Chapter 87 - Perfect Progression
The rain dribbled down from the night sky blanketed by a thick layer of clouds. The city felt oddly still say for the crumbling wounds in buildings from the commotion. The plaza was surrounded by buildings cracked and uprooted. A massive glacier of ice walled off one sector of the city as many bodies ran rampant around the area.
Stood atop one of the buildings, dripping wet from the previous downpour, a boy in tarnished, battle-worn armor stood with a hunch, exhausted without realizing it. His left mid-gauntlet was shredded, his right close to breaking. The legs were worn and dirty, his hood badly sliced by battle, whipped by the wind. A blue cape flickered with faint life, sparks of blue struggling to repair the damage on the boy's body. A weathered insignia of SIVA around the cloth's folds.
But his mask and metal mouth guard remained, his emerald eyes piercing the dark veil as his strobes of energy flickered across his dark, monstrous stature, he didn't even look human anymore.
"...that's enough," Before him, of all those to stand in his way, Kyoka raised her hands out, jacks hanging close to her sonic amps, they too had seen better days. Her face was a contorted mixture of emotions, yet her purple eyes remained fixated on the boy before her. "Please, Izuku."
"Kyoka?" His fists remained taut. "Sorry, I can't."
"Bullshit," She snapped, he didn't even flinch at her tone. "Just come home, you've done en-"
"No, I haven't," He interrupted, the sparks of One For All whirling up inside his chest, eyes luminous in the dark. "I can't stop, I have to keep moving."
Kyoka lowered her arms into fists, raising them with two pale glyphs manifesting around her wrists, she held no remorse for what needed to be done, her hair damp against her skin. "Then I guess I'll drag you back kicking and screaming then, Deku."
Izuku said nothing, even as his body screamed for him to disengage, somehow, he found himself accepting her offer, fists mirroring her form. "No... you won't, Earphone Jack."
Years ago...
"Watch it!" Yuki's hand quickly pulled her friend back from the road, his mindless daydreaming nearly costing him a trip to the hospital as a car swept by his face. He blinked, recoiling into her chest. "Man, that was close..."
Yuki, a snarky nine-year-old girl, just saved someone's life. Letting go of the boy's shirt, she adjusted her white jacket with a huff. "Hey, are you okay!?" Running over full-tilt was Jura, himself nearly barreling into the pair. He was younger than Yuki and the boy yet was a head taller than them and bigger weight-wise.
"All good!" Yuki put up an 'OK' sign. "You gotta get better self-awareness, Hansuke."
The boy was Hansuke Benjiro. He had slightly wavy, pale green hair that fell over his eyes at times, a few freckles across his face with soft, lime green eyes. He kept his sleeves down, even on a warm day with thin black gloves on and baggy grey trousers, even a white snood around his neck. "Th-thank you, Yuki - ah, H-Hiroshi,"
She smiled again, "I don't mind people saying my name, you know this, plus with Dumb-Dumb around it can get confusing," She admitted, shoving him along the pathway. "Let's hustle to the movies already!"
"Y-you guys don't n-need to spend the day i-indoors because of m-me," Hansuke shakily said while tugging his snood up.
Jura and Yuki shared a look then Yuki smacked Hansuke on the back, causing him to lurch forward. "We're friends, so if one of us can't have fun, none of us can!"
"Right, so let's go to the movies and waste all our money on junk food!" Yuki declared, taking the lead before she screeched to a halt, almost running into someone. "Woah!"
Hansuke deadpanned. "Didn't she just warn me about this?" He pointed while looking up at Jura who chuckled, rubbing his nose.
"That's Yuyu in a nutshell,"
"Agreed,"
"I'm so sorry, I almost sent you flying!" She bowed her head repeatedly before the frazzled young boy with blackish-green hair that was curly. He, with an equally flustered face, waved his hand, the other holding a shopping bag.
"I-it's okay, I w-wasn't paying attention either!" Quickly, he ran around her, passing by her friends. "Sorry again!"
"Wait I-" But by then he had zipped away down the street, leaving Yuki lost in place. "...I guess we both are easily distracted."
"You're really crazy, you guys make my head spin sometimes..." Hansuke murmured, hand rubbing his tinged cheek, a smile appearing over his face. "...thank you."
"Hehehe, best friends stick together," Yuki tugged him forward by the wrist with Jura patting the frail boy's back lightly. "Come on, I'm going shopping with my family tomorrow so let's burn all the oil we can!"
