A/N: Well, bad luck apparently has it out for me, seeing as within two weeks, I had my head split open and then fell out of a truck at work... I'm honestly kind of surprised that I managed to get this and the audio chapter out on time. I hope you guys enjoy this one!
Burdened
Kurai estimated that there was about fifty meters separating him and Eri from their goal- hardly a great distance for anyone, much less two heroes with abilities like theirs'. Unfortunately, it seemed like it would be the longest walk they'd been through all week, given the small sea of reporters and camera crews between them and the bus that was supposed to take them home.
Already the din of noise and flashing lights were serving to augment the headaches that had settled in on the pair, making it difficult to keep their eyes open, much less focus on trying to put one foot in front of the other. All Kurai really wanted to do right then was flick his fingers and blow a path through their obstacles, but that would be wrong, and he knew that. Never makes it any less tempting… he thought dourly as he imagined black lightning destroying the microphones and cameras going off in his face. He knew that he was being asked questions, but he was so tired and drained that none of the words being directed at him were entering his consciousness in a sensible manner. It all just sounded like the rumbling of a highway tunnel from a distance to him, and he realized that he was actually dangerously close to just collapsing where he was as his vision started to swim in and out of focus.
Just let us… get some rest… he thought sluggishly as he tried to take a step forward, only to have his foot slip on the mud and send him tipping sideways.
He would have fallen face-first in the wet earth if a shiny arm hadn't caught him up at the last second. "Easy there, buddy," said a familiar voice that temporarily registered with the exhausted hero's failing awareness. Kurai blinked slowly as he looked over to see Tensei supporting his body weight with a tired grin, though he did not appear anywhere near as worn out as the Guardian Hero and his partner.
"Come on," the elder Iida said as he urged his friend to move his feet. "Let's get you home, sound good?"
"Yea…" Struck by a thought, Kurai blinked again before forcing himself to mumble, "Wait… Wha 'bout-?"
"I got your friend, Kai," Inertia said from his other side, where he could now see the woman handling Eri in a similar manner to the way he was being supported. The woman smiled at him as she said, "You two did great out there, helping everyone. Let us take a turn and help you."
Even as she said the words, Kurai realized that the flashing lights- while not having decreased in volume- were being blocked by something- or rather, quite a few somethings. "A'ight, you people got your tabloid shots, now beat it!" Rock Lock was saying as he and about a dozen other heroes could be seen pushing back against the camera crews, much to the protest of the media workers.
"These two aren't in any kind of shape to be hosting an interview right now!" added Tempest, whose stern gaze was enough to make the paparazzi members closest to him back up, even if just a little bit. "They may be front-page material, but they're kids, and they're exhausted! Have some heart, people!"
"Back it up!" Loop de Loop- or was it one of her clones?- shouted as she and four other replicates could be seen widening a gap in the crowd of people so that the two teenagers and their helpers would have an unobstructed path to the bus. "I'm sure you all know we ain't seen the last of these two! Let 'em off for today, they've more than earned it!"
There were many sounds of protest that continued to bombard the heroes until the young pair had been taken up into the bus, after which the driver shut the doors behind them, cutting down the noise level drastically. "Thanks, Tensei…" Kurai managed to mumble out as he was all but dragged up the aisle, many of the other heroes who had already been seated looking up at him and Eri with interest and awe.
"Anytime, kiddo," the other hero assured him. "Come on- we got a great seat saved, just for you."
Before Kurai could ask what he meant, a warm body of pink decorated in a filthy purple-and-green leotard entered his field of vision and caught him up in an embrace that he instantly melted into. "Mina…" he whispered, tears of relief threatening to leak out of his eyes as she took his weight from Tensei, who immediately backed up a couple of paces. "I missed you."
"I know," she replied gently as she ran her aching, bandaged fingers through his hair, which nearly put him to sleep on the spot. Sensing this, she moved quickly to guide him into the seat next to the window, which he collapsed into without another word. "Get some rest, love," she told him before planting a chaste kiss on his forehead, which drew a reflexive smile out of him.
"Mhmm…" Before the sound had even finished leaving his mouth, he was dead asleep.
While that was happening, Tenya- who was seated in the row behind her- had moved to help Inertia get Eri into a similar setup. Neither of the tired heroes had the time or capacity to notice it, but each of their seats had been set up with soft blankets that would make for a more comfortable ride home.
"Thank you for doing that," Mina said to Tensei, who smiled at her in return.
"Ah, it was our pleasure," he assured her. "Take good care of him, Ashido. Japan may need a hero like him, but he needs all the support he can get to be that hero."
"Kurai is in excellent hands with her," Tenya said over his shoulder as he placed one of the blankets on Eri's now-shivering body. As he straightened up, he added, "It is no exaggeration to say that without Ashido, there would be no Kai- not as we, and now the world at large, know him."
"Glad to hear it," Tensei smiled again, even as Mina looked at her classmate with some surprise.
Before any of them could say anything else, the driver called up from the front, "Alright, we'd better get going! If yer not leaving with us, you'd best get off now! We're already runnin' late thanks to the cameras, and I'd just as soon get these youngin's home!"
"Right, sorry!" Tensei apologized as he began to move back toward the front of the bus, Inertia close behind him. "Thanks again for holding the bus for him!"
"Ah, don' mention it," the driver replied as he rubbed the back of his spiny hair. "He helped save some a my brothers that live in Fukuoka. Least I could do to try an' repay 'im a little bit."
"Safe drive," Inertia said as she glanced back over her shoulder one more time to see Mina tucking a blanket around Kurai's shoulders, oblivious of all the curious gazes from the other heroes and volunteers on the bus. Many of them were student heroes like the UA members, and not much older than Kurai himself. She realized that it must be strange to see someone your own age who had already accomplished so much- more than many of them would ever achieve in their entire careers. Even stranger to see such a legend get tired and collapse just like any other mortal, she thought with a little smile as she stepped back out into the rain. Hopefully he can sleep the whole way back, because if he wakes up before then, I get the feeling that the media won't be the only ones with enough questions to bring out his snappy side.
As it turned out, the bus ride had many stops to make, even after they had made it to Musutafu, though Kurai and Eri both awoke about thirty minutes before they reached the city limits. Kurai tried his best to return to sleep once he realized that he was waking up on Mina's shoulder, but his neck started to cramp up, which forced him to shift his weight and stretch it out a bit.
"Morning, sleepyhead," his favorite voice told him as he blinked and then yawned. The moment was then kind of ruined when Mina added, "Eugh, dude. Ever heard of breath mints?"
"Sorry," he mumbled as he covered his mouth and rubbed at his eyes. "Didn't really have time to floss between mealtime and extracts."
"I'm kidding," she teased him as she tapped him softly on the nose. "Mine's probably not much better."
"Mmm, don't care," he mumbled as he got himself to blink a few times, forcing his eyes to adjust to the incoming light of the early afternoon sun. "I'm just glad you're here."
"As sweet as it is to hear you say that, we should probably save any more pillow talk for our pillows at home," she whispered as she softly nudged him with an elbow. "You've got people who've been waiting to talk to you for a few hours, now."
