"How much further?" if there was one word Toru was coming to associate Cerberus, it was impatient.
"We're almost there."
"You said that ages ago."
"She said it two minutes ago." even though Monoma was still wary of their whole 'back from the dead' deal (which, fair), he was still ready to side with Toru when faced with the almost child-like demon.
"Exactly!" said child whined loudly, "I'm bored!"
"I was under the impression that your fragmented forms were but parts of the whole." and Tokoyami was still colourful as ever.
"Yeah, so?"
"Could you not seek entertainment elsewhere as we traverse these wasted lands?"
While the description sounded a bit much, Toru couldn't help but wince at the underlying truth. The city felt like a barely-standing shell of what it had been, and going through a familiar neighbourhood really began to drive that point home. They passed the pre-school she'd gone to as a kid, but it was boarded up, planks covering broken planks. The pavement beneath their feet had never been in great shape, she still had fond memories of playing 'monsters in the cracks' with her friends. She'd thought them so big all that time ago, but now there were fissures running straight through the road and pavements large enough to dwarf even her childhood imagination. And gone were any children playing in small parks, or any children period. The parks were brown with dying foliage and rusting playground equipment, and the few people present occasionally glanced towards Toru's group with looks of suspicion and fear. Any hint of the neighbourly warmth she'd enjoyed her whole life was gone.
Can't believe it's really been two years. She glanced at the broken ground. The broken city. The broken everything.
Stupid timey-wimey garbage.
"Eh." Cerberus replied to Tokoyami flatly. "I can only prod Tobodoki so much before it just becomes pitiful, and not in the fun way. And Izuku's kinda got some shit to deal with right now."
"What kind of-" Monoma took a moment to find an alternative to the explicative. "issues?"
"Long story, still don't really get it." Cerberus looked over to Toru, "Looks like we'll be here a bit longer than expected though. So no rush, I guess." her bored expression turned to a smirk, "Of course, it only makes sense I get to have some fun as compensation. Overtime pay, right?"
"I-" defuse the situation, defuse the situation, don't let the demon indulge in predation- "I don't think that'll be necessary- We're almost there!"
"You said that-"
"We're there! Look!" cutting off a demon may have been a bad call, but it didn't stop Toru eagerly pointing out that they'd arrived at her apartment block. Even better, it hadn't collapsed into nothingness or anything, the worst tell of its poor state being some peeling grey paint and a few thin but visible cracks running through the multi-storey building. All things considered, that was probably a good sign.
Please let it be a good sign.
"Ok." Cerberus let out an audible sigh, and Toru tried her best not to wonder how many people she'd just saved by distracting her. "So how's this gonna go?"
Toru looked back at her questioningly, "What do you mean?"
"What do you-" Monoma slapped a hand to his face, "What, were you planning on having the four of us just waltz up to the Hagakure's home? 'Oh hey, how's it going? btdubs I'm your dead daughter and this is a literal demon!'"
Toru gave him an irritated look. He wasn't exactly wrong, but still. "I mean, when you put it like that-"
"How else would you put it?!"
"If I may be so bold as to interject." Tokoyami to the rescue. "I believe it would be wise to set a more clear goal here. Is it your intent to reassure your family? Ascertain their current status? Resolve old feuds?"
"I mean…" I guess Doku never paid me back after scratching my CW disc. And Bakuna was always kind of a pain, but like. I wouldn't call them feuds exactly. Toru was mainly just here to make sure they weren't, you know. Dead.
"Going further, I would advise not overcomplicating the matter with talk of afterlives and demons and whatnot."
"Right." Toru nodded in kind. That made sense. If there wasn't any need to go into another exposition dump about how the afterlife worked, why bother. Hey, wait. "Just to make sure," she turned to Cerberus, "talking about death and the afterlife and stuff doesn't make us easier to track or anything. Right?"
"Eh." she gave an alarmingly non-committal shrug. "Justice and I put a basic Soul Shawl on you which the rest of us can see through. You're difficult to see through supernatural-detection means, and most humans won't recognise you."
"That doesn't answer the question." once again, Cerberus proved a uniting force to get Monoma on Toru's side.
"Talking about the supernatural with that up won't shoot up a flare saying 'hey angels, come and get me!' or anything. Just don't invoke his name," she pointed upwards vaguely, "and you'll be fine there. But if people take it badly and go running their mouth it can get noticed surprisingly quickly."
"Won't most just think them stricken by insanity?" Tokoyami came up with the idea surprisingly fast. Or maybe it wasn't so surprising, all things considered.
"Probably, but you never know." Cerberus shrugged again, "Plus, we've got demons after us. We know Pandemonica's out there somewhere, so do you really wanna risk her turning up in the middle of a family reunion?"
No one had an answer for that at first. Toru briefly considered the irony of coming to check her family was ok, only to get them all killed by accidentally siccing a homicidal demon on them. The humour was quickly overridden by terror.
