Chapter 14- I'm Checking My Vital Signs

Sora ran into the exam arena, careful to avoid cameras. He really did not feel like explaining why he was in the middle of Midoriya's exam when he was explicitly told to watch in that room. He walked about, looking around the surroundings and searching for Vanitas.

"These guys really have a lot of munny, huh? And this is only one of many training grounds? Wow." Sora muttered to himself.

Sounds of a battle sounded far away, but it was loud. Sora heard the shattering of thousands of glass panes before the strong gust of wind that nearly knocked him away. It lasted for several seconds until it faded away as if it never happened.

"O….k. I think I maaaaaybe should go on top of a building. Safer."

Sora scaled the nearest building with flowmotion, gracefully reaching the top within a minute. There was a tricky part to try and avoid shards of glass but Sora reached a good vantage point.

It was there that he saw the person he had been searching for.

Sora jumped across several gaps in between buildings, to reach a boy who looked almost identical to Sora. The boy sat on the edge of a building, simply observing. Unversed hovered around his pitch black helmet, as they waited to be amused.

"Vanitas, I just want to talk." Sora began.

"Urgh, of course you'd be here." Vanitas did not turn around. Sora gave him space.

"It's about what you said during the War. Everyone else was… content, or regretful of what they did. But you just seemed so… sad. Reserved. And I can't figure out why."

"Don't you see, that's the problem! Why can't I dusking be left alone?" Vanitas shouted, twisting around.

"I want to help you! I can see how much hurt you're carrying."

"Leave. Me. Alone."

"Being alone doesn't help. How about-"

"I am the darkness! Why can't you accept that? Why can't you accept we will never get along? That I hate you! And," Vanitas sharply stood up, summoning his keyblade, "You know nothing about me. NOTHING. So stop. Berserker."

"Vanitas- at least let me try."

"…There is something you can help me with."

"What?" Sora's face lit up in hope.

"Perish!"

Sora whipped out his keyblade and blocked his attack, locking the two blades together. He was shaking with the effort to keep Vanitas at bay.

"You are the one you gave me this face. I hate your stupid face, why do I have to have your face?!"

"It's not my fault! Please, we don't have to fight!" Sora pleaded.

Vanitas snarled, and unspoken, the unversed waiting about went into action. Sora was forced to unlock his blade and focus on the unversed, only weak floods that could be dispatched rather quickly. Annoying agility though.

Sora cut them down quickly, but not quick enough.

"Too slow." Vanitas chuckled as he launched Sora off of the building.

Sora was in shock, and the ground came too quickly for him to react. He landed hard, and he felt something break. Vanitas followed after Sora, but Sora went on the offensive. Attack, block, attack, slice, light end of combo, dodge under counter attack, repeat. Vanitas was worse for wear after the onslaught and somehow lay on the ground, dark gloop starting to leak out of him.

"Why continue to fight when we've fought so much before?" Sora asked, concern in his frown.

"Fighting is all I'm good at. After all, I am the shadow to your light."

"That's not true. You can be a hero if you want to." Sora desummoned his keyblade and reached for Vanitas' hand.

"…You don't understand." Vanitas swiped Sora's hand away before walking away. Sora stood still, as he heard the faint chime of Midoriya and the other student passing their exam.

Sora barely dodged the attack Vanitas launched. His feet slid against the uneven ground below as Sora desperately tried to reason with Vanitas.

"We don't have to fight! Please, just talk to me! We can sort things out-"

"What's there to sort out? You are a despicable being of light, and I am a pitiful monster of the darkness. Two sides of a coin. So, I must eliminate you!" Vanitas kept on his offence, not stopping for one second, keeping Sora on the backfoot.

The Guardian of Light sighed, before throwing the stick away into the overgrowth. "If fighting you will make you understand, then fine!" He summoned Kingdom Key in a flurry of light and met Vanitas' next attack head on.

Vanitas quickly retracted his keyblade and cartwheeled away, gaining space. Sora ran to follow him only to be met with two successive firas. Sora casted a blizzard spell to eliminate one fireball and narrowly rolled out of the way of the second. It was replaced by Vanitas casting a dark thundra spell, a cheap way of making sure Sora got injured. It worked, and he was momentarily stunned until the Seeker of Darkness slashed a rough asterisk shape into his skin. Sora's clothes meant he received only shallow cuts, but the damage was done. Vanitas pressed on in his attack, pushing his opponent in the air, landing a few more blows, until Sora managed to regain some ground and block a few attacks.

