FOREWORD

I had always intended to do two Halloween one-shots this year instead of one. My first has already been published, Vile Victuals, a crossover between The League of Gentlemen and Tokyo Ghoul. However, my second proved to be a bit of a hassle. My original intention was to write a one-shot where Kaede from Elfen Lied was adopted by the Addams Family, but I couldn't get it out. For anyone interested in taking up the baton of that story and running with it, I posted it as a challenge on the forums of DZ2, whitetigerwolf, and Gabriel Herrol.

However, I did have another potential story idea in mind. I've been considering how to write my first My Hero Academia fic, after an abortive attempt at a Girl Genius crossover. I've considered crossovers like Overlord, High School DxD, Jekyll and Hellsing. Nothing eventuated, so far. However, I decided to try Elfen Lied as a crossover, with Izuku as a Diclonius. There's only one other crossover between these two franchises as of writing, and it certainly doesn't have Izuku as a Diclonius. In addition, I intend to include some interesting ideas about how the world of Elfen Lied gave rise to that of My Hero Academia, and include, albeit in an unconventional way, a character from Elfen Lied.

However, lately, my motivation to write bigger stories has gone away. I've burned myself out, mainly on Potterverse/Nasuverse crossovers, and while I intend to come back to writing larger stories eventually (and I also have new chapters on the way for a number of my other works), I realised I can't write this as a full story for now. Instead, I'm writing this one-shot as a sort of pilot, a bit like my Worm/Nasuverse crossover Magissa: Origins, though this has a better chance of being expanded into a full story. Hopefully, it will.

Incidentally, the title 'Der Erlkönig' means 'the Elf-King' in German, named for a poem by Goethe, who also wrote one of two poems named Elfenlied.

Anyway, time for the usual disclaimers. Firstly, there will be spoilers for both My Hero Academia and Elfen Lied.

Secondly, there will be heavy annotations, as is usual for my works. You have been warned.

Thirdly, this is an M-Rated work. There will be coarse language, violence, and very dark themes. Again, you have been warned.

Finally, the following is a fan-written work. My Hero Academia and Elfen Lied are the properties of their respective owners. Please support the official release. Otherwise, Mariko will play with you…

DER ERLKÖNIG: ORIGIN

It started two centuries ago in China, with a newborn baby emitting a glow. Or, so people thought. In truth, it had started a scant few years earlier, when a bioweapon spread across the world and a vaccine used to combat said bioweapon interacted. The upshot was, people with special abilities known as Quirks were born, and the world went through a chaotic period, not knowing that a potentially worse age of chaos had been averted, though this was through a genocide that was covered up. A genocide of an emergent human subspecies.

However, the subspecies of humanity never truly went away. Their potential slept away in the human genome, and so too did the secrets around them, known only to a few, as the incidents had been covered up. But the time had come for that subspecies to re-emerge. It did so, violently, five years ago, when an apparently Quirkless boy with only a single noteworthy feature had seen his mother cut down in front of him. He thought she had died. Those who had harmed her would have cause to regret it.

The boy could have been thrown to the wolves. In fact, he very nearly was. Only the testimony of a passing Pro-Hero and the fact that, in the aftermath, the boy was staring at the mess of meat and blood and viscera in horror rather than satisfaction, helped ensure the boy wasn't. But he was still punished, even if many considered his punishment inadequate.

It was decided to send the boy to a newly-established and rather understaffed facility. It was adjacent to Tartarus, the high-security prison that held the worst criminals, made to withstand or deter the Quirks of those imprisoned there. In a bit of perverse irony, the creators of this facility called it Asphodel, after the part of the Greek afterlife that was meant for the common faceless masses, as opposed to the paradise of Elysium, or the hell of Tartarus.

It wasn't a prison per se, even if it had many of the same architectural and organisational structures. It was a correction facility, and not just in the euphemistic way. It was a facility where people who inadvertently caused problems with their Quirks, dangerous ones, could be rehabilitated, be given the training and counselling needed to put their Quirks to better use. Parents were even allowed to reside on-site if need be.

There was both support and opposition to Asphodel. Its detractors argued that it was a waste of taxpayers' money, and that research showed that those with villainous Quirks were more likely to descend into villainy. Its supporters pointed out that many villainous Quirks had useful applications for heroism, pointing out the destructive Quirks of the likes of Thirteen the Space Hero, or Endeavour, the Number 2 Hero, being used for good purposes, to say nothing of the bias of the studies quoted.

