Chapter Text
The breeze slipped between every crack and alley in town, carrying with it the faintest scent of blood. No one seemed to notice it amidst the early evening commotion. No one heard the screech that was cut short just outside of the crowded streets. No one felt the bloodlust that poured out into those streets from the shadows. Everyone was unaware of the horrors that crept around them, with the exception of those three.
“It was around here! I swear!” Zenitsu shouted as he rushed into a quieter, dirty alleyway. He could hardly hear the sound anymore over the drumming of his own heart. Then the panic only worsened. “Tanjiro! I don’t hear it anymore! What the heck does that mean! Tanjiro!!” The walls of the buildings seemed to grow taller, looming over him like an omen of death the second the shrieking of the victim he’d been following had ceased. This omen caused him to draw his sword, fingers trembling around the grip with each shallow breath. He looked all around the alley where he was certain the demon had been until a second ago.
Zenitsu’s eyes glanced back toward the crowd where his friends had been following him. Did he carelessly run into danger before they could hear his message? If that was the case, then Zenitsu was surely going to die. He had only made it this far because the others had always protected him and if they weren’t with him then—
Suddenly a hand with nails as sharp as daggers thrust at the back of his head. Zenitsu only noticed the attack when it slipped right past his face, the whip of the air that followed drying his teary eyes. The demon was behind him! But how did he avoid the deadly blow? The confusion left Zenitsu in a stupor as his body was lifted off the ground. When his eyes finally caught up and flickered to a shadow below him, he saw the familiar matted hair of Inosuke’s mask.
“You’re mine!” Inosuke roared from his gut, proud and confident in his swing. Just before the blow had hit Zenitsu, the brutish boy had rammed his friend’s calves, throwing him out of the way of the demon’s claws and from the path of his swords. Zenitsu looked to where the boy was to swing his blade. Still, there was nothing in sight. Which only meant…
Blood sprayed from the cross of slashes made by Inosuke’s dual blades, rough and all the more painful for the demon with their uneven ridges. Only the blood and one severed leg became visible to them both. Soon after, a human form glimmered in the light and the demon finally revealed itself. Patches of crystals seemed to cover its skin, rendering it invisible. It must’ve been this demon’s blood art, which also meant it was more powerful than the average demon.
As Zenitsu was swept off his feet, and not in the way he preferred, he caught a glimpse of Tanjiro descending from above. All he could think in the moment he was falling into the ground was how well the two worked together. He was certainly glad to have them, but also couldn’t help but feel inferior as their comrade.
“Thank you Zenitsu!” Tanjiro proclaimed before he inhaled a hefty breath. In accordance to his second style of water breathing, Tanjiro’s body spun round for the demon’s head. Though, all Zenitsu saw before his own head cracked the ground below him was the starry sky above.
Zenitsu’s whole body shivered with the feeling of pins and needles. Gasping for air, his eyes flashed open and his mind raced to catch up. In his arms was a young woman with a terrible wound on her shoulder. This must have been the woman he had heard the demon attack earlier. Luckily, he could still hear a heartbeat struggling to keep pace. Though he was terrified and couldn’t recall in the slightest how she ended up in his arms, he kept enough focus to wrap up her wound and stop the bleeding momentarily. He called out for the help of his friends, “Tanjiro! Inosuke!”
Though when he looked around he realized he was now on the other end of the alleyway, far from where he had almost been skewered by the demon. At that thought, Zenitsu looked back in hopes his friends had dealt the final blow.
“Die!” A voice shouted from the scene and something exploded. The dust and fire made it hard to see from the distance, so Zenitsu set the girl down against a wall for now and ran over.
“Tanjiro, did you get the demon?” He coughed and waved the smoke away until three figures came into view.
“You missed.” Another voice said. The voices sounded strange, unfamiliar on Zenitsu’s keen ears.
The first voice growled, “It’s not my fault the guy used some cheap trick on us! What were you doing the whole time asshole!”
