This story has taken on a life of its own. I don't even know if it's a bakugo fic anymore
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Content: blood, bones, death, bakugo says a bad word in the fae forest again and gets slapped for it
Y/n trudged into the glade covered in blood, smoke and fire billowing off one arm. Her dress was slashed across the middle, marks the barbarian recognized as a dragon’s doing. She crossed the open grass quickly with long strides, followed by a quiet and hesitant Fumikage. She marched right up to the jagged log table, furious.
“I forgot just how much I hate dragons,” she seethed.
“…What the hell happened to you?” Bakugo asked, staring.
Y/n reached up to her neck and wiped away some of the blood coating her, revealing deep slashes across her throat.
“This happened,” she snarled. Bakugo grimaced, recognizing the shape of a dragon’s claws.
“And the fire?” He prodded, gesturing to Y/n’s burning arm.
“My body is one with every tree in this forest,” she explained, an angry edge to her voice disturbing everyone in the clearing. She patted out the fire on her arm, then gestured to the gashes across her middle. “This is what’s happening to my forest.”
“Fumi, what happened out there?” Mina asked worriedly, fearfully turning her attention away from Y/n.
“This dragon is bigger than the last,” Fumikage explained. “The eastern pond is almost entirely drained. Koji’s sending his animals out of the forest hoping the witch can take care of them.”
“But the witch only herds sheep!” Mina protested. Fumikage shook his head.
“Then she’ll have to learn how to raise a deer,” he said firmly. “Y/n has made a decision.”
Mina looked back at Y/n curiously, just in time to see a shining red disc appear in her side. Y/n pulled it out as quickly as it had appeared, tossing it onto the table with a loud clatter.
“That’s a dragon scale!”
Everyone turned to see Denki walking up to them, shocked.
“Indeed,” Y/n confirmed. She gestured for Fumikage to follow her and led him towards the carved tree that served as the nymphs’ home. She placed her hand on the crudely-carved door, splaying her fingers across the wood. “Fumi.”
The death spirit reached out to set his hand atop hers, but was stopped short by a quick electric shock.
“What are you doing?!” Denki cried out, running over the tree. He pushed Y/n away, leaning into the door protectively. “You do that, the whole forest goes down!”
“Y/n has made a decision,” Fumikage repeated firmly.
“Yeah, a dumb one!” Denki argued. “Why are you trying to kill the whole forest?!”
The clueless barbarian glanced at Rikido, confused, but he was met with an equally confused shrug.
“If the forest disappears, there’s nothing for the dragon to destroy,” Y/n said simply.
“We’d disappear too!” Denki nearly shrieked. His heart sank into his stomach when he realized there was no sadness behind the anger in Y/n’s eyes. “No… No way. Right? No way, Fumi, right?!”
“If we don’t exist, there’s no one for the dragon to kill,” Fumikage said.
“You’re fine with helping Y/n murder us all?!”
“I follow Y/n blindly,” Fumikage said seriously. “You’re the only one of us who doesn’t. Y/n only makes decisions that are good for us.”
“Let us kill the tree, Denki,” Y/n said softly. “I’d rather we all disappear painlessly than be mauled by this dragon.”
Denki sighed, stepping away from the tree. He caught Y/n’s wrist as she reached out again.
“The king wants you to tell me how you became a nymph,” he said seriously. Y/n’s eyes widened.
“What? Why?”
“He said you’d disappear if you lost another forest,” Denki explained. “I said I thought you could only disappear if you disobeyed him. Then he gave me the whole ‘as the youngest one, you’re stupid and clueless’ spiel.”
“You’re half right,” Y/n said quietly. “If I go against the king’s wishes, I’d be breaking a deal I made with him, and I’ll disappear.”
“You die if you break a deal?” Bakugo repeated.
“Disappear,” Mina clarified, slowly sitting down at the table next to the criminal. “We nymphs live in a sort of limbo. Not quite alive, not quite dead.”
“You’d be disobeying the king if you don’t tell me,” Denki said. “How did you become one of us?”
Y/n sighed heavily, walking over to the table slowly.
“The story of how I came to be who I am now starts a long time ago,” she began. “I’m not sure how long… Bakugo, how old is your city?”
“The western capital was founded several hundred years ago,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure it was some small village before it was ever a city.”
“Several hundred years before several hundred years ago,” Y/n said, correcting herself. She pointed to two spots on the table, fingers far apart. “This spot here is where we are now. This is the western capital. Back then, it was a willow forest.
It was the prettiest place in the world. I thought that even then, before I had a deep understanding of what makes a forest pretty. It was hundreds of years ago now, but I remember that place vividly. The trees were thick and healthy, dripping with gold-green leaves. The sun shone through the canopy warmly, the thickets were wild, the grass was as untamed as any. And, of course, it was a fae forest.”
“It sounds gorgeous,” Mina said dreamily.
“Wait, you don’t know this story either?” Denki asked, confused. Mina shook her head.
