Crash!
Tokoyami groaned, rubbing his eyes as he groggily sat up from the broken couch that served as his bed. If this was an enemy attack, his lack of awareness likely would've meant the end of him. But since Dark Shadow hadn't sounded the alarm, he had a sneaking suspicion of what the intrusion upon his sleep actually was.
Tokoyami scanned the dark room, checking each flitting shadow and roving movement. As early as it was, the milky light of dawn had yet to permeate the wooden slats that covered the broken window.
Suppressing a sigh, Tokoyami groped around for the lamp until he located the switch. His heart skipped a beat when it failed to turn on, and for a moment he wondered if power had finally been cut off from Dabi's old dump of an apartment. Frankly, it'd been a miracle that Tokoyami had lived here this long in the first place.
Then his sights settled on the dull numbers of the microwave's digital clock, and meager relief wiggled its way back into his chest.
"Dark Shadow?" Tokoyami croaked, calling his quirk by name. His voice was hoarse from disuse – there were very few people besides his quirk that he talked to these days.
Eerie yellow eyes turned to him suddenly, wide with surprise.
"What did you break?"
"I didn't break it!" Dark Shadow answered defensively. "It got in my way! And besides, it was just a glass…"
Tokoyami rubbed his temple. He was running out of breakable dishes to foolishly leave out during the night. The day hadn't even started and he already had a mess to clean up.
At least this was one of his own making.
Tokoyami flopped back onto the couch; he refused to stumble through darkness to clean up a broken glass mess. It could wait til morning. Until then, he doubted there was anything else his quirk could get into.
"You're not normally this restless," Tokoyami mumbled, burrowing his beak into the threadbare fabric of the mildewy couch cushions. He tugged his blankets back over him, listening to his agitated roommate move through the small space.
"There's um… I thought I felt something!"
Tokoyami considered that. He knew better than to dismiss the feelings and of his quirk. But it was much harder to pinpoint feelings over sensations like sight and hearing. "Well, what did it feel like?"
"...I'm not sure. But I didn't like it."
"Is there an intruder?" Tokoyami suggested, raising his head to squint at the dark spaces between the wood boards. No unusual sounds could be heard from the parking lot.
"Well, no."
"Are we being tracked?"
"I don't… think so."
Tokoyami kept that in mind. The benefit of the doubt wouldn't rule out a possibility like that. If there was something amiss, he'd be more careful. But without a more definitive answer…
I'm going back to sleep.
Dark Shadow slid into place in front of the window, looking out into the stillness of night as if he could track the source of his discomfort. Tokoyami watched him for a while, until his eyelids became too heavy to ignore. If anything, the quirk was being extra cautious. And as far as he was concerned, nobody was actively placing a target on his back. Midoriya had played that role instead. If Tokoyami could fade into obscurity while working from the shadows, he'd be perfectly content.
Only when he could toss and turn no longer in his blankets did Tokoyami finally rouse himself. Sleep was already fitful no matter what happened, and his schedule changed constantly depending on what each day and night demanded of him, but at least he could claim to get some semblance of rest.
With a groan, he pushed himself up and rolled the stiffness from his shoulder. It was still on the mend, but it was finally healing properly. Again, a small miracle, and he was thankful to have it.
He shoved the blankets off, shuddering at the chill in the room, and nearly stepped onto the ground before hazily recalling what'd happened in the middle of the night. With a keen eye, Tokoyami made out the glint of shattered glass scattered across the hardwood floor. Grumbling, he looked over to Dark Shadow, who hadn't budged from his place at the window.
"Dark Shadow, could you pass me a broom, please?"
The quirk didn't move, and Tokoyami wondered if he was stuck in a trance or feigning sleep. But then he tilted his head, processing the request, and silently complied.
