This is the first test chapter of what I hope is many chapters to come, inspired by the second ending of season 2, set in the AU.

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter One

The inky skies and dotted stars betrayed that it was night time in Izuku's mind. Behind his closed eyelids, he had somehow travelled to the shallow stream where all of his classmates would gather as kids to play adventure games and hop across the stone steps telling stories.

Strangely, Izuku was unsure of why he decided to come here. He had never fit in with the other boys. He never had, and he never would. Maybe this was because their voices could speak louder and their imaginations stretch wilder? Maybe it was because they could fight stronger and would beat him at wrestling without using even half of their strength, but not holding back despite this to earn everyone there a laugh.

Everyone but him.

If he had any sense, he would have long since stopped running after them only to find himself at the wrong end of their violent taunts.

If it hurt him so badly, one would think he would simply shut himself away and avoid them.

Izuku twisted in his sleep, his stomach burning at the powerful memory of harsh looks, patronising jokes and brutal pranks that often resulted in him being in agony. There definitely wasn't anything fun about these encounters. So why did Izuku run after them and stay every single time?

He didn't know. He had forgotten his reason years ago.

The child was on the verge of losing it, having fallen onto his back in the thick slosh of muddy water for the last time he could tolerate and hearing darkness take over as their laughs contorted into the cackles of wicked carnivorous hyenas, rising up and creating a border that surrounded him.

And then suddenly, the darkness lit up like an explosion, and explosively, a voice screamed out at him loud enough to penetrate the tornado of blackness encircling and hurting him.

"DEKU! You're always holding up the group you lowly slug! Can't your stubby legs move any faster?"

The corner of his sleeping lips curled up at the familiar warmth that settle into his stomach. He relaxed, being snatched up by the palms of an aggressive grasp that clutched too hard on his delicate, infant skin. Despite these words, Izuku had been placed miraculously back on his feet; the boy responsible for rendering the hyena's back into giggling children glowing radiantly as he insulted him for laughs that would have cut through Izuku sharper than any other's insults if it weren't for the fact that they were spoken by the one boy he appreciated it from. The boy who's face he couldn't quite make out...

This wasn't the first time he had appeared in his mind.

His identity was an enigma to him, but somehow he felt as close to him as the soft, stitched green bunny teddy he cradled tightly in his arms every night.

And yet, he was a blur. Some fact were set hard in stone: this boy was the most popular among all their friends, this boy was always looked up to and this boy's existence and words were final in their group as he was the most charismatic reader, the strongest wrestler fastest runner and most prodigious quirk user in maybe the whole school.

When this boy was the one to call his names and hurt him, somehow it wasn't so bad. Upon waking, Izuku often recalled it as ""quite nice in fact."

But like all dreams, the light behind the glowing, spiky, pale hair of the boy eventually became too bright and all he heard was the accosting voice raining down on him.

"YOU'RE HOPELESS DEKU!"

Green eyes peeked open to see the sun streaming in from the whole in the stone building he called a window. He was sitting in his bed, made of the strongest oak he and his mother could find, with a hand stitched blanket (like every other item of cloth in the house) comprised of several old blankets interwoven together.

Unfortunately for him, the suns rays didn't merge into the wild hair of a boy. He was in his room alone, tucked up under his bed that felt as heavy as being buried alive.

He pulled himself up, bunny in his lap staring at the window serenely.

Over time, Izuku began to realise that the boy in his dreams was merely a nonexistent figment of his imagination - someone constructed by his mind as a sort of guardian angel figure, maybe as a way of coping with the harsh treatment of others.

It was far too convenient that, to make up for him being a magic-less, vulnerable freak, he would have a best friend with him protecting him who also happened to be the best at everything and someone with enough authority to stop the others. Yeah right. No such person had ever existed. He hadn't been around back then, and he wasn't around now.

The sad thing wasn't that he probably first created him while being drowned, beaten or abused, but rather, the fact that even in his imagination, a young Izuku couldn't envision a guardian angel character that actually respected him enough to treat him right. In fact, the so called angle probably humiliated him the most.

