So this chapter is gonna be a doozy, just so ya'll know. It's got a ton of stuff you guys have been asking for, for a while now. I won't bore you with details, so just hop right in.

Enjoy!


The next school day and the following weekend passed without event and, honestly, Izuku was eternally glad for it. Two days without any further drama or people being hurt or demonic monstrosities emerging from his skin. It was pretty peaceful, all be told.

Before they had departed for the weekend Uraraka had insisted that they all share numbers and make a group chat. Izuku had been a little uncertain, but Tenya's insistence that they could use it to keep each other updated on homework finally put the nail in the coffin of his protests.

It was only when his phone had dinged on his train ride back that he realized it was the first time anyone, other than his mother, had ever texted him in his entire life. People looked at him strangely as he had wiped soft tears from his eyes, but he had ignored them.

The thing, of course, disapproved, claiming that allies only extended as far as their use and nothing more, but Izuku had just turned up the volume on his podcast in response.

Throughout the weekend he had happily texted back and forth on his group chat, at times worrying if he was talking too much or saying too little, but always glad that he now had just someone to talk to. His mother hovered and worried in her usual manner at his sudden obsession with his phone but once Izuku explained she seemed overjoyed that he was making friends.

The thing continued its usual grumbling, but that was nothing new, even if he came dangerously close to giving a sharp, snappy reply at some points.

All the while, however, he knew that this happy reprieve was only the calm before the storm. The storm that would hit on Monday called Katsuki Bakugo. When he thought about it, the thing tended to flush through his system and whisper promises of 'finishing the job'. Izuku had to fight from digging his fingers into his arms and clawing at the still healing wounds to shut it up.

Monday came too soon.

The sky had long since cleared of the overhanging clouds and oppressive rain and sunshine once again reigned supreme. Summer was approaching, and the soft rains of spring were moving on. Even the monstrous hallucinations around Izuku seemed to change, becoming more colorful in their nature, the pale, corpse-skin colors of the winter changing to bright, almost fungal greens and earthy rotting browns.

He had never quite managed to figure out that particular quirk of his own, barely held back madness.

It seemed however that he wasn't the only person concerned about the reaction of a certain blonde. When he stepped out of the train station that morning he saw his new collection of friends waiting for him.

Their chatter was, as always it seemed, led by Uraraka who despite talking to them all weekend still seemed to have new stories to tell them. She was the only one of them living alone, her parents having rented out a small apartment for their daughter to live in while she attended U.A, so her complaints about her neighbors or about 'single girl life', as she coined it, seemed never-ending.

Izuku nodded along but otherwise kept quiet. It was all a distraction, of course, something he could cling to in order to ignore the growing, twisting feeling in his gut and the way his fingers nervously dug into the straps of his backpack.

The feeling only worsened as they got into the classroom which was slowly filling up as the morning continued. There was the usual amount of chatter fluttering about the classroom and Izuku felt, though he didn't see, as though the occasional sideward glance was being shot his way. Everyone knew Katsuki was back today, and no doubt more than a few were eager to see just what that showdown would look like.

Katsuki hadn't arrived yet and Izuku felt the crushing weight of his anxiety build even higher. What was he going to do? Would he walk in and immediately attempt to attack him? Would he just ignore him like he had done that first morning? A small part of him even wanted to believe he would be scared, as the thing so hoped he would be.

"Hey." A hand landed on his shoulder and snapped the boy out of his thoughts. He turned his head to see Hitoshi standing beside him and Tenya beside him still. "Quit worrying, he's not going to do anything."

"We're right here." Tenya added with a confident smile. "No matter the case."

Izuku could only nod at their confidence, his scars flushing warm and cool again with the anxious flow of his blasphemous flame.

"Really, Izuku." Uraraka's voice drew his eyes to her and he realized, without even noticing, they had formed a sort of circle around him. Were they really going to be that protective of him? "It'll be okay."

He didn't believe them. Not in the slightest. "R-Right."

The door opened with a slam.

Izuku looked up.

The chatter died.

Katsuki stood at the doorway dressed in his usual uncouth, almost delinquent manner, his hair the same violent spikes as, his eyes the same burning amber and his scowl fixed and almost printed upon his face. He had bandages still across his hands, one across his neck and probably more hidden under his uniform.

