Chapter Text
Immortality.
A heavy word with a heavy meaning depending on the context. No, even with poor context, the word carries a weight with it that not many other words do. To be immortal is to be undying. To be forever. To be eternity. To call something immortal is to call it a thing that will experience everything we will know.
The word might get exaggerated sometimes. Some things can be immortal but only if some conditions are met. Take some jellyfish for example. Out there, right now, exists a jellyfish that resets its biological clock, reducing its age so that it may continue living forever.
But it’s not forever. A human can easily kill a jellyfish. A human can easily, accidentally, kill such a jellyfish through pollution or waves shaken by motor engines or oil spills.
So then is it immortal? We still call it that, but that’s because there is a layer to what kind of immortality one has. There’s a few types but they all share the same sentiment.
There is the jellyfish one as mentioned. Immortality by the merit of never-aging, never fading and never growing old. The expiration date that all creatures and civilisations have slowly ticking away does not buckle under the weight of this form of forever. But as mentioned, never-aging does not mean ever-living.
Then we have immortality through memory. To have your name go down in history and to be passed on from tongue to tongue, lips to lips, be it through videos or folk tales or something more. This is less of a physical eternity but a psychological one. For as long as your name persists past your death, you are alive.
But even this is not permanent. One day, the last person who knew the true you will disappear and all will be left are either the ashes of the last human alive or a story so far removed from the truth that it might as well be something else entirely. A long game of Telephone that gets worse and worse with each generation.
That is the one most people fear because there is no truer death than being forgotten.
Now what of true immortality. One that doesn’t get old, or forgotten, or vulnerable. Yes… there is only one true form of an immortal and that is the one who never gets sick, never gets hurt, never goes crazy or braindead or broken or dead. A real eternity that will go on and on until… well, who knows?
The immortal will.
So where is this leading? This talk of always. That is quite simple. For this story tells of one who shall live forever but not without conditions. Much like that jellyfish. But unlike them, this is not about what kills the jellyfish, no. Or if they get killed.
It’s about connection. A fragile one. One that could break at the slightest disagreement. At least until that connection too becomes immortal.
So let’s take a step, just like this young boy is about to do off a building, and find out what it’s like to see forever.
- - -
Izuku knew he wouldn’t last forever. No good things ever do and today was his limit, he finally thinks. If Shakespeare were to see his life, he’d call it a comedy of errors with how much the whole world was out to get him.
No quirk since the age of five. That was the beginning of his soul’s decay. To find out that his dream was so far out of reach despite how desperately he yearned for it. Then came the loss of his childhood friend, who treated him as a nuisance for the crime of being alive. You could call Izuku a masochist, but in the end he doesn’t blame him for what’s about to happen.
No, he could not blame anyone for what he’s about to do. Not his classmates who pushed and pulled him so much that he was coming apart. Not his mother who, despite her love, could never outmatch the hate barreled down onto him. Not even All Might, who to anyone else, had spat in his face when he said he couldn’t be a hero.
Now he was here. The top of this building staring down into a dark alley below. He chose this side because he didn’t want to inconvenience anyone. Even in the end, he was polite. It was how he was raised. Or would you call him meek? Cowardly for taking this method of leaving. That’s what they call it, right? The coward’s way out?
That’s what you call criminals who did this stuff and sure, he’s never committed a sin in his life but let’s face it… he is guilty. Guilty of being different in a world where everyone else was. By being unremarkable not in talent or skill or appearance or even birth. No, he was born without that spark of uniqueness in him.
And in a world where everyone was unique, he was doubly so.
The wind bristled through his hair as he clutched the railing behind him tightly. The sun was out and shining brightly, contrasting just how dark the alley beneath him was. He felt like he was descending into an abyss. It was scary but really, trillions have done it before him, jumped into oblivion, so why doesn’t he?
Well that’s because he had that fear. The fear of disappointment. His mother, bless her, will mourn him. So will the Bakugous (minus one). So he hopes he'll be forgotten. That they’ll shed but one tear for him before moving on. Reduced to an urn or maybe even a photo so everyone was reminded that a life was lost that day.
For statistics sake of course.
…
Izuku drew in a long breath.
So this was it.
He feels at peace right now.
