Chapter 03: A Match in the Wind
In the days that followed Midoriya's meltdown in the freshly coined 'Tatoonie Incident', things had not gone well for his image. Those who didn't flee from the scene witnessed the entire thing, but to them, they only saw a crazed child try and burn both another villain and heroes alike before he fled at the sight of All Might. Worse yet, their testimony was backed by video taken by multiple people with their phones. It wasn't even a full 24 hours before the story shifted to that of a young villain's debut rampage and assault with people advised that if they saw him, to keep their distance and report it as fast as possible.
"How's the arm?" Kamui asked Death Arms, the man back on duty after a day off for treatment, he should still be off but he here was.
"Better. Though they had to bring in Recovery Girl however to handle it." Death Arms replied, as his arms had suffered 1st and 2nd degree burns from his proximity to the boy when his flames shot up in intensity. His right was the worst of the two but a couple of kisses from the veteran hero and he was good to go, even if she wanted him to remain for a couple of days.
"That is a mercy in itself, you could have easily ended up like the rest of the street." Kamui shuddered as he recalled the incident site once the boy had left. The entire place looked like it had been baked in an oversized oven for hours on end, nothing was spared the heat or the flames and whatever wasn't burned to ash melted. If he had tried to intervene, he wouldn't have faired well to put it lightly.
"No joke. I've handled a few fire villains before, but that kid," Death Arms recalled the scene of when the boy summoned a wall of fire, almost as tall as the buildings around them, all while that stone-like face looked on at them with a decreasing grip on reality. "He was on a whole other level, a living inferno."
"And yet, even while looking like a cross between a snake, a volcano and a campfire, he managed to escape." Mt. Lady added, as they spent hours looking for the kid, even All Might helped but aside from a burnt-out man-hole cover 12 blocks away, he was gone.
"His mother didn't seem to know anything about it," Kamui replied, thinking about how he had been present when the police visited her to question her. They also hoped that the boy had returned somewhere familiar, somewhere he felt safe but no suck luck. "She was shocked that he would do that but seemed to also not be."
"Pardon?" Mt. Lady asked.
"She said that he's always had…urges, bad thoughts which he wasn't supposed to listen to, and that fires tend to be a trigger for them." To that, Death Arms hummed.
"I'm guessing he wasn't supposed to head to the incident then?" He asked, to which the wood quirk user nodded his head.
"Yeah, she didn't know what drove him to break the rules as she was adamant, he was a good boy, just normal in the head," Kamui recalled that part quite clearly, how insistent she was that he shouldn't be blamed for his villainous quirk, even showed them his room which was an All Might shrine with how much merchandise the kid had collected over the years.
"He certainly didn't look sane; the kid couldn't even tell that burning someone alive was a bad thing." Death Arms crossed his arms and leaned into his chair.
"Was it though?" He looked towards Mt. Lady, who didn't seem to agree with his statement. "I mean, close to the end, it looked like he was more terrified than anything." She had been the furthest back, but she had gotten exceptional when it came to spotting and identifying things smaller than her when she used her quirk. And to her, the boy seemed less like he genuinely believed he was doing the right thing.
Perhaps there was some truth to his words as they had recovered the villain, expecting to find him dead but he was fine, just unconscious. EMTs even reported that he didn't have any sufficient burn injuries and that he had been healed by the experience. It was the same deal with that Bakugo kid as his arm was fine after less than an hour.
"Maybe, but that didn't change the fact he broke a bunch of laws. It's fine to wish to help, but there is a process to it and because he didn't follow it, he wrecked the place." Death Arms reminded her.
"I'm not disagreeing with any of you on that, as there is something more here, but that leaves the question," Kamui Woods added, looking both in the eye. "Why did he flee from All Might? The boy loved heroes, loved All Might more than any other, yet the sight of him sent him into a fear-fueled frenzy and fled as fast as he could." That was the part he didn't understand, even after all this time.
Thinking about it, the super-strength user gave his theory to explain it. "I would assume it's those urges you brought up as the kid kept repeating he wasn't a villain, yet was doing villainous things. Maybe they won out in the end and he realized he had screwed himself." The kid certainly wasn't all there, at least partially.
Mt. Lady sighed at that, they had only recovered his backpack from the scene of the fire which meant he didn't have a phone on him they could track or even call. Leaving them with no leads on an emotionally and possibly mentally unstable student with a powerful flame quirk and apparent pyromaniac tendencies
"I just hope that this is resolved soon, his mother was a mess and I can't imagine that 3 days with no sightings of her son is doing her any good." Kamui Woods uttered, shaking his head at the mess of a situation this was.
"The only silver lining is the fact the press is being kept back for the moment, the last thing she needs is her face blasted all over the news." He snorted dismissingly when he mentioned the press. He had long since accepted them as a fact of life a pro, how they could rise you up and break you down in equal measure. He wouldn't say he hated them, but he did hate the fact more than a few actors and news agencies tend to go for scandalising drama over decency and fact.
Mt. Lady agreed with him, she might play into it but that didn't mean she wasn't aware of its dangers. "That's the messed-up part of it, isn't it? It doesn't matter what the kid's deal is if he's a villain or not, the press will drag his entire family through the mud." She had studied instances when this happened back when she was a hero student, her school might have been small, remote and as poor as heck, but she had access to such materials and it was never pretty when a villain's real name was revealed. It was part of the reason they even bothered to monikers and villain names to begin with, if not to attempt to destroy the link between them and their crimes, it was to protect any family they might have.
Waking up, Midoriya felt his stomach grumbling, giving him a clue as to what brought him out of the blissful world of dreams he had been in, right in the middle of when All Might was thanking him for saving the President of the World. Getting up, he looked down from the raptors of the abandoned warehouse he had managed to fight the night before. From his perch, he could see no signs that he had been followed or anyone coming to use the place as a place to crash.
Feeling his stomach grumble, even more than before, he was reminded of the fact he hadn't eaten anything in 2 days, his last meal being a couple of apples he reluctantly took from a grocer when they weren't looking. As he climbed down, the oversized coat he had managed to snag covered his body well enough, but his exposed arms and legs still peeked through as he slowly got back down to the floor. Once on solid ground, he frowned, feeling the gravel and dirt collecting on his bare feet but it couldn't be helped, his clothes had burned to ash when he had his freak-out, so he was just grateful that he managed to pull his sole piece of clothing off someone's line before he was seen.
It was bad enough that he went against his mother's rules, he didn't want to disappoint her further by being caught streaking. 'I just couldn't help myself, and now I'm stuck in this mess. Great going, Deku, you somehow found a way to screw up that not even you thought possible.' He couldn't even go home, plead forgiveness from his mother as when he managed to double back to his apartment, after making sure he didn't leave a trail for them to follow.
