It was half past four when Tokoyami gave the signal.
Probably. It was probably, almost definitely a signal. Deku had witnessed it before in training drills and group projects and even the boys' restroom – whenever he fixed on you with that fierce avian stare, it was always calculated, conspicuous, and highly alarming. He was probably singly responsible for more vigorous hand-washings at UA than any actual terror of spreading germs.
Deku hadn't noticed Tokoyami enter the library; but there he waited against a pillar, thin arms folded across his uniformed breast. Leveling that predator's gaze on Deku, he glanced sideways and silently tipped his beak towards the door. Follow me.
Uneasy alarms went off in Deku's head. He shoved The History of Hero Law VIII into a collection basket and bounded up, ready for action.
The bird-man had already slipped out into the hallway.
"Tokoyami-kun. I'm here. What's the mattrmphh-?" A dry, ghostly tendril whipped over his mouth.
"Quiet," he hissed. Deku felt the weird warmth of Tokoyami's living shadow recede slightly, just enough to let him draw breath. Intense eyes locked on. "The walls have ears, always."
They checked left, right, and over each other's shoulders. Setting sunrays bathed every corner in evening colors; enough to make Dark Shadow squeak and pull its – arm? neck? – back into the safety of its master's bookbag. The corridor was completely, deathly empty.
Tokoyami seemed to relax. "Glad to have found you, Midoriya. The hour grows late and there is precious little time."
The hour? But classes only ended a little while ago. He must have looked as foolish as he felt, because…
"Late indeed," Tokoyami repeated coolly, "for time waits for no man!" He ran a hand through his crown of jet-black feathers. "Nor do the tenebrous tides of danger… and we bear a sworn-"
"Danger?!" Deku's guts twisted into heated knots. Someone was hurt. Someone had had an accident. From 1-A? The support division? "Who's in danger? Do they need our help?"
Tokoyami paused. "No, I… Blood is spilled, and a fête of chaos awaits. Where a roll of the die makes the difference between life and death-"
An earthquake. A fire. Iida's jets had malfunctioned and sent him hurtling into a ditch. Uraraka levitated too high and passed out from nausea directly over a pit of rusty railroad spikes. Hatsume finally blew up a class of grade-schoolers. The list of sick possibilities went on and on.
"Damn it!" Deku found himself shaken back and forth by the shoulders like an Etch-A-Sketch. "Hear me, Midoriya. There are worlds other than these, worlds where pitched battle is a child's pastime – where the deeds of men are written in scarlet!"
– Tsuyu's tongue caught in an abandoned beartrap, a savaged little corpse on the floor of the girls' locker room sporting a camera and a blissed-out rictus grin, All Might finally coughing up his entire insides as Deku always secretly feared-
Pitched battle? The deeds of men. Deku's eyes shot open to the size of dinner plates. It all made sense now.
"Villains," he whispered through bone-dry lips. "Another raid?"
How could they attack again so soon? With the Symbol of Peace out of commission, of course this would be their golden chance, but he was sure that Shigaraki would still be licking his wounds for a while yet—
No time. He dipped into a sprinter's stance. "Tokoyami-kun. Thank you for telling me. We need to alert every teacher still in the building, now. Go and evacuate who you can, then get to safety; in a few hours it'll be too dangerous to let Dark Shadow loose."
The bird-boy gawped like a dying fish.
"Midoriya, I'm only trying to-"
"I'll meet you in the courtyard! Go!"
There was still time. There had to be, he ordered himself. Clinging to that iron belief helped pump adrenaline through his system, spurring his legs into action. He dashed down two corridors and a stairwell, vaulting over the railing like an Olympic gymnast with hellhounds on his tail. Faint yelling snatched at the air behind him; but he was too quick.
Just one more floor to the lounge… Plenty of gas in the tank, his feet felt alive and light-
A little too light-
Had he seen the security footage later, Deku might have found it less personal (maybe even comical) the way he turned a full two glorious flips in the air before crashing back to earth. Or to linoleum, in point of fact. It was a little hard to appreciate the distinction while waiting bug-eyed for the wind to come whooshing back into his walloped lungs.
Wrapped desperately around his ankle was a wire-thin sliver of Dark Shadow. Tokoyami staggered around the last corner, wiping the sweat out of his plumage and gasping for dear life. "I'm... not as fast… as you, you jackass…"
He flopped over onto his back. It took him a few seconds to form the words, and a few more to lamely wheeze them out.
"Do… do you want to join my boardgame club… ?"
Deku just stared.