Chapter Text
Sue Nezu for taking work home with him.
As the purveyor of one of the most prestigious hero institutions in the country—as well as being abnormally intelligent otherwise—it was standard procedure for him to be called off on investigations outside of campus. These past few days had been one of those times. Had, until he’d received a call from one of his colleagues early Wednesday morning. He may be a hybrid, but he’d be damned if he wouldn’t like to maintain a decent sleep schedule, as human a construct as it was. Nezu sighed, a huff of air escaping his snout.
He picked up the phone.
“If it’s villains, Shouta, then I am fairly certain it is well within your ability to dispatch them—” The other end of the line crackled, Aizawa’s voice carrying over from his own personal office on campus. It sounded weary, the fuzz of the audio doing little to mask it.
“No, Nezu. It’s not villains. It’s just…”
Shouta dragged a hand down his chin, wiping at the perpetual stubble that had cropped there as a result of his second consecutive all-nighter. He took another glance at the monitor in front of him, bloodshot eyes straining to make out the blurred figure struggling in suspension on the screen.
“It’s something you need to see.”
Two Days Earlier
It was a simple favor; All Might hadn’t even signed him a hall pass. His teacher had assured him that he would hardly miss a moment of lecture, and Izuku was grateful for it. No way he was sitting out on any of today’s History of Heroics class—not when All Might himself had been assigned to present the lesson. Izuku felt his heartbeat pick up, eager fingers drumming on the inside of his chest as he fumbled with the keys in his pocket.
You see him every day, you know. Don’t you think it’s about time that you-
He frantically waved a hand in front of his face, nearly losing his grip on the keyring as he pushed away the thoughts clouding his mind.
“We’ve been over this,” he muttered, sorting through the assortment of keys in his palm. No hero would let himself be hindered by self-doubt like this. Not when he had a mission to complete.
And sure, maybe calling it a mission was a bit generous, but Izuku would do just about anything if it meant All Might’s lecture would run smoothly. He wanted to be there for every second of it, soaking up his hero’s presence as if he would leave him— be taken from him— at any moment.
He found the key he had been searching for and inserted it into the lock of the door. Izuku thought it odd that anything at UA still required such an antiquated method of entry. All of their classrooms were regulated with digital passes and scanners. He was the only student he knew of who had been given access to the faculty storage unit, even if it was just to run a quick errand; it was an old facet of the building, tucked away in the lower ends of the school.
The distance from the upper-level education wing had meant a trip several flights below ground level, and when he pushed open the door, Izuku groaned. Another lengthy set of stairs greeted him from within the passage.
Mustering his courage, he placed his weight on the rusting step in front of him and slowly made his way down, one wavering foot in front of the other. If the door had been any indication of how old this unit was, the industrial stairways and chipped concrete walls were a dead giveaway. It was even void of the usual fluorescents lining the ceilings; rather, a single pull-chain bulb dangled lazily above Izuku’s head. Yanking the string offered nothing but a light shower of dust that coated his curls.
Must have died out a long time ago, Izuku mused as he peered down at the dim passageway. It was a long ways to go without light...
His hands shot up, cupping his face in his palms. Stop that! Heroes are not afraid of the dark!
With that, he made his way down, tracing the thin railing with his fingers in order to keep his bearings in the inky blackness. Stale air stole at his throat as the staircase wore on. Izuku hadn’t been expecting to make such a trip just to dig up some old hero news headlines from storage, but he was determined not to let his teacher down.
Plus, he murmured to himself, lost in thought as he took one step after another, there might be some other old hero artifacts down there. The entirety of the U.A. staff had access to the unit, using it as a holding cell for old equipment and aging trophies from battle.
Izuku smiled softly. Maybe it hadn’t been a coincidence that All Might had chosen him to go down there after all.
His sneakers made contact with a solid platform about a minute later, small puffs of dust escaping from under his soles. Izuku coughed, straightening himself to get a look at his surroundings. Compared to the narrow stairwell, the facility itself seemed almost cavernous. Interlocking beams and pipes wove a tapestry on the ceiling several meters above him, and the small platform he stood on gave way to a large square room crowded with shelves, narrow isles splitting the clutter into a dozen sections.
The weak glow seeping from the flickering bulbs above them bathed everything in a dim light, barely enough to make out the piles of abandoned crates and boxes that lined the shelves. Izuku blanched at the sheer mass of trinkets and gadgets, bringing a hand to tug at his lip as he surveyed the unit...this would take awhile.
It was beginning to look like he should have gotten a hall pass.
“Midnight, Midnight, Midnight...Mi...Might! All Might!”
Izuku pumped a fist in the air. After a solid five minutes of navigating Nezu’s painfully convoluted naming system, he had finally found the shelf dedicated to All Might’s belongings. His hand came back down to fall over his eyes in mock frustration. Remind me to tell Principal that “Last Name, First Name” order doesn’t really work on heroes.
He had hardly been able to suppress a giggle after stumbling upon the tag that read “Might, All”—it was like reading a grade school attendance sheet. Regardless, he was here now, and that meant grabbing the papers and going before he could miss too much of third period.
Izuku eyed the crowded shelf in front of him, struggling to make out the different boxes under the dim light. He reached out for a small one to his left and peeled open the lid. A stack of old paperwork stared back at him.
“Nope,” he muttered as he resealed the box. His hands grasped for a second one wedged between two piles of rusting armor. Old support gear, probably. He resisted the urge to take a closer look as he maneuvered the box towards him and peered into it. No luck, just a jumble of dulling medals from previous sports festivals. It was taking all of Izuku’s resolve not to waste precious class time fanboying over the artifacts from All Might’s career.
It was all right here, and he couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t volunteer for cleaning duty more often. The place sure could use a good dusting, anyways, and he sure wouldn’t mind getting some extra time to look over all the collector’s items that were just lying around—
Izuku shook his head, sending more tiny clouds of dust billowing into the air with the motion. Focus!
He grasped a thick manila envelope that had been sitting to his right on the shelf. After fumbling with the clasp, he tilted his neck to see inside. A dense bundle of newspaper clippings were nestled tightly within the paper. Izuku cheered to himself, resealing the envelope and tucking it protectively under his arm, hastily rearranging the boxes he’d disturbed in his search. Mission accomplished!
He spun on his heel towards the platform, readying himself for the trip back up until a faint glint shone in his peripheral. Izuku craned his neck slightly until he could make out what it was. The fading light was hardly enough to illuminate the metal latches that stuck out from the back corner of the shelf, but suddenly Izuku became aware that they were indeed there. He retraced his steps until he stood directly in front of the rack, squinting.
“Hard to see…” he murmured as he stuck an arm into the cluster of crates, feeling for the metal that had caught his eye. He traced his hands to a large box in the very back of the shelf and, shoving his other arm into the pile to bear its weight, dragged it out and set it at his feet. It met the floor with a soft crunch, its contents settling after the movement. Izuku bit his lip.
Did I break something already? He shifted onto his knees as he bent over to undo the metal clasps that sealed the lid shut, and with a final heave the thin metal top flipped open.
All at once, Izuku keeled over onto the concrete flooring, gripped by a coughing fit that racked his lungs and shook his shoulders. A massive cloud of dust had burst from the box, thickening every breath he took in as he fought for air. He wiped at his mouth and then his eyes, because oh God it was in his eyes, frantically trying to clear his vision. A minute passed and the particles clogging the air finally began to disperse, leaving Izuku heaving and hunched over the open case.
“What...the hell...was that?”
He made a weak attempt at clearing his throat, rubbing his sleeve over his eyes and blinking furiously as he let his tears filter out the dust that remained. Taking one more deep breath, Izuku cautiously leaned forward to peer at the contents now exposed in front of him. Mangled pipes conjoined themselves to a rusting ventilator, and dark shards splintered the opaque glass that formed some kind of misshapen helmet. Izuku’s eyes narrowed as he made out the vague pattern of a twisted face imprinted onto the surface. His eyes widened.
His mouth did, too.
And suddenly it felt like every part of him was expanding, his chest filling with air and his fingers splayed out in front of his eyes in a hopeless effort to shield what sat so innocuously before him because he knew this face and this face knew him, had bored into him between piles of rubble at Kamino and given him visions of death that Izuku still revisited in his nightmares.
He knew who this was and before his mind could catch up with him it exploded in a cloudburst of blinding pain, bringing Izuku’s body the rest of the way down to meet the floor as he clutched feverishly at his head.
Danger Danger Danger Danger Danger—
Viridescent eyes stared helplessly at the concrete, pleading for help it could not give as his consciousness was overtaken by a single thought.
dangerdangerdangerdangerdanger—
The last of the weak light in Izuku’s vision faded, and everything went fully, truly, blissfully dark.
It would be the last time for a while that he would welcome the darkness.
He steadily regained awareness, felt his mouth still wedged into a silent scream even as the voice ebbed away, leaving behind a faint ringing in his ears as he pressed his forehead into the cool surface below him. He sucked in a few deep breaths through his teeth, mindful of the dust that still lingered in the air. The front of his head felt as if it had been cleaved down the center. White-hot pain radiated throughout his temples.
“Haaah…”
Izuku’s eyes fluttered back open as he slowly peeled himself off the floor. He raised his head slightly and his gaze made contact with the box, the mask within it taunting him as it lay open in its case. The longer he looked at it, the fiercer the pulsing in his head became.
In one shaky motion Izuku slammed the clasps shut before his mind could threaten to give out a second time. He swiveled his head, searching desperately for...for something. He had been sent down here to get something. Something for All Might.
All Might.
The comforting thought of his hero cleared the rest of his thoughts, and in no time at all Izuku located the envelope that had been thrown aside in the confusion. Collecting the scattered papers with trembling hands, he shakily resealed the packet and stood up. God knew how long he might’ve been out; he had to get out of here. Now.
Without sparing a second glance at the case still resting innocently on the floor, Izuku made his way to the stairs and started climbing. For the first few dozen steps, he focused on getting his breathing under control. The next dozen were spent dusting off his uniform. The final incline dried his tears and combed his hair. By the time he clasped the door’s handle, Izuku felt ready to face the world again. Almost.
He turned the handle and braced himself for the flood of fluorescent light that pulled him from the passage and into the hall, blinking hard as he struggled to readjust to how bright the school was—how clean it was. The storage unit had felt like a realm of its own in comparison. Giving his clothes one final dusting, he started off to the first years’ wing. Hopefully, he hadn’t missed too much while he was out.
He had been mid-lecture when the door to the classroom slid open, a grating squeak along the floor betraying the small figure hidden behind it. Toshinori turned his head expectantly, only for his half-smile to dissipate as soon as he caught sight of his student: hunched over, the light tremble coursing through him sending waves of dust rolling off his uniform as he clutched a small manila envelope to his chest as if it would fly out of his grasp at any moment.
Toshinori watched as Midoriya slowly made his way to the front of the room, arm outstretched to hand off the packet. He must have known all eyes were on him, given the look on his face. A look that told the world he’d like to turn to dust right about now.
Toshinori was about to open his mouth until Midoriya spoke first, his words hushed and frantic.
“I’m very sorry. I got, uh, a bit lost on the way there…” his student bowed quickly before scurrying back to his seat, accidentally knocking over a small stack of notes on Bakugo’s desk in the process.
“Oi, you idiot! Watch where you’re going!” Midoriya didn’t flinch but lurched at the sound, shoulders hiking up as he tensed and bent over to collect the sheets fluttering to the ground. Evidently, Toshinori wasn’t the only one who noticed. Bakugo rolled his eyes and leaned down to snatch at the last of them.
“Just move on, nerd. I don’t need your help to pick up some damn papers.” The glare that accompanied it was enough to make Midoriya promptly take his seat. The tension somewhat broken, Uraraka piped up from the back of the classroom.
“Whoa, Deku! Looks like you picked up some new freckles on the way back, huh?”
Flustered, Midoriya’s hands jumped up to pat at his face. More dust immediately coated his palms, and the entire room erupted in laughter. Toshinori stifled his own chuckle, all the while keeping an eye on his student. Midoriya managed a small smile, still wiping away at his cheek as his classmates began to quiet. Somewhat reassured, Toshinori cleared his throat.
“Now about these newspapers. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the Heroes Press Act, preventing the disclosure of private quirk data in journalism…”
The lesson droned on, broken up only by the occasional shuffling of papers as Toshinori sampled one article after another. As monotonous as the lecture was, he was almost grateful for it. This way, he could check up on Midoriya as often as possible in between headlines, trying to discern what was bothering his successor. His heart broke a little when he realized the boy wasn’t paying half as much attention to the lesson, getting himself to appear alert only for his gaze to dart towards the doorway or some undefined spot in the distance.
Toshinori watched this cycle repeat itself for the next thirty minutes, until the clamor of the lunch bell seemed to rouse Midoriya from his stupor. He waited until most of the class had filtered out to catch the boy’s arm. The tiny flinch he let slip as Toshinori touched his arm nearly broke the hero’s heart the rest of the way.
“Young Midoriya. Are you free during lunch?” Midoriya gave a sheepish nod.
“Good. Would you like to join me?”
For the first time since his first day at U.A., All Might’s office felt cramped. Typically, Izuku would feel miniscule compared to the large furniture and high ceilings made to accommodate All Might’s lengthy frame. But now, the room felt suffocating. He stared down at his food, trying to suppress the anxiety mounting in his gut.
“...something happened?”
Izuku’s head shot up, suddenly registering that he was being spoken to. All Might chuckled softly.
