The Hero & The Demon

Chapter One

"Where…where am I…?"

The young man only had one thought on his mind. He couldn't remember what had happened to him, but he knew it was bad. It had hurt a lot, hadn't it? He was sure of that. But where was the pain now? He couldn't feel it. He couldn't feel much of anything. Nothing but a lingering chill, like ice had embedded itself and replaced his nerves. It was a hot summer day, though – that was impossible. Wasn't it? Why was he having such a hard time remembering? Why was he so unable to think or feel?

"I'm dying, aren't I…?"

It was the only explanation he could think of. He couldn't see, could barely think and all he could feel was something cold filling him completely. It wasn't good. It wasn't bad. It wasn't anything, really. Peaceful might have been a way to describe it if one could describe such complete emptiness as peace. Perhaps when compared to the chaotic feeling that was being alive. Feeling the individual motions of your body against the vibrant world around you. That made it make sense.

He was fairly sure he hated it.

"No…I'm not ready…I don't want to die!"

Yet he was still slipping away, no matter how much whatever semblance of his mind remained protested. He tried to force his eyes open, yet there was little to nothing he could see. An empty void of smoke and vapour drifting before his eyes was the closest thing to a light at the end of the tunnel he could perceive. It hurt more than he wanted to admit that he could see nothing but an emptiness fitting the feeling in his body.

"Please…it can't end here!"

With his last ounce of strength, the boy cried out desperately, hoping against everything that someone could stop this, that someone could save him.

"DON'T LET ME DIE HERE!"

"Very well. You should suffice."

He woke up with a start, sitting on a train seat. His head was pressed against the window, outside of which he saw a clean city illuminated by a bright and sunny sky.

"What a weird nightmare." He shook his head as he groggily awakened. He stretched his arms out a bit. They looked…different, he noticed. He always had pale and scrawny limbs, to the point where he looked almost skeletal at any given moment. But these arms weren't like that at all. The skin colour was a little different, and they were noticeably muscular. Toned, even.

"Well, that's weird." He noted with confusion. A voice sounded from the train's speakers, seemingly indicating a stop. He couldn't understand a word of it, however. It said…something about Tokyo? But that made no sense, why would he be on a train in Japan? He lived in Scotland, practically the other side of the world. He'd never been to Tokyo in his entire life.

Something was most definitely wrong.

He hurriedly got up from his seat and departed from the train as soon as he could. It was only when he left into the station that he realised just how crowded the area was – all sorts of people moving their way through one another. Some were careful and considerate of how to navigate the dense crowds, whilst others were blunter in their attempts to force their way through regardless of the inconvenience it was for those around them. He found himself taking the latter option, trying to push his way out as much as possible. He was never good in crowds. He could handle being around people, he just needed some distance in order for it to be comfortable.

"Excuse me, sorry, 'scuse me, just gonna squeeze in through…" He mumbled as he pushed his way through the dense crowd. None of them responded to him with anything more than an annoyed gaze, and in a few cases a confused raise of the eyebrows. He supposed that made sense; he probably looked like some strange run-away from their perspectives and it was hard to imagine they could hear him particularly well given the circumstances.

He was expecting the outside beyond the train station to be more recognisable, give him some landmark he could pick out so he could go home. No such luck, as all he could see was more of a maze of a city he didn't recognise. He looked down at his arms once more, it finally fully dawning on him how strange his current situation was.

He had been quietly hoping to find he was just half asleep and that by the time he had fully woken up, everything would be normal. But his strangely well-built arms that didn't match his skin refuted that idea. He still didn't recognise the city, or remember getting on a train in the first place. Despite the background noise of countless conversations around him, he couldn't make out a recognisable word in any of them.

"What the hell is going on?!" He quietly began to panic, stumbling back and in the process bumping into someone. The force sent him clattering to the ground with a thud. He shook his head and turned to the person who had knocked him over.

"W-what…" He found himself struggling for words. He saw a boy, not unlike himself from the neck down as far as he could tell. However, he couldn't bring his focus to that when the boy lacked a human head on his shoulders. Rather, it was a feathered head resembling a bird. A crow, if he had to guess. Or a raven. The feathers were black as night and the boy bore a yellow beak. His eyes seemed angled strangely, or perhaps that part was just his imagination. Perhaps if he were extremely lucky, the same could be said of the whole encounter.