Kurai's face immediately soured before he threw his blanket over his face. "If it's a camera crew, tell them to shove the mic up their ass," he growled in a voice muffled by the soft fabric.
"Sweetie, no one has a mic in here, and the people who wanna talk are the ones who provided those blankets you're hiding in," she said with a light grin, even though he couldn't see her. "I promise they're cool, so quit hiding and come say hi."
"Is he always that grumpy when he wakes up?" Eri asked as she looked down at his covered head with an abject curiosity.
"Actually, he's usually in a pretty good mood, even when he gets up with frickin' sun," Mina replied, her tone becoming somewhat flat toward the end of her sentence. "No, this is just what happens whenever he thinks there might be a camera aimed at him from somewhere." Even as she said this, she poked at a spot just underneath his left ribcage, where there was a scar that had been left by one of Nine's lasers.
As Mina and Kurai had noted on several occasions beforehand, the repaired flesh was incredibly sensitive, given the right circumstances, and her prodding resulted in him letting out a yelp and throwing the blanket clear off his body while he stood up straight with a stricken look on his face. "For real?!" he cried as he held his side in an effort to prevent anymore tickling.
"Yep," she said as she stuck her tongue out at him.
"You have been asleep for five hours in a chair," Iida commented from behind his friend, who turned to look at him. "That cannot be good for your posture or circulation- a bit of movement on your part will be beneficial to your health."
Kurai was about to tell Tenya what he could do with his posture when he noticed that he was on the receiving end of nearly two-dozen sets of eyes from around the bus. It was only then that he finally remembered that he was on a transport with many other young heroes on their way to their homes, and realized that they were the people Mina must have been telling him about.
"Umm… Hi?" he said awkwardly, not sure of who to address first.
One of the other heroes- who looked to be a senior in high school- waved back at him from about three rows down and answered, "Yo. Good to see you're okay, Number One."
"Please don't call me that- especially if she told you to," Kurai sighed as he jerked a thumb at Mina, who gave him a cheeky grin in response. "I'm not on the rankings yet, and I don't want people to have unrealistic expectations for my career- as ludicrous a claim as that may seem."
"Dude, if there were billboard charts for student heroes, you'd definitely be number one for that," replied a girl with sapphires for eyes. "You literally saved the world a few weeks ago. It's not inaccurate."
"You'd have my vote if I could split it between you and Deku." Kurai turned back once again to see Eri now grinning up at him, to which he gave her a flat look.
"Stop encouraging them," he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.
"Stop being a buzzkill," Mina interjected playfully.
"Yo, Kai!"
"Wha-?" Kurai looked around the bus until he spotted another young hero waving at him from closer to the front.
"Can we get a selfie with you?" they called over.
"Uh…" The requested hero looked at his fiancée, who immediately got up and stepped aside to let him out, which he knew meant he'd better get moving. "Coming!" he called out as he made his way up the aisle.
"Hey, bring your sidekick!" called out a girl who was also getting out her phone.
Hearing this, Kurai paused, looking incredulous as he did. "You talking about-?" he asked as he looked back to see Eri's head leaning into the aisle, a curious expression on her face. "Chronoa is nobody's sidekick- she's more amazing than I'll ever hope to be."
Hearing this, the majority of the student heroes in the bus were fairly surprised, and found their attentions directed toward the raven-haired heroine, who reddened and ducked behind Mina's seat to avoid making eye contact with anyone. "More amazing than the guy who declared a one-man war against Humarise- and won?" inquired the girl who had requested Eri's participation in a photo.
"That war was hardly a one-man operation," Kurai replied as he shook his head vehemently in the negative. "I got the ball rolling, but there were other heroes who carried it home, two of whom are sitting with us: Chronoa and Ashid Queen."
"Hi!" Mina chirped as she waved at everyone with a cheery grin on her face.
"She and a few of my other classmates took on several hundred Humarise fanatics so that Deku, Chronoa, and I could deal with Flect Turn," Kurai explained as he smiled fondly at the pink girl. "Without her help, we probably wouldn't have made it in time to stop the trigger bombs- which by the way, was done by Chronoa, not me. Also, beating Flect Turn? That didn't happen until she showed up to help me and Deku out. You want to thank someone for saving the world, she's over there- I just kept the maniac busy for a little while."
"Kai, you're exaggerating!" Eri called from behind Mina's seat, apparently too shy to show her face, now.
"Wait, you're saying that she's powerful enough to take on somebody you couldn't beat?" asked another boy, who was craning his neck as if to try and get a better look at the reclusive girl.
"Damn right," Kurai answered with a proud grin as he finally reached the group that had originally singled him out. "Without her, I'd be toast a dozen times over by now."
"Wait, how come she wasn't in the Sport's Festival, then?" asked yet another heroine while her neighbors moved to gather around Kurai for the photo, most of them looking overly excited as they did. "If she's really that amazing, how come we didn't see her compete there?"
"UA is kinda spastic when it comes to admissions- and a lotta other things," Mina answered before Kurai could. "Chronoa here wasn't able to get in until later in the year, but trust me- you'll see plenty of her in the next Sport's Fest!"
"Please stop, both of you," Eri begged the vibrant girl from where she continued to hide.
"Aw man, she's kinda cute," whispered one of the sophomore heroes who was only a couple of rows ahead of Kurai, now.
"Go ask for her number," encouraged one of his friends in an equally low tone, which led to the first boy shaking his head rapidly.
"Dude, no way!" he protested. "If she really is that amazing, I got no shot in hell!"
For some reason, Kurai was finding it very difficult not to activate Blackwhip and strangle the caped duo where they sat. Logically, he knew that there was nothing wrong with guys taking an interest in Eri- she was pretty, kind, and a top-notch hero already. That would be enough to turn any guy's head in this day and age, and he knew that. None of that stopped his protective instincts from kicking into overdrive almost instantly.
It was with great force of will that he managed to contain the Fifth's power while telling himself, She's not the little girl who needs rescuing from Chisaki. She's the same age as me and the others, and I'm sure that she can handle herself when it comes to boys. The thought that Mina was certain to run interference if someone got up to any funny business around Eri was probably the deciding factor in him managing to calm himself.
All the same… I wonder if Akarui still knows how to profile people who come into- What am I saying, of course he still knows how!
"Kai, can we grab a pic, too?"
Kurai's head swiveled until he spotted the source of the request, which happened to be a girl with purple-black hair. Seeing her for a second, his vision blurred and replaced the heroine with an image of Switch, laughing as he felt Blake's katana sliding through his body. He felt his breath catch while the scars sitting over and through his right lung burned fiercely.
"Whoa, dude, are you okay?" asked one of the guys who had just taken a picture with him and his friends. He stood up and put a steadying hand on Kurai's shoulder to help keep him stable, as the boy had started to sway back and forth while paling rapidly.
"Huh?" he gasped as he shook his head and massaged his ribcage, trying to dispel the image and sensations that haunted him as quickly as possible. "Uh… Sorry. Guess I'm still waking up."
"You need help getting back to your seat?"
"I think I got it." Kurai gave the other hero a wobbly smile before saying, "Thanks for the offer, though."
