A/N: This story now has a TV Tropes page! Just search up 'Of Quirks and Magic' and feel free to fill the page up with as many tropes you can think of that this story has!


The bell signaling the end of afternoon classes rang out as the students of 1-A were depositing their hero costumes back into their individual compartments. With U.A being U.A, hero course students did not have to bear the responsibility of cleaning their costumes as they did their standard uniforms, and the school did that for them. It mattered little to Izuku, for the disorganized rush of students trying to return their dirtied costumes all at once (much to Iida's chagrin) gave him enough time to slip his green Cloak of Levitation back into his backpack (much to its chagrin).

Sorry, Iida, Izuku thought consolingly as his stern friend gave several strained farewells and departed with a slunk after unsuccessfully trying to manage the classroom chaos. Normally I let everyone up row by row as you prefer, but I needed it to be hectic today. He threw his backpack over his shoulders and felt the cloak punch through the fabric.

All Might had given a hasty farewell and congratulations for the day's performances the moment the bell had rung before zooming out of the classroom, leaving only a trail of dust in his wake.

"All Might sure left in a rush," Asui said aloud.

"He must be rushing to get all his grading done," Mina added, joining Asui as they departed the 1-A room. "He's new to teaching yet he's so adamant about doing his best for us as we are for him!"

Midoriya and Kirishima, lingering at their seats, overheard Mina's speculation and doubted them, though neither was aware the other was thinking the same thoughts. It was far more likely that All Might was rushing to the teacher's lounge before he reached his time limit.

Bakugo wasted little time with sticking around after that, sending obligatory nasty glances to Izuku and Todoroki before leaving with a huff, with Kirishima trailing behind him.

Izuku looked askance at the rest of the class: Shoto was still seated, as were Jiro and Kaminari. Uraraka was hovering over the latter's desk, and Tokoyami remained his seat as well, eyes closed, patiently waiting for Midoriya to be ready for their clandestine infiltration.

Shoto and Jiro were next to leave, the first rather briskly, with an air of uncharacteristic impatience in his step, while Jiro departed rather ambivalently, as if uncertain of her own destination.

Izuku stood back up as Shoto left the room, and Tokoyami mimicked his moves with eyes still closed. As the two approached each other to converse quietly, Kaminari and Uraraka left for their ill-fated meeting with Club Fear.

"Ooh, I'm excited!" Uraraka said in a bubbly voice that nearly made up for the thinly-veiled apprehension that lingered on Kaminari's face. In her arms were several books of varying thickness. "A literature club! I wonder what it'll be like? You like literature, Kaminari, are you excited?"

"Y-yeah, yeah!" Kaminari gave a halfhearted response to Uraraka's cheer. Unlike her, he carried no books, though Uraraka seemed more than eager to share. "Should be fun..."

"And then afterwards, we can go for some mochi like we talked about earlier!" Uraraka said. "I know of a place with some real cheap stuff—"

Kaminari's face reddened considerably as Uraraka droned on in her excitement, leading him out the classroom and toward the 1-D room where the supposed literature club awaited—and where Kizuka had lain her trap.

Shortly after they had departed, Izuku and Tokoyami made their exit as the last 1-A students to leave, unaware of the former duo's destination. They had few if any instances to converse throughout the day, as they were not seated next to each other in class and they could not openly discuss their plans to foil Kizuka during lunch when they were surrounded by their friends, though Izuku did manage to formally introduce Tokoyami and Hatsume. They had precious little time to iron out their plan before the Club Fear meeting began.

"Todoroki is nowhere in sight," Tokoyami observed, his keen, perceptive eyes glancing about the throng of departing and lingering students alike for the familiar crop of perfectly split red and white hair. "He vacated the classroom with a restive gait." His beaked mouth became tight. "If he hurried to the wretches of this Club Fear, then we may have even less time than we originally thought, Midoriya."

