Hitoshi Shinsou was not how Shoto remembered him. This was not the quiet, abashed child, hiding behind books in the Magesterium libraries, snipping at Izuku to stop distracting him from his studies. No, the year on assignment had changed him. In his face, mostly covered yet still recognizable, there was confidence and conniving, but his eyes were the same. There had always been something cold and shut off in that stare and, as a child, Shoto had seen it as a kindred attitude - the will and fortitude to remain focussed on their goals without want of distraction. It didn't seem to mean that anymore.

Stepping around the Commander, Hitoshi exhaled against the fabric of his mask, spreading his arms in a gesture that should have been welcoming, but made Shoto push Queen Momo another step behind him. She went willingly, but hung close to her protector.

"Ether bite me! Shoto! I could have sworn you'd be demon food, rotting with the rest of Dawnfell by now. Not that the last year has been that kind to you…" there was a mocking grit to his teeth as he tapped his own eye and nodded at Shoto's scarred face. "I guess they were right that No Man's Land doesn't let anyone go unscathed."

Shoto flinched unwillfully. He didn't want to think of the fronts and his luck to simply be alive. Word must have traveled faster than he expected about the state of Demon's Rise. It spurred a whole series of new questions - what did Hitoshi know about the fronts, what had happened to him since they were given their separate assignments? - but he stayed on topic.

"What are you doing here Hitoshi? What have you done to Commander Tenya?"

Hitoshi took a casual look over his shoulder at the distressed, but still frozen Commander and gave a flippant one shoulder shrug. "Nothing damaging or permanent, but he's proved a nuisance before and I figured it would be easier not to give him a chance to cut me down. I really wasn't expecting to see you, though. I still can't believe you survived."

"Shoto," Momo clawed at his sleeve frantically, "This man tried to kill me. He did to me what he is doing to Tenya. He is not your friend, he is a monster!"

Shoto's flung an accusing stare at Hitoshi. The Mage before him merely chuckled, but it was not lighthearted, rather, patronizing.

"If I really wanted to kill you, highness, you would be dead," Hitoshi said, "A threat on your life was more than enough, though if that slinking woman had taken any more time stopping me I might have had to go for the kill just to keep up appearances. But everything went according to plan and in case you're worried, I'm not here to kill you, Princess… I mean, Queen."

Momo clenched her fists and her breath seemed to escape her like a punch to the chest. With one word he had exposed her and the realization, or rather, the questions sent a mutter through the gathered townsfolk that had stayed to watch the show. Even still everyone kept their distance from the two dangerous men facing each other down in the town center.

"Then why have you come?" Momo's voice rose and cracked and Shoto couldn't help feel bad for her. It betrayed her fear all too clearly.

"I was given a new mission," Hitoshi started to move in a pacing motion, "You have to return to Tarlson and I'm here to make sure that happens. This lot of tin-buckets," he jabbed a thumb back at Tenya, "are better for breaking doors and spit shining boots than anything as delicate as retrieving the Queen of all Gaetha out of the hands of Mages and dangerous characters."

Shoto did the math quickly and stared disbelief at his Synod compatriot as the timeline pieced together. "How could you have arrived here so fast? The King has been dead little more than a day."

"I have my ways."

A knowing smirk formed behind Hitoshi's mask and his hand swung swiftly in a purple glowing arch across himself. It was as quick as the snap of his fingers. From the magic leapt a black feathered hawk that cut into the air as swift as lightning struck. Even Shoto joined the Queen and the townspeople in a gasp. The bird swept down again, faster still than they could follow and suddenly Hitoshi was standing behind them. Shoto took Momo's arm forcefully and jerked her away from him. A magic glow, the preparation for a spell, rested in the palm of Shoto's hand as he watched wide eyed at Hitoshi's movements.

"A bit of shapeshifting goes a long way," Hitoshi hummed, calmly.

"How did you learn to do that?" Shoto nearly stuttered, "Shapeshifting is not taught in the Magesteriums. The Masters always forbade it."

"It isn't a form of Magic that a Battle Mage need know. But any form of Magic is an option when you are being trained for infiltration and assassination. You should have chosen your path more wisely, Shoto. A Battle Mage is not as grand an assignment as they make it seem."

There was pinching heat in Shoto's throat and he became suddenly aware of how tightly he was squeezing Momo's arm. She was trying to pry herself loose from his grip and he hadn't even noticed. He slackened his hand a little, but didn't let go.

Hitoshi was circling them, in no hurry and with no real concern over the faces filling the town center, watching, but keeping out of their business... for the moment. Hitoshi didn't even seem interested in his target, the Queen. His focus was on Shoto alone.