Only for him to see that the heroes were already there. He nearly ran up to them, excited as he could be to ask them questions, for an autograph till he remembered why they would be speaking with his mother, why there would be a police car in the front. One of them nearly saw him, and in panic, he fled without thinking and now.
"Now I have no idea where I am." He muttered to himself as his stomach groaned again, he didn't like it, but as he had no money to pay for food, he'd have to acquire it through less-than-moral means. "I'm sorry for what I'm about to do." He muttered as he walked out of the warehouse. Sticking to backstreets and alleys, he made his way through the place, avoiding people where he could as the last thing he needed was someone spotting him, he was already suspicious enough, but at least the oversized coat covered enough of him to ensure no one thought he was just wearing that.
It took him a while, but he finally made it to a market area, similar to Tatoonie which he burned-'No, don't think about it, just get some food and leave.' He looked around the place, trying the blend into the crowd which seemed to be working. One of the few times he was happy he was so both smaller than average for a boy his age and plain looking, so long as he minded himself, no one paid him any mind, focused on their affairs.
Going from stall to stall, he kept his distance as while it wouldn't be too odd for someone to compare prizes and goods, he didn't strike the appearance of someone who was buying anything. So, he had to be smart about it. he also didn't want to take anything too expensive as he just needed enough to fill him for a while so he didn't have to come back, he didn't need to make a vendor's day even worse by stealing something they couldn't afford to lose. As he went from a fruit stall, he heard something. Turning to the side, he saw that a small boy, maybe 6-7, had tripped and scrapped his knee. Focusing on it, he saw the boy's mother soothe him, the young woman smiling as she pulled out disinfectant wipes and a bandage to tend to the boy. Midoriya kept his eye on them the entire time, the crowd and distance being enough that no one picked up on this hyper-focus as his eyes didn't leave the boy's cut-up knee. He could help them, couldn't he? All he'll have to do is walk over, smile like a proper hero and burn his-
'NO!' He bit his tongue, hard enough that he could taste copper in his mouth as he violently turned to face the other way, wiping the sweat from his worried and terrified brow. He refused to let himself fall for his urges again, they were the reason he was in this mess to begin with! But…but that was the first time they came up when seeing someone hurt before it was just fire in any of its forms. So he could avoid it, ignore it and focus on something else, pinch himself if that didn't work. He had never had such thoughts when he just saw something hurt. Someone was wrong, very wrong. He had to get something to eat and get away so he could figure it out.
Lucky for him, he spotted a small bakery, with loads of baked goods being offered. Most were being kept inside the door, but there were several loaves of bread. The vendor was also busy with a customer, a glance to the side revealed that there was an alleyway, giving him an exit plan. Despite this, he felt sick to his stomach as he approached, his heart telling him to leave, to try asking, anything but theft.
But his stomach made itself clear, he listened to that.
Once he was close enough, the vendor, who looked to be a sweet old man with candy-cane-coloured skin was turning to him, his mouth moving to either greet him or tell him to wait while he waited for him to finish with the customer he already had. He didn't give him a chance as before he lost what nerve he built up, he rushed forward and grabbed 2 loaves.
"Hey, stop that thief!" He heard the grasp of the customer and the shout from the now-angered vendor, but he didn't dare turn to look as he raced into the alley. Entering the narrow space, he kept running as fast as he could, not noticing that his body was starting to heat up, his speed increasing in proportion to this rise. Turning a corner, he saw the vendor out of the corner of his eye, red-well, redder in the face than before and chasing after him, but the distance between them was pretty big. He could hear the man still coming, along with the voices of others who moved to help, but he kept his focus forward, taking turns where he could, climbing over fences to give further obstacles and even doubling back at one point to confuse them.
By the time the voices had ceased with distance, he had made it to another alley, tired, sweaty and even hungrier than he had been before, he slumped on the wall, falling till he was sitting while he tried to collect his breath. But he had done it, he had stolen something.
He'll feel guilty about it later, right now he had to eat.
Taking out the loaves, he made a face when he saw that he squashed them up during his escape, but despite looking like a lump, it was still bread. Taking out the bottle of water he picked up the other day, he saw that it still had some water in it, enough for his breakfast/lunch. With a quirk prayer, he quickly ate half of the first loaf, throwing back water in between bites for a few minutes, only stopping when he felt full. Wiping the crumbs from his face, he looked at his remaining loot. He would need to fill the water up when he next found a fountain or public bathroom, but the bread would need something to cover it, maybe a plastic bag from a store would do. Some of them had them at the front, and he didn't think they'd give much fuss if he grabbed one as they didn't charge for them. yeah, that'll work. At least he now had a game plan for the next couple of hours. Put some more distance between him and the market he stole from, refill his water, and get a plastic bag.
Not even he could screw that up.
Walking out of the alley, after making sure he didn't look too bad, he entered the streets again and searched for a public park, it would be the best place to solve his water issue. Keeping his head down, he made some progress, till he passed by a store which had tvs out front. He would have avoided them, but when he saw a flash of green and fire, his eyes couldn't resist.
It was him, he was on the news.
He felt his chest constrict as he saw the story. He didn't hear anything, the TVs being muted, but he had enough context clues to guess what was happening as they showed his last yearbook photo in the top corner of footage of his freak-out. he had avoided the news since he fled, but seeing himself on screen, those people running, the fires raging-the heroes being forced back, escaping from the symbol of peace and his idol
He…he was ecstatic. His flames…they were beautiful. They covered everything and burned so bright that not even the amateur camera footage could mask that fact. His emerald flames danced on the screen with all the grace of a world-class ballet star. And there he was, standing proud, showing off his gift to the world, defeating a villain and saving someone just like a hero-
He pinched himself again, his eyes shifting to and fro as he pulled the collar of his coat higher, steam starting to leak from him as his eyes flickered. No, nonononono-not now. Not when there were so many people, he had to leave, get as far from here as he could.
His luck ran out then.
"Kid, are you alright?" Near breaking his neck, he turned to see a hero approaching him, one he vaguely recognized. "You look like you're having issues." He cursed whatever force in the universe put him into this position.
"I'm fine!" He tried to calm himself down but didn't have much success. "I mean, I-I fine, just nervous about…about an upcoming test is all." He didn't lie; he did have a test coming up…he just wouldn't be attending school to take it.
Sadly for him, the pro wasn't about to let him walk off when he was clearly in distress. "Are you sure, no shame in seeking help, kid? If you want, we can…" His eyes shifted over him, as the taller man found his attention taken by something else. "Talk."
'Oh no.' Midoriya recalled that the TVs were still talking about him, which meant that his picture was there for him to see.
The change was immediate. The man didn't make it obvious, but Midoriya had seen enough pros in the field to know when one was on guard, how he shifted his feet, the movement of the muscles through the skin-tight spandex. "Kid, why don't we find somewhere we can sit and talk, you look like you need it?" The pro smiled, but Midoriya wasn't fooled.
