ALRIGHTY SO. TIME FOR AN UPDATE. This chapter brings an end to the festival arc, and finally, FINALLY we start moving on to some major, and I do mean MAJOR, plot developments.

But for now, let's just get on with the fic. PEACE.


It was odd how even though he had faced down a beast from hell itself, thrice, Hitoshi still got nervous at the idea of walking out in front of thousands of people to face an opponent who was all too human. He knew that demons existed and that two of his friends had them infesting their very souls.

And yet he was still fighting down the nervous habit to rub the back of his neck.

He took a moment to breathe deep and relax. He could do this.

He could fight against Shoto and he could win.

And, perhaps more importantly, there was a chance he could save him in the process.

It was a stupid, moronic, foolhardy plan that was probably going to have him lose the match in about three seconds flat but he didn't care. He had to try, because that's what heroes did. They went against impossible odds and did all they could to win the day.

The young man looked up as Present Mic screamed out his name, and he began walking towards the arena, putting on the best air of fake confidence he could muster. It helped that he had a resting bitch face, it made sure that no one could really tell just how nervous he was.

The summer heat greeted him and he felt the warmth of the sun touch across his face and neck, making him feel hot and sweaty even before he got to the arena floor.

Still, a slightly cold chill ran down his spine as he saw Shoto walking towards him, an air of casual, emotionless calm about him, like an ocean with no wind. Perhaps to others, Shoto looked just as confident as Hitoshi pretended to feel, but to Hitoshi, all he could see was the empty vessel of a person with a heart wrapped in chains.

Hitoshi's hand closed into a fist.

"I want a nice, clean fight," Midnight shouted loudly, "No choking or life-threatening injuries. If you go out of bounds, you lose. If you get trapped are unable to move, you lose. If you say stop, you both immediately stop, is that understood?"

Hitoshi almost smirked, she was putting an awful lot of emphasis on that one since Izuku and Ibara's fight.

"Hitoshi Shinsou, are you ready?"

Hitoshi didn't bother assuming a fighting stance, if his plan didn't work, it wouldn't matter either way. "Yeah."

"Shoto Todoroki, are you ready?"

"Yes."

Hitoshi could see the boy narrow his heterochromatic gaze at him. There was no anger there, Shoto didn't hate him like Ibara had hated Izuku, there was just a teenager waiting to get a fight over with like it was almost some kind of chore he didn't want to do.

And that caused anger to boil within Hitoshi. This half-effort of his was insulting, and he planned to make him pay for it dearly.

Midnight raised her whip up above her head, "On my command!" There was a second pause and Hitoshi's heart picked up an extra beat, his palms became sweaty and there was a tingling at the back of his neck. His muscles tensed, despite his calm stance, and he found himself taking in a quick breath.

"You know I've been thinking, about what you told me," He spoke fast and quick, trying to get his words in before the fight could start, "And I've decided-"

"GO!"

The second Midnight's whip dropped a sheet of ice came rushing towards Hitoshi with all the fury of a ravenous wolf.

And then, with a shout, Hitoshi unleashed his ace card, his wild card, and in fact the only card he had in his deck. "-I like you!"

"Wha-"

Got you.

The ice stopped just before it reached Hitoshi's foot, literally less than a millimeter separated himself from absolute and certain defeat. A rush of ice-born wind hit him, cooling his skin for just a second, though he didn't shiver. It was actually kind of nice considering the beating summer sun.

Hitoshi let out a breath that he had been holding from the second he walked out onto the field and within his mind he could feel the light tug of Shoto's will trying desperately to escape his grasp. His heart shivered within his chest, and in a way, he felt as though he had cheated.

Confessing his feelings to trick Shoto into speaking had been, well, kind of cruel.

But it had worked.

"If Nemesis can't escape, you sure can't," Hitoshi couldn't help but speak in a plain tone, even as the world around him seemed to explode.

The stadium was almost entirely on their feet and the roar was so great it almost caused him to wince as it pounded his ears and shook his very heart. From somewhere, Present Mic was screaming about how he'd caught him, how this was some huge upset. Everyone assumed what he was going to do, or at least, Hitoshi assumed that they'd assume.

Well, far be it from him to ever do what people expected.

"You know, I'll be honest with you, I never thought I'd get this far," He announced as he began walking towards Shoto, careful not to slip on the sheet of ice. "I never thought I'd ever get into UA. See, I'm not like you. I was born with a villain's quirk, and I grew up with people telling me all I'd ever amount to was one of those guys you see being put into the back of a police van."

