A/N: Booyah, I AM HERE, back from vacation, and ready with a new chapter for y'all! It's an extra-long one (which hopefully makes up for my extended absence) and I guarantee that it will leave you either scratching your head head, or... Actually, I'll keep that last guess to myself. For now, let's pick up where we left off, with Kurai being alive but in for a rough time of it. How rough? Well...
Please be sure to enjoy the story!
P.S. Trigger warnings for themes of PTSD and (unintentional) self harm in this chapter. Please read at your own discretion.
Night Terrors
Of all the ways that Mina Ashido had imagined being in a bed with her boyfriend, the thought of keeping him company after a villain had nearly killed him was not something that she had thought up. Although given their chosen profession, she supposed that she should have seen it coming. Just not like this- not as young as they were, not so fresh in the world of heroics. They were supposed to be worrying about nothing more than math tests and combat practices, not whether they would live to see the next day. Such things were supposed to be in the realms of adulthood, several years away from them, but here they were anyway.
As she lay next to him on the hospital bed, underneath a couple of comfortable blankets, she found herself unable to tear her eyes away from the bloodied stump that remained in place of a once-mighty limb. That hideous wound had also already warped his body beyond the obvious- he had lost a surprising amount of weight in three days, the lines in his gaunt face had hardened, and a shock of silver hair had appeared on the right side of his head, stretching from the nape of his neck to just in front of his ear, and crawling up past his temple. He had endured harsh beatings before, but not on this level, neither physical nor psychological. Now all that Mina could do was listen to him sleep fitfully under the influence of painkillers fed to him via an IV drip, silently cursing the villain that had done this to him.
It's a good thing that guy is already on death row, or I might just get Kurai's cop dad to leave me alone with the guy long enough for my quirk to 'accidentally' turn him into a puddle. As the dark thought crossed her mind, she felt another few tears slide out of her eyes. She nearly wiped at them, but she didn't want to accidentally jostle Kurai awake just yet. It had been difficult for him to find sleep, even with the knowledge that she would be with him for the night, and she wanted him to get as much rest as possible before he was made to face cruel reality once more. So she let the tears fall into their pillow, wishing with all her might that she could reach over and grab his right hand, and let him know that it had all been a bad dream, and that it was time for them to go and endure one of Aizawa's stupid tricks again.
But his hand wasn't there, and it wasn't a nightmare that they could wake up from. First his uncle, then his brother, and now this, she thought glumly. Is it too much to ask that he would be able to catch a break? Just once?
He had dozed off for a while the previous day, long enough that he was able to muster up the energy to see the rest of his classmates, sans the American girls, and of course, Bakugo. Everyone had been very kind to him, volunteering to help him however they could, offering to bring him homemade meals, any movie that he wanted to watch- Yaoyorozu, somewhat to Kurai's surprise, even offered to more less give him copies of her class notes as soon as their studies resumed, provided that he wasn't able to attend school by then.
When Midoriya and Uraraka came in, Mina noticed that the brunette was sticking closer to their green-haired friend a little more than she normally did, but she decided to ask the other girl about it later. For his part, Kurai made sure to thank Uraraka for the blood transfusions, to which she replied that she was more than happy to do so. It also seemed to him that Midoriya wanted to talk about something other than their respective recovery time expectations, but he said nothing outright. The maimed boy decided to text him in private later- something that he realized was going to be significantly harder to do now, as he had been right-handed before the summer camp. Maybe it's something about All Might?
The only somewhat bad part that happened was when Kaminari offered to bring him a PlayStation Mach IX for entertainment- only to remember that the controller required two hands to use. Since Jiro wasn't present to reprimand the boy for his behavior, Su used her tongue to smack Kaminari on the back of the head for his insensitivity.
Recovery Girl visited him to give him a small healing session and to change his bandages, which Kurai refused to look at while she worked. He knew that he would have to see the ruined limb without the wrappings eventually, but for now he just wanted to try and ignore the ugly sight. The Youthful Heroine offered her condolences once she was finished, and then she departed to go look in on the other students.
As soon as visiting hours were close to being over, Kurai's mother had returned with an overnight bag, but she had stopped in the door when she saw Mina gently caressing her son's head, lulling him into a shallow sleep. The pink girl had looked up at the older woman, startled, but she managed not to wake up her boyfriend as she got off the bed and moved toward the entrance.
"Mrs. Hogo-sha, I-"
"Are you planning to stay with him for the night?" Moka asked bluntly, bits of her husband's no-nonsense attitude manifesting itself in that moment. Despite her brusqueness, she kept her voice lowered, as not to wake her son.
"Yes ma'am," Mina nodded quickly, using the same volume as the other woman. "He asked me to."
"I'm sure he did," the older Hikari murmured. "Under any other circumstances, I would have you removed from his room while I grounded him to his father's favorite holding cell down at the station." Mina's eyes widened slightly, but she said nothing, waiting to hear his mother's verdict, just in case there was a chance that she wouldn't make a scene.
Moka eyed her critically for another few seconds before she continued in a relatively neutral tone, "With the shape that he's in, I doubt that he would be up for letting his hands wander… so to speak." Mina had glanced back at Kurai, hoping that he hadn't heard that last comment, but his mother clicked her fingers sharply, bringing her attention back to her. "Eyes on me, Miss Ashido. That's my son lying there, and as you can see, he's going to have a rough life ahead of him. Even if he gets a prosthetic, he won't be able to use his quirk out of that arm, which will just make having a successful career that much harder on him. He does not need an extra burden on his shoulders in addition to all that has already happened to him."
"I don't-"
"If you are going to stay the night with him, you are going to do it on two conditions," the older woman cut her off swiftly, fire in her violet eyes that frightened Mina in a way that no villain ever could. Seeing this, Kurai's mother nodded with satisfaction before saying, "First off, you will not even entertain the idea of doing anything indecent with my son."
"Wouldn't dream of it, ma'am." That was a total lie, but she certainly wasn't going to act on any of those thoughts with the current situation being the way that it was.
"Good. The second condition is that if you ever dump him, I will personally make you disappear." Mina flinched and instinctively reach up to rub her neck while Moka continued to put the fear of God in her. "If my son breaks up with you, that's one thing. I can accept that. If it's a mutual break, I'll even let that slide. But if you ever break his heart, there won't be enough physical evidence left for my husband's forensics department to even identify your remains as human… Do I make myself clear?"
Mina had stared into the eyes of death twice now- once at the USJ, and once during her internship with Mister Brave. Neither of those occasions made her tremble like she had in that moment, or made her feel as though ice was creeping its way up her spine and into her skull. It was all she could do to swallow past the sandpaper in her throat and say, "Y-Yes ma'am." Because there wasn't a single molecule in her body that doubted that Kurai's mother wouldn't do what she was promising to do.
"Good girl," Hikari said with a charming smile as she stepped away from the door. "Call me if he needs anything, and get some rest. I'd say that you two kids have earned it."
"Wait, Mrs. Hogo-sha?"
"Hmm?" The woman stopped and turned back to look at the pink girl with a raised eyebrow.
"I… I love your son," she confessed, her face blushing lilac as she looked down at the floor. "I'd never do anything to hurt him, promise."
"…I believe that you're in love with him," the elder woman replied after a moment, causing Mina to lock eyes with her again. "But just as it's easy to fall in love, it's also very easy to fall out of it."
"W-What does that mean?"
