Izuku hadn't been able to say anything else after Justice's speech on just how impossible his plan was; on just how screwed they all were. Suggesting alternate ways to tackle the issue regarding 'Beelzebub' felt like he'd be opening old wounds and pushing clear boundaries on the only person it felt like he could in any way rely on at this point, so he'd been more than a little hesitant to go that direction. Instead, he'd tried to think of another way to solve the more general 'everything sucks' problem so they could discuss that.

So naturally, he'd remained silent. Sitting by his dug-out coffin as the night air got colder and the fog (thankfully) replaced the rain from before.

"Is there any way we can find out who stole Izuku's corpse?" apparently Aizawa was trying to contribute.

"Only if you know where to look." the light shrug of her shoulders and shake of her head suggested Justice did not, in fact, know where to look. "I can tell you there will be a list keeping records of the bodies of the deceased, and it may have some details on what happened. Butit'll probably be in Heaven, i.e. more than a little difficult to reach for a demon and some deceased mortals, and we'll probably only end up with some vague hints."

"Vague hints are probably the best we have right now." All Might sighed, running a hand through his hair. "We can try and open a… non-supernatural investigation on our end, but considering what we've seen, and the general state of things, I doubt we'll find anything."

"Some hints could help, though." Aizawa re-iterated.

"It'd still be a nightmare to even get those potentially non-existent hints." Justice growled with poorly-masked irritation. "Though how much of one would depend a bit on what branch this place belongs to. Guessing Catholic, but I don't suppose this is an Oriental Orthodox graveyard? Might make it 'borderline impossible' instead of 'basically impossible'."

"Ah." Aizawa rubbed the back of his neck, glancing briefly at Izuku before looking away out of… embarrassment? Shame? Pure, unadulterated awkwardness? "Well, when Izuku…" he spun his hands around in a sort of 'moving on' gesture, "After Inko decided to have him buried-" because Bakugou burning him to death had made a cremation look a like a pretty poor joke, as Izuku recalled. "We actually decided on this place because of its history. You see, after the chaos arising from the emergence of Quirks-"

"Gonna stop you right there." Justice interrupted with a raised hand, "I asked for an answer, not a history lesson. Still being chased by forces of Hell and all."

"Right." Aizawa winced at the reminder before continuing, "Point is, this place sort of represents putting aside their differences for a shared suffering, regardless of creed, background, Quirk; peace and love etc. etc.." so Izuku could see the connection, and he was actively choosing not to think of just how much his apparently-alive mother had been through at this point. Not because he didn't care- or at least he liked to think it wasn't, but rather because of just how much else he had to deal with right now. "Long story short, it's mainly Catholic, but it's actively tended by priests of other denominations, burials of all religions, you get the gist." Justice nodded to imply she did. "And of course that's only the Christian half."

Justice stopped nodding. "The…" she cleared her throat, "The Christian… half?"

"Yeah." Aizawa nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Like I said, the main appeal is everyone coming together, so there's about a 50/50 split of Christian and Shinto caretakers and visitors, not counting the small minority of… well, minority religions." he frowned, "Minority in Japan, you know what I mean."

Justice nodded again slowly. "Right. Half Shinto. Yes. Of course. That makes sense." she turned back to Izuku, "You know, I've just realised- we're being insensitive. This place is probably all sorts of traumatic for you and your mortal friends here."

"Well, it is, but I don't want to-" he was cut off as Justice hauled him off by the arm back towards the entrance- or rather, the direction he remembered the entrance being, before the weather decided he wasn't allowed to see more than a few metres in front of him.

"Yep, c'mon, let's go."

"But shouldn't we come up with another plan-" he had to watch his step with the speed Justice was leading him, lest he trip on uneven ground or get a foot stuck in the wet and near-muddy soil.

"Hey, good idea, anything come to mind?"

"Uh, I mean-" he hopped up to fall into step with Justice, finding it easier than being dragged by the arm, "I-isn't there- I mean, I kind of assumed a graveyard would mean some sort of neutral zone for supernatural or something as we hadn't been bothered there-"

"Nope, nothing special." Justice's voice seemed just that little bit higher than usual, "So, thoughts?"

Izuku decided not to question it for now, they had bigger fish to fry. Or bury. Or something. "Well- I mean…" he coughed, "You- You said that last time you fought this…" he coughed again, "I was just thinking, maybe if we knew more about how that fight went, we might be able to…?" he hadn't wanted to broach it, but she was asking for ideas and he had none.

