Chapter 3: Everything Stays But It Still Changes

Izuku just wanted to say a few more words to Luz.

He was not entirely sure what those words were. Another goodbye maybe? Or maybe he wanted to wait with her until her bus came, that way she would not be entirely alone. That was the least he could do, to try and help her smile just a little more through this.

Instead, Izuku noticed she had started to run after something, and followed her. She ran right towards the possibly haunted old house that sat in the woods behind the Noceda home, going right through the door without hesitation.

And just like that, things went from weird to worse.

They tried to run but were caught by a woman who was apparently a criminal, then they were flying through the air, and now they were most definitely being swindled or led to their untimely deaths.

"Come along now, humans."

Izuku could still not believe that somehow, after that woman had given him that necklace, he could understand her and Luz perfectly. Not only that, but when he spoke, even when he tried to speak in Japanese, apparently it came out in perfect English because Luz would respond with absolutely no issue!

But what Izuku did understand was that he and Luz were not in Gravesfield anymore, and wherever this was, they had just stumbled right into someone that local law enforcement did not like.

He looked at Luz, Luz looked back, shrugging and started to follow the woman, Eda The Owl Lady according to that guard. Izuku sighed, seeing that smile on Luz's face that said she was excited about whatever was going to happen.

Still, the Owl Lady had the literal key back to Gravesfield, so they followed.

Through the blood red trees, they walked down a dirt path, lined with equally red grass. Looking up, Izuku could still see what looked like giant rib bones protuding from the ground.

Finally, they arrived at a cottage sitting right next to a cliffside. Two or three stories tall, medieval European style, white and blue, with a moss-covered stone tower behind it, slightly leaning with age. A stained-glass window, made of yellows and reds, was built in the shape of an eye near the very top of the cottage, as if the building itself was keeping watch. A weather vane in the shape of an owl stood at top.

They went up to the door, which had an owl face on it.

'At least she's on brand,' Izuku noted to himself.

"Aren't you worried about the guards?" Luz asked.

"Or, you know, falling into the ocean?" Izuku added.

"Nope!" The Owl Lady gestured with her staff. "My house has a state-of-the-art defense system!"

"Hoot-hoot!" The owl face spoke. "Password, please!"

The Owl Lady poked both of the owl's eyes, which made it yelp.

"No time for that, Hooty." The Owl Lady said. "Just let us in."

"All right, all right! Geez!" The owl door, Hooty, sounded annoyed. "You never wanna have any fun! Ow!" A short pause. "Hoot!"

Hooty's mouth opened wide enough to fit the door and Izuku decided he was going to try very very very hard to not question anything until he could get a moment's rest because how the heck-!?

Izuku saw the door close behind them the same way, hearing Hooty burp.

He turned, trying to see in the slight darkness of the building.

"Welcome to-" snap! "the Owl House!"

With a snap of the Owl Lady's fingers, candles flickered on, the fireplace roared to life as a cauldron began to bubble and stir, and a broom went to work sweeping up the floor. Following the lights revealed an intricate image of an owl engraved on the ceiling, and Izuku could have sworn he heard it make some sort of noise.

"Whoa..." Luz gasped in awe.

"Is this your Quirk?" Izuku looked around. "Making things come to life? Or some form of levitation?"

"Oh I'm quirky alright," The Owl Lady snorted again. "But this, dear children, is bonafide, genuine real-deal magic!" With each word, she snapped her fingers, conjuring a ball of different elements before it exploded into small orbs of light. "This is where I hide away from modern life. And the cops. And ex boyfriends."

'Genuine magic?' Izuku thought in disbelief. Then again, when Quirks first came to be, all sorts of theories were being tossed around, one of course being magic before a scientific explanation had been discovered, that being the presence or lack thereof of an extra toe joint.

But the idea of actual magic?

It would explain why the Owl Lady's abilities were so versatile. Portals, levitation, telekinesis, or was the portal related to that old looking key?

No time to think about that though, they had to get back home before things went from bad to even worse!

"Luz," Izuku pulled her aside and whispered desperately. "We're supposed to be leaving!"

