Chapter 10- Late into The Night, I Hear It Storming

"Light and darkness co-exist. Two sides of the same coin. You can't just get rid of one side."

"What if we could, though?"

Vanitas was sick and tired of light screwing him up. When was a normal-ish life with the opportunity to gain needed strength again going to be on the cards? Soon, since light gave him one more blasted chance.

Sora broke so many laws of nature to bring his friends back together. As such, he was shoved into a different world with no way to get back home. Friends out of reach, but new ones in grasping reach. And by Kingdom Hearts he was going to help out a familiar face.

UA seemed like the perfect cover for them, solving all their problems. Until it didn't.

After all, light hates darkness, and darkness hates light. Destiny was inevitable.


Xerayn- Warning, there's a little swearing near the end of the chapter. For Sora and Vanitas, I kind of view it as they lived in completely different society, so had different swears, hence the alterations. But for mha characters, they live in the same society as we do. Any swearing that will come up now is not that bad, it's just going to be the same as mha has. Any who, let the chapter begin!

'Bloodlust without conviction is meaningless.'

'No conviction, no grand plan yet, but you've the desire.'

Just you watch. Especially you Hero Killer.

For the majority, it's no skin off their noses if- nah. I guess I can't go that far. More like, while someone, somewhere is off killing people, for whatever reason, these fools keep smiling and laughing, living their lives…

On the other hand, you're getting sympathy from people who couldn't care less about your ideals. Why is that? We're doing the same thing.

Me.

And you.

We're both just destroying what we hate, right?

So why? What's the difference? Why did Seeker just agree to join us like that?

Ah…


Sora woke up falling off his bed the next day. He yawned, before slowly untangling himself from the unfamiliar bedsheets. It took a few moments to realise that he was in one of the guest rooms, but when Sora did, he relaxed. He yawned once more, while stumbling over to open the curtains, only to be nearly blinded by the bright light. The only thing that saved him was the fact he was used to seeing bright flashes of light often. The sun was already high in the ocean blue sky, and a few fluffy clouds lazily swam through it.

Realisation came onto Sora's face, before shock and then panic replaced it. Suddenly, Sora was wide awake and was not quite as lazy as he previously was.

"Oh no. I'm going to be late!"

Sora had a quick glance at the mirror he had only just spotted in the corner (he fell asleep instantly last night, so paid little attention to the room). His clothes that Aizawa brought him was ruffled up from being slept in, but the jacket was dirty from food and dribbling in his sleep. Sora bit his lip.

"Gonna need to make a stop at the Teacher's Lounge."

Sora raced out of the room in a panicked mess. He pelted into the lounge, not even knocking on the door. Unfortunately, Present Mic and Cementoss were still there.

"Hey little listener, what's gotten you in such a rush?" Present Mic shout said as usual.

"Meeting up with friends and badly late. Where's my jacket?" Sora searched.

"Should be where you left it." Present Mic went over and found the jacket. He handed it to Sora.

"Thanks so much!" Sora began to struggle to take off his old jacket.

"Do you need a lift?" Cementoss looked up from working on a computer.

"Uh… it's ok. I can get there by myself." Sora finally got off his jacket, revealing the few scars on his shoulders and upper arms.

The two teachers did not comment on the scars but shared a worried look. Sora cleanly put on his magical jacket back on, not noticing the look.

"Bye!"

"Hold up, Sora. I bet you don't have that much money to spend. Aizawa told me to give you this to you, to get more clothes or whatever. It'll help with the train money at least." Cementoss handed over some paper.

Sora glanced at them before placing them in his back pocket. "Thank you, and please thank Aizawa for me too. I need to go, so…" Sora flashed a grin before he ran down the corridor again.

He mulled over the conversation as he sprinted across UA's massive grounds. I have no clue what a 'lift' is, and I have no clue how long a train would take, but I think my method of travelling is quicker. I know the 'use of quirks' is banned, but no one should see me. Anyway, I've been wanting to stretch my legs for a while.

