'Ninjo is to be compassionate. Without empathy, we cannot call ourselves human. Regardless of the form we take, we are one people breathing the same air on this world. Mutations are abundant, and the human species is near extinction, but these are only surface level changes. The soul remains the same, our karmic cycle forever constant [What will become of you when I die, Dark Shadow?]. And even should you not believe in the soul, and in karma, believe then in your fellow people. Only when we are kind and compassionate do we truly achieve greatness. Tyranny and dictatorships have created monuments, but these all fall in time. But the strides of the compassionate are felt to this day. No longer are people enslaved, ruled by cruel lords, or restricted from education for whatever petty reason. Ninjo is the greater breaker of all chains.'
—Excerpt from 'The Pillars of Moral Heroics' by Ryo Asuka and annotated by Fumikage Tokoyami.
Sunflowers follow him everywhere he looks. There, hiding in that yellow signpost. Here in the yellow lines on the ground. Everywhere, for the sun is the head of that ominous sunflower. Every little girl is that same scared little girl, broken and crying and terrified. Everyone in uniform morphs into the officer, cold grey eyes devoid of warmth, threatening in an all too real way, implacable in their cruelty, indifferent in their execution of the law.
He shivers just thinking of them.
A boy with grey eyes, no older than ten and innocent of that officer's crimes, makes Izuku want to run up to him and shake him hard and fast, shake him until every bit of potential cruelty falls out and nothing but a bright and sweet boy remains.
Too scared, he looks away and puts in his headphones. He looks for something soothing: rock and metal are too reminiscent of the girl's shrill scream; J-pop is too happy, too innocent for this day; classical too melancholy, and when it isn't he hears thundering footsteps in the piano and terrified pleas in a violin. He gives up eventually and settles into silence.
The class is excited, and Izuku is uncertain as to why until Aizawa tells them to get dressed for the trip to USJ. Izuku follows the herd of students to the locker room. He takes the case with his costume and dresses in a corner, careful always to keep any scars from peeking.
The mouth guard bothers him, and he stares at it in silence. It isn't the same as the one before, similar in style, yes, but not in execution. This is designed to protect against heat first and blunt force second. And yet, his hands shake because he can't stop thinking of fire and pain and why why Kaachan, what did I ever do to you? You were always the best. I'm not a threat. No, no, no.
He takes a breath. Accepts what is. Secures it around his face.
It fits comfortably, and he tells himself that the burning is all in his mind, and not real. The shape of it hides much of his scar but for a few splotches near his cheekbones, and the collar of the cape hides his neck.
In the mirror is someone who might be a hero, bright green and dark lines, thick gloves and boots for functionality, a dark vest for protection, and a cape darker than midnight. This is a hero, in truth. Not the coward underneath.
"I'm not," he whispers, hating how noble this reflection looks. There is no nobility in leaving a little girl to cry, to beg and plead, and do nothing but flee as a coward would, and not behave as the successor to the greatest hero of this age would.
I'm so sorry. I couldn't save you. Please forgive me.
"MIdoriya."
He turns back and sees Ojiro dressed in his modified keikogi, looking as strong as ever. He smiles at Izuku, no idea of the thoughts swirling in his head.
"You doing alright?" he asks gently. "Aizawa will ditch us if we're too late."
"He wouldn't. I mean, he can't." Izuku frowns and thinks of the man's behaviour. "He would."
"Come on."
His frown deepens. "What do you want from me?" Ojiro makes a sound of confusion. "Y-you haven't said a word to me all week."
"You very much looked like you wanted some time alone. And if you need a bit more that's fine as well." His expression doesn't change from the kind smile, even as he turns and walks away.
"Wait," Izuku calls. "You just wanted to talk?"
"Yeah."
Izuku swallows. "Okay."
He lets Ojiro talk about his week, and the things at the dojo: apparently watching Shinsou have his ass handed to him is always a delight, one that Ojiro is more than willing to help with; he has plans to maybe take part in the national karate league after their exams, but that all depends on what nonsense UA puts them through.
He finds himself between Ojiro and Asui in the bus, Ashido, Iida and Kirishima opposite him. Seeing the redhead leaves ash in his mouth.
"No card tricks," Ashido asks before he can really process Kirishima.
"Hm? N-no. I left them at home." The lie is technically true. He left one deck at home. Two more are hiding in his shadow.
"Aww, I wanted my free entertainment for the day.
"You could have brought your own," Asui says lightly. "Midoriya, why are you and Kirishima fighting?"
His eyes widen, and he notices that Kirishima looks away. "What gave you that idea?"
She shrugs. "You guys haven't been talking to each other. Or with anyone else."
"Is this really the right time for this conversation?" That's Ojiro, already defensive.
"I say what I want. Am I wrong?"
Izuku swallows, uncertain of what do say. And by the shifting of the shadows in the bus, everyone is paying attention. He flushes under the weight of the attention.
"We're not fighting," Kirishima says. "I was just being a bit of a dick. It wasn't very manly."
"Oh, you're still running from your problems," Ashido says, smile just the slightest bit mean but mostly disapproving. "I thought you'd grown out of that."
Kirishima takes her elbow without wincing, as he always does. "Yes, miss my power is awesome and I'm going to lord it over everyone else."
She sticks out her tongue. "I'm pretty sure Midoriya has the most interesting power."
He blinks as everyone focuses on him. "Ummm, n-no?"
"Well, you did kick a robot to death," Uraraka calls from her spot near the back beside Bakugou.
"And you can make shadows," Asui says. "Do you have two quirks?"
He wonders if his eyes will ever get tired of blinking in shock. "No. J-just different applications of the same quirk."
"You can't expect—"
"Mosaic power quirks exist," Todoroki says, cutting through everyone. This might be the second time Izuku's heard him speak.
"Mos what quirks?" Kirishima asks.
"People whose quirks express themselves in various ways," Iida says, formal and already in his lecturing voice. "Commonly known as grab-bag quirks. They have multiple minor powers in addition to their main powers. Like a fire emitter who can sense heat, has heat resistance, and perhaps something completely random. Alternatively, it can manifest as two or more seemingly unrelated powers."
