The Hero & The Demon

Chapter Six

As Naomasa Tsukauchi walked through the corridors of Aldera Junior High school in the late afternoon, he remembered why he didn't want kids.

It had been a frequent source of teasing from his colleagues. He was a thirty-six-year-old man with no partner, so every now and then he would receive comments about it. He always answered the same – he was married to his career. He didn't have the time nor the interest in pursuing much else. Even taking in Kage had been a matter of it being part of his job.

But he always bit back the other reason, and that was that kids were always a lot of trouble. If Naruhata had taught him anything, it was that. Kage wasn't anything on that level so far – this was the first serious incident, in fact. But he still wasn't happy about it.

As he walked to the principal's office, he saw a woman with blonde hair sitting outside. She saw him and stood up, her eyes going wide.

"You're police?!" She had evidently recognised his uniform, though he wasn't wearing a badge. He had been discussing cases with All-Might when he had received the call to go out. "Oh man, what has that brat done now?" She groaned.

"You must be Katsuki Bakugou's mother." He realised, extending a hand out. "Naomasa Tsukauchi. I'm not here to arrest your son or anything like that. I'm the acting guardian of Kage Sekai. I'm told he got into a fight with your son?"

"Yeah, sounds like Katsuki alright." The woman sighed bitterly, though she relaxed when she realised that her son wasn't under arrest. "I'm Mitsuki. Sorry about this. It's probably his fault." Tsukauchi shook his head.

"We don't know for sure. I wouldn't be too harsh until we know the full story."

"Maybe." Mitsuki shrugged. "But this isn't the first time the principal's called me before. That brat of mine is a real handful."

"Kids tend to be." Tsukauchi replied. Mitsuki laughed.

"Well, you sure sound like a parent." She joked. She seemed casual about this, which told Tsukauchi that the situation likely wasn't anything too serious. No injuries had been mentioned over the phone, but he found himself relaxing now that he felt surer of that.

The principal opened the door to his office. He was a large man with a third eye on his forehead. He was balding, but still had a decent amount of black hair trailing across his head. Tsukauchi knew the man was named Shikaku Menjiru, but little else beyond that.

"Ah, you're both here." He said in warm greeting. "The children have been waiting. Come in, this shouldn't take long." Tsukauchi allowed Mitsuki to enter first, then stepped inside himself. The office had a surprisingly ornate desk compared to the rest of the school. There was a large window directly behind the principal's seat, with the blinds shut to create a more foreboding atmosphere. To the left was a blonde boy who looked a lot like Mitsuki. He seemed tense and had his arms crossed.

To the right, Kage was staring down at the floor and desperately trying to avoid eye contact with anyone or anything. Tsukauchi sighed and sat down next to him, causing the boy to jump.

"Now boys," The principal looked to Katsuki and Kage sternly. "Would you like to explain to your parents why you're here, or should I do it? If you have anything you want to say for yourselves, now is the time." The man nodded with a smug expression. As much as Tsukauchi understood wanting to be strict in discipline, Menjiru's attitude was already grating. Kage looked at the man and raised an eyebrow.

"First of all, I don't have parents." He said. Menjiru looked as though he had been slapped in the face, a mixture of indignance and sudden sympathy competing over his facial expression. "Second of all, there's not much to say. He attacked me, I countered." He jerked a thumb over to Katsuki, who growled but didn't protest that version of events.

"W-well, my apologies mister Sekai-"

"It's Kage."

"Mister Sekai." Menjiru said more insistently. The man seemed quick to anger. "Whilst I am sympathetic to the need for self-defence, you and I both know that that is not the reason you are in trouble. Just because it's your first day does not give you any excuse to be flippant with me."

"Sorry." Kage shrugged. He didn't seem sorry at all. Tsukauchi sighed.

"If you could get to the point, sir." He pinched his nose as he spoke to the principal. "I don't really have the time to make a game of this, and I'm sure Mrs Bakugou here feels the same." He gestured to the woman, who was levelling a harsh glare at her son. She nodded to Menjiru, who adjusted his tie.

"Of course." He cleared his throat. "Not only did these two boys get into a physical confrontation, but Quirks got involved. Mister Sekai here ended up breaking a school desk! We may have spares, but that doesn't mean you can just damage school property casually like this!" Kage flinched as the man raised his voice. Tsukauchi put a hand on his shoulder.

"Is this true?" He asked. Kage looked away from him. Tsukauchi noticed that the boy had gone pale. He was tense and nearly shaking, were it not for Tsukauchi's hand settling him.

"I didn't mean to." He mumbled out. Katsuki, who had been stewing in silent rage until now, took this moment to chime in. He jerked a pointed finger violently at Kage.