Vanitas tired of the onslaught and retreated, but was already preparing his next moves, like moving a pawn forward on a chessboard. It left an opening. Sora ignored the shock of the wounds and went on the offensive. He managed to string a solid combo of six hits in before Vanitas began to recover. The dark twin's form suddenly went transparent, and just as his duplicate disappeared, Vanitas tried a sneak attack from above. Sora rolled out of the way of a close call before looking frantically around.

Vanitas walked slowly around Sora, before several forms of himself seemingly appeared out of him. Sora observed, warily. He was not used to all of the Seeker's various tricks and abilities in his arsenal, he had relied on Aqua and Ven's knowledge during the War. The other fight was too short to know as well. He was stronger, too.

This must be a trick. I should wait until he strikes again. But is he charging up for a powerful attack, which I might not be able to dodge or block? In that case, I should strike now while there is an openin-

"Come and get me, weakling," All the Vanitas' said at once, off key and haunting. "Prove to us you are worth toying with."

"…"

They slowly closed in on Sora, like hunters about to snare their prey. Sora steadied his racing heart and shifted his stance. He waited until he was almost crushed, before swiping in one arch to remove the clones. Only one of the ten fakes connected with the teeth of the keyblade, but Vanitas did not let up any ground. He rushed Sora, striking him with a blow before teleporting away and rushing again. Sora stumbled against the onslaught, trying to block the attacks but Vanitas always managed to hit his weak, unguarded spots.

With one last teleportation, Vanitas came from above and slammed Void Gear into Sora's small frame, launching Sora across to the other side of the opening and to the dirt. Sora groaned as he struggled to get back on his feet but stopped in shock as he looked up.

Three flood unversed pinned the keyblade wielder down, while their master casually walked to him, dusting the dirt off his torn battle skirt. Sora tried to shake the unversed's grip, but it was no use. Vanitas simply pointed the sharp end of his keyblade to Sora's heart, the tip glowing with dark energy.

"Don't. I've won, and there's nothing you can do about it. Any last words?" The monster cackled insanely.

"Urgh… please… you don't have- to do… this. Y-you're not… bound by your- your past or who you are…"

"I want to. And I've been so looking forward to doing this. Goodbye, brother."

Vanitas raised Void Gear high into the sky, the dark surroundings seemingly merging with the aura around him. Sora scrunched his eyes shut after one last struggle, cursing how he was bound by fate.

I'm sorry, Riku… Kairi… I won't make it back to the islands again after all…

Death did not visit Sora again.

"Seek- come in Seeker." A small device in one of Vanitas' pockets shrieked.

Vanitas angrily shoved his hand into the pocket and got it out, revealing it was an old walkie-talkie. Simple in design, but effective. It was almost unfair how rough Vanitas was treating it, like it was worth nothing.

"What is it?!" Vanitas yelled into the device.

"It is- ime. I repeat, it is time. Get back to base." It crackled back.

Vanitas, put simply, killed Sora with his glare. Sora was still on the ground, resisting slightly against the unversed against him, but mostly petrified out of his mind.

Vanitas went back to the conversation. "Can it not wait?!"

"Unless you want to lose more of us, no."

"Urgh. Fine. You," Vanitas turned back to Sora, "Stay here. I will return shortly."

Something akin to a Dark Corridor appeared beside the two, and Vanitas walked sharply into it, leaving Sora with three unversed pressing against him.

He let out several shuddering breaths now that his opponent ditched him. No matter how often Sora was faced with the raw, unfiltered dark forces, he always had to compose himself afterwards. Darkness naturally burrowed through people's defences, seeing their weaknesses, and exploiting them. Sora was thankful Vanitas' empowering aura only lasted for such a short time.

"But others may not be so lucky… Vanitas doesn't realise how he isn't trapped, and he's going to make others suffer because he suffered," Sora thought out loud. "I need to help him, before anyone else is hurt."

Sora began to struggle with more urgency, but the supposedly weak floods were adequate to keep him trapped. After more thrashing, he came to a rest. He had to try something else to escape. Plan B.

The unversed chirped, confused. They looked at each other for guidance. Their master prepared them for violence, not peace. One especially curious creature, let's call them Marshmallow, let their grip loosen in wonder as they tried to figure out what the human was doing.

