Chapter 32 - Meeting the Devil

Tweet. Chirp. Caw.

Birds flapped their wings and flew onward to the orange-dyed skies. The clouds moved ever so slowly like enormous ships floating above everything else on the ground.

Just as the sun rose to bathe the world with its warm presence and indicate the start of a new day, a strange duo can be found already awake on the beach somewhere in Musutafu, Japan. One was a sickly old man with skin wrapped around his bones, while another was a lively young boy training hard as his body was covered in sweat and sand.

All around the strange duo, garbage, and trash littered the ground, spoiling the natural beauty of the previously pristine beach that belonged to mother nature's embrace. But, as if they were set out on a grand and selfless adventure to cleanse the world of its filth, the young boy carried the random litter around the beach and created one big pile of trash, all the while training his body along the way to increase his strength and vigor.

"Huff." Izuku wiped the sweat on his forehead and sat on the ground. Each of his breaths was inhaled deeply and roughly, and the oxygen he inhaled helped relieved the tiredness he felt by a bit.

"Mmm." Toshinori Yagi nodded his chin and inspected Izuku's body that has undergone a transformation after more than a week of training. Gone was his pale and thin body that would sway with the wind. Instead, the young boy now looked more solid and athletic, but that still wasn't enough if he wanted to inherit his quirk, One for All.

"Take a quick break for now." Toshinori Yagi grabbed a towel that hung on the broken fridge beside him and threw it at Izuku. "I'll buy some snacks from the convenience store, so enjoy your rest while I'm gone, but be sure to stretch if you don't wanna strain your body too much."

"Thank you, sir." Izuku leaned his back on the broken couch behind him and closed his eyes. While he might have adapted to the intense training after doing it for more than a week already, his body was still not that fit to handle it with ease.

All Might glanced at Izuku's figure for one last time before taking off.

…

"Hey~"

'Hmm?' Izuku's ears twitched as a soft gust of wind tickled the edge of his neck. His eyes squirmed, dispersing the groggy feeling he felt.

As he went to open his eyes, he saw a pair of golden lizard-like irises staring at him, shocking him wide awake from his nap.

"Eek!" Izuku tried to take a step back, but he forgot that he was sitting on the ground and instead banged his back on the couch behind him. A sharp burst of pain greeted him as he took a deep breath with a hiss. "Ouch."

As he rubbed his back, he went to look back at what he just saw and saw the full appearance of the one who whispered in his ear.

He was a young boy around the same age as him wearing a black tracksuit. While he may have a handsome face and a great overall figure, the most captivating thing about him was his golden eyes that seemed to just swallow everything that dared to stare at them. It was as if an almighty dragon was staring down at him and suffocating him with its powerful presence.

Izuku regained his senses and realized what just happened. He felt his blood rush to the top of his head and he blushed profusely, looking away as he felt a mixture of shame, embarrassment, and an unknown emotion that he can't put into words. 'Ahh! That was just too embarrassing!'

'He probably thinks I'm a weirdo now!'

'Why did I react that way?!'

'Wait, I'm shirtless too!' Izuku widened his eyes and hurriedly grabbed his shirt, but his mind was too riled up to properly assess the situation so he just covered his bare upper body than putting it on which would have only taken a few seconds.

"Are you okay?" The boy looked away to respect Izuku's privacy and took a step back to distance himself away from the embarrassed teen.

"I-I'm okay!" Izuku's face turned a deeper shade of red, and his insecure nature started to take over his mind. His breath turned fast and sharp, while his heart beat at a pace akin to an engine. Not only that, but it was as if the sound of his heartbeat was put on speakers and echoed tirelessly in the cavern of his ears.

Da-dump. Da-dump.

'My heart's being so fast. I don't know why!' Izuku's vision blurred as the sound of his heartbeat overlapped with a mirage that drove his mind into chaos.

"Really?" The nameless boy's smile brightened, bringing Izuku out of his stupor and clearing his erratic mind.

"Phew." The unknown boy heaved a sigh of relief. "I thought that your back would get some permanent physical fracture or something, although that is improbable on second thought so it was just needless worries on my part."

"Now that would have been a high price to pay for a little prank I wanted to do." The boy shook his head with a weisenheiming smile.

'Is he disappointed in me?' Izuku wondered with an endless stream of thoughts as his thoughts flared once again in the next moment. 'Or is he disappointed in himself?'

'Who is he anyway?'

"Oh, yeah! I forgot to introduce myself." The boy gasped and slapped his forehead. He turned to look back at Izuku in the eye, captivating his mind once more as he couldn't look away even if he wanted to.

"My name's Ryuji Anwir, or Anwir Ryuji if we go with the Japanese naming system." Ryuji introduced himself with a smile and stretched out his hand for a simple handshake.