"That is just not fair," Ashido says. "So, what's your main power, Midoriya?"
He shrugs. "No idea. Hidden quirk remember?" And it's not like I'm going to tell you I can warp, walk between worlds, make shadows, and that I have All Might's quirk.
The bus stops before the interrogation can go any further. Iida, excitable as always, tries to force them to leave in a single orderly line. It lasts only a second until Uraraka skips past with a cheerful smile and drags Iida with her.
He walks outside and immediately zooms in on the most important person there. "Pro hero Thirteen," he says, delighted and shocked in equal measure.
"Welcome everyone," they say in a voice impossible to determine the gender od, and spread their arms wide, "to Universal Studios Japan."
"What!" is the collective response of the class.
"Thirteen, please," Aizawa says.
"Take away my fun, won't you? Anyway, this is actually the Unforeseen Simulation Joint which UA has been kind enough to let me build." She gestures at the massive dome. "In here, you'll experience a variety of environments to simulate rescue operations. Please, do you very best."
They're led through up the stair by the two teachers, most of the class chattering excitedly.
"I love Thirteen," Uraraka says, grabbing his hand and dragging both him and Iida up the stair faster.
"Not so fast," Izuku says after nearly tripping on the stairs. "They're your favourite hero?" he asks once Uraraka's walking at a more respectable pace.
"Of course." Iida barely manages to avoid the arm she swings in excitement. "They look like an astronaut and their power's called Black Hole. We're the only two space-themed heroes in Japan. And she acted in the remake of Gravity."
"I didn't watch that," Iida says.
She turns on him, eyes burning. "We. Are. Watching it. This Weekend."
"You can't just decide…" Iida trails off as he glare intensifies. "Which theatre we're watching it at," he adds. "That has to be a group decision."
"Fine," she huffs and skips ahead.
Izuku sighs in relief and follows. He listens intently to Thirteen go over the many environments in the building and applauds when she talks of using their powers responsibly to help others—I couldn't save you, I'm so so sorry—no matter how scary their powers might be. He glances at Tokoyami and catches his gaze.
They both freeze at the same time. Izuku feels the rip in reality, so wrong and intrusive that he's amazed no one else looks sick. He looks to it, past Aizawa who only now stiffens, and sees the formless mist darker than ink.
The others see it.
But he sees past it. The people that walk through—all of them mutants, he notices errantly—aren't anywhere near as important. Something dark and impossible and utterly wrong lurks in the background. He hardly notices Todoroki bump his shoulder, too engrossed in wondering how the fuck the abyss is staring back at him in the real.
"Don't!" Aizawa snaps, causing them all to freeze. "Thirteen, keep them safe and retreat."
"Understood."
"Wait, what?" someone shouts a moment before Aizawa leaps forward.
He can't win, Izuku thinks. He specialises in one-on-one capture. He isn't All Might.
"Don't underestimate him," Thirteens says, making him realise he said that out loud. "Head to the gate, now. Move!"
Someone grabs him and drags him forward. He sees Todoroki's mixed eyes looking back at him, a question there. Izuku nods and the boy lets go, letting Izuku run on his own power.
"Don't trip," Todoroki says, and Izuku would flush if he wasn't so terrified.
The gate's far, and Izuku curses UA's tendency towards the ostentatious because why the fuck are the stairs so far from the door?
He curses, even more, when he feels the world break ahead of them. The formless mist rises out of the ground, yellow eyes like Dark Shadow's glaring at them.
"Greetings young heroes," the mist speaks, voice deep and rich. "We are the League of Villains. Forgive the intrusion but our invitation was lost on the way. It seems the grand attraction is not here. Tell me, where is All Might?"
"Fuck off," Bakugou roars but he doesn't move, "you shitty piece of—"
"How is one so uncouth a hero? Regardless, my job is simply to scatter you all." The mist rises like a tidal wave and surrounds them in a dark dome. Izuku shakes, seeing eyes larger than worlds watching him past the mist.
"And torture you to death."
Izuku feels himself fall and screams. This is nothing like his quirk. His world shifts and he exists in many places at once: he tastes dunes of arcane bone ash and breathes the void; monsters dance above and below, and nightmares stalk from the corners of time; his body is still in grasp of the villain; his body exists in the abyss; and his body slams into a body of water. The multiple instances of his existence, each a paradox, resolve, and only the Izuku in water remains.
Oh fuck, he thinks, his body sinking. His costume is heavy, lots of cloth and armour, and fighting against it is difficult. And he doesn't want to drown again.
He nearly misses the villain in the water. The villain looks too much like a shark, teeth sharper than razers and intent on slicing him in half. He wonders if his armour will survive an encounter with those teeth.
Thankfully, he doesn't have to experiment. Asui slams into the villain, sending him deeper into the water. Her tongue snakes out, wrapping around Izuku, before she propels him like a rocket through the water to the surface.
He gulps sweet air. And then he lands on a hard surface. Izuku groans, his torso still sore from the police officer—yours is a life of luxury, kid—and his baton.
With a grunt, he forces himself up to see Mineta land beside him. He reaches over the edge and helps Asui up the last section.
"This is bad," Izuku says, watching the villains swimming towards them.
-TDB-
Toshinori Yagi sits alone in contemplation. His students are away at the USJ facility, and whilst he wants to go there, he has no right to be present. The moment Aizawa heard his name amongst the candidates, the man had done everything in his power to see All Might removed. Even if he found the way Aizawa went about removing Toshinori to be petty, he wasn't going to start a fight. He has two decades on the man, and that age gives him perspective. Toshinori can acknowledge his failings, and right now perhaps he isn't the best person to be with the class.
His successor, no, Izuku, makes him blind and arrogant. He can see that, can accept that where Izuku is concerned his decisions will never be rational or unbiased. Even so, he worries about the boy, and having him so far away makes Toshinori anxious.
He paces from one end of the room to the other, considering the consequences of heading there right now. For one, Aizawa will go ballistic on him. Two, the Principal will be upset with him. Three, there's no guarantee something won't happen on the way.