Izuku, however, felt his heart drop into his shoes as he saw the scars. Long, thin, surgical, but noticeable nonetheless. Lines of pinkened skin running from the edge of his right lip down to his jaw before curving away up towards his ear. Another ran from the bridge of his nose down and across his left cheek. Another, smaller than the others, ran across the top of his left eye and down, cutting through his eyebrow which was now forever parted.

And the thing laughed. It laughed uproariously from within his blood, echoing its cruel mirth through his ears and into every corner of his mind.

His hand instinctively moved to his arm, nails already willing to stamp themselves through his skin. A single look from Katsuki stopped him and for a moment it was simply the two of them in the room.

Izuku's eyes were filled with nothing but horror, fear, sorrow, and self-hatred at the evidence of his grisly work.

Katsuki's, however, held nothing but a deep, almost thing-like loathing for Izuku the likes of which he had never seen before. There had always been anger, disgust, outright dislike, and dismissal. But this was deeper now, stronger, it bordered dangerously on the edge of flat-out hatred.

The blonde began moving towards Izuku with his fists already curling and before Izuku could even snap out of his own drowning sense of grief his friends had moved. Tenya was there first, reaching Katsuki and grabbing him by the arm to haul him back as Hitoshi smashed an open palm to Katsuki's chest.

The blonde barely seemed to notice them as his face turned into a horrific, animalistic snarl and his screaming voice filled every space in the classroom.

"YOU MONSTER! YOU DEMON! YOU FUCKING INHUMAN BASTARD I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Shouting and screaming broke out as explosions rocketed from Katsuki's palms and suddenly there were two more people on Katsuki. Mashirao, the boy with the tail and short cut blonde hair had grabbed one of Katsuki's arms, trying to direct the dangerous explosions away while one of the girls, Tsuyu, had wrapped her tongue around his other hand and was already pulling it back.

Chairs clattered to the floor and Izuku felt the thing explode through his body, every scar instantly jumping to a boiling, burning heat as his corrupt flame leapt to defend him. He could feel the damn of blasphemous power already filling to the brim, begging him to just let go and unleash his fury upon his enemy.

Izuku knew what he should do. He should do what he had always done when the thing felt as though it was about to wrest control from his own body. He should drop to the floor, curl into a ball and scream bloody murder as he turned the corruption inwards and burned his own skin along his painful scars.

And so his legs were barely a second away from giving when a hand landed on his shoulder. He was pulled backwards, and an arm curled around him, joined by another. The sweet scent of summer fruits hit him, and his eyes turned to see nothing but a bob of brown hair and the cold, determined eyes of Uraraka staring straight at Katsuki.

"Don't take another fucking step, asshole!" Shinsou shouted at Katsuki's face

"You wanna go, brainwashing-boy?" Katsuki screamed back at him. "Fucking villain bastard I'll make you pay too!"

"Katsuki! Calm down!" Tenya shouted, his voice heavy and thick with authority. "It was an accident!"

"FUCK YOU, FOUR-EYES!" Katsuki was struggling now, desperately trying to get out of the grasps of his classmates, though it seemed he had no more explosions left to give. "You weren't there! You don't know what fucking happened!"

"I'm sorry!" Izuku's voice cut through the air like a thrown spear and suddenly Katsuki stopped struggling, his eyes landing back onto the smaller teenager.

Izuku was crying. Tears flowed freely from his eyes as he looked to Katsuki. He wanted to tear his own chest open and offer the blonde his head on a block. He wanted to drop to his knees and beg for forgiveness. He wanted to do whatever he could to make things right. Even if that meant allowing Katsuki to give him matching scars he would allow it.

But for right now all he could do was speak, because despite the fact that Uraraka's presence with her kindness and empathy was helping him hold his curse at bay, he knew given only a second's weakness the thing would sink its claws into his heart and play him like a puppet.

"Kaachan! Please! I'm so sorry I-"

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" The voice thundered across the room and everyone, even Katsuki cowered at the fury contained within. All heads turned to the entrance where Aizawa stood, a figure clothed in black but his eyes burning bright.

Everyone froze in their place with only the whimpering of Izuku breaking the silence.

"Nothing." Katsuki finally answered, shrugging off the others, though he made no further moves to attack anyone else, despite the fact his teeth were still gritted in his mouth and his fingers twitched eagerly at his sides.

Tenya stepped forward, raising his arm suddenly in an almost robotic manner. "Sir I-"

"Midoriya." Aizawa's cold authority stripped even Tenya's confidence away in an instant. The teacher matched through the room, ignoring the cowering of the other teenagers to stop in front of the still softly crying boy. "What happened."