Because what he had to do was simple.
Nothing beyond, nothing for later. Just now.
Just fall.
…
‘Ok.’ he thought, his fingers slipping from the bars. His shoes nestled together just a few feet away from him. It’s important to follow the customs. ‘Let’s go to sleep.’
And he leans and he lets go and… he… falls.
It’s a surreal experience. Having nothing beneath you. To be at the mercy of gravity if only for a precious few seconds before you hit the ground. He might call what’s happening flying but not an ascent, no, he was crashing.
One last time he opened his eyes and stared up at the sky, blue and clear and beautiful. One last time he closed his eyes, hoping the drop was high enough to be instant.
*CRACK*
…
And it was.
…
…
So why haven’t things faded to black?
He was dead, Izuku could tell. He couldn’t feel anything, nor could he reopen his eyes. No, everything just felt like static. Like he was living a dream he couldn’t control or maybe it wasn’t his in the first place.
He thinks he can move. Or maybe just shift where he wishes to go but it was still dark. Was this heaven? Is it hell? Or was Kacchan right and he was about to wake up with a quirk in a whole new body. That would be an insult to injury or maybe he should thank him for the sound advice.
…
‘Ok.’ the boy thought. ‘This is getting boring.’
Indeed it was. This clearly wasn’t him bleeding out on the pavement. If he was he’d definitely be gone by now. There’s no way he’s still alive because if he were he’d feel it. He’d know it.
In this space he continued to move except he couldn’t touch, feel or see where he was going. The empty space continued on forever with no end that he could tell. He hoped it would end soon because if this was forever, maybe he didn’t want to die. Maybe he made a mistake.
An irreversible mistake.
…
That’s when he saw it, or maybe it heard his worries and made itself known. Dead ahead was a flower, sitting still with it’s stems dug deep into the blackness around him. It was unmistakably a spider lily. He’d recognise it anywhere as he received such pretty petals from his classmates as a mockery of the fact he was going to die.
Was this someone mocking him? Was even the afterlife not safe?
He moved towards it and he did. Wherever he was, this space could be shifted and travelled through, so he quickly found his bearings and shot towards the flower. He wasn’t running per say but more hovering to where he needed to go.
Once he got close, he realised some things about this flower. Things that might not be all that ordinary. For one its stem wasn’t a stem. It looked more like vines? No, those were thicker and had leaves and twists of new rope coming off of them. These were thin and less than a fingernail wide.
They were more like wires, spindly and turning and digging into the earth, propping the flower up on a twist of them that looked like the stem he saw from a distance. The roots looked like a spider in its own right once he got near. He’s not scared of spiders like most people were, but he can’t help but feel unsettled by how the ‘legs’ seemingly pulse with something red within.
Something red… that was fading.
This flower did not look healthy, nor happy. Izuku wasn’t sure how he knew that last one but then again he had no clue what was going on at all. Merely letting things flow and allowing what events may come, come.
And so because of that, he can tell more about this flower. Namely, that it was on death’s door. Ironic, really. A flower meaning rebirth and the afterlife was now withering away, soon to die just like he surely had.
‘...’
“What?” Izuku muttered out loud and then became surprised when his voice came from somewhere. He could’ve sworn he heard someone speak.
‘H…’
He glanced around, trying to find out where that noise was because he definitely heard it that time. It sounded like a muffled cough of a dying creature, forced out words trying to convey what they’re trying to say. There was nothing here. Just blank void forever and ever. It was only him and the flower.
“Could it be this flower?” he asked no one in particular, leaning down to look at it better.
‘H…p’
“What?” was he right? Was it indeed this flower speaking to him? “What is it?”
‘Help.’ it forced out this time. A lot clearer than before, but he watched as a few petals broke off its form. Whatever it said, it took a lot of it.
“Help? How?” he asked because it was in his nature to do so. Helping is all he wanted to do.
‘Hold.’ it spoke, more petals fell as it pushed itself to its limit. Closer and closer to death.
“Hold what?” he begged because as much as him being dead meant he shouldn’t care, he still very much did care. Even if he had no clue if this blossom was even talking to him.
‘Me.’