But if he does go, Toshinori will know for a fact Midoriya is safe and sound.
In the face of that one reassurance, nothing else matters. One For All fills his body with the strength and raw power that makes him the Symbol of Peace. He loosens his tie and walks towards the door.
It opens without his input. He sees no one until he looks down and sees the principal.
"And where exactly do you think you're going?" the rat-dog-bear-thing asks in his perpetually soft voice. It sends chills down his spine as it has since he was a teenager and likely will after he's six feet under and Izuku is dealing with the world's problems.
"Principal Nezu," he greets weakly, "your fur looks pristine as usual."
"It's the keratin," the principal says, walking forward intently. "Humans just can't reach that level of lustre. But let's talk about this first."
A tablet is thrust in his hand. He takes it, reading the title: 'Where is All Might' takes precedence before, 'Should We Trust the Symbol of Peace' and other headlines like 'All Might: Hero or Failure' and 'An Inside Look at UA's Suspect Teaching Methods'.
"Sit." He does so tiredly. "The media smells blood. I'm glad you're smart enough to not be under the spotlight right now. I expected you to jump out and deal with every incident like a child. Whilst you might be able to deal with incidents better than police officers, you have a successor to train and focus your energy on. Tell me, do you know what helicopter teaching is? "
"No, sensei," he mumbles, feeling smaller than the principal.
"It's a teacher who doesn't trust their student to grow on their own. You'll have to learn to balance taking the direct approach and letting your successor learn on his own." Nezu jumps on the table. "If you hover too close you'll smother any potential the boy has. And worse even than that, you'll create a carbon copy of yourself."
"Midoriya is nothing like me," he says, proud and guilty in equal measure.
"No. He's shy and painfully awkward, with a tendency towards self-destructive habits and who knows what else at home," Nezu says, glaring as if all of this is somehow his fault. "But he is a kind boy with a big heart. A boy who wants desperately to be a hero, who is innovative and doesn't follow the archetype of a flying brick like a certain symbol."
Sweat drips down his neck. "I'm worried something will happen if I'm not there."
Principal Nezu huffs. "Things happen even if you are there. You should look guilty. You made a mistake, but you have tried to make amends and for that, I will forgive you. In return, I ask that you listen to me when I say stop rushing. If the children are in danger, Aizawa will call or send a runner. That Iida boy most likely if communications are down."
Toshinori sighs, deflating. The logic is sound. He leans back and gets comfortable. The tension never leaves and might even be made worse by the Principal's interrogation. But no matter how much he tries to distract from the feeling of dread that licks up and down his spine.
The dread has the same taste as the day Nana fell.
-TDB-
Shouto Todoroki is a man of determination. He knows the cost of failing, has seen it first-hand. Failure is not an option, and never will it be. He knows the pain of waking up early each morning and training till every part of his body wished to give up. Training from dawn till dusk with no break in-between is nothing more than an annoyance.
He is a person of will. There are times when he has wished to give up, but the consequence of any failure has driven him forward. Pain is nothing more than an annoyance he has been conditioned to ignore. Broken bones are little more than irritations, hypothermia an easily treated irritant.
It is why he doesn't panic when the black mist forms around his classmates. He glances at MIdoriya, a boy terrified of everything—and very likely overmedicated—whose quirk made Shouto wonder which parent he inherited the shadows from, and which parent he inherited the strength. Because there is no way he has a grab-bag quirk. He knows what those look like, and neither he nor Midoriya has one.
Seeing his strength makes him wonder if All Might really is a monster like Endeavour underneath his heroic demeanour because anyone who told him Midoriya isn't All Might's bastard child was a fool.
He would know. After all, the blood of two great quirk lineages runs through his veins. A song of ice and fire runs through his veins, a dance of centuries-old blood cultivated and bred to a single pinnacle: the winds of winter in one half, the flames of hell in the other.
He will only ever use one half.
Reactions honed through brutal training grant him the awareness to spread ice outwards from his landing point. The mist has yet to clear, and he may very well be attacking allies, but he can thaw them out.
The ground is slanted, buildings half submerged beneath the ground. It looks like a landslide. He scans the crowd of frozen villains. No, not a single classmate in the area. Good, he won't need to worry about them and can unleash the full might of his frozen left half.
There is power in blood, the power of unstoppable quirks, and he knows form whispers in the darkest corners of the internet that his blood nearly caused a clash of kings. The Emperor supposedly sought to unify his mother's ice quirk with the two quirks that the Crown Prince inherited to create the first triple-quirk, and Endeavour had fought back just as hard. There are rumours, perhaps baseless, but he knows Taiwan sunk around the time his parents were wed.
"Torture us to death?" he questions, sliding slowly towards the villains. "You people aren't any better than common thugs."
He twists to the left and craps the pole trying to take his head. Frost runs down it, and exactly five feet—always five feet, never more, never less—later, it expands outward into a block of ice, trapping the villain within.
He sends a wave of ice behind, not caring particularly much how many villains there are. His power is overwhelming.
"You aren't strong enough to take down our class," he says, breaking off a spear of ice from the villain. "What gives you the belief you can take on All Might?"
He doesn't know many of the things his classmates take for granted: his knowledge of a mall extends only to the stories his sister, Fuyumi, has spoken off; there are days where he wonders why his brothers enjoy playing soccer in the courtyard; and more often, he wonders what it will be like to sleep in on the weekends as his siblings do.
But he most certainly knows the allure of quirk inheritance. He knows a high rank as a hero means nothing for personality. And he knows a parent harming their child is more common than the world wants to admit. And negligence is no excuse for All Might.
What is the point of chasing that spot if the number two hero was a monster, and the number one is perhaps just as bad?
He listens to the villains beg for mercy, and spill everything they know. It takes longer than he would like, time in which the situation could have deteriorated. None of them is high up enough to know the details, but their knowledge is enough. He scans for the central plaza where Aizawa had engaged the group of villains.
It takes him a moment to figure out where he needs to go. A moment longer to double-check it's the right direction. There. He lets ice form and glides across the frozen highway.
