What if deku was in konosuba with the powers of tree-rex?

 

The air tasted of ash, copper, and the sharp, ozone-tang of displaced air. 

Izuku Midoriya could not feel his arms. He knew, logically, that they were still attached to his shoulders, but the sensation of flesh, bone, and nerve had long since been replaced by a white-hot, screaming numbness. He was suspended in a horrifying equilibrium between adrenaline-fueled invincibility and the absolute collapse of his mortal form. 

The sky above Musutafu was choked with a thick, bruised-purple smog. Buildings that had stood for decades were reduced to jagged teeth of concrete and twisted rebar. Sirens wailed in the distance, a futile chorus of help that was too far away. The pro heroes—Endeavor, Best Jeanist, even Kacchan—were miles out, bogged down by a coordinated strike of High-End Nomus. 

Here, in this isolated intersection of ruined suburbs, there was only Izuku. 

And the monster.

It didn't have a name. It was a grotesque amalgamation of Quirks, a final, spiteful middle finger left behind by All For One. It stood thirty feet tall, a shifting mass of muscle, carapace, and weeping red eyes. It possessed a hyper-regeneration Quirk, a kinetic-absorption Quirk, and something that allowed it to project waves of localized gravity. 

But Izuku wasn't looking at the monster. His bloodshot eyes were fixed on the overturned, yellow school bus trapped beneath a collapsed overpass just twenty yards behind him. Inside, thirty terrified children and their bleeding teacher were huddled together, screaming. 

The monster roared, a sound like grinding metal and slaughterhouse squeals. It raised a massive, scythe-like appendage, the gravity around it distorting, pulling the very pavement into the air. It was preparing a strike that would obliterate the entire city block. 

I won't make it in time if I try to move the bus, Izuku’s mind raced, processing information at a thousand miles a minute despite the blood running down his forehead and blinding his left eye. Its kinetic absorption means a standard smash will just bounce off. I have to overload it. I have to give it more kinetic energy than its cells can physically store. I have to break the vessel.

Green lightning, wild and untamed, erupted around Izuku’s broken body. The power of One For All, cultivated by eight generations of heroes, roared in his veins. The vestiges—Daigoro, Nana, Yoichi—were screaming in his mind, warning him. 

“Ninth! Your body can’t take it!” Danger Sense flared so violently it felt like a spike driven through his skull. “If you do this, there’s no coming back!”

Izuku didn't care. He was Deku. He was the hero who saved people with a smile.

He forced his shattered lips to curve upward. He tasted his own blood. "It's okay," he whispered, his voice lost in the roaring wind of the monster’s gravity well. "Because I am here."

Izuku planted his right foot. The bones in his shin immediately fractured under the sheer force he was calling upon, but he locked his knee, forcing his muscles to act as steel cables holding his skeleton together. He drew his right arm back. The sleeve of his hero costume had completely vaporized. His skin was a bruised, horrific tapestry of purple and black. 

One For All... Izuku closed his eyes for a fraction of a second. He saw his mother, smiling warmly as she made katsudon. He saw All Might, giving him a thumbs-up on that beach so many years ago. He saw Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, and Kacchan. He saw a future he would never get to live. 

One Million Percent.

The world seemed to hold its breath. Sound ceased to exist. 

Izuku lunged forward. The ground beneath him didn't just crack; it vaporized, turning into a crater of molten glass from the sheer friction of his movement. He crossed the distance between himself and the monster in less than a microsecond. 

The beast swung its scythe down. 

Izuku met it with his fist. 

"UNITED STATES OF SMASH!"

The impact defied the laws of physics. For a moment, there was nothing but a blinding, pure white light that engulfed the entire intersection. The kinetic absorption Quirk of the monster tried to gorge itself on the energy, but it was like trying to swallow a supernova. The beast's carapace cracked, its red eyes bulging in an impossibility of terror. 

The shockwave hit. A dome of pure, displaced atmospheric pressure expanded outward. It shredded the monster atom by atom, peeling its regenerative flesh away faster than it could heal, scattering it into microscopic dust. The shockwave narrowly missed the school bus, expertly angled upward into the sky, where it parted the bruised purple smog and split the clouds for miles, revealing a pristine, twilight sky.

Izuku Midoriya fell back. 

He hit the shattered asphalt with a dull, wet thud. The green lightning around him sputtered, flickered, and finally died. 

He lay there, staring up at the newly cleared sky. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. His lungs were crushed, his heart was a sluggish, failing drum, and his limbs were utterly destroyed. Yet, despite the catastrophic failure of his biology, he felt an overwhelming sense of peace. 

Footsteps. Small, light footsteps crunching on the glass. 

A shadow fell over him. Izuku shifted his gaze, using the last ounce of his strength. A little girl, no older than six, with pigtails and a tear-streaked face, was kneeling beside him. She was safe. She was crying, but she was safe. 

She reached into her pocket with a trembling hand and pulled out a small, incredibly crumpled handkerchief featuring a cartoonish drawing of All Might. Gently, with a reverence that broke Izuku’s failing heart, she pressed it against his bleeding forehead. 

"Th-thank you, Mr. Hero," she hiccuped, trying to offer him a brave smile. "You saved us."

Izuku wanted to speak. He wanted to tell her she was brave, that everything was going to be alright, that the other heroes were on their way. But his throat would not work. So, he poured everything he had left into his eyes, giving her the softest, warmest smile he could muster. 

I did it, he thought, the edges of his vision darkening, tunneling inward. All Might... I did it.

The darkness rushed in, absolute and consuming. The pain vanished. The sirens faded. The little girl's face disappeared into the void. 

Izuku Midoriya, the Ninth Wielder of One For All, died.

Then, he opened his eyes. 

The transition was so sudden, so utterly devoid of the expected fanfare of death, that Izuku let out a sharp, pathetic gasp and scrambled backward. Or, at least, he tried to.

He found himself sitting on a remarkably comfortable, velvet-cushioned wooden chair. He wasn't lying on shattered asphalt. There was no smoke, no blood, no pain. He looked down at his hands. They were perfectly intact. The terrible scars from his battles with Todoroki, Muscular, and Shigaraki were completely gone. His arms were smooth, unblemished, and healthy. He was wearing his standard U.A. school uniform, completely pristine and wrinkle-free. 

"What... what is this?" Izuku murmured, his voice echoing slightly. "Where am I? The hospital? No, a healing Quirk couldn't have fixed the old scars. Is this... Recovery Girl's ultimate technique? Or an illusion Quirk? Did the villain have a secondary—"

"Oh, for the love of the divine, shut up."

Izuku snapped his head up. 

He was in a void. A literal, endless expanse of starry blackness that stretched in every conceivable direction. The only objects in this infinite space were his chair, a small, elegant coffee table, and the chair opposite him. 

Sitting in that opposite chair was a girl. She appeared to be roughly his age, incredibly beautiful, with flowing water-blue hair that cascaded down her back and was tied in a loop with a water molecule-shaped clip. She wore a strange, frilly blue and white dress with a detached collar and a short skirt. 

She was currently sipping tea from a delicate porcelain cup, looking at Izuku as if he were a particularly uninteresting stain on a rug. 

"W-Who are you?" Izuku stammered, his hero instincts kicking in. He tried to summon One For All, expecting the familiar hum of green energy. Nothing happened. The well was completely dry. Panic began to claw at his chest. "Where is my Quirk? Where are the children? The bus!"

The girl sighed, a deeply exaggerated, theatrical sound of pure annoyance. She set her teacup down on the table with a clink. 

"Welcome to the afterlife," she said, her tone dripping with bureaucratic boredom. "I am Aqua, the Goddess of Water who guides young, pathetic souls who died prematurely in Japan. Izuku Midoriya, your life on Earth has ended."

Izuku froze. The words hit him like a physical blow, heavier than any punch he had ever taken. "Ended? I'm... dead?"

"Deader than a doornail," Aqua confirmed, picking at her fingernails. "Frankly, it was a really messy death, too. You completely pulverized your own body! Like, ew. We had to do a lot of spiritual reconstruction just to make your soul presentable for this meeting. Your arms looked like overcooked noodles, it was totally gross."

Izuku’s breathing hitched. The memories rushed back. The monster. The 1,000,000% smash. The little girl with the handkerchief. 

He stood up so fast his chair wobbled. He slammed his hands on the coffee table, leaning over it. "The kids! Are the kids okay?! The school bus under the overpass! Did the monster—did it survive?! Did I fail?!"

Aqua blinked, leaning back slightly, momentarily taken aback by his sheer intensity. "Whoa, calm down, greenie! They’re fine, they’re fine. The monster was completely vaporized. The kids were rescued by other heroes about ten minutes after you croaked. You saved them. Very heroic, very cliché, very tragic. Can we sit down now? You're ruining the serene atmosphere."

Izuku let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. His legs turned to jelly, and he collapsed back into his chair. He buried his face in his unscarred hands. They're safe. They're alive. Mom... All Might... everyone... I'm so sorry I won't be coming home. But I did my job. 

A few tears leaked through his fingers. He allowed himself one minute to mourn the life he had lost, the future as the Number One Hero he would never achieve. 

Aqua watched him with a mixture of impatience and mild discomfort. "Are you done crying? We have a schedule here, you know. I have a lot of dead Japanese teenagers to process today. Seriously, the mortality rate of high schoolers in your country is ridiculous."

Izuku wiped his eyes, taking a deep, shuddering breath. He looked up at the Goddess. "O-Okay. I'm sorry. So... what happens now? Do I go to heaven? Or... hell?" He winced at the thought. He hadn't been perfect, but he hoped he hadn't done anything to warrant hell. 

Aqua scoffed, waving a hand dismissively. "Hell is for bad people. You were a hero, so you qualify for Heaven. But let me tell you a secret: Heaven is incredibly, mind-numbingly boring."

Izuku tilted his head. "Boring?"

"Super boring!" Aqua leaned forward, her eyes wide. "There's no manga! No video games! No television! You don't even have a physical body, so you can't eat anything delicious or sleep in a comfy bed. You just float around as a ball of light on a cloud, basking in the sun and chatting with dead old people for eternity! Sounds awful, right?"

Izuku blinked. "I suppose... it sounds very peaceful."

"It's a scam, is what it is," Aqua grumbled, pouring herself more tea. "Which is why we offer a special alternative for young, promising souls like yours. You have a second option, Izuku Midoriya. You can choose to be reincarnated!"

