Heroes in the Dark chapter 6

"Now I'm going to let you speak," Shigaraki said to Bakugou. He beckoned for Mr. Compress to come forward and take off the cloth that had been keeping his sharp tongue in check. "And after everything I've said, I want you to answer honestly. What say you become one of us?"

Everyone turned their attention to him as he was given the ability to speak once more, waiting in deep-set anticipation.

Bakugou tilted his head up as the gag was removed. His brow was furrowed and a perverse smile stretched across his face. "How 'bout you choke on those words and die!"

Tokoyami felt his heart sink. Despite everything, his abrasive nature was still as prevalent as ever. He could jeopardize us all!

Around him the rest of the Villain Alliance rose from their respective places to confront the boy. Tokoyami stayed smartly where he was.

Shigaraki sighed, much like an adult trying to teach a child so naïve as to not understand even the most basic of facts. "After all I've said, you still intend on acting like this? I thought you were smarter than this. Your friend over there gets it, but everything seems to go right over your head. I don't get it."

Bakugou narrowed his eyes at the classmate sitting comfortably on the couch. Tokoyami couldn't meet his gaze, not because he felt guilty but more so because his gaze was so scathing. "Don't lump us together. I'm stronger in every way than him. You can't convince me so easily with your shitty monologues."

Bakugou, I would've hoped that you'd know as well as I do that that's not what's going on. But of course you of all people would go out of your way to be so presumptuous. How am I ever going to work with you like this? Even in the place I'm in, you seem to be consumed by your own darkness, so don't do this to me.

He's his own weakness, truly. He doesn't belong anywhere with his outlandish pride; not as a villain and definitely not as a hero.

So you say, but then what would that make me?

…

On the television, Tokoyami could see a board of familiar teachers answering questions in the aftermath of the damage that was done. Despite being muted, subtitles on the bottom read of them "apologizing for their shortcomings" and "taking strong measures to ensure the safety of our students." And yet that didn't feel very comforting. Were they even doing anything to find their missing students? Was there anything to do at all? For all he knew they had no way of seeking them out and had decided to settle on cutting their losses. Tokoyami wondered how long he would be here, alongside the other outcasts of the world.

You're starting to identify with these people, aren't you?

Stop it, no. But I can at least sympathize with them.

Shigaraki's voice was getting more insistent. "The strangeness of converting human life into money and selfish pursuits…And a society that codifies that type of thinking into its rules…Citizens that criticize the underdogs of this world instead of cheering them on. Our battle is one of questions. What is a hero and what is justice? Is this society really just? We want each and every individual to think about these things. We intend to win this battle!" He leaned forward, closer to Bakugou. "You…like winning, don't you?"

This time, instead of waiting for a response, he turned to Dabi. "Take off his bindings."

Tokoyami jerked to attention, hands gripping tightly on the seat of the couch, but that movement went largely ignored as everyone else responded with general surprise.

"What? Hell no, this guy's going to go ballistic. It was a pain in the ass as it was to get him like that. Besides, I'm already in charge of the other one," Dabi said.

Shigaraki opened his arms wide in what could've been a welcoming gesture. Unfortunately the power behind his hands made it feel much more like a threat. "It's okay. It seems like the best we can do is to treat him as an equal. We're dead set on scouting him, after all."

"Did you reach that conclusion after we had to stand up for Tokoyami?" Dabi growled just loud enough for him to hear.

The villain brushed his words aside. "Besides, he should be able to tell from the current situation that he has no possible way of winning if he were to go off here. Right, U.A. student?"

"Alright, then," Dabi sighed. "Twice, free him."

"What, me?! No thanks!" he responded vehemently, even as he bent down to unshackle the heavy concrete blocks encasing Bakugou's frightening hands.

Mr. Compress decided then that it was his turn to offer up some meaningful words. "I do apologize – to the both of you – for taking such a forceful approach with you. However, please understand that we're not just a group of hoodlums endeavoring to perpetuate evil acts. We didn't just casually decide to abduct you. It could be seen clear as day the impact this sort of world had on you and Tokoyami." With a clatter, the stone shackles fell to the ground, leaving Bakugou to rub his aching wrists begrudgingly.

Shigaraki stepped towards the quiet student. "Everyone here has different circumstances, but people, rules, heroes…We're all shackled by them."

This is what Dabi and Twice were saying not too long ago. They all feel so strongly about this.