"Yeah, I agree," Izuku said, mirroring Tokoyami's grim countenance. The festering dread hung in the air like a bad omen throughout the day, a tenseness so palpable and suffocating that it could probably choke Izuku if he so much as willed it.

But Izuku was not going to tolerate the seeds of terror sown by Kizuka or her cohorts any longer. He knew the risks were great—Tokoyami had brought them up himself—but Kizuka was not waiting any longer so neither would he. Todoroki would be saved, Kizuka would be stopped, and the Somnum Exterreri would be returned from whence it came.

Izuku's conscience demanded it.

"The device you spoke of earlier," Tokoyami said, "Do you believe it could be finished now under such short notice?"

Izuku gulped hard. "If anyone could do it, then Hatsume definitely could."


"So let me get this straight," Hatsume addressed Izuku and Tokoyami in an otherwise barren development lab, her attention focused squarely on the red and gold goggles at her work station as she spoke. "You overheard last Friday that this Kizuka Yuuku formed a club—Club Fear—as a way to kick out select hero course students and wiggle her way into their place. Then this morning you found out that one of Kizuka's cohorts—Ryou Youma—could separate his soul from his body like you could and attacked you." She threw a sideways glance at Izuku. "A fight which led you both to this very lab, by the way."

Tokoyami turned to look at Izuku as well, and the boy offered only a mousey chuckle.

"Aside from those two," Mei continued, "you know of two other members of Kizuka's little club: Ryou's twin brother Hyou and that Shinso guy. You don't know their plan beyond this vague 'kick out 1-A students and take their place' scheme, you don't know their Quirks besides Ryou's, and you don't have any proof of their plot to show to any of the staff."

Mei finally turned around and sighed, leaning against her work station and looking at Izuku with arms crossed. "Midoriya, what exactly are you working with here?"

"Not much," Izuku conceded with a sigh of his own. "You pretty much summed it all up."

Mei turned to Tokoyami. "And you're joining him in this infiltration scheme of his?"

"Against my more clearly honed instincts," Tokoyami replied. "Despite my reservations and the obvious risks of going into such a situation effectively blind, Midoriya is right about needing proof of their...illicit activities. Without it, they can employ plausible deniability to their hearts' content and avoid any real consequences from the teachers. The fate of Todoroki and perhaps other classmates are resting squarely on our shoulders. We have no choice but to make our move today because Kizuka is going to make hers whether we interfere or not."

"That's why I asked for your help on such short notice right before lunch, Hatsume," Izuku added. "It's also why I brought this—"

Izuku plopped his backpack onto the nearest table and unzipped it, only to have his face immediately assailed by the sentient fabric stuffed within. He let out a string of muffled yells as the cloak clasped to his face and coiled around his head, tugging him this way and that until Izuku finally lost his footing and fell to the floor as he fought vainly to force the vengeful cloak off his face.

"Oh my gosh, you have that cloak with you again!" Mei immediately began gushing over the sentient cloak, remembering fondly when she had first inspected it months prior at the Stark Expo. She dropped all pretense of worry and ran to Izuku's side as he tussled with the cloak. "Lemme see it! Lemme see it, lemme see it, lemme see it!"

Tokoyami and a peering Dark Shadow could only stand aside in utter confusion at the scene playing out before them.

Another minute had hardly passed before this comedy of errors finally ended. The cloak removed itself almost hesitantly from Izuku's face and floated silently beside him, but not before giving his cheeks a painful pinch with its bottom tips.

Izuku winced and nursed his cheeks, giving the cloak a disdainful look before turning back to a mesmerized Mei with a huff. "So...do you have a recording device ready for us, Hatsume?"

"Eh?" Mei blinked, her enraptured eyes still zooming in on the now placid cloak before she managed to snap herself out of her bewitched state. "Oh, yes! In fact, I do!"

