Dragon's Pride (Ch 3) (Patreon)

“Hey, Izumi. Mind coming with me? It’s time for your surprise!” My head jerks as I look up at Dad from my spot near the campfire in surprise.

He… he never wants to hang out with me! And he’s the one giving me the surprise!? Stuff like that is practically all Mom! I’m so excited that all the bad thoughts that were filling my head are completely gone!

Sure, the fact that the four of us managed to convince our parents to send us all to the same school next year is a good thing- I’ll finally have friends! But it doesn’t stop the worry that they’ll suddenly stop being my friends when they see how the other kids treat me for being quirkless. Or how the teachers will insist that I’m ‘just not strong enough to play with the other kids’ when they hurt me. Or how they’ll make comments about how I’m less evolved than them, so they shouldn’t expect much from me. Oh, and my favorite is when everyone calls me delusional for wanting to be a hero without a quirk.

I mean, I trust them not to do that enough that I gave each one of them something to show our friendship. Even if it was painful… But the worry is still there. Which the friendship tokens, ironically, made worse as the thought that I’ll never see them again if they decide we’re not friends and don’t go to the school we talked about ricochets in my head.

Which is why I’m so happy that Dad is taking me for a surprise! But as I get up and dust off my pants I’m hit with a realization. “But weren’t we going to tell scary stories around the campfire with Mom? Should we tell her?”

His mouth moves weird for a moment, but then he smiles at me. “Don’t worry, Inko was a bit tired, so she’s taking a nap. But I’m sure she’ll be happy after you get your surprise, so let's go!”

Hmm. He seems a bit nervous, but that just means that it’s a super special surprise, right? So I get up and follow him, though I stumble a bit in the dark since the sun just set and the moon hasn’t come out yet. Why didn’t Dad bring a flashlight? I ask, but he just tells me that it would ruin the surprise, making me even more curious!

I’m pretty sure that it only takes like ten minutes of walking, but with me stumbling every few steps and Dad not slowing down it feels like longer. But when we stop I’m surprised that I can see just a little better, but the moon isn’t up yet? It’s weird, but it’s like the ground in front of us has the faintest glow. But before I can ask or look deeper at it, Dad starts talking, drawing my attention.

“Izumi.” He pauses and I nod to show that I’m paying attention like a good girl. “You know that quirks are important. They’re practically a status symbol! Just like being a hero is a symbol, or being rich is a symbol. The point is, they’re not just important, they’re vital. Do you understand?”

I was excited when we were walking over here, but now I’m sad. The longer he talks the lower my head has gone, until my hair is completely covering my face and all I can see is the dirt under my feet. I nod to answer his question, but apparently that’s not enough so I say it, my voice quiet. “Yes Dad.”

He pauses again, and I can’t help but wonder what expression he has. Is he angry that I’m not looking at him? Disappointed that I don’t have a quirk, a ‘status symbol’ as he calls it? That I’m not normal? For a brief moment, I even wonder if he even loves me before forcefully throwing the thought away.

If he didn’t love me, then he wouldn’t be giving me a surprise! So he does love me! And I’m sure the surprise will show just how much!

I feel him put his hand on my head, scratching it. I let the soothing feeling wash over me, leaning into his hand. I let it relax me so much that I almost don’t hear him speaking. But I do. And I freeze.

“It’s good that you understand, Izumi. But that means that you understand just what kind of symbol it is to have a quirkless child in the family. The way people look at us, like we’re cursed. The way people will move across the street so they don’t get ‘the curse’ of having their child be born quirkless, just because they were near us!”

I feel his hand tremble, and now I’m starting to feel afraid. But I don’t pull away. Not yet. He’s my dad. There’s no way he’d hurt me. If he did, he wouldn’t be my dad! Right?

But as his hand tightens, grabbing a clump of my hair in his fist, I can’t help the bit of doubt that shoots through my mind. “Having a quirkless child is a symbol of bad luck. Or a curse, according to everyone. And given that my boss at work passed me over for a promotion I fucking earned because of my ‘family situation,” his voice is filled with anger, and I finally start trying to pull my head away. “I’m inclined to agree.”

He takes a shaky breath, and I’m starting to panic now because he’s not letting go, and my hair is being pulled tight and it hurts. Then he places his hand on my shoulder, and my blood runs cold at his next words.

“So, Izumi. What do you do with a symbol that does nothing but hurt their family? You get rid of it.” He pushes me, and I stumble. My foot catches on nothing, and I fall back with a yelp that turns into a scream as the hand holding my hair doesn’t let go.

I can feel my hair being pulled out, pieces of my scalp coming with some of them as blood rapidly starts to get absorbed by what’s still there. I desperately reach out an arm and manage to grab hold of the ledge, and when I look down I finally see where the light was coming from.

We were standing on the rim of the volcano. And now I’m dangling by one hand above the pool of lava far, far below me. I swallow as I look back up, feeling my tears flood out as I see Dad’s rage-filled face above me.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You can’t even die right!”