"[Such a terrible fate.]" The bird-headed boy spoke in a language he didn't recognise. Was he an alien? Was it bird-talk? No, it couldn't be. It didn't sound too far off from how the others around him sounded. He was speaking a human language, assuming everyone else was human. Just one he didn't recognise. "[Are you alright?]" Bird-boy extended out a hand to him. He moved swiftly, faster than he could follow what he was even doing, as he rose to his feet and suddenly jumped back.

"W-what are you?!" He called out. The nearby crowd seemed to take a sudden interest in what was going on. Upon looking down, he wondered if that was because his veins had visibly appeared in a pitch-black colour. He screamed at the sight. The bird boy tried to speak to him again, but he wasn't listening. He wouldn't understand what was being said anyway.

He had to get away. Far away, anywhere where things would make sense again. So he ran.

It didn't take him long to notice that he was moving far faster than he had ever moved before. A part of him wanted to toss it up to something mundane – a rush of adrenaline from the stress perhaps. The rest of him was still noticing the blackened veins that flowed through his body, seeming to pump energy across it. Was it enhancing him somehow? It must have been, cars were passing him like a blur. That certainly couldn't have been just pure adrenaline. Maybe he had been drugged. Yes, that made sense. Explained the strange disconnect between his last memory and the train, the bizarre things he was seeing.

Only, he was fairly sure he hadn't been hit with any needles recently. Airborne? No, there would be more people affected in that case. He ate at a restaurant in town, so poison was unlikely. There was also no reason to poison some random kid just out of high school. He wasn't important enough for anything like that. There was the unlikely possibility it was a random attack, maybe some kind of test for a drug, but he quickly rejected that. He was stepping too far into conspiracy territory.

"Right, retrace your steps. The last thing I remember…" He thought hard for several moments, trying to find anything to latch onto, but all he could find was that lingering cold and empty feeling. That distance from reality and thought and feeling that now filled him with an incomprehensible sense of dread. On top of being remarkably unpleasant, he also couldn't pick out any details from that time.

"There was some…fog, right? Or mist? Smoke? Something like that. I couldn't really see anything." He was still running, though he had no idea where. All he knew was that he was running fast. "Wasn't there a voice or something?" That seemed to ring a bell. Just before fading and awakening on the train, he thought he had heard something. An unnatural voice he didn't recognise. If he was right about his thoughts as to what happened, then perhaps it was God. Or the devil, or some spirit. There were too many unknowns for him to say anything for sure. Just one thing was clear to him.

He had died.

He hadn't simply passed out or fallen asleep, neither would ever leave him so empty. And upon thinking back, it started to add up. He had been in town. Not this town, he knew that much. He'd just eaten at the time and was on his way to the bus stop to get home. After that was where things started to get blurry. He was…attacked, right? He remembered a feeling of something sharp. He almost looked down to his stomach to check for any kind of wound when-

"[HEY, MOVE IT!]"

A single instant seemed to slow to an eternity as he noticed he was about to run directly into a truck. A large one by the looks of it. The kind of thing that when – not if, he realised with increasing despair that there was no way he could turn to avoid it at his and its speed – it collided with him would surely flatten him into a pancake. There was no chance of him surviving something like that, not at the veery least without never being able to walk again.

"I'm gonna die. Twice."

He hated that idea. Something violent burned through his body, filling it with energy once more. The black in his veins seemed to almost glow as he moved. He was rising, he realised. He hadn't jumped as far as he could see, yet he was definitely going above the ground. He glanced down at his feet and nearly stopped moving altogether from the shock.

Black platforms had formed beneath his feet. He barely felt them, yet some part of him felt certain that he couldn't fall. Not unless he wanted to. He had nothing to base this certainty on but gut instinct, yet given the current insanity he was far more willing to trust that than anything he could think in his head. He kept running, his feet pounding on the mysterious platforms. His strides widened as he fought to reach the nearest rooftop he could see. There was something more exhausting about moving on these platforms, he found. It was as though he was using as much energy to keep the ground there as he was to stride upon it. He fell onto a rooftop, managing to roll to ensure he would get away uninjured. His heart was banging at his chest like it wanted to break out, and his feet still burned from everything. He sat himself down, trying as hard as he could to get control over his breath.

