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Assistant: Title: Fire Lily
        Author: EtherealBeing EtherealBeing 
        Chapter: 17/21 
        Summary: There he was: sitting splay-legged on the altar, one muddy combat boot propped up on the edge, with a self-satisfied grin on his face and a relaxed aura, in spite of the war raging outside. Izuku wasn’t sure what he’d expected to see his first day evacuating humans from the Rapture zone, but it sure as hell wasn’t a Demon with the same goal. A story about falling, in more ways than one.   Podfic
        Contents: Chapter 17: From the Ashes
    

    

        
          
          
            “Hey, Kacchan…?”“Yeah?”“I…” He hesitated for a moment. Then, “Why haven’t I remembered anything yet?”
          
        

      
        
          lol sorry this took so long im currently in tech job interview hell. anyway, this is 18.6k words yeeeeeee
            
            (See the end of the chapter for  more notes.)
            
      
  

  
  
    
    Izuku stood before the foggy mirror in the bathroom of Katsuki’s apartment. Never before had he been so fascinated by his own reflection.The cat-like slits of his pupils changed the character of his eyes in a way he couldn’t quite describe, and when he experimentally switched off the light, he found that he could see in the darkness much better than he could as an Angel. The green light of his eyes radiated outward, giving off an otherworldly glow.He turned on the light again, leaning forward to examine his teeth. His canines were a lot sharper than they used to be, and carried a dull ache from the rapid growth. His hands gravitated toward his damp hair. In his half-shifted state, his horns looked similar to Katsuki’s, at least at a glance. But as he slowly shifted, Izuku watched, entranced, as they grew outward, the little bumps lining the sides extending in all different directions as they gradually morphed into antlers. Izuku ran his fingertips over them. The surface was smooth and black, but had a slightly metallic, green sheen whenever the light hit them just right. His hands fell limp at his sides, and Izuku sighed. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about having antlers. Katsuki had noted that they were rare, but in a way, that only made him more uncomfortable. Standing out wasn’t something he was accustomed to. What could possibly stand out more than a pair of big, shiny antlers?Izuku wrung his wrists, his tail swaying gently behind him.
  At least that part isn’t too unusual.
Izuku shook his head, returning to his half-shifted form before grabbing a towel to wrap around his waist. He emerged from the bathroom, and for a moment, he just stood there in the hall, eyes darting between the unmade pull-out bed in the living room and the open door to Katsuki’s bedroom. He wasn’t really sure where he was meant to go.The sound of Katsuki’s voice calling out to him was enough for him to make up his mind, though.He crossed the short distance into Katsuki’s room, where he found him sitting in bed, pillow propped up against the headboard as he lounged atop the covers in nothing but his boxers. Katsuki’s brow was pinched as he tapped away at his touch pad, and when he looked to his right, he found Triplet curled up on what was probably meant to be Izuku’s pillow. He shut the door softly behind him, glanced down at his towel, and then around the room. It occurred to him then that he didn’t have anything on hand to wear. His bag was still in the living room closet from his earlier stay, but save for a few stray items, most of his clothes weren’t clean.Izuku cleared his throat. “Um…”Katsuki raised his head, one eyebrow arched. He took one look at the towel around Izuku’s waist, and then pointed at the dresser on the other side of the room. “You can wear my clothes for now.” He told him. “We’ll get you more soon.” Izuku nodded, and headed over to Katsuki’s dresser. He opened the first drawer, and his brow wrinkled as he found himself staring at one of the most bizarre assortments of items he’d ever seen. A large coil of bright red rope sat in the corner, and laying across the length of the drawer was a black riding crop. Alongside the crop was something that looked kind of like handcuffs, only with a long, metal bar stretching between one cuff and the other. At the back, there sat an abnormally large flashlight, and beyond that, a vast array of other objects he couldn’t even try to identify. Izuku stood there for a moment, just staring into the drawer, attempting to come up with a situation in which any of these items would go together. He squinted, imagining Katsuki riding on horseback at night, his tail wrapped around the flashlight, one hand holding the riding crop while the other gripped the rope. In his mind, he was using the rope as a lasso, attempting to capture something. Or perhaps someone. Who he would then proceed to shackle in those strange handcuffs, for some reason. Off to the side was a pile of neatly folded underwear. Shrugging, Izuku grabbed a pair of basic, black boxer briefs, and slowly slid the drawer shut.“Shirts in the second drawer.” Katsuki muttered.Izuku swallowed as he pulled the drawer open. This one, at least, was normal. He ran his fingers over the folded shirts until he found a soft, black t-shirt, which, upon closer inspection, seemed to have a skull graphic on the front of it.He slid the boxers on first, followed by the shirt. They were both pretty loose on him, but not so much that he’d have to worry about whether they’d stay on. With a sigh, he shut the drawer and turned, only to find Katsuki staring at him with this sort of smug appreciation.Izuku squirmed. “What?”“Nothin.’” He smirked.Izuku shook his head, crawling into bed beside Katsuki. Triplet was still curled up on his pillow, and he didn’t have the heart to disturb her, so he just cuddled up next to Katsuki instead, his head resting on his shoulder.It was nice, being able to just… touch him like this. Katsuki wrapped his arm around him easily, pulling him closer to his side, like it was just natural. Izuku sighed in contentment, and peaked at the screen. Katsuki was voting again.“Will I get to do that soon?” “Mm.” He nodded slightly. “There’s a bit of a process, though. Every city’s a little different, but ours is pretty straightforward. Basically, we just gotta go down to city hall and draw up a contract.”“Contract?”“Yep.” He turned off the touchpad and set it down on the nightstand. “Everybody’s got one. Essentially, you just agree to contribute to the community to whatever extent you can, and the community agrees to support you. S’different depending on people’s needs and desires, though. That’s why it’s gotta be discussed.”“Huh. So, when can we do that?”“Eh, soon as you want, I guess. Just not tomorrow morning.”Izuku blinked. “What’s tomorrow morning…?”“Meeting.” He grunted. “There’s some people who wanna meet you, ask a couple more questions about your escape.”“Oh.” Izuku bit his lip.At the uncertain tone of his voice, Katsuki turned and looked at him. “Somethin’ wrong?”“Not really,” he said. “I’m just… not sure if there’s anything else I could say that would really help anything.”He shrugged. “Well, don’t stress about it. Y’never know, but if it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s whatever.”Izuku gave a small smile. “Alright, Kacchan.”Katsuki hummed, turning fully onto his side to face him. He began idly running his fingers down Izuku’s arm, then sliding over his hips and sides.He squirmed. “That tickles.”He grinned, but didn’t stop. “Oh yeah?”“Yeah.” He winced, trying to scoot away, but Katsuki’s other arm snaked under him, holding him in place as he continued his aimless exploration. “Kacchan.” He whined.“I’ve held off on touchin’ ya for over six months, nerd. Just let me have this.”Izuku rolled his eyes, but gave in. Scooting closer, he buried his face in Katsuki’s chest and wrapped his arms around him. Eventually, Katsuki’s ministrations slowed, until he was just stroking up and down his back idly, and for several minutes, it was silent.“Hey, Kacchan…?”“Yeah?”“I…” He hesitated for a moment. Then, “Why haven’t I remembered anything yet?” Katsuki hummed, chest rumbling as he considered the question.“It’s not always immediate.” He said, after a while. “Obviously, I can’t say from personal experience, but that’s what I’ve heard. I mean, some Fallen Angels take months to recover all their memories.” He paused for a second, sliding a hand into his hair, stroking gently. Izuku’s eyes fluttered. “Far as I’m aware, the only thing that’s been known to speed things up is if you actually meet someone you knew while you were human.”Izuku frowned. “Oh…” He didn’t even try to mask the disappointment in his voice.After a moment, Katsuki sighed. “Listen,” He said. “It’ll happen eventually. It always does. Just gotta be patient, okay nerd?”After a second, he nodded, and snuggled deeper into his arms. And in his warm embrace, Izuku drifted off easily.The room was circular, with high ceilings and walls lined with bookshelves. He was standing at the center, near the top of a black spiral staircase, leaning against the rails. Staring down into the darkness below. And eventually, two figures emerged from the abyss, steadily climbing up.As they drew near, he realized they were Acolytes. Izuku took a few steps back as they reached the top of the staircase, and came to stand before him. “I’m afraid the yield was a bit lower than usual today.” The first one said, opening up a leather messenger bag. He pulled out a smooth, mahogany case and handed it to Izuku. After a second, he accepted it, and hesitantly reached for the golden latch on the front. Popping it open, Izuku slowly lifted the lid. Inside, he found two vials encased in soft foam. Swallowing, he pulled one out and held it up to the light. It was filled with a thick, dark liquid, and when he looked close enough, it almost seemed like he could see patterns swirling within it…He glanced up at the Acolyte, who c@cked his head.“...Sir?”Izuku gasped awake, sitting up in bed. His eyes darted around the dark room, as though he could expect an Acolyte to emerge from the shadows, but of course, that didn’t happen. It was just him, and Triplet, who slept curled up at the foot of the bed.“Deku?”Izuku’s breath hitched, and he looked to his right to find Katsuki lying on his side, one eye opened a crack. He glanced at the clock. It was around three in the morning.“Whass wrong?” Katsuki slurred.He gulped. “Nothing, I just…” He winced. “Had a weird dream, I guess.”Katsuki hummed, and after a moment, reached up and grabbed the fabric of Izuku’s shirt, tugging gently. Izuku got the message, and laid down on his side again. Katsuki scooted closer, and threw a heavy arm around him, lacing his fingers through his hair to pull him closer. Izuku wrapped an arm around him as well, and tucked his head under Katsuki’s chin.It was funny, how quickly he managed to forget about it. Wrapped up in the comfort of Katsuki’s warmth, he felt his anxiety melt away. And perhaps at a later time he might recall the dream and return to that place of fear, but here, in this moment, as he was moving toward sleep, all he could do was wonder how he’d ever gone without Katsuki’s touch.Izuku woke the following morning to the sensation of something being placed on top of him—and for once, it wasn’t Triplet. He groaned, blinking groggily as his eyes gradually adjusted, and he realized it was a tray of food. “Morning, jackass.” Katsuki said affectionately, standing at the foot of the bed. “Be careful not to spill that sh@t when you sit up.” He grunted as he slowly propped himself up and scooted up the mattress. On the tray was a cup of coffee and a large plate with an assortment of what looked like exotic fruits. “What’s all this?”“Call it the Eating for Dummies Starter Pack.” Izuku shot him a glare that Katsuki met with a teasing grin. “Nah, but seriously. Now that you’re a Demon, you’re gonna need to get used to eatin’ like the rest of us plebs. It helps to know what you like. Figured I’d just throw together an assortment of random sh@t, just so you can get an idea of what’s out there.”“Oh,” Izuku blinked a few times, and smiled. “Thanks, Kacchan. That’s really thoughtful of you.”“All I did was put things on a plate.” He said, shrugging.But Izuku knew better; he could tell from the neat way the fruits were sliced, the careful arrangement on the plate. More effort went into it than he was letting on. “Still,” he said, picking up the coffee cup. “I appreciate it.” He took a sip.Katsuki looked away. “Well, show your appreciation with your mouth, nerd.”Izuku nearly choked on his coffee. “E-Excuse me?”“The fruit, Deku.” Katsuki drawled. “I’m telling you to eat the f@ck@ng fruit.”“Oh.” Izuku swallowed. “R-Right, right! Of course.” He laughed awkwardly, and then looked down at the plate. His eyes were drawn to something with white flesh and bright blue skin. It looked a bit like an apple, but when he poked at it with his fork, it was notably softer. “What’s this?”“Aveldt. It’s mostly greed.” Izuku hummed, sinking his fork into it and slowly pushing the bite into his mouth. The first thing he noticed was that it was sour. Not unbearably so, but definitely not what he’d been expecting. The texture was somewhat creamy, and as he chewed it, he noticed hints of sweetness.“What do you think?”Izuku swallowed. “I think I like it?” He said. “Maybe not all the time, though.”“Mm. Well, try somethin’ else.”Izuku scanned the plate, and his eyes landed on something purple. The slices were heart-shaped. “What’s that?”