“Don’t look so scared, my boy. I only asked if something had happened this morning. You seemed…” He maneuvered his chopsticks in the air, searching for the right word. “On edge, is all. ‘Jumping at shadows’, if that makes sense?”
Izuku flushed, rubbing at the back of his neck. So it had been that obvious. He cursed himself internally before opening his mouth to respond.
“Yeah, I guess it was just a longer trip than I thought…” He twisted his hands together, folding and unfolding them as a question unfurled itself on his tongue.
“Why...why did you keep it?”
All Might cocked his head to the side, placing the piece of fruit he had brought to his mouth back into its container.
“Keep what?”
Izuku hung his head, regret already pooling in his stomach. He shouldnt’ve asked. What if it was a personal thing? Did Izuku really have any right to know why All Might would keep—
His lips moved before his hands could stifle them, the rest of the question spilling out faster than his guilt could catch up to it.
“That mask. It was...it was All For One’s, right? So why keep something like that?” Why keep something so terrifying?
Rather than the look of consternation Izuku had been expecting, All Might gave a small grin and leaned back in his chair. He placed his food to the side and clasped his hands together, seemingly mulling something over before he leaned forward to address Izuku.
“So that’s what you were worried about. I should have known you’d find more than you were supposed to down there.” Izuku’s face shone scarlet, and All Might waved it off. “To be completely honest with you, I had almost forgotten it was still there.”
The boy gaped. He wasn’t sure if the image of that mask would be something he’d ever be able to just forget. All Might must have caught the his expression because he reached over to pat his shoulder.
“Kamino was...let’s see, three months ago? Four? Yes, there was a time when I couldn’t bring myself to look at it. But as life went on, I started seeing it more as a symbol of hope rather than despair. I thought, ‘I won that fight, and this is what I have to show for it.’ And as long as All For One has been gone, I don’t feel so afraid anymore.” He cast a sympathetic glance at Izuku. “Does that make sense?”
Izuku nodded, his eyes trailing off to the corner of the room.
“But how do you know he’s really gone? Back at Kamino, wasn’t he…” Izuku made a swirling motion with his crooked finger, and All Might dipped his head in agreement.
“Yes, it’s true that he was warped away before I could detain him. That Kurogiri sure did prove to be a troublemaker, regaining consciousness just as I was about to—”
To finish the job. The words remained unspoken, but Izuku’s mind supplied the answer for him.
“—to end the fight. However, there’s no need for concern, my boy. It’s been speculated that he may not have survived without the medical attention that I received afterwards. Either that, or perhaps he had been weakened to the point where his body could no longer support its inventory of quirks…”
All Might tapped a finger for each outcome, a surprisingly casual method for listing all of the ways his nemesis could have finally died.
“And even if neither of those are true, the League has been dormant for several months aside from minor collaborations with local gangs and a few loose Nomu. Nothing of the caliber that would suggest All For One is still heading the organization.”
All Might faced Izuku once again with a reassuring smile. Izuku’s own shone back. Being in his mentor’s presence always tended to ease his nerves. It had been that awful doubt again, gnawing at his insides and making him question what All Might had told him countless times before.
He massaged the back of his head in an attempt to rub away his anxious thoughts as well as his lingering headache. Had he really inhaled that much dust? It had sure made him feel like his head was splitting earlier, whatever that had been. Maybe he ought to do some extra research on allergens later tonight....
Pulling himself from his thoughts, Izuku packed up his lunch and rose to thank All Might for his time.
“Anytime, Young Midoriya.” His teacher’s hand was dry and warm as Izuku shook it. He smiled up at him one last time before collecting his backpack and setting out into the hall.
Izuku had hardly noticed the massive shadow cast by a student with a gigantification quirk until he was passing right through it, the light bathing him from the windows suddenly dimming when he walked on by. He wouldn’t remember how his entire body had tensed as soon as the light left him, if only for a moment. And if someone had asked, he would deny how he had purposefully maneuvered around every passing shadow afterward.
But if they had asked All Might, as he watched his student dodge every patch of darkness in his path, he would have told them that he thought something was wrong.
Izuku couldn’t sleep.
The rest of the afternoon had passed unceremoniously, save for Izuku’s growing tension as the sun had begun to fade from view.
He had always loved twilight, the end of the day signaling all the time for hero analysis he could want. That, and it had been the furthest from the start of another hellish day of middle school, but that was beside the point. As he’d watched the afternoon glow wane from his dorm room window, he couldn’t seem to escape the feeling of trepidation creeping up his chest.
Now, as he stared blankly at his ceiling, the vague anxiety had morphed into fearful certanity. He couldn’t stop his eyes from flitting back and forth from the window, the door, the corner, and back again in a vicious cycle.
He squeezed his eyes shut, laying an arm across his face in equal parts anger and exhaustion. Had the trip to the basement messed him up that badly? Sure, his fit of whatever-it-was had hurt, but he’d been through worse. What kind of hero couldn’t deal with that?
What kind of hero was scared of the dark?
He dragged a hand down his face, finally letting his arm fall back to his side. Izuku opened his eyes.
This time, when he checked the corner, his gaze lingered.
Someone was there.
It felt as if his heart leapt so far in his chest that the rest of his body had been pulled up with him. The faint ache in his mind from earlier had returned with a vengeance, his head practically splitting as a voice that wasn’t his screamed over the blood roaring in his ears.
Danger Danger Danger Danger Danger Danger—
He was upright in seconds, eyes bolted to the left corner of his room. A stray beam of moonlight caught the edge of a metal tube. The light from the tube illuminated the ventilator it was attached to, and its reflection gleamed softly on the glass curve of a mask that was slowly emerging from shadow. The moon seemed to fill the ghostly pattern on the face with its glow.
For one moment, Izuku was frozen. It felt as if his body was on the moon itself, oddly weightless and yet impossibly heavy at the same time. For one moment, Izuku couldn’t move.
Then his body moved before he could think.
Green static filled the room as he lunged for the wall, hurtling towards All For One with all the speed eight percent could offer without destroying his dorm in the process. Arms outstretched, he prepared to grapple with the villain at the moment of contact.
No time to let him activate any quirks. Gotta restrain him here, now, before he can get to anyone else. Oh God, has he gotten to anyone else? Why is he here? How is he here? How did he get in without any alarms sounding? Does he have a cloaking quirk? Did he —
The impact of hitting a wall rather than a human being knocked Izuku’s head back, cutting off his panicked thoughts as his brain blanked from the force of the collision. He dragged his head back up, leveling it with his shoulders once again as he felt for his surroundings.
“Where is he?” he whispered breathlessly, stretching his arm out to touch the empy wall in front of him.
Well, mostly empty, save for a brand-new dent from where his face had met plaster. The figure that had materialized from the shadows seconds earlier had vanished. Izuku held his pounding head in his hands, muttering fervently to himself as he rocked on the carpet.
“Did he really get a new cloaking quirk that allowed him to bypass security? How did he disappear so quickly? Was he warped again? Is it a teleportation quirk? Why did he come here? For All Might? For us students?” He gulped.
“For me?”
A harsh light suddenly bathed his room as the door creaked open, a body cast in darkness from the fluorescent lights of the hall behind them looming behind it. Izuku clapped a hand to his mouth, stifling a scream.
“...Midoriya?”
The body wandered cautiously past the doorframe, pausing to acknowledge the concave portion of the wall beside them, still crumbling from the impact.
“I heard something from next door...are you alright?”
Izuku’s eyes widened, taking in the swoop of blonde hair and slight twinkle in eyes that looked on worriedly. Oh, it’s only Aoyama. He released a shaky breath, managing to stand steadily for a moment before making sure to flick on the lights on his way back to bed.
“Yeah. It’s nothing, Aoyama. Sorry about the noise.”
Every nerve in Izuku’s body was straining for him to warn his classmate about what had just happened. Who had just happened. He wrung his hands together, trying to process his thoughts as his head reeled.
But what if All For One wasn’t really there? All Might himself said he hadn’t made an appearance in months. He’s probably dead in a ditch somewhere, anyways. Izuku chewed on his lower lip. I don’t want to scare Aoyama just because I can’t seem to cope with it...
The blonde continued to peer in anxiously as Izuku muttered to himself, eyeing the dent that had awakened him from his beauty rest to begin with. He was about to interject a third time before Midoriya cut him off, waving his hands in front of his freckled face and sputtering something about jumping at shadows.
“—really, Aoyama, I’m fine! I’m sorry about waking you up...it won’t happen again, I swear.”
Aoyama nodded, lingering concern for his friend still eating at his heart. As much as he wanted to pry, he understood that Midoriya was one to prefer working things out alone. Still, though, he resolved to check if he still had Mr. Aizawa’s number on speed dial once he returned to his own room. Aoyama offered a slightly-less-dazzling-than-usual smile.
“If you’re certain, then I’ll be on my way.”
Aoyama’s nimble fingers reached for the switch next to the doorframe, hastily flipping it to “off.” Izuku had been too focused on his own intertwined fingers to see it happen—and suddenly, he saw nothing.
Then, he saw everything at once.
The dark dropped over his vision like a heavy shutter, encasing his eyes in shadow. It took only moments for the moonlight from earlier to be replaced by the thin shreds of light seeping from the door, shooting their way through the blackness and shaping into that familiar face. Tendrils of soft glow wove themselves into hardened coils, morphed into grasping fingers poised for Izuku’s neck.
This darkness was choking him, shadows sealing up his throat as he gasped for air.
“A-Aoyama...light...”
Aoyama froze, a single slipper extended into the hall mid-step as he cocked his head to the side.
“What was that?”
“L-light...back... o-on.” A pause, followed by a shuddering cough. “Ple-ease.”
Spurred by the wretched sound, the boy’s hand shot up from his side and in one swift motion flooded the room with light once again. He pivoted to see his classmate keeled over in bed, chest heaving as he took in air. Aoyama rushed to his side.
“Midoriya! Are you-” he fumbled with his hands, unsure if it was safe to make contact. He settled for resting his hand next to where his classmate’s clutched the comforter. “Are you alright?”
Izuku turned his head slightly to face him, the corner of his mouth twitching into a shaky smile. He raised a trembling arm to pat Aoyama’s shoulder. More weight than Aoyama was expecting bore into him, and he braced himself to hold it. He stifled a surprised squeak; Midoriya was among one of the least welcome to touch among their class. Aoyama hadn’t been able to recognize the gesture right away, but upon shifting his weight to better accommodate his friend’s grasp, he began to understand.
Reaching out hadn’t been for Aoyama’s sake—rather, it was the first time Aoyama knew of where Midoriya had sought help for his own. Had it not been for the circumstances, Aoyama might have shone a bit brighter at the thought.
But of course, his friend was going to play it off as if it were nothing.
“It’s okay. Just-” Another cough. “-allergies.” Aoyama’s figure blurred back into focus in Izuku’s vision. “Yeah. Those.”
Aoyama tilted his head in bewilderment.
“I’ve never heard of allergies induced by darkness, Midoriya…”
Izuku’s tight frame unfurled as he sat himself upright, hand flinching away from his classmate’s shoulder and already headed for the back of his neck to rub at it in that familiar uneasy motion. Whether his face burned a bright red due to embarrassment or lack of oxygen, Aoyama didn't know.
“Uh-huh! It’s like, uh, seasonal…like when you sneeze after stepping into sunlight? Something like that…” He turned to the blonde with an apologetic look on his face, his chest still hitching in cadence with his shallow breaths. “I’m sorry, but...could you…?”
Aoyama started, realizing all at once that the other hand being held tightly in his grasp wasn’t his own.
He flushed, retracting it as quickly as it had reached out—had he done it unconsciously? Was that all he’d been able to think of as he watched his friend struggle? He guided his hand back to his side and stood, lacing his fingers together anxiously as if they would reach out on their own a second time.
“My-my apologies! I didn’t see that I had, erm, done that.” He faced the floor, casting his own scarlet in shadow. “I think—I think I’ll be going now. That is, if you’re really alright.” Izuku took a deep breath, the first he had been able to manage in minutes. His smile was no less strained than his breathing as he nodded.
“Yeah, okay. And Aoyama—”
Aoyama paused in the doorframe, his back to the other dorms. Behind him, the fluorescent lights in the hall cast a deep shadow, the boy’s elongated figure spilling onto Izuku’s carpet like a creeping stain of ink. Izuku swallowed. Hard.
“Could you...leave the lights on for me this time?”
Aoyama offered a sympathetic smile, keeping his hands in Izuku’s line of sight as he made a show of placing them behind his back.
“Of course, mon amie. I’ll leave them on.” He struggled to keep his smile from turning to a grimace as he caught the look on Izuku’s face. It reminded him of a small animal that had just avoided being hit. Aoyama turned to face the hall before his expression could break.
He had always known Izuku’s shine was strong, but he could never have imagined that his friend would become so afraid of the shadows his own light cast.
Several hours later, Izuku remained painfully awake as he rewound the night’s events over and over in his mind until he thought he’d be sick. When he finally was, he returned from the bathroom only to curl into himself on his bed and stand vigil until morning.
His eyes didn’t leave the corner until the sun’s first rays ate away at the shadows, the morning light reflecting in Izuku’s glassy stare. It was going to be a long day, and at the thought Izuku shifted and sighed. That was good.
Anything to keep the dark at bay.
Notes:
Thank you so much for reading! And I'm sorry for this, Izuku :,)
Have a wonderful day!
Chapter 2: Dusk
Notes:
Tags and chapter count have been updated! :) Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Whoa, dude. Did Bakugo invite you out to Ground Beta again, or…? You look pretty beat up.”
