My Hero Academia: From The Ground Up

Chapter 24: Into The Mind

Mariko remembers fragments.

It was like looking through a glass wall. She could see and faintly hear everything going on but that wasn't her using her mouth and moving her legs.

She could see how scared Izuku was to see her. How taken aback her hero All Might looked.

And she cried out watching her adopted family capture them and torment them.

But then she felt Schizo loosen his grip on her and turn his attention more to Izuku.

The glass wall felt thinner. She began to pound on it with all her might. "Izuku! Fight it! Don't let him in!"

Just then, everything erupted in a blinding light. The glass broke. But she woke up to find her body hurled back across the beach inside an old broken bathtub.

Before she could finally speak again, all she thought of was how much pain she was now going through. And so the only thing to come from her mouth was a scream.

It seems most people in the scene were thrown back a few meters at least.

Katsuki stood in the center catching his breath and looking around. "There, Roundie!" He pointed to an old mattress with Izuku cratered into the springs.

His vision was blurry and ringing blocked his ears but he could faintly see his brunette female friend pull him out.

"deku... Deku!..... DEKU!" She called.

Her voice rang louder and louder until his hearing came back.

All Might stood up quickly. "Come kids! We have to get you out of here!"

"M-Mariko..." Izuku sighed softly.

"That girl?! You idiot, she betrayed you is what it looked like!" Katsuki shouted.

"Bravo bravo! You four really are a spectacle."

All four of them turned around fast to see the old man back in his chair as if the blast had no affect on him.

"But let's see how good you are now together." He smiled with his cracked lips.

Ochaco continued to hold her friend Izuku up with his arm wrapped around her. "Just let us go!" She cried out.

"Ain't gonna happen, girl!" Densist gasped as he scrambled to his feet, climbing out of an old wardrobe.

"You bastards burned my bandages!" The female mummy-villain roared as she began to reform from all the discarded wrappings that littered the beach. Much of it had burn marks and some pieces were even burned completely away.

"I'm gonna crush you!" The muscular elastic-villain added, pulling himself out from underneath a stack of ovens.

And last but not least, Naga slithered around them, circling them from a distance behind the other villains.

"All we wanted was All Might and the boy. But now since you two meddled yourselves in, we'll have to kill you too.... Or perhaps.... I can add to my puppet collection."

"And be like Quirkless in Distress?" Katsuki retorted.

"She's...my friend." Izuku defended.

Ochaco looked at him worriedly. "Izuku... We saw her just watching you..."

"She's being controlled by him!" He pointed to Schizo.

"She's always been with me, boy! I took her in when her family was killed." Schizo snapped. "Sometimes I have to scold her and use my Quirk on her. But she'll come around. It just takes time."

"You're a monster..." Ochaco said.

Schizo just laughed. "Not yet."

Suddenly everyone on the scene froze in place, heroes, and villains.

"Oh not this!" Densist's voice echoed.

Everyone could hear each other but couldn't move their physical bodies. Schizo however, stood up from his chair. "Once I take One For All myself, I'll have the power I need to crush you and all who stand in my way. And this is how I'll do it."

"Boss! I get that you had to activate this to stop them from getting away but did you have to bring all of us here?!" Densist complained.

"Shut up!" The bandage-villain Mumi's voice hissed.

"Young Midoriya! Whatever you do, don't let him in! If he gets inside, he can snatch One For All right out of you!" All Might shouted.

"Oh my young Midoriya." Schizo said softly as he approached Izuku, whose body was held tightly by Ochaco's.

"What's he doing?! You leave him alone!" She shouted.

"L-Leave us alone!" Izuku shouted toward him as he took another step.

"There are two ways this can happen. One, I just take your power from you."

"Deku, what's he blabbing about? Power?" Katsuki asked.

"Or two...." He lunged forward and tapped Izuku's forehead.

The tap sent out a bright light and both he and Izuku went silent, to the view of the others.

Meanwhile, they traveled deeper, connecting their minds together.

Izuku felt like he was in a room of white with whisps circling around it. He stood in simple, feature-less white clothes in the center of the whisps while Schizo appeared, while in the room, outside of the circling gaseous whisps.

"Wh-Where did you take me?" He asked, almost regretting making any conversation with this man.

"Inside your mind." He said. But he sounded like five voices speaking in one altogether. "Before, you were Quirkless. But now..." He walked over to a particular thin whisp that seemed to glow golden in comparison to the dim grey of the others. "Here." He pointed to it. "One For All."

Izuku felt the inevitable conflict would return, so his caution remained. Yet, he curiously stepped forward to see the whisp himself.

"It's rather small now. But in time, it will grow to practically fill this room. And truly become a part of you." Schizo explained with a smile on his face. Although this smile almost seemed proud. Almost happy for Izuku, hiding his jealousy if there was any.

"I could easily just take it from you. Crush your dreams. Take your friends." He snickered. "But I want you to see something."

With two fingers he stroked the whisp as if it were a small cat and its small essence shot into Izuku's eyes.

As he rubbed them and opened, he was no longer in that mind room. Now he was in the city streets. The same from his dream.