“Gourkest. It’s like a hybrid of pride and l@st, mainly.”Izuku licked his lips as he picked up one of the slices. He took a small bite, and as his teeth sunk into it, he was hit with a tangy, savory sort of flavor. The fruit was dense, too; Izuku suspected he wouldn’t need to eat much of it to feel full. “This one’s fine, but it doesn’t really… seem like a fruit, if that makes sense? It’s almost like—”“—Meat?” Katsuki finished, snorting softly. “Yeah. I’ll admit, it’s not exactly a light snack. Try another.”He nodded, and pointed at another fruit. It was segmented like an orange, but pale pink in color. “This one?”“Senvil.” Katsuki said. “Basically just pure gluttony.”Izuku picked up a slice between his fingers, took a bite, and as his teeth sunk into the slice, it oozed a white, sticky substance. Immediately, an intense sweetness spread across his tongue. The consistency was thick, almost like syrup, and as soon as he’d gotten the slice into his mouth, he went for another. “You have the palate of a child.”“Rude.” Izuku said, scarfing it down and reaching for more again. This time, Katsuki grabbed his wrist. “You’re gonna give yourself cavities.”Izuku arched a brow. “Is dental care included in that contract you told me about?”Katsuki blinked, his expression blank. “Well, yeah. Course it is.”“Then I don’t care.” He yanked his wrist out of his grip, grabbing a few more slices and cramming them into his mouth all at once. “I like sweet things. Let me live!” He said, mouth still full of that thick, sweet juice.Katsuki stared at him intently as he chewed. After a second, he sunk his knee into the mattress beside him. “Y’know what? You’re right.” He said, picking up a slice. “I shouldn’t be so critical. By all means, eat all the senvils you want, Deku.” With that, he shoved the slice into Izuku’s mouth. A bit of thick, white juice leaked from the corners of his lips, and Katsuki’s eyes seemed to track the flow of it. After a moment, he scooped it up with his finger and pressed it back into his mouth. Izuku awkwardly closed his lips around his finger. “There you go. Good boy.”Izuku flushed, narrowing his eyes. “Kacchan, are you…?”“Yes.” He deadpanned, shoving his finger deeper into his mouth. “Yes, I am getting off on this. Thanks for asking.”With his finger that deep, Izuku couldn’t really respond. His blush intensified, and he grabbed his wrist and pushed it gently away, swallowing the juice. “Too early for this.”“Yeah?” He snorted. “It’s nine in the morning. What time am I allowed to make s@xual advances on you?”Izuku thought about it a moment. “I’d say around five o’clock onward.” “Seriously?” He mumbled. “D@mn. I want a refund.”Izuku snorted. “Sorry, Kacchan. I don’t think Heaven is accepting returns.”“What a f@ck@ng scam.” He muttered, just before he tilted Izuku’s chin up and pressed his lips to his. “I wanna speak to the manager.”He laughed. “Who, God?”“Nah, God’s, like… the CEO.” “The Council?”“Executives. Board of directors.” Katsuki said. “I’m thinkin’ probably the Acolytes.” 
  Acolytes.
Izuku tensed as he suddenly remembered the strange dream he’d had, his brain flooding with images. The circular room; the spiral staircase. The Acolytes. The wooden case. The vials.It was all so vivid, so real. The worst part, however, was how… normal it felt, even now, as he was recalling it. Not in terms of content, but rather logic. Izuku’s dreams didn’t typically follow any sort of rational sequence of events; they made sense as they were happening, but the moment he woke up, the logic would quickly start to unravel. And it would be little things—an object that hadn’t been there before suddenly appearing before him, a normal action leading to bizarre consequences. But this wasn’t like that. This was stable, grounded in reality. And this was the second night in a row he’d had a dream like that.He didn’t like it.Katsuki’s brow furrowed. “You okay?”Izuku didn’t respond at first, lost in thought.“Deku?”“Ah! Sorry,” Izuku muttered. “Y-Yeah, I’m… fine. Um.” Unsure what to say, he hastily grabbed an odd, reddish pink berry off the plate and popped it into his mouth. Almost immediately, his eyes went wide and started to water. It was perhaps the spiciest thing he’d ever tasted. Wordlessly, Katsuki pushed his cup of coffee closer. Izuku drunk a good few sips of it, washing the taste out of his mouth. “What was that?”“Ekkoberries. Basically just wrath.” He shrugged. “Not as intense as embrites, though.”Izuku shook his head, taking another sip of his coffee, only to freeze. “Wait. Do I have to eat foods associated with a particular sin in order to do that kind of magic?”“Nah. I mean, some people claim it helps them, but I call b@llsh@t. There’s zero evidence to suggest they’re linked.” He said. “Magical classes are named based on the cardinal sin of the Original Demon who developed it. It has nothing to do with sin in, like, the nutritional sense.” “Oh, thank god.” Katsuki raised an eyebrow. “I mean, uh. Thank… Lucifer?”Katsuki snorted, rolling his eyes. A moment later, he said, “So, you’re thinkin’ of learning magic, huh?”“I mean, yeah.” Izuku said. “As soon as possible, really.”“Hmm, well I’m sure that can be arranged.” He smirked.Izuku flushed, looking away. “What time did you say the meeting was?”“I didn’t.” He replied. “But it’s in like an hour. Y’should probably get ready.”Without another word, Izuku pulled back the covers and began getting dressed.They left the apartment around thirty minutes later, and as they boarded the train, something occurred to Izuku.“Kacchan?”Katsuki grunted.“You… why do you bother taking the train?”He blinked. “What d’you mean?”“Well, you can basically teleport, can’t you?”“Oh.” A look of recognition crossed his face. “Yeah, thing about that is… it’s not really allowed. At least in most situations, anyway.” He shrugged. “Most cities have some sorta provision against using transport magic within city limits, ‘cuz it can actually really f@ck up electronics.” “Wait, seriously?”“Yep.” He said. “So like, shadow jumping, and most other types of teleportation, are usually only used to travel around Earth, or to and from it.” They reached their stop, and the two of them stood up. “You can do it outside the cities, but y’gotta be careful. There’re a lot of smaller settlements.” The doors opened, and Katsuki took his hand as they stepped off the train. “Most of those techniques are either practiced out in the middle of nowhere, or in controlled environments with special insulation. The basement at the Academy is like that, actually.” “Huh…” Izuku looked around, his eyes drawn to the park as they walked. When he eventually looked back at Katsuki, he asked, “Well, what about your sigil?” He glanced at the marking on his bicep. “That doesn’t cause similar problems?”“It actually can, but only if you’re tryin’ to communicate with someone whose sigil you don’t know. Long as you’ve got it in your head, you’re fine.” He paused as they turned the corner. Izuku could see the main building of the Academy up ahead. “The magic is similar, though. That’s kinda what’s interesting about it. Theoretically, it should be possible to use sigils for transportation as well, but so far no one’s been able to come up with a practical way to do it.”“Huh…” Izuku’s brows pinched together. They reached the front steps, and began to ascend. “How does it work, exactly?”“I dunno. M’not a f@ck@n’ chthonic physicist, nerd.” Katsuki snorted. “I think the answer has somethin’ to do with vectors, but I’m not sure. You could read about it, if you want. Or take a class.”As they entered the building, Katsuki placed his hand over his sigil, and it began to glow. “We’re here.” He waited a moment. “Gotcha.” He turned to Izuku. “Third floor.” He said, and set off toward the stairs.Izuku followed, and as they entered the stairwell, he asked, “Will I get my own sigil?”“I mean, sure, if you want one.” Katsuki replied. “Not every Demon has one, though. They’re actually pretty rare if you’re not a magic user.” He paused, glancing back at him. “Course, most of us on defense have ‘em, for practical purposes.“They were starting up the second flight of stairs.“Huh.” Izuku said. “I mean, couldn’t you just use some sort of technological device?”“Like a phone?” Katsuki raised an eyebrow.Izuku nodded, and as they reached the top, Katsuki pushed the door open, and held it for him. “Yeah, two main problems with that.” Katsuki raised a finger. “One, you could lose it.” He lifted a second finger. “And two, they don’t work everywhere. Calls between Hell and Earth are basically impossible without some sorta magic, and like most electronics, that sh@t won’t work in the Depths.” He paused. “Hell, even sigils have limited range once you’re deep enough.”“I guess that makes sense…” He trailed off, following him as they continued down the hallway.“So?” Katsuki said. “D’you want one?”“I mean, sure.” He shrugged. “They seem pretty useful.”They came to stop before a redwood door. “Well, I’m sure that can be arranged.” Katsuki grinned as he echoed his statement from earlier. With that, he pushed the door open, and they entered a small conference room. At the center was a round table, where two men he’d never met before sat.The first one on the left was a man with shaggy, red hair. He appeared to be fiddling with something, though Izuku wasn’t close enough to see what it was. Regardless, he seemed to be intensely focused on it, and did not look up as they entered. The second man was a different story.“Ah, you must be Midoriya.” He said, standing up from his seat. As the man circled around the table to greet him, Izuku couldn’t help but notice the jarringly formal nature of his attire; while the first man wore only a wrinkled t-shirt and sweats, the second was clad in a tailored black suit and tie. When he came to stand before Izuku, he noted that he was roughly the same height as Katsuki. There was another thing he noticed. Namely, the guy was almost absurdly handsome. Part of that was surely due to the well-kept nature of his appearance; his dark, brown locks slightly wavy, but neatly combed such that not a hair was left out of place. When he smiled at Izuku, the skin around his violet eyes crinkled, and his sharp teeth were almost too white for reality. He shook Izuku’s hand firmly, and then folded his hands behind his back.“I wanted to thank you.” He said. “What you did was incredibly brave. Without your help, this would’ve never been possible.”Izuku blushed, averting his eyes. “It’s no problem, really.” He cleared his throat. “Um. And you are…?”He heard Katsuki’s mouth open, but the man beat him to the punch.“Luke.” He said, his eyes locked on Katsuki rather than Izuku. “Just call me Luke.”With that, Luke looked over his shoulder at the red-headed man. “Bee? Are you going to introduce yourself?”The man—Bee, allegedly—blinked a few times, as though his mind had just returned after a long trip away. Slowly, he looked up at them and froze. Then, he stood up so quickly, the chair squealed across the floor. “Oh, f@ck.” He muttered. “Uh… Uh, sorry. Midoriya, right?” He extended his hand across the table, but before Izuku could accept the handshake, his eyes widened, and he yanked his hand away. “Sh@t, sorry!” He hissed, blushing. “I just realized my hand’s, like, really sticky. You, uh… probably don’t want to…” He trailed off, eyes drawn to the table. It was only then that Izuku was actually able to tell what he’d been up to. There, on the table, was what seemed to be a long strip of bubble gum, peeled into multiple thinner strips. It looked like he’d been working on braiding them. “Uh, anyway. I’m, uhh… Yeah. I’m just gonna…” He awkwardly sat down again.Izuku couldn’t help but smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Bee.”“Where’s Levi?” Katsuki asked. “Wasn’t he supposed to be here too?”“Ah.” Luke grinned. “Behold.”With that, he walked right up to a chair that seemed to be empty, and collapsed onto it. Only he never actually touched the chair, and upon hitting the invisible barrier, someone grunted. Seconds later, the air shimmered, revealing a man with dark, olive skin and long, black hair tied back in a ponytail. He firmly pushed Luke off of his lap, and after a minor stumble, he put his hands up in the air, as though he had just nailed the landing following some insane feat of gymnastics.When Levi stood, Izuku’s eyes went wide. The man was insanely tall, and as he leaned across the table to shake Izuku’s hand, he was further amazed at how small his own hand felt compared to his. “Midoriya, right? I’m Levi.” He said. “Sorry, I actually fell asleep.”“Oh, no worries.” Izuku smiled. “Uh, how tall are you…?” He blurted out.“Seven-foot-five.” He replied, without missing a beat. “Seven-foot-five.” Izuku repeated to himself. “Ah, sorry, you probably get asked that a lot.”He shrugged. “I’m used to it. For the record, though—no, I don’t play basketball. And the weather up here is fine.”Izuku giggled softly, pulling out a chair and sitting down, as Katsuki did the same beside him. It was around then that Aizawa entered, carrying a pot of coffee and a stack of paper cups. Following behind him was a tall woman with black hair and silver eyes that Izuku didn’t recognize. Aizawa looked at him, and faltered. “Midoriya?”“Ah.” Izuku looked away nervously. “Um, yep.”“I was meaning to ask about that,” Luke said. “I was under the impression that you were still an Angel.”Katsuki smirked. “It’s a recent development.”Izuku flushed, directing his attention to the woman Aizawa had entered with. “Um, I don’t think we’ve met.”She smiled, holding her hand out to him. “Pleased to meet you, Midoriya.” She said. “My name’s Setsuko Kaneshiro—but please, call me Setsuko.”Izuku froze, his eyes going wide. He was so shocked, he nearly forgot to shake her hand, and went he remembered, he hastily did so vigorously.“S-Setsuko? As in…?”“Yep.” Katsuki grunted. “That Setsuko.” Izuku gulped, recalling memories of early conversations with Katsuki, of journal entries he’d read, classes he’d taken—all of it, rushing back to the surface. 
  Izaiya and Setsuko. 