"Fair point." She eventually nodded in agreement. Instead of focusing on that nightmare scenario, she went back to Tokoyami's suggestion. "Ok, so, goals. First of all, I wanna check that all my family members are alive."
"A fair request." he nodded in turn, "Though for that no direct contact is necessary. Were time not an issue, even a stakeout would be sufficient."
"But it is, so it isn't." Toru continued. Keeping Cerberus entertained for fifteen minutes had proven near impossible. God- I mean, uh- Who knows what damage she could do overnight. Plus, homicidal pursuing demons. So they needed something faster. "But second, I wanna check how they're doing." while she may not be able to do much of anything about their current situation, it would be a relief to know that they were still going strong. Or as strong as the world would allow.
"I guess that kinda depends on the first thing, though. We'll call it 1a- no, 1a: Check my family's alive. 1b: Check how they're doing generally." and that was pretty much it- "OH! And 2: Pick up my DW DVDs."
Still gotta marathon them with Todoroki and Midoriya. Call it skewed priorities, but once they got down to Hell there was no guarantee there'd be any media. If they were going to be friends down there, it'd be nice to have something they'd all seen; some shared experiences beyond all the traumatic supernatural nonsense they'd gone through. Made for easier in-jokes. She still remembered that just quoting prequel lines with Midoriya back when they were leaving helped ease the tension a bit. She was determined to get closer to the only 'mortal' friends she had left.
Wait, do they even have TV's in Hell? Or electricity? No, they'd definitely had electricity. There had been lights, and cooking, and- unless that was all magic? Why didn't they give any information on these things?!
"Who even uses DVDs anymore."
"They're original runs!" Toru huffed in response. Some people didn't get it. "But thinking about it, none of that technically needs a conversation."
"You really don't want to talk to them?" unexpectedly, it was Cerberus who spoke up. "If they're a bunch of goody-goodies or have a crisis of faith, this could be your last chance." Toru paused at the thought.
I guess I should, but…
She'd always loved her family, obviously. Good times and bad, she'd had a pretty great childhood, all things considered. Sometimes she would've rather hung out with friends than work in the shop. But it wasn't like she was worked to death, and she certainly didn't resent her parents for it with a burning passion like some kind of edgy shounen rival or whatever. She bickered with her brothers and sisters sometimes, sure, disobeyed her parents occasionally (to be fair, she really wanted those fireworks) but who didn't? She loved them all, obviously. But at the same time?
What would I even say?
He'd been kind of a dick about it, but Monoma had a point; what could she even say to them at this point? 'Oh, I'm fine(ish)'. 'Oh, it's only been a couple of weeks for me and I'm still processing all this'. 'Oh, everything you thought you knew is basically a lie and afterlives co-exist based on a bunch of rules I still don't know. Also, I can't see you again until you die, so have fun with that.' Her death had probably thrown all of their lives completely out of whack, did she want to add another issue to deal with on top of that? And even if most of her family was accepting of it for some reason, she didn't want to think about how her twin brother might react. If the situation was reversed…
I don't even wanna think about it. They hadn't had as much time to hang out with Toru so busy with U.A., but the two had been practically inseparable back when she was still alive.
Wait. Does that mean I won't ever see him again?
"We'll call that point 3." she really didn't want to follow that train of thought to its destination. There was so much going on that Toru hadn't properly processed everything yet, but now really wasn't the time for that – dealing with reality could come once they weren't so on the clock. "Or maybe 1c? But 2 takes precedence."
"What a loving daughter and sister you are." of course it was Monoma.
"Oi!" she snarled back, before Dark Shadow emerged purely to slap the boy over the back of the head. When Monoma glared back at the Quirk-being, the shadow simply folded his arms in response.
"More to the point," Tokoyami there again, keeping the peace, "I can't help but notice that, with the exception of 1c, none of your endeavours require direct confrontation. In other words-"
Toru's eyes shone in excitement, "Phantom Thief Toru, to the rescue!" she flipped invisible again, and wow it was so nice to be able to do that. She took off towards her apartment with the quietest steps she could muster.
"Hey! That's my name!" a thousand comebacks flew through Toru's head, but eventually decided she had more important things to do than bicker with someone she barely knew. "You hear me?! I know you're still out there! HEY!"
"So, to be clear," Aizawa's words were muted to Izuku's ears. Like the world was happening through a distorted veil. "This entire thing was impossible from the start, and neither of you noticed?"
"He never said it needed DNA transfer." Justice was rubbing her temple in irritation. After the initial bout of laughter from how 'funny' the whole thing was, reality set in and apparently just left a sour taste in her mouth. Not that it was easily distinguishable from the reek of assorted garbage strewn across the beach. "Or anything physical for that matter. I'm used to demonic rules with power transference; everything's conceptual. Agreements and contracts and handshakes, not eating hair."
"It doesn't have to be hair." All Might seemed remarkably accepting of the situation, though Izuku wasn't sure if he'd really accepted it or was just going along with it. "That's just usually the easiest option. Any source of DNA would do."