He shook his head as he approached Shoto, and stood before him, looking right into the dim, thoughtless gaze of the young man. He could still only barely hear himself speak, and he supposed that Shoto was only getting half of what he was saying, but even so, he felt he had to say it.

"But I kept going. Despite everything, Shoto, I kept going. I fought with everything I have just to get to this point. And I'm not the only one. There are people in our class who have been through literal hell to be here today, to get just a chance at being someone, at being a hero."

He leaned forward and his eyes hardened as his fist curled tighter, his fingernails digging into his palm, "And I'm not going to let you piss all over our dreams just because of your fucking daddy issues."

Hitoshi then straightened up, took a deep breath, and committed what most would probably consider tournament success suicide.

He smashed Shoto right in his jaw.

The connection within Hitoshi's mind snapped like a twig as Shoto came back to his own senses. The boy stumbled back, his lip instantly bust open and flowing blood, and the crowd erupted into a shocked gasp so loud it practically sucked the air out of the stadium.

Shoto only had one second to look back at Hitoshi with eyes so wide they could have been saucer plates, before another fist came swinging at him, this one hitting him on his chin and causing him to again stumble back.

Despite the blows, Shoto quickly put up his arms, blocking a third blow from Hitoshi and went to once again put some distance between the two of them, but Hitoshi's attack was absolutely relentless.

He assaulted the boy again, rushing down on him with a flurry of blows that Shoto, to the clear shock on his face, could barely deflect.

"YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!" Hitoshi screamed at him as he refused to give his opponent a moment of peace, "HOW DARE YOU TELL ME YOU'RE GOING TO FIGHT WITH ONLY HALF YOUR QUIRK! DO YOU KNOW HOW INSULTING THAT IS? TO ME? TO ALL OF US?"

Shoto didn't reply, he couldn't reply, and Hitoshi knew he couldn't reply.

The teenager quickly tried to spin on his heel, to grab Hitoshi and go on the counterattack, but the boy was already ready for this. He weaved and dodged from Shoto's grasp, feeling the sudden wave of ice that was building along his hand and arm, and he smashed an elbow into Shoto's side, hitting his kidney and knocking the wind right out of him.

"IF YOU WANT TO BEAT ME, USE ALL YOUR STRENGTH! OR I'LL JUST KICK THE FUCKING SHIT OUT OF YOU!"

"NO!" Shoto's reply actually surprised Hitoshi, so much so that he paused for a split second in his assault, and before Hitoshi could capture him one again, Shoto took the advantage.

He turned and grabbed Hitoshi's arm again suddenly, causing ice to rush along it and pain to bite at him swiftly, knocking his focus and forcing him to yelp. Yet, for a tiny moment, Hitoshi couldn't help but think, clever.

But Hitoshi wasn't done. He swung out in a kick that only barely missed and while usually such an attack might create an opening, Hitoshi knew that such a thing would immediately lead to his defeat.

And as such, as Shoto moved to close the gap, his hand already frosting over with his quirk, he found himself looking into the oncoming dive of Hitoshi's other foot.

Shoto threw his hand up at the last second as ice coated over it, but it was very almost too little too late. Hitoshi's falling foot smashed into Shoto's arm, shattering the ice and causing the boy to cry out suddenly.

Hitoshi fell to the ground but quickly moved into a roll and leapt back up as Shoto staggered back from the blow, clutching his still frozen arm tightly.

And again, Hitoshi went on the attack. He was utterly out of breath, utterly drenched in sweat and his arm felt as though someone had grabbed it in a vice made of ice and refused to let go, but he didn't care. He didn't have the devastating strength of Nemesis, the battle-lust of a demon like Dark Shadow, nor did he have the clear brutal training of Ibara or an incredibly powerful quirk like Shoto's, but he did have one thing.

He had overwhelming amounts of determination and a complete lack of care for his own safety.

A very dangerous combo, as Aizawa and All Might had pointed out several times before.

And as such, as Shoto looked up with his arm clenched tightly in one hand, he was met by the furious roar of Hitoshi as he swung his fist with an arm coated in biting frost.

Shoto barely dodged the attack and went to launch into a counter but was unable to complete it as his own ice-covered arm was barely able to move. He managed to hold it up quickly to block Hitoshi, but Hitoshi grabbed his free wrist and the went into a sudden lock, each one with a firm hold on the other, and with Shoto unable to capitalize on his frost.