“Fumi’s the only one,” she explained. She looked at Bakugo and Rikido. “And I guess now two humans’ll know, too.”
“What’s the old willow forest have to do with you?” Bakugo asked, voice gruff though the story seemed intriguing.
“Believe it or not, outsider, I wasn’t always a nymph,” Y/n explained. “I lived near the willow forest during a time of war. I stumbled into its beauty injured and starving. Unlike you, however, I knew it was a fae forest. I asked the nymphs for blessings but received none. I didn’t want to die, but I needed to use the forest in order to keep myself alive.
I knew I’d be breaking faerie laws if I did anything without a blessing, but no matter how I begged, they gave me none. I decided the next best thing to earn my rights there was to pray, and so I did. I prayed before washing my wounds in the pond. I prayed after washing my wounds in the pond. I prayed before I picked the fruits, I prayed before eating them, I prayed after. I prayed again as I buried the pits and seeds near a weak little tree, hoping that giving the remains back to the forest would earn me some type of favor. Then I prayed before falling asleep.”
“That’s a lot of praying,” Denki noted.
“And none of those prayers were answered,” Y/n said, nodding. “When I woke the next morning, I was in their vale. The pond spirit was washing me in their pond. She and the tree spirit of that forest were watching me closely, and I knew I was about to be punished for desecrating their forest.”
Y/n sighed again, standing up and walking towards the pond in the glade. Denki, Mina, and Bakugo all stood, trailing after her slowly, waiting with baited breath for her to finish telling them her history.
The pond began turning red with her blood as she walked into the water. She waded into the center and bent down, reaching for something lodged in the mud beneath the surface.
“What are you looking for?” Denki asked. “Tsu keeps that pond pristine at all times.”
“Even then, Yuga lived in this forest,” Y/n explained, still fishing around with her hands. “The nymphs decided to carry me here from the willow forest for a trial.”
“And…?” Denki prodded. Y/n finally found what she was looking for, and a sharp silence fell over the vale as she pulled a human rib cage from the water.
“I didn’t survive the journey,” she stated flatly. She let go of her remains, letting her bones drop into the water with a splash. “Still, I needed to answer for my crimes. The king called forth my soul from the dead just to put me on trial. We ended up making a deal instead; I am bound to him until the day my prayers are answered by the nymphs of the willow forest. After that, I get to die.”
“What’s the difference between dying and ‘disappearing’?” Bakugo asked.
“There’s not much of a difference,” Mina answered. “But we’re not connected to our original physical bodies. I was still alive when I was on trial, but then I became a nymph, and I’ve been a nymph so long now that my body’s dead. ‘Death’ is for our true bodies. ‘Disappearing’ is for our spirits.”
“Wait, Y/n, didn’t you say the willow forest is now a city?” Denki asked.
“That’s right,” Y/n confirmed.
“So there’s no nymphs?” Denki asked.
“That’s right,” Y/n said, nodding.
“So there’s no one to answer your lost prayers?” Denki asked.
“That’s right,” Y/n said, wading her way back out of the pond.
“So, you’re saying you’re bound to the king forever, then,” Bakugo said. Y/n nodded. “Sounds like he got what he wanted and you got nothin’. That wasn’t a deal-instead-of-a-trial, that was a lifetime sentence.”
“I know,” Y/n said. “The fae are tricksters. I didn’t want to die, and the king knew that. He took advantage of that, but I let go of that grudge years ago. I’m happy to serve him now. He trusts me, and as the oldest and most loyal of his subjects in this forest, he allows me to do whatever I want, and he’s given me authority over everything in my forest.”
“Like I said, we follow her blindly,” Fumikage said, having joined them silently when Y/n was showing off her bones. “For many reasons. She is above us, so we obey her. We’ve known her long enough to trust her decisions fully. She cares for us and this forest as much as she cares for herself. We follow her blindly because we trust her to show us what to do.”
“Except for Denki,” Mina said seriously. “Anyone else wouldn’t’ve stopped her and Fumi from destroying the home tree.”
“If you disappear by disobeying the king or getting your prayers answered, then what’s with disappearing alongside the forest?” Bakugo asked.
“Exactly!” Denki said. “Your story didn’t really help me understand that part, so what gives?”
“This forest has been destroyed many times in the hundreds of years I’ve been here,” Y/n said. “Trees burned by dragons, cut down by humans, all but one. There’s only one tree now that was here when I first arrived. When that tree dies, I disappear, along with all the nymphs of this forest.”
“The carved tree you guys live in,” Bakugo said understandingly. Y/n nodded. “So… Back to ending yourselves by killing the tree?”
“Yes,” Y/n said. “The dragon is still rampaging. We-”
“The king told me another thing,” Denki said quickly. Y/n sighed heavily. “I told him the criminal works with dragons. He wants you to tame it, Bakugo. He said he’ll drop all charges if you can stop it from destroying the forest.”
A fanged grin spread across the criminal king’s face.
“Oh, fuck yeah.”
Fumikage smacked him upside the head from behind him.
“Watch your tongue.”
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