Much like Denki predicted, the sun had set before their party had found even a small sign of their endangered companions.

Luckily, the borderguard gave the group very little trouble. Izuku merely showed them his original orders from when he and Yo Shindo had first been sent out by the Synod and they were let through. Like most Synod orders, they were just vague enough not and just forceful enough to give a Mage unprecedented autonomy. This did not make it easy for Izuku to use them, though. He felt dishonest and he could only imagine the punishments he had in store for misusing Synod orders in this way. Not that it would be the worst offense he had committed since being given them though.

The decision to stop and rest for the night came with many complaints from Ochako especially, but was forced on her nonetheless. There was no moon and they had no lanterns or torches to guide their path or help them stay with Mina's trail in the dark and between the three Mages they had scarce the energy left to keep the road lit by Magic through the night and still have legs to stand on in the morning. They needed rest and a full meal.

With enough voices opposing her, even Ochako came to admit that she needed rest, although the words came out like blades across her tongue.

They decided to take lodging in one of the most prominent border towns in Dalem, a wide expanse of thriving, lively city called Crosdelm. It was a testament to Dalem as a Lordship, a modern place, abundantly profitable and sporting that fact proudly by the estates of the upper city that stared down condescendingly on the significantly smaller stretch of poor, lower city.

It had been dark for a few hours by the time they had entered Crosdelm, but the town was as active as in the day. Lanterns lined the streets, people busied themselves with evening markets, loud pubs, and street performers who entertained kids and adults alike. The distractions and splendor of city nightlife pulled them from the pangs of their fears and their deeply laden concerns to become mesmerized by the sights and sounds. Ochako and Izuku found it especially awe inspiring.

"I've never seen anything like this," Ochako marveled as they led their horses down the busy cobbled street, turning in their saddles as they passed to watch a man stand on one hand while balancing a blade upright on his toe.

"Me either." Izuku said.

"First time in Crosdelm?" Kyouka smiled back at them.

They both nodded.

"Really?" Denki gasped, "There's so much to do here! We should all come back after the world isn't ending and we can show you everything!"

"Firstly," Nana said in a sobering tone, "I wouldn't make so many plans just yet. If our last encounter is anything to go by, we are ill prepared to face our enemy and have much to improve before we can confidently plan for a future where we survive. And secondly…" she frowned at her surroundings, "This place is underhanded and the people here are untrustworthy. We shouldn't get comfortable or assume we are safe merely because the lights twinkle and there is music in the air."

"You just don't like big cities," Denki rolled his eyes at her, "And besides, it's not scary when you have someone with experience on your side. When you've got charm to spare and you know all the important people already, what's there to fear?"

"Very true," Kyouka concurred, "I've acquired some lucrative work here."

"We will need to talk more about this double life of yours, Kyouka," Nana glowered, but it was somehow lighthearted, "I may have to change my tune on you."

The bard chuckled but said nothing.

Whatever the case truly was, marvelous or dangerous, the small-town girl and the sheltered apprentice were wonderstruck. The exhaustion of battle, magic use, and traveling all moved to the back of their minds as the city absorbed them. So much so that when they arrived at the inn, neither had any desire left to sleep.

Denki obtained their rooms while the rest tended to the horses and gathered the saddlebags. They met the elf inside once the animals were taken care of and found him with a frown on his face.

"What happened?" Kyouka asked over the chatting of the other guests settling in for the dinner that had just been served in the dining room.

"I have good news and bad news," he grit his teeth, "There's only one room available. Looks like we're going to be a bit packed in."

"And the good news?" Nana asked.

"The inn also had a bathhouse," he grinned, "So at least we don't have to smell the blood, mud and horse on each other all night."

Izuku hadn't expected something so mundane as a bath to sound so incredibly appealing after everything they had seen on their way into Crosdelm, but the very idea eased him to his soul.

Public baths were not entirely abnormal to Izuku. There were many Mages in a single Magesterium and there was only so much privacy that could be had among them, but Mages had a certain respect for each other, they all knew to keep their eyes averted and mind themselves in the bathhouse. Some were more shy and private than others, while others could hardly care less to be mingling in the nude, but in that environment, it was trained into them to respect those preferences. Out here in the wilds of civilian life there was no such learned courtesy.

The only thing abating his embarassment was the magnificent sensation of feeling the mud, grime, sweat, and dried blood wash away from his skin. Despite the enticing warmth of the water and the relief, he was breif as possible with his bath and retreated the bathhouse as quickly as possible.

Denki called after him to stay and visit with the new friends he'd made in the few minutes they were there as Izuku swiftly dressed. The Mage excused himself in a kind, but flippant gesture, leaving the far more comfortable elf to his inappropriately timed socializations.

Izuku was the first to arrive back at their room, but the women returned not long after, hair still dripping. There was an heir of calm over the group and even Ochako seemed more relaxed after her bath, which in turn eased Izuku's heart.

There were only two beds in the wide room. Izuku insisted that the girls take them while he and Denki slept on the floor in their extra bedding. Drained from the what had been the longest day of many of their lives, there was no argument to the arrangement and Kyouka and Nana fell quickly to sleep.

The four walls filled with the sounds of steady breathing, but, no matter how strenuous their journey, Izuku struggled to fall asleep. The bed to his left creaked and the blankets shifted. Izuku blinked through the dark to find Ochako rolling back and forth beside Kyouka. Their equal restlessness continued for some time until he finally heard her soft voice pierce the dark.

"Are you still awake?"

Izuku hummed a response and heard the bed groan before feet hit the floor. He rolled onto his side and focused on her face kneeling beside him.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't sleep," she sighed.

"I noticed," he chuckled.

"From the moment we rode into Crosdelm my exhaustion just disappeared. I've never seen a place like this before. Every time I close my eyes I hear the sounds of the streets and…"

"And what?"

"And I want to go out there," Ochako didn't sound happy about it, "Which feels wrong. How can I want to go outside and have fun when I don't even know if Red is safe?"

Izuku pushed himself up to a seat and watched her mouth purse to the side.

"I feel the same way," he admitted, "It seems wrong to be enraptured by the nightlife here when people I care about are in danger, but there is something about this place. Maybe it's because I've never been out at night besides for training and the Night Trials, but there is a part of me that longs to do something fun after dark."

He felt Ochako grip his forearm tightly.

"Then let's both go out for a bit."

Izuku looked at her like she was crazy. "What? We can't do that."