Just for a second, the fight was paused as they stood, almost nose-to-nose in the center of the ring. The battle-mad crowd lost in the background as mere static, as all that seemed to exist was the two of them, in that eternal second.

"You're insane," Shoto growled out, "You can't win."

"I can't win?" Hitoshi snapped, "I'm not the one bleeding!" Something akin to shock, or maybe even fear, dawned within Shoto's gaze, "I'm not the one who could win, right now, by using their fire, but refuses! I'm not the one denying half of my own fucking soul to try and stick it to someone who doesn't even matter!"

Shoto's breath caught, and his fingers twitched against Hitoshi's frost-covered arm. He couldn't reply, despite his own wish, he couldn't speak a word. His mouth opened, but no sound came out, and instead, it looked as though he was almost drowning in his own thoughts as memories flooded through his heart.

And Hitoshi knew, in that second, he had reached something deep within him, "Don't you get it!?" Hitoshi screamed to Shoto, his words a desperate and terrible plea piercing like arrows of light descending through the darkness, "Who your father is, what blood is in your veins, what power that gives you, it means nothing, all that matters is how you use it! It doesn't belong to anybody else, just you!"

Behind Shoto's eyes, something shattered. Some great and terrible wall that had been built around his heart and mind and soul. Something that had kept him alone and sad for so, so, long that the person within no longer knew his own self.

Something shattered.

And the air heated up.

Within a second it had become hot, then scorching, then burning as Shoto's grip on Hitoshi's arm became utterly unbearable to the taller boy. With a scream of pain and effort, he shoved Shoto back and managed to roll away, one arm still covered in slowly melting frost, the other now red and angry with burns.

Hitoshi grit his teeth, looked up, and grinned.

Flame, orange and hot and bright flowed from Shoto's left side, as brilliant and burning as the sun itself. Ice curled around his right side, and the two seemed to mix and dance together. He was shaking, either from the use of his quirk, his wounds, or from some other, unknown but all-consuming emotion which was now tearing through him.

On his face was the first smile Hitoshi had ever seen him wear. It was a half-crazed, half-desperate, but all genuine grin that matched the almost manic look to his eyes. He looked alive, for the first time in his life, for the first time since Hitoshi had known him certainly, he looked alive.

"I- I-," Shoto almost coughed out as he curled a flaming fist, "I want to win. I want be a hero."

Now it was Hitoshi's turn to fall silent. He simply stood up, the grin growing ever wider on his face, and raised his fists.

"You're insane," Shoto barked at him as fire and ice continued to whip around him, "You're absolutely insane."

Hitoshi only shrugged and replied, "I want to be the number one hero and I have the quirk of a villain. Of course, I'm insane."

Shoto didn't reply. He simply began raising his hand up, his fire growing ever more passionate and flowing.

Hitoshi, despite every bit of common sense he had telling him to put his hands up and surrender, to admit defeat and turn away, bowed his head, tensed his shoulders, and charged.

The last thing he saw was the wave of fire rushing towards him, and from somewhere behind it, he heard Shoto's words float over flame.

"Thank you."


The stadium's cheers were almost deafening, the very floor seemed to shake from the excitement that exploded through every inch of air as the match reached its climactic conclusion. Present Mic announced loudly over the speakers that Hitoshi Shinsou had been knocked out of the arena and could not continue.

Not that anyone could even hear him. He was dragged back into the arena after the flames had been put out on his clothing, and after a quick bow of respect to Shoto, who seemed to be in some kind of a daze, the two walked to opposite ends and out of sight.

The second he entered the archway however, Hitoshi was assaulted by various medical bots, all rushing over him to apply salves and balms to his various burns of both ice and fire.

Then, soon after that, came his friends.

"HOLY CRAP ON A STICK, HITOSHI!" Ochaco gushed at him as they rounded a corner and into the more private grounds of the backstage corridors, "ARE YOU- WHAT I- I MEAN!"

"Yeah, I know," Hitoshi mumbled and went to rub the back of his neck but found himself unable to do so as one of the medical robots had wrapped his hand in a tight bandage.

"You made him use his fire! I'm incredibly impressed!" Tenya added with a chop of his hand, "Even if it was completely irresponsible of you to do so!"

"How did you get him to talk?" Fumkage asked with genuine interest.

Hitoshi shrugged, though it hurt his arm a little to do so, "It wasn't that hard, actually. He's usually so silent because he's the type to absorb information around him. All I had to do was just throw a spanner in what he expected, and he'd react."

"You do realize you lost the match because you pushed him so far, right?" Ochaco continued with a grin, "I mean it was cool and all, but kind of a dumb strategy."

