Feathers and Horns
Izuku bolted up, his breath came out in a panic, his eyes darting around the room. He was still here in the off white room, with the strange machines making their alien noises, the tube was back in his arm, he reached to rip it out but he was stopped.
"That would be a bad thing to do, you were very dehydrated." Izuku's head snapped up to see the Kenku, no that wasn't accurate he was too tall, and humanoid in shape which meant that he was an Aarakocra.
"Where are your wings?"
"I'm sorry?" Fumikage was taken aback by the question. Izuku got out of his bed approaching Fumikage who got out of his seat to make sure Izuku didn't pull out the IV or other wires. Fumikage gently lead Izuku back to the bed, the horned boy looked confused at Fumikage's hands, then looked at his back his solid emerald eyes looked so lost. As Fumikage made Izuku lie down, the greenette touched his back his face in a frown.
"What happened to your wings and talons?"
"I think you might be confused, I never had wings or talons."
"But, you're an Aarakocra, right? Or is that a mask?" Izuku leaned a little away from Fumikage, his eyes filled with suspicion.
"No, not a mask." Fumikage couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his break. "I was simply born without wings or talons."
"I'm sorry." Izuku wanted to sit up, Fumikage pressed a button on the bed making it rise. "Do the other Aarakocra give you a hard time for it?" Izuku also noted that only he only had feathers on his head while the rest of the body was bald; Izuku refrained from commenting on this.
"I am not familiar with others like myself." Fumikage grabbed a chair bringing it closer to the bed and taking a seat.
"Are you the only one of your kind? I guess I can relate to that, never really met any other Tieflings, probably because we're hunted on sight we just hide away even from others of our kind."
"You're being hunted? By whom?" Fumikage looked really concerned at the thought of himself being hunted, like that was something new.
"The humans of course." Izuku came to a sudden realization that he was still in the room where the human had imprisoned him in. "We have to leave!! They'll be back." Izuku bolted out of bed he yanked the wires and IV tube off grabbing Fumikage's hand pulling the bird headed man along with him.
"Wait, there's no need for this, stop."
"What do you mean stop? We need to escape this prison before they come back and kill us, or cut us open to harvest us." Fumikage could taste the fear radiating off the horned boy. Fumikage pulled Izuku to him hugging him tight and speaking calm soothing words, he could feel the greenette's heart hammering against him.
"The people here are friends, they will not harm you, this is a hospital. A place of healing not harm, you are safe here with me." Fumikage tightened the hug, running a hand up and down Izuku's back.
The greenette calmed down, burying his face into Fumikage's chest. The Aarakocra smelled like a mix of spice and sandalwood incense, he did feel strangely safe with him. Their quiet moment was interrupt however when the door opened up in rushed several nurses and doctors with a crash cart; when Izuku yanked the wires off he set off the flatline alarm.
Fumikage held his hand up stopping the medical staff, signalling them that things were alright. One doctor tried to approach Izuku but the greenette spun around breaking free of the raven headed man's embrace, he glared at the human doctor letting out an inhuman hiss that sent many of the medical staff fleeing.
"It's alright, they are just here to make sure you are okay. They don't mean you any harm." Fumikage tried to calm Izuku but the greenette did not yield, he screamed at the medical staff.
<GYZ AFZ!!!> The strange language seemed to cause the braver of the medical staff to turn and run, even Fumikage felt a drip of fear enter his soul but it dissipated as quickly as he felt it, he reached out to the horned boy who turned and buried himself into Fumikage's chest once more, he was trembling. "Please, get me out of here, get me away from the humans, I want to go back to my hut, far away from them."
All Fumikage could do was offer a comforting hug, and kind words of reassurance that he was in no danger here.
"That was rather impressive, young man, but very rude to treat those in the medical field like that." Izuku felt his anger boil up, he was being bothered again by these humans and he was ready to flambé the intruder, he turned to see not a human but a small bear? mouse?
"Are you an awoken animal?" Izuku stepped away from Fumikage and squatted down to be at eye level with Nezu, the small mammalian principal gave Izuku a smile, so he was correct in his deduction on what Izuku was exactly.
"It is considered polite in this world to introduce oneself before asking questions. I am Nezu, principal of U.A. Now you introduce yourself."
"Oh, right, sorry. I'm Izuku of the Clan Midoriya. You never answered my question."
"Have you introduced yourself to Tokoyami-kun?" Nezu looked at Izuku with his hyper intelligent eyes, the Tiefling didn't seem unnerved at all by the principal as others would be if a large rodent like being started talking to them. Izuku stood up and faced Fumikage, a sheepish look on his face.
"Sorry, I guess I was distracted in escaping that I didn't catch your name, I am Izuku of the Clan Midoriya."
"I am Tokoyami Fumikage, a pleasure to meet you."
"Now, Tokoyami-kun if you would be so kind as to give Izuku and myself some privacy, I have somethings to discuss with him. You can head back to the school, I've let Aizawa-sensei to expect you."
Fumikage said his goodbyes to Izuku and his principal, he saw the saddened look in those solid emerald eyes as he left, it pained him to leave with the horned boy looking so stressed but he knew that he would be alright with Principal Nezu.
"It has been a very long time since I have seen a Tiefling, especially one from the Midoriya clan, how is you father, Hisashi?" Nezu couldn't help the smile at the look of shock on the young Tiefling's face.