"OH!" Modeus shot her hand in the air excitedly. "I know how to fix it!"
"I sincerely doubt that." Justice's voice was scathing. She glanced up to see Izuku looking back at her. He was desperate. They'd come so far, travelled all this way- to have it all be for nothing? Even if an alternative solution was unlikely, he'd still scratch and claw at any chance you can have.
Justice's cynicism eventually relented under that desperation, "But go on. What's your plan."
"We need some of Izuku's DNA, right?"
"That is the issue we've been discussing, yes." it sounded like Justice's patience was already flaring.
"Then we just need to go to his bedroom!"
Everyone stared at her for a moment after that. Eventually, Justice sighed again.
"Even if we assume his room has been kept intact, it's extremely unlikely that any hair strands or skin flakes we could find would still be sufficient, assuming this thing needs a full DNA sample to transfer." she looked to All Might for confirmation.
"Uh." he coughed into his hand, "I'm not really sure. I'm a little out of my depth here – the closest situation I'm aware of is when a dying user passed the ability on through their blood." he shrugged to continue, "And even there, I'm not too familiar with the details."
"Considering that this is a hereditary Quirk," Aizawa made an effort to fill in the blanks instead, "It most likely needs, at the very least, a more-or-less intact copy of Izuku's Quirk gene. His room has largely been preserved, but I'm confident any such samples exposed to air would be too degraded to use."
"What if they were in a sealed jar?" Modeus asked in turn.
"""What?""" Aizawa, All Might and Justice all asked the question aloud, while Izuku and Uraraka simply looked at her in confusion. Cerberus just seemed kind of bored.
"No, see, I've read about this." Modeus showed off Izuku's phone for some reason- wait a second. "A tradition seen among mortals, dating back nearly two centuries now, is to find a jar at least fifteen centimetres in diameter and about twenty tall, place a cotton plushie inside, and fill it with their-"
"STP!" "Please stop talking." "Oh my." "For fuck's sake, Modeus." Izuku couldn't even get the word out, but thankfully his desperate squeal and everyone's general disdain for the suggestion stopped her from continuing.
"What?!" Modeus had the gall to sound offended.
"Modeus, after everything we've just been through I could use something to punch, and if you don't shut up-"
"I thought it was a good idea!" Izuku honestly couldn't tell if she was being serious or not.
He wasn't sure which option was worse.
"Even if we pretend that would be in any way acceptable-"
"I'm not drinking that." All Might cut off Aizawa.
"-which is why I'm saying IF," he reiterated, "I doubt it would work anyway. Those-" he winced in pure pain at what he was having to talk about. He wasn't the only one; All Might was white as a sheet, and it seemed Uraraka had joined Izuku in being stuck somewhere between horrifically embarrassed and plain old horrified.
"Those cells," Aizawa eventually found the will to continue. Somehow. "Are haploid. The Quirk gene originates from a chromosome pair at minimum, and the vast majority of Quirks seen today are actually a result of multiple genes occupying multiple chromosomes. Considering this can be passed on, I'd be surprised if it's not one of the more complex. Meaning your suggestion isn't just, and I cannot stress this enough, horrifically, painfully, nightmare-inducingly disgusting, it's also impossible."
There was a collective sigh of relief from Aizawa's explanation. Izuku included. It's true that he wanted to grasp at any possible hope, but at the same time.
"Also," Izuku felt the overwhelming need to clarify this, "I do not own anything like that."
"Oh, right." Modeus winked at him. Izuku felt a surge of pure emotional damage make its way through his soul. "Sure, of course."
"Please stop…"
"So if we could get back to options that don't make me want to end the human race," Justice tried to get back on track, something everyone was all too eager to support. "That's impossible and also. Just. No. Hair samples, etc., would be too decomposed to use. As we need a complete copy of relatively undamaged DNA, any ashes of his cremated body would also be impossible." oh, yeah. Guess I'm in a jar now. The existential dread of that fact he was ashes in an urn somewhere was mitigated by the disgust he felt after thinking 'jar'. "So unless anyone wants to reveal they secretly stashed away some of Izuku's DNA for later use?" she turned her attention to all the mortals in turn.
"W-why are you looking at me?!" Justice's gaze lingered on Uraraka longer than expected.
"I've just met you fifteen minutes ago. You could be a mortal Modeus for all I know."
"I've known her for five minutes. I'm offended by that comparison."
"I'm right here."
"But seeing as that isn't the case." Justice turned to Izuku, "there isn't anything we can do. Our deal is null and void. Which means," she turned to her left, making to leave the beach. "It's time to go."
"G-Go?" Izuku stuttered, "Go where?"
"Where do you think?" she paused with the slightest turn of her head, "We left Hell to accomplish one task, and it turns out that task is impossible. So it's time to go back."
He'd known that would be the answer. It didn't make hearing it any easier.
"Now hold on a second-"
"If you're going to make some argument about how he deserves to live," she turned to All Might, "Don't. Us being here is against countless rules; an exception among exceptions." she turned back to Izuku, "The dead walking the Earth for this long is almost unheard of. I'll let you call your mum on the way back, but we have to go."