Izuku's eyes widened. "Reincarnated? You mean, born again as a baby on Earth?"

"No, no, no," Aqua waved her finger. "Not your Earth. A completely different world! An alternate world! Like an RPG!"

Izuku stared at her. His mind immediately went to the fantasy manga he used to read when he was younger, before his obsession with heroes consumed his life. "An alternate world? Like... an Isekai? Magic, swords, monsters?"

"Exactly!" Aqua beamed, clearly happy he was catching on. "You see, there is a peaceful, beautiful fantasy world out there, full of magic, elves, dwarves, and adventure. However, it is currently facing a massive crisis. The vile Demon King and his army are ravaging the lands. The people are terrified, and the death toll is rising. Because of this, nobody from that world wants to be reincarnated there! The population is dwindling!"

Izuku’s posture straightened. A world in crisis. People living in fear. A villain terrorizing the innocent. The heroic instincts deeply ingrained in his soul, the very essence that had made All Might choose him, flared to life. 

"They need a hero," Izuku whispered, his green eyes hardening with resolve. 

"Right on the money," Aqua pointed at him with a smirk. "We Gods have decided to send souls from your world to save theirs. We offer you the chance to retain your current memories, your current personality, and go to this world to defeat the Demon King! But don't worry, we won't send you in naked and helpless."

With a dramatic flourish of her hand, a massive, thick book glowing with divine, golden light materialized out of thin air and dropped heavily onto the coffee table, scattering some of Aqua's tea. 

"To ensure your success, the Gods grant you the right to choose one cheat," Aqua announced grandly. "It can be anything! A legendary holy sword that can cut through mountains! A unique magical talent that surpasses all archmages! An impenetrable shield! Or even immense, superhuman physical stats! Take your pick from the catalog, hero. Choose the power that will let you slay the Demon King!"

Izuku leaned forward, practically vibrating with excitement and apprehension. A catalog of superpowers? It was like looking at a compendium of the world's most powerful Quirks. He reached out and opened the thick, leather-bound cover. 

Instantly, his old habits resurrected themselves with a vengeance. 

"Let's see here," Izuku began, his eyes darting across the glowing pages. "The Holy Sword Excalibur. Grants the user immense holy damage and auto-hits evil entities. But wait, what if I'm disarmed? If my entire fighting style relies on a single weapon, I become completely useless the moment an enemy uses a disarming spell or steals it. Furthermore, it doesn't provide any defensive buffs to my actual body. If I'm ambushed by an archer, a sword won't save me."

Aqua blinked, lowering her teacup. "Uh..."

Izuku flipped the page rapidly. "Okay, what about the 'Eye of the Archmage'? It allows the user to copy any spell they see and grants limitless mana. That sounds incredible! Like Monoma's Copy Quirk but permanently and without a time limit! But... I don't know the magical systems of this world. What if the spells require incantations in a language I don't understand? What if casting still puts a physical strain on the body? If I have limitless mana but the physical durability of a normal human, I could blow myself up with a miscast spell."

Aqua stared, her mouth slightly agape. 

"Ooh, 'Aegis Armor'!" Izuku muttered faster now, his thumb flying to his mouth to bite his nail as his brain shifted into hyper-drive. "Impervious to all physical and magical attacks. That covers defense! But... the weight coefficient must be massive. Would it reduce my agility? If I'm too slow, a villain could just ignore me and attack the civilians behind me. A tank is useless if it can't draw aggro or physically intercept attacks fast enough. And if it only covers the armor itself, an enemy with a kinetic shockwave attack could still liquefy my internal organs through the armor..."

"Hey," Aqua said, waving a hand. "Hey, greenie."

"...'Shadow Step', teleportation through darkness," Izuku continued to mutter, completely lost in his own world, words spilling out in a rapid-fire, unbroken stream of consciousness. "Great for stealth and assassination, but terrible for vanguard defense. A hero needs to stand in the light as a symbol of peace! Sneaking around in the shadows won't inspire the masses. What about 'Beastmaster's Flute'? Summoning legendary monsters. But relying on others to fight for me feels wrong, what if the monsters turn on me, what if they cause collateral damage to the towns..."

"Will you stop that?!" Aqua suddenly shrieked, slamming her hands on the table. "You're creeping me out! What is wrong with you?! Are you casting a hex?! Speak normally, you weirdo!"

Izuku snapped out of his trance, blushing fiercely. He bowed his head repeatedly. "I-I'm so sorry! It's a habit! I used to analyze Quirks—I mean, powers—in my free time! I just want to make sure I pick the right one!"

"Just pick a sword and go!" Aqua groaned, rubbing her temples. "You're taking way too long. I have another soul arriving in like, ten minutes. Just pick 'Super Strength' or something and let's get this over with."

"Super strength..." Izuku murmured. He had already had super strength. One For All had been the pinnacle of super strength. But it had also broken his bones, shattered his limbs, and ultimately cost him his life because his human vessel couldn't contain it. 

If I'm going to do this again, Izuku thought, tracing his hand over a blank spot on the page. I can't just be a glass cannon. I can't be someone who destroys himself to save others. If I die, who will protect the people next time? I need something... enduring. Something that can weather the storm. I need to be an unbreakable shield, not just a destructive sword.

He flipped past the weapons. He flipped past the elemental magics. He flipped past the mental enchantments. 

He reached a section near the very back of the catalog. The pages here felt older, thicker, and smelled faintly of earth and pine. The heading read: Demi-Human & Monstrous Transmutations.

"Ew," Aqua grimaced, peering over the table. "Don't tell me you're looking at the monster classes. Who wants to be reincarnated as a goblin or an orc? So gross and unheroic."

Izuku ignored her. His eyes locked onto a full-page illustration. 

It wasn't a sword, or a staff, or a glowing orb. It was a seed. A massive, ancient-looking acorn that pulsed with a vibrant, emerald-green light in the illustration. 

The description below it read: 

The Seed of the Life Giant (Class Variant: Tree Rex)

An ancient relic from a forgotten realm. Upon ingestion or bonding, the user sacrifices their human form, permanently transmuting their biology into that of the Ancient Ents of Life, the towering guardians of the primal forests.

 Base Stats: Immense, immeasurable physical strength and vitality. 

 Physiology: Flesh is replaced by impenetrable Ironwood Bark, highly resistant to physical trauma, bladed weapons, and low-tier magic. 

 Abilities: 

     Colossal Gauntlet: One arm is mutated into a massive, concentrated weapon of Life Energy, capable of shattering stone and earth. 

     Photosynthesis: The user draws sustenance and rapid healing from direct sunlight, negating the need for normal food or standard healing magic. 

     Nature Command: Deep, intrinsic connection to the earth, allowing the manipulation of roots, vines, and localized flora, as well as the projection of concentrated solar-life energy.

 Drawbacks: Extremely low agility, highly susceptible to high-tier Fire magic, massive physical size makes standard equipment and stealth impossible. 

Izuku stared at the page. His heart beat faster. 

It was perfect. 

It wasn't a weapon he could lose. It wasn't a spell he could miscast. It addressed the greatest flaw he had as the wielder of One For All: his frail human body. Impenetrable bark. Immense strength to protect others. The ability to heal himself just by standing in the sun, meaning he wouldn't be a burden on any healers in his party. 

The drawbacks didn't scare him. He never wanted to be stealthy anyway. And if he was slow, he would just have to make sure he always stood in front of the people he was protecting. He would be the wall. He would be the fortress. 

"I... I think I want this one," Izuku said, pointing firmly at the glowing seed. 

Aqua leaned over, squinting at the page. When she read the title, her face contorted in absolute horror and disgust. 

"Are you insane?!" she shrieked, jumping back from the table. "The Life Giant?! A Tree Rex?! You want to be a walking tree?! You're going to give up being a cute human boy to be a giant, lumbering piece of firewood?!"

"It has the best defensive stats in the catalog," Izuku argued, his analytical mind confident in his choice. "And it provides a stable, self-sustaining healing factor. With this, I can physically shield an entire group of people with my body without worrying about dying."

"But it's so ugly!" Aqua wailed, dramatically throwing her hands in the air. "You're going to be a giant monster! People in the towns will be terrified of you! You won't get any fangirls! You won't look cool in the taverns! What kind of hero wants to look like a botanical garden on steroids?!"

"A hero who wants to make sure everyone goes home safe," Izuku said softly, but with a titanium-clad conviction that made Aqua pause. 

For a second, the annoying Goddess looked at the green-haired boy and saw something deeply unsettling. Beneath his nervous exterior and muttering habits, there was an uncompromising, almost terrifying selflessness. It was the aura of someone who had already sacrificed everything and was perfectly willing to do it again. 

"Whatever," Aqua scoffed, rolling her eyes and sitting back down. "It's your funeral. Er, your second life, I guess. Fine. A Tree-whatever it is. Stand in the center of the magic circle, log-boy."

A glowing, complex blue magic circle appeared on the invisible floor a few feet away. Izuku closed the book, took a deep breath, and stood up. He walked toward the circle, mentally preparing himself for the pain of biological transmutation. 

Before he could step into the light, the silence of the void was shattered. 

A loud, undignified wail echoed through the starry expanse. Another chair materialized a few feet away, and a boy in a green tracksuit practically fell out of it, thrashing on the ground. 

"Aaaaaah! The tractor! It's going to crush me! Save me! Mom!" the boy screamed, covering his head. 

Izuku stopped, his heroic instincts firing up again. He rushed over to the boy. "Hey! Are you okay? You're safe! There's no tractor here!"

The boy stopped thrashing. He opened one eye, then the other. He slowly sat up, looking around at the starry void, then at Izuku, and finally at Aqua, who was staring at him with a deadpan expression. 

"Where... where am I?" the boy asked, his voice cracking. "I... I pushed that girl out of the way of the speeding truck! Did I save her? Did I die a hero?"

Aqua stared at him for a long, silent moment. Then, she covered her mouth. Her shoulders began to shake. 

"Pfft... ha... hahaha!" Aqua burst into obnoxious, high-pitched laughter. She pointed a finger at the boy in the tracksuit, tears forming in her eyes. "A speeding truck?! Oh my god, you actually thought it was a truck! That's hilarious!"