"Bullshit!"

"Katsuki!" His mother reprimanded him, but it did little to stop his temper.

"You don't get to act like a coward just 'cause I knocked you on your ass!" He exclaimed. "The only thing I hate more than a weakling is a cowardly loser who won't take responsibility! You tried to fight me and I kicked your ass!" Kage looked over to him and smirked.

"Funny," He placed a finger on his chin thoughtfully. "I seem to recall one of us getting pinned to the ground before they could light so much as a spark. Oh, right, that was you!" He snapped his fingers. Tsukauchi frowned.

"Kage, that's not something to take pride in." He shook his head. Kage looked over to him and his expression settled from a smirk to a flatter frown.

"I'm sorry, but he deserved it." Tsukauchi was about to reply that such wasn't his call to make, but Kage continued, pointing at Bakugou and focusing on the principal instead of him.

"Sir, this man approached me during lunch and violently threatened me, insulted me and then expressed a desire to kill me." He said firmly. Katsuki looked mildly shocked, but that was nothing on the expressions of everyone else in the room, all of whom went wide. "I will admit my violent response was over the top and I apologise for losing control of myself and allowing my power to get involved, but I will not apologise for taking a threat seriously."

Katsuki scoffed. Tsukauchi immediately turned to glare at the boy. He was starting to understand why he had apparently been seen by the principal multiple times before.

"Young man, if what Kage is saying is true, then your actions would step dangerously close to criminal territory." He explained. Mitsuki slapped the back of the boy's head, forcing him to pay attention. "Threats against someone's life are never acceptable, especially not for a childlike yourself to throw around."

"N-now hold on." Principal Menjiru spoke up. Tsukauchi looked over curiously to the man. "There's no need to go that far. Besides, if criminal charges are to be brought up, it should be noted that your boy did use his Quirk to harm another student." Tsukauchi turned to the man and sighed. He looked over at Kage.

"Kage, you said you didn't mean to use your Quirk?"

"I didn't!" He said. Tsukauchi noticed he seemed more nervous on that subject, but he didn't appear to be lying. "I-I really don't know what came over me. It was like everything went black for a moment and then when I blinked the desk was gone and my arms were burning and my head was all weird and…" He trailed off, struggling to find the words. Tsukauchi relaxed a little, then turned to the principal.

"I'll be sure to discuss this with Kage more in private." The boy flinched and the principal smiled, but he raised a hand. He wasn't finished speaking. "However, an accidental power activation, especially in response to extreme stress or threats, can be defended relatively easily in a court of law. An unprovoked death threat, on the other hand, is a much worse position to be in. As a teacher, it's bizarre that you would defend him."

"I simply have faith in the future of my students!" Menjiru stood up, clearly offended. "Katsuki Bakugou has been an exemplary student of our school, and I would not have him ruined over one mistake."

"Respectfully, sir, it doesn't seem to be just one." Tsukauchi replied calmly. "Mrs Bakugou told me earlier that her son has been in to see you on several previous occasions, and what I've seen of his behaviour so far leads me to believe the circumstances aren't far off from today's. His aggression and dismissive attitude indicate to me that you have let this sort of behaviour slide before."

"Now, just a minute!" Menjiru protested. Mitsuki sighed and placed a hand on her head. She didn't seem offended that Tsukauchi had expressed such negative words about her son, nor did she seem surprised. Just tired.

"Hey, we're not really doing this, are we?" Kage spoke up and stood in front of Tsukauchi. "I mean, sure, Bakugou's kind of a jerk, but a criminal? That's too far." Katsuki looked at him with a mix of confusion and indignance. He seemed to be about to speak up, but Mitsuki smacked the top of his head.

"Can't you see he's trying to step up for you, brat? Don't run your mouth off. You've done enough." She said. Tsukauchi was pleased to see that she wasn't trying to enable the boy, though he could have done without the violence. It didn't look especially harsh, but in his opinion, that sort of discipline was unnecessary.

"Are you sure?" Tsukauchi asked. He wasn't seriously going to try pressing charges at this point, but he felt it was important that Katsuki felt it was a possibility. If Kage was fine to leave this as is, he felt no need to press the issue further. Kage nodded.

"Yeah, it's no big deal." He said. "Besides, even if I didn't mean to, I kinda did still slam him through a desk. It'd feel wrong to ask for him to get punished worse than me. Being violent with him was already unheroic enough, I don't want to rub salt in the wound."

"You didn't wound me one bit, freak!" Katsuki protested. "Don't you start pitying me!"

