Witches, Demons, and Heroes (The Owl House x MHA)

In Gravesfield, Connecticut, in front of a dense forest stood a two-story house with white walls and a gray roof.

In that house, in a living room lovingly furnished and lived in, there stood two teens.

"And then, Azura bravely faces the ferocious Gildersnake!" One was a girl with brownish hair almost a shade of purple, and bright brown eyes, holding a figure in one hand, lively gesturing with the other as she spoke.

A pause, her eyes glancing to the other.

"Midori, that's your cue."

The other was a boy with green curly hair, freckles adorning his cheeks, and green eyes wide in slight fear as he held a live snake.

"F-F-Foolish ch-child-!" The aptly named boy stammered, the words awkward on his tongue, also quite obviously making his voice a bit deeper to seem intimidating as he took tentative steps forward. "I-I c-c-can s-swallow you whole!"

The snake in his hand stuck its tongue out, making the boy squeak.

"Don't worry," the girl whispered encouragingly. "The snakes are more scared of you than you are of them."

The boy just nodded.

"Now where was I?" She thought for a second then snapped her fingers. "Oh, right! Ahem," she cleared her throat. "Do not underestimate me, Gildersnake!" She said with a more confident tone befitting of a heroine. "For I am the Good Witch Azura, a warrior of peace!" She side-stepped to the TV stand where her laptop sat, checking that it was still recording, before grabbing a few big fireworks loosely tied together. "And now, for the big finale! Eat this, sucka-!"

"Kids!" A voice from just down the hall called. "Dinner is ready!"

"Coming, mom!" The girl, with a shining smile, called back and put down the things in her hands. "I'll take this," she said while gently taking hold of the snake from Midoriya's hand. "You did great, Midori!

Midoriya just sighed in relief. "Thanks, Luz."

"Hey," she chuckled a little while lightly jabbing his shoulder. "Your English is getting pretty good! Maybe I can convince you to learn Spanish next!"

"Maybe," Midoriya looked pretty sheepish.

"I'll put the snakes away, you go wash up," Luz said while lightly petting the little reptile in her hand. "Don't wanna get salmonella."

"Salmon-what-a?" Midoriya tilted his head but one look at the snake and he was out of the living room rather quickly.

Luz could not help but snicker a little as she went to put the snake away in its box. "And you did great too, little noodle."

"Mija," her mother's voice called again as she walked in. "Are you two done playing?"

"Not playing," Luz tried not to look and sound so annoyed as she grabbed her laptop. "Also, yes! Also also, unlike what happened at school," Luz said with a little grumble, "we got through the whole thing without a single bite!"

A thud and a sharp yelp rang through the house from the bathroom.

"Izuku? Are you okay?" Another voice, another mother, and Luz thanked her love of anime to be able to partially understand the panicked native tongue of Mrs. Midoriya that called from the kitchen.

Luz's eyes went a bit wide, and she chuckled nervously. "That doesn't count, right?"

Her mother, a woman slightly taller and fuller in frame with her hair tied in a bun, gave a smile but something about it did not seem quite right.

"It's so nice you have a real friend," her mother said, almost relieved.

"Yeah," Luz replied almost immediately but realized something. "Wait, real?"

"Well, I was just worried you-" her mother hesitated a bit, "weren't thinking realistically. You're fourteen-"

Oh.

"-starting high school,"

Oh no.

"-and you need to start thinking about what you want to do in the future."

It was this talk again. Future talk. Talk about college, jobs, responsibilities, and basically everything that overwhelmed Luz.

"I'm fine, mom," Luz tried to keep the smile on her face but it was most definitely strained. "Midori and I have been talking about what we want to do when we grow up."

"And how's that going?"

Luz thought back to that conversation, and it was getting harder to maintain her optimistic smile. "It's fine." She insisted. "I mean, how many jobs are actually gonna reject me for being Quirkless?"

There was bit of an awkward silence.

"I'll-" her mother looked saddened at that reminder, "get your plates ready."

Luz sighed, looking at the thumbnail of the new video and seeing Midoriya's scared smile.

So what if they did not have Quirks? Sure, it would have been cool to talk to birds like her mom or something like that, but it was fine. Midori still wanted to be a Pro Hero despite...what happened, and Luz wanted to be a writer! How would a Quirk, or lack thereof, affect words on paper? Unless there was actually a Quirk that could do that, pretty sure Midori would know. Shaking her head, she went to put away the laptop in her in her room.