Kurai's mom sighed and walked back over to where Mina stood before replying, "People often confuse infatuation and love for the same thing, Ashido. Love- real love- is a decision that you make daily. It means caring for them, during the times where he makes you feel like you're the queen of his world, but also the days when you want to put his head through a wall. It's the ultimate commitment, so I'll ask you again; are you prepared to stay with my son, knowing what I'll be expecting of you?"
"…Yes ma'am." Mina finally looked at Kurai's mother with a firm resolve that saw to her straightening her back and standing with confidence in front of the woman. "Like I said before, I do love Kurai. I wouldn't be here, otherwise."
"Hmm." Moka smiled at her as she turned around again, saying over her shoulder, "Prove it, kid."
Mina shuddered a little as she recalled the previous evening, deciding that it would be better if she got out of bed before Kurai's mother had a chance to come in and jump to any unfavorable conclusions. Yawning broadly as she moved toward the sink, she picked up her phone from where she had left it and checked her notifications. She was mildly surprised to see a message from her oldest brother, Mako, so she opened that first.
'Just got in last night with Micha, heard from Mom and Dad that you were at the hospital with your boyfriend. Need anything?'
The contents of the message surprised her- like she had told Kurai, her relationship with her brothers wasn't the greatest one. Then again, they'd pretty much be marked as human scum if they didn't check on their kid sister after she survived a villain attack, she thought as she began to type a reply. After the USJ incident, she had spoken with him briefly in a group call where their parents were present, but she hadn't heard from them since, except for the odd email or social media post.
'Not right now, thanks for asking,' she wrote. 'How was the bar exam?'
Closing that conversation, she was then intrigued to see that she had a message from an unfamiliar number. What's this?
Clicking it open, she was surprised again when she read, 'This is Blake. Is it okay if I visit Hikari today? I had something that I needed to tell him.'
She was with him and the others when he got injured, Mina remembered. Her fingers flying, she answered, 'Yeah, I'll let you know as soon as he's ready for visitors. Just one question, who gave you my number?'
Before she could put the phone down, she got a reply from her brother that read, 'Aced it. You're talking to Japan's hottest new lawyer.'
Shaking her head in amusement, Mina replied, 'Any chances of you being able to sue the League of Villains for psych damage?'
Just then, of course, Blake messaged her back. 'I'm in the hospital with the other girls, visiting Yang. Asui gave me your number when I said that I wanted to get in touch without coming close to Hikari. Not sure that he wants to see me, but thanks for keeping me posted.'
Weird, why does she think that? Mina frowned as she added Blake as a new contact in her phone. Kurai didn't say anything about her this whole time, good or bad… Probably because he's more concerned about losing an arm.
Her phone buzzed again, but she hardly noticed it, as that's when she heard some grunting sounds coming from where Kurai lay on the bed. Turing around in alarm, she gasped as she watched him tossing and turning in his sleep, muttering in an almost frenzied manner while he reached out blindly with his left hand, trying to grasp what, she wasn't sure. Because his mask had been removed the previous evening, it was just making it that much easier for him to move around right then. Dropping her phone on the floor without a second thought, she rushed to his bedside as his heart monitor began to beep more rapidly, alerting her to an accelerated heartrate on his end.
"No, no, no," she said as she put her hands on his good shoulder and chest, trying to keep him from thrashing around too much. "Kurai, sweetie, listen to me. You're gonna bust your stitches if you keep doing thi- Ah!" Her shriek was drawn out of her as his subconscious activated his quirk, enhancing his strength enough to fling her against the wall, stunning her as her head hit the door, followed by the floor. "Ow…"
This was followed by a silence so complete that it made the heart monitor sound like a fire alarm with batteries about to expire. "…Mina?" Kurai asked groggily, his voice shaky. "Mina, are you-?"
"I'm okay," she grunted as she forced herself to her feet. This proved to be a bad idea, as her head swam, and she all but fell onto her boyfriend's legs and groaned as nausea assaulted her stomach. "Less okay."
"Did I-?" he started to ask, but then stopped, already knowing the answer. "I'm so sorry, Mina! I was having a bad dream, and I guess I-"
"Dude." Mina swung her hand up and over so that it landed awkwardly on his chest. "I'm all good. Just gimme an Advil and some coffee, and I'll be good as new."
"But I-"
"Dude, I will roll over there and kiss you if that's what it takes to shut you up," she grunted as she lifted her head slightly to look into his worried eyes. "I also might puke, but the two are unrelated. You didn't do it on purpose. I forgive you, so let's move on." She even gave him a crooked smile to show him that she was okay. Internally, however, she vowed to prank him for this, as soon as he was capable of going home.
Down an arm or not, that really hurt! She thought as her head, back, and right shoulder throbbed painfully.
Trying to focus on something else for the moment, she asked, "Do you remember what you were dreaming about that freaked you out so much?"
"Yeah." His voice sounded haggard, as if he had just run a marathon without drinking anything for a whole day beforehand. "I saw him. Moonfish, he… I was back in the forest."
"Oh." Mina wasn't really sure what she was supposed to say to that. "I… I guess I can understand why you would have woken up the way that you did." She now felt bad about her sudden urge to get back at him, so she wracked her aching head for a way to make it up to him.
"It was you."
His sudden utterance took her by surprise, leaving her wondering at what those three words meant. "What was me?"
"Instead of Bakugo, it was you in the forest," he said in a dull tone. Mina slowly lifted herself off of his legs as he continued to mumble, "Everything else is the same. I can smell the fire and poison in the air. I can feel the ground beneath my feet, the pain in my head from overusing my quirk, the pounding in my chest that tells me that I'm about to die." He clenched his hand into a fist as his tone became bitter. "The only thing that's different is that you're the one that Moonfish is after. And I just…" A deep, shuddering breath caused his body to tremble as he managed to get out, "I'm not fast enough this time. You're torn to pieces in front of me, and then I can feel his teeth tearing me apart-!"
"Kurai, stop!" Mina begged him as she reached over and grabbed his left hand, which had unconsciously seized his right arm and started squeezing the ruined limb with an intensity born from his powerful quirk. "You're hurting yourself."
Glancing down at the wrappings, which were beginning to show crimson spots again, he cursed and lay back in the pillows, the tears in his eyes impossible to miss. "Great," he said bitterly as he glanced at her before quickly looking away. "Do you mind calling the nurse so I can get this fixed?"
"Sure," the pink girl said as she reluctantly released his hand and reached for the remote. Tapping the button that connected her to the nurse's station, she cleared her throat and said, "This is Hogo-sha's room, some of his stitches seem to have come undone. He's bleeding through the bandages again."
"We'll be there momentarily," said a man on the other end. "Try to keep pressure on the wound until we do."
"Yes sir." The line went dead, and she put the remote/phone down as she looked around the room for something in the way of a first-aid kit that could help them. "Uh…"
"Do they have towels in the bathroom?" Kurai grunted. Apparently they had decreased the amount of painkillers that he had been receiving overnight, because he could definitely feel some soreness in his right arm now.
"Right, yeah!" Mina confirmed as she dashed over to the room and grabbed the large piece of fabric. Returning swiftly, she hesitated in front of his wound and asked, "Is it okay, if I uh…?"
"Yeah, just be gentle," he requested as he shut his eyes against a new wave of pain. "I dunno if it's cos that nurse's quirk finally wore off completely, or what, but this really hurts now."