Izuku dodged Kaminari’s futile attempts at getting a better look at his face, a good chunk of which had bloomed a deep purple overnight. Unfortunately for him, the only shadow the sun couldn’t have erased was the one bruising over his forehead. The irony made Izuku want to gag.
“I’m fine, Kaminari. A couple of my notebooks fell while I was reaching for them last night.” He made a halfhearted jab at his cheek. “One just met me on the way down, I guess.”
His classmate thought for a moment, then clapped a hand on Izuku’s shoulder as realization dawned on him.
“So that’s what that noise was! Man, I should’ve guessed it sooner!” Kaminari’s expression sobered. “I’ve seen you lug those around campus, dude. They look heavy enough to kill someone. Glad you’re still with us!”
Yeah, Izuku thought, feigning a smile and weaseling out from under his friend’s arm. If only it was just me who was still with us.
He turned back to Kaminari, stammering something about grabbing something from the kitchen before weaving his way through the commons, keeping the wall to his side in case he needed something to hide behind to avoid any more questioning. He resolved to put as much distance as possible between himself and the night before; the last thing Izuku needed was to make his classmates worry over nothing.
Hadn’t they been through enough already?
He nodded to himself as he wove his way into the kitchen, carefully navigating the mess Kirishima and his daily protein shakes had left behind.
Right. No one needed to know. He could just slip in, grab an ice pack from the freezer, and slip out before homeroom. It was a good thing their class kept them handy—one of Todoroki’s weekly chores was restocking the refrigerator with ice to use after training. Eventually, Yaoyorozu had contributed her own homemade cold packs to the fridge, providing them with an infinite source of animal-themed wound care.
Izuku leaned into the freezer, grabbing a small green lump coated with frosted condensation. Straightening himself, he looked down at the pack, a smiling frog beaming innocently up at him as droplets of water rolled off into his palm. The warmth of his fingers ebbed away as a comforting numbness replaced it.
Izuku smiled back.
Today would be better. It had to be.
The short walk from Heights Alliance to the main campus gave Izuku the chance to feel fully present for the first time in what felt like ages. The sunrise illuminated every step in his path, the only darkness contained within the faint shadows cast by the three of them as they made their way to class. Izuku let his tension ease with the flow of Uraraka and Iida’s conversation as they reviewed their training from the day before.
“What about you, Deku? You think today’s gonna be search-and-rescue too?”
“Huh?” Izuku tore his gaze away from the brightening horizon, scrambling to remember where they’d been in the conversation before he’d spaced out. “I, uh, dunno. I thought Mr. Aizawa said we were doing combat today?”
Uraraka giggled, nudging his shoulder affectionately.
“Boy, you’re sure enjoying the sunny weather, huh? Are you photosynthesizing or something?”
“Uraraka! You should know that humans are not capable of photosynthesis!” Iida’s forearms swung stiffly through the air, chopping at the rays of light streaming through the trees. “Glucose production is performed in the liver. And besides,” he intoned, adjusting his glasses. “Midoriya does not contain chlorophyll.”
Uraraka reached up to ruffle Izuku’s green hair.
“Sure he does! See?”
The three of them burst into laughter, Iida’s chuckles somewhat interrupted by his offers to lend Uraraka his biology notes. She playfully swatted them away. Izuku slowed, his own laughter dwindling as hung back to watch their banter.
It felt good, being around his friends again. Seeing them made the memories from the night before pale and blur in his mind, that awful choking feeling slipping away as the morning breeze filled his chest to replace it. He stepped forward, motioning to rejoin the other two until a faint flash of light appeared to his right.
Izuku pivoted, tracing the path of the sidewalk with his eyes back to an alley nestled between two dormitories.
A faint whisper nagged at him, the dormant throb in his temples threatening to return with every step.
“Hey, Deku...?”
It was a small space, hardly big enough to fit the cans of trash crammed between the walls. Still, Izuku squinted, straining to make out the thin piece of metal that had caught the edge of the light. He inched closer down the path, the shade of the alleyway obscuring his vision until he stood directly in front of the passage.
His narrowed eyes flew open as Izuku clapped a hand to his mouth. A mangled tube dangled from the trash, its other end attached to a chunk of black glass. The rest was concealed by the lid of the can. He’d seen the glint of that metal before—when it had been the moon, not the sun, that had drawn his eye.
His consciousness delivered the word along with a single aching pulse.
Danger.
“Midoriya?”
Izuku turned his back on the alley, gripping the straps of his backpack with bone-white knuckles.
I will not lift that lid. I can’t.
He shook his head violently, trying in vain to purge the image from his mind.
Because if I do, I know exactly what I’ll find.
He stumbled back to his friends, who had stopped in their tracks when Iida had turned to find that Izuku was no longer behind them. Uraraka gave him a once-over, her short brows furrowing in concern.
“Are you okay?”
Iida joined her, shaking his head solemnly.
“Midoriya, you know better than to break our formation for such distractions! We’ll be lucky if we can still arrive fifteen minutes early!”
Izuku hung his head, loosening his grip on his bag as he rubbed at his neck.
“I’m sorry, guys. I...thought I saw something. That’s all.”
Iida huffed, his steady gait shifting to a light jog as he made way for the main building. The two others took their cues, keeping pace with him as they ran. Uraraka faced Izuku with a nervous chuckle.
“Sorry about this. You know how he likes to keep a schedule.” She transferred her weight, leaning in closer to him as she placed a hand beside her mouth to whisper.
“But seriously, what was that?”
Izuku flushed, the sudden morning run contributing only partly to the redness spreading across his cheeks. There’s no way I can tell her. They already probably think I’m crazy for chasing after trash.
“Really, it’s nothing. Just thought there was some litter I could pick up, stuff like that.” He forced a smile. “That’s what a hero would do, right?”
Uraraka brightened, her tension loosening as she allowed for some distance between herself and Izuku.
“Yeah, you’re probably right! I should have expected that, honestly…” her footfalls sped up ever so slightly as she turned to address him again. “Always thinking of being a hero, huh?”
Izuku bobbed his head in time with his own steps. Uraraka smiled.
“But next time, let’s save the community service for after class, okay?” She jabbed a thumb ahead of her, where Iida had become dangerously close to breaching mach five as he rocketed towards the lockers.
Izuku looked onward and grinned, shooting Uraraka a competitive smirk as he let the tiniest stream of One For All enter his veins. The laces of his sneakers floated upwards with the prickling static. His classmate caught on, matching his moves with a quick tap to the soles of her shoes.
“Oh, you are on.”
The two shot off down the sidewalk, each fighting to outrun the other until they both stumbled into the locker room at once, giggling and out of breath. Iida looked on from his place at his own locker, smiling softly to himself before striding over to lecture them about appropriate quirk use on school grounds.
After reassuring the class rep that it wouldn’t happen again, Izuku shuffled over to his own locker, fumbling with the combination until it swung open with a mechanical whine. He began to shove his training shoes inside until they met with a hard lump in the back of the cupboard.
Huh. They won’t fit. Did I leave something else in here overnight, or…?
He dipped his head into the dark cupboard, leaning in to clear the blockage before suddenly shooting back upright and slamming the locker closed with a resounding 'CLANG'.
A few of his classmates jumped at the sound, turning in surprise as Izuku hauled his bag over his shoulder and stormed out of the room.
He didn’t slow down until he was nearly at the entrance of the educational wing, skidding to a stop only to turn and press his head against the wall.
Please. His forehead met the tile with a dull thud after every word. Please, not again.
He stared down at the floor beneath him, the corners of his eyes stinging with tears. How long could he keep this up? How many times would he have to see that face glaring back at his own? See his own fear fragmented in front of him through opaque glass and curling rods?
He closed his eyes again and sighed, clenching his fist as he pushed off of the wall. Adjusting himself, he set off towards the classroom, taking every moment he could to recollect his thoughts.
I’ll be fine. All I have to do is follow the light.
He caught up to Uraraka and Iida, who had been about to step through the door as they caught sight of him. Uraraka waved him over, and Izuku rushed to meet them.
For now, that light was his friends. And as Izuku crossed into a class full of them, he stood a little taller. All he had to do was make sure that light didn’t go out.
The sun’s glare hadn’t let up as Izuku and nineteen other students stood gathered on the pavilion. The undercurrents of multiple hushed conversations ran through the crowd as the class waited for their assigned training exercise of the day.
‘Report to Ground Gamma in five minutes. Any student who is late will be expelled immediately.’
Much like his friends, Izuku hadn’t regarded the note tacked to their classroom door with much surprise. It was typical of Mr. Aizawa to leave cryptic messages like that one rather than present the news himself; his value of all things rational didn’t leave much room for the convenience of his students.
Still, though, it didn’t seem especially rational to Izuku for his teacher to be late, and he almost began to regret celebrating the weather as he tugged at the collar of his suit.
A few more minutes had passed until another wave of voices collided with their own. Perking up, Izuku strained to see the mass of people advancing to the grounds from the opposite end of the pavilion.
“Hey, isn’t that—”
His sentence was severed by an obnoxious cry coming from the other class, Monoma shoving his way to the front of the pack to jeer at them.
“Class 1-B has arrived! Hey, 1-A, I bet you already regret coming all the way out here just to get your asses handed to you, huh—”
A quick chop from Kendo’s enlarged fist cut off Monoma’s remark, his body falling comedically limp as Shiozaki extended a vine to catch him. Izuku surveyed their competitors amid giggles from their group, rattling off names and quirks in his head until he caught sight of a familiar shock of purple.
Shinso’s here too? I wonder why...
Before he could find the answer for himself, Vlad King and Mr. Aizawa emerged from the group, taking their places at the front of the platform as the classes quieted. Shielding his bloodshot eyes from the harsh light, Aizawa addressed the restless mass before him.
“Today, our focus will be on combat. Vlad and I have arranged a joint training exercise for both classes to participate in. That means you’ll all be expected to be on your best behavior.”
Flickering sparks erupted from somewhere to Izuku’s left, and Monoma let out an affirmative groan from the other group. Vlad King stepped forward to take Aizawa’s place.
“We’ll be splitting you all up into five teams from each class, with four students each. Each round will pit two teams from the opposing classes against each other. The rules are simple: capture as many members of the other team as possible and deposit them in ‘jail.’ You’ll have twenty minutes to complete the exercise. The side with the most members remaining wins.”
After a curt nod from Vlad, Aizawa spoke up again.
“We’ll also be including one extra participant for today’s practice. Hitoshi Shinso will be rotating teams throughout the exercise. This training will be his first encounter outside of general studies, so I expect that you’ll all show him what it means to be a hero course student.”
The undercurrent of excitement had grown to a deafening buzz, students already coming up with matchups and recruiting teammates for the upcoming battles. Izuku tugged at his lip. Ideally, I could match up with Uraraka since her quirk allows her to float over the terrain. Then of course there’s Shinso’s brainwashing...Ashido’s reflexes could also come in ha—
Vlad made a show of clearing his throat, bringing all conversation to a grinding halt. He shared a glance with Aizawa.
“As I said, we’ll be picking your teams. Save all of that energy for when you start your own agencies, but for today we’re calling the shots.”
Aizawa approached their class, pulling a list from his pocket as he prepared to read off names in spite of the protests sprouting from all sides.
“I’ll be reading off the teams for Class A. On team one, we have Asui, Kaminari, Kirishima, Koda, and Shinso. Team two will be Tokoyami, Aoyama, Yaoyorozu, and Midoriya. Team three is Todoroki, Iida, Shoji, and Ojiro. Team four is Bakugo, Sero, Jiro, and Sato, and team five has Uraraka, Mineta, Hagakure, and Ashido.” He looked up from his paper.
“That will be all. Team one has five minutes to prepare before the first battle starts.”
Izuku darted from one cluster of students to the next, searching for his teammates so that they could begin strategizing in advance. The flutter of Yaoyorozu’s cape drew him to where the other three had already gathered, and he took a seat next to them.
“Has anyone heard who we’re up against?”
Tokoyami raised a pale hand.
“From what I’ve gathered, it’ll be a match against Kendo, Fukidashi, Komori, and Kuroiro.”
Izuku rested his chin in his palm in an effort to remember their names—more importantly, the quirks attached to them.
“Komori’s got her mushrooms, I think. There’s Kendo’s Big Fist, of course...I’ve never seen Fukidashi’s quirk in action, but I’ve heard about it a bit from other students…” He ticked off the names on one hand, then turned to his team. “Anything else?”
Yaoyorozu briefly raised a hand before adding on.
“Kuroiro’s quirk is Black, if I remember correctly. It allows him to merge with dark substances. I watched him use it during the obstacle race at the sports festival.”
Izuku brightened, head bobbing back up as his memory supplied the rest.
“Right! I know what you mean.” He made a mental note to update his analysis notebooks after the exercise. He’d have to put aside an hour or two tonight just for making new entries—his face lit up at the thought.
The drone of the speaker cut their planning off as Vlad King's voice reverberated throughout the grounds.
“Battle one, start!”
Izuku could hardly tear himself away from the footage of the first match as Aoyama tried to get him to regroup with their teammates. He folded his notebook shut, reluctantly stowing it away as he prepared for his own battle. He could ask Kaminari and the others about it later.
Even as Izuku stared longingly at the screen projecting the end of the match, he couldn’t deny his own excitement as he and the others made a final run-through of their strategy. As they approached the battleground, Yaoyorozu formed a huddle, briefing them a final time on their assigned roles as the timer ticked closer and closer to zero.