'Ryuji Anwir?' Izuku realized that the man in front of him was a foreigner because of the name, but he didn't put too much focus on that and instead extended out his hand to respond to the handshake, albeit his intrinsically socially-inept nature caused him to appear awkward no matter how one view at it.

"Ah, I'm M-Midoriya Izuku!" Izuku shook hands with Ryuji and introduced himself.

"Hehehe, green valley." Ryuji chuckled. "That's a funny name you got there."

"Well, it's not like mine's any better." Ryuji sighed and finished their short handshake.

Izuku averted his gaze away from Ryuji as he felt his heartbeat stabilize and calm down. "U-Um, why are you here, anyway?"

"Why? Well, why are you naked out in public?" Ryuji smirked and pointed at Izuku's naked upper body.

"T-That's because!" Izuku hurriedly realized his mistake and put on his shirt. "That's because I was training!"

"Well, you could have not taken off your clothes, you know." Ryuji approached Izuku, squatted down with a teasing smile, and poked his chest with his index finger.

Izuku's face instantly flushed red and his legs trembled. While he might have been bullied, harassed, and experienced all kinds of bad things in life as a quirkless, this was a first for him. He couldn't put into words the emotions he felt, and his thoughts constantly turned into a jumbled mess the moment Ryuji got closer to him.

Just as he was about to lose consciousness from the sensory overload, Ryuji chuckled with a wide grin. "Look at you acting all meek. Hehehe, you're such a pushover, Izuku-kun."

Ryuji stood up and yawned. He moved his gaze away into the shimmering blue sea in the distance with a grin and stretched his arms out into the sky. "To answer your previous question, I was out on a small jog and saw you napping here on this messy beach. I even thought you were dead for a moment if I didn't see you breathing."

"Why are you training here anyways? You could work out at the public park and do some calisthenics, or maybe go to the gym. From what I see, your training regime here is just inefficient as hell if you wanna maximize your gains." Ryuji pointed at Izuku's body.

"Look at your body, it's such a sore mess. I bet you haven't even taken a proper rest day since you first started working out." Ryuji shook his head, and before Izuku can respond, he clapped his hands and his eyes glowed with a dim golden light.

'Huh?' Izuku gasped as he felt a warm stream of energy coursed through his entire body. Within a few seconds, he could feel the soreness all over his body disappear as if the warmness was cleansing his body of impurities.

…

Toshinori Yagi approached the beach with a bag of snacks in one hand, and another bag in the other. While he might be the greatest hero of Japan in the current era, he was still a bit inexperienced in being a teacher to someone like Izuku.

His previous sidekick, Nighteye, was already quite an experienced hero back then, so his teaching duties were more lax because of that. But this was different.

Izuku Midoriya was going to be his successor, so he needs to give it his all in his teaching if he wants his protege to be the next symbol of peace and keep the world a great place.

Upon arrival at the beach, All Might widened his eyes as he saw a strange young boy had his finger placed inside's Izuku's mouth. Not only that, Izuku's eyes lacked a hint of their original luster, and with his experience, he could immediately determine that it was a symptom that generally meant someone's mind was under some kind of influence due to a quirk that affected the mind.

'I-Is he taking advantage of Izuku?!' All Might hurriedly hid himself, and was silently grateful for his frame being a lot smaller compared to his All Might state. 'No, maybe this is something else. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the situation and jumping to my own conclusions-'

Izuku gasped for his breath as a trickle of white liquid flowed out from his mouth. His whole body squirmed and his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

"Are you feeling good, Izuku-kun?" The boy grinned and pulled back his finger coated in Izuku's saliva.

'NOPE!' All Might straightened his back and tensed his muscles. 'HE'S DEFINITELY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF IZUKU!'

"Do you want more?" Ryuji whispered.

"Yes… please." Izuku gasped for his breath. "Please, don't stop it."

"Hehehe, a certain tyrant and goddess of war used to say the same to me too." Ryuji chuckled. "Unfortunately, I only brought one Nutri-Cube with me today so that's all the free treatment you're going to get from me." Ryuji opened his empty palm and shrugged his shoulders.

Just as he said so, he turned to look behind him and stared All Might right in the eye. In the next moment, he disappeared into a blur and appeared right beside All Might's thin figure.

"Can I help you, sir?" Ryuji leaned forward and asked with a polite smile, shocking the Symbol of Peace at the boy's ridiculous speed.

'He's fast.' All Might assessed and turned to look back at Izuku's body. Then, he realized that Izuku's body has gotten a bit more muscular compared to before, and even the small wound he managed to receive a few days ago was gone.

"What did you do to young Midoriya?" All Might pressed for answers. 'It's good I didn't act immediately and waited for things to calm down. Maybe I was wrong in the end.'