-TDB-
Fumikage Tokoyami finds himself in the cold. His light-eating cloak flutters as he takes in the environment. A desolate wasteland of ice and snow stretches as far as he can see, dimly lit by some sort of half-light. He spots one of his classmates, Kouda he thinks, nearby and groaning in the snow.
Tokoyami walks over and kneels beside his quiet classmate. "Are you injured?"
Kouda looks at him and shakes his head. He gestures with his hand. The movements are too quick for him to get everything, but he understands the general intention.
"Come. We must escape." He holds out his hand.
He hears the crunch of snow. The sound is nearly buried beneath the raging snowstorm, but he is tense, terrified that a villain is near.
Dark Shadow, he calls, flicking his arm to the right where the sound comes from.
The demon of his soul rushes past, larger than it has any right to at this time of day. He feels Dark Shadow grab someone and moves to stand between Kouda and the villain.
The scream makes him frown. When Dark Shadow doesn't attack further, his frown deepens.
"Let go of me, Tokoyami," the person says loudly.
She's one of yours, crow, Dark Shadow says and drops the person.
It takes him a moment to understand that the floating pair of gloves is his classmate. "Hagakure?"
"Thanks for not eating me." She pats Dark Shadow who croons and leans forward affectionately.
"Forgive me. I was unaware other allies were present." He stares at Dark Shadow who seems to have no intention of leaving her side.
Why are you playing with Madame Nudist?
Dark Shadow chuckles, the sound reverberating through the ground. I want you to say that again, slowly this time.
"Wait, what did you say?"
"It is of no concern," he answers quickly. "Come, we must leave before the villains find us."
Kouda signs once again. He parses through the sign language, glad his former teacher made him suffer through it.
"Holing up will leave us vulnerable to attack. Worse still, doing so when we have no proof, but general caution, of a villain's presence, will make us useless. Our best bet is to head towards the central courtyard and regroup from there."
"I like this idea."
"Dark Shadow, return." Hagakure pats it one last time, her gloved hand shivering before it obeys. "I… I have no sense of direction. Do either—"
"That way," Hagakure interrupts, pointing behind him.
Kouda signs agreement. "Acceptable." He walks forward, then pauses. He thinks of the last time he was in a team and how badly it went due to his arrogance.
"Hagakure, you have the greatest stealth skills. It would be in our best interests for you to scout ahead."
"You're just trying to get rid of me," she says lightly, but he can hear the tension in her voice. "If I spot something I'll run right back."
"Come back if the cold begins to affect you negatively," he adds. "I'll loan you my cloak should that be the case."
"Aww aren't you just a gentleman." And then she's off, leaving footprints in the snow.
He looks to Kouda and sees the sheer fear on his features. "Worry not. I will defend you should we encounter any enemies."
Tension drains from the boy's face. He signs once more, his fingers faltering in the cold.
"We all have disadvantages. Were we in the desert arena I would be of no use. Without animal life, your quirk has lower viability at the present moment." Tokoyami hums as they set off. "Still, I will require your assistance should any villains get close. I will do my utmost to prevent that, but one can never be certain where villains are concerned."
They walk in silence for a few minutes, both checking every direction they can. The silence is eerie and the cold biting. He unclasps his cloak and throws it to Kouda when the boy starts shivering.
"I can draw energy from Dark Shadow to keep me warm," he lies when Kouda tries to hand it back. "The darkness sustains me."
I'm not carrying you if you pass out, Dark Shadow says.
I'll have no need of your assistance.
The cloak is small on Kouda's massive frame, but it covers him better than the simple shirt and shorts. Tokoyami focuses on walking, and not on the cold seeping cutting through his underclothes. Eventually, he will be unable to hold back signs of the cold.
He underestimates how quick that moment comes. He grits his teeth as a particularly savage gust goes straight through his underclothes. His hands are clenched tightly in his shorts, but he can hardly feel it.
Do you trust me? Dark Shadow asks before materialising outside his body.
You know I do not. He sighs, feeling no malice from Dark Shadow. Do what you will.
The demon wraps around his torso. Tokoyami tenses but doesn't fight as the darkness covers his upper body. It isn't warm and is frankly terrifying, but neither does it let the biting wind cut through his torso and arms.
He sees Kouda watching. "I told you the dark sustains me."
There is a certain pressure Dark Shadow exerts, partly physical and partly mental. It feels almost like the demon is smothering him, pushing away the part that makes him who he is. He grits his teeth and trudges on, knowing he has no other choice and hating it all the same.
"Tokoyami," Hagakure calls a few seconds before she—her gloves really—appears. "The exit's only a few minutes away past the town. I didn't see anyone."
"That is fortunate."
Dark Shadow tenses around him. There's someone here, it snarls in his mind.
"Do the conditions worsen?" he asks, scanning the area and trusting Dark Shadow to watch his back. He has no choice.
"Nah, we're good," Hagakure says. He looks intently at her. He sees a shimmer of light, a distortion that bends the shape of her glove.
Dark Shadow needs no words to unwrap around his torso and rush forward. The demon slams into someone as Hagakure screams again and Kouda scrambles behind Tokoyami.
With the person in hand, Dark Shadow rises and then smashes the person in the ground. He, for that groan can only be male, appears as his quirk fails.
"Good job," Hagakure says, thumb raised.
Tokoyami ignores her as Dark Shadow brings the man. The man is bald and devoid of any hair.
"How many of you are there?" he questions.
"Fuck off," the man snarls, slipping between being visible and translucent.
"Dark Shadow." The demon squeezes, making the man grunt in pain. "I would like not to have violent behaviour on my permanent record. But I would dislike an ambush even more. Tell me how many of you there are."
Dark Shadow applies more pressure. The man's face pales. "Me," he blurts out. "It's just me."
Tokoyami tilts his head. "I find myself hard pressed to believe you." Dark Shadow squeezes further. "Do you believe him, Hagakure?"
"I think he's telling the truth," Madame Nudist says, voice wavering. "Why don't you calm down, Tokoyami?"
Dark Shadow applies more pressure. The man screams, his pained grunts pleasing to hear. A hand on his shoulder pulls him back. He looks at Kouda who frowns.
