Quirks and Magic

The next injury for Izuku was bleeding ears, caused by a scream at an octave almost too high for human hearing, unfortunately, it was still damaging. The shrill sound came from a voice unfamiliar to Izuku,the voice was lighter than Momo's. It was only when he managed to raise his head, still in pain from the sudden shock, that he managed to get a look at who was in the room.
The brown-haired girl was bound in rope a bit darker than her hair. She screamed from the bottom of her lungs, like it was her goal to deafen both Izuku and Momo. The only cause for her being quiet was Momo shoving a cloth in her mouth, if it weren't for that, Izuku would've passed out from the sound.
"Izuku!" She continued the parade of screaming, much to Izuku's dismay. She rushed to him, attempting to help. Emphasis on attempting; as she came close enough to him, she didn't know what to do.
His body is bruised, paired with many broken bones and a disfigured face. Whatever she wanted to touch, she stopped herself, as a slight contact sent Izuku in pain as his body moved in uncontrollable directions. While he tried to stay still, his efforts were of no use.
"M-m-mhatig."
"What? Izuku, I can't understand you," Momo responded to his mumbles and mutters, which he managed to bring out under the breath while he still shook from throbs.
"M-m-ag-g-ic."
"Magic?" Izuku gave a weak conformation. "What do you want me to do?"
"Support you?"
Nothing..
"Gather some mana?"
Nothing.
"Heal you?"
Another weak nod.
"S-sure I can try," Momo uttered weakly as she hesitantly brought up her hand, ready to heal him, only to be stopped by Izuku's twitching hand. "Isn't that what you needed?" She wondered.
She relaxed all her muscles, letting Izuku lead her hand where he needed it. In the end, he positioned it on her hand while he laid his hand on top of hers to help her with magic.
With a short, single glance, Izuku signaled for her to begin. "Herhpha." a faint light appeared under Momo's hand as she started to heal Izuku's head. But it was slow; even the smallest bruises took minutes to heal, compared to the usual spell's effect of managing to do that in a second. It was really slow.
It was only when Izuku led some of his mana to Momo's hand that the light started to glow brighter and healing began to fasten. The spell's effect was nowhere near that of what Izuku could do on a daily basis or as a master wizard.
Still, even if it was slower than usual, Izuku was not one to complain in this situation. All the throbbing, bleeding, hurting, and pain started to lessen. At the moment, Izuku could mistake the pleasure and relaxation for a little bit of a lesser torture.
It took five minutes for Izuku to regain all of his facial features, including the ability to see without black eyes, giving him tunneled vision. He never thought he would've had that problem. And the last to return was the ability of speech.
"What is happening up there?"
"Some lunatic is throwing a tantrum," Izuku weakly answered.
"Where is Inko?" She looked around, trying to find a green-haired woman. "Is she still up there?"
He nodded, still in pain. "What!" She screamed from the bottom of her lungs, "Weren't you supposed to save her, not pick a fight with that monster or whatever that thing is?"
"She's safe and protected," Izuku mouthed in weak breaths, "But for now, heal me so I can continue to fight."
"You aren't going up there to die," Momo exclaimed when she gently pushed her hand on Izuku's head, causing him some pain. "You can't stand on your own! And somehow you still want to fight?"
"I'll be fine if you heal me enough."
"I can't heal properly for shit, and you expect me to bring you back to life?"
"Not to life, just to walk and some mental damage so I can heal myself."
She moved her hands away, hiding them behind her back as she took a few steps behind. "I am not healing you just to make it harder for you to die."
"Just do it, Momo; there is more at risk here than just my health," He panted, grasping for the ai in pain. "There are filter barriers to keep magical people inside and everybody else outside; they are here for Inko's life."
"They? Didn't you say there was only one?"
"Yes, one on the top floor; he was part of the group, and they are ready to kill my mother."
"Then just teleport her here!"
"I can't do that because she is marked," Izuku let out an ear-piercing shout. "And even if I did, I would've still had to fight him, nevertheless."
"Then we will wait; I am sure Agatha will be quick to help us."
"What the hell happened to you? An hour before you were down with this, now you want to wait for someone to save us, and we don't even know if they are coming or not."
"Izuku look at yourself; you almost died. And then you tell me to ask myself what happened to me."
"Come closer." He asked, reaching forward with his hand, "We can do this; we are more than capable of handling this situation."
"No!" Momo screamed, taking more steps away from him, "You need to understand that this is no joke, and you can die, not just you, many people."
