This is a new kind of story. I am not sure if you all will particularly like this one, but feedback will be well appreciated. I decided to try a new angle that I was saving for later. Hopefully these two are not too OOC. If they seem off, chalk it to the traumatic event that occured. Like I said, reviews are appreciated and I hope you all enjoy.
Tokoyami looked down at his wrist.
11:36 PM.
He was supposed to be in his room, resting under the sheets, with warmth enveloping his senses. Fatigue was supposed to lull him into a peaceful slumber. Yet that wasn't the case.
Despite being housed in one of the safest enviroments in all of Japan. He did not feel safe. No, that feeling of safety was whisked away once the League attacked the Training Camp that was supposedly secret.
It wasn't.
The villains attacked. He remembers the one with the teeth, Moonfish. It attacked Shoji and he felt powerless. He felt scared. He felt sad. He felt angry. With all of his emotions in a turmoil and the darkness at it's peak, Dark Shadow took the reigns.
Tokoyami had no control as Dark Shadow rampaged across the forest, it went completely berserk. Attacking any and everything that moved. Even after the villain was defeated, Dark Shadow kept going. It was out for blood and Tokoyami could only be a passenger as Dark Shadow was in control.
If it wasn't for Bakugo and Todoroki, he doesn't know what would have happened. Would Dark Shadow have killed the League? Would he have been killed by the villains? Would he have injured a teacher?
Would he get his classmates killed?
That was what plagued his mind. The worst possible scenarios played out ever since.
That same feeling of being trapped and powerless permeated his being.
Despite the many times Dark Shadow apologized, Tokoyami ignored it. He knew it wasn't Dark Shadow's fault. He didn't blame it for going wild. It was a part of its nature.
No, it was his own fault.
His lack of control over his quirk. His inability to keep Dark Shadow calm. His own incompetence.
Ever since the Training Camp, Tokoyami felt isolated and alone. He ate less. He didn't talk as often or as passionately as he used to.
After the camp, he apologized to Shoji and Midoriya profusely.
Shoji accepted his apology. He didn't blame him in the slightest. He knew how Dark Shadow worked and blamed the villains.
Midoriya also said it wasn't his fault.
'But it is.' Tokoyami thinks darkly. His inability to keep Dark Shadow in check and his own emotional instability nearly killed Shoji and Midoriya. Dark Shadow nearly destroyed everything.
He was on the roof of the school.
The moon illuminated all around it. Its light washed over Fumikage like water over fish. Its light cast vast shadows across the massive school.
It was dark, but he didn't revel in it. He did the opposite.
Dark Shadow was in its slumber, and the night was silent.
Tokoyami sighs as he dangles his feet over the edge, looking down. In the darkness, what lies below the roof looks like an endless drop. A drop that would cause him to fall forever.
"Tokoyami?" the Raven headed boy turns around in surprise. He felt his heart drop once his name was called. He didn't suspect anyone else knew that he was on the roof.
He turns to see a female with light gray hair, one of her eyes covered by a bang. She had on black and white striped pajamas and her hands were in a downward posture.
This was Yanagi from 1-B. The one with the Poltergeist quirk.
Tokoyami knew her but they weren't close. They had some similarities but ultimately never really spoke. Their only line of contact being Kuroiro.
"Greetings." He says simply as he turns and looks up at the Moon once again.
"What brings you out here?" She asks, sitting down next to him and looking at the side of his face. Although her face seemed to be the same, she felt deep concern for the boy.
Tokoyami decides to lie. This would be the easiest way to avoid talking too much.
"Simply basking in the moon's radiant light. Enjoying the surrounding darkness that shrouds the earth." He says keeping his eyes on the moon. He hoped that she would go away, so that he could go back to brooding.
Yanagi nods.
She looks up at the moon with him.
Time passes, both teens sitting in a comfortable silence as they admire the full moon that shown over the school
"I know that you do this often." Yanagi turns to face him, her face slightly more serious.
Tokoyami felt his insides freeze, but he decides to play it cool. He would play around any questions or accusations.