"I don't pity you." Kage shot back. "I feel bad for what I did, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with you. But I'm trying to get into UA. Being able to move past personal issues and focus on doing the right thing is good for an aspiring hero. Just 'cause you're an asshole doesn't mean you shouldn't have a fair shot." Kage concluded with a shrug. Tsukauchi felt his words seemed oddly targeted. As though he was somehow trying to insult Katsuki indirectly. Katsuki seemed to register this as well. He looked like he might have exploded if it wasn't for all the people in the room.

Tsukauchi didn't like Katsuki Bakugou, he decided. And he wasn't overly fond of Principal Menjiru, either.

"Well then, so long as you both understand and don't start any trouble again." The principal nodded. "Katsuki, I'll be having a word with your teachers. Expect a good deal of extra work as punishment." He seemed to glance to Tsukauchi whilst speaking, as though seeking approval. Tsukauchi realised that the man wouldn't have given out any serious punishment if he wasn't in the room.

"As for you, mister Sekai," He turned to Kage. "Consider this a warning. If you really want to get into UA, I don't want to see you in this office again for anything like this. Do I make myself clear?" Kage looked over to Katsuki and looked like he was about to say something, but instead he sighed, seemingly thinking better of it.

"Understood, sir." He said. Tsukauchi nodded.

"If that's all, I trust we can leave now." Tsukauchi said. The principal waved a hand to dismiss them, turning and leaving his back to everyone present. Tsukauchi placed a hand on Kage's shoulder and steered him out the door. He shot Mitsuki an apologetic look, but she waved a hand at him. Clearly, this wasn't the first time she had a difficult time at the principal's office.

"Sorry." Tsukauchi turned to see Kage looking at him with guilt across his face. "I swear, I didn't want to cause any trouble and I know you're probably busy and I shouldn't have pulled you away from that and-" Tsukauchi held a hand up.

"Don't worry about it." He said. "You know what you did was wrong, and I took you in fully knowing that things like this could happen. I'm not above stepping in if I have to. Remember that the next time you get into a fight." He said it jokingly, but Kage nodded very seriously.

"So, you're not mad?" Tsukauchi sighed before offering a gentle smile.

"I'm not mad." He said, and all of the tension evaporated from Kage's frame.

"But that doesn't mean you're getting out of a lecture."

And like that, it returned.

The next forty-five minutes were spent on a deliberately long car trip back to Tsukauchi's apartment, as Kage received a lengthy lecture about Quirk use laws. He had never given the subject much thought before but now felt he could legitimately argue their use in a court room.

Given what was said earlier, maybe Tsukauchi expected him to.

He hoped it would never come up again. If he was lucky, Bakugou's reprimanding would be enough to get him to stop at just angry glares. Kage was hardly against punching assholes, but he felt guilty enough for causing so much trouble for his caretaker. He said he wasn't mad, but Kage couldn't bring himself to believe that.

He snapped out of his thoughts as the car pulled up. He couldn't afford to get lost in his own head about it. There wasn't anything he could gain by stressing about it. He had to keep his focus on his personal goals and his training.

He had lost control of his powers before. He needed to focus on making sure that didn't happen again.

Tsukauchi looked thoughtful as they walked into the building. Kage raised an eyebrow curiously, but didn't trust himself to say anything. If nothing else, he didn't want to risk getting another lecture. Still, the detective's furrowed brow was concerning. They walked over to the apartment in an uncomfortable and uneasy silence. The building itself hadn't changed, but there was an inescapable sense of tension in its halls.

Kage had to be imagining it.

Black veins crawled along his arms regardless.

"I keep thinking I'm forgetting something…" Tsukauchi muttered. Kage glanced around the hallway. Nothing stood out as immediately out of place on the way to the door, but he felt aware of every slight shift in the air, every small noise going on across the building. The hallway itself was empty, the only sound being their footsteps upon the wooden floor. Inside the nearby apartments, things were slightly more eventful, but nothing concerning. Someone had left their TV on; someone else downstairs was cleaning…

Someone was in their apartment.

"Hey." Kage held a hand out in front of Tsukauchi and looked at the door. Tsukauchi looked shocked, but he picked up on Kage's serious expression quickly. Kage nodded towards the door, looking at it from the other end of the hallway intensely. He could hear someone shuffling about inside. They were looking for something, and not doing a good job of hiding it.

"Someone's in there."

"Just one?" Tsukauchi asked, reaching into his coat. Kage didn't know if he carried a weapon, but he had to assume the detective was prepared for the worst. He narrowed his eyes and willed them to activate like they had at the burning building. It took him longer than he wanted, but soon his vision shifted. The area turned pitch black, with yellow outlining the immediate environment around him. Tsukauchi no longer looked like a person to him, but instead a fine blue flame, as though his entire body was a candle.