"Why not?" she whispered excitedly, "Denki is still out and about and we aren't going to be in Crosdelm for more than a night. We may never have a chance to see it again!"

"But we have to continue our journey in the morning," Izuku continued to argue, "We need to be rested."

"We aren't resting as it is," Ochako pushed, "Come on, Apprentice! We'll only go for an hour at most and come back."

Izuku scowled to himself. She had a point. They weren't sleeping as it was and there was the potential that walking around the city might tire them out enough to get some real rest. But he still wasn't entirely comfortable with this very new venture.

"Half an hour," he countered.

"Fifty minutes?"

"Forty."

"It's a deal."

Ochako took his arm with both hands and pulled him up before dragging him to the door.

"Wait, what about our weapons?" He planted his feet.

Ochako waved it off, "We won't need them to watch entertainers and weilding staffs will only draw attention. Besides, a dense city isn't a good testing ground for me to learn how to use Mage weapons anyway."

Izuku was pulled from his bed and, with more excitement than he wanted to admit, he followed Ochako silently from the occupied room out into the boisterous sights and sounds of the Crosdelm night.

"The Night Trials?" she asked as they snuck out of the inn.

Izuku grit his teeth on the memory and shrugged. "You don't want to know."

Never parting her hand from his, Ochako led the way out and directed them immediately to the most alluring of the many sounds that rose so alive and happy from the town square. They came upon a gathered audience and a group of six musicians flaunting a jaunty tune throughout the courtyard.

Most of the audience clapped along to the cheerful beat accompanied by the quick, nimble fingers of the players on strings and the holes of wind instruments. It inspired children to link arms and dance about in a circle as the adults around them danced one on one with each other and echoed the sentiment of the music in their laughter.

Izuku was more than happy to watch and tap his foot to the joyful events, but a quick tug from Ochako cast out his ideas of sitting on the sidelines.

"Come on, apprentice!" Ochako chuckled, taking both of his hands in hers.

He resisted, eyes wide. "I don't know how!"

"Just follow my lead!"

Ochako crossed their arms and linked opposite hands in tight fists.

"How are you going to lead-?"

Izuku swung about, feet moving to keep up with the forceful and guiding pull from Ochako. He hadn't thought of her as strong or physically powerful until that moment, until he was spinning and reeling and bursting shocked laughter at the pure thrill of moving so quickly to the music.

He couldn't imagine a time where he had had more fun and he didn't think it could get any better until Ochako dipped into a twisting movement and encouraged him along. It didn't stop there, either. They spun around, then Ochako was pushing him to turn again and somehow their arms seemed to untangle and then tangle again, all while never truly disconnecting.

Their laughs accompanied each other through each thrill and swell of music until it finally ended and the two were left gasping and grabbing the stitches in their sides.

"You're amazing, Ochako!" Izuku gaped at her as the musicians started up a slower tune.

"Not really," she smiled out at the still dancing people, catching her breath every few words, "We do dances in Landsleave a lot. The Delmer family has been playing for us every week for years. Their sister is so talented that she was asked to sing at the Keep last year."

"That sounds wonderful," Izuku still fought to catch his breath, "You definitely surprised me, though. How did you become so good at leading?"

"I had to teach Red how to dance," she smiled only a moment before it fell to something somber, "After he learned to shapeshift that is. I'd already been dancing for a long time and he'd been watching us dance for years, unable to join in."

"Why would a Dragon want to dance?"

"He didn't get to interact with the village people before, because he had to stay hidden," Ochako kept her eyes on the couples who were slow dancing with a distant emptiness, "Once he finally could interact with everyone he didn't know how to socialize and it was scary for him to even walk through town after so many years staying wary of them. The weekly dances were a good opportunity to meet people, but you only really could if you were willing and able to dance."

Izuku's heart ached for the endearing boy and could only imagine how much it must have hurt to watch the lives of an entire village pass by around him, never able to engage in it, never allowed to join in on their fun.

"He made friends quickly at that first dance. If you think I'm fun, you should try dancing with him." Ochako's faint smile returned at the memories.

"I can imagine."

"Do you want to learn some more?"

Izuku looked at the people dancing slow and intimately to the soft, sweet music that had replaced the happy ruckus and shrunk a bit.

"You mean, dancing like that?" he pointed to them and Ochako nodded.

"Slow dancing is important too."

She elbowed him lightly and then faced him as she took his hands, placing one on the small of her back just above the hip and linked her own fingers with the other.

"Okay, so what you do with your feet is-"

Izuku stiffened from head to toe and sputtered when she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Maybe we should keep going, see what else is happening before we run out of time?" Izuku's voice cracked.

"Oh, um, yeah…" Ochako didn't stop him creating space between them.

He flushed and she rocked on her heels for a moment, but then Izuku gave her a reassuring smile, hoping she wouldn't take his reaction with offense. In another moment she was smiling back.

Even in disappointment, Ochako was by far the more assertive of the two. They linked arms and she took the lead back into the Crosedelm streets, bright eyes searching out the next wonder to occupy them.

Over the next twenty minutes they saw and experienced as much of Crosedelm's nightlife as they could manage. They witnessed a drunk being thrown from a bar and other similarly drunk people joining in a slurred chorus that spilled from a large pub. They passed by performers and an acting troupe encouraging the crowds to watch their performance the following evening in the Crosdelm Ampitheatre; Ochako showed clear disappointment that they would not still be here to see it.

But truly the most fascinating part of the sights and sounds were the people.

They were a broad mingling peoples. Commoners, wealthy, elves of various tribes, soldiers, even Mages and none seeming out of place. It was a sight to behold on its own, but Izuku was picking up quickly on the sort of place Crosedelm was. It was not like Landsleave or Blackmoss or the Magesteriums. Crosdelm was not home, it was temporary for most of the people out and about tonight. A stopping point on the way to where they were going. A place to experience and then tell about later. It was not a place to settle or call home.

A stop of particular interest to Izuku happened without planning. Along a particularly grand stairway that led to the upper city there were lined many statues of heroes and kings in polished stone. They depicted the proudest warriors, leaders, and conquerors of Gaetha's history with great detail and lifelike posturing. But the most powerful, and gripping, of them, at least to Izuku, was that of the late King Toshinori Yagi.