"Stop," the boy says softly.
Since when the hell can he talk? Dark Shadow whispers in his mind.
"There's no need to get that violent even if he is a villain," Hagakure adds.
"He was not being honest." Tokoyami sighs. "Dark Shadow release him."
The demon hisses. For a long moment, he wonders if he'll have to fight the entity. It drops the villain who lands in the cold.
"Do either of you have restraints?" he asks, ignoring the cold.
Kouda signs no and Hagakure shakes her head.
"Kouda, I will trust you with his security. Come, let us go. And be prepared for an ambush."
He doesn't say 'I told you so' when they're done dealing with the villains in the city. No, he has too much dignity to embarrass his allies like that. He does, however, choose not to restrain Dark Shadow as it breaks down the exit.
He has a good view of everything from this high up. Including Izuku, Asui and Mineta hiding in the water as Aizawa battles the purple monster.
A battle he is losing.
-TDB-
Bakugou comes out of the darkness swinging. His fist hits nothing but air. He fumbles the landing, but a hand grabs him before he can hit the ground. He sees Yaoyorozu holding him upright.
"Get off me, bitch," he snarls, stepping away.
"Stop being so difficult," she says, frowning.
He doesn't get a chance to say anything before his instincts scream at him to move. He shoves her forward and dodges back before a massive fist slams the ground, shattering it. Katsuki lets off an explosion, dodging around the massive villain—villains, he amends, seeing the dozen behind the giant mutant—and kicks low, his speed enhanced by an explosion.
It sweeps the rhino-like villain to the ground. He doesn't spare the villain another glance, already dodging the knife-hands of another. Bakugou weaves between the blades, glancing at Yaoyorozu who seems to be holding her own with a large pole for the moment. Good. He doesn't want to know how fucked he'll be if she gets hurt, especially not when he has a red order hanging over his head.
And his counsellor will have some shitty things to say if he doesn't try. Not that he ever feels guilty about her fucking words or is even mildly terrified of how raw and haggard he'll come away from their next session. Like all their prior sessions ever since that day.
He surges forward between swings and shoves the villain with his shoulder. She hits one of her allies, and both go tumbling to the ground.
The ground shakes, and he loses his balance. He looks to the side and sees the first villain, the one with a rhino's horn and a thick hide, on his feet. Shit, he thinks of the raised fist.
A loud shockwave slams into the villain. The rhino falls to the ground, clutching at his bleeding ears. Katsuki looks to the side and sees Jirou advancing, her speakers pumping out the loud noise.
He takes the opportunity and blasts forward towards the villain. The auditory attack cuts off before he enters its conical path.
He fires off an explosion and spins around. His elbow slams into the villain's face. He feels the horn snap and break. He downs the rhino with a parting kick.
Katsuki lands.
A glint in the air is all he sees before the knife stabs him in the shoulder. "Fuck off," he roars and finds Jiro already pelting the villain with a belt of knives around her shoulder with sound waves.
Yaoyorozu grabs his wrist before he pulls the blade out. "Don't touch me, bitch."
"You'll make it worse," she says. "We need a plan."
She holds out her hand, sparkles forming in her palm. A fucking grenade forms in her hand. "Holy fuck—"
"Jirou, close your eyes," Yaoyorozu shouts, not heeding him in the slightest.
Jiro jumps back, twisting and covering her eyes as Yaoyorozu throws the grenade. Katsuki is many things, but stupid is not one of them. He shuts his eyes. The grenade goes off with a loud bang, the flash bright enough that he sees the light through his closed eyes.
"We need a plan," Yaoyorozu says whilst the villains are still disorientated. She's right. Even with the three they've taken out, there's still near two dozen.
"We have one," Katsuki snarls. "Emo bitch, pin them down and I'll break their shitty faces in. And you make shit to keep them divided."
"That's not—"
Katsuki pulls the knife out, and roars, "Don't fucking argue with me. It's the best plan we have." He wishes he still had his grenadier bracers to blast these stupid fucks straight to the stratosphere. But there is no way in hell Aizawa is ever giving them back.
And Katsuki has no intention of asking.
"He's right," Jiro says, eyeing the recovering villains warily.
Yaoyorozu sighs. "Fine. Let me bandage the wound." She has a roll of gauze in her hand already.
"Then hurry the fuck up." He watches the villains warily as Yaoyorozu bandages his shoulder. That bitch with the knives will need to be taken down first. All of them with ranged abilities would need to go down.
The moment Yaoyorozu is done, Bakugou rockets forward. He fights with savage ferocity, never once retreating. Every blow is meant to debilitate, and if that fails the blows stun so he can flow into another attack. He takes a punch to the face when he dodges too late, and a hammer to the side when a villain tries to rush Yaoyorozu.
He grits his teeth through the pain. It doesn't matter. This pain is temporary, and he'll bear no scars from it.
But he'll fucking hate himself if he lets someone get hurt again.
Katsuki elbows another villain to the side and lifts both hands. A group of them are on the ground, pinned by Jiro's sonic attack.
He ignites the nitro-glycerine in his palm. The explosion is massive and slams into the villains. They go flying, shouting in pain.
Katsuki shakes out his hand, feeling the strain of forcing an explosion that large. Everything hurts. He can hardly see out of one eye, a mix of blood and swelling. His breathing is ragged. But there are still five villains left.
He flows into a ready stance. "Come at me, you half-assed pieces of shit."
Being loud has its advantages. It means everyone focuses on him and few of the attacks are directed at the girls.
He hears a whoosh from behind. Something large and spinning crosses the distance between him and the villains. It slams into two of them, wrapping around and cackling wildly with electricity. They scream before the electric shock renders then unconscious. Their compatriots back away in fear.
Katsuki smirks. This is his kind of fight. A hero versus a villain. No shitty backstory lasting a decade, no regrets, and certainly no green eyes fucking begging for mercy.
He cracks his knuckles. "Bring it, cunts."
When the last villains are beaten, Katsuki looks around. "This was too fucking easy," he snarls.