"What…what the hell was that?" He looked at his hands, noticing the black veins throughout his arms had dissipated. Maybe they only worked when he was moving, or it was a stress response that stopped as he tried to calm himself. Too many unknowns, he thought.

Nothing made sense anymore. Where was he? Who was he? His body was so different from what it was before, and was somehow undamaged as far as he could tell. His face must have been different as well. He took a moment to properly examine himself. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a white symbol upon it. He didn't recognise what it meant, but it kind of looked Japanese if he had to guess. He had seen something similar in an anime. Normally he'd be sceptical of any assessment based solely on that, but frankly it made the most sense out of anything else he had thought before.

He also had a set of dark blue jeans on. Back in his old body – he tried not to flip out as soon as he thought that, focusing on simply analysing what he saw – he would often need to wear belts with such clothing on account of his skinny frame. Here however, the clothes were very form-fitting. Not too tight but very firm, no loose bits left dangling around. He checked the pockets, hoping to find anything that might give away who he was now.

"A wallet, huh?" He pulled out a small wallet from his left pocket. There was nothing in any of the others as far as he could find. Assuming he was right to believe this wasn't his body and it in fact belonged to someone else, then the lack of a phone indicated that they were trying to avoid being contacted. After all, what teenager didn't carry their phones wherever they went these days? Scratch that, what person in general didn't?

People who didn't want to be found. A phone could be used to contact them or to track them depending on the apps present. So whoever he was now, he must have had some reason to avoid people. He flicked open the wallet. Inside there were a few loose coins and notes. He wasn't sure what the currency was. Certainly not pounds or euros. His next guess was American dollars, but that didn't seem right either. Given the text on his shirt, he figured it might have been Japanese. They used Yen, if he remembered right.

"I'll count it all up later." He said to himself. It didn't really matter to him at the moment how much money he had. There wasn't much he could think to do with it. What was more interesting was some kind of ID card he found within the wallet. Unfortunately, 'some kind' was all he could really tell about it. It looked like someone had tried to edit it, with big black lines covering some parts. He could make out a name, or at least what he was pretty sure was a name. It was written in what he was fairly sure at this point was Japanese, so he couldn't read it.

Or so he thought, at first. He squinted at the card as he tried to examine it, and he felt a subtle shift in his eyes. A brief, warm sensation pulsed through them. Suddenly, the text appeared in English to him. He blinked, and it was back to Japanese. Still, he had enough time to just about read the name.

"Kage Sekai." He read. He tried to squint his eyes again, and once more the card translated itself before his eyes. Based on the sensation, he guessed the strange new energy in his body was related. Maybe he was moving it into his eyes to translate. He had moved it through his body earlier, first to run fast and then to make those platforms. He still wasn't sure how it worked, but this gave him more to work with.

His new face had spikey black hair and sharp golden eyes. It definitely wasn't the face of a white Scottish boy like his previous one. Most likely it was from Japan, which also seemed to be where he was. Based on the train earlier, he was likely somewhere in Tokyo. A strange, bizarre Tokyo where people had bird heads and he could make platforms of energy to get over a speeding truck. One other note on his card got his attention. It said the word 'Quirk', though anything further had been blacked out.

Something was starting to feel familiar about all this. He just couldn't quite pin it down.

Shota Aizawa's evening patrol wasn't usually so purposeful as it was tonight. He was generally more of a reactive hero, following carefully planned routes and eliminating small scale crimes when he found them. Avoiding any particular spotlight took work, after all. Major incidents would be dealt with better by other heroes in the area. There was hardly a shortage of agencies to pick up on the flashier cases. However, every so often he'd be told about something unusual going on, the sort of thing that warranted some investigation.

Such was the case with Kage Sekai, the unknown runaway.

He didn't have much to go on, but what was there was enough to catch his eye. Surveillance footage showed the boy stumbling onto a train station, moving in a very slow and rough fashion. It wasn't hard to figure out why – he had one hand clutched against his stomach and there was blood on the scene, visibly dripping off from him. This alone would be cause for alarm, but given his injured state it was doubtful that he would have been the focus of a standard investigation over the person who had attacked him.

Where things got interesting was what happened when the boy got off the train.