The boy's face flushed red. "What's so funny?! I died saving someone!"

"You didn't save anyone!" Aqua howled, slapping the table. "It wasn't a truck! It was a slow-moving tractor! It was going like, two miles an hour! The girl wasn't in any danger! And the tractor didn't even hit you!"

The boy, Kazuma Satou, froze. "Wait. What do you mean it didn't hit me?"

"You died of shock!" Aqua giggled uncontrollably, literally rolling around in her chair. "You thought you were going to get run over, so your brain panicked and gave you a heart attack! And to make it worse, you wet your pants when you passed out! The doctors and the family were laughing at you in the hospital! You died the most pathetic, embarrassing death I have ever seen!"

"Stop it!" Kazuma yelled, his face turning a shade of scarlet that rivaled Kirishima's hair. "Shut up! You're lying!"

"I am a Goddess, I don't lie about how pathetic mortals die!" Aqua wiped a tear from her eye. 

Izuku felt a deep pang of sympathy for the boy. Even if it was a misunderstanding, the boy had intended to lay down his life for another. "Excuse me, Miss Aqua, please don't be so cruel," Izuku interjected softly. "He thought he was doing the right thing. The intent to save someone is what matters."

Kazuma looked at Izuku, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Who are you? You look like a goody-two-shoes. Did you die saving a kitten from a tree?"

"No, I..." Izuku scratched the back of his head. "I died fighting a villain who was attacking a school bus."

Kazuma's eye twitched. Great. He was stuck in the afterlife with a genuine, bona-fide hero, making his own pathetic death look even worse by comparison. 

Aqua finally calmed down, clearing her throat and adopting a faux-professional posture. "Alright, alright, tractor-boy. My name is Aqua. You are dead. You have two options. Boring heaven, or reincarnate in a fantasy world with a cheat item to defeat the Demon King. I've already explained it to broccoli-head over here. What will you do?"

Kazuma, still seething with embarrassment and rage, stood up. He looked at the glowing catalog Aqua had summoned for him. He glared at the Goddess, who was currently sipping her tea and looking at him with immense condescension. 

This stuck-up, arrogant, useless Goddess, Kazuma thought, his mind racing with spite. Laughing at my death. Looking down on me. She thinks she's so high and mighty. You get to choose one thing to take with you, huh? Anything?

"Hey, Goddess," Kazuma said, his voice dangerously calm. "You said I could take any one thing from this room with me to the new world, right?"

"Yup!" Aqua smiled brightly. "Any weapon, any talent! Just pick from the book."

Kazuma didn't look at the book. He pointed a trembling, spiteful finger directly at Aqua. 

"Then I pick you."

The void went dead silent. 

Izuku gasped. 

Aqua blinked. "Huh?"

"You heard me!" Kazuma yelled, a triumphant, wicked grin spreading across his face. "You think you can just sit there and laugh at me? You think you're so superior? Fine! You're coming with me! Let's see how much you laugh when you're stuck in the mud fighting the Demon King with a guy who died from tractor shock!"

Aqua's smug expression evaporated, replaced by genuine confusion. "Wait, wait, wait. You can't do that. You can't pick a Goddess. That's against the rules! Stop joking around and pick a sword!"

Before she could protest further, a massive, blinding column of golden light descended from the invisible ceiling of the void, enveloping Aqua. 

"W-What is this?!" Aqua shrieked, dropping her teacup as the light lifted her slightly off the ground. "No! Stop! You can't take me! I'm a divine being! I have administrative duties!"

From the heavens above, a gentle, melodic voice echoed. 

"Your request is acknowledged and accepted, Kazuma Satou."

Another figure descended into the void. She was an angel, or perhaps another Goddess, with soft silver hair, wearing a pure white dress and exuding an aura of immense kindness. She smiled warmly at Kazuma and Izuku. 

"I am Eris," the new Goddess said softly. "Lady Aqua, as you have been selected as the hero's cheat item, I will be taking over your duties in this realm. Please do your best to assist them in defeating the Demon King."

"Eris! No! Don't do this to me!" Aqua screamed, thrashing against the pillar of light holding her. She looked at Kazuma with absolute terror. "Take it back! Pick a holy sword! Pick the Aegis Armor! Please, I'll give you a redo! I don't want to go to the lower world!"

"Too late!" Kazuma laughed maniacally, crossing his arms. "Welcome to the party, useless Goddess!"

Izuku stood in awe of the sheer chaos unfolding before him. He looked at Eris. "Uhm, excuse me, Lady Eris? I... I already made my choice from the catalog. The Seed of the Life Giant. Is that still..."

Eris turned her gentle smile toward Izuku. "Yes, Izuku Midoriya. Your brave heart and selfless choice have been recorded. You shall be granted the power of the Tree Rex. May your sturdy bark shield those who cannot protect themselves."

Eris raised her hands, and two more pillars of blue light descended, engulfing Izuku and Kazuma. 

Izuku felt a warmth unlike anything he had ever experienced. It wasn't the volatile, electrical heat of One For All. It was a deep, earthy warmth, like lying in a sun-drenched meadow on a perfect summer day. He felt a strange tingling in his legs, a heavy, rooting sensation that spread up his spine. 

"Heroes!" Aqua wailed, her tears flying into the void as her pillar of light began to pull her downward. "Wait! What about my tea?!"

Eris clasped her hands in prayer, her voice echoing with divine resonance. "Brave souls, journey forth. Defeat the Demon King, and the Gods shall grant you any one wish you desire. May fortune be with you."

Kazuma pumped his fist. "Let's go! I'm gonna be a harem king!"

Izuku closed his eyes. He didn't care about harems, or gold, or glory. He just wanted to help people. 

He felt his human skin beginning to harden. He felt his bones expanding, turning into something ancient and indestructible. The transformation was beginning before they even landed. 

I am not just Deku anymore, Izuku thought, his heart beating with a new, thrumming rhythm that sounded like ancient drums. I am the forest. I am the shield. I will not break.

With a final, blinding flash of light that consumed the entire void, the three of them vanished from the afterlife, hurtling toward a new world, a new life, and a deeply ridiculous adventure. 

The void was silent once more. Eris picked up the discarded teacup, sighed, and prepared for the next soul. 

Izuku Midoriya did not wake up with a gasp. He did not jolt awake with the frantic, adrenaline-soaked panic of a dying boy. 

Instead, awareness returned to him with the slow, deliberate certainty of a sunrise. It was a creeping, deep-rooted sensation, like water drawing up from the soil into a parched stem. The first thing he registered was not pain—for there was none—but weight. 

He was heavy. Impossibly, unfathomably heavy. 

When he had One For All active, he felt light, as if his body were a vessel of volatile lightning barely contained, always threatening to launch him into the stratosphere. Now, he felt exactly the opposite. He felt like he was moored to the very center of the earth. Gravity was no longer an enemy to be defied by jumping; it was a blanket that draped comfortably over his shoulders. 

The second thing he noticed was the smell. He expected the acrid stench of burning asphalt, the metallic tang of blood, or the sterile, chemical odor of a hospital. Instead, his senses were flooded with the scent of crushed cobblestone, damp moss, stale ale, and the sharp, clean aroma of pine sap. 

Where am I? Izuku thought, his mind sluggishly piecing together the memories of the starry void, the blue-haired Goddess, the strange boy in the tracksuit, and the glowing catalog. The Seed of the Life Giant. The Tree Rex. Right. I chose to be reincarnated to save this world. To be a shield.

Izuku tried to open his eyes. It felt like prying open heavy, wooden shutters. 

When his vision cleared, the first thing he saw was the narrow, stone-walled expanse of a medieval alleyway. Above him, framed by the rustic, timber-laced eaves of adjacent buildings, was a sky of brilliant, crystalline blue. It was not the smog-choked sky of Musutafu; it was pristine, unblemished, and radiant. The sunlight hitting his face didn't just feel warm—it felt nourishing. It felt like drinking a cool glass of water after a marathon. He could literally feel the solar energy seeping into his skin, converting into a thrumming, vibrant vitality that chased away the last remnants of his spiritual fatigue. 

"Ugh... my head..." 

A groan echoed from a few feet away. Izuku shifted his gaze. Lying in a heap among some discarded wooden crates was Kazuma Satou, the boy who had died of "tractor shock." He was rubbing his temples, his green tracksuit covered in a fine layer of dust. 

"Ah... ahh... WAAAAAHHHH!"

A second, much louder, and incredibly grating noise pierced the peaceful afternoon air. A few feet opposite Kazuma, Aqua the Goddess was sitting on the cobblestones. She looked down at her hands, then at the dirty alleyway, then at the sky, and finally burst into a torrent of hysterical, ugly sobbing. 

"I'm in the lower world! I'm actually in the mortal realm! It's dirty! It smells like horse manure and poverty! Get me out! Take me back! Eris, you traitor!" Aqua bawled, flailing her limbs like a toddler throwing a tantrum in a supermarket. 

Kazuma pushed himself up to a sitting position, wincing at the noise. "Will you shut up? You're giving me a migraine. We're in a fantasy world. People are going to think we're crazy if you keep screaming like that." He paused, looking down at his own hands, clenching and unclenching his fists. "So... it wasn't a dream. I really did die. And now I'm here."

A smirk began to creep onto Kazuma's face. He stood up, dusting off his tracksuit. He looked out toward the bustling street at the end of the alley. "An alternate world. A fresh start. I've read enough light novels to know exactly how this goes! I'm the chosen hero! I'll get an overpowered sword, a harem of beautiful elf girls, and live a life of luxury after defeating the Demon King!"

Izuku decided it was time to make his presence known. He tried to push himself up off the ground. 

Creak. GROAN. Snap.

The sound was deafening. It sounded like a two-hundred-year-old oak tree bending in the middle of a hurricane. 

Kazuma whipped his head around, his heroic smirk instantly vanishing, replaced by absolute, primal terror. Aqua stopped crying mid-sob, her jaw dropping so fast she nearly bit her tongue. 

"What... the... hell... is that?!" Kazuma shrieked, scrambling backward until his back hit the brick wall of the alley. 

Izuku didn't understand the reaction until he looked down at himself. 

His red U.A. sneakers were gone. In their place were massive, wide, trunk-like feet, with thick, gnarled roots functioning as toes. His legs were columns of ancient, dark mahogany bark, layered like impenetrable plates of armor. He looked at his torso; he was wearing a massive, organic approximation of a gladiator’s chest plate made entirely of ironwood, pulsing with a deep, inner emerald light. 