Justice's pace slowed a noticeable fraction, her face falling back into a scowl. "Last time I was younger. I was determined, I wasn't out of practice, I was well-equipped, I was naive. And oh yeah, I could see. Any one of those factors could easily tip the balance of a fight, and I'm lacking all of them."

"I- I don't see how being less naive is a bad thing-"

"Because I can see the writing on the wall; less likely to commit as hard when I see a situation as suicidal." 'which this would be' went unsaid.

"Ok, I guess…" he still felt some wisdom would come with enough benefits to make up for it. But seeing as he couldn't really refute any of the other points, save maybe the determination one, he decided not to press on it. "But I mean, last time you wouldn't have had support, obviously I'd help in any way I could and-"

"Last time I had better than you." Izuku couldn't help but wince. "Don't take it the wrong way – with enough time and training, that power- Quirk- whatevercould absolutely make you a powerhouse better than what I had last time. Better than me- several times better than me." she glanced at him with a wry smile, "But I'm guessing you're not willing to go hide somewhere and train for a few Centuries until you can solo anything Hell could throw at you."

"Y-Yeah…" Izuku was taken aback by the statement. He- he wasn't that powerful, surely? "You'd be guessing right. Sorry." he tried to think about other options. He could suggest Cerberus' help, or maybe Modeus' support, but those were obvious answers and the fact Justice wasn't bringing them up suggested they either wouldn't be enough or wouldn't be convinced to help. Most 'mortals' seemed like naught but ants when faced with the supernatural; again he still wasn't entirely sure on that, but again, Justice would've probably brought that up if she thought it'd work. Only one other obvious possibility came to mind.

"W-what if-" he couldn't help the fear creeping into his voice, but he swallowed and spat out the idea regardless. "What if I… What if I gave you-"

"Without the DNA medium your power usually requires, the only way to give that to me would be willingly allowing your soul to be devoured. I guess I'm a little peckish, but unless you're willing to be my dinner…" Justice took on a sarcastic and teasing tone, making it obvious how she felt Izuku would react to that fact. That he just hadn't thought that far ahead and would rescind the idea the moment she'd made that clear.

He stayed silent.

"Oh for-" Justice ran a hand through her hair in frustration as he made his position silently known. "What is it with you and the self-sacrificial bullshit? What, do you want to have your soul destroyed? Because let me tell you-"

Izuku couldn't help the tired and bitter laugh coming out, even if it escaped more as wheezes. It probably sounded slightly insane given the circumstances. "Want? The only thing I ever wanted was to be a Hero." he wore a sardonic smile, "and I died on the second day of school. I think the universe has made it pretty clear how much it values what I want." he sighed, "But if it means we have a plan which can give some semblance of sanity back to the world? Yes, I'm willing to have my soul consumed, or devoured, or destroyed, or cast into suffering, or erased, or whatever term you want to use for me being so dead even the afterlife can't save me."

Justice lifted her sunglasses to massage her eyes, groaning in irritation. "Why are you like this…" she paused, the two's firm march coming to a halt. For what felt like an eternity the two stood there, Izuku content to let her consider how far he was willing to go if it meant she could come up with a way to use that which could help everyone. Justice stood in place, taking her sunglasses off as she pinched the bridge of her nose and occasionally run a hand over her face. She began to pace back and forth, stealing glances at Izuku, the ground, and occasionally the fog around them while unfathomable ideas no doubt ran through her mind.

"Ok." she eventually stopped, pausing directly in front of Izuku at a right angle to him. "Hypothetically speaking, it may be possible."

Izuku's attention peaked, hopes rising the smallest fraction despite who-knows what sacrifices he needed to make, "Anything you need-"

"I need exactly four things from you." she stated strongly. Izuku sealed his lips, nodding for her to continue.

She turned to face him, "First, and this is the most important thing: Any thoughts you have about willingly sacrificing your soul to a demon- no, any supernatural entity in the hopes they can fix things for you? Bury them. Take them out around the back of the shed, pump 'em full of lead, and bury any undead fragments of those thoughts so deep even Loremaster couldn't hope to find them."