Izuku sighed in his bed, brushing back his thick jade hair before heading downstairs to make breakfast for his mother.

It was only Izuku and his mother in their vast empty home. They had lived this way for as long as Izuku could remember in a compact village of around fifteen other households. In their close community, there were compulsory jobs assigned to everyone. His neighbour to the left owned a nursery to care for the toddlers and babies so their parents could continue completing their work. He often saw a minimum of ten children being delivered their by their relatives every day.

His neighbours to the right on the other hand owned an elixir shop and pharmacy. He was an old man nearing his 200th year of life, rumoured to be the hybrid offspring of a warlock and an elf (or many other possible variations whispered fearfully by the children) as an explanation for why he had lived for so long.

Izuku used to be afraid of him because the other children told such scary stories. They used to knock on his door and run, but tie Izuku's shoelaces together so when he tried to scatter with them, he fell flat on his face and ended up taking the blame as the creepy old man opened the door and looked down at him.

The old man was a strange one; he often knew the children where coming, and raced out so fast he was flying, leaving the children screaming and sprinting for their life. Izuku was the first to notice however, that if he really wanted to catch them all and turn them into whatever strange potion, he could have done it with ease. With teary seven year old eyes, Izuku noticed as he looked up from the doorstep with grazed knees and aching ankles, that the old man was in fact cackling to himself as he chased them away.

Over time, they ended up becoming friends, strangely enough, and Gran Torino would often patch him up and offer him healing spells so his mother wouldn't find out about the bullying. It was common knowledge that the old man's spells worked not only fast, but well too, as his own impeccable physical state for his age was a visible example.

Between these two busy and vital buildings, there was Izuku and his mother's humble mushroom abode. His mother was a seamstress, but she also accepted jobs for washing clothes, and as for him, he specified as a weapons maker.

It was a hobby of his to look at the fighters and design multiple swords, shields, hammers or other tools inspired by their fighting style, allowing them to choose the ones they desired and put the rest up for sale on his shelf.

Eventually, this shelf grew in number to be an entire shop on its own, so Izuku didn't have to make any new weapons truly. But the truth was, he loved his hobby and couldn't stop because they carried a piece of his heart with them into battle, where Izuku sadly could never go. Visualising himself as the heroic wielder kept him alive, dreaming of facing many adventures other than this simple, boring domesticated quiet life of his.

If only he had been born with the ability to wield magic into a quirk, then their lives would be completely different.

Tragically, the green eyed teen wasn't the only one suffering because of his incompetence. His existence alone was a liability to the village. He and his mother were forced to pay a monthly fine of 50% of their wages, as well as regular taxes, so they wouldn't be forced out of the village.

It was unfair, as they gave just as much to the village as anyone else did, but because of this rule, most of their money was spend on food and work supplies.

All of Izuku's clothes were hand-me-downs assembled from assorted extra material from making finer clothes for others. This he didn't mind, but it was seeing his mother chasing after him so stressed, not creating thick enough winter clothes for herself so he wouldn't be the one struggling to endure it that really irritated him.

As wrong as it was, he couldn't say anything against the leaders, because it would be held against him with ease. After all, he was a quirkless, magicless freak. He could barely be considered a human.

But it wasn't all bad.

If it weren't for his mother and carpentry, he would have become a slave at age 12.

"No meat today...?" Izuku asked absentmindedly as he stared at the plate of baked potatoes and boiled carrots before him.

"Ah, I'm sorry Izuku. I just didn't have time to run to the farm since three new jobs came in today." She kissed his head over dotingly, dishing out extra carrots and even a mini cob of sweet corn hastily onto his plate.

"I'll make an extra juicy steak for you tomorrow to make up for it."

"I-It's fine re-"

"In fact, here," She grabbed some silver from her pocket and slipped it into his. He didn't fail to notice the way her warm hands were scarred with tiny pricks and scratching from hard scrubbing and needlework. "Why don't you run to the farm for me after dinner, you haven't been out the house all day. I'm sure you'll appreciate the break." She smiled.

He smiled back, "What about the store?"

"I'll take care of it and write down the details of anyone who comes in. Okay?"