The stone captured the image of a powerful man, tall, broad shouldered and smiling intensely. It was how he had always imagined the Hero of the Gray Summoning. Izuku had never had the chance to meet him, but he had always thought highly of the man who was credited with resolving the most devastating Summoning of Gaetha's history. The first King to fully ally with the Synod in their cause to protect Gaetha from the threat of the ether. The man who ordered the construction of the barrier. The man who made peace with Cantica. The first King to claim friendship with a Magestrate.

It was not a common thing among Synod Mages to revere those without Magic and it was certainly never encouraged, but Izuku looked up to the man anyway and for many years had snuck books about him from the Magesterium's library to read in his room late into the night by light of a dim Magic flicker held cautiously not to wake his bunkmates and still see the scrawled words.

Izuku's heart tumbled down low in his chest and his head dipped before the stone impression of the King.

No one yet knew. If they did there would be no celebrating in the streets tonight. The kingdom would mourn and wail with loss.

But the sounds of joyful times and laughter continued and even Izuku was not safe from it's influence. He had barely lifted his head when Ochako took his arm again and excitedly pulled him up to the top of the stairs.

"You have to see this, Apprentice!"

He followed her to the upper city and was dragged directly up to a small stage. They watched two brightly costumed women twirl long, colorful ribbons attached to batons in a perfect synchronization while a young man flitted notes across a pan flute.

It was instantly captivating and he somehow forgot his sorrows. The swirling, chaotic, yet controlled nature of the thing, the bursting vibrant colors, the order and purpose to the motions. It looked like Magic, yet it was not. He could not tear away his attention and cheered with the rest of the audience at their skills.

But Ochako, determined to see it all in the short time alotted, pulled him away from it after no more than a minute to see the next marvel. He dislodged from her hands, but chased after, shouting for her to wait for him, before scurrying to a halt by her side at what he saw next.

The colorful canopies and delectable smells drug him to a sudden stop beside Ochako who now stood in the midst of the bustling night market. He watched her eyes go wide with seemingly endless wonder.

Around them there were countless stalls filled with things Izuku hardly had the imagination for. Ochako brushed fingers over exotic fabrics, dyed in colors and patterns Izuku didn't think were possible. She looked over the jewelry of another vendor and touched every gem on display.

One stand had attracted the attention of every child in sight as the man showed off a marvelous mechanical feat wrapped up in a small toy which had been designed to look like a knight in full armor. It's arms and legs moved and it walked across the ground to the absolute astonishment of the young ones and Izuku and Ochako couldn't help laughing at how they all tugged the arms of their parents and practically begged to have one.

Their mouths watered and stomachs gargled as the foods, fresh meats, sweet pastries, candies, and breads invaded their noses. The rations they had consumed on their way here had been filling and satisfying at the time, but the moment they caught a whiff of the goodies around them, hunger ignited anew. Ochako quickly counted what coin she had brought with her, which was very little, and she purchased two hearty treats without even a thought.

Izuku tried to stop her, but before the complaint could reach his tongue there was a steaming pastry in his hands. He forgot to advise her to use her money more practically when the warm smell and entrancing taste danced over his senses. It was soft and crumbly and tasted of sweet cinnamon with small bites of apple hidden inside.

"Wow!" he gasped and Ochako met the wide eyed look with laughter.

"Never had an apple crumbler before?"

He shook his head and spoke over a full mouth. "No. Our cooks never made anything like this at the Magesteriums."

Ochako looked practically endeared by his reaction and this time when she took his arm to lead him along, she did so gently and with a more reasonable enthusiasm.

They found a spot to sit on the steps in front of the fountain in the center of the marketplace courtyard. The water had frost on the top of it despite its movement and it wafted brisk, wet air at them while the fresh treats warmed up their insides.

Izuku forced himself to eat it slowly, to savor it, but it was hard not to devour it ravenously. The Synod taught him discipline, but they also hadn't provided treats such as this and he found himself ill prepared to temper his appetite.

The first few bites Ochako took were enthusiastic, but her excitement fell slowly to a heavy quiet as she stared at the last few bites of her snack and didn't eat them.

Her prolonged stare incurred one from Izuku and when she noticed she spoke with a sad smile.

"My family are wheat farmers," she explained, "Landsleave and the towns around it produce almost all of the grains used throughout Tarlson, even up to the Capitol. We rarely make a meal that doesn't include some sort of bread or pastry. We have some of the most excellent bakers in our village, but my mama was the greatest. These were her favorite things to bake when we were children. Before Red had even learned to shapeshift - and before he got too big to keep in the house - he was obsessed with them and made countless attempts to pilfer apple crumblers from the kitchen window."

Pure amusement filtered into Ochako's eyes and Izuku smiled at it.

"I never thought I would see a deadly creature the size of a small horse cower before a tiny human woman, but the look on his face as my mama scolded him will forever be my favorite memory. He didn't go near the kitchen again for a month!"

They laughed lightly together at the mental image of Eijiro, the massive, threatening beast that he was, becoming sheepish to the wagging finger and raised voice of a human. But then Ochako's amusement fell and she returned to staring distantly at the pastry.

"I miss it," she breathed out heavily, "I wanted to have one tonight because I thought it would make me feel like I was home. But…"

"It just reminds you even more of what you're missing," Izuku filled in.

She nodded.

"Mama was actually baking these the day you showed up," she gave him a sidelong look, both fond and accusing, "Not to put all the blame on you or anything, but my life has been a mess ever since you arrived at our door. We never did get to eat the crumblers... And of course now our village is in ruins and our whole house is cinders so that's hardly a priority anymore...but, still."

"I'm really, really sorry, Ochako," Izuku's head slipped forward as guilt rushed his stomach.

"Most of that isn't your fault," Ochako nudged his shoulder, "But everything is still a terrible mess and is only getting worse every day. And even after we find Red, I don't know if we can go home."

She sighed and shook her head at the remainder of her food before wrapping it up in the square of cloth it was given to her in and dropped it into her pocket.

"Why not?"

Ochako became terribly preoccupied with how her fingers were folded. "I've been thinking a lot about it since we left Landsleave. You and the other Mage failed to capture me and now you're both missing to the Synod. I'm sure it won't be long before they send others and I know they won't be like you. I won't get so lucky again."

She wasn't wrong. Without Izuku returning to give a false report on what had happened as he originally planned, all the Synod would see was two missing Mages and a Renegade still unaccounted for. They already knew what village she lived in and her name. She would be an easy, simple target if she went home.

"I'm scared of becoming like Nana," she swallowed roughly, "I'm afraid of everyone I love dying because I stayed with them. I just can't go home knowing that could happen. Knowing mama and papa might get hurt."