He was acting completely differently then. His shirt had no stains, there was no sign of any blood in the area and he showed no signs of injury. At least, nothing of a physical nature. Mentally it was hard to say. He appeared panicked, alarmed by everything around him and trying to escape. He briefly bumped into someone and showed immediate terror, to the point of activating a Quirk of some kind. Whilst it was hard to get much from just the footage, Aizawa's guess was some kind of enhancement Quirk. He'd done a brief check on all of the others he could see in the train station, starting with the bird-headed young man who had alarmed Sekai so much.

He found no connection between him and Fumikage Tokoyami, who by all accounts was a normal high school student. His Quirk hadn't been used in any capacity, though the description of Dark Shadow, a being of black energy living within him, was something Aizawa took careful note of. Sekai's Quirk appeared to similarly involve some black shadow-like energy, so it was possible that Sekai was responding to Tokoyami somehow. The boy did seem to be the only outside trigger, especially given that the footage seemed to indicate that Sekai hadn't consciously activated his power. He ran off right after, presumably worried about being seen publicly using his Quirk.

Things continued to get interesting when a truck driver reported a boy matching Sekai's description who had run directly in front of his vehicle as he was driving. This matched with the boy's most likely path, but the power didn't add up. He was described as having created platforms of black energy from his feet to run upon, using them to climb up to the rooftops.

So, a dual-Quirk. Not unheard of, plenty of people had versatile Quirks that could be used for multiple abilities. Aizawa's eyes disabled the Quirks of others whilst also having the peculiar side effect of causing his scarf and hair to float up around him at times. However, such small side-effects were a long way off from an entirely separate power like this. He had asked for access to the boy's Quirk records from the police so he might know what exactly he might be up against, but the police had turned up with a disturbing amount of nothing.

They had his name and picture, but everything else was clearly edited. What's more, finding Kage Sekai on the system was unusually difficult. As far as he had heard, every time the name was typed into a search bar, searching it produced an entirely different name. He'd tried googling the boy just to be sure, only to find himself on the results for a Yuji Itadori with no connection to who he was looking for.

All of these things were in his mind as he searched the evening rooftops. Sekai had obviously been on the move, though he couldn't guess as to any destination. Everything he had seen suggested the boy was panicking and confused, not some threatening villain. His Quirk was definitely the main reason Aizawa had been tasked with tracking him down, as otherwise this would likely be more of a police matter.

He spied a brief flash of black light a few buildings ahead and engaged pursuit. The boy didn't notice him until he was practically upon him, which caused him to stumble and begin to fall. Aizawa moved swiftly, thrusting out his scarf to grab the boy. He was caught, though he struggled against it. He flailed wildly in a way that was most definitely unsafe.

"Quit struggling so much or you'll fall." He said bluntly. "We're about five stories up, so you're risking some serious broken bones if I can't catch you. No reason to make this difficult." He sighed. The kid didn't seem to be listening, still struggling against the scarf.

"(Get the fuck off me, you weirdo!)" Aizawa raised an eyebrow. Sekai wasn't speaking Japanese as he had expected. He spoke English, and seemingly pretty fluently at that. It was odd for a seemingly Japanese boy to be speaking clear English so naturally, especially in these sorts of circumstances. Yamada had taught him enough for him to keep up easily enough.

"(Hey-)" He tried to address the boy in English, but his attention was grabbed as the boy suddenly had a knife in one hand. It was pitch black and seemingly trailed out of one of his blackened veins. He also noticed that his eyes had changed colour, the white being filled with black and the irises glowing gold in a way that completely hid the pupil. He tried to reach down to stop him, but it was too late. His knife cleanly cut through the scarf, causing Sekai to plummet to the ground. At the last moment, the boy's expression changed from a panicked one to something much more determined. He flipped over as though he had done so a thousand times before forming platforms to allow for a gentle descent.

"(Wait…how did I do that? Did I even do that?)" Aizawa heard as he made his own careful descent, using his scarf to swiftly rappel down the side of the building. It seemed the boy activated his Quirk instinctively, without much thought. That would suit him well enough, he thought. It meant he was unlikely to be much of a threat once he erased it. Granted, he wasn't expecting much issue from a teenage boy in the first place, but in this superhuman age it was better to be safe than sorry. Everyone could have some super destructive power that would be near impossible for him to handle without his unique skill in levelling the playing field. He looked over at Sekai, who had taken something resembling a fighting stance. It wasn't anything that Aizawa felt would give him any trouble, so he simply waited for him to make the first move. He'd let the boy exhaust himself, mostly dodging and countering to avoid any injuries, then secure him once it was over. He was sure it would only take a few minutes.

