Chapter 96 - We Would Be Perfect
"You shouldn't keep pushing yourself, Akame! Shota would kill me if he found out," A kindhearted guy asked Akame, her whole body ached, covered in bruises and a few cuts. Her clothes were dirty and even her silver scales looked unpolished across her skin, even the vents in her wings puffed out gasps of red air. Her lungs couldn't take any more in than normal now. "You can rest, just until tomorrow, okay?"
"No..." Her voice was hoarse as she tugged at her shirt, sweat dripping down her face. "Let's... let's keep going... until my lungs can take it!"
He chuckled a bit, "You're seriously stubborn, that's coming from me."
"Mom?" Yuki paused on her way to Ground Alpha for training for the third term. Since she returned from her Work-Study, they were all scheduled to show their improvements to All Might since Aizawa was away for the afternoon. However, she spotted the Sky Comet Hero standing by aimlessly. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, just... waiting," She replied with a cheeky grin. "Gotta drag Shota and Yamada someplace important, normal, boring work." Akame shrugged, waving her daughter off with a wing. "Don't worry about it, get going before All Might yells at you."
"Uh, right!" Quickly, Yuki hugged her Mom in passing, waving as she ran. "Seeya!"
"Bye~" She returned until Yuki vanished from view, leaving Akame to sigh into a frown, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Let's get this over with, Shota." Hiding behind a tree, the Eraser Hero emerged, his face equally as forlorn.
"Right."
"I Am Here - Woah!" Yuki slid through the door to the girls changing room, panting a bit as she flicked her fingers to summon her usual amount of nanomachines to swarm in the air around her shoulders. "Got caught up talking with Tekres then my Mom, oddly enough."
"Your Mom's here?" Ochaco asked while slipping on her skintight suit.
"Yeah... no idea why though, says she, Mr Aizawa, and Mr Yamada are going somewhere," It would explain why All Might was taking over their lesson for this afternoon.
Quickly shedding her clothes down to just her underwear, to most of the girls' surprise, it was the first they've seen of Yuki's bare torso in months, meaning, all her newer scars were visible. Most notably was the jagged white pigment in the middle of her stomach, the same texture on the left-hand side of her back.
Hagakure leaned forward on the bench, her posture slumped with sorrow. "Does it hurt?" A few froze at her bold question tailored to Yuki. "Seeing all those scars I mean?"
"She said that without even hesitating," Tsui blinked.
All eyes were on Yuki, her hands gathering the nanites silently, but she wasn't frowning. "It does, at times I think about being immobilized in hospital, or Vosik, Kovik's manipulations recently, and my head blurs the line between human and Eliksni more often now that it's scary," She let the blue swarms cover her scars, forming the dark grey mesh and barding. "But, well um... it's a little embarrassing."
With a shy blush, Yuki scratched her nape, a fanged smile on her face. "...well, Izuku's the one that keeps me... Me," Opening her eyes on the ring wrapped around her finger, she held no doubts on her issues. "It's like he's always there, be it far away or when I wake up in hospital due to my problems, it's always his face that greets me, he sure berates me when I do stupid things,"
"Aw, that's so cute~" Ashido cooed. In a flash, that tension dissolved, Yuki closed her fist as the glove formed, the blue clusters beginning to form her platemetal. "Speaking of... how far has your relationship gone then? Hmm?"
"Eh?" Yuki blinked, slowly hiding her face behind her mask. "N-no comment - pick on them for a change!" She immediately threw Ocha and Kyoka under the bus.
"Hehe, nothing new with me," Ochaco grinned bashfully, ensuring her two good luck charms were safely secured inside one of her belt pouches. One was Izuku's gift she randomly received during Christmas, the other a grenade charm from Katsuki.
"W-wait, what?" Kyoka blurted out, her headphones were lopsided as heat slowly crawled up her neck. "Hey, l-leave me outta this."
"Oh, come on, Jiro, you and Akio are so close, there's gotta be something going on right!?" Ashido hopped over with a big smile. "Maybe a secret we don't know about~?"
"You two do look cute together," Yaoyorozu wasn't helping, hiding her amused smile behind her hand.