It wasn't a question, it was a demand.

"Tell him. Tell him how we were just about to remove the rest of the Brat's face."

"… n-nothing, sir." His eyes flickered to Katsuki then back to Aizawa. He sniffled deeply, wiping his eyes as Uraraka took her arms from him and his dark power faded back to the usual hum of flowing warmth that moved through his scars. "Nothing happened."

Aizawa's eyes narrowed almost threateningly at Izuku before looking to the others with an equal amount of anger. Each avoided his gaze and shied away. He growled deeply for a moment before making whatever decision he had been weighing in his mind. "Go take your seats, all of you, before I give everyone in the classroom a semester's worth of detention."

Izuku was all too eager to get to his chair, though his heart skipped a beat when he saw Katsuki march towards him.

"Bakugo." Aizawa's voice stopped the blonde in his tracks. "You're switching seats with Ojiro, no complaints."

The blonde paused for a moment, his face twisting in anger and Izuku honestly thought that, for a second, he might actually swing at his teacher. However, the teenager relented, giving Izuku one last burning look. "Fine. Whatever. I'll be glad to get away from that fucking demon freak."

He stormed over to his new desk and sat down, hunching over and not even giving Izuku a single backward glance.

Izuku slumped into his seat, already feeling utterly and emotionally exhausted. Just as the bell was about to ring, however, the door opened one last time and there stood Kirishima, panting and running a hand through his hair. "Sorry, Aizawa-sensei!" He cried out as he smiled nervously, "The train was running late and-"

He paused, his eyes scanning the room, landing on the furious looking teacher, the utterly bitter looking Katsuki and to the hollowed-out looking Izuku. "… did I miss something?"


Aizawa was still angry. Izuku could tell. He made no sign of it, of course, his usual hunched, hand-in-pockets stance betrayed practically no emotion whatsoever, but Izuku could feel the cold irritation coming from the man as he walked just slightly behind him down U.A.'s long corridors.

He had to say something, right? As they approached a pair of wide, double doors Izuku paused. "Sir, about this morning-"

"Nothing happened." Aizawa cut him off without even looking at him. "So, there's nothing to talk about. You make your bed and you lay in it, Midoriya."

Oh. Well, he supposed that was that, then.

However, Aizawa paused before he opened the double doors to the gym room and turned his dark eyes to the boy. "Whatever happened in the exercise with Bakugo, happened. Don't dwell on it. Learn from it and move forward."

Izuku blinked at this and then nodded. "Yes, sir."

Aizawa seemed to pause a moment longer and nodded back. "Good."

He pushed the doors opened and walked on into the large, open sports hall. The equipment had all been pushed to the sides and the floor was left wide open. The floor itself was patterned like a basketball court though at one end of the hall were a number of training mats.

His gaze was immediately caught by a man on the far end. He was heavy set and out of shape but what were most striking were his giant, owl-like eyes and the odd feathers that were set about the sides of his face. He blinked in a rather bird-like manner and moved his head like one in sudden, smooth movement ending with a sharp stop.

He was wearing a white coat, under that a brown and boring looking suit, and there was a camera set up to one side, while in his hand he held a tablet. Aizawa simply nodded to him, and he nodded back in greeting. He then turned to his tablet and tapped a few buttons and, suddenly, the floor under him flickered and changed.

No longer a basketball court, the pattern shifted to a simple set of circles, each labeled with a distance in meters. Izuku blinked in surprise and smiled. "That's so cool."

"Programmable high-density carbon-glass flooring," Aizawa explained in a bored tone, "Every gym and sporting hall in the school has them."

U.A. was super cool.

"Izuku," The boy's gaze was drawn back to his teacher once again. Aizawa motioned lazily over to the other man, "This is Doctor Fukuro, he'll be monitoring your quirk while you use it and giving it a proper classification."

"Good afternoon, young man." The doctor gave him a respectful nod. "I've heard you have quite the quirk. I'll be interested to see exactly how it works."

Izuku felt nervous and his scars spiked with a thousand crawling pinpricks of rippling heat. "Y-Yeah."

"Alright, let's get this started." Aizawa practically yawned the statement out. "Go stand in the center circle."

Izuku nodded and did as he was told, suddenly feeling as though he was some dog being put on show. He had been told to dress in his gym clothes and as such could only nervously fiddle with the end of his t-shirt as he wondered exactly what was about to happen. Would they film the whole thing? He was pretty sure the camera would break so what if they had to film him again?