Izuku looked the flower up and down. Hold me? As in the flower? Hold the flower? Or does it want him to hug it? Maybe it wants comfort before it goes.
He leaned down, falling to invisible hands and knees and circled unseen arms around the flower. It didn’t need to ask twice for comfort because all things deserve it, especially as they both grow close to the end.
“This is nice.” he said, feeling himself get more and more heavy as time went on. He can feel himself fading away with every second now. Does this mean he’s moving on? Past whatever this place was? He wondered what it would be like?
The flower wasn’t done with him though. ‘Live?’
“No.” he answered it. “Not anymore. We’re both gone. Going to the other side. I’m sorry.”
God, look at him. Apologising to a flower. He swore Kacchan once made a joke about him that went like that.
‘Live.’ the blossom told him.
“No.” he once again replied with. “We can’t go back. I can’t at the very least. I’m dead and there’s no undoing that. So-”
‘Live.’ it repeated but this time it wasn’t a question or a mere word. It was a command. A wish he was being given.
“We can’t!” he nearly shouted, invisible tears leaving invisible eyes. “I’ve made my choice. I ready to move on.”
‘No.’ the flower denied him forcefully. That’s when he noticed the wirelike stems now holding him back, entangling him as the flower began to regrow and the red inside its vines turned the previously lime stems to a now deep crimson. ‘Live. Long. Happy.’
“What?” he murmured, feeling himself pulled in as he was slowly overtaken, the flower now right up at his face… no, it was looking at him. Seeing him as if it were a person. No… it is. “What are you-”
‘Live. Midoriya Izuku. Live.’ it repeated once more.
Izuku could only stare at it in confusion before vines suddenly stabbed into his eye and wormed their way in through the socket like worms. The boy let out a scream at the sensation. Neither painful or stinging but instead mindrendingly uncomfortable. It felt like legs were worming their way under his skin and twisting out within him.
It was overwhelming, especially as he watched it all go in. The blood red stems had ripped from the ground and were all slipping inside his skull. All through that eye socket and seemingly digging into something deeper within him. Rapidly like rushing rain water it entered and after what felt like too many heartbeats it ended with the flower sinking in last.
His body convulsed and he began to shake, everything feeling like it was being scrubbed within as he twisted and snapped even when he couldn’t see what was going on. There was no pain, just tension as he let out a distressing whine and yelps as he failed to hold control of his body.
‘Live. Live. Live.’ it chanted but this time it was inside. In… his… mind…
‘LIVE!’
…
“Ah!” he screamed.
He could see again. No, everything was back. His hearing, his feeling, his sight. All the senses had returned and not just that but the world did too. He was in that alleyway, the sound of distant cars driving by and the footsteps of people far off from where he was right now.
“I’m… alive?” he uttered in disbelief.
He reached for his head and felt around it. His hair was damp and his school uniform was badly ruffled. Disturbed enough to tell him he did fall but enough to tell him that he was even hurt.
‘Fall…’ Izuku remembered. Did he even fall?
Looking up, he could see the same clear blue sky he saw on the way down, staring at him perhaps just as confused as he was. It was the same building he fell down and it was the same alleyway he was planning to crash into but he was fine. Completely fine.
Actually, he felt good. Like he had this energy in him he hasn’t had in years despite his youth. One that pushed past his usual depression and despair and surged like he had lightning in his veins.
There was life in him. Somehow… how is he not dead?!
‘I guess Kacchan was right. I am useless. I can’t even die right.’ he bemoaned, looking down at himself and checking for anything else.
Standing up he looked at where he was and noticed the pool of blood from where his head was laying. It was thick and full and it pooled around a crack in the ground where some dirt was. He quickly checked the back of his head, it was still wet and slightly dripping. Was he bleeding? Did he need to go to the hospital?
[ No hospitals! ] a rush of voices hit his head, causing him to jump up in a panic.
‘What? Who said that?!’ he jolted in surprise as he spun around to try and find the source of the voice. It felt like it was everywhere at once.
[ Us. ] those same voices replied and he continued looking around before he remembered the flower.
“Is that… you? The spider lily? The one that went into my head?” he asked the space, keeping wary of anyone around in case someone was playing a trick on him.