He lifted his hands to his face. His right hand was somewhat humanoid, though massive, with four thick, wooden fingers. The skin—or rather, the surface—was a lighter, greener wood, with thicker bark plating running up the forearm. 

But his left arm. Oh, his left arm.

It was a weapon of mass destruction. It was twice the size of his right arm, a colossal, asymmetrical gauntlet of solid, ancient timber. Thick, vibrant green vines wrapped tightly around the bicep and shoulder, holding the massive limb together. The forearm was a solid cylinder of wood, completely encasing a core of blinding, raw green Life Energy that throbbed with every beat of his heart. 

Izuku stood up fully. He kept rising. And rising. 

When he finally straightened his back, his head nearly brushed the second-story eaves of the buildings. He was easily eight and a half feet tall, and his shoulders were wider than a compact car. He was an absolute titan, a behemoth of the forest. 

"H-Hello," Izuku said, trying to wave his massive left arm. He meant for it to be a friendly, polite greeting. 

Instead, the voice that vibrated from his chest was a booming, resonant bass that rattled the loose shingles on the roofs around them. It sounded like boulders grinding against each other deep underground, smoothed out by the wind rustling through dense foliage. 

Kazuma slid down the brick wall, clutching his chest. "It talks. The boss monster talks. We literally just spawned, we don't even have a wooden sword, and we're getting spawn-camped by a raid boss. This game is garbage!"

"Wait! It's me!" Izuku said quickly, realizing the panic he was causing. He tried to modulate his voice, forcing it to be softer, though it still vibrated in their ribcages. "It's me. Izuku Midoriya. From the void? I picked the Tree Rex seed from the catalog."

Kazuma blinked, his terror slowly giving way to bewildered disbelief. "Midoriya? The kid who died fighting a villain? You... you really turned yourself into a tree? Permanently?!"

"A monster!" Aqua suddenly shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at him. "You're a giant, ugly, terrifying Treant! You're an affront to the divine order of humanoids! Stay back! Don't touch me with your dirty branches! I am a Goddess!"

Izuku felt a sweatdrop—or perhaps a bead of sap—form on the back of his wooden head. "I'm not a monster, Miss Aqua. I'm a Life Giant. I picked this form so I could protect you guys."

"Protect us?" Kazuma echoed. He finally pushed himself off the ground, warily approaching the towering wooden behemoth. He reached out a hesitant hand and knocked his knuckles against Izuku's thick leg. 

Clack, clack. It sounded like striking solid steel. Kazuma shook his stinging hand. 

"Holy crap," Kazuma murmured, his eyes widening. The gears in his gamer mind began to turn. "Midoriya, you are literally made of ironwood. And you're massive. Your defensive stats must be absolutely broken. You're a walking, talking fortress."

"That was the idea," Izuku smiled. Even though his face was a stylized, somewhat intimidating mask of carved wood and glowing green eyes, the earnest, heroic warmth of Izuku Midoriya shone through. "I was told this world is dangerous. I didn't want either of you to get hurt. If the Demon King sends his army, I can act as the vanguard."

Kazuma stared up at the giant. He remembered the boy in the starry void defending him from Aqua's mocking. He died saving a school bus, right? And his first thought upon getting a second chance at life was to turn himself into an ugly, giant tank just so he could be a meat shield for others. 

Kazuma sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "You know, Midoriya, you are seriously weird. But... I guess I'm glad you're on our side. It's nice to have an overpowered tank in the party."

"We are not a party!" Aqua interjected, crossing her arms and pouting. "I am a divine being! I am not teaming up with a shut-in NEET and a piece of sentient firewood! I'm going to go to the local church, reveal my divine identity, and they will shower me with wealth and luxury! Just watch!"

Aqua turned on her heel and marched proudly toward the end of the alleyway, stepping out onto the bustling main street. 

Kazuma and Izuku watched her go. 

"Should we follow her?" Izuku asked, his deep voice rumbling. 

"Give her three minutes," Kazuma said dryly. 

Two and a half minutes later, Aqua came trudging back into the alleyway, her head hung low, tears streaming down her face. 

"They laughed at me," she sobbed, collapsing to her knees. "I told the local priest I was Aqua, the Goddess of Water, and he told me to stop drinking so early in the morning! He threatened to call the guards! My own followers don't recognize me!"

"Big shocker," Kazuma deadpanned. "Nobody is going to believe a crazy girl in a weird costume is a deity. Welcome to reality, 'Goddess'. Now, if you're done throwing a pity party, we need to figure out our next move. We have no money, no weapons, no food, and no place to sleep."

Izuku pulled a small notebook out of the pocket of his tattered U.A. pants—which had somehow miraculously survived the transmutation, stretching to fit his massive waist like a pair of shorts. He also pulled out a pen, holding it delicately between his massive, wooden fingers. 

"Actually," Izuku rumbled, flipping the notebook open, "the first thing we should do is register at the local Adventurer's Guild. According to the fantasy RPG tropes you mentioned earlier, Kazuma-kun, the Guild is the central hub for all information, quests, and currency in this type of world. They might also provide a starting stipend or lodging for new recruits."

Kazuma looked at Izuku in surprise. "Did you write that down?"

"I like to take notes," Izuku admitted sheepishly, tapping the pen against his wooden chin. "It helps me organize my thoughts."

"Well, for a giant tree, you've got a good head on your shoulders," Kazuma smirked. "Alright, party. Next stop: the Adventurer's Guild. Try not to step on anyone, Midoriya."

Walking through the Town of Axel was an entirely new experience for Izuku. 

Back in Japan, even with Quirks being a normal part of society, people with extreme mutation Quirks still drew stares. But here, Izuku was a spectacle on a completely different level. 

Axel was beautiful. It looked like a town pulled straight out of a European history book, with cobblestone streets, half-timbered houses with slanted red roofs, and bustling open-air markets. The air was filled with the sounds of merchants haggling, blacksmiths hammering, and the distant clop of horse hooves. 

As the trio stepped out onto the main thoroughfare, the ambient noise of the street died down significantly. 

People stopped dead in their tracks. A woman carrying a basket of apples dropped it, the red fruit spilling across the cobblestones. A guard leaning against a post instinctively reached for the hilt of his sword, his eyes wide with alarm. Children pointed, hiding behind their mothers' skirts. 

"Look at the size of that thing..."

"Is it a monster? Did it breach the walls?"

"Why isn't the guard attacking it?!"

"Shh! Don't make eye contact! It'll crush you!"

Izuku felt a deep pang of guilt. He hated making people afraid. He immediately hunched his massive shoulders, trying to make himself look smaller, though it was an exercise in futility. 

"I-I'm so sorry!" Izuku bowed repeatedly to the people on the street. Because of his massive weight, every time he bowed, his heavy, root-like feet shifted, causing the ground to tremble slightly. Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Stop bowing, you're causing a localized earthquake," Kazuma hissed, grabbing Izuku's massive, tree-trunk leg. "Just act natural. Walk tall. Let them think you're my tamed beast or something. It'll give me street cred."

"I am not a beast, Kazuma-kun," Izuku said, though he stopped bowing. He carefully maneuvered his massive frame through the crowd, being exceptionally mindful of his colossal left arm. He felt like a bull in a china shop. "Excuse me, pardon me, so sorry, please have a nice day," he mumbled to everyone he passed. 

"Why are you so polite?" Aqua complained, trailing behind them and trying to use Izuku's massive shadow to shield herself from the sun. "You look like a terrifying demon of the forest. You should roar at them and demand they give us offerings! Specifically, offerings of high-quality wine and roasted meat!"

"A hero does not demand offerings from civilians, Miss Aqua," Izuku said firmly, his glowing green eyes narrowing slightly. "A hero serves the people. That is the fundamental duty of those blessed with power."

Kazuma rolled his eyes. "Great. I'm stuck with a useless, alcoholic Goddess and a boy scout trapped in the body of a raid boss. This is going to be a long life."

They finally reached a large, sprawling building near the center of town. Above the double wooden doors hung a sign featuring a shield and crossed swords. The Adventurer's Guild. 

"Alright, this is it," Kazuma said, taking a deep breath. "Time to start our legend."

He pushed open the double doors and stepped inside, Aqua following closely behind. Izuku approached the doors, paused, and quickly realized a logistical issue. The doors were perhaps seven feet tall. Izuku was eight and a half feet tall. And his shoulders were twice as wide as the doorframe. 

Inside, the Guild was loud, raucous, and smelling of roasted meat and spilled beer. Dozens of adventurers in various states of armor and leather were sitting at large wooden tables, boasting about their quests, drinking from massive tankards, and laughing. 

Kazuma puffed out his chest, ready to make a grand entrance. 

Behind him, Izuku attempted to enter the building. He ducked his head, turning his massive torso sideways. He squeezed his right arm through, then his torso. But as he tried to pull his colossal left gauntlet through the frame, it caught on the doorjamb. 

Crrraaaack!

The sturdy wooden doorframe splintered loudly. 

The entire Guild Hall went dead silent. The lively music played by a bard in the corner ground to a halt. Dozens of seasoned adventurers slowly turned their heads toward the entrance. 

They saw a massive, glowing green, bark-covered titan struggling to squeeze through the doorway, currently in the process of accidentally tearing the door off its iron hinges. 

"Uh-oh," Izuku muttered. He tried to pull his arm back, but the thick vines wrapped around his shoulder caught on the splintered wood. He gave a gentle tug. 

RIIIP. CRASH.

The entire double door, hinges, frame, and a small section of the stone wall came tearing away, collapsing onto the floor of the Guild in a cloud of dust. 

Izuku stood in the newly widened entrance, clutching the shattered remains of the door in his massive left hand. He looked at the terrified faces of the adventurers, who were slowly reaching for their weapons. 

Izuku immediately dropped the door, clasped his normal hand over his wooden chest plate, and bowed a perfect ninety degrees. 

"I AM SO INCREDIBLY SORRY!" Izuku's booming voice rattled the tankards on the tables. "I underestimated my dimensions! I promise to pay for the damages in full as soon as I secure a steady income! Please forgive my clumsy intrusion!"

