Chapter 4: A Guard and A Raven

["You did great, Midori!"]

Izuku was asleep.

["Team Night-Light? It's perfect!"]

But it was a restless one.

["-let's get down to business."]

He tossed and turned, unable to find any comfort.

["Well maybe I don't!"]

Unbeknownst to him, he whimpered.

["Arrest him."]

Stirring between the dreaming and waking world as the morning sun began to shine.

SLAM!

"Good morning!"/"AH!"

Izuku found himself on the floor, heart pounding, drenched in sweat and dust.

Standing at the door, casually leaning against the frame, was the Golden Guard, aptly wearing a golden mask to match the pauldron on his left shoulder, a yellow tunic under a pure white hooded cloak, all of which went along with the white and gold staff in his hand.

"Ready for your big first day, human?"

"Wha-?" Izuku looked around, still a bit dazed from sleep.

"Your ears." The Golden Guard grabbed his ear between his fingers and gave a pull.

Izuku squeaked before slapping away the Guard's hand.

"Gotta say," the Golden Guard continued, "you weren't what I was expecting from someone with no magical ability whatsoever." The Golden Guard did the same holding-chin-thinking gesture, a bit odd looking with the mask. "I mean, even the weakest witch on the Boiling Isles can be whipped into shape with the right training."

Izuku glanced at his backpack, slowly reaching for it as the Golden Guard talked.

thwap!

But the guard had closed the distance in a flash of red, his staff landing where Izuku's hand would have been.

"Ah-ah-ah," the guard teasingly wagged his finger. "I wouldn't pull any tricks if I were you." He grabbed the backpack and slung it on the end of his staff. "Not that you'd be able to anyways, being a human and all."

Izuku knew he should be offended, but at least they did not know he was a Quirkless human, talk about being bottom of the barrel.

"Chop chop!" The guard nonchalantly grabbed Izuku by the wrist and pulled him up to his feet. "I got a strict schedule to stick to!"

"Do I even have a choice?" Izuku muttered as they began walking.

He followed the Golden Guard back through the hallways. The castle was busy, more of guards and scouts marching back and forth to who knows where to do who knows what. It seemed busy to Izuku, but he had no frame of reference as to whether this was the usual level of activity, if this was actually a more relaxed day, or-

"The Covention is coming up, so things are a bit busier." The Golden Guard suddenly spoke as if answering his question.

Izuku sucked in a breath, seeing the guard had turn to him, unable to tell what face he had underneath the mask.

"Not to mention the Day of Unity is coming soon." the Golden Guard continued, putting his arm out to stop Izuku as a group had marched by carrying a rattling crate. "And with it, a true paradise with a place for everyone and everyone in their place!"

"Sounds...great?" Izuku smiled nervously.

"I know right! All according to the Titan's will."

After another minute or so of walking, the Golden Guard occasionally pausing when more scouts were nearby and crossing their path, usually putting Izuku behind him for the moment. The Golden Guard used his staff open the doors, gesturing for Izuku to go in first.

Reluctantly, Izuku did, and gasped at the sight.

"Books!" Izuku shouted, seeing he was in a massive library.

"Shh!" The Golden Guard shushed him.

"Books." Izuku whispered this time.

"Yep! One of my favorite places here at the castle." The Golden Guard set Izuku's backpack down near one of the tables. "With everyone so busy, you should be able to remain undetected."

"Oh yeah," Izuku snapped his fingers. "You said a convention was coming up?"

"Co-ven-tion."

"That's what I said?"

"No its-" the Golden Guard sighed. "It's where all the covens on the Boiling Isles showcase their talents and recruits new members."

"Oh." Izuku nodded, but still had questions. Too many to ask at the moment, all ready to just be blurted out. "Will you be there?" Why that one!?

"No," The Golden Guard shook his head, laying his staff across his shoulders behind his head. "Lilith will be representing the Emperor's Coven. My place is here at the castle."

"And Lilith is-?" Izuku tilted his head.

"The head of the Emperor's Coven."

"I thought that was you? The way you were in charge yesterday."

"Oh well," the Golden Guard let out a little snort as he brushed off the statement. "I could be the head if I wanted to, ooorrr if something terrible happened to Lilith," he chuckled a bit. "But the Titan has big plans for me, and those plans are at the Emperor's side. Speaking of, I do have to go-"

creak

The Golden Guard seemed to freeze and suddenly shove Izuku under the table-

"Wha-hey!"

The double doors had opened, a pair of boots clicked as they walked in.

"-I already said you can't use my cape as your-" an older man's voice spoke and paused. "This is a surprise. You've practically been glued to the Emperor's side since you were promoted."

"Well, you know me." The Golden Guard was leaning against the table somewhat awkwardly, mainly so his legs and cape blocked Izuku from view. "Just can't enough of reading!"