"Thanks for the photo, dude," he answered with a thumbs-up while he returned to his own seat. "Heh, my kid brother's gonna be so jealous- he's a big fan of yours'."
"Well, before you get off, maybe I can sign something for him?" Kurai offered as he started moving away. "Best of both worlds- you get to rub something in his face, then be the hero for snagging something just for him."
"Hey, I think I might take you up on that!" the other hero grinned a little more brightly. "Thanks again, Kai!"
"No problem," he replied before he turned all the way around- only to see that he was right next to the girl who had triggered his near-fainting spell, who was looking up at him hopefully. Seeing her up close, he could see that she possessed bright green snake's eyes, very much unlike the purple ones that had given Switch her own power. This detail made it a little easier to be in proximity to her, but he was still feeling shaken from his brief panic attack.
"Can I catch you on that in a little bit?" he asked, hoping that his voice wasn't shaking too badly. "I don't feel too good right now."
"Umm, okay," she answered, clearly disappointed, but polite enough to know that she shouldn't press the issue.
As Kurai started to move away, however, one of her neighbors seemed to have a differing opinion. "Told you he doesn't care about B-lister's like us," grumbled another girl who had orange hair and narrow black eyes.
"Anko, that's uncalled for," her apparent friend whispered sharply before looking up at a surprised Kurai apologetically. "Seriously, don't worry about it," she insisted. "I know I'm beat, and I didn't do nearly as much as you did out there. If you're tired, I get it, really."
"Why're you making excuses for him?" Anko now demanded of her peer. "It's not like he cares what we think of him."
"Hey!" Mina now snapped from where she was leaning into the aisle, a scowl on her face. "What's your damage?" In the meantime, Kurai was now standing in the main aisle, roughly equidistant between his fiancée and the rude girl.
"Just trying to show my friend a hard reality," Anko shrugged. "Heroes like you don't care about people like us. We'll probably end up as cleanup crews for bigshot agencies that come outta UA, and while there's nothing wrong with that, I don't remember the last time anyone cared enough about sidekicks to even bother remembering their hero names. Your boyfriend obviously didn't wanna even get up in the first place, so I don't see why Arya's getting her hopes up, just cos we happen to be riding the same bus as people like you."
"Anko, seriously!" Arya protested, her face flushing deep red with embarrassment. "You're taking this too far!"
"Yeah, lay offa the guy!" jeered another student hero as he and some of his friends aimed a scowl at Anko, who affected not to pay attention to them.
"If you worked half as hard as he did, maybe you'd have a shot at being something more than 'cleanup crew'," snapped another.
"Okay, that's enough," Kurai interrupted before any more heated comments could be added, a weary look on his face. "She's welcome to her opinion- it's nothing I haven't dealt with before. Media's been trashing my family name since before I was born, so it's not like I should've expected people to stop now." With that said, he moved as quickly as his unsteady legs would carry him back to his seat, where Mina welcomed him, though she kept a glare leveled in the direction of the girl who had heckled him.
"Bitch," she muttered under her breath.
"Don't," he sighed as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, focusing on regulating his breathing so that he could try and still his shaking muscles. "Not worth it."
"Worth it to me," Mina grumbled, though she neglected to move from his side after settling back into her seat next to him. "Seriously, what is it with you and letting people walk all over you?"
"Better to let them walk how they want than prove them right by stomping them underfoot," he shrugged in response. "Haters gonna hate."
"What happened over there?" Eri asked him, her voice just low enough that only he and their two friends could hear her. "You looked fine until that girl asked you for the photo. Don't tell me you're afraid of Mina getting jealous." She added the last part with a little grin, but her eyes shone with nothing but concern for the boy.
"Did you see it?" Kurai asked Mina, which initially confused the others. "She kind of looks like-"
"Switch," the pink girl finished for him, her own face paling as recognition set in. "Oh… Yeah, I can see that."
"Switch?" Eri repeated, looking even more confused than before.
"Switch was the villain responsible for Kurai's first severe injury on Nabu Island," Tenya clarified for her, which erased her look of confusion. "I didn't get a good look at the villain, myself, but given his and Ashido's reaction, the resemblance must be quite striking."
"Only at a distance," Kurai said with a small shake of his head. "I honestly feel really bad about leaving her hanging, but I just couldn't handle it for a moment."
"Well, take some time to compose yourself, but don't keep her waiting for long," Tenya advised him. "We'll be coming up on our first city stop soon, and we don't know when she has to get off. It would be rude to hold up the departures of other students by obstructing the exit while you take a-"
"Alright, just gimme a minute to breathe," Kurai said with a roll of his eyes. "I said I would go back, and I will." He was about to add more when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
Without any warning, a tendril of Blackwhip shot out and intercepted a spitball from striking the girl who had been rude to him before. The energy dissipated as soon as it had appeared, though the look of disapproval that Kurai had donned remained fixated on the student who had tried to pelt the girl. "Dick move," he said, loud enough for the other boy- and those in close proximity- to hear.
"Wha-? Dude, she's the one picking on you!" he protested, which drew the attention of Arya and Anko. "Why would you-?"
"Because I said she's welcome to her opinion, and I meant that," Kurai said sternly. "What does your plan accomplish, beyond instigating more trouble than it's worth, and annoying me?"
"Don't bother questioning him," Mina sighed as she sat up in her seat so that she could make eye contact with the other boy. "He's let people stuff his locker with pepper bombs without complaining- it'd take a lot more than this to make him mad enough to want payback."
"Wait, for real?" asked another student. "Why would somebody do that to him?"
"My father was coerced into aiding the League of Villains that attacked our school," Kurai deadpanned in response, causing many of the listeners to cringe with discomfort as they were forced to remember that awkward fact. "Even given that my brother and my life were being held hostage from a distance by All For One, people weren't too keen on thanking me for that particular fact. A lot of them blamed me for the attacks happening to begin with."
"Which is completely asinine," Eri grumbled.
"If I had fought back like others expected me to, people's reasons for fearing and hating me would have only multiplied," the Guardian Hero elaborated with a shrug. "I'd rather spend my time and efforts on problems that actually matter, like how I'm going to get through the next natural disaster that hits. Failing that, I just don't care enough about how people see me to spend any second thoughts on how to appease people who are determined to hate me."
"You say that, but you just defended her from something she had coming," protested another one of the students as he jabbed a stiff finger at Anko, who looked unaffected by the conversation as a whole.
"I care to defend people from unnecessary hardship if I am in a position to prevent it," Kurai replied firmly. "Again, picking a fight with someone just because they have a different opinion than you accomplishes nothing productive. There are plenty of villains out there far more deserving of our aggressive tendencies than a fellow hero who sees things differently than we do."
"Okay, seems like you're kinda making a bigger deal outta this than it needs to be," volunteered yet another one of the students further up the bus. "He's on your side, why're you giving him the third degree?"
