"… Lucifer." Izuku eventually managed to repeat the name, soon blankly staring into his crêpe as if sanity lay buried within, hidden deep within the rolled folds or obscured by the mound of cream.
"Yep." Alas, Justice was a blunt reminder that reality was not so kind.
"As in… Satan?"
"M-hm." Modeus grunted.
"The most blatantly evil figure ever portrayed in mythology."
"Yup." Justice again.
"The being who literally popularised the 'deal with the devil' as a horrible idea."
"Ye." it seemed a single crêpe-less Cerberus had returned from the fountain.
"The world-renowned Fallen Angel turned ruler of Hell."
"That's the one." Justice confirmed, "You really know your mythology."
"And-" Izuku's mind raced to keep up with the situation, before crashing into the pit stops of disbelief as a spectacular fireball, "and… And you…" he weakly pointed a finger at Justice, "Call her Lucy."
"Well I'm sure as hell not about to call her 'Queenie', now am I?"
"Th-That's not the point!" he had to hold back an insane bark of laughter at her priorities, "That would be like calling you-" what, what could I even call her? 'Justy'? 'Sticia'? His eyes scrambled, landing on the next demon he found, "I-It would be like if I called Miss Modeus Momo-"
"Ohhhhh~" Izuku regretted everything, "Already on to pet names, are we Zuzu?"
"N- Th- I-" trying to get a word out while his brain was overloading and head overheating proved difficult, "I was j-just using it as an example, Miss Modeus-"
"Modeus." the demon in question glanced up from her reading to give him a playful look, "Just Modeus. Unless you like MILFs, but then you should call me momm-"
"MODEUS IT IS!" Izuku was sincerely regretting giving her the phone.
"Question." Todoroki raised a hand quietly. Glancing his way, he also found that Hagakure had buried her face into her crêpe, mouth forgetting to chew while her mind was busy with the revelation Justice had just casually dropped on them.
"Shoot." the revelation-dropper replied casually to Todoroki.
"Why would the grand Overlord of Hell want to chase Izuku."
"GOOD QUESTION!" Hagakure raised her head frantically, accidentally hitting Todoroki with some stray whipped cream. "S-Sorry…" the boy simply shrugged, wiped the cream off of his face, and ate it, eyes focused on Justice's imminent answer all the while. While the girl turned invisible from embarrassment and/or shock, the answer came.
"Your Quirk." Justice nodded towards Izuku, "It's… Ridiculous."
"Um…" he blinked, stupefied at the complete change in topics, "Thanks?"
"It is pretty strong." Todoroki added.
"Like Earth's 'pretty big'…" apparently Hagakure considered that an understatement.
"It's more than that." Justice cut back in, "Most Quirks only affect physical characteristics, even emitters-" she nodded towards Todoroki, "Only alter your ability to affect physical objects or forces."
"But what about mental-based Quirks?" Izuku asked.
"They enable interaction between minds on the material level; messing with brain chemistry, neural impulses, that kinda stuff. Illusory Quirks may affect the cornea or even visual cortex, mind control may make you highly suggestible to that person via hijacking the neural impulses between your conscious brain and physical actions, or maybe screw with neuromodulators to affect conscious thought. With enough training to dissociate themselves from their perceived physical form, i.e. material brains, demons and deceased souls alike can become almost completely immune to those Quirks. But yours…" she shook her head, "Yours extends to your entire soul. That shouldn't be possible."
"That's…" Izuku tried to process what she'd said, but soon realised there was no easy way to grasp what she was saying. He'd known One for All was unique - as far as he was aware, a Quirk being passed down via DNA was otherwise unheard of. But that was only from his own, limited knowledge. A single young Japanese citizen born centuries (or, 2 at least) after Quirks manifested.
If a demon that- wait wasn't she insulted when Modeus claimed the Roman Empire was old? Didn't that fall like 2 millennia ago?!
If an ancient demon said something 'shouldn't be possible', he doubted his ability to properly comprehend the ramifications of that. Instead, he settled on something simple:
"Is that why my soul is so bright to you?"
"Sort of. More like you've got a remarkably pure soul which is being amplified to absurd levels."
"Ok… And that's why Cerberus thinks I…" he flushed red for a moment, hesitant to even glance at the smiling dog-demon, "'Smell nice'…?" Justice nodded, "And why Modeus-"
"It's Momo now." the demon interrupted.