"What?" Luz whispered back. "Oh, come on! We can stay a little while. Plus, she said if we help her, she'll help us get back. And aren't Pro Heroes all about helping others?"

She did have a point, but-! "I mean, yeah-?"

"Great!" Luz did not let him finish. "We'll make this quick! In and out, twenty minutes! Maybe twenty two, who knows? At most it shouldn't be more than a hour."

"Luz-"

"Who dares intrude upon I-!" A looming shadow began to approach, each step rumbling the floor until a...canine...thing...appeared. "The king of demons!"

Luz gasped. "Oh, how cute!"

Wait, did the necklace The Owl Lady give him also translate Luz's Spanish? He was sure he heard Spanish.

"Who's a widdle guy? Is it you? Are you a widdle guy?" Luz was cuddling the creature, or at least trying to.

"Luz!" Izuku could never understand how she could be so brave!

"Eda!" The little guy whined too. "Who are these monsters!?"

The Owl Lady dragged Luz away and Izuku quickly held her back because he still had plenty of reservations about this place.

"This is Luz, and her friend, Midori. They're the humans who agreed to help us with our little situation."

"I agreed to no such thing!" Izuku protested.

"I did!" Luz broke out of his admittedly weak hold. "Wait," oh thank the heavens she finally realized this whole situation was pretty sketchy! "What is this 'little situation' exactly?"

"Just let me expla-" Eda began to move.

"Wait!" Izuku held up his hands to interrupt, even though it was definitely pretty rude. He got in between Luz and the Owl Lady. "Luz, come on! We have to leave!"

"Without helping?" Luz asked back.

"She's a villain!" Izuku gestured to the wanted poster for one trillion whatever the local currency was!

Luz gasped offendedly. "Midoriya Izuku, I am shocked you would judge a book by its cover!" Luz scolded. "What if she's been falsely accused? Or trying to turn her life around?"

"Heh, as if." The Owl Lady rolled her eyes and crossed her arms with a smirk.

'She admits it!' Izuku pointedly gestured to the woman.

Luz was not backing down. "Aren't you even going to give her a chance to explain herself? What if this is super important?"

That could be the case but...

"More important than our promises to our moms?"

Luz paused, her eyes darting around for a moment before she shook her head, looking back at him.

"Fine." Luz threw her hands up. "Miss Eda, can you pretty please let Midori go home?"

"Well," Eda was picking at her ear. "I guess-"

Izuku immediately noticed her wording. "Luz, I'm not leaving without you."

"And I'm not leaving with you." Luz replied, not looking at him.

He gasped. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Luz looked like she wanted to cry. "We barely made this whole trip work in the first place-"

"W-well our schools are so different," Izuku interjected. "Different countries, different languages, even totally different days between us-"

"Is different bad?" Luz's hands squeezed the strap of her bag.

Oh no! "N-no!" Izuku said something wrong! Quick, save it, save it! "J-just, difficult."

Foot, meet mouth. Luz's expression changed.

"Well," Luz said coldly. "If I'm so difficult, why don't you just go home-?"

"I do want to go back home!" Izuku was almost crying as well.

"Y-yeah-" Luz stammered. "W-well maybe, I don't!"

'She's definitely mad!' Izuku instinctively backed up at the intensity of her words. She was not Kacchan in any way, but anyone who can handle wild animals and a crazy mix of fireworks with no fear was not to be trifled with.

"Oh-ho-kay!" The Owl lady stepped between them. "Spicy words are being tossed around," she chuckled a little. "And I do only need one of you to pull off this little heist, sooo-"

The Owl Lady pulled out something from her hair and hoisted Luz over her shoulder as if she weighed nothing. How strong was this old lady!?

"How about this?" The Owl Lady began. "I take Luz for a fun adventure full of dangerous obstacles and near impossible odds where, if we survive, we get honor and glory, while you-" she pressed the object in her hand, the old key with the eye, opening the glowing door from the tent in front of the fireplace, "can either stay in the house and wait for us or go home to whatever boring mundane life you humans have back in your world. Sound fair?"

Izuku looked at Luz, but she was definitely not looking at him.

