Chapter Eighteen: Rewind
—Midoriya—
In spite of being barely awake moments ago, Izuku was by Kaida's side in an instant, his nightcap flying off unceremoniously as he put up a shield around the foyer, blocking off the rest of the penthouse. Kaida looked ready to shift and lunge at the man before her regardless of blowing a hole in the building, but Izuku saw what she did – the innocence and fear in the girl's wide red eyes as she clung to the sleeve of her villain companion. Kaida narrowed her eyes, and the blue-white flare faded slightly, but she kept her focus and blade trained on the man.
Katsuki huffed, crossing his arms and glaring at the hostilities as he stepped through the elemental barrier. "Dunno what kind of tricks you're playin' to get yourselves up here," he narrowed his eyes and cracked his knuckles, "but if you wake the kids up, you're gonna have Uncle Baku to answer to."
"Shoto, did you call for backup?" Izuku said, not taking his eyes off of Kaida.
"Togata and Takami will be here to get the kids out shortly," Shoto replied. He rested a hand gingerly on his wife's back. "Stay calm," he murmured, "we don't have to escalate. We have things contained."
"Tch." The dark-haired man crossed his arms. "Really; do you think we would have bothered to knock if the intent was to set this place on fire?"
Kaida pressed the tip of her blade against his throat, tipping his chin up and drawing a bead of blood. "Your attitude isn't getting you anywhere," she growled. "Speak plainly, or keep your mouth shut."
"Kaida," Izuku warned, keeping his voice level, "no need to spill blood so hastily."
"I could have his head right now if I wanted to," she growled, tilting the edge of the scythe. Her voice was layered with that primal, ethereal echo.
The man grinned. He lifted his hands in exaggerated acquiescence. "Fine, fine. Guess I shouldn't have assumed my right to be cordial, after all; stepping into the dragon's den and whatnot." He took half a step back.
"What fuckin' cordial business does the villain Dabi have with this household on a Saturday night?" Katsuki scoffed.
Izuku curled his toes in his slippers – an old trick that he used to do to help him focus on singling out one of his Quirk's individual abilities, and one that he needed in his half-drowsy state – and with an exhale, projected a double of himself beside the two unexpected visitors.
One For All Ability: Spirit Double
Allows the user to project an intangible clone with a full range of senses, but cannot interact with anything physically.
Looking over his own shoulder through the double's eyes, Izuku winced at his disheveled hair, and saw his mother crouching behind the couch nervously, her head poked over the edge. Rei was standing between Inko and the foyer, bravely clutching her tea in one hand and a ring of frost in the other.
Dabi waved a hand through Izuku's double, with a grin of amusement. "Neat trick. I don't suppose you—"
"Enough," Kaida snapped, and closed the distance that Dabi had made. "Tell us why you're here." But before the blade could reach Dabi's throat again, the girl by his side abruptly leapt forwards, catching the sharp edge in her small, delicate hands.
Izuku had seen what Kaida could do with those scythes, and his alarm redoubled, expecting to see half the girl's fingers sliced off – but his fears were unfounded. He watched, wide-eyed, as the golden horn on the girl's forehead glowed, and not so much as a speck of blood came from her hands, though the edge of the blade looked as though it ought to be deep in her palm.
Kaida, having overcome her initial surprise, reacted immediately by dispelling the blade at once. In spite of her doubts, Izuku knew that she was not one to ignore the possibilities of collateral damage; and surely, she could sense as well as he could that the girl, at least, had no ill intentions.
"R-really," the girl stammered, tucking a lock of her silver hair away as she rubbed her hands together, her horn's inner light fading away. "We just came to talk, I promise. If it wasn't important, we wouldn't be intruding like this."