"That's just confusing." Hagakure pointed out.
"Nah." Justice ignored the two and waved off the thought, "She's just naturally thirsty."
"… Should I get her some water?" Todoroki asked innocently.
"I'd prefer a chalice of Izuku's-"
"Your poINT?!" he asked Justice frantically with a squeak.
"Right, right." she nodded and leaned forward, mercifully getting back to the original topic, "The point is that your Quirk is unique in how it directly impacts your soul. As in, 'is-the-first-of-its-kind-and-was-believed-to-be-theoretically-impossible' unique. And as you may have figured out by now, souls are kinda important when it comes to demons, and more importantly…"
"… How demons can gain power…" Izuku's eyes widened as Justice confirmed his suspicion.
"Forget making deals for power or training in combat. Absorbing the energy of your soul would basically be a fast-track to making any rank-and-file an arch-demon." Izuku reeled at the statement.
"I'm guessing that's bad." Todoroki checked.
"Not as bad as what happens if an arch-demon gets it. If that happens, they could probably conquer Hell."
"… Huh." Izuku felt like a broken record at this point, but what was he even supposed to say at this point? 'Oh, that's bad'? He'd say it was like claiming water was wet, but at least that could lead to discussion about semantics of language regarding 'wetness' or understanding of water cohesion. This was like saying 'war isn't very nice, actually'.
"Is that a bad thing?" Todoroki's question felt ridiculous-
"Eh, depends on who it is." Justice reminded Izuku of just how little he knew, "If I got it I don't think it'd be bad. Though, obviously I'd say that. Cerberus would probably turn Hell into a buffet," Todoroki paled for the first time in the entire conversation, "Modeus would probably turn it into some insane sex den-"
"I'd fill it with coffee shops and rooms consisting of a single bed." the demon corrected her.
"… Well, then you'd probably get 'Monica's vote. But if Pandemonica got it herself, she'd probably turn it into a hybrid of torture racks and coffee makers."
"I've worked in service. They're the same thing." Hagakure's flat expression betrayed untold suffering.
"Mal would probably just turn the whole thing into a massive video game studio-"
"AAA or Indie?" Izuku asked a stupid but simple question he could at least wrap his head around.
"I have no idea what that means. The point is, it varies, and something that sounds good may turn out to kinda suck when you realise the whole purpose of Hell is to accommodate sinners. But one thing they all have in common?" she turned to Izuku, "You will no longer exist. Your soul will be converted into pure energy which fuels the- well, I guess the now- über-arch-demon's power, who will have absolute control over the direction Hell takes, and who no demon will be able to stop."
The group took a moment to process that eventuality. An unknown demon with absolute control, literal Hell made even worse, Izuku being made... What, super-dead? Is there a second afterlife once you 'stopped existing'? From Justice's tone, he doubted it. But then again he, a mere mortal, kind of assumed Hell wasn't real, so was that the case here? Was there a third afterlife? A fourth? Was it afterlife's all the way down? Izuku didn't know, but he was also supremely confident that he wasn't keen on personally testing that theory.
"… So…" Todoroki started, "Bad."
"Yes." Justice finished her crêpe, "Bad. The only mercy is that only certain individuals are technically qualified to oversee Hell, so unless the soul-stealer was one of them, they wouldn't be able to hold complete control. Still doesn't change Izuku being yeeted into non-existence and who-knows how many people suffering, though."
"Ok… so…" Izuku tried to collect his thoughts, "We… not only have to avoid the… 'watch' of Heaven, and try to outrun Hell's 'pursuing forces', but we could be targeted by… What, usurpers?"
"Pretty much." Justice nodded. Izuku had to start massaging his temples from the migraine he could feel forming, "On the bright side, those pursuing forces will have to avoid Heaven's watch as much as we do, and there's only two arch-demons which I can think of that have the knowledge, power and influence to leave Hell, forcibly take you back and extract your soul efficiently."
"That- That is good…" Izuku nodded, hand running over his face and through his hair as he felt his anxiety start to calm down. This wasn't an impossible task with everyone out to get him, it was a simple task that they could hopefully finish soon. Yes, almost everyone supernaturally powerful seemed to want to end his very existence for the power he apparently held, but they would also be fighting each other. That still wasn't exactly good, but it was far better than 'everyone v. Izuku, three/five demons and two dead teenagers'. Thinking back to the fact that so long as they could reach All Might before they were caught they essentially 'won', he could feel himself calming down after the frankly insane list of threats he'd just been given.