"Great!" The Owl Lady took their silence as a yes, it seemed. "Hooty, watch the house."

"Still no fun!" Hooty loudly complained.

"I'll explain more on the way," The Owl Lady set Luz on her staff before taking a seat herself, and the little creature, the King of Demons?, hopped into the woman's lap, after some effort of course.

There was a pause, the Owl Lady looking at both of them.

"No sweet goodbyes-?" The Owl Lady asked. "Or whatever it is humans to say to their friends." She waved it off.

Izuku looked at Luz, and this time she looked back.

"I'll see you later, Midori." She sighed.

'Yep, mad.' Izuku could only admit defeat. "Take care, Luz." Izuku hated how his voice sounded small.

Luz flew off with the Owl Lady and her pet...roommate...demon, leaving Izuku in front of the glowing door all by himse-

"Oh boy!" Hooty shouted from the physical door, where Izuku heard a stretching sound. "Finally! Someone new to talk to!"

Suddenly there was Hooty's face right in front of Izuku's, connected to a very long...neck...tube?

"I have lots and lots of stories to tell!" Hooty seemed excited at the thought.

"Uh, sounds good, but," Izuku smiled nervously. "I'm not really in the mood for a story."

"Oh." Hooty looked disappointed but smiled again. "Well, I guess anyone would be upset if they broke up with their girlfriend like that. Yeesh! Talk about awkward. Hoot."

"G-G-GIRLFRIEND!?" Izuku shrieked. "N-no! I-I-It's not like that! Really! Luz and I are just friends! I mean it! I mean I kinda did have bit of a crush on her when she told me she was actually a girl but when I thought about it, it would feel like dating a sibling which is weird! We're just friends!"

"Whatever you say, green bean," Hooty wrapped around his shoulders. "But if you ever need dating advice, you can come to your good ol' Uncle Hooty!"

"Uncle?" Izuku tilted his head.

"I've lived a long time, so I know a thing or two about a thing or a two." Hooty seemed confident.

"Is what the Owl Lady says true?" Izuku immediately asked. "That this place is full of genuine magic? Like-" he stammered and gestured. "Abracadabra? Open-sesame? Hocus pocus? That sort of thing?"

"Hey, watch those words, young man!" Hooty scolded. "Oh wait, humans don't have a bile sac. Do you?" Hooty headbutted Izuku in the chest, knocking the air out of him. "Nope! No bile sac! That means you can't do magic!"

Izuku coughed. "Right." He quickly caught his breath. "But what is magic? Where does it come from? Can you do magic? Is magic different for everyone here? If someone from my side of the portal and someone on this side had a child, would they have a Quirk, magic, only one, or both?" He paused in realization. "Oh, right. I do have to go home. But I don't want to leave Luz behind. She could be in danger! Then again she's not scared of snakes or stuff like that, but we both have weak nerd arms! And, er, no offense, but I kinda don't trust the Owl Lady, I mean, she has a bounty on her for a reason, right? Again, no offense! I just, I-" he stammered and sighed. "I know Luz wasn't exactly excited about going to summer camp, but it's not like this was the one and only time we were ever going to get the chance to hang out. I wanted to attend UA, but now, I'm not so sure about that. I could still get in the General Education course if I want to go to college. I could get a part time job to help pay for future trips, since Pro Heroes only get paid for how many criminals they catch and let's be honest, crime back home is kinda on the low side so that isn't exactly easy. I-"

"Hoothoothoothoothoot-" Hooty breathed out.

Oh...

Izuku felt the slightest bit offended. "I have successfully bored someone to sleep."

Gently, he laid the bird worm thing on the couch, resting him on a pillow, and reached for his pho-

"Wha-?" Izuku patted his pocket. Once. Twice. Thrice. "Wha-WHAT!? My phone!" He patted himself wildly, even digging into his backpack that had somehow managed to survive up until now. "Where's my phone!? Did I drop it!?"

Things were officially going all sorts of wrong!

"Okay-!" Izuku tried not to panic. "Okayokayokay-! Can't call Mom, Luz, or, Mrs. Noceda but that's fine! I'll just, um, wait! Yeah! Why would a villain just leave me home alone with the portal open? She's keeping her word! Or this could be a different portal and it vaporizes me like a Pre-Quirk era sci fi movie? How can I be sure?"