"If you don't risk it."
"No, just no, no risking, no foolishness, or anything."
"Momo, please listen-"
"No."
"Momo!"
"No."
"Please, we can't just sit around and do nothing. We can't this time; no one is coming to save us; no one can see what is happening except for those who are inside the building." Izuku noticed that Momo started to gather air inside her lungs so she could respond. "And no, we can't just escape."
"What?" She gasped.
"There is a fucking filtering barrier around us, so we are just mice in a trap with no option but to fight."
"Maybe-"
"There isn't; maybe we need to act now!"
"I am not letting you die now; I am not letting you die too."
"Whatever happened, I can only imagine how bad it was. But please now, just for me, try to stay strong; the only thing you have to do is just to heal me. I will do the rest of the heavy lifting."
She curled her hand underneath her chin, approaching slowly, step by step. When she came close enough, Izuku raised his hand in pain, expecting Momo to place hers on top of his palm.
She heisted; every time her hand approached Izuku's, she pulled it back. If Izuku were to be honest, he had enough of her fears and blockades; he understood them to a certain level, but the more she suffers from them, the more she irritates him.
After a minute-long will she won't she, Momo finally managed to put her hand on top of Izuku's, only to scream no just a second later.
He wanted to play no more mind games; they were draining for both of them, so he was to be quick and witty. Izuku looked around him, corners of the room, both floor and ceiling, He looked on all the walls and surfaces he could find, it wasn't until he locked his eye on a crack in a pillar.
"Found you!" He mumbled to himself, flicking his wrist through the pain, Izuku uttered "Volitis." A black cockroach flew straight into his left hand.
He placed his both arms next to each other with palms facing up, like he was comparing them. Moments later, a snake's head appeared under his right wrist, Its body expanded from it swirling right to left until reaching his elbow, the snake had little to no texture; it looked almost too real to be marking.
A sudden chill in the air startled Momo; she was hastened to see what he was doing. "Hey Izuku, what's up with the snake?"
"Nyhm-trgh-ezry-xen." Whatever that was, Momo didn't expect it. She didn't know what to do; all the pressure was getting to her. She was about to ask him something, anything, just to gain his attention, until something caught her. Green mist leaving Izuku's mouth for every word he said.
"Nyhm-trgh-mnć-xen."
The fear filled her bones, making her even more hesitant but somewhat compelled. She traced the mist back to Izuku's face to notice his eyes were black and pupilless. In a reflex, she backed away, covering her mouth with her hand, to silence her muffled scream.
It didn't help that Izuku, after that, again continued to utter mindless empty phrases. "Nyhm-šđž-eae." But this time something more happened. A roach in his hand started emitting a weird green energy that slowly traveled from his left arm over his heart. Traveling to his arm, stopping only before his palm. Bit by bit, his energy was being absorbed by the snake marking.
The more energy it absorbed, the more it gained texture via green lines appearing over its body. With every passing moment, the energy made the snake look more wobbly as it was moving.
Once the energy stopped flowing, the snake actually started moving, circling around Izuku's arm before its head reached his knuckles. When it stopped, the marking started releasing mist in the same green, obnoxious green color. As the mist was leaving, the energy left the snake marking.
The mist was thick, and per touch, it felt like solid material. Cautious Momo backed away even more, waving the substance away usingher arm in hopes it wouldn't touch her. Mercifully for Momo, the mist smoke didn't sway far from where Izuku stood. It swirled around him until it started entering his mouth in a gruesome manner.
In worry and quick to act, Momo took her gas mask that she had created before and changed the brand new filter. Before she rushed towards him, she tied a piece of cloth over her mouth for safety reasons.
When she tried to run through it though, the mist suddenly turned hard, like a wall. It took a minute before it disappeared, leaving few traces behind. But what disgusted Momo about the mist was that it entered Izuku's mouth. Lighting up the body's arteries, veins, and heart in the same green color.
His eyes gradually returned to normal before he spoke. "What's up? Why are you standing there? Weren't you here just now?" He pointed with his finger before him.
"What was that?" She gritted out.
"Dark magic." He answered calmly as he let out the ashes of what used to be a cockroach. "Since you didn't want to heal me, I needed to do it myself in a little unethical way."
"What did you do?"
"Every bit of magic requires life in one way or another; if you take it for something, you get more in the moment. Of course, life disappears once you take it so it doesn't offer any more mana, making it a one-time use." Izuku casually answered as he stood up, approaching Mirase, who stood there. "What's up with this scarface here?"