“Right. Tokoyami, you and Dark Shadow will be scouting. Aoyama and Midorya, you two should remain in the clearing in case Kuroiro decides to target them. When Dark Shadow reports back, we’ll split up accordingly to handle the other three.”
The four of them could hardly nod in agreement before an ear-splitting wail echoed throughout the grounds, signaling the start of the second battle. The timer projected onto the monitoring screen reset itself, a glowing twenty flashing before them as the clock began running.
Dark Shadow burst forth from Tokoyami’s stationary figure, careening over the network of pipes and buildings in his search of their opponents. Izuku, Aoyama, and Yaoyorozu formed a protective barrier around him, One For All already seeping into Izuku’s system as they waited for an advance from Class B.
His eyes darted from one spot in the clearing to the next, tracking every movement and glint of metal he could find.
A faint ‘pop’ in the distance caught his attention, his head whipping around to spot a tiny growth erupting out of one of the ducts. Another followed, and then another, until a wave of fungi was rushing towards their group, the sound of a thousand miniature ‘pops’ filling the air.
“It’s Komori!” Yaoyorozu shouted, turning on her heel to dodge the pile of mushrooms that had been about to creep up her ankle. Without hesitation, she began producing canisters of disinfectant from her skin, tossing them to each of her teammates before securing one for herself.
“Use these if the mushrooms get too invasive. These canisters don’t hold much, so use them sparingly.” Yaoyorozu turned to her team with a determined gleam in her eye.
“I’ll track down where they started sprouting. Where there’s Komori, the rest of her teammates won’t be far behind since she’s a weak offensive fighter.” She looked at Izuku. “Midoriya, you should come with me since you have the greatest mobility.”
He blinked in agreement. With a final nod, he and Yaoyorozu darted forwards along the path of fungi, Yaoyorozu clearing her way with the spray as Izuku bounded over the patches of growth under his soles.
He tried his best to ignore the sensation of tiny fungi sprouting on his suit and gauntlets, brushing them off every time they approached his skin. As he cleared them away, a steady rumbling caused the clusters of mushrooms along the ground to vibrate.
He shot a look at Yaoyorozu, who shrugged her shoulders in turn. Touching back down, Izuku stumbled as his iron cleats met the trembling concrete.
“What’s that?!” he called over the mounting din. His teammate stopped beside him, both students racking their brains for the answer.
A massive fissure erupted in front of them, sending fractures sprawling across the ground until the tip of a concrete construct breached the floor. Izuku leapt backwards, using Yaoyorozu’s cape to yank her away from the debris.
“Midori—huh?”
They gaped at the hulking mass of stone rising slowly upward, the characters for “quake” materializing out of the ground in front of them. Izuku drew back his leg, leaping forward to smash through the wall of words. Stone splintered like glass as he landed on the other side of the barrier, Yaoyorozu following close behind. He spun to face her.
“That’s gotta be Fukidashi’s quirk. He’s probably trying to stop us from following Komori.”
Yaoyorozu’s lips thinned into a grim smile.
“If they’re guarding this path that heavily, it must mean we’re getting close to their base.” She searched the mass of pipes and chutes around them. “No sign of Kendo or Kuroiro yet, either. We should regroup with the others as soon as possible.”
Izuku opened his mouth to reply before another round of quaking made him bite his tongue. He steadied himself, preparing to kick through any new barriers that cropped up until a muted whisper wove its way through the pipes.
“Whoosh, whoosh!”
Before he could react, two vaporous words flew past him, sweeping his teammate off her feet as the wispy characters blew her over and away through the buildings. Izuku charged his legs without thinking, curling into himself to prepare for a leap through the air.
I can still reach her! Gotta use the wind pressure to launch myself over before she gets too high—oh God, she is really high. It’ll be fine, right? Just imagine the egg in the microwave...
His entire body crackled and sparked with energy, pushing off from the cracked ground and shooting through the air until another word materialized from the mock factory in front of him, the hulking ‘THUD’ creating a metal wall reaching far into the sky.
He collided with the letters, a sickening echo reverberating throughout the network of ducts as he was thrown back through the air by his own momentum.
His back made contact with a cushiony ‘BOUNCE’ that had floated up to meet him, ricocheting off the cloud and launching him back over the concrete barrier he had broken through minutes before. He met the ground, skidding across piles of rubble before finally coming to rest near where the first word had appeared.
“Ah, shit.” Izuku could make out a frustrated mutter from somewhere beyond the barrier. Fukidashi? “Sorry about this!”
He hadn’t even begun scraping himself off the ground before more walls encased him, the ground beneath him threatening to give way as a trio of ‘RUMBLES’ tore through the terrain. He squeezed his eyes shut as they merged over his head, conjoining into a jumble of letters that blocked out the sun.
Izuku opened his eyes, shifting his weight back onto his feet as he stood in his stone prison. He coughed, dust and debris still clouding the air as the foundation around him settled.
More dust. Izuku rolled his eyes. Exactly what he needed today.
He sighed and geared up for another kick, aiming for a gap between the characters surrounding him. The moment he was about to release it, another headache racked his body, forcing him to double over.
It’s stronger than this morning, he thought, pressing his hands to his temples. His teeth clenched together, hard.
A lot stronger.
He struggled to regain his footing, the voice he’d known was coming already clawing at his mind with its repeated warnings. Izuku tried in vain to block it out, tried to focus on getting out of there and helping his teammates. He’d become so absorbed in tuning out the noise that he hadn’t realized a second voice was joining in from behind him.
One that wasn’t in his head.
He whirled around, arms already poised in a protective stance over his chest. He strained to see through the pitch dark, listening for a sound other than the faint crumbling of concrete.
“I said, how nice to see you again, Nine.”
Izuku’s arms promptly fell limp at his sides, his heart dropping along with them as a shudder tore through his body.
Suddenly, he didn’t need to see to know who was there.
The darkness before him stepped forward, a shoe swathed in shadow guiding the rest of the figure towards Izuku. His eyes blew wide, tracing the man from the ground upwards until he saw what he’d already known he would see. A familiar face, outlined by shards of ebony glass and winding tubes, stared back at him.
A strangled sound slipped out of Izuku’s throat.
“All For One?”
The man nodded, mottled skin and bits of teeth peeking through the mask as he smiled.
“Of course, Nine. Who else could it be? Although,” he waved a hand at their surroundings, “I had imagined we would meet again under better circumstances.”
Izuku backed against the wall, One For All thrumming in his veins as the voice in his head practically screamed that he should run. That he should hide. That he was in danger, danger, danger.
He sent a wave of energy to his leg for the second time, inching closer to the concrete as he prepared to smash through it and escape. Someone had to be out there. Yaoyorozu, Fukidashi...All Might. Anyone that could help.
But as he lifted his iron sole, All For One beat him to the punch.
The villain’s open palm bulldozed into Izuku’s torso, nearly folding him in half as his back grated into the wall. The pressure between Izuku and the barrier kept building, the weight of All For One’s body pushing through him and into the concrete and oh my God I can feel it, he’s touching me and I can feel it, and before Izuku could fully register what was happening he burst through the other end, the back of his head knocking against rubble with a dull ‘thunk’ as the light from outside burned into his open eyes.
Unlike the night before, Izuku did not get up.
He stared up at the sun that bore down at him, its light bleaching out the corners of his vision as he lay stunned on the concrete. Izuku blinked.
I felt that.
He blinked again.
I felt that.
He rolled onto his side, heaving himself upward. His gaze locked onto his former prison. A gaping hole yawned out of its side, light leaking into the enclosure as bits and pieces of stone tumbled down the edges.
He searched furiously for any signs of All For One, but he’d disappeared as quickly as he’d appeared. Izuku bit his lip.
Cloaking quirk. It has to be.
He was about to start another search when a shrill scream pierced through the air, resonating from a spot a ways beyond where Izuku stood.
Is that—
He sprinted onward, leaving the crumbling pillars of words behind him as he wove between a network of pipes.
“Aoyama!”
Izuku burst back into the clearing, instantly identifying a fungi-coated Tokoyami as he chased after the inky blur clutching Aoyama. His teammate must have heard him coming, because he immediately turned to address Izuku.
“Midoriya! Komori and Kuroiro returned to capture Aoyama! I was able to detain Komori, but Dark Shadow’s been hijacked by Kuroiro. I can no longer control him—can you reach them?
The boom of a cannon from the other end of Ground Gamma caused the ground to quiver beneath their feet. That must be Yaoyorozu. If she can capture Fukidashi and Kendo, then...
Izuku nodded wordlessly, leaping into the dense tunnel of pipes Tokoyami had directed him towards. A cacophony of ‘clangs’ sounded out when his soles met metal, pushing off of every available surface to gain momentum in the dim, narrow space.
Ahead of him, he could barely make out the faint twinkle of Aoyama’s armor. His classmate was being dragged along the walls of interlocking pipes by the writhing mass of Dark Shadow, who was struggling in vain against Kuroiro’s control.
With a final push, Izuku shot forward, arms outstretched as he grappled with the cluster of static darkness in front of him. A surprised yelp escaped from within Dark Shadow as Izuku took hold.
“Aoyama! Use your lase—”
Something erupted out of the black mass underneath Izuku, clocking him square in the jaw. His head rocked back on his shoulders, and his grip on Kuroiro and Dark Shadow loosened. A second hit caught him in the stomach, causing him to lose his purchase completely.
Izuku slid off of Dark Shadow and plummeted into the path below, knocking against clusters of beams and ducts on his way down. He recovered just in time to snag his arm on an outstretched pipe before hitting the ground, hauling himself over its edge.
“Wha...what?”
He inched forward, craning his neck just enough to see the edge of Kuroiro’s wide smile as he pulled Aoyama further along, making his way to the makeshift jail near the pavilion. Dark Shadow was nowhere in sight, having been released from the other boy’s control.
Izuku hung his head, massaging his aching torso as he stood on the pipe’s surface. Idiot! Why’d you let him get away?
“What a pity. Seems you almost had him, too.”
Izuku stiffened, turning slowly until he faced the wall beside him. All For One leaned against it, stepping forward as they locked eyes.
“How...Why are you here?” Izuku backed away, mindful of the small space he was balanced on. One wrong move, and the terrain would do him in before the villain even had a chance.
All For One scoffed, waving the question away as he advanced. For each step forward, Izuku matched a backward one of his own.
“You should know this, Nine.”
Nine? Why did this man keep calling him Nine?
“I no longer have any use for your predecessor. The flames of One For All have long since been extinguished in him.” He directed a finger at Izuku’s chest.
“But in you, Nine, they are very much alive.”
Izuku’s heart throbbed, its pounding pulse sending aftershocks throughout his chest. I was right, he thought frantically as his breath quickened. He’s here for me.
As he took another step back, he felt his heel teeter on the edge of the pipe.
So this was it. Now or never.
As Izuku sent fifteen percent of One For All flowing through his body, the din in his mind cleared for a moment to form a single word.
Danger.
He spun on his other foot, reeling his leg back to strike at All For One. The man dodged easily, slipping to the side before countering with his own punch, reinforced by the rivets sprouting from his arm. Izuku choked on air as they grazed through his suit and into his skin on impact.
Stumbling back, he used the imbalance to rear back his arm, driving a flickering fist into the villain’s shoulder. Rather than the feeling of punching a human being, it felt as if Izuku’s fist was flying through fog. He withdrew it, staring at his hand.
“A transparency quirk?”
All For One grinned.
“Intuitive, aren’t we?”
The force of his fist meeting Izuku’s chest felt as if each knuckle had torn through an artery. His upper body was enveloped in a heatwave of pain, the fire dancing between his ribs and into his lungs when he sucked in air.
Izuku raised his head just in time to see All For One retract the bonelike spurs from his fist, smirking to himself as he strolled out of Izuku’s narrowing vision.
“I thought you would have taken it better than that, —”
“Midoriya!”
“—Nine.”
Izuku turned his head slightly, making out another dark figure further along in the tangle of pipes. It was running towards him, calling out something he couldn't hear. The deafening sound of blood in his ears coupled with the nagging in his mind merged the two voices together, a single stream of sound taunting Izuku where he lay crumpled on the ground.
“Midoriya! Yaoyorozu just reported back; she’s restrained Kendo and Fukidashi. If we can find Kuroiro, then we can—Midoriya, are you alright?”
The low light of the tunnel made Izuku’s vision pulse and blur as he searched for the source of the voice. A shadow loomed in front of him, with a second one shifting close behind it. They and the dark All For One had emerged from surrounded him from all sides.
As the first shadow leaned towards him, a pitch dark mass outstretched in the vague shape of an arm, Izuku decided that he’d rather not lose his heart to a man like All For One.
Not like this.
He threw himself forward, arm colliding with a staticky mass that shouted in surprise on impact. He swung blindly in the dark, his clenched fist meeting the same morphing shadow, its form flickering between All For One and something unidentifiable. The hollow echo of metal rang throughout the tunnel as one of Izuku's punches went awry, hitting the wall in front of him.
The figure took the opportunity to reach for him, grasping Izuku’s shoulder as he geared up for another attack. Izuku flinched back at the touch, waiting for another wildfire of pain. When none came, he twisted out of the hold and resorted to using his legs, kicking at any point of contact he could register.
Suddenly, a shadow enveloped Izuku’s torso and lifted him off the ground, pinning his legs and arms to his side. It was saying something to him, trying to reach him through the muddled mess of his senses. Izuku shook his head violently, blinking at nothing but darkness as he fought against its hold.
