The King of Heroes: Null/Virtue

Domestic Life

The woman, who Izuku knew as Camie, quickly rushed into her farm house. Izuku turned down his own senses out of respect, allowing whatever exchange was taking place to do so in private.

Even with his future memories, Izuku's hands were jittery, filled with adrenaline.

After nearly 10 minutes, which stretched out for what seemed like hours to Izuku, the door to the farm house opened again. In the door frame stood a body that you would expect on a world champion boxer. Agile, but packing enough power to punch your lights out. He was laden with scars, all the way up to his head, where a furrow of blonde hair was missing.

"Just for the hell of it," the man said, his voice less like gravel and more like sandpaper, "What was her favorite book?"

Izuku replied, "The one they forbid her to read. The one about a little girl forced to become a monster. Project Nemesis."

"Heh..." Subject #4 scratched the back of his head. "I never thought I'd talk about this garbage again. But I figured someone would come for me eventually."

"I-I know, it's-"

The man lowered his head and spoke with a wavering tone. "Just leave my family alone... but I don't care what you do to me..."

Izuku lurched back, decades ago flooding back. "No... no..." He held up his hands. "This isn't like that! That's not what I meant by coming here!"

The man raised his head. Confusion and a decent chunk of anger was written into it. His bright-red eyes staring into Izuku's.

"You're him... but not..."

"I could say the same for you," Izuku replied. "The last time we saw each other-"

"We tried to kill each other?" #4 said. "And you ended up giving your life for those kids cause you knew you had to take me with you? You could've had more time with them. We both could've. If I hadn't been such a-"

"I died more fulfilled than you can possibly imagine," Izuku said with a laugh. "I made the right choice... when it mattered most. I'm sad I couldn't be with them longer, but I would do it over a million more times for them, and in that hell, you would not be my devil."

#4 clenched his fists.

"I think... you're a man who's come too far to fix mistakes of the past. And that's what hurts the most."

#4 sighed. "We're about the same age, right?"

"A few years apart."

#4 grinned bitterly, a look that Izuku found much more familiar on him. But there was still plenty of pain behind it. "So why do you seem like one of those wise old masters in those comics Rampage always read? And I'm a farmer who can't read this world's language?"

"Well that's-" Izuku was interrupted by a sudden burst of motion, with Camie erupting back out the doorway.

"I was right, wasn't I?"

#4 again nodded.

"Knew it!" Camie said excitedly, jumping back out of the house to join her husband on the steps. "Katsuki thought you were gonna kill all of us! I told him, based on what he told me about his past, that you definitely wouldn't come after us!"

"Quite the talker," Izuku said to Katsuki, who smiled faintly.

Izuku then lightly bowed. "I should make introductions. Izuku Oric Serax, King of Draxia."

"Wait... you're the... NULL Lord? That NULL Lord?" Katsuki asked.

"Y-Yeah?"

"We don't get much news around here. And it's all text, no images!" Camie jumped in as her husband processed everything. To some, that may have seemed like a stupid mistake, but Enterion had one of the lowest education rates in Estaria. Farmers certainly weren't learning how to read or write, and they weren't learning about other species because they were stuck in that farm 24/7. So it made sense that they didn't know that only the NULL Lord could have such pure onyx-black scales. Reading about a black-scaled Onyx didn't seem all that special to them outside of his achievements. His appearance wouldn't have caught their eye.