Kage had no idea what the different colours meant. Tsukauchi's was a dark blue, almost sapphire. And in the apartment, there was…

"I-I don't know." Kage said, confused. He could only hear one set of footsteps around, but whilst there was one light that was the clearest in the centre – a golden bolt of what seemed like lightning – he could see seven other coloured shapes around it. They were two reds, one blue, one white and three more yellows. Their shapes were all similar to the lightning in the centre, making the figures appear as one great storm of power.

"My power must be off." He said. "I'm seeing more people than who I can hear. Eight in total." Tsukauchi's eyes widened a fraction, but he nodded and approached the door slowly and carefully. Kage followed his lead, paying close care to step forward as quietly as possible. He supposed it was possible that the other figures in the room had some kind of Quirk they were using to bypass his eyes, but that seemed hard to believe. If he didn't even know what they were or how they worked, how would these people?

It could have been some kind of universal vision-altering power, but if the only people in the apartment were all working together, why would seven out of the eight be staying hidden? And why would the eighth be so lacking in stealth? Why would they all be staying so close together? The seven other lights all orbited the central lightning bolt. They didn't move around, whilst the lightning bolt shape moved in time with the other footsteps.

"Eight souls, not bodies."

"Huh?" Kage turned behind him. No one was present, but he definitely heard a voice. He had heard it before as well. Back at school, it had said something when he was breaking down in the bathroom. He didn't understand its meaning, but some part of him nodded along as though it was trusted. Eight souls, not bodies…

He narrowed his eyes just outside of the door. He and Tsukauchi stood at either end of the doorframe. The other lights shifted and shimmered away like optical illusions, leaving the single yellow lightning bolt behind. It was solid, whilst the others had all faded and rippled like water. His eyes had been picking up on something that was beyond the physical, he realised. Calling it a soul seemed bizarre, but given he was a dead man walking, he had no business talking.

Were his powers connected to his death? Some sort of gift from the afterlife?

Were they some kind of curse?

"Never mind, it's just the one." Kage whispered, hoping not to alert the one inside. "The rest could be some kind of Quirk, but I'm sure there's only one person in there." Tsukauchi nodded once more before focusing his attention on the door. He held out a hand to Kage with three fingers. A countdown.

Three.

Two.

One.

He kicked the door open violently and pulled a gun out from his jacket. Kage took a combat stance, but didn't dare risk using his powers more than he already had. He fought to keep the black veins from spreading across his body naturally. Whilst he did have control, a good deal of his powers seemed almost instinctive, or like it had a mind of its own. If he were to ascribe personality to it, he would say that they felt disappointed from Kage suppressing them.

The light was still on. The lone figure seemed to stagger down onto the floor. Kage glared as they turned and met his eyes. As soon as the figure did, Kage's face went pale. His breath went shallow.

It was the grim reaper.

It didn't make any sense. He knew that intellectually, but the reality of this skeletal figure in a black cloak before him violated any sense of reality he could process. They had cold eyes that seemed to gaze right through Kage's soul, and pointed features, sharp and deadly like a blade. The cloak was messy, but covered almost their whole being.

Kage fell roughly onto the floor and crawled back, keeping his eyes on the figure. The grim reaper tilted its head in confusion. Kage couldn't see anything else in the room, the haunting skeleton consuming his entire perspective. The only thing he could think was that he was going to die. He had somehow escaped from death before, but his time was now up.

"Not again…" He held himself tightly in a ball and slammed his eyes shut, as though concealing death from his vision would somehow repel it. He repeated those two words, a prayer to banish that which was inevitable. He could feel his power rising, but it couldn't hold together. He felt himself summoning knives and guns, anything to defend himself, but nothing reached the figure before being dispelled. Kage couldn't focus. He couldn't concentrate long enough to form an actual defence.

"Kage!" Tsukauchi snapped, and Kage flinched as he forced one eye open. Then another. The detective was kneeling down and staring at him with a concerned frown. Kage realised there were tears in his eyes a moment later. He forced a breath in and out. Peering around, Kage noticed that the grim reaper had vanished.

Wait, that wasn't right. The figure was there. He had stood up and taken off the black cloak, but he was present. He just wasn't a grim reaper.

Kage realised that the black cloak he had seen was actually a long coat that had fallen onto the figure. Their skeletal build and sharp features remained, as well as their bizarrely shadowed eyes, but they were clearly a person. A living person, one who was looking at Kage with an awkward and apologetic expression. He was dressed in an ill-fitting suit that hung loosely around his body, even with a belt wrapped around his waist.

