Not powerless

chapter 15: Hadayashi Hot Spring Part 1

Having a place with Nezu didn’t change much in the grand scheme of things. Izuku still practised magic with Koui, still trained with Tataka, still studied at the Library. It was only at the end of the day where things were different. He found himself returning to Nezu’s house more and more, his clearing in the woods seeing less use. That would always have a special place in his heart, but something about knowing there was someone else close by that he could talk to was strangely comforting.

Nezu didn’t intrude on his life too much. True to his word, he allowed Izuku his freedom to come and go, so Izuku returned the favour and always shot him a text when he returned from Koui’s realm. They usually had tea in the evenings, and slowly over time, Izuku told him more and more about his new found powers.

“This sounds an awful lot like magic,” Nezu commented one night.

“Because it literally is.”

It was comical the way Nezu had stilled, tea cup tilted to his mouth. They said no more that night, but when Izuku woke up the next morning, he found a quirk registration document on the living room table, with a few notes from Nezu with suggestions. He was now registered with an energy manipulation quirk, because in Nezu’s words, what constituted ‘energy’ and ‘manipulation’ could be defined ridiculously broadly.

A month into being under Nezu’s guardianship, Izuku felt comfortable enough to go back to something he’d neglected in all the adjustments. The interesting passage he’d found in a book about a magical hot spring. He finally showed it to Koui, and he seemed intrigued.

“I see what you mean. Healing water is definitely a thing, but something on this scale? I’m sceptical,” he said.

They were in Izuku’s gazebo, lying side by side as they read through the book.

“It says that the water is supposed to be able to wash away all troubles and soothe even the deepest of pain. Are we sure it’s not just fancy words to make a hot spring look better?”

“Well there are spells that can do that kind of thing, and I wouldn’t put it past a magic region to have something like that,” Koui said, “actually now that I think about it, a magic healing hot spring doesn’t sound so insane.”

“Magic region?” Izuku asked.

“An area in the world so embedded with magic, it’s part of the fabric of its being. They can be simple, like the small domains that mages can create, or they can be really powerful.”

“So there’s a lot of them out there?”

“I don’t think there’s too many, but there’s a fair few.”

“And I can find them all?”

Koui smiled.

“My darling could find them all I’m sure, though some will be very very hard. This Hadayashi hot spring will probably be simple enough, what with your Sight.”

“Are you saying I’m not good enough to find the others?” Izuku teased.

“I’m sure you could, but some of them were hidden in very ancient ways, like the Ancestral Tomb. You’d probably have an easier time finding one of the Great Ones than finding that place.”

Izuku left that day with thoughts of exploration. He had an idea of where to start, but it wasn’t until he went back to Nezu’s that he could talk about it. He tried with Tataka, but the goat man hadn’t been interested.

“The only magic region I’m interested in is the one that lies within these four walls,” he said.

Nezu was already waiting with tea when he arrived, and as Izuku thought, he was very interested. It wasn’t helped when Izuku brought out the book he’d been reading, and he showed it to Nezu.