"I'm good. Thank you." He tried to thank him and just leave, but a firm hand grasping his arm kept him in place.
"Sorry kid, I can't let you do that." The pro remained calm in his arrest, as there were still people around which was why Midoriya was trying to leave, why couldn't he just let him do that?!
"L-let me go!" He strained against the hero, who might have had some sort of strength quirk as even as he heated up, Midoriya struggled against him.
"I said," He suddenly started letting out steam from his mouth and nose, catching the pro off guard. "LET ME GO!" His cry caught the attention of the people around them, who immediately tuned in to see what it was all about and to his horror, in their eyes, they saw a villain trying to resist arrest.
Putting distance between as his eyes darted all over the place, looking for an escape, the pro hissed as he flexed his hand, it wasn't burned but the kid was hot to the touch, and he hadn't even used those flames of his yet. "Dammit, even without those flames, he gets real hot!" Now with the cat out of the bag, he was far more assertive.
"J-just…leave me alone, please," Midoriya begged, even as he felt himself growing hotter, as he tried to keep the urges in check.
"That's not going to happen, you're coming with me whether you like it or not, villain." The pro was hard in his stance, but Midoriya didn't hear or see that, all he heard was that last part.
"I-i-I-I-am," Just like before, he rattled in his head, over and over, getting louder with every repeat as he furiously scratched at his scarp. "I'm not a villain! I just want to help, just let me be!" His rant only drew further attention to them as much as it drew him in just a few days later, with some taking their phones out to record. This attention shot his panic through the roof as he saw bodies, many bodies and the flashing lights of cameras taking pictures of him as he started emitting smoke over steam, his body starting to burn up from the inside.
"If you're not a villain as you say, then surrender!" The pro called out to him, demanding that he lay down and let them take him in before he burst into flames again.
"Nononononononono!" Midoriya didn't hear him, all he could see was All Might looking down at him with fear, before with hate he would only reserve for a villain. "I…I-!" Midoriya was interrupted by a blast of water that knocked onto his back with a cry of pain. The crowd and pro turned to see more heroes arriving on the scene, with one still holding her hands out to Midoriya, dousing him in the hope that they could keep him from exploding.
This didn't work.
Seemingly taking offence to someone trying to stifle them, his flames came roaring out of him like a bat out of hell, burning his coat and body to nothing but he remained on the floor, seeing the flames lick at his form, slowly turning him into some sort of infernal got people to connect the dots if who he was, and it wasn't pretty as he started hearing comments about him.
"It-it's him, the flame demon!"
"The one that escaped All Might?"
"He does look like a monster."
Midoriya ground whatever teeth he still had in his mouth together, the bones starting to crack and buckle under the heat that was consuming him. He wasn't a monster or a demon, he was him, and he wanted to do good, he wanted to help people! Burn peop-!
"No!" The crowd and pros looked on, confused over who he was talking to as he had a battle in his head, against himself, against his urges…but….but they helped, right? His fire helped people, he's known that for years, didn't he? He wanted to help people and make them stronger. With his self-control weakening, and his confusion over what he was and what he wanted to do increased, his form fully changed, bursting into flames which scared some people, with the steam created by the water striking him, few could see him but he leapt out of it, landing a ways from the heroes. His form fully changed into his volcanic flame form, the only difference being that unlike before, he didn't have legs but instead had a snake-like tail, supporting him, making him far taller than he was before, matching the height of the hero that first approached him.
"Dammit, no one said that the kid could shift into a freaking snake!" The water hero tried to stop him, directing her aim at his new spot but Midoriya was fast, slithering out of the way with seemingly little effort, he returned the favour by blasting a ball of fire at them with his mouth. The shot struck the hero, but largely hit the water tank she was carrying on her back, superheating its contents in seconds before it exploded, sending the pro flying with a scream as the others turned to her in shock.
"Aqua!" One of them called out to her, seeing her moaning on the floor in clear pain.
"Leave me alone!" Their direction was turned back to Midoriya, who was now hissing and snarling at them like an animal, his speech being hard to understand. This didn't matter to the heroes as they had a situation and they'll handle it like any other. The hero that had first confronted him raised his hands at him, from his back, the metallic drums he was carrying spat out steel cables that shot towards Midoriya, who avoided the first two, but the incoming 3 made contact, quickly wrapping around the boy to try and restrain him.
The man strained against Midoriya, whose rock-like body was proving to be a challenge for him to restrain, made all the worse by the fact his fire was heating the steel cables, forcing him to exert more effort just to keep them intact. "Call in back-up!"
Midoriya wasn't going to wait for them to arrive, he didn't understand why they were attacking him, why they wanted him to surrender when he didn't do anything wrong! Flames could help people, they did help people, he helped Bakugo and yet he's the threat? He had enough of this! With a growl that came out like two rocks smashing and grinding together in a furnace, his body grew even hotter. This heat and stress proved too much for the steel cables, shattering them and sending pieces of red-hot metal flying all over the place, including into the crowd of on-lookers, injuring some. This was enough for people to once more flee, but Midoriya didn't so much as notice.
He just wanted to leave, so he breathed out more fire, onto anything and everything, setting the entire street ablaze as people fled, screams ringing through the air from them.
"Crap, he's gonna lose it!"
"He's gonna burn the entire place down!"
"Get away from here, leave the threat to the heroes!"
That word: Threat. That stuck out over the others. Why was he the threat? Was it the fire? Fire helped people, so that couldn't be hit. But mother said so, and he wasn't supposed to just set things on fire, but he was…but was that bad? He didn't feel bad surrounded by the growing blaze. No! That was his urges talking, he had to ignore them, bury them like he always did…but, why did it feel so nice not to?
With these contradictory thoughts racing through his skull, his started to leak out more flames, hotter and brighter than before as he roared out to the sky, his voice no longer human and akin to a rock exploding from excessive heat, with that roar, he turned to the heroes and bathed the area between them in green flames. But by the time they got through, just like at Tatooine, he was gone.
An hour later, the fires had been dealt with, and witnesses were being questioned with All Might present. Taking in the sight, he didn't know what to feel. The area is a ruin, shops that once dotted the sides of the street wrecked, the bushes on the side of the road burnt to nothing and the 2 cars that happened to have been closed when things spiraled out of control nothing but burnt-out husks, thankfully when they exploded no-one was hurt. He had heard about the situation on the HN and rushed over as quickly as he could, but it seemed that he was too late as according to the police on the scene, the kid fled 8 minutes before he arrived, with law enforcement being more concerned with containing the blaze, keeping people back and tending to the wounded than to chase him down.
