The Forest's Child

The New Dawn

The sun rose high above the branches of the woods. Midoriya - no, 𝘐𝘻𝘶𝘬𝘶 - was fighting back a yawn while he stretched his arms above his head. After several hours of scouting the area, he managed to find a cliff which had a natural sort of cave underneath. The cave itself was spacious - the entrance was barely tall enough for him to walk through without bending his head down. By now, Izuku was blinking back some tears which ALWAYS came when you wake up. He managed to crawl onto his feet and stumbled towards the entrance. While doing so, he looked back at the dark cave. Izuku was going to have to find some sort of way to light it up, didn't he?

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"That seems safe... I think."

Right now, Izuku was having a mental debate over a pear-looking thing hanging from a nearby tree. Scratch that, there were a lot and I mean a lot, of pear things hanging from the tree. He watched as a deer quickly went over to grab one and pranced away. Izuku narrowed his eyes and bit the bottom of his lip.

"So that is safe?" he wondered aloud. He walked over to the tree and twisted off a pear. He examined at it from a couple of angles before biting down on it. Immediately, there was a loud crunch and juices dribbled down his chin. He chewed up the remaining pear (concerningly quickly he might add) and smiled a toothy grin. He still had the food that his mother packed him, it was just that he was making sure that when he would run low on supplies, he would know where there would be food. Right now, he found a perfect food source. Now, he might have to find a few more fruit trees, just in case the fruit on here didn't suffice. In the end, he found a persimmon tree, a few plum trees, and a tangerine tree while finding a river in the process. It was quite a successful day if Izuku did say it himself.

As the night slowly fell, he crawled back into his cave when he realized he could make a small fire. He facepalmed himself [because even four-year-olds knew that lol] and shrugged his shoulders. His feet were too tired to go and gather some sticks. He laid down on the soft but compact dirt floor and put his head on his arms. Trying to fall asleep, he looked around his new settlement. His bag was in one of the farther corners of the cave and he decided to grab his All Might toy. After reaching it, he hugged it into his arms, the only thing constant in his new life. His money was useless here but at least he had some clothes to go off on. They were also quite large on him, so they could probably last a couple of years, or so.

Taking a pencil out his bag, he grabbed a notebook and looked down at the blank pages. He slowly put his pencil on the paper and wrote:

𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘺,

𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 10/23/20𝘟𝘟. 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘋𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘮𝘦. 𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦? 𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦?

𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳.

𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮, 𝘐𝘻𝘶𝘬𝘶

Izuku sighed and put down his pencil and stuffed his notebook back into his bag. He didn't want to waste the precious pages he had. Curling up, he snuggled with his toy in his arms and the bag to his back. He would find a way to survive. Like Kacchan said. He would keep fighting. Yeah, and maybe he'll see Kacchan.

P̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶l̶y̶.̶

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One year later...

Izuku was carefully hugging a bird. He had made some 'upgrades' to his home. He had some leaves on the floor like a carpet or bedding, a fire in the middle (he made sure the leaves didn't go NEAR it), and some fruit gathered from his local sources. Izuku also gained a new companion, the bird he was holding. The bird in question was a hatchling, no more than a few weeks old. Izuku had found the tiny hatchling in an empty nest. It reminded him of himself.

A̶b̶a̶n̶d̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶.̶

So, Izuku took it upon himself to care for the tiny bird. He had named it 'Asuka', meaning 'to fly' and 'bird'. He didn't know whether the name Asuka was feminine or masculine and he didn't care. It seemed good enough so it was enough [he's five, chill].

This year's birthday was the first birthday he was alone, the first birthday his mom was not present for. He frowned at the realization that his father was never there for him, never. Not even on his birthday. Izuku kicked a nearby rock in annoyance.

That, that 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵 [really Izuku?] didn't even deserve Mommy! What did Mommy see in him!

Izuku slowed down his pace and sat down on a large rock to take a rest. He pulled out a small persimmon and chewed on it. He also took two small but long twigs and looked around the forest floor. Finding what he wanted, he picked up a wiggling hairy catepillar and brought it to Asuka to see whether the bird would like it. Asuka did and let out a chirp.

He let out a breathe (because thankfully, he didn't poison Asuka) and continued walking back towards their cave - both Izuku and Asuka's home.