Plus, he had some context on why him failing here wouldn't be just bad, but unbelievably bad. So that was nice.
"And one of those two is Lucifer?" Todoroki checked.
"Yep." Justice confirmed, "The other is the current ruler of Hell, Loremaster-"
*WHOOSH* her statement was interrupted by a pyre of blue flames breaking out atop the first floor of the food court. Their table turned to see a group of… Well, Izuku didn't like to profile, but considering the blatant display of Quirks, slasher smiles and evil chuckling, he was going to go ahead and assume these were villains.
Izuku, Todoroki and Hagakure readied themselves for combat, before Justice motioned for them to stay down, "What part of 'don't bring attention to yourself' don't you understand?"
"B-But those are-"
"Yeah, yeah, bad guys, I know." she lowered her shades to glare at the new arrivals, "Can see their rotten souls from here…" she turned back to the group with shades back on, "But what are you gonna do? Fight in the middle of a crowded shopping centre?" the point brought a moment's clarity to the mortals.
"… We don't have permission to use Quirks in public." Todoroki remembered.
"If we bring too much attention to ourselves, people might see through the filters…" Hagakure realised.
"… We just have to sit here…?" Izuku clenched his fist, unable to accept such a reality.
"If things get real bad we'll jump in. For now, just don't escalate." Justice assured them, motioning for them all to sit down, "But seriously? Flaming it up in a crowded public space? In the middle of the day?" Justice huffed in disapproval, "Who do these jumped-up thugs think they are?"
Dabi was having a good day. The world may be a waking pile of trash, the people in it a dumpster fire, and his life ambitions since he was a child hauntingly hollow, but a mall full of terrified civilians? All shaking like the pathetic little sheep they really were?
It never failed to put a smile on his face.
"Alright!" he vaulted the first floor guard rail, jumping down to into the food court with a rush of blue flames erupting from his feet as he landed. The intimidation factor made the burns and sore knees worth it, 100%. Gesturing grandly, he addressed the crowd "I trust you idiots know the grill?"
His lackeys hurried to catch up with him. Save for one, who tried to jump down to the ground floor following his lead. Points for effort, but crashing into a table face-first and getting covered with miscellaneous food made it a net loss overall.
"You mean drill?" he made to glare at whoever had gotten so wrapped up in a minor detail, only to realise it was the failed acrobat who'd jumped off the railing after him. All he could manage was a pitying stare.
With his miscellaneous goons going around the court to shake everyone down for money, Dabi opted to saunter over to the fountain, content to simply take in the scene. The hapless idiots once so secure in their false peace unable to do anything but hand over whatever they had and bow their heads in defeat. The thugs who thought themselves somehow better just because he hadn't bothered to cremate them yet. A world so long-since engulfed in flames everyone had just grown used to the burns… It was enough to bring a tear to his eye-
"I got some!" a tear that turned into a monsoon, water from the fountain erupting to completely drench the scarred man.
Who in the-
"How much is that?" the culprit asked.
"Mm-mn." turning his head, Dabi found a girl pretending to be a crimson salaryman munching disgustingly on a heart attack in a saccharine wrap.
"Ugh, coins are so icky…" moving his eyes, Dabi found the culprit to be an identical girl in an identical suit still standing in the fountain, "Oh well, we'll just wash out the taste with more!" with that, she dived back into the fountain like some obnoxiously enthusiastic toddler, coating Dabi with another splash.
Fighting the twitching he could feel in his eye, and the pull on his stapled skin that would come with it, he asked the remaining freak as calmly as he could, "Excuse me, little girl…" the girl in question turned to look at him with questioning eyes, "Is that your sister?"
"Isshe" she was too preoccupied scarfing down her snack to form a comprehensible response.
This time he was unable to keep his face from twitching in irritation, "You know, you really shouldn't talk with your mouth full. Especially when your better is addressing you."
"Bwefa?" she snorted in response, a condescending grin somehow making its way through the trash compactor that was her mouth. Was this cocky piece of shit looking down on him?
