Prologue-How did we get here?

*Bang*

A gunshot echoed through the dense forest, shattering the eerie silence. Two men prowled through the trees, their heavy boots crunching against the underbrush.

"Come out, brat! There's no point in hiding," one of the men barked, his voice rough as he brandished a pistol.

"Yeah, once we're done with you, there'll be nothing left to tie this deal to us," the second man sneered, his smirk barely visible in the dim light filtering through the canopy.

Nearby, a 16-year-old boy crouched low, his green hair helping him blend seamlessly into the vibrant foliage. His chest rose and fell in rapid, shallow breaths as he tried to remain undetected.

'Damn it!' Izuku cursed silently, gritting his teeth. I should've never taken that courier job. His mind raced with regret. 'I knew this felt off. Should've trusted my gut.'

A feminine voice chimed in his head, light but dripping with sarcasm. 'Told you so.'

'Yeah, yeah, you win,' Izuku replied internally, rolling his eyes. 'Happy now?'

'Very,' the voice teased, a playful giggle echoing in his mind. 'Now, let's figure out how to get out of this mess.'

'Easier said than done,' Izuku thought bitterly, glancing toward the direction of the men. 'They're too close. If I move now, I'll just get shot.'

'Are you serious?' the boy could feel the deadpan expression the woman in his head was giving him right now. 'Izuku, you have a way to get out of this situation, use it... now.'

Izuku sighed. He really didn't want to, but he couldn't resist her stern, motherly voice. 'All right, here goes nothing,' Izuku thought, and green energy surrounded his body. 'Smokescreen,' he commanded, and in an instant, thick smoke billowed out, engulfing the area in an impenetrable fog.

"What the hell?!" one of the men shouted, his voice sharp with alarm. "Where'd all this smoke come from?"

"I can't see a damn thing!" the other growled, coughing as he fumbled through the dense haze.

Meanwhile, Izuku used the cover to slip away, his glowing green aura fading as he distanced himself from the scene. When he felt safe enough, he collapsed against a tree, sighing as he rubbed his face.

"Damn it," he muttered under his breath, glaring up at the patches of blue sky peeking through the leaves. "Is it too much to ask to be normal? Just once? Even in my second life?"

******

'The beginning after the end.' A phrase many might find poetic or intriguing, but for Izuku Midoriya—now Suzuki—it was his reality.

In his previous life, he had triumphed over All for One, fulfilling his duty as the 9th wielder of One for All. The cost, however, had been steep. His body bore the weight of countless injuries, and by the time the battle was over, he realized his heart had already stopped. The only thing keeping him standing in those final moments was the lingering power of One for All.

Then, after saying his teary goodbye, he closed his eyes, embracing the peace of knowing his fight was over, ready to rest his weary body and soul. Only to open his eyes in an unfamiliar place and in the unfamiliar body of a two-year-old child.

At first, he thought it was a dream, a strange trick of his exhausted mind. Days turned to weeks, and as time passed, reality sank in. This wasn't a dream. He had been reincarnated into a world without superpowers, a world utterly unlike the one he had fought so hard to protect.

******

'Izuku, you are normal,' the woman in his head scolded, her voice firm yet motherly. 'And stop looking at your gift like it's a curse.'

"Easy for you to say," Izuku muttered, crossing his arms. "You don't know what it feels like to be different."

******

Even as he struggled to grasp his new reality, Izuku found a small glimmer of hope in it. He had been given a chance to live a normal life—a life where he wouldn't be bullied for not having a quirk, a life where being different wouldn't make him a target of discrimination. Most of all, it was a life where he could be respected as an ordinary person, free from the crushing burden of saving the world.

But as always, his luck had other plans.

At the tender age of three, his dream of normalcy was shattered. The moment he took his first steps, his scumbag parents saw an opportunity. They began exploiting him for their own gain, forcing him into situations no child should ever have to endure.

Then, when he was six years old, one of those so-called "adventures" turned life-threatening. Deep in the forest, he encountered a wild bear. As the massive beast charged, Izuku froze, thinking that this was the end. But in his desperation, he swung his hand. Green energy crackled to life, swirling around his arm, and with one punch to the bear's gut, it fled.

He was left alone in the forest, his arm shattered and throbbing in pain.

******

'Then accept the fact that you are different,' the woman remarked, her tone dry but understanding. 'After all, how many sixteen-year-olds have a talking ghost inside their head?'

******

The incident with the bear was a turning point for Izuku. He spent three agonizing months with a broken arm and came to a sobering realization: he couldn't keep breaking himself. There was no Recovery Girl in this world to patch him up. Every injury would leave a permanent mark, unlike the life he once knew.

Determined to protect himself and his body, he made a decision: he would train his body, even though he had no intention of using that power at all.

And so, once his cast was off he started training while keeping up with the odd jobs that his parents kept throwing at him.

******

"I know I'm different, it's just..." Izuku murmured, staring at his hands as if they held answers he couldn't grasp. "Sometimes I feel so lonely. I miss my friends... and I can't even make new ones because my parents don't care enough to send me to school."

******

At first, Izuku heeded All Might's old warnings about exploding limbs and kept his training purely physical. For years, he pushed his body without tapping into his quirk. It wasn't until he turned 14 that he dared to train his powers again.

Starting small, just as he had in his old world, Izuku focused on channeling small percentages of energy through his body. By the end of the first year, he had worked his way up to controlling 25% without straining himself.

