Chapter 9 - Stepping out of the Shade

The first-years were given two days off after the Sports Festival to rest up while the other years did their Festivals. With nothing to do during the daylight hours, Tomo chose to spend his time wisely and do absolutely nothing productive. However, no matter how much he slept during the break, he couldn't shake off the new tiredness that ached his body.

"Tomo?"

"…"

"Oi, Tomo…"

"…"

"Hey stupid, get up.."

"Huh?" Tomo woke up to the violent shaking of his shoulder. He blinked rapidly a few times to see that he was on a crowded train.

"Get up, stupid. It's our stop. Hurry," Toru loudly whispered to him while tugging his arm.

"Oh, right," Tomo mumbled sleepily as he trailed his sister out the train.

"By the way, I'm going shopping after school today with some of the girls. Don't wait for me, 'kay?" Toru said as they walked towards their school. The two were huddled together underneath an umbrella as rain heavily fell down around them.

"Uh huh."

"If it's still raining, I don't think we'll go, though. So don't worry about the umbrella."

"Uh huh."

"You know, you should make some friends with the people in our class and hang out with them too. They're all so nice and understanding. You can't be a loner forever. Maybe you should see if Kirishima wants to hang out."

"Uh huh."

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Uh huh."

"Tomo!" Toru exclaimed as she pulled the umbrella away from above Tomo, drenching him in water. "Are you going to be like this all day?"

"Huh? Oh! Sorry. I'm awake, I'm awake," Tomo said as he rubbed his eyes. "What were you saying? Something about you not having any friends?"

"WHAT?!"

Tomo laughed. "I already knew that. You don't have to brag ab- HEY!"

Toru twirled the umbrella in his direction, splashing him with the water that was collecting on top of it.

"What I was actually saying is that I'm hanging out with some friends after school if it's not still raining by then. I know the concept of hanging out with friends is foreign to you so I'll spell it out for you. Don't wait for me."

"Uh huh."

"Tomo!"

"Hey! I was just joking that time! Let me back in under the umbrella! Toru!" Tomo chased after Toru as she ran away from him, umbrella in hand, as rain continued pouring all over Tomo's clothes and body.

When did I let her hold the umbrella? She's the one who forgot her's and then she runs off with mine? After they turned the corner, Toru benevolently let him back in under the umbrella.

"I hope that'll teach you not to ignore me," Toru pouted in fake anger. "Are you awake now?"

The thought to respond with "uh huh" again crossed his mind. "More than before. I think I went too hard during the Sports Festival. My muscles are still aching and no amount of sleep is making it go away. I can't function like this. You go on ahead. I'm gonna go buy some coffee."

Toru paused. "Um… about the umbrella."

"You take it. I'll be fine."

"Okay, don't have to tell me twice. Don't take too long."

"Of all the days it rained, it just had to be today," Tomo grumpily mumbled to himself after the two separated ways. He held up a hand and created an umbrella of Darkness as he looked around for the nearest coffee shop.

The barista of the coffee shop he found not too far from school was a middle-aged man, who greeted him with a smile. "Hello, what can I get you, lad?"

"One large Espresso, please," Tomo answered.

"Coming right up," the man answered him with a smile. A look of recognition crossed his face as he looked at Tomo properly. "Hey, I know you. You're that kid from the Sports Festival, right? You were in the final rounds, right?"

"That's me," Tomo answered quietly, hoping no one else in the shop would hear what the man said. Unfortunately, everyone nearby heard him.

"Wow, he's right. It really is him!"

"He was so cool at the Festival!"

"He should have made it to the finals in my opinion…"

Tomo felt his ears burn up at all the attention he was receiving. Great. Just great. I just wanted a energy boost but now I can't just leave without saying anything. Alright. It's okay. This will train me for when I'm a real hero. I'll have to do this all the time… God, I hate small talk…

"Uh, thank you all for your support," Tomo spoke to the growing crowd in a slightly louder voice. That let down the metaphorical flood gates as they bombarded him with questions.

"Hey, what kind of hero do you want to be?"

"Do you think you should have won your semifinal match?"

"Is it true that the invisible girl is your twin?"

"What's your hero name?"

"Hey, can you sign this for me?"