"This is stupid." His curse hissed through his ears like the drawing of a rusting sword. "What are they going to do? Gawk at us? The Son of David should treat us with more respect."

Izuku ground his teeth and steeled himself. Now was not the time to be discussing things with his own, mouthy power.

"First things first," Doctor Fukuro announced loudly so his voice carried across the wide-open hall, "From what I hear your quirk is, for lack of a better term, somewhat unique, therefore it needs a unique classification. In short, young man, what's your quirk's name?"

Izuku froze. A name? He'd only ever called it the thing and that was it. He'd never thought to go any further than that because it'd never deserved to be called anything else.

"We are Izuku Midoriya." The thing hissed irritated through his mind. "We have no other name."

"I… I don't know." Izuku called back, still fiddling with his t-shirt. "I never- I mean-"

"If it doesn't have a name, please give it one so we may continue." The doctor called back suddenly. "Whatever you think works best. If you feel you need to change it we can later, though it will require more paperwork so try and pick one that you think will last."

Izuku could see Aizawa's eyes fixed tightly on him, watching him like a hawk would watch a nervous mouse. He gulped suddenly and licked dry lips. "Well- I- Erm…" He thought for a small moment before announcing. "What about 'Living Nightmare?'"

Doctor Fukuro tapped something into his tablet and then shook his head. "Sorry, it's already taken by some pro called Starburst."

"Never heard of them." Aizawa curtly announced as he folded his arms. "But it doesn't matter, think again, Midoriya."

Izuku nodded and looked down in thought, putting a finger to his lip and folding an arm across his chest.

"We are Izuku Midoriya." The thing continued to insist loudly through his mind. "We are shadow and fire! Wrath and terror incarnate! We are the nemesis of sinful! All should fear us and cower before our power!"

Izuku blinked suddenly and looked up from his shoe-gazing thought process. "What about 'Nemesis'?"

It fit, after all. His curse was his nemesis, the arch-enemy, the eternal foe which he constantly had to fight.

The doctor tapped a few times and the nodded. "Alright. It's a bit grim for my tastes but it's free."

"Nemesis." His dark power hissed softly through his mind like the curling, tempting snake it was, "… well, we suppose it beats being called 'thing' all the time. Fine, if we must adopt this title so be it, but we are still Izuku Midoriya in all things."

"Nemesis," Izuku repeated again, finding the name dark and yet somehow… good on his tongue. It felt good to give a name to something which had been tormenting him almost all his life. For the first time he suddenly felt as though by naming his problem, he was confronting it directly. For the first time, he felt as though he was throwing the veil of shadow from his curse and exposing it to the light.

Aizawa continued to look at him with the same, blank expression. Izuku didn't wilt under his gaze, nor did he stand against it, however. It was a gaze that was reading him constantly, like a man scanning for any sign of weakness in an opponent. It felt odd to be under such a gaze, and yet Izuku knew exactly why he seemed that way.

Nemesis was dangerous. Everyone in the room knew that. That's why they were here after all.

"Alright, well, now that's sorted," The doctor looked back up and blinked his giant, owl-like eyes, "Tell me, how do you activate it?"

Izuku gulped. "Well, it's… erm-"

"We are as breathing, as moving, as killing. We are as natural to our body as any motion we make."

"Fear. Horror, anything negative, really." Izuku announced in a loud tone that he really wished he didn't have to use. He raised a hand and his eyes ran along his scarred flesh. "It works best on hatred though."

"So, it's emotionally responsive?" Doctor Fukuro nodded. "Not unusual. I suppose it also reacts to other emotions?"

Izuku had to blink in surprise. "Well, I, erm, I've never… tested that out, I guess?"

The doctor raised a thick eyebrow at this and then looked to Aizawa, who simply shook his head at him before turning back to Izuku. "I'll have to add that to my lesson plan."

The teenager had the distinct impression that was not meant as a positive.

"You keep refereeing to it as an 'it', as if it's something apart from you." The doctor's head cocked just slightly and again Izuku was slightly unnerved by the unblinking, staring eyes. "Is there a reason for that?"

"Well, I, erm…" He gulped again, and his limbs shook just a little from the sudden wave of anxiety that washed through him. How was he supposed to tell them his power constantly talked to him and urged him to do horrific, horrible things to people? "It… feels like a separate entity to me, I guess. I mean, when it takes control I don't feel like I'm me at all."