  The spies who rejected God.
“I, uhh, learned about you in school.” Izuku said, and then immediately wondered why he’d done it. “Oh?” Setsuko raised an eyebrow. “Do I even want to know what they taught you about me?”Izuku laughed awkwardly. “Probably not…” He paused. “For the record, I don’t believe any of it, though.”She giggled, and pulled out a chair to sit.Looking bored, Aizawa gave Luke a pointed look. “You were going to ask him some questions?”“Oh, yes.” He said, lacing his fingers together on the table. “There were a couple of things I wanted to ask about, but let’s start with the illusion. Could you elaborate on that?”Izuku blinked. “Sure, but… why?”“Acolytes use illusions as interrogation tactics primarily. Knowing what the illusion involved will give us insight into what they were hoping to gain.”“Ah.” Izuku nodded. “Well… they essentially just had me re-living my time down here, before I left.”Luke hummed. “Yes, we figured it’d be something like that. How much information were they able to get?” “Well, I mean… we made it through to the last day. I broke the illusion while I was, uh, on a hiking trip with Kacchan.” He explained, shifting nervously in his seat. “So I guess they know that we’re planning something… though I guess, to be fair, they probably already knew that when they caught me.”“I see. And you were not in on the discussions, correct?”“No, thankfully.” Izuku sighed. “Well, that’s one thing down, then.” He said. “The other thing was this. You mentioned seeing a Councilman on your way out. Can you tell us a bit more about him?” “Um…” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, there’s not much I can really say. He was too far away for me to see his face.” He squinted. “We didn’t really interact, he just kind of… shouted at me from a balcony a few stories up.” He gave a wobbly smile. “If it weren’t for him, I might have made it out without anyone noticing.”“What did he shout?” Setsuko asked.“He just told the Acolytes to stop me.”She hummed, narrowing her eyes. “And when he did this, did you notice anything odd? Like, for example, multiple Acolytes moving simultaneously?”Izuku’s eyes widened. “That’s… yes. How did you know?”“Setsuko here is our top authority on all things concerning the Council.” Luke said, smiling fondly. “She knows everything there is to know about them.”“Well, no.” She said. “There’s actually quite a lot I don’t know about them. It just so happens that Midoriya, here, has apparently interacted with one of the more familiar ones. Namely, my old boss.” She sighed. “Councilman Three. The Commander.”Izuku’s mind flashed with memories of notebook paper and carefully copied correspondences. “The journal entries. The ones from you and Izaiya. They were always addressed to a commander.”“Ah, very astute observation.” She smiled. “You’re correct. However, Commander isn’t a rank—it’s a title. One that specifically refers to his particular ability.” She paused, reaching for the coffee pot and pouring herself a cup. “Essentially, he can use vocal commands to force others to do his bidding. There are limits, though. To my knowledge, it doesn’t work on Demons, and he can’t issue differing commands simultaneously.” She took a sip of her coffee. “So, for instance, he couldn’t command one person to dance and another person to sing. The number of people he can control at once is virtually infinite, but any commands issued must apply to all of them equally.”Izuku leaned in, nodding along with rapt attention. But there was a problem he couldn’t get past. “That… doesn’t sound like a very natural extension of Angel magic.”“You’re right. It isn’t.” Setsuko replied. “That’s because in addition to the standard soul-magic Angels use, members of the Council also have their own unique powers. Powers which are said to be gifts from God himself.”She stood up then, approaching the white board at the other end of the room. She pulled the cap off a marker and began writing a vertical list, numbered from one to six.“There are six Councilmen. Each one is granted a special ability which correlates to a particular virtue, and a title—such as The Commander—that references that ability.”Next to the number one, she wrote ‘The Healer.’“One is the Healer; the Councilman of Forgiveness. His power includes the ability to heal his own injuries at an accelerated rate.”After two, she wrote ‘The Rejector.’“As the Councilman of Temperance, the Rejector can both manifest and eliminate the consequences of various forms of deprivation in others. Things like thirst, hunger, sleep—all of these are things Two can either increase or decrease, much like turning a dial.”She wrote ‘The Commander’ next, but skipped over the explanation, and simply moved on to the fourth: ‘The Cleanser.’“This is the Councilman of Purity. His powers involve memory manipulation, up to and including elimination.”After that, she quickly wrote out two more titles. Beside five, she wrote, ‘The Martyr,’ and next to six, ‘The Violator.’She turned toward the table, tapping the whiteboard with the marker. “These are our two primary unknowns. The Martyr is the Councilman of Sacrifice, and the Violator is the Councilman of Humility. But apart from those basic facts, little is known about their powers.”“Well, they’re all kind of unknowns, aren’t they?” Bee chimed in. “Since we don’t necessarily know the full scope of the others’ powers.”“That’s true.” Levi agreed. “We need to be prepared for anything.”“Hit ‘em hard when they’re not expectin’ it.” Katsuki said. “No one asked about your s@x life, Bakugou.” Luke commented.The others stifled snorts.“Very funny, ‘Luke.’” Katsuki said, using air quotes. “Y’know what else would be funny? Turning the ceiling fan up to the highest setting after I string you up there by your sh@tty tie.” Katsuki grabbed a paper cup and reached for the coffee pot, pouring himself a cup. “And for the record, people expect it when I hit them. That’s kinda the whole point.”“Enough.” Aizawa said, the bags under his eyes somehow deeper. “Setsuko, please continue.”Setsuko coughed, a poor attempt at covering up her laughter. “Right. Anyway.” She cleared her throat. “To my knowledge, no one outside of Heaven knows about Five or Six’s powers.”“Is there anything else you can tell us about them?” Levi asked. “Anything, really. Even if it doesn’t seem important.”She sighed. “All I know of the Martyr is that, for whatever reason, the Commander always seemed to despise him. And as for the Violator… well. Unfortunately, I Fell before he was even inducted.”“Well, maybe we’ll be able to find out more tonight.” Luke said, elbowing Levi.Levi sighed. “Luke, the mission is to plant more seeds. Nothing else.”“Well, sure.” He shrugged. “I’m not saying you should try anything risky. Just, you know—if you happen to see something while you’re up there.”“I doubt I’ll be there long enough to see much of anything.”“Uhh, sorry.” Izuku interjected. “What are you talking about, exactly?”“Oh, right.” Luke said. “Levi, here, is going to Heaven tonight.”“It’s a strategic mission.” Levi said. “I’ll just be planting a few more gravity seeds.”Izuku blinked. “Wait… you mean alone?”Levi nodded. “For stealth missions, the fewer people involved, the better.”“I mean, I guess?” He chewed his lip. “But… I don’t know. That seems really dangerous.”“Maybe for some people, but him? You’ve got nothing to worry about, I assure you.” Luke smiled, smacking him on the shoulder. “Levi once looked the Depths Siren dead in the eye and came out of it unscathed.”“That’s a baseless rumor and you know it.” Levi deadpanned.“Oh, whatever.”Levi closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Do you know how many researchers have contacted me since you started spreading that around?” He opened his eyes, and the blank stare he threw Luke’s way told Izuku this was a conversation they’d had many times before. “Actions have consequences. At this point, you’re actively polluting scientific discourse.”“Sure, but people should know not to trust me by now, don’t you think?”“Unbelievable.”“I’m just saying. I’ve been doing this for centuries. At a some point, surely the people who continue to take everything I say at face-value must bear some of the blame, yes?”“They take you seriously because you have a Ph.D in chthonic ecology.”He froze. “…Wait, I do?”
  “You do.”
Luke stared at him for a moment, and then looked down at the table. He mouthed, “What the f@ck.” Levi groaned. “Whatever.” He looked up at Izuku and Katsuki. “Sorry to keep you two. We appreciate you answering our questions, Midoriya.““Ah, it’s no problem.” Izuku gave a wobbly smile.“Is there anything you’d like to ask us?” Bee asked, his mouth full of chewing gum.“I mean….” Izuku hesitated, thinking it over. There was one thing he kept coming back to, ever since he’d woken up—namely, the dream. But he wasn’t sure what to ask, wasn’t sure how to phrase a question about it in a productive manner.Eventually, he settled on asking, “Are there any updates on the vial I found in the Acolyte’s pocket?”“Ah. Thanks for reminding me.” Aizawa said. “Apparently, it’s mostly just a mixture of water, sucrose, and something called, uhh…” He squinted. “Polyphenics…?”“Polyphenols.” Katsuki corrected him.“That’s it.” Aizawa snapped his fingers. “Basically, it’s chemically similar to maple syrup, or at least it appears to be. They’ve sent it to the chemoturgic lab in Eyrket for further testing.”Izuku’s brow furrowed. “Chemo…. What?”“Chemoturgy.” Katsuki said. “The study of intersections between magical and chemical phenomena.”“Huh. That’s interesting.” Izuku said. “Well, do you know how long it’ll be before we hear back?”“Probably something like a week, but it’s hard to say.” Aizawa replied. Izuku bit his lip, nodding slowly.“Any other questions?” Levi asked.“Yes, actually.” Izuku cleared his throat. “Uh, when exactly is the invasion?”“Counting today?” Luke said. “Thirteen days out.”Izuku did not expect to be invited when the actual invasion took place, and even less so after they left the Academy that day. At the end of the meeting, Aizawa mentioned something about wanting to involve as few people as possible, so as to avoid attracting too much attention. It made sense, of course; given that the innermost circle shared its wall with the third circle, where most third-sphere Angels resided, it was only logical to want to keep things contained for as long as possible. Because as soon as God fell, it would all be over. Anything else was merely an obstacle standing between them and that ultimate goal. So naturally, they would need to be selective. Only the strongest among them would be eligible, and though he hated to admit it, there simply was no reality where Izuku fit the bill. He sighed, sliding his hands into his pockets as they walked down the sidewalk.“Somethin’ wrong?”“Huh?” Izuku tensed. “Oh. No, it’s nothing.”Katsuki side-eyed him, openly skeptical. Izuku sighed again, shoulders sagging. “I just… wish I could do more.”He stared at him for a moment, blinking slowly. Then, “Deku. You’re literally the reason any of this sh@t is possible.” He rolled his eyes. “Leave some glory for the rest of us, ya f@ck.”Izuku huffed a small, exhausted laugh. For a minute, it was silent, apart from the ever-present soundtrack of the surrounding city. “Kacchan?”“Mm?”Izuku hesitated, eyes fixated on a group of teenagers rollerskating down the street. One of them fell, and the others attempted to stop and help, with varying degrees of success. Izuku shook his head, tearing his eyes away and instead focusing on his feet as he traversed the concrete. “What happens… you know… after?”Katsuki didn’t respond immediately, but after a few seconds, he sighed. “Hard to say. I mean, if the mission fails? Who the f@ck knows what’ll happen. Figure it’s safe to assume sh@t’ll get real bad real fast, though.” Izuku didn’t say anything. He just nodded, his eyes still fixated on the ground. “But… if we win?” He continued. “Things’ll improve, eventually—at least in terms of morale. We may be dealing with the fallout for quite a while, though. Who knows.” They turned the corner, and passed a couple walking a small, furry creature that Izuku couldn’t identify. “When everything’s settled, the Defense department will gradually phase out. Not entirely, but mostly.”That caught Izuku’s attention. “Oh, really?” He raised an eyebrow. “Why?”Katsuki shrugged. “Militaries are only necessary when other people have them. If no one had an army, no one would need an army.”Izuku frowned. “But then… what would you do?”“Me?” Katsuki stretched his arms over his head, yawning. “I dunno. Might try somethin’ new. Or maybe I’ll just go back to what I did before sh@t hit the fan.” “…You had a job before this?”“Sure. I’ve had a few, actually.” He replied. “Used to design clothes. Did that for a while. After that, I worked in a chem lab for a couple decades. Mostly focused on developing weather-resistant building materials.” 
  “Seriously?”
“Yep.” Katsuki grinned. “There were a couple others in between, but those were the main ones. I still visit the lab sometimes, just to see what they’re up to these days.” “Wow,” Izuku muttered. “That’s… unexpected.”“Oh yeah?” He raised an eyebrow. “How so?”“I dunno.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess I just always imagined you fighting.”“Well, I’ve always fought. It just wasn’t always my job.” “Still…” Izuku bit his lip, and tried to imagine him in those roles. Katsuki, sitting at a desk, sketching out designs next to an old sewing machine. Katsuki wearing a white lab coat and goggles, swirling some colorful liquid inside an erlenmeyer flask. The longer he thought about it, the more he longed to see it for himself, to experience all sides of Katsuki first hand.Someday, he told himself. When the dust settles. 
  