Izuku's chest ached. "Where would you go?"

"Maybe return to Blackmoss," she shrugged, "But I already know what Red will want to do."

She looked Izuku in the eyes and her sadness bolstered up to a small confidence.

"He'll want to go with you. He'll want to help Shoto find the Summoner and fight the Archdemon."

A spark of excitement fluttered between Izuku's ribs. "And you?"

There was a thoughtful pause.

"I do too. Don't get me wrong, the very idea of going deeper into the belly of this beast is terrifying, but that false Summoner is the one that brought those Demons to my home and created the army we fought at the Pass. If the real Summoner is even more powerful… I'm even more terrified to think of the devastation that will find its way back to my home if it's not stopped. If there's anything I can do, I want to do it."

The noise of the busy market seeped back in as they watched each other silently, a wordless agreement passing between them. However much Izuku wanted to protect her and Eijiro, he was consoled by the idea of them both staying with him as he went on this journey with Shoto and his new friends. He was in no hurry to be separated from them.

Izuku got a bit too comfortable in the eye contact and lost a little of his senses in her confident smile. It warmed him like the apple crumbler had and he started to understand why she thought the treats might make it feel like she was back home. In the peaceable quiet of her gaze he was not reminded of the Magesteriums, but to simply be beside her felt more like home than any place he had ever been.

The warm feelings burst back into the cold sting of reality when she stood and turned back the way they had come, brushing away the crumbs of the aptly named desert from her shirt, reminding of the time as she nodded back towards the staircase.

"It's definitely been forty minutes. We should get back before someone notices we're gone."

Izuku quickly popped the last bit of crumbler into his mouth and ignored the way his heart was burning so that he could follow after her.

It was finally late enough that some of the festivities were dying down and the crowds were a bit scarcer than before, but the pubs were still fully alive, not so easily shut down by a late hour. Everything else was slowly winding down to a more peaceful state the further they moved from the market and Izuku was convinced he could hear the sounds of nighttime above those of people by the time they reached the statue lined stairway.

Izuku walked slowly to better hear the liveliness and distant music for as long as he could, sorrowful at leaving this enchanting night behind so soon. It wasn't a naturally peaceful sound, but it's existence was hopeful. Hopeful that the things they had seen in Tarlson had not reached to the entirety of Gaetha just yet, hopeful that some places might remain untouched by demonic influence.

But something about the sounds started to change and that good feeling became suddenly unnerved. It didn't register, didn't truly identify itself, to him for a few more steps until he stopped before the statue of the Hero Ryuku, Purger of Dragons, and he looked back over his shoulder with a frown.

"Ochako, do you hear-?"

The night air cracked with a shriek.

Ochako physically startled and Izuku's heart leapt into his throat.

"What was that?"

The other people moving down the stairway halted too and all eyes lifted back towards the night market.

Rumbling sounds followed elevated shouts and the people around them began to scatter and clear from the road, but the two Mages stood staring while frantic patrons rushed away from the night market.

Ochako was tugging his sleeve rapidly. "Apprentice… Um, Izuku…"

"What is- Duck!"

Izuku pushed Ochako and himself to the ground, the airborne food cart missing their heads by inches alone and breaking to splinters against the stone steps.

The streets became a sudden mad dash of people and Izuku dragged Ochako back to her feet seconds before they would have been trampled. The rush of people, all in a panic for their lives, pushed the Mages away from the market, but Izuku held fast to Ochako's arm and forced them both against the flow of the crowd, straight towards the danger.

"Are you insane?" She screamed at the illogic of this action.

"I knew we should have brought weapons!" he shouted back, "You said you wanted to help people!"

"I take it back!" Ochako kept up the pace despite her complaints.

They neared the night market as the bulk of the crowd cleared the area and they came to a full stop at the destruction of the once magical place of trinkets and goodies and stared, gaping at what stood in the center of it.

Izuku had seen Demons, Major and minor, a Dragon, the undead and such horrors that would have broken the mind of a common man, but Izuku had never seen anything quite like this. A living shadow or monstrous beast; it seemed to be both at once. It towered high and pulsated with strength that shook the cobbles from the ground and left the remaining patrons stunned and unmoving. It's eyes were bursting slits of yellow and from its vicious mouth poured a deep, echoing growl.

Ochako sounded like she was ready to cry at the sight alone. "Wha-what is that thing?"

Izuku stumbled backwards, confidence failing, praying that what he saw wasn't possible, that his eyes were tricking him, that these things were only legends and not a part of reality, that the stories had just been cautionary tales about the dangers of Fallen Magic and not actual accounts.

But when he saw the figure at the monster's feet, human and shrouded in a cloak of it's distorted darkness, attached to its amorphous flesh and beaming the same yellow light from his eyes, Izuku could have no further doubts.

"It's... an Ethereal Demon."

The night passed eventless and the morning arrived with a suspicious lack of Tarlson soldiers rattling them from their beds.

Shoto checked the area thrice and counted their heads again and again to be sure, but everyone was present and visible to him in the dim crack of morning light from the boarding room window. Six, including himself. Two heads of black hair, one blond, one red, one pink. All asleep in a row, too exhausted to be disturbed by the shuffling steps of the hunters in the lodge readying themselves for their day and slipping out for their morning hunts.

He did his best not to disturb them either, he knew how important every second of rest was to each of them and this may be the only sliver they got for a while. Eijiro needed to heal, Mina needed to be on her toes, the Captain and Commander needed clear heads, the Queen had her own grief to overcome and sleep would aid all of it.

He had grown used to being the first awake when traveling with Nana and the rest, even though he was always one of the last to fall asleep. At the Magesterium they arose before the dawn every day as a discipline and there had been little change to that on the fronts. The proper amount of sleep dictated much of a Mage's strength and focus and oddly enough too much sleep was as detrimental as too little. He had long since trained his body to thrive and function on six hours of sleep and when at the fronts he often had to suffice on four or even two hours.

Last night had offered him the opportunity for the perfect amount and this early morning after one of the most jarring days of his life felt… wrongly refreshing.

The body next to him rolled and Shoto looked down from where he sat to watch the human form Dragon mutter to himself and flop a heavy arm over Shoto's knees. The Mage went deathly still as red eyes blinked blearily up at him through the dark blue hue of pre-first light.

"Did they come?" Eijiro asked.

Shoto shook his head.

Eijiro lowered his head and sighed.