"Talk?" Katsuki scoffed. "Unlikely. The f—"
Dabi sighed loudly. He had not reacted at all to the recent unfolding of events, but crossed his arms then, nudging the girl with his elbow. "Alright, Eri… do the thing. They're not likely to budge, and we're not gonna get anywhere like this." He glanced up at the hostile line of heroes before them. "Here's to a sign of good faith…"
"Bubble them in," Shoto pulled Kaida back by the crook of her elbow, and she flinched visibly at his touch. She was still on high alert, her hostility palpable in the air. "Whatever they're doing, it'll be containable," he insisted, dragging his partner away from the unwelcome guests. Before Kaida could contest, Izuku did as Shoto bid.
It happened so quickly that Izuku would have missed it in the glare of his own Barrier going up. The girl's horn flared with light once more, and she narrowed her red eyes in concentration, lifting her hands up towards Dabi — and then, before their eyes, Dabi changed. The signature patches of burnt, damaged skin on his face and arms faded away in the blink of an eye, and his jet-black hair saturated into a deep red.
The sound of shattering ceramic made Izuku turn his head. He saw Rei Todoroki standing in front of the couch, the remnants of her favorite mug scattered across the hardwood floor by her feet amidst a pool of peppermint tea. Her voice quivered with her shaking hands.
"Touya… Is that you?"
—Todoroki—
Shoto kept one hand wrapped around Kaida's as they sat at the dining table, in an attempt to stay the tension running through her body. The children were safe; Lemillion and Hawks had answered the midnight call and were standing guard nearby, while the Four Heroes settled down across from their unexpected visitors, for an equally unexpected conversation.
It was like Touya had come back from the dead. Shoto recalled the conversation he'd had with his father, more than seven years ago; in which Enji had confessed the truth about Touya's disappearance – but with little to no leads or means to prove his survival or find his whereabouts, the avenue had never been pursued. But now, it all made sense; Dabi's familiarity with Shoto in the woods on the day of the training camp attack, the information he'd been passed, and even how the pair had managed to get past the building's biometrics scanner in the lobby. And that was enough for Shoto to believe – or at least hope – that Touya had come with good intention.
"First off," Touya cleared his throat, frowning at the sound of his own voice. "Allow me to begin my explanation with an introduction. This is my 'daughter,' Eri."
"D-daughter?!" Izuku spluttered.
"Adoptive. Unofficially." Touya crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. Eri tucked her hair behind her ears self-consciously; Shoto noticed that her horn had shrunken in length by quite a few centimeters. "Eri's Quirk is called Rewind," Touya continued.
Quirk: Rewind
A Quirk caused by an extremely rare mutation, meaning it is neither inherited nor passed on hereditarily. Allows the user to revert any living thing to a previous state.
"To a previous state…" Shoto echoed.
"Right. In my case, I've had the rather unique displeasure of returning to my nineteen-year-old self." Touya cleared his throat again. "To be sure that you remembered me, little bro. Or I suppose, big bro, now…" He frowned. "At any rate…
"Following that 'incident' with Dad, and my 'apparent suicide ,' I received a call of sorts. A voice, oneI could only compare to what a man of the cloth might say is the sound of gods… a voice that promised revenge, redemption, and so much more; a world in which bastards like Endeavour couldn't just go about doing whatsoever they pleased."
"He was called by Erebus," Kaida said flatly. "And yet… I don't see its brand on your spirit."
"Exactly; I'm getting to that," Touya sighed. "So, I find my way to this group of people that call themselves followers of this voice I'd been hearing, and they even let me see their weird crystal ball or whatever that the chaos dragon resides in. Looked like an evil bowling ball, for lack of a better description."
"An evil bowling ball," Kaida muttered. "Sure, the ancient artifact of Chaos, the sealed essence of my family's ancient enemy; an evil bowling ball. " Shoto squeezed her hand, and Touya continued.
"But after a while, once All For One starts calling his little group the League of Villains and Tomura gets to play ringleader, I start to realize that this promised world looks more like a society of anarchy than some sort of radical reformation. But it wasn't as if I could just dip out whenever I so pleased – that, and there was also the matter of her. " He clapped a hand on Eri's shoulder. "Eri was under the guardianship of the Shie Hassaikai group – the yakuza, in case you've forgotten – and namely their leader, Kai Chisaki. You may better know him as the villain known as Overhaul."