"That might be more because you kinda used your quirk to beat yourself up," Mina pointed out as she put the towel on him, applying pressure like the nurse had instructed.
"Oh, yeah. Just…! Ow! Got any distractions?"
Mina grinned slyly at him, despite the situation, and said, "I can think of a few things."
"Things that don't involve my heartrate going up any more than it already is?" he added, knowing how her mind worked. "I'm losing blood, remember?"
"Buzzkill, dude."
"Mina…" he muttered as he squeezed his eyes tight against a new wave of pain. "Distraction, please?" Sweat beaded on his face, and his heart monitor was alerting them to his increased pace again.
"Well, you're really limiting my options here," she said, forcing a smile into her voice, despite feeling sick at how much pain Kurai had to be in. "Um… Oh! Belladonna said that she wanted to come see you later, if that's okay?"
"Sure?" he grunted, confusion further distorting his features. "Why wouldn't it be?"
"I dunno, she seemed to think that you were mad at her, or something."
"Why would I-? Oh." Gritting his teeth, he hissed out, "Yeah, she and I kinda had an argument on our way to the campgrounds. All things considered, though, I really don't care anymore."
"Cool, I'll let her know that she can come up."
"Preferably after my arm gets stitched back together."
"Right, sorry."
"Hey, Mina?"
"Yeah?" She looked at him as he cracked his eyes open, a film of tears still residing in front of his brown orbs.
"Thanks for being here." He unclenched his fist and laid his hand on her arm, adding, "I know I'm being difficult, but this means the world to me."
"Yeah, well…" The girl blushed as she leaned over to kiss his fingers and murmured, "Don't get used to it, buster. You better believe that I'm gonna make you pay me back with interest for all this."
"Any chance we can increase the rate of interest?" he half-laughed, though the expression was ruined by another grimace born from his agony. Despite this, it made Mina smile just a little bit to hear him sound like his usual self, even if for just a second.
The nurses came in and had Mina wait outside while they re-did Kurai's stitches, leaving her free to message Blake with the news that he was willing to see her once the staff was done with him. Resigned to waiting for a little while, the girl went down the hall to make herself some coffee, grimacing when she saw that the hospital only had the cheap stuff.
"I should ask Su to bring something better," she muttered to herself as she reached for the bland-looking packet.
"You're not seriously going to drink that sorry excuse of a coffee, are you?" Mina turned around, surprised to see Weiss standing in the doorway to the pantry, who was holding a clear plastic can that looked suspiciously like coffee grounds to the pink girl.
"Unless you're offering to share, I don't really have much of a choice," Mina shrugged as she gestured to the contents of the can. "I had a rude wakeup call a little while ago, so I need something to get going, or I'm gonna be a wreck all day."
Weiss tilted her head at Mina, as if studying her for a moment, before she strode toward the countertop where the kettle was heating up. "How do you take your coffee, Miss…?"
"Ashido," she reminded the white-haired girl. "And I usually have a cream and five sugars." Weiss snickered at that, prompting Mina to cross her arms and ask, "What?"
"Ruby takes the exact same thing," she chuckled as she grabbed a few cups from the shelf. "No wonder you seem to have so much energy all the time."
"Oh," the pink girl said, feeling a little silly for getting defensive with the American girl. "Well, thanks for making."
"I was getting some for the others, so it's not too much trouble," Weiss shrugged as she began to put different requested items in the cups. Glancing at the other girl out of the corner of her eye, she then asked, "Did you spend the night here?"
"Yeah," Mina yawned, making sure to cover her mouth, as she hadn't brushed her teeth yet. "Kurai didn't want to be alone, so I kept him company. They're redoing his stitches right now, so I thought I'd come down for a coffee break."
"Ah," the other girl said neutrally. Mina half-expected her to make some comment about such actions reflecting badly on their student body, but all Weiss did was move on to say, "Ruby stayed overnight with Yang, since she's the only family in town. Blake and I came back with Recovery Girl, since she's going to be our hostess while we stay in Japan."
"Recovery Girl is already here?" Mina asked, suddenly feeling a little more awake. "How long has she been in the hospital?"
"We got in like fifteen minutes ago. She's just finishing up with Yang, and then she's going over to see your boyfriend." Weiss hesitated before she turned to look at Mina with the words, "I'm sorry about what happened to him, by the way. I know we got off to a bad start, and I'm still not quite sure what I think of him, but no one deserves what happened to him."
"…Thanks," Mina said a little awkwardly. "Do you, uh…? He can have visitors now, as long it's three people or less at a time."
"Maybe later," Weiss replied politely as the kettle began to boil. "I'm sure he'd rather have company that he gets along with right now. I'd be rude to disturb whatever peace he can manage at the moment, and I know that I can be… difficult." A small sigh escaped the pale girl's lips with the last word, but Mina thought it best not to comment on the matter.
A strange silence- neither hostile nor friendly- descended on the pair of aspiring heroines until the coffee was ready, and Mina thanked the other girl for the beverage. As she turned to leave, Weiss said, "Text Blake."
"Huh?"
"If you need more coffee, I mean." Weiss' back was to Mina, but she seemed sincere with her words. "I have more if you or Hikari need it. This hospital has decent food, but the beverages are downright terrible."
A small smile turned Mina's lips upwards at the kind gesture. "Thanks, Schnee. That's really nice of you."
"You're welcome, Ashido," the albino girl acknowledged. "Now go see your boyfriend. I'm sure that his stitches are done by now."
After Recovery Girl's visit was complete, most of Kurai's bleeding stopped, and he only required relatively light bandages. The session clearly left him feeling tired, but he refused to go back to sleep in spite of the older woman's advice to do so, not wanting to risk another nightmare so soon after the most recent one.
In order to distract him from his pain and exhaustion, Mina invited Blake into the room so that she could talk to him about whatever was on her mind. The raven-haired girl came in with hardly a sound to announce her presence- even the door seemed to move more silently than normal.
"Hey there," Kurai grunted as Mina helped him into a sitting position. "Mina said that you wanted to talk?"
"I'm actually here to say goodbye," Blake answered quietly, stunning the couple. "Once Yang is out of the hospital, I'm going to get on the next flight back to the States so I can transfer into the general studies program at my school."
"What? Why?" Kurai demanded, utterly bewildered at her declaration. "You're not scared of fighting, are you? Once you got going in the forest, you handled yourself like a pro."
"I'm not afraid of battle," Blake admitted, her eyes downcast. "But I am afraid of the people around me getting hurt because of the decisions that I've made."
When Kurai made no reply to that, Mina looked back and forth between the two of them a few times before she asked, "Did I miss something? Belladonna, this isn't your fault, not even remotely. The League of Villains are the ones that-"
"I'm the reason that Hikari is where he is right now." The other girl cut her off, her tone sad and remorseful. It took Mina a second to realize that she was crying. "When we first ran into Tokoyami and Shoji, I wanted to abandon them in order to get back to the camp. When he let me make the decision to run straight for camp, or to go find the villain that was attacking Todoroki and Bakugo, I chose to fight. Both of my choices nearly got him killed, and I don't see much of a future in being a hero that only endangers the lives of her peers. I'm quitting now, before anyone else gets hurt because of me. I've always been best at letting other people down- even my quirk is best suited for letting something else take the fall for me."
"No." Both girls turned toward the bed to see Kurai looking at Blake with fire in his eyes, despite his pale face and weakened frame. "You don't get to quit, Belladonna. I won't let you do it."