He nodded in agreement and finished his food quickly, waving goodbye and pulling on his bag. He waved and smiled at the woman waiting at the door for Gran Torino. She was a local nurse for the medical specialist, who came frequently to collect antiseptics and healing potions. She smiled curtly, but her head turned away with haste.

He swallowed. What rumours had been circling about him this time?

Despite it being his first time out of the house in the whole day, the peeking sun was already pink with dusk, dying all the white flower bushes and the chalk coloured pavement stones orange.

He breathed out at the fresh air, not realise how cooped up he had been in his compact little shop room. For anyone else, the highly stacked weapons hanging and gleaming up above their heads would quickly become more distraughting and claustrophobic than fascinating, but for Izuku his shop was a second home to him, comforting and as beautiful as the sparks of sunlight that caught in the reflections of the metal to make the room glimmer brightly.

As his mother had suggested, Izuku took his time. Like his small row of three houses, the rest of the village comprised of several other households that each had some other function built into them like his. Between these buildings were stone pathways, mini forest and many, many hills and turns.

As easy as it would be to follow the path and arrive at the edge of the village in no time, Izuku decided to stray and instead follow the large clear water river running along the outskirts, avoiding everyone he might possibly know with his hands in his pockets and his head down.

Eventually, the boy reached the point where not moving would lead out of the village. His eyes looked up along the path intently, it seemed almost as if the water shined brighter on the other side as it disappeared over the bend into the suspenseful forest shadows. He wondered what it was like there, what animals lurked, where the nearest people lived, if they would treat him as harshly as these people did, or if they would be even worse?

A bird shrieked and dived into the forest, snatching what appeared to be a rodent into it's beak. Izuku was reeled back into his reality, practically scurrying away back into the village, hoping nobody had seen him so close to venturing out towards what may have been a brighter or darker future.

The journey hadn't lasted nearly as long as he'd hoped. He cut his path short, back into the village, back into familiar territory and made his way towards the large looming silhouette of the wooden tower known as the farm. It was in clear sight, raising his hopes at the memory of the kind couple that owned it. He walked over the last bend, only to halt on his heels at the three figures standing outside.

He knew these boys. They were the same boys he had been nursed with, schooled with and raised with his whole life as if they were cousins. Despite this, these were the same boys who had deemed him inferior and treated him worse and worse with every year he grew older and the gap between them wider.

He almost didn't recognise them now, with how tall and strong they had become. They stood in a group in the low light with cigarettes between their teeth and sharp grins directed towards each other. They hadn't seen each other in nearly a year. Izuku cringed, wondering if they would recognise him.

Who was he kidding, unlike them he looked exactly the same. Still just as scrawny and weak as ever. Even his teachers had picked on him when they found out how useless he was at magic studies.

He gritt his teeth. He just had to walk by. He didn't have to say hi. Maybe in the darkeness they wouldn't see him.

He was dragging his feet he struggled by. His heart rate had increased. As much as he could dream of being an adult who kept a straight face and wasn't fazed by bullies, there was still a scared child in him that hated these boys and hated that he would have to see the people who had wronged him countlessly and gotten away with it for the rest of his life in this prison of a village.

Every year he waited for the magical change into a confident adult, and every year he would be disappointed. He wondered if he would still be afraid of them when he turned 16? When he turned 20? When he was a grown man with a family of his own, would he still be cowering away and hiding behind his invisible armour trembling?

He was right beside them now, and they hadn't even glanced in his direction. He smiled to himself, picking up the face and reaching out to the wooden handle of the door.

"Well if it isn't quirkless little Midoriya."

He stopped dead, an arm settling in front of his face, blocking the door with a weight that Izuku couldn't wrestle. He knew better than to try and out run them. Slowly, he turned to face them, seeing that only one of the group had noticed him, and with him, the other two turned to faced him too, grinning at him like entertained animals.

He swallowed. He wasn't wrong when he had spoken of the large gap between them. Somehow, though, standing in the centre of a circle of three the differences were made all too obvious, reminding him who was still frail and boyish in stature, and who had rightfully gained thick necks and muscle mass from all of the training and hard labour of being on the hunting team.