Izuku blinked in response, "Um-"

"And because I know you'll do it anyway if I don't give a good reason," Justice continued, "You're currently an untapped well of supernatural potential. Like I said before, even stealing your power through devouring you unwilling would make even the lowest dreg of Hell an arch-demon capable of contending for rulership over Hell." she paused, "Sort of, it's complicated- point is, you've got an amount of power which could easily lead to war in the afterlife – potentially afterlives, which would make what's happened to Japan look little worse than a cloudy day." she tilted her head back and forth, "With maybe a slight drizzle."

"But-" that made sense, but still, "if I gave it to you-"

"Then I'd become an absolutely unstoppable force in Hell, whose uncheck-able power would force Heaven to get involved, which would lead to war because I'm not a naive, self-sacrificial idiot who'll just lay down and die because the powers upstairs told me to, etc., etc., which would similarly be a lot worse than what we've got. Plus, life in Hell's painful enough without that, so no thanks." She shrugged her shoulders, a slight smile coming to her face, "Besides, it's rare to get someone in Hell who's mildly tolerable, so I'm not throwing you away for something so insignificant as unlimited power."

Izuku had no response to that. His first instinct was to refute her claims, to say that his power would be better with her than him, but… would it? It was possible she was simply making up the idea it could start a war, or at least exaggerating, to spare his feelings and soul all at once. But her explanation definitely sounded possible. If he really was as theoretically strong as she claimed, it was even probable. If he 'gave' her his power, would that actually be taking responsibility for the power he held, or just foisting that responsibility onto Justice because it was more convenient?

But then he had to wonder whether she really was lying to spare him. Whether he was just buying into the lie for selfish, petty reasons like 'fear of eternal oblivion'. Would insisting on his sacrifice be better for everyone?

And then there was the fact he could give One for All to other supernatural entities capable of wielding its power. Sure, he'd met a good few powerful demons, and he wouldn't trust literally any of them with it barring Justice, but that didn't mean there were none he couldn't trust. Maybe there was a demon who wanted the power and would use it responsibility, maybe there was an angel who would or, heck, maybe an entity from a different belief system all together. Justice had mentioned something about that, so they probably existed, right?

Except then came the problem of finding them without Justice deciding it was too much a risk and dragging him back to Hell, and then came the problem of how to determine they were genuinely trustworthy before everyone caught up with them and their entire journey turned into some kind of supernatural Civil War, and that sounded really bad. As in, the whole journey would be pointless if they were still in Japan when that happened.

There were too many variables, too many unknowns. He simply didn't know enough about the world he'd stumbled into to have any hope of deciding what the best option was through anything other than blind luck. So it came down to what he trusted more: Luck, or Justice.

"Ok." he eventually decided with a nod. He wouldn't have gotten here without her anyway, so why stop trusting Justice now? Fear for the future gradually seeped from his soul as he made the decision, content to follow her lead (so long as she wasn't dragging them back to Hell). "If you think it's necessary I'm willing but-"

"Ah!" she pointed a finger right in his face, "I said bury those thoughts mister; if you don't I'm not helping."

For the first time in what felt like too long, Izuku felt an actual smile coming to his face. "Ok, fine. I promise not to offer- I guess, complete ownership of my soul to any supernatural entity- to any entity of any description." he amended when Justice started to glare at him.

"Good." she nodded in satisfaction. "Second thing, and this is related to the first: You can't act like a reckless idiot." Izuku made a mildly offended face. "I'm serious." she didn't continue until he schooled his expression back into something serious. "Being a dumbass and charging into danger is heroic and all on occasion, but we're going behind the backs of demons, angels, mortals, spirits, gods and who-knows what else, all of whom could have the power to make the rest of our eternal existence insufferable pain, if not end it instantly." Izuku paled. "This is going to take planning, it's going to need subtlety, it'll require careful timing, it will need us to fight in places; and for all of this you'll need training."

"I- I thought I did ok back at U.A…"

"You got very lucky several times." Justice didn't accept his admittedly flimsy defence, "If Pandemonica had actually been trying to end you, she would have. At which point, for the record, I will just fuck off." she raised an eyebrow at Izuku's surprise. "I'm willing to help you out for a number of reasons, including making sure you don't make everything worse. But if you're out of the picture those reasons evaporate, I leave – along with Modeus and Cerberus – and the world's left to deal with its own mess. I'm not willing to risk your soul ending up in the wrong hands. So if you act too recklessly and risk yourself, me, or the plan we decide on, I'll just drag you back to Hell by force. Understood?"