"You knew my dad, can you tell me more about him?" Izuku asked with such eagerness that it caught Nezu off guard.
"Did you not know your father?" Nezu frowned as Izuku sadly shook his head.
"He disappeared before I was born, and it was just my mom and me for a long time, until she passed away." Izuku's voice was soft as he said that part, the death of his mother still stung, that was when he first felt the hatred of humans, he sought a doctor for his mother and he had been attacked, imprisoned, and abused until he had escaped, only to find his mother dead upon his return, their home destroyed by the villagers when they found out she had given birth to him.
"I can see you suffered a great deal in your young life, come let us share a pot of tea and you can tell me everything, and in exchange I will tell you everything about your father."
Izuku just quietly nodded, he wiped the tears that escaped from his eyes and followed the small principal to a quiet room.
----
"That's when I woke up here, imprisoned and surrounded by humans." Izuku spat the word humans out like it was something bitter, Nezu took a sip from his cup before speaking.
"This is no prison, Izuku-kun, this is a hospital. You were brought here when Todoroki-kun found you unconscious, from what he wrote in his report you appeared out of thin air, he chalked it up to your quirk."
"Quirk?"
"Yes, this world people don't have magic, instead they are born with a type of gene, we called it a quirk, that allow them to do some extraordinary things, such as produce fire, remove the gravity of an object, or even give them animal like qualities."
"Sounds like magic to me." Izuku took another sip of the tea the principal had poured for him.
"It does, but those with these quirks cannot do anything else besides what they were born with, unlike yourself who can use many kind of magic."
"How do you know I can use magic? Not all Tieflings are that gifted." Nezu simply gave Izuku a knowing smile.
"I might not be able to cast magic myself but I can certainly sniff it out, and you have a mix of Arcane, Divine, and Infernal, but that is to be expected given your heritage."
Izuku just took a sip of his tea as Nezu continued his explanation on the new world he found himself in, it was such a strange place, one where his appearance would not draw too much attention, after that he listened enraptured as Nezu made good on his promise to tell him about his dad, it turned out Nezu was good friends with his father, having adventures with him when Nezu lived in Faerun.
"But how did you end up here?" Izuku set his cup down, Nezu poured him another cup.
"Much like yourself I fell through a portal, I believe your father and I were hunting down a necromancer when he threw me through a glowing portal, I ended up here in this world."
"Is that how you got the scar, fighting the necromancer?" Nezu touched the scar, bad memories flooding into his mind of his time spent locked up and experimented on.
"No, I got this from some bad humans when I arrived in this world." The principal's usual demeanor darkened, Izuku laid a gentle and understanding hand atop of Nezu's paws.
"All humans are scum." Nezu let out a dark chuckle.
"I won't begrudge you, your distrust of humans, even I hold a deep grudge against humans for the way they treated me, but I am very hypocritical in one way and that is I have many human friends who I trust with my life and they with trust me with there's."
"How can you trust them after all that they have done to you?"
"It was not an easy thing, I will tell you that much, but it helped that they were heroes with strong morals. In time you might come to trust them, even call them your friends."
"I'd sooner go into the Underdark and kiss a Drider." Izuku scowled at the thought of being friends with a human, Nezu laughed like a maniac.
"Funny enough, your father did do that in order to escape from the Drow city of Golothear, but you already seem friendly with Tokoyami-kun, and he is human."
"No, he's an Aarakocra, an odd one, but definitely not human." Izuku finished his second cup of tea, taking one of the biscuits and nibbling on it, he never had anything this sweet before, and he kinda liked it.
"You will find many people have quirks that change their appearance to a more non-traditional looking one, but I can assure you that they are very much human."
Izuku mulled this over as Nezu poured him a new cup, he couldn't accept the fact that his possible new friend in this strange land was human, he changed the subject.
"You said this wasn't a prison, does that mean I can just leave at anytime?"
"Of course, but where would you go?"
That was a good question, he didn't know anything of the outside world other than what Nezu had told him, no place to stay and what little money he had must be worthless here. He dug through his pocket pulling out his coin purse opening the worn leather bag, he had roughly fifty gold coins, his entire savings.
"What's the value of gold here?"
"I can have someone check into that, but as for where you might go, might I make a suggestion." Nezu's eyes twinkled with evil genius, Izuku nodded for the small mammal to continue. Nezu took a sip of his tea before he continued, his intelligent black eyes twilinking. "Come to U.A. You can get an education, hot meals, and a safe place to stay."
"You want me to go to a school, filled with humans?" Izuku did not like the idea of being surrounded on all sides by humans who could easily overwhelm him.
"The students of U.A. are all training to be heroes, those who save and rescue those in trouble, fighting villains to protect people." Nezu said with great pride.
"Heroes are the worst of them all, they make a huge mess, then exploit the villagers of their resources or money." Izuku took another biscuit, and sneaking a third into a inner pocket of his coat for later.
"These are not the mercenaries that roamed Faerun calling themselves heroes, they are true heroes, and they might just change your mind about humans. Not to mention Tokoyami-kun goes to this school, he is a third year student."
"Yeah and bugbears will fly." Izuku muttered. "Fine, I will take you up on this offer, but only because I have few options, otherwise."
"Excellent, Izuku-kun, but there is just one small test that you must pass before you can be admitted." Nezu's eyes gleamed as he said this, making Izuku shiver slightly in fear.