Some of them even had facial hair growing in.

He cringed back and tried to make peace. "I'm not here for any trouble.."

"Then why did you show your face?"

"Where are your flowers asshole? Didn't you bring a gift for Mrs Tanaka?"

He looked up nervously. He hadn't even considered bringing something... he was sure it wasn't a celebration, so maybe it was her birthday and he didn't know.

"Why yould I need a gift?"

All three of them pulled back disgusted, "Did you hear that she was attacked last night."

"Attacked, by what?"

Izuku of course was ignored, even spoken over. "Of course he heard, the whole village knows. I reckon he can't afford a gift thanks to being a quirkless drain of money, so he'd thought he'd play dumb."

"T-that's not true, I swear! I'm going in to see he-"

"Hey, hey," His arm was yanked out from behind him, swinging him back quickly so he found himself running in the opposite direction, away from the house and right into the metal plated chest of one of the other boys.

He clenched his teeth, feeling his nose sting and grow hot with blood drops. "I'm telling the truth, please, I need to see if she's okay."

"And then what?" He was shoved roughly. "Are you gonna take what you want from the store out of her sleeping hands? As if we'd let you do that."

He landed dishevelled into the dusty ground, it took all he had not to bite his lip and cry. Instead of standing, he stayed on his knees to show he wasn't fighting. As if that had ever stopped them.

It had been made clear to him with each year as his treatment grew worse, they they weren't picking on him for his actions, they were picking on him for his existence.

"Ya know, we were hired tonight to stop low lived thieves like you from breaking in while her husband's busy taking care of her."

"No hard feelings Midoriya. We're just doing what we were paid to do."

"This would be your job too if you weren't such a sorry excuse of a magic-less fool."

Izuku gasped and sneezed as first flicker of magic popped on his face, making a loud booming sound that startled his heart nearly to stopping, leaving his wide eyes looking up fearfully. Everyone erupted into laughter, slapping his shoulders roughly at how he had gotten afraid of a simple shock spell. Completely harmless, but used to startle rodents into running towards a trap. He was like one of the rodents.

He felt tears prick his eyes, and lowered his head as he spoke.

"Please... I'm not a thief, I brought money. But I won't even buy it, I just want to see Ms Tanaka and wish her the best."

His hand clenched around his change as they sneered.

Suddenly, the stones on the dirt pieced into his skin. His hand seized in pain, causing him to cry out. It would have been a scream, but Izuku bit into the inside of his cheek so his sounds wouldn't wake up the resting farmers, knowing he was forsaking himself as he did this. The shoe crushing his fist pressed down until his hand was forced flat. He was struck by something hard in the stomach that made him keel over.

When he looked up, his scraps of change had been picked up and tossed into the pocket of somebody else who definitely didn't need it as much as he did.

"Thanks Midoriya, tell your fat mum I appreciate it."

"What's wrong with you!" Midoriya finally snapped, still held down onto the ground by the heel on his back. "I can understand your problem with me, but she never did anything to you. You've been buying your clothes from her your whole life - she stitches your clothes back together when you get back from hunting, why do you have to be so horrible?"

"Well she'd better. That's what she's paid to do." The same voice chuckled nonchalantly.

"If she wanted to be accepted, she shouldn't have given birth to a useless mouth to feed when you can't even hunt for yourself."

Izuku tasted a flash of rubber and flood of metallic blood in his teeth, and then the pain caught up to him as he realised he had been kicked in the mouth.

His blood stained the pavement, his cheek hitting the dirt as he looked up resentfully, earning more cold laughs.

There was no reaching them. Izuku closed his eyes tightly, hating himself all the more for being unable to defend himself or even feed himself. He had tried going vegetarian, but his mother had cried with guilt so much he accepted letting her feed him meat. He had tried appealing to hunt independantly, but he was strongly opposed by not only the council, but the people who cared about him too.

He could never be the sort of son who grew strong and protected his parents. He could never make his parents proud the way every other boy grew to do. In his mother's eyes, he would always be a tragic child in need of protection. Weak. Vulnerable. Delicate. Powerless.