"I never chose to be a Battle Mage, it was chosen for me," Shoto spoke bitterly, "You knew as much as anyone that my goals were not so mundane."

"Oh that's right," Hitoshi laughed, "You and Izuku thought you would be useful enough to make it to the High Circle. A bit too lofty of a goal if you ask me, but I won't lie, when we were still young, I believed you could do it. You were always so dedicated, Shoto, and if anyone was going to manage it, I thought you might. In my naivety I hated you for that, but I hardly hold grudges anymore, it's not professional and I see I have nothing to be envious over anymore."

"And what about you?" Shoto swallowed heavily, "Were you always planning to become an assassin?"

"Always? No. But when you find your sweet spot you tend to flourish. And when you don't, you become demon fodder in a stalemate in Dawnfell. Or I suppose...a deserter?"

"I didn't desert," Shoto countered stiffly, "I survived."

"I'm sure semantics will make all the difference to the Circle." Thinly veiled sarcasm seemed to be Hitoshi's strong suit.

Shoto's head went a little fuzzy. Hitoshi was right, the Battle Masters and the Circle would hardly care why he was absent from his post, only that he was. Then immediately Shoto shook himself of the foolish apprehension. Desertion was the least of his concerns about returning to the Synod now.

"But one thing that would certainly ingratiate you to your peers would be lending your assistance now," Hitoshi opened his hands like a diplomat, "Help me bring back the Queen, do your duty to the Synod and they will not look so harshly on your past misdeeds."

Hitoshi had greatly miscalculated Shoto's motivations and Shoto lifted his chin to look down on the proposition.

"Don't offer what you cannot make good on," Shoto replied coolly, "I don't believe you are even working on orders from the Synod, what business would they have sending you on a purely political errand such as this. My guess is you were assigned to Tarlson and you have orders from Lord Enji. You don't serve the High Circle, you serve the unempowered baseborn. Your offer is null."

An amused glance passed over Shoto, Momo, and Tenya as Hitoshi nodded slowly. "Right… Tarlson. A close guess, certainly, but not exactly on target there, Shoto. I'll give your naivety the benefit of the doubt, though. No matter my assigned Lordship I guarantee my word is quite influential. I can help you, I'm not the boy I once was; I have more than one trick up my sleeve."

Whatever Hitoshi was offering, Shoto didn't believe for a second he could follow through with it, even if his intentions were genuine. When the gloves came off the Synod would see what Shoto was and that would be the end of it.

The pull against his hand got violent and, in a lapsed moment, Momo jerked free from him and stumbled back, falling on her rear and sputtering incoherently. Red flushed over her cheeks as a flood of tears dripped down them. At first it confused Shoto, why she was so upset, practically paralyzed in fear, but seeing the way she looked between him and Hitoshi was like a slap, resetting Shoto's head. It should have pieced together sooner. Hitoshi was the cause of her intense discomfort with Mages, he had frozen her like he was still doing to Commander Tenya, made her helpless and tried to kill her. And now he was speaking in a friendly way to the person who was supposed to protect her.

All of those selfish thoughts and worries over his own fate within the Synod shook free of him and Shoto focussed on the terror in her eyes. He didn't like that look at all and it refreshed all of the reasons he was here, what was waiting for Gaetha and his role in stopping it. This wasn't a question of whether or not Hitoshi could get the High Circle to forgive his mistakes; he had no right to look for ways out of punishment from the Synod, he had chosen to continue using Fallen Magic because of their failings and he wouldn't take that back now or ever. And the Queen did not deserve to be caught up in the midst of his decisions.

"Shoto," Momo said his name like a plea, "I'm begging you. Please don't..."

"I told you I wasn't going to hurt you." Shoto frowned at her presumptuous words, "And I won't."

Her eyes grew in surprise and she wiped away a tear with a shuddered breath.

"You disappoint me, Shoto. I had always thought highly of you, even when I hated you." Hitoshi's expressive hands dropped to his sides in annoyance. "Even I didn't have the gall to stand so alone as to reject having a family name; it made me believe you were made of harder stuff than the rest of us. I never pinned you as someone who would defy the Synod because some little thing batted her eyes at you. It's a shame I'll have to kill you because of it."

Shoto had no immediate come-back, witty or otherwise. Why did everyone assume his intentions so flippantly? It took him off guard a moment and he got defensive, his defiance wasn't over some pathetic infatuation, this was bigger than all of them.