The back and forth in the political arena ensured that Asphodel's success stories, in its admittedly short period of operation, had never been trumpeted, especially as the vast majority of residents (they were rarely called inmates) were minors. However, perhaps one of their biggest success stories was about to embark on a path that would see his dream realised. A boy with green hair, tinged with crimson, emerald eyes with pink flecks in them…and a pair of horns, shaped like cat ears…

"They won't let you become a Hero, you know. Or even if they did, it won't be long before they declare you a Villain."

"Shut up."

"I'm a part of you. I always have been. I'm the part of you that knows the truth, what needs to be done. You are only setting yourself up for disappointment, at best. In truth, I don't think it's going to be long before they lock you further into Tartarus and start the vivisection. Or have you forgotten what dear Kacchan said to you when he visited you in this little menagerie?"

Unbidden, the rasping tones of his ex-friend echoed through his mind. "You're no Hero, Deku! You're a Villain! You always will be! And I will be there to stop you! To put you into a cage like the monster you are!"

"You see?" the first voice gloated quietly as it came back. "And everyone praised him as a good Hero, someone who would become the very best. This is what humanity treasures as its Heroes: power. Aggression. Xenophobia. Violence against those who are different, who might be even a potential threat. This world needs a palimpsest, and you will give it to them."

"I SAID, SHUT UP!" With that scream of anger, the horned boy lashed out at the target dummy with invisible hands and arms, shredding it into specks of ballistics gel that flew everywhere in a sticky blizzard.

And then, he heard another voice, a perhaps more welcome one. "…Don't listen to that mean DNA Voice, Izuku!"

Izuku Midoriya wasn't sure whether this voice was what it claimed to be, a distant relation of his from two centuries ago, whose soul had somehow become genetic memory, or whether it was just the voice of his conscience, or else his fragmenting sanity. He hoped it was the former, even if he couldn't be sure. He'd been hearing those voices not long before that fateful day, the one that ended with him being sent here.

Izuku looked at his hands. Even now, he could see blood on them, even if it wasn't actually there. And technically, he had used his Vectors, telekinetic hands that were intangible unless he wanted them to be tangible, to kill them. But it didn't stop him from sometimes just imagining them drenched in crimson.

It had started with a trip to a theme park. Bakugou (he couldn't think of him as Kacchan anymore: their friendship was most definitely over) had been particularly horrible to him the day before, so his mother opted to take him to the theme park. Even now, Izuku felt a pang of guilt. If it wasn't for him being so miserable, it might not have happened.

A dozen Villains had infiltrated the theme park, and had managed to corner a bunch of the guests in one of the restaurants there. They held them hostage, demanding the freedom of their leader and their lieutenant, who had been imprisoned not so long ago. But then, they made to shoot him when their demands weren't being met. His mother got in the way…and at the time, Izuku thought she was dead. She hadn't been, and had only been saved by prompt medical attention afterwards. The Villains weren't so lucky.

Izuku couldn't remember what happened for the most part, save for as snatched impressions, images like snapshots. Even now, to get an idea of what he did, he watched the security camera footage. It was, admittedly, hard to. It was like something out of a horror movie. Three of the Villains were pulped, exploding into gory messes of blood and viscera that sprayed everywhere. A few others were dismembered brutally, their limbs flying off. More got cutlery flying through the air, blasting through skulls or torsos.

The last one had hauled a hostage in front of him to act as a human shield. That one…simply dropped dead. Izuku knew he had rendered his Vector intangible, save for part that went into the skull of the Villain. He could have given him an aneurysm. Instead…well, the Egyptians, when mummifying their dead, used a tool pushed up through the nose to pulp the brains and let it ooze out in cerebellar snot. Izuku didn't even need to break through the skull to do that. Apparently when the medical examiner sawed off the top of the skull, the remains of the man's brain slid out like porridge tipped out of a bowl.

Izuku barely remembered what followed, though maybe it was because they were such unpleasant memories, he tried to repress them. He remembered learning what he was, that it was NOT a Quirk, that it was something else. Diclonius, they called him, when they weren't calling him monster or devil.