    If
  
   it settles.
“Oh, by the way.” Katsuki spoke again, breaking him out of his fantasies. “Just so you know, I heard about what happened with the substance you found in the Acolyte’s uniform. Aizawa told me.” He said. “I just want you to know, if you ever tried to touch any sorta mystery chemical in my lab with your bare hands, I’d throw you the f@ck out, bouncer style. Just like I used to toss out creeps at the strip club I worked at on Earth.”  “The what?”Katsuki snickered. “It’s a long story.”Around ten minutes later, Katsuki led him through the front entrance of what looked like an odd hybrid between a fabric store and a workshop of sorts. The walls were lined with dozens of rolls of white fabric of all different types, but the floors and ceilings were occupied by numerous large, steel contraptions, and machines Izuku couldn’t identify. As they entered, Katsuki waved at the lone attendant sitting behind the counter, and then headed straight to the back. Around the corner were what looked like dressing rooms. As they stepped inside one, the first thing he noticed was that it was a lot bigger than most he’d seen on Earth, and on the back of the door, there was a large touch screen. “Um, what’s all this?”“A catalogue.” Katsuki said. “Ya go through it and select the clothes you think you’d like.”“Huh.” He leaned in, scanning over the interface. “And the attendant will bring them to me…?”“Nope.”Izuku faltered, turning to look at him over his  shoulder. “I’m…” He narrowed his eyes. “Not sure I understand?”Katsuki snorted. “Just pick something. You’ll see.”Izuku shrugged, and began flipping through the options. He found a simple red button-up shirt and black pants, and selected it.“Now what?”“Now…” He grinned. “Take off your clothes.” He flushed. “Wh-What?”“We’re in a changing room, Deku.” Katsuki rolled his eyes. “What did you think was gonna happen?”Izuku stared at him a moment longer, but eventually, he shook his head and gave in. Averting his eyes and muttering under his breath, he began to remove his clothing, stripping down to his underwear.“Those too.”Izuku squawked. “What? Why?!”“If you want it to measure you correctly, you gotta get naked.” He smirked, then leaned back on the bench, legs splayed as he stared at Izuku, eyes roaming up and down his body shamelessly. “Well, go on.”“D-Do you have to be in here?” Katsuki scoffed. “F@ck’s sake, Deku. I had you bouncing on my d@ck last night.” Izuku whined, but with a deep blush, he shed his underwear. “Now what?”Katsuki didn’t respond, at first, too busy openly eye-f@ck@ng him. 
  “Kacchan.”
He rolled his eyes. “Just push the green button.” Izuku did, and then suddenly, the lenses on all sides of the changing room began to glow, shooting thin lines of light that scanned down his frame. And then, suddenly the image in the mirrors changed. In his reflection, he was wearing the outfit he’d selected, though as he looked down his body, he found that he was still naked. Katsuki stood up, standing beside him as Izuku looked in the mirror, turning around, checking himself out. Katsuki whistled lowly. “Pretty sharp.” He said. And then he proceeded to smack Izuku’s bare ass, the sound of his hand hitting flesh echoing in the changing area.He yelped. “Kacchan!”Katsuki snickered, leaning back against the wall. “Try somethin’ else.” Izuku grumbled under his breath, but turned back to the screen nonetheless. He flipped through the pages, chewing his lip. There were just so many options. He wasn’t sure how to even begin searching for things he’d actually want. And so he told Katsuki as much.He hummed. “Well, you could try just hitting the ‘randomize’ button, see what comes up.” He offered. “It’s down there in the bottom left corner.”Izuku nodded, locating the button and tapping it without hesitation. The mirror instantly changed to display a simulation of Izuku wearing a three-piece, floral print suit—a concept which would have been dubious enough on its own, but was made infinitely worse by the fact that each individual piece was actually a different type of floral print.“Well, d@mn.” Katsuki snorted. “That might actually be the most hideous sh@t I’ve ever seen.” Izuku winced, quickly tapping the button again. This time, it was a lavender sweater over a white, collared shirt, paired with white pants and brown oxford shoes. Izuku turned and looked himself over. “This isn’t too bad.”“You look like you’re about to knock on my door and ask if I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as my personal lord and savior.” Katsuki deadpanned.Izuku frowned, looking away. “Oh. Um, okay.” He turned toward the screen, and was about to hit the button again, but stopped when Katsuki spoke.“I never said that was a bad thing.” He said, clicking his tongue. “If you like it, you should get it.”Izuku blinked a few times, looking over at him. “Ah… Well, okay then. How do I do that, exactly?”Katsuki leaned in, pointing out the ‘add’ button, and Izuku selected it with a small smile. Finally, he was getting somewhere. He hit the ‘randomize’ button again, and froze upon seeing his reflection, momentarily speechless. Katsuki immediately burst out laughing.Because Izuku was now wearing an Angel costume, of all things.The fake, white wings clung to the straps around his shoulders, and hovering above his head was a golden halo, attached to a thin wire extending from the headband that sat just behind Izuku’s horns. Both the wings and halo wobbled in the simulation every time he moved. On his feet, he wore a pair of gold sandals that laced up to his knees in criss-crossing patterns, and the little white skirt was so short, Izuku found himself trying to smooth it down before remembering he wasn’t actually wearing anything.He pursed his lips, shuffling in place. “This… looks nothing like an actual Angel.”Katsuki snorted. “It’s a Halloween costume, Deku.” He said, shaking his head. “And honestly, it looks pretty good on ya. You should consider it.”Izuku side-eyed him, and then hit ‘randomize’ again. Katsuki sighed, and rolled his eyes.The next few outfits were more or less normal, and though most weren’t really his style, there were a couple he did like alright. It wasn’t until he was around twenty outfits in that he found one he really loved. The pants were black, high-waisted, topped with two columns of three buttons on the closure, similar to a double-breasted suit. Beneath the pants was a burgundy halter-style top. But what really struck Izuku was the garment overlaying it.He wouldn’t quite describe it as a shirt, but it was black, with a grey ‘X’ shape over the chest. The bottom of the ‘X’ gave way to a hem that dropped lower in the back, not unlike a tailcoat, while the top split into multiple tree-like branches, to which several round, red crystals were attached. The branches wrapped around his shoulders, converging together at the back, forming a window through which his wings could emerge. The tail of the garment was adorned with grey embroidery that gradually faded to gold, and took on the shape of roots. “Huh.” Katsuki said. “Didn’t know that was still in the system.”Izuku managed to tear his eyes away from his reflection in order to look at him. “What do you mean?”“That’s my design.” Katsuki said, shrugging—as though it was no big deal. Izuku’s eyes went wide. “Wait, really?!”“Mhm,” Katsuki nodded. “I wanna say it was around a hundred years ago.”“Kacchan, this is gorgeous.” “Yeah?” Katsuki smirked. He sauntered up behind him, placing his hands on his shoulders. “Well, it looks pretty d@mn good on you, I’ll tell ya that.” Izuku flushed, chewing his lip. Katsuki released him so he could check himself out, turning his body this way and that. “…C-Can I get it?”Katsuki hummed, a sort of pleased rumbling deep in his chest as he closed in behind him again, wrapped his arms around Izuku’s waist and rested his chin on the top of his head. “‘Course, baby.” He all but purred. Izuku shivered, felt a rush of heat run through his body as Katsuki’s thumbs drew small circles on his ribs. Shakily, he reached for the screen and hit ‘add.’“N-Not sure how anything else is supposed to top that,” he said, with a small, awkward laugh. Katsuki smirked, slowly pulling away. “Well, that’s alright.” He sighed. “We should probably move on to some of the more basic things, anyway.”Biting his lip, Izuku nodded slowly. And from there, he stepped aside and let Katsuki take the reigns. He ran down a list of basic wardrobe elements, sorting and selecting options with practiced ease. Casual, formal, sleepwear, athletic wear—one by one, they crossed them off the list. Once all of it was out of the way, Katsuki scrolled through the items and tapped a few of them, so that the options were highlighted green. “What are you doing?”“Just marking which ones to prioritize.” He said. “They should all be done within a few days, but it’s good to have a couple of things for right now.” “Oh.” Izuku said. “You mean they’re all made to order?”“Most of them, save for a couple of the most basic ones.” He tapped a few more. “Alright, we’re set.” Katsuki hit a button that said ‘confirm,’ and immediately, there was a beeping sound, along with a series of mechanical clicks. Katsuki opened the door and led him out to the floor of the shop, just in time for him to watch one of the many rolls of white fabric start to unravel as a large, robotic arm dragged it out onto the counter. A second arm, with a rotary tool attached, then lowered onto it, and in a series of rapid, efficient movements, it cut out the pieces of the pattern, and trimmed away the excess. A large, opaque dome lowered from the ceiling, hiding the fabric from view for a minute, and when it lifted off, it was dyed a light blue. Izuku watched, entranced, as the first arm came down and lifted the pieces away, whisking them over to a massive machine near the back, which swallowed the fabric like a paper scanner. He heard the fast, repetitive clicking of a sewing machine from within. Meanwhile, the cutting machine had already begun working on the next garment.  A shirt emerged from the sewing machine just as the pattern pieces for the next item were going into it. Katsuki grabbed it off the conveyer belt and handed it to Izuku. It was just a simple, blue shirt, made from light, breathable material—one he recognized from when they were looking at exercise clothing. A minute later, a pair of sweatpants emerged, and Katsuki handed them off to him, as well.“You should go put those on.” Katsuki said. “We’re goin’ to train after this.”“…We are?”Katsuki grinned. “You said you wanted to learn magic, didn’t you?”“Ah, right. Of course.”He lingered a moment longer, watching the machine work. There were a couple of tools laid out nearby—wrenches, screwdrivers— but at the moment, the shop attendant wasn’t even really looking at the machine. He had his feet up on the counter, and was picking at the strings of something that looked almost like a ukulele, but not quite.Eventually, Izuku tore his attention away from the whole spectacle, and headed back to the changing area to slip into the freshly-made clothes. The fabric was soft against his skin, and the fit was nearly identical to the simulation. By the time he emerged, the machine was already finished.Half an hour later, they were once again ascending the front steps of the Academy, only this time, instead of heading upstairs upon entering, Katsuki led him down a wide hallway on the first floor. “The training rooms are just through here.” He told him, backing up into the crash bar on the door to a larger gymnasium. But as they entered, they soon realized it wasn’t empty. Izuku recognized Kaminari’s voice before he actually saw him. “Oh, hey Baku—holy sh@t.”He looked up, and found Kaminari, Sero, Kirishima, Mina and Jirou all standing around in gym clothes not unlike Izuku’s, and it was at this precise moment when Izuku realized that this was his first time seeing any of them since he Fell.Mina attacked first.Squealing, she came running over, and as soon she was with within range, she reached out and started pinching his cheeks. “Holy sh@t, it’s true! Oh my god, you look so cute, and are those—?” She gasped, brushing his hair out of the way, examining his horns. In their half-shifted state, they didn’t look too unusual, but at close range, it was easy to tell the difference. “Oh-my-god-you-have-antlers!” She gushed. “Oh sh@t, for real?” Sero said, approaching at a much more leisurely pace, along with Kaminari, Jirou and Kirishima.Kaminari came to stand near Mina, leaning in. “D@mn.” He whistled. “Haven’t seen those in…” He squinted. “Actually, never?”“Wow. It’d be really cool to see you fully shifted, when you get the chance, man.” Kirishima grinned. “Only if you want to, of course.”“Maybe later.” Izuku smiled, though his cheeks were red. “I’m not really dressed appropriately right now.”“You could take your clothes off.” Kaminari suggested, to which Katsuki responded with a sharp smack upside his head. “Ow! Jeez, I was kidding! Possessive, much?” Katsuki raised his hand again, a silent threat. Kaminari put his hands up and backed away. Izuku cleared his throat awkwardly. “So, when did this happen?” Sero asked. “Yesterday?”“Ah, yes.” Izuku nodded.“You mean… at the church…?” Jirou raised her eyebrows.Izuku averted his eyes as Mina started to giggle uncontrollably. “Ohh, so that’s why the church burned down…” Kaminari said.“Yep.” Katsuki said, popping the ‘p’ sound. “And for once, I wasn’t responsible for it. Not directly, at least.” He smirked. “Anyway, we’re gonna leave before you start askin’ weird questions.”“Hey, Midoriya.” Kaminari called out. “How was it?”Izuku flushed. “How was what?”“We may never know.” Katsuki said curtly, as he hooked his elbow under Izuku’s arm and started to drag him away. The others shouted after them, but there were too many people speaking for Izuku to pick anything out. So instead, he just smiled awkwardly over his shoulder and waved, as Katsuki dragged him out into the hallway. The heavy double doors shut behind them, and Katsuki released his arm. Izuku followed him down another hallway, until they reached the second to last door on the left. Katsuki opened it up and held the door for him, then stepped inside and flicked the light on.The training room was far nicer than the one they’d been using on the surface, presumably because this one was actually maintained. Katsuki shut the door and locked it, then strode over to a closet on the other end. He slid the door open, and hauled out something large and rectangular. He carried it to the center of the room and set it down. It was only when he removed the opaque cover that Izuku realized what it was: a touch stone. “Take off your shoes ’n come over here.”Izuku was quick to obey, stumbling to toe off his sneakers before running over. He came to stand in front of the touch stone, with Katsuki on his left.He crossed his arms, and looked at Izuku expectantly. “Well, go on. Try it.”“What do you mean?”He shrugged. “Just stick your hands in there,” He pointed at the impressions, “and see if you can make somethin’ happen.”Izuku pursed his lips and took a moment to roll his shoulders. Then he took another step toward it, and proceeded to do just that. When he pressed his hands into the impressions, at first, the stone didn’t appear to change at all. The shiny orb just floated up and down gently, and all he could see was his own warped reflection staring back at him. His brow furrowed. He wasn’t really sure what Katsuki meant by making something happen, but after a moment, an idea came to him. Jaw clenched, Izuku did his best to recreate the sensation of raising his barrier. He narrowed his eyes, watching carefully, but if it had changed at all, he couldn’t tell.He glanced over at Katsuki. “Is anything happening…?” Katsuki hummed and reached out, and as he touched the surface, he raised his eyebrows. He made a fist and proceeded to knock his knuckles against the stone. The sound it produced was reminiscent of solid glass. “Huh. That’s interesting. What’re you doing?”“Just what I always did whenever I raised my barrier.”Katsuki smirked. “D@mn. That’s pretty cool. It’s normally kinda soft, like clay.”“Is it useful?”“Ehh…” He narrowed his eyes. “Okay, probably not.” Izuku deflated a bit. “But it’s something. Means you’ve at least got some intuition for how to manipulate your soul’s form. I can say from experience—that goes a long way.”Izuku bit his lip and sighed, taking his hands out of the impressions. “Well, what now, then?”He crossed his arms, and leaned against the side of the touch stone mount. “I dunno, nerd. Depends what sorta magic you’re lookin’ to do. I can give you basic instruction for any of them, but… I mean, have you thought at all about what class you’d wanna go into?”“I… don’t really know.” He admitted sheepishly. “Any suggestions would be welcome?”“It depends what you wanna do, nerd.” He shrugged. “Every type’s the best for some subset of applications. Trick is to figure out what sorta use you’re lookin’ to get out of it.” He paused.“Well, I wanna use it to fight, so….” Izuku pursed his lips. “I guess that’d be Wrath, right?”“I mean, sure. But it’s not that simple.” He said. “If it was, the whole military would be nothin’ but Wrath.”His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”“Wrath is real hard on your body.” He explained. “It’s got a steep learning curve for that reason. Basically, condensing your soul is one thing, but actually using that to fight is another. It requires a lot of physical strength that takes a while to build up.”“Oh…” Izuku frowned. “Not sayin’ that to dissuade you. I’d f@ck@n’ love it if you chose Wrath, obviously.” He said. “But this ain’t a one-size-fits-all type of deal, Deku. Sh@t that works for me might or might not work for you.” Izuku bit his lip, nodding slowly. “Here. Lemme give you a basic run-down.” He continued. Folding his hands behind his back, Katsuki began to circle around him lazily as he spoke. “Greed and Envy are both decent fighting styles in the early stages. They’re really technical, but if you’re good with that sorta thing, you can gain access to some pretty good fighting abilities fairly quickly.