A pause. Izuku found a small opening to peek through. He saw a middle-aged man with darker skin, goopy constantly flowing hair, wearing fine purple clothes, complete with an elegant cape drape dover his shoulder, which served as a perch for a small...animal-like...kid?

"But I am-!"

"Busy as a fire bee, yes yes." The man continued to speak as the small gremlin with him sniffed about, grabbing some books and scrolls from various spots. "Well, I'll get out of your hair. Surely the Emperor's boots need their daily shining soon. Take care, little prince."

Izuku saw the man, and the short animal-like heteromorph, leave, hearing what sounded to be some small sigh.

"Who was that?" Izuku asked as he crawled out from under the table, absentmindedly accepting the Golden Guard's helping hand.

"Headwitches Darius and Eberwolf." The Golden Guard replied. "From the Abomination and Beast Keeping Covens."

"Wait-" Izuku began counting on his fingers. "So, there's the Emperor's Coven, Abomination, Beast Keeping-?"

thud!

On the table, a thick book was dropped, showing nine different rays of light coming from the winged sword and shield emblem in the center.

"The Cardinal Chronicles of the Coven System." The Golden Guard said. "These should provide some essential knowledge of the Boiling Isles while you're here."

"And-" Izuku recalled the portal Miss Eda so casually had. "How long will that be?"

The Golden Guard shrugged.

"Uhhh-"

"I need to get going," the Golden Guard stood at attention, back straight, head up, and staff planted firmly. "Your mission is to remain out of sight until I come to collect you at lunchtime." He gestured with his staff, and it materialized some horrid mixture of a clock and an eyeball set in a disembodied jaw full of sharp teeth. The reptilian slit pupil twisted around until it had almost made a full rotation, leaving the iris mostly green with a quarter of yellow. "Do not speak to anyone, do not cause any trouble, and abandoning your post will be deemed treason, punishable by a long stay at the Conformatorium and petrification." He then threw the eyeball-thing towards Izuku.

"Wha-ah!" Izuku fumbled catching it. "Wait, don't you mean 'or'?"

"No."

slam!

And Izuku was now alone with a bunch of books, the grossest alarm clock to exist, and the threat of death if he tried to escape.

"Great."

Izuku looked at the book on the table. He could read it to pass the time, and he did want to read it cover to cover, taking notes, cross-referencing with all of the other books-wait, focus Izuku! He needed to weigh his options!

"Okay, so I'm trapped in a castle full of powerful people in a strange world also full of deadly monsters, still separated from Luz who is either home or taken hostage by a wanted criminal." Izuku paced as he spoke out loud. "And I still don't have my phone." He sighed, running his hands through his hair. "What would All Might do?"

He thought about it, but the glowing figure of All Might, larger than life and smiling bright, was quickly replaced by the skeletal figure who flat out told him his dreams were impossible and to give up on them. This made Izuku shake his head to recollect his thoughts.

"What about other Pro Heroes? Can't exactly Prominence Burn my way out like Endeavor, I don't have strong legs like Mirko does-" he went to the double doors, looking through the keyhole and seeing more scouts and guards marching around back and forth. "Can't flatten myself like Edgeshot or burst through like Fat Gum or Gang Orca." He found a window. "Definitely can't fly like Hawwwwwww-" Izuku went wide eyed seeing bone-like spikes waiting to impale any unlucky soul who fell into their depths of the steep drop, towering walls encircling the castle, which in turn were dwarfed by even more spikes surrounding thosewalls. "...I'm gonna die here."

What about Luz?

How was she? Was she even still alive? Had Izuku failed to save her? A part of him wanted to trust Miss Eda but another was skeptical to a felon with such a large bounty keeping their word.

Izuku shook his head. If he wanted to save Luz, he needed to save himself first and find a way out of here.

He went to the door again, peeking to make sure the coast was clear before tentatively trying to open them. Thankfully, they did not creak as loudly as they had when the Headwitches were here, but he just needed to open them wide enough to squeeze his backback out, with the weird alarm shoved into it, and then himself before carefully closing the doors.

A couple passed, and when no sudden alarms started sounding followed by two dozen guards to elbow drop him into submission, Izuku silenty fistpumped in victory-

"Yes!"

Well, mostly silently. A scout had noticed him.

"Uhh-" he saluted. "Carry on?"

The guard fistpumped. "Whoo!" And then they left.

A short sigh of relief escaped from him, short lived as Izuku now found himself on his own. No Pro Hero to whisk him away to safety, no friend to share his thoughts with, no mom for comfort, he would even take Kacchan pushing him around if it meant not being alone. But Izuku had no one, armed only with his wits to get him out of this terrifying place.

With notebook in hand, he started to roughly sketch the layout where he had been so far. Some of the entrance, his cell, the library, and the hallway he was still in.