Tokoyami mumbled a thanks and swept the glass away from his feet, allowing him to stand so that he could follow through with cleaning up the rest. He dumped the glass shards in the kitchen trash can and leaned his elbows on the counter, letting his head fall into his hands. Perhaps it was because he'd only just woken up, but he already felt so impossibly tired. He might as well have not gotten any sleep at all.
A heavy sigh rustled the plethora of scattered pages that sat before him. They'd been left out for several days already, and he'd combed through them many times over, but he wasn't sure what else to do with these particular papers.
He'd already turned in Tartarus's stolen documents and confidential files to Sir Nighteye – there was no other hero he trusted with that information, even if it was just going to be locked up behind the Hero Commission's walls in the end. Tokoyami had made sure to carefully read and write down notable information, of course. Much of it had been key information on the most dangerous villains, many of whom were still roaming these lawless lands freely. Special attention had been paid to All for One, whose multitude of undocumented quirks made it harder to pinpoint. But there'd been a lot of important intel, even if there were noticeable gaps in their knowledge. Every quirk that the accomplished supervillain had used in the fight against All Might had been identified and detailed in full, along with several others from past fights that'd been initiated in prior encounters. Tokoyami hadn't known until then just how extensive the history of this wretched man was, nor how long these different pillars of evil and good had been fighting. Now that he had an idea, it made his task of finding the tattered remnants of the League all the more daunting. The man standing at the top of all this… what did he think of Tokoyami now?
It wasn't only official documents that'd been handed to him, though. Stain was an enigma – the kind of person who couldn't be so easily predicted and understood. And yet Tokoyami could see his justice-driven actions for what they were. So when he'd found the hand-written notes, jotted down by a slow but methodical hand, he'd understood their significance. These were Stain's personal accounts, the information he'd gleaned from his own interactions with other villains and heroes. Tokoyami got the impression that it was only a fraction of what he had written, with certain profiles being written to an almost obsessive degree despite its obvious gaps in knowledge. They were, in a sense, strangely similar to the notebooks that Midoriya kept about heroes, only with an extra, nearly parasocial narrative of people's physical and psychological strengths and weaknesses.
Tokoyami had no obligation to keep these personal documents a secret after going through them in full. It was the kind of information that, if ever released to the public, would garner a cult following on name alone. And if given to the heroes, they'd never see the light of day.
So Tokoyami kept these pages to himself, at least for a while. Maybe once this was all over, he'd know what to do with them. Until then… well, he could probably find a better place for them than the kitchen counter.
He bundled the scribbled pages into a heap while checking the counter to see if there were any other breakable objects he'd foolishly left out. There wasn't this time, but he could afford to be more careful. And yet, it was undeniably draining to be on constant alert and forever conscious of every little thing he did. He already took better care of this place than Dabi ever did. At least he had his quirk to help him keep an eye out, even if he caused most of the messes in this place.
We should leave.
Tokoyami paused, the papers gathered in his hands going still as he processed Dark Shadow's ominous suggestion. Is there something we need to do? I haven't eaten yet, and there's not usually villain activity this time of day.
Dark Shadow didn't respond for a few seconds too long, opting instead to continue peering outside with readily apparent unease. We're almost out of food.
Tokoyami silently cursed himself for forgetting. He didn't think that was the reason behind his quirk's odd behavior, but it was enough incentive to go into the commercial part of this city where stores were still up and running. He also didn't question why Dark Shadow had spoken those words inwardly – they normally talked to each other aloud so that Tokoyami could have someone to verbally communicate with.
Tokoyami stashed Stain's papers in an empty kitchen drawer and got himself ready. At the very least, he didn't want to appear like a ruffian on the streets, but that became progressively harder with the declining state of his clothes. There were nights he returned to this lonesome place and he hardly recognized his face in the mirror. His feathers were getting more ruffled and unkempt, too tired was he after nights spent protecting civilian groups and defending the freedom fighters – the ones maintaining a reputation of recklessness in combating rampant street thugs and escaped convicts. Tokoyami wasn't keen on placing a bigger target on himself than what was necessary by hunting down big-name villains, but by carefully walking neutral terrain he managed to learn more about the current state of affairs.