“Let me... go! ” He pushed against his bindings, taking no notice of the hot tears that had begun rolling down his face. “I won’t let you take it! He gave it to me!”
“He?”
Izuku froze at the question. What does he mean, ‘he’? It’s All For One! Of course he knows All Mi—
Wait.
For the first time since entering the tunnel, Izuku made a conscious effort to clear his vision. He blinked slowly, the clamoring noise in his head fading until his focus could return. You’re…
“Tokoyami?”
Aizawa had known something was off when it had taken Midoriya considerably longer than expected to break out of Fukidashi’s trap.
He’d waited, monitoring the screen streaming the battle as the mound of concrete remained intact. Waited for a punch, a kick, anything. He knew the kid was capable of at least that much.
So when Midoriya had been thrown through the wall, landing flat on his back and lying unmoving on the cement? He'd started paying closer attention.
Now that his student was actively fighting another classmate, he didn’t hesitate to press the ‘emergency stop’ button on the keyboard of the monitor, sending the wail of a siren throughout Ground Gamma. Maybe a teacher like All Might would allow for this kind of disruption, but to Aizawa it simply wasn’t rational.
He stole a glance at Toshinori from the corner of his eye, searching for some kind of reaction to stopping the match. A lecture about ‘working out differences’, or something like that. It was bound to happen when Midoriya was involved, that much he was sure of.
But the look on the other teacher’s face only made Aizawa’s stomach drop.
All Might stared wide-eyed at the projection, his gaunt face drawn in a silent gasp as bits of audio crackled through the speakers.
“I won’t let you take it! He gave it to me!”
Aizawa turned back to face the screen, stowing that information away for later. For now, he just needed to make sure his students were in one piece.
Notes:
This was challenging to write, but we're finally getting into the good stuff! Comments and feedback are insanely appreciated, and see y'all next chapter!
Chapter 3: Midnight
Notes:
This chapter got out of hand pretty fast shdjkgjfh...8k words...is a lot more than I was planning.
Tags updated as usual, and a little extra warning for a bit of body horror and self injury, as well as mention of chemical use! These last two chapters are gonna get more intense than the first two, so get ready!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Oh God. Oh God, I’m so sorry…”
Izuku began backing away the moment his feet touched the ground, Dark Shadow uncoiling with a whimper as it burrowed away behind its user. Izuku's head swung between Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, questioning eyes wide and brimming with tears.
“Did I…?”
Tokoyami’s beak opened slightly, then closed with a snap.
“I’m...I’m sure you didn’t mean to.” He raised a hand in a placating gesture. “It was dark, and Kuroiro was probably not an easy opponent in that environment.” He placed his other hand on Dark Shadow’s head, gliding it back and forth as it leaned into the touch. “Dark Shadow’s just...sensitive to these things.”
Izuku faltered, guilt gnawing at his heart. I couldn’t protect them. First I let All For One get away, and now…
He cringed as Dark Shadow hovered behind Tokoyami, keeping a wide arc between itself and Izuku.
And now I hurt a friend. Someone who was trying to save me.
His stream of apologies was interrupted by the whirring of the med bots that were quickly approaching the mouth of the tunnel. Their oblong heads swiveling from side to side, scanning the area. The first emitted a robotic whine, its eyes adjusting to face the two boys.
Izuku stared back in confusion.
“Why are they here? Isn’t the exercise still going on?”
Tokoyami gaped, and Dark Shadow perked up in surprise.
“You didn’t hear the siren? The training is over. It was terminated right after you started…” He allowed the sentence to fall flat between them. Izuku wilted.
“Right. That...makes sense.”
The bot adjusted its sensors, machinery clicking as it rolled closer to them.
“Any injured?”
It turned to Tokoyami, who shook his head.
“Nothing more than bruises.”
Izuku opened his mouth to say the same until he inhaled sharply, the memory of the searing sensation of rivets tearing through his skin flooding back to him. He clasped a gloved hand to his ribs and pulled it away slowly, preparing himself for the creeping bloodstain that was bound to show. But the glove came back clean, despite the flaring ache in his side.
What…?
The bot looked up at him, buzzing expectantly.
“Oh! I, uh...I’m fine, too.”
“Affirmative. Report back immediately.”
Its partner followed suit, the hum of their wheels hitching as they bobbed over debris on their way back to the platform. Tokoyami and Izuku trailed behind, silence hanging between them like one of Fukidashi’s barriers. Izuku coughed, still trying to clear out the dust from earlier.
“Tokoyami, I’m—”
His classmate cut him off with a raised palm, shaking his head slightly.
“I know exactly what you’re going to say, Midoriya. You don’t need to apologize. I am also familiar with struggling in darkness.”
Izuku paused, nodding solemnly as they both re-entered the pavilion. He craned his neck to see another group of med bots supporting Yaoyorozu, carting her in from across the platform with the remains of a cannon barrel dragging behind the coils tied to her body. So that sound from earlier really was Yaoyorozu.
A lanky figure blocked his vision, All Might practically jogging over to them with Aizawa in tow.
“Young Midoriya! Are you alri—”
Aizawa shouldered his way in front of his colleague.
“Midoriya. You want to explain to me what happened back there?” His black eyes hinted at a flicker of red, causing Izuku to jump in his skin. So he was prepared to use Erasure, if necessary. Izuku was still fumbling for an answer when Dark Shadow seeped out from Tokoyami’s cloak.
“It was nothing. Kuroiro was messing with us, that’s it.” The bird took a long sideways glance at Izuku, its eyes glowing and shifting under currents of shadow. Izuku tried to force the tension to leave his body as he willed a small smile, hoping Dark Shadow could see the gratitude written on his face.
Thank you.
It burrowed away once again, leaving Aizawa’s stare to linger on his students. All Might nudged his way forward.
“Aizawa, I can handle it from here if you’d like. There are still other matches to monitor.” The other teacher dropped his gaze, readjusting himself with a disgruntled sigh.
“Tokoyami, you’re with me. Meet up with Yaoyorozu and Aoyama at the nurse’s station.” Aizawa set off with his student, turning back to look one final time at Izuku, who was already being ushered away by All Might. The words from earlier ran back through his mind as he walked away. He’d find out what that had been about soon enough, but he supposed All Might could handle him.
For now.
All Might placed a hand on Izuku’s shoulder, guiding him to the sidelines until they were out of earshot.
“Midoriya.” He placed his remaining hand on Izuku’s other shoulder, standing the boy in front of him. Izuku fought the urge to curl away from the touch, consciously reminding himself that this was not the man from earlier. He was safe now.
Still though, he couldn’t help but shrink away a little as All Might’s inquisitive stare latched on to him.
“Are you really alright? Can you tell me what happened?”
And there it was again, the tugging at his heart that begged him to open up. To spill everything, bring light to every shadow that had been haunting him for the past two days. His teeth tug into his lower lip, biting back the flood of words building up behind them. All Might should know, right?
“Actually, some stuff’s been going on since yesterday…”
Of course. Of course All Might should know. I need to tell him so he can—
His jaw froze, the sentence trailing off into the afternoon breeze. So he can what? His teacher thinks All For One is dead. Dead and gone...just like All Might almost was. If Izuku told him now, he knows his hero would track the villain to the ends of the earth just to finish him off. To do what he couldn’t do the first two times—what almost killed him the first two times. That is, if he’d even believe him in the first place.
In the heartbeat between the beginning of Izuku’s sentence and the end of it, he could see All Might, charging forward against All For One.
All Might, falling victim to the same quirks that had brought Izuku to his knees just minutes before.
All Might, with his entrails strewn about him, clusters of red adorning the ground like roses after a performance.
Izuku’s mouth clamped shut.
All Might would lose. Even a practiced analyst like Izuku couldn’t see an outcome where his hero, his retired hero, still recovering from his injuries months after Kamino, could win out against a supervillain who had come back somehow stronger. As if nothing had happened that night, even as Izuku and his classmates had watched the villain beaten into the ground on national television and warped away a bloody husk of a person, inches from death. All Might’s words from the day before hung in his mind.
“I won that fight, and this is what I have to show for it.”
To the rest of the world, his hero had scored a perfect victory. What right did Izuku have to take that away from them? From everyone who trusted the Symbol of Peace?
You trusted him, too. But All For One still came back.
Izuku tried to purge the thought from his mind, loosening the hold on his shoulders as he shook his head slightly. For the time being, the rest of the world was safe from All For One’s wrath. He was the only one being targeted. Maybe…
The image of a dying All Might returned, burning itself into his retinas.
Maybe it would be better this way. If it was just him, he could keep the attention off of his classmates and teachers for as long as he could. Keep their light going for as long as he could follow it. And if All For One decided to come out of the dark, then...he would handle it. He had to.
Izuku found his voice again, swallowing hard.
I trusted...I do trust you, All Might.
He locked eyes with his mentor once again.
Now I just need you to trust me, too.
“...But I’m alright. I just got caught off guard by Kuroiro’s quirk, like Dark Shadow said. It must’ve just surprised me after spending so much time in that storage unit.” He chuckled nervously. “The lights down there don’t work, by the way.”
He searched All Might’s face, checking frantically for any signs of suspicion. It wasn’t the whole truth and Izuku knew it.
All Might held his gaze for a few moments longer before dropping his arms and sighing.
“Okay then. But Midoriya,” he implored, “Don’t hesitate to tell me if anything is wrong. I’m always available if you need to talk. But for now, I think it might be a good idea for you to get back to the dorms.”
Izuku hung his head.
“I guess you’re right, but…” All Might caught the look on his face and smiled, bumping a fist to his student’s chest. Izuku suppressed a wince, his torso burning at the touch as phantom pain flared from under it.
“I’ll get the rest of the matches recorded for you. Sound good?”
Izuku shoved the ache aside and brightened, giving his teacher a quick nod before setting off for the lockers. Aizawa approached behind his colleague, the both of them watching their student leave the grounds ahead of them.
“So.” Aizawa turned to Toshinori. “Did he explain anything?”
“Said the same thing Tokoyami did. He said he was fine when I asked, but…” he exhaled slowly. “I’m not convinced. Have you noticed anything else... off about Young Midoriya since yesterday?”
Aizawa nodded solemnly, keeping his eyes trained on the horizon.
“Yeah, a few things. Figured he was just more jumpy than usual.” He turned to Toshinori, bloodshot eyes narrowing.
“I don’t know who he thought he was fighting, but it wasn’t Tokoyami. Care to fill me in on what exactly happened yesterday?” Toshinori hesitated, then nodded, raising a finger to beckon him off to the side.
“We’d better discuss this somewhere more private.”
Izuku wasn’t used to the stagnating silence that filled the common room. The air felt dead, lacking the energy that usually filled it with the voices of his classmates. He treaded quickly up the stairwell to his own room, escaping the place that felt so foreign to him after just a few hours.
Either it was that, or he was just tired of waiting for something else to break the silence.
He shut his door behind him, triple-checking the lock before easing himself onto his bed, his fingers finding the lingering flare in his side and pressing against it. Air hissed between his teeth as he applied pressure to a wound that had no blood to stop.
His eyes searched the room, landing on the limp cold pack that sat pooling on his desk. The afternoon heat had melted it completely, the frog’s smiling face drooping into a soaking lump. He’d have to ask Todoroki to refreeze it later.
In the meantime, he made his rounds around the dorm, flicking on every available light. He flitted from the standard fluorescent overhead to his All Might-themed bedside lamp, tugging at pull-chains and flipping switches until his eyes almost burned from the glare.
Izuku turned to his window, removing the curtains altogether and yanking the blinds back up as far as they would go, allowing the first hints of sunset to flood into the room.
He stood in the center of it all, letting the light hit him from all angles, a furious red glow penetrating his closed eyelids as he breathed in, then out. In again, out again.
Izuku opened his eyes, willing them not to water. He could do this. Right?
He pulled a chair back, resigning himself to his desk. The least he could do was finish some homework while he waited for his classmates to return. Hoisting a stack of textbooks out from his backpack, he spread them out across the desk and worked through the week’s assignments one by one, taking frequent breaks to glance at the setting sun outside his window.
It’ll start getting dark soon. He gulped, turning back to the worksheet he’d left idle. Gotta hurry this up.
It wasn’t until an hour later that the sound of students filtering back into their dorms caught his attention. He looked up from his work just in time to catch a soft knock at his door.
“Uh, come in?” He jumped up to undo the lock, and it creaked open as Uraraka poked her head through.
“Hey, Deku! We’re back!” She shot him a nervous smile—Izuku frowned. Was it really nervous? Or was he still just embarrassed from his screwup during training? His class had watched it all happen on the monitors, after all…he reigned in his thoughts, returning his friend’s smile from inside the room.
“Hey. How’d the rest of the matches go?”
Uraraka sighed, a pout tugging at her lips.
“Our group almost won against Monoma and his team. We were so close!” She slumped against the doorframe. “I even caught Yanagi myself! But Monoma and Shinso overpowered us at the last second. Kind of hard to communicate with two brainwashers running around.”
Izuku bowed his head sympathetically. He’d have to ask All Might for those recordings tomorrow.
“Anyways, what’ve you been up to? You had to leave right after your match, right?” She tilted her head quizzically.
“Oh!” He scrambled back to his desk to rearrange the clutter of papers and workbooks littering the surface. “Just finishing some work early, that’s all.” Uraraka smiled, lingering in the doorway for a moment longer.
“Cool! Just...let me know if you need anything, okay? We’ll all be here if you need us.” Izuku nodded shyly, turning to quickly reabsorb himself in his homework as if his grade suddenly depended on it. He listened as Uraraka’s light steps padded down the hallway, leaving his door slightly ajar. Getting up from his chair, he closed it gingerly before testing the lock two more times.