Izuku looked around, seeing a tear in the couch that exposed some stuffing, so he grabbed a piece and threw it through the portal.

And waited.

"I can't tell." Izuku realized and whined. "What am I going to do?"

He ran his hands through his hair. He had to go home, but he did not want to leave Luz here all by herself. Should he just wait? But what if there was a time dilation in effect and days, if not years, had already gone by on the other side of the portal? How long had they been here? A few minutes? No more than an hour, right?

"Okay-!" Izuku smacked his cheeks and took a deep breath. "First thing's first, I'll leave Luz a note-" he took out a blank page from his notebook, writing a short message. "And I'll go look for my phone!" He was now walking out the door, careful with the bird worm's body.

Turning, he found himself looking out into the sea, the sky a dusty pink and blue with yellow fluffy clouds.

"Wow," Izuku gasped a little. "This place isn't that bad actually."

Until a giant leech-looking creature breeched the water, causing a wave to narrowly miss Izuku, revealing the water was in fact boiling as steamhad appeared wherever the water had splashed onto the ground, leaving barren earth.

Izuku blinked.

"Nevermind, this place is horrifying." He turned on his heel and began walking.

Trekking through the blood-red woods was as difficult as any other forested area, which should have been easy considering how often he and Kacchan and Kacchan's hencmen had ventured into nearby woods when they were younger. Then again, after one day in particular, they stopped, and Izuku had not really gone into any area more wooded than a local park ever since. Still, this trek through the woods was a horrible mess of leaves getting caught on everything, mostly in his hair, his face had practically become a magnet for low branches, one such thwap had left him off balanced, making him trip over a large root. He half fell half rolled down a small hill, and into a pile of mud.

"Ow." Izuku picked himself up, wiping the mud from his face when his hand brushed against the necklace Miss Eda had given him. He gasped, recalling its purpose, and seeing it did not break, he tucked it into his shirt for safe keeping.

"Fan out!"

Izuku heard a loud and rough voice shout, instinctively hiding but saw no one. He looked around, peeking from behind a bush to see another group of those masked guards rushing about.

"Remember your callsigns and keep your Oracle stones on you! The Emperor's Coven only takes in the best, so don't slack off!"

"The Emperor's Coven?" Izuku echoed quietly to himself, seeing the guards in formation, breaking off into smaller groups, all marching in sync as they went about what he assumed to be some sort of mission.

squeak

"Huh?" Catching some movement next to him, Izuku turned only to see a large red tulip-like flower sitting atop some thorny vines. "Hm." He looked back to the guards, seeing them tracing circles of light in the air, each with a different effect and his hand was practically itching to take notes.

squeak

More movement next to him, and the large red flower had somehow gotten farther away from him. Izuku turned away again but kept an eye on it. As he suspected, it began to move on its own. Quickly, he grabbed it with both hands. "Gotcha!"

squeak-squeaksqueak!

"What was that?"

"It came from over there!"

The bush he was hiding behind was pulled apart, leaving him in full view of those guards.

"A wild witch!"

"Get them!"

Izuku held the squeaking creature close to his chest and ran. Fireballs flew past him as his feet moved of their own accord. He turned randomly, trying not to go in a circle and get himself surrounded, hopping down into a ditch as another fireball whizzed past him. He held his breath until he heard the rush of boots fade into the other distance the other way.

"That was close." Izuku sighed in relief.

squeak!

He looked at the visibly shaken and physically shaking plant-like creature in his arms. The petal-like parts looked like ears, one upright, the other flopped downward, its arms were vines, and it was trying to wiggle out of his grip.

"Wh-whoa-! Okay-!" He let the creature go. "Okay!" Izuku quickly set it down on the forest floor, seeing it dive into the nearby brush. In the darkness, he saw dozens of glowing eyes up in the trees, all glaring down at him.

A clawed hand, or foot?, reached down, Izuku noticing it had a weirdly shaped hole on the bottom where the small creature quickly jumped into before the rustling of leaves told him the creature, and whatever had snatched it, were long gone, as with the dozens of eyes in the dark.

