Heroes in the Dark chapter 51

Consciousness was a fleeting, painful memory that slipped from his grasp like feathers in the wind. He couldn't fully understand why it was that there was only darkness any more than he could comprehend the different surroundings and faces that floated into his sight. The feeling of being in one of Mr. Compress's orbs, the ceiling of a van, a faint glimpse of a sky… and then something dark and uncertain. His senses felt out of place, contorted in some way, and when his waking state was stable enough to see clearly before blacking out again he still wasn't sure what to make of it. Sneering faces, looks of concern, snippets of vocalized frustration and complaint. And among it all, a spare moment where he was being looked down upon by cold blue eyes, the accusatory words "What did I tell you not to do?" spoken to him before he drifted back off into an abyssal realm of uncomfortable sleep.

Time meant nothing to him. He could not account for the passage of days in much the same way as he could not ascertain his own well-being. He was aware only that he hadn't bled out, and perhaps even that he'd reached some sort of stability in spite of it all. And so it came as no surprise when eventually, inevitably, his eyes flitted open and stayed that way. His mind felt groggy, senses dull, but still the world around him was real and not entirely unfamiliar. And how could it be, when the people responsible for his disposition were in this very room, as though they truly had nothing better to do.

Tokoyami shifted his head slightly to get a better look at the place. The room was dark, lit only by a lamp in the corner that illuminated dirty gray walls. Flexing his hand, he could feel thin sheets beneath him and an old, battered bed surface. It reminded him of the place the League had first taken him after the Kamino incident, only in the stillness of the space if he listened closely he could hear cars on a street and construction in the distance, though there was no window to see through. An iv stand was set up next to him with a blood bag and fluid bag, hooked into his arm. And past that, he could see the dim shapes of people in the room, snoozing quietly.

The more his eyes adjusted, the more he could make out the people sharing this space with him. In the smallness of the room, it didn't appear as though many people would be able to fit, but they'd made the most of it. Twice was curled up in the corner with his black and gray outfit back on and a thin hospital blanket over him. Spinner had nestled himself against the wall close to his bed, arms crossed and head drooping onto his chest with his swords lied on the ground beside him. Shigaraki was here too, the sight of him making Tokoyami's blood run cold for a second before he calmed down. He didn't want to associate with any of these people. But he'd be doing nothing for himself if his first response to any one of them was fear, too. After all, right now none of these villains could possibly look any less threatening, sleeping soundly as they were. Though perhaps the constant state of dread he had endured throughout his time with the yakuza had instilled him with this reaction. But right now, even their leader looked unassuming from this perspective. He was seated in the only chair in the room with his head leaned against the wall. One of his arms rested in his lap palm-up while the other hung limply at his side. The hands he used to cover himself were collected in a grisly pile beneath the seat.

It didn't look like Toga or Mr. Compress were here, probably finding some other place to sleep rather than this cramped room. That only left one more member. Tokoyami lifted his head off the pillow just an inch, and that movement caused the bed to creak ever so slightly. But sure enough, Dabi was here too. He was sitting on the ground next to door, probably so that he could respond quickly to whoever tried to enter. His knees were up close to his chest and his head was downturned, so he couldn't be entirely certain that he was asleep.

He didn't have to wait long to alert them, though. Spinner shifted next to them, cracking an eye open. When Tokoyami rested his head back on the pillow, he finally took notice.

"Ah! Tokoyami, did you wake up?"

Someone got better at realizing my movements, Tokoyami thought to himself, remembering the last time Spinner had been in charge of him as the room groggily came to life.

"You are, aren't you!" The excitement in Spinner's voice was evident. Tokoyami closed his eyes in the hopes of blocking him out. "Hey, you better not go back to sleep, I wanna get out of this place!"

Then just leave. Tokoyami opened his beak to speak and was rewarded with a hoarse whine.

Spinner stood up uncertainly, but Twice took precedence and rushed to his bedside. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be dying right now? I was so worried about you!" Twice had his hands on the edge of the bed and was looking him over uncertainly to gauge his well-being, effectively obstructing his view of the room.

A raspy voice rang out icily, getting everyone's attention. "Twice, calm down or I'll kick you out of here. Spinner, go tell Mr. Compress and Toga that he's finally awake."

"Huh? Ah… sure," Spinner muttered before hesitantly taking his leave. It looked like he wanted to say something, but went with following orders instead.

An uncomfortable silence filled the air in the wake of the door closing behind Spinner. The sound of a chair creaking could be heard, and Twice stepped away from the bedside with a sigh. Tokoyami made the effort of turning his head to the other side so that he could face the wall instead. It was a preferable view, to be sure, staring down the concrete surface.