Don't you ever feel the same? Or are you content to spend the rest of your life wandering blindly through the darkness?

You're the darkness I wade through the most, so you would know.

That doesn't sound like disagreement~

"You should be tired of living under the people who demonize and ostracize you! You of all people should understa – "

Bakugou reared up and out of his seat without warning, reaching out to deliver a well-placed explosion right to the villain leader's chest. Everyone was on guard in a second, ready and willing to suppress him once more. Tokoyami lurched from his seat as well, but gave no further indication that he was going to do more. Toga saw this, her knife blade flashing out of her sleeve, but she left him alone to focus on the one causing the ruckus.

"I stayed quiet and listened to you run your mouth on and on! Idiots like you never know how to summarize. All I can gather is that you're trying to make people hate you, so you're begging me for help, right?! Spare me your pity party, it's pointless!" The student stood tall, brandishing his hands readily while surrounded by villains. Filled with pride and smiling with pseudo-confidence, he declared to the world "I've already been won over by the way All Might looks when he wins! You all can say what you want, but nothing can change my mind about that!"

In the commotion, two trivial yet important things had happened. For one, the hand covering Shigaraki Tomura's face had been blasted off, and he gazed at it down on the floor with an unreadable expression. Secondly, someone had knocked the tv and caused it to unmute, leading to the discussion of the kidnapped students being broadcast for all to hear. News reporters were making claims to the teachers' irresponsibility, but also…they were bringing up why they had been targeted. Strong contenders in the tournament, incredible quirks with deadly repercussions regarding the violent tendencies behind them, all coming to a head by Bakugou's brutal nature and Tokoyami's instability in the forest as driving factors. These people…they must be thinking that we're prime candidates for villains.

Are they wrong?

And then a promise from the principle rang through: "We will absolutely get our students back."

"See!" Bakugou declared triumphantly. "You heard what they said, and that's how it's going to be! But until then, I'm gonna make some damage here. I'm telling you now, my combat authorizations haven't been revoked, got it? That goes for you too, Tokoyami!"

That earned the raven-headed student some cautious looks from the villains, but still he didn't understand what he had to gain from any of this and refused to budge. So they turned back to the immediate threat (though they didn't seem all that concerned after the initial shock) and discussed amongst themselves.

Magne: "He understands exactly what position he's in. What a clever boy!"

Toga: "Let's stab him!"

Dabi: "No, I think he's just an idiot."

Mr. Compress: "He could have at least pretended to be won over. He messed up."

Why do you have to always be like this, Bakugou.

Bakugou glared at everyone in the room, ready to go off should anyone challenge him. "I'm not about to lie about things I don't want to do! I also don't plan on staying here much longer, if you catch my drift."

While this was happening, Shigaraki was reaching down to retrieve the gnarled, gray hand that had been sent flying to the ground. It wasn't immediately recognizable, but judging by everyone's cautiousness, the villain stooping to pick up the hand was livid. When he spoke, it was with a scathing coldness. "If possible, I would've liked for you to hear me out. I thought that just maybe I could get it through your thick skull in a way that would make you understand…"

Bakugou smirked in all his false bravado. "N-no chance!"

Shigaraki let out a shuttered breath as he returned the grizzled hand to his face. "Then I have no choice. The heroes are searching for you, and I can't afford to be wasting time trying to convince you." He lifted his head towards a black monitor. "Master, I'll need your help this time around."

There it was again, the mention of a master, someone with a position of power even higher than Shigaraki in the Villain Alliance. The villain had first mentioned him when threatening to send Tokoyami to this unknown person of significance in order to be "done with it," whatever that entailed. It didn't give him any comfort. There was no way of knowing what this master was all about, but he doubted it was good. Even then, this was not the time and place to be making a scene. Why Bakugou had to cause trouble for the both of them was inconceivable. It's all his fault that we're in this situation in the first place, because he can never just keep his damn emotions in check.

But isn't that the same thing that got you wrapped up in all this, Fumikage? Admit it, you're weak.

Bakugou let off a warning blast to the villains surrounding him. "Just you try to do anything to me! No way I'll let you tie me down again. No more tricks, we'll take you all down!"

Tokoyami tensed. "We?"