Sora finally left the school grounds and ran to a secluded back of a building. He did a quick check before running vertically up the building. It felt great to have the wind rushing through Sora's slightly messy haironce more, and the feeling of weightlessness made his smile large. Once at the top of the building, Sora's flowmotion kicked in, covering his body in a transparent blue glow and giving him a boost of speed. Although not as fast as he used to be, Sora always enjoyed the rush flowmotion gave him, ever since he gained the ability in the dreamscape.

As Sora jumped from rooftop to rooftop, he knew he was going to be on time.


"So now we are here! This place has more shops than anywhere else in the prefecture. It's got the coolest and trendiest stuff! The Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall!" Mina Ashido excitedly exclaimed to the class.

"Except for Sora." Tsuyu Asui pointed out.

"Well, yeah. Where is Sora anyway?"

"You, with the six arms! Or even you, with those big, swollen calves! You'll find everything you need here!" Someone nearby shouted to two of the classmates.

"Storeshavetodomorethansimplycatertobodytypesthatdifferbyquirk. Theyalsoneeddesignsforallages,fromteenstoseniors. Nowonderthisplacedrawssomanycustomers." Midoriya muttered, looking around excitedly.

"You're scaring the children. Stop that." Tokoyami casually told off.

"Hey guys, sorry for being late." Sora panted beside the group, scaring a few people.

"Where did you come from?! You gave me a heart attack." Sero gasped.

"Well, everyone's here now! We can begin!" Ashido fist bumped the sky.

"Oh! Aren't they those UA first years?! Good going at the Sports Festival!" A passerby cheered for the large group.

"Whoa. People still remember that…?" Uraraka nervously smiled back at the stranger.

The other members of the group began to discuss things they needed for the camp.

"I've gotta find myself a giant duffel bag."

"Let's look together then."

"I need some rugged outdoor shoes."

"Me too, me too!"

"Our manual recommends well worn footwear. Or, ah… should we focus on utility instead…?!"

"Where d'you think they sell lock-picking equipment and hand drills?" (Mineta got slapped for this comment by Asui).

"Looks like we all need different stuff. Let's split up and meet back at a designated time!" Kirishima suggested to everyone, who all readily agreed.

Everyone filtered away in pairs or trios, leaving just Uraraka, Midoriya and Sora standing by themselves in the middle of the busy mall.

"They all went off in a hurry," Midoriya stated, blankly staring into the distance before turning to Uraraka. "H-how about you, Uraraka? I'm looking for a couple of heavy wrist weights…"

"I need… bug spray… bug…" Uraraka turned bright red as she looked at Midoriya.

"Um, are you ok?" Sora stepped towards her.

"Bug Spray!" Uraraka ran away, flustered.

"I'm the bug?!" Midoriya pointed towards himself, confused.

"I'm gonna check up on her. Meet you soon!" Sora ran after Uraraka, quickly dissolving into the crowd.

"Nearly the whole class came, and Sora joined too, but now I'm alone…" Midoriya sighed to himself.

"Ohhh, cool… you're from UA! Can I get your autograph?" A man in a black hoodie with the hood up approached.

"Huh?"

The stranger slung his arm over an uncomfortable Midoriya. "You're the kid who got wrecked in the sports festival, right?"

"Whoa… y-yeah…"

"Then during that business in Hosu, you ran into the Hero Killer! You're something else! Like the light of the future!"

"You sure do know a lot about me…" Midoriya slowly tried to remove himself from the man's grip, but he just slung his arm around Midoriya's arm more.

"Man, I can't believe it, though. To think we'd meet again, here! I just can't help but think that something special's helped you come this far."

Some hair poked out of the man's hood, a dirty shade of light blue. It set Midoriya's spine cold and his gut churning.

"Something like fate… or destiny, maybe. Well, I guess for you, we last met in that attack on UA," Midoriya froze as the villain placed four of his five fingers in a strangling position. "Let's chat, Izuku Midoriya."