Kage realised that he recognised this individual.

He had just mistaken All-Might for death itself.

He giggled, the sheer absurdity of the situation amusing him. Tsukauchi looked even more worried and a tad confused, so he pushed it down before he could start laughing his ass off. He wiped his eyes.

"S-sorry about that." He stood slowly, as did Tsukauchi. He looked over to All-Might. "This is going to sound stupid, but for a sec, I thought you were the grim reaper." He laughed a little at the last words. Neither of the two seemed to find it all that amusing, which somehow only made Kage want to laugh harder. He kept it down, but an amused smile remained on his face.

"I see. That coat falling over didn't do me any favours." All-Might said with a smile on his face. He was clearly starting to relax, though he still seemed confused. He looked to Tsukauchi. "Apologies, I was trying to leave but the door was locked. I figured there was probably a key around somewhere, so I started looking around."

"I knew I was forgetting something." Tsukauchi sighed. "Sorry, Toshinori. I shouldn't have locked the door." Kage looked between the two and pieced together the sequence of events. The two were having some personal meeting before Tsukauchi was called away, and in his haste, Tsukauchi had apparently completely forgotten he had a guest over.

Kage found it baffling that his priorities were so backwards. Kage wasn't even in any danger, yet he had caused the man to be in such a single-minded rush? He wasn't worth that.

"This is all my fault."

"No, it's not." Tsukauchi replied before Kage could go further. "I wasn't paying enough attention. The blame is entirely on me."

"Don't go beating yourselves up on my account." All-Might chuckled. "I probably should have tried calling or just…just, er, found another exit." Kage noticed his hesitation. Clearly, he had been about to say he would have tried jumping out the window in his full power, but Kage's presence made him seal his lips shut.

"How about we all agree to some fault and move on?" He tried a compromise. Tsukauchi sighed, but All-Might smiled and shrugged, evidently pleased by the suggestion.

"That works for me." He said. He approached Kage. Kage had to admit that the man's skeletal physique was just a little unnerving, but now that he knew he was looking at a person, he was more relaxed about it. When he held out a hand, Kage shook it. It was distressingly thin, but felt very much like normal skin rather than bone.

"I don't think we've met, have we? Toshinori Yagi." All-Might said. He was pointing to himself with a thumb and grinning. "Tsukauchi and I go way back."

"Kage Sekai." Kage replied. "Tsukauchi and I barely know each other, but he lets me sleep here until he finds my parents." All-Might – or Toshinori, as he would probably prefer to be known in this form – laughed along with Kage's weak attempt at humour. Kage smiled.

How had he mistaken this man for Death? Despite his appearance, he was full of life.

"Ahh, right. Tsukauchi mentioned you. Glad to see you're doing well." Kage briefly raised an eyebrow. There was the slightest hesitation as Toshinori brought up Tsukauchi mentioning him. He wasn't sure what exactly was tipping him off, but he could tell the man knew more than he was letting on.

"As well as I can." Kage shrugged. "Sorry about the whole 'mistaking you for death and almost attacking you' thing. I panicked." He could feel Tsukauchi's eyes on him as he spoke, though the man offered no comment.

"It's fine, I understand." Toshinori waved a hand dismissively. "Although your Quirk was certainly surprising! It's quite impressive." Yet again, Kage could tell he was making some deeper observation than just praise. He doubted the man had any negative intentions, but his statement felt like it was meant more as a question.

"Thanks." Kage said. "I'm still figuring out how it all works. I've been calling it Void Energy for now." Toshinori nodded, taking in the information. He seemed to consider asking something else, but then glanced to Tsukauchi, who had been patiently observing the brief conversation.

"Ah, I should probably get going." He stepped back and then over to the door. "I didn't mean to keep you. I should have been going myself, I've got someone else I need to see to today." He bowed his head and turned. Tsukauchi watched him leave, apparently confused by his words. Kage knew he was most likely referring ton Izuku, but it seemed he hadn't mentioned training his successor to anyone else yet.

"He seems nice. What were you two talking about before?" He asked. Tsukauchi thought for a moment as he closed the door. He frowned, clearly bothered by having damaged the lock by kicking the door in.

"Hm? Oh, he's a hero's assistant." Tsukauchi explained. "Some heroes are busy enough that getting in touch with them regularly is difficult, so they have personal assistants. Toshinori's client is particularly busy." Kage nodded, though he noticed that this didn't really answer his question. They must have been discussing some important case that he wasn't supposed to know about.

"It's All-Might, isn't it?" Tsukauchi jumped as Kage came to the correct conclusion. Kage grinned. Sometimes, having knowledge he wasn't supposed to have was fun. In time, he'd have to find better uses of that information, but for the moment it was fun just to mess with people.