"Alright," Izuku nodded to himself, marking one of the banners with his mangled rainbow bracelet before setting off deeper into the castle, eyes continiously going between his notebook and the path ahead to make sure he was not seen by anyone.

Aside from that first guard.

Hopefully that first guard was not a chatty gossiping type.

He filled up two spreads exploring this one floor of the castle, quickly noting which hallways to look into next, stairs, doors-

"And you just let her get away!?"

Izuku stifled a gasp and hid behind a statue, seeing a woman, about Miss Eda's age if he had to guess, pale and dressed in dark from top to bottom, followed by a guard.

"I tried my best, I swear!" The guard was tall and muscular but was evidently trying to make himself look smaller. "Oh, but she was as beautiful as ever." His voice changed a bit. "The fire in her eyes as she eluded my grasp once again. I just love the thrill of the chase."

'I hate everything he is saying right now,' Izuku thought incredulously before seeing his notebook had fallen to the ground.

"Warden, need I remind you, that is my sister." The woman made a face.

"Ahem-" the guard, er, warden?, cleared his throat. "Of course! I can see the, er, family resemblance! The focus, the power! The, er-" he fidgeted with his hands for a second. "Matching jewelry?"

The woman's scowl deepened.

A pause, Izuku tried to reach for his notebook.

"Lilith, will you-?"

"No." She walked past the warden, and Izuku had to squeeze back into his hiding spot to avoid being seen. "The funds to repair the Conformitorium will be coming out of the next round of paychecks, but I can't keep turning a blind eye to your numerous failures to capture the most dangerous wild witch on the Isles. One more escape and I-"

crinkle

The woman had stepped on Izuku's notebook, accidentally ripping out a page, Izuku's soul cringing seeing the torn edge under her heel.

"Huh?" She picked up both notebook and its lost page, examining them. "What's this?"

'Oh no!' Izuku choked back another gasp but found himself dashing out of his hiding spot. "That's mine-!" And grabbed his notebook out of the woman's hands, much to her own shock. "Sorry-!" And continued running, not stopping until he found another spot to hide.

Gasping for breath, Izuku could feel the cold metal and stone of the necklace against his chest as he held his notebook tightly.

"That was too close!" Izuku whined. He looked at his notebook again, taking a page to make note of those two. "Warden; big, scary, has a thing for chasing women, no luck yet though, thankfully. Lilith, if she's the same one the Golden Guard told me about, she's the head of the Emperor's Coven, so definitely stay out of her way. Has a sister named Edalyn," he erased some of his notes, trying to think of how it was spelled, but paused.

Edalyn...

Was that Miss Eda? By the sound of it, it could be the same woman Luz was most likely with right now. Again, if Miss Eda was good on her word. Now he was even less sure Luz was safe with not only a wanted criminal, but someone who regularly evaded capture. Were wild witches the equivalent of villains here? Did they use their magic for evil?

creak

A heavy door opened.

Izuku looked around the corner, seeing large ornate double doors, and standing in front of them was the Golden Guard. He was silent, his head held down, and his shoulders were low, as if all the confidence he displayed was nowhere to be seen.

Was the Golden Guard...okay?

rattle

"Huh?" Izuku opened his backpack, feeling it shaking. The source was the alarm, the iris mostly yellow now, and a sliver of green.

-reeeee!

And he quickly shoved it back into his backpack and began running again, realizing what this meant. Had hours really gone by so quickly!?

Just his luck, every corner he needed to turn was blocked by a parade of scouts moving crates upon crates of who the heck even knows!

"Come on, come on!" Izuku hopped on his feet as the last of the scouts carrying crates now passed by. "Finally-!" He managed to get through another few intersections before running into the aftermath of a parade having tripped on their way through. "What the-!?" He looked behind him, hoping the Golden Guard was not right behind him. "What are you guys even doing?"

"Moving silverware from one end of the castle to the other!" One scout, whose voice sounded similar to the one who cheered hours ago, answered.

"...Why!?" Izuku's voice cracked.

"We don't question the Emperor's orders." The scout shrugged.

"Steve!" Another scout yelled while picking up some fancy forks. "Get back to work!"

"On it!" The scout, Steve apparently, saluted. "Chin up, lil' guy! We'll get this mess all sorted out soon."

"But I need to get to the library now!"

"Oh, just hop back to that hallway and take a left, then cut through the relic room. Should get you to the library in less than a minute."

"Thank you!" Izuku turned on his heel and started to run.

"No problem!"

Following the instructions, Izuku took the first left turn he was given, almost running into another parade but managed to slip past them. Finding himself in a large room, Izuku slowed down just enough to take mental note of the nine objects sitting on top of their pedestals before booking it once more.

Out of the relic room, and wanting to learn more about them, Izuku realized, or rather was beginning to lose his rational thought in a fit of panic, these hallways looked almost identical to one another.