"They weren't very tough," Yaoyorozu says. "Good for us."
He shakes his head, his mind racing. "These guys weren't here to fight All Might."
"But—"
"Bitch, shut up," he snaps. "These fuckers are trash, literal fucking trash. They'd be lucky to take on some loser who only has self-defence training."
"They're a distraction," Jiro says.
"No shit. But why…" He scans the area. There's the entrance to his right. Logically, Aizawa should be directly ahead of him, on the other side of the dome, fighting the group of villains. And that purple fucker.
I can't be the only thinking the same thing. They're dumb as fuck, but not all of them are stupid. Especially not Deku. And…
"That fucking idiot," he roars and starts running.
He ignores the two bitches behind him, and rockets forward across the lake. His shoulder burns but that pain is nothing compared to his fear.
He fires a blast at the wall and leaps through the rubble.
It takes him about three seconds to realise how fucked they are. Aizawa is down, bleeding and broken, next to an unconscious Asui and a blubbering Mineta. The only thing standing between them and death is Izuku who's fucking talking to the villain with too many hands.
-TDB-
Ejiro Kirishima decides he dislikes fire. And villains. Actually, he dislikes villains when everything's on fire. The fact that a combination like that exists fuels his anger as he clobbers a villain straight on the nose, bones crunching and blood spurting out.
He wrings his hand out nervously and wipes the blood off on his skirt—and yes, he knows it has a technical term, but it looks like a skirt and he doesn't care what anyone thinks because his manliness isn't fragile—and nope, he doesn't even want to imagine exactly what possible infections these villains have. When was the last time they showered? He wonders, sniffing. Never.
"Kirishima!" Ojiro calls out, breaking him from his reverie.
He has a second to see the villain with the giant club. Less than a moment to harden his face because that club is moving real fast and oh, this is what it's like to fly, he thinks before hitting a wall, and this isn't manly at all.
Blinking the white spots away, he sees the villain rushing him. He sighs. Fine, let's be manly. He keeps up the act of being disorientated until the last second, then hardens and leaps forward. His shoulder, harder than steel, slams into the villain's gut. The villain gasps and Kirishima feels something wet run down his neck as the villain falls.
He grimaces and wipes off whatever it is. "This is not manly," he mutters and elbows the villain coming from behind.
Ojiro swings by and runs on the wall—so manly—before springboarding onto another villain. His tail lashes out and the villain goes down.
"That all of them?" Kirishima asks.
Ojiro looks at him. Looks at the villain groaning on the ground. Kicks him in the face.
"Now that's all of them."
"Oh, come on, he was down. That wasn't manly."
Ojiro shrugs. "Be manly when we aren't fighting for our lives. Though, if this is the quality of villains, then we have little to worry about."
"What about the giant thing?" He shudders, remembering all those teeth. At least he smiles when he showed his teeth.
"Aizawa will deal with it. He won't let a student deal with…" He stares at Kirishima in horror.
It takes him a moment to catch up. "You don't think he's dumb enough to pick that fight?"
"He fought the zero-poi—"
Kirishima's running before Ojiro finishes that sentence. Damn it, Izuku. For once in your life don't pick a fight with the biggest thing in the room.
A dark blur flits through his peripheral vision. He barely sees the villain before the knife flashes too close for comfort.
Ojiro slams into the villain and shoves him forward. "Go," his friend roars as more villains appear. "Keep him safe."
Kirishima nods and sprints.
He's past the gates when he sees the scene. Villains litter the ground, broken and beaten but for three of them—the mist villain, the creepy guy with too many hands, and the giant purple monster. And, of course, Izuku's kicking the monster.
His body glows with the same brightness he took down the zero-pointer. The kick is perfect, straight out of the textbook, and Kirishima knows that even given time to prepare, that punch would break him.
And the monster takes the manliest kick he's ever seen from someone who isn't All Might and doesn't fucking flinch. Oh shit.
The monster grabs Izuku's arm. "No!" Kirishima screams as it lifts its other hand up.
He sees the terror on Izuku's face, meets those green eyes one last time as the monster's hand comes down.
-TDB-
Izuku surfaces after Mineta and Asui, taking deep a lungful of sweet air. He doesn't want to think of the harrowing experience of fighting underwater against those villains ever again, so he puts it out of his mind. No one needs to know of his embarrassing performance or how Asui and Mineta had to save him a few times over.
Especially not when he has more important things to deal with. Like saving Aizawa from the giant purple thing currently crushing him.
"Stay here," he whispers to Asui. "Whatever you do, don't come out."
Intellectually, Izuku knows this is a bad idea. Every shred of rationality that he has begs with him not to do something so stupid. But he has no other choice. There's no guarantee that the heroes will be here quickly enough, no matter what the mist villain says.
He's out the water before he can berate his decisions any further. Three sets of eyes focus on him.
"H-hey there," Izuku says.
"Midoriya," Asui hisses, and he hopes that his cape hides her.
The villain with too many hands takes a step forward, tilting his head. "Hey?"
"Tomura, right?" The villain nods and Izuku forces a smile. "I've got to say you did a great job isolating us like this. Sensor array down, no communications, and we're even scheduled to be here for another few hours. Honestly, the execution of this plan is perfect."
"Thank you?" The villain scratches at his neck. "You know I'm still going to kill you, right?"
Sweat drips down his neck. "Dying's overrated. But what does that actually accomplish?" He moves forward slowly, never once taking his eyes off Tomura—he can feel their shadows well enough that they can't ambush him.
"We prove All Might isn't infallible," the mist speaks.
"Okay, yeah, sure. But people already know that." He points at his burn scar. "I mean, if you've read the news you'll know people are calling him out already. And if you kill us, all you really do is galvanise the people against you."
The purple creature shifts, digging Aizawa deeper in the ground. Izuku gulps.
"People are just going to see this as a cowardly attack. I mean, you told us you were here for All Might." He nods at the mist villain. "He's not here so you've already failed your objective. Killing us makes you seem petty, especially since we've been taking down your cronies left, right and centre."
"Trash mobs are disposable," Tomura says after a silence.