"You can't stop me," she said, though she sounded uncertain of herself.
"I'm not giving up on being a hero after what just happened to me, so you'd better not, either," he grunted as he slowly moved his left leg to hang off the bed. When Mina went to stop him, he waved her back. After he moved his right foot to do the same, he growled out, "I am in so much pain that the narcotics are hardly doing anything. The doctors think that I'll have to deal with phantom pains for the rest of my life, in fact. I won't be able to use my quirk out of my primary fighting hand. I can't even sleep without seeing the faces of everyone that has tried to kill me in the last few months, but none of that is stopping me, and do you know why?"
"…Why?"
"Because I have friends that won't let me quit," Kurai hissed as he slid off the bed, wobbling unsteadily until Mina moved to grab him up under his shoulders, helping him to stand up straight. "Because they know that I can be a good hero, one that won't let other people suffer like Midoriya has had to, or Xiao Long, or me. I'm not there yet, and I won't be for some time, but I'm still going to get there. And if all of this doesn't stop me, then you really don't have an excuse to quit, either." Blake looked like she wanted to say something, but he held up a hand to cut her off before adding, "I don't know a lot about you, Belladonna, but I know that you wouldn't be here, in Mister Aizawa's class of all places, if you didn't have the potential for greatness in you. And you owe it to all the people that you'll save someday to work your hardest to ensure that you train to make the right decisions from now on. And you can start…" Grimacing as he took a couple of steps forward with his girlfriend's help, Kurai reached out his hand to Blake and concluded, "By choosing to stay at UA High- your hero academia."
When Blake didn't immediately take his hand, Mina grunted out, "Seriously, Belladonna, could you shake hands with him, already? He's heavy."
"I'm not that heavy- I even managed to drop eight pounds recently," he replied with a wry smile over his shoulder, which got Mina to roll her eyes at him. Looking back at Blake, Kurai wiggled his hand a little bit and said, "Come on, Belladonna. My arm's getting tired, and I don't have a spare anymore, so I gotta take good care of it."
"I'm gonna drop you," Mina threatened, which drew a tired chuckle out of him.
Slowly, Blake reached out and gingerly shook his hand, careful of the IV still piercing his flesh. "I'll finish the semester at UA," she told them. "If I'm still not convinced that this life is for me by then, I'm switching to general studies."
Kurai and Mina glanced at one another, then nodded in unison. "Good enough," Mina grinned. "Hey, Belladonna?"
"Yes?"
"…Can you help me put him back into bed? His legs are giving out."
"Sorry," he said a little sheepishly as the American rushed to help her new classmates. "Recovery Girl's quirk pretty much wiped me out."
Blake left shortly afterwards to go see Yang and her friends, leaving Kurai and Mina alone for the second time since he had woken up. Realizing that his family might be coming soon, she took the opportunity to ask him about something that had been bothering her over the last few hours.
"Why are you putting on a show for the others?" She was sitting next to him, massaging his legs to stimulate the blood flow, as per the suggestion of the doctor.
Kurai was surprised to discover that his girlfriend was an excellent masseuse, but her question distracted him from that particular detail for the moment. "I'm not entirely sure," he answered honestly. "I dunno if it's because I want them to think that I'm as tough as they've been saying I am all year, or so that they don't get even more discouraged after what happened to Bakugo, or some other reason entirely." Looking into her caramel-colored eyes, he added softly, "I just know that for some reason, I can't put up appearances when it's just you and me. Or rather, I don't want to."
"Why not?"
"Because I trust you, and I want you to feel comfortable around me."
"Oh yeah?" she grinned lightly as she switched over to his left leg. "So there's nothing that you wouldn't tell me?" She meant it as a joke, but when Kurai didn't respond immediately, and she saw the troubled look on his face, she frowned a little bit and asked, "Is there something that you won't tell me?"
Kurai's mind raced, knowing that he had baulked, but he couldn't well tell her about All Might and his past, nor the truth behind Izuku's powers. On the other hand, he didn't want her to lose faith in him, either. So he decided to say, "There are some secrets that aren't mine to share."
"Really?" she asked, her smile back as she continued to work on his leg. "What, do you know some stuff about your dad's job that you're not technically supposed to know?"
"You could say that," he nodded with a small sigh of relief as he realized that she wasn't really too worried about the matter. His girlfriend was a tad on the nosy side, but even she could recognize that- especially in the line of hero work- there were just some things that couldn't be shared without the express permission of the one that originally held their secrets.
"Okay, well aside from any super-secret police stuff, or any world-ending catastrophes that you've pinky-promised to never speak of, is there anything that I should know about you?" He winced as she massaged a particularly tender spot on his calf, which she quickly apologized for.
Turning red from what he was about to say, Kurai told her, "Just that I'm in love with a really great girl who I think is gonna be an amazing hero."
"Was that supposed to be a secret?" she giggled. "Cos you already told me that."
"Anything wrong with me saying more it than once?"
"Not at all." She released his leg in favor of moving up the bed to bend over and kiss him on the mouth, enjoying the gentle contact that she had been missing since camp began. As she drew back for a breath of air, she murmured, "Thank you for being yourself around me. I wouldn't want you any other way."
That night, their world would change forever.
Kurai's mother and brother came in to see him, and it actually turned out to be a nice visit for the boy, as he was beginning to feel a little better thanks to Recovery Girl and the painkillers that he was being put on. Mina spent a lot of the time talking to Akarui, who was able to communicate via the computer that had been built into his wheelchair. He couldn't use his mouth to talk, but he could type out whatever he needed to say, as his hands were relatively unaffected thus far. From what Kurai could see, the two of them were getting along a lot better than they had before the events of I-island, which brought him a measure of much-needed happiness.
Since Akarui had finally been cleared to go home, he and their mother left a little early, so they could get him situated back at the house, though their mother did leave behind a bag with some fresh clothes for Kurai, should he want to change out of his hospital robe. Before they left, the younger brother joked that they should have put a plaque with their family name on his hospital room, as Kurai was- quite by coincidence- scheduled to move there once he was gone. Since Kurai didn't need a constant supply of blood anymore, he was cleared to leave the ICU, though the nurses would still be checking on him regularly. His IV was also removed so that he could move about more freely and start taking his pain medication via pill instead of liquid drip.
Since the rules about visitors were more relaxed in the new room, and he was feeling a little better- despite needing Mina's help to walk due to his sense of imbalance and weakened muscles- he let his classmates know that they were free to visit him as they pleased. This led to the majority of the class coming to see him for a little while before they all went their separate ways.
The only one to remain behind was Midoriya, who asked Mina if he could talk to his friend in private. She was reluctant to leave his side, but he assured her that he would be okay for a few minutes without her. So she went to go grab some food for them from the cafeteria down below, promising to return with some KFC, an old favorite of Kurai's from when he was little.
As soon as she was gone, Kurai had sobered his expression and murmured, "Is this about All Might?"
"No," Midoriya answered swiftly. "I know you can't help us, but I just wanted you to know… Todoroki, Kirishima, and I are going to try to rescue Kacchan. If Yaoyorozu is on board to help us track him down, we'll make sure to finish what you started."
His words didn't really surprise Kurai, though whether it was because he was just exhausted or he just knew that his friend was determined to stick his nose in where it didn't belong, he wasn't sure. "I'll assume that Iida tried to talk you out of it? Or does he not know?"