The look that he gave to Midoriya was one of pure evil and his chapped smile made him look demonic. His messy hair fell down to the side as he tilted his head towards Midoriya. Beads of sweat rolled down Midoriya's face as he struggled to gulp.

Tomura Shigaraki!


"Mm, I got all flustered and ran off as fast as I could," Uraraka fanned her red face. Deku must be standing there confused. That was a mean thing I did… yeah, I should go back and apologize…

Uraraka stopped and looked down at the bustling mall filled with happy faces. Yeah… If I don't go back… No, that's not it. Go back and apologize. That's it. Yeah… yeah of course. It's not like we gotta go shopping together or anything…

Uraraka spun around, a nervous smile on her face. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she walked straight into Sora, who was beginning to get annoyed at all the falling he had done in the past few days.

"Oh Sora I'm so sorry I didn't see you are you ok I hope I didn't hurt you!" Uraraka garbled out while getting up.

"It's fine, I fall a lot it seems," Sora rubbed the back of his head. "I'm more worried about you. You went off in a hurry and I followed to check you're doing ok."

"Oh, yeah. I'm all ok! Totally pumped up!" Uraraka's smile became less certain as she offered her hand to Sora.

Sora took it as he frowned. Realisation dawned on him. "Ooooh. Do you want to talk about it, or...?"

Uraraka looked down at the mall again. "I just can't help it. My heart beats faster when I'm around him. From the start, it's just that we've both become heroes, and I kinda think he's awesome. If I go back now, it's not like that. What a sillyhead Aoyama is. Nothing weird about us. I'm probably just feeling ill or something. I'll just go back, nothing weird-"

Sora stopped Uraraka in her tracks. "Hey, hey, hey. Take a minute to breathe. Whatever A-o-yama said doesn't mean it's a hundred percent accurate. Whenever I struggle with my emotions, I just take a minute to breathe in and out and then I can focus again. It might help you; I don't know. I'm not the best at all this."

"I can give it a shot…?"

Uraraka did the breathing exercise three times, with Sora counting the seconds to breathe in. Afterwards, she was a lot calmer and no longer flustered.

"Feel better?"

"Very. Thank you!"

"No problem, um, Ur- Urak…" Sora stumbled over her name.

"Uraraka." She chuckled. He checked up on me and yet didn't even know my name?

"Uraraka," Sora tried it out. "I think I got it. Everyone around here has such long names."

"We should probably get back to Deku. I really need to apologize."


"Easy now… you're gonna act like we're a couple of old pals. No making a scene, okay? Calm down. Breathe naturally. I just wanna talk. That's all. So don't you try anything funny," Shigaraki brushed his last finger against Midoriya's throat casually. "It'd be all too easy, the second all five of my fingers touch your neck, your throat would start crumbling, from the skin inward… you'd turn to dust in under a minute."

"I-in a crowd like this…? Try that and the heroes'll show up. They'll come and catch you…!" Midoriya looked anxiously down at his neck.

"No doubt. But take a look. At them. It's crazy not to imagine that someone could commit an atrocity at any given moment. So why do they smile and mingle like this? Because the laws and rules are built on their individual morality, they're convinced that 'no one would ever do that.' In the time it'd take to catch me, I could take twenty- no, I could take thirty of them out."

Midoriya was silent before deciding what to do. "…Talk about what…?"

"Smart move," Shigaraki laughed. "We might as well sit for this. Let's try to relax."

The two sat down on a bench nearby in front of a display of exotic trees and grasses. People went about their business as usual, smiling and having fun. Midoriya tried to relax.

"I pretty much hate everyone and everything. But right now, what really grinds my gears is the Hero Killer." Shigaraki began.

"Wasn't he working with you…?"

