I scream as the shadow—so familiar—drops me against the stones.
I slam against them, eyes rolling and head cracking, everything throbs as I gasp for breath. I have no time to. Feet appear in front of me, footsteps echoing on the rock.
"That's just sad," grumbles what appears to be a man, his dark outline blurred and doubled. His voice is high pitched though, nasally and wrong like he's talking through a machine. I can't concentrate enough to tell why. There's blood in my mouth, blood in my eyes, blood on my hands. He reaches forward, a calloused hand grabbing me by the hair. I grunt, still breathless, as pain snakes down my spine. I'm lifted off the ground.
I dangle, the world shifting in and out.
The mask hides his face.
Is this how I die?
"Is this really the choice of UA?" he asks, his voice nasally and cold. "You're not even going to fight? You're even more pathetic than I remember."
With a swing of his arm, he tosses me away. I scream as I skid across the ground, rolling dizzily, arms flopping around me. I land in a heap. It takes too long to steady myself. Too long to catch my footing, to pull myself up.
He crosses the distance in seconds, his leg whipping out and catching me in the chest while I'm on my knees. I choke at the force. It pulls me off the ground, cracking in my chest, and something metallic froths against my tongue.
"Well?"
I spit blood. His voice growls, shoulders tensing.
"Leave her alone!"
Tape flies through the air, wrapping the villain in it. I lay crumpled on the floor, watching with blurry eyes. Two figures emerge from the tree line. Blonde and brunette. It takes too long to remember them—classmates. I still don't know their names.
The villain cuts himself free and glares.
Blondie hurries to me, fingers curling against my shoulder, his body blocking my vision.
"Are you okay?"
No.
I try to smile. He flinches, and I can feel the blood on my tongue and chin. There's a noise and a shout. I can't focus as the blonde boy dodges left, pulling me with him. I nearly pass out from the pain, tears leaking freely from my eyes. Something clinks behind us. A knife jutting from stone.
"Hey, Hey," he says. I can't even focus on his words. Its like liquid fire flowing in my veins. He keeps me upright as Tape fights behind him. Whatever's happening, we end up dodging again. Three more whistles and sharp clatters. Something metal rings against the stone.
I really do pass out this time.
I wake rasping and wheezing to sparks against my cheek.
"Thank god," Blondie says, pulling back his arm. Tape grimaces.
"Hoki, we think you've cracked your ribs. Can you breathe?"
I can, barely. I choke and cough and hack, the feeling more painful than anything I can remember. I lean forward, nausea swelling in my throat and vomit blood. Both boys pale. But sweet oxygen flows through my chest. I gasp for it.
"Shit. She sounds horrible," Blondie whines, biting his lip. "Fuck, I don't know first aid. I failed it last year when they offered. Shit. Shit."
Tape grimaces and stares me down, his usual grin gone.
"It's fine," I manage through gasps. I can't quite catch my breath. Just the act of inhaling feels like fire, and the urge to cough is tapered down in painful juts.
"I grabbed some sticks," Tape says. "We can use that and my tape to bind you up. Kaminari, hold her."
Blondie nods and I cry, choking on air as he holds out my arms.
"Do you know who that was?" he asks, his voice low. Tape holds a stick to my black suit and uses his tape to hold it there, before wrapping against the other side. Kaminari. I try to remember the name. Kaminari keeps me upright.
It's tight enough I can barely breathe.
"No," I gasp.
"Do you?" asks Tape, his usual grin is gone as he works.
"Asp," Kaminari says. He looks grim too. "The mask had the two holes at the top and he matches the description. They say he's psycho. There are warrants for him in my hometown. They… They say he has a poison quirk, that it drove him crazy, but no one really knows. We're lucky he just… he just left. Hoki, did he poison you?"
I close my eyes to think.
It feels easier to fall asleep. Blonde's fingers spark on my cheeks, not painful, but enough to make it impossible to ignore. Reluctantly, I drag my eyes back open.
"No," I answer. He smiles something small and relieved.
Tape finishes the bandages. So tight that despite Kaminari letting go, I still stay upright.