"Most of our class knows, except for Hagakure and Jiro," Midoriya admitted. "They're still recovering from the effects of the poison. But yeah, most of the others are against the plan."
"You do know that you're breaking the law, and that I'm the son of the Police Commissioner, right?" Kurai reminded him gravely. "Even if we are All Might's heirs, we need to play by the rules."
"The teachers want us to stay out of it, but there's nothing in the law that keeps us from attempting a rescue as long as we don't use our quirks to harm anyone," Izuku pointed out. "I nearly rescued him, Hikari. He was right in front of me, but my arms were busted, and I couldn't grab him before they were warped away. I let your sacrifice go to waste, and I just can't live with that!"
"…Don't do this on my account, or because you feel guilty," Kurai finally said after moment of awkward silence. "I did what I could, and then some, all without succeeding in the mission to get him to safety, and no one is to blame for that failure but me. That said… if you have a chance to do the right thing, I shouldn't stop you from taking it- as long as it is the right thing to do." A hard light crept into Kurai's tired eyes. "If you act out of line like Iida did in Hosu, I'll make sure that my father knows what you were up to, and then let the hammer of justice fall where it may, even if it's on my head for letting you go in the first place. Do we have an agreement?"
"We do," Midoriya said as he reached out with his right hand to shake his friend's, only to realize his mistake a little too late. "Uh… Hikari, I'm sorry!"
"Don't worry about it," the wounded boy sighed, reaching out with his left hand to grasp his peer's. "Go get him, and make sure that you all come back safe."
"I will."
Then he was gone, and Kurai was left completely alone for the first time since he had been maimed. He gingerly touched his injury without looking it, wincing as his stitches responded angrily to his soft probe. If I didn't have this, would I be going with him? he had wondered.
Before he could think about it too much, Mina had returned with the food, and he eagerly ate, having had little to sustain himself since he had woken up. It was more difficult than he had thought it would be, eating only with his left hand, especially when it came to the chicken. His grip was awkward at certain angles, and he couldn't seem to get all the meat off the bones like he had been able to when he'd had the use of both arms. However, he refused to ask Mina for help, not wanting to mark himself as an invalid when it was more than possible to feed himself.
Once they had finished their meal, Mina went to take a shower while Kurai began to flip through the channels on the TV in his new room, eventually settling on a station that ran old anime from the days before quirks. He was delighted to find that one of his favorites, Noragami, was having a marathon of the first season, and it was only on the second episode, so he hadn't missed much. Since it was on one of the more obscure channels, the dub was in English, but Kurai didn't mind too much, since he was nearly fluent in the language.
Mina came out just as the third episode began the opening sequence, a towel covering her frizzy hair, though it did nothing to conceal the irritated look on her face. Cocking his head at his girlfriend, Kurai asked, "Something wrong?"
"I forgot to ask Su to bring my shampoo and conditioner," she grumbled as she sat in a chair next to him, rubbing the towel on her scalp to try and get a little more moisture removed. "I had to use the crappy stuff that they provide here."
"I might need to go in for a wash," Kurai realized aloud. "I'll assume that I didn't get cleaned while I was unconscious?"
"Nah, and the doctor said you're not allowed to soak your wound yet, remember?" she reminded him. "I can help you with a sponge bath if you want, but a shower is out of the question, buster."
He hesitated, wondering if she wasn't just trying to get a reaction out of him, but he also knew that his mom had brought him a pair of board shorts so that he could have assistance in getting clean without compromising his dignity- at least, as much dignity as a teenager whose arm had been torn off could salvage. Sighing to himself as he shuffled toward his bag, he said, "I'd appreciate it. Just give me a minute to change into my shorts."
In truth Mina was tempted to tease him, but she knew that his ego was pretty fragile right now, and given how hard he was fighting with the zipper on his bag, she decided that she'd be better off helping him instead of trying to rile him up. Moving back toward the bathroom, she said over her shoulder, "I'll go make sure that the water is still running warm. Come in after you've changed, 'kay?"
"Mina."
"Yeah?" She stopped just short of the door and turned back to see Kurai smiling at her gratefully. "You need me to get something?"
"No, I just wanted to say thanks for everything that you're doing- and what you're not saying," he chuckled softly, knowing she would understand.
Flashing him a bright smile of her own, she told him, "Yeah, don't get used to it. You'd better believe that I'm gonna step it up when we get out of here with ways to make you look like a tomato."
"Duly noted."
After Kurai was clean of the residual filth that had stayed on his body since the training camp, plus some of the dried blood that had collected on his arm and torso, he definitely felt a little more refreshed. Mina let him wash himself for the most part, simply standing next to him and lending aid whenever he specifically asked for it. She also had a small portable speaker with her now, so she had some hip hop music going in the background for them, tapping her fingers or nodding her head to the beat of whatever tune happened to be playing at the time.
Once they were headed back into the room, Kurai asked her, "Thinking up a new routine?" His girlfriend was an avid break dancer, and her fighting style certainly showed it if one paid attention.
"Not really," she replied cheerfully. "It just helps to have a good beat to relax to, you know?"
"I relax best with a good book or tools in my hands," he grunted as she helped him to sit down on the bed before turning to bring his bag to him. In the background, the TV was still running his show, though Mina had muted it to make room for her music.
"I didn't take you for a handyman."
"Not as in home repairs, I mean my bike," he replied as she brought him a dragon ball shirt and sweatpants. "Thank you."
"That makes more sense," she giggled, though her face fell a little as a thought occurred to her. "Are you gonna be able to ride it anymore?"
"Depends on the grade of prosthetic that my parents are able to afford," Kurai shrugged. "If we can get a good one through our villain insurance, it should work pretty well- enough that I can move it almost like my old one, so long as I don't do anything too crazy with it."
"You mean fighting like just about every hero is expected to?" She gazed at him with concern as his mouth went a little grim.
"I'll adapt," he said firmly as he started tugging on his pants. "It's gonna suck, and I hate it, but I have to learn to work with this. My only other option is to give up, and as I have been informed by someone that I care about very much, throwing in the towel isn't a real option. So, I'll figure something out."
"Maybe Akarui will have an idea?" she asked him hopefully, causing the boy to put his face in his hand. "He's already on it, isn't he?"
"Little troll told me that I screwed up his hard work, and now he has to clean up my mess again," he grumbled as he finally managed to fit the fabric up to his waistline. "Other than that, he wouldn't tell me what he was planning."
"Is it safe for him to keep using his quirk like he is?"
"No, but it's technically a heteromorphic-type quirk, which means that it isn't physically possible for him to shut it off," Kurai reminded her. "That's part of the problem with his tumor- it gets more aggressive the more his quirk gets used, voluntarily or not." He then held up his shirt and asked, "Can I get a hand with this?"
Before she could give him an answer, his phone started to buzz, alerting him to a call from Akarui. "Speak of the devil," Mina said as she handed the phone to Kurai, who stumbled over the 'accept' button a couple of times before being able to let the call go through.
"Hello?" he asked, a little confused. "Akarui, are you there?"
*It's me.*
Both teenagers looked at the phone in surprise when the voice of K2SO, a droid from the old Star Wars Rogue One movie, came in over the speaker. "Akarui, how are you doing this?" his elder brother demanded. He recognized the voice because it had been Akarui's favorite character in the franchise.
It was a few seconds before they received the reply, *I'll explain at a better time, right now, turn your TV to the news.*
Puzzled by the bizarre request, Kurai asked, "Which one and why?"