"You have no idea what you have involved yourself in, Hitoshi," Shoto's hands burned alive with Magic, "I don't want to kill you, but I won't hesitate if you try to harm the Queen."

A snap of purple Magic burst around Hitoshi, but this time it was mixed with an inky black. He had simply appeared at Shoto's shoulder before he even had the chance to turn his head.

"Come now, Sho," Hitoshi huffed and Shoto spun on him, "I remember you well enough to know you won't win this fight, unless No Man's Land has truly changed you into a competent warrior. You always start with a few small spells and then you'll throw everything into one attack, effectively neutralizing yourself. I'll avoid it as I always did and I will then gut you and your friends will have to scoop up your entrails."

Shoto's stomach sank. Hitoshi remembered sparring with him very well it seemed. He never imagined he was that predictable, but was Hitoshi all that wrong? And had anything about how he fought changed since those days casting spells in the sparring room at the Magesterium? Shoto's confidence wavered.

The blades of Hitoshi's hips slipped into his hands gracefully and he twirled them in a showy way. It was a strange choice of weapon for a Mage, but it was terrifying to consider that he didn't need the help of a staff to amplify and focus his Magic. On the other hand, Shoto had neither staff nor blade and recognized instantly his disadvantage; his normal spells would not be as powerful. He looked to Commander Tenya, still stuck in place, to Momo who was just as immobilized by her fear, and the townspeople who kept watch with hesitant interest. There was no sign of Katsuki, Mina, or Eijiro so that meant he was on his own without a staff, defending the Queen against an armed Synod Assassin.

A spark of flame lifted from Shoto's hand and he considered making the first move, but Hitoshi was suddenly gone in a burst of black and purple Magic again. No, Shoto had to change tactics if he wanted to survive this and protect Momo. He chose defense. But that was all he had the chance to decide before the first attack came.

The swipe of a knife narrowly missed Shoto's face. He reacted just fast enough to keep his ear. Hitoshi got a lash of fire for his attempt, but it was as clear a miss as the cut of Hitoshi's blade. But the crash of Magic in the air was the signal the audience needed to know they were witnessing something life threatening and react as they should have ten minutes ago and flee.

Hitoshi vanished again and in that split moment he was gone Shoto jammed a pointed finger down the street. "Run, your highness! He doesn't want you dead and he won't pursue you until he's finished with me."

The Queen faltered, a teary faced mess of fear and confusion, backing up a single step at a time.

"But what about you?"

"I'll be fine. Find Katsuki and Mina! Go! He will not make it past me."

"You sound very confident, Shoto," Hitoshi's voice appeared before he did. This time he grabbed Shoto by the shoulder and something in Shoto's gut turned cold. The touch was full of Magic and it leaked purple shades over his chest.

Lunging away from him, Shoto shuddered under the horrible feeling of the Magic trying to grip his body like a tightening web. All the while Hitoshi stood by, unconcerned with Queen Momo's escape as she finally found her feet to make a run for it. At the very least she had listened to Shoto.

"That confidence is misplaced, old friend," Hitoshi lifted a glowing purple hand, "Now be still."

Shoto felt the command throughout his entire body, but something darker, stronger, and more terrifying inside of him thrashed against it. He did become very still, but not for the reasons Hitoshi thought. The ether felt terribly close and open and it won out over all else, pushing against Hitoshi's Magic until it purged entirely from him and the quaking ether calmed.

Never before had something like that happened to Shoto. He couldn't explain what it had done or why it had done it, but his own Magic had spat out the Magic Hitoshi was using to try and control him.

Hitoshi's victorious expression fell as the purple around Shoto dissipated into nothing. He spoke with a displeased grit of his teeth. "Well… you're full of surprises."

There was no time taken to consider why Hitoshi's spell had been so easily cast off, because in an instant the fight was back on. Hitoshi's playful tactics gave way to aggressive attacks, employed through his disappearing and reappearing act, repeating rapidly. It felt like he was coming at Shoto from all sides at once and it took every ounce of concentration to anticipate and block them with a small shield spell or wall of ice. It was all adrenaline, instinct, and panic keeping him alive and he had to focus so much on defense it left no space for a returned attack.

Then finally Shoto slipped up, or rather, Hitoshi feigned well enough for Shoto to defend in the wrong direction. First there was shock and then searing pain as Shoto's arm dropped to his side. A lick of fire scorched the earth where Hitoshi had stood, but it was close enough to force the assassin back to reassess his strategy while Shoto gripped his now bleeding arm.

Heat stung behind his eyes and his throat was tight, inner cheek bleeding with how tightly he bit down to stifle the sounds he wanted to make.