"Midoriya," Aizawa groans, "Run."
The Nomu grinds Aizawa's face into the ground. Izuku swallows nervously, knowing that at least one life will rely on his actions.
"Okay, so you don't care about your allies as well? Got it. Do you think anyone's going to trust you after this when they find out?"
Tomura laughs, raspy and grating. "You're right. You've got a high intellect stat. But you really should have invested points in charisma. Failing speech checks sucks, doesn't it? We'll just have to kill you and your friends before leaving."
Izuku blinks and realises he might just be fucked. "I really wouldn't recommend that."
"Why—"
Like lightning, One For All fills his body. Every nerve sparks to life, every system in his body moving in unison. He dashes forward, a blur to everyone. He's past Tomura and the mist villain before they can react.
The purple monster watches him the entire time, never once rising from its position. Izuku smirks, and fills his leg with One For All, and kicks the creature with everything he has.
The shockwave from the blow is massive. The ground tears apart, throwing up heaps of dirt and dust, and from the way Asui makes a sound of pain some of it might have struck her. He hears glass shatter and the echo of the blow reverberate. He lets the power he inherited fade away.
It takes him a moment to realise something critical: his leg doesn't hurt.
He glances at it and finds no injuries. And then he glances at the purple monster watching him indifferently.
"Kill him," Tomura says calmly.
Izuku's eyes widen. He tries leaping back. A massive hand grips his leg, crushing everything there casually. He sees the Nomu raise its hand and brings it down.
Time slows and Izuku watches the fist descend.
Okay, I have at best one chance to get out of this. Let's see. Can't fight it head-on. Wait, I can sink through my shadow with this thing. Yeah, that's a better option. Wait… I don't have One For All active. My reaction time isn't that fast.
Oh, I'm dead, aren't I?
Time resumes. The fist strikes true. Izuku dies.
-TDB-
Yours is the strength of the king, Izuku Midoriya. The king must always be the strongest, the fastest, and the most dangerous. The king must equal every challenger. By your sacrifice do we live and by our grace shall you be without equal.
Take from your kingdom the bounty and tribute. Plunder the worlds of dead gods and the realms of undeath. All that you have surveyed belongs to you. All strength shall flow to you. By our strength will you match your enemies.
Rise, young king. We will sing your name. All we ask is that you destroy your enemy.
-TDB-
The world falls silent. It is a silence of three parts.
The most obvious is the lack of wind rustling clothes or the rippling of water. It is harrowing and haunting, this silence after the shockwave of the final attack. There is no wet thud of bits and pieces of Izuku Midoriya splattering the ground. There is no clink as the discs of his vertebrae strike the ground, propelled by the Nomu's punch. No, all of these things float suspended in the still air.
The second silence is harder still to understand. There is a boy named Mineta who stares in horror, his face transfixed by the rictus expression between terror and dread and grief. Yet he makes no sound, not a breath to disturb the world, and not a movement to shatter this silence. He is not the only one: there is a villain called Tomura, stuck a moment before scratching his scabbed neck, and his compatriot Kurogiri who's mist body no longer hisses. There are heroes in training who see and are silent; a boy called Tokoyami whose grief runs silent but hot; a boy sometimes called Kaachan, but mostly Bakugou, who feels a new type of rage; a boy called Todoroki who doesn't know why he falls still on his glacial highway, only knows that he must for the world demands it.
The final silence is hardest still to understand, and yet simpler than the rest. You can sit for hours and only begin to notice it in the water, cold and wet and too too still. It is found in the chilled spines of terrified students, the breaking heart of a teacher who has failed so hard, and the triumphant dread of a villain. This is the silence of anticipation, of a change that will alter everything.
But silence is not forever. The sun is bright and overpowering, but night falls all the same. Sound returns. The final vestiges of sanity flee with the silence.
The world breaks.
The air around what remains of Izuku takes on a different quality, glassy and shimmering. It might be considered beautiful in another time and another place. For a long moment, everyone who can see this abnormal sight watches clear crystal rise like a pillar.
And then it shatters.
Something—for it can never be called a person, animal, or creature—appears where once there was crystal. It is large as the Nomu and might be considered a biped. There are two legs that are at once a raptor's talons and a drowning god's tentacles. It possesses two arms that have more eyes than a spider colony should have, eyes the have seen past infinity and found it lacking. It can even be considered to have a torso with mouths that eat time and space and light.
This thing is what the third silence waited for.
It has no head but for pulsating horns that drip with true dark older than eternity and horns between which a universe is born and dies and lives again. Something that reminds one of a mouth rises to eat the universe—never mind that the mouth is only teeth from every direction. The mouth opens once more, and the world falls silent, waiting expectantly.
The creature that should not be roars and the world screams in pain.
Kurogiri is many things. Calm. Collected. Patient. He is none of those things right now. He has felt the terror of the monsters watching him from the endless mists and knows that should he truly glimpse them his mind will break. This is not that, but something infinitely more terrifying than those monsters. He forms a warp gate beneath Tomura through sheer instinct alone. And it might be crazy to risk it, but he slips through one as well. They land on the domed roof of one of the environments just as the nightmare roars.
Shouto Todoroki hears the howl of misery and triggers memories of a lonely child begging and pleading to be saved. The sound rips straight through his soul. He knows this cry and knows the futility of it. There is no protector to come. All of them will leave—mother, mother, why would you betray me, why why why?—or they will become the enemy—fear the flame, Shouto, fear it and run—for the world is cruel and uncaring to the weak. Fire comes to life unbidden as his tears fall. They burn and burn and burn all while Shouto cries, remembering the day his mother betrayed him, the day she went mad and all he saw was an unending fire in her grey eyes, monsters dancing in the madness. He may not see what makes the roar, but he can feel it in his blood and bone.
Fumikage Tokoyami stares at the thing that should not exist, not here in the real where heat and energy rule. Dark Shadow grows even larger than it should in the light, its form wrapping around his body, an armour against the influence of the thing that corrodes the barriers between real and darkness. It shields his mind from the madness of this thing that wishes to break his mind. A King rises, Dark Shadow says in his mind. Will you greet your peer? Unbidden, his legs walk towards the battle, uncaring of the two students who collapse to the ground, unshielded from the nightmare made manifest.