[ Yes. Us. Flower. ] it acknowledged, voices echoing into nothingness as the boy whipped around to try and find out where it was..
“Ok…” he mouthed because surely he had to be going crazy. He hit his head really hard and now he was hearing voices which doesn’t explain why he’s alive but it does explain why there’s so many things in his head.
[ Home. ] the voices spoke, like he’d somehow understand what it was saying.
“Home?” he repeated, stumbling a bit as he reached for the wall of the alley to rest on. There he was next to a window, the inside boarded up and the glass blurry so he saw his reflection and… and… “Oh my gosh.”
A hand shakily reached up to touch his face. It slowly traced the rim of his nose, slowing as it got to his right eye because it wasn’t there anymore. It was gone and in its place was the same spider lily flower from the dream he had, fluttering in the gentle winds that entered the alleyway.
‘What is that?’ he uttered as he reached towards his own reflection.
[ Us! ] the voices cheered, and he watched as the petals of the flower open and close in an almost ‘blink’.
“You’re real.” Izuku shakily said as he gently stroked the petals. They recoiled a little, not liking being felt almost like the thing was a real eye, sensitive to the touch. “What are you?”
[ Flower. ] was all it said and the greenette had a feeling that was all the answer he was going to get.
The boy continued to stare at himself in the window mirror, checking every other part of his face and everything was indeed normal. At least until he noticed the little things off with his arms, or rather his veins.
Normally, most people’s veins were a bluish purple as blood circulated the body. Not this though. Instead his veins were a deep rouge, the same colour as one's lips or blood. A bit longer he stared at it, getting lost in the way the veins pulsed every few seconds as he noticed he could feel his heartbeat.
And it was beating slow. Izuku wasn’t a doctor nor had much medical training besides what his mother told him in passing as a nurse but his heart rate surely shouldn’t be twenty beats per minute.
“What happened to me?!” he said out loud, feeling over his body and realising a lot of it felt smoother. Any bumps or scratches were gone, pimples popped and healed, inflamed hairs from shaving vanished and even that awkward limp he had after a guy tripped him yesterday was no longer there.
[ Help. ] the blossom stated unhelpfully. [ Fixed. ]
“I’m going crazy.” Izuku surmised, guessing he must've hit his head or something and now he was seeing things and maybe he didn’t even survive, maybe he died and now he was in some kind of purgatory or-
[ Not dead. ] the flower spoke firmly. [ Alive. Living. Breathing. ]
“This is crazy.” he repeated, stumbling back from the mirror and hitting the wall. There he raised his hand and saw it had been cut on some piece of glass and was bleeding. The pain wasn’t there though and instead of blood something even redder came out that almost glowed in the dark.
The wound pulled itself together. Like literally, pulled itself together, the flesh stretching to meet the other side and the cells within conjoining from where they were cut. It wasn’t like healing, it was morphing.
[ Home. ] the blossom repeated in his head, this time a bit more tired than it was earlier. Was this healing taking a toll on them?
“I…” he stuttered but there was no further response and in the mirror, he could see the flower’s petals fold in on itself. Like it was shutting its eyes and going to sleep. He stared at it in awe for a few seconds before he shook his head and realised he was still in some dirty alleyway.
“I need to go home.” he guessed but mostly because he had no clue what to do otherwise. He just jumped off a building, he didn’t plan for anything beyond that so the only thing he could actually do was just… go home.
And so he did. The entire time on his way he kept thinking over what exactly was happening to him and what this flower was. Should he go to the police? The hospital? Is this his quirk?!
[ No hospital. No police. ] the blossom ordered him in a sleepy tired voice.
‘What? Why?’ he questioned internally, shuffling his hair to try and hide the flower when some people looked at him strangely for the blossom in his eye… wait no, that wasn’t him. Why were his arms moving on their own?
[ Bad. Hurt us. Disguise ] the flower explained before entering into a silence once more.
Hurt? Is this thing a villain? Did he have a villain inside his body and now he was unintentionally harboring a fugitive? He heard of some quirks that can hijack bodies and control them, hell he literally met one earlier today when he was heading home from school. That slime monster that said it wanted him as a ‘skin suit’.
Oh, god. Was he a skin suit now?!
[ Annoying. ] the blossom protested wearily.