"I was sick of him acting all high and mighty about not using his quirk. If he was going to win against me, he was going to do it at full power."

"It was an admirable thing you did," Fumikage's crimson gaze seemed to glow in the shadow, though his low tone hiding something within it, "Bringing out his hidden flame."

Hitoshi looked to the boy and again, a smile twitched at the edges of his lips, "I guess."

Finally, he turned to look at the one friend who hadn't yet spoken, and the one he wished to hear from the most. He knew Fumikage was not going to bring out Dark Shadow for the rest of the day, as some self-imposed form of punishment that he didn't really deserve, he nor Dark Shadow. And as such, there was only one person who could possibly answer the question that had been at the back of Hitoshi's mind.

"What did you think, Izuku?"

The boy had stood silent within the corridor, his eyes, always that strange, unearthly color of pagan green, had been staring at Hitoshi for several moments. His tail had swished softly back and forth, as if in deep thought.

A weird, somehow awkward silence fell between the group, though Hitoshi, despite orders to go see Recovery Girl as soon as possible, refused to budge, ignoring his burning wounds.

"Well?"

"Did you always suspect him?"

The silence became almost cold.

"No, not until today."

"What are you talking about?" Ochaco cut in suddenly, "Izuku?"

It was Hitoshi who answered, "I think Shoto is the third person cursed in the class."

"What?" Tenya snapped suddenly, "How can you-"

"I must admit, I suspected him," Fumikage cut in suddenly, "Though I had no proof."

"That doesn't explain how you figured that out!" Tenya again snapped before frowning at Hitoshi, "Please explain!"

Hitoshi sighed and looked to one side, "We talked in private, and he said some things to me that… well, kinda stuck, you know? And then I remembered what Dark Shadow said, about the corruption sometimes only being visible in certain situations."

"All that you just did was to expose him, right?" Izuku added, his eyes a strange mix of irritation and… pity, "You made him use his fire, because you thought it would expose the corruption in his soul."

"No, not entirely," Hitoshi announced with a sigh, "I did it because… because I wanted to save him. I wanted to win the match, yeah- but the stuff he told me- and I couldn't just- I couldn't let him go on like that."

"So, you pushed him to use his fire," Fumikage nodded slowly, "And at the same time, possibly expose his soul to Nemesis's gaze."

"So, did it-"

"No," Izuku cut Ochaco off with a harsh word, but he soon softened, and he raised his one good hand to rub at his eyes, as if exhausted, "I mean, Nemesis kinda did, I don't know. We were too far away to get a good look, I think-" He paused, and a slightly distant look brushed over his eyes before he continued, "Nemesis says it wasn't close enough to tell, but something is wrong there. It just doesn't know what." He sighed and grit his teeth in irritation, "I should have guessed it sooner. I should have-"

"Don't go doing that to yourself, Izuku," Tenya suddenly cut in with a hand planted firmly onto his shoulder, "None of us knew, but now we do and now we can do something about it. We can investigate this further after the weekend. If Shoto is finally willing to use his fire, we can simply get him to use it with Dark Shadow in attendance, they can confirm for us," The teenager suddenly turned and made a chopping motion with his hand towards Hitoshi, "As for now, you need to go to Recovery Girl and you-" He turned his chopping motion towards Ochaco, "Need to get ready for your match."

Thus, with a slight reluctance from them all, they separated, leaving behind an air of what should have been friends coming together to celebrate a great fight, but what instead remained was one of tense, uneasy knowledge that another member of their class could well have a soul already claimed by darkness.

Another one to add to what seemed to be an ever-growing list.


Ochaco's fight went about well as anyone could have hoped. Izuku, Fumikage, Tenya and eventually Hitoshi, watched as the girl fought and battered her way through an assault of Katsuki's constant explosions. Her tactic consisted of slowly piecing together a literal rain of debris that would ultimate either crush Katsuki into the ground or force him to divert his attack and allow Ochaco to touch him, therefore floating him out the ring.

It didn't work. Katsuki's brutality, or perhaps just his will to win, was too strong, and yet by the end of it, when Ochaco was literally crawling on the floor, he was shaking, though whether front rage or exhaustion, Izuku didn't know. Maybe both. He did not crush her with a final attack, rather he simply let Midnight call the match over. It was something that Izuku noted with a curious eye, and it was clear something had gotten to him.

Perhaps it was Ochaco's determination though without talking to him, Izuku couldn't be sure.