"Good," he mumbled, "I hope your brother doesn't catch the Queen… she seems nice."

Shoto's expression soured. "He's not my-"

But Eijiro's head was already back against his pillow and his eyes were pressed shut. Shoto wasn't sure the Dragon had even been awake when he said it, but it still left a stinging reminder of what was really pressing Shoto's mind, of the true horror that the previous night had left lingering. The worst of it was simply his fear of how he was supposed to explain to his companions that he was apparently born of the same family that was hunting them down across Lordships.

He could only imagine Katsuki would think it made sense somehow, that it just explained Shoto's general horribleness and would only encourage Katsuki's hatred further. Mina would not likely find it a bother, being an elf and distant from human politics as she was. But Commander Tenya and Queen Momo… their already fragile trust would dissipate the moment they learned and he did not wish to add the entire royal army to his list of enemies.

Once morning fully came Shoto needed to talk to Eijiro, convince him to stay quiet about the things he had heard yesterday, if only until the Queen and Commander were no longer with them. No more of this referring to their enemies as Shoto's brothers. They were no such thing to Shoto after all.

Eijiro shifted again and Shoto sighed, trying to relax his fears as the Dragon's muttering picked up again, less coherent this time.

White, healing light danced delicately to life in Shoto's hand and he placed it gently to the top of the red vibrance of hair. One long breath left Eijiro's lips and then suddenly his breathing was even and his body was entirely still.

"Rest a while you still can, Eijiro."

The Dragon did not argue.

"Watch your left!"

Izuku darted with an empowered swiftness to the startled woman, frozen where she stood, no sound escaping her gaping mouth. He didn't wait for her to notice him, just threw her over his shoulder and ran to the edge of the market in a green flash.

The cobblestones burst beneath a shadowy fist. The shockwave tripped Izuku's feet and he dropped the girl to the ground. Her voice returned as she scrambled up to shriek in terror and run with every haste from the market.

A streak of white light pushed the Demon back a pace as Ochako shouted to get his attention once again. "Izuku! By the fruit stand! Hurry!"

Now was not the time to think, but to act. He propelled himself to his feet and dashed back into the fray.

Magic sped Izuku in a blink to the toppled fruit stand. The contents were scattered, the same as every other stall, but beneath the broken wood and food there was a pair of unmoving bodies trapped beneath it all, stunned as all the others had been.

The Demon moved behind him and he spun on it, fists raised in another spell. Another burst of white light and a shuddered shout from Ochako halted the deadly shadow from ripping Izuku apart.

"Hurry!"

On her prompting he launched the stall away effortlessly and dug through the fallen fruits to find the shopkeeper cradling the head of a young boy amidst the remains of their business. Izuku tugged his shoulder and the older man's head sprung up, the trance broken. He tried to lift the child, but the shadow was ripping swiftly through Ochako's defenses.

Izuku pushed the man away from the child and shouted for him to run while easily gathering the young boy into his arms.

Ochako's spell broke and Izuku leapt from the debris.

Magic sent him back far and long into the air and he landed outside of the market circle just as the remnants of the stall exploded into splinters and squelching fruit.

The shopkeeper ran in a frenzy to meet Izuku at the edge of the market.

The second of the powerful shadow hands, not held back by Ochako, slipped her defenses. It crashed over the man in the blink of an eye, trapping him in the crushing force of an Ethereal Demon's hand.

The bright yellow of the creature's eyes burst with delight as the man shrieked in pain and fear. He writhed in the agony of the shadow's grasp and the Demon's very aura seemed to be growing with every passing millisecond as the man crumbled and gradually disintegrated.

The Ethereal Demon's horrendous mouth grinned. What remained of the man's body was a mangled, drawn husk, lifeless and capable of crumbling under a hard look.

Ochako sputtered fear and Izuku gripped the child closely.

The Mage's heart skipped a beat as he looked down at the child in his arms. That's when he felt how cold and shockingly still he was. Izuku swallowed and twisted his hand against the boy's chest and grit his teeth to find no heartbeat, no sign of life.

He'd rushed to him as fast soon as he could… how had he still failed?

Powerful rage rose in his chest. His very limbs shook and his fingers curled into the body of the boy.

"Izuku!"

Ochako backed away frantically from the Demon as it chose her as its next victim.

"Apprentice!" She screamed louder, hands swirling in the air to cast a new shielding spell fraught with desperation. Her arms were already shaking before the Demon even struck. She was at her Magical limit.

Izuku's feet moved before his mind told them to, taking only enough time to lower the child to the ground before lunging into action.

As soon as shadow struck her Magic it cracked like a hammer to glass.

Izuku did not hold back at all. Green electricity sparked over him, powering every swift step and pouring strength into his fist raised high at the Demon's head. The beast had only the time to glance his way before it was flung backwards by his unmatched force of a Magically powered punch.

Ochako was freed from its attack and Izuku dropped to the ground just before he felt the sting of the attack reverberate up his arm, pinching his muscles and aching his bones. He'd never put that much power into a punch before and he was paying for it now.

"Are you alright?" Ochako ran to him, wide eyed on the arm he held tight to his chest.

"I'm- hsssh," the pain stopped his words and then the pressing danger took its place.

The Demon was already coming back to its feet, but this time its eyes blazed and its darkness deepened and all amusement it had shown with them before was long gone.

"What do we do?" Ochako shouted.

A great question that Izuku had no real answer for. They had already exhausted their energy multiple times that day and he didn't have his staff to enhance his weakened spells. They couldn't wait for the city's defenses to arrive and handle it either since regular men could not hope to defeat an Ethereal Demon and there was no knowing if they had skilled Mages with them. He wasn't ready to give up, but he couldn't provide a plan either.

While he failed to answer her, the situation only worsened. The bursting yellow of its eyes glowed intensely as its arms quaked and seemed to rip intentionally apart, forming into new, multiplying limbs, each as large and strong as the last.

The creature's head opened in an orange light that spread across what should have been it's face and Izuku's ears rang. Echoing, pulsing, depths of a layered, unearthly voice carried across the city and poured from the mouth of the Demon, shaking the breath out of Izuku's lungs.

"Bugs beneath my feet. Spawns of dirt. It does not know true power when it sees it. It does not squirm and flee as it should. It bites. It stings. But it cannot destroy."

The Mages quivered, mouths and eyes gaping upwards at the moving orange light.

"I didn't know that Demons could speak…"

"They… they can't..." Izuku shuddered.