“Sorry.” he apologised out loud, earning a weird look from the man standing next to him at the traffic lights. He shrunk into himself a bit more. Even though he was better physically, his mind was still a wreck of quiet aches and pains that only grew worse the longer he left them alone.
Maybe sleep would do him some good. Just go home, say hi to mom as if he didn’t just minutes ago expect to never see her again, and sleep in his room. That sounded like a plan. After he gets what the plant requested of course, frankly he didn’t like all this attention on him either.
He got a pair of sunglasses and a face mask. The first one was understableable in order to hide the flower but the mask he didn’t get besides the fact his arms were already moving on their own and he was buying one before he knew it. Did this thing not want anyone to see his face? It doesn’t matter. It’s cheap and he has the cash…
Ahead was a gathering of people, a crowd who, given the explosions sounding out ahead, were probably watching a villain attack. Izuku would check it out too, rubber necking without any fear for his life, but right now he really was feeling it badly and wanted to get home…
Wait…
‘It’s that slime villain!’ he cried internally as he noticed the man in the centre of a shopping mall currently blasting off explosions from whatever poor host he’s gotten. He thought All Might had him handled?! Not just that but…
“Kacchan!” Izuku panicked, seeing the boy in the centre of that fetid ooze’s control. The villain was trying to take him over and if it was anything like how Izuku experienced it, he was slowly being choked to death and was going to die!
“How did he… How did…” he stuttered, trying to remember how All Might could’ve lost a villain and that’s when he remembered the bottle he had him wasn’t with him during their conversation. That meant… it was his fault this was happening. That all these heroes and people were out here, struggling… because of him.
The weight on his shoulders increased and the nagging voice in his head telling him he was a useless creature continued to get louder. His legs felt weak and began to shake as once more he’s proven to be nothing more than a hindrance for everyone else. Useless, quirkless, pointless.
He’s not worth nothing. He’s not worth anything! He’s pointless, pointless, pointless, pointless, pointless, pointless!
“Where’s All Might?” one civilian asked. “Wasn’t he chasing this guy earlier today? Shouldn’t he be right on his tail?”
“Yeah what happened? Did he actually get away?” worried another person.
‘All my fault. All my fault. All my fault. All my-’
[ Quiet! ] the voice of the flower shouted out. [ Too much noise. ]
And suddenly he couldn’t listen. Deafness came to him in an instant and he was left stunned as despite the explosions ringing out just in front of him he couldn’t hear. Like a switch had been turned and he could no longer feel much of anything. Only see.
‘Wha-’
[ No noise. Pointless. ] the blossom complained before entering into that quiet sleep once more.
‘Pointless.’ he repeated in his head, looking up at the ooze villain. Kacchan struggled for his life as the monster grinned with its slimy mouth overlapping his. Something disgusting stirred in his stomach and he felt the urge… the urge to run!
So he ran forward.
Slipping past everyone, even the heroes as he ran towards the danger with reckless abandon. He didn’t care, he had to act, and even when he felt his own legs fight back he powered through them without a care.
No one’s voice reached his deaf ears as he met with the villain, the bulbous yellow eyes staring down at him as he scrambled to claw his friend out of the ooze.
The villain glared at him and without any effort on his part he shifted the ashy blond’s arms so that they were directed at him. Izuku cringed, already awaiting the pain as a blast of light washed over him and launched him back a bit but the agony wasn’t there. He didn’t feel anything… except anger.
[ Annoying… ] the flower growled as Izuku felt something shift beneath his skin. [ Run away! ]
‘I can’t do that! Not when he’s in danger!’ cried the boy in his head, already launching back in to break him free once more.
His fingers became dirtied with dirty green mud as he kept tugging and pulling more out. He didn’t know what was going on behind him but he felt rumbles in the earth as a shadow fell over him. Glancing up he saw a massive piece of metal, ripped from the wall by the villain and slammed it down.
He leapt out of the way just in time, accidentally falling into some fire and feeling the flames scald over painlessly. Once more the blossom grumbled a complaint. [ Pointless. Let it die. ]
“I won’t!” he shouted this time and jumped back in again, ignoring the tug inside his body of something trying to fight back against his advances.