Ochaco eventually rejoined her friends with red-ringed eyes, and Izuku suspected she had taken a while getting back to them because she had been crying. Certainly, they all embraced the girl tightly, and she gave them all wide smiles, but it was obvious the loss had damaged her pride.

The festival continued as anyone would expect it to continue. The semi-finals consisted of three members of Class One-B, which Neito loudly commented on over the small side-panel that acted as a divider for the two classes, and one member of Class One-A.

Ibara walked into her fight against Itsuka looking as though she needed to be taken to a hospital. She walked out of her fight less than five minutes later having barely broken a sweat, and Itsuka so tied up in vines that she couldn't even use her quirk to free herself.

And yet despite the easy victory, Izuku couldn't help but feel as though there was something sad about her. Something in the way she stood no longer seemed so regimented and robotically confident.

Had he truly hurt her in their fight? He wasn't so sure, but it was something that Nemesis responded to by a slow, slightly cruel and slightly prideful flame that moved across his scars. Perhaps it was nothing to do with them at all and was in fact due to the rather noticeable round of boos she got throughout the stadium.

Izuku had to admit, the darker part of his heart grinned in vicious justification when he heard them.

Shoto won in his fight against Katsuki, which was a surprise to all. Katsuki put up a furious fight against the young man, but in the end, Shoto's barrage of ice simply cut the blonde short. He couldn't fight back against the overwhelming power of Shoto's quirk, though through his fight Izuku noted, with some pride for Hitoshi, that Katsuki kept demanding Shoto use his flame.

Izuku had glanced at Hitoshi while it had happened, and he had caught the slight smirk that had flittered across his lips.

Before the final fight, there was one more match with a clearly pissed off Katsuki against a slightly concerned looking Itsuka for third place. The fight didn't last all too long, and while Itsuka put up a surprisingly good match to Katsuki, it was an inevitable outcome that the boy would win.

The final fight came down to Ibara verses Shoto, with many wondering if the boy would use his fire against the girl. The speculation was high, and it didn't help that Present Mic constantly shot questions to his fellow commentator, who begrudgingly gave vague answers.

While the intermission was building up to the final fight, Izuku took a moment look at his phone. He had answered his mother's anxious texts before, so she was no longer fretting over his injuries, and since his friends were literally at his side he decided to check his social media accounts.

At first he looked up Hitoshi's account, then on a curious whim, searched for hashtag-devilboiwasrobbed.

His eyes widened in shock to see several hundred people had taken up the hashtag in protest. 'That demon kid won! Hashtag-UA pushes its feminist agenda yet again, hashtag-devilboiwasrobbed, hashtag-incel4life', 'Does hashtag-UA reward cheaters now? Hashtag-devilboiwasrobbed hashtag-whataretheyteachingthosekids' and 'This pizza is bad, but seeing UA clearly play favorites is even worse. Hashtag-pizza, hashtag-devilboiwasrobbed'.

After a few light chuckles, and sharing some of the funnier, less sexist ones with his friends, he then went to check the news.

"Oh crap," He mumbled as he frowned at something that popped up as breaking within the last hour.

"What?" Hitoshi asked from his side and leaned over his shoulder to look.

Izuku held out his phone for his friends to see and Ochaco quickly spoke what they were all reading, "Police responding to reports of some kind of attack on a church in Yokohama, Kangawa Prefecture." She quickly pulled a face, "Oh wow, that's terrible."

The boy nodded as the others quickly began pulling out their own phones to check the news, "Yeah, looks like it, those poor people."

"Multiple injured and one dead at-" Hitoshi squinted at the scene for just a moment, "The Holy Church of The True Cross." He blinked and then looked to the others, "Hey, do you think they're-"

He never got to finish his sentence, not when a few fireworks suddenly went off and Present Mic once again began booming over the stadium speakers. The final fight was on.

Ibara and Shoto walked out onto the field, and each matched the stony, stoic expression of the other. Present Mic, of course, told everyone the clear lie that they were simply bracing for the epic fight to come, though it seemed the crowd eagerly bought into it and the stadium erupted with cheers and screams and shouts, and yes even some boos, but all eager for the coming fight.

With a raise of her whip Midnight once more issued the rules, giving Ibara a lingering look as she did so, before lowing it.

And just like that, all hell seemed to break loose.

Shoto attacked with ice as everyone expected, however, unlike the furious, borderline berserker rage of Katsuki, Ibara fought back with the cold and brutally efficient style of practiced warfare. For a moment, it seemed as though Shoto had engulfed her entirely, and then, bursting out of the ground around the teenager, came the shooting, racing vines that within seconds threatened to engulf him.

