“There’s no way, it’s just a coincidence, I mean-” Kirishima tried blustering, but Izuku could sense the hesitation within him.
The gate was looming over them. On the posts were ornate carvings of trees, inlaid with leaves of silver and gold. Izuku pulled out the book and found the page with the drawing. The Torii gate in the book had the same carvings. Tapping Kirishima’s shoulder, he showed him. Kirishima looked between the book and the gate, mouth hanging open.
“But, you said this place was magical. Magic doesn’t exist, right?”
“I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
Izuku really had to resist saying that magic was actually real. He stepped closer to the gate cautiously. If he’d learned anything from the Beings at the void bridge, it was that just because a place looked peaceful, it didn’t mean it was. With magic, anything could happen at any time, and this place was steeped in it. Behind him, Kirishima followed after him, and he was pleased to see a similar level of caution.
They approached the gate and Izuku saw a tablet carved into the boulder wall next to the right hand post. It was smooth stone, completely out of place, and engraved with letters. Kirishima squinted at it.
“It’s kanji but why can’t I read it?” he asked, “can you? You could read the book.”
“It’s the same kind of writing,” Izuku said.
Take nothing with you and bare yourself to the Great One, the tablet read. Was it a riddle or instruction? With what Izuku had read in the Library, it could be either. When he told Kirishima, the other boy didn’t seem to get it either.
“So we leave our stuff here?”
In the wall next to the other post were a series of cubes dug out of the rock, almost like open lockers or shelves. Leaving everything behind would seem appropriate for a place monks frequented, but Izuku was sure there was more to it. While magic could often seem convoluted, everything always had meaning. They were supposed to take nothing with them, but what did bare themselves to the Great One mean? Pray to it? Worship it?
While Kirishima had a look around the shelves, Izuku took out the book again. The section about the hot spring was written by one of the Hadayashi monks, and the drawing was supposedly based on what the monks actually did. Every detail mattered.
The monks approached the gate, then walked naked down the path before bowing to the tree. It seemed like some kind of reverence was involved, and nudity could just be because they were going to bathe. Unless by ‘baring themselves’ it meant to literally strip bare. Once naked, there would be no way to take anything with them beyond the gate, and there would be nothing between them and the Great One.
Carefully, Izuku stepped up to the boundary of the gate, a theory in his mind. If he was right about this, then the monks wouldn’t have wanted anyone to defile this space. The instructions and intentions would have been clear to all who sought this palce, so there had to be some way to stop people from entering unless they did it correctly. Kirishima noticed what he was doing when he slowly reached his hand across the boundary.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
Izuku paid him no mind. The further his arm stretched beyond the gate, the more his skin itched. Where it was touching the fabric of his shirt, it burned and crawled. It wasn’t so bad here, but he could tell it would be unbearable further in. He withdrew his hand and shrugged off his haori, and then quickly rolled up his sleeve and repeated the motion.
He let out a small laugh. He could reach in much further, to the point where his clothed body started to cross the threshold and the itchy burning sensation started up again there. He pulled back completely.
ΔΙΑΒΑΖΕΙΣ
Not powerless
ΦαντασίαςCredit to "spulenspul" on a03 its their story As the youngest son of the number one hero, by all rights Izuku Midoriya should have been a spoiled brat. In another world he might have been, but in this world he wasn't. In fact, at best his family ign...