But by the time they had someone go after him, they found a burnt-up manhole cover 3 blocks away, so they knew he escaped using the sewers again to avoid detection, they also had a pretty good idea of which direction was going in as there was a report of a methane explosion 12 blocks north-west of them, but that was it. Heroes close by had searched the area but didn't find him as the area of the blasts was close to the outskirts of town, close to the woods so he could have fled into them which is trouble as he'll have plenty of places to hide in the wilderness. Perhaps if they had been more proactive in the search, they could have a solid lead on him but as it stood, they put the lives of the people here first.
He couldn't fault them for that, it was the right call to make but still, he left him feeling frustrated about the entire thing. He had been on the case since it opened up, wishing to try and capture the boy before he went too far, but looking around, he could tell he was running out of time. His escape from the hero Cable's attempt to capture sent steel cable fragments, hot to the touch into the crowd, and injured 9 people. Nothing serious at the moment but that was sheer chance. It didn't help but both the heroes' and civilians' statements didn't paint a good picture of the boy's mental state, which only added fuel to the idea that couldn't be reasoned with and would need to be taken down hard.
"If only things could have ended here, young Midoriya." He said to himself which a policeman heard.
"I wouldn't worry about it, All Might. With you on the case, that villain's as sure as captured." He patted the much larger man on the back as he walked off, leaving All Might less assured and more annoyed by how the man referred to the kid, but he kept it to himself as Midoriya wasn't helping his case with stuff like this.
"Can someone become like you even if they have a villainous quirk?" He recalled the boy's question, and how genuine he was in his wish to be a hero. How his eyes sparked when he heard him tell him that he could do it. But then he recalled stumbling into his rampage, how he didn't seem to be all there, as if his lucid mind was gone and replaced by instincts and urges. He had faced off against many villains, and had seen such looks in their eyes as well, looks that conveyed how they enjoyed using their quirks without restriction or care, with the worst being those that enjoyed using them on people. Midoriya had that same look, but also different, he was on cloud nine, but there was no cruelty or ego to be found in those eyeless holes in his face. As his mother said, it was as if he couldn't understand why what he was doing was wrong, and saw it as a good thing.
When he came to, he looked horrified, broken even.
'Young Midoriya…' No, he was broken by him. At that moment, Midoriya had the same look All Might had seen on many villains' faces, he had seen the same frame of emotions in their eyes when they realized he had arrived on the scene. The shock, the awe, then the fear and lastly, resignation as they accept that they're defeated before he even throws a punch. He never had seen it in the eyes of an innocent, and after he saw it, he never wished to see it again because it made him sick to his missing stomach. The boy seemed to lose all faith then and there, falling apart before he slipped through their fingers. It was only after he saw the villain's report that he realized why the boy might have thought that as despite being bathed in flames hot enough to melt the pavement, the man was fine, better than fine even as the doctors compared his condition to his last known medical check-up 3 years prior and found that he was in better condition.
Midoriya had been screaming that his flames helped people, perhaps they had a healing element to them, it would certainly fit the profile as he and the detective had found he had a history of burning small animals, but none of them were ever reported dead. It was a bitter pill to swallow as by the time he and the police had all the pieces to the puzzle, the news had already spread about the incident painting the boy in a villainous light which surely wasn't helping his mental state as it was only him paranoid and jumpy, increasing the chances for flare ups like this. A self-feeding loop where people brand him a villain, he freaks when confronted, has a flare-up and the media uses the latest incident as proof of his so-called true nature.
'I hope we find you soon, my boy. Before something happens that you can't take back.' He turned to leave, having seen all that he had come for.
Hours later, deep in the woods, Midoriya felt like passing out. He fled as fast as he could, found a manhole and climbed into the sewers. Still on fire, and with his luck as bad as it was, he ran into a pocket of methane gas and had to deal with the explosion that caught him off guard.
After that, he found that he emerged close to the tree-line and didn't wait to see if the coast was clear, he just booked it, doing his best to avoid leaving a trail for anyone to follow him. Unlike when he stole the bread, he didn't stop running or slithering for 2 hours. When his transformed state burnt out, he still kept moving even though he felt like his legs and lungs were killing him. It was only now, with the sun close to setting that he found himself slowing down, and that was more due to him burning through the calories that he had just eaten for lunch, with his clothes, water bottle and remaining bread gone, leaving him worse off than when he woke up.
All he could do now was keep moving, and hope he found somewhere he could rest for the night, preferably somewhere that wouldn't have the risk of someone seeing him in the nude. With his only guide to that possible location being the old country road he had found leading up the mountain, he didn't walk on it, as he was naked and exhausted, but he walked alongside it in the thick bush. With only 30 minutes of sunlight left, he finally dragged himself to the destination that the path led to, which was an old shrine. Its walls were damaged, in need of serious repair and covered with plants. Stepping into the courtyard, he found that it was more of the same as the place didn't appear to of had any guests or workers in decades.
There were small statues lining the path, but they too were busted up, with just a few still recognizable as serpents or serpent men. To the sides, he made out additional buildings with one of them burnt out and another's roof having collapsed onto itself.
A good place to bunker down till he figured out what the hell he was going to do now.
Approaching the main building, he saw that it wasn't in great shape either, but compared to the rest, it was still stable and strong. Wiping away the exhaustion-induced sweat from his forehead, he read the sign above the entryway.
Temple of the Fire God: Kagu-tsuchi
He couldn't even mind the energy to panic at the fact that of all the places he could end up in, it was an abandoned temple to the very thing that he was running from. So, he just laughed, at himself, at the situation, and how much fate seemed to enjoy messing with him, at all of it.
He laughed so hard that he heard critters and other animals on the temple grounds run away, having heard his presence. When he finally stopped, he was just tired, hungry, and alone. With no options, he walked into the shrine and saw a statue of the God in question in the back, one barely touched the elements and the years of no care, but in front of them in the centre of the room, was a large heath, one meant to house a fire, perhaps as a means to show that the God was present, perhaps it was a sign of worship-he didn't know. All he did now was that he had nothing but depression and resignation, so he fell to his knees before the status and prayed. For mercy, for his curse of a quirk to be taken from him, to see the world like how others told him he had to.
He slept on the floor of the shrine, using an old tattered rag he found as a bed. As he closed his eyes, he couldn't be sure of it but the last thing he saw was the stature, whose stone eyes seemed to light up before the cool empty heath followed suit. As he slept, he found himself standing amongst fire, great gales and rolling waves of green infernos. It was like watching an ocean of flames being kicked and swung about by a powerful storm.
He stood in the centre of it, his spot on the proverbial beach shifting so that he walked on the fire, moved as the waves rose and fell, but he felt no fear or confusion, but he was merely awed by the majesty, by the power, but the scale of such a massing of fire. To his left, he watches as the flames crash into crowds of people his mind tells him that are the sick and injured, burning them but healing them, with the retreating wave of fire leaving behind healthy and happy people who thank the flames, praise them. To his right, he sees waves of fire, just as big as those previous slam into villains by the dozens, burning them, forcing them back and saving even more people.
