Chapter Text
"I'm sorry, but there's little else we can do Mr. Midoriya. We can make her comfortable... I'm sorry."
Izuku felt his heart clench at the words. His eyes hurt from the familiar stinging of tears that he wanted to shed at the news. His mother was sleeping in her hospital bed, fading a bit more as each day passed. He hated seeing her waste away as she was. A pale and near lifeless shadow of her former self. There had to be something he could do.
It had started as just a simple but persistent cough. Then, she started losing energy and had grown lethargic. Her appetite began to fade and what she could eat rarely would stay down. Doctors they had seen back home in Japan were confused, had consulted those they had known in the medical community. Izuku had learned of one specialist that may be able to help his mother recover. So they traveled to Egypt to find treatment after all, seeking the best of the medical field. This was... This was their only chance.
"Th- I understand,” he spoke automatically as emotional numbness seemed to settle in his body, not wanting to believe that there was nothing he could do. His words weren’t heard by his own ears. “I need some time..."
His words died in his throat as an overwhelming feeling began to bubble up inside making him want to cry. He wanted to have gotten another answer, rather than her being sentenced to die. Having any chance was better than none.
"Of course. Why don't you head to your hotel and get some rest?" the doctor encouraged with a warm but generic feeling smile. Izuku nodded his head and left in a daze. His mind was still trying to sort with being told by his last hope that there was no hope. He felt the sting of his tears in the hot climate as he stepped outside. The chorus of voices echoed around him from the city's bazaar. The same one he needed to walk through to get to his hotel.
He walked through the bazaar unseeing, not hearing anything but flurries of syllables that just felt like white noise. He meandered through, not wanting to process what he would inevitably have to accept.
He would have made it to the hotel where he was staying when someone ran into him. He paused at the abrupt interruption to the prelude of his upcoming depressive episode. He focused enough to notice the cloaked person paid him no mind and continued on. He blinked and looked around with his moment of focus. He felt a niggling in his mind to turn towards the shops in the bazaar. Most were teaming with bright and bold colors along with vibrant and delicious smelling food. But between two bright red tents, there was a light beige tent that looked like it had seen better days. His eyes fell to the pale skinned man with chapped lips selling various charms and a few "snake oil" remedies in the beige ramshackle tent.
What the heck, it couldn't hurt anything more than his wallet, and at this point he didn't even care about money or it affecting his future.
He approached the man, ignoring how everyone else seemed to be giving his stall a wide berth.
"Hello?" Izuku greeted meekly. The man's chapped lips spread into a painful looking smile. His eyes obscured by his pale and unkempt hair. He appeared more hermit than shop owner or seller.
"Hello stranger, what brings you to my stand?" he asked. His voice raspy, sounding as parched as the desert Egypt housed. Everything about him seemed worn and dry. But he wasn’t a doctor, nor one of his friends asking him to just come home to spend the last few weeks with his mother at home.
"I have an ill mother. The doctors say she won't survive," he spoke honestly. He knew he would be scammed, but he didn't care at the moment. His emotions were taut and felt ready to snap, to burst into tears or scream in emotional distress.
"I see. Terminal diagnosis is always so painful. You must have been devastated to hear that,” the man spoke with false sympathy. “But what if there was a way to save her?"
The snake oil sounded so pleasant to his ears, even if he knew it couldn’t possibly be true.
"Tell me, would you do anything to save her?"
"I would," Izuku admitted freely. It was the whole reason they came to Egypt.
"Hm. Then take this to her," he said grabbing a small statue. It was a sleek black rock of a cat wearing an ankh on it's chest that seemed to lock eyes with him. "So long as you are not with your mother, this will prevent her from dying. That should give you enough time to get what you need to save her."
"What are you talking about?" Izuku asked. This didn't sound like a sale. It sounded like he was being pulled into some kind of drug ring. The man grabbed Izuku's wrist and placed the statue in his open hand. Izuku's fingers curled around the stone instinctively. The man's smile seemed to grow at the easy acceptance of the statue.
"In the desert, there is a tomb. It appears plain and looted. It's easy to miss. But there is a man who visits it every year. No matter how ill or weak he is, once he makes the journey, he is in perfect health when he returns," the man spoke in a hushed manner, easily ignored by those who didn't focus on him. Izuku listened with rapt attention unable not to listen, nor to pull his eyes away as the man spoke.
"Do you know where this man is?" he asked. He was grasping at air, and it sounded too good to be true, but it also sounded too outlandish to be told. Perhaps it could be real? What could he have to lose? If it was real, even a chance of it being real, his mother could recover.
"He'll be at the southern exit of the city, early tomorrow. He travels like clockwork. Stick with him, and you'll find what keeps him healthy. But first, take the statue to your ailing mother," the man spoke in an almost secretive manner. Izuku's face flushed, forgetting that the man had offered the statue to him. He took the cat gingerly in his hands and then went for his wallet to pay for the statue. He looked away only for a moment.
"How much do I owe...?"
Looking up, he only saw an open alley, the stall gone, as though it had never existed. He blinked and no, it was still gone. Only the shadowed alley and the bins of refuse waiting to be removed remained before him.
He looked at the statue in his hand. It was the only thing that told him that there was an interaction and that the man had been real. That he had interacted with someone and hadn't slipped into a heat induced hallucination. It felt abnormally cool in his hand, a promise of miracles in the hot land. With a spring in his step, Izuku ran back to the hospital. No one paid him any mind as he entered, far too used to how he always lingered in the building to be close to his mother.
He slipped into her room in near silence. She was still asleep and looked like she wasn't long for the world. Her face long sense gaunt and pale from the disease that wracked her body. Izuku felt his eyes tear up and placed the statue on her night stand.
“You’ll be okay mom. I’m going to do everything I can to save you. Please, hang in there,” he said and placed a kiss on her cheek. Tears pooled in his eyes and he furiously rubbed his eyes.
He then slipped out of the room.
He had to prepare for his journey. He had to succeed.