"Double back! Leave no stone unturned!" The guards were coming this way!

Izuku squeaked himself. He climbed out of the ditch just as the group of guards were back in view. He ran back the way he came, at least he thought it was the right way, hoping he could make it back to the Owl House and see if Hooty really was a defense system like Miss Eda claimed-

thud!-"Oof!"

Falling onto his behind, Izuku looked up, seeing a figure decked out in whites and golds, from the one-winged staff to the hooded robe and the golden mask on their face.

"Hi there!" The golden masked figure cheerfully greeted. "You wouldn't happen to be a wild witch, would you?"

"Uhhhhh..." Izuku stammered. "Nooo?"

"Hmm." The golden masked guard held their chin, leaning down to Izuku and grabbing his hand, turning it over to show his inner wrist. "No coven brand. Are you lying?"

"No?" Izuku squeaked, the guard's voice and mannerisms being eerily familiar, but he could not pinpoint why at the moment.

"You!" The other guards caught up. "Where's your Palisman?"

Izuku looked at the guard with the golden mask and nervously laughed.

"I can explain?"

"Sure you can." The guard with the gold mask stood upright. "Arrest him."

"Ah!" Izuku half screamed half squeaked as he was suddenly shackled, his backpack taken, and thrown to the ground. "Ow."

"Don't worry," the guard with the gold mask picked him up and dusted him off. "A night in the Conformatorium should straighten you out, you wild witch you." The guard patted his cheek. This seemed to make him curious about something, as he grabbed Izuku's chin and turned his head slightly. "What the-?"

"Golden Guard!" A gray masked guard saluted.

The aptly named Golden Guard stood tall and proud, though it seemed he was not much taller than Izuku.

"Good work everyone! We're cutting field training short today-!" The Golden Guard clapped and announced.

"Yay!"/"Yes!"/"Woohoo!" The other guards, er, scouts?, cheered.

"So be sure to study an extra two hours to make up for it!"

"Aw man."/"I hate studying."/"Boo!" They then groaned.

"What about the-?" Another guard tried to ask.

"Back to the castle!" The Golden Guard loudly spoke, Izuku not knowing if he purposefully interrupted, and made some signal with his hand to which the others responded by immediately moving about.

Izuku was helpless, being unceremoniously thrown onto an airship of some kind, one of a few now in the air and flying off, the Golden Guard taking a seat next to him as if this was a casual bus ride.

"Ah!" He even made a satisfied sigh! "Another successful day! Wouldn't you agree?"

Izuku blinked, not knowing what to say.

The Golden Guard shrugged, whistling to himself as he got comfy.

Further inland, Izuku took a guess but was mostly confident in it, there was a castle adorned in many banners all with the same symbol of a golden triangle with a winged sword and shield. Inside, Izuku was met with two tapestries: one depicting people dancing around a large fire, some even shooting flames from their hands. Another showed a figure with a gold horned mask holding up a ball of pure light, as those under him seemed to rejoice.

He was led to a spartan room, only consisting of a barebones bed, a desk, and a window. Strange for a prison cell, but not even having his shackles removed had made his unease go away.

"Here." The Golden Guard tossed Izuku's backpack to him. "You should get some rest."

Izuku said nothing.

"Well...good night!" The Golden Guard left, closing the door behind him, presumably also locking it judging by the sound of metal.

Slowly, tiredly, Izuku sat on the bed, finding it to be dusty and itchy as he tried to settle in. He held his backpack in his arms, clutching it tighter, thinking, or trying to think, of any way he could escape, each thought shot down as he realized a useless Quirkless deku was incredibly outnumbered and even more outmatched. All of his thoughts froze when he saw the friendship bracelets on his wrist, the purple one Luz made perfectly, and the semi-mangled rainbow one he tried to make.

"Goodnight, Luz." He sighed, wondering if she got the fantastical adventure she was looking for to the point of literally escaping into an unknown realm for it.

He hugged his backpack closer, realizing he had no room to talk considering his own actions.

"Goodnight, mom."