"That sounds dangerous..." Hansuke sweatdropped.
"Figure of speech," Jura whispered.
"Yeah, that too!" Yuki chimed.
Lightning flashed from the clouds, something vague, a phantom, woven from the gloom and glow could be seen atop a building. Something that caused panicky fear and a revolting, gut-wrenching dread.
"Hey now..." Sat atop a building overlooking the nightlife, a person squatted at the edge, drawing a crooked kama shaped like a monster's canine dripping with blood across their neck's dark green tattoo as it turned the blood a sickly green. "You look real cool man, you must've been gifted, I envy you, huh?"
The person beneath their boots had already passed away, eyes lifeless, their right hand still gripped to the man's boot for dear life. "All of it is wrong, but I just can't grow to hate people like you, just envy, it all boils down to a bottomless resentment that I can't help it!"
With a shaky breath, they stood up, basking in the manmade sunlight of the skyscrapers far and wide. "You know it's true too..." His eyes were the size of pins. "...you wanted the world to feel how we felt, right?"
At the same time at UA's Training Hall Gamma, a voice practically shattered the windows.
"Bah!" Katsuki snorted, jabbing Izuku in the chest. "You think that'll be that easy!? Relying on that Mute Bastard isn't going to change anything!" He berated the ragged teen late into the afternoon.
"Sorry... I'll try harder..." His apology did squat to quell Katsuki's twitching red eyes that formed like sickles.
"Give it a rest already, Bakugo," Sitting on a rocky ledge was Kyoka, yawning herself while popping her joints with a stratified sigh, Yuki sat down next to her with a bottle of water.
"Yeah, you also really need to come up with a better nickname, it's been ages now," She teased, hopping down to turn Izuku, popping his head back to filter water into his mouth. "Try not to choke."
"Ggglegel..." He held a hand up, translation, 'Thank You'.
Katsuki just stared at the two as Izuku gulped, thanking her again with a lethargic sigh. "You've been hanging Deku from the air for hours, nothing's working, so what gives, huh, Chosen One?"
Rubbing his eyes, Izuku gave them a plain look. "I don't know, when I first used Float it was the heat of the moment, and the woman, it felt like she guided me with her arms," Izuku remembered it clearly, the second he and Yuki would've been skewered by Overhaul she pulled him back, and his body glided through the spikes safely. Closing his fist, he tapped his foot off the ground. "I think maybe I need to be in danger or feel what it's like being in the air."
"Does that mean we should get Uraraka and Sero?" Kyoka inquired, resting her chin on her palms with a firm look. "Not sayin' it's a bad choice, String Bean, but considering we all know about OFA do you think the others won't get suspicious about another new ability?"
"She's got a point," Yuki nodded, flicking a cluster atop her finger. "With me, so long as the public isn't aware of how my quirk originated it's fine, but yours is much more than that," It was a tricky situation, one the bluette had no answers for. Rubbing her nape she moaned. "Man, I guess we can try again tomorrow but if me hovering you in my arms or Kyoka's controlled sonic blasts won't cut it we might need to ask All Might to bring the others in, maybe even Tsu too,"
"Y-yeah... Zzz..." Izuku snored a little, jolting up as Yuki prodded his freckles like a power button, wrapping one arm around his waist with a sweet smile. In a sleepy state, he murmured. "...you're an angel..."
"I try my best," Yuki rolled her eyes playfully, "Come on, hero, I think we're done for today,"
"Huh, since when!?" Katsuki blurted out, seeing Kyoka hop past. "Oi, where you going, Long Ears!?"
"To dinner! Seriously, read the room, Crater Face!" She threw a hand high, exasperated as she shook her head. "How did you put up with him in middle school?"
"Long story... too tired... Zzz..." Izuku nearly nodded off again, making the girls stifle a laugh at how easily the hero nerd was tuckered out.
"Let's call it here, Dumb-Dumb," Yuki chimed. "I heard Ocha's cooking tonight~" That got his head perking up again, then he glared off to the side as Yuki flashed him a cheeky smirk. "Aw, did you see that excitement of his~"
"BURN IN HELL, MUTE!"
"She's got him wrapped around her finger," Kyoka mused to the sky as they exited Training Ground Gamma.