"How did you know?"

"I'm well-read." Kage shrugged, continuing his own little inside joke. Tsukauchi had a serious expression on his face, so Kage coughed and wiped the grin off his. "That and his eyes gave it away."

"His eyes?" Tsukauchi asked. Kage nodded. He couldn't remember if this detail was mentioned in canon itself or was a detail from one of the profile pages in the manga, but it stood out to him. Looking the man in the eyes, it seemed appropriate and genuine.

"Yeah, they're…" He struggled to find the right words. "It's like, there's a sense of raw heroism compressed into his eyes. All-Might has the same look in his, though they're harder to spot with his constant smile on. It sounds poetic, but I think it's also literal. There's this glow about him. I dunno, hard to describe." He waved a hand dismissively. He wasn't as certain about the things he was saying as he was the certainty that they were true.

Even when the man had been a lightning bolt, Kage was sure of a distinctive glow that marked him as significant. Then again, everyone glowed through his strange eyes. Still, there was some significance to All-Might and the other seven figures. Heroic conviction was as good an explanation as anything else.

"I see what you mean." Tsukauchi nodded after a pause. "I don't think I've ever thought about it like that, but it's there." The man chuckled a little, turning from the door and towards Kage.

"Maybe glowing eyes are a sign of good heroes. You'll be all set." He laughed, but Kage beamed a smile. He doubted his eyes were a sign of anything heroic, or that his powers were tied to any sense of personal conviction. He wasn't sure he had anything beyond not wanting death around him. But the idea was a comforting thought.

It was nice that even after all the drama of the day, someone still had faith in him.

Two weeks passed. After his first day, Kage had expected to find more excitement in Aldera, but it didn't take long for it to become like any other school – dull, but largely inoffensive.

Bakugou had made a point of glaring at him, but he seemed to think better of going further than that. Perhaps he was so focused on his own training and studies for UA that he didn't have the time for further harassment. Kage didn't know for sure, but he'd take it if it meant being left alone by the boy. He pointedly ignored Bakugou's glares and generally stayed out of his way. He acted casually about it, but he had to admit to some fear of another fight breaking out.

He wasn't sure if he was more scared of Bakugou beating the crap out of him or fighting back with another unknown surge of power.

He had deliberately avoided interrogating that aspect of his powers further. At the Gunhead Martial Arts Gym, he focused on honing his technique and muscle memory. Initial results seemed very promising – he had to assume the original Kage must have been some kind of fighting prodigy given his rising talent. He moved with fluidity and speed even without his powers active, and he seemed good at counter-attacks. His own offensive ability was also decent, but there were some oddities that seemed to hold him back.

Specifically, he kept thinking he had more reach than he really did. It was like his body was somehow used to being longer than it was now. He also seemed to keep expecting weapons in his hands, even when he hadn't summoned any.

Today, he had lost a few sparring matches at the gym because of such strange unknown elements in his fighting. He was walking home – Tsukauchi had given him a phone and trusted him to explore on his own after a week's schooling had passed. His eyes were on the pavement and he wasn't paying too close attention to where specifically he was going.

Wandering about had become a calming pastime of his. He wanted t build up a general sense of familiarity with his environment, so he felt that sticking to only a few places wouldn't help. Tsukauchi supported it, and also asked him to keep note of anything that caught his eye whilst he was out in case it triggered any memories.

A sigh escaped his lips. Going along with amnesia had seemed sensible at the time, and from a certain point of view, it wasn't even inaccurate. But he didn't like lying. He didn't like not being able to say anything about his real family. He couldn't tell anyone about how much it drove him crazy that he couldn't remember his original name, or how much he missed his old house. He didn't know if any of the books or shows he had seen even existed in this universe, and even if they did, they were probably woefully out of date.

He looked over to the side and found he had wandered near piles and piles of trash. Had he stumbled through a landfill? No, that didn't seem right. Glancing around, it looked like he was at some kind of coastline. The ocean seemed visible through small gaps in the mountains of rubbish.

"A beach?" Kage asked no one in particular. After a moment, a gasp escaped him. "Ohhh, this beach." He smacked a fist into his hand as he realised where he was. He looked around the street. It was getting a little late, but not to any concerning degree. He had time to look around a little more before he had to get back to Tsukauchi.

A thought popped into his mind. If any media he would recognise was likely to be old, if it existed at all, then it wouldn't be too unlikely that he could find some record of it in a mass of trash and waste like this. Old DVDs or game boxes or merchandise, if there was anything he could identify, it would be there.

He walked a little into the beach.