"Wait, you can't be that casual about this; you just killed a creature to do magic?"
"It is nothing; it was just a small roach." Izuku answered as he waved his hand in front of his face.
"I don't care about damned roach. I care about you; whatever that was made you look creepy, and now your whole blood is glowing green through your body." Izuku was ready to reach for Momo, but she was quick to move away. "Don't touch me while you are like this."
"You are making a big deal out of this."
"You literately said that it is unethical."
"Well, you wouldn't heal me."
"Don't try to put this on me."
With no words in his mouth right now to battle Momo's, it was best to switch the topic. "You don't need to watch me for long; just give me the runes to teleport the people you gathered and lead other's to safety." Izuku spoke, batting his eye away from Momo.
"Here," she said, throwing a small piece of cloth with a rune circle glowing on it. Izuku rose its magic into his hand as he read runes before he uttered the teleportation spell. He repeated the spell words a few times, as not all people were stationed at the specific station Momo assigned to them.
"Still, can you answer my question? Who is this? And what is her thing?" Izuku pointed his finger towards tied-up Marise, avoiding any chance of meeting Momo's gaze.
"Honestly don't know. She just offered to help me with convincing people, then she attacked me with her freaky quirk." Momo explained as Marise, still weirded out and terrified, made faces, trying to indicate otherwise.
"Talk." Izuku pulled out tissue from her mouth while he started swirling mana around his hands, putting them on the rope that tied Marise.
"Why would I?"
"Because it is a smarter option." He spat.
"Is it really?"
"Yes." She nodded her head dumbly.
"Exezena," Izuku whispered, putting his hand on her stomach with a pitch-black mana surrounding his hand. "Try repeating those words now." He taunted
"Nothing." She said with a smile sneaking on to her face.
"Wait a few seconds." Izuku's smile was much brighter and more obvious.
"Ahh," Marise started to grunt, "Whaaaaattt diiddd you-" Soon, the screams came in, not allowing her to speak.
"That is your life energy and skin twisting inside-out, left and right at the same time." He said as he twisted his right arm, and in the same moment, Marise's screaming also ceased. "Now, answer every question; don't try any tricks and everything is going to be fine."
"You know, I can just think of something that you would like to hear so you would stop investigating me."
"I enchanted the rope to worm up, tighten, and get harder for every lie you tell. I welcome you to lie as much as possible, but the question is, how long would you last like that?"
"Smart, I am gonna admit." Marise said as she started moving around under the rope.
"You don't seem to be surprised as much about magic, only scared. Did you interact with magic before in any sense."
"Is that a question? If it is, then you formed a bad senten-" Izuku raised his hand and started to twist it. "Okay, okay, I am joking. Learn to take a joke, man."
"No, I never interacted with magic before; this is my first time." On the surface of the rope, a red pulse passed along before the rope began to shorten itself around Marise.
"How accurate is this thing?" She waved her head towards the rope.
"Very accurate," he said, before continuing. "Can you do magic?"
"No." Rope stayed still, not moving an inch.
"Is anyone related to or capable of magic?"
"Yes." Again, Rope confirmed that she was telling the truth.
"What magical race are they?"
"I don't know." She whined, but the rope again glowed red. She started sweating, with drops racing over forehead as she spoke
"Try again."
"An instructor."
"Really all that work to get a lowlife for an answer." Izuku wondered.
"Don't talk about her like that." Marise screamed, squirming in the rope, desperately trying to get out. "You don't deserve to mention her, let alone talk shit about her."
"How you are defending that person, it must be your mother, per say." He rasied boulders behind him to make a sudo chair for him to sit, throwing his legs over one armrest and arching his back over the other. "If she was so great, how does it happen that you can't do magic. Because from what I know, the greater the instructor, the greater chance is for their children to be born with magic. Right?"
"You don't know anything."
"Or maybe she broke the rules her leader made for her by marrying a magic-less person, and with no mana around her to use, she wasn't able to practice magic." Izuku didn't need any other confrontation after he saw the look on Marise's face.
"How would you know?" She whispered under her breath, staring at the floor.
"You ain't anything special; remember that." Izuku raised her chin with magic so she would look directly into his eyes. "Did you know about us before you met Momo?"
"No."
"Do you work for anyone?"
"No."
Izuku didn't know what to do with her. How safe is it to let her go? Can he use her in any way? Would she listen? He turned towards Momo, ready to ask her for advice. She might be terrified and nervous but he still trusted her judgment.