His classmate's cocky smile faltered for a moment. "Yeah, these guys are nothing. Let's decimate them so that the pro heroes don't have to worry anymore. We'll walk out of here and be praised for our bravery. That's what a hero would do, blow these evil punks to smithereens!" The dark feathered boy didn't budge from where he was standing, and Bakugou saw that for some incomprehensible reason his classmate was not joining him at his side. Tokoyami had his reasons, though, but he doubted the hothead would pay him any heed. You're just going to blast me too. You don't stand a chance on your own, and I don't stand a chance if I choose to fight next to you. You're a fool if you think that things will work in your favor. But even if I told you that, I doubt you would listen.

Bakugou was visibly angry now, but not at the villains driving him into a corner."Damnit, Tokoyami, why don't you move! How dare you even pretend for a moment that you're on their side?! Stop being so weak!"

"I'm not weak," Tokoyami growled from his beak.

The villains began to circle in on the explosive student, Mr. Compress looking ready to store him back into a marble so that he won't be able to do any further harm. "Then prove it. Show me by leveling this entire shithole. Otherwise I'll make sure to leave you behind in the rubble after I demolish this place myself!"

Tokoyami was quivering now, not in fear but with rage, the kind of which fueled the very student that was verbally lashing out at him now. I'm so sick of him, said a voice that could've been either Tokoyami or Dark Shadow.

"DO SOMETHING NOW OR I'LL BURY YOU WITH THE REST OF THESE VILLAINS!"

It was easy provocation, he knew as much. Whether or not he meant what he said, Tokoyami had reached his limit. All night he had felt helpless and restrained while simultaneously being pressured to bring out his quirk like it was so easy. Like it's so god damn easy as that. Dark Shadow had been steadily eating away at his consciousness since losing control. Even though it shouldn't have been all that long since then, he couldn't refuse it anymore. Consequences be damned, he was ready to unleash hell.

"I'll show you power, Bakugou! I'll never let you upstage me again!" Tokoyami took a stance and in his mind unlocked the cage that had been holding back an increasingly disturbed monster. Dark Shadow welcomed his newfound freedom, bursting from the limitations of his body. Yellow eyes flashed before Tokoyami as Dark Shadow escaped from him with such ferocity that the floor beneath his feet splintered from the force. The image of an enormous shadowy bird filled the room, causing the lights to flicker and dim and everyone to gaze up in horror at the creature that had emerged from small, previously subdued kid.

Dark Shadow's claws raked the walls, shredding the posters of heroes and villains that adorned them. A thin, reedy voice escaped its hooked beak, loud enough to shake the very bones of everyone present. "I fight…for NO ONE!"

Dabi rushed forward with his flames, intent on subduing the beast. Mr. Compress also stepped up, although he was clearly terrified behind his mask, as though afraid that he'd lose an arm in all this. Bakugou stepped back quickly as wall plaster and poster scraps rained down on him, letting out a blast that seemed only to anger the sentient quirk further. Shigaraki was calling out to his master for support.

Spinner of all people had backed up against the door, what looked like the exit, to escape the ensuing chaos. And he was the only one who noticed when a knock sounded on that very door, followed by a strangely chipper "Hello! Anyone home?"

A powerful blast crumbled the entire wall from the outside as a new presence entered himself into the fray. Dark Shadow shielded Tokoyami from the blast and roared at the unannounced intruder. The quirk lashed out at everything that moved, flicking Dabi aside easily, brushing aside Bakugou's explosion, and finally setting its sight on this new challenger with a vengeance.

"It's fine now! For I am h–!"

Dark Shadow slammed him into the far wall with his wicked claws and with such unsurmountable violence that the whole hideout no longer resembled a livable environment. A strangled cry of surprise and pain sounded from where the hero that had come for them had been unceremoniously smashed into the foundation.

"All Might! What happened?!" came a voice as heroes streamed through the hole where the door had once been, ready and willing to take on whatever dastardly villains would dare to attack them.

Dark Shadow turned away from the damage it had caused, uncaring as it turned to all the shocked villains and heroes alike. Fresh blood glistened from its claws. "Look what you made us do," it laughed with sick pleasure.

"No, stop! You've done enough, Dark Shadow!" Tokoyami screamed up at the quirk, while trying desperately to reel it back into the mental cage that would keep it at bay. But as Tokoyami looked on in horror, he knew that the worst possible damage had already been dealt. In an unforgiveable act of what could only be seen as treachery, Fumikage Tokoyami had accidently laid waste to the Symbol of Peace, All Might.