"But we can't just-"
"We came back to return your bullshit power-"
"We came back to give humanity a chance!" Izuku barked back. The reason they'd come here, the reason he needed to return One for All to the living, was to try and give people hope, to ensure society could stay peaceful. At the time, it had been a simple mixture of guilt, and fear for what the lack of that power could bring. But now they knew what that absence could bring.
"I had to return One for All to make sure Japan still had a symbol of peace. But now?" he had to stifle a laugh from the sheer absurdity of the situation, "Tokyo is a wreck, the rest of Japan probably isn't any better, the rest of theworld is in an even worse state, humanity is on its knees, and you want us to just. Leave?!"
"Yes." she replied simply, groaning when Izuku refused to accept such a response.
"Izuku, humanity's always on its knees. If your countries aren't waging bloody conquest, your empires are falling. If you're not dying from starvation, you're dying from disease. If you're not killing each other, you're killing the Earth." she turned away to start pacing, "The Fall of Rome, Plague of Justinian, Black Death, Fall of Constantinople, implosion of Ming, Ottoman collapse, Spanish flu, two World Wars, Cold War, proxy wars, post-Quirk chaos; this isn't the first disaster humanity's dealt with, and it certainly won't be the last. And we don't interfere with that now for the same reason I didn't then:" she turned back to Izuku,
"It's not our problem. Let the living handle themselves. We've got the dead to take care of."
"But-" Izuku recoiled at the idea. Just let everyone on Earth die because the afterlife had work to be done? 'Oh, there's an afterlife, so it's fine if people die'? He couldn't accept that! The fact that there was definitely something else after didn't change the fact that people were suffering now. But even if that wasn't the case?
"Then what?" he asked, "We go back to Hell and, what? You go back to judging souls? Put me on a desk filing paperwork? Just pretend that you never said the rulers of Hell wouldn't fight over my power?"
From Justice's groan, it sounded like he'd hit a sore spot. "I'll handle it-"
"How?" that wasn't just a trivial detail she could gloss over.
She groaned again, louder. After a moment's thought, she continued. "We go back to Hell, we make a new deal to keep you out of Judecca and away from power-hungry lunatics. I call in some old favours, keep you hidden until things calm down-"
"When would they calm down?" Izuku almost laughed at the idea. "When would 'power-hungry lunatics', one of whom is literally Satan, and the other is apparentlyworsethanliterally Satan,stop searching for power?"
"I know one such man." All Might added to the conversation, "I know he didn't stop for over a hundred years." he gestured around them. "And this is the result."
"So that's the plan?" Izuku turned back to Justice, "Keep me hidden, somehow, in a realm controlled by at least two all-powerful demons that want me dead, and if- no, when they ever find me? I'm killed for real this time and Hell gets even worse."
"Not a great plan." good to know Uraraka was still on his side.
"Once you're out of sight, I can start working on getting you out of mind." Justice didn't give up, "Pretend you gave the power back, pretend you got captured by Heaven or something, pretend your case got re-evaluated, and pray that they buy it-"
"Pray?" Izuku scoffed, "Pray to who? God? Apparently, he thinks I'm a war criminal for dying wrong, I don't think he's taking requests!"
"All right, I get it!" Justice ran a hand through her hair, trying to bite down the frustration. "Poor word choice, but the point stands: We have to go. Unless you want things to get worse up here-"
"How could they get worse?!" he actually did laugh at that thought. He expected a comeback, or an argument in turn. But for a good few seconds, all Justice returned was silence.
"Trust me, Izuku. Things can always get worse." Justice shook her head after the words. Whatever was running through her mind, she wasn't planning to share. "If you want to try and brainstorm ideas for our next moves, I'll be all-ears once we're not out here." she gestured to the beach, the sea, the sky. The mortal world. "Now come on."
Izuku planted his feet firmly on the ground. "No."
Justice sighed with no small amount of pity. "You realise that wasn't a request, right?"
A gust of wind blew through the air. Nothing else could be heard but that wind whistling past rusted metal and bags of plastic. Cerberus' ears perked up, Modeus stopped paying attention to Izuku's phone. All Might and Uraraka paled, while Aizawa moved a hand behind his back as his capture scarf shifted the smallest amount.
"Y-you can't go all-out, though." Izuku had felt much more confident in that idea before he dared speak it. "If you use too much of your powers, then won't it get picked up?" he was like 66% sure that had happened.
Justice nodded slightly, "A fair point." she nodded further, "And considering your power, I might not even be able to take you down without setting off some alarms."
Izuku felt a small swell of relief, "Then-"
"Them, on the other hand?" she gestured towards their companions on the beach. Aizawa. All Might. Uraraka. "How much power do you really think it takes to snap a flimsy mortal neck?"