"Of course, we feel like us. We are one, we are Izuku Midoriya."

"Interesting." The doctor mumbled before announcing loudly. "Alright, well, let's see it."

"See what?"

"Your quirk." The doctor blinked his giant eyes at the boy. "Let's see it. In full, please."

"… what, right now?" Izuku looked around nervously. "Right here?"

Aizawa groaned so loudly that Izuku was practically knocked over by the wave of pure irritation. "Midoriya. How many times must I tell you? If I feel like you're losing control, I will stop you." He rubbed his eyes and then glared back at the boy. "Do you understand?"

Izuku nodded cautiously, even as Nemesis began moving through his body once again. Oil-thick ripples of horrific power washing like waves along his scars. He had to trust in his teachers, especially now that they actually knew what they were about to deal with.

Izuku ran through two, quick tests. The first in which he demonstrated the ability to fire a blue flame out of his palm. Though 'fire' was putting it loosely as it was more like a slightly focused detonation than anything else. The other was to channel his power through his legs and launch himself upwards, which also caused him to land heavily onto the pre-prepared training mats and he ended up pausing to rub his hip for several moments, despite the cushioned fall.

Each use of his quirk had sent his head into a dizzy spell of lights and sounds and colors, and each time he'd needed a minute or so to catch his breath and not hurl into his own mouth. Helpfully, Aizawa provided a bottle of water and the boy had gladly gulped it down. He'd had time to do so after the flame test, since his teacher had been forced to go around with a fire extinguisher and put on the pockets of blue flame which refused to dissipate.

Once he had regained his bearings Izuku was again ordered to the center of the circles where he stood, his stomach twisting suddenly as he began to suspect what they were about to ask of him.

"Alright, Izuku, now this next one should be simple, since you already used it before," The doctor tapped a few things on his tablet, "The footage of you in the entrance exam has you summoning wings. Can you do that now for us?"

Izuku bit his lip softly. "Well… I don't know how, sir."

Aizawa's eyes oddly narrowed at this, even as the doctor spoke first. "What do you mean?"

"In that case I, erm, I guess I just let go and moved on instinct?" It sounded stupid even to him, but he simply remembered being hyper-focused on his one goal of saving Uraraka's life. The moment he'd blown the robot apart he had instantly curled his power inwards, grabbing back whatever control he had and pouring it in onto his own body to stop it from going any further.

In hindsight, doing that while fifteen stories in the air was probably not a smart move.

"I see. Well, would you say that 'letting go' as you put it caused such a transformation?"

Izuku could already see where this road was going. "I, erm, well- yes, I suppose."

"Could you do that for us now then?"

There it was. The question he'd been dreading since he had stepped into the room. His blood ran cold and he felt his entire body tense up in anxiety. Nemesis moved through his system like an uncoiling snake, eager to once again show itself to the world. Black power coursed softly along his scars, tempting his heart with the promise of unrivaled strength.

"… I-" He went to protest, naturally, but his eyes landed on Aizawa whose cold gaze was suddenly not so cold. There was something else there too. A kindness, somehow. He nodded once slowly at Izuku, the single gesture speaking volumes.

Izuku bit the inside of his lip again and then slowly nodded not to either adult but rather to himself. He had no choice in the matter, he had to do this. And he had to believe it would be okay.

"Okay. I- Just." He took a long, deep breath and within him, he could already feel his tight grip on the hold that kept his profane power at bay loosen. "Please, don't let me hurt you."

It was an odd statement for a boy of barely fifteen to make. An odd statement that only Aizawa seemed to fully comprehend as already his hands were out of his pockets and reaching for the scarf around his neck. Doctor Fukuro simply looked amused at the very thought.

Then Izuku let go.

And the doctor's eyes became wide with horror.

Instantly Izuku could feel it flooding into him, every limb, every drop of blood, every atom of his being was swiftly drowned with the oil-thick waves of hateful, hell-born strength. And he fell as he always fell. First his limbs, then his heart, then his mind.

His body began to change.

He could feel his muscles growing and bulging with unnatural power as he delved deeper and deeper into the well of corruption within him, the inner hellfire inferno of his quirk burning through his scars and transforming them from purple-black to a cremation-hot blue. His bones cracked and broke and reforged within his own body, his skin became blotted then flooded and then drowned in the oil-black shadow that existed within him. He could feel his muscles split and rip open as new appendances emerged from his back, as new claws took the place of fingers, as horns began emerging from his forehead and a tail, long and sharp, began pushing its way out from the base of his spine.