“Well I was trying to shut off his escape route with a wall of ice,” The second voice explained, “But someone had to melt it enough for the villain to escape.”
“Um, guys…” A third unfamiliar voice interrupted them both. As the three strange young men came into view, the third one pointed to Zenitsu. “I think he’s asking us something.”
As they all looked to Zenitsu, the boy tensed up, hand clamped around his sword but too afraid to draw it. “W-Where’s Tanjiro? Who are you?”
“Can’t you tell?” The first one scoffed at the question. “We’re heroes!”
❁❁❁
Endeavor had entrusted the care of his three pupils to Burnin for the night and she was ready for the task. What she wasn’t ready for was how troublesome just three kids could be after they’d had their fill on some five-star grub. The number one hero had treated them this one time to a nice meal after they helped deal with a group of robbers who’d taken hostages. The kids were quickly catching up to the hero in terms of reaction speed, though their teamwork needed a bit more refining. At least, that’s what Moe, the name she went by now that she was technically off-duty, heard the Katsuki kid grumbling about when she came to pick them up.
“How the hell am I supposed to work together with these losers like we’re friends?!” He shouted out loud to no one in particular. That seemed to be the usual way he vented considering his two peers were never phased by it.
“Think about it this way, Kacchan,” The runt of the three, as Moe thought of the one named Izuku, said. “If we strengthen our skills working together now, it’ll be easier for us to get work with other pros in the future!”
Katsuki gritted his teeth and huffed, “That’s exactly what an idiot who needs to rely on someone stronger would say.”
“Didn’t you need us to act first before you could even move in?” Endeavor’s son stated. Though she couldn’t stand the Katsuki kid, Moe somewhat wished Shoto was a little more fiery like him.
“Shut up! Endeavor needed you guys to go first because you couldn’t do anything else!” Katsuki said.
Before the two of them could get into some sort of scuffle, Moe stood firm, hands on her hips, and said, “Alright boys! Let’s get you kids back so you can work on some gruelling hot training with me tomorrow morning!” She held a fist and flexed some muscles with her chin held high. “I’m gonna make you boys sweat, so you better be prepared!”
Katsuki looked annoyed, convinced the training tomorrow wouldn’t be difficult at all. Shoto politely thanked her for taking them back to the agency on her personal time. Izuku beamed with passion, excited for the challenges to come. Though all three were great prospective heroes, Moe loved the passion in the runt’s eyes the best.
As all three were about to climb into the sidekick’s car, a commotion erupted around the corner. There was shouting and pointing toward a figure dashing through past the crowd.
“He robbed that jewelry store!”
“He took my purse!”
“Where are the heroes?!”
“They’re right here!” Katsuki shouted as the three jumped into action. Before Moe could even tell them anything, those restless kids had already donned their support items and began chasing the villain through the city blocks. Moe grumbled to herself, preferring they had left something like a petty thief to a local pro instead. Calling the incident in, she rushed after the brats. She followed the trail of explosions and expletives until it all came to an abrupt stop. The kids must’ve caught the villain, she thought. She let the police know their position and rounded a corner into a dead-end alleyway.
“If you boys are gonna jump in like that then you better catch ‘em faster!” Moe complained then stopped when the boys she was facing weren’t the brats she was chasing. Instead there was a boy dressed in a haori lugging a box on his back, and another boy who seemed to have some heteromorphic-type quirk that gave him a boar’s head. They both had swords in hand.
Immediately Moe became Burnin and held out a hand. She took a stance that was ready to counter them if they put up a fight. “Drop the swords or I’ll drop you!” Her fist was engulfed in a bright flame, her gaze burning with ferocity. “What did you do with those three students? And answer quick because I got a real hot temper!”
The boy with the haori stared back at her, bewildered. There was no change in the mutant boy’s expression, but he lowered his posture and gripped his swords tighter. A second later and he was rushing right at Burnin with incredible speed. Though the pro didn’t falter and reacted just as quickly, her flaming fist extending into a bigger fist made of fire. The kid narrowly dodged it by bending backwards just barely under the fist’s reach. Why did a bunch of kids have swords? Were these kids some blind followers of Stain? Did they do something to Endeavor’s pupils? The thought only enraged her, especially when the two wouldn’t comply with her orders.