It was all magical, a land of fire, a land he would love to see.
A shadow was suddenly cast over him, looking back, he saw that the sun was bloated out by a truly giant serpent, its body so long it made buses look like clown cars, its body made from stone and iron, with rivers of molten magma flowing its many tens of thousands of hardened scales, every now then, there was an eruption, as if it's entire body was nothing but a collection of volcanoes. Its hooded head blanketed the area from the sun, but at the same time, illuminated the spot where he stood through the brilliance of the emerald magma and flames flowing off its body. It's slit eyes watching, seeing deeper into him that should be possible, and conveying without words a simple message.
He was his power
He was his might
He could help him, he will help him, and they'll fix the world and heal its people…all he needs to do is burn it all.
Chapter 4: Flame Temple Maiden
Waking up, Midoriya felt his stomach grumbling, which he hoped didn't become a running theme for him. Looking about, he saw he was still in the abandoned temple, feeling the breeze coming in from the door, he didn't shiver from the morning mountain wind, but it helped him remember that he was very much naked. "I hope there is something around here I can wear." He blushed, grateful that he hadn't had to worry about anyone seeing him in the nude else he might have burned the place down in embarrassment.
Getting up, he used the old rag remnants of the carpet he had slept on to cover his lower half, it wasn't as if he needed to worry too much about the cold when his natural body temperature kept him warm all year old, a reason why his mother never bothered buying him jackets and jerseys. With the light of the morning sun to illuminate the place, he was able to get a better picture of the place and like he suspected, it was well and truly abandoned for years if not decades with how much overgrowth and disrepair lay around him. Just walking on the wooden floors was a challenge as they creaked and cracked with every step he made, with a yelp, one gave out under him, sending him to the floor face first where his impact broke even more of the old rotten wooden flooring.
Groaning, he got up and wiped off the splinters from his body, making a note to find somewhere he could shower as 4 days on the street doesn't make for the best appearance, frankly it was a miracle that he wasn't made out in that crowd before he stole the bread but he supposed the coat hid the worst of it. Continuing on his inspection of the ground, he saw that whenever he passed by a window, if it was still present, it was fogged up, making it impossible to see what was on the other side. The area that served as the baths was a mess, with most of the piping rusty and unusable, while the kitchen was just as bad, with electrical sockets long broken or retaken by nature. Trying to switch on lights, he found that not a single one worked, though most didn't have a light bulb so he would have to remove one and carry it around to check.
When it got to the attendant's quarters, he saw that what appeared to be where the men slept was partially burnt out, it being the same building with the collapsed roof which made trying to scavenge for anything a challenge and in the end, fruitless as he couldn't find anything of use. Walking to the other end where the woman's quarters were, he saw some of the animals had returned, including a deer which stopped drinking from the small pond, and looked his way before going back to drinking, the animal having decided he wasn't worth leaving which he was fine with, it was a cute looking deer.
It took some build-up, but he managed to work up the courage to go through the women's quarters, rationalizing it as being abandoned and him needing whatever useful stuff he could find. The building was in better shape than the men's, with the rooms largely intact but most were empty, their occupants having taken everything with them when they left but he found some luck with the final room. Sliding the door open, he saw that it was more or less like the rest, but that the closet was still closed, when he opened it, he found a blessing in the form of some clothes.
They were worn, clearly meant for a larger person, and very much women's clothing but it was a hell of a lot better than the rag he was using at the moment. Because of that, he swallowed whatever misgivings he had about them before he ripped the rags off his body and quickly put on the clothing. In just a few minutes, he stepped out of the rooms and went to that pond he saw to inspect how he looked. Seeing his reflection, he couldn't help but feel…put together was the word. He didn't know why, but seeing himself in a white kosode and scarlet hakama left good, he was still embarrassed to be wearing women's clothing, and it was a couple of sizes too large, but it helped him feel less stress than he had been dealing with ever since the slime incident.
'Now, if only I could do something with my hair.' He wondered to himself, removing the little twigs and other pieces of dirt that he had in it, leaving his hair clean..ish, and very much untamed.
"It's not the worst spot I could have ended up in," An hour later, Izuku stood in the courtyard, looking at the place having finished investigating. "Away from people, away from possible problems…away from mother." And he found that it was ideal for him, he hadn't heard any traffic or voices, the place was clearly off the beaten path and besides himself, he hadn't gotten any visitors in years. A perfect spot for him to lay low, away from anyone who wanted to do him harm, anyone who would make him feel scared, away from places where he could be an issue again but also away from his mother who must be worried sick about him, having not seen him in close to a week.
He hoped she was doing alright, it couldn't have been easy being connected to him, heavens knew what the media was saying about him after his latest screw-up. Would she face pushback? Would the police demand she pay damages? She couldn't afford that! What about work, what if they laid her off for being the mother of a villain-
"Focus, focus on what you can do, Izuku." He smacked himself, he couldn't let himself go down that rabbit hole, or else he wouldn't come out of it till he did something enormously stupid. Here and now, that was what he had to keep his focus on. That meant this run-down temple overrun by nature could collapse on his head at any minute, but he could fix that. "If I'm going to be staying here, I might as well clean the place up. Even if I wasn't it just doesn't feel right leaving this place to its fate." Yes, he might have not been the most religious-who was these days, but he wouldn't say he would disrespect a place of worship, certainly not when in need of restorative work.
So, he got to work, first making a list of all the things that needed to be done in order of what he was…pretty sure he could do the fastest, and what was the most pressing such as among other things, the fragile floorboards. He didn't have a pen, or pencil on him, but he had a piece of floorboard he ripped out and his blood. Was it off-putting to see a boy in shrine maiden's attire writing on a plank of wood using his bloodied finger as a pen? Yes, but it was the best thing he had, besides, he burnt himself every time he even heated up, so the slight pinch that came from having to bite his finger and keeping the blood flowing wasn't anything to write home about.
With that done, he pulled another plank of wood and using the first as a list of supplies, he made a second list of all the supplies he'll need to carry out said repairs and badly needed maintenance work, hopefully he'll be able to get the supplies he'll need to get running water again, though if there was a river or stream nearby, then he'll just need a tank and buckets. Electricity was also optional as while he got above average grades in science, he wasn't sure that he should be trying to either reconnect to the grid, not when there were sure to be tons of circuits and wiring that would need to be redone by a professional.