The creature moved forward as the human it had possessed, alive amidst its essence shuffled like a puppet attached to its shadowy tethers. His motions mimicked the Shadow creatures and the yellow glow in his eyes diminished any semblance of humanity he may have once had.

Five fists curled upwards as it's voice thundered again.

"These vermin play with the Ether. Pestilences siphon our mother to kill us. It does not realize that we do not die. It dies. It has no rebirth once squashed, it is but melted flesh. Purge away the scourge. Burn the disease. Flood away the affliction. Bite out the nuisance. Bury the menace. Claim the spirit!"

To his right, Ochako hiccuped a terrified sound. Her eyes were red and her legs trembled with the need to run. But Izuku was stalled, unbelieving that he had heard a voice directly from the ether and shaken further at the daunting things it had said. He was captivated in the very sound of its voice. It was so striking and he understood suddenly why so many were dead around the monster because; they had been incapable of running when faced with its might, they were unable to do anything but stare unto their deaths.

Its eyes were entrapping, the fear it caused permeated and its prey could do nothing but await its foot to crush them like the insects it saw them as.

"Izuku… Izuku!"

He could feel Ochako's hand squeeze onto his arm and pull, but his feet were planted and eyes fixed upwards onto the harsh yellow of its eyes. Her shouts of his name were distant and he barely felt the forceful tugging the deeper he stared.

The orange maw over his head, spread wide like a mock smile, and the fists raised over them turned deadly.

"Apprentice!" Ochako's voice was a shriek.

The shadows came down over him.

"Izuku!" This time when she yelled his name she also released his arm, lunging in terror from his side, fleeing to safety.

He had no chance to consider her abandoning him, to be happy or hurt, because just as soon as he recognized his fate the Demon was suddenly struck with triplicate green bursts against its slashing arms and menacing face.

It broke the trance instantaneously and knocked a gasp free from his chest. Now conscious and in control he scurried from the Demon in a panic.

The shots of magic continued to barrage the Demon and its many arms swung swiftly to combat it. The captivating pulse that gripped everything around the Demon turned to something rage filled and vile as the Ethereal Demon looked to its new attackers, Nana, Kyouka, and Denki, each heavily armed and ready for a fight.

Relief washed over Izuku like a flood and he might have cried had there been time for it. A moment ago he'd nearly lost his life and now their magnificent faces were before him and this horrendous fight was no longer just his and Ochako's.

Denki and Nana had understandable shock on their faces, but Kyouka's eyes were bright and excited as though she were seeing her first sunset, not a Demon capable of leveling this city.

"They send more pests to interfere!"

It's voice rattled them all, but it did not stop Izuku's feet this time, instead he chased after Ochako and regrouped as quickly as possible with the others.

"What the hell is wrong with you two? What were you doing out here?" Nana scowled at them while the Demon gathered itself to finish off the vermin that continued to thwart it.

"Not a good time to be disappointed with us, Nana!" Ochako gasped.

The Demon stomped forward and the cobbles made a web of cracks as all ten arms opened at them

"Shields!" Nana shouted.

All three Mages cast white glyphs and the sheen of light turned solid before the whole of them. The ground at their feet crumbled, but the barrier withstood.

It was only a momentary victory. The shadowed limbs swiped again and again in an ever strengthening and rapid succession until it was too much for the three weary Mages to still hold.

Splinters started to form in the wall of their Magic and Nana had barely begun to raise her voice when the whole thing shattered over them.

The five were flung through the air and scattered like shrapnel. Izuku felt like a child's doll, thrown across the marketplace to crash with so many scrapes and bruises into a nearby house. He felt the collision in his teeth and down through the nerves in his hands. He was certain he heard something snap, but with how jumbled his head was he was too momentarily delirious to know if it was hit body breaking or the wood post beside him snapping.

He didn't feel the pain, though, only the adrenaline pulling him back to his feet and pushing him to stumble back towards the battlefield that was once a night market. His grip on Magic was intangible, but he wandered towards the danger heedless, fixated only on seeing that his companions were not hurt.

Through his daze and the settled dust, he spotted Ochako nearly halfway back to the stairway, Kyouka crouching over her and pulling her slowly up to a seat. Opposite of where he stood he found Nana picking herself back up as well, while Denki sat beside her holding his bloody head, teeth sharply grit.

In the center of the market the Demon remained as strong, as large, and as menacing as ever, not an ounce deterred by anything they had yet thrown at it, the yellow of it and its hosts eyes so bright now that they appeared as beacons.

The Demon was stronger than ever.

A stunned and defeated tear rolled across his face and then a sound unlike any he had ever heard disrupted the very molecules of air. It mirrored no sound the Demon had made or that any Demon ever could and it struck the creature of shadow with the same shock that it did Izuku.

It began with a strummed chord on tight strings followed by the hum of an angelic voice rising strong and loud over the Demon's reverberations of pure ethereal power pulsing to combat it.

Izuku spun on Kyouka, scraped and bruised as she was, standing tall before the Demon with intense determination in her dark eyes. No fear. No hesitation. The creature took one step towards her and hissed. It looked down upon the gall of the tiny human that opposed it.

Kyouka's voice became the only sound.

/Be still, O lord of night, whom no power overshadows/

The first words of the old prayer were instantly recognizable, but the tune was not to any song he had ever known. It was deep and rich and dropped like a heavy blanket over the market.

The Demon roared. Its many fists raised. Its mouth dripped orange light and its glowing eyes intensified in rage.

/Our cries beg your banishment/

/Angel of dusk, haunt no more./

Black hands came down over Kyouka. Cobblestone broke under its immense foot.

/Pray day overcomes you/

The awestruck gasps of Kyouka's companions and the displeased shrieks of the Demon accompanied the song, but could not disrupt the sound. A hue of magic light struck the many hands in mid air and the shadows met their match against the intensifying glow. The pieces of the Demon that touched the light seemed to be shredding, disintegrating. The blackness of its shadows stripped away and the shape of its yellow slit eyes turned to new anger.

"Mockingbird be silenced!" shouted the Demon.

But the song continued to grow and Izuku was forced to cover his own ears to protect from how loud it was becoming.

/Disperse to dawn's clarity/

White light emanated from her mouth and pushed it farther and father until the Demon's arms had been consumed to the nub. It shuddered and shook and the shadows morphed, trying to create new limbs from other places, but each time its shriek rang out louder as the light overtook the new appendages and began to break down its body around the human it had possessed.