“Pride’s good, but it’s kinda like a diluted version of every class. Not ideal if you’re lookin’ for raw power, but it’s great if your goal is to be versatile right off the bat.“Gluttony’s great if speed is important to you, or if you want a style that includes a lot of long-range attacks.“Sloth…” He squinted. “Well, Sloth is a tough sell. You can use it to immobilize and put people to sleep, but it takes a long time to actually get to that level.“L@st is better, but it’s still not super combative early on. The only reason to choose it would be to straddle Wrath and Gluttony, which are both solid choices for fighting.”“I see…” Izuku trailed off, staring into space.Katsuki grunted. “Here. Maybe we should just go over the basics of each so you can see how they feel.”Izuku looked up, blinking a few times. “Alright. That sounds like a good idea.”“Mm. Put your hands in the impressions again. We’ll start with Wrath.”Izuku nodded, placing his palms flat in the hand prints. He looked up at Katsuki expectantly. “Again, since ya already know how to consciously affect your soul in some way, you’re already miles ahead of most Demons, but the real challenge is affecting it the right way. For that, you’ll need the right visual.”“Visual?”“Mm. Magic is all about connecting a mental image to a physical action.” He paused, sliding his hands into his pockets. “Wish I could just tell you what to visualize, but again, what works for me might not work for you. It’s best to just experiment ’til you figure out what your body responds to.” He shrugged. “So, go ahead. See if you can imagine something that’ll make your soul smaller.”Izuku took a deep breath, leaning forward into the table, his eyes locked on the floating touch stone. Engaging his stomach muscles, he tried to imagine a pair of invisible hands exerting pressure from the outside. And at first, nothing happened.“Just keep at it. Feel around. You’ll figure it out eventually.”Izuku tried the same thing for a little while longer before he decided to switch tactics, instead imagining a force buried within his chest, pulling inward, like gravity. And amazingly, that actually seemed to work. Shakily, the stone started to shrink down in front of him, hovering at around eighty-percent of its initial size. Nowhere near as impressive as when Katsuki had done it, but frankly, Izuku was just happy to have managed to do anything at all.“Nice job.” Katsuki said, and he took it as a cue to release the pressure, panting slightly at the effort of it.“You fight like that?”Katsuki laughed softly. “You’re just not used to it.” He shrugged. “Y’gotta build up the right muscles to sustain it, but once you’re there, it’s easy.” Izuku pursed his lips, still a bit embarrassed at how draining the act was for him.“You did good though, nerd. Seriously. It usually takes a lot longer for people to figure that out.”Izuku blushed slightly, looking away.He clapped his hands together. “Alright, so that’s Wrath. Let’s give Envy a shot, yeah?”Izuku took a deep breath before placing his hands in the impressions again. Things went on this way for a while, with Izuku stumbling his way through each individual class until he discovered a mental image that his body could understand. Envy was a challenge, at first. He tried to visualize his soul as boiling water, but since his soul was solid, it didn’t really work. He imagined dry ice next, but the concept was just too foreign for his body to really respond to it. It wasn’t until Izuku visualized himself floating on his back in a pool of hot spring water that the stone finally started to sublimate, a small percentage of its total mass converted to a warm vapor that swirled around the surface. The only issue was that Izuku wasn’t sure he could move that way.Greed was next, and for that, Katsuki brought out a couple of magnets. It was the most difficult one so far for him to figure out, and the only one where he actually needed a hint from Katsuki in order to get it right. “Don’t think about charge. That’s too complicated in the beginning stages.” He’d said. “Just focus on your soul’s relationship with the magnets.” Izuku tried a few more things before he finally found something that worked. It wasn’t a clear image so much as it was an abstract concept; he focused on the magnets, and imagined his body as some vague inversion of them. At that point, they flew from Katsuki’s hands and stuck, but he could never quite figure out how to reverse the force. Every time he tried, the magnets just fell to the floor.In contrast, Pride was a lot more intuitive. Izuku imagined his soul as a balloon inside his body, and when he inhaled, he visualized it inflating just like his lungs. It was quite effective, and he was able to hold it so long as he held his breath. But as soon as he exhaled, it would deflate again.Sloth was similar to Envy in the sense that, when he finally managed it, he felt like he was unable to move, albeit for a completely different reason. Where Envy felt like a delicate balancing act, Sloth felt a lot more like muscle fatigue. He could move a little bit while he did it, but it took every ounce of strength and willpower just to lift a finger.Gluttony was probably the strangest one, in terms of how it felt while doing it. He imagined himself sinking into a pit of sticky goo, and it took a minute for it to work, since he’d never actually experienced anything like that before. Still, compared to some of the others, it was easy enough to maintain, and he could sort of move, albeit sluggishly.And then there was L@st.“This is liquification. Give it a try.”Izuku chewed his lip as he focused on the shiny soul stone in front of him. He envisioned a stick of butter, melting in a pan.Almost instantly, the stone matched the mental image, more than half of its mass melting down around a solid core. Izuku was alarmed by how natural it was, but when he looked up at Katsuki, he didn’t seen surprised at all.“Fallen Angels usually take well to L@st.” He told him. “After all, before you Fall, most of your soul is liquid, anyway.” He grinned. “See if you can do anything with it.”“What do you mean?”“Like, try to move it, or something.”Izuku swallowed and leaned in, brows pinching together as he focused on the swirling mass of liquid before him. With some effort, he was able to pull a couple of droplets away from the rest, but at a certain point, he started to feel very off-balance. Had it not been for the surface he was leaning on, he probably would’ve fallen over. “Not bad.”Izuku sighed, releasing the stone and taking a moment to get his bearings before taking his hands out of the impressions.“I could barely do anything, though…”Katsuki shrugged. “Honestly, most of that comes from actual movement. Once you figure out how to maintain the form, it tends to flow with your movements.”“Oh? Huh.” Izuku looked up in thought. “I guess that makes sense.”“Mm.” Katsuki nodded. “Anyway, since L@st seems to be easiest for you right now, I suggest focusing on that today.”Izuku frowned. “Really? But… you said L@st wasn’t a good choice for combat.”“There’s more to all of this than just whether or not a specific style is good for fighting. Learning to manipulate the form of your soul will make it easier when you try different styles.” He explained. “Just ‘cuz it’s L@st today doesn’t mean it’ll be L@st tomorrow.”Izuku smiled softly. “Well, alright… So,” He cleared his throat. “Uhh, what first?”“We’ll start with the most basic thing.” Katsuki replied, approaching the touch stone. “Eye contact-based hypnosis. Stand across from me. I’ll show you how it works.” Izuku scooted to the other side of the soul stone as Katsuki was placing his hands into the impressions, and immediately, the stone melted down to a swirling liquid. As he looked up, Izuku met Katsuki’s eyes. “Now, watch what I do.”And then, Izuku observed as two small droplets split off from the rest of the mass, moving closer and closer to his face, until they were right in front of his eyes. But for some reason, Izuku didn’t feel any urge to flinch. He just stood there, holding eye contact as they gradually eclipsed his vision, and just before they made contact, they faded, phasing through his skull. He felt that familiar click within his brain, followed by the weight of Katsuki’s control.“Raise your left arm.” Katsuki barked.Izuku obeyed him instantly.And then, just as quickly as it had started, it was over. Katsuki removed his hands from the impressions and c@cked his head. “Seem easy enough?”“I… sure? I mean, I guess so.” He muttered.He gave a short nod, and switched places with him again. Izuku sighed as he stuck his hands in the impressions, brows pinched together.
  Butter melting in a pan.
Quickly, the better part of his soul’s mass melted down. Izuku slowly looked up and met Katsuki’s gaze. His brows pinched together as he concentrated, willing two droplets to break off from the rest. He could feel his palms sweating in the impressions as he leaned into them hard, and slowly pushed them toward Katsuki, never once breaking eye contact. It took some time, but once he managed to get them through his head, they seemed to stick, as though naturally drawn toward something within. Izuku felt a strange sensation at that moment, as though he wasn’t fully in his own body. There was a part of him, however minuscule, that lived inside Katsuki’s head. Waiting.And it was at that moment when he realized he had no idea what he was supposed to tell Katsuki to do. A part of him panicked, and his control nearly slipped. Izuku found himself saying the first thing that came to mind.“Umm, uhh… take off your shirt…?”Immediately, Katsuki’s arms criss-crossed, grabbing the hem of his tank top and calmly pulling up. But the moment the fabric blocked his vision, it was like an elastic band snapping back into place. The part of him that resided in Katsuki’s mind abruptly returned to his own, and Katsuki froze for a second before completing the movement, pulling his shirt fully over his head. And the look on his face when he emerged had Izuku’s cheeks burning up.“Deku.” His voice sounded deeper than usual.“I-I just, uhh,” he floundered. “Sorry! I realized after, uhh, after I hypnotized you th-that I didn’t actually know what to ask you, so I just…”Katsuki raised an eyebrow.Izuku averted his eyes. “You can, uh, put your shirt back on now.”“Oh, can I?” He said. “I dunno. I think I’m pretty comfortable like this, actually.”Izuku chose not to respond to that. “C-Can we just move on?”Katsuki smirked, and oh, Izuku thought.
  Oh, this is hell, alright.
The rest of the session progressed in more or less the same fashion, with Katsuki instructing Izuku to hypnotize him in various ways, under various circ@mstances. After a few hours, he got a pretty decent handle on it, even managing to pull it off while moving, and without the visual aid of the touch stone. Katsuki never put his shirt back on, which was sort of a blessing and a curse—while he was undeniably very nice to look at, it didn’t do his ability to focus any favors.Izuku took a sip of his water and sighed as he turned and looked at Katsuki, at the way his fitted sweatpants clung to his body, the bob of his Adam’s apple as he drunk from his own water bottle, and he swallowed roughly, shuffling around in place.There was one thing that had been bothering him from the very beginning of that session, though if Izuku were being honest, this was far from the first time it had crossed his mind. Still, despite that, he could never quite work up the courage to bring it up. But in that relaxed moment, it took center-stage in his mind. He wasn’t sure if he’d get a better opportunity than the one presented to him now. And so, Izuku cleared his throat. Katsuki glanced over at him, expectant.“H-Have you ever, uhhh…”“What’s that?” He barked. “You’re mumbling.”Izuku faltered, nearly losing his nerve. He paused to take a deep breath, and tried to ignore the weight of Katsuki’s curious gaze on him. “I was just, um, wondering if you’ve ever, uhh,” He averted his eyes. “You know. Used hypnosis for anything… other than fighting…?”When he finally looked up at Katsuki, he found him staring back at him, blinking slowly, his expression blank.“Well, sure, I guess.” He said, scr@w@ng the cap back on his water bottle, and setting it aside. “I mean, more advanced L@st techniques have more broad applications, like that instant-Xanax sh@t Aizawa pulls sometimes.” He rolled his eyes. “But as far as straight hypnosis goes… well, it’s not that common, but yeah, I’ve used it in other situations.”“O-Oh, really?” He clenched his fists behind his back. “Like what?”“Uhh,” He scratched his head. “One time Kaminari stole my hat off my head, and I used it to force him to give it back.” He said, pausing as he continued to think. “I’ve also used it on humans to get ‘em to let me into places I had no f@ck@n’ business being.” He snorted.“Oh.” He tried not to let his slight disappointment bleed into his voice. “So, that’s it? You’ve never used it for anything else…?”Katsuki just stared at him for a while longer, his eyes narrowing a bit, sweeping up and down his frame. Izuku could see the moment he realized what he was getting at; the way his eyes widened the slightest amount just before a grin stretched across his lips. And as though a switch had been flipped, Katsuki slid his hands into his pockets and sauntered over. “Oh, I get it.” He drawled. Izuku backed up against the mount of the touch stone, and as Katsuki closed in, he planted his hands on either side, boxing him in. “You’re a little pervert, ain’t ya, Deku?”Izuku sputtered, leaning back as far as he could. “I-I’m not, I just—““—What?” He cut him off, eyes heavy-lidded.He gulped. “I just… think it’s a natural question to want to ask, is all…”Katsuki hummed, a rumbling sound deep in his chest. He gave Izuku another once-over before he leaned back just the slightest bit and shrugged.“Usin’ it for s@x is kinda dubious, just like any other situation where a person can’t revoke consent.” He told him. “Which isn’t to say that people don’t ever do it, just that it’s, y’know, not really somethin’ people tend to do during casual sex.”“I-I see.” Izuku said, nodding quickly. “Right. Of course. That makes sense.”Katsuki chuckled, grabbing him by the chin and tilting his head up. “You’re so f@ck@n’ cute when you’re flustered.” He said, leaning down to kiss him. It was slow, sensual, and relatively brief. Katsuki pulled away after eight seconds. Not that Izuku was counting, of course.Izuku reached up, wrapping his fingers around the hand Katsuki had pressed against his cheek. “W-Would you ever do something like that with me?”“Sure, if you want.” He licked his lips. “Do ya?”He swallowed. “M-Maybe?”Katsuki smiled, leaning in to plant another kiss on his lips, his hand sliding down to rest on Izuku’s hip, thumb dipping just beneath the waistband, tracing circles over the bone. “Where’s all this comin’ from?”“I don’t know.” He lied.“B@llsh@t.”Izuku shook his head, pausing a moment. “I guess, just… ever since that first time you hypnotized me…”The grin on Katsuki’s face was positively feral. “Yeah?” He leaned in, hot breath against Izuku’s ear. “You mean the time I told you to get on your knees?”Izuku squirmed, thighs pressing together. He nodded slightly.“F@ck@d you up with that one, huh?” He murmured, his voice low, raspy. “Mm, you’re not alone. Looked so f@ck@ng good on your knees for me. You have no idea.”Izuku whimpered, wrapping his arms around his neck and lacing his fingers through his hair. Katsuki’s hands dipped beneath his shirt, sliding over his stomach, and Izuku felt as though he could drown in his body heat.“But,” he said, pulling back a bit too much for Izuku’s liking. “You’re still new to all this, y’know.” He brushed his bangs out of his face. “Probably best not to jump into that sh@t before you’ve even had a chance to do everything normally.”Izuku dug his fingers into his hair, not expecting the needy sound that escaped his throat then. He leaned in, pressing his face into Katsuki’s chest. Sensing something was off, Katsuki wrapped his arms around him. “Deku?”“It’s just…” He hesitated. “I don’t know what to do. You know, normally.” He bit his lip. “I just think it’d be kinda nice, if you just…”A brief pause, and then Katsuki hummed, pulling him in tighter. “Told ya what to do?”He swallowed, nodding against his chest. Katsuki clicked his tongue. “Y’know, it’s fine to just not know what to do, nerd. First time for everything.” When Izuku didn’t respond, he went on. “Hypnosis ain’t somethin’ you should take lightly.”“I don’t take it lightly.” He said. “But I just figured… well, it’s just you, Kacchan.”Katsuki snorted, pulling back enough to look him in the eye. “‘Just me’?” He smirked. “Aww, baby. You trust me so much, huh?” He cooed. Then his eyes darkened. “You shouldn’t.”Izuku felt a shiver run down his spine, heat blooming in the pit of his stomach. 
  Oh.
“…Wh-Why not?”Katsuki’s thumb rubbed against his bottom lip. “Total control, Deku.” He said. “I could make you do all kinds of f@ck@d up sh@t.”Izuku gulped.“Well…” He said. “Maybe that’s what I want.”“Oh yeah?”“Yeah.”“Like this?”Suddenly, something clicked inside his head, and Izuku felt his body become relaxed and pliant. Katsuki’s eyes glowed bright as he stared into Izuku’s and whispered, “Get on your f@ck@ng knees.”Immediately, he fell to the floor, knees hitting the soft training mat below. After a moment, the weight in his mind dissipated, and Katsuki laced his fingers through his hair and pulled, forcing him to look up at him. “What do you think, nerd?” He asked, a feral look in his eye as he stroked Izuku’s curls. And then, biting his lip, Katsuki tightened his grip and tugged again, pulling him face-first into his crotch. Izuku whimpered as he felt his c@ck against his cheek through the thin material of his sweats, slowly swelling as Katsuki rolled his hips against his face. “Just how much power are you willin’ to give me?”Izuku’s eyes glazed over as he stared up at him dreamily, a hot blush on his face. “Anything.” He whispered. “All of it.”Katsuki’s breath hitched, and he could’ve sworn he felt his c@ck twitch inside his pants.He licked his lips. “You’re really playin’ with fire, y’know that?”“Kacchan.” He breathed. “Please?”
  “F@ck.”
   