The ice fell apart to reveal Ibara, staying in one place as her quirk demanded of her, yet easily within control of the entire arena within an instant.

Shoto fought to avoid the vines while Ibara simply followed him with her eyes, almost unblinking, and deflecting every wave of ice that Shoto threw at her with casual and precise application of her quirk. She used the vines like one would a breakwater, allowing Shoto's ice to smash up against thickly packed walls of vines. The ice simply couldn't penetrate, all the while Ibara could continue to harass Shoto with spear-like vines.

Already the crowd was roaring for Shoto to use his flame, to unleash the fire that would force Ibara to go onto her more personalized shield-and-mace tactic she had used so effectively on Izuku.

And yet, Shoto refused. He fought and fought, and at one point almost came into direct blows with the girl, yet the entire time he did not once use his fire.

And so, he was defeated.

He simply couldn't keep throwing out ice as it was causing his entire right side to crust over with biting frost. It didn't take long until Ibara's vines captured him and began wrapping around his limbs like vices. Izuku wasn't sure if he was glad or not that he hadn't had to experience that from her, but then again, she had broken his arm using a vine-mace, so it was fifty-fifty.

As this happened, Hitoshi suddenly jumped up from his seat and to the edge of the box as he screamed down, "USE YOUR FIRE, YOU IDIOT!"

For a second, Shoto seemed to look over to them, as if he had heard Hitoshi's cries, and there was a flash of something that shot through Izuku. It was the same lightning-strike recognition of something dark that he had sensed before, but it was so far from him that there was no real recognition of what it was.

And just like that, it was gone. Just like that, Shoto lost.

As if she was eager to enact some level of humiliation, perhaps born from her own anger, Ibara literally forced the boy to his knees before he finally surrendered. Exhausted, bloodied and captured.

The stadium erupted into a bellowing rebellion. The crowd felt cheated that the famed son of Endeavor had not used his fire in the last round, especially against an opponent to which it would provide almost total victory. Perhaps even more especially against an opponent who had become contraversial with the spectators.

Cries of match-fixing began spiking up from the crowd, and it was only through a mixture of Present Mic's damage control and Aizawa's cold, harsh affirmations of U.A.'s integrity that they stopped.

Thankfully, by the time the ending ceremony arrived, most people seemed to have calmed down as the students began re-filing back out onto the field, though Izuku caught the odd whisper of disapproval and disappointment from the crowds.

It took only a few seconds for the first, second and third place stands to be raised, and from the crowd stomped Katsuki to his podium, followed by a strangely reserved and thoughtful looking Shoto, and then… no Ibara.

A rustle went through the crowd at this, even as All Might appeared with a rather dramatic drop from the top of the stadium to hand the medals to the winners.


Katsuki looked like he wanted to spit on his third-place medal, and much to Izuku's quiet interest kept looking over to the exit as if wondering where Ibara had gone. Shoto accepted his second-place medal with a calm nod, though seemed no less enthused to be there than Katsuki. Finally, All Might turned from the stands and looked out to the crowd, loudly announcing, "Due to personal reasons relating to family matters, Ibara Shiozaki will, unfortunately, not be accepting her well-earned first-place medal at this time."

Izuku turned and quickly caught Tenya's eye, who shared a look that soon caught on to his other friends. It took even less time for whispers to begin rustling through the crowd of students.

Those who knew were all thinking it, and Izuku was no different.

The Church of The True Cross. Several people attacked, one murdered.

Izuku felt no love loss towards Ibara, but he would never wish such a thing upon anyone. Something cold curled in his stomach as he wondered just what this would do to her if she was even involved at all. He hoped she wasn't. Despite everything, he hoped she wasn't.

Katsuki paced back and forth in the car park as he held the phone to his ear. His mouth twitched with a scowl that refused to leave as again Ibara's phone went to voicemail.

"Fucking… fuck!" He again brought his phone down, clicked re-dial, and raised it back up again. He had done this five times since walking out into the lot. When he had started, the lot had been filled with cars picking up students or driving spectators home.

Now he was alone, or close to it, with barely a few cars left and a few students of other years and classes mulling about.

The warm orange glow of the late afternoon sun fell across him, though it provided no comfort. If anything, it felt somehow false, maybe even mocking. He didn't like the way it glinted off his third-place medal, which still hung around his neck.