"Yes. Better." water steamed off of his clothes as he raised his body temperature, "As in, you better take that calamity out of your mouth in the next five fucking seconds and answer me properly, or you and your sister won't live to regret it."
"Bishtaeshty."
… All right. I'm done.
Dabi needed to let off some steam, and this clown was clearly too dumb to live. He backstepped away from the fountain, before throwing his hand forward. An explosion of cerulean flames erupted out, the fountain and girls both consumed by the indigo inferno. Some nonames with functioning survival instincts on the other side leapt out the way, just as the fountain exploded outwards in a burst of steam, the water boiling in mere moments. The steam and smoke mixed into an impenetrable, searing mix. Dabi could feel the heat radiating off of it where he stood. Any human inside it would be dead.
"All right." he lowered his head with a grunt, shaking his hands to wave off the heat, "Just in case anyone was uninformed of what happens when you question the League, here's a smouldering example-"
"You…" a cold voice came from the scorched smoke, cutting Dabi off immediately. He raised his head in shock to face the direction of the voice. As the smoke dissipated, he could make out two sets of glowing red eyes, "You…!" enough cleared to find two standing, unharmed, extraordinarily pissed girls in suits. When enough was clear that the two parties could see each other clearly, their eyes both snapped up to bore into his.
"You ruined MY CRÊPE YOU MONŞ̶̗͙̜͈͓̞̜̫̞̝̠͇̘̱̜̿͊̕͝͝T̵̮̜̟̰̲̹̩̳̦͙̺͍͓͔̫̩̪̤̯͖̙̮̠̯͌͆̀͐̄̿̌̇̒̑͑̚ͅE̴̢̛̲̼͍̥̯̠̘̥̊̀̅̌̍̍͒͆̑͂͋̍̆̀̀͋͘͘͝Ṛ̶͈̯̣̖̝̦̯͛̊͊̋̓̇͒͗̐̈́̊̍̂̐̿̔͗̈͘͠ͅ!̵̨̦̦̤̗̣͉̟̹̜̫̪͎̩̦̰̝̮͕̩̲̼̅͊͜͜"
Glancing towards the hands of the one that spoke, he found the disintegrating charcoal of what may have once been considered food. "Ok…" he ran over his head in frustration, "So you've got, what? Some fireproof Quirk and you think you're hot shit? Just because it can make your eyes glowoh-oHH-WHAT THE FUCK?!" as he tried to reason out how they were still alive, the one sans ex-crêpe fell onto all fours before growing upwards and outwards, a gigantic mutt forming within seconds.
Ok, so what, they've got some transformation Quirk, maybe fireproof-
"Knife!" he shouted to one of his underlings, "Throw a knife at him, dumbass!"
"It's Sharp Blade, man…" despite his sulky complaints, the man did as instructed, an impossibly sharp knife launched right between the beast's eyes with expert aim and lightning speed-
*clink*and the blade just… bounced off.
… The fu- Dabi's thoughts were interrupted as the fire-proof, knife-proof, dog, thing lunged forward. He leapt back, but this thing was faster, leaping forward in a rhythmic bound before grabbing his leg between its teeth. A sharp pain shot through his leg, but the intensity betrayed only that the skin had been pierced, not a bone broken or the limb torn off. The beast lifted him into the air upside down by the leg, his flames of protest rendered mute as the fur simply refused to burn.
Dabi was having a bad day.
"Don't eat him!" If you'd told Izuku five days ago that he would soon be desperately urging a mighty arch-demon of Hell not to devour a seemingly strong and well-known Villain down to the very soul, he'd have been highly skeptical. But then again, he'd have said the same about One for All before being offered its inheritance. He'd have said the same about getting into U.A. He'd have said the same thing about dying on his second day of U.A.
Apparently, life was insane and unpredictable, and not even your own death could stop that.
"Why nooooot?" The human Cerberus next to him groaned, while the Hound dangling the flame villain by the leg looked at him tiled its- no, her -head slightly and looked with round eyes. Like he was telling her off for getting up on the table and not stopping her from committing brutal murder squared.
"Because, um-" Murder is bad arguments don't seem to work so, umm… "It'll draw too much attention…?"
"Got ya there Cerbs." Justice nodded, "Devour a soul in the mortal realm and Heaven will notice, 100%."
"Plus… we'll probably be labelled as vigilantes…" Hagakure pointed out.