The mutant boy steadied himself and without a moment of hesitation, rushed back at Burnin. Whoever these kids were, they had some real guts to stand up to a Sidekick of Fire. Burnin jumped back away from the kid’s range and engulfed her other fist in flames. Then she extended the flames into larger reflections of her own hands until they clapped around the boy’s sword just as he aimed to strike it down on her. The boy’s reaction to the move was incredible, for in an instant he had abandoned the sword and ducked below her defenses, lunging with his other blade straight for her neck.
“You’re dead, demon!” The boy shouted and laughed proudly, confident that his attack would sever her head. And for a moment, Burnin felt surprised. Not at the boy’s attack or his intentions, but at how his face hadn’t moved as he spoke. Just as she was going to counter the boy, the one in the haori stepped between them, clashing swords.
“Inosuke, stop!” He shouted. “She’s not a demon! She doesn’t have the scent!”
“Use your eyes, not your nose!” Inosuke retorted. “It’s using some demon power!”
Burnin wasn’t sure about what was going on, but she sure as hell was not going to stand here and be referred to as ‘it’. Smacking both the boys with her fire fists, she stood over them with a fierce look. She said, “Now drop the swords, or I’ll burn ya.”
Suddenly the one with the haori flinched and before she knew it, he flew at her with his sword. She tensed up, expecting to get cut, when she realized he wasn’t aiming for her. It was behind her!
Burnin whipped her head around to see some other villain reaching out for her. With her reaction time and the kid’s quick block, she escaped with just a nasty scratch on her waist. Still, it hurt like hell. “Shit!” She exclaimed. Seems like that Katsuki kid’s swearing habit had started rubbing off on her. She grasped her side and fell to a knee, watching as the haori boy held off some villain with an invisibility quirk of sorts. Then the villain glimmered and came into view, it’s bloodthirsty, black eyes sending a chill down Burnin’s spine.
There wasn’t a moment to waste in times like this. Burnin raised her arm and reached out, engulfing the figure in her giant flaming fist. The haori boy glanced back at her with a perplexed expression, then a grateful smile. In seconds, both the boys leapt for the kill, to which Burnin couldn’t let happen. Vigilantes or villains, there was no way she could let these kids murder someone in front of her eyes. She suddenly moved her fist further away from their blades as they swung, calling out, “Stop! I can’t let you kill him!”
Their blades swung and only managed to sever one of the villain’s legs. It fell with a thud onto the ground before Burnin. She held her side when a sharp pain ran through her entire right side. With her lax in control, for even just that brief moment, her grip loosened and the man turned invisible again. Burnin retracted her fist and winced. Catching this strange new villain while trying to apprehend these reckless kids was going to be difficult while she was injured this much, but she would just have to hold out for now. She looked all around for any sign of the villain, until the leg on the ground caught her attention. It started to burn into ashes, and she was sure it wasn’t her doing.
“I lost him…” The haori boy stated, though he sounded more frustrated than relieved. After a moment, he sheathed his sword and walked over to Burnin.
“It’s the stupid fire demon lady’s fault. She let him get away!” Inosuke huffed. “I told you she was a demon too! Why else would she let one get away!”
The haori boy held out a hand and asked, “Are you alright, miss?”
Burnin looked between the two boys, then helped herself up. She gripped her side and bit back the pain, all sorts of questions running through her mind. The one that concerned her most right now though was…
“Where are the three students who ran here earlier?”
Her questions didn’t get answers, as the police soon arrived on the scene. Walking in on an injured Burnin cornered by two boys with swords definitely didn’t look good for them. Despite some resistance, the two were taken into custody. The only thing Burnin knew for sure was that Endeavor was going to get involved the moment he hears about what happened. For once, a villain encounter had made her very pensive. Things weren’t looking good.