*Take your pick, they're all focusing on the same thing. You'll see why once you do.* With that, the line went dead, leaving the two teenagers utterly bewildered.
"He just keeps finding new ways to be annoying, even when he's half-paralyzed," Mina muttered as she reached for the remote, turned the volume back on, and switched it to one of the local news' stations. The second after she did, the sound of the remote hitting the ground followed the students' jaws dropping. "Kurai… Is that-?"
"Kamino ward?" he asked hoarsely. "I think so."
"The scene below is straight out of a nightmare!" the reporter on the TV exclaimed as the helicopter footage showed wreckage of destruction untold since the days that All Might stepped onto the scene. Entire buildings had been obliterated throughout the sector, and many more were in pieces. There was no telling how many people were already dead, and judging how recently Akarui must have seen what was happening, things were just getting started.
"Half of Kamino Ward was destroyed in an instant," the clearly-rattled man continued. "All Might is currently fighting the villain that appears to have caused the blast, but… I just don't understand how one person can be that powerful! He's destroying the city and more than holding his own against the Symbol of Peace!" As the camera zoomed in, the viewers could make out All Might's bulk crushing someone or something underneath his full body weight.
"One person did that?!" Mina practically shrieked. "One guy?!"
Kurai felt his blood turn to ice, while his breath seemed to completely desert his lungs. One man? He thought, a horrible suspicion stealing into his mind. Someone powerful enough to cause this kind of destruction… Someone that All Might didn't just wreck with a single punch… Oh God, please don't let this be what I think it is!
"Dude, is All Might looking… beat up?" Mina's words snapped Kurai out of his panicked thoughts for a moment.
"Huh?"
"Look at his face, it looks all mangled, and he's bleeding!" She pointed urgently at the screen, where the camera had been able to zoom in even further, which showed something that made Kurai even more afraid.
"No…" he whispered.
Mina was only half-right. While All Might was indeed bleeding from his mouth, it was doubtful that it was the villain that had done it. That came out of his lungs, he realized, having seen it happen to the weakened hero a couple of times since learning his secret. And his face isn't busted- he's changing back into his normal form!
"Whaddya mean, 'no', he's clearly-! Kurai?" Mina was now looking at him, great concern written on her brow. "Kurai, you're really pale! Are you bleeding again?"
"No, not bleeding," he said hoarsely as he began to shake his head. Inwardly he added, If he fights this guy any longer, his secret will be out! And we can't lose All Might yet- Izuku and I aren't ready! …Buddy, I hope you weren't anywhere near that crapfest! The thought that his friends might have been caught up in the battle between these two titans was almost enough to induce a panic attack in the boy, on top of everything else that had happened to him.
On the TV, All Might was suddenly thrown back with some kind of an air blast that nearly sent him flying into the news' helicopter, only being stopped by a small white-and-yellow blur that set him down safely on the ground, a few yards away from the villain. Now that the hero wasn't crushing the man anymore, Kurai was able to get a good look at him, and all doubt left his mind as to his identity.
That's him, he thought, feeling vertigo seize him in the clutches of his horror as the faceless villain in his nightmares was finally given form. He wore a suit that would have made him appear gentlemanly, if not for the broken black skull mask which shrouded part of his own mangled face, screaming death and catastrophe to all that saw it. He looked nothing like Kurai had thought he would, in the brief moments when he had considered what All Might's greatest enemy would appear to be, but he was infinitely more terrifying. That must be him… All For One.
This was worse than any scenario he could have envisioned. If All Might continued to fight, the secret of his wounded status would be revealed to the world. On the other hand, if he didn't fight All For One now, and defeat him, it would certainly fall to the heroes Deku and Kai to face him someday, and after seeing what the man was capable of, Kurai severely doubted in their ability to do that.
"Kurai, do you know who that villain is?" Mina asked him, shaking him by the left shoulder. "You sound more scared of that guy than the reporter does, and you look like you've seen a ghost."
"More like a demon," he wheezed, his throat drier than a desert. "He's… He's…" He couldn't stop himself- he knew that he shouldn't say anything about All Might's past to anyone without the man's permission, but it was all just becoming too much for him to handle. He felt like he needed someone outside of all of the madness to talk to, someone that could have a more grounded perspective on the insanity that he was being subjected to.
"Mina, that guy is-"
An aerokinetic explosion suddenly ripped through Kamino at the behest of All For One, aiming for a building where many heroes and civilians could be seen trying to escape this battle of the gods occurring not a few hundred meters from where they lived. At first, amid the wind and dust, it appeared as if there would be several hundred more casualties to add to what was already going to be a horrible night in history, but that quickly changed.
"Did All Might block that?" Mina asked, her voice filled with awe as the camera showed that the buildings had not been damaged any further, despite the ferocious blast. "That's amazing… What the-?"
"Shit," Kurai swore as he felt himself fall back onto the incline of his bed.
The screen showed a weakened All Might, his hero costume hanging loosely off of his bony arms and legs while his eyes had sunken in to accompany his hollowed cheekbones. Fresh blood covered his fingers, forehead, and mouth. Kurai and Izuku's worst fear had come to pass- the Symbol of Peace had been exposed as a walking cadaver. He looked so frail that if someone tapped him, his ankles would roll over in his oversized boots.
"I-Is everyone else seeing this?" the reporter asked off-screen, sounding just as bewildered as all of his viewers. "All Might has been… shrunk somehow?!"
Mina looked up at the TV with wide eyes, then back at Kurai, back to the screen, and then back to him again. "You don't look surprised by this," she said softly. "All Might turns into a skeleton, and that's your reaction? It's almost like…"
"Remember how some secrets aren't mine to tell?" he asked tightly before she could finish. Pointing a trembling finger at the TV, he added, "That's one of them." When Mina said nothing for a moment and the two super humans appeared to be at something of a standoff, he went on to say, "All Might… This guy almost killed him a few years back, and he thought that he'd done him in. But this villain… All For One… He survived, and All Might knew that if they fought again, the world could lose its Symbol of Peace. So… he asked me and Midoriya to train under him- to become the All Might of the next generation. He asked us… to train so that we could fix his mistake- to someday defeat All For One."
Mina's eyes went wider than dinner plates as she whispered, "He asked you guys…? He wanted you to fight that?" She pointed at the screen again, which showed All For One saying something undetectable to All Might. "And you said yes?!"
"Mina, please keep your voice down," Kurai hissed as he placed a finger over his lips. "I shouldn't even be telling you this, but I feel like I'm losing my mind with everything that I have to deal with! I told him that I would take up the fight in his name because only me and Midoriya have the kind of power that could someday defeat this guy- at least, that's what he told us."
"Do you think he was lying?" she asked as she sat down on the bed next to him, looking thoroughly rattled. Both of them kept their eyes glued to the screen, morbidly interested to see which one of the two men would make the next move.
"No…" he admitted hollowly. "But after seeing this… seeing what he's done to All Might and the city… I don't know how anyone could possibly defeat that thing." As he spoke, he felt terror, pain, and anger- yes, anger at the villains, but also at All Might, who had placed such a tremendous burden on his shoulders by being careless with his power.
Mina saw these different emotions warring across her boyfriend's face, and her mind raced to find the words to say. Clearly she still wasn't getting the full picture, but the bombshells that he had just dropped were clear indicators of the fact that he had been dealing with a lot more than he had let on, which were more than enough on their own. He's hurting, but he still needs to believe in the guy that saw enough potential in him to make him his successor, she thought as he tightened his remaining fist, unable to tell if he was glaring at All Might or All for One.