"WHAT'S THAT, EARLOBES!?" He stomped after them with a firey dragon at his back.
Izuku was fast asleep, barely eating dinner before calling it a night, not bothering to remove his gym clothes as he fell against his covers. His dreamless slumber began to stir with flickers of white light, a familiar, energy-propelling sound growing louder until it burst, shocking his eyes to a world of darkness, leaving only a faint wind to howl through the void.
He was on solid ground but turned his head to find that same beautiful woman with a fierce expression, Nana Shimura, All Might's teacher. Beside her, neatly lined up, were other strangers Izuku had never seen before. No, one of them, a man with short, white hair, and thin eyes that slant slightly downward. His distinct two scar-like cracks stretched from the left side of his forehead down to his chin. The man that appeared when he awoke Danger Sense.
Three of which he couldn't see, two in the far end shrouded in darkness and one bathed in gold, radiant among the others. "These are... the vestiges!" Just like the Sports Festival, he could see them but with better clarity. Looking down at his body, darkness covered his mouth but his arms were moveable, so were his legs bar the odd black marking, especially his chest. "What's this? I can't speak but I can move?"
"Come with me..." A deep voice boomed in the void, and the other vestiges vanished like fog. Izuku turned, and his eyes shot wide. "Dear foolish little brother. Why do you resist?"
"This voice!" It felt like an eternity, and for a while, Izuku had felt relief knowing that he'd never have to hear it again. A man with short white hair, parts of his body obscured by black and red smoke. "All For One!"
"Because you're wrong! Because I won't allow you to do what you want to do, big brother!" A weaker-looking man with long white hair snapped. Then it clicked, 'little brother, 'big brother', these two... the man before Izuku was the original holder of One For All!
The series of events led Izuku to watch in silence as AFO manipulated the masses, using their weaknesses or desperation against them, twisting their loyalty to his own. In time, an army amassed across the world, people who would throw themselves into hell for a man that saved them, for a monster that had no equal.
The younger brother refused, day and day again into starvation, so, with a sickening smile, AFO pressed his hand over his brother's eyes, a dark red fallout seeping out like blood as the younger brother tried to pull away. "Dreams have become reality. Reality doesn't follow the standard formula. This reality where you don't bend to me... I'll remake this too, you're dear to me."
"Stop...!" He begged, unable to pull away as his body was molded and broken apart from the inside.
"I found a meta power that even you, with your withering body, can use, let us go together," AFO held no sympathy, even as his brother screamed.
"Stooooop...!"
Izuku reached out, running toward the pair out of desperation as the darkness was peeled away, and a large hand grabbed his shoulder. "There is nothing you can do, it is only a memory, relax," A smooth, deep voice chimed in behind a mask.
"Huh?" Izuku blinked, recoiling to find a large Eliksni in distinct red, white, and black barding towering over him, his mask covering his right side face in black plating, while the left was paler, the horn round and stumped while the right remained long and jagged. "Siva!?"
"Do not appear alarmed, Izuku Midoriya," Siva answered his silent gawking. "The constant training of merging my nanomachines with your quirk has left lingering impressions on you, not to mention-" He tapped his right forearm. "-you forgot to remove the augment Tekres made you both,"
"You're the ninth, right?" A voice interrupted them. Through the rest of the smog, the younger brother's voice echoed, approaching the pair. "I wanted to show you more, well... I suppose now it doesn't matter as much, but I felt you had a right to understand where the motives of my brother's evil lies,"
The young brother smiled a little, glancing up at the Splicer. "I imagined you would be here, we've sensed your presence in One For All,"
"A pleasure," Siva bowed his head, noting his arms were starting to fade. "It seems our time is nearly up."
"Wait, but I-" Izuku reached forward but stopped, seeing the brother shake his head.
"The circumstances have changed now, yet I feel it, my brother's actions are rippling across a still body of water, upsetting the balance despite his passing," He looked to Izuku, eyes obscured still. "You've just about passed 65%, that's good, we're now long past the singularity point, one of us has already passed on their embers, and others will too when you're ready, so be careful,"
"So many questions, how unfortunate," Siva hummed, accepting his words would be wasted if he tried.
"Your progress is beyond our expectations, though not on your own, so be sure to keep them safe, their fate and yours are intertwined now with One For All," He reached out his hand, a gracious smile on his face. "Go on, Ninth, you've still got so much more to learn," His and Izuku's hands were within reach, but the light was pulling them away. "But it'll be fine,"
...