"Oh?" Ryuji's smile turned lecherous in an instant. "What do you think I did?"

"Is it wrong for me to help a young boy release pent-up stress and relieve his worries?" Ryuji licked his lips. His eyes squinted with a heinous glint that just screamed 'I did something bad,' to All Might.

All Might's face remained impassive and serious.

Ryuji's face returned to normal after a while as he chuckled upon realizing his little prank failed. Instead, he straightened his back and answered, "I just used my quirk to help accelerate his body's healing process. I sometimes do that to others in the gym for a little price. You can say it's a natural steroid of sorts."

"I see…" All Might secretly heaved a sigh of relief to learn that the young boy didn't have any harmful intentions, and went towards Izuku to check up on him.

"Are you okay?" All Might inquired while dropping the bag of snacks onto the couch beside Izuku.

"Yeah…" Izuku clenched his fists and felt his body exuding endless vitality."I've never felt this good before."

"Right?" Ryuji butted in from the side. "And that treatment of mine is pretty cheap if I do say so myself. For only a hundred yen, you can feel a euphoria, unlike anything you've ever felt, and accelerate your gains. But you do need to spend an extra 500 yen for a small jar of my Nutri-Cubes that can last you ten sessions."

"Really?" Izuku's eyes beamed like stars in the night sky. "Are you seriously saying that it's that cheap?!"

"Hehe, of course!" Ryuji widened his grin. "After all, if it could help aspiring heroes and veterans get stronger to deal with the darkness of this world, why should I worry about profits and such."

"Now, if you want to gain permanent access to my services, could you please sign this contract?" Ryuji pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper from his pocket and unfurled it with the unique smile of a businessman.

'Should I?'

'Shouldn't I hire some lawyers and make sure that the contract is completely safe?'

'But…'

'But I want more of it right now already! A second without it is driving me nuts!'

Izuku limped closer and stretched out his hand to grab the contract, but Toshinori Yagi hurriedly grabbed Izuku's wrist while also taking the contract.

Ryuji's eyes widened in surprise. "Um…"

"Let me read it first…" All Might paused. "… As his guardian."

"Sure, sure. A guardian or parent should obviously be the one who would sign it in the end." Ryuji's eyes returned to normal as he appeared to have calmed down.

'Hmm, it's just as he said.' All Might read the contents of the contract and carefully browsed through it, but it was indeed a pretty good deal just as the boy said… that was until he read the last part.

'Any addiction or mental disorders gained from constant treatment is a responsibility burdened by the buyer and not the service provider?! This, so is this why Izuku's acting like an addict?!' All Might was about to look up when he felt a hand pat him on the shoulder.

"I know you want that kid to grow up nice and strong, that's why you're training him, right?"

"Don't worry, don't worry, sir. With my service that is provided for a very cheap price, he'll grow up to be nice and strong in only a couple of months. I'm basically a walking natural steroid! Now, come on, just sign the contract and I'll hook the boy up with bleeding-edge bodybuilding technology."

"It's not like addiction couldn't be solved in this day and age. All it takes is a couple of hundred yen to hire an online psychiatrist, then through some quirk magic, his mind's all cha-ching." Ryuji winked at All Might while pushing forward his hand that held a pen.

'This…' All Might shuddered as he came to realize one thing. 'This boy's a devil for money!'

'But…' All Might gritted his teeth. 'He's not wrong!'

'It's just like he said. Therapy services have been turning cheaper and cheaper with the help of specialized quirks that have started to crop up all over the world. Even untrained children can act as better therapists than professionals already!'

"Sigh." He slumped his shoulders and accepted the bitter truth. "Sure, it's cheap anyways."

Grabbing the pen with unwilling hands, Toshinori Yagi signed the contract as Izuku's guardian and closed the deal with the devil.

Ryuji smirked upon witnessing the scene, reminiscing of his past life, 'It's like I'm back in my old psychiatrist days where I'm scamming the hell out of mentally ill children, but this time, my services are actually great. Although it is a bit too cheap, that's a small price to pay to gain more data on the quirk that gave birth to the Symbol of Peace.'

AN: This chapter has 2754 words.

KEKEKE, you thought "Fuck You" was just simple ravings of a gay guy wanting a gay boyfriend?! No, you little stupid cunt with shit for brains! It was goddamn FORESHADOWING! HEHEHEHEHE!

Anyways, I now have the power to write BL whenever I want since Ryuji's a really... morphable character. Basically, he can switch up the way he acts or do stuff with relative ease compared to a character like Dolian who was restricted to his public personality, the righteous, heroic, brave, courageous, brave young boy, Dolian Tatori..

So yeah, I'm back to this fucking shithole of depression where passion dies and insanity grows. Can't wait to write future Arcs because I have some real goofy ideas.

(May 6, 2023 - 527th day of writing)