To many villains from the PLF, he was still one of them – one who had escaped capture by the heroes in the aftermath of the Liberation War, no less. To the heroes, he was just as much one of them, even if he didn't understand how. And to normal, everyday people, he was a downtrodden vigilante that came around every so often.
Tokoyami frowned to think that he might be turning into the complicated mess that Midoriya had become due to his trials. But Tokoyami knew better than to fall victim to the pitfalls of unending self-sacrifice and unstoppable justice that had driven others into the ground and even early graves. He would not falter.
So when he donned his vantablack cloak, pulled on his boots, and wrapped his scarf securely around his neck, it was with the intention that he wouldn't be going so far out of his way that he'd end up hitting a brick wall. Everything he accomplished day to day was something he could do. He had to believe that.
Tokoyami traced quiet steps through the room, wincing when his boot crunched on a shard of glass he'd missed, and proceeded to the window where Dark Shadow still hadn't budged. His hand grazed the top of his quirk as he looked out into the parking lot to see what had captured his attention. Some broken down cars, their tires missing or slashed, a few abandoned tents, and a single homeless person snooping around. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Is something wrong? Tokoyami got the sneaking suspicion that there was, but his quirk had yet to properly express it.
No! Dark Shadow snapped unexpectedly. Tokoyami snatched his hand away, stunned by the outburst, and the quirk quailed beneath him, disappearing beneath the safety of his cloak. I just want to get moving.
"R…right," Tokoyami mumbled. Seeing that the coast was clear, he deftly lifted one of the boards up from the nails it rested on and stepped out onto the windowsill. Only when he felt his quirk's shadowy claws wrap around his midriff and settle into their familiar place did he dare to step off from his roost and fly out into the city.
This early in the day, he didn't typically have to worry about subjugating troublemakers or stepping between fights. But with so few licensed heroes to stop them, villains were much less cautious than they'd ever been before. They could attack without the cover of night and likely get away with it. Even still, only opponents that were either truly formidable or truly dumb would be bold enough to attack this part of town in broad daylight. He'd frightened a fair amount of low-level convicts from the area, and his reputation was deserving of respect
After the incident with Lady Nagant, he'd become paranoid that All for One might be willing to target him more exclusively and send others to off him. But so far, he's identified no such threats, and opted to believe that the criminal mastermind was abstaining from any big moves against him that might draw unwanted attention.
Perhaps that was why Tokoyami could afford to have his guard down every so often. With Midoriya as an example, worrying that you're being pursued at every waking moment was exhausting, and he wasn't keen on wearing himself so thin after the events of the prior week. His shoulder was finally faring well enough, and most of the foes who'd crossed his path since then could be dealt with using almost exclusively fear.
With his direction set in stone and his quirk taking him ever closer to the nearest operational convenience store, Tokoyami closed his eyes and took comfort in the way the air whisked through his tattered feathers. It felt so natural to him now, flying through the sky in this self-made way of his. The misty morning air collected into a dampness that couldn't quite permeate the material of his clothes, and when he breathed in through his mouth he could taste the freshness of spring lingering just beyond the tang of burning debris and crumbled asphalt. Perhaps it was moments like these that Midoriya had been missing when his condition had started to decline. Then again, Tokoyami didn't have the same trials as his old classmate. He could afford to slow down sometimes, lest he run the familiar risk of… burning out.
Nevertheless, he was keenly aware those fleeting moments of peace he so desperately savored were forever destined to be brought to a crashing end.
"Fumikage, eyes open!"
The alarmed screech that'd ripped its way through Dark Shadow's throat jarred Tokoyami back to attention, and his eyes snapped open just in time to see a sinewy mass of darkness rise up from the alleyway below.