After closing the recording software, she saw her new background, a picture collage of photos she and Midori had sent each other she had edited together. Local places, a couple Pro Heros, food, all around an edited picture of the sky from their respective homes with their first messages to each other pasted over it.

Luz smiled a bit more hopefully, knowing that somehow, things were going to work out for them in the future.

She came downstairs and saw Midori standing against the wall, looking down.

Wordlessly, she was about to ask what was wrong when she heard the two women talking in the kitchen.

"-know what you mean," Mrs. Midoriya's accented voice sighed. "I haven't seen Izuku this happy in a while. It's a relief, but what's going to happen when we have to go home?"

Luz slinked quietly towards Midori, also pressing her back against the wall while listening.

"You said he got attacked by some slime villain, no?" Luz's mom asked.

"That was so scary," Mrs. Midoriya sounded like she shuddered. "He said he was fine, but I get the feeling something's still wrong."

She recalled hearing about that from Midoriya, her friend that is. How Izu-er, Midori had finally met the Symbol of peace and asked the all important question only for that super jerk to give an awful answer! Luz only knew about it because Midori almost immediately called her. What kind of hero crushes a kid's dreams and then just leaves them on top of a super high building!?

"-if she can't apply herself," Luz tuned back in just in time to hear her mother's usual worry. "She's so creative and expressive, and I'm proud, but she has trouble focusing in class, talking to people," she sighed. "I just hope this camp will help her."

Mrs. Midoriya sounded like she sighed too. "I felt the same way when Izuku put away all his All Might things."

Luz looked down but noticed Midori was looking even more upset.

She thought quickly and took a big step into the kitchen.

"Hey!" Luz sorta sing-sang. "Is that la bandera I smell?" She upped the energy to keep attention on her until Midori could quietly take his seat. "You're really spoiling our guests, mamá!"

"Of course!" Her mom was taking the bait. "I hope this isn't too much, Mrs. Midoriya."

"Don't worry," Mrs. Midoriya assured. "It looks great!"

Dinner went by without any more uncomfortable talks, Midori almost burned off his tastebuds again, and after dinner Mrs. Midoriya was once again sucked into a novela while Luz and Midori stayed in the kitchen, the former washing the dishes, the latter writing in his notebook.

"Ooh, ooh!" Luz excitedly spoke while scrubbing out some grease from a plate. "I got an idea! What if we made friendship bracelets? That way we can be together even when we're far apart! I mean, I know we have our phones and the Mayhem app, but I don't know if I'm going to have good reception at Reality Check Camp. It would be nice to have something we can actually, you know, hold and play with if we can't get in touch. This trip took a whole lot of planning and now it's cut short because I have to leave-"

She put the dishes on the drying rack and grabbed a nearby towel to dry her hands when she saw Midori was intensely focused on his notebook.

"And you didn't hear a word I said," Luz muttered, a bit annoyed but she could understand that this was how Midori 'applied himself' the way she did when drawing, writing, or editing anime clips to music.

So, she took a seat almost next to him and noticed he was sketching something that looked like a Pro Hero outfit.

"What is it?" Luz said in what little Japanese she knew, almost surprising him.

"Eh?" Midori looked up a bit, face getting a bit pink as he mumbled something about nothing.

Luz was about to playfully boo him when he saw that next to what she suspected to be a doodle of him was a feminine figure in a witch-like outfit.

"Is that me?" Luz went wide eyed.

Midori frantically hid his notebook, hiding his face too.

"It's fine, it's fine!" Luz tried to assure him, his language a bit awkward on her tongue as well. "It's awesome!"

Midori looked up a bit unsurely, handing her his notebook.

Luz, knowing this was practically his most prized possession, holding it gently, and saw that yes, it was a doodle of them. Doodle-Midori had a big snake-scarf thing around his neck, something very different from the cowl with rabbit-like ears he had shown her months ago. Doodle-Luz had an outfit like Azura, and there were some notes about the staff in her hand, though it was in Japanese. Luz could make the educated guess the staff would probably have a number of cool tricks.

"Team Night-Light?" Luz tilted her head as she read the messy scribble of characters then gasped excitedly. "Is this our Pro Hero team name?"

Midori just nodded. "Y-Yeah. I know-" he paused. "I know we talked but I just-"

"It's perfect!" Luz bounced in her seat. "Tell me everything! Everythi-wait!"