When put like that, there wasn't really much he could argue with. The Hero fights he'd grown up watching and analysing were usually over quickly, often ended by someone swooping in (maybe 'recklessly') to win the fight, rescue the civilians, save the day. But they were just that: Fights. They were talking about a whole plan to distract a hostile supernatural force by letting loose an ancient evil, all to even facilitate a 'fight' with a man who, if Izuku really thought about it, was technically the legitimate ruler of Japan, as determined by Japan's current dystopian legal setup.

I really am out of my depth here…

"Ok, I'll agree to that. No overly reckless moves, unless there's no other choice and then ideally not without passing them by you first."

Justice paused for a moment before nodding, "Just remember that if you do something I think is too reckless without my say so – even if it ends up working out – I still reserve the right to change track and pull us out." Izuku nodded in agreement. "Ok, third thing: This is more a technicality but just for completeness, we'll need to agree to another demonic contract once I've set up a warded zone so we can do so without it acting like a flare to any supernatural entities watching us." Izuku nodded again. From memory agreeing to the first one had been important to make sure they kept their words but, more importantly in this situation, Justice had mentioned something about protections from other demons. Which was a protection Izuku was very keen on keeping.

"And fourth: This is the least important in the long-term, but is absolutely critical in the short-term." Justice placed both hands on Izuku's shoulders, managing to keep her grey, serious eyes focused on his nervous green ones. "I need you to stay calm."

… What?

"Sorry?" his confusion was clear on his face.

"You need to stay calm."

"Uh- that's-"

"It might help if you take some deep breaths." his breathing became quicker and more shallow.

"What-"

"Like you really need to stay calm."

"Justice that's not helping-"

"Would it help if I told you to also be polite?"

"'Polite'?" he echoed the word, rising panic warded off by pure confusion.

"Ok, that helped, so I'll add this: Probably best you stay as quiet as you can calmly, politely be."

"Justice, what-" a thought suddenly occurred. He'd gone over his thoughts, some fears, and pretty much offered his soul up on a silver platter to a demon. Which was fine to him – he trusted Justice more than… well, actually he trusted her more than anyone he'd ever met except probably All Might – but it wouldn't be 'fine' to anyone else listening.

And yet no one had spoken a word.

Not All Might, not Aizawa, not Uraraka, nor even Cerberus or Modeus, seemed to have any commentary on their updated plan and deal- on anything they'd spoken about. He stole a glance behind him, only to be met with naught but a fog-bound graveyard.

"Where'd everyone go?"

"Ok, so you noticed." despite her remarkable calm and collected demeanour, Justice wasn't helping. "If it helps, they're probably still alive." she really wasn't helping-

"Worry not for them." a chilling whisper crept through the fog, sounding out from all around them. "Worry instead for those whom would lead trespassers upon my domain." the words crawled along Izuku's skin with a frozen touch. "Would step blithely upon hallowed ground and unearth that which must stay within."

"Think that means us." Izuku really felt like whispering 'no shit' back, but his lips were sealed shut, his feet bound in place. Whether out of supernatural shenanigans or just plain old fear, he wasn't sure.

"It was not our intent to interfere nor cause offence." Justice raised her voice and spoke with an air of diplomatic authority, firm yet still somewhat deferential. "We merely sought to recover that which another has already stolen-"

"Recover?" a haunting laugh echoed through the air. "The dead cannot 'recover' that which they held in life. You sought to subvert the rules by which the very world turns. You sought to cheat death. You sought to steal from me."

"Pretty sure no one holds a monopoly on death." Justice's words were clipped, lacking the former traces of deference. Izuku couldn't help but feel it was a poor sign.

"A monopoly? Perhaps not. But it remains that you impinge on my realm, pilfer from my lands."

Your lands…? "Are you-" Izuku spoke without meaning to, trying to cut himself off. But the shifting winds somehow carried a thought behind it, a will. The very air told him to finish his question, and that to do otherwise could be considered rude. "Are you… a kami which guards the souls of this place?" in truth, he thought it could be a yokai, or perhaps that a more useful 'spirit' would be appropriate, but given the perception of infringement, he felt kami was the best guess.

"Oh, of course." a rush of air and fog flew by Izuku and Justice. As the fog flowed around him, Izuku could feel what little remained of his un-life being dragged away. But just as quickly as it began, the wind stopped. "Where are my manners."