Tokoyami jerked away with a shout, banking hard left as something slammed into one of Dark Shadow's clawed wings. The quirk clenched his hold more securely around Tokoyami's torso, choosing protection over direction as they tumbled through the air, followed closely by their unexpected opponent. For a split second, the world stopped spinning while Dark Shadow reined in some semblance of control, and that gave him all of two seconds to get a look at the attacker.
Pitch-black flesh. Cord-like muscles stretched under taut skin. Haphazard, feathery appendages covering its arms that caught the air oddly – a slovenly flier, but one nonetheless. Wicked talons forged from the night that slashed mercilessly at every space that Tokoyami had once preoccupied, and a pointed beak that clacked in frustration. All of these details led him into looking this abomination right in its burning yellow eyes, so sharp and calculating and alive that for a startling moment Tokoyami thought he was looking at Dark Shadow.
But it wasn't. That was impossible. His quirk was pressed flush with his back, head buried in the folds of his cloak and grip so tight he thought the shadowy apparition might just squeeze the air from his lungs.
And yet the feeling of recognition was undeniably there. He knew what this thing was. All that had changed was that it was bigger and more developed than the test tube monstrosity that he'd seen only once before.
This was one of Dr. Ujiko's nomus.
The heinous man couldn't have Dark Shadow for himself, so he'd made his own version. And now the monstrous creature had tracked him down.
The avian nomu opened its oily beak to reveal cracked and jagged teeth, unleashing a blood-curdling screech that rang oddly in his skull and made him want to vomit. He couldn't tell if this was the effect of an extra quirk or his nausea catching up to him now that the realization of what he was dealing with had hit him.
As good as he was at maneuvering through the sky, he wasn't keen to get caught in an aerial fight. Only being able to train on his own made it difficult to hone the abilities he didn't know he'd had before, like utilizing Dark Shadow's claw-based attacks while also deploying Black Fallen Angel.
Tokoyami flicked his wrists, freeing the sharp blades from his gauntlets. Can you get me close enough for an attack?
A deeply unsettling hiss left Dark Shadow's beak, and he bolstered in size until his cloak could barely contain him. Shadows dripped off him like globs of tar, and the interlocking shadows of black and purple that composed the quirk's body began to fizzle and arch, the way they would when he was deeply distressed.
Dark Shadow?!
The nomu dove for them, a torpedo of darkness that cut through the air on wings that dissolved and reassembled at its convenience.
In response, Dark Shadow quickly dragged him away, evading the crow-like monster, and clutched onto Tokoyami with only one hand while using the other to swipe defensively. He left the safety of the cloak, beak wide open in an equally ferocious and unpleasant roar while continuing to hold Tokoyami away from it all. The quirk's attacks were fueled by desperation and uncertainty, and none of them were placed well enough to land a proper blow. It was barely enough to keep the tenacious thing from slipping past his haphazardly put up defenses. Any other time, and Tokoyami might reprimand his quirk for such sloppy actions in the midst of battle. But nothing about this was normal. If he didn't take hold of some semblance of control soon, this could take a turn for the worst. After all the progress they'd made working together and the healing he'd achieved, he wasn't keen on undoing even a sliver of it.
"Dark Shadow, fall back!" Tokoyami screeched, desperately hoping to disengage and catch their bearings. The quirk turned back to him, distracted by the command, and for a split second Tokoyami saw fear in his quirk's red-rimmed eyes.
In that moment of vulnerability, the nomu stretched its winged arms out, the hands on each one growing larger and larger in the blink of an eye. Claws like blades of night clutched onto Dark Shadow, digging into him with alarming tangibility and squeezing with unprecedented strength.
Tokoyami thrashed and struggled against Dark Shadow's hold, trying to get the quirk to let go of him. "Nooo! Get away from him!" he wailed.