"What's the matter Midoriya, are your legs not working properly, stand up?"

He tried, but was hit on the head again, so hard his teeth chattered.

"Has sitting down all day turned your legs to rubber?"

Izuku pushed himself up again, stopping dead at the familiar burning in his legs that tingled up to his spine. He looked back agahst and saw his body emitting purple sparks. In the place of his legs, there were to flailing, useless rubber strips wiggling uselessly like ocean waves.

He gasped loudly, panicky and afraid, unable to feel his ankles, knees, toes or anything that was once there, stuck on the ground looking up like a fish out of water.

The boys transformed into hyena's again, and he turned into a child trembling on the floor without defence.

"S-stop..!"

"It's just a bit of magic Midoriya, no need to cry!" They joked.

He grit his teeth. Crying would only make it worse, but as hilarious as it was for them, it was terrifyingly foreign to him, and he didn't have the to power to change himself back.

"Want me to change your legs?" The voice was low and daunting, showing false kindness.

"Please," He nodded eagerly, eyes trembling in the low light of the glowing moon above them.

"As you wish."

Izuku felt the burn again, and immediately shot up trying to run. He discovered with great fear that although his legs had changed, they weren't his anymore, they were the legs of hopping buny, scaled up to his size.

He screamed at the sight, plunging forward, losing his balance and grasping onto the first thing he could for support as he tumbled.

It turned out to be the shirt of one of the bullies, who distastefully kicked him in the stomach.

In the next few minutes of jaunts and taunts and horrible pranks, he had become: a half tree, with legs rooted to the ground and branches creepily inching up his torso to consume him bit by bit, a half machine, with two sickeningly thin springs crushing under his weight and leaving him uselessly uncertain of movement, and then finally, a giant brocolli vegetable, horrified as his ex-classmates reached down to his legs and bit into him, tearing off his flesh until terrified screamed were streaming down his face.

He took an uncertain step forward, and knew he was going to fall onto his face again, when his own legs caught him.

He looked down to see through blurry wet eyes in the darkness that his legs were his and human again, all in one piece and comfortably in his shoes.

Izuku didn't stop shaking for several moments, his heart pounding as the cold crept into his bones, making him shiver with shakes and goosebumps.

It had been a simple illusion spell. Well, the last one had anyway, yet here he was, fifteen years old and crying bloody and dirty on the ground like an infant.

"Y-You people are evi-"

"Shut up!"

The hiss that was aimed at him was different. He was elbowed in the chest and sent hurling backwards, intentionally far away from them.

Now that he had stopped crying, and calmed the drum of his heart in his ears, he realised how deadly silent things had gotten. How tense the atmosphere was with the dead of night making his skin crawl.

All three of the bullies had their backs turned to him, hunched forward in a stance that was almost... protective.

His eyes started to water again. But this time, the fear was deeper. It was surreal. Intangible, unrealistic and undoubtedly life threatening.

He followed the boys... no the hunters' gazes up to the very top of the tall wooden farm tower that had become a looming shadow, being faced away from the cloudy moon.

"Is that...?"

"It has to be."

"You think they've come back to finish her off?"

Their voices weren't only far, but quiet too. They sounded grim, so grim that Izuku automatically feared what they were seeing without even knowing what it was.

Straining his ears in the silence, he still couldn't understand their whispers. Their shoulders were tensed nearly into their necks, their fists were drawn and clenched tightly, but their magic wasn't activated. All their heads moved in synchronisation to look up at the steep hills behind the farm where the edge of the village melted into a thick, plush forest even darker now that the sun had said goodbye.

Were they as terrified as he was?

But they were so strong. The quirkless teen couldn't see what they were all fixated on. Could it be the creatures who had hurt Mrs Tanaka the farm owner? Was it back to finish her off like they had said? Surely three of them would be enough.

Izuku glanced back down from the waning moon to the three soldiers who were leaning into each other as if to merge into something bigger and more intimidating, perhaps a technique for hunting ( or maybe just a subconscious expression of their fear.)