"If you pass off her transformation as a Quirk, we technically already ha-" Todoroki soon found his crêpe stuffed into his mouth courtesy of Hagakure. His eyes widened in surprise for a nanosecond, before accepting the new state and enjoying his meal.
"But I'm huungryyyy" Cerberus huffed.
"I'll… Let you have my crêpe?" he offered his meal, barely touched as his mouth was occupied hanging open from the knowledge he'd learnt and events watched unfold at the mere few minutes at this table.
"Deal!" Cerberus chirped happily, before her gaze drifted back to the now-ruined fountain, "Though such haughty mortals still require punishment…"
"What are you-" Izuku was interrupted by the Hound Cerberus smacking the villain on the floor. Then smacking him against a different part of the floor. And another. And another, and then a few more for good measure.
"… Is it too late to say I'm sorry-" the Villain's pleas for mercy, barely heard through his struggles for breath, fell on deaf ears. He was smacked on the floor thrice more before being flung viciously towards one of the exits. He landed directly above the door, half-buried in the plaster while stuck in a pose reminiscent of the stick man that had previously indicated it was an emergency exit.
A moment's silence later and gravity slowly began to peel him off, dropping to the ground flat on his back. The other villains looked from him to the large hound-Cerberus. Hound-Cerberus looked at them.
"R-Run for it!" the villains began to demonstrate that they did possess some degree of intelligence, cutting their losses and scampering out of the emergency exit. As they picked up their… boss? and continued running, he called back in a rage:
"Y-You're in for it now! You'll see what happens when you mess with the League of-"
"*ROAAAAAAAAAAR!*" Hound-Cerberus didn't let them finish. They didn't even take five seconds to clear out after that.
…
…
"Hm…" Cerberus smacked her lips, "Tasted weirdly familiar… Oh well!" she eyed Izuku's meal hungrily.
"… Here you-" he was cut off as Cerberus ate the entire crêpe in a single bite, and his hand was caught in the crossfire. For a moment, he sat there, unable to comprehend the new state, before quickly pulling it back with a yelp. Thankfully, he wasn't missing any fingers, "That's…" he shook his hand to try and get off the new coating of saliva, "G-glad you enjoyed it?" also thank you for not biting my hand off. At this point I'll take that as a victory.
"Damn, I should've done that…" Modeus groaned, "Maybe I can get another…?"
"We already can't afford-"
"Um…" Todoroki interrupted Justice's entirely correct point, gesturing at the food court in general.
More accurately, to the food court's worth of people staring silently at their group.
"U-Um…" Izuku tried to think of something to say. Nothing came to mind which wouldn't dig them any deeper.
"Nothing to see here folks." Justice lied as naturally as she breathed, "Just a little misunderstanding between-"
"THREE CHEERS FOR THE HEROES!" Izuku turned to find out that it was their very own crêpe chef that broke the silence. The statement was a surprise, but the entire crowd quickly following suit was a bigger one. Loud applause soon filled the mall.
"… Well, this is new." Justice recomposed herself before turning to the group, "Any of you have an idea how to respond?"
"You're gratitude is appreciated." Todoroki stood calmly, speaking to the crowd with a loud yet measured tone, "But not necessary. Additionally, we are not licensed Heroes, so-"
"AND THEY AREN'T EVEN COWARDLY DOGS!" the cheering only grew in volume.
… Excusemewhat.
That sentence raised a… few questions.
"Of course not!" Cerberus replied before his brain could register what on Earth was happening.
"We'd never be cowardly!"
"ARF!" Hound-Cerberus sat proudly, head raised to appear as regal as possible. It was miles better than how she could have reacted, at least…
"Ummm…" Izuku found his mouth opening and closing a few times, brain struggling to formulate a salient statement, "T-That's… Yes, my friend here-" he gestured to Cerberus, "-is a very good dog." all three of her preened at the praise. "And we apologise for any disturbance to your day." what else do I say I've never done this oh god-
"However." Todoroki came in for the save, "As we do not have official licenses, this could be viewed negatively."
"And we have urgent business elsewhere." Justice picked up the slack, getting up and gesturing for the others to do the same, "So we'll have to love-you-and-leave-you, I'm afraid."