She motioned for both Izuku and Tokoyami toward her work station, brushing her goggles away and directing their attention to a smaller, slimmer device resting on the tabletop. "I give you..." Mei snapped her fingers. "My 56th invention: the Centicam!"

With the snap of her fingers, the slender device unfurled itself, sprouting a multitude of incredibly thin legs spanning the length of its centipede-like body. It was perhaps a foot total in length, no more than an inch wide, and its 'head' was composed of a single spherical lens. Izuku, Tokoyami, and even Dark Shadow leaned in to get a closer look at the device, wowed by its appearance.

"The Centicam is exactly what it sounds like: a centipede camera!" Mei exclaimed with an excitement that could only stem from showing off one of her babies. "It's a mobile camera unit designed to squeeze into tight spaces that can capture footage in visible light and infrared as well as audio! And when you tap right here on its forehead..."

Mei tapped the insect-like robot right atop its head. A shudder ran down the length of its body before its entire form broke apart into many individual segments, revealing an additional spherical camera lens on each section that was hidden when the pieces were all connected. All in all, there were about a dozen separate pieces, each with its own camera lens and operable legs supporting it.

"And when split apart like this..."

"You can capture footage from all kinds of angles!" Izuku finished Mei's sentence, absolutely ecstatic. His elation somewhat faded, however, when he noticed the individual segments all bumping into each other haphazardly and falling over.

"Hmm, seems their independent motor functions need some fine tuning..." Mei muttered, jotting down notes.

Tokoyami remained impressed, even with the revelation that they wouldn't be able to use the Centicam at maximum efficiency. "You said this was your 56th invention?" he asked. "Classes only began last week. Have you invented that many devices in such a short span of time?"

"I wish!" Mei said. "No, I've been inventing things since before starting U.A; I even attended last year's Stark Expo and met Midoriya there—"

Mei suddenly bit her tongue before she accidentally revealed too much, realizing Tokoyami was likely not privy to Izuku's secrets as she was.

"You've been to the Stark Expo in the States?" Tokoyami asked Izuku with a raised eyebrow.

"Y-yeah, it's a long story..." Izuku said sheepishly.

"Anyway, all you need to do is keep the Centicam hidden on your person or tuck it away into an enclosed space," Mei forced the conversation along by hastily reassembling the device and thrusting into Tokoyami's hands.

Tokoyami's eyes narrowed marginally but he didn't question the sudden segue, abrupt and suspicious as it was to him. He let the Centicam crawl into and curl up in his pocket.

"All audio and visuals the Centicam captures will be streamed straight back to me," Mei informed them. "And I'll compile it into the proof you need to show Power Loader and Principal Nezu."

Power Loader? At the mention of the head of the Development Studio, Tokoyami glanced about them, remembering that the studio was barren of anyone else, even its head teacher. "Why are you the only support course student currently present?"

"Oh, I have free reign of the studio once afternoon classes are over, so long as I'm out before sundown!" Mei said with a frisky grin. "After all, I'm the only student among the three support courses working on any extra projects for the upcoming Sports Festival. So long as I don't 'cross any lines again'—" Mei made sarcastic finger quotes as she said this, "—Power Loader said he'll keep tolerating my presence."

Izuku cocked his head. What had she meant by 'cross any lines again'? And what extra projects was she preparing for the festival?

"Besides, with the footage you collect, I'll be able to show off the capabilities of one of my babies to Power Loader," Mei said nonchalantly as Izuku nearly fell over by her sudden crassness. She blinked at Izuku's reaction. "What? It's a win-win!"

"You're going to take advantage of our situation in order to show off to Power Loader!?" Izuku cried out indignantly.

There's no interest like the self-interest... Tokoyami thought.

"It's only fair given your last minute request alongside what you put me through this morning!" Mei retorted. "In fact...I say you'll still owe me after all this. So how about it Midoriya?" Mei flashed him a demure smirk. "After you curb stomp Club Fear, you'll help me put the finishing touches on my babies, right?"