Then again, what on earth could have done that with her husband, the head of meat hunters, here with her? They were practically joined at the hip? What could have the strongest magic users in their village who journeyed into the forest to catch food trembling this way?

Izuku was unsure of what reckless part of his mind fuelled him into going forward, but despite knowing that he was magicless, weak and the vulnerable liability everyone declared him to be, he stepped forward on the tips of his leather padded toes and made his way across the hard rocky pathway he had recently been face down on, approaching closer to them until he could just about get a peak over the hi-

It was within a second of him coming into view of the pack of moon white giant wolves standing at the edge of the forest, exuding a brilliant opalescent silver fog around them as he wondered to himself in the silence of his mind if the ghostly creatures were real as they were stiller than the moon itself and standing so perfectly their fur resembled carved marble, one's head moved very slightly in his direction at the detection of his gradual movements forward and tilted back on its hind legs, suddenly jumping forwards like a flash of lightning.

Izuku's first foolish instinct was to whistle and pat his thighs as if communicating with a dog. That idea was blown away quickly and soon replaced with horror.

There was total silence as the wolf descended upon them. It's mouth was open, it's nostrils flared, eyes gleaming, claws outstretched and fangs fatal.

At this distance, it was huge. Far taller than a human. The green eyed boy could only stare up in wonder if he was dreaming, as it's jaws unhinged and a throaty growl of attack shook the earth.

But the hunters were faster. This is what they had been hired for to defend against. They pulled back to put some distance between them, two on the left and one in the centre. The two sides conjured up a thick net. In the centre, his hand outstretched to create a large shield that would catch the wolf and stop its claws embedding into his stomach. Izuku could see the wolf's claws being swallowed as the shield became sticky and pulled his body in (the way the teen himself had been pulled in a few times before), just in time for the net to fall around its fur coat trapping him to the ground like caught prey. He found his body tingling from head to toe with a new found exhilarating thrill of the hunt, and his lips turning up in a smile as his eyes gleamed like polished gems admiring the strength of his fellow villagers.

Excitement and fear alike had his heart racing, pumping blood around to his brain that made his eyes sparkle.

But a voice broke his fantasy, and his delusion shattered around him like a broken mirror. "M-my magic won't work!"

Izuku's lips fell into a gape. It happened in a single moment; one moment the boy's hand was flailing in the air helplessly trying to expel any kind of magic but to no prevail, the next his voice was squealing and the throat of a white beast was around his head, biting down with a sickening snap that rang in his ears horrifically, as blood spurted over the white coat of the beast and pavements in the dark.

The body collapsed lifeless and silent. The fresh scent of blood was released.

Izuku didn't even have time to fall back onto the ground. The boy's friends didn't have time to scream for their loss, as two other wolves fell in from the sides and knocked them together into the centre where the firsts body was collided with their's lifelessly.

He watched as claws impaled their stomachs, agonised cries raining out as their net popped into purple sparks pathetically. It was like the wolves were resistant to magic.

Izuku's legs couldn't move. The boys had become too dependant on magic to have brought any physical weapons with them. But he... his hand clenched around the five inch pocket knife he always carried on his leg (although illegally) for crafting and hunting purposes.

He had tried practicing with his own creations, but if anyone ever saw him with a fighting specialised weapon in his hand, even if it was his own, he could be reported and arrested as he was looked at in contempt by many villagers as someone who might become a danger to those around him thanks to his silly, childish games.

"Midoriya...go get help..!"

A voice sputtered, jerking him back to reality.

"Get he-" The nearest wolf chewed him into silence, his reaching hands falling flat.

Suddenly all the white wolves were looking at him. And they were close as well. Close enough to be on him before he could even blink.

He was sure they were all present in front of his eyes when he felt his world sent spinning at the harsh knocking force on his side.

"Guah!" He coughed out, rolling on the dirt several meeters before being caught in rough hands.

Hands...

Izuku's eyes snapped open, seeing a human boy with the most explosive, sunset eyes glaring at him with his pupils practically in slits.

This wolf... was human. And yet a wolf too as he experienced the agonising sting of sharp claws scraping his skin through his clothes as he was lifted by the shirt off of his feet and held up to the moon.