With the air stilled, the voice was no longer sounding out from all around them. Whispers stopped slithering through the fog with no hint as to their owner, replaced by a regal tone from a clear direction. Izuku spun around to the voice's owner.

Izuku couldn't help but find it odd that, in life, he'd only known two people with red eyes; the person who'd eventually become Izuku's own killer, and their mother. And yet, after the past few days, he could no longer count the number on one hand.

For before him stood yet another woman with red eyes. Along with her smile, they were warm and inviting, yet with an unmistakable edge hidden beneath. Tousled curls of hair adorned her fringe and flickered at her eyes, while more flowed down her back. All an impossible grey, trapped paradoxically yet perfectly between light and dark. Such was in contrast to her pristine white robes: A kosode robe and hakama skirt. A traditional miko ensemble, albeit with a white skirt in place of the typical red.

But while her appearance was easy to describe on the surface, it was obvious something was hidden underneath. Something… unsettling. The way her hair occasionally shifted despite what was now a complete absence of wind. How her clothes made the smallest waves of movement, as if something was crawling underneath.

"I suppose proper introductions are in order." her smile widened but a fraction, while her eyes narrowed, and Izuku couldn't help but notice she was focusing on him now specifically. She gave the smallest inclination of her head. Not a bow, no show of deference, but the bare minimum which could be called a greeting. But after that inclination, with the small movement of bringing her head from 'slightly bent forwards' to resting position, a crack formed in her skin. It spread from somewhere within her neck up and past her chin, crawling up as if to split her face in two.

The crack widened, and her head split. The right half of her face fell to the side, before being held in place by what Izuku first assumed to be muscle sinew.

But muscle sinew didn't move.

That which stitched her head together Izuku soon recognised as worms, struggling to pull her face back to one piece and contain a writhing colony of maggots held within. Death and decay oozed from every creature Izuku could see, and the not-insubstantial number of squirming creatures able to wriggle from within the confines of her skin soon found themselves rotting. Some fell to the ground, quickly reduced to a pile of mouldy mush, while others fell onto her clothes, crawling to any opening they could find to hide back within. But through all of this, her smile didn't falter by a single millimetre.

"I am Izanami." her voice carried perfectly despite lips that had been torn apart, paying no mind as her face slowly pulled itself back together. "The goddess of death." only as her lower face had been reformed did the edges of her smile curl up, eyes boring into Izuku with an unreadable gaze. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Once again, Izuku found himself at a loss for words. He was getting really fed up with how much that was happening lately. It was clear that he needed to introduce himself, but what would be appropriate? Barring the question of how much the literal goddess before him already knew (probably a lot, considering his body had been buried in a graveyard she considered her territory APPARENTLY), he was faced with the much more immediate, far more pressing question:

How am I supposed to respond to that?!

He'd seen his share of mutant Quirks. No small number of people with some unusual biologies. He'd even met a few who had some issues that were hard to get around in daily life, like having skin that could give people splinters, or constantly giving off odours which weren't particularly pleasant. He'd seen interviews of people with more extreme animal features discussing issues of self-worth when their body meant they could never be considered 'conventionally attractive'. All that was to say, he was used to some fairly unusual biologies. But he'd never watched someone's face split open while insects crawled out and they JUST KEPT SMILING-

Calm down! He could only hope his momentary silence was being interpreted as respectful, or reverent, or awed, instead of the accurate assessment of being terrified out of his goddess-damned mind. Unless she was going for that reaction? In which case showing he was scared may have been the polite thing to do, but he'd managed to school his face into a 'slightly nervous and demure' expression and, against all odds, managed to keep it plastered on throughout all of that.

But there was only so long he could stay silent without seeming rude.

Just- just say something!

Without appearing impolite to the unfathomably powerful being stood before him.

Say anything!

Working up all the courage he could muster, Izuku managed to find his voice and keep it from cracking.

"Hello there."

For a good few moments Toru simply stood there, completely at a loss of what to do than mutter 'what' to the strange man demanding to see their… tongues, for some reason.