Kyoka brandished her jacks at the pink demon, eye twitching. "T-there's nothing going on, alright? Akio's cool, just - nope, not falling for it," She knew better than to give them ammo. "Yuki, I hate you."
"Love you too, Kyo," Yuki gave a cheeky wink from under her mask. "But you two are definitely making out when no one's looking," She jabbed as the girls gasped while Kyoka's face turned scarlet, sending her jacks forward after Yuki who fell over laughing.
"I'll bury you!" She hissed.
"Let the record show, no denial - YAH!" Yuki was stunned by the force of a rapid heartbeat.
Elsewhere...
While their students laughed without a care for the troubles around them, their teachers couldn't share in that bliss. The trio sped down the motorway in Yamada's car, Akame was in the back, her foot tapping impatiently as her shrunken wings kept twitching in tandem with her tail. "Can't we go any faster?" Shota asked slash demanded.
"Enough already, calm down," Yamada ushered but his own face twisted with anxiety and fear, sweat trickling down his face.
"It can't be true..." Akame kept shaking her head in her hands.
"We fought at the USJ, he didn't act like that one bit..." Shota explained. "This is taking poor taste too far..."
"I don't believe it..." Yamada grunted, his hand clenched tightly to the wheel. "I'm betting Mr. Tsukauchi and the others got it wrong."
"We don't have a reason not to either," Akame gulped, leaning back to try and relax, but with the infamous Tartaros within sight, her scales continued to shiver uncomfortably.
After various checks upon entering the highly fortified facility for only the absolute worst villains in Japan, Akame, Shota, and Yamada followed the investigator inside the steel complex. "As you three are aware, Nomus are humans whose bodies have been bioengineered to withstand multiple quirks. However... they're not living humans."
"They're a complete mess, from their brains to their hearts," Every word left the three silent, unable to voice how they felt on the subject, not when the gravity of the report left them feeling completely devastated with dread.
"Nomus are truly puppets, marionettes with no will of their own," Ahead of them, Gran Tarino waited patiently. "Or so we thought,"
"Gran Tarino, we skipped our classes to come here, please keep this short," Shota was in no mood for a roundabout talk.
"Aizawa," Yamada patted his shoulder with Akame glancing at him worryingly. "Calm down," His hand was trembling.
"It needs to be said, let's not skip any steps, it's also so we can be in a proper state of mind," Tsukauchi stated as the sealed doors opened, two guards waiting by another set of doors. The air was ice cold, almost still in Akame's vents.
"This guy's a core member of the League of Villains," Gran Tarino said.
"If we can get him to talk, we can hit them hard," Tsukauchi explained his reasoning. "But sadly, he makes no attempt to tell us anything important," The second doorway parted, "He'll talk about trivial things, but when it comes to information that could put the League at a disadvantage he suddenly goes unresponsive, like someone hit a switch,"
"That would mean...?" Akame asked as they entered the final room.
Once inside the monitoring room, they were brought to the center of this nightmare. "It's so elaborate, it took us time to realize what it was," On the center screen, Kurogiri was seen bound in a straight jacket, only his dark, ghostly head visible. "Multiple factors have been combined to form a single new quirk."
"And the factor that served as its base..." Tsukauchi trailed off for a moment, seeing their distraught expressions. "Belonged to the man with whom you shared joys and sorrows with at UA High School."
"The one who - as far as we know - lost his life at a young age. We've deduced it's exceedingly similar to the quirk of Oboro Shirakumo."
"Stop..." Akame grit her teeth, feeling anger and grief melding together. "...Shirakumo... there's no way that's him..." She denied it, her knuckles shaking beneath her gauntlets.
"Akame," Shota lowered his hand from his mouth, tapping it against her knuckle. "That's why we're here, to figure that part out for ourselves."
"I found her!" Akame flinched at the boisterous voice that shot through her ear. Craning her neck, she recoiled as three boys from her class found her on the roof of the building, the one leading them held a big grin, his hair a pale blue with matching eyes. "For a dragon girl, you're pretty hard to find!"