"U-Um," Izuku turned towards the chef, "About the crêpes-"
"Don't worry about it!" he quickly waved off the idea, "Anyone who has the guts to stand up to those League assholes is a real Hero in my books; that round's on the house!"
"T-T-Thank you very much!" Izuku bowed as quickly as he could through the confusion forming in his mind, before Justice grabbed him and their group quickly exited stage left from the still-cheering crowd.
Justice turned to them, asking quietly as they left, "Ok, so-"
"What just happened?" Hagakure finished her question numbly. None of them knew the answer, but all (barring Cerberus… And maybe Modeus) had the same question running through their minds. Unfortunately, it seemed none present had an answer.
Perhaps if the group hadn't been so astonished by the crowd's incredible reaction, they'd have noticed the only person reacting not with applause, but apprehension. Perhaps if they'd realised they were being watched, they'd have taken a different exit, or chosen a more circuitous route. Perhaps if they'd simply gone to another damn store, the person in question would've never been made aware of the group of ridiculous vigilantes' mere existence, able to go about their day blissfully unaware of the oncoming shitstorm otherwise described as 'eight freaks in stuffy suits'.
Instead, the person in question had a choice to make: Carry on with their life out of sight and out of mind, too minor a piece on the madman's grand board to bother addressing. At least before they could drink themselves into an early grave… Or do something that they'd thought themselves long since incapable of.
"…" they took another messy swig of neat vodka. Alas, the satisfying burn did naught to quell the irritating feeling building up inside.
After throwing some money at the bartender, who was too busy now gossiping about the insane scene that had just unfolded to notice, the person stumbled off to keep an eye on the group. Their mind rushed to find the best positioning for tailing these new aberrations unseen. Unfortunately, it seemed they'd forced themselves to choose the latter option:
"… Fuck."
Kaina Tsutsumi decided, for once in a long, long time, to give a shit.
Fortunately, the shopping centre chosen was only a brief walk from their destination. Better still, they didn't run into any other would-be Villain attacks on the way. But Izuku couldn't help but notice that the few people they did run in to had a distinct air of misery about them. Usually he'd just chalk it up to the dreadful weather, but the rain at least was starting to ease up. And after the whole incident at the food court? Something was wrong in the 'mortal realm'.
And then there was the hair prickling on the back of his neck, the uncomfortable feeling he'd had back in Gluttony that they were being watched. A feeling that Cerberus had proven to have been entirely correct at the time. But despite asking her to check, Justice couldn't feel any presences nearby focused on them. Apparently she could sense every soul for a few hundred meters after concentrating, so it was probably just his nerves playing up.
"So U.A.'s at the top of this hill, right?" Justice checked.
"That's right." Izuku nodded, "Technically, the campus extends for several kilometres in any direction to accommodate the various training grounds. But the main building serves as both the main entrance and hub which the vast majority of the school's day-to-day takes place, owing to the high-tech security systems which-"
"Cool story. Quick question." Justice thankfully interrupted him from going into a full-blown ramble, "Was that always there?" she pointed towards one trees lining the road up. Specifically, characters carved into the tree which read…
"'Ultimate Arrogance'…" Izuku blinked, "What-"
"There's another one." Todoroki nodded to another defaced tree, one with 'Road to Hell' carved in.
"There's more!" Cerberus gestured to more markings on trees lining the path. 'Death before hErO school', 'No responsibility', 'Child soldiers ahoy!', 'Never forget', 'Utopia's Apoptosis' (ok that was clearly pushing it)-
"What on Earth…" Izuku trailed off, doubling his pace to reach the top of the hill. He could kind of see where those sentiments would be coming from, glancing towards his fellow deceased students. But even if someone had vandalised the trees leading up to U.A., why were they still here? Even in the holidays U.A.'s security was second-to-none, they should've had people repairing the vandalism within hours of it being committed. And there wasn't anyone here actively defacing the trees, so it probably wasn't new.
In fact, it looks… Old… While some looked fresher, many messages had been partially obscured by moss growing over the carving. Not just creeping on the edges in some cases, but fully grown over the entire patch. That didn't just happen overnight.
"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Todoroki whispered loudly. Justice looked like she was about to add something in response, but bit her tongue after a glance around the growing nervousness in the mortals. Or at least, Izuku assumed it was on their account, seeing as Cerberus was blissfully running between the trees and playing pseudo-tag with herself, while Modeus was more concerned about finding a way to keep the rain off of the phone screen so she could read in peace.