He also included stuff for the animals as he didn't mind so too much, but he would need to clear out pests like rodents. As he wrote that down, he felt something slithering up his leg, underneath his clothing with got a surprised scream out of him. Whatever it was stopped when he moved, with the boy scared now that he realized that he had been so out of it that a snake managed to sneak up on him, and unless he was willing to burn his only clothes left, he wasn't going to get rid of it. His fear only grew when he felt the snake start moving again, further up his leg and then onto his stomach before its head poked out of his top.
Upon its head poking out, both the reptile and Izuku froze as they observed one another. Izuku had already felt that it couldn't have been too long, as from how its body pressed against his own while it slithered, it couldn't be any longer than 80cm, a little over half his height. Its body was long, but also warmer than he would have expected from a cold-blooded creature, or perhaps it was merely absorbing the abundant ambient heat he naturally gave off. Its scales were striking in their pattern and colors as the scales along its back-dorsal scales if he was recalling biology correctly, were a bright green with leaf-like patterns across it with black blotches here and there. Its belly scales were creamy white, giving an eye-catching contrast between the two sides.
But it wasn't so much its beautiful scales that gave him pause, it was its eyes. They were a striking, fiery color, the red and orange within them melding like what he would see whenever he looked into a flame that he didn't create, but that didn't detract from their exquisite nature-if anything, it added to them as felt the same calm looking into those eyes as he would starring into a video of fire back home.
It would see that the snake agreed as it didn't move, he didn't know what made him such an attractive person that a wild snake would approach him, but it seemed to be as invested in him as he was in it, the moment didn't end there as without thinking, Midoriya raised his hand to his stomach, close to the snake but not grabbing, allowing it to make the choice. It turned its eyes to his appendage, then back to his face, studying him, trying to find any deceit or ill-intent but found none as it shifted, sliding up his arms, this time over the clothing as it slowly went up his arm before wrapping itself around his neck, where it settled with its head close to his cheek.
His earlier fear gone, he couldn't help but softly laugh as he reached a hand towards its head and gently scratched it with a finger, the reptile snuggling closer to him. "At least I know snakes like me." His words received no answer, but it took that positively as the wild animal should have something by now, perhaps bite him, hiss at him, flee or never approached him to begin with.
But it didn't, and he was grateful for that, as it meant he now had a new friend, his first friend in almost 9 years.
"I wonder, are you a boy…or a girl?" The snake turned its head towards him, its face giving away nothing as he rubbed the back of his head, "Right, dumb question to ask when I'm not even sure you understand-Ow!" It smacked him with its tail, which hurt more than he would have expected as returned his gaze to it, seeing that again, there was no change but he felt like it was annoyed with him.
"Did…did you understand that?" The green and white snake finally nodded its head, making him lean back onto the tree trunk he had been sitting against while he made his lists forgotten at the moment. "Oh my God…I'm talking with an intelligent snake." Was this a quirk? Was he just insane? He didn't know, but he didn't care at the moment as another thought popped into his head.
"Wait, if you understand me, that means you understood the question?" He nodded again, which explained the tail slap but he didn't see it respond so why did it get made? "Okay, then what's the answer?" He asked again, again there was no emotion on its face, which he expected as it wasn't like it could emote like a human or even most house pets. Rather, it flicked its tongue out, pointing towards its tail. He looked at it, but didn't see anything wrong with it, turning back to the head-it flicked its tongue out again in the direction of its tail, so he looked again, trying to see if there was anything amiss about it.
Feeling its eyes on the back of his head, he didn't stop as the snake started to move its tail about like a worm, wiggling and waving it side to side which he found to be impressive, especially for a tail that was thinner than he was exp- "You're a girl?" He asked, recalling that male snakes tended to have longer, thicker tails when compared to females. At last, the snake seemed to confirm this by nodding its-her head, pleased with him as she went back to snuggling up to his warm cheek, leaving him to chuckle.
"Alright, now that I know your gender, what would work for a name?" He asked, tapping his chin before he looked at the snake. "Any ideas?"
He received no answer, as the reptile was content just snuggling against him for warmth. "Of course, Okay…" He looked around for ideas as he wasn't the most creative when it came to…anything really, but there wasn't much in the way of inspiration around them except for all the plants and broken-down buildings-wait, plants could do. "How about Koharu, it means 'green' or 'vibrant'?" He asked, smiling as the snake raised her head to watch him, slowly bobbing her head as if thinking-probably thinking if she was intelligent before she licked the air and snuggled up to him, closer than him and letting out a pleased-sounding hiss.
"Koharu it is then!" With his new friend newly named, he felt a lot better than he had been before. But now that meant he would need to include provisions and somewhere for Koharu to sleep as she couldn't always snuggle around his neck, even if her presence was very much welcome. "Now, back to those notes." Picking up the second plank, he bit his finger again to get the blood flowing to get back to his note-making.
Sometime later, Izuku, with Kaharu wrapped around his neck and shoulders, was seated in the main shrine, close to the heath that remained as cold as when he first got there. He sat cross-legged as he looked over both lists, the second one having needed him to use a 3rd plank to write all that he needed. He would be concerned for his health due to his blood's extended contact with an old, filthy piece of wood, but it wasn't like he could get sick and if he did, all he'd need to do was strip, standing away from anything that could catch fire, and set himself ablaze, no way any germ, bacteria or virus would survive being in his body when it burned at over 1,300°C degrees.
But his mind wasn't on that, instead, it was on the hearth, as no matter what, his eyes kept turning to hit, even when he shifted to face the other way, he couldn't help himself when his head turned to look at it over the shoulder. It was cold, heartless, silent.
But he could change that, making it warm, give it life, bring forth something that will roar and crackle.
He frowned, violently turning his head away from it, he didn't want to do such an idiotic thing, with his luck, he was more likely to burn the place to the ground…
Or at least, that is what he was supposed to think, but he didn't. after all…wasn't it only proper that in a temple to a fire God, a fire be lit? Why shouldn't he honor that tradition? He was already dressed for the part, wouldn't it only be logical and right to start the flame, to keep it burning, to care for it?
His mind made up, he got up and after placing his wooden notebooks off in the corner, he left with Koharu along for the ride. He returned maybe 30-40 minutes later, in his arms he carried a bunch of stuff that he believed would serve as good fuel for the fire as his quirk could start the fire, but it couldn't sustain- not unless he never left which was a no-go. Setting things up was the easy part, as even though he avoided fire for years, that didn't stop him from extensively researching it, so he knew to place the smaller, lighter stuff that would catch fire easier but burn out quicker in the centre of the pit, then surrounding it with heavier stuff like more wooden planks what'll take time to catch, but will burn for much longer.
Once he finished, he did a final check of the area to ensure that nothing that could catch fire was close by, with that done, he turned to his companion. "I'm about to do something crazy, Koharu. So please keep calm and don't bite me." She looked at him, her face passive and non-expressive, but he got the feeling she was confused by his request. Rolling up his sleeves, he took a deep breath to calm himself, and slowly channeled his power into his arms, keeping a harsh lease on it lest he burst out of his entire body like an inferno. It took some time, which he'd have to work on, but eventually, he felt his hands heating, the blood starting to boil underneath the surface before his hands caught alight.
