A/N: Kinda obvious but if you haven't read My Hero Academia Perfected you'll have none of the context behind this side-story revolving around two significant characters in that story, (Akio and Viral). Read it without context if you want I'm not in control, but still, Enjoy!


The Question

"Sooo... lemme see if I got this all figured out," Yuki held her hands wide, brow knitted firmly. "You said Viral's been completely erased, but a fragment of his soul resides inside yours, so technically he isn't dead just dormant... sorta? That about right?" Yuki beamed.

Akio ran a hand through his hair, chuckling lightly with his eyes closed momentarily. "Um... I feel like there's a lot of context you skipped - but yeah, that's about right," He gave her a thumbs-up of encouragement.

"Nailed it," She pumped her fist back, leaning back to rest her head against Izuku's shoulder, the boy writing down notes in his journal, enjoying the peaceful chat in silence. Then Yuki frowned. "That's gotta suck though, I'm sorry, that you had to go through all of this, I can't remember anything,"

I scanned no lingering gaps in our memories | However that day | Akio appeared to have lingering temporal energy over his body

"Siva said he could detect time energy off you, so I guess that and Hana and Velk's explanation line up," Yuki smiled at the boy's deflated state. "I mean, you did take care of those two Nightmares, so it's not like I have doubts you're on our side."

"Thanks," Akio smiled lightly, stretching up from his spot. "Right, I guess it's time... as uncomfortable this talk's gonna be."

"'Talk', did Mr Aizawa ask to chat with you again?" Izuku inquired, peeking over his journal as Yuki snatched it to scan the pages.

"No, but... I think this is a step back if I'm honest, can I go back to being nearly killed by Drevis again?" He began to sweat nervously. "I have no idea how this is going to pan out, usually Viral would say, 'stop complaining and roll with the punches', hehe," Giving to two a wave, he left the quiet common area for the staircase, determined to prolong his walk toward the inevitable. "Okay, here we go..."

Wandering the familiar halls was like a memory game, unfortunately, his relocation since his and Viral's gamble to save their friends made some changes a habit to adopt, primarily the fact his new living arrangements were now in the spare room beside Izuku's. He almost made the mistake of entering the wrong room multiple times, thankfully, the occupant hadn't noticed.

Holding his hand up to the door, he hesitated, feeling his stomach knot before an invisible force made his fist tap twice, and he wish he hadn't. "It's open," Hearing the muffled voice he sucked in a breath and let it out just as quickly, twisting the handle as he stepped through to an all-too-familiar sight of a musician's den.

"H-hey, Ky - em, Jiro," He had to mentally kick himself there, a force of habit. "So, you... wanted to talk?" His hand instinctively rubbed the skull necklace around his neck, another necklace kept safely in his pocket.

The purplette continued to play with random strings on her guitar, not bothering to look at him but instead pointing to the spot next to her on the bed with a jack. Following her command, he sat a few spots away from Kyoka, not wanting to make things more awkward than they already were. It baffled a part of him to act like this, if he were honest, he wish he could just sit next to her without seeming like a creep.

Sighing softly, she set the guitar down, bringing her eyes to his with that sharp exterior, he didn't dare search her emotions. "First, I said it's fine... calling me by my first name that is,"

"Ah, yeah, sorry... just you seemed uncomfortable when I do still, so..." Akio tapped his hands together lightly. "Ahem, continue."

"I want to know something, and be completely honest with me, we clear?" Her jack prodded forward so he crossed a finger over his heart quickly. "Good," She sat up straight as if to prepare herself.

Inside her head, dozens of questions ran amuck that it made it impossible to write a song let alone play one that didn't drown her in emotion. Ever since Akio started attending UA he's been explaining the same story on a loop alongside their friends, Velk and Hana. Akio was a Host to a Nightmare, like them, and his Nightmare, Viral, had given up his life to keep Akio from disappearing when they fixed time after a lot of terrible things happened to Kyoka's class.

Since then, Akio and Viral had vanished from all their memories, with Nightmares and Host exempt from this rule. Kyoka's quirk was handy in separating truth from fiction, that rule bypassed Nightmare's ability to lie to almost anyone, so far, everything Akio had said was true, but something bothered her, about herself and the boy sat nervously ahead of her sharp stare.

Rubbing her cheek which felt a little warmer at what she was about to ask, she averted her eyes. "I... a-about your memories - all of ours..." She took a breath and blurted it out. "...were we..." Her voice caught in her throat. "Are you... gah, this is annoying!" Slapping her own chest to shut her heart up, she locked eyes with Akio. "Who were you to me?"