The boy howled, opening his mouth to reveal cuspids and incisors that weren't quite fangs but looked much more acicular than an ordinary humans.

He drew in sharply to bite Izuku, but the green haired slashed his knife into his lip, drawing blood and kicking him between the legs, until he was dropped on the floor.

The human's howls of pain caught the ears of the others, and suddenly, all inhuman eyes were on him.

He bolted off not a second before they pounced, knowing he couldn't out run them, knowing he couldn't stop and fight them. What were his choices?!

If he went back to the village, the others would come out without their weapons to rely on magic, a replay of what had just happened would encore... if by some miracle he reached home, his mother would be made a target, and as thick as their walls were, they wouldn't keep out such monsters... if he got to Gran Torino he might be saved but by the way things were going now, his body was dripping with sweat and muscles straining with overexertion already, heart in his throat and a heavy monstrous breath itching to taste him at his shoulders already.

At the deafening holler of a wolf right beside his ear signifying a sort of victory that doomed him, Izuku took a risk and stopped running, pushing all his energy into a leap, he bounded into a tree and rebounded right off, landing with his legs either side of the body of the wolf, that as expected had dived forwards for the kill.

He was on the back of a wolf. Not just any wolf, a giant wolf. A glowing wolf. A wolf that could kill humans like him every minute of the day if it wanted to.

Izuku knew he had to play his cards right, he knew the animals had only pounced due to his careless curiosity getting the better of him.

He couldn't afford another mistake.

The other wolves watched him, unsure of whether or not they should pounce. All eyes were fixated on him as they huffed and clicked their tongues, ears up violently for attack. But at this height, his head was well above theirs and he could see them all. It seemed like they were plotting something..

Izuku nearly jumped in realisation. His eyes glanced down for a split second, seeing the wolf below him leaning forwards away from him with its ears flattened in fear.

Unfortunately for him, in that split second taht he took his eyes away, all five of the other wolves darted forward one by one towards him with their claws out.

Izuku dug his nails into the neck of the one below him sharply and yanked his ears back. The wolf pulled back in pain just narrowly avoiding a slash from a paw that flinched, as if not wanting to hurt his own.

Then, he remembered the shock spell they had used on him. Izuku slammed his fist into the wolves nose so hard, his palm caught on a giant fang and cut, but the attack had worked at the wolf burst into a howling frenzy leaning back away from the rest of the pack, it retreated startled until it's back hit a tree.

"Ugh!" Izuku's body shook with the momentum of it, having hoped the one below him would keep running away. But now he was backed into a corner and all around him he heard huffing and growling in anger.

However, as he had planned, they were now in the shelter of a miniature in-village forest terrain.

"Ah..." This was a dangerous game to keep on playing. He was already bleeding, and his beating from his won villagers didn't help.

But at least they were away from the farm now.

Izuku gasped, narrowly avoiding a slash as his frightening observation froze him. The wolf boy wasn't here.

What was worse, the wolf before him tilted it's head upwards so he nearly lost his grip on the fur and howled loudly. His hands instinctively covered his ears, causing him to fall backwards harshly, sliding down as if on a slope towards his painful doom.

In the last moment, he managed to remember his knife and shoved the blade into the tree bark above him, making a jump where he grabbed ahold of the branch which swooped down, but thankfully didn't break with the addition of his weight.

This was a stupid idea, as it left his ankles dangling in front of their mouths. He was just about struggling to pulls his arms up when he felt his arms go weak on reflex, glancing down to see teeth tearing through the muscle on his calf.

"Ah!" His scream could have woken the entire village. But that was the last thing he wanted! Izuku pulled himself up onto thr tree with the last of his strength by some miracle. Grabbing his knife and beginning to climb upwards, one leg dangling behind him uselessly.

He fell forwards on his face, the rough bark scratching him as he turned pale, catching his breath.

He clenched his knife in his palm for support, as though it were a good luck charm and dared to look down at the glowering eyes and teeth below.

They were low on their knees. Likely if they jumped they could swing by him, but the branches would protect him by snagging at their teeth and gums well before they could take a bite out of him. If they weren't giant, they could have climbed in with him.