"Uhhhhh-" Monoma managed to get all of two syllables off before the strange man darted forward and wait what-

"Wait what-" and her brother managed to echo her own thoughts moments before tongue-man had crossed the room and punched him square in the face with- are those brass knuckles?! Toru barely had the sense of mind to duck as the man came at her with a follow-through swing, scrabbling to grab Doku and get away from the violently insane man with illegal weaponry-

"Don't shoot, you idiot!" and Monoma's shout reminded her that he wasn't the only one in the room guilty of that particular crime. Barely sparing them a glance as she rushed to get herself and her brother away, she realised Monoma's shout had been directed at Spinner, while he forcibly lowered some kind of pistol to prevent the scaled man from shooting.

It took a moment for Toru to realise the obvious rationale behind that: Based on their horribly lacking knowledge behind basic firearms usage, she was going to go ahead and assume Spinner wasn't exactly a 'crack shot'. Combine that with her and Doku being literal centimetres from the man Spinner was intending to shoot and, well…

I'm really glad Monoma's here. Or this entire excursion could've easily ended very poorly. Putting up with his complaining was a low price to pay for avoiding being shot. Not that she'd ever tell him that.

But the mystery man heard the shout too, immediately shifting his attention and rushing them. Presumably, he'd concluded that the armed lizard-man was a greater threat than the panicking Toru and reeling, concussion-induced Doku.

"Halt-!" the charging man was deaf to Spinner's demand, instead shifting to his right to ensure any shots fired his way would inevitably risk hitting Toru and her brother. With Monoma practically wrenching the firearm from Spinner's grasp, he whipped out the metallic abomination he apparently called a sword. For a moment, Toru felt a flood of relief: The man may have caught them off guard and come prepared with his brass knuckles, but even then he was still effectively a brawler. They said never bring a knife to a gun fight, so surely bringing brawling to a sword fight would end similarly, right? Toru thought so. And it seemed the mystery man did, too.

Because he immediately threw out a grenade.

""Wha-""

"DARK SHADOW!" While Monoma and Spinner were caught flat-footed, staring with wide-eyed shock at the glistening metal cylinder of death, Tokoyami darted off to the side while sending Dark Shadow in. It (he?) shoved Spinner and Monoma to the side, sending them sprawling to the ground but away from the upcoming explosion, before catching the grenade and preparing to send it back-

"Hey, wait-" Dark Shadow paused in apparent confusion while the man zeroed-in on the prone Spinner and Monoma. With the momentum of his charge behind him he lashed out at Spinner with a powerful thrust. But the wannabe-vigilante wasn't completely helpless, bringing his 'sword' up with one hand and holding the flat of the blade(s) with the other for a block.

The man didn't even flinch. Were it not for the metal shield of his brass knuckles his hand would've been carved in half, and Toru once again had to question whether he was deranged or just that experienced (or both). As it was, the brass and steel collided with an almighty ringing-

"ZZZZZzzzzzz!" before Spinner started shaking violently, air forced out of him buzzing through his mouth. The man disconnected a moment later, and Spinner's eyes drifted lazily shut. As his body fell lazily to the floor.

"This is just a chrome-painted soda can!" Dark Shadow shouted back at Tokoyami, announcing that the 'grenade' the man had thrown out was harmless.

"A little help here!" Monoma scrambled to his feet and tried to put distance between himself and their attacker, but the man was on him in mere moments. He threw out a few jabs which Monoma made a valiant effort to avoid, ducking and sidestepping like his life depended on it (which it probably did).

While Tokoyami had Dark Shadow tossed the faux-grenade to the side and charge in, Toru took the moment to check her brother was ok. He was clearly in pain, i.e. not dead, so that was good(ish), but the single blow the man had delivered had been a bad one. His lip was split, his nose was bent in a way that made Toru wonder if it was broken, there was a cut in one eyebrow, and a nasty gash on his forehead. From the way he was groaning and his limbs moving lazily, she felt there was a good chance he'd be 'ok but hurting' in a minute or so, maybe even as little as half of one. But the man's entire assault had occupied but a small handful of seconds-

*crack* Toru was brought out of her thoughts by another snap of metal on… something. Something strong, something non-metallic, but something hard. Glancing back to the fight, it seemed Monoma had tried to block one of the man's punches with his arms. Considering the man's weapons, she would've classed that as a bad idea brought on by panic or desperation. But strangely Monoma seemed more-or-less ok-

"ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz!" and then he began violently shaking just like Spinner had.

