My Alchemist Academia

Chapter 7: The Philosopher's Stone

Izuku stared at the crazed man. He had created a large tree that shot out of the roof of the USJ facility. He was on the peak, still doing his transmutations. Izuku had heard about this kind of alchemy. Botany Alchemy. The study of using alchemy on plants. But he was doing it differently. Much differently. It's almost as if he was making Chimeras out of plants. 

The transmutations continued. A large mess of vines, and roots standing in the place of USJ. The red lightning of the philosopher's stone taunting Izuku. Izuku looked around for his classmates. They were all safe. 

Izuku looked up as shadows began to obstruct his view and everyone else. He saw vines begin to close over class 1-A, and trap them in a dome of foliage. The darkness was too much for anyone to see. Izuku felt his way through the dark, until he heard Ochaco calling out to him. He quickly made his way over to her voice, and embraced her.

"Izuku, what's going on?" she asked, a panicked tone coating her words.

Izuku looked up, anger clouding his emotions. "The Philosopher's stone." he said. Ochaco looked at him questioningly, but he simply continued. "That's the only explanation for Alchemy on this scale. It has to be. The red gem in his hand, the red lightning, the powerful alchemy, it all adds up." Izuku felt his way to the wall, and transmuted an opening. Light seeped through the large hole, but nobody ran out. Izuku just stood there, looking up at the towering tree above his head. "Finally. I'll be able to get my body back to normal. I'll finally be able to fix my mistakes." Izuku transmuted a blade on his automail arm, and began walking towards the tree.

He was stopped, however, by a pair of strong arms, refusing to let him go any further. He turned around to see Ochaco, her arms wrapped tightly around him. "Don't." she said, her voice shaky. "I'm not going to let you risk your life like this. He's way too powerful. You can't beat him. You'll die!"

Izuku turned around to face her. "I have to do this Ochaco. If I don't do this, then I won't be able to make up for my mistakes. So please let me do this."

Ochaco looked up at Izuku with tear-filled eyes. "But if you die, then, then I don't know what I'd do. You were gone the entire summer, doing god knows what. I was so scared. What you were doing sounded so dangerous, and I was terrified that you would get hurt. Why? Why do you constantly put yourself in danger?" she pleaded.

Izuku grabbed her by the shoulders. "SO THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO!" 

Ochaco wasn't expecting Izuku to react like that. "What?"

Izuku looked her in the eyes. "I don't want you to get hurt either. I don't want to be the cause for anyone else's suffering. When I did the Human Transmutation, the thing that I created was suffering. It was in the worst pain that anyone's ever been in. And it was my mother's soul inside that body. I never want anyone to suffer like that because of me. Never again."

"You don't have to do it alone." said Iida, the rest of class 1-A in tow. "We're your friends. We can help you. We will help you." he said, putting his helmet on.

Izuku saw all of his friends that were willing to fight. Ochaco, Iida, Todoroki, Asui, Momo, Kaminari, Sero, Kirishima, Sato, Tokoyami, Shoji, Ashido, Jiro, even Bakugo and Mineta. Izuku smiled at them. 

"Ok. Let's do this then." he said, as class 1-A turned to the tower-tree. They all charged towards it, ready to fight. 

Izuku saw jagged edges. Stairs. Why would he put stairs? 

Izuku thought for a moment. "Wait, he's from the past. He came to the future... because nobody uses Alchemy anymore. Very few actually do. He wanted to be seen as a god. This is a challenge."