It was Shoto's turn to tense up then. They only knew what they did of Overhaul from Izuku's Echo – and it was through that power that they learned Overhaul had been responsible for the death of Kaida's father.
"Chisaki was using her for research, as he called it, which was his nice way of saying child abuse . Eri's power allows her to manipulate organisms down to the genetic level, which makes Rewind a potentially devastating ability. She can even revert people back to a state before they existed, effectively deleting them from this reality."
Eri squeezed her eyes shut. "That's… that's how I ended up with Kai in the first place. What happened to my parents… it was… it was my—"
Touya interrupted her with a firm, but gentle pat on the head. "Hey. We've moved past those bad dreams of the past. And speaking of…" he reached into the bag that Eri carried across her shoulder, and pulled out a cone-shaped object; it was some sort of modified plague doctor's mask, with yellow metal reinforcing the edges. Shoto recognized it as Overhaul's signature face piece. Touya set it on the centre of the table. "…Chisaki isn't a problem anymore. I took care of him after the others went to Erebus's realm."
Kaida picked up the mask and turned it over in her hands. A myriad of emotions haunted their way across her face, and even Shoto could not put a name to each one.
"Don't worry," Touya said, watching Kaida's reaction with his mouth set in a grim line, "I don't expect a 'thank you' or anything of the sort… dirty business, all of it."
"Alright…" Shoto narrowed his eyes. "So you're here to clear your name by bringing in a bounty? Is that what this is about?"
Touya scoffed, and the way he curled his lip reminded Shoto of their childhood, instilling a chilling mixture of emotions. "Of course that's not it. What is this, the wild west? I know it's not that simple. More importantly, I came to warn you. Chisaki, Eri, and I were the ones left behind during the exodus; and as such, it was left to us to 'prepare' for Erebus's return… so to speak." He drummed his fingers on the table. "Seven years, seven months, and seven days to the day. That's soon, in case you haven't been keeping a calendar."
" Soon?" Katsuki repeated, his voice scathing. "And you only thought to come tell us this now? "
"Would you have rather us made a move too soon, killed Overhaul, and caused a return before anyone could even know what was happening?" Touya retorted. "During these last couple of weeks, the communication lines are closed. They won't know what happened to Chisaki until they come back. He was their main point of contact; so that he could keep All for One updated on anything new they got from the research with Eri. Now, it's just us."
There was a long, anticipatory silence.
Katsuki growled, but didn't snap a retort. Instead, he turned to Kaida. "Well? This is your field, after all. The fuck are we going to do?"
—Tamashini—
She and Hawks stood in the hallway to watch them leave; Touya slipped on his shoes as if he were any other houseguests on their way out, while Mirio offered Eri a hand as she got to her feet.
"O-oh, I can manage," Eri said bashfully, but took the extended hand anyway.
"Manners, Eri," Touya sighed.
"Ah – I mean, thank you?" Eri shuffled her feet. "Sorry, Touya-chi…"
"Hmmm," Touya scratched his head. "You should probably call me nii at this point, instead of chi , don't you think? We're closer in age now, more like siblings." He shot a glance over at Kaida and cast her an undesirable wink.
Mirio laughed, carefree as ever. "You can call me whatever you'd like, Eri-tan. Whatever would make you comfortable!"
The silver-haired girl still looked a little nervous, but in the wake of Lemillion's brilliant smile, she couldn't help but laugh. As the three walked out the door without another backwards glance, Kaida continued to stare at the empty foyer for several moments after.
"Hey." Hawks clapped her shoulder. "That was a lot. You good? Deku said you almost went primal on them when they first came in."
Kaida gritted her teeth. "This is my home , Keigo. Can you blame me?"