The adventurers stared. The juxtaposition of a terrifying, towering plant monster politely bowing and apologizing with the earnestness of a schoolboy completely short-circuited their brains. 

"I... is that a Treant?" a warrior whispered. 

"Treants don't apologize," a mage replied, lowering his staff. "And they don't glow like that."

Kazuma, seeing the tension, quickly stepped in front of Izuku and raised his hands. "Hey, everyone! Relax! He's... he's with me! He's my party member. Completely harmless unless provoked. Just a bit of a klutz."

A young woman with a remarkably well-endowed figure, wearing a polite uniform, stepped out from behind the reception counter. She possessed an air of professional calm, though her eyes were wide with shock. This was Luna, the Guild Receptionist. 

"Um... welcome to the Adventurer's Guild of Axel," Luna said, her voice trembling only slightly. She looked up, way up, at Izuku. "Are you three looking to register?"

"Yes, ma'am," Izuku said, standing straight again and offering a gentle, glowing smile. "We would like to become adventurers to help protect this town."

Luna blinked, disarmed by the gentle warmth radiating from the giant. "Oh. Well, that is very noble of you, Mr...?"

"Izuku Midoriya, ma'am."

"Right. Well, Mr. Midoriya, please come to the counter. And... don't worry about the door. We have wizards who can fix that with a quick 'Mend' spell."

The trio approached the counter. The other adventurers slowly went back to their drinks, though they kept casting wary glances at the Green Titan standing in the center of the room. 

"To register, there is a fee of one thousand Eris per person," Luna explained with a professional smile. 

Kazuma froze. He patted his empty tracksuit pockets. He looked at Aqua. "Hey, Goddess. You got any divine currency on you?"

Aqua looked away, whistling innocently. "Gods have no need for mortal concepts like money."

"Great. We're broke," Kazuma sighed. He looked at Luna. "Is there any way we can waive the fee? Or pay it back later? We literally just got to town."

Luna frowned sympathetically. "I'm sorry, but the fee covers the cost of your registration cards, which are magical items. We can't issue them without upfront payment."

Izuku looked around the room. His eyes locked onto a massive, iron-banded barrel of ale sitting behind the bar, looking entirely too heavy for the bartender to lift. 

"Excuse me, sir!" Izuku called out to the bartender, his deep voice carrying easily. "If I move those barrels from your cellar to the main floor for you, would you be willing to sponsor our registration fees?"

The bartender, a burly man with a thick beard, looked at Izuku's colossal left arm. He then looked at the three heavy barrels he had been dreading moving all week. 

"If you can move all three of those from the cellar without spilling a drop, giant, I'll pay your three thousand Eris myself," the bartender grunted. 

"Deal!" Izuku beamed. 

Within two minutes, the entire Guild watched in absolute silence as the giant wooden man casually descended the narrow cellar stairs, returning moments later carrying all three massive, hundred-pound barrels simultaneously in his left arm, as if he were carrying a carton of eggs. He gently set them down behind the bar without a single sound. 

"Strength check passed, I guess," the bartender muttered, tossing a small pouch of coins onto Luna's counter. "Here. Register the kids. And the tree."

Luna smiled, taking the coins. "Excellent! Let us begin the appraisal process. This magical device will read your innate potential, talents, and physical capabilities. Based on your stats, you will be assigned a class. Who would like to go first?"

Kazuma stepped up, rolling up his sleeves. "I'll go. Time to see my overpowered hero stats."

He placed his hand over a large, glowing blue crystal ball sitting on a pedestal on the counter. The crystal hummed, drawing Kazuma's information and transferring it to a blank card in Luna's hand. 

Luna looked at the card, her eyebrows furrowing. "Let's see... Kazuma Satou. Well... your strength, vitality, magic power, and agility are all completely average. Slightly below average, actually."

Kazuma's confident smirk cracked. "What?"

"However!" Luna said brightly, trying to find a silver lining. "Your intelligence is remarkably high! And your luck stat is absolutely astronomical! It's off the charts! Only a merchant would need luck this high, but it's very impressive."

"So... what class do I get?" Kazuma asked, dread pooling in his stomach. "Spellsword? Paladin? Archmage?"

Luna winced. "With stats this average, the only class you qualify for right now is the base class: Adventurer. It's the weakest class, but it allows you to learn basic skills from other classes if you try hard enough!"

Kazuma slumped over the counter, the color draining from his face. I'm a basic NPC. I died of tractor shock, and now I'm a basic NPC. This world hates me.

"Ha! Step aside, weakling!" Aqua pushed Kazuma out of the way, practically radiating arrogance. "Watch and learn how a true deity shatters the mortal scaling system! Behold the power of a Goddess!"

Aqua slapped her hand onto the crystal. The crystal flared with a blinding, pure white light. 

Luna gasped, dropping her pen. "This... this is incredible! Lady Aqua, your stats are phenomenal! Your strength, vitality, and magical power are completely maxed out! They are at levels only seen in legendary heroes!"

Aqua put her hands on her hips, throwing her head back in a haughty laugh. "Ohohoho! Of course! I am perfection incarnate!"

"There is... one slight issue, however," Luna said, squinting at the card. "Your intelligence is remarkably low. Below average, even. And your luck is the worst I have ever seen. It's actually in the negative."

Kazuma burst out laughing, pointing at Aqua. "Max stats but you have the brain of a pigeon and the luck of a black cat under a ladder! You're a beefcake idiot! That perfectly explains why you're stuck here with me!"

"Shut up, Kazuma!" Aqua shrieked, her face turning bright red. "What class do I get, human?! Tell him how amazing I am!"

"With your maxed-out magic and vitality, you qualify instantly for the highest tier of the cleric tree: Archpriest!" Luna announced. "You can cast the most powerful healing and support magic available!"

"Hah! See! I am an Archpriest! Bow before me, NEET!" 

"Yeah, an Archpriest who will probably heal the enemy by accident because of your low intelligence," Kazuma retorted. 

"Um, excuse me?" 

Izuku stepped forward. The floorboards groaned beneath his weight. He looked at the delicate glass crystal on the pedestal. "I'm not sure my hand will fit on that."

Luna looked up at Izuku's massive, humanoid right hand. It was easily the size of a dinner plate. "Oh, that's fine, Mr. Midoriya! You just need to touch it with one finger. The crystal will do the rest."

"Okay. Here goes nothing," Izuku muttered. Please, let my stats be high enough to protect them. Let the Tree Rex form be what the catalog promised.

Izuku gently extended a thick, wooden index finger and pressed it against the surface of the crystal ball. 

The moment wood touched glass, the crystal did not just hum. It shrieked. 

A pulse of raw, concussive pressure exploded from the crystal, blowing Luna's hair back and sending papers flying across the guild hall. The blue light of the crystal instantly turned into a blinding, virulent, emerald green. It was so bright that Kazuma had to shield his eyes. 

The crystal began to violently vibrate. The pedestal cracked beneath it. 

Crack. CRACK. SHATTER.

The crystal ball exploded into fine, glowing green dust, unable to contain the sheer magnitude of the data it was trying to process. 

The guild was dead silent again. Everyone stared at the empty pedestal, then at the giant, who was quickly withdrawing his finger with a look of pure panic. 

"I broke it! I'm so sorry! I'll pay for that too!" Izuku yelled, bowing profusely again, causing the floor to shake. 

Luna stood completely frozen behind the counter. She was staring blankly at the registration card in her hand. The card itself was smoking, the edges slightly charred, glowing with faint green runes. 

Luna swallowed hard. She looked at Izuku, her eyes wide with a mixture of terror and absolute awe. 

"Mr... Midoriya," Luna whispered. The entire hall leaned in to listen. 

"Yes, ma'am?"

"The system... the system doesn't know what to do with you," Luna stammered. She held up the smoking card. "Your stats... they aren't numbers. They are just symbols."

Kazuma pushed his way to the front. "What does that mean? What are his stats?"

Luna took a deep, shuddering breath. "Izuku Midoriya. Strength: Immeasurable. Vitality: Immeasurable. Defense: Immeasurable. Magic Power: Extremely High, exclusively categorized under 'Primal Life/Nature'. Intelligence: High."

She paused, looking at the bottom of the card. "Agility: Extremely Low. Luck: Average."

Kazuma's jaw dropped. "Immeasurable? Like... off the charts?"

"Like the system lacks the mathematical capacity to quantify his physical durability and strength," Luna confirmed, her voice shaking. "He breaks the scaling. He does not fit into any standard human or demi-human class. The system had to create a unique classification for him."

Luna looked up at Izuku, reverence in her eyes. "Izuku Midoriya. Your official class is Life Giant: Tree Rex."

A pin could have dropped in the guild hall, and it would have sounded like a thunderclap. 

Then, chaos erupted. 

"A Life Giant?!" 

"Are you kidding me?! Those are myths! They're supposed to be the guardians of the world tree!"

"Immeasurable defense?! We could throw him into a dragon's nest and he'd just walk it off!"

Adventurers surged forward, suddenly clamoring around the trio. 

"Hey, giant! Join my party! We'll split the loot 60/40!"

"No, join ours! We need a vanguard!"

"Forget them, I'll pay you just to stand in front of me while I cast spells!"

Izuku was overwhelmed. The noise, the shouting, the sudden shift from terror to avarice. He took a step back, his massive form bumping into Kazuma. 

Kazuma, however, had a different reaction. His gamer mind was calculating rapidly. He had absolute trash stats. Aqua was a powerful but utterly stupid wildcard. If they were going to survive in this world, let alone defeat the Demon King, they needed a trump card. 

And Kazuma had just landed the ultimate, game-breaking tank. 

Kazuma hopped up onto a nearby table. "Back off! Back off, all of you!" Kazuma yelled, pointing at the crowd. "He's already taken! He's my vanguard! The Tree Rex belongs to the Satou party!"

Izuku looked down at Kazuma. He felt a swell of warmth in his wooden chest. Despite being weak, despite dying an embarrassing death, Kazuma was stepping up, claiming him as a friend and teammate. 

"It's true," Izuku rumbled, his deep voice instantly silencing the crowd. He stepped forward, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Kazuma. He placed his massive, normal right hand gently over his glowing, ironwood chest. 

"Kazuma-kun and Aqua-san are my companions," Izuku declared, his glowing green eyes scanning the room with absolute, unbreakable resolve. "I was brought to this world to be a shield. As long as I draw breath, and as long as the sun shines, I will protect them. And I will protect this town."

