Blossoms of the Dark

by seven-cursed-sins

Hanada Selene. Todoroki Shouto. Two troubled souls living troubled lives. But they somehow find solace within each other. They first met in a dream, and later again in real life. Both of them were initially wary of each other, but with time they grew comfortable with each other. What started out as strange acquaintances turned into something more. Also available on AO3 and Wattpad.

60. LVIII Shouto: Villains

We've arrived at the U.S.J.

And I'm not impressed.

It's the opposite of its name: Ultimate Space for Jams. I don't see any ultimate space or anything worth jamming to. It's a campus with a domed roof. There are various natural disaster simulations circling a round observation area with a fountain: flood wrecks, landslides, fires, and many more.

Pro-Hero No. 13 is welcoming us. He's in his astronaut-like hero costume. So this was the "somebody else" Aizawa-sensei was talking about. Rescue hero No. 13. I've heard plenty about him. He's got a very good reputation. "This is a practical training area I created to simulate all kinds of accidents and disasters," he says. As the class cheers, Sensei asks him where All Might is, to which No. 13 informs him that All Might got caught up with hero work. No. 13 then addresses the class again, giving the typical hero talk: quirks are powers that can be used to help but also hurt people; be careful when using your quirk; don't kill anyone; have fun.

But just as No. 13 finishes, a dark void opens in front of the fountain, and a skinny figure with pale blue hair and a human-shaped rock hand covering his face comes out. Even from tens of meters away, he looks menacing. What's even more terrifying is the battalion of criminals that emerge from the same void soon after.

Aizawa-sensei pushes all of us back as he shouts, "THOSE ARE VILLAINS!" If Aizawa-sensei's yelling, then things are really, really bad.

The void contorts into a head and a body. But there are no hands or face to it. And yet it can speak. "According to the teachers' curriculum we procured, Mr. All Might was supposed to be here, and yet ..."

All Might?!

The hand-for-a-mask villain starts to talk in a raspy voice. "Where is he? We went through all this trouble and rusted up so many of us to bring along. You can't tell me All Might, the symbol of peace, isn't here."

This is about All Might?!

I'm confused and scared and angry and so much more. But what the villain says next makes me blanch and chills me to my core: "I wonder if he'll show up if we kill the kids?"

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Note: I have copied some dialogue from one of the English-translated versions of the manga. The link to the chapter is here: /manga/boku-no-hero-academia-chapter-13/