Koharu leaned back with a hiss, shocked and fearful at seeing the fire. "Nononono! It's fine, Koharu, really!" She looked at him, then at his hands, before her gaze went back to his face, somehow conveying that he was insane, though the fact he was picking those vibes from a snake he just met lessened that effect. "Yeah, this is a thing that I can do." The serpent looked at him as if he was crazy, but eventually calmed down enough to return to her usual spot, though from how tense her muscles were against his shoulders and neck, he knew she was doing it more for him than any belief in his fire.
With his green flames in hand, he approached the heath and slowly placed them underneath the wood, grabbing into the loose twigs and dried leaves which caught lit quickly. Keeping his hands there for a moment, he slowly removed them and watched as the emerald flames started to grow, shifting to a warm yellow-red color as the nature fire grew from his quirk-induced one. Seeing the flames rise and grow, he felt himself calm as his heart continued to thump away in his chest from excitement, and affection. He couldn't quite place it, but he knew that in this moment of weakness, he liked it.
Like a curious toddler, he crawled forward, closing the distance while Koharu stayed still, though still tense as her eyes darted from the flames to his face, seeing the effect it was having on her human. Reaching out, he felt the pleasant warmth on his skin created by this beautiful fire. Moving his legs, he got into a seiza position, close to the flames and just watched them. Caring for it like one would a child without much thought needed as he merely acted, carefully adding stuff to the fire whenever it was starting to wan, blowing air to increase its oxygen, pocking at it to break up pieces so that they could burn easier.
He didn't know how much time passed, only stopping his thoughtless motions when the snake on his shoulders licked his cheek. "Something wrong, Koharu?" She looked out towards the entranceway, the dark entranceway.
"What the-" He got up and jogged to see what happened with the light and why the sun's rays weren't visible, only for him to see the night sky instead. "Did I…spend the entire day tending to the fire?" He asked both himself and Koharu, he thought maybe an hour had gone by, but if he was seeing things right, he had been in that one spot for at least 7 hours, not needing to drink, eat or use the bathroom. But seemingly as karma for getting lost in his task, he felt all three coming back to him with a vengeance as his stomach loudly grumbled as well as his need to find the most favorable spot to relieve himself.
Stepping out of the shrine, he stuck close to the walls as he didn't have much light to work with, but upon seeing his long shadow being cast by the healthy blaze behind him, he turned back to it for a moment. "Hey, Koharu…Do you think I can be like it one day? The fire I mean?" He asked his friend; the snake seemingly being confused by his question as he added some details. "It's pure…bright, innocent." He wished he could return to that, but alas, it was lost to him.
After his bathroom break and drinking from the same pond as the deer from earlier, Midoriya turned in for the night, taking a corner of the shrine so that he would be able to remain close to the fire while Koharu slipped off him and went to sleep in the old rag he had brought with, he would need to get her a proper bed.
When he woke up the following morning, he was still hungry but he felt…better than he had in the last few days. Upon seeing the list of things he had to do, he huffed and set to work, quickly falling into routine as he cleaned the outside of the temple, cleared away debris and other garbage which he couldn't find a use for, while also regularly checking on the fire, from time to time, feeding it pieces of decayed, rotten wood as he couldn't chop down trees at the moment, and the flames needed fuel.
There was more to it, his grumbling stomach made it clear that he had to find something to eat, which was only hammered home when he saw Koharu with a rat in her mouth, slowly swallowing the creature. She looked at him, as if surprised he caught her while she ate, but then went back to with what he was sure was a giggle when his stomach grumbled. As he didn't like feeling anything that could compared to jealousy that his friend had a rat for a meal, he went out into the woods to try and find something to eat. In an hour, and quite a ways away from the temple, he found some fruit barring trees and root vegetables.
He thanked the heavens for his find and plucked what he could before returning to the temple where he washed the fruits and ate half of them, only sparring the seeds so that he could hopefully start growing his own. On his second look around the temple, he found an old storage shed, busting the door open revealed that most of whatever was once inside was gone, but he did find a couple of old wooden buckets. He could use one for cleaning and the other for storing water will he got another solution.
When he asked Koharu on a whim if she knew where he could get some fresh water, to his surprise, she slithered onto his shoulders and started directing him up the mountain. It wasn't the best ride, as he had to think about her signs or face being tail whipped, but after about an hour, he started to hear it, running water. Breaking from the tree line, he found a small mountain stream, the water crystal clear and shallow enough that he could have to pull his pants up to knee level to walk through it. The stream even had fish in it, small but healthy fish which he could come back to get later and have a proper meal, and from how Kokaru eyed them, she was just as eager as he was to taste them which only made him laugh as he couldn't wait to have a meal with a friend, but that need him to prepare the kitchen.
With a water source found, food collected, and a place to rest every night, his routine became set and as the days went by, he got better at handling them, bit by bit while it was still tiring to collect a bucket a water every morning, it felt rewarding and served as a good exercise to keep his mind off things. He even found a clearing about 15-minute walk from the temple, large enough for him to practice without having to worry about destroying anything, and like the temple-far enough from any other person that he didn't need to worry about seeing him in the nude as he really didn't want to damage the only set of clothing he had, so he would remove it and place it a hollow space of a tree.
Slowly, his mind started to clear, and his heart didn't feel as heavy as he from sunrise to sunset, he worked, trained or cleaned the temple grounds, taking breaks to care for the fire and to hang out with his friend, who he realized was part of the reason he didn't need to worry about rodents as she was an expert at catching them as he felt like he would see her with one at least one a day. After one of those worked days, he lay on the floor of the shrine, the warm glow of the fire lighting up the space as went to sleep, happy as even his nightmares seemed to have faded into nothing but pleasant dreams, where he danced and rolled about in flames.
"Inko…You should eat."
"I'm not that hungry."
Mitsuki sighed, having expected that response from Inko, even if the plate in front of her was still half full of food. To put it bluntly, the woman sitting opposite to her was a mess. They hadn't been as close as they used to be due to circumstance, but she liked to believe they were still friends which was why Inko called her after she spoke with the police after little Izuku's outburst. She was with her in that the boy couldn't be held completely responsible for what happened with the slime villain, and she eagerly waited for the call about how he came home so that she could be there for them through whatever legal bullshit needed to be done.
But then Izuku didn't come home that night, which was highly irregular as while most boys his age liked to act independently, skipped curfew or if they were especially reckless, try any one of the many night-life districts, Izuku wasn't like that at all. From the moment she met the kid when he was just a baby in his mother's arms, he had been obedient, easy to handle and rather introverted, far too shy to ever attempt staying out late.