A herald of explosions rang his way, Izuku ducking under and over them from all the times he’s heard dealt with Kacchan in the past. Avoiding one particular blast, he reached for an eye but missed when the villain must’ve noticed what he was doing. As he circled, he got a look at the heroes who were watching him. Just standing there like fools.
‘Why aren’t they acting?!’
[ Fear death. ] the flower answered so easily. [ You too. ]
No, he really doesn’t. Not after today when he had everything crushed. Not after he was told his dreams were pointless and that he’ll never achieve them. Not when he’s given up living because it was better to move onto the next life then continue to suffer in this one.
[ … ] the blossom was silent as it listened to his thoughts.
Izuku didn’t care though as he finally got close enough to reach Kacchan once more. The villain doesn’t have an infinite amount of energy so surely all this grasping and clawing was doing something! As he scrambled for more and more, he could see so clearly the look of fear on the ashy blond’s face, so terrified of what’s going to happen.
His eyes were slowly rolling back, oxygen likely being choked out of him as no doubt he ran out a while ago. If Izuku doesn’t get him out now, he’s going to die and it’ll be all his fault and everything everyone has ever said about him will be right. That he can’t be a hero and he has no business getting his hopes up for anything else good in his life!
A whip of ooze grabbed the boy and hoisted him up by the head. The villain was saying something, an insult or a jeering remark, he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he was clearly taking enjoyment out of this as he began to strangle Izuku, even though he didn't think he needed to breathe anymore.
“Ah!” he cried, clawing at the waste, trying to break free but it was fruitless. He could only watch helplessly as he saw Kacchan’s eyes tear up and his body grow weak.
[ … ]
[ … ]
[ Fine. Reluctantly assist. ] the flower stated.
And then Izuku did something that no one would’ve probably expected anyone to do to the sludge monster, not even the man himself. Suddenly, the boy’s jaws felt gone as the plant assumed control and…
…he bit down on the ooze.
The villain looked at him odd, because as Izuku quickly discovered, he tasted awful. Literal sewer water was now inside his mouth and he didn’t understand what the flower was hoping to achieve by doing this until he saw it.
Red blood started to permeate through the ooze and slink through the viscous liquid like a snake from his mouth. It glowed a gloomy red that almost sounded like a heartbeat as it throbbed in intensity. It shifted through the man’s slimy body and towards his face.
The sludge villain looked confused as he watched it, dropping Izuku as he recoiled back in panic as the blood drew into his eye and began to cause it to roll back. Kacchan was quickly dropped as the blood reached the mouth and soon, the whole man was growing red as inside something bloomed in his body.
Roots and reeds and stems and most of all, flowers. Not like the blossoms, no, these were daisies. Little, blood red daisies that quickly began to surface on top of the man’s skin. Suddenly, Izuku’s hearing returned to find that the villain was screeching in pain so loud you’d think he wasn’t human in the first place.
His ooze body trembled violently as his eyes began to bleed that same glowing red, daisies ripping through the balls and sprouting without care for the host. To the side, people let out their own shocked gasp as the man began to convulse on the ground, violently struggling to expel whatever this was inside him but it had already taken root.
Izuku could only slink back as the man fell to the ground and began vomiting out more but this wasn’t flowers or red, no. The boy quickly held a hand to his mouth in disgust as he witnessed organs fall out of him like stomach acid. Like the daisies within saw them as in their way and was throwing them out like old furniture.
The whole area was silent as everyone watched in horror as the man continued to struggle desperately but anyone with eyes could see he was gone. The vicious and brutal death ending with the ooze ripping, yes ripping, open and out blooming a bouquet of red daisies, glowing against in the mall fires.
He was dead. So fucking dead. There was no way he was still breathing despite all of that. No way in hell.
[ Done. Now home. ] the flower commanded, as if what Izuku just saw wasn’t the most horrific thing in his life and like what many of the people on that street did, he passed out, his wits having surrendered to horror before him.
…
[ Annoying. ] the blossom protested as the boy began to shift and stand up anyway despite the unconsciousness and began to quickly stumble to leave. Some of the heroes tried to stop him so the flower commanded his body to walk into the roaring fires of the mall, using the smoke and intense heat to escape.