Katsuki Bakugou sees a shambling abomination in his one good eye, a creature with too many eyes and teeth dripping liquid darkness, arms that twist and expand and exist in too many places at once; and in the other, the one swollen and bleeding, he sees a boy greater than he is, a boy too kind and forgiving, the boy beneath the monster. And Katsuki understands one fact: were Izuku anything less than sunlight given form, then he would be dead.
Eijiro Kirishima wonders exactly how fucked they are. He isn't sure if fucked even begins to describe the situation. Because that unmanly thing shouldn't exist. Every cell in his body pleads with him to run, to flee this thing he has no words for. But he can't. His friend is there, somewhere. Even though he should be dead—and the memory of Izuku's torso pulverised will haunt him forever—he is not, and that means there is an opportunity. Somewhere. Maybe. First, he has to make sure he isn't caught up in the fight between the Nomu and whatever has become of Izuku. How the fuck is he still sane if this is his quirk? He wonders and leaps to avoid the massive tear in reality heading his way.
Minoru Mineta feels his mind break under the strain of this impossible creature. It shouldn't exist. Izuku Midoriya is dead, he saw it with his own eyes. But now, in his place, a dark god walks in the mortal world and every step it takes distorts reality. There are monsters hiding in the distortions, nightmares older than time and they see him, see everything that he is and could never be, and they find him wanting. The shambling abomination battles the Nomu, but every blow it makes is simply absorbed. Every slice it makes is simply regenerated instantly.
The god roars once more, the sky tearing apart, and raises a hand. Green lightning crystallises in its grip. It passes judgement and the world is engulfed in a blast of light.
-TDB-
Izuku wakes up on his bed. He knows this place. He's woken up here more than once. Each time after dying.
"I need to get back."
He shifts and has to hold back a scream of pain. His right leg, the same one the Nomu broke, is a bloody mess. And it hurts worse than anything he's felt before. Tears sting his eyes but he grits his teeth through the pain.
"This isn't good," he says, reaching over for the first aid kit he always keeps in this place. "My leg's wrecked and I have no idea what's going on."
There is an aesthetic in the kit, and he jabs it straight into his thigh, uncaring of the dosage. The pain lessens slightly but considering he can see bone then he'll take any relief. Removing the bandages, Izuku takes a deep breath and braces for the pain.
It doesn't help. Wrapping the bandages around his bloody leg is like scraping a raw wound with a hot poker. When he's certain he won't bleed out immediately, Izuku lies back.
Okay, let's think. I just died out there. That's bad enough as it is. But everything that's ever killed me was destroyed by the time I got back and holy shit I'm going to be responsible for murder. Fuck, fuck, fuck my life.
He grits his teeth and rolls off the bloody bed. His leg is a siren call of pain, and the world white, but he fights through it. He drags himself to the door through sheer will alone. It is slow, painful work to lift himself to the doorknob.
Izuku braces himself. Opens the door. Steps out.
The world is quiet when he returns. It takes him a moment to adjust to the brightness. The Plaza shows signs of combat—the crater he lies in, charred and scorched as though through a lightning bolt; splatters of blood every here and there; a bloody Aizawa-sensei barely holding on to consciousness beside an incoherent Mineta, and Asui who doesn't move.
"Midoriya," Aizawa-sensei whispers, staring at him in something like shock, something like horror.
His skin crawls beneath that gaze. "Aiz—"
A loud crash interrupts him. He turns his head to the entrance where the sound came from.
"Never fear!" a loud voice booms. "I am here."
Izuku doesn't bother to wipe the tears of relief. So long as All Might is here, nothing can go wrong. He gives up fighting to stay awake.
"Midoriya," he hears someone calls as the darkness closes in on him.
-TDB-
"H-hey there, if you're hearing this, um, then I'm not around… Call back later?"
Inko Midoriya listens to the voicemail for the third time, dread coiling in her gut. She knows Izuku, knows he would have answered with at least a message if given the chance. The last time he hadn't responded to her had been that horrible week when she thought he son would be lost to her.
She paces. After a full minute of that, she calls the school. No one answers. She calls again to the same response. Her hands shake. Why wouldn't UA at least have a secretary answer her calls? There is nothing on the news to say, nothing on their website as well.
She shakes her head. Inko isn't some hapless housewife who waits on someone else. She has both a car and a destination, and no matter how much she dislikes UA, she won't let that pettiness get between her and investigating. Not when it comes to her son's safety.
Someone waits outside her door, fist raised as though to knock. The boy has purple hair and looks as though he needs to inject caffeine directly in his veins to function. She knows from prior experience that it's not a very good idea.
"Mrs Midoriya," the boy greets, shifting warily.
Her brow quirks. "Shinsou, I believe." He startles. "Izuku talks about you all the time."
"I see." Shinsou swallows, nervous. "Is he… Is he here? I wanted to talk to him."
Her lips thin in distaste. "You don't know where he is?"
"We haven't-I'm not… We had a fight. I was being selfish. I just wanted to apologise." She stares hard at the boy who fidgets. "His class had a field trip. I thought they left school early."
She hums in thought. "Unfortunately, they didn't. Shinsou, I think it might be best you go home. Don't worry, I'll tell Izuku you were here."
"Do you think—"
"He'll call you back? Maybe. But right now, I need to go to UA. And they had best have answers."
A/N:
And there ya go folks, USJ in all it's glory.
To anyone whose reviews I didn't apologise to, I'd like to sincerely apologise for that. Real life and my own personal hesitance to partake in social media (and yes, I consider PMs to be social media cause I'm weird) this last week played a part in that. It is no excuse, but I hope you will be understanding of that.
As well, I have a discord server I'm running like a total noob. It can be found at discord . gg / 4YvCTYR [remove the spaces].
That's all from me for now. Thank you for reading this. If you enjoyed the story leave a favourite and if you have any questions just drop a review. But know all of that is unnecessary, and as always your readership is quite enough for me. Cheers.