Just like that, the glow of his eyes flared up, and Izuku could feel him in his head again. “Now, Deku,” He cooed, “You’re gonna take my pants off—only my pants.”Wordlessly, Izuku hooked his fingers under the waistband of his sweats and slid them down to his ankles, where Katsuki proceeded to step out of them and kick them off to the side. He was left in only his plain grey boxer briefs, and Izuku whimpered at the sight of his half-hard c@ck, barely confined in his underwear. Katsuki pulled his face into his crotch again. “Stay right there.” He murmured, as though the grip on his hair gave him any other choice. Katsuki rolled his hips against his face, and Izuku whimpered involuntarily at the feeling of him growing larger against his cheek. “Ya wanna suck me off, huh?”Yes, he wanted to say. God, yes, please.But he couldn’t, not unless Katsuki told him to speak. The only sounds he could make were the little, incoherent whines and moans that occasionally slipped out unconsciously as Katsuki ordered him around.“Open your mouth.”He did.“Stick out your tongue.”He did.“Stay there.” He did, and his mind felt dreamy as Katsuki curled his fingers under his chin, pressed his thumb against the flat of his tongue and hummed in satisfaction. And then, sliding his hand into his hair again, he gently pulled Izuku forward, so that his tongue was pressed against the bulge of his c@ck through the fabric. He was confused, at first. And then Katsuki spoke. “Lick it. Just like that.”And just like every other time before that, Izuku followed orders. Dragging his tongue over the outline of his c@ck, Izuku felt his face burn as the fabric started to get wet. “That’s right.” He rasped. “Get it nice and wet.”Izuku whimpered, tearing up slightly as he let his saliva soak through the grey fabric and cling to Katsuki’s c@ck. He could’ve never imagined his request would lead to this; it was embarrassing, but he couldn’t stop himself. And honestly, he wouldn’t want it any other way.Because there was just something about it, about putting his mind and body in Katsuki’s hands and letting him do as he pleased. He didn’t have to think about anything else, or how he’d feel about it later. Katsuki’s sadistic streak always did seem to veer more toward the humiliation side of things, but it didn’t sting the way he would’ve expected it to. Even when he was on his knees, debasing himself at his feet, there was no real shame in it, because Katsuki had commanded him to do it, and that meant he didn’t have to worry. He could just enjoy it. He could just feel.Izuku’s d@ck was already straining in his sweatpants, and he hadn’t even touched Katsuki’s skin yet.Hissing, Katsuki grabbed him by the hair and pulled him away, smirking at the way Izuku kept his tongue out. “That’s what I like to see.” He purred, reaching for his waistband. Katsuki stared into his eyes as he grabbed his boxers and shoved them down a bit, pulling his c@ck and b@lls over the waistband, slightly shiny with Izuku’s saliva.“Stay still, just like that.” Biting his lip, he grabbed the base of his c@ck and slowly rubbed the tip against the flat of Izuku’s tongue. Izuku’s eyes crossed a bit as he tried to watch. Sometimes Katsuki would push it just inside his mouth, pressing against the insides of his cheeks to make them bulge just before it popped out again. All the while, Izuku just stared up at Katsuki with that dreamy gaze, eyes flitting between Katsuki’s heavy-lidded eyes and the hard c@ck dipping into his mouth.“Perfect,” Katsuki said, his voice just a low rumble deep in his chest. It traveled down Izuku’s spine and made him tremble. “Gorgeous. Such a pretty Angel. F@ck.” He pulled out of his mouth. It took Izuku a moment to realize that the weight in his mind was gone, and then Katsuki was dropping down to a squat in front of him, his fingers combing through his hair. “You good?”Izuku blinked a few times, and then nodded slowly. Katsuki raised an eyebrow. “Y’sure? Nothin’ too overwhelming for ya?”“No.” He shook his head, cheeks heating up as he said, “I-I like it.”Katsuki licked his lips, tilted Izuku’s chin up and kissed him briefly, then pulled back and spoke against Izuku’s lips. “Y’wanna keep going?”
  “Please.”
He grinned, standing up straight again. As soon as he met his eyes, Izuku felt his presence return, vision darkening at the edges. Katsuki stroked his hair softly for a moment, humming as he seemed to consider something. Then, with one hand wrapped around the base of his c@ck, Katsuki proceeded to smack his cheek with it. And it was so sudden, it almost broke the spell. A soft sound escaped Izuku’s throat, heat curling in the pit of his stomach. He hadn’t expected to enjoy something like that—and yet.Katsuki repeated the move a few more times, a wicked grin on his face as he dropped it against his cheek and rolled his hips, rubbing against his skin. “Can’t believe you actually like this sh@t.” He said, his tone a bit mean. It softened when he added, “You really are f@ck@n’ perfect.”Izuku moaned, already painfully hard in his sweatpants. “You wanna suck my c@ck, doncha?” He said. “Say it.”Izuku’s brow wrinkled. “Say you wanna suck my c@ck. Tell me.”Izuku’s mouth opened before his brain could even catch up. “I wanna suck your c@ck.” He said, his cheeks impossibly hot. “Good boy,” he purred, stroking and running his fingers through his hair. Izuku unconsciously leaned into the gesture, eyes hazing over. It was the contrast, he figured—the sweetness of Katsuki’s touch, juxtaposed with the sadistic glint in his eye as he stared down at him, devouring him with his gaze, like he was getting high off Izuku’s vulnerable state. Honestly, Izuku was, too.“Wrap your hand around the base of my c@ck.” Izuku leaned in and obeyed him, fingers curling around hot flesh. Katsuki’s hand slid down, thumb dipping into his mouth. Izuku whined as he felt him press against his sharp canine, provoking a dull, aching sensation. “Gotta be careful with those teeth, Deku baby.” Izuku’s eyes fluttered. “Go on, then.” Katsuki told him. “Put it in your mouth. Swirl your tongue around the tip for me.” Izuku immediately complied, sticking his tongue out and licking around the head of his c@ck. Katsuki bit back a groan. “Yeah, there you go. Wrap your lips around the head, and suck. Remember to watch your teeth.” If he had the capacity to think about it, Izuku would be surprised at how easily his body managed to follow his instructions. He opened his mouth wide as he sucked him in, lips forming a tight seal around the tip of his d@ck. Katsuki moaned, twitching in his mouth. “That’s it. That’s my sweet Angel.” Izuku couldn’t help but moan around him. “F@ck,” Katsuki hissed. “Yeah, I know, baby. You’re my sweet little c@cks@ck@ng Angel, aren’tcha?” He cooed, tone sickly-sweet. He licked his lips. “Take another inch. Bob your head and suck.” Izuku did, sliding his lips down past the head to take it deeper. He was only a small fraction of the way down, and it was already borderline overwhelming as he kneeled there, throbbing in his pants.“F@ck yeah.” Katsuki pressed on the back of Izuku’s head. “More. Take more. You can do it.”Izuku forced himself forward, trying to relax his jaw so he could take him in properly. Tears spilled down his freckled cheeks as Katsuki urged him forward, hiting the back of his throat. He wasn’t even halfway down yet. “Use your hand on the rest. Stroke it.” Izuku mindlessly obeyed, jerking Katsuki’s d@ck as he desperately tried to take him deeper. “F@ck. Sh@t. Look so f@ck@ng hot like this, Deku. With your pretty lips stretched out around my c@ck.” He purred. “Can’t decide if I wanna c@m down your throat or all over your face.”Izuku moaned around his length, bobbing his head faster. “Sh@t. Take your hand off.” He was a bit confused, but did as he was told. Then Katsuki grabbed his hair with both hands, and as Izuku looked up, his eyes met with Katsuki’s—deep red, and glowing with sadistic glee. “Wanna try something. Let’s see if it works, yeah?” He smirked. “Deku… don’t choke.”And a second later, he slid all the way down his throat. He couldn’t understand it, but somehow, when Katsuki told him not to choke… his body actually obeyed him. It was uncomfortable, sure, and he felt like he was always just seconds away from choking, but it never quite happened. “Holy f@ck.” Katsuki hissed, teeth gritted. He pulled out a bit and then thrusted in all the way again, so Izuku’s nose pressed against his skin, and laughed in amazement. “I can’t believe that actually worked.”He grinded his hips against his face for a moment before he pulled out completely, the weight inside his head once again easing. “You still alright, nerd?” Izuku coughed slightly, but nodded still. “You sure?” He asked, grabbing himself at the base and dragging his c@ck head over Izuku’s cheeks, almost idly. “Might get kinda rough. If you don’t want that, tell me now.”Izuku swallowed, the heat in his cheeks concentrating. He opted not to respond verbally, and instead, simply looked up at him with teary eyes and opened his mouth again. The grin on Katsuki’s face was positively feral, and immediately, he felt his mind falling under the spell again.“Don’t choke. Don’t gag.” Katsuki repeated, just before he shoved back into his mouth and pressed in to the base. From there, he slowly f@ck@d in and out of his throat, making it bulge each time he bottomed out. His jaw ached with the effort of keeping his mouth wide open around him, but he never gagged. He just sat there, drool spilling from the corners of his lips as he took him down his throat. He groaned, grinding against his face for a moment. “Touch yourself.” Katsuki said. “Pull your waistband down. Wanna watch you f@ck your fist.”He was quick to obey, fumbling to pull his sweats down enough to get his d@ck out, wincing at the feeling of cool air against his skin. As Katsuki resumed f@ck@ng his face, he wrapped his hand around his d@ck and stroked up and down, moaning around Katsuki’s c@ck as pleasure coursed through his body, so intense he nearly toppled over.  Katsuki groaned, c@ck twitching inside his throat as he stared down at him, ravenous.Izuku stroked himself greedily, bucking and rotating his hips into his hand. He sucked harder, gradually starting to enjoy the sensation of him f@ck@ng his face, discomfort and all. There was something intoxicating in the movement of Katsuki’s hips, a single-mindedly indulgent pursuit. He looked up at him through teary eyes, and saw a man who had lost control of something deep inside, something he would normally restrict. But here he was, groaning as he f@ck@d into Izuku’s mouth at a rapid, uneven pace. I did this, Izuku thought. I made Kacchan feel like this.And that realization was about all he could take. Stomach muscles tensing, Izuku moaned around Katsuki’s c@ck as he stroked himself faster, the pulsating sensation mounting until he came all over his hand and the floor.  And seeing this, Katsuki’s eyes turned wild. “F@ck!” His pace sped up for a few more seconds before he, too, came—slamming all the way down Izuku’s throat and groaning as his c@ck twitched and pulsated. Izuku could feel his c@m, hot and thick as he shot down his throat. “Swallow.” He hissed. “F@ck@ng swallow.”Izuku did as he said, eyes closing as he swallowed as best he could around Katsuki’s cock. His throat constricted, and Katsuki moaned, his cock twitching a little more before he finished. Panting, he pulled out of Izuku’s mouth and kneeled in front of him, releasing the hypnosis. “Are you okay?” Izuku coughed, but nodded still.Katsuki grabbed his own discarded shirt, and wiped the saliva from Izuku’s chin. “I might’ve gone a bit overboard.”“What do you mean?” Izuku asked, but his voice was so hoarse he could barely recognize it. Katsuki gave him a look. Izuku looked away. “Well, I liked it, so… I don’t really see the issue.” He muttered, shrugging. “Didn’t you like it?”Katsuki snorted. “Well. You’re currently digesting my cum, so…”“Kacchan!”He laughed, but at the sight of Izuku pouting, he released a sigh and leaned forward, planting a kiss on Izuku’s lips. “I f@ck@ng loved it.”Izuku flushed, a wobbly smile on his face. Katsuki reached up and ruffled his hair. “Well, I think that’s enough ‘training’ for today.” He grinned. “C’mon, nerd. Let’s get you home.”Izuku was curled up on the couch, sipping a cup of hot tea with honey. Katsuki came in a minute later and sat beside him. For a moment, it was quiet. Then Izuku cleared his throat, and Katsuki glanced at him from the corner of his eye.“What time is Levi supposed to leave?”“Hmm? Oh.” He squinted. “Uhh, I think four in the morning was the cut-off. They wanna get there when most of the Acolytes are asleep, y’know.”“Right.” Izuku chewed his lip. And after a pause, he asked, “Do you really think he’ll be okay?”Katsuki hummed, looking up in thought. “I mean, there’s always a risk… But, y’know. Levi basically invented Envy magic. If anyone could pull it off, it’d be him.”Izuku faltered. “I—sorry, what?”“I just said if anyone could pull it off, it’d be—“”—No, before that.”Katsuki blinked. “Uhh. That he invented Envy magic?”Izuku didn’t speak, at first—just continued to stare at him. “You… what’s that supposed to—““—Holy sh@t.” Katsuki said, his posture suddenly straightening. He turned to face Izuku fully, a wide grin splitting his lips. “Deku.”“What?” He flushed.“You really haven’t figured it out?”“Figured what out?”He rolled his eyes. “Deku… Levi is short for Leviathan. Y’know, the original Envy Demon?”“What?!”Katsuki burst out laughing. “Seriously? C’mon, nerd. How did you not catch on?”“I don’t know!” Izuku cried. “Why didn’t you tell me I was meeting one of the original Demons?!”“Well, if we’re bein’ accurate, it wasn’t just one.”Izuku’s eyes went even wider, practically bulging out of his skull. “Excuse me?!”Wheezing with laughter, Katsuki barely managed to respond. “Deku… Deku, Bee stands for Beelzebub. Luke is short for Lucifer. C’mon.” Izuku was glad he was sitting down, because if he hadn’t been, he would have surely collapsed by now. He took a deep, shuddering breath. “You’re telling me,” He said, “That I met three of the seven original Demons and no one told me?!”“It’s not like the clues weren’t there!” He cackled. “C’mon, nerd. I thought you of all people would figure it out.”Izuku pulled on the roots of his hair. “Do they all go by nicknames?!”“Well,” his laughter died out a bit. “Technically, yeah. Thing is though, those three are the last ones. All the others are dead.” Katsuki hesitated. “Y’know, like legit dead. Perma-dead, if you will.”Izuku didn’t respond at first, still in shock. “I… why didn’t they say anything?”“Eh, I think they just get tired of it, y’know? Even if they’re not in any real position of power, most people still lose their sh@t when they find out who they’re talkin’ to. Can’t blame ‘em for wantin’ to go incognito sometimes, I guess.” He shrugged. “Levi and Bee have been goin’ by those names for centuries. I guess ‘Luke’ was a recent development, though.” Izuku released a strangled noise, pulling his feet into his chest.Katsuki clicked his tongue. “Oh, c’mon. It’s not that big a deal.”“Kacchan, how am I supposed to act next time I see them?!”“Same way you did before.” He told him. “The Originals ain’t anything special, Deku. They’re literally just f@ck@n’ old.”“How can you just say that?”“‘Cuz it’s true!” Katsuki threw his hands up. “Deku, Leviathan regularly hits his head on door frames. At a certain point, it gets kinda hard to justify worshipping him—mostly ‘cuz puttin’ him on a pedestal just leads to him bangin’ his head on even more sh@t.“Beelzebub has no idea what the f@ck is going on most of the time.” He continued. “And half the sh@t in his apartment is edible for no reason. It’s like Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory, but without all the slavery. One time I sat down in a recliner only to find out it was made from cotton candy, somehow. I was sticky for weeks, Deku.“Oh, and Lucifer?” He scoffed. “Don’t even get me started on that f@ck@r.”“What?” Izuku’s brow furrowed. “What’s wrong with him?”“Oh, don’t worry, nerd. You’ll figure it out.”“What does that mean?” “He’ll make it abundantly clear.” He shrugged. “That make you feel better?”“No.”“Good.” He shot back. “It shouldn’t.”