Nothing stood out immediately at a glance, but that was to be expected. A lot of the trash around was scrap metal and damaged electronics. Larger and heavier objects were sure to stand out a lot more in massive piles. If he wanted to find anything he had any chance of recognising, he would have to rummage about. He walked up to the nearest pile he could see. It was like a small mountain, and seemed to rise to nearly the height of some of the buildings in the distance. Not quite as large, but enough that the view would surely be tainted.

He began picking up examining objects, but he didn't get far before he heard a noise – a familiar voice that sounded panicked, and worrying close to the sound of metal scraping against itself as it moved. Kage ran over to the sound, and noticed Izuku Midoriya was slipping on a shifting pile of trash. It seemed he had been trying to move a rather large slab of metal and had accidentally destabilised a chunk above him. In an effort to keep the whole thing from collapsing, he had lost his footing.

"Izuku! Hold on!" He called out. This turned out to be a mistake, as Izuku's brief loss of focus caused him to lose his footing completely and began the long fall into the beach. He probably wouldn't die, but there was a good chance of him hitting something hard, something sharp, or both.

There was no one else around. Trash mounds hid them both from view. Kage took the second needed to inhale and leapt up, summoning his power.

The black veins surged throughout his limbs and let him reach Izuku in midair easily. He hadn't carried anyone before, but his strength meant that Izuku wasn't all that heavy or difficult to manage. He held his torso and legs in both hands. A small cloud of sand was kicked up as they landed. Kage formed a mask over his face, but Izuku coughed.

"Are you okay?" Kage asked. He was still holding Izuku. There were small scrapes on him, but no serious injuries. Nothing seemed to be bruised or bleeding, which was reassuring. Izuku saw Kage and seemed to jump in surprise in Kage's arms. It was an odd sensation. Kage dispelled the mask across his face.

"Relax, it's just me." He said reassuringly. He gently lowered Izuku to the ground, and the boy stood up and brushed himself off. He gave Kage a nervous smile.

"Thanks." He said. Kage grinned. "But, why are you here? I didn't know anyone else ever came to this beach, given all the waste around." He glanced around the many trash piles as he spoke. Kage followed his gaze, but yet again he didn't see anything recognisable.

"I was in the neighbourhood." Kage said. It wasn't a lie; he had no greater reason for his presence than just passing through. "What about you? Were you looking for anything?"

"Oh, no." Izuku shook his head. "I'm…well, I'm training here. Hauling all this trash around is a good way to build up muscle mass and improve my physical dexterity. I'm still not totally sure that it's the most efficient method, but All-" He clamped two hands over his mouth as he realised what he was about to say.

"But all your research said this would be the easiest place to train without interruption?" Kage offered. Izuku nodded quickly. They both knew what he was about to actually say, but Kage knew that he wasn't supposed to, and Izuku had so far been a friend. He didn't want to freak him out too much.

"Yeah, that!" Izuku agreed. Kage nodded.

"It's a good plan, but this is an awful lot for one person to manage." He said. "You want some help?" Izuku paused, taking a moment to think it over.

"I suppose a little help could be useful, but All-er, I mean, someone told me that I should try to get all this done myself." He explained. "I'm trying to train for UA and they're really demanding, so it wouldn't do for me to rely on anyone else too much."

"I get it." Kage nodded. "I mean, teamwork and cooperation are vital parts of heroics and if UA don't recognise that, they're dumb, but I get it. How about you focus on grabbing and moving trash, and I'll watch and keep an eye out to make sure nothing collapses or falls like before. I was gonna take a look around anyway." He explained. Izuku nodded, agreeing to the plan. Kage knew it would be helpful to have someone around to avoid injuries, if nothing else. All-Might obviously couldn't afford to watch over Izuku all the time given how busy he was, but no one else was supposed to know about Izuku's training for One For All.

But Kage didn't know Izuku was Quirkless in the first place, or so Izuku and All-Might would think. He had no reason to find Izuku's training or All-Might's presence suspicious. Whenever All-Might showed up, Kage would just act surprised that Izuku had such a good personal trainer and say they happened to look just like All-Might.

But that assumed he might come around more than once. For the time being, he decided to keep his focus on the immediate task. He examined the trash piles and saw one that was much smaller than the one that Izuku had climbed, but seemed to have larger bits of trash.

"Let's start over there. It doesn't look too bad." He pointed towards the pile. Izuku followed the gesture and nodded, walking over to the pile and pacing around it. There were several large chunks of metal, a few broken microwaves. Kage thought he saw an old fridge in there too. Again, nothing stood out to him as anything he would recognise.