That moment's relief turned to a surge of panic, "You wouldn't-"
"Why not?" Justice took a step towards him, "I may have only met you a few days ago, but they've been a few very telling days. I may not have known you for long, but I know you. If the threat of killing this lot isn't enough to make you see reason and come back with me?" she shrugged, "I give it until I have a single soul in my hand for you to fold."
Izuku barely restrained the urge to step back in shock. He glanced at the people Justice was threatening. All Might, his former mentor, who'd given so much only for Izuku to let him down. Uraraka, the first person he'd met who somewhat resembled a friend, who'd been through so much because Izuku was a suicidal idiot. Aizawa. While he may not have held such fondness for the last of them, he didn't wish any of them harm, and he definitely want to see any of them killed. If that was the alternative to returning to Hell, of leaving the Earth to whatever fate he had in store, then wasn't simply going with Justice a better option?
Even if he held out, even if he suffered through watching three people he cared about murdered before his eyes, what could he do? This wasn't a world he knew anymore. He didn't know where All for One was, he didn't know how to find out, he didn't even know a safe place to spend the night!
He realised he'd do it. Giving himself up to save three people he cared about? That was a trade he'd take. With the fear of such a scenario running through his mind, he almost even gave in to thinking those were the only options.
Almost.
Izuku steadied his breathing. "That's probably true. You do know me well." he took a step towards Justice, not half a meter now between them. "But I know you too."
Justice scoffed, "I've seen you go through the most traumatic experience of your existence. You've seen me on a busier-than-usual Tuesday. You don't know me."
"Not as well as you know me, maybe." he admitted readily. Izuku hadn't lived two decades, Justice had lived two millennia at minimum. He'd been open with himself, without asking much about her once they left Hell. In his defence it had been a trying time, playing 20 questions with his new-friend-slash-supernatural-guide wasn't exactly top of the list. All in all, there was a lot about Justice that he still didn't know.
Even so.
"But I know you risked your own position, your own safety, because you couldn't stand the idea of someone being punished by metrics you knew weren't right. I know you're probably strong enough to protect yourself, but I also know you're also smart enough to know that risk could've ended poorly. I know you risked 'death' and a painful period of 'reforming', just to give a mortal a chance of fixing his mistakes. That you'd watch out for that mortal when he was in over his head, give him comfort as his world caved in around him. I know that despite being a demon, despite having a front-row seat to humanity's worst urges, despite centuries of watching us screw up and make the same mistakes again, and again, and again, you'd STILL do all of this. Just to try and help one overly self-depreciating, suicidally self-sacrificing, absurdly naive, incredibly reckless, remarkably stubborn, pretty plain-looking mortal." even though her gaze didn't waver, Izuku swore he could see the smallest bit of hesitation after his words. "So I know you wouldn't mercilessly kill innocent people just to try and get that mortal moving."
Yes, if those were the only two options, he'd pick the one that didn't involve watching people he cared about die. But that didn't make the alternative appealing, either. After all they'd been through, Izuku chose to put faith in the companion who'd been with him since the beginning.
"Ok." Justice took another step forwards. With the movement their faces were practically touching, and Izuku was reminded that she stood nearly a full head taller than him. "So let's say you're correct in the assumption that I wouldn't want to kill innocent people. That it goes against my moral compass. The issue is, it's not that simple. Even if that moral compass points away from murder, that's still being overridden if the alternative direction is just 'more murder but also everything's worse'. And if Lucy or Loremaster get control of your power?" Justice shook her head, "It will be worse. So even if I don't particularly want to kill anyone, even if I've gone out of my way for this mortal, even IF hurting him is one of the last things I want? How do you know I won't do whatever it takes to make him come with me? How do you know I won't kill him to take that power for myself?"
Izuku looked up to her. Eventually, he took a final step forwards, essentially burying his head under her chin. They were valid questions, and maybe he should've spent longer thinking them over, picking through his interactions with Justice to try and 'prove' that she was bluffing.
"Because I know you won't." But sometimes, things really were just that simple.
"But you can't know that."
"Maybe not technically. But I trust you." Izuku smiled, "And I know that trust isn't misplaced."
"How?"
"Because what you said earlier was true." he glanced up at her, the two of them beyond close at this point. "Because it doesn't take much 'power' to snap a mortal's neck."
Because if she'd wanted to, Izuku never stood a chance. Because with how close they were, he'd be 'dead' before even realising she'd moved her arms. Because if she really wanted, he could be reduced to a 'raw soul' that would be all too easy for her to take back.
"You-" Justice caught herself, groaning slightly. "That's-" she stopped again. She leaned away, and muffled a yell with her arm in frustration. "You." she raised a hand to Izuku's head, but he didn't flinch. Instead, he closed his eyes, set on his decision to trust her.
"Are infuriating, you know that?" and rested her hand on Izuku's head, ruffling the bird's nest of green projected soul he considered his hair.
"I don't mean to be."
"I know." Justice sighed, "Honestly, that just kind of makes it worse." another, longer sigh, "But I guess it's what I signed up for. So what's the plan, oh morally superior one?" she gave his head a final ruffle, "Warning you now: If you suggest something that'll have too many afterlives on our ass, I will smack you."