"You were always a talented combatant, Shoto, even if you were predictable," Hitoshi said, breathless, "But I see you've developed your skills a lot. Not enough, though. It's been fun getting to fight you again, but I have an assignment to complete."

The two blades twirled again and Hitoshi dipped his legs to sprint at Shoto again. This time, Shoto knew he could not fend him off. Not with his limp arm bleeding out and- Oh. Right.

Shoto steeled his topsy turvy gut and swept up his hand, now covered in his own blood, towards his oncoming attacker. Whether it was the heat of the fight or the nature of the Magic, things felt like they slowed down to a near standstill as Shoto reached down inside himself and opened up that dark, terrifying door once again. The world glassed over in a shade of dark, foreboding red and his pain disappeared with the blanket of focus that dropped over him and the glove on his hand shredded apart to show the blackened skin beneath.

Hitoshi's blades met a solid wall of red power and flew from his grip. The town was horribly quiet. All Shoto heard was the frantic breaths of the shocked Mage Assassin in front of him, stumbling backwards.

"You… What have you done?" Hitoshi spoke with concern that sounded almost like it was for Shoto's benefit, "Ether below, Shoto, what have you done?"

Shoto's one good arm opened, letting his barrier fall. He stepped towards Hitoshi and something at the tip of his fingers screamed at him to unleash hell on the Mage, to pour his power into a strike that would obliterate him, end this fight and protect himself and his companions from the threat he presented. And had this been any random Mage, he would not have hesitated, but through the haze of the Blood Magic he could still see with his own eyes. He could see a Mage he had considered a friend not a year ago. A Mage he found peaceable company with at the Magesterium, sitting on opposite ends of the library, studying entirely different things, happily never sharing a word. It was not much of a friendship, none of his friendships ever were it seemed, but it was as flimsy a connection as he had with anyone else he had grown up with. It should have meant nothing, but it somehow meant something.

Shoto faltered. The power in his hands screamed "burn him", but he could not dare to ignite the fire. And to Shoto's surprise, his decision not to follow through, did not send the Magic fleeing from his grip or spinning out of control from his weakness, it was there in his grasp, but now strangely calm, controlled. He wasn't afraid of what he might do.

Hitoshi's head shook in disbelief. "How could you do this?"

In the calm of his power, Shoto looked from the swirling red in his black hand to Hitoshi and grit his teeth. "The Synod failed us, I had to do what was necessary."

"Blood Magic?" Hitoshi spat the words, "Have you lost your sense? You are damned! You have made yourself unsalvageable!"

"And you use your curse to slink about and murder!" Shoto replied coldly so he wouldn't think about Hitoshi's accusations and be reminded that they were true, "Do not preach morals to me when you kill and drag young girls to their unforgiving captors."

"I follow the will of the Synod," Hitoshi was shaking to his knuckles, "You are a pawn of the ether now."

"I seek to end the Summoning, how does that make me a pawn of the ether?" Shoto let his rage boil up and that control he'd had began to wriggle from his grip.

"If you have to ask then you are too far consumed to reason with."

Frustration burned Shoto's cheeks, his throat dry and legs shaking. At the same time the shock and horror across Hitoshi's face changed to enraged determination and Magic sparked back to life in his hands. It was a basic spell, one of the first attacks they learned as children, nothing mystical and out of the ordinary, but with Shoto's renewed anger the Blood Magic was strengthened and made wild and, even though he only had one working arm, the tendrils that sprung to life around him attacked with enough force to break a Dragon's leg off. Hitoshi nimbly managed to avoid most of them, but even he couldn't evade the power Shoto threw at him.

Hitoshi was slammed to the ground and Shoto sent the tendrils to take each of Hitoshi's limbs and pin him down. His prisoner thrashed against the living Blood Magic to no avail. Unable to move his arms, he couldn't cast his spell to escape.

With how the fight two nights ago had ended Shoto could not quell the satisfaction he felt at so easy a victory, but it was hollow and the very act of fighting Hitoshi had lost reason by the time he had him in a position to finish him. He had forgotten about protecting the Queen or the Commander and he couldn't even say he was angry at Hitoshi. He hated it, but all that resided in his mind was Touya, Shoto's failure to stop him, and the weight of the truth that had been revealed that night. Some part of him wanted to rip it all away by ripping Hitoshi's limbs from his body, that same part desperately believing he could purge out the mistakes of that last fight with this one.

But then he felt eyes on him, more than just the still frozen gaze of the Commander forced to watch this ordeal. Someone else was there and the quietest echo of a voice was pricking at his mind.