But eventually, he ended up here. And the irony was, his life began a slow climb for the better. Being sent here was not truly a sentence of punishment. Rather, he was to learn control. How to use his Quirk. He could have left sooner, but public opinion, combined with a desire to learn control over the vicious voice in his head, had him stay here. Besides, their apartment was firebombed, and thankfully, his mother was away from it.

Even now, he sometimes saw the source of that voice. It was him, naked save for being wrapped in bandages, like a mummy out of a horror movie, and covered in blood. Though even an ambulatory desiccated cadaver would have been better than seeing himself like that. Cold. Violent. Without remorse or pity or love or any real human emotion, save for hatred, wrath and contempt. The second voice dubbed him the DNA Voice, the instinct of the Diclonii to kill and supplant humans.

He looked at the two-way mirror on one wall of the training room, and saw him standing there, a malicious, cold smile on his face. "You will be me," the DNA Voice hissed. "One way or another, this side of madness, or the other(1)."

Izuku lashed out with his Vectors with a scream, the toughened glass vibrating under the impact, but thankfully not cracking. Then again, he hadn't tried very hard to hit it. If he wanted to, he could…

Suddenly, the door near the mirror opened, and a familiar figure sauntered through. "My, my, Izuku, still working off frustration?"

Izuku grimaced. He had few friends these days. To be frank, he had little at all, even though he deluded himself into thinking Bakugou was a friend. This one was one of his fellow residents at Asphodel. A blonde girl with her hair done up in messy twin tails, her face often set in a feline smirk, her eyes golden and hooded.

Himiko Toga was another of Asphodel's success stories, though she very nearly didn't end up here. Her parents were worried about her Quirk, and the obsession it had instilled in her. She could drink someone's blood and transform into them, even copying their Quirks, as she recently discovered. But it gave her an obsession with bloodletting, and even now, she had a few violent tendencies.

However, she had been caught before she had made the leap into villainy, and indeed, Izuku's analysis of her Quirk and its potential had shown Toga that she could become a Hero if she wanted to be. It was soon after that that the two became friends. Whether they were more than that…well, that was a tricky question, as Toga, while better than she could have been, was a bit unstable. Then again, it wasn't like Izuku had anything to talk about, what with two voices in his head.

"…It's an ongoing process," Izuku admitted.

Toga rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, that's what the shrink tells me, and I get it, but still…by the way, your mother sent me. Apparently we've got a couple of guests coming soon. For both of us, actually. From a certain school."

Her wink wasn't needed, but Izuku couldn't help a smile come to his face. "Really?"

"Yep."

"Yay! You could do it, Izuku!" cheered the second voice in his head. He could see her in the mirror. A girl, apparently in her twenties, with short pink hair, a pair of horns protruding from it, and a headband, doing a little victory dance. "Nana told you so!"

Izuku nodded, before he looked to Toga. "Well…let's go. We'd better not keep them waiting…"

Toshinori Yagi was worried. Admittedly, this was for a variety of reasons. He was the famous Pro-Hero All Might, an icon of this time, the famous Symbol of Peace who was always smiling, no matter what. But it was hard to keep the smile on his face lately.

His health was one problem, and not a trifling one either. Five years ago, in a battle against the very man who murdered his teacher, he ended up suffering from debilitating injuries that not only fucked his health up something fierce (his lungs made most chain smokers' look hale and hearty by comparison, and his stomach was removed), but reduced the time he could tap into the Quirk granted to him, One for All. Even the sole consolation that he put paid to All for One wasn't a very substantial one, as no body had ever been found, and All Might's hope that he was dead was a fragile one.

Plus, the burden of doing Pro-Hero work in a day and age where too many Pro-Heroes were attention whores greedy for fame and fortune rather than doing good deeds out of altruism was pretty heavy. While All Might gained a lot of money from endorsements, he also made a point to help people in need where possible. True, a few thought he was a has-been, but overall, he maintained the image of a selfless hero, though it was getting more difficult by the day.

He needed a successor, and soon. It was why he got this job at UA Academy, to find a student both able (in both body and spirit) and willing to be one. One for All, after all, was a rare Quirk that could be passed on from person to person, a secret very few knew about. Of course, there was also the suggestions he had been given by friends and colleagues, and he was considering them seriously. That Mirio Togata kid was promising. But he hadn't made a final decision. Maybe it was a sense of responsibility, a desire to see One for All go to someone worthy, maybe it was a selfish desire to keep One for All despite his waning health, and maybe it was fear, that, if All for One was still alive, then he would immediately come after All Might's successor.