He let out a sigh involuntarily. It was a long shot anyway, he knew, but he couldn't shake the disappointment. A smaller and more optimistic part of him reminded him that he hadn't checked over the whole area, but the louder and more logical part of him was clear on how he was wasting his time hoping for the impossible.

Izuku seemed to notice, raising an eyebrow. Kage didn't notice he had stopped trying to move pieces from the pile until he spoke up.

"Kage?"

"Hm?" Kage looked over to Izuku. His eyes felt wet for some reason, so he wiped them. He didn't even feel all that sad. What a strange and stupid body he was stuck with, that broke down over something so small.

"What are you looking for?" Izuku asked. "I-I've been here a lot over the last couple of months, I could help you find it." A tired smile appeared on Kage's face. Gods, Izuku was so nice. He and Kage had only met a few weeks ago and had barely interacted at school beyond friendly greetings, but he just couldn't stop himself from trying to help someone who was upset.

"It's nothing specific." Kage said. Words began to slip free from his mouth with little thought of his own. "It's hard to explain, but…have you ever felt like you've lost something, but you don't know how to get it back? If you even can? Like, there's this need, this hole in you that's empty. It wasn't always empty, but you didn't even realise how important it was until there wasn't anything left. I feel like there's so much I've lost, but I don't think it'd make sense to anyone else."

"I don't know my family's names." This was true no matter which perspective he was speaking from, Kage Sekai's or his old self's. "I can't fully remember them. I see moments, and I can feel them somewhere in my heart, but my head can't put a clear image together. I miss them, so much more than I ever thought I would. They used to drive me crazy, but now I feel like I'd do anything to get that back."

Tears fell upon the sand, He wiped his eyes and looked back up to Izuku, whose face was rich with concern. He also seemed to have tears in his eyes.

"Idiot." A bitter voice whispered to him. Kage took a moment to recognise it was his own. "I'm not worth crying over. I've stolen as much as I've lost."

"Heh, sorry." He tried to brush it off. "I didn't mean to dump all that on you." He quipped, gesturing at the pile of trash. Izuku was silent for a long moment. Kage frowned, immediately regretting having spoken.

"I should g-"

"My dad."

"Huh?" Kage blinked.

"You asked if I've ever felt a loss of something I don't know if I can get back." Izuku explained. "I have. I…I haven't seen my dad in years. In fact, I don't know if I ever really saw him for sure. Mom says he works overseas, and apparently his Quirk let him breathe fire, but that's all I know. I try not to think about it, but I want to know more. I miss him, but I don't even know who he is. Mom doesn't bring him up either, but I think we both feel something there."

"That emptiness you were describing, that hole that's missing a piece? Something that doesn't seem important until you recognise it's gone?" Izuku placed a hand on his chest. "I've felt that too. It's hard not to, sometimes." Kage didn't know how to respond. This was all new to him, properly new. Izuku never talked about his father at all in the original canon.

He supposed that it made sense that there would be more to this world than a piece of fiction, but it was still taking time to register. He didn't know whether or not to dread or be comforted by that. After all, if this was all truly a real world like his own, that made Kage Sekai's family real.

If Kage Sekai was real, then he was a killer. But if his world was real, then his life still had meaning regardless.

"I'm so sorry." Kage said. His voice was quiet, but it was easy to be heard in the quiet beach. "How…how do you deal with it?"

"Aside from trying not to think about it?" Izuku chuckled a little. He looked out towards the sea. "I suppose I focus on what I have now. I don't know if I can ever really get rid of that feeling of loss, but at the same time, I've gained a lot in my life too. I have a loving mother, and people who support me. I'm finally on the path towards my dreams. And…" He looked over to Kage.

"And I have a friend."

Kage stumbled back a moment. The word friend carried more weight than he was prepared for, and he wasn't sure if it was right to lift it. But after a moment, he realised it was worth the strain to try. Izuku was right.

He had lost a lot, but he had also gained a lot. The power to help others, people to support him, a whole new life. It didn't have to a curse or a burden. It could be a boon. He would always miss what came before, but he didn't have to reject his future because he felt undeserving of it.

"Thanks, Izuku" He said. He looked up at the boy. Despite their difference in height, Izuku seemed so much bigger than he was. "You're a good friend. In fact…" He beamed.

"In a way, you're my hero."

AN: And that's y'all caught up with the AO3 release! I have the same username there as I do here, and I'll probably upload there first since it's easier for me. Technically it's 3am as I type this author's note, but when I posted this chapter earlier today/yesterday, it was halloween. All-Might being the grim reaper is a little spooky, so it's on theme! A little bit! I'm quite proud of the last chunk of this chapter. Enjoy!