"T-thanks for the help, Hatsume!" A flustered Izuku exclaimed as he hurried out of the studio, dragging a bewildered Tokoyami behind him.


"...Was she flirting with you?" Tokoyami asked aloud, turning toward Izuku only to find he wasn't paying attention to him whatsoever. He was instead arguing with his floating cloak once more, a sight Tokoyami found to be equal parts perplexing and disturbing.

"—I know you don't like it, but you can't be seen out in the open since you're technically part of my hero costume!" Izuku hissed as he dangled his unzipped backpack in front of it. "I can't get in trouble before we even get started! I'll make it up to you later, I promise!"

The cloak did not respond with words, though it appeared to Tokoyami that Izuku understood its silent response well enough. It shuddered, shook, and bobbed in a language only Izuku seemed to decipher before ultimately resigning itself to the pack, folding itself gently and neatly into its confines, with Izuku muttering a softer apology as he zipped it up.

Tokoyami turned away from Izuku before the boy could realize he'd been staring, thoroughly puzzled by the seemingly sentient cloak. He'd wondered about it ever since the Battle Trials, but the more he thought about it, the less and less it seemed like the 'highly experimental tech' Izuku had always described it as being.

A sharp chill blew past Tokoyami just as he'd decided to file the issue away for future consideration, snapping him back to reality. The blast of cold blew from behind a door he'd just walked past, a door leading into the expansive halls of U.A's restricted maintenance rooms.

"Midoriya!" Tokoyami called for his friend, waving him over to the door.

Izuku approached as he slung the backpack over his shoulders once more, shivering as he neared the door. Sure enough, a visible chill was emanating from behind it, oozing out of the bottom, top, and side gaps. The hinges were frozen over, likely from the inside. Izuku reached out to give the doorknob a jiggle, but to no avail—it wouldn't budge. Not even Dark Shadow, with all its strength, could wrest the door out of its frigid imprisonment.

It was clear to both Izuku and Tokoyami that Todoroki was responsible for this. But why had he frozen it from the inside? What was he even doing in the maintenance rooms to begin with, and how had he gotten in there?

"We should hurry," Izuku said quietly.

"I agree," Tokoyami concurred, reaching down to feel the Centicam curled up in his pocket as he walked alongside Izuku toward the 1-D room, perhaps a bit faster than before. "My role for this 'infiltration' of ours is to remain simple, correct? I meet Hyou Youma as planned and record their meeting with the Centicam."

"Using Dark Shadow to physically intervene only when or if necessary," Izuku added.

"And what of your role?" Tokoyami inquired.

"It would be counterproductive for me to physically be at the meeting with you," Izuku mused aloud. "Ryou already sought me out for a fight this morning, and if he sees me there, it could tip him off that we're somewhat onto their plan. I definitely want to avoid a fight if possible, so I'll build on what I did before homeroom today: I'll hide my body somewhere secure and go astral for recon. If I'm right, and Ryou's astral powers are identical to my own, then he can't be at the meeting and be using his Quirk at the same time. So long as I'm careful and distant, I should stay safe. The less overt I am, the better we'll be."

"Hmm," Tokoyami hummed dubiously, thinking the plan over. All he could think of were the unaccounted factors he'd mentioned to Izuku earlier...as well as all the possible ways this could go wrong.

"Well, I certainly agree with you there."

Tokoyami and Izuku's eyes snapped forward, catching sight of a familiar crop of wild, messy, indigo hair. Standing before them in the middle of the otherwise empty hallway was the very guy who'd declared war on their entire class.

"Up to no good, hero students?" Shinso asked impersonally.

"You're...that Shinso guy...!" Izuku exclaimed while Tokoyami took a defensive posture.

"Figures you'd try to meddle with Club Fear," Shinso said, lazily scratching a finger into his ear as he addressed Izuku and Tokoyami. "If you know what's best for you, then you won't get involved."