As the group crested the top of the hill, their silence only grew deeper. The metal walls around U.A., usually pristine and topped with small spikes to help ensure student security, were coated in sweeping brushes of rust. Thick vines were growing up from the ground in search of light which they were close to finding, reaching about 2/3 of the way up the fence. In one spot a tree had collapsed into the wall, and while the superior engineering had stopped a total collapse, there was still a dent almost as tall as Izuku. Plus, of course, a very obvious tree creating a very easy entrance over a perimeter which had god-knows how much yen spent on it to be impenetrable.
Past the wall, even U.A.'s main building was in a clear state of disrepair. While the damage wasn't nearly as catastrophic, there were clear cracks showing in some walls, while countless windows had been completely shattered. The entire building... the entirety of U.A., Japan's top hero school, the future of heroics, a fountain of hope…
… was abandoned.
But what quickly drew the group's attention wasn't the shocking state of the school they'd been members of until a short while ago. Instead, it was drawn to the single person stood in front of the gates.
Facing the abandoned building was a girl, a little taller than Izuku with short brown hair. With their back facing them, Izuku could only see her dark pink blazer, formal-looking long black skirt and matching shoes, all without an umbrella despite the uncomfortably cold weather. Instead, her black umbrella was placed on the ground, leaning against the gate to shield something else, just beyond their form and thus outside of Izuku's sight.
The sound of their approach was muted by the rainfall, the stranger only noticing them and turning around a few steps from her. Their small amount of surprise at the group's appearance was dwarfed by Izuku's complete shock upon the reveal that they were no stranger.
He had to rub his eyes, suddenly worried he was stuck on the ferry ride from Hell and this was yet another sadistic test being laid out before him.
"… Uraraka?" he eventually wrenched the words from his lips.
"That's…" The person's response began urging him back to reality, her eyes trying to focus on him yet failing to settle on a fixed emotion. Concern and confusion mixed to betray a complete lack of recognition, "Sorry, do I know you?"
"I…" Izuku took a step back at the comment. Has she already forgotten me? "We… You were-"
"We have mutual acquaintances." Justice stepped into the conversation, shooting Izuku a sharp look between his face and suit- oh, right… he looked back towards the girl who he'd met a lifetime ago. She can't recognise me… That fact seemed like some kind of cruel joke. One of the first people his age that hadn't spoken to him with immediate pity and/or disdain in… how long again? Years? One who had treated him with kindness. One of the few people in the world who could claim that fact. Yet to her, he was merely a stranger. A blank face in the crowd. A hollow doll.
"Well…" Justice brought him out of his thoughts, "Had mutual acquaintances, I suppose."
"Oh." Uraraka's expression shifted to sombre understanding, "I see… Then I suppose you're here to show respects?" she turned to the side, revealing the item she'd decided more important to shield from the rain than herself: An arrangement of Camellia's yet to bloom surrounding an unlit candle of incense, the flowers' stems and leaves doubling to help support a black photo frame with a picture of-
"I'm waiting for some friends to arrive before we light it." Uraraka's explanation fell on deaf ears, Izuku too focused to register any information other than what he was looking at:
A black-and-white moshou mourning ribbon, tied around the top of his own image.
A/N:
Another fortnight, another chapter, and the start of a series of depressing cliffhangers. Great start to the weekend, right!?
Glad that we're here and able to start dropping some hints regarding the current state of the world. Also got to introduce Nagant, brief as the scene was (for those unaware, Kaina Tsutsumi is her actual name. For those who don't know who Lady Nagant is... Yeah I've got nothin') - I really like her character, and feel like she was kinda wasted in the Manga. Though I'm not up to date - think I'm like 20 chapters behind or something, so maybe I'm wrong now (though from what I've heard, I'm not holding out much hope...).
Also, for those of you unaware here on FFN, this was initially inspired by another work - "Hell, Sweet Hell" over on AO3. I can't remember if I've said that already here (posting slightly different ANs on FFN/AO3/SpaceBattles makes it difficult to keep track of what I've said sometimes), but the author gave it another couple of updates recently, so if you want to check it out as it's currently a good time.
Other than that as usual feel free to comment with thoughts, concrit, bla bla bla, hope everyone has a good weekend!