Amidst that hesitant moment, the breath before the kill, Hitoshi spat at him in all defiance and loathing. "If you're going to become a killer of your own brethren then do it already!"

Brethren? Brother?

No. Hitoshi was no brother to Shoto. No one was and no one would be. Then what has Hitoshi to him? What was Izuku? What was Nana for that matter? He struggled to even call her a friend and yet he'd placed his entire life and future in her hands with all trust. Had he simply deluded himself for years or did he truly not understand what made someone brethren, friend, or family.

The question was so daunting that Shoto lost focus, lost his grip, lost his full hold of the Blood Magic and dispersed it to the air. Hitoshi scrambled back out of his reach and held one of his wrists to his chest with a grimace.

The pain in Shoto's arm flew back to him in an instant like a slap in his face and so did the sounds of the town and the voice battering against his head.

"Mage! What are you doing? Everyone can see the Blood Magic! You have to stop!"

Shoto spun about, gathering his bearings, finding that an alarm bell was ringing, people were still fleeing the scene, and that his companions were now all present, including the Queen who had not run away as instructed but was now helping the Commander back to his feet, apparently freed from Hitoshi's Magic. Katsuki and Mina had weapons drawn and Eijiro simply stood anxiously by them, bouncing on his heels like he wanted to do something, but was entirely unable.

There were no words for this. Shoto had made a terrible mistake. Displaying Magic was one thing, he was Synod after all, he could excuse it with a show of his robes and his credentials. But Blood Magic… He was sure to have the nearest Synod authorities called to deal with him in hours if the townspeople didn't decide to attack him themselves for fear of their lives.

"Damn it," Katsuki hissed, obviously determining the same thing, "Now we really have to leave."

"No argument this time, Captain," Mina grumbled.

Hitoshi made it back to his feet, legs weak, arms pinned to his chest in pain and looking over the lot of them with disdain. Even without Shoto, the group protecting the Queen was too much for the assassin to handle on his own now and he realized that easily. No one had ever called Hitoshi stupid and for good reason.

"Of all of us," Hitoshi said softly, "I cannot believe it was you who Fell. You're a disgrace to the Synod and to your brethren, Shoto. When the Magestrate calls for your head, I will be the first to volunteer. You cannot protect the Queen forever and you cannot win the war, no matter what powers you stumbled upon."

Shoto didn't quite grasp what Hitoshi was saying before black and purple Magic overshadowed him and a hawk leapt from where he stood, shooting up into the sky to vanish into the clouds. Eijiro moved to chase, but Katsuki put out an arm to stop him.

"Don't. The last thing we need is for the Synod to come hunting Dragons too."

"But I could catch him."

"Katsuki's right," Shoto's breath left him in a shudder of exhaustion and numb feelings everywhere except his aching arm, "You're barely back on your feet. He'd kill you before you had a chance to stop him. And I won't explain to Ochako that I let you get killed over something so avoidable."

Eijiro gave him a disappointed half smile and Shoto realized he must have taken the last bit as a joke. It wasn't. He feared even telling Ochako that he'd let Eijiro put himself in this much danger to begin with; there was something about her soft round face that inspired such guilt in him. But more than that, despite the danger Hitoshi presented to them and the vicious words he'd slung Shoto's way, in his clear mind he knew he didn't want to see Hitoshi killed; he cared whether his former friend lived or died.

"Momo, I'm so sorry." Commander Tenya's voice was surprising, so raspy and strained.

"Do not dare apologize to me," Momo was still in tears, but somehow holding herself together fairly well, "I am fine. I will not allow you to beat yourself senseless for something you couldn't control."

"What sort of Magic was that anyway?" Mina asked, more intrigued than horrified as she should have been.

"Now's not the time to wonder about it, elf, we need to get out of Silgholme and into hiding before the whole Synod or half the town are hunting us down as Fallen Mage conspirators." Katsuki went right into leadership-mode without a thought. "Your highness, Shoto, take Mina with you and leave now, we'll grab the horses and supplies and meet up with you a mile East outside of town."

Katsuki hesitated a moment to look at Shoto more roughly and he grimaced at the way he held his arm.

"Is that going to be a problem?"

Shoto shook his head. The bleeding has stopped and the use of Blood Magic had sutured the wound on its own. The pain was there and the use of his arm was minimal, but he wouldn't bleed out or faint.

"Good then get out of here."

Mina grabbed the Queen by the arm and detached her from the Commander's side, before pushing Shoto to start walking.

"I've got this. Don't be late Captain."