"So you made it through after all," Shigaraki rasped. Tokoyami could hear him already scratching at his own throat. Awake for not even ten seconds and he was fretting over something. "You should know that you caused plenty of trouble, putting yourself back on the radar like that. But most of that trouble has ended up being Overhaul's downfall, not ours, so I think I can forgive you for that."

"That's fine for you, maybe, but not me," came a snarl from the corner.

Tokoyami gave up trying to avoid them and turned back around to face the room. Twice was still near his bed, but was now looking between him and the boss. Shigaraki hadn't strayed far from his chair, and Dabi had likewise stayed next to where he'd been resting. They both looked less than enthused, despite Twice's excited outburst.

Dabi was glaring pointedly at Tokoyami. "You used your quirk too much and almost got killed because of it. I thought I was training you to be better than that, and then you disregard everything I tell you? Do what you want, but don't waste my time."

Tokoyami hadn't expected to be confronted like this, least of all in a way that actually cut deep. He could feel the heat rising in his face, and was only grateful that his feathers covered it. For how much he wanted to hate the people responsible for putting him in this situation, it still felt as though he had to uphold personal responsibilities. Right now it was almost like he was being berated by Aizawa for acting out of line as a student. Only right now he was being talked down to for jeopardizing his own self-preservation.

Tokoyami tried to speak again, but his throat was so dry that he was again unsuccessful.

"Don't force yourself," Twice murmured quietly, his masked face etched in concern.

"Maybe he should," Shigaraki snapped, interjecting. "It's good that you're awake – that means we can leave here and get back on track."

"On track of what? We're working with jack shit right now," Dabi scoffed. Something that Tokoyami hadn't been prepared for was just how tired the villain looked. He never looked good – that was a given with his stapled together flesh and rough appearance. But at the moment he looked haggard, his eyes listless and his clothes reeking of burnt flesh more so than usual.

Before Shigaraki could bite back with a response, the door was flung open and Dabi had to step aside to avoid being hit with it. Toga was inside the room before anyone could object, with Spinner and Mr. Compress coming up wearily behind her.

"Heeey, sleepyhead! I heard you're back up and running!" Toga said a bit too cheerily, making a beeline for him. She took a seat on the edge of his bed without waiting for anyone to stop her, and Tokoyami grunted in pained surprise.

"Contrary to that, I don't think our little companion here will be running for some time," Mr. Compress commented wryly. "But this, at least, is a step in the right direction!"

"Toga, get off his bed," Dabi growled. "He doesn't need to lose any more blood because of you."

"Awww~" Toga slid off the bed dejectedly until she was sitting on the floor directly beneath him. "I brought him back alive, didn't I?"

"Uh, we did, that is," Twice corrected. "Besides, we hardly got a passing grade with this piss-pore result!"

"You guys are so judgmental! It totally could've been worse." Toga turned up to Tokoyami. "Can you believe them? Twice even ratted me out and made me return some of your blood for the transfusion," Toga sighed dramatically, knowing how much they'd asked of her.

"Some?" Twice spluttered. "How much did you take?!"

Toga rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I don't think that's the biggest issue right now."

"Toga – !"

"Just drop it," Shigaraki ordered. The ringleader had stopped scratching, but suddenly looked a lot more tired. The rest of the party were looking to him expectantly, and he took the brief moment of silence to pull his chair to the center of the now cramped room, sitting backwards on it so that he could rest his arms on the backrest. "Let's cut to the chase. Tokoyami, you're well aware that you ended up back with us. I'm sure that's not what you had in mind, but that's what I was banking on. Granted, I didn't think it would happen like this but beggars can't be choosers—"

"And rest assured, we are beggars," Mr. Compress quipped.

Shigaraki put a hand to his head, massaging his temple. He also looked thoroughly done with this whole ordeal, and Tokoyami got the impression that more had happened in the past few days than what he knew. "As I was saying, we picked you three up after the Overhaul… incident. And we've been at this underground hospital making sure you don't die ever since."

"We've also been browsing the ads of the local newspapers looking for new potential villain headquarters," Dabi remarked dryly.

"That's…" Shigaraki let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah. That too."

Tokoyami looked over at Twice uncertainly. There was a lot he could say, but not nearly enough time or energy to do so. When he spoke, it was faint and difficult, scratching at his throat. "Last… place?"

But Twice understood. "The last place we had you at was one of All for One's facilities, but we can't use it anymore. It wasn't that great anyway!"