There was also a more specific reason he was worried at this time. He was here, at Asphodel, with Principal Nezu in tow. A problem child, as Aizawa would put it. The boy had the right attitude to accept One for All. Toshinori would have given it to him, but…well, there were complicating factors.

Still, he had been the one to approach the boy after the attack at the theme park, the one to bring him gently to a waiting ambulance. He knew that, despite everything, the boy was no monster, no matter what everyone else thought. He was just a child with special abilities, one who had taken a life too soon. He knew many wanted to vivisect the boy.

"But will he be all right in UA?" the boy's mother asked. The plump, green-haired woman looked like a worrier, and Toshinori knew she was, having met her a few times. She, along with her son, were amongst the few who knew not only of the link Toshinori had with All Might, but also his current condition. The Toga girl wasn't, though, but she knew Toshinori had worked with All Might. "The press will…"

"I will handle the esteemed vultures of the media," Nezu, the Principal of UA, remarked. The white-furred animal dressed in a natty suit could have been a rodent, a tiny bear or a dog, but he also was a genius, and a troll to boot. He also had some sympathy with the would-be students in question. "I'm more worried about the politicians and Villains who love to upset the apple cart. And keep in mind, Mrs Midoriya, this is by no means a guarantee that young Izuku will…" And then, the door opened, and the boy in question shuffled in, followed by the Toga girl they were giving an offer to as well. "Ah, Izuku, and Himiko. Good morning."

Izuku and Toga gave their own greetings. Toshinori chuckled at Izuku straining not to fanboy out, as he usually did while in Toshinori's presence. The boy had a good heart, even if he was tainted and tempered by violent impulses.

Nezu soon continued. "I'm sorry for the abrupt visit, but…I've finally managed to arrange it. There are forces at work who don't want this to happen, but for now, they don't matter. Izuku Midoriya, Himiko Toga, your applications to enter the entrance exams of UA have been accepted. As the entrance exams take place in a week's time, you'll have that long to make your preparations. Himiko, while you will be allowed to take pre-prepared vials of blood, you won't be allowed to take any equipment to extract blood from your fellow examinees. I shouldn't have to remind you that deliberately harming them will incur penalties, and given the tenuous nature of your positions…"

Toga nodded. "Oh, I have some vials stashed away that might work. I'm more worried about the theoretical exams than the practical."

"Overconfidence can be the seed of defeat, Himiko," Nezu rebuked gently. "And Izuku? We'll arrange things so that your former…acquaintance from Orudera won't be taking the same practical as you. Other than that, keep in mind that you will be scrutinised as much, if not more, than Himiko, given your past and your psychological assessment. I believe that you are sane, functional, and able to keep your impulses under control, but others won't believe as such. The scars Lucy left upon the world, to say nothing of the Kakuzawa family, still run deep."

Izuku nodded solemnly, but his eyes blazed with determination more than they did with pain. "I won't let you down, sir."

"I never thought you would," Nezu said. "Toshinori, would you like to add anything?"

"Nothing that I haven't said before. Remember, you two, despite what you have inside, you can become Heroes. Your triumph comes not from ignoring the darkness within, but overcoming it. Prove that you can be the Heroes I know you both are." Toshinori suppressed a cough he knew was going to emit a bloody wad of phlegm.

The glimmer of hope and determination in the two pairs of eyes before him, one set green, the other gold, told him that he was correct. These two could be Heroes, and while they would have to fight every step of the way, against Villains, against society, and against the darkness within…he knew they could do it. One day, they would be the best damned Heroes this world would ever see, in spite of the darkness.

In a way, that was a true Symbol of Hope.

THE END? OR MERELY A BEGINNING?

ANNOTATIONS:

Cue Jonathan Young's English cover of The Day.

The Asphodel facility comes from Greed720's Atlas: The Titanic Hero, and is used with Greed720's permission.

Hopefully, this will one day become a full fic. I can't make any promises, but I hope this tickles your fancy. Keep an eye out, and in the meantime, read my other fics, including my first Halloween one-shot for the year, Vile Victuals.

1. This is a paraphrase of Mara aspect Dukkha's threat to Tegan within her mind in the Doctor Who story Kinda.