"I never really agreed to that, even if the media made it seem that way. And that's my problem. Everyone's got their eye on the damned hero killer. Our attack on UA, where we nearly took down All Might, the blasted number one hero; the Nomu I unleashed in Hosu wrecking the city… it's all been overshadowed by him. No one's noticing me. Why?" Shigaraki looked to the side before focusing back on his prey. "He can grandstand all he wants, but in the end, all he's doing is destroying what he hates. So, what makes us different?"

Midoriya took his time answering. "…I think… Well, I can't accept what you do… and I don't understand it. The Hero Killer, although I can't accept him… I do understand him. He wanted to improve society by killing what he thought was 'unworthy' heroes. For both me and Stain… it all started with All Might. Back then… he even saved me. So at the very least, he's destructive, but he's doing it for a reason. It's not just for fun.

"His methods may be wrong, but I think he's at least trying to live by his ideals." Midoriya stared back at Shigaraki for the first time, and both eyes met.

And reflected in scared eyes, Shigaraki could finally see what was hidden.

"Ahh… it's all so clear now. Feels like I've connected the dots. About why the Hero Killer pisses me off so much. And why you're so damned irritating. I think I get it now. It's all cuz of All Might." Shigaraki smile grew wider.

"Huh…?"

"Right…? Right, that's the conclusion here. Man, what was I so hung up on anyway…?! The reason these fools can smile and live their lives is cuz All Might's always got that grin on his face."

Shigaraki squeezed harder on Midoriya's neck and Midoriya began to choke.

"Smiling wide, as if to say, there's no one he can't save!" Shigaraki became overjoyed. "Ah, I'm so glad we had this chat! So glad! Thanks, Midoriya!"

"Guh, ugh…" Midoriya tried to remove the hand on his neck.

"Hey, no squirming! Or do you wanna die? You saying you want some of these fine people to die?"

"Deku?" Uraraka slowly walked forward, Sora right beside her.

Sora gasped while Uraraka slowly came to the same conclusion. But Sora could tell a lot more about the man. He radiated darkness, deep, deep within his heart. Sora had only met a handful of individuals like the stranger, but each one posed a threat to their worlds. Sora's hackles were raised as he saw the struggling Midoriya.

"Nothing, it's nothing! I'm fine! So, stay back…" Midoriya managed to say.

The stranger instantly let go of Midoriya, who went into a coughing fit. "I didn't realize you came with someone. Sorry 'bout that." He beamed.

"Deku!" Uraraka quickly went to Midoriya as the stranger began to leave. Sora eyed the stranger warily.

"Well, I'm off. You know what happens if you follow me."

"Wait…Shigaraki…!" Midoriya held his throat. "All for One, what's he after?"

"Huh? Shigaraki… you mean…?" Uraraka quickly looked at the now identified stranger.

"Dunno," He answered Midoriya, "What you should worry about is meeting me again. Cuz that's when you'll die."

Sora took one last glance to check Midoriya was going to be ok before melting into the crowd, just like Shigaraki.

'Bloodlust without conviction is meaningless.'

'No conviction, no grand plan yet, but you've the desire.'

Ideals and convictions…? I had 'em from the start. Nothing's changed! But what I'm gonna do now is all connected to that…! Create a world without All Might. And cause enough destruction to show them all how fragile their justice really is. From this day forward, that's my conviction.

No wonder Seeker suddenly joined. He knew I was close, somehow. He's more perceptive than he seems.

All this, it's all about All Might.

"What now?" Shigaraki turned around.

Xerayn's notes 10-

Fun fun fun! I tried to stay as close to the manga as possible, so it's a little heavy with dialogue. Sora had to take a backseat for a little bit, but he as well as Vanitas will soon return back into focus. I also love leaving stuff on cliffhangers hehe.

Saying that, the next chapter will take a little while to come, as I am going to shift my attention to kh oc week. I've got a few oneshot ideas for it, but I need a bit of time to write them up. I might post them on here, but there won't be much context lol. Anyway, thanks for reading and see you whenever the next chapter comes!

Spotify playlist for this fanfic: playlist/0Hqo9rv2YQzYeoFxyqOIDF