Spinner leaned against the wall at the foot of Tokoyami's bed and explained. "Heroes were crawling in the forest and were getting too close. Something about that area had tracked them to our location, so Shigaraki had to ditch."

"Yup! That place is pretty much gone," Toga said, decisive in the matter.

Tokoyami surveyed the room of villains. For a group of people capable of causing so much disruption in society, they certainly didn't seem very powerful or even remotely capable at the moment. Which is when he realized that they were still missing someone, the same person who had netted them that convenient facility in the first place. "Kuro… giri?" Tokoyami knew that the shadowy figure had been preoccupied with various tasks given to him by Shigaraki, but it still felt strange not having him present now, especially with all that the League had gone through.

"He's gone too."

"…Oh."

A growl rose up from where Shigaraki was sitting.

The League looked like they were doing their damnedest to look unassuming, averting their gaze away from their leader and the sore spot that had just been touched.

"It's fine!" he snapped, clearly still not over whatever news Tokoyami had missed. "It's not like anything bad is gonna happen, he'll be just fine. And – and we might not be better off, but we'll still be alright. Just because our deal with those yakuza bastards flopped and we don't have a roof over our heads doesn't mean we're in desperate need of having Kurogiri here to help us!" It was obvious to everyone that he was trying and failing to keep his evident frustrations under wraps. It didn't help that at some point he must've clutched the backrest of the chair, because it quickly began to crackle and turn to dust beneath him. With a disgusted sigh, Shigaraki got up off of the chair and kicked it back to the wall where it sadly finished out the rest of its disintegration process. It was almost a good thing that there was no other furniture in the exceedingly cramped room, unless Shigaraki ended up resting his hand on the bed. Tokoyami hoped it didn't come to that. Even if Tokoyami had the vocal capacity to inquire further about just what happened with the League while he'd been absent, he decided he wouldn't want to, at least not with Shigaraki in the room.

"Shit, man, calm down. We didn't say it wasn't fine, just that we didn't see all this coming. Don't throw a hissy fit over it," Dabi scoffed, unapologetic. "Besides, speak for yourself – I still have an apartment to fall back on. Just because we're affiliated with you doesn't mean we got screwed over like you did."

Silence hung in the air as the League processed that.

And Twice promptly broke it. "Geez, Dabi, you don't have to be an ass about it. I'm glad you said it! Someone had to!"

Spinner turned back to Tokoyami. "So yeah, that's kinda the situation we're in right now. Looking for a new space, waiting for you to heal up, and we only have one van and I'm the designated driver. So we're all… here for now."

Tokoyami looked upon the ragtag group of criminals with dismay. After the conniving and organized sinister ability of the yakuza, was this really what he'd been forced to come back to? He wondered, if the heroes saw what he saw, that this group would be regarded the same way. No, I should learn my lesson. I can't undermine them, even now. After all, I'm at their mercy yet again.

"With all due respect, I feel like we could've received better funding if we'd done more with those Precepts," Mr. Compress muttered.

"How can you say that? They took your arm! And Magne and they almost took Tokoyami too!" Twice objected loudly. "I can't believe they never even gave me a paycheck for working with them," he sulked, switching his vocal opinion.

"Ah, yes, but it's the principal of the matter—!"

"And now we get to put all that behind us," Shigaraki rasped, absent-mindedly rolling the leg of his destroyed chair beneath his foot. "I think we dealt with them appropriately, and even though it wasn't what we had in mind, we still ended up on top."

I… somehow doubt that.

"Aww, don't think that we can just forget them all, though. Like, I'm glad we got our revenge and stuff, but not all the yakuza were that bad," Toga giggled. "Some of them were super fun to mess with, too! Hey, Jin, that expression on the angry dude's face was hilarious, right? Fumikage, too! You were there when I was playing around with Touya!" She sighed dreamily. "I had to do some difficult stuff, but I had a lot of fun too and I kinda hope I can mess with those losers again someday."

Ah, she means Setsuno. Tokoyami nodded his head numbly, remembering the pleasure she took in terrorizing the naïve yakuza, but he wasn't sure what the rest of the League would think. Nobody really seemed to mind her outburst and reminiscence of the horrors they had endured, rather accepting that this was probably something that had happened. Of course Toga had made the most of a shitty situation.

But then there was Dabi, who looked like he'd been caught off guard by something. He had a hand over his mouth to conceal his expression, but he couldn't hide the way his brow furrowed, as though something Toga had said had left him troubled. Nobody else in the room seemed to take notice of his reaction, though.

He didn't have long to dwell on that when the door opened up yet again, bumping into Spinner and forcing the villains near the door to shuffle awkwardly out of the way to let them enter. Whoever it was muttered a curse at the cramped conditions.