Because of that, she didn't find it odd when Inko filed a missing person report with the police before she went to bed, worried sick for her son. That worry only increased when she awoke the next day, followed their advice to try and continue with her day as normal and for no news to come about Izuku's whereabouts. Both women were understandably worried, even her brat, Katsuki seemed to be a little off put by his friend's disappearance. It would take 2 whole days since he was the last scene for him to be spotted, and it wasn't pretty as his next sighting was another incident, this time there were injuries though thankfully, no deaths.
Ever since, Inko had been falling ever deeper into her anxieties and fears, even with all the police in the prefecture and the two putting up dozens of missing person posters across town, even in the next 2 towns over-there was no word about it.
Days turned into weeks.
Weeks into months.
Now 2 months since he was last scene, there hadn't been a single lead pointing to where, not if-she refused to entertain the if, Izuku vanished off to.
Because of that, Mitsuki had been coming over regularly, at first just to talk, and keep Inko's spirit up, even being with her when she either called the police or went to the local precinct for updates on the case but after a while, she needed to ensure that she was still taking care of herself such as what she was doing now as the woman had lost at least 15kg, and not in a healthy way.
Inko, for her part, couldn't bring herself to eat the meal, she knew it was good-it was a favorite, and that her friend made the effort to make it for her, but everything she tried to touch the chop-sticks, she couldn't help but remember sitting at this very table with her husband and son, one gone-divorced because he couldn't handle things, and other…she didn't know. She prayed that he was alive- somewhere out there, but it didn't stop the nightmares of the police coming to inform her that they found a body that they needed her to identify, or worse he had forgotten himself and fallen to his temptations.
Her eyes went to her arms, seeing the bandages that covered every part of them, leaving no visible skin. She didn't need to wear them, but she still did. Despite that, she was still compelled to slowly start to unravel them, barely paying attention to Mistuki's surprised objections and concern as she continued to remove the white bandages before at last, her flesh was visible once more, and it wasn't pretty sight. From the very tips of her fingers to her upper arm, it was nothing but scar tissue. Burnt scar tissue. Mistuki, who was used to seeing this, didn't flinch but did reach over with her hand, which Inko appreciated, even if that was diminished by how she was unknowingly giving her a picture of the stark difference between the two.
Where her friend was blessed with a quirk that gave her eternally youthful, soft and smooth skin, with finely done nails with just the smidge of nail polish to them, Inko didn't have nails to polish, as they had to be removed post the fire, while her flesh was dry, old and wrinkly, seemingly stretched too thin in some spots and too baggy in others. Her skin, once pale, was nothing but a collection of reds and orange.
Remembering the cause of it didn't help as it had been so…normal. Izuku's 6th birthday was coming up and his quirk hadn't come in, so she booked another appointment with the doctor to see if they could see a specialist about it as they were both worried, but then that same night, Izuku developed a fever out of nowhere, his body temperature spiking so high she thought the thermometer was broken, as she grabbed that she would need before they left for the hospital, she kept giving him chilled water and soaked a cloth but it seemed to heat up as well, so much that it was like she placed the wet cloth on a hot plate with how much steam it was giving off.
Then as she picked up her son, he burst into flames, at or least parts of him did, shifting and changing as his flesh and bone melted away, replaced with….volcanic limbs. But what scared her the most wasn't that she was severely burned, but it was how Izuku didn't seem to realize what had happened, as even before he just said he was 'little hot'. Seeing her burn, he looked as if she had tried to explain high school-level chemistry to him. What he said next haunts her.
'Why are you crying, mommy? It's just some fire.' She took a breath, and as instructed by her therapist, she cleared her mind before she spiraled. She couldn't afford to lose herself to that memory, even as she recalled how despite her pain and panic, he was only panicking because she was, the fact his body torched itself seemingly not even registering to him. They had to wait for the firefighters to arrive to handle him, thankfully they had been notified by their smoke alarm so they arrived with little delay, though they had to use fire retardant foam as the water hose proved ineffective at putting Izuku out.
She, like the emergency responders, was worried about him, and what he'd look like after being subjected to such intense heat with no protection, but when she woke up the following morning, her arms covered in casts, she was told he didn't have a scratch on him, which he proved when he walked in with a 'get well' present he picked out with Mitsuki who had to explain to him why the fire even hurt her. After that, she established the rules and made sure he knew them and he followed them, for years with few incidents such as the entire mess with the class hamster, or when she caught him with small animals.
But it seems she might have been kidding herself.
"That useless Deku, he was hiding his true strength this entire time!" Katsuki growled as he landed another strike on the training dummy. It was a weekend, so he decided to do what he always did, train himself till his muscles were sore so that he could achieve his dream and become the number one. But lately, all he could think about was less his goal and more his not-so-useless classmate. Asshole hasn't been seen in 2 months after making a mess of things, and he couldn't stop thinking about that day, that look, and what he felt when he saw Deku.
The villain had been scared of him and mentioned someone that only afterwards he realized was Deku. That meant that the asshole tried to go after the nerd, failed and then went after him and was able to beat him-meaning that he was weaker than Deku! That pissed him off so much that his next blow was an open-palmed explosion, shredding most of the reinforced training dummy. Ignoring the gym owner yelling at him for breaking equipment, he went and collected one of the many spares that the gym kept in stock.
"Not only was a head screwy, but he could turn into that….thing" He would never admit it, but even after all this time, he shivered when he recalled that day, and how Deku burst into flames, burned himself to what should have been ash and bone but instead became a walking, breathing volcano. "He was strong…stronger than me." He had struggled for like 5 minutes with no results, those pros didn't even bother because they knew they were useless, yet Deku…didn't even try that hard, he just ripped him clear before torching the bastard with that smile on his face.
'Those eyes….bastard was enjoying every second of it, laughing at me for fooling me for years!' He remembered how pleased he looked when he burnt the villain into a puddle, even when he turned to see the crowd, he could see how much Deku was flaunting his power, thinking he was better than him when he was nothing more than a villain, he even fled from All Might just like any villain would.
When he thought about it, Auntie had been wearing those bandages around her arms since he was 6 or 7, that was when Deku's villainous quirk came in, and he could think of only one reason why she would. His anger grew, be barely held back the explosion as he punched the new dummy, as he wouldn't have thought of it before, but it made fucking perfect sense that the villain that Deku was would burn his mother.
"I'll make you pay, Deku. I'll be the future number one, and I'll start that by making sure you rot in a prison like you belong." He swore to himself, a glance at a calendar hanging on a wall showed that it was July, he had 8 more months to train before U.A.'s exam, and he planned to ace it which meant even harsher training, he'd need it so the next time he saw that villain, he won't be the one stunned by awe.