Sekai charged forth with one fist raised, yelling as though it would somehow improve his attack. Aizawa made to dodge, but then something happened. Yet again Sekai's expression changed. Without warning, he suddenly ducked down and went to sweep Aizawa's legs. He was forced to jump up, prompting Sekai to slide behind him and flip upwards to kick him in the back.

Aizawa went flying towards the wall of the alley, but this was hardly his first time in such situations. He flipped so his feet were facing the wall and used it to push off of, launching himself at Sekai and throwing out his scarf. Sekai's black veins seemed to pulse as he dodged each motion with frightening speed.

"(Damn, this is actually pretty cool!)" He said as Aizawa pulled back, coming back to a regular stance. The boy grinned, clearly very impressed with himself. Aizawa had to admit that he showed more skill than he had expected. Based on the veins, he knew it was likely tied to his Quirk. Aizawa activated his own power, not wanting to spend any more time on this than he had to. Sekai looked at him confused.

The black veins didn't move an inch. There was no indication of his Quirk being affected at all.

"How are you doing that?" He asked, before cursing under his breath for forgetting that Sekai didn't understand him when he spoke Japanese. Or so he thought, as he failed to notice the smaller set of black veins that had reached his neck and the backs of his ears.

"W-WAIT, I UNDERSTOOD THAT!" Sekai exclaimed. He then slapped a hand to his mouth in surprise. "And-and that too! But that wasn't English. Hey, what language is this?" He asked, the hostility from before all but forgotten in his clear elation to be understood.

"Japanese." Aizawa answered. Sekai thrust a fist into the air.

"I knew it!" He cheered. "Glad to be a hundred percent sure. So, new country, new body, new…powers. What does it all mean?" Aizawa took careful note of everything Sekai was saying, whilst at the same time approaching carefully. He didn't want to risk starting another fight, but he felt that he really should secure Sekai just in case he tried to run. He had technically committed crime and assaulted a pro hero, after all.

"Pretty sure it means you'll have to come with me, kid." He said bluntly, yet without any hostility. Sekai tensed in response, clearly looking around for an easy exit. Aizawa braced himself to move in response. "I won't hurt you unless I have to. I just need to take you to the police station. They'll ask you a few questions and you can go home-"

"No I can't."

"Excuse me?"

"Go home." Sekai said. His tone was oddly hollow, and Aizawa noticed there were suddenly tears in the boy's eyes. "I can't go home. I…" Whatever Sekai was about to say was cut off by the sound of an explosion nearby, forcing the two's attention to its direction.

"That's not far from here." Sekai said. The area was residential if he remembered right. Aizawa knew of a few hero agencies operating nearby, but the amount of heroes working at this time of night was lower than he would have liked. "We need to go help!"

"We?" Aizawa asked rhetorically. "You're a civilian, not a hero. You shouldn't be rushing towards danger like that. You could die. Let a pro handle it-" He was cut off by Sekai moving at incredible speed, leaping right over him.

"I won't die twice." Sekai said as he ran. Aizawa wasn't sure if he meant figuratively or literally, but either meaning was concerning to say the least. "And if I can help it, I won't let anyone else die either!" He charged off, sprinting towards the burning building. Aizawa cursed, following quickly behind. He launched his scarf forth to try to trip the boy up before he could get himself killed, but Sekai showed remarkable reflexes. He leapt up at just the right moments to avoid the scarf.

He continued to try grabbing the boy with the scarf as he pursued him, but any time the scarf got close enough to the boy to touch, it was met with a black spike growing out from the boy's body. Sekai didn't seem to even notice he was doing this, his focus resolute on the burning building. Knowing he couldn't stop the boy like this, Aizawa instead pulled out his phone and called the fire department. If he was lucky, someone would be there quickly enough to prevent anything from escalating further.

He really had no idea what he was doing.

He had superpowers, sure, but he had no idea how they worked. He'd only lasted as long as he had against that weird scarf dude because his body seemed to know what to do before his mind could piece together what was happening. He couldn't rely on impulse like that here though. His first impulse was to run away, whilst another part of him knew he couldn't just leave people to burn if he could help it.