Her jaw firmed up as the words finally came, and she murmured, "Whatever else has happened to All Might, or whatever he asked you and Midoriya to do, he's still the greatest hero that the world has. Even if he looks like a skeleton, I believe that he can do this, because he's always pulled through before. He's still there, still standing."
Before Kurai could say anything to the contrary, the camera showed the man settle into a limping stance, his right arm swelling back up to the muscular size it was whenever he used his quirk. All For One floated up a few meters into the air, red electricity crackling along his own expanding arm.
Looking at Kurai directly for a moment, Mina nudged his shoulder gently and whispered, "He's still fighting, Kurai. He's fighting for the chance that you won't have to."
With those words, the boy felt his anger at the hero melt and fall away from his heart. She's right, he realized, feeling shame replace the anger. He could have just fled under the dust cloud, and no one would have been the wiser. He could have left the other pros to do the fighting so that he could protect his public image, but he's still there, even though he's half-dead by now. He's been hurt so much more than I have, and he's never once complained about it- he's out there, doing his duty, while I'm in here, griping and worrying about stuff that might not even happen.
There was a sudden rush of fire that announced the arrival of Endeavor, along with Edgeshot and a few other pro heroes, but the camera obviously wasn't going to tear away from the main confrontation. From what they could tell, a few of the highest-ranked heroes were aiming to assist All Might in his battle while the others moved to assist evacuation efforts.
The two teenagers felt their stomachs drop as All For One effortlessly beat back attacks from Edgeshot and Endeavor, all while trying to kill the heroes that were rescuing innocent civilians. In spite of their best attempts to pin down the ancient menace, he eventually got fed up with their interference, clearing the area of all but himself and All Might with another air shot that was powerful enough to throw off the helicopters in the sky, which in turn obstructed the viewers' line of sight into what was happening.
What happened next defied belief, even for a world full of heroes and villains. All For One's right arm quadrupled in size and length, iron spears, metal nuts and bolts bursting through the skin, all serving to turn the villain into a misshapen hunchback, not unlike his mortal enemy, who waited for the oncoming storm with the look of a predator in his darkened blue eyes. Seeing it all, Kurai questioned how his teacher could bear to stand against such overwhelming, implacable evil.
"Here we go," Mina whispered, her hands finding his and gripping it tightly.
The pair exchanged four blows in total. The first was a collision of their engorged fists that sent All Might reeling, and nearly stopping Kurai's heart when he thought that the man had fallen for a second. Then the blond hero steeled himself, just dodging the horrendous limb in time to put enough power into his left arm so that he struck All For One a solid blow across his face, destroying his demonic mask and sending shockwaves across the destroyed sector. However, this left his right arm completely broken- just like Izuku's arms used to wind up whenever he used One For All. Even as he recoiled in pain, his left arm deflated, leaving him all but helpless before his hated foe.
Seeing this, All For One used his air power to hurl himself at All Might, monster fist-first. When he somehow missed, he hesitated, sensing that he had made some kind of crucial mistake. It was at this time that the crowds could finally hear their number one hero's voice rising above the chaos and noise.
"…I didn't put my back into it, that time!" All Might drew back his mangled arm, dripping with blood, and he seemed to clench something. Without needing to be told, Kurai knew that this was it- if All Might failed in this next attack, All For One would return in force, and it would be up to him and Izuku to take up the fight against this demon.
Then, miracle of miracles, All Might's right arm swelled back up to fighting size, completely healed. All For One stumbled in his gait, clearly not having predicted this particular development. The Symbol of Peace charged forward with a mighty war cry, fresh blood spilling from his mouth as he dealt the Enigma of Destruction a terrible blow to the face, crushing him into the ground, a monstrous tornado shooting up from the point of impact.
"United… States of… SMASH!"
All Might's ultimate move annihilated the remnants of Kamino, tearing out buildings by their roots and flinging them skyward. The helicopter filming the battle was nearly hit on four separate occasions before the winds began to die down and the crew could take stock of what the final result of the battle was.
When the lens managed to focus back on the destroyed ground, All Might was hunched over, unmoving- but All For One wasn't getting up, either. The villain was lying on the ground, out cold or dead, they weren't sure. Kurai could not breathe- he could not take in a breath until he knew for sure just what had happened. Even the sounds of the hospital around them seemed to die away as they awaited the verdict.
The instilled silence remained absolute across the nation until All Might weakly raised his left hand above his head and resumed his hero form in all its glory. He was battered, bloodied, and his normally-immaculate hair was a mess, but he was standing tall. "He… He did it!" the reporter cheered, sounding as though he were trying not to cry from relief and joy combined. "All Might wins! The villain is down- he's not moving! All Might stands victorious! He saved us all again!"
Kurai let out a huge gasp of relief as he realized that the nightmare was over- not just for him, but the world over. All For One would never threaten them again. All Might had fulfilled the generations-long destiny of the people that used One for All, and taken down the mighty villain that ruled from the shadows. Mina was laughing and crying at the same time as she hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back, feeling that a huge weight had finally come off of his shoulders. Throughout the hospital, patients and staff alike were cheering loudly, chanting the name of their hero, a sound that could be heard as an echo coming from the packed streets down below.
Thank you, All Might.
In the wee hours of the morning, Police Commissioner Hogo-sha was out with his men, having decided that if he could demand assistance from off-duty officers, he could be out there with them, doing the hard work, too. He had been coordinating with Uwabami, the Serpent Heroine, to find and evacuate victims in the remnants of villains, since the battle between All Might and All For One had concluded, and had decided that he could afford to take a moment to call his wife and let her know that he was all right.
"…Okay, tell Iida that we're very grateful," he said with a large smile on his aged face. Being on the force for more than three decades had really started to take its toll on his physical appearance, especially with situations like this one. "I'll give Kurai the good news on my way home. Is Miss Ashido still there with him?"
"Yes, she's been very good to him."
"You scared her, didn't you?"
"Guilty as charged, Officer."
"That's my lady," he laughed as he noticed one of the heroes waving him over, indicating that they needed assistance with getting someone out of one of the buildings. "I need to go. I love you." As he started toward the ruin, the caped man nodded and went inside.
"Love you, too. I'll tell Akarui that you called." With that, the line went dead, and he put the device in his pocket.
Letting out a sigh, he muttered under his breath, "I'm gonna need something stronger than coffee to get me through this hellhole of a night…" He jogged over to the building that he had seen the hero enter, clicking on his flashlight as he made his way into what might have been a receptionist's area. He had to crawl in to fit through the opening, but there was plenty of space inside once he was in.
He was only half-surprised when something shot out from inside the darker part of the rubble, and knocked the device out of his hand while simultaneously destroying the torch, leaving him in the dim light of the falling moon. "Color me impressed," he said flatly, remaining exactly where he was. "You set this up pretty quickly, given your losses."
"You really want those to be your last words?" a deep, echoing voice rumbled ominously.
"No, I actually have a few for your boss." Hogo-sha glared into the yawning darkness that seemed to be coming to life as he snarled, "Tell him that I only regret not doing it sooner."
"All For One does not take kindly to betrayals," the dark voice replied as even the meager light from outside began to fade. "For tonight's events, your own life is forfeit, though you may take comfort in knowing that your family's lives are being spared."