The human, in fact, had moved his hand to the side after some shimmying, and had enough space to summon his keyblade. And did that he did, and the effect was instantaneous. The unversed hissed at the light, but at the sight of a keyblade not their masters, they tightened their grip on the human, albeit more vocal with worry and fear.

Sora shuffled his hand, so it reached his face with great difficulty. Although the unversed were gripping harder, it made it slightly easier to move about. Sora placed his keyblade's handle into his mouth, freeing his hands up to shove the unversed off.

Meaning, he successfully pulled Marshmallow off, before he felt a sharp pain straight through his heart. His vision went blurry and the night sky became even darker, and Sora's breathing became louder and more raspy. The unversed squirmed away from him, it felt, as Sora looked at his right hand through the sudden migraine he gained. His hand was seemingly glitching, in and out of existence.

What is happening to me?! How did I solve it last time?!

Sora fought through the pain of even moving his arm slightly, biting back the scream trying to worm its way up his throat. Through pure grit and determination alone, he took what seemed like an hour to brush against the handle before his arm gave out on him.

But a brush was all that was needed, and all the pain disappeared like it never happened.

He desummoned his keyblade from his mouth, and sat up, breathing heavily. He stared at his hand, now glitch-free, with a frown as he recovered. There was a tiny cut on his palm, in the shape of curved lightning, bleeding down to the ground quietly.

"What in the worlds is happening to me?" Was all he could mutter.

Sora quickly got on his feet as he heard running nearby. A quick check revealed the unversed had dispersed, meaning Sora was free to move about and hide, if needs be. He was about to duck behind a tree trunk when he realised it was a gravely injured Midoriya carrying a small object on his back- oh no, it was Kota. This was bad.

"Sora, thank goodness you're ok! Villains are attacking the camp and they're looking for people- you and Kacchan, I know of but they know our quirks of the students so they could be targeting more than just you two- and I need to get Kota back to base. We need to-" Midoriya rambled on, obviously high on adrenaline.

Sora interrupted. "Ugh, great. More than one villain. I get it, I'll carry Kota back to camp, but you need to evacuate with everyone. You're really hurt, and-"

"I need to relay this information onto Mandalay and make sure you and Kacchan are alright! There's no time." Kota was handed onto Sora's back, before Midoriya was glowing again.

"Wait-" Sora hesitated slightly, trying to argue. He realised it was pointless, his mind and heart were made up. He quickly rummaged through his jacket pocket which he kept his few items he had. "At least drink this. It'll help you." He handed over his last potion.

Midoriya looked at the strange packaging but did not question it as he gulped it down in one go. He winced slightly as he glowed a stronger green for a second, before some of his more serious injuries (namely his arms) turned to a more natural colour. It was not fully healed though.

"What… was that?" Midoriya asked in shock.

"I'll explain later. We should start moving." Sora readjusted Kota on his back before running, flowmotion activating.

"O-ok!"

A few minutes earlier

"Wahhhh… we wanted t-to try the test of c-courage toooo…." Mina Ashido wined while trapped in Aizawa's capture weapon.

"In today's remedial lesson, we'll be drilling you on what to do in emergency situations," Aizawa ignored the wining and reached an outside building. "Not being aware of how much you're falling behind the others will only widen that gap."

And with the rate you are being thrusted into emergency situations, this is a very much needed lesson. Aizawa thought privately to himself.

He opened the door for the five Class A students to sit down in a classroom-like room, when an annoying brat started to insult his students. Aizawa sighed and started to make small talk with Vlad King.

"Isn't that funny?! The stupendous Class A managed to produce five whole failures! While Class B only had a single one!"

"You failed too bro…" Kirishima muttered.

The class was just about underway when they were interrupted again.

"Everyone!"

"That's Mandalay and her telepath quirk." Kirishima looked up from the board.

"Kinda sucks that it's a one-way connection though." Kaminari noted.

"Pipe down." Aizawa ordered the students, and immediately they realised something was wrong.

"Two villains have invaded the area! It's possible that more are lurking in the shadows! Those who can, head to the facility- if you encounter another villain head on, do not fight! Retreat!"

"Wha... why are villains here?" Monoma frowned as he finally also looked up from his work.

Aizawa shared a look with Vlad King. "Vlad, keep an eye on things here for me. I've got to protect the other students."

"Understood." Vlad nodded before starting to reassure the students.

Aizawa left in a run, the last thing he heard from the classroom being the protests of his students about the camp supposed to be secret. He pushed his doubt to the side and focused on the task ahead. He grabbed his scarf as he reached outside, only to smell (and see) thick smoke coming from bright blue flames.