The earnestness, the pure, unadulterated heroism radiating from the giant tree was palpable. It wasn't the arrogant boasting of a seasoned adventurer; it was a vow. 

The adventurers slowly backed away, nodding in respect. A few raised their tankards toward Izuku. 

Luna smiled warmly, slipping the three registration cards across the counter. "Well then. Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild, Kazuma, Aqua, and Izuku. May your quests be victorious."

Kazuma grabbed his card, a wide grin on his face. He looked at Aqua, who was busy admiring her own reflection in a spoon, and then up at Izuku, who was carefully trying to hold his tiny card without snapping it. 

"Alright, Midoriya," Kazuma said, clapping his hands together. "We've got our classes. We've got our party. We've got a giant, overpowered tree. What's our first move?"

Izuku looked down at him, a serious expression on his wooden face. "Well, based on my analysis of standard economic structures in beginner towns, our immediate priority must be securing liquid capital to afford basic sustenance and shelter, otherwise we will be forced to sleep in the alleyway and suffer exposure—"

"We need a quest," Kazuma interrupted, sighing. "Let's go look at the board."

As they walked toward the quest board, Izuku's heavy footsteps thudding against the floorboards, he felt a strange sense of peace. He wasn't Deku, the boy who broke his bones. He was the Tree Rex. He was unbreakable. 

I will do my best, All Might, Izuku thought, looking out the shattered doorway at the bright blue sky. Even in this world. I am here.

The reality of being an adventurer in a fantasy world, as Kazuma quickly discovered, was far less glamorous than the light novels had promised. There were no immediate epic quests handed to them by mysterious strangers in cloaks. There were no legendary swords buried in stones waiting for the chosen one. There was, however, a massive amount of manual labor to be done in Axel. 

Money was agonizingly tight. Their registration fees had been covered by Izuku’s impromptu barrel-lifting, but that left them with absolutely zero liquid capital. They couldn't afford a room at the inn, they couldn't afford weapons, and Kazuma and Aqua couldn't afford food. 

For the first week, the "Satou Party" survived by taking on odd jobs around town from the Guild's lowest-tier request board. This mostly involved construction work, ditch digging, and moving heavy cargo. 

Kazuma hated it. He was a gamer, a NEET, not a bricklayer. After an hour of carrying wooden planks, his back ached, his hands were blistered, and he was drenched in sweat. Aqua, despite having the maxed-out physical stats of a Goddess, was utterly useless. She would carry one brick, complain that the dust was ruining her divine skin, and then take a three-hour nap in the shade. 

Izuku, on the other hand, was a one-man industrial revolution. 

Standing at eight and a half feet tall with immeasurable strength, Izuku didn't just carry planks; he carried entire stacks of raw timber on his broad, ironwood shoulders. When a local merchant needed a broken cart pulled out of a muddy ditch, Izuku simply grabbed the axle with his massive left gauntlet and lifted the entire wagon—horses included—back onto the dry road. He helped lay the stone foundations for a new tavern in three hours, a job that would have taken a crew of twenty men an entire week. 

"Mr. Midoriya, you are a lifesaver!" the construction foreman cheered, handing Izuku a small pouch of silver Eris coins. "If you ever get tired of adventuring, I'll hire you full-time! Best worker I've ever seen!"

"Just doing my part to help the community, sir!" Izuku rumbled happily, bowing slightly and handing the coin pouch to Kazuma, who was currently lying face-down in the dirt, groaning in pain. 

Despite the grueling work, Izuku found himself deeply fascinated by his new body. The Seed of the Life Giant hadn't just given him armor; it had fundamentally rewritten his biology. 

He discovered this on the third day of work. A stray piece of scaffolding had collapsed, slicing a deep gouge into the bark of his right arm. Izuku had panicked for a moment, expecting the familiar, blinding pain of a severe injury. Instead, there was only a dull pressure. But more amazingly, as he stepped out from the shadow of the building and into the direct, high-noon sunlight, something miraculous happened. 

The glowing green core in his chest flared. He felt a sudden, euphoric rush of warmth spread across his entire massive frame. It was like standing beneath a hot shower on a freezing winter day, but the water was made of pure energy. He literally felt the sunlight striking his bark and converting into raw, restorative power. Before his very eyes, the deep gouge in his arm knitted itself back together, the ironwood shifting and regrowing until there wasn't even a scratch left. 

Photosynthesis, Izuku realized, staring at his arm in absolute awe. I don't just have a healing factor. My body absorbs solar energy. And... wait. 

He touched his stomach. For the past three days, while Kazuma and Aqua complained endlessly about their hunger, Izuku hadn't felt the slightest twinge of appetite. He didn't need human food. As long as he spent a few hours in the sun, he was completely full, energized, and sustained. He could drink water from a river by literally rooting his toes into the muddy banks if he wanted to, but the sun provided all his caloric needs. 

It was the ultimate defensive quirk. He was a self-sustaining fortress. 

Unfortunately, Kazuma and Aqua were not. 

"I'm starving," Kazuma moaned, rolling over in the dirt at the construction site. "I feel like my stomach is eating my spine. Midoriya, how much did the foreman give us?"

Izuku did the math in his head. "Two thousand Eris. Which means we have just enough for three bowls of cheap stew and another night sleeping in the horse stables behind the Guild."

"Stables!" Aqua shrieked, suddenly waking up from her nap. She stomped over, her blue hair a tangled mess. "I am Aqua! The Goddess of Water! I command legions of the faithful! I cannot sleep on hay another night! The horses keep sneezing on me! And one of them tried to eat my hair!"

"Maybe if you actually worked instead of whining, we could afford a room at the inn," Kazuma snapped, glaring at her. 

"I am a support class! Archpriests don't do manual labor! We provide divine blessings from the rear!"

"You haven't blessed anything! You just complain!"

"Excuse me," Izuku rumbled, stepping between them before they could start physically fighting. His massive shadow enveloped them both, cooling the midday heat. "Fighting won't solve our financial crisis. If manual labor isn't paying enough, we need to transition to our primary objective: Adventuring. We need to take a monster subjugation quest."

Kazuma sighed, rubbing his temples. "You're right. We have an overpowered tank. We might as well use him. Let's go to the Guild and see what we can kill."

The Adventurer's Guild was relatively quiet in the mid-afternoon. Luna was wiping down the counter when the massive, lumbering form of the Green Titan squeezed sideways through the newly repaired double doors. (The guild master had specifically ordered the doorway widened by two feet to accommodate their newest, largest member). 

Kazuma marched straight to the quest board, his eyes scanning the parchment flyers. 

"Slay a dragon? No, suicidal. Clear a goblin cave? Too dark, and Midoriya probably wouldn't fit in the tunnels," Kazuma muttered. He tapped his chin, looking for something that paid well but carried low risk. 

His eyes landed on a flyer featuring a crude drawing of a frog. 

"Giant Toads," Kazuma read aloud. "Bounties are up. It's mating season, and they're infesting the farms outside Axel. Five thousand Eris per kill. Wait, five thousand?! That's a fortune!"

Aqua peered over his shoulder. "Frogs? Are you kidding me? A Goddess does not stoop to exterminating garden pests. Find me an undead warlock or a demon!"

"Read the flyer, idiot," Kazuma said. "Five thousand a pop. If we kill four of them, we can afford a nice room at the inn, hot baths, and a massive steak dinner."

Aqua’s mouth watered visibly. "Steak? Well... I suppose I can temporarily lower my divine standards to assist the local agricultural community."

Izuku read the flyer carefully. "It says 'Giant' Toads. Kazuma-kun, in fantasy ecosystems, 'giant' usually implies a significant physical threat. Amphibians of massive size would likely possess incredibly strong leg muscles for leaping, and a prehensile tongue capable of capturing large prey. We shouldn't underestimate them."

"Midoriya, you're an eight-and-a-half-foot-tall tree made of iron," Kazuma deadpanned. "I think you can handle a frog. Let's go."

An hour later, the trio stood on the rolling, grassy plains just a few miles outside the walls of Axel. The sky was a brilliant azure, and the wind rustled through the tall grass. 

Izuku closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Away from the cobblestone and noise of the town, his Life Giant physiology felt truly alive. He could feel the pulse of the earth beneath his root-like toes. He could sense the moisture in the soil, the network of grass roots spreading out for miles. It was a sensory overload of pure, vibrant nature. 

This world is beautiful, Izuku thought, a soft, rumbling hum escaping his wooden chest. I will protect it.

"Alright, keep your eyes peeled," Kazuma said, drawing his basic, standard-issue iron sword. He looked ridiculous holding it, his hands shaking slightly. "Toads are ambush predators, right? Watch the tall grass."

"Hah! You're so cowardly, Kazuma!" Aqua boasted, striding forward with her hands on her hips. "There is no need for caution! I have maxed-out stats! If a stupid overgrown frog shows its ugly face, I will smite it with my divine fists! Come out, you slimy beasts! Face the wrath of—"

The ground suddenly shuddered. 

A massive shadow blotted out the sun above Aqua. 

Izuku’s head snapped up. Bounding over a nearby hill, moving with terrifying, silent speed, was a toad. But it wasn't just big. It was the size of a minivan. It was a gelatinous, warty mountain of blue-green muscle, its massive mouth stretched into a permanent, dopey grin. 

"Look out!" Izuku roared. 

The toad landed with a thud that shook the plains. It looked down at Aqua, who was frozen in absolute terror, her boastful confidence instantly evaporating. 

"A-Ah..." Aqua squeaked. 

The toad didn't hesitate. It opened its massive, cavernous maw, lunged forward, and clamped its jaws completely over the upper half of the Goddess. 

"Mmph! Mmmph! WAAHHH!" Muffled shrieks of panic echoed from inside the toad's mouth as her legs kicked wildly in the air. The toad lazily began to tilt its head back to swallow her whole. 

"Aqua!" Kazuma screamed. Panic seized him, but adrenaline forced him to move. He charged the massive amphibian, raising his sword high. "Take this, you overgrown wart! HYAH!"

Kazuma brought the iron sword down with all his meager strength onto the toad's flank. 

Boing.

The rubbery, highly elastic skin of the toad simply absorbed the impact, bouncing the iron sword back with such force that it vibrated violently in Kazuma's hands, making him drop it. 