For once, things seemed to be going smoothly. And then, as always, his luck decided to throw him a curveball.

One fateful night, after finishing yet another miserable job, Izuku sat in his handmade tent, staring at the stars. As he relaxed, a familiar face came to mind—a little white-haired girl who had begged him to come home after the war. The memory hit him like a punch to the gut, guilt swirling through his chest.

'I couldn't even keep my promise to her,' he thought, clenching his fists.

Suddenly, an all-too-familiar sensation slammed into him like a freight train. His eyes widened in shock.

'Denger sense!' he whispered to himself and before he had time to figure out what was going on suddenly multiple strands of black whip emerged from his arms.

He desperately tried to get them under control because if anyone saw him in this state right now, they would either assume he was some kind of eldritch horror or capture him for research.

 And that's when just like an angel he heard a woman's voice in his mind, 'Calm yourself, Izuku,' the woman's voice urged.

"Nana?" Izuku whispered, tears spilling from his eyes.

'Hey, kid,' Nana replied softly. 'We can catch up later. Right now, calm your mind. You know Blackwhip reacts to your emotions, right?'

Izuku nodded, taking slow, deliberate breaths. Bit by bit, the chaos ebbed. The tendrils retracted, leaving him slumped on the ground, utterly drained.

******

'I know it's hard, kid,' Nana said gently, her tone like a mother reassuring her child. 'But just two more years, and you'll be free to live your life however you want.'

******

After the incident, Izuku finally broke down, crying his heart out. For hours, he and Nana talked, and Izuku learned some surprising things.

First, unlike the vestiges he remembered, only Nana's soul had somehow latched onto his, and she'd been conscious since his birth.

Second, Nana had quite the vocabulary when it came to colorful insults, especially when it came to people she despised—namely, his current parents.

And third, to his immense embarrassment, she could block her vision whenever she wanted. Thankfully, she'd been doing so during his more private moments... yeah let's leave it at that.

After that day, his life and training became much easier, since now he had someone to bounce his thoughts off.

Six months later, Izuku unlocked Smokescreen and Float, but that was as far as he got. No matter how much he tried, Fa Jin and Gear Shift eluded him. Eventually, he chalked it up to the fact that neither the 3rd nor the 2nd users seemed particularly fond of him.

Even Nana called them old idiots in support of Izuku which brought a smile to Izuku's face.

And then time went on, leading to the present—where he now found himself running from gang members after yet another job forced on him by his parents.

******

"Yeah... two more years," Izuku muttered to himself, a faint, bittersweet smile tugging at his lips.

******

Yeah, you know the drill... Izuku's luck is going to kick in any second now.

******

Izuku stood up, brushing the dirt off his pants. "Well then, let's head home."

The next moment, everything shifted. He was no longer in the forest. Instead, he found himself floating in a strange void, tightly bound by glowing ropes. A bright red sticker on his chest read, SOLD.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Izuku yelled, wriggling in the restraints.

That's when he realized he wasn't alone.

Hovering nearby was a towering, bald man with two curved yellow horns and an impressive white mustache.

Before Izuku could demand answers, the world changed again. Suddenly, they were flying—yes, flying—over a bizarre, otherworldly terrain.

Izuku's stomach churned with confusion and frustration. "Sir, who are you, and what's going on here?"

The man turned to him and spoke in a deep, rumbling voice. "###########."

"Huh?" Izuku blinked, completely lost.

The man sighed and snapped his fingers. A wave of energy rippled through the air, and suddenly Izuku could understand him perfectly.

"There. Now you should be able to comprehend demon language."

"Wow! How did you do that?" Izuku asked in a fascinated voice. "Do you have a Quirk as well?"

'I-ZU-KU!' Nana's voice practically screeched in his head. 'Focus! He said demon language! Ask what that means!'

"Quirk?" The man raised an eyebrow at the mention of Quirks but brushed the question aside. "Izuku Suzuki," he said, his tone now formal. "You are in the Netherworld, the realm of demons. What I used on you was a simple translation spell that automatically translates whatever you speak in human language and hear in demon language."

"S... spell? As in magic? Real magic?" Izuku stammered, struggling to process.

"Yes, I can use real magic," the man replied with an amused chuckle. "I am a demon, after all."

"Izuku's mouth opened, then closed, his brain lagging behind his situation. "...A demon?" he asked, sounding highly skeptical."

"Indeed!" the man boomed. "I am Sullivan, and Izuku, your parents sold your soul to me." He said it as casually as if he were discussing the weather, punctuating it with a hearty laugh.

As soon as Izuku heard that, his body went limp, and he sighed in defeat. Of course, they would do something like that.

As he wallowed in his misfortune, a massive mansion came into view, towering and extravagant. "What... what is that?" Izuku asked, his curiosity momentarily overtaking his despair.

"That is my mansion," Sullivan replied, his smile curving into a mischievous smirk.

Izuku's eyes narrowed as he began discreetly focusing on One For All in his body, preparing himself to break through the ropes and make his escape using Smokescreen and Float. "So... what are you going to do with me now?"

In an instant, the ropes vanished, and Izuku found himself sitting in a plush, oversized chair. Sullivan leaned down, clasping his hands with a warm, almost grandfatherly grin.

"Won't you be my grandson?"

"Huh?!" 

To be continued...