He couldn't help but be hesitant in terms of how to approach, however. Any missteps and he could end up being another casualty to a fire. He could be forced to confront that empty cold sensation again. He could die.

"No. I won't." He steeled himself quickly. He didn't dare try to give himself a pep talk, it would likely lead to him changing his mind. He leapt through a window, using his seemingly enhanced body to break through and get into the building. He pulled himself up carefully, trying to make sure the broken glass didn't hurt him. He seemed durable enough, but in a time like this it was a bad idea to test things too much.

"Anyone here?!" He called out before coughing. Right, fire made it hard to breathe. He should have thought of that. He focused hard on the energy coursing through his body, trying to pull it out towards his face. He could make platforms and knives, why not a face mask? Fortunately, it took only a moment for a full black mask to form over his entire lower face. It was a strange sensation to make something from this energy. It felt solid, yet also somehow gaseous. Like it would turn to smoke if he stopped looking.

"H-HELP!" He heard a woman's voice call out from somewhere above him. He moved slowly and carefully, eager to avoid damaging the building as much as he could. If this place collapsed, he would be screwed, as would anyone else trapped inside. He made towards the nearest staircase and went forward inch by inch. He almost lost his footing as the banister fell off and landed roughly onto the floor, but he managed to steady himself. His mask flickered briefly as he made a platform to keep himself steady, but it stabilised once he placed his feet back on the staircase.

"I guess two things at a time is hard. Is it an energy thing?" He asked himself, before shaking his head. That didn't matter right now. All that did was the people up there he had to help. He kept moving up a few floors before at last arriving at a hallway. It seemed to be an apartment building, though it was still pretty hard to see with the flames.

"Now would be a great time for some magic eyes…" He quipped. As though someone was listening, his eyesight suddenly changed. The room changed to black with yellow outlines over its layout and the objects around. Over by the fourth door to his left, he saw two odd different colours. One was large and green, the other small and more a sort of teal blue. They vaguely resembled human shapes, but they were full of what looked like smoke or fog. Not the same as the fire, he could tell that somehow. But that wasn't any reason to delay.

He jogged forwards, reaching the door. He tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. They must have locked the door before the explosion and didn't have a chance to get it open. He slowly walked back to the other side of the hall.

"I'm gonna try break the door to get to you, okay?" He called out. "Try to stay back!" He heard some movement and his eyes saw the coloured outlines move further back into what he guessed was a living room. He tried to focus all of his strength into his arms, holding his breath as his mask vanished in the process. His arms morphed to be covered completely in pitch black. He ran forth and punched the door, which flew suddenly off its hinges and slammed into the other wall. He couldn't help but cringe at that.

"Are you both-" He coughed, moving the energy from his arms to reform his mask. "(okay?)" He looked around the room and moved, finding a woman and a child both at the corner of the living room. They looked afraid, which he couldn't blame them for given his entrance. There was a large window to their right, giving him an idea. If he could break it open, he could probably make a platform and lower them down to the ground, or make a staircase for them if he couldn't move a single platform around.

"W-we're okay…" The woman, probably the child's mother, answered. The child was crying softly into their mother's arms, coughing a little. He also noticed that they both had green skin, but he tried not to think about it. A doctor could examine them if something was wrong once they all got out. He approached carefully and went to the window. Normally it would only open halfway, which wouldn't be enough to get them both out. He pressed his hand to the glass and tried to focus his energy, ready to smash it.

Instead, the energy burst out from his palm as a sharp blast of energy, shattering the window.

"(That's new.)" He realised he was back to speaking in English once more, so he tried to focus on his neck and ears. He had felt them shift when he started speaking Japanese to the scarf dude, so it was safe to assume that was how it worked.

"Can you understand me?" He asked, and was relieved to see a nod in response from the mother. "Okay, I think I can make some platforms and lower you two down from here. Once you're on the ground, I'll get out myself. Sound good?"

"T-take my daughter down first." The mother pleaded. He saw no reason to argue and readily agreed. To make sure he could manage the task, he made a small platform just outside of the window and tested to see if he could move it. He was relieved to see it was possible, at least as far as gently moving it up or down was concerned.

"Okay, what's your name?" He bent down to the daughter, who was still clinging onto her mother. She hesitated before slowly turning to face him. Tears were in her eyes.