"That's the point," Akame shuffled atop the chainlink fence, looking down at the students below. "It's harder for people to annoy me up here,"
"Sounds just like you, Aizawa!" The boy chuckled to his friend with raven hair looking equally displeased in bothering the hothead of their class. "Wanna train with us, we need a powerhouse that can fight more than one-"
"Get lost," Akame glowered, flicking her soda can atop her finger. "If you don't, I'll blast you with enough wind pressure you'll be unconscious for a week."
That just excited the bluette further. "Perfect!" Now her brow rose in bewilderment, brushing her silvery locks back. "If you can train with us just once I'll pay ya back tenfold, promise!"
"I'm having second thoughts..." Yamada gulped behind their friend, Shota just continued to stare back into Akame's brilliant blue eyes.
"...what the hell are you...?" She murmured, hopping down from the fence to stroke her wing. "If I beat you in under thirty seconds, never talk to me again, got it?"
"Hahaha, sure-sure, deal!" He stuck his hand out to her, but Akame... didn't shake it, briefly, she looked almost afraid to touch his hand, so instead, she blew him back onto his ass with a blast of red wind from her right wing's vents.
"Deal." Like that, she walked away.
"In other words, Kurogiri is a Nomu, and there's a high probability that Oboro Shirakumo's remains served as his base." Tarino grimaced.
"They used to call us the Four Dumbingos of Class A," Yamada remained with a hoarse voice. "It doesn't make any sense!"
What they needed to do was something straight out of fiction, an impossible task that put more than their titles as Heroes on the table. Their hearts and memories were their greatest weapons. Now, with the doors behind them closed, Tsukauchi left them with a final instruction within the glaring white room, a panel of glass between them and Kurogiri.
"I'll say it again, if he talks, it would be considerable progress. Present Mic, Eraserhead, Valstrax, I want you to reawaken Oboro Shirakumo's attachments."
Seated, they only needed Shota to trigger his quirk to begin awakening Kurogiri from slumber, without Eraserhead, nothing could stop Kurogiri from attempting an escape. "Pah! Reawaken Shirakumo's attachments!? Talk about old times or something?" Yamada asked sardonically.
"Any better ideas?" Akame snapped, rubbing her temples. "I hate this, I feel like I'm about to puke but I can't budge now, it's like suffering vertigo but I'm standing still."
"What about his family?" Shota inquired beforehand.
After a long pause came a reply of reluctance. ~If you three can;t get a response, we plan to ask them to see him~
Shota closed his eyes, mulling it over briefly before his eyes shot wide and crimson, hair pulled up while leaning forward onto his hands. "As if I'd let his parents find out about this disgusting mess,"
~He's awake, you may begin~
"Uwah... oh?" Kurogiri yawned, those thin, yellow eyes slithering through the darkness to focus on the sight of a familiar foe. "An unusual guest, I don't think I've seen you since the UA Raid, and the woman... from our old headquarters where we held Bakugo and Azuru,"
"You remember that..." Akame murmured, her throat dry. "What you did to my little girl."
"I will admit, the methods inflicted on her were not something I would've liked to see, unfortunately, that was not my place to say," Kurogiri answered. "You have my condolences."
Akame bit her cheek, hands clenched together. Yamada then exclaimed in his usual fashion. "Looks like they got it all wrong after all! He and Shirakumo have nothing in comm-"
"How is Tomura Shigaraki?" Kurogiri interrupted. "Has he been caught or anything?"
Akame glared back at him. "If only it were that simple, no one's seen him or any of the League for months, not since Camino."
"I see, that's too bad," He sounded relieved.
"Are you concerned for Shigaraki?" Shota asked.
"Yes, looking after him is my duty," That one line made Shota's exterior crack. Akame's heart suddenly fell from her chest as her backside slumped back onto her chair, face paler than her scales.
"What a crappy duty that is!" Yamada hadn't noticed. "I can't believe your duty is to look after that gloomy little..." He trailed off to look at his friends' horrified expressions.
"It is no trouble, I'm not the type to neglect someone." Kurogiri struck a nerve in Shota, forcing him to cover his mouth as though he could throw up at any moment.
"He was..."
"Hm?" Kurogiri looked straight ahead.
"...the kind of guy who wouldn't hesitate to take in a kitten I pointedly ignored," Shota spoke, straining his voice.