"As if we would just stand by while Kizuka tries to undermine our friends," Izuku retorted, glaring at Shinso. "You say we shouldn't get involved, but why did you? I remember that declaration you made against us...I remember how sincere and determined you sounded! I don't think you'd willingly help someone like Kizuka, not if you were as serious about joining the hero course as I thought you were!"

"Of course I wouldn't help Kizuka," Shinso replied. "And I'm as serious now as I was then about joining the hero course." He leveled his gaze directly at Izuku, his lethargic eyes now suddenly brimming with resolve. "That's why I'm going to be the one who stops Club Fear."

Izuku and Tokoyami were visibly taken aback by this new declaration, casting glances at one another as they processed it.

"I intended on doing this ever since she invited me," Shinso explained. "As if I was going to ruin my chances at joining the hero course by joining a damn cult—"

"This is great!" Izuku exclaimed suddenly and excitedly, and it was Shinso's turn be taken aback. "We can cooperate and stop them together!"

"Wrong," Shinso responded harshly, smirking a little as Izuku's excitement deflated. "You see, I think Kizuka Yuuku is a damn nut case, but she was right about one thing: why should I wait until the sports festival to get into the hero course?"

Tokoyami's eyes narrowed and Izuku felt his heart drop into his gut.

"Stopping Club Fear in the middle of their so-called ritual and forcing Kizuka and her little cohorts to confess to the principal should be more than enough to get me into 1-A or 1-B," Shinso said with a small smile before turning away from Izuku and Tokoyami. "And you needn't worry—I promise not to let any of your friends get hurt."

"Wait, Shinso—!" Izuku cried out before his body suddenly became loose and limp, his surprised expression morphing into a blank and empty look.

What's...going on...?

"Go into that bathroom across the hall and sit in an open stall," Shinso ordered. "Stay out of my way, will you?"

Completely subjected to Shinso's will, Izuku silently obeyed. He made a sharp 90 degree turn toward the restroom and calmly walked to the door.

"Midoriya!?" Tokoyami exclaimed, rattled by his friend's abrupt change in demeanor. He angrily whirled back to face Shinso again. "What have you done to him—!?"

Tokoyami's hostile stance suddenly fell into a limp one as well, his expression equally blank like Izuku's.

"Go into that bathroom across the hall and sit in an open stall," Shinso repeated without ever turning to look back at Tokoyami or Izuku. "You both can wait there until I've stopped Club Fear."

With that, Shinso continued his walk toward the 1-D classroom to fulfill his own agenda, leaving a thoroughly brainwashed Tokoyami and Izuku in his wake.

I-I can't control my body...! Izuku panicked as his body moved on its own, carrying out Shinso's directive. He watched helplessly as he slowly walked into the boy's restroom, with a controlled Tokoyami right behind him. His struggling was in vain, as Shinso's will had imposed itself over his own, detaching Izuku's mind from his body and shackling it into place.

Some kind of...brainwashing! Izuku realized as his body entered into an open stall and promptly plopped down on the thankfully closed toilet lid. His body leaned backwards, squishing his backpack between his body and the commode, a position that his cloak was none too fond of if the sudden thrashing was any indication. This must be Shinso's Quirk!

Tokoyami soon followed suit and entered the stall next to Izuku's, taking a seat and remaining otherwise still and silent.

Izuku saw that Shinso had them stay out of the way in general, and not just his way. Was ordering them into the restroom just Shinso's way of keeping them safe? It was hard to tell with that demeanor of his. Still, Shinso now had to be stopped alongside Kizuka. There might not have been any outward malice in Shinso's words or motives, but Izuku wasn't about to let the fate of his friends—and that of his mistake—rest solely on Shinso's shoulders. He had to find a way to free his captive mind from Shinso's brainwashing!

Let's see...Shinso's Quirk prevents my mind from having any control over my body, Izuku thought as he continued to struggle, searching for any possible angle to break free of Shinso's hold. It allows for complete domination of someone's mind...