"It has to be here. Come on, come on-"

slam!

He pressed himself against a wall, seeing a familiar child-sized animal-like being, half of their body seemingly a bushy orange head of hair, skitter out with a scroll in hand, er, paw?

"And I better not see any more teeth marks or slobber on that scroll the next time we need it." The man's voice from earlier, one of the Headwitches!

The other Headwitch, Eberwolf if he had to guess, responded by putting the scroll in their mouth and running off.

Izuku quickly followed, glancing into the room to see the other Headwitch at a large desk, hand to his face as if he was deep in thought, annoyed by something, or some mix of both.

Following the smaller Headwitch had done him some good, but yet another parade cut him off.

Izuku was this close to tearing out his curls!

Thankfully, this one was shorter, and Izuku still managed to catch the small Headwitch's literal tail-end as they slipped between some doors.

Izuku paused, looked around, seeing his mangled rainbow bracelet just where he left it. Relieved he was back where he needed to be, Izuku put the bracelet back on and slowly opened the door, wondering if he could slip by the Headwitch undetected. Though unlikely, if they had animal-like traits. He felt the door push back just the tiniest bit and he followed its movement, squishing himself against the wall again, seeing the Headwitch trot on by.

Peeking out, Izuku saw the Headwitch meet the Golden Guard.

"Oh, hey there Eber-" And the Golden Guard was immediately pounced on. "Wha-hey!"

Taking this opportunity, Izuku was about to head back in when he remembered his mangled rainbow bracelet at the last second, grabbing it and slipping it onto his wrist while throwing his backpack to the nearest table then partly collapsing himself onto the seat while grabbing whatever book was in reach to open it to a random page-

"What even is this!?" Izuku looked at the pages, seeing symbols but was not able to read them. he quickly grabbed the necklace from under his shirt. "I thought you were supposed to help!" He knew a criminal could not be trusted!

creak-slam!-reeee!

Izuku squeaked and the alarm practically jumped out of his backpack. At the door, looking exhausted, stood the Golden Guard.

"H-hey-!" Izuku tried to smile and look casual, kicking away the alarm when it got too close. "How's, uh, how's it...hanging?"

The Golden Guard just looked up.

"Unfortunately, hangings were discontinued since some demons and wild witches can change their shape." The Golden Guard sighed, grabbing the alarm and closing the jaws over the eye to make it shut off.

"Ooohhh." Izuku tried not to sound like he was groaning. "Neat...?"

"Yeah." The Golden Guard walked over, seeing the page Izuku was on. "Oh hey! You are reading it! So? What do you think so far?"

"Oh! Um-! Y'know, just, uh, really interesting read. How can I possibly turn my attention away from, uh-" Izuku glanced at the page hoping for a clue, seeing an icon of a glass bottle with bubbling yellow liquid and what looked like rays of light coming out of the top. "Potions?"

"Oh." The Golden Guard simply said. "Not what I expected-"

"Because you haven't worked a single day in your prodigy life."

"Lilith!?" The Golden Guard seemed surprised, trying to hide Izuku. Seriously, why was he so insistent Izuku not be seen?

"Don't get your perfect little cape in a twist," Lilith traced a circle of pale blue light in the air, and Izuku's seat moved on its own, taking him with it. "I'm just surprised you had time in your busy schedule to find-" she looked at Izuku, straining a smile as she held his face by his chin and cheeks. "This. Promising, bright mind."

The Golden Guard's posture changed, back straight, head up, chest out, using his magic to bring Izuku's seat back towards him. "A bright mind that I was going to personally train."

"Oh, but I know you'll be just as busy with your duties, so as an experienced teacher and head of the Emperor's Coven," like a hot potato, Izuku was once again jerked around. "I'll be taking your little friend here under my wing." She leaned down a bit to meet the Golden Guard's eye level. "You're welcome."

'I can see another bit of family resemblance,' Izuku thought, sensing a condescending tone in Miss Lilith's words.

"I-" The Golden Guard's grip on his staff tighten before loosening, and he shifted his weight to one foot, hand on his hip. "Well, if you insist."

"Glad you see things my way." Miss Lilith seemed proud of herself. "Now run along now, I'm sure the Emperor would like his lunch to be timely."

The Golden Guard just shook his head and made his leave. "Just be sure to properly credit me for finding him. I'm sure the demon Realm will love to hear how you taught a human magic."

'Hey!' Izuku froze. How could he suddenly go from wanting to hide Izuku to just blabbing out the fact he was not even from this dimension!?

"Of course, of cou-wait what!?" Miss Lilith almost squawked, realizing what he said.

"Byyyeee!"

Izuku slowly looked over to Miss Lilith, who was looking at him with equally wide eyes.

"Uh-hehe-" Izuku nervously chuckled, grabbing the book from the table. "So, uh, where do we start?"