"I thought you all were being awfully loud," sighed a young man with shoulder-length wiry brown hair and a tired demeanor. Judging by the medical case at his side and the dirty off-white physician's coat he wore over his normal clothes, he was the doctor in charge. "I've told you before to be considerate of the other patients here and keep your voices down, but I see now why you got so excitable…"

The medic scooted his way into the room, all the while being eyed by members of the League who wondered if he would misstep. But he didn't seem to care much about their presence or whether they posed a threat to him. He noticed the crumbled chair remnants next to the wall, and yet didn't seem particularly alarmed. Probably so long as they didn't destroy any expensive medical equipment, he wasn't going to care.

"The sooner you get him healed, the quicker we'll be out of here and then we can all pretend that none of this ever happened," Shigaraki grumbled.

The medic stepped over Toga's legs to get to Tokoyami's bedside and set his supply case on the ground next to Spinner's swords. "I've already told you, it's not that simple. This is a healing process that requires a lot of attention, and if he ends up getting an infection it will end up being a lot more difficult to deal with."

"Well… could you not just make house visits?" Mr. Compress suggested, probably thinking about his own time spent in medical treatment.

He blinked at them, unamused. "…No. My services don't leave this place."

Toga leaned her head back against the bed. "Not to be that person, but if we stay here too long the heroes might track us down, and then you're whole operation will be blown while we get away."

The doctor stayed quiet for a moment while everyone else stared him down like sharks. "In that case, you're going to have to give me a few more days. After that, I'll have to equip you with supplies to continue treatment on the patient and send you on your way. Trust me, I want you out of here too." He made a show of checking the iv stand and going for his aid kit before looking back at the villains that were all but breathing down his neck. "Speaking of which, it'd be easier for me if you all left the room for a short period while I re-dress his wounds. Unless anyone wanted to watch so that they can learn how to do it?"

"Whelp, I'll get out of your hair," Mr. Compress declared.

Spinner skirted towards the door. "I should… also."

The doctor opened up his kit and began sorting through an unorganized stash of gauze rolls and miscellaneous supplies. "I'm not kicking you out, I'm giving you options. I won't stop anyone that's interested in dealing with these bloody bandages."

Toga moved from sitting on the ground to getting to her knees and crossed her arms on the edge of the bed, looking curiously at what he was doing. "Well, when you put it like that," she purred.

"Anyone but you, crazy girl," Dabi called out, gesturing for her to take her leave with the others before following them out himself. Toga bemoaned the unfairness of it, but the glimmer in her eyes showed that not only was she unfazed, but that this was probably for the best.

The room became a lot less confined once they began filing outside to wait in the hall. Shigaraki growled to the doctor in passing. "We've come this far – don't do anything regrettable to that kid that might set us back."

"Oh, please," the doctor scoffed, thoroughly jaded. "I wouldn't waste my resources if I didn't think he would bounce back. Just be prepared to pay me back someday, or the next time one of you League types need medical attention nobody will want to take you in."

Shigaraki bit his lip and averted his gaze in what might've been embarrassment. "Put it on Giran's tab… we'll compensate you for this soon enough."

Shigaraki left the room sullenly. Spinner dogged his heels, pausing long enough to finish the conversation. "A-ah, In other words, thank you for doing this."

"It's not like I had a choice," the doctor sighed as the rest of the villains filed out of room. Twice hung back a moment longer, looking between his two options and trying to decide. When Shigaraki barked at him to either follow or stay in the room, he ended up leaving with them. By the end of it, they'd all left the room. Though judging by the sounds in the hallway, they were waiting just outside the door, whispers of conversation being passed between them.

The doctor began setting up his supplies to change whatever bandages Tokoyami had. Now that they weren't being surrounded by villains, Tokoyami was able to get a better look at who was treating his injuries. The underground physician couldn't have been much older than late twenties, but his profession looked to have aged him beyond that. He had sharp eyes burdened by heavy bags and nimble fingers that sorted through his healing supplies with deft movements.