Izuku thanked the heaven's as his teardrops fell from the branches, reminding him of his height and dripping onto the fur of the beasts below.

If they wanted to, he knew they could knock this tree and him to the ground. But for some reason, they pulled back, turning swiftly with their trickling tails, and sprinting away.

Back where they had came... Back towards their remaining injured wolf boy.

His eyes widened in shock.

What was he doing up here? They were going to the farm, or worse to the rest of the village, and her he was clinging to a tree feeling sorry for his own life?!

He pushed himself up so hard his body burned, the fatigue in his muscles from climbing and pulling and slashing and sprinting finally catching up on him.

He didn't realise there was tears dripping from his eyes as he wiped the blood from his mouth and threw his blade with his arm that felt heavier that the branch carrying his weight, landing it into the spine of the whaling wolf at the back of the pack

"HEY!" He screamed, knowing from his pounding heart and flashing mind that he was about to die. "Where do you think you're going! If you turn your back to me, I'll throw more knives!"

Izuku knew they didn't speak his language, but somehow, he knew the message was conveyed as the blood speckled wolves turned to face him one by one, growling into the night murderously.

Murder. Izuku was about to be murdered to save the people who had always treated him like dirt. Was it for them really, or was it for him? Was this a sick sort of dream come true way to end his life, earn respect and live his dream all in one?

It wasn't important. Because by the time he had thought of his first shred of reasoning against doing it, he had already made his move.

He swallowed hard. He'd always wanted to be a hero anyways. Then down he jumped, away from the dominant height, away from the sheltering branches, and towards a show of heads waiting with their eyes locked on him among the darkness, eyes glaring, teeth snarling and throats groaning with the desire to rip his head right off of his corpse.

One of the hunters opened his eyes slowly, controlling his breathing as he took in the sounds around him, realising that most of the wolves were gone, save for one breathing heavily and rolling on the ground, likely injured about 20 foot away.

He opened his eyes slowly, and saw the hunched up figure of white fur in the distance through his bloody, stained eyes. He coughed up suddenly, his blood spilling on the floor.

The human looked up in apprehension to see if the wolf had heard. The same sounds continued. He was safe.

Tugging his arm free though, he realised that what had been pinning him down was the rib cage of another human, their body rolled onto the floor at his mistake, dripping a puddle of still warm blood over the floor.

"Ah!"

He couldn't hold back his startled gasp. And then there was silence.

The boy dared to look back, squinting helplessly to see a small face appear in the fog of white fluff, and a strange mammal like body crawling towards him in a dog like way, somehow the unknown mystery of a creature being more terrifying and concerning than the real dog.

But that meant it couldn't stop his magic.

His freed hand reached into the blood hastily, scrawling out a symbol as slow growling filled his ears. More blood was spilling from his head every second, making it harder to see.

He wiped his eyes, the blood smearing on his eyes to see the low and cautious gestures of a crawling wolf boy staring him in the face with cold, violent eyes.

Breathing became suddenly more difficult, staring into those endless flame like eyes made him feel so unsure of himself.

But the wolf boy stopped his growling and his gaze softened, he tilted his head almost curiously, allowing the hunter just enough breath to croak out, "Teleport... to hospital"

Somehow, the wolf boy thought of the sound as offensive, as his body suddenly jerked back and he growled ferociously with his jaw parted almost as if he were shouting.

He pounced just a moment off and ended up landing confused in a puddle of blood.

The hunter hit the hospital bed in the centre of the village hard, the nurse around him jumping back and plunging into chaos. But his eyes remained frozen ahead of him, the explosive orange eyes and uncouth fair hair of the feral boy emblazoned into his mind.

Strangely, a name surfaced in his mind that seemed to suit the boy.

"...Katsuki..?"

To be continued...

I'm hoping for this to have a mix of many different genres, so this first being based mainly on action and suspense is just build up for the main story and could perhaps be considered a prologue so it doesn't quite represent the story as a whole.

Anyway, please review and rate and tell me what you thought! Thanks for reading this far :D