...
"You're not alone."
...
...
Glass split and shattered, showering the outside in fragments under an intense wave of pressure. "-zuku!"
When he snapped awake, sweat was trickling down his face, staring at his right hand that the younger brother had made contact with, faint purplish-red lines hissing across his skin. Beside him, their arms on his shoulders was the frightened sight of bluish-red eyes. "Izuku?"
"Yu...ki," His throat felt dry, unable to move until the remnant energy in his palm faded away.
"Great Machine... I saw your heartrate skyrocket when I got here, and you were hyperventilating, Siva wasn't responding, and I, I was so worried...!" She gripped his jacket tighter, trying not to make a mess of herself. "Are you okay? Did something happen? Another quirk? Or-or-or-"
"I'm okay, I think..." He sat against the wall with a heavy sigh, holding onto her hands tightly, bringing them between them. "I'm sorry for making you worry,"
Shaking her head, she gave a weak smile. "You really are a goofball," With her mind at ease, Yuki slowly sunk her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat pound evermore. "Are you really okay?"
Izuku put his arms around her back, enjoying the company, it helped him to think, and to feel safer. "I saw them, the other vestiges, and All For One's brother... the memories of how One For All came to be," He rambled off before anything important could escape him, feeling Yuki nod against his chest. "...he said 'we're now long past the singularity point', I think that means..."
"More of the previous holders' quirks could manifest," Yuki finished his sentence, adjusting to sit with her head facing the right, allowing Izuku to see her soft expression as he brushed her bangs back. "Siva said he was there, he'll fill me in on the rest, but that's great, look at you, showing Dumb-Dumb your progress if the guy who started it all is happy,"
"Yeah..." He briefly lost his smile, placing his head in Yuki's hair, smelling raspberries as the scent infected his nose.
"There's more, isn't there?" He knew it was pointless to hide it, she knew him far too well now, intimately or otherwise.
"Can it wait?" His arms tugged her closer. "just until tomorrow, I think I'm still shaken by the whole thing, I've got so many questions, and-" Two warm lips silenced his muttering, breaking away in the dark to look into two wild eyes.
"It can wait, My Hero," Nuzzling his cheek, she turned with a flat stare at the door. "Although..."
*Knock-Knock-Knock*
"I think you made quite the mess," She stuck her tongue out as Izuku panicked, scrambling past Yuki so quickly he face-planted the carpet, causing her to stifle a giggle.
"Hey, you alright bud? Your soul gave off quite the sudden spike," Akio greeted the timid Izuku, the greenette attempting to hide the mess behind him from the boy and Aoyama. "And you're nervous, well, more than you usually are - hi Yuki," He waved over Izuku's head.
"Hello~" She cooed back, sitting on the floor to help pick up the broken pieces, can't sleep in a mess like this.
To Be Continued...
[MHA Perfected Season 5]
Written by Silent Slender
OP 5 - For Every Life by Jeff Williams
And so it begins, after the usual hiatus to relax and plot ahead the roadmap, it's time to start the final half of My Hero Academia Perfected with my own twist on the talk between Izuku and the Younger Brother. There's a lot to come as we approach the inevitable final battle against Kovik and Shigaraki.
Drama, action, love, and alternate paths galore! The next chapter's a bigger one, this was just to set some themes up. I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; seeya in the next chapter, Heroes!
Next Chapter Intermission: Within the Perfect Hero
"Wooooah!" Yuki's eye took up the whole camera before stepping back with a stumble. "We got an upgrade, this is something else!"
"You shouldn't stand so close then," Siva commented, sitting next to her with his legs crossed.
"What the what! You too!?" He nodded once, eyes closed. Then Yuki deadpanned, drawing a set of lines between her eyes and the top of SIVA's head. "Even though you're sitting you're as tall as me..."
"Is that really that worrisome?" He questioned, tilting his head at her as she waved her arms.
"I feel like a child when you stand as is!" Yuki sighed, rubbing her nape. "Aw, well, still cool upgrade to our previews, ahem!" She stood proudly, pointing at the camera with a fanged grin. "Here's to the second book of our story, hope you liked the start, up next, Within the Perfect Hero!"
Siva nodded again, "Since it is just us - Rise Up-"
Yuki laughed. "-And Fight On!"