Third place. Fuck. He had been eager to face Ibara for the first-place spot, to show her what he had learned since their initial meetings and the sparring matches they'd done together. He had been eager to prove to her that he wasn't a coward, that he could fight the darkness just as effectively as she could.

He knew his quirk was a good counter to hers. His particular type of explosion didn't leave a whole lot of flame, but the heat alone was enough to kill her vines. It was always the close-quarter fighting that he lost at. Ibara was a monster at hand-to-hand, though he had vowed to one day beat her.

Those thoughts were far away, however, as he again listened to her phone ring out. His heart felt cold in his own chest, and his stomach curled. He had seen the news, and the second he saw the church name he knew it was her church that had been attacked. But it was more than her church, it was her life.

This was the equivalent of tearing her heart out, maybe even her soul.

And he stood there, in a parking lot, doing fuck all about it.

Logically he knew there was nothing he could do. He had only found the address through the news feed and he knew if he went out there he'd be turned away by heroes or the police. He doubted Ibara was even out there herself, most likely she'd been taken aside the moment her final fight ended. But still, he felt he needed to do something. She was his… ally. His only ally. And he couldn't let allies suffer.

Especially not at the hands of some bullshit coward villain who picked on people who were just minding their own business, praying in a fucking church of all places.

The phone went to voicemail again, and Katsuki angrily put it down. Almost immediately he began texting out, 'Fucking Fundy pick up your damn phone! I'm trying to fucking help here!'

Even as he sent it, Katsuki realized the message looked strange, even to him. Since when had he ever bothered trying to help anyone else?

There was a sudden beeping, and he looked up, seeing his father's car pull around the carpark and come up beside him. With a last glance, Katsuki looked to his phone, cursed one more time, and got into the car.

They had the next day off, that being a Friday, then the weekend before they rejoined class on Monday.

As his father prattled praise that Katsuki didn't hear his thoughts again drifted to his friend-who-was-not-a-friend, and the struggles and effort they had put into the whole day only for it to end like this. Nemesis hadn't been exorcised, even if Katsuki believed that they had put the fear of Ibara's God into him. She'd won first place, and he had come third, only for their reward to be…

He sunk deeper into his seat as his heart filled with a bitter, awful-tasting lament, and he couldn't help but wonder what kind of God rewarded a faith as strong as hers with such soul-crushing tragedy.


Ibara had been told the moment she had beaten Shoto Todoroki. A policeman had pulled her aside, given her the news, then hurried her into a car to be driven to the police station. Several had been injured, one seriously so, but there was only one murder.

Ecclesiarch Raion was dead.

They had already interviewed her, of course. An hour of constant questions all of which she had barely had the state of mind to answer. What did she know about Chizome Akaguro? How long had she known him? What was he like? Why had he done this?

She had no answers, or rather, none she would ever tell the police.

She was a Neophyte of the Knights Templar. They did not talk to outsiders about their practices, their beliefs, their training. She knew, inside, that it was wrong of her to hold the information back.

But they did not talk to outsiders.

So, they had let her go. Perhaps with some suspicious gazes, others with ones of pity.

And now she was here.

"Ibara Shizokai?" The nurse called out softly, drawing the girl back to the world. She looked up to spot a heavyset woman with long, multi-colored hair looking over to her. "Oh, you're the girl from- well, nevermind. You can come on through now, she's awake."

Ibara stood and marched forward without waiting for the nurse to accompany her. She didn't matter. None of them mattered. All that mattered was the vast hole that had formed within her that was devouring every emotion she possessed.

Every emotion, except one. One cold, deep, burning sense of betrayal that was coalescing within her very soul.

And from it, she could feel a corruption spreading to her heart. A corruption she wasn't sure she wanted to stop.

Yet the moment she stepped into the hospital room, her heart spiked.

Laying on the hospital bed, surrounded by wires and tubes and IV drips and beeping machines, was Prioress Shizuka. Or what remained of her, anyway.

Blood stained the bandages they had wrapped around her head, her chest, and… Ibara took in a shuddering breath, one that she instantly punished herself for, when she saw that Shizuka no longer had legs. Rather they simply ended at the knees, and around them were tightly wrapped bandages.

The room stank of dried blood and medical supplies that soured the nose and left a sickening taste at the back of Ibara's throat. The curtains were mostly drawn, leaving them lit only by the overhead bulbs which did a poor imitation of natural sunlight.

"I-Ibara?" the Prioress's breath was ragged and weak, and the beeping of the nearby machine spoke of an exhausted heart.