Not that it’ll stop him, anyways.
Izuku circled back to his bed, sinking into the navy comforter as he stared at the ceiling. The exercise from earlier had begun to catch up with him, nearly pulling him away from his work more than once throughout the afternoon. Sleep tugged at his eyelids, and his limbs weighed heavy on the mattress. Still, he fought to stay awake.
Not yet. His eyes widened, darting between each point of light in his room to reassure himself that they were still there, still shining. Please, not yet. He checked the digital clock by his bedside, the faint glow on the screen reading 6:17 PM. That was early, even by Bakugo’s standards.
Although, having gone the night before with no sleep coupled with getting thrown around Ground Gamma wasn’t exactly helping his case.
He was slipping away before his mind could argue any further against it, the panic becoming background noise as his vision faded to black.
Oddly enough, it didn’t remain that way for long.
Izuku blinked, but the ceiling above him had been replaced with a vaporous void, black clouds undulating around him.
Huh…?
He raised a hand and stumbled back on legs that weren’t there, small patches of his palm peeking out from the mist encasing his body.
No. No, no, no.
Everything beneath his eyes was pooling and shifting in a dark mass, his body reduced to shimmering vapor. He tore at the mist, frantically dispelling the darkness, only for it to be replaced the moment his hand swept through it.
“That’s not going to work. Your body hasn’t mastered enough of One For All to appear here fully yet.”
Izuku’s head shot up, leaving trails of mist behind with the motion. A tall woman was approaching him, her feet not quite touching the ground as her muscular form shouldered its way through the vapor. Her black hair laced itself with the shadows surrounding it. She’s…
The woman trained her gray eyes on the boy before her.
“We weren’t expecting you here so soon, Nine. The circumstances in which you unlocked Fourth’s quirk were…unexpected, to say the least.” Izuku’s eyes widened. A quirk?
Her boots met the surface of the void, sending small swirls of mist rolling across the ground. “I am Seven. But if Toshinori’s kept his manners at all since I’ve gone, then you should know me as Nana Shimura.”
The name touched on a memory in the back of Izuku’s mind. All Might didn’t mention his predecessor often, and Izuku didn’t have it in him to pry. Still, the familiarity had caught his attention, and he refocused his gaze on the vestige before him. He gave a feeble attempt at speech, but the air in his lungs had been swapped out for swirling vapors. A few garbled vowels sounded out before he gave up on introducing himself entirely. Shimura smiled, then turned to beckon somewhere off to the side.
Izuku followed her hand, and all at once a starburst of color emerged from the darkness to his right. Seven more figures, each covered in vibrant mist, stood alongside Shimura. Who are these people?
The memory came flooding back to him as his eyes moved from one apparition to the next. These are—the sports festival!
The ethereal vision he’d seen during his match with Shinsou overlaid the scene before him, bringing the memories of the vestiges back to him full-force. He immediately found himself locking eyes with the glimmering figure of his mentor, who was standing off to the side at the very back of the line.
Izuku strained to make out the familiar face, even as the golden clouds around All Might shifted and morphed more restlessly than all the others. As of now, the vestige in front of him hardly seemed human—but it was a comforting presence nonetheless.
It’s probably good that he’s not really here. Izuku muttered to himself, even as nothing but mist flowed from where his mouth would be. It means he’s not dead, not like the rest of them. Not yet. If I could just get out of here, I could keep it that way. He was still scratching absentmindedly at the shadows swaddling him, half-hearted attempts to separate himself from the darkness.
A man stepped forth from the line, his vestige glowing a fluorescent purple. He turned to approach Izuku, his lean frame towering over the boy’s head. Two thin scars crept down the side of his face, making it seem as if he was splitting in two.
“Hello, Nine. I’m the Fourth, but you may call me Shinomori. It seems like you’ve inherited my quirk recently, hm?”
Izuku floundered for an answer. What quirk? Aside from a violent dust allergy and the voice in his head being a bit more... active than usual, he hadn’t noticed anything special pop up in the past few days. Izuku tilted his head upwards, staring questioningly up at Shinomori.
“Right.” The man coughed as Shimura nudged his shoulder. “I suppose I should probably explain what it is, to start. My quirk is called Danger Sense. It allows the user to detect physical threats around them, as well as heighten perception. It can, however, come with some…” he tapped a finger to his temple. “...Adverse side effects.”
Izuku froze, taking a second to register Shinomori’s words before they clicked in his mind. So it wasn’t the dust causing all those headaches? His brows furrowed. That explains the voice, at least. I’ll have to see if All Might has any notes on it back in his office….
His thoughts returned to the users standing in the void. There were so many quirks he was yet to learn about. A whole stockpile of different powers, all housed in the singular core of One For All. He wanted to be amazed, to personally interview every apparition and analyze everything he could about their quirks. But another thought kept nagging at him, souring his mood. All these powers, and yet…
Izuku’s pleading eyes met Shinomori’s.
Why give me a quirk that causes so much pain? If you knew I was in trouble, then why…
Damn it. Do they know about All For One?
He struggled to form a sentence, the clouds around his mouth shifting to cover it even as he tried his hardest to speak. A few strangled sounds escaped his throat.
“Ah...Fo...One?”
The vestiges seemed taken aback by the question, Shinomori once more stepping behind Shimura as she bent down to address Izuku.
“All For One?” Izuku nodded vigorously. Do they know...do they know he’s still alive? Still chasing after One For All?
Shimura shook her head, readjusting herself so that she hovered far above Izuku’s small frame.
“No. All For One…” She turned to the other seven, who all bowed their heads. “We haven’t been able to sense his presence through One For All for months. It seems the man has all but vanished.” She clasped her hand on the boy’s shoulder reassuringly, the same way All Might had done.
“There’s nothing to fear, Nine.”
Izuku wanted to scream with a mouth that wasn’t there. Yes there is! Why can’t any of you see?
His eyes found All Might’s vestige, begging for an answer. His mentor did nothing but sway ever so slightly with the flow of the mist, head bowed to his successor. Tears welled up in Izuku’s eyes.
Why won’t you understand? All of you?
Silence.
He looked back down at himself, staring at hands wreathed in shadow. A pit of darkness stared back at him, absorbing the tears that fell into the void that used to be his body.
“Poor Nine. How must it feel for your own power not to trust you?”
Izuku jerked back as the sound seeped out from within the writhing mass of his being, the voice reverberating through him. His phantom breath quickened, the ghost of his heartbeat pounding against the mist. All For One? Here? How—
His eyes shot back down to his forearm, where a sliver of white was peeking through the vapor. The shadows were peeled back to expose pearlescent kernels of bone, a toothy grin beaming up at Izuku from within his own…
He gagged on mist. His own body. Izuku’s pulse hammered as he fervently clawed away at his arm, the tears rolling freely down his half-face as he descended into panic. Another fragment of All For One’s face appeared on the back of his palm, then on his lower leg, and Izuku’s vaporous body erupted in a cacophony of the villain’s laughter as Izuku gouged at his own apparition, choking on his fear as he ripped apart the shadows that enveloped him.
Oh God, please, please make it stop—
His entire being seized as All For One’s face materialized in front of him, his sneer inches away from Izuku’s wild eyes as bits and pieces of the villain’s body replaced Izuku’s own.
“Don’t you get it, Nine? You’re not safe here. You never will be.” He pointed a finger across the void as the hand attached to it emerged from Izuku’s shoulder.
“And look at your hero. Standing idly by as you drown in the carcass of your shadow. He’s spent his entire life protecting the world from me, but now…” Another hand that burst forth from his torso clutched the boy’s shoulder, the gentle touch of All Might and Shimura replaced by a grip that seared through his nonexistent skin.
“Why won’t he protect you now?”
For the first time since entering the realm of the vestiges, Izuku’s voice was clear as his scream echoed throughout the void, the mist parting from his mouth as it contorted in agony. He was still screaming as he shot up in bed, fingernails raking at his skin as the lingering sensation of All For One’s body substituting his own overrode his senses.
Across campus, Toshinori started awake as the embers of One For All twisted and pulled at his chest. A heavy weight settled itself in his mangled stomach. Dread.
Something was horribly wrong.
Izuku clasped a hand to his mouth to stifle the cry, only to immediately pull it back as the glare of the fluorescents in his room illuminated the blood covering his palms. He recoiled, stepping shakily out of bed before bringing himself over to the mirror leaning against his closet door.
Beads of red stained his t-shirt as he lifted it out of the way to get a better look at himself. Angry red scratches snaked up and down his arms and torso, extending to nearly mid-calf. Blood trickled from them, smeared across his skin in violent swatches of crimson.
He turned his back to the mirror, a wave of nausea rolling through him.
I have to clean this off before anyone sees.
He wiped his hand on the hem of his shirt before unlocking his door and closing it behind him with trembling fingers. Someone was bound to approach him about the noise any second now. He darted down the hall, trying his best to ignore the flashes of a face that appeared in the corner of his vision.
Four more doors down, and then there’s the bathroom. Just gotta get in, get out, and—
Danger Sense went off like a flare in his head, sending Izuku crashing into the wall beside him.
Someone was there.
His eyes strained in the dark as the figure approached from the other end of the hall, advancing slowly towards him. Izuku’s heart throbbed in his chest, the same deafening pulse drowning out the noise around him as it beat alongside Fourth’s quirk.
Danger. Danger. Danger.
Izuku swung a dripping fist at the mass in front of him, aiming straight for the smile All For One had taunted him with just minutes before. The shadow dodged at the last second, retreating to the opposite wall just as Izuku followed with a charged kick straight ahead. The air pressure from the attack knocked the shadow to the ground, and Izuku wasted no time rearing his arm back for another blow.
He was about to release the punch when a small flicker of flame illuminated the hallway, the darkness receding with the sudden burst of light. Izuku leapt back, bringing the arm back down to his side.
Pyrokinesis? Did All For One steal a new quirk? Or—
The soft glow of the fire lit the edges of two-toned hair. Hair Izuku recognized.
Not again. No, no, no, not again.
Todooki kept his distance from the other end of the hall, his wide eyes focusing on the drying blood coating his classmate’s sides.
“Midoriya, what is going on?” His usually level voice carried a slight tremble as he raised the flame to his face. “Why are you bleeding?”
Izuku backed further along the wall, edging his way past Todoroki as he went.
“I’m so sorry.” He whispered. “I—I need to go.”
He could hear the faint beeping of his classmate's phone as Todoroki punched in a number and waited for the call to connect. Izuku took the chance to make a break for the bathroom, allowing five percent of One For All to carry him down the pitch dark corridor.
“Hello? Mr. Aizawa? I think there’s something wrong with—”
Izuku slammed the door behind him, blocking out the rest of the conversation as he turned the sink handle and shoved his shaking hands under the tap. Rose-tinted water pooled at the bottom of the basin as he turned and locked himself in the nearest stall, curling onto the cool tile. He paid no mind to how the scratches running up his torso stretched and burned when he folded into himself.
It wasn’t long before a sharp rapping echoed through the bathroom, pulling Izuku out of his stupor.
“Midoriya? Are you still in there?” Mr. Aizawa’s voice carried over, and Izuku pushed further against the wall in response. How could I explain this? It’s not like he would believe a word I’d say.
“Midoriya?” Muffled swearing. “Alright, I’m coming in.” The heavy door creaked in protest as it was thrown open, his teacher’s boots meeting tile as he stopped in front of each stall. Izuku held his breath as the footsteps came to a stop at the stall door in front of him.
“Listen, kid, I’m not gonna kick this door down. But,” he crouched down, resting on his heels. “I am going to encourage you to come out on your own if there’s something going on that I should know about. I trust you to make that decision on your own.”
Izuku released his breath slowly, weighing his options.
‘I trust you.’
Maybe his teacher was saying that now, but…
“Is...Is Todoroki okay?” He could hear an exasperated sigh from outside the door.
“Of course you’d ask that first. Yes, he’s fine. Confused as to why his classmate tried to jump him for getting a glass of water, but fine.”
Izuku let some of the tension out of his muscles, loosening the protective stance he’d taken up in the corner of the stall. At least no one got hurt this time.
One of the gashes on his side reopened in protest as he slowly got back to his feet. Izuku winced.
Well, almost no one.
He shakily slid back the lock on the stall, keeping his head down as he walked out to meet his teacher. If Aizawa’s expression had changed at all upon seeing his student, Izuku wouldn’t have noticed. Suddenly, the tiny droplets of his own blood hitting the tile flooring were the only things he could bring himself to look at.
“I won’t ask if you’re not ready to answer. However, I’m pretty sure Recovery Girl is going to have some questions of her own.” Izuku nodded weakly as Aizawa led him back out into the hall.
Thankfully, the halls remained empty as they made their way back to the commons.
Everyone’s probably too scared of you to come out and see for themselves.
“Young Midoriya!”
All Might approached them hurriedly as they stepped into the commons, giving his student a fretful glance as he caught sight of his bloody clothing. “What on earth…”
Aizawa gestured for Izuku to join his other teacher as he turned to address his colleague.
“I can get Yamada to watch the other kids while we’re gone. Take him to Recovery Girl.” All Might nodded, leading Izuku over to his side.
“And what will you do?”
“I think it’s about time someone looked into what we talked about earlier.” He turned, fastening his capture weapon as he made for the exit opposite of the common room. All Might looked back down at the boy next to him, who was staring blankly down the hall.