He felt a headache settling in at all their questions. He involuntarily took the notebook someone held in his face to sloppily write his name with their pen. Before he had to answer their questions, however, the barista came back with his drink. "Here you go, lad. Enjoy."

Tomo graciously took the cup and took a nice, refreshing sip. "I'm sorry I can't answer your questions, everyone. I have to get to class."

He hurried out of the store after paying before anyone could stop him.


Tomo's morning detour prevented him from napping before homeroom started. Aizawa walked in moments after he arrived and told them the agenda for the day: hero names and internship offers. He started by sharing with the class the number of offers some of the students got.

"Wow, Tomo, 1007 offers?! Not bad!" Toru tapped his shoulder repeatedly in excitement. "I wish I had gotten some, too…"

"Nice job, Hagakure. You earned it," Shoji commented from the seat next to him.

"Thanks, guys," Tomo replied earnestly. "I couldn't have done it without your aid in the second round, Shoji. And please, call me Tomo."

Midnight walked into the classroom shortly after, announcing that she would be judging their hero name choices to make sure they were appropriate.

"When you give yourself a name, you give yourself a concrete image of what you want to be like in the future, and you can get closer to it," Mr. Aizawa finished saying to the class before pulling out his sleeping bag to nap, much to Tomo's despair. Why couldn't that be me?

Whiteboards and markers were passed out to the class for the students to write their hero names on.

As Tomo turned around to pass the set of whiteboards to Toru, Bakugo whispered to him. "Hey, Baggy Eyes."

Toru also turned around, hesitating to pass Bakugo the whiteboards because of the rage he exuded. She rotated her body sideways and and moved a bit to the side as if blocking Tomo's view.

Tomo met Bakugo's eyes and saw him glaring at him with a look that Tomo knew was going to give him another headache. Rage laced his voice as he whispered, "This isn't over, you hear me? Apparently, some people think you should have won our match instead of me. We're fighting again to prove that my win was legitimate."

It's too early in the morning for this. Even if I wasn't so tired, just listening to him argue would have made me tired. "No, Bakugo, you won our match fair-and-square. I would have given you the victory even if they declared me the victor. Just take the whiteboard and continue on."

His answer, along with how unconvincing it sounded, made Bakugo even more angry. "I don't need your pity to win! My victories will be undisputed! You better be trying your hardest next time. There'll be no room for doubt in my win next time."

Tomo turned back around. "Sure."

"Hey! Don't ignore me! This isn't—"

"Just take the stupid board already," Toru hissed.

Bakugo looked at her with a scowl, as if noticing her for the first time. He angrily mumbled to himself and took the whiteboard. "This isn't over."

After a few minutes of quiet deliberation, it was time for the class to share their hero names with everyone.

When it was his turn, Tomo walked up to the front of the classroom, board in hand, as he faced his classmates. He held up his board at them. "Darkness Hero: Totality," the board read.

"Totality is the time during an eclipse when it is the darkest and I thought that it was fitting with my theme," Tomo explained plainly. It also tied in with his Total Darkness abilities but that wasn't something he really wanted to share with everyone.

His classmates and Midnight approved of his name and Tomo took a seat. Toru went up next.

"Originally, I was going to go with something obvious like 'Invisible Girl,' but recently, I changed my mind."

She looked at Tomo and he could feel her smiling at him.

"Instead, I'll go with this." She revealed her board to the class. "Stealth Hero: Shinechaser," it read. "My hero name to me is about a goal that I want to pursue. A reminder to me of a shine that I will chase and achieve."

As she made her way back to her seat, Tomo couldn't help the smile on his face as he remembered their conversation during the Sports Festival. She really took what I said to heart.


Whether it was on a random whim or if Toru's words actually got to him in his sleepy state that morning, Tomo decided to eat lunch that day in the cafeteria instead somewhere quiet by himself. As if he had the eyes of a hawk, Kirishima picked him out from the crowd as soon as he entered the cafeteria. "Yo, Tomo! Come sit with us man!"