"Ah, crap. It's immune to physical slashing!" Kazuma yelled, scrambling backward as the toad's massive, bulbous eye slowly turned to look at him. 

"Hold on, Aqua!" 

Izuku moved. Despite his immeasurable weight, his long legs covered the distance in two massive strides. He stepped between Kazuma and the beast. 

He didn't have One For All. He couldn't channel kinetic energy into a localized shockwave. But he had mass. He had density. And he had the instinct of a hero who refused to let anyone die on his watch. 

Izuku planted his right foot deep into the soil, anchoring himself. He drew back his normal, right arm—not even his colossal left gauntlet—and clenched his wooden hand into a fist. The ironwood bark on his knuckles creaked under the tension. 

Let's test my base strength, Izuku thought. 

"Tree Rex... Smash!" 

Izuku drove his fist directly into the soft underbelly of the toad. 

The sound of the impact was like a cannon firing at point-blank range. The sheer, terrifying density of Izuku's ironwood fist meeting flesh created a concussive boom that sent a shockwave through the tall grass. 

The minivan-sized toad was literally lifted off the ground. Its eyes bulged outward, its mouth flying open as the kinetic force traveled through its gelatinous body. Aqua was violently expelled from its maw, flying backward and landing in a pile of tall grass, covered head-to-toe in a thick, vile layer of clear slime. 

The toad itself flew thirty yards through the air, completely airborne, before crashing into the dirt with a wet, bone-crunching thud. It twitched once, its tongue rolling out of its mouth like a red carpet, and then went completely still. Dead. 

Kazuma stood frozen, his mouth hanging open. He looked from the dead toad, thirty yards away, to Izuku, who was currently examining his wooden knuckles. 

"I held back so I wouldn't vaporize it, since we need the body for the bounty," Izuku muttered to himself, pulling out his leaf-notebook. "The elastic skin provides high resistance to slashing damage, but severe vulnerability to blunt-force trauma. Good to know."

Kazuma fell to his knees. "Midoriya... you... you literally punched a two-ton frog across a football field. With your weak arm."

Izuku turned around, his glowing green eyes filled with concern. "Are you okay, Kazuma-kun? Did it hurt you?"

"I'm fine, but Aqua..."

"WAAAHHH! It's so gross! I'm covered in frog spit! It smells like rotten fish and bad life choices!" Aqua wailed, rolling around in the grass, desperately trying to wipe the thick slime off her face and ruined divine dress. "Clean me! Someone clean me!"

Izuku lumbered over, offering a massive hand. "It's okay, Miss Aqua. You're safe. We can get you washed up at the—"

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The ground began to shake again. Much harder this time. 

Izuku stood up straight, his heroic instincts flaring. Danger Sense wasn't active anymore, but he didn't need a Quirk to see what was coming. 

Bounding over the horizon, drawn by the sound of the fight and the smell of their dead kin, were three more Giant Toads. They were moving in a coordinated V-formation, locking their bulbous eyes onto the crying, slimy form of the Goddess. 

"They hunt in packs?!" Kazuma screamed, grabbing his sword and immediately running behind Izuku's massive, tree-trunk leg. "Tank! Do your tank thing! Pull aggro!"

Izuku narrowed his glowing green eyes. Three targets. Spread out. He couldn't punch them all at once, and if he missed one, it could reach Kazuma and Aqua. 

I need to close the distance instantly and use my mass to my advantage, Izuku processed rapidly. He felt a tug in his consciousness—a piece of innate knowledge regarding his Tree Rex biology unlocking in his mind. Momentum. Mass times velocity.

Izuku took a deep breath, his chest glowing brightly. He lowered his massive, wide shoulders, leaning his upper body forward like a sprinter in the blocks. He brought his colossal, vine-wrapped left gauntlet up to guard his face like a shield. 

"Stay behind me!" Izuku roared. 

He dug his root-toes deep into the earth. "Tree Charge!" 

Izuku didn't just run. He exploded forward. The ground beneath his feet shattered, launching clods of dirt fifty feet into the air. Despite his incredibly low agility stat, when an eight-and-a-half-foot, two-ton juggernaut of solid ironwood initiates a charge, it moves like a runaway freight train. 

He became a terrifying, unstoppable blur of green and dark wood. He aimed himself directly at the center toad. 

The toad tried to leap out of the way, but it was too slow. Izuku slammed into the beast dead center. 

The impact was devastating. The toad wasn't just knocked back; it was flattened. Izuku's massive shoulder completely crushed the beast's skeletal structure, driving it deep into the soil and instantly killing it upon impact. 

But Izuku didn't stop. He pivoted heavily on his right foot, tearing up a massive trench in the grass. 

The toad on the left opened its mouth, launching its massive, prehensile tongue. The muscle shot out like a harpoon, bypassing Izuku and wrapping tightly around Kazuma's waist. 

"Ahhh! Help! It's got me!" Kazuma shrieked as he was violently yanked off his feet, flying through the air toward the open, drooling maw of the amphibian. 

Izuku couldn't reach him in time. He was too heavy, his momentum carrying him the other way. He needed a ranged attack. He needed to sever the tongue. 

He held up his right arm. He felt the pure, solar energy he had absorbed earlier in the day rushing from his chest core, channeling rapidly down his arm to the palm of his hand. The wood around his forearm shifted, peeling back slightly like the petals of a flower to reveal a glowing, concentrated orb of pure, blinding light. 

Focus. Aim. Pierce. 

"Photosynthetic Laser!" Izuku shouted. 

A concentrated, blinding beam of pure, burning solar energy erupted from his palm. It sliced through the air with a searing hiss. Izuku swept his arm sideways. 

The laser beam cleaved perfectly through the toad's extended tongue, instantly cauterizing the massive muscle. 

The toad shrieked in agony as the severed half of its tongue fell to the dirt. Kazuma plummeted out of the air, crashing hard into the grass, but entirely free of the beast. 

Izuku didn't give the toad a chance to recover. He adjusted his aim, pointing his palm directly at the screaming amphibian. The solar beam struck the toad dead center in the forehead. Because the laser was composed of hyper-concentrated light and heat, it burned straight through the monster's rubbery skin, incinerating its brain and leaving a smoking, cauterized hole. The second toad dropped dead. 

Izuku immediately spun around to face the third and final toad. 

The beast looked at its three dead companions. It looked at the massive, glowing green titan whose arm was currently smoking with residual heat. The dopey grin on the toad's face vanished, replaced by an expression of profound, primal panic. 

It turned around and began to hop away as fast as its legs could carry it. 

Izuku lowered his arm, the bark shifting back into place to cover his palm. He let out a long, heavy breath, the glow in his chest dimming slightly as his body cooled down. 

"Is everyone alright?" Izuku asked, his deep voice carrying over the quiet plains. 

Kazuma slowly stood up, rubbing his bruised lower back. He walked over to the severed, smoking piece of toad tongue lying in the grass, then looked up at Izuku. 

"Midoriya," Kazuma said, his voice entirely devoid of sarcasm. "Remind me to never, ever make you angry."

Izuku blinked, a warm, gentle smile forming on his wooden face. He reached up and scratched the back of his head with his massive left gauntlet. "I was just doing my job as the vanguard, Kazuma-kun! I promised to protect you guys. Plus, this means we got three giant toads! That's fifteen thousand Eris! We can afford the inn tonight!"

Kazuma stared at the pure, wholesome aura radiating from the terrifying engine of destruction. He sighed, shaking his head. "Yeah. We're getting steak tonight. Let's drag these bodies back to the Guild."

The satou party sat in a large booth at the Adventurer's Guild tavern. The table was covered in empty plates, stripped chicken bones, and overturned tankards of cheap ale. They had eaten like royalty, and Aqua was currently asleep, her face planted in a half-eaten bowl of mashed potatoes, snoring softly. 

Izuku sat perfectly still at the end of the booth. He hadn't eaten a single thing, perfectly content to bask in the ambient light of the lanterns and sip from a massive wooden bucket of water the bartender had provided him. 

Kazuma was counting their remaining coins. He looked up, his expression serious. 

"Alright, we survived our first quest. And thanks to Midoriya, we actually made a profit. But we need to face facts," Kazuma said, leaning forward. "Our party balance is absolute garbage."

Izuku tilted his heavy head. "Garbage? How so? I maintain aggro and deal physical damage, and you provide tactical oversight."

"Midoriya, you are an incredible tank. Unbelievable, really," Kazuma admitted. "But you're a melee fighter. Your laser attack is strong, but you told me it uses up a lot of your stored solar energy, right? You can't spam it."

"Correct," Izuku nodded, pulling out his leaf-notebook. "The Photosynthetic Laser drains roughly twenty percent of my daily solar reserves per second of sustained fire. Overuse could force my body into a dormant, hibernation state."

"Exactly," Kazuma pointed. "And I'm a basic adventurer with trash stats. I can barely swing a sword. And Aqua..." Kazuma looked at the snoring Goddess in the potatoes. "She's a healer who gets eaten by the very things we're supposed to fight. If we go up against flying enemies, or a massive horde of long-range magic casters, we are dead. You can't shield us from a hundred arrows coming from all directions. We need a ranged attacker. We need an offensive mage."

"A mage!" Izuku's eyes lit up. "Someone who can manipulate the elements! Or cast localized crowd-control spells! That would perfectly complement my vanguard position. I could hold the enemy in place while they cast from a safe distance."

"Right. Which is why I put up a recruitment poster on the board an hour ago," Kazuma grinned, leaning back. "Advanced classes only. We're going to build a proper, balanced RPG party."

They waited. An hour passed. Then two. The tavern began to thin out as adventurers went home for the night. 

"Nobody wants to join us," Kazuma groaned, banging his head on the table. "They probably saw Midoriya break the door and think we're a freak show."

"I... I can wait outside if my appearance is deterring applicants," Izuku offered, looking down at his massive, root-like hands in shame. 

"No, stay put," Kazuma sighed. "You're our only selling point right now."

Suddenly, the heavy double doors of the Guild creaked open. 

A solitary figure stood in the doorway. It was a young girl, perhaps fourteen years old. She wore a striking, somewhat ridiculous outfit: a red dress with yellow borders, a dark brown cape, a witch's hat that seemed slightly too large for her head, and an eyepatch over her left eye. She carried a long, dark wooden staff with a floating red crystal orb at the top. 