“We should probably get going, hm?” Izuku shifted slightly.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Toshinori held the door open with one lanky arm, the other gently guiding Midoriya’s back into the room. He took pains not to press too forcefully; even in his weakened form, the pressure could be enough to alarm him.
He watched as his student settled in, briskly setting his duffel and small stack of busywork on a nearby counter before resigning himself to the bed. The infirmary might not have been as comfortable as a dorm, but to Midoriya it was still a familiar space nonetheless.
Their visit with Recovery Girl had gone surprisingly quickly, all things considered. Then again, bandaging cuts took considerably less time than setting shattered bones. It had eventually been decided that Midoriya would be better off staying the night, at least until Aizawa returned with what Toshinori hoped would be some kind of answer.
Toshinori sighed, startling his student into meeting his gaze from across the room. The hero shared a strained smile. God, it used to be so easy to do, pasting on million-watt grins for every troubled civilian he ran into on his commute to the next national emergency.
He’d worn that expression into burning buildings the same way that the firemen accompanying him had worn their own masks, hoping that whatever was on their faces would protect them from what was inside. For most, that meant a respirator or a piece of cloth. For the Symbol of Peace, it was his own smile that pulled him and others out of crisis after crisis.
Where had it gone when the person he wanted to save most had needed it?
Toshinori allowed his halfhearted grimace to fall away, turning back towards the door before his student could see it fade. His smile would return, eventually. Hopefully in time for them to make it through this together.
When it does, Toshinori thought, fists clenched at his side, I won’t let it go. Not until both of us can smile again.
His clutch loosened as he turned back to face Midoriya, who had watched Toshinori warily as he’d become lost in thought.
“Do you need anything else, Young Midoriya?’
The boy’s stare remained fixed on his teacher as he shook his head slowly.
“Good. I’ll be waiting outside then, if you need anything. Will that be alright?”
Tired green eyes bobbed up and down in a gentle arc.
Somewhat satisfied with the response, Toshinori slipped out of the room and softly shut the door behind him, taking up his post in a small folding chair leaning weakly against the wall next to it. He eyed it doubtfully, gingerly testing his weight before settling into the seat. Toshinori and chairs didn’t always get along, but it would have to do for now.
Pulling out a stack of reports, he began to grade assignments one by one, pausing occasionally to listen for any signs of distress from the room next to him. There was hardly a sound beyond the quiet shuffling of papers, most likely Midoriya attending to his own work as they both waited for...something. He sighed.
Answers, maybe. That would be nice.
Toshinori allowed himself to bask in his pride for his student, if only for a moment. To be thinking of his work as a future hero, even at a time like this...it made his heart swell, beating against his fragile chest as he returned to marking up homework. Perhaps when the boy was ready, he could go in and help with the essay his class had been assigned earlier in the week—
A sound that wasn’t papers rustling caught his attention. He leaned in closer, listening intently as a soft padding approached from inside. Then a muted sigh, followed by a faint creak as a weight settled against the door.
“Young Midoriya?”
A beat of silence.
“Yeah. It’s me.”
“Do you...need something?”
“No. Just needed to move around, is all.”
They sat there for some time, backs to each other as the sound of Toshinori’s steady breaths against Midoriya’s increasingly uneven ones marked the hours gone by. At some point in the evening Toshinori had slipped into a light doze, nodding off over his stack of papers until another small noise behind him startled him awake.
He rubbed at his eyes, readjusting himself in his chair and trying to recall where he was and what, exactly, he was doing. The scattered mess of work in front of him was all it took to jog his memory.
Midoriya must be rubbing off on me a bit. I can’t remember being this jumpy since—
Another faint knock interrupted his thoughts as he swiveled his head to face the door.
So maybe he hadn’t imagined it.
“...All Might?”
“Yes? I’m here, Midoriya.”
Another pause. Toshinori leaned his head back, cursing himself for having fallen asleep. How long had his student been trying to reach him like this?
He waited, listening intently to the creaking of the door as the figure behind it shifted weight, bringing itself closer to the wood separating them.
“Why…”
Toshinori held the little air his lungs could still manage, desperate not to miss a word of what Midoriya was saying. He inched closer, straining to hear as the voice faded in and out behind the barrier.
“Why did you lie to me?”
The short breath he’d been able to stifle burst out of his chest, a coughing fit trailing behind it as he tried and failed to register what his student had said.
“Kid, I— what? ”
A tired sigh seeped out from the other room.
"Why’d you tell me he was dead? That day, in your office. Why did you say it if it wasn’t true? ” A stifled whimper escaped from under the door.
Toshinori fumbled for the right words. Of course all of this pain and confusion would find a way to circle back to his old nemesis. Even after he’d gone, the very idea of the man was haunting them.
Stitch in my side. He grumbled under his breath, placing a hand over his midsection. Literally.
“I would never lie to you, my boy. You know the bond of One for All is one we carry together. If All For One was truly still alive, then...you have to know I’d tell you. I could never hide something like that from my successor.”
The faint noises coming from behind Toshinori stopped altogether. He found himself pressed against the door for the second time, eking out any sound he could manage from the otherwise silent room.
“That’s what they said, too.”
A small huff and the soft sound of footsteps caused Toshinori’s response to die in his throat as Midoriya shuffled back to his bed.
They?
“Young Midoriya, wait. Why bring this up all of a sudden? I assure you—”
He rose from his chair, joints popping in protest, and reached for the doorknob. His boy’s words reverberated throughout his bones, hand trembling as he prepared to turn it—until he stopped himself.
The sharp sound of flipping pages and furious writing had resumed from inside of the infirmary, the sound of scratches on paper stopping Toshinori in his tracks. He took a deep breath. One that rattled ever so slightly.
‘Why did you lie to me?’
He let his hand slip from the doorknob, allowing himself to simply stand vigil in front of the door. Every instinct in his body, the ones that drove him into those burning buildings and crumbling cities, told him that he wanted to find out what was wrong. To grill his student on every odd behavior and strange incident that had plagued their week so far until he could be sure that it was a problem a hero could solve.
But another part of him knew that there were times he needed to step back. To let the absence of the Symbol of Peace bring peace in its own way.
Toshinori leaned against the wall, watching as the light of the hallway beyond him gave way to the growing dusk. He’d let Midoriya talk when he was ready—he’d hate to interrupt the kid’s work now that it was finally giving him something to do.
After all, he’d be here all night.
Aizawa fumbled with the keys in his hand, clamping a flashlight between his teeth as he found the correct one and inserted it into the lock. The door unlocked with a soft ‘click’ as he pulled it the rest of the way open. A lengthy passage of stairs shone dimly in front of him.
He checked the pull-string bulb that dangled lazily from the ceiling. Nothing.
I guess what Toshinori told me was right. Not much light down here. He’d have to remind Nezu to get it changed.
His boots met the first step without hesitation as he began his descent into the dark. The musty air seemed to grow thicker every minute. Aizawa found he was glad he never bothered to keep anything in the unit if it meant a trip like this.
A few minutes later, his footprints overlapped with a pair of smaller ones that had touched down on the same platform only days before. The tread of his boots left tracks in the dust, masking the print of Midoriya’s sneakers as the trail wound between the isles of shelves. He followed it, glancing here and there at the labels designating the various belongings littering the shelves. Somewhere along the way, he found his own barren spot with the name label plastered to the rack.
'Head, Eraser’? Are you kidding me? He rolled his eyes. Leave it to Nezu to make things as needlessly complicated as possible.
It didn’t take long after that for him to spot the metal case lying in the middle of the aisle between two racks, left to gather dust on the floor. He bent down to inspect the clasps that had been left open, the lid of the box sitting slightly ajar. Lifting the top, the dim light from above showed him exactly what he’d been expecting to see.
Midoriya wasn’t lying about this much, that’s for sure.
He swiped a finger along the surface of the mask, coating it in a thick layer of dust. Aizawa squinted at the particles. Colorless. No scent, either.
And yet somehow familiar.
Suddenly, Aizawa let the mask fall back into its case, tugging his scarf up over his nose.
Shit.
He had seen this before. In the underground of Japan’s chemical trade rather than the underground of a school, but he knew it all the same.
In one swift motion, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed a number.
“Shuzenji? Get a testing kit ready. I’m bringing something back with me.”
Toshinori was not, in fact, there all night.
At the very least, he hadn’t allowed himself to doze off again. Not when Midoroya could reach out to him again at any moment. To his disappointment, though, his boy’s call was not the one he ended up receiving.
“A PHONE CALL IS HERE! A PHONE CALL IS HE—”
He grappled with his phone, jamming his finger onto the volume button until the sound of his own booming voice became a whisper, echoing softly down the hall as he brought the receiver to his ear.
“Aizawa?”
“It’s me. Come up to Shuzenji’s office as soon as you can. There’s something we need to discuss.”
Toshinori looked back at the door behind him.
“Would it really be safe to leave Young Midoriya here alone?”
“It won’t take long. This is important.” He held the phone away from his face as he sighed. Bringing the receiver back to his ear, he relented.
“I’ll be there soon.”
He arrived in Shuzenji’s makeshift lab a few minutes later, only to see her and Aizawa huddled over a tray set atop a table. He walked over to them, peering at pieces of the shattered mask of All For One that had laid dormant for so many months.
Until two days ago, that is.
He spoke to Aizawa first.
“So what is it that you found?”
Aizawa tore himself away from it to face Toshinori.
“I recognized some of the ‘dust’ coating the mask when I leaned down to pick it up. Fortunately, I’ve worked in enough drug busting cases over the years to know an illicit substance when I see it.”
He picked up a small sealed bag filled with particles.
“I had Shuzenji test this while you were waiting with Midoriya. Based on her results, it’s exactly what I was afraid it was.”
“And that would be…?” Toshinori inquired. Staying in the spotlight of heroics meant he didn’t have much experience with Japan’s underground operations, much less the ability to identify chemicals on sight.
Aizawa suppressed an eye roll. “It’s a type of nerve agent. A chemical compound used to mess with a person’s neurological system. Usually, it’s reserved for military use and acts of bioterrorism, things like that.” He eyed the mask. “Not exactly the kind of thing you’d find planted in a school.”
Toshinori gaped, his jaw going slack. “And a student was exposed to something like that? ”
Aizawa nodded. “Evidently, yes.” He walked over to a monitor on a different table, motioning for the other man to follow. He took a seat and pulled up a grainy video, expanding the tab so that the frozen image filled the screen.
“While Shuzenji was running her tests, I looked into some of the dorm’s security footage. This is just from tonight.” He clicked the glowing play button in the center, and suddenly Toshinori could see Midoriya, leaving his room and making his way down the hall. The timestamp read 8:16 PM.
They both watched as their student trudged through the corridor, head snapping to the side at the slightest hint of motion. His vigilance was interrupted as some unseen force sent Midoriya careening into the wall beside him, holding his head. Moments later, flickers of green lighting lit the lens of the camera as the student lunged at the figure in front of him. Aizawa paused the footage there, leaning back in his chair.
“Impaired vision, chest pain, headaches…hallucinations.” He ticked off each one on his hand. “All symptoms of an active nerve agent.” Toshinori looked back at the screen.
Oh, my boy.
He turned to Aizawa.
“We should call this in. If someone managed to plant something like this in our school, then the administration needs to know about it.” His colleague blinked in agreement, already pulling out his cell for the second time. The ringback tone droned on in the otherwise silent room, until the call was picked up on the other end.
Aizawa waited for the other end to stop speaking.
“No, Nezu, it’s not villains. It’s just…”
He ran a hand down his chin, eyes burning from the glow of the monitor.
“It’s something you need to see.”
Toshinori walked hurriedly down the hall, the dread that had settled in his stomach weighing heavier with every step. The footage from before kept replaying like a highlights reel in his mind, his student’s erratic movements burning themselves into his memory.
It’s not like him. Young Midoriya would never do such things. Not if he could help it.
His feet only slowed as he approached the door of the infirmary, his folding chair still leaning feebly against the wall. He took one glance at it before going straight to the door, knocking gently.
“Young Midoriya? I’m back. Everything alright in there?”
Silence. Perhaps he’s finally sleeping? Even so, Toshinori couldn't help the cold sweat that broke out across his skin. Unlikely. He knocked again, louder this time.
“Midoriya?”
The sound of the hall lights buzzing faintly was the only response. He lightly turned the handle, applying the slightest pressure to the door. I really don’t want to intrude, but... the dread seemed to harden in the pit of his stomach. I have to at least make sure he’s alright. I can apologize later.
To his surprise, a quick push against the door did nothing to open it. He tried again, leaning the full weight of his shoulder against it as he gripped the handle.
“...What?” His eyes widened, the blood draining from his gaunt face. “Something must be blocking it from the inside.”
He struggled to summon the lingering embers of One For All into his arm, small streams of power flitting in and out of his bloodstream. With a final shove, the door cracked open, a heavy weight sliding against the floor on the other end as it pushed it aside.
With the door halfway open, Tosihnori peered inside.
He was met with a scene of utter chaos.
At first, Toshinori couldn’t place the desk that had been nestled in the corner. That is, until he realized that it had been pushed against the door as a makeshift barricade. Piles of ripped papers littered the floor, covered in Midoriya’s nearly illegible script. The cot in the infirmary had been completely overturned and shoved up against a wall, its sheets lying in a tattered heap on the ground as the rest of the bed acted as a stepping stool on the way to…
The window.
The open window.