Tomo shrugged and listened, seeing no reason to deny the offer. He took an open seat next to the boy. Sero, Kaminari, Jiro, Ashido, and, to his slight concern, Bakugo, were also sitting at the table. They all greeted him kindly as he sat down, except for Bakugo, who briefly glared at him in anger before going back to his food. Tomo gave him a single glance before also focusing on his own food.

"So, Tomo, have you picked a hero to intern with yet?" Kirishima asked.

"Not yet. There's a lot of offers to go through," Tomo replied before taking a bite of his food.

"Must be nice to have sooo many offers to choose from," Kaminari complained dramatically.

"Must be nice to have offers to choose from," Ashido retorted with a pout. "I didn't get a chance to show off my skills."

Tomo's eyes widened in alarm at her comment. "Oh. My bad, Ashido. I should have given you a chance to show off your skills to the crowd. Please, forgive me."

Ashido gave him a disarming smile. "Relax, relax, it wasn't your fault. You were trying your best and did what you had to do to win. No hard feelings from me."

"Are… are you sure?" Tomo asked, unconvinced. Guilt was seeping into him since he wasn't really himself when he beat her. Had he been normal on that day, she could have had more of a chance to show off.

She nodded. "Yup! Although… if you want to make it up to me… I wouldn't mind being treated to some food sometime when you're free," she finished with a devious smile and a wink.

Tomo nodded, relieved at the easy out she was giving him to ease his guilt. "I shall look into making it up to you then, thank you."

Ashido deflated at his straightforward answer. Jiro smirked and patted her back. Kaminari looked back and forth between Ashido and Tomo in disbelief. "It's that easy…?" the boy mumbled under his breath.

"Oi, Baggy Eyes?!" Bakugo interjected. "What about me?"

Tomo turned his attention back to Bakugo. "Huh? You want food, too? Is my lunch good enough?"

"No, you idiot. A fight. I want a fight. Not your shitty food. You didn't answer me this morning. That you'll fight me. I'll crush you and show you that you're nothing but another extra in my way."

"Oh," Tomo replied in relief. Thank god I don't have to give up this lunch. How can he call something this good shitty?

Then, he really registered what Bakugo was saying. He scowled.

"Look, you won, I'm not denying that, but, don't think you're better than me. I can beat you any day of the week. I was just tired that day and you got lucky. So, yeah, I'm game for a rematch. How about next time our class spars for Heroics class, you and I can have a match. And I'll crush you."

"In your dreams! All I hear from you is pathetic excuses. You'll never reach my level because I'll be number one! You better not chicken out when it's time," Bakugo replied accusingly.

"It's not an excuse!" Tomo retorted before being interrupted.

"Anyway! You guys got your rematch so let's move on!" Kirishima interjected in an effort to break the tension between the boys. He looked back at Tomo. "Do you want us to help you decide where to go for your internship?"

Tomo angrily took another bite of his food in an effort to calm himself down. Bakugo seemed to always find just the right things to say to really frustrate him. He turned to look at Kirishima and the others instead. "You guys would do that?" he asked.

"Of course!" Kirishima replied with a grin. A few others mentioned that it would be interesting to see some of his offers.

Tomo reached into his bag and pulled out a notebook. He put it on the table and opened it to the first page. The students at the table saw a neatly organized list filling up the entire page. "I've listed and categorized my offers by hero strength and Quirk strength. They're two separate things, by the way, in case you guys weren't sure. In blue are the heroes whose Quirks are emitter types and in yellow are the heroes with mutant Quirks. Green are the composite ones. Obviously, I'm more interested in heroes with emitter-type Quirks like myself. They probably have more to teach me but that doesn't mean I'm not open to other types..."

While he was explaining his list, Tomo happened to look up. All of his tablemates were looking at him strangely with the exception of Bakugo, who seemed to be quietly watching and listening to his explanation. "Are you guys alright?"

His question was met with silence. Bakugo turned away from him to look back down at his food, muttering something inaudible under his breath. Eventually, Kaminari broke the silence. "Uh, yeah, dude. I think I just got lost a bit in your explanation."

"I didn't expect you to be so thorough with your decision. Respect!" Kirishima added.

"How did you find the time to compile and organize this?" Sero asked, stunned in disbelief.

"It's kinda relaxing to do this kind of stuff for me. Not much mental effort is required to organize this stuff. And besides, I have nothing else to do at night…" Tomo replied casually.