Unlike his fight with Katsuki, however, the flood of power simply didn't stop. It took him. All of him.

Izuku was drowning with himself as his soul became consumed with unstoppable, primal, unholy hatred.

He roared with the voice of a thousand screaming, tormented souls, his mouth glowing bright from the profane firestorm within him. The lights above him flickered and died and the windows on the far end of the room shattered. The floor burned black from the pure fire-heat radiating from him.

Eyes as black and dark as the infernal abyss itself turned to focus on the two men before him and his mouth, now filled with shark-like teeth, bellowed, "FILTHY SINNERS."

He took one monstrous step towards them on feet no longer human.

And then, suddenly, everything went quiet.

In the blink of an eye, it felt as though he had been grabbed and torn from his own body. The world was grey, swimming, static and haze and fog. He wasn't breathing properly, and his heartbeat had slowed to a crawl and the strength that only moments ago had been flooding his system like a dam unleashed was gone.

No, not gone, but… distant, as if he could feel only the softest strings of that terrible, blasphemous power were still connected to his limbs.

He was falling but he didn't feel like he was falling. The world simply spun on its axis and he was suddenly flat on the ground surrounded by grey, dissipating ash. His head smashed onto the panel floor without a single jolt of pain. Everything was cold. Not ice cold, not freezing, but grave cold, corpse cold.

He was dying.

From very far away he could hear someone calling his name. From the grayscale fog came a figure, hazy and shimmering. A figure clad in black but somehow shining bright, like a lighthouse in an ocean hurricane.

"Izu… Mi… Up… Me…"

"A-Aizawa-s-sen-" There was no air left in his lungs and even as he tried to breathe he no longer had the strength to do so. He didn't speak, only his lips moved in a pathetic attempt to communicate a single word, help.

His vision grew ever darker, gloom creeping and closing in from all sides just as the figure, lit with an almost holy light seemed to be only a few steps from him.

Then the world smashed into him with the force of a detonating warhead.

And Izuku screamed.

"HOW DARE HE!" Blue fire exploded from him, rushing and flowing from his scars like a furnace, ash coated him as his limbs bulged with black power before suddenly evaporating again. Pain and fire consumed him utterly, his vision swimming with melding colors and every sound exploding through his brain.

Every touch and smell made him want to empty his insides and tear the flesh from his bones. The air shimmered around him as waves of pulsing heat swam from his curled, broken form.

"HOW DARE HE SPLIT US! HOW DARE HE DEVIDE OUR SOUL!" His voice was his, and not his, and a thousand screaming voices and a thousand dying cries and a thousand whispering ghosts melding with his own like an unholy song.

From somewhere amongst the cacophony of sensation he could hear Aizawa's voice calling to him, almost distant and yet simultaneously right into his ears like a screaming amp. "Izuku Midoriya! Calm down, keep still, breathe. Can you tell me what's wrong?"

"DON'T TOUCH ME, SON OF DAVID," Izuku's head was forced up, spinning and turning and somehow focusing on Aizawa, who stood with his hand clutching his scarf, his expression one of stone and concern and strength all at once.

From the windows of his eyes, Izuku screamed at his teacher begging through falling tears, 'Please, please, oh God please help me.'

A shaking, burning, painful hand pointed suddenly at the man with a finger coated at once in shadow and pale skin, each seemingly fighting and battling for domination over the boy, "YOU WILL PA-"

Aizawa moved like a bolt of lightning. His scarf flared and caught Izuku in a full body grip so tight that the boy could no longer move. The teenager felt Nemesis thrashing wildly against the hold but it was exhausted as he was exhausted, no longer able to summon the barest strength able to fight back.

It faded, hissing curses and threats as it did so, leaving only a shattered, sobbing young man.

"Izuku, can you hear me?" Aizawa's voice drifted to him in a tone that was cautious, caring, stern and strong. It was the voice of a man who saw not a monster but a crying child and the torment hiding just under his pale skin. And yet there was something deeper to it. Something that Izuku had neither the focus nor the strength to untangle at that moment.

Izuku nodded as he wept open tears. His entire body ached from the pain of using his blasphemous power at full, and yet even now he felt as though he could have gone further, he could have fallen deeper into the hell within him.