"Dark Shadow-!" Tokoyami sent in Dark Shadow for another attack, trying to get the man off Monoma. The man obliged, throwing Monoma to the ground with a shove before disconnecting, turning around and throwing another haymaker at Dark Shadow. Man vs. Shadow creature; the outcome should've been obvious.

"ZZZZZZZZzzzzz!" it was. When the man slid under Dark Shadow's swipe and sent an uppercut into its face, Dark Shadow never stood a chance.

"Damn it," Tokoyami winced in pain and backed away, his legs crouched and his back arched back slightly. As Dark Shadow retreated back (into?) him, Toru realised he was stood to try and accommodate pain where he and Dark Shadow were joined.

"So," the man rushed forwards towards the injured Tokoyami, "Shadows conduct electricity?" he began throwing jabs, forcing Tokoyami to keep backing off, eventually changing to sidesteps when he was backed against a wall, "Learn something new every day!"

Still at a loss as to what she should do, Toru's eyes eventually found Cerberus, simply standing and watching as she did.

"You know you could help." she'd seen her fight some kind of purple-skinned arbiter of death, not to mention tossing an apparent League of Villain commander around like a rag doll. She was pretty sure one guy with some… electrical knuckle dusters would be in the scope of things she could handle.

"Aw." Cerberus' gaze drifted lazily over the downed Doku, Spinner and Monoma. "But you're doing so well."

Bitch…

Realising demonic assistance wasn't much of a guarantee, Toru set her brother down as gently as she could before trying to construct an angle of attack. Tokoyami was on the ropes, everyone else was down, and she was entirely unconfident in her ability to beat a man so much bigger than her in a straight-up fight. And that was before considering his charged metallic blows and unknown arsenal – did he have more fake grenades? Did he have real grenades?. What did Toru have? A nice suit? Invisibility?

A pile of guns. She realised as her eyes scanned the room once again. I have a pile of guns my brother stole from the coastguard. And a nice suit which can make me entirely invisible. It seemed as good a time as any to test how far that invisibility could extend.

Tapping into her Quirk through the magical demon suit was starting to get easier through its repeated use. Regardless of the worrying implications of that sentence, that was useful in the here and now. Like flipping a switch, or making a specific arm movement, she was suddenly unseen to the naked eye. Something she quickly confirmed by looking down at her now-invisible arms, and once again after rushing over to the pile of weapons and checking there was no reflection in the polished metal.

She bit her lip anxiously. Sure, the situation was bad- no correction, she'd walked into an absolute shitshow- but the thought of picking up an actual firearm still made her stomach twist uncomfortably. It wasn't some toy foam weapon, not a cheap replica; it was death cast in chrome. At any other time, she'd want nothing to do with anything so dangerous.

"Hrgh!" the sound of Tokoyami being beat to the floor – without the previous buzzing noise escaping him – drew Toru out of her conundrum.

"Huh," the man shrugged, "Guess I'm out." he towered over Tokoyami like a grim spectre. "Suppose we do it the old fashioned way!"

As the man began beating down Tokoyami, moral quandaries flew out of Toru's head as she grabbed a pistol. Racing over to the two as quietly as she could while trying to keep the gun out of his sight, she reached their scuffle just as it seemed Tokoyami was losing consciousness.

"Don't move." Toru hoped the lukewarm steel of the pistol's barrel against the crazy man's head would convince even him to calm the hell down. He was fast, yes, he'd blitzed through all her classmates in seconds, true, and he seemed highly unstable, of course, but she was at least 60% sure that his attack had been a 'shock and awe' tactic rather than just suicidal overconfidence. Finish the fight before they could properly formulate a counterattack.

The fact the man paused as she'd ordered suggested that she was maybe in the right ballpark. Halting his beat-down of Tokoyami, he turned his head slowly to look at Toru out of the corner of his eye. She decided to dispel the invisibility to accommodate; staring at a floating gun was probably more confusing than it was intimidating.

With herself in full view the man's gaze barely wavered, held steadfast between the gun now pointed at his temple, and Toru's own face.

"Don't move." she echoed the demand, pushing the weapon stronger against his head. "Let Tokoyami go or I'll sh-" she stuttered, swallowing fear and nerves in equal measure. "Let him go or I'll shoot."