A revelation.

...but does it allow for control of the soul?

Izuku ceased his struggling and instead capitalized on his tranquil immobility, drawing himself inward as he channeled the personal energies flowing through his body. With the forced stillness of his captive body, it took only moments for Izuku's soul to separate from his flesh. He lingered over himself, spinning and stretching as he saw for sure that he had complete control over his astral self. He was right—Shinso's brainwashing had no effect on one's own soul.

He phased his head through the stall wall and spotted Tokoyami's still captive body resting within, presumably with Dark Shadow shackled as well.

"Sorry, Tokoyami," Izuku muttered as he pulled back. "At least you'll remain out of harm's way here." He cast one final glance at his own body before departing—or more specifically the squished cloak thrashing from within Izuku's backpack. He felt a pang of guilt for coaxing it back into his pack, and he was sure to be in for some pain when he returned to his physical form.

Dwell on that later, Izuku, he told himself as he phased through the restroom wall to chase after Shinso.

Not one minute after Izuku departed, the restroom doors creaked open.


Izuku could soar far faster than he could walk when he was in his astral form, and soar he did, straight for the classroom with a conspicuous '1-D' sign plastered on its door. He phased right through it with no hesitation, spotting Shinso walking toward a closet door near the back of the room. 1-D was otherwise empty, with no sign of Kizuka, Todoroki, Ryou, or his twin brother.

None of his other classmates were here either, which pleased Izuku immensely.

Good, Izuku thought. Looks like I got here just in time.

"Stop!" Izuku shouted and materialized all at once so Shinso could see him.

Shinso predictably whirled about, staring up at Izuku's wispy, spectral appearance with no small amount of surprise.

"Wait—what—why—" Shinso stammered. "How is this possible? How are you free of my Quirk?"

"Your Quirk allows you to dominate the minds of others," Izuku responded, "but you can't touch the soul!"

Shinso seemed to test Izuku on just that, approaching him and cautiously waving a hand through his astral body, pulling back and rubbing it to ward off the otherworldly chill.

"Tch," Shinso clicked his tongue. "Are you still trying to meddle and stop Club Fear? I told you I would take care of that. How useful can you be in that state, anyway?"

"I can take care of myself!" Izuku retorted. "And besides, you won't be able to stop me, so you'll have no choice but to accept my offer of help!"

"...Fine," Shinso said with a huff, realizing how fruitless his desire to go about this alone had become now that Izuku was seemingly immune to his Quirk. "Follow me."

Shinso directed Izuku toward the closet door at the back of the class, a narrow door sandwiched between columns of shelves. The door swung open with an audible creak. Izuku peered in from behind as Shinso flipped a light switch, a lone bulb illuminating the clutter within. Shinso, however, ignored it, entering and directing Izuku toward the very back of the untidy storage room.

A shelf. A bare shelf spanning nearly the entire width of the small room, and behind it a door. The shelf is sticking out slightly, and the door is barely cracked open, suggesting recent usage. Shinso swung the shelf open, forcibly shoving any litter in its path out of the way, and then the door.

On the other side is a semi-narrow corridor, dimly lit with a slight yellowish glow whose illumination barely touched all corners of the passageway, leaving much of it darkened. The walls and bits of ceiling that Izuku could make out clearly were covered pipes, panels, and vents; a pair of ladders were barely visible deeper in, one leading up...the other down.

And clinging to the metal floor were small specks of frost.

Todoroki, Izuku correctly surmised.

"This door was a sealed, unused entranceway into U.A's labyrinthine maintenance rooms," Shinso explained. "The maintenance rooms are all connected from here all the way to the roof...and all the way down to the basement," He motioned toward the steel ladders going straight up and straight down. "Kizuka discovered this door early last week and decided then and there that their so-called 'ritual' was going to be held somewhere in here."