The rest of his classmates continued looking at Tomo strangely. None of them offered any suggestions on how to further narrow his list like they offered.

"At night? You did this in your free time at night?" Kaminari asked.

"Yup."

Kaminari continued looking at him in shock. "How much freetime do you have at night? Do you not sleep?"

"Not at night…" Tomo replied, a bit more quietly this time.

"Wait, what?" Ashido interjected. "You don't sleep at night? Seriously?"

"Yeah… I can't sleep at night," Tomo answered, feeling more and more uncomfortable at the direction of the conversation. He actually never told anyone about his issues at night besides figures of authority who needed to know.

Three of his classmates then spoke at the same time.

"Hey, guys? I don't think we should pressure him on this…" Kirishima said, sensing the discomfort.

"Is that why you're always sleeping during class?" Ashido asked as if something clicked in her head.

"Why can't you sleep at night?" Sero asked politely.

All three of them looked at each other awkwardly. Then, at Tomo.

"Uh…" Tomo started.

"No, Kirishima is right, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, man. It's alright," Sero said.

"Yeah," Ashido added. "Sorry for getting so personal."

"No, it's fine," Tomo said quickly. He looked around at his classmates, trying to decide if they would judge him for his answer. His searching gaze was met with smiles and apologetic looks. He remembered Toru's words from that morning, "You should try making friends with some of the people in our class. They're all nice and understanding."

"It's because of my Quirk. Darkness isn't kind to me. Ever. At night, when it's at its strongest, sleeping becomes… very inconvenient. So on the nights where it's not too overwhelming, I spend my time doing simple tasks that don't require heavy concentration. Things like this or mainly just watching the Moon. Lets me focus on suppressing my Quirk. Can't really do much else at night when everyone else is sleeping…"

His answer was met with a loud silence as all of his classmates stared at him with open mouths, except for Bakugo, who didn't even look like he was listening as he continued eating his food. Tomo looked down at his food in embarrassment. Maybe I shouldn't have told them.

"That's rough."

"Sorry to hear man."

"That makes a lot of sense."

"Thanks for sharing that with us."

Tomo looked up sheepishly to see his classmates looking at him sympathetically. Then, the conversation continued as normal.

"Did you guys study for Mr. Ectoplasm's math test?"

"Oh shoot! That's not today, right? I didn't even start studying!"

"Nah bro, it's on Friday. Do you need help? I think Bakugo is pretty good at math."

"Shut up, I'm not wasting my breath helping you on such simple subjects like algebra. Learn it yourself!"

"See? I bet if you pester him a bit more, he can show you some pointers."

"Like hell I would!"

Tomo listened to them in stunned silence. They care? They're… so nice. They didn't judge me for my weakness or laugh at me like I was saying something crazy. And then they just moved on. Wow.

"I can help you with algebra, Kaminari. I study at night quite often," Tomo spoke up.

Kaminari looked at him like he was an angel. "Really? You would do that? Thanks man, I owe ya one!"

Tomo nodded with a small smile.

"How about we all schedule a group study session after school today? We can all help each other out!" Kirishima suggested.

"Oh, sounds great!"

"I'm down."

"Yeah!"

"Tomo? Bakugo?" Kirishima asked.

"Sure, I can come," Tomo replied.

"Why the hell would I ever do something like that? You would all just drag me down!" Bakugo responded.

"No problem, bro, maybe next time," Kirishima replied casually.

The conversation continued to flow, with everyone making plans about what they wanted to study and how they could help each other. Then, it slowly drifted back towards the internships again. Tomo turned to Bakugo, an idea popping in his head as he figured his classmate probably had a similar issue of sorting through his offers. "Hey, Bakugo, how about you? Do you know where you're going?"

"Obviously I know where I'm going! I'm only going to the strongest hero. Best Jeanist. It's not worth my time to go to any weakling."

"Isn't he only number four? How is he the strongest hero?" Tomo commented.

"Shut up, Baggy Eyes! I'll kill you!"

Kaminari, who was listening to their side conversation, laughed. "I think he's got you there, Bakugo."

"You too, Pikachu! I'll kill you too!"