He tried to speak but his throat felt raw and burned and he could only hoarsely croak out, "I'm… sorry…"

"It's alright." Aizawa reached forward as the scarf unraveled from the boy and he placed a calming hand onto Izuku's shoulder, even as the teen tried to curl himself into a ball, shaking almost uncontrollably from the panic attack threatening to set in. "You're safe. Let me help you up."

He took the boy softly under his arm and began lifting him gingerly into a sitting position as Izuku unceremoniously began spitting out the blood from his mouth onto the floor beside him. He had just seen what Nemesis looked like unleashed, after all, so he doubted Aizawa would punish him for spitting.

"D-Demon!" Izuku almost jumped, he had completely forgotten the doctor was even there. Exhausted eyes looked up to see that at some point the camera had fallen over and shattered onto the floor. The owl-like man was pointing an accusing finger at the boy and his entire body was shaking.

"Demon!"

"Doctor Fukuro-"

"That's not a quirk!" The doctor was edging around the outermost circle now, trying to make his way towards the door. "That thing- that thing is evil!"

"Doctor," Aizawa's voice grew so cold that the room practically took on a chill, "I think it's time you left."

"Gladly!" The doctor turned and ran out of the room without even glancing back.

Izuku hunched over, practically sinking into the floor as the weight of exhaustion and depression hit him in equal measures. Evil. A doctor, a certified quirk doctor had just called him evil.

There it was. In black and white. He had always suspected so but to be straight out told so was a completely different matter. It was at once horribly crushing and almost laughably comforting. All his worse fears were true. He was evil, see, it said so right there on his quirk assessment.

Name, Izuku Midoriya. Quirk, one-hundred-percent deep fried evil.

"Izuku." Aizawa's voice reached into Izuku's downward spiral and virtually hauled him out of it by force. It was the anchor he needed to stop the storm of his panic attack from utterly disabling him. "Listen to me, focus on my voice, breath through your mouth and out through your nose."

Whether he was doing it consciously or not Izuku obeyed and soon found his shaking fading, though his body continued to ache, his scars continued to feel over-heated and the back of his throat continued to feel red raw. He gulped slowly as he fought to keep himself from throwing up his own lunch.

"Come on, I'm taking you to the old lady." Before Izuku could protest he was lifted up to his feet. His legs were shaking but he somehow found the inner strength to stand and, one step at a time, he began walking alongside his teacher towards the sports hall doors.

"W-What happened?" Izuku's head was still spinning, the gray static wasteland he had seen seemed to stick in eyes like dirt and he blinked several times to try and get it out.

"I removed your quirk," Aizawa replied tone so blunt it practically held a weight all of its own, "You reacted badly."

All Izuku could do was reply with a very small, "Oh."

There was more to it and he knew it. Izuku couldn't hear it in Aizawa's tone, it clung his teacher's aura like a cursed phantom. Something within Izuku whispered softly to him that this wasn't the first time this had happened. This was no time to press the issue, however, not when he could barely walk in a straight line.

"And Izuku," The teenager lifted his watery eyes up to his sensei. Aizawa didn't look at him, his tired gaze focused straight ahead. His words were constructed of stone, a fortress to hide whatever memory it was that Aizawa was playing behind his eyes, "Don't worry about the Doctor. You did well today. Take this as another lesson and move forward."

Izuku looked down, a mix of self-hatred and bitterness swimming in his eyes. Was he ever going to get just a normal week in this place? He was so sick of the bullshit in dealing with his curse. But he supposed, in a way, it was helpful. One way or another he was discovering the powers, limits and nature of his quirk. This was another lesson. Another harsh, painful lesson, but a lesson nonetheless.

His path was never going to be easy, he knew that. He would have to work harder than everyone else just to keep on the side of the good guys. But if this was what it took, he could do it.

He nodded sagely, not meeting his teacher's eyes. "Yes, sir."


YO SO ABOUT DAT CHAPTER HUH. I'm looking forward to your comments and wonderings about what the hell just happened and why. What do you guys think about the naming of Nemesis? What about dat Aizawa huh? Originally this was gonna happen way earlier, but I ended up writing it like it was and just thought "... naww, this bombshell can wait.".

And if you're thinking this chapter was a shocker, just wait for the NEXT CHAPTER.

Cos next chapter, we're gonna say hi to someone we haven't seen for a while. Next chapter, Izuku gets to meet Fumikage and his fami- heh, I mean quirk Dark Shadow.

Till next time my dudes.