"Is that okay?" he asks, looking nervously at his work. I smile. It's painful and neither boy appears to appreciate it. I stop.
"Yes." They help me to my feet. I wobble between them, but my legs still work.
"Do you ever talk in more than just a few words?" Kaminari asks.
"Sometimes."
Tape snorts, Kaminari's lips twitch. I feel an itch in my chest and choke on another painful cough. It feels like knives tearing into my lungs.
"We should head towards the entrance," Tape says.
"Where there are more villains?" Kaminari asks. "If we're overwhelmed, what are we going to do? She's in no shape to fight and I can't do much either, not without electrocuting the two of you."
"She needs medical help," Tape says. "And if we stay, that guy, Asp may come back with reinforcements."
"Then we should find our classmates," Kaminari argues.
"We should go," I say, my voice quiet.
Kaminari frowns before grimacing. He gives me a dark look.
"This would have been a good time for you to keep being quiet," he says.
"I can still use my shadows," I manage. "I… I can't dodge, but I can attack."
Kaminari sighs.
"Fine."
.
.
.
We make it to the steps of the front of the building without encountering any other enemies. When we catch sight of Green-hair, frog-girl, and Mineta, they don't notice us. Instead, their eyes focused ahead on whatever fight is going on at the steps. I look too.
The moment I see Aizawa-sensei, I feel myself breaking inside.
It's like being nine again. Like watching the announcements with skin that feels too tight and emotions that fill me too much. My heart thumps in my ears, my stomach rises and twists in my chest, and my breath evaporates in my lungs. Villains hold sensei. A monstrous black thing with an exposed brain and arms the size of tires. Sensei's left arm hangs at a broken angle, his face is bloodied and pale. He looks ready to pass out.
The villain stands at his head, arm outstretched.
"You have to blink sometime."
Time seems to freeze.
You ought to know, there are two types of people in this world.
- In the bag. You have one minute, or she'll kill you. -
Those with power, and those without.
- Why the hell do you get to have powers when you won't even use them! -
Those with power have two choice, Rin-chan. You either use it, and be a hero, or abuse it, and be a villain.
- You're a monster! You should just fucking die. -
W-W-What if I do neither?
- You're unruly, a lawbreaker, bad. All you'll amount to at most is a thug, and you'll be a poor one. -
If you see someone about to get hurt, and you have the power to stop it, but you do nothing. What do you think it makes you?
"Let him go," I say, stepping forward. I sway as I do. The two behind me move with me. Kaminari cursing, Tape making odd sounds in his throat. The bandages against my chest constrict, my chest burns like liquid fire, the wound on my head throbs in steady beats, and my body aches with exhaustion.
The villain glances my way and laughs.
"More heroes?" he says, lips quirked. "You three don't look like much. Ready to face the boss?"
"I said, let. Him. Go."
"Hoki-"
"Fuck-"
"Hoki, no… run!" Aizawa manages. The monster covered in hands turns towards me. He lets Sensei go and laughs. He flicks his hand and the monster behind him slams Sensei's face into the ground. The cement cracks, Sensei goes still.
I scream, horrified. Tape holds back my arm. I look back to see tears streaming down his face.
"Hoki?" the Villain says, snapping his fingers again. The bird monster stops. "You're Hoki? Rather pathetic, eh? I thought you'd be… bigger… Scarier. I suppose we can't all be prodigies…"
"I'll kill you," I tell him honestly, coldly. Kaminari's fingers dig into my flesh, but I don't care. White, hot anger boils in my blood. It's so strong it wipes away the pain.
"Bold," the villain laughs. His eye, the only one uncovered by hands, crinkles. "Why don't you try!"
He moves then. He races forward—body low to the ground.
I explode.
For the first time that I can remember, I feel rage. Every word, every thought, every push and shove rushes through my body. It's like standing in fire. Hot, molten and churning. It burns through my body, pushing away the pain and all rationality. Shadows break through the skin on my arms, not leaking, but physically cracking my flesh and pouring out in crater-like cuts. I scream, my voice lost in the cacophony as the two behind me are thrown back. As every horrid thought rolls through me exploding out in shadows, ripping through my clothes, through the tape bandages, ripping through anything and everything in its way.