/We rest in our mother's arms tonight/

/And there we sleep in peace./

A distinctly human scream broke from the rest as the light fully overwhelmed the Demon in the song's crescendo.

/We rest in the sleep of peace/

She repeated the last line with bright intensity, her eyes aflame with conviction, with determination. And then the tune suddenly changed, or rather, it morphed to a darker tone, a minor key version of the song it once was as she said the next words in a deep repetition.

/Submittere patio/

The market was covered in light too bright to look at. Izuku threw his arms over his eyes and sacrificed his ears to the song and the resisting echo of the Demon. But even that cries of the Demon began to fade to a demure sound when overshadowed by Kyouka's melodic voice. All of his senses remained overwhelmed for so long Izuku thought he would be deaf and blind by the end of it.

But then the sound came to a sudden and abrupt halt. All that was left was the reverberations of the lute. The light that seeped through the cracks of his closed eyes vanished when the sound of her voice finally fell away.

Izuku shook away the ringing in his ears and blinked against the spots in his vision, rubbing at his eyes when he heard a new voice come from the marketplace; not Kyouka's or the Demon's.

It started as a gasping sound and rose to something frightened and pained.

Blinking rapidly, the market started to reform before him, the shattered stalls, the scattered bodies, the broken lanterns leaving only the stars to light the demolished grounds. At the center of it all, in a crater made by the Demon itself, was a figure crumpled to his knees, bent over and shaking as blackness and shadow continued to cling to him; the entity was still living around him, but was reduced to a sprite.

Izuku shook his head and looked again, following Kyouka closer to him.

The man was hardly older than himself. He was slender and pale, malnourished and sickly even. Dark circles hung under black eyes, attempting to hide behind drapes of black hair. His frail appearance did all it could to disguise itself beneath a loose covering of dirtied Synod robes.

Kyouka stepped right up to him fearlessly, returning the lute to its place against her back while the others gathered themselves from the places they had been thrown, still coming to grips with what they had all just witnessed. She crouched before the distressed Mage, tilting her head back and forth at him, curious and unphased at the young man still wrapped in the shadows of the Demon.

"How… How did you do this?"

The sound of the young man's voice was deeper than he expected and rasped with confusion and fear. His arms shuddered to hold him up from the ground as he lifted his face to Kyouka. Glimmers of yellow still danced in his eyes and Kyouka scowled skeptically down at him.

"Am I speaking to the Demon or the Mage?" Kyouka asked.

The Mage swallowed hard and lifted shakily to sit on his heels. Touching his face, he stared right through Kyouka. "I'm not the Demon," he replied and then suddenly seemed to see Kyouka in front of him for the first time, "Is… is it gone?"

"No," Kyouka answered, "I'm no exorcist, just a bard."

The Mage looked about himself fearfully and grabbed the sides of his head. "He's not gone, but he is not in control. I don't know how this is even possible…"

"I have my ways," Kyouka smirked.

But the Mage's head was visibly spinning and shocked hopefulness fell to fear again as the clinging darkness flickered like flames on his shoulder. "You have not killed it… It will come back." He grabbed her arm with a sudden gusto, startling them both. "Your power, can it do more? Can it kill the beast? If you can help me you must, please! Before it arises again and it destroys whatever is left of me!"

"Calm down, my trances don't break that easily," Kyouka demanded seriously, pushing him back down and easing his tense grip off of her arms, "And if it even thinks about rearing its ugly head again I'll put it back in its place."

Her words were hardly any sort of comfort to the erratic man before her.

"What did you do to it, Kyouka?" Izuku hovered over her shoulder.

"I told you I was more than just a bard," Kyouka grinned then shrugged, "It's an enchantment, same as I did to the Tarls as the outpost. It brought the Demon under my control and then under that command it has become docile and powerless. For the time being at least. I never was good at knowing exactly how long my enchantments lasted."

She grit her teeth at the last part, lost in thought a moment before coming back to the young man still teetering on panic in front of her. As she did their other three companions gathered around where they stood, nursing their injuries and rubbing their aching ears. There was a wince in Denki's expression, but the blood dripping down the side of his head didn't seem to bother him that much. Nana looked a bit worse for wear, but carried herself confidently.

Ochako showed no sign of injury, to Izuku's relief. She went right to Izuku's side and he couldn't express how much it comforted him to have her close, especially after that ordeal and how much he had feared for all of their lives. It didn't even bother him when she took hold of his arm and leaned into him for support, even though he was hardly a stable structure himself.

"Kyouka, I didn't know you could do that." Ochako marveled as they came upon the edge of the crater.

"Neither did I," Kyouka tossed Ochako a smile, "Well, that's not entirely true. I learned these enchantments precisely to quell Demons, but I've never had a chance to try an enchantment on an Ethereal Demon before. I've never used this particular enchantment on any Demon for that matter. There was no guarantee that it would respond like people do and submit with any ease, so there was definite risk involved. Demon minds are more pliable, but that's not always true for Major Demons, especially one that talks. Until today I didn't even think that was possible."

"Me either," Izuku concurred, shuddering on the memory of the Demon's voice, "But none of us have ever seen an Ethereal until today, maybe it's something exclusive to their ability to use a human host to exist in our world."

"No," The young Mage lifted his head, eyes large yet distant on him, "They all speak… they just choose not to."

Izuku's muscles clenched down his arms to think of how he knew such a thing. "This isn't your first offense, is it? You've communed with Demons before?"

The Mage's gaze flung away from him and his shoulders tensed around his ears. "It is not so simple…"

Izuku was not convinced and could not keep the bitter look from his expression.

"None of this was my choice. I do not wish to suffer punishment for another's sins. I know what you must do, brethren, but please reconsider. I am begging you for a chance to fix my mistakes!"

It was difficult to listen to this Mage try to defend himself or beg forgiveness when all Izuku could see were the dead strewn about them; the child he'd held lifeless in his arms minutes ago, the father he had seen disintegrate in the Demon's lust for power and this man at the very center of it.

Kyouka angled a curious look up at Izuku, "What is it you must do, Izuku?"

Izuku's gut turned like someone had cranked its gears three notches too far.

"Dark Magic is a Fallen Magic," Nana chimed in for him, keeping her eyes on Izuku, "He would be tried as a Fallen Mage and any punishment would be doublly horrendous because he is Synod, if I am not mistaken."

The Mage nodded anxiously.

Nana stretched one side of her mouth at the young man, "Then I guess you are facing banishment, reconditioning, or execution."