She gave him his notebook and ran upstairs really quick, muttering about where the heck was the thing she was looking for when she found and it and brought it back down, practically slamming down the shoebox almost overflowing with craft supplies.

"Tell me everything, and I'll work on friendship bracelets!" Luz opened up the box, looking around for the carboard and thread. "What color do you want?"

Midori looked a bit confused as he processed the words but when he saw how Luz was presenting the many colorful threads in the box, he naturally picked a green, while Luz picked a purple, cutting enough equal lengths for two bracelets.

She began braiding the threads together while Midori was explaining the page in his notebook. He was mixing English with Japanese, and sometimes fully going into Infodump Mode in the latter which was amazing because he just looked so dang happy to express himself even if she could only get every other word or phrase!

By the time the novela was over, Luz not only had two matching friendship bracelets, Midori getting the purple one, and Luz getting the green one. But the two had also challenged themselves to make rainbow ones, which went about as well as expected with how often they got sidetracked and accidentally tangling up the strands.

It was time to turn in for the night, and Luz peeked down the basement stairs, still feeling proud she cleaned it up for them.

"Good night, Mrs. Midoriya, good night, Midori!" Luz called, giving a smile and a polite wave.

"Good night, Luz." Mrs. Midoriya gave a short bow.

"Good night!" Midori smiled back.

Things were fine, Luz tried to tell herself as she got ready for bed.

Things were fine, they were going to fine. She was only going to a really boring camp where she would probably be stuck doing the most boring parts of math for like a month or two or three and heaven knows if she would be able to use her phone. Was she going to be able to use her phone? Was it one of those camps where they take away her phone and put it in a locked box? Or was it like one of those horrible, troubled teen schools she saw in true crime videos where they kidnap the kids in the middle of the night and give out strict, cruel, even illegal torturous punishment for even the smallest slight in behavior like talking without permission? No, her mamá would never send her somewhere so dangerous...right? Her mamá loved her and only wanted the best for her daughter, that was why Luz was going to Reality Check Camp in the first place. To think inside the box, to think a bit more realistically, to stop being so weird and be as normal as possible with her dumb extra toe joint that made her not shoot rainbow lasers from her eyes or whatever.

ding!

Luz blinked, seeing that Midori had sent her a quick text despite being in the same house.

It was a picture of him wearing the friendship bracelet, and the mangled rainbow one.

Somehow, it felt nice seeing he was already wearing it.

She sent a matching picture back, along with another good night text, and cuddled with one of her stuffed toys, specifically her new Gang Orca one with the tag still hanging from the dorsal fin, and tried to go to sleep despite the tightness in her chest at the thought of what tomorrow was going to bring.

Eventually, somehow, she managed to calm herself into sleep, her dreams filled with adventures and kicking bad guy butt.

And when she woke up, she had a few moments of blissful ignorance before she realized what today was.

She looked at the book that she cherished so much, The Good Witch Azura, and wondered what her dad would say if he was here.

Luz really did try to keep a happy smile for everyone, especially Midori, but with each minute that passed, she knew the mask was going to fall eventually.

She was about to head outside to wait for the bus.

"Oh, Luz!" Mrs. Midoriya gave a smile and a bow. "Have fun!"

"Thanks," Luz gave a smile and a bow back, matching Mrs. Midoriya's, trying not to betray her feelings.

Mrs. Midoriya seemed to be all packed up, though her suitcase was being uncooperative in closing. She looked like she had a lot of fun, even wearing a colorful cardigan Luz's mom had picked out when they went shopping on one of the first days here. At least someone was happy.

But then she saw Midori.

He looked like he had not gotten much sleep, still wearing the same clothes from yesterday as if he forgot to dress himself, along with his honestly rather adorable big red shoes. He was mumbling and fidgeting with the bracelets, both of them, until Mrs. Midoriya lightly tapped his shoulder to get his attention.

Luz watched as he got up, as he stammered and fidgeted with the bracelets, until he seemed to figuratively rip off the bandaid and gave a deep ninety degree bow.

"[T-take care!]" He said, the foreign pronunciation coming out awkwardly but after quickly wondering what he was talking about, she realized what he had said.

She felt the tears in her eyes, the lump in her throat, even some snot clogging up her nose, and she matched his bow.

"[I'm going, see you later.]" Her voice was strained but she tried to be heard, giving a smile and she walked outside to wait for the bus, clutching the book just a little bit tighter.