"I don't know what you're talking about, what are you here to accomplish?" Kurogiri asked.
"I hated everyone, mainly because I was afraid I'd hurt someone," Akame admitted, running her hand across her breastplate, the augment that helped her store up air for her lungs and wings feeling heavy. "My instincts were primal, and my power was overwhelming, even after I trained I refused to get close to anyone, but he never stopped prodding into my business, these three idiots kept trying to break my shell, you never gave up on me..."
"Back then, I was half-hearted and had second thoughts about everything," Shota added in. "That's how I was, but you always pulled me along." Yamada lost the ability to stand himself.
"Is this a confession?" Kurogiri was confused now, not understanding what all this meant. Yes... nothing at all... "You're mistaken if you think this is a church or something."
"You were always cheerful and looking ever ahead," Shota didn't stop, even as that bloodied, rainy day fogged his mind. "Not thinking about consequences even though it would all be over if you died."
Kurogiri's eye flickered.
"Yamada and I are teachers, Akame tends to be a substitute when it suits. I've been strict with my students," Shota admitted.
~I hear you expel quite a few of them~ Gran Torino added.
"On paper, that is," Yamada revealed.
"All in an effort to beat a single, hard truth into their heads," Akame reinforced.
By now, Shota's knuckles were turning white. "I didn't want the students to turn out like you!" He yanked off his prized goggles, cupping them between his fists. "Not a hero who devalues his own life for the sake of justice!" The two problem children of UA were prime examples he spent months beating that fact into. "I wanted them to turn out like you!"
"A hero who could motivate others!" By now, tears were streaming down Shota's face, either from emotion or his inability to blink even once straining his eyes. "Because I want the greatest heroes... to live a long time!"
Kurogiri's shadows began to flicker more, twitching as the goggles were swung into plain sight.
"Shirakumo! But if you're still in there... then let's become heroes!" Shota begged for something, impossibilities be damned, he wanted to know, just a faint visage would be enough. Anything! "All four of us!"
~Who makes the Nomus!? Where is Shigara-~
"Shut up!" Akame snapped at the window above, her own tears dripping down her cheeks as she stood up. "Shirakumo... please... after all this time, where's that stubbornness that broke my shell!? That gave me a better life than fearing myself!?"
Kurogiri's head was distorting further. "Tell me, who altered you!? Where did they tinker with your brain!?"
"Was it Kovik!? All For One!? Someone else!?" Akame pressured further.
"I-I have..." He was struggling.
"When you saw either of us that time, did you feel nothing!?" Shota shook his goggled angrily.
"I have... no idea... what you're... talking about!" Kurogiri's whole head spasmed and static flooded his voice.
"Shirakumo!" Shota exclaimed.
"Answer him, Shirakumo!" Yamada pressed his hands against the glass.
"Please, please say something!" Akame begged, throwing her arms down.
"I... am... Kurogi-!" His vitals were going completely haywire.
"You were in Class 2-A of UA High School!" Shota
"You're the first person to beat me in a fight!" Akame
"We were all gonna become heroes!" Yamada
"YOU'RE OBORO SHIRAKUMO!"
"What... You're... Talking... About!" His eyes swirled into a spiral, as though he could condense and explode at any second -
...
...
Then nothing. His posture returned to its original shape once more.
"I am Kurogiri, the protector of Tomura Shigaraki," In one sentence alone, their efforts surmounted to nothing.
Akame hung her head in defeat, their school friend was gone forever.
"I have no idea what you're... talking..." As their hopes faded, Kurogiri's shadows peeled back across his right side, a harrowing phantom of a familiar face buried underneath the purple and black. Their hearts slammed into their chests.
"Shira... kumo..." Yamada croaked at the image he couldn't look away from.
"Sh-Sh... Sho... Ak-Ak... ame...!" His words were faint, straining against all manner of mutations within his body. That's right, he... he was... he remembered... he was...
By now, Shota slammed his hands against the glass. "You can do it, Shirakumo!"
"We're right here, you can fight this!" Valstrax felt her lungs heat up.
"Shirakumo!" Yamada screamed.