Still, there are boundaries that shouldn't be passed or ignored. "Momo?" He weakly called to her but she didn't respond; she didn't even look at him.
"What's wrong?" He asked, ready to take a few steps towards her, but she stopped him even before he started walking.
"Don't, don't come near me!" She created a staff from her hand, holding it defensively.
"Why are you acting like that?"
"Why?!" She screamed, "Why! You are torturing a girl physically and emotionally; you started talking weird shit after that little stuthe snaketh snake mark and now your mana is pitch black! Tha'ts why"
"You have every reason to be scar-"
"Scared? No Izuku I am disgusted; I thought more of you, and as I said, I won't approach you or touch as long as you glow green and your mana is black."
"Here, would this make you feel better," He waved his hand, uttering a spell, releasing black smoke over his body that clanged to him, When the smoke started to clear out, he looked completely normal.
"It is certainly easier to look at you, but we both know that isn't a solution."
"Well, if you are going to look at me directly and talk to me, it is fine enough for me." Izuku crouched, looking into Momo's eyes. "Do you think you are capable of leading people out of there with Marise."
"No, she won't lis-"
"I am not asking about her; I am asking if you are working better alone or with help."
"Yeah, some help would be useful, but what are you planning to do?"
"Easy," He hummed, slowly running towards Marise as he snapped his finger, One arm left Marise's rope like a response.
"What are you doing?" Marise and Momo both asked in unison.
With no response, Izuku started drawing curvy runes on Marise's arm. Soon more runes came from them flying into the air connected to them. He still continued adding more of them, deleting some, and changing others.
After he was done, all the runes crashed into themselves, leaving only six of the of the same runes from her palm to her elbow. "Momo, just one moment," he said before he touched Momo's hand with his finger. A similar rune appeared, only a few strokes different from those that are on Marise.
"If you want her to listen to you, just pulse a little mana into this rune; it will overwrite her will and make her listen. You have six uses."
"And what happened after the sixth one?" Marise asked as Izuku peaked over his shoulder to find her serious look, one that Momo is still getting used to.
"You die."
"Isn't it that too much?" Momo asked, her eyebrows rising and her eyes widening.
"It is just enough; this won't last long so I doubt that she would die over a stupid thing like this." Izuku said as he destroyed the ropes around Marise. "We got a deal; you handle the people and evacuate, and I will solve the situation upstairs."
Before Izuku could walk away, Momo caught his arm, stopping him in his tracks. "Please think this through; it is dangerous, and it is something you don't have to do." She pleaded, two or three sobs escaping her heavy breath.
"It is something I have to do; that is my mother, my blood." Izuku said as he undid his illusion spell, reveling his green, glowing veins once again, this time glowing just a little bit less. It was as if they were used up while they were hidden.
"Please, at last, be careful, avoid the conflict, and fight smart. Take the lesson you taught me: playing dirty and cowardly is the smartest style to fight with." A tear ran down her cheek, reflecting the light of the flames around them.
Izuku brushed her off. "Creas." Black mana appeared on his palms as the green energy left the arteries on his palms to be filled again, just less bright. 'That is turning his mana black.' She thought as she still carefully looked at his palm, at black mana turning into solid matter.
She took a step back, in caution, before two blue gems appeared in his hands. He didn't wait a second before he started surrounding them with weird runes that were sucked into blue gems.
"It is a somewhat SOS signal. When you crush the gem, the other will turn green, and if you put a little mana into the green one, it will teleport you to the other, crushed one." Izuku exclaimed, handing Momo the gem in his right arm.
She took the gem with no second thought, and as she spread her arm towards the Izuku in reflex, she stopped before she could do anything rash.
"Close your eyes." Izuku whispered.
"What?"
"You heard me; close your eyes. It will make you feel better." She listened to him. A moment later, she felt two frail hands sounding her into a hug. But somehow, to her, those two thin arms meant a lot.
"I promise that I will be careful." Izuku whispered into her ear, feeling a thigh hug as a response. He tried to move away but she didn't let him go.
"Just let me have a moment, okay?" She talked to him, her head resting low on his shoulder.
"Yeah," he responded softly.
The moment was great, and it would be great if it could last longer but they had a time limit, and Momo knew that. Still, she wanted, she tried to keep him away from danger, even though she knew she couldn't.
Izuku raised his hand, "Pre spatium permoves," and he disappeared in a black flash, leaving Momo to hug air and traces of his smell.