A few seconds later, her mom was also out the door.

"Oh, baby." Her mother hugged her. "Don't worry, summer camp is only three months. You'll be so busy balancing checkbooks and-" she paused, trying to think of what activities this sort of camp even has, "making new friends!" She said hopefully. "Please try to make more friends, mija." And then a bit more worriedly. "Ones that aren't from the other side of the world that can only visit sometimes."

"Yes, mom." Luz looked at her book and solemnly went to put it in the trash can outside, gingerly placing it on top of the pile plastic bottles, snack wrappers, and some newspaper.

"Um, Mrs. Noecda?" Mrs. Midoriya called from the front door. "We need a little help with the luggage."

"Coming." Her mom gave her a few more kisses. "Your bus is coming soon, text me when you get to camp. Love you."

Her mom went back inside to help the Midoriyas.

And Luz immediately went to dig her book back out but saw it had disappeared.

"Where is it?" She frantically dug through the trash. "It was right here!"

hooo

Luz looked up and saw a little owl...

With a burlap sack...?

Carrying...

HER BOOK!

"Tiny trash thief!"

The owl was hopping off with her book, plus whatever else clanked around in that bag, and into the woods, towards that old, abandoned house her mamá always told her to stay away from.

She hesitated for just a second before she gritted her teeth and followed.

"Stop adorably hopping away you little-!" She noticed that something was not right with her surroundings. "Huh-?"

thud!

"WAH!"

Something bumped into her from behind and when she turned it was-

"Midori!?" Luz saw those curly green locks, freckled cheeks, and equally confused wide green eyes. "What are-? Wha-?"

He put a hand up, shushing her, and pointed to something on the ground.

"Whoa." Luz softly gasped, picking up something made of a coat hanger, a baby doll head, a plush reptile body, with a fork for an arm. "I thought I had a lot of weird stuff."

"Finally, you're back." A woman's voice called from outside the tent.

The next thing she knew, Midori had pulled her down to crouch near the floor next to an old fridge, his big yellow backpack thunking against some stuff.

Luz wanted to go forward towards the tent flap, Midori was trying to pull her away, pointing to the glowing door. Luz gestured for her book, emphasizing how much it meant by holding it close to her chest. Midori looked at the door again, back to Luz, then gestured for her to go ahead, showing off his non-existent bicep muscles as if to say he would protect her. He even puffed up his chest to look big and strong!

Now in agreement, they made their way through the collection of weird old things to the tent flap.

"Now, let's see what we got here."

They saw an older woman with wild gray hair barely tied with a spotted bandana, and how with just a few turns, the little owl that was once alive became a wooden figurine on the end of her staff.

"Is that her Quirk?" Midori excitedly gasped.

"Garbage, garbage, garbage," the woman was throwing out tons of things like a phone, a shiny ring, even a really shiny glowing cup! She looked real happy with the joke glasses that had springy eyes though. "And this," and then she held Luz's book. "This will make good kindling."

The woman held the book to a candle, and it began to burn.

Luz's life practically flashed before her eyes.

"Excuse me, sorry!" Luz rushed out, hearing Midori yelp in surprise. "That's mine, thank you!" She grabbed the book, then Midori's arm, and was about to rush back through the glowing door when it closed.

"You're not going anywhere." The gray haired woman glared at them.

Luz quickly shoved her book back in her bag when Midori grabbed her arm this time and they rushed out from the back of the tent, running straight ahead.

They made it only a few feet before they were suddenly stopped by a lack of ground, seeing they were up on a cliff overlooking a place that clearly not Gravesfield.

Old weathered bones, arms, teeth, and eyes dotted the reddish landscape in front of them. A dragon flew overhead and was caught by an arm with a terrible crunch and a screech. The architecture looked old as well, looking medieval, made of stone and wood when not made or built into the disembodied body parts.

"Wha-what the-!?" Midori stepped back in a panic.

Luz looked around, seeing a little...fairy?

"Oh-!" Luz chuckled nervously. "Hello there! Can you help us, maybe? We're a little but actually super super super turned around and-"

The fairy bared nearly impossibly big teeth.

"Give me your skin!"

"AHH!" Luz slapped the fairy in self-defense. "Sorry!" She noticed she was now holding Midori's hand and he was just as dazed and confused as her, muttering incoherently to himself.

Then, she felt a hand touch her shoulder.

They both turned around to see the woman glaring at them.

"You better be!"

And now they were caught.