She scanned the room, her visible red eye locking onto the massive, eight-and-a-half-foot green titan sitting in the corner booth. 

She marched over, her cape billowing dramatically behind her. She stopped perfectly in front of their table, planted her staff on the floorboard with a loud thwack, and struck a dramatic pose, pulling the brim of her hat down. 

"I have seen your flyer," the girl proclaimed, her voice loud, theatrical, and dripping with chuunibyou intensity. "You seek the power of a mighty mage. Well, look no further! For I am Megumin! Archwizard of the famed Crimson Demon Clan! Foremost master of the greatest, most devastating magic in this world! I have come to grace your party with my explosive talents!"

Kazuma stared at her blankly. He looked at her eyepatch, her dramatic pose, and her boastful tone. Great. A weirdo kid. Just what we need.

"We only accept advanced classes," Kazuma said dismissively, waving a hand. "And you look like you're playing dress-up. Run along, kid."

Megumin's dramatic aura shattered. "K-Kid?! I am a fully fledged Crimson Demon! My class is Archwizard! It's one of the highest tiers!" She reached into her pocket and slammed her adventurer card onto the table. 

Kazuma picked it up, his eyes widening. "Wait. She really is an Archwizard. Her magic stat is incredibly high."

Before Kazuma could say anything else, a massive shadow fell over the table. 

Izuku stood up. He loomed over the young girl like a towering oak tree. Megumin stiffened, her red eye darting up to the glowing, deeply intimidating mask of ironwood looking down at her. For a moment, a flash of genuine fear crossed her face. 

Then, Izuku pulled out his massive, leafy notebook and a piece of charcoal. His eyes were wide, glowing brightly, and he was practically vibrating with excitement. 

"An Archwizard?!" Izuku's deep voice boomed, though it was filled with absolute, starry-eyed awe. "That's incredible! You said you master devastating magic! Does it manipulate the localized atmospheric pressure to create a combustible reaction? Or is it pure mana converted into thermal energy? What is the area of effect? Does it have a long casting time? Do you have to account for wind resistance when aiming?"

Megumin blinked. The notebook in the giant's hand was almost comically large, and he was leaning down, looking at her not with fear, or mockery, but with genuine, intense academic respect. 

"Uh..." Megumin lowered her staff slightly, entirely caught off guard by the giant's rapid-fire questioning. "It... it makes a really, really big boom."

"Fascinating!" Izuku muttered rapidly, scribbling with the charcoal on the leaf. "A raw, concussive force multiplier. The tactical applications are endless. A heavy bombardment spell is exactly what we need to clear enemy lines before I initiate a vanguard charge."

Kazuma pinched the bridge of his nose. "Midoriya, stop geeking out. You're overwhelming her." He looked at Megumin. "Look, if you're really an Archwizard, you must know a lot of spells. What kind of magic do you specialize in? Water? Earth? Healing?"

Megumin's face flushed with sudden, immense pride. She ripped her eyepatch off—revealing a perfectly normal left eye—and pointed her staff at the ceiling. 

"I possess only one magic!" Megumin declared passionately. "The ultimate, the supreme, the pinnacle of all magical arts! The magic that reduces mountains to rubble and turns fortresses to ash! I walk the path of... EXPLOSION!"

The tavern went silent for a moment. 

Kazuma frowned. "Explosion magic? Isn't that an endgame spell? It takes an absurd amount of mana. Can you cast anything else?"

"Nothing else!" Megumin crossed her arms proudly. "I have dedicated all my skill points, all my training, and my very soul to Explosion! I cannot cast a simple fireball! I cannot heal a paper cut! I can only explode things!"

"You're useless," Kazuma deadpanned. "Denied. Go away."

"Wait!" Megumin panicked, slamming her hands on the table. "Please! I'm broke! I haven't eaten in three days! Just let me show you! I'll prove my worth!"

"Kazuma," Izuku interjected softly, placing his massive hand on Kazuma's shoulder. "We shouldn't dismiss her so quickly. If her power is as strong as she claims, it could be the trump card we need. Everyone deserves a chance to show what they can do. Remember what All Might—I mean, remember what heroes do."

Kazuma looked at Izuku's earnest, glowing face. He sighed deeply. "Fine. But we're not doing this in town. We're going outside."

The sun was beginning to set, casting long, golden shadows across the plains outside Axel. 

The Satou Party stood on a ridge overlooking a desolate, rocky valley. Kazuma and a newly awakened, deeply hungover Aqua stood behind Izuku, who had naturally stepped to the front to act as a shield just in case something went wrong. 

Megumin stood a few yards ahead of them, her staff pointed out toward the empty valley. The wind caught her cape, making her look genuinely heroic. 

"Observe," Megumin said, her voice dropping an octave, losing all its previous panic and replacing it with absolute, focused power. "The pinnacle of the Crimson Demons."

She closed her eyes and began to chant. 

"Darkness blacker than black and darker than dark, I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson..."

Izuku watched, utterly fascinated. As she chanted, the air around them began to change. He could feel it with his Life Giant senses. The ambient mana in the air was being violently pulled toward the tip of her staff. The grass at her feet flattened. A vortex of red energy began to swirl, compressing the atmosphere. 

"The time of awakening cometh. Justice, fallen upon the infallible boundary, appear now as an intangible distortion! I desire for my ultimate power to descend!"

The pressure was immense. The sky above the valley darkened, dark red clouds swirling ominously. 

Kazuma's jaw dropped. "Holy crap... she wasn't kidding. The mana output is insane."

"EXPLOSION!"

Megumin swung her staff down. 

A beam of crimson light shot from the crystal, striking the center of the rocky valley. For a fraction of a second, everything went completely silent. 

Then, the world tore itself apart. 

A pillar of pure, blinding fire and raw, destructive concussive force erupted from the valley floor. It expanded with terrifying speed, vaporizing the rocks, the dirt, and the air itself. A mushroom cloud of smoke and ash plumed high into the evening sky. 

Then came the shockwave. 

A wall of displaced air hit the ridge like a physical tsunami. It tore the grass from its roots. 

"Waaaah!" Aqua screamed as the wind hit her, blowing her completely off her feet. Kazuma yelped, flying backward. 

But they didn't go far. 

Izuku had anticipated the blast. The moment the spell detonated, he stomped his massive, root-like feet deep into the bedrock of the ridge. He crossed his arms—his colossal left gauntlet acting as an impenetrable wall—and stood directly in front of Kazuma and Aqua. 

The gale-force winds hit Izuku's ironwood frame and broke around him like water striking a boulder. He didn't budge a single inch. His massive shadow provided a perfect slipstream, shielding his party members from the roaring storm of dust and debris. 

As the wind finally died down, the smoke cleared. 

The entire center of the rocky valley was gone. In its place was a massive, glowing crater of molten, glassified rock. It was a level of destruction that Izuku had only ever seen from one person. 

"Incredible," Izuku whispered, lowering his arms. "That... that's comparable to Kacchan's Howitzer Impact. No, it's bigger. It's almost at the level of a United States of Smash. The destructive yield is absolutely staggering."

Kazuma coughed, waving the dust away from his face. "Okay... okay, I admit it. That's the most powerful spell I've ever seen."

They looked over at Megumin. 

She was standing perfectly still for a moment. Then, slowly, she tipped forward like a felled tree, face-planting directly into the dirt. 

"Megumin?!" Izuku yelled, ripping his roots from the ground and rushing over to her. He gently turned her over with two massive wooden fingers. 

She was breathing, but her face was pale, and she looked completely exhausted. She managed to open one eye, a weak, victorious smile on her lips. 

"Did you... did you like it?" she whispered. 

"You used all your mana at once," Kazuma realized, walking over. "Explosion magic uses so much mana that it completely drains the caster's body. She can't move."

"A one-trick pony," Aqua sighed, dusting off her dress. "She casts one spell and then becomes a useless sack of potatoes for the rest of the day. We can't take her."

"Are you kidding?" Izuku interrupted, his deep voice carrying a rare edge of protective firmness. "Did you see what she just did?"

Izuku looked down at the exhausted girl in the dirt. Most people called her crazy. Most people rejected her because of her limitations. But Izuku saw something else entirely. He saw a girl who had poured her entire heart, soul, and body into mastering one, singular, extraordinary power, even if it broke her to use it. 

She's just like me, Izuku thought, a soft, fond smile gracing his wooden features. She gives everything she has in a single strike.

Izuku reached down. Very gently, with surprising dexterity for a creature of his massive size, he scooped Megumin up with his normal right hand. He lifted her high into the air and carefully placed her onto his broad, ironwood left shoulder, nestling her securely against the thick green vines wrapped around his bicep. 

Megumin gasped softly at the sudden altitude, but the thick vines and warm bark felt surprisingly comfortable, like a sturdy, heated armchair. 

"We are absolutely taking her," Izuku declared to Kazuma, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Her magic is phenomenal. And if she can't move after casting it, it's fine. That's why I'm here. I am the vanguard. I will carry her to the battle, I will protect her while she casts, and I will carry her home."

Megumin looked at the side of the giant's wooden face. In all her time in Axel, she had been mocked, rejected, and laughed at. But this massive, terrifying monster of the forest was looking at her magic with absolute reverence, and offering to bear her burdens without a second thought. 

A deep, furious blush spread across Megumin's cheeks. She quickly pulled the brim of her large hat down over her face to hide it, though she wrapped her arms securely around the thick vine on his shoulder. 

"Hmph," Megumin mumbled, trying to sound dignified. "Very well. I shall allow this giant to serve as my personal steed."

Kazuma watched the interaction. The giant, wholesome tree and the explosive, dramatic chuunibyou. It was a ridiculous pairing, but somehow, it clicked perfectly. 

"Fine," Kazuma sighed, though a small smile tugged at his lips. "Welcome to the party, Megumin. Let's go home, everyone. Midoriya, try not to drop our new artillery cannon."

"I won't let her fall, Kazuma-kun!" Izuku beamed, turning back toward Axel, his heavy footsteps thudding rhythmically against the earth. 

As the sun fully set, painting the sky in shades of purple and gold, Megumin rested her head against the warm, thrumming green core of Izuku's chest plate. For the first time since leaving the Crimson Demon village, she felt entirely safe.