"I- Thank you." Izuku laughed awkwardly, playing with his hair in part from his nerves trying to settle as the tension dissipated, and in part because he didn't know what else to do with his hands. Now that the tension was gone, he was starting to realise that he and Justice were really close. "I- being told when I'm messing up something with the supernatural is going to be a lot of help. I know I'm kind of- no, completely out of my depth."
"Yet you still insist on swimming in shark-infested waters."
"To be fair, most sharks don't actually attack humans that much." Izuku paused, "I mean, unless there's a lot of blood, or-"
"Izuku, you're a corpse. There's blood, guts, and a whole lot of shark-bait."
The comparison brought out a small laugh from Izuku. Justice snickered in kind, and he was beyond relieved the tension and stress from earlier was already fading. Did he trust the demon who'd given him a chance despite the risks, who protected him from forces beyond his comprehension and helped him through the fears that had threatened to overcome him all the while? Of course.
Didn't mean he couldn't find her utterly terrifying sometimes.
"For the record." Aizawa spoke up after a moment. Looking back, Izuku realised he'd been suspiciously silent throughout most of the conversation. "You don't actually…" he struggled to get the words out, "Have an urn."
"What, was it more logical to use his ashes as fertilizer or some shit?" Justice scoffed.
"Oh!" Cerberus clapped. "I bet you'd even make broccoli taste good!"
Izuku blinked in response. "T-Thank you?"
"No." Aizawa somehow looked even more tired than usual. "I mean-" he stuttered, before focusing squarely on Izuku, "After-" he swallowed, "After you died, arrangements eventually needed to be made. I'll spare you the details, but your mother," Izuku flinched at the thought, "She felt you'd already 'been burnt enough'. Apparently you'd never talked about how you wanted your body handled," Izuku could feel at least half the people present bite back a sarcastic comment about that, "so there wasn't a reason to go against that feeling." Aizawa paused for a moment. "I can't make any promises; I'm not an expert but…" he looked downwards, away from everyone to finish: "I've heard DNA is preserved for longer periods within bone marrow."
Izuku stood confused for a moment, convinced that his former teacher had missed a step in that line of reasoning. Then, that step clicked into place. Izuku felt a cold chill as he realised what was being suggested. A moment later, he groaned into his hands.
Why am I not even surprised at this point?
Finding a way into her old apartment had proven remarkably easy for Toru. The block's main metal and glass entrance door was barely hanging onto its hinges, and a spare key for the thin wooden one into her own home was still hidden inside a wall-bound light. Now all she had to do was open the door, go in while invisible, figure out how everyone's doing, and grab her DVDs. Simplest thing in the world. Easy.
Except she couldn't open the door. Not because it was locked, or jammed, or broken. But just because she couldn't.
Ok, Toru, you got this. She took a few deep breaths to try and psyche herself up. But she couldn't dispel the errant thoughts: What if her home was in the same state as the rest of the world? What if she discovered something she'd be better off not knowing? What if they were struggling to go on after losing her? What if one of them was gone? What if-
Don't think about it. Just, she shoved the heavy key into the lock. Failing to make it in the first time, it took several jabs for the damned thing to go in. Just find out. No point in hanging around! She flung the door open and darted inside, making sure to turn invisible. First hurdle cleared, she was in. She was inside, and…
It looks the same. Despite the sorry state of the whole block, of the roads outside, of the city all around her. The home inside looked practically identical to the morning Toru had left. The same faded pink wallpaper. The same laminated wooden flooring. The same gaudy glass pendant light fitting hanging above her to give clear rays of light filling the hallway. There were a few differences, of course, but they seemed small all things considered. The welcoming mat had been changed, a couple of the uwabaki had been replaced, and some of the pictures seemed new-
Oh.
A few of the pictures in the hallway had been changed. Namely, the ones of their family; her mother, father, older sister, twin brother, younger siblings. All still posed and framed along the walls.
But none of me.
Any pictures of a floating set of clothes were gone. Memories from her older sister's first day at pre-school to her youngest brother's Middle-school graduation. Family holidays, birthdays, and a few which Toru couldn't place. But none with her. The lack of any marks where old photos had been hung on the walls suggested the change-up hadn't been very recent.
I wonder when-
"Mom!" an all-too familiar, irritated voice called out from the lounge. A moment later, the frustrated form of Toru's older sister stepped out and into the hall. "The stupid door opened by itself again!" a flick of her wrist brought life to one of the beams of light refracting from the glass pendent overhead. The beam whipped towards the front door, slamming it shut as Toru nimbly side-stepped to avoid the beam and door both.
"Oh dear." the softer voice of Toru's mother called out from the dining room/home office. "Would you mind-"
"Already got it." her sister slunk back into the lounge with the bored words.