"Ritual?" Izuku asked aloud. Shinso had mentioned it briefly during their earlier confrontation, but he hadn't elucidated it before commencing with the brainwashing, and this morning Ryou had also mentioned a ritual in passing before attacking him again.

In both instances Izuku hadn't the time to request clarification.

And he wasn't going to have time for it now either.

"Shinso!"

"Shinso, you here already?"

The first voice Izuku immediately recognized as being Ryou's, and he instinctively went invisible upon hearing it. The second voice was nearly identical to Ryou's albeit slightly higher pitched—definitely his brother Hyou.

Shinso gave no discernible reaction to Izuku abruptly fading out of view, maintaining his typically stoic visage as he exited the cluttered closet and reemerged into the 1-D classroom to greet Ryou and Hyou.

"Yeah, I'm here, why are you—" Shinso suddenly stopped short, clearly caught off guard by something.

Izuku, rendered invisible, was startled even worse.

Those were Hyou and Ryou's voices...but it wasn't the Youma twins who'd entered the room.

It was Tokoyami and Izuku's bodies.

"Shinso, nice to see you, friend," Ryou's voice spoke, though it was Izuku's lips that moved. The green eyes that Izuku recognized as his own soon locked onto precisely where he was floating seemingly unseen, and in his shock he failed to register a familiar tingling sensation that warned him of this particular danger. "Hold still, would you, seems there's a pest hovering over your shoulder."

Before he can even process those words and react, a powerful, dark mass zooms past Shinso and slams into Izuku's astral body, gripping him in a solid, shadowy vice. Dark Shadow is fully emerged from Tokoyami's body and has Izuku's spectral form securely bound between its lightless claws. Izuku utters a pained yell, reappearing before Shinso's eyes as Dark Shadow gives Izuku's astral form a painful squeeze.

D-Dark Shadow can touch my astral form...!? Izuku could hardly register this new realization before being thrust toward the ground; a familiar face was now looking down at him.

His face.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this," Ryou's voice emanated from Izuku's body's lips once again, green eyes perusing over his scarred hands before setting on the captured astral form of Izuku. Izuku winced as he saw his own face twist into a malicious sneer that just didn't belong.

"Hello, Midoriya," Ryou said tauntingly. "Anything you can do...I can do better~."

Tokoyami had been seized by the brother...and Izuku's body had been possessed by Ryou himself.


Author Notes

Long time no see! Back from a break and diving right back into Club Fear! I apologize for the sudden break I took, but I really wanted to take my time with plotting out this arc, making sure I was pleased with the direction it was going before actually committing to any writing. It took a long while, but I'm sufficiently satisfied now. This chapter will be part 1 of 4 of the climax of this arc.

And what a climax it'll be! Shinso throws a wrench into Izuku's already tenuous plan and reveals his own plot, which the Youma twins are more than happy to capitalize on. With Tokoyami and Izuku's physical bodies possessed by Hyou and Ryou respectively, and the newfound revelation that Dark Shadow can in fact harm Izuku's astral form, it seems Izuku is about to get canned before the meeting even takes place! How will he overcome these odds!?

Now to respond to some comments I may not or could not have replied to in PM's:

Ramses II: I'm also a huge fan of Tokoyami (he's one of my 1-A favorites), so of course I wanted to give him an elevated role in this arc. I've got big plans for him if this chapter's revelation is anything to go by!

Thunder Dragon: As I think I've said before, the Asgardians will definitely make an appearance in a future arc concerning Mei's growth. That's still a long way off, however.

Alex: Merci beaucoup!

Orion: I have yet to reveal the full details of what precisely happened during 'The Tragedy Six Years Ago' regarding All Might and Doctor Strange's battle with All For One, merely shown bits and pieces throughout the story. Rest assured that a full flashback is in the works, and the topic of healing spells has already been taken into account.

Expect Part 2 very soon!

Until next time! Plus Ultra!