"Yes. The darkness embraces me with open arms. I am welcomed into the endless abysmal atmosphere. It comforts me more than the light."
Yanagi narrows her eye.
"Not that. I know you come up here a lot. I sometimes watch you. Your face doesn't show enjoyment or anything close to it. Your face shows deep sorrow, as if you regret something." Yanagi begins to dig deeper.
She had indeed observed Tokoyami's behavior after she noticed him on the roof one night. She used her quirk to float up and she secretly kept an eye on him, to make sure he did nothing drastic. She knew that the Training Camp hurt everyone in one way or another, but Tokoyami had one of the worst experiences. She knew about everything, including Dark Shadow's rampage.
They weren't close or anything, but she still cared about him. He had been doing this for weeks now and she felt it was time to ask him about it.
Tokoyami had no response. He does his best to turn away from her, but he soon feels a hand gently grab his shoulder.
He turns to see the pale face of Yanagi, looking into his soul.
"Give me the truth Tokoyami. Quit hiding in the shadows. Bring the truth to light. Why do you do this?" Yanagi presses on. She was not leaving him anyway to escape this.
Tokoyami looks down, debating on how to explain it to her. He knew he couldn't just blurt out that he blamed himself for nearly getting his friends killed. He also couldn't just say he was scared when he was essentially a passenger in his own body.
"Really. I just do this to clear my mind, its normal."
"Brooding on a school rooftop at Eleven o' clock at night alone is not normal. We both know this goes deeper." Yanagi accuses, getting annoyed with how he kept dodging the questions.
Tokoyami had no comeback to that. She was absolutely right.
The night falls into a long pause. Neither party speaking.
Yanagi sighs.
"Fine. You don't have to talk to me. I get it. We barely know each other, but I will report this to Aizawa-sensei and maybe he can help you." Yanagi turns, but then feels her arm get gripped.
She turns around to see Tokoyami, who was glaring at the ground.
'Its best to tell someone.' he concludes as both of his eyes lock onto Yanagi's.
"I'll tell you the real reason I do this." He shakes his head back towards the ledge so they can sit down.
They both sit on the ledge and dangle their legs over the edge. Tokoyami looks down into the darkness while Yanagi lazily looks at his form.
"It started at the training camp. Shoji and I were going through the Forest of Terror or whatever that event was called. Everything was fine until I felt Shoji shove me out the way. I turned around and see these shiny blades. It was the teeth of that monster, Moonfish." Tokoyami tenses up, remembering the freak's face.
Yanagi remains silent. She allows him to gather his composure.
'This is a traumatic experience for him. Its gonna take time.'
"That abomination kept attacking us. Shoji did his best to protect me, but to my horror, I saw one of his dupli-arms. It was severed and on the ground. That thing had taken off one of his arms." Tokoyami begins shaking as vivid imagery flooded his mind. He slowly felt himself being pulled back to that night.
The smell of copper. The blood. The fear. Everything begin to fall back into place from the night.
"I-I lost it. Once I began to lose control of myself, so did Dark Shadow. Thanks to my lack of self control, Dark Shadow fully became a monster of the night. The darkness and negative emotions caused Dark Shadow to become a giant monstrosity."
Tokoyami feels himself getting pulled back into that night. Everything replaying as if it was yesterday.
Tokoyami then looks up at the moon, the moonlight reflecting a single tear that went down his cheek. He didn't notice it, but Yanagi did.
She moves closer to him, hoping her presense could help him. Her frustration gone as she truly looked upon the grief on the raven-headed teen's face.
Tokoyami takes a deep breath and continues with his tale.
"Dark Shadow went berserk. It managed to take out the villain, but the rampage wasn't over. It began to break the forest, began to hunt down anything to challenge. Dark Shadow was out for blood. Midoriya and Shoji had managed to lead Dark Shadow towards Bakugo and Todoroki. They quirks were able to stop Dark Shadow."
A cool breeze blows by. The breeze feels like absolute bliss as it hits Tokoyami's feathers.