"This is not good." He stated to himself, before dodging out of the way of an attack.

"Hmph. As expected of a pro." The villain revealed himself, a young man who wore mostly black and ugly purple scars across his face, before he reached his hand out casually. Wisps of blue flame circled around his hand before quickly being put out.

"That's not gonna work."

Aizawa used his capture weapon to efficiently trap first the imposter's leg, and then torso in two swift movements. He landed on top of the villain, hand forcing the spiky black head to the mud.

"Your objections, orders. Numbers. Now." Aizawa demanded, not even out of breath.

"Why would I tell you?" He responded in a cold manner.

Ironic, that his quirk is fire. Aizawa thought before breaking one of the man's bones. "Or I'll do this. Next will be your right arm. Be rational. It'll be a pain for you if I broke your legs."

He looked up at the new sound of running footsteps, making a mistake of looking away from the enemy.

"Sir!" Iida stopped the three other classmates in their tracks, as Aizawa was flung back, scarf unravelling.

"Stay back!"

He tightened his remaining hold on the villain, trapping his movements once more.

"I guess you're not a hero instructor for nothing. Say, Mr Hero..." The villain began, but it was different to previously. "Your students. Are they that precious to you?"

Without the pro hero even doing anything, the villain melted into mud onto the ground, grinning creepily at him. Great, that's going to be the source of my nightmares for a while...

"I hope you can protect them all..." How was he even still talking? "Until next time."

The teacher stared at the mess on the ground for a second.

"What was that!?" Mineta screamed.

"Get inside, all of you. I'll be back soon."

"Ah, you're no good Dab! Darn you!" "You got done in! So weak, you're just fodder!" Twice complained to his fellow villain.

"Already? That was weak."

"Huh? Don't be silly and don't jump to conclusions. You're strong! We just gotta assume that the pros here are gonna be monsters."

Dabi sighed as he lit another tree on fire. "Send out another me, Twice. We need to pin these pros down."

"Send more fodder and you'll get the same result again!" "Leave it to me!"

"What was it that you fools rudely interrupted me about again?" Seeker's small frame walked into frame, hiding the venomous aura around him.

"Don't take that attitude with me, brat. I'm the leader for this mission." Dabi continued his job, not even looking back.

"And I was about to kill the person that made me suffer for several years!"

Dabi would always say that he was not intimidated at Seeker at that point, nor did he flinch back for fear of his life.

"I totally get that, I'm so sorry!" "Stop your whining, you've got a job to do." Twice nearly finished making the second clone of Dabi.

Dabi bounced his foot. "You can return back to that after. You're up. Create some Pointed Hearts, will you?"

"Yeah, yeah." Seeker seemingly calmed down as several strange creatures came out of his back. They scuttered about as they got used to their new existence.

Seeker then said something in a completely different language to the Pointed Hearts, who then disappeared into the ground, zooming away. What a handy quirk.

"Is that all." Seeker glanced at the two.

Dabi paused. "Mustard is the weak link between us. And he's barely older than you."

"What are you suggesting?" A small bit of bite returned.

"It'll be hard work targeting one person. Might as well enjoy yourself first."

Seeker came to an answer, it seemed. He walked away from the group swiftly, weapon already drawn. "Don't disturb me unless it's necessary. I'll be in a bad mood if you wreck my plans twice in one evening," He turned around, his eyes lifeless but grin stretched and manic. "And you don't like me in a bad mood."

"Well he's scary!" "Such a wimp!" Twice commented.

"I know. That clone ready yet or what?"

Xerayn's Notes 14:

I'm back with another chapter! Tenison has been raised, and conflicts have happened. I love writing these sections, even though it can be tough at times. The villain interactions are always fun, and that's how I make it through the more boring parts.

The story has now reached 100 pages in my Word Document, and 40k words! That includes these notes though so probably only 36k in reality. I'm so thankful for all you guys' support, it motivates me to keep writing, especially when I'm very much stressed and struggling to deal with some stuff. My sister is going through some tough friendship stuff and is leaning on me for support, while also relying on me for her first set of exams' revision. I have exams too next week, and idk. A lot's been happening in my life. Oh, and a poem I wrote for a competition is being published in a book, and I'll prolly win some money for another comp since like two other people entered.

Woops, got personal again. Oh well. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and see you prolly in about a month at the rate this is going.