The corruption within Ibara spread. Black, rancid hate that was slowly crawling through her.

She walked until she was at Shizuka's side, her movements stiff and robotic.

And yet as she looked into the eyes of the woman she had come to think of as the closest thing she'd ever have to a second mother, she took in another shuddering breath.

Her eyes, the color of freshly unearthed coal, were bloodshot and ringed with bruises, yet they still sparkled at the sight of her. Her long brown hair was exposed to the world, though most of her head was wrapped in tight bandages, as was most of her body.

Ibara had never seen the Prioress in anything but her dark robes, and to see her so… exposed was shocking.

"Ibara, my child," Her hand reached up, shaking and uncertain, yet one that grabbed onto Ibara's own tightly. Ibara, squeezed back.

"H-how did you-"

"He almost killed me and many others" She breathed softly, "But I used my quirk and reversed what I could, just as like I used to do with you," The Prioress smiled but then it fell away, "He took the Ecclesiarch's sword and… by the time I found Ecclesiarch Raion, he was already gone…"

"I will make him pay for this," The words came out like a curse from between teeth that were grinding against one another. Ibara's eyes held all the warmth of a drawn sword. "I swear, to you, to God, I will make him pay for betraying us."

"No."

The answer was so shocking that, just for a moment, the corruption within Ibara weakened. "Wha- what?"

"No, Ibara," Shizuka whispered again, and again her hand squeezed against Ibara's own. "Brother Chizome is- is lost. Lost to his own anger, his own hate. I won't lose you too."

Ibara's jaw was shaking. Her whole body was shaking. Tears were forming along her eyes and she hated herself for such weakness. This wasn't who she was, this wasn't what she had been trained for. She was so pitiful, so pathetic to be crying like some child before the Prioress.

A sob threatened to escape her, and yet through pure willpower she held it back. Willpower, and hatred.

"He deserves to die," Ibara's hand squeezed tighter as the words crawled from her heart and bled on her tongue, "He deserves punishment."

"And he will receive it," Shizuka urged, her voice straining tightly, "Trust in God, and He will deliver."

"Did he deliver us from him? From this evil?" Ibara barked suddenly, causing the heavily injured woman to recoil just a little. Ibara took a moment to gather herself, her voice lowering once again, "This is a message to me. I failed to expose the demon Nemesis, I broke my Oath of Moment."

"You didn't-"

"And this is my punishment and my redemption," Ibara pushed on, the black, acidic hate she felt within her spreading like corroding rot, "I will avenge us, I will avenge Ecclesiarch Raion, I will avenge our Church. I will deliver Chizome to God personally."

"If you follow this path, you will walk into darkness," Shizuka spoke, her voice breaking into a cough that shook her entire body in painful spasms.

Ibara felt the grip on her hand weaken and before her eyes she saw the terror of her fallen brother's wrath given form. This was his message to her.

Well, message received.

She let go of Shizuka's hand and the emotions drained from her face. "I will come again soon, Prioress, but for now, I have work to do."

The woman tried to protest, but the words wouldn't even reach her throat. She reached out as Ibara turned and left the room. Ibara didn't look back. She didn't want to acknowledge the Prioress's words. After all, her brother was out there, loose and armed with the sword of the Ecclesiarch.

He had sinned against them all. He had taken the life of the man who had saved her. He had torn the heart out of her church and betrayed her family.

Last time she had been a helpless child, unable to save anyone. This time, however, she was more than capable of striking back.

This time she would have her vengeance.


So Hitoshi had his big IT'S YOUR POWER moment with Shoto, because reasons. At first when I wrote that scene I thought maybe I was making Hitoshi a bit OOC, and yet when I read back over some of the updates from the manga I realize that actually, it's very IC for him. Hitoshi is a brawler and he'd be the kind of guy to get to someone like that. I mean he was bascially two steps from doing that with Izuku in the manga so... yeah. Hitoshi is great is basically what I'm saying.

And Ibara is officially out for blood. STAIN BLOOD. I wonder how many of you thought Tensei was gonna be attacked and NOT Ibara's entire adopted/church family. And her old mentor Raion was killed! That nice old man who taught her how to snap necks, so sad.

But that's clearly not as important as what y'all know is coming up next chapter. Remember how Inko agreed to finally tell Izuku the truth?

Yeah. Yeah. Next chapter is gonna be fuuuuun.

In fact, the next 4 chapters are gonna be just super for our young hero.

But until then, tell me what ya'll think! Thank you for reading and I'll see y'all next time! Peace!