With the exchange finished, Toru found herself alone in the silent hallway once again. Thrown off-kilter by the sight of her family. Still alive, well, and going about their daily lives. But she'd only seen her older sister, and only heard her mother. There was still work to do; loved ones to check on. A quick but quiet stint around the apartment quickly brought back old memories. Her mom was going through bills, receipts and miscellaneous papers in the dining room/office. Clearly she was still the ad-hoc family accountant. Her younger siblings were in their rooms, glued to the screens of tablets just as they had been before she was gone. She found her twin sitting quietly in his room with a new ponytail haircut which totally didn't work for him, earphones plugged in while looking over his laptop and some papers; Toru assumed he was doing homework. Her focus lingered there for a few minutes before moving on. Her father? It took a moment to find, but she eventually realised there was noise coming from her old room. As she put a hand to the handle, Toru hesitated, but before long curiosity won out. She found her father inside. But not paying respects, or looking over his deceased daughter's old life, or having a moment to himself, oh no. It was far worse.
They turned my room. Into a gym.
Not one single thing of Toru's remained. Her bed? Gone. Her desk? Gone. Wardrobe? Gone. Figurines? Gone. Pictures of her friends? Gone. DW DVDs? Gone. Everything which Toru had ever had in life was gone. Replaced with bare walls and exercise equipment.
The fact sat like a heavy weight on her chest. But she'd set out what she'd needed to; mission complete. Her family were perfectly, entirely, fine. No point in Toru staying where she wasn't needed, wanted or missed. Instead she slunk back out the front door, careful to open and close it quietly to not be any more of a disturbance. Through the halls, down the stairs, Toru slowly walked back to the others, undoing her invisibility as Cerberus seemed to notice she was nearby.
"Were you able to see your goals to completion?"
Her goals? Oh, right. "They all seem fine." she replied lamely, "They're all alive. Doing things. Normal, everyday life things." she nodded along with the words. "I'm gone. And they're just… fine."
Tokoyami looked her over before nodding once, slowly, in response. "I see."
No one spoke for a moment, not even Cerberus for some reason. Then Monoma decided to break the silence. "Did you get your DVDs?" he shrugged with some attempt at a smile, "Seemed pretty important at the time. Still not sure I buy that you're Hagakure, but-"
"My room's gone." Toru interrupted with an unexpected bout of bitterness. "Everything I own is gone. Everything I ever did is gone. Everything I am- was, is gone. They threw it out to make room for a fucking home gym."
"Ah." Monoma at least had the sense to shut the hell up.
"I can imagine-" Tokoyami trailed off before shaking his head. "Actually, no. I can't." he cast his eyes back to Toru, sympathy clear even in his avian features. "I apologise that your task went so-" he coughed, "Well…"
Once again, no one had anything to say. Toru couldn't help but feel a lot of that seemed going around, recently. Nothing anyone could think to say, just shitty situation after shitty situation that they all had to try and deal with. The USJ? You're dead now, deal with it. Midoriya's situation? Messed up beyond belief, have fun. The world's screwed? That's life. But apparently not every situation was so hard to deal with for some people. Your daughter's dead? Someone you'd raised for over 15 years, gone?'Eh, we needed the room'
"Am I-" Toru stuttered, trying to compose her thoughts. "Midoriya dies and it feels like everything suddenly goes wrong. Todoroki dies and there's this whole scandal about his family. I die, and everyone just… moves on."
"It's been two years." Cerberus spoke up for the first time, while Toru's mortal companions seemed unsure what to say. "You'd rather they didn't move on?"
"No." Toru shook her head. It wasn't like that. "I'm glad they have, really. It's just-" just that her entire life had amounted to nothing. Just that her death was just one name among the others. Just that everything she'd ever done, wanted, regretted, loved, hated, regretted. She. Amounted to a statistic.
"Am I really that meaningless?"
Being invisible wasn't as good as it might sound. Good for stealth, sure. Get into places you weren't supposed to, primed to get the latest gossip or just sneak in to movies she wasn't supposed to. But it had the unfortunate side effect of being easily forgotten; out of sight, out of mind. Toru thought that she'd managed to compensate through her life: Speaking louder than her classmates, making animated motions, acting as bubbly as possible so that she was fun to be around. Not all of it was fake, but definitely exaggerated. But she'd thought it would help make sure people noticed her, talked to her, remembered her.
Clearly, she'd thought wrong.
"For what it's worth." Monoma eventually decided to speak up again. Toru was ready to snap at him, but his tone of voice was far softer than the harsh cynicism he'd shown from the moment they'd met. "Looking back? I wish I could have died so 'meaningless'."
Toru wiped away small tears she hadn't realised were forming to look at Monoma. "What?"