Tomo turned back to his list. Only the strongest hero. Is it really as simple as picking the highest ranked hero on the list? The fastest way to get stronger is to learn from the strongest, I guess. Bakugo might have a point there.

He looked at the top of his list, where the highest ranked hero offers were. Crust. Ranked Number Six. Quirk: Shield. User can generate hexagon-shaped shields that they can use for both offensive and defensive purposes. He wields Shields like I sometimes use Darkness. He's held the number six spot for a long time. He has to be skilled. I guess I can learn a thing or two from him.


That night, Tomo and Toru were hanging out in the living room. The low buzz of a television show neither of them were particularly interested in served as nice background noise to fill in the silence of the room. Their mother was still working and Miyu was asleep in her room.

Tomo rolled over lazily on one of the couches to face Toru. "Hey."

"Hey," she replied with the same low amount of energy from the couch across from him.

"Did you decide where you're going yet?"

Toru continued looking at her phone as she answered. "Ya. Not many places to pick from since I didn't get any personal offers. I'm going to some hero called Scald. I dunno much about her but she seems nice, I guess."

"Scald?" Tomo said while typing into his phone to look the hero up. "She's rather low ranked. You sure this is the person you want to learn from? Can she even teach you anything?"

"Like I said, not much to choose from. I guess UA just chose a bunch of safe heroes for us normal people that didn't get any special offers. I guess I'll ask her about close-quarters combat or something. What about you? Did you pick someone yet?"

Tomo shook his head and moved to sit next to Toru on the couch. He put his notebook on the table in front of them. "Can you help me? Do you know anything about these three?"

His sister shifted up in her seat to take a look at his list. "Crust. Keyshine. Warden. I only heard of Crust. He's in the top ten, right?" Toru began typing on her phone to look up the three heroes.

"Yeah. The other two have Quirks that are more compatible with mine but Crust is the highest rank by a large margin. What do you think?"

"Hmm…" Toru said as she continued looking at her phone. "Oh..?! Crust! Please, pick Crust. He's definitely the best match for you."

Tomo eyed her suspiciously, not liking her tone and sudden declaration. "Why?"

"He's in the top ten and you want to get stronger, right? What better way to get stronger than learning from the number six hero?"

"That's what I thought too… But have you seen the videos of him? His personality is… a bit much, no?" Tomo replied. The only reason he didn't instantly pick the number six hero was because of the videos he saw online. The man had an overly energetic personality that Tomo honestly wanted nothing to do with.

"Nope. Tomo, I am overriding your concern. As your sister, classmate, superior, and fellow hero-in-training, I think Crust is your best option. End of discussion!" Toru declared while picking up his notebook and shoving it into his chest.

"You just want to imagine my suffering when I have to deal with him and his energetic personality."

"No comment."

"Keyshine it is…" Tomo said as he opened his notebook again to cross out the last two names on his list.

"Wait! Okay… maybe you were right about that last part," Toru admitted quietly. "But I'm still serious! You shouldn't refuse this opportunity to work with someone so high ranked just because you don't like his personality. Think about it. As a pro hero, you might just have to end up working with the guy. Or others like him. Shouldn't you get used to him now when it's less consequential?"

The sigh of defeat Tomo let out pained his soul. "I guess you have a point…"

"When do I not?" Toru replied smugly.


A/N: Thanks for reading. Lots of rambling for this one. Tomo picks his hero name and the title of the story can finally make sense. It's the path/journey of the hero, Totality, but also the path of totality is an actual term in the real world as Tomo explained. I was pretty proud of it when I thought of it :)

I decided to make Tomo go to Crust because we barely get anything about him in the anime/manga so I though it would be fun to create an original arc and play around with the Crust character. I think it's rather boring when fics just somehow make the character go to Nighteye or some other person we always see and it's the same story just with an OC inserted.

Just a reminder that I do read reviews, even if I don't always respond to them. Feedback does play a part in how I write the story because I have already adjusted some dialogue/added some scenes based on what people said they liked. That doesn't 100% mean I'll listen to all feedback, but I do take into consideration how readers perceive the story. Regardless, reading up to this point is enough to make me happy, so thank you for making it this far. See you next week.