"All it takes is a single act that can seem meaningless to one person, but can change another's entire perspective," the white-haired teen answered, his tone becoming harder as he did. "Don't ever think you've understood someone's entire story based on the chapter you walked in on. Before you ask again why I'm so worked up about this, I'll tell you that one of the villains responsible for my death was more than likely, at some point, one of those people who was on the receiving end of those kinds of snap judgements." He paused to let his words sink in before he concluded, "If she had never been subjected to those seemingly harmless cruelties, maybe I wouldn't have ended up with a sword through my chest." His blunt description of his injury caused many of those listening to squirm with discomfort as they reflexively imagined the horrendous pain that such an experience must have caused him. "Yeah. Heroes may be in charge of stopping villains, but flashy takedowns aren't enough to accomplish that. Maybe we try and prevent ourselves from creating new enemies to society by exercising some self-control every now and again, yeah?" Done saying his piece, he folded his arms across his chest and turned to look out the window at the passing hillside.
There was a few moments of awkward silence before some of the heroes started to break into smaller group conversations. While this was happening, Mina leaned closer to Kurai and asked in a lowered tone, "Since when are you in the habit of explaining yourself to people like that?"
"I remember the last time I didn't adequately explain why I do what I do, everyone got on my case, and we argued for like a month," he grumbled under his breath, his eyes glazing over. "That, and I don't need people going after my haters- it's only gonna cause more problems than it's worth."
"Doing your utmost to keep the peace in all circumstances is quite admirable," Iida said from behind them, which caused Kurai to shut his eyes tightly before Mina could lower her voice and ask what he was reliving in that moment. She'd seen that look in his eyes enough times by now to know that something more dangerous than a mudslide was coming for him.
"If you want to look at it through rose-tinted lenses, sure," said boy replied to his bespectacled friend. "But honestly, I just don't want to ride the rest of this trip with a shouting match going on while I'm trying to shake off this stupid headache."
"You okay?" Eri asked as she popped her head over Mina's seat. "I got some water back here if you need a drink."
"Thanks, but I think my body's still trying to recover from using five different quirks for something like twenty hours a day for the last five days," he sighed. "That, and Danger Sense in general just grates on my nerves."
"Is there some way to turn that one off?" Iida asked him curiously.
"Nope."
Either Tenya's not paying close attention, or Kurai's getting better at hiding his tells already, Mina thought as she watched her fiancé's knuckles whiten while showing a tired grin to his friend. She might have thought that the look in his eyes and the slight trembling in his arms could have been attributed to his memories of Switch, but her instincts told her that there was something else at play, here. Something almost always is with the poor guy, she thought as she resolved to question him on the matter once they were in the privacy of one of their rooms.
Their current situation didn't allow much in the way of a truly private discussion, with Iida and Eri present- as well as any potential eavesdroppers- but she also doubted that Kurai was in any immediate danger, even from himself. She'd keep a closer eye on him for the rest of the ride, but she knew she could trust him far enough to keep his head among a small crowd like this one.
"Given all the anxiety, pain, and fear in general that he's been in proximity to during the rescues, it's not surprising that he's feeling rough," Eri was now saying as she looked at her predecessor sympathetically. "Apparently it'll even react to negative emotions from people."
"Ow," Mina cringed as she started running her fingers through Kurai's hair again, which seemed to help him settle down a little. "Maybe stay away from Mister Aizawa during finals' week, then."
"Pfft," Kurai snorted, honestly wanting to laugh at the thought of trying to avoid their homeroom teacher at such a crucial time of their education, but quickly finding himself unable to muster the effort.
Before he could try to force the laughter through, he felt Mina lean closer and whisper so that only he could hear her say, "My room, once we finish visiting everyone in the common space."
Instead of reddening at the implications of what such an invitation could entail like he would have in the past, he merely closed his eyes, nodded, and leaned into her touch before murmuring, "That obvious?"
"Just to me."
"I love you."
"I love you more."
The smile that came to Kurai's face in that moment was drawn out with absolutely no effort from his tired face as he replied, "Lucky me, then."
"Are we ready?"
"To pitch the idea? Sure. Ready to implement? Not even close."
"Hmm, I don't think I've ever worked this long on one baby," Hatsume muttered as she and Akarui looked down at the completed prototype that they had been collaborating together on for nearly two months, now. "And there's way more work to be done, so we gotta show this stuff to Mister Power Loader and the principal so we can really get started!" Her golden eyes shimmered with delight as she imagined all the different modifications she could make once they got the green light to move on to final designs.
"Pump the breaks on that thought, Da Vinci," the boy grumbled as he picked up the components of their efforts. The two of them then started walking out of the lab, intent on heading to Nezu's office.
This thought was temporarily derailed when they ran into Asada, who was walking somewhere in a hurry. "Whoa, sorry!" he apologized when he nearly collided with Akarui. "Didn't see you."
"Where's the fire?" the younger boy asked the gray-skinned hero prospective. He knew Asada from his time helping Power Loader with the students in the support course lab.
"Just got a text from my friend Akabane that your brother and Chronoa are almost back on campus!" the freshman grinned. "We were planning to go and ask them about the op, see if we could get some tips on rescue work while we can."
Akarui winced slightly before he told the student, "Maybe wait on that one. If I know my brother, he's not going to want to talk about what he saw and did this past week. According to some of the articles I've been reading, it was pretty rough out there. A lot of people didn't make it, and they would have been there for a lot of that stuff."
"Oh, right," Asada acknowledged, looking both startled and apologetic. "I, uh… Guess I should've thought of that."
Akarui regarded him for a brief moment of silence before he decided to say, "Tell you what, why don't I go with you and your friend to see them? I haven't seen Kurai since he left campus the other day, and he's more likely to open up if I'm the one steering the conversation. I'm not guaranteeing the answers you'll be looking for, but we can try."
"For real?" Asada asked excitedly. "Thanks, Hikari!"
"Thank Akabane," the young genius shrugged. "Her dad is the reason I still have a brother, so I'm inclined to show her a little favoritism."
"Hey, what about our baby?!" Hatsume demanded while Asada tried to figure out if he had just been deemed irrelevant by the other boy. "We're supposed to show it to the principal!"
"You can do it without me there," Akarui replied as he handed her the tech. "We've each run it a dozen times, so you don't need me to hold your hand through the process. Just tell him that we're ready to start drafting the final designs, and show him sequences three, nine, and fifteen."
"What about seventeen?"
"Meh, if you really feel like it," he shrugged indifferently. "I doubt he's got enough time to view all of the programs that we planned out, so just stick to the more important basics for presentation."
"Ha!" Hatsume snorted as she moved past a still-confused Asada. "By the time I finish wowing him with this baby, he'll be begging to see everything it can do!"
"If the principal's office goes up in smoke, I will take no responsibility for it!" Akarui shouted after her as she went around the corner into another hallway. With that, he spun on his heel and started walking in the opposite direction while saying, "Come on, then. Kurai won't want to visit for very long even if I'm there, so we'd best be at the dorms before he is."
"Ashido has quite the arm on her."
"You're telling me?" Kurai laughed as he rubbed his cheek in remembrance of the time he had crossed one line too many, having been more thoroughly informed of what took place between them during the first day of evacuations. "At least she didn't threaten you with a follow-up."