She honestly had no idea if she would. Fighting to try and protect her friends was one thing, but shooting someone point-blank in the head? Even if she was doing it to stop him brutally wailing on Tokoyami, it'd still be functionally executing the man (unless he had some super-endurance Quirk, but then why would he stop in the first place?). She wasn't sure if she could actually do it. In fact, she was pretty sure she wouldn't. And when the man's face adopted the faintest of smiles, she had the horrible feeling that he realised that fact.

"I don't think you will." Toru's nerves only frayed as the smile at the corner of his mouth turned into a full-on grin, "Especially not with the safety on."

Toru blinked. "… It is-?" was all she got out before he'd swung back at her head and the hard metal of his brass knuckles crunched into the side of her head. The gun fell out of her hands as all sensations were temporarily numbed with the shock of force ripping through her skull. Her sense of balance, largely occupied doing somersaults, told her that staying standing was no longer an option.

Bwuh? Extremely coherent and intelligent thoughts were all Toru had to go off of, as the outside world became a carnival of colours. Her environment of the dark, run-down warehouse room all mixing together in a wonderful palette of greys, and greys, and some rather interesting greys-

"Doing great." a spattering of reds slowly resolved into a red behind black, with some extra white on top and woah was that some pale pink-

"I hate you." sane Toru probably had some thoughts on insulting a demon so directly, but right now dizzy Toru was in control. She glared back when Cerberus flashed her an 'innocent' smile. Her glare made sure Cerberus was in focus enough to see her catch the fist flying her way, the violent man apparently having thrown a blow that Toru hadn't noticed. Cerberus barely turned her head to glance at him.

"Show me your tongue."

"Can I show you my stomach?" she flashed him a smile full of razor-sharp teeth. Slightly-less-dizzy Toru was unsure if you were being serious.

"You can't just eat your problems." she thought it was better safe than sorry, throwing in a pout for good measure.

"Worked for me so far." Cerberus shrugged, ducking a follow-up punch before crushing the hand that was still firmly in her grasp. Toru heard the sound of something cracking, though she wasn't sure if it was bone or metal. The man's face betrayed barely a hint of pain; a testament to bravery or adrenaline she wasn't sure. Possibly panicking, the man leaned back before jerking forward, smashing into Cerberus' face with a headbutt.

"Rude." Cerberus didn't so much as flinch. Until she sent a headbutt back.

Toru wanted to say the man's nose looked broken, but 'demolished' was probably more apt. While he staggered backwards, Cerberus kept a hold of his hand, twisting it with her own before bending her arm to force it further. Forced onto one knee (as the alternative was an arm twisted the wrong way around), the man reached into a pocket with his other hand to fish something out-

"Nope." Cerberus popped the 'p' in the same motion as forcing the man's arm down, driving him to the floor before following up with a swift jab into his blood-covered face. After he fell completely to the ground and didn't move for a good few seconds, Toru was confident he wasn't getting up any time soon. But she was really hoping he'd still be getting up eventually.

"You couldn't have done that earlier?" Monoma didn't seem so fussed with the prospect of the man being dead as with the pain they'd gone through to get that far. He was still lying on the floor, but at least he was conscious. The same couldn't be said for her brother, nor Spinner or even Tokoyami.

"But you all did so well!" Cerberus started clapping slowly, voice so thick with sarcasm you could cut it with a sword made of knives. "A round of applause for the unprepared idiots about to go and kick the hornet's nest with weapons they can't use!"

Toru sighed. Not just because of the mockery, nor the fact she'd stood there while the rest of them were put through a world of pain. But because she was entirely, 100%, painfully correct.

I just wanted my DVDs…

Why did death have to be so complicated?

A/N:

I'm back, and with a substantially less depressing chapter this time. Originally this was supposed to have another PoV, but the Izuku section ended up way longer than I expected and I ran out of time. I considered delaying another week, but the last chapter took 3 months and this already took 3 weeks, so I thought it better to move it around a bit and get this out sooner. For that same reason I didn't give it as much editing time as I'd have liked, which is unfortunate because I've been looking forward to writing Izanami's introduction for a while, and think that part could've done with some more edits. But if anyone notices spelling mistakes etc. please do point them out.

Other than that it's nice to be back in much less heavy territory than last time. Which, considering Izuku had a whole 'yeah you can kill me if it's worth it' section, is saying quite a bit.

Feel free to leave comments with thoughts, predictions, questions, concrit etc. etc. as per usual, and hopefully I'll be back in a couple of weeks!