  “Kacchan!” 
Katsuki just laughed, buckling over, clutching his stomach. When he eventually calmed down, he sighed, leaning back against the couch cushions. “Look, nerd. In all seriousness… just don’t worry about it, okay? Those f@ck@rs are weird, but like… weird in the way you’d expect people to be, when they’re that f@ck@n’ old. At a certain point, they just got bored of being normal, I guess.”Izuku frowned, not quite sure what to say to that.“They’re all, like, nice and sh@t, if that’s what you’re worried about.”“No, that’s not…” He sighed and shook his head. “I guess I’ll just… have to get used to it.” He took a sip of his tea.Katsuki hummed, then fell silent. For a minute, neither of them spoke. Eventually, Katsuki cleared his throat.“So…” He began. “The illusion.”Izuku nearly choked on his tea.“Woah, hey. You good?”Izuku coughed a bit, but nodded, still. He was already dreading this conversation.“Wh-What about it?”“I dunno, was just curious.” He shrugged. “Talkin’ about the Originals reminded me you never actually explained how you got out.”Izuku chewed his lip. “Well, I’d tell you, but…”He blinked. “What?”Izuku shifted on the couch, looking away. “You might get mad at me.”He snorted. “Why the hell would I get mad? It was a f@ck@n’ illusion, nerd. What, did ya have to f@ck someone to get out?”“Wh-What?! No, of course not!” Izuku blushed, holding his teacup in front of his face. “Just…” A moment of silence.“Deku. It’s okay.” Katsuki said, his tone even. “I’m not gonna get mad. You wouldn’t be here right now if you hadn’t done whatever you did.”“W-Well, you see…” He began. “It was actually, um, when we were in the Depths.”“Oh?” Katsuki raised an eyebrow. “So what, you had to break a rule?”“I had to break… every rule.”Katsuki’s eyes widened a bit. “You mean—““I stopped walking… and I waited until I couldn’t hear the wind anymore.” As he spoke, his eyes grew even wider. “And when it came, I…”For a long time, Katsuki just stared at him, speechless. Izuku was expecting him to yell. But he didn’t.Instead, he said, “That’s… why did you think I’d be mad at you for that?”“W-Well, because I wasn’t… certain.” He winced. “I didn’t know if it was an illusion. I just kind of… suspected it.”He exhaled. “Deku… look. I shouldn’t need to say this, but I trust your judgement enough to know you probably knew what you were doing.”Izuku’s mind suddenly flooded with images and words of months long past. Of Katsuki in the forest, during the wintertime. “Let’s get one thing straight.” He’d said. “You don’t know what the f@ck you’re doing. You don’t. So if I f@ck@ng tell you to do something, even if you don’t exactly understand it, even if it makes absolutely no f@ck@ng sense to you, if I say it’s important, you do it, and ask questions later. You got that?”He frowned. “I mean… you’ve told me otherwise in the past.”“There’s a thing called personal growth, nerd.” Katsuki scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Like, are you still a naive dweeb with a martyr complex? Yeah. Obviously. But you’re not the same twerp I met in the church last December.”Izuku stared at him for a moment, his cheeks dusted pink. He averted his eyes.“Seriously, though. You...” He said. “Are you, like, good?”“What do you mean?”“Deku… you confronted the f@ck@ng Depths Siren.”Izuku laughed awkwardly. “Y-Yeah, I sure did.”But Katsuki didn’t smile. His expression stayed the same—calm and serious. Izuku sighed. “I try not to think about it. It was just an illusion, anyway.”Katsuki remained silent for a moment. “Illusions can still be traumatizing.” He muttered. “And…” He bit his lip. “Never mind.”Izuku tensed. “What?”“Nothing.”“Kacchan!”“Fine.” He exhaled, exasperated. “There’s just this… legend. Y’know. About the Depths.” He hesitated. “They say that every time you go in, a piece of your spirit gets trapped in there…” He trailed off, then cleared his throat. “It’s not actually true, of course. I mean, I’ve been in there hundreds of times, and I’m still me. But sometimes…” He fell silent.Izuku gulped. “What?”He shrugged. “Sometimes I have dreams about being in the Depths. Compared to other dreams, they’re a lot more… vivid.” He winced. “But I dunno. I feel like it’s the other way around, if anything. You don’t stay in the Depths. It’s more like the Depths stays in you.”He shivered, his body suddenly feeling too cold. He took a sip of his hot tea to compensate. “You mean… Are you trying to say that part of the illusion was real somehow?”Katsuki was quick to shake his head. “Nah. Not real real. ‘Specially since you’ve never actually been to the void depths. But… there’s a lot we don’t understand, y’know?”“I know.”Katsuki sighed. “Look, s’nothin’ to worry about. Just… forget I said anything.”Izuku swallowed, and for a minute, it was silent. He finished off his tea and set it on the coffee table, before reaching for a blanket laid across the back of the couch. He wrapped it around his shoulders as Katsuki was grabbing the remote, turning the TV on. It was clear that neither of them wanted the conversation to continue.That night, Izuku spent his first two hours in bed tossing and turning. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t fall asleep.Well, maybe that wasn’t completely true.Izuku peeled the sheet off his sweat-damp body and turned onto his back. He watched the ceiling fan as it spun up above, the metallic embellishments on the blades occasionally catching flashes of light from outside. He closed his eyes, and the Acolytes stood before him, against the backdrop of a circular library centered around a spiral staircase. 
  “Sir?”
Izuku tensed, and pulled the sheet over his feet.He had gotten up a couple a times throughout the past two hours, and had it not been for the risk of waking Katsuki up, he probably would’ve done so a few more. Not that it had been particularly helpful so far. Izuku turned onto his side with a sigh, looking at Katsuki’s sleeping face. He was on his back, limbs sprawled out in all different directions. His mouth was slightly open, and Izuku could see the way his eyes moved around beneath his eyelids. He was dreaming. Izuku scooted a bit closer, trying not to rock the mattress too much. He curled up in a ball at Katsuki’s side, and closed his eyes again.He knew he was just being paranoid. Two weird dreams wasn’t a pattern; it was a coincidence. Come morning, Izuku would probably wake up wondering why he was ever worried in the first place.That is, if I manage to fall asleep by then, he thought.Frowning, Izuku turned over onto his back again. The sweat had mostly dried, so he pulled the sheet fully over him again, and closed his eyes.It was then that he remembered something—some little piece of trivia he’d picked up somewhere along the line. He couldn’t recall the context he’d heard it in, but someone once told him that if he closed his eyes and stayed still for long enough, he’d fall asleep within fifteen minutes or so. Izuku wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but figured it was worth a try.And so, he took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to release the tension in his muscles, to feel his body sinking into the mattress. Now, he just had to wait.Less than a minute had passed, and Izuku already felt an intense urge to scratch various itches all over his body. He stayed still, and ignored them.After around five minutes, he could see colorful lights flickering beneath his eyelids, and his body began to feel heavy. Izuku watched the colors dance as his limbs gradually grew numb. And that’s when the noises started—little things. Something creaking in the walls, unintelligible whispers, the sound of faint music playing in the distance. And then he was floating, levitating above the bed. He continued to watch the colors writhing in the darkness as his grip on consciousness began to slip. The line between the real world and the dream world became increasingly blurry.Izuku exhaled, and let the dancing lights carry him away.Izuku made no attempt at maintaining awareness as he dreamed. He let himself float from place to place, experiencing event after event. He could never remember where he came from, much less where he was headed, but that was alright, because it was normal. Dreams were supposed to be strange and indistinct. They defied logic, both external and internal. Continuity could not exist without consequences.He was everywhere and nowhere at once, until suddenly, he was somewhere.Izuku opened his eyes to find himself standing at the end of a long, dreary hallway. Light leaked in from a room at the end, where a spiral staircase extended upward, beyond view. Izuku took a step toward it, only to freeze at the sound of someone speaking behind him.“You owe me for this.”Izuku quickly turned around. There, at the end of the dimly lit hall, stood a man. His face was marred by faint wrinkles—the sort Izuku would expect to see on a human in their mid-thirties. His generally youthful features stood at odds with the snow white hair the covered his head, combed back and neatly styled.Even in the low light, he could see the sheen of his luxurious silk robes, wrapping around him in hues of red and gold. Embroidered on the right side of his uniform was the number four, written in Roman numerals.Izuku’s eyes drifted to the side, for a moment focusing on the door just behind him, large and worn, but ornate nonetheless.The man reached for his hand, taking it between his own. “Not that I expect you to remember any of this tomorrow, of course.” He muttered. “Update the quotas as soon as we’re through—before it sets in again. If we keep at it at this rate, I’ll end up just like you.”Izuku felt himself nodding.The man stared at him for a moment, and then sighed. “Alright. Once again… this may sting a bit.” And then it happened. The man’s palms lit up in a burst of pale light, surrounding his hand like a glowing orb. The pain was immediate. Izuku released a strangled cry as he clamored upright in bed. His eyes were open, but he couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t really feel anything at all, apart from the searing pain radiating from his right hand. Heat traveled up from his palm and made his whole body sweat, and as it passed his neck, he could feel it clawing its way down his throat. Izuku buckled over, tears in his eyes as he violently coughed, trying to rid himself of the fire in his lungs, but it only got worse. Tears leaked from his eyes. He could feel his throat swelling up. He wasn’t sure when he’d moved. Wasn’t really able to register the sensation of being carried until he felt his hand being pulled beneath a stream of cool water. It helped cut the burning just enough for him to register parts of his surroundings. He was in the bathroom, leaning against the bathtub. The lights were bright. They hurt his eyes. And at the center of it all was the blurred image of Katsuki’s panicked face. He kept touching him, like he was trying to examine him, but was impeded by his relentless coughing. Izuku closed his eyes as his movements began to make him dizzy. He started to cry for another reason, then, as fear and helplessness set in. He felt the irreconcilable urge to reach down his throat and scratch the inside of his lungs, and the longer he sat there unable to act on it, the more miserable he became. He didn’t want to go out like this. Didn’t want this to be the last thing he ever felt.Izuku registered himself being picked up again, and opened his eyes a crack just in time to catch Katsuki turning the bathroom lights off. He felt a rush of wind, and then they were outside. Streetlights passed them by, flickering on and off overhead as Katsuki sprinted down the sidewalk. He crossed the street, ran through an automatic door. He could hear Katsuki speaking, but the words were buried beneath the ever-present fuzz inside his head. Then he was on his back. Multiple pairs of hands on all sides of a stretcher, wheeling him toward a pair of double doors. They entered a hallway. Someone was talking. He couldn’t hear them. Cool, rectangular lights embedded in a white, tiled ceiling, flashing above him. He winced, turning his head to his right to watch the brick walls pass instead—also white. It was only then that he actually caught a glimpse of his hand.White walls. White noise. White marks, like sprawling tree roots, embedded deep in his skin. Everything was white just before it all went black.
  