"She did, actually," Iida nodded with a visible wince. "I must say that it was a strange experience. I've certainly been hit harder in class by the likes of Kirishima, but something about her slap seemed to be far more damaging than it should have been."
"That may have been the pain of your bruised ego you were registering," the white-haired teen chuckled, to which his friend grinned a little sheepishly.
"Perhaps, but I've no intention of putting that theory to the test," he remarked. "Once was enough, thank you."
"I can hear you guys," Mina pouted over her shoulder as they turned up the path to their dorm building. "I said I was sorry."
"I know," Kurai said as he dropped the smile in favor of a more contrite expression. "Sorry, I shouldn't be teasing you about that. Won't happen again."
Mina's shoulders sagged as she stopped walking to look back at the two of them with a tired smile and the words, "Nah, don't worry about it. I kinda deserved it, after all."
"What say we all stop making apologies in circles and just get inside?" Iida offered before Kurai could raise a counterpoint. "I think we could all do with some proper rest in our own beds, as well as a warm meal and the company of our loved ones. Any objections to that plan?" He said it with a completely straight face, but Mina felt a warm glow enter her heart as she recognized his words for what they were.
"Lead the way," she answered with a lighter smile as she allowed him to walk ahead of her and Eri, who was also smiling with more cheer than she might have expected, given the past five days.
The rest of the bus ride had been fairly uneventful, though Kurai did make good on his promise to take photos with anyone who wanted, as well as giving out a few signatures. Eri joined him for a few of those moments, which seemed to excite the female demographic, seeing that there was a heroine who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a rising legend like the Guardian Hero. Somewhat to the dismay of the other students on the bus, UA was actually the third stop, which meant that the four of them were able to get off while the transport was still mostly loaded.
It also meant that they were getting back to their dorms while there was still plenty of light out, which told them that they would be able to get dinner before they completely crashed for the night. Part of Kurai hoped that Sato would be making the food, because he could definitely go for something sweet after five days of plain rations. Bakugo's cooking wouldn't be bad, he thought, though he'd never admit to such a thing out loud. How someone as volatile as the Bombing Hero had ever mastered the art of kitchen work was beyond him, but he had never known the boy to produce a bad dish.
He was also hoping for a moment to speak to Iida about one of the people he'd found in the wreckage of a particularly devastating scene, as he hadn't felt the opportune moment to do so as of yet. He knew that he would need to talk to Mina about what he had seen, but he also knew that wasn't going to be enough this time. He honestly didn't know what he was hoping to accomplish by telling his old friend about what he had uncovered, only that it seemed right for Iida to know the situation, too.
Why, though? He had to wonder to himself as they made their way past the hedges. It's not like we were friends with the guy. I know Tenya'll remember him, but will he even care? Matter of fact, why the hell do I care? If I'm being honest, Daizo was probably going to end up as-
Kurai was snatched away from the spiraling thoughts when he walked in behind Eri and Iida to find a good portion of their class gathered together in welcoming them back. "Someday, I'm going to be on the opposite side of this kind of gathering," he chuckled before he was approached by Todoroki and Izuku. "Hey, guys."
"How are you?" Shoto inquired while Mina left to talk to Yaoyorozu and Hagakure.
"Tired, but no major injuries," he replied as he moved to set his bag aside. "They worked us pretty hard."
"We saw the news' coverage," Izuku told him. "I wish we could have been there to help."
"That would've been cool, but crime doesn't stop because of freak weather," Kurai answered with some measure of philosophical resignation. "There were moments when I wished that we could have had more people helping us, but they probably had as many people as they could effectively manage. Bring in too many people and heroes, and people start stepping on each other's toes while they're trying to do the same job, and…" He made a dismissive motion with his hand before finishing, "We had enough people to do the job, and even if we wanted more heroes, there's still crime happening that needs to be stopped."
"Still, it's hard to feel as though stopping crime is important when we see the results of a natural disaster like the one you were just at," Shoto muttered, even as he and Izuku shared a briefly exasperated look.
"Do I wanna know?" their friend asked as he registered the unspoken message between them.
"I'll send you a video article later," Izuku promised him with something like a resigned air. "I'd ask you not to laugh, but… Well, that's a lesson in futility on its own."
"Our villain of the week was weird," Todoroki said bluntly, the look on his face telling the Guardian Hero that was all he would be getting out of them for the time being.
"While all of that raises its own questions, I guess the takeaway here is that at least when there's a crime, someone can be held accountable for the deed that was done, whatever it might be," Kurai sighed as he then moved toward the kitchen, intent on getting some coffee. "When something like that landslide happened, it's just… There's only victims, and no justice can be given to them, because there's no one responsible for it happening." Pausing for a half-second, he then added, "Sorry, that sounded like I want more crime to happen instead of natural disasters, and that's awful. What am I-?"
"Don't worry, we understand what you're trying to say," Izuku assured him while Shoto nodded in agreement.
"Here, he'll need this before he starts making any real sense," a familiar voice said as a mug full of strong-smelling coffee was placed in the white-haired teen's hands. Akarui winked at his brother before he added, "That is Italian roast, courtesy of one Weiss Schnee."
Kurai looked down at the mug as it were a snake about to bite him before he asked, "If I drink this, will she kill me for stealing her stuff?"
"Hey!" the albino girl snapped as she approached from around the gathering of Iida, Kirishima, Kaminari, and Shoji. "See if I offer anything out of the goodness of my heart again, if this is the kind of thanks you have to offer."
"No, I'm sorry, thank you, this is very nice of you!" Kurai protested rapidly. "I honestly thought that he had stolen some of your stuff and was gonna try and throw me under the bus once you realized it was gone."
"When have I ever-?"
"Shukin's copy of Xenoverse 10; you stole it because you wanted to play it before I could get it for my birthday, and when he realized it had gone missing, you stashed it in my bag because you knew everyone would believe that I was the one more likely to have taken it in the first place," Kurai deadpanned.
Akarui paused for a moment before he asked, "You knew about that?"
"Of course I knew about that!" Grumbling angrily to himself, Kurai then took a deep drink of the rich coffee, allowing the warm substance to chase away the chill that had resettled into his body following their walk from the front gates to the dorms. Letting out a long sigh, he then said, "Huh… That's good stuff."
"Enjoy it, because I'm not handing it out every day," Weiss informed him.
"Will do," he grinned at her. "Seriously, though. Thank you, this is really good."
"Well, I'm glad to see that someone else around here appreciates what quality tastes like," the girl smiled in her turn. "Welcome back, Hikari. Yang and Ruby will be home soon, but they insisted that I give you a hug for the both of them upon your return. If it's all the same to you, I think I'll settle for passing along the sentiment."
"I swear that girl is gonna break me in half one of these times," Kurai muttered as he shuddered at the memory of Yang's bone-popping embraces.
"Try being me," Weiss commented dryly. "I don't have your resilience, and she's been doing that to me for months longer than you."
"You have my sympathies," Kurai cringed before he took another drink from his mug. "Man, this is really good."
"I'd guard that stash of yours' more carefully from now on," Akarui snickered to the girl in an aside. "He'll come after it by any means necessary, and he knows how to pick locks."