"You know, since there are four of us, even if one of us makes a mistake, the other three can cover for him." Just them the classroom. Shirakumo patted his chest with a toothy smile, Yamada munched on his sandwich, talking with his mouth full, Shota smiled up at them with Akame giggling atop Shota's desk, pleasantly enjoying the company.
"H-H-H Ho... spi... tal...!" He threw up from his lips as best he could before the darkness swallowed him whole, Kurogiri's shadows shrouding the ceiling in darkness as his consciousness drowned. "I... am..." Kurogiri's remaining eye flashed, and the shadows instantly retracted back into its ghostly shape.
~Eraserhead, Present Mic, Valstrax. It's over, you did well~
Yamada collapsed to his seat again, Akame couldn't even move, her legs were buckling like crazy. "Hey, are your eyes okay?" Yamada found himself asking.
"They're... so unbearably dry," Even as tears flooded down his face.
It was nearly nighttime when Aizawa returned to UA with his friends. He wandered through the hall that led to the open expanse of Training Ground Gamma, none of the students were present, and yet, commotion rang across the facility.
Akame landed again, leaving only a smoking pile of rubble at her feet as another section of the mountain was laid to waste. She always did this, training her frustrations away, even as a Pro, that impulse was almost engraved into her bones, it had only lessened since she adopted Yuki. This was the first time in months.
Nothing was said as their eyes met, Eraserhead tugged on his scarf, undoing its layers as his hair floated slightly within the spiral of cloth. Valstrax flexed her wings before leaving the ground in a streak of silver and red. Her right foot slammed into a young Shota's forearms as a line of cloth snagged on a young Akame's foot as she spun with a thrust of her wings.
Valstrax spun behind Eraserhead, blasting his scarf with a burst of draconic-infused air. She gasped as Shota dragged her wings down to sock her in the face, diving under her tail swipe as Valstrax pivoted, slashing the empty air as Eraserhead tied her right-wing against her vents.
Shota tugged hard, pulling Akame off her feet as she spun, blasting the ground to throw Eraserhead through the air with her, twirling to unravel the binding cloth. Valstrax slid on her heels, charging with a left hook that missed Eraserhead's cheek, grazing his locks as Shota landed on his hands, swiping Akame's left leg.
She knelt, turning in time to flex her wings and blast Eraserhead backward, instead, all she got were two arms secured around her back. The flashes of her past fizzled out before her eyes, the older Shota clutching her tightly as her heavy pants quickened into a choked sob, pulling at his scarf until her tears fell freely.
What they learned today left a sharp pain in their hearts that couldn't be buried anymore, leaving them to desperately search for a solution, if only temporary. Akame had nothing until she met the three of them, Shirakumo was a brother she never had, to see what was made of his death, a twisted desecration of his life made her feel nothing but malice that fed into her grief.
"We'll find a way..." Shota assured, holding the back of her head as she curled it down onto his chest. "...so that this never happens again."
She nodded against him, her wings shielding them from the world, afraid it may tear them apart.
To Be Continued...
With that, we conclude the first arc of Book Two. It was a rollercoaster as I said last time, but events continue to change. That last scene with Akame/Shota's spar mingling with their past was something of an experiment on my part, hope it was good. I'll be honest, aside from learning the truth of Kurogiri, this arc was 'meh' to me, even before Season 5 happened, even the battle between class 1-A/1-B I only ever focused on Katsuki acing his round and the Blackwhip manifestation.
Anywho, we're finally at the arc I loved in the manga (Anime's okay I guess) but we're taking a sharp turn at the events to unfold! I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; seeya in the next arc, Heroes!
Next Chapter Intermission: My Villain Perfected
Kovik glowered at Yuki, she did much the same. "You look stupid with that pyramid on your head."
"Your very existence makes me wish to vomit," Kovik returned as SIVA shook his head, pushing the pair back.
"Be nice, we have a job to do," Kovik slowly turned his head the other way, Yuki just pouted.
"Fine." They answered.
SIVA sighed, staring ahead. "It's time to change the roles, coming soon, My Villain Perfected."
Kovik glowered in the same direction as SIVA, closing his claws around the camera, shrouding it in darkness with red particles. "Rise Up, and Fight On."