The man chuckled, ruffling his wings. "Suppose not. Just as much of a mama dragon as Akira, heh. Remember what I told you, when Kousuke and Hikari were first born – about what kinda world I'd like to see my godchildren grow up in?"
"A world where heroes have time to kill," Kaida recited, finally looking at him. "What of it…? We got there, but we both knew that it wouldn't last forever."
"Well, secretly, I kinda hoped that Erebus wouldn't come back in our lifetimes… But wishful thinking won't get us anywhere."
"But if we can put a stop to this in our lifetime," Kaida's voice cracked, "then they won't have to grow up in a world like the one we did."
Within an hour of the visitors' departure, things had settled down. Inko had made the frazzled Rei a fresh cup of tea and convinced her to go to bed, Kaida confirmed that the children had stayed asleep; and then the four heroes had reconvened at the dining table, empty then save the discarded mask.
Kaida's eyes rested upon it again as she sat down. Memories of her father's death had not haunted her for some time; and she had only seen Overhaul's face when walking in Izuku's memories through the power of Echo, but the dull glint of metal on the hooked beak seemed to leer at her threateningly.
Nothing more than ghosts of the past. Pay them no mind; the dead cannot bring you harm. Elysium's voice soothed.
But their memories cause pain, nonetheless.
"So, you said you were going to explain things a bit more so us non-posessed-of-ancient-being-folks can understand, yeah?" Katsuki put his elbows on the table. At his side, Izuku looked across at Kaida with an equally expectant countenance, all semblance of his sleepiness from earlier gone.
She felt Shoto gently take her hand as she spoke. "So." She drew a deep breath, looking at the three men seated around her in turn, to take solace in the work that they had done together over the last seven years – come what may, she knew she could keep faith in their camaraderie. "You want to know why I believe Dabi – Touya's warning at face value, even though I spend so much time wallowing in Elysium's sanctum and haven't sensed so much as the slightest disturbance, right? Let me draw an analogy for you.
"Imagine a castle built like a fortress; surrounded with a moat infinitely deep on all sides, and enclosed by walls infinitely high. The only way across the moat is a drawbridge that opens from the inside; if the drawbridge was down, it would be possible for those outside to force it closed; but if the drawbridge was raised, it would not be possible to force it open from without. The Penumbra Sphere – the aforementioned 'evil bowling ball' – was both the sole key to this castle… but also the keep itself ; Erebus's realm is a place beyond our access or comprehension."
"And it's like that because…?" Katsuki waved his hand in a circular motion impatiently.
"Because Elysium put Erebus in the bowling ball," Izuku said, patting his partner's shoulder. "Sorry, Kaida; go ahead."
"Erebus, his world, and the Sphere are one and the same," Kaida continued. "All for One's connection with Erebus is that he was imparted the possession of the Sphere itself; Erebus chose All for One to be its keeper. Elysium's realm is not a prison realm in that sense – it chose to bind itself to a mortal bloodline in order to be one with the people of the world it seeks to preserve, and from generation to generation, it draws new strength. The passage in Kiyo-Mizudera is one that is open on both ends to a being touched of the dragon's spirit, and the sanctum beyond is a place between worlds, rather than a realm of its own.
"This being said – the acolytes and Elysium's heritor are tasked with keeping a careful watch on the way our reality folds and flows. The world is ever-changing, and the universe naturally trends towards entropy; by that alone, Erebus slowly regains its strength. All for One's power was the closest metric that we could observe over the last few centuries, and so Elysium's bearer and the current holder of One for All worked hand-in-hand to preserve the balance. All for One's departure from our reality, however, took away the most reliable means of measurement." She paused, and curled her free hand tightly in her lap. "That's why… that's why Touya's warning is all we have to work with."
There was silence for a long moment, which was eventually broken, predictably, by Katsuki. "Well, if you say so, you say so. I'm pretty damn sure you don't fly all the way out to some moldy cave just to waste time 'looking' into the void or whatever – if the only way that anyone would hear from the other side is like this, with a call from the other side, then yeah; we'd better take this thing seriously."