  

    
      
        
        
          welcome to the endnotes essayso yeah uh. like i said im in tech interview hell rn so my attention has been really divided. on top of that, i had to spend a lot of time planning the precise details of the ending before i could even start this chapter lmao, so that took a while, but i think i have a much better handle on it now.there are a lot of things in this story i'd probably change if i could, but the serialized nature of fic kinda makes that difficult. so i'll just say right now, if anything feels weird of rushed or like it came out of nowhere,,,, sorry lol. im doin my best. im actually planning to revise the sh@t out of this once im done and maybe print it? idk. dw tho, the original version will stay the same lol.also, we got some OCs here. I mean, kinda. other than setsuko the others are just like. biblical demons whose names attached to some hot immortal guys with fancy powers. We'll see a lot more of them in coming chapters, and the councilmen (who are, in fact, OCs rather than the LoV im sorry i just couldn't do that it felt too on the nose lol). Idk, I know that OCs in fics are kinda one of those things that a lot of people aren't too crazy about but,,, idk, i hope they'll be kind of an exception??? im tryin real hard to make them an exceptionoh also, someone made a wiki for this and i’m???? AAAAAA????? Here's the link, if u feel like looking at it or contributing lmao. and if ur the person who made this, first of all wtf thank you?? and second of all it’d be super cool if u could give me admin privileges just so i can fix a few tiny errors i don’t have the authority to change lol jshdfjdhfanyway, we're getting real close to the end. i actually had to cut this chapter earlier than i intended bc it was getting to a point where it was just too long and i had no idea where it was gonna end lol, so the first 6k words of chapter 18 are finished. hopefully that means it'll be done sooner! anyway, as always, pls comment if u enjoyed this to appease the dopamine overlords thank u'
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
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