The nomu opened its beak wide, as if meaning to take a sickening bite from the quirk. For whatever reason, he couldn't allow the nomu to do that. It felt so deeply wrong and he couldn't understand why. His quirk was never in any physical peril – never truly. But Dark Shadow had been scared and hurt before, pushed past his limits and compelled to fight when he didn't want to. He didn't want to see anything like that happen again – not with a threat they knew so little about.
"Coming in hot!"
A small shape hurdled through the air, bringing its leg down upon the nomu's head and clamping its maw shut before it could close around the quirk instead. With a muffled screech of frustration, it let go of Dark Shadow and flapped away on unsteady wings that grew in size from its arms to better accommodate its dazed movements.
Whatever had crashed into it had no choice but to fall down to the ground, and Tokoyami couldn't help thinking that that was a good idea, urgently calling his quirk back.
As soon as some distance had been made between the two warring forces of darkness, Dark Shadow appeared to calm down, even if just a little. He deflated, the redness leaving his eyes, and he darted back to Tokoyami, practically throwing himself back under his cloak.
Sorry! I'm sorry! I don't know what happened!
Tokoyami continued to tug at the arms clutched tight around him, his breath coming in short gasps. It's okay, just get me to the ground! Please!
Dark Shadow started lowering them down to ground level, only for the nomu to hone in on them once more. This time around, Dark Shadow practically dropped him the last seven feet onto the roof of a building to collide with the nomu. It was like watching cats exchange a flurry of blows, rather than the corvids they more closely resembled.
Tokoyami stumbled with the unexpected drop, but recovered swiftly enough to assess the situation. Once again, his quirk was doing everything in its power to keep the creature away from him, but that did nothing to help him better understand what they were up against.
And what happened to whoever had helped them just now?
That very same person jumped up from the alleyway below, where she'd fallen after the first exchange, and landed next to Tokoyami with an angry yell ready in her throat. "Oi! Last I checked, your fight was with me! The hell you think you're doing, ya damn monster?!"
Tokoyami and Dark Shadow both winced at the venomous tone, even though it hadn't been directed at them. It was just too close for comfort.
The nomu delivered a final blow to Dark Shadow's head, causing the quirk to recoil with a choked cry, and chose that moment to step back. Its eyes narrowed to baleful slits, and though it didn't say anything, Tokoyami felt as though he could understand it through movements alone. It… it moved too much like Dark Shadow to ignore.
The woman by his side bunched her legs beneath her, ready to spring after it. "I know that face. You think you can fly off again?! C'mon, I just caught up!" she lamented, right before charging towards it with a super-powered jump.
With a sharp, unspoken command to retreat, Dark Shadow shrank into an impossibly small shadow and slithered his way back to Tokoyami before the hero could hit her mark. The nomu had to choose between pursuit and stepping away; when faced with the hellbent hero, it opted for the coward's route. With a guttural hiss, it backpedaled away from each attack that was meant for it, always just a little too fast. Then it flapped its wings, buffeting her away with a forceful gust of wind. While the hero was able to stand her ground, it wasn't enough to push forward as the nomu climbed its way into the sky and beyond her reach, quicker than most other flying heroes could claim to be.
The hero, with her long, mismatched ears and white leotard stomped the roof in frustration, leaving behind a rabbit foot shaped impression. "You're shitting me!" The pro hero turned sharply towards him, eyes wide in exasperation, and pointed out to where the monstrous bird was just a blip in the sky. "I had it! I thought it finally wanted to fight, and then it just dips out like that?! That freaky high end has a lotta nerve!"
She groaned, resigning herself to another arduous round of chasing the thing down. Her ears drooped, and she made no attempt to hide her disgust with the turn of events. But then something seemed to occur to her, and she bounced back into a more positive attitude almost immediately.
"Hey… hey, wait, you're that kid! Tokoyami, right?"