"R-Riza." She said. He smiled gently, dissipating his mask briefly for her comfort.

"Riza. That's a nice name. You can call me… Kage." He said. "Riza, I'm going to get you out of here, but I'm gonna need you to listen to me, okay?" She looked to her mother for a moment, who nodded. She then put on a determined face and nodded back to him.

"U-understood, mister Kage!"

"That's the spirit!" He smiled. "Can you get over to me?" Riza looked hesitant again, looking between him and her mother. It wasn't hard to figure out where her mind was at. "Don't worry, your mum will be right behind you. She'll get out of here too, I promise." He reassured her. Eventually, Riza let go of her mother and took a small jump into his arms.

"You're doing great, Riza." It was getting hard for him to breathe, but he didn't put his mask back on just yet. He felt it was important to keep a reassuring smile visible for the kid. He walked her towards the window and summoned a platform for her. He gently lowered her onto it. For some reason, she felt heavier on the platform. He gasped with exertion.

"Mister Kage, a-are you okay?" Riza asked. He carefully took a few breaths, his head close enough to the window for him to get the outside air. He gave her a thumbs up.

"I'm just fine." He said, his voice a little weak. "I'm gonna lower you now, so try to stay still until the platform lands on the ground. I'll get your mum as soon as I've gotten you down." He explained, before gently lowering the platform. It was a lot harder than it was before with another person on it. It was like the platform before was in some state between a solid object and a weightless gas, undecided as to which it wanted to be. It could do both. With someone else on it though, it was suddenly a solid object with a firm weight to it. And a heavy one at that. It had to be to safely carry a person on it, he supposed.

Riza landed on the ground safely, hopping off the platform. He sighed with relief, both for her being safe and for her having moved off of the platform, making it much easier to lift. He was still fairly confident it would work for the mother though. He couldn't carry her through the window, and he wasn't sure if he would have time to get her down to the ground floor before the building collapsed or the fire advanced too far. Already he could hear things creaking unpleasantly. He quickly reapplied his mask and turned to the mother.

"Okay ma'am, your turn." He beckoned her over. The mother seemed to struggle to walk, moving a little uncertainly. He wasted no time and quickly rushed to support her, holding one of her arms behind his head. They reached the window just in time, as several of the wooden floor planks split open and fell to the fire that continued to rage on the lower floors. He hurriedly placed her onto the platform. His legs nearly gave out at the sudden increase of weight for him to carry, but he gritted his teeth and pushed through it.

"C-c'mon!" He strained, forcing the platform down slowly. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the weight shifted. He looked out the window and was pleased to see not only had the mother managed to get down safely, but fire trucks were close enough for him to see. It was only about a minute before they arrived, by his best guess. He sighed in relief, moving himself to crawl out of the window.

Then, he slipped.

It was an easy mistake. His foot moved off the window ledge a little too fast, causing him to stumble and fall from several stories up. He tried to summon another platform, but anything he tried just fizzled out. He'd exhausted his strength getting Riza and her mother out and had none left for himself. He tried to focus energy through his body, but yet again nothing worked. The black veins only briefly flickered on. The only parts that stayed were at his neck and ears.

"Oh shit." Was all he could find the will to say as he closed his eyes, shielded his face with his arms and prayed that he would get away with just some broken bones.

He felt something that definitely wasn't the ground grab onto him, stopping his fall. Opening his eyes, he saw that scarf dude had grabbed onto him and was now holding him with one arm. His scarf had wrapped around a nearby lamppost, allowing him to swing up and catch him before the two of them descended.

Scarf dude dropped him casually, and he rolled onto the ground before steadying himself on his knees. He took a few breaths, trying to compose himself.

"Thanks." He said gratefully. He thought for a moment. "You know, I don't think I got your name."

"Eraserhead." Scarf dude replied. He recognised that name from somewhere. Wasn't it in a TV show or something? It reminded him of…of an anime character.

Suddenly, it all clicked.

"You did pretty well out there." Eraserhead praised him.

"You're not a hero yet, but you have potential. Maybe you could be one."

AN: Long-time readers of mine will recognise the title of this story as once belonging to an older fic of mine. I've been rewriting it and posting it on AO3 for a little while now, so I figure it's about time I post the new version here as well! The original will stil be up for anyone curious, but this version is a much improved take on what I was doing, or at least I think so. Enjoy!