He raises his foot to stomp on my hand, and I say the first thing I can think of to try and get him to stop. Maybe… maybe this is all a joke? Yeah! Like Bakugou likes to do! He’s mean and yells ‘die’ a lot, but he wouldn’t seriously try to kill someone. Dad must be doing a prank like that! And what I say is sure to get him to stop, to laugh it off and apologize for scaring me so much, then we’ll go back to the campfire and Mom will scold him for going too far. We’ll have smores and go to sleep, and tomorrow I’ll tell my friends about it.

They’ll get so mad that we’ll make our own plans to prank dad back! We’ll have tons of fun, and they’ll even get their families to join in! We’ll plan the biggest prank ever to get dad to understand that jokes like this aren’t funny. All I have to do is say the words.

“What will Mom think if you do this!?” I shout, and he stops. My tears of fear turn into tears of relief, relief that this is all a bad, mean joke. But he smiles at me. For the first time since I turned four, since I was diagnosed quirkless, he smiles at me. But it’s not a good smile. It makes me afraid, more afraid than I thought I could feel while already hanging over a volcano. When he speaks, my tears stop. My brain stops. I barely feel it as he brings his foot down on my hand. The sensation of my fingers breaking, of falling, is a distant thing. All that I know, is what he said.

“Who’s idea do you think it was to come on this trip? Surprise, Izumi!”

I fall.

I land in the lava.

`~`

.

..

…

It’s weird. You’d think that lava would be hot. Or even warm. But all I feel is cold as his words echo in my head.

Surprise, Izumi!

It repeats, the horrible smile. How happy he looked while I was falling. The feeling of my heart breaking.

But for some reason, I’m not dead. At least, I don’t think I am. Can you think, if you’re dead? Well, with the way my mind is right now, I guess I could be in hell. Am I in hell? I don’t think I did anything that would cause me to go to hell.

But I’m quirkless. Or, was quirkless. If I’m dead.

Maybe heaven is the same as earth, and they don’t like quirkless people? That would make sense. It would be why Bakugou is constantly praised by the adults despite being so mean to everyone. Why he can become a hero when he doesn’t act like one.

Despite lava supposedly being hot, I’m cold.

`~`

I’m not sure how long I’ve been down here, but it can’t be that long. Unless you don’t have to eat in hell? But if it is hell, it’s pretty boring. Then again, hell is all about punishment. And wondering if I ever really had anyone care about me is certainly a punishment.

Rise.

Oh, and the voice. It’s not really a voice though, more of a weird feeling. It started a bit ago and hasn’t really stopped. But I’ve just been ignoring it. Why would it even matter? Quirkless don’t matter.

RISE!

It’s been getting kind of loud though. I’m starting to get annoyed with it. I wish it would just let me be dead in-

RISE AND CLAIM YOUR RIGHT!

It startles me, and I jerk as the feeling fills me. Suddenly I can feel again, and the cold is gone. I’m warm! But there’s also pressure. I frown as I push back against it. But not with my arms, but with…something else. A different feeling. Before I can identify it, I’m suddenly moving, as though through a thick pile of snow. But without actually walking like I would to get through the snow. It's weird, but also natural?

I just give in to the feeling, and eventually my head breaks past something and I realize I need to breathe. I take in a deep, shuddering breath of air, blinking something orange and glowing out of my eyes as I look around. I’m surprised, my mouth hanging open as I see that I’m in a pool of lava!

I raise my hand to rub at my eyes, to make sure that I’m seeing things right, only to stop and stare at it. It’s… different. Instead of my pale, normal hand, it’s instead covered in green scales and tipped with pale, bone-like claws. It’s not my whole hand though, barely reaching past the second knuckles on each of my fingers.

I don’t know what happened, but I know what it means. I have a qui-

The thought suddenly stops, and I’m hit by a sense of wrongness. Like I was about to do something I know is disgusting, but didn’t realize exactly what I was doing. It’s startling how suddenly it appears then disappears. But I shake my head to get rid of the phantom feeling of it.

It doesn’t matter. I can go see them! I’m not worthless now! They’ll take me-

DRAGONS STAND ABOVE ALL!

The thought of…them acting as my parents makes me physically ill, and I have to work to hold back from throwing up. With how weird the lava is acting with me, it would be just my luck for my vomit to float or something and drift into me. But despite the visceral reaction, I can’t help but agree with the feeling.

They threw me away. They literally threw me away! They tried to kill me! There’s absolutely no fucking way I’m going back! Why would I even think that!? No, I’ll survive on my own. I already know how difficult the world is, so I know it won’t be simple or easy. But I have power now. “I won’t be pushed around anymore.”

A different feeling builds up inside me as I make my declaration, one I don’t fight against. I throw my head back and let my voice loose.

I roar, telling the world that I AM HERE.

And I’m here to stay.

`~`

In this world, eighty percent of the population have a super power known as a quirk. The remaining twenty percent of humanity lacks these powers, which have become so commonplace as to be considered the new normal.

But there is one more statistic that is so low, it cannot even be considered part of the equation. It’s a phenomenon so rare, so mysterious, that there have been only seven recorded instances of it across all of history, across the entire world.

These beings, referred to by the various governments who do their best to keep their existences hidden behind the excuses of natural disasters, or gigantified monster quirks, stand atop the world’s power hierarchy. These beings are known as dragons.

And I, Izumi, will cast aside my family name as the eighth. The color of my scales announce my title.

I am the Emerald Dragon.

And I will never be weak again.