"He would never resort to such crass methods to obtain the property of another," she sniffed as she turned her nose up at him and walked away.
"You're just out to ruin my reputation, aren't you?" Kurai asked his brother, who shrugged with a cheeky grin.
"She, of all your classmates, didn't believe that you would, which tells me just how much they all must trust you," he answered. "You've got a good crew here."
"You have gotta stop profiling people," Kurai sighed as he rolled his eyes upward.
"Profiling?" Todoroki repeated as he and Izuku looked askance at the younger Hikari.
"Don't worry 'bout it," Akarui grinned again. Turning more toward his brother, he then added, "A couple of the students who're transferring to the hero course came over, by the way. They wanted to try and pick your brain for costume ideas while you're here and not getting prepped for work."
"Isn't that more your department?" Kurai inquired with a slight tilt to his head. "You did a good job with my costume's equipment and replacement arm."
"That's mostly because I know you so well," his brother shrugged. "You were able to help Yaoyorozu and Midoriya redesign their equipment for better functionality without my input. You have field experience that I can study, but not feel for myself- with the exception of I-island, and I do not want a repeat of that. You guys are the ones crazy enough to run towards danger, so you'd have a better idea of what kind of designs would complement their powers in the high-stress situations."
Kurai suppressed the urge to let out another long, drawn-out sigh by taking another deep draught of coffee. He was tired, sore, and hungry. He wanted to have a relaxed dinner with his friends and then sleep for twelve hours. He did not want to think about aesthetic designs that wouldn't impair functionality for quirks he was barely familiar with.
"Who came to get my help?" he finally asked.
"Akabane and Asada," Izuku answered for his brother. "They're at the tables, talking to Sero and Ojiro."
"Alright, I'm on it," Kurai said as he rolled his neck and produced a sharp cracking sound. "Akabane seems to be getting into this whole scene somewhat because of me, so I guess I oughta make sure she doesn't get hurt doing it." With that, he walked away, Izuku following close behind him.
Shoto, however, remained behind to look at Akarui out of the corner of his eye and ask, "Isn't Asada in the support course?"
"Yep."
"Shouldn't he have a good idea of how costume designs work, then?"
"I said that he was in the support course," Akarui shrugged. "I didn't say that he was especially good at it."
It was nearing four in the afternoon when the rest of the students in their class had returned from their own work studies, and then received something of a surprise visit from Crow, Aizawa, and All Might. It was Sero who noticed them approaching, so he alerted the other occupants in the lounge room. "I wonder what they're coming in for?" he asked of no one in particular while the students decided to quiet down and await their teachers' presence, having long since learned that it was always best to be ready for Eraserhead in advance.
"If it's the three of them, nothing good," Kaminari joked, which caused some of them to laugh.
Mina was about to join in, but she then noticed that Akarui's face had become unusually severe, and that All Might was wearing a similar expression. A slight chill worked its way into her stomach as she had the thought, The last time he looked like this, Humarise was threatening global annihilation.
She was brought out of this thought when she heard Kurai saying in an aside to Izuku, "Is it just me, or has All Might been filling out lately?"
"Um, yes?" the greenette answered with a confused look on his own face. "He's been able to keep a lot more of his food in lately, so he's finally getting back to a healthy weight."
"Wait, wasn't his stomach pretty much destroyed when he fought-?"
"Oh, right!" Eri giggled, interrupting her predecessor. "I guess no one told you that I fixed his organs."
"You-? Oh, okay that makes sense," he grinned as the teachers reached the porch outside. In a lower tone, he then added, "When did that happen? And does he have his quirk back?"
"Pretty much right after you went to the hospital, and no," she answered with a swift shake of her head. "I just reversed the state of his stomach to how it was before he fought All For One. He said it would be better to leave the quirk in your hands, since we don't know if me reversing him all the way might do something to your version of the power."
"Fair enough," Kurai mused as the door was opened, and the three heroes walked in, prompting silence from the students as a whole.
They only just had enough time to notice that Aizawa looked even more haggard than usual- which was saying something- before he said, "Asada, Akabane, head back to your dorms. This is a discussion for my class, alone."
"Er, okay?" Asada said, looking nervously at the two instructors.
Fortunately, All Might was quick to take pity on the boy by saying, "You're not in trouble, Young Asada, Young Akabane. This is simply a talk for the licensed heroes in here. It's not personal."
"Umm, alright," Akabane said as she and her friend started moving toward the door. She glanced back at Sero for a moment, who gave her an encouraging smile and small wave of his hand. Mina definitely noticed this, but the looks that Aizawa and Akarui were wearing right now were enough to put a pin in her curiosity, at least for the moment.
Once the two students were out the door, their homeroom teacher surprised them all by looking down at the floor and saying in a low tone, "Everyone… I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Iida repeated, looking just as confused as everyone else felt. "Mister Aizawa, what could you possibly have to apologize for? While your methods have been unorthodox throughout the year, none of us can say that you have neglected your duties as our teacher, even when the League-"
"This is about something far bigger than the League of Villains, or even the Paranormal Liberation Front," All Might said sadly. "I might even go so far as to say that what we have come to inform you of is a crime that even All For One himself would applaud."
Chills shot down the spines of every student in the room as they registered those words. To hear All Might himself, the Symbol of Peace, describe such an atrocity, was enough to deeply unsettle even the more hardened heroes among them.
"Is there some new villainous organization at work?" Yaoyorozu asked worriedly. "Is there more to the coming battle than the PLF?"
"You could say that." Akarui's declaration surprised everyone in the room, especially when he moved to stand alongside the teachers, his face looking like it had aged five years in as many seconds. "Unfortunately, it's seems like these villains in particular have been at work for some time, possibly before Tomura Shigaraki was even in the picture. Worse still, the problem with them is that they see themselves as the good guys."
"Would you guys stop beating around the bush and tell us what's going on, already?" Yang demanded.
"Trust me kiddo, this isn't something that's gonna be easy for any of you to accept, especially once you hear the full story," Crow told his niece, looking unusually sad- and sober. In fact, the students were shocked to see that he didn't have a single flask on his person, and the usual reek of booze that followed him like a bad cologne was completely absent.
Even so… "Well, keeping us in suspense isn't doing us any favors, either," Kurai sighed. "I'd take it as a personal favor if you'd let us know what's going on so I can sleep on it- Eri and I are dead tired as it is." In spite of their initial plans to get some shuteye once they got home, they had wound up staying downstairs with their friends and the hero course transfers for the last hour.
"Knowing you, you're not gonna get much sleep after this," Akarui told his brother, looking at him with no small measure of pain in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Kurai. I really am. I've done everything that I can in an attempt to prevent what's about to happen, but for once, I don't have a contingency in place."
If the students hadn't been scared before, now they were utterly terrified. Even Todoroki looked supremely disturbed as they awaited their teachers' next words. "The Hero's Public Safety Commission has reached a decision regarding the PLF," Aizawa told them. "They have officially recognized them as a terrorist threat to our nation, and as such, intend to fight them as if they were an invading force from another country."