Tokoyami wilted under the loud proclamation. It didn't really matter who said his name at this point. Recognition was a sign of trouble, and it put him immediately on edge. "What business is it to you? And more importantly, why are you chasing after that nomu? Last I checked, this was not your district." Not that he expected an actual response from a hero. The only way he got confidential information these days was from seedy individuals in the wrong side of town. And Nighteye, if there was a way they could mutually benefit from it – which was perhaps as generous as things were bound to get between him and the heroes.
This particular hero checked over her shoulder, swiveling her ears every which way for any sign of unwanted intrusion, before turning back to him with an easy smile. "About that – I've been trailing that high end for a while now. Wherever it goes, so do it. Consider it clean-up duty from the war, yeah? So this may not be my district, but it sure as hell's my responsibility! Only thing is, it hasn't stopped since I started this mission – not once! – except for just now. That monster really wanted to tear into you!"
Tokoyami glowered. "I tend to get that response a lot, I'll have you know."
She laughed, as if he'd said something truly funny. But it was strange. She was so forward, Tokoyami could almost mistake her for being genuine. It would be easier to believe she was laughing at his expense, though. "Well, for what it's worth, I'm glad I finally got to properly run into you! Word's been going around that you've been working the streets over attending UA, and it shows. You look like garbage, kid!"
"...I hear that a lot, too," Tokoyami grumbled, averting his eyes to the ground instead.
A white-gloved hand popped into his field of vision, giving him a start, and Dark Shadow bristled underneath his cloak. "I'm Miruko, the Rabbit Hero!"
"I know." Tokoyami stared at the hand, ever cautious. But she kept holding it out, waiting for his response. With a defeated sigh, he took hold of it. "I am Fumikage Tokoyami. I've been watching over this area for a while now, since nobody else really bothers." The bile in his voice was targeted at heroes, despite the fact that Miruko had unmistakably helped him just now. Nevertheless, she didn't seem bothered by it.
"You have a hero name, don't you?"
Tokoyami let go of her hand and looked her head-on with tired eyes. "Yes, but I'm not using it right now. Is that a problem?"
She gave a noncommittal shrug. "I guess it doesn't matter. But this is perfect!"
Tokoyami felt a shiver of dread run up his spine. He could already tell what was coming. "You want something from me, don't you?" Tokoyami sighed.
Miruko's newfound enthusiasm simmered down, and she seemed to properly appraise Tokoyami for the first time. Tokoyami did the same, noting her tattered ear and prosthetic left arm that reminded him dimly of Mr. Compress. She'd been a hero that'd been hit pretty hard during the war, only to bounce back just as quickly. To nobody's surprise, it'd only exploded her popularity. He doubted many people turned down whatever propositions she had.
Curbing her forward nature, Miruko took a step back, giving him some much-needed space. She ran her right hand through her short-cropped hair, face pinched into a scowl as she thought things through. "I was just wondering… since you're the first person I've seen that nomu approach directly, if you could help me take it down?" She made a sound of disgust, as if she could hardly believe herself. To her credit, she was at least self-aware. A bedraggled kid gets attacked and her first instinct is to bring him on the case. Not that he was defenseless in all this. It'd just… caught him off guard. If there was more to learn about this situation and the eerily familiar nomu, then he would take hold of that knowledge.
Tokoyami closed his eyes and dipped his head in solemn resignation. Given the circumstances of this encounter, he doubted he could evade getting caught up in it just by turning his back. That would only leave him wide open, and if the nomu was trying to target him for whatever reason, then that would be a fatal mistake. "I'll hear you out, Rabbit Hero." His eyes flashed back open, and he straightened his shoulders stiffly to look her in the eye.
…For this rare instance, he was the same height as someone else.
"Tell me all you know about this nomu, and I will help you," Tokoyami decided. "But I won't do you this favor for nothing. If you take advantage of me, you can handle the damn thing yourself, and I'll take my chances."
A toothy smile stretched slowly across her face, and there was a borderline dangerous glint in her eyes. "You're a scrappy one, ain't ya? Alright, it's a deal! Why don't we talk this through somewhere better?"