Izuku frowned, "That's true of the other Fallen Magics, but there is only one recourse for a Possessed Mage-"

"Execution," the Mage finished his thought somberly, "But please, give me the chance to explain. Please do not let them kill me before I can at least defend myself!"

"What explanation could possibly give you grace in this?" Izuku couldn't help his anger boiling up, "The Demon may have caused the destruction, but a Demon cannot possess an unwilling host and an Ethereal Demon cannot enter this world without the direct intervention of a Mage. There is nothing you can say to deny blame."

"There is if you will only hear it," the Mage pleaded.

"It's not the practice of the Synod to hear out Dark Mages…" Izuku said hesitantly, wanting both to be strong in his words and to avenge the dead here somehow, but also knowing that his sympathetic nature despised the idea of damning someone with such finality.

The Mage shuffled forward, the fear in his eyes not stopping him from getting himself within arms reach of the person most dangerous to him. Izuku couldn't help leaning away. The wisping darkness around him still conjured fear in Izuku, even if it was mostly subdued.

"Brother Mage," the man said softly, "I would have already accepted my fate were it any other I was kneeling before, because anyone else would have killed me before I was allowed to speak. No other could have quelled the Demon as the bard has and it has offered me a shred of hope I have never before imagined. You have afforded me a small chance at redemption and I beg you not to squander it."

Izuku felt many eyes on him; an accusing stare from Kyouka, an uncertain tilt from Nana, surprise from Denki, and the intense pleading from the Mage. But the only eyes he cared about were the strong, demanding ones of Ochako, glaring up from his side.

"Izuku." A jolt went up his spine to hear Ochako actually say his name. "We should hear him out."

"I agree," Nana hobbled closer, "We are not executioners or vigilantes, dealing our justice as we see fit or as your precious Synod ordains. "

Denki nudged Nana's shoulder with a smug grin. "I agree. Considering that all but one of our entire group is technically a criminal it seems a little presumptuous for us to be judging anyone I think. You and Shoto are sort of traitors now, aren't you? You've both helped or became Fallen Mages yourself. Nana and Ochako are Renegades. Your dragon buddy is just looking for a spear to the eye for existing. And the rest of us do underhanded shit as our day jobs."

"Nothing scathing for the Captain?" Kyouka quirked an eyebrow.

"He actually has permission from his Lord," Denki rolled his eyes, "I know. Ironic. That hothead is the only one of us that managed to follow Fallen Mages throughout Gaetha without making himself a criminal for it."

Nana cleared her throat. "The point remains that we are all willing to hear him out," she veered them back to the confused, shaken Mage still kneeling with head down before his judges and possible executioners.

It was hard to find flaw with their sentiment, but Izuku was entirely confused by it. In the Synod, his fellow Mages would never have stopped to even consider this. It was true what the Possessed Mage had said, were it anyone else he would already be dead.

"Why?" Izuku had to ask, "I have never wanted to be the person playing the part of Devil's Advocate, but why? People died here, livelihoods were lost to him. I hate the idea of killing anyone more than anything, but I cannot unsee this."

"I saw a Demon, not a man do these things," Kyouka grit her teeth and rolled her eyes on a sigh, "Look, my reasons for wanting to let him live are my own, but if he proves to be guilty of truly causing all of this then you have my blessing to let your Synod friends shred him into dog meat for all I care. But if he is not guilty… well, my conscience would recover, but yours… I think not."

Ochako pressed a gentle hand to Izuku's sleeve. "Look at him, Apprentice. That is not the face of a man who wants to harm innocents."

Izuku did look and he saw a shell of a person, a desperate, pathetic, quivering body clung to by the black, inky shades of his sins. He looked practically fragile, as if a strong breath might break him in half, as if he feared his own pale, white skin as much as the Demon beneath it.

Revelation struck like lightning to his skull and both anger and pity vanished to confusion and shock.

Izuku had not even formed words to describe what had stricken him when a sound in the distance alerted them that they were soon not to be alone here. All eyes tore from the Mage back down the main road that led to the night market and the sound of heavily approaching, booted feet. There were lit torches and the clatter of armed and armored men.

The city guard was moving in to respond to the threat.

"We can't stay here," Denki voiced the obvious.

"No, we can't." Izuku slipped from Ochako's grip and stepped confidently up to the Mage, crouching in front of him.

The way his companions tensed with anticipation was palpable.

"Izuku, this does not give us excuse to rush to judgement or-"

Nana spoke swiftly and then cut herself off when she saw Izuku reach a hand out to the Mage. The most startled face was that of the possessed man himself staring at the gesture and then at the calm face of the man offering it.

"Come with us now, we can have explanations once we're safely in our room," Izuku nodded to the man.

With much sputtering at the sudden change in demeanor, the Mage took his hand and rose to his unsteady feet. He was quite easy to lift, hardly meat nor fat on his weak body. His feet were wobbly and Kyouka quickly rushed in to place his arm around her shoulder and support him.

"I'll take it from here," she raised an eyebrow at Izuku, but didn't question his decision.

"Quickly," Denki shouted and darted down a side street, beckoning them to follow.

The swiftness of the oncoming soldiers sped every foot to follow, Kyouka and the Mage close behind Denki and the rest trailing after.

They passed into the darkness of shadowed back streets, trusting that Denki knew his way. As they ran he could sense the many quizzical looks on him.

"Apprentice," Ochako's whisper broke through the dark, laden with the heavy breaths of their anxious dash to safety, "Why did you suddenly change your mind?"

He glanced back at her and Nana's curious stares as they went.

"His skin," Izuku frowned, turning his gaze back ahead on the Mage ahead of him.

"His skin?" Ochako repeated.

"By the ether, Izuku," Nana gasped, "You're right."

"Right about what?" Ochako blustered.

"He isn't marked," Izuku explained, "Dark Magic is the strongest of Fallen Magics. The stronger the Fallen Magic the more intense the marking it leaves."

"And a Possessed Mage especially could not avoid the blemishes of it," Nana concurred.

"Dark Magic can't happen without a mark, even if it fades quickly, and as for a Possessed Mage he would be practically existing in a cesspool of Ether now that an entity of the ether resides in him," Izuku said, "He should be blackened from finger to ears."

Ochako panted and groaned on the aches and pains left from their fight. "What does that mean?"

"I have no idea," Izuku shook his head, "Only that his story may not be as clear cut as I assumed."