"Everyone else is pretty aware of your current condition, so I suppose I should catch you up to speed on what's happened since they brought you in three days ago," the doctor began, peeling back the blanket. Tokoyami saw that he was dressed in loose gray cotton clothes, the tattered rags of his yakuza outfit long gone. When the doctor lifted his shirt, there was an elaborate covering of bandages and patches covering the mess that was his abdomen. "I had to perform surgery to stitch up the internal damage – the sutures will dissolve over time. Unfortunately the wound was so deep and irregular that I couldn't stitch up the surface, so it'll have to heal slowly from the inside out, meaning almost daily gauze changing for a while. As it is now, there was no way I could stitch it up properly without risk of infection. Maybe after a couple weeks if you were brought back in I could stitch it up properly, but that's up to them." He gestured vaguely to the door. "Either way, it's gonna leave a pretty nasty scar. I thought at first that it was gonna be worse, but once we got you stabilized it looked a lot more manageable. It'll just take some time to heal, as most things do. There's also an injury on your leg that I actually was able to stitch up, and a bunch of smaller cuts that will heal up pretty quick. Don't worry though, I'll make sure you don't end up looking like that stapled together guy and…"

Tokoyami looked at him with sadness in his eyes and defeat etched into his core, numb to his explanations and poor attempts at light-heartedness in the aftermath of how much hurt had been placed upon him.

The doctor ran a hand through his hair, weariness evident in every movement.

"Look. You took quite a beating. I have no idea what you went through, and I care too much about my own life to ask. So I don't know if what I'm doing is actually "helping" you or if this is just for the benefit of the League of Villains that are snooping outside that door." A shuffling of footsteps from outside indicated that someone at least was listening while the others chatted amongst themselves in secret. "Whatever circumstances brought you to my door, I hope you can consider yourself lucky."

Tokoyami had to think about that. He thought back to everything that had spared him for the sake of continuing this miserable endurance of a scattered life. He thought of how Dark Shadow had fought so selflessly – or maybe it was selfish, trying to keep him alive for their shared existence? – and how the quirk had taken all that it could to keep his body intact, even the attack that had been meant for that hero but had instead left him this horrid wound. He thought back to Eri in the height of the battle, how he'd briefly held the terrified girl and felt her quirk rush over him. In that brief moment where he'd said his good-byes to her, he remembered feeling the wound in his abdomen trying desperately to stitch itself back together, rewinding to a time where it hadn't existed, before he had to willingly surrender her if he wanted to keep fighting and put a stop to that process. And he thought back to Overhaul, who this time around had tried to do everything within his power to tear apart his body, but had been so spiteful and unsound during the aboveground battle that he wasn't able to do much more than rip at his quirk and try to snatch Eri. After everything, after sustaining so much and bearing the pain, Tokoyami had to acknowledge that it could've been so much worse, that he could've been dead. Or, and this possibility struck him as well, that he'd be alive yet more horribly crippled, and still be in the care of villains. He shuddered to think what his fate would be like then.

Amidst the bleakness of his pain and drudgery, at least he could remind himself of the people who'd hopefully gotten out of this ordeal better than him. Eri was in the hero's care and Midoriya had made it through the fight from what he hazily remembered. Nighteye would hopefully make it through as well, though the fate of his arm was uncertain, and Lemillion didn't appear to have any fatal injuries last he saw him, though the loss of his quirk was a different matter… Tokoyami wasn't sure if he could've fought any harder to make these results any better than they already were. Alternatively, he wondered what the consequences would've been had he not done everything he had. If he hadn't put his body before others, pushed his quirk so hard, and taken that drug, then would the heroes still have been able to win?

If he kept telling himself that these sacrifices were needed – that he'd had to do everything the way he had and edge ever closer to self-destruction – then soon enough he would believe it.

Tokoyami watched the doctor change his bandages. "Why are you doing this?" he croaked.

The doctor eyed him suspiciously. "That depends. Do you think what I'm doing is good or bad?"

"You're helping… criminals."

"Correction, I'm helping you. People come to me because I don't turn anyone away. I treat people from all walks of life and don't ask questions. It's just better that way."

"Don't you worry… about spreading hurt?"

The doctor paused in contemplation. He looked around the room is if trying to find something. His eyes locked on the pile of dust that was once a chair and his shoulders slumped before he turned back to his patient with a tired breath. "You're asking an awful lot of questions for someone who found himself in my care. Don't think I don't recognize who you are." Tokoyami looked away regretfully. "But that's not my business. It was either this or those villains that hang around you would be left with a dead child on their hands. Now pay attention to what I'm doing – I doubt any one of them will volunteer to change your bandages, so you'll likely have to do that yourself."

The doctor began changing out the bandages, removing gauze from the open wound with gloved hands. "It'd be better if you had a speedy recovery. It will make your future with these guys more manageable if you can just be prepared for whatever they have in store. Because if I'm being blunt, I don't think anyone will be able to help you once you leave here… Sorry about that, kid."

Tokoyami watched the medical process in silence, resigning himself to the slow healing process and the cards that had been dealt to him.