"And that will be your League's undoing," Hogo-sha laughed, despite the creeping shadows. "My sons will not be broken- I see that now. Pray to the god you believe in before they come for you, because when they do, you're going to wish your master had never reached out to me with his offer."
"I said that their lives are being spared," the shadow hissed. "Only time will tell what hell Shigaraki will inflict on them when he finally realizes his destiny, and assumes the master's throne."
"Ha!" Hogo-sha laughed, refusing to be intimidated. "They'll take his hell, and they'll return it with interest. Nothing you say can convince me otherwise."
"Then die with wasted breath," the shadow rumbled. However, even he was impressed when the Police Commissioner expired without a scream, a stubborn smile fixed on his corpse, as if it were one last act of defiance to All For One.
Kurai yawned as he woke up, jostling Mina awake as he stretched his arm over his head, though she quickly nestled back into his chest, determined to stay asleep for as long as she could. Smiling softly, Kurai reached for the remote and clicked on the TV after reading a couple of notifications on his phone, including a text from his mother, keeping the volume low as he surveyed the rescue efforts of the heroes and police officers. I wonder how many of them are out there, he wondered groggily, his right arm aching in protest of his missed pain medicine dosage from the previous evening. He'd been so caught up in what was happening with the fight that he had forgotten to ask for it, and the hospital had been flooded with new patients, which had led to the staff forgetting to bring it.
"I'm standing in the remnants of Kamino Ward, where heroes and police are working tirelessly," a female reporter stated as the sun began to rise behind her, illuminating the horrific battlefield. "Rescue efforts began during All Might's fight, but the scope of the damage is nothing less than staggering. Authorities are estimating huge casualties. The villain who caused this is being led into police custody- oh! He's over there right now!" Sure enough, All For One was being forced into a containment unit with as many power suppressors covering his body as there could be without suffocating him. "Endeavor will oversee his prison transfer while All Might and the other heroes remain on high alert-"
The reporter suddenly stopped talking as All Might, in his weakened form, raised a puny limb in order to point a single finger at the screen. "Now…" he wheezed. "Now… it's your turn." Finished, he let his arm hang loosely at his side as he remained in place, a hollow fragment of the man that he had once been.
Kurai felt the weight that had lifted from him begin to settle back in, even as Mina raised her head and looked at him with worry. "Sweetie?" she asked him. "What's wrong? You're all pale again, and your heart is going nuts."
"All Might…" he whispered as tears threatened to leak out of his eyes. "He's done. That was it." Mina jerked her head back, suddenly looking much more awake.
"You're saying-?"
"He was talking to Izuku and me," he said, his tongue feeling numb from the weight of those words. "He's saying that it's up to Deku and Kai to take up the standard. It's… our turn."
Mina looked like she wanted to say something, but she was stopped by a knock at the door. "Police," they heard, so she quickly scrambled out of the bed to help him up. "Can we come in, Hikari?"
"Gimme a second," Kurai grunted as he swung his feet out of the bed and into his slippers. "Sorry, I just woke up."
"What's going on?" Mina murmured, looking as though she were still reeling from All Might's message to her boyfriend.
"Probably Dad, he has to be escorted by officers during his uniform hours," he answered as he wiped at his eyes before they began to walk toward the door. "My guess is that he was escorting some civilians to the hospital and figured that he'd stop in for a minute. Mom sent a text that said that he was gonna stop by."
"Ooh, if it's him, I should probably clean up a little bit," the pink girl grinned. "Wouldn't want him to think that we were up to anything, right?"
"…Next time, just say that you need to use the bathroom, okay? I'm good to get to the door."
"Thankyouyou'rethebest!" she exclaimed before she bolted toward the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
"Hikari?" One of the officers called in. "You okay in there?"
"Yeah, sorry, almost there." He forced himself to chuckle as he reached the door handle. Dad's probably had a rough night- he doesn't need to see me freaking out since I'm gonna have to be the next Symbol of Peace alongside Izuku.
Composing himself, he opened the door and said, "Good morning, office-" His words died in his throat as he saw that both of the men in front of his door had their hats off, and wore sorrowful expressions.
Deku: Oh... Oh my-
Red Riot: How many plot twists do ya wanna throw on us, man?! What the hell is going on?!
Deku: Kurai's father was in league with All For One?!
Mataras: Yep.
Deku: Why?!
Red Riot: Nothing about that makes sense! The guy is a model law enforcer, isn't he?! What would he have to gain from making a deal with All for One?!
Mataras: That's all based on what you know about him- what Kurai knows about his father. That's not the whole truth, not by a long shot.
Deku: But... Oh man, poor Kurai...
Red Riot: First his brother, then his arm, and now his dad is dead! And a traitor on top of all that!
Mataras: He doesn't have a clue about that last part. Not even Akarui knows anything about their arrangement, which should tell you enough about the chances of Kurai finding out about it anytime soon.
Deku: Oh man...
Mataras: Yeah, I do not feel great about myself after writing this, but it has been the plan from the get-go, so I just hope that I did a good job with it.
Red Riot: That'll be for the readers to decide, but... Man, you came back from vacation swinging!
Mataras: Thank you.
Deku: Next time- Not Alone
Red Riot: Seems like Hikari's gonna have his hands more than full... again.
Mataras: Then he'll just have to Go Beyond!
Deku: Plus Ultra!
Next time on Your Hero Academia: Survival...
Shukin glanced at his cousins out of the corner of his eye before he asked, "Should I leave you guys alone?"
"If you don't mind."
Shukin nodded and walked past Kurai, patting him on the shoulder before he did the same to Akarui, murmuring, "Let me know if you guys want to talk."
*Thanks.* Akarui's synthetic voice replied, courtesy of a program that would speak anything that he typed into his wheelchair's tablet.
With that, their cousin was gone, and the two of them were left completely alone in the graveyard reserved for officers that had fallen in the line of duty. Mina had been there with them earlier, but she had to go home in order to sort out some things about UA with her parents, so now it was just Kurai and Akarui. Neither of them moved for a very long time, unable to tear their gaze away from their father's resting place.
The officers that came to tell Kurai about Hogo-sha's death had informed the family that the man had been assisting in the evacuation of a partially collapsed building when the support structure had finally given way, crushing him and thirty-six civilians that had been unable to escape. Despite the fact that he had been in no way obligated to do manual labor alongside his men, their father had seen to saving as many people as he could through both his coordination with the police and heroes, as well as his own physical efforts. If the boys were being honest with themselves, it was hardly surprising that he would die like that, but it didn't make the fact hurt any less, especially with everything else that had happened to them in the last few weeks.
"I don't get it," Kurai finally said, his voice hoarse from disuse. As Akarui turned his chair to allow him to look more directly at his brother, the other boy continued on to asked, "Is there some unspoken law of the world that says that you and I aren't allowed to be happy? Is it wrong for us to hope for that?"
*I don't know.* Akarui replied. *But there's no going back for us, now. With Dad and All Might both gone, things are about to get a lot worse around here. We need to do our part to keep the people safe that they fought so hard to protect.*
"How?" Kurai scoffed as he finally turned to look at his brother, his eyes red from the crying that he had been doing. "I'm down an arm, which crippled my ability to use my quirk in addition to my body, and you're halfway to being a vegetable. Not to mention that neither one of us is close to getting our careers off the ground. What are a couple of kids gonna do for a world without All Might and Dad in it?"