writing on it.
The potion, however, was a strange deep blue color that seemed to sparkle and shift. What really caught his attention was the mages crystal. It was a beautiful shade of seafoam green that pulsed lightly. The crystal itself was about seven inches tall and four inches in diameter with several smaller crystals jetting off from it on the sides in random spots.
Tapping the crystal, it pulsed strongly one last time before a translucent figure appears floating above the item. It started off as a blob before four legs and a tail elongate and it turns into a cat.
"Woah" Izuku gasps in wonder as the translucent cat stretches.
"But. What is the crystal" Izuku wonders as he lifts his grandfather's journal. "It can be used in a plethora of ways" a new voice, deep but smooth, says. Izuku's head shot up as he looked around for where it came from. The room was empty and the ornate doors he came through were closed.
"Is someone there?" Izuku asks, his voice dripping with concern. "In a way, yes" the same voice replies as Izuku's attention snaps to the cat. "Are you the one speaking?" Izuku asks leaning forward slightly.
"I am" The cat nods. "And to answer your earlier question, A mages crystal is a powerful magical tool used in many ways. The way this one and many others are used is to store information. I was set up as a sort of user manual for all things magic set up by the one who poured magic into it" the cat answers with a cheshire like smile.
"You mean my grandfather, Tensho?" Izuku asks enraptured by the magical being. "That's right, Kaito is the one who created this device, and I take it that you are Izuku Midoriya" the cat replies as it hops from the table to the couch. "I'm Izuku, yah. How did you know?" Izuku asks without thinking. The cat gave him a flat stare. "That is a stupid question kid. We established that Kaito was your grandfather, and I was specifically made to help his grandson so anyone else would have had a glowing crystal they couldn't turn on" the cat chastised.
"Oh, uh... Right, sorry. This is just a lot to take in" Izuku says with a nervous chuckle.
"Yes, I would imagine" the cat laughs as it licks its paw. "So, how does this work? Magic, I mean" Izuku asks. "Now, that right there. That's the million coin question" The cat answers as it hops onto Izuku's shoulder and nestles around his neck. "But first we need to talk about this world and its history so that you can truly understand" the cat continues.
Another projection of magic appears from the crystal, this time stationary and flat similar to a TV screen.
"You see, when the world was new, and man wasn't even a thought. Mana was a byproduct of the thriving life that established itself a sort of life energy if you want to be on the nose about it" the cat explains. The second projection shifted to that of a world twice the size of earth with bountiful vegetation and vast oceans. A sort of energy pulsed through the planet like winding rivers and large pools of varying sizes.
"Then, the different races came to be. Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and Gnomes are only a few. These races were the biproduct of mana itself meaning they could wield it in a variety of ways. The elves lived in the forests, learning to use their mana to not only enhance their bodies but also cast spells."
The image shifted again to depictions of the different races.
The elves were tall and slender with regal looking features. Their bodies more attuned to agility with precise movements. Their homes were in the forests on the ground and in the trees alike.
The dwarves were the opposite. Short and stocky with rough and gruff features. They were clearly more built for strength. The image shows whole villages built around and in mountains. Mines and forges littering the surrounding area.
The images continued to shift through the species as Izuku watched enraptured by the new information he was taking in.
"Yes, it's fascinating but try to keep up since this is where the real lesson starts" The cat says as it paws at Izuku's cheek. "You see, the utilization of magic while vast, is fundamental in nature. The body acts as a conduit for the mana that flows from the planet around it. Just like the planet, the body has pathways and pools that store the mana and allow the wielder to reap the benefits."
"I see, so I just have to learn to channel the mana in order to learn magic?" Izuku asks, looking to the cat. "Yes, but you're getting ahead of me, here" the cat reprimands as it uses one of its paws to push Izuku's attention back to the crystal.
The projection changes to show an image of a human now. "I want you to understand that unlike your world, while plentiful, humans are not the core beings of this world. In fact, they were not originally able to utilize mana at all. It wasn't until they were taught by wandering mages that they learned to cast spells" the cat explained.
The image shows the pathways inside the body. "Why does it seem like the largest pool is in the stomach?" Izuku asks pointing to the projection.
"Haven't you ever felt a strong emotion bobble within you. The two most common places to feel it are in the heart and the stomach. Spells can run rampant when strong emotions are felt but the use of mana can also be cut off completely if the mind is muddled and the heart is heavy" the cat answers.
Izuku clutched his stomach as anxiety bubbles in his stomach.
"That is the basic history behind the world and mana in general. Next, we should talk about applications of magic" the magic creature continues as the projection disappears.
"There are several types but the most basic are the elements. Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Shadows just to name a few. It is through the use of these elements that allow the people to create defensive and offensive magic."
"And... How do I learn to utilize mana?" Izuku questions.
"You must reach inside yourself and unlock the dormant mana that flows through your pathways. Once you learn to tap into that energy you will be able to learn to cast.
"That, however, will be difficult. The people of your world have muddled their pathways to utilize what your people call quirks. The quirkless don't have any pathways at all which is why they never develop a power. Your grandfather found a way to give quirkless people pathways" the cat says. "Then why don't we use this technique to give every quirkless person in my world a quirk?" Izuku asks.
The cat seems to bristle slightly at the question.
"If some ordinary person was to suddenly come into possession of mana pathways, their body would combust. It takes someone with a particularly strong drive and natural adaption to mana to gain these pathways, such as yourself. That shock you got when you came into contact with the cube was your body gaining the necessary pathways to use this power. Which is why I suggest you drink the potion. It's called the mages favor and it will help widen your mana pathways." the cat answers in a harsh tone making Izuku shiver.
The thought that he could have spontaneously combusted sobering the young boy from his fascination.