"Wait, isn't that a good thing?" Kirishima asked with a frown. "That means that the army can get involved, right? That makes things easier on the heroes, doesn't it?"
"Perhaps on paper, Young Kirishima," All Might said with a slow shake of his head, a glimmer of tears in his dark eyes. "But there's more to it than that. You see-"
"Oh my God," Kurai gasped, taking a full step back as he paled to such a degree that he resembled his own corpse. "You don't- They're not…"
"So you figured it out," Crow said as he regarded the boy with great sadness. "Sorry, kid."
"What are they talking about?" Ojiro demanded, starting to look annoyed with being left out of the loop, as did several of their classmates. "Someone wanna start talking straight, here?"
"If a group is recognized as an invading force in our country, the government has the authority to enlist the help of the heroes to basically act as shock troopers," Kurai explained in a strained voice. "That includes heroes with provisional licenses."
"Shock troopers?" Hagakure inquired, unfamiliar with the term. "What are those?"
"He's saying…" Mina said, her own face paling as she recognized the term, "…that the government is going to use the heroes that they've got as skilled human weapons. That… we're not gonna be going out there to defeat the villains…"
"We're going to be called into action to slaughter them," Kurai finished for her. "It's not going to be a clash of ideologies anymore- it's a war of extermination."
You could hear a feather drop in the room.
All of them had faced death, certainly. A few of them had even been forced to kill their opponents as a means of self-defense. But this… This wasn't going to be as morally simple as forcing their enemies to submit to justice. This was them being authorized to take justice into their own hands at every step of the way- to play judge, jury, and executioner.
"No… No way," Ochaco said with a slow shake of her head. "They can't… They can't actually make us do that, can they?" She looked to her teachers with pleading eyes, hoping that one of them might have some way out of this horrible revelation.
"We're minors!" Iida gasped when no one answered her. "We couldn't be conscripted into the army, so how can they justify this kind of barbarism?!"
"You're licensed heroes, even if only on provision," Aizawa replied in a monotone. "Minors or not, you've agreed to shoulder the responsibilities of a hero in Japan, whatever that may entail."
"No," Jiro growled, surprising her classmates with the sudden viciousness in her bearing. "No. I won't agree to this. This is not why I became a hero!"
"We became heroes to help people, not to engage in mass slaughter!" Sato added hotly.
"This is wrong!" Ruby said, looking horrified as her sister held her close.
"I'm all for killing villains who deserve it," Bakugo snapped angrily. "But that ain't most of these PLF morons! They're just too stupid to think for themselves, so they go along with whatever their bosses think is cool! That's not enough of a reason for them to get planted six feet under!"
"We know that!" Akarui shouted back at the group. "We know that this is wrong! Trust me- I've done everything that I can think of to get around this, but it just isn't happening!"
"What do you mean, you've tried to stop this?" Kurai asked as he stepped toward the front of the group, in order to look at his brother directly, who dropped his gaze away from the other boy. "You knew about this?!"
"I was outmaneuvered!" the younger Hikari groaned, though he kept his eyes pointed downward.
"What the hell does that-?!"
"The Commission did not come to this decision on their own," Crow explained shortly. "They were coerced into voting this way by a villain we're still trying to identify."
"A villain?" Iida repeated. "But if a villain is responsible for this, then how can the government accept its application?! Why haven't you revealed this to the proper authorities?!"
"Because there are lives at stake if we do," All Might told them tiredly. "The person who did all of this somehow managed to figure out that Crow was spying on them, and then they contacted us. They informed us that if we told anyone other than your class what was really going on, they would kill the families of everyone from the HPSC. These are innocent civilians and even children who are being threatened- as such, our hands are tied until we can find whoever arranged all of this."
"Wait, the person responsible talked to you guys?" Todoroki asked, looking surprised again. "Why didn't Hikari track them using whatever signal or phone line they were using?"
"Oh gee, why didn't I think of- Of course I tried that!" Akarui roared, surprising everyone again with how angry and helpless he looked. "This person- whoever they are- outsmarted both Nezu and me! No, their quirk didn't just let him outsmart us, he planned fifty fucking steps ahead of me! You guys get it yet?! They. Are. Smarter. Than. ME!" He was breathing hard now, almost hyperventilating as his body shook from the force of revealing his shameful failure to the people he had come to consider an extended family through his brother.
"Someone… smarter than Aki?" Mina whispered. "Is that even possible?"
"Whoever this person is, they went so far as to completely erase every digital trace of their existence," Aizawa told them flatly. "Hikari has done everything that he can to track them down on his end, while Branwen and Xiao Long have gone to ground to try and find them the old-fashioned way, but so far, nothing."
That, nearly as much as the thought that they were about to be made into super soldiers, was unnerving to the students. A new adversary, and one who could outsmart Akarui Hikari at that? How could they be expected to beat someone with those capabilities?
"What if we refuse to participate?" The unexpected question came from Koda, who was petting his rabbit a little more firmly than he usually did, sweat beading across his brow. "Uraraka is right. Nobody here signed up to be a hero because we wanted an excuse to kill people- not even Bakugo."
"Hey!"
"If this is what being a hero means, then… I don't think that I can do it," the animal tamer said with a slow shake of his head. "I'm sorry, but… This is too much, even for us, even after everything that we've been through."
"And now we come to why I'm truly sorry to tell you about this," Aizawa murmured, burying his face almost completely in his scarf. "If you choose to walk away from this, I won't blame you… But the person responsible for all of this… 'Umbra'… They said that if any of you back out, they'll kill the families of the Commission members. All of them."
"The hell?!" Bakugo snarled, a couple of explosions going off in his hands from sheer reflex while several of his schoolmates looked positively sick at the news. "What kinda dick move is that?! Why's he targeting us, specifically?! Does All For One have some backup minion after all this?!"
"This person claims that they are following their own agenda," All Might answered with another shake of his head. "And apparently that agenda focuses on causing young Hikari to suffer as much as possible."
"Wait, which one?" Ojiro asked, looking worriedly between the two brothers.
"Whoever this guy is, he seems to have it out for Kurai," Akarui answered shakily. "But he said that he was going to take his anger out on me- to make the both of us suffer. It's also why they're roping the rest of your class into this- he's using all of you to get at us two."
"A grudge against me?" Kurai mumbled hoarsely. "What did I-? I've never dealt with anyone who had an intelligence quirk!"
"Our working theory is that whoever this is has some connection to one of the villains that Young Hikari has put away," All Might explained. "We've been looking into members of the Hassaikai and their associates, as well as Nine and his thugs' families, but so far we've found nothing promising."
"We've thought about looking into the leadership of Humarise, but whoever's been doing this would have had to start their work long before you defeated them," Crow added.
"There's one group you're missing," Kurai suddenly said, his gaze turning sharp as he shifted his gaze to look at the older man. "The Nomu."
"The No- Wait, you think that the relative of a person that became a Nomu could be doing this?" All Might asked, looking surprised as he did.
"Not just any Nomu," Kurai said with a slow shake of his own head. "I've only ever fought two, and I didn't defeat that first one. The Shadow Nomu- that's our lead."
"I don't follow," Aizawa said with a frown.