"She said that and her face didn't break out in a blush?" Akio had to admit, she continued to impress him. Looking around at her room's decorations, the band posters, instruments, colors, it all rang like a gong in his head, a pitiful feeling of nostalgia washing over him. "I recognize every instrument in this room because I saw you play them, the bands too, you'd say I had to like one of them or you'd strangle me for my 'poor taste' in music - I still think that was a little dramatic."

As she reddened a little more, his head lowered to his hands. "There's a lot though... so much but to sum it up," He glanced to her with an honest face. "You're the reason I'm who I am, Kyoka," Her eyes widened as her jacks went all funny again, and Akio then hit his forehead. "Sorry, it's just... so frustrating," His facade began to break. "...I just... can't let go of these habits... and I hate it because I'm scared to do so."

Sensing his elevated heart rate, Kyoka moved close enough to rub his back. "Hey, take it easy, slow breaths," "He's trembling..." She kept rubbing his back until he controlled his heartbeats, drawing a circle with his finger in the air in front of them. "Better? Sorry for asking that, I... I just needed to know,"

"You deserve to know everything," Akio admitted, peeking over to her solemnly. "Even if it changes nothing, I don't want to make things more awkward, I know Yuki and the others are trying to do the same for me and I appreciate that," Kyoka then inched back, realizing how close they were... rather, she didn't seem to notice the distance at all.

"Hold on," She put her hand out, drawing a circle as he did. "Magic... you said you could use magic, right?"

"Yeah? I taught you it too," He answered simply. "Plus, that thing you did against Drevis, that was Sonic Leap, a long-ranged sound spell I taught-"

"Right-right, so - wait I can do magic too, that's what that was back then!?" Kyoka felt her worldview crack wide open. "Dude, why the hell didn't you lead with that!? I want to learn magic! Hell, you should've just told me then!" Her jack jabbed his arm.

"Sorry... kinda slipped my mind, hehe," He grinned as she grabbed his collar, glaring daggers at him.

"Next training session, I'm learning magic, it will be awesome, got it?"

"S-sure, why do I feel like I'm being mugged?" He muttered to the side.

"Sweet!" Kyoka grinned ear to ear for the first time that day, then quickly cleared her throat. "Ahem, right, I was gonna say; don't you have a spell that can... I dunno, revive memories? Like a remembering spell?" His raising brow made her grunt. "Do I look like a magic nerd?"

"No, I just think Viral chewed me out for something similar before," Akio then nodded. "I do have a spell fitting the bill though, but first," He held out his right hand to her. "Do you trust me?"

That was what this was about, trust. There was a lot more Kyoka was looking for out of the anomaly that was Akio, he was a mystery to her. The way he looked at her, how he fumbled with his words or dodged questions about her in his retelling of the Shattered Isles. Something he refused to tell her out of trust or fear or something more.

Placing a hand with rough fingers in his palm, she gave a curt nod. "I'll trust you, just tell me who you are?"

"In a moment you'll know a lot more, I hope," With his left, he focused his magic to form two red circles within each other, then a strange diamond with the middle cut out for a single line, almost like an eye. "I'll show you through my memories - Release Recollection," Chanting the spell, the light peeled away within the circle, and Kyoka's hand gripped tighter, his hand cupping hers softly as the light made her vision tunnel, and her mind slips away.

When the red glare faded, a scene overlooked a city bathed in dark clouds as something shrouded in black and lilac flames swept down from the thunderstorm, colliding with a pair of arms over the edge of a skyscraper.

"Man," The one in a ragged cloak tisked, his single, purple eye glowering up at the beast. "You are a serious headache!"

To Be Continued...

[My Hero Academia Perfected Side-Story]

[Renegade]

Written by Silent Slender

OP - Heart of the Night by Divide Music


Per a suggestion, I was given a while ago here's a short side-story on how Akio, Viral, and Kyoka met, and what helped to set their relationship out to sea. Also, more Viral after... stuff, if you haven't seen Perfected. Anywho! I hope you'll enjoy, I appreciate the support as always, seeya in the next chapter, Renegades!

This will probably be around 8 or 10 chapters, nothing crazy but full of Akio/Kyoka fluff ^_^

Next Chapter - One Rainy Day

Today was a strange day for Kyoka. The day a boy fell from the sky...