" We, " Shoto repeated firmly. "Don't you dare go getting any ideas about having to save the world on your own, Kaida. This world is the one that we've built together – and it's the one we're going to protect together. "
"Yes," she nodded. "It… it's our world, before it belongs to the dragons."
"So I say we call the banners!" Izuku said suddenly, thumping his hand on the table. Kaida shot him a dangerous the-children-are-sleeping look and he flinched.
"Call the what now?" Katsuki cringed. "What kinda medieval times bullshit are you on about?"
"She started it," Izuku muttered, pouting for a moment before remembering that he was a grown man. "What I mean to say is – we're hardly the only competent ones around. Hero rankings and top charts are the spirit of… of capitalism, quite frankly. We should band together as many heroes as we can; we'd easily have way more numbers than what the League of Villains departed with."
"Where would we start?" Shoto wondered aloud. "My father and his agency, for one…"
"Not just our friends and family," Kaida said. "It has to be everyone . We have no idea what we're going to be up against – the individuals who went to Erebus will not return as they were before." Kaiketsu's face flashed in her memory.
She closed her eyes, and the weight of the day came crashing down on her all at once; she felt the fatigue from her long flight across the country and the two days without sleep at the sanctum creep up and pounce on her out of nowhere. Shoto squeezed her hand, as if he could sense her drop in energy.
"…Tomorrow, then. We'll begin our preparations tomorrow."
—Elysium—
By her request, I do not visit her children in their waking lives. I know them only when they come seeking me out, in the deepest of their unremembered dreams – and in them, each time, I bear witness to the brilliance of human life, the hope and potential of not one, but two flames lit anew. And as for their mother; I no longer need to visit with her in dreams – hers are mine, and mine are hers. This is what Athos had forewarned of many years ago, that in continuing to risk her life so recklessly, Kaida inevitably weaves our life forces together, until one thread cannot be extricated without the whole becoming unravelled.
But she knows this. And as long as she harbors no regret, neither shall I. After all, had she not lived past the battles of her adolescence, the children would never have been born, and the bloodline would have ended with her.
There is a distinct duality between the young dragons' present childhood, and that which Kaida experienced. Akira had no shortage of love for her daughter, but her duty to my legacy always took precedence over the feelings that she knew to be part of the fleeting mortal existence. It is impossible to say what would have become of Kaida in a world wherein such great change to the equilibrium did not come to pass while she was yet so young, but in a world without the constant threat of Erebus, she still remains ever-vigilant — if not more so than those who came before her.
She spoke in allegory to those who stand beside her of Erebus's realm being like unto a great castle, but from within, the world that We see is much the same. The mantle of her legacy is the throne that she claims… but not to sit back in the opulence that comes from great power, but to wield it as an aegis against those who would harm that which she holds dear. The world that she has built within her own keep has its epicenter in her family, and she would put everything on the line – every stone and mortar, to protect those closest to her heart.
Should my enemy see into this world and how I choose to herein reside, I have no doubt that it would take amusement at seeing such powers under the possession of what was once such a willful young girl. But much like the younger brother of Erebus's first chosen and his seven successors, time and time again the Tamashini bloodline proves its spirit and mettle to be worthy of the power of gods.
Far before the primordial dragons and their ill-fated conflicts, before even the concepts of Chaos and Order, "Elysium" was a place. A realm beyond description that can bear any meaning to mortal minds. A realm of perfection in both stillness and unfettered potential, where everything that could be, was everywhere all at once. I know not what became of that Elysium, beyond that which I am told of in the whispers of Time; the master of all, who is in turn a prophet of the one true inevitability: Change.
And so, I wonder; as Change comes once more to collect Its dues, will it be by the gods' hands delivered, or wrought by the unpredictability of mankind?
Next Chapter: Preparations