"Son of a bitch!" Akarui suddenly screamed, making everyone in the room flinch again. "How in every hell did I miss that?!"
"Miss what?!" Iida asked, his worry for the younger boy only increasing as he clutched at his hair hard enough to rip some of the follicles from their roots.
"Umbra!" he snarled as he slammed his fist into the wall behind him. "It's in the damn name!"
"Umbra, like my name, can be translated as 'dark' or 'shadow'," Kurai explained over his shoulder, his voice sounding more composed than his brother's, though he was still pale and shaking. "This guy was arrogant enough to challenge Akarui and Nezu directly. That kind of arrogance doesn't just come and go, so I'd be willing to bet that he's taunting us through his given moniker- an alternate version of my name- with it."
"And the media took to calling the monster that Kurai took out in Fukuoka the 'Shadow Nomu'," Akarui growled, causing the room's attention to shift back to him. "If this is some kind of macabre reference to that thing, the issue here is that you obliterated the Nomu in question down to the last atom. There's nothing in the ways of forensics to help us figure out who it used to be before it was turned into a monster." There was a slight pause before he slowly said, "Unless…"
"Unless?" Aizawa prompted, looking a little impatient, himself.
"All For One's doctor," the boy said as he looked up at the Erasure Hero with a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes. "According to Eri's account of the future, the guy is almost painfully meticulous in his methods and recordkeeping. If we can find him and get ahold of his research, we could find out everything that he knew about that Shadow Nomu!"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Aizawa cautioned him. "You're talking about a possible lead based on nothing more than a name that could have been chosen on nothing more than a whim. Might even be that Umbra chose that name to throw you off of his trail."
"But it makes sense," Izuku now said, bringing everyone's attention to him. He had his chin his hand as he started to mutter, "This 'Umbra' villain is clearly out to hurt Kurai, and us by extension, but if the League turned their friend or relative into a Nomu, they'd have a bone to pick with them, too. If they set up the battle so that the heroes were expected to kill Japan's biggest threats, it would effectively mean taking out the people responsible for the Nomu being created in the first place and psychologically torturing us, all without getting their own hands dirty."
"How does any of that help us get out of becoming human weapons?!" Blake suddenly shouted, startling everyone else yet again. "By the time you guys might be able to track Umbra down, the war will have already happened, won't it? We'll have been pressed into action, and the damage will be done!" She was shaking, and tears were already leaking from her eyes, speaking to something more than just their present circumstances. "We'll all be murderers!"
Those words, the ones that told them in no uncertain terms what was about to happen in just a few weeks, finally caused the dam to break. Most of the girls collapsed into tears, and a few of the boys weren't far behind them, but every single one of them looked either shell shocked or sick to their stomachs.
And who could blame them? If they stayed, they would inevitably be caught up in situations where they would be forced to deal death and destruction on massive levels. They had all thoroughly explored the extent of their powers- they knew what such abilities could do to people if they didn't hold back. On the other hand, if they backed out as conscientious objectors, the blood of innocent families would be on their hands.
All because…
"I did this," Kurai whispered as he looked down at his hands. "Everyone… is in this mess because of me and what I've done."
"Don't go there," Akarui warned him as he grabbed his brother by his shirt and leveled an angry glare on him. "Don't you dare go there. Other than your little freak-out after coming back to life, you've done everything that we could expect of a good hero. This is on Umbra, and them alone. If you hadn't done what you've done, there would be a lot of dead people in Japan, and even the rest of the world. You've saved so many lives, we couldn't even count the number. Umbra is trying to make you forget that fact- don't let them succeed."
"They're targeting everyone here because they hate me, or at least something that I did," Kurai replied with a slow shake of his head. "I may not be responsible for the war that's about to happen, but I am responsible for this." With the last word, he swung his arm behind him to indicate the twenty-odd people who were each trying to come to grips with the fate they had been enslaved to.
"I can see that this is one of the things where you and I are not going to agree, no matter how I argue," Akarui sighed heavily. "But I'm not giving up. I'm gonna find this son of a bitch, and I am going to make him pay for his actions. And I know that Nezu is going to make sure that when this is all over, the HPSC is going to be held accountable for war crimes against you guys. I know it's not going to be much comfort now or later, but we will avenge this act."
Kurai stared at his brother for a silent moment before he said, "You're right, that doesn't make me feel any better. All the same…" He tightened his fists as black lightning briefly flickered along his body as he growled ominously, "Do it. Make this guy regret every breath that he's ever taken."
"I'll make sure to save you a piece of the action," Akarui said, but he was a little surprised when his brother immediately shook his head in the negative.
"The only person I need to kill is Shigaraki, and that's more the wish of the vestiges than my own," he explained. "I'm the wielder of One For All, so that's my problem to handle, and everyone here knows that. But if I were to have Umbra within arm's reach… I don't think I'd ever be the same person after that. I know that I'd become something that none of the people I love would even recognize. So find him, take him down, and keep him far away from me."
Akarui looked conflicted for a moment, but then he nodded somberly. "All right," he promised his brother. "You've got your target, and I've got mine. As long as you give Shigaraki one or two shots from me, I'll be sure to give Umbra what he deserves."
"Deal," Kurai said firmly before the two of them grasped each other's forearms to seal the pact between them.
Kurai: That was... unexpected.
Mataras: Which part?
Akarui: Probably me losing my damn mind.
Kurai: Yeah, that part.
Mataras: Oh, yeah. How's it feel, being as out of control of the situation as you brother's been most of the time?
Akarui: I see why you don't like this guy.
Kurai: Yeah, that dislike is staring to turn into straight hatred.
Mataras: Nice to know you care enough to invest in hate.
Kurai: ...
Akarui: ...So how should we do this one? Just boiled or sauteed?
Kurai: I'm for boiled, personally. He doesn't deserve the work that goes into making a sautee.
Deku: What are you guys talking about?
Mataras: They're trying to figure out how they're going to prepare my eyeballs before they feed them to me.
Deku: What?!
Mataras: Next time- Resolve
Akarui: I think putting 'em in a curry might do the trick.
Kurai: I like it.
Deku: This is not the kind of way we should Go Beyond!
Akarui: Time to prep that kitchen, Plus Ultra!
Mataras: Good bloody luck catching me.
Next time on Your Hero Academia: Enmity
Akarui stood in front of his personalized computer that he had set up in the support lab, his fingers clenching and unclenching around what looked like a hi-tech pendant as he gritted his teeth with such pressure it was a wonder that his molars didn't crack. This is the only way, he thought while his body shook and his stomach churned violently. If things are about to get started when I think they are, Hatsume and I just don't have the time to finish these designs like normal. I have to do this!
His resolve did nothing to steady his raw nerves, nor could it quell the memories of the most hellish months of his young life. Even in spite of knowing that his plan would make the difference between life and death for his brother and their friends yet again, he couldn't stop his body from doing everything that it could to find another way, anything that didn't involve subjecting it to the ultimate prison once again. You did it before, so do it again! he raged at himself while glaring at the pendant. Kurai literally gave his life for the sake of these people, so I have no business offering anything less!