The shadows surge forward like a torrent, rising like a tsunami. They slam into the hand villain all at once and he shrieks before being rescued by the mist. I surrender control. Angry, black tentacles full of screams and fears and burning hateful words slicing through the air. Deadly sharp with barbed ends, flickering with black flames. They grab for the villain as he reappears. He reaches for Green, for Frog and Bubbly. Black darkness snaps past the students, snakes with snapping jaws, burning black tongues. They slither up and over, down and around.
The villain runs.
My shadows chase.
I don't move, feet rooted to the spot as the darkness floods the area. Flames curl in my wake, black lines that melt the cement. Tentacles twist and cleave the air, grabbing at the man.
"Damn," he sneers, huffing as he's forced to retreat. I snarl, my face transforming. My arm stretches forward, fingers curling. I will my shadows to reach for him, to grab him, to hold him, to squeeze him. "So much darkness! So much hate! Are you even a hero?"
Monster.
I falter, my shadows capturing him. Aizawa-sensei, bloody and boneless on the ground, fills me again. I snarl and squeeze. His hand melts away nothing that isn't easily replaced.
Children scream behind me. Shouts scream overhead.
I don't care. I can't. Overwhelmed in darkness.
"NOMU!"
Something big, black, and vicious slams into my side. My head rings as I hit the concrete. There's a crack and a snap and a scream. It's a moment more to realize it's me.
It was me.
"Hoki!" screams a voice, I glimpse green hair.
I don't even know his name.
The light disappears and shadows curl around me, crushing me. I ache and hurt; I feel the strength seep from me. I'm dying. My body, frozen in some suffocating shell. Black tentacles retract, liquid sluggish and heavy as tar flooding my nose and mouth, sharp nails digging into my flesh. They scratch down my back, through my clothes, my hair.
It smells like wet dirt and bones. It tastes like death.
I can't reach my flashlight.
It's not on my chest.
I claw at my throat. It's not there. It's not there! It's not there! I scream again. I can't scream. There's blood and darkness in my throat, clogging my throat.
A searing sudden wind and…
"Hoki!" screams green hair.
Hands. Huge, calloused hands wrap around me and pull me free. Pain and light and color exploding around me. I stare at the white shirt, at the broad chest. The shadows disperse where I was. Vapors on the wind.
All-Might.
He holds me in his arms, blood leaking down my head and into my eyes, down my lip and chin. Electric blue eyes narrowed.
"Young Hoki," he says.
I choke on the fluids in my lungs.
His eyes roam the field and before I can blink, I feel the world spin around me and I'm on the ground, Aizawa-sensei beside me. Green, Mineta, and Frog-girl stand behind us. Tape and Kamari a moment later.
"W-what?" Mineta shouts. I blink tiredly at him.
"Everyone, go to the entrance," All Might says. "I'm leaving these two to you."
Green hair frets, I can see it in his face. I can't stand, can't even breathe. Frog-girl turns me on my side, clearing my throat of bile and blood. I gasp in painful, raspy breaths. My bandaged chest is torn. My left side nothing but exposed and gaping tissue. My arms are bare and visibly bloodied. Tape wraps me even more, covering me in his sticky bandages. They turn red so fast.
Kaminari grabs me, pulling me up on his back with a heavy grunt.
"Damn it Hoki," he snaps. "Don't you dare die."
Frog girl, at his side, sobs openly.
"All Might," Green cries, eyes darting between us and the large man.
"Go now and get help."
Green nods reluctantly, him and Tape grabbing Aizawa sensei. They struggle to pull the older, bigger man up. Mineta worries between them. Kaminari, struggles at the back. I'm shorter than him, but I'm still heavy. He's red and sweating already.
"Hoki-chan, you can't fall asleep," Frog grunts. Kaminari pauses to readjust. I can't even help, my energy gone.
I blink, exhaustion settled against my bones. My vision swims and I try.
But I was foolish.
I manage nothing as the darkness consumes me.