"If it wasn't for them. I-I don't know what may have happened. I fear that Dark Shadow might have k- Dark Shadow could have k-" Tokoyami chokes on his words. He then realizes something. He was shaking, not just shaking, but shaking violently.
Everything played out all at once.
He even felt the nightmares hit him full force like a semi truck. The nightmares of Moonfish killing him and Shoji. The nightmares of Dark Shadow ripping apart Midiroya. The nightmares of him being burned alive by one of the villains. The nightmares of Dark Shadow killing everyone in sight and remaining the only living being in that forest. There were many more like this, all the nightmares had horrific blood soaked endings.
Every ending Tokoyami screamed and cried. He tried to do everything he could, but to no avail. He could only watch and scream apologies as Dark Shadow rampaged. His voice was scratchy and his throat raw.
Despite being well acquainted with the dark, this was a different kind of darkness. The deepest depths that not even he was welcome into. It was a different kind of hell.
His dreams felt like they went on for days, they trapped him. A purgatory of sorts. A purgatory where no light could reach him, the only light that does it is the bright blue flames which melts off his flesh and carbonizes his bones. The blue fire in a way freed him, a way of being baptized, saved from the insatiable bloodlust of Dark Shadow.
The only way to escape the onslaught was death.
He then feels something wet stream down his cheek. He puts his hand to his cheek and sees it. A tear. He then does the same with his other hand. Tokoyami didn't know when, but he was crying. Openly crying.
Yanagi heard him choke on sobs. She saw how he began to shake. He was slowly breaking down right in front of her eyes. Without another word, she wraps Tokoyami in a hug, embracing him as much as she could.
Tokoyami let it all out. He sobbed into Yanagi's shoulder as the horrific memories play through his mind again.
She strokes his head and coos softly to soothe him. Yanagi wasn't good at comforting others, but she had seen others do it before. She also took the sign of him letting everything out as a sign that she was doing a good job.
'This pain sinks deeper than I imagined.' She does her best to lend a helping hand.
"Its okay. Nothing bad happened. The villains were taken care of. There is no need to fear anything." She whispers to him, hoping her words were what he needed.
"B-but so much could have gone wrong-"
"I know, but it didn't. Everything was taken care of. We're safe now. There is no need to stay in the past."
"I had no control. I couldn't do anything."
Yanagi rubs circles on his back as she looks into his tear soaked eyes. She uses her other thumb to wipe away the tears under his eyes.
"In the end Dark Shadow was stopped. Everyone was fine. Thanks to you, that villain was defeated." She says with a smile. She did this to try and cheer him up.
"You saved Shoji. Sure you lost control, but now you have it back. I'm sure if anyone saw what you saw, they would have done the same."
Tokoyami avoids her eyes, but Yanagi takes his jaw and forces Tokoyami to look at her.
"It wasn't your fault. Nobody blames you about Dark Shadow. It was bad timing and things were intense. You have to let it go Tokoyami. Move forward. Use it as a lesson to train harder to gain control. Let that night be a reminder of what you shouldn't do." Yanagi says with much more passion than she normally would.
She was going to make sure he would rise back up from the hopeless pit he dug himself into.
'I hope that this helps you, Tokoyami.' She silently hopes. She hopes that she broke through to him, that she made her way through his shell.
Tokoyami's eyes widen slightly. He had never thought of it that way. Ever since that night, he saw it as his own weakness, a sign that he could always lose control, now he saw it as something more. A sign of what could happen if he were to not improve.
It was motivation to get stronger, to get better.
Every feeling from that night began to slowly fade away. The images and nightmares began to follow suit. His mind began to clear of his self-induced nightmares.
Tokoyami smiles back, feeling a new sensation fill his body. It wasn't anything like the fear or anger he felt that night. It was something new, something that he wasn't acquainted to.
Salvation.
I hope you all enjoyed. For those that read all my stories, let me know which one you would like to see me continue(excluding Gentle Criminals). I would like to know which pairing was your favorite. I do plan on continuing some stories but as of right now, I am not sure which one people love the best. Anyways let me know, and you all have a good one.