"Forget my tragic backstory already?" he chuckled mirthlessly. "The League of Villains attacked a camp because I was mouthing off about 1A. Figured they could recruit me after my 'comments' were leaked to the press and suddenly there were talks about barring such a villainous individualfrom Heroism entirely." he scoffed, "Assholes didn't know a damn thing about me except a couple of quotes taken out of context. But it didn't stop them from going after my whole class to 'recruit' me." he looked to the ground, eyes clouding over. "Didn't stop them from killing near-on everyone I cared about just because they could." he looked back to Toru, his expression torn somewhere between hollow and broken. "If I had a choice? If I could make sure I never said those things, no matter what? If I could've just died meaninglessly? I'd take that option in a heartbeat."
Toru didn't know how to respond to that. The idea that being so minor, so unnoticeable, so forgettable, was the better option. Was he saying that the fact everyone would've forgotten her if she didn't get this second chance good?
"It would seem." Tokoyami spoke quietly, glancing back at a glum Dark Shadow before looking to Toru. "That a life considered 'meaningless' finds itself in good company." his gaze sharpened, "So I find myself wondering: If one's existence is 'meaningless'," he glanced at Toru, "or even less so," Monoma, "what actions, what goals, what dreams. Should we aspire to next?" Tokoyami's gaze turned up towards the dark sky, tinted a dim orange by the setting sun.
"Vengeance? Reformation? Penance? All I've achieved these past two years is ensuring I never again create my tomb in the darkness. That, and…" Toru noticed he ran a hand down his left leg. "Other trials. But as of late, I've found myself at something of a loss. So suppose one's life is meaningless. Suppose one's life has been naught but a drain on the souls surrounding oneself. Suppose one is a rudderless vessel, adrift in the vast, empty ocean we call 'reality'. What would you suppose is the appropriate course of action to take next?" he paused for a moment. When no one replied, he finished his thought with a sigh: "If either of you have any thoughts on the matter, I would greatly appreciate you share."
Toru didn't respond, pondering the question instead. Maybe her life had been meaningless. Maybe she really had amounted to nothing. Stayed invisible, unnoticeable, unremarkable for every second of her past life. But even if she accepted all of that, what should she do next?
"Vengeance sounds good to me." Monoma spoke up again. Before either Toru or Tokoyami could respond, Cerberus butted into the conversation:
"Hey, isn't that the apartment you were in?"
Looking up towards where she gestured, Toru found an unexpected sight.
That- That's Doku! Her twin brother was climbing out of his bedroom window, creeping onto the fire escape while clearly trying (somewhat successfully) to make as little noise as possible. The fact he was climbing onto a metal fire escape wasn't doing any favours there, but it seemed like he was more concerned with making sure nobody inside the building heard he was leaving. Before long he'd quietly slid his window closed again before creeping down the fire escape.
Toru couldn't help but start worrying what he was up to, before trying to shake off the fear. He was probably just doing some dumb teenage thing. Maybe he was breaking curfew, or heading to a party, or just meeting up with friends their parents weren't a fan of.
But of the two of them, Toru's twin had always been the 'sensible' (read: boring) one. He was half the reason she was so into the shows she loved. The one to stay inside playing games or reading books, practically forcing Toru to drag him anywhere to be social. The one who made sure they were heading home in plenty of time to make curfew, who'd become paranoid if he even suspected they were breaking any rules. And that was when the world had been a relatively safe place.
I guess it's been two years, but-
"You said we have time, right?" she asked Cerberus the question before she could fully think it through. But the more she did think, the more she wanted to follow.
"Sure." she shrugged with the smallest hint of something resembling a smile, "Beats listening to you lot bitch about your problems, I guess."
What was someone supposed to do when their entire life had been meaningless? Fuck if Toru knew, but what she did know was she wasn't going to let her brother throw his life away. But she was still wondering what Cerberus had meant about Midoriya, and she was still worried about what was about to happen with Todoroki.
I hope their trips are going better.
"Well T-Todoroki," Iida was still having trouble referring to Shouto as such, "are you sufficiently re-oriented after such an ordeal? Which line is our destination?"
Having stared at the Tokyo subway map for the several minutes, mind, body and soul dedicated towards determining their route, Shouto was finally forced to confront one, unavoidable fact:
"I have absolutely no idea which way to go."
A/N:
Happy New Year!
Hope everyone's got their new years resolutions and are committed to improving themselves. One of my resolutions is to try and make my writing less depressing and stick to a slightly more organised plan.
It ain't working out so far.
One chapter in and I've already had to break up scenes and move one to next chapter because it was getting too long. Also Toru's having a bad time, while Izuku's not doing much better. And Todoroki is here too.
Writing this one felt like pulling nails at points; basically everything was stuff I'd planned for a while, but actually getting it on-page was just painful. I think it's because we're in this weird in-between where everyone's having a bad time, but it's also setup for what's coming next. On the bright side, the next scene is gonna be a lot of fun. On the less-bright-side, the ones after are notably less so. On the other bright side I've made a solid start on another fic I've been wanting to work on for a while (expect the first chapter of that in 1 or 3 weeks if you're interested), because I just needed to write something and this one just wasn't co-operating.
With all that said please do comment with thoughts, feedback, predictions etc. you know the rest at this point. And once again, I hope everyone has a great start to 2024!