Stray bits of shattered glass were strewn about, the panes having been blown out from the inside. The rising moon cast its light around the shards as the rest of the infirmary was cast in a deep shadow, save for the single weak fluorescent flickering above Toshinori’s head. A night breeze blew in through the gaping hole.
With unsteady steps, he entered the room, bending down to pick up one of Midoriya’s notebooks that had been thrown to the ground. He straightened the crumpled sheet, trying to make out the words written on it in the dim light.
After a few seconds, he let it flutter back to the ground, slipping out of his shaking hands.
“He…” Toshinori swallowed thickly. “He planned this. I was right there, and he planned this.”
It took all his strength not to drop his phone as he brought it to his ear. There were too many calls being made tonight. Too many.
“Aizawa? Yeah. You need to come here, now. He's…” he took another long look at the disarray in front of him, the dread replaced by crippling fear. Fear for his student. Fear for Midoriya.
“Midoriya’s gone missing.”
He slipped the phone back into his pocket, turning his back on the wreckage of the infirmary as he darted out into the hall. Behind him, Midoriya’s notebook laid face-up on the ground, the pages awash with moonlight. Underneath the frantic scrawl detailing his escape, a single sentence was scratched over and over, etched deep into the paper.
‘Keep it safe.’
Toshinori had the sickening feeling that his successor wasn’t referring to himself.
Notes:
First off, thank you so so much to everyone that has left kudos, commented, etc. so far! Your feedback is what keeps making the word count grow (unfortunately for my poor google doc pffft). It's very much acknowledged and appreciated!
I got to stretch my wings a bit in terms of writing more horror-oriented scenes, which was super interesting. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it too! The final chapter might get pushed back a week since I have something extra that I'd like to release alongside it, so around the 30th-31st of this month, maybe. I'm excited!
Chapter 4: Dawn
Summary:
Things are brought to light.
*fades into the distance cackling as the pun lingers in the air*
Notes:
so!! here we are! the final chapter!
the process of writing this was wild. every time I told myself I wasn't gonna make things worse, I went and did it. which brings me to this: all prior warnings apply, and be extra mindful of the archive warning!! this chapter is A Lot.
now that that's been said...
*pulls lever on the wall next to me as a trapdoor opens beneath your feet, sending you plummeting into darkness*
see you at the end notes!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The midnight air hung heavy. The only sound that could be heard was the soft crunch of grass under shoes as the boy sprinted, head bowed as the momentum of his stride carried him forward.
To anyone else, it was a quiet evening.
To Izuku Midoriya, it was anything but.
His breath rasped in and out, and it felt like his lungs were being branded under the hot iron clamp of his ribs. Danger Sense called out to him; what used to be an incessant nag had turned into a deafening wail, etching the words into the inside of his skull letter by letter. The voice never stopped, hadn’t stopped since that afternoon and Izuku wanted nothing more than to cut it off and leave it echoing in his mind like a phone off the hook.
But out of all the noise plaguing his senses, the worst had to be the voice that was taunting him from a few steps ahead.
“You’re slow, Nine. Has my quirk gotten so weak while I’ve been gone?” All For One pressed a finger to his chin in mock contemplation. “I thought it would’ve been a bit stronger after spending forty years rotting away in your predecessor.”
Izuku dragged his aching head up to glower at him. The villain floated above the grass, the night breeze giving Airwalk the advantage. Each time Izuku thought he could grab him, he simply slid out of his reach, the green light encasing Izuku’s arms flickering out as he transferred the power back to his legs in an effort to keep up with him.
“Do you really think you can finish the job?” The mask glinted. “Or will you die trying, just like everyone that came before you?”
“Not...everyone.” Izuku spat breathlessly.
All For One paused, his rigid form hovering over Izuku. He nodded.
“I suppose you’re right. All Might is still alive, hm? But,” he chided, shifting in the air so that the campus apartments became visible on the fields behind him. “That can easily be remedied.”
Izuku’s heart stilled in his chest, a wave of cold crashing over the burning in his torso.
No.
With outstretched arms, he leapt forward over the green to grapple with All For One.
“No!”
The villain drifted out of his grasp at the last second, sending him tumbling back down into the turf. Dirt mingled with blood as he hit the ground using his forearms to brace for the impact, soil pushing into the open lacerations left over from his meeting with the window. Izuku whipped his head back up, scuffs of mud streaking his face as glared fiercely at the man above him.
“I won’t let you hurt anyone here!”
He could have sworn the light dancing across that mask was a smile.
“Nine, I believe you’ve already done that for me.”
Tokoyami’s phone lit up for the tenth time in the last minute, a faint ‘ping’ in the otherwise silent room. If he’d been sleeping, the sound might’ve woken him up. As it was, he and just about every other person in the dorms was wide awake.
1A Group Chat
-Today at 1:26 PM-
-Chargebolt added WalkingDead-
WalkingDead: unadd me
Chargebolt: lmfao no you’re one of us now
Cellophane: yeah you’re basically in the hero course now right
Pinky: one of us! one of us!
WalkingDead: oh my god
-Today at 8:47 PM -
RedRiot: Did you guys hear that?
Pinky: hear what?
Red Riot: I think Mr. Aizawa just ran past our floor
Tentacole: I can confirm. I heard it through the walls.
EarphoneJack: ^^^ same here
Pinky: lmao why did one of his cats get out again
RedRiot: @Cellophane I think I heard him go up to your floor, what’s up?
Cellophane: Idk
WalkingDead: why the hell are u all up right now
Chargebolt: we don’t all go to bed as early as bakugo duh
Cellophane: Wait I heard him talking in todoroki’s room
Cellophane: @Shoto What’s going on
Shoto: ...Nothing is going on.
Pinky: okay so something is totally going on then
Cellophane: Wait he’s moving again. I think he’s heading back downstairs @Deku @Tsukuyomi @CantStopTwinkling probably your floor
Me: I’ll have Dark Shadow keep watch.
Tokoyami crept over to the door, opening it a crack to let Dark Shadow seep out into the hall. He waited, phone in hand, until the heavy plodding of his teacher’s footsteps came into earshot. Dark Shadow watched as Aizawa darted down the hall and into the room two doors down from his own.
Midoriya’s room.
They waited, Tokoyami holding his breath as he peered out into the hallway. Rustling and what he could only assume were muffled curses slipped out from the open door before Aizawa ran out again, this time heading straight for the stairwell leading to the commons. He didn’t so much as glance at Dark Shadow as it slipped into his place, sticking its head into Midoriya’s dorm before retreating back to their room.
- Today at 8:51 PM -
Me: He seemed to be checking Midoriya’s room, then left. He’s in the commons now.
RedRiot: @Deku Dude why
Uravity: @Deku are you okay??
Chargebolt: he probably got busted for training too late
WalkingDead: lmao maybe
Me: I didn’t hear any conversation. Dark Shadow says it’s empty.
Chargebolt: fr? did he actually sneak out
Pinky: omg @Deku congrats
Ingenium: Do not congratulate your classmate for breaking curfew!
Ingenium: @Deku We’re waiting on an explanation for this behavior.
Uravity: @Deku please reply :,(
Tokoyami leaned against his bed with Dark Shadow curled up underneath his arm, his other hand placing his phone face-down on the floor. Still, the small flashes of light illuminating the carpet beneath it caught his eye as the screen lit up with questions from his classmates. He tried his best to ignore it, focusing instead on calming Dark Shadow as it twitched restlessly beside him.
“It’ll be fine,” he muttered. “You know Midoriya. Today was...different, but,” he tilted his head to face Dark Shadow. “He was never afraid of us, even when others were.”
“Midoriya was never scared of shadows.”
Shouta burst back into the commons, catching sight of a familiar skeletal frame trodding in from the other door. Toshinori approached him, clearly winded from his own search of the dorms.
“Anything?”
Shouta shook his head, steadying himself as he caught his breath.
“Nothing on floors 2F through 5F. His room was empty, the same as when he left it. Looks like he hasn’t been back here since.”
Toshinori ran a trembling hand through his hair, looking past the man in front of him and fixating on the empty space beyond him. Shouta forced himself not to turn and look with him. It wouldn’t make Midoriya suddenly appear, no matter how much they willed it to.
That simply wouldn’t be rational.
The sound of his ringtone broke the silence as Shouta fished his cell out of his pocket, bringing it to his ear.
“Shuzenji?”
He and Toshinori stood with baited breath as Recovery Girl’s muted voice reached the other end of the line.
“You both ought to come back here, now. I’ve got Nezu on the line with me. If we’re going to handle this properly, we’ll need a plan.”
The two nodded in unison and set out for the exit just as Jirou slipped her ear jack out of the wall in front of her, turning to her classmates who stood huddled in the hallway.
“Looks like he’s really gone. They’ve got Principal and Recovery Girl on the phone, too.” She tugged anxiously at the jack wrapped around her finger. “Sounds kinda serious.”
Kirishima bit his lip, his pointed teeth threatening to draw blood. Behind him, Aoyama shifted uncomfortably.
“What are we going to do about it?”
A flat voice caught their attention as Todoroki stepped out into the hall. He settled himself in front of their group, the line of his mouth drawn thin as he waited expectantly for a reply. Kirishima paused, then walked forward to meet him. He released his lip from the bite and offered a smile in return.
“We’re gonna find him, that’s what.”
Jirou straightened herself and sighed, finally retracting the coil wound around her hand. She checked around the corner again, making sure their teachers were out of earshot before turning back to the two boys.
“And how do you think you’re gonna do that? All Might and Mr. Aizawa are already working on it. It’s probably better to let them do their thing.”
Kirishima started forward.
“But we wanna help! The search’ll go faster when there’s more people looking, right?” He looked to Todoroki for confirmation, who nodded solemnly. “See? He agrees, and he’s the sensible one!”
Jirou eyed them critically, shifting her weight.
“Didn’t both of you go to Kamino a few months back, too? Wasn’t that enough sneaking out for one year?”
Kirishima shrunk back to stand beside Todoroki. “Well…”
His classmate sighed, a hand brushing back the bangs hanging in her eyes.
“Listen. I know what I said, okay? Maybe it worked last time, but I think our teachers can handle this. No offense or anything.” Jirou walked between them towards the stairwell, nudging Aoyama’s shoulder on the way. “Come on, Aoyama.”
Her footsteps were the only sound in the hall until even they slowed to a stop, Jirou turning around to stare questioningly at her classmate. “Aoyama…?”
The other boy curled into himself a bit as he backed towards the other two.
“I think...I think I’d like to help Midoriya too.” Maybe he hadn’t been able to save his friend the first time, but…
“I want to make it up to him.”
Now all three pairs of eyes were on him, and for the first time in a long time Aoyama found himself wanting to get out of the spotlight. He kept his eyes to the floor, hands folded tightly in front of him.
“Make it up to...you know what, nevermind.” Jirou stepped back down. “I’m not sure what’s got you guys so pumped about this, but at this point…” She shot Todoroki a rogue glance. “I’m kinda curious.”
Kirishima answered her with a wide smile. “Does that mean you’re gonna come? I mean, your quirk’s kinda perfect for it anyways…” He stared pleadingly at her. “We could really use your help.”
Jirou stared back, arms folded. “Okay. Give me one good reason I should be out breaking curfew with you.”
Three other voices piped up in unison.
“For Midoriya!”
She froze for a moment. “That’s not fair. You guys—” Jirou brought a hand to her reddening face. “That’s cheating.”
Kirishima elbowed her, grinning. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. You know you wanna help.” He turned to the others.
“Okay, so we’ll meet back in the commons in five?” The other three nodded. “I’d tell some of the others, but if our group’s too big we’ll get spotted. Better to keep it this way. Which reminds me,” he glanced at Todoroki, one short brow raised. “Why are you coming again?”
He shrugged, eyes trailing off to the side.
“I’m concerned about Midoriya’s recent behavior, that’s all.” Todoroki returned the look. “And you’re going because…”
Kirishima jabbed a thumb at his chest, smiling.
“Because Midoriya did the same for Bakugo! So I figure it’d be pretty unmanly not to return the favor!”
Jirou pressed a finger to her lips, gesturing up towards the stairs.
“You know, everyone can probably hear you.”
Kirishima’s face flushed, his voice fading to a whisper. “Right. Sorry!”
- Today at 9:05 PM -
Pinky: so did you find out what was going on orrrr
Shoto: It was nothing.
Uravity: are you sure? did you guys hear from deku yet?
Me: No, but I’m gonna be away from my phone for a bit so idk
Shoto: I will be as well.
EarphoneJack: uhhhh yeah
CantStopTwinkling: I will also be doing so~
WalkingDead: why the hell
Froppy: what are you guys doing?
Kirishima set his phone on the desk, quickly flipping it to silent before switching on a nearby lamp. Gotta make it look like someone’s actually in here, at least. He walked out, turning the handle softly behind him and checking for the thin strip of light under the door. Close enough.
He treaded lightly down the stairs, the carpet of the common room softening his steps as he walked over to meet the other three. He signaled for them to follow as they made their way to the door. Kirishima faced his classmates, his back to the exit.
“Just so we’re clear, we’re doing this, right?”
The other three nodded wordlessly.
“Good. Then let’s go find Midoriya.”
Shuzenji opened the door, ushering her colleagues inside. A phone was cradled between her ear and shoulder as she balanced containers of samples in her hands.
“Come in.”
Aizawa and Toshinori shuffled inside, mindful not to bump into the tables full of delicate beakers and flasks. Toshinori pulled the door closed behind him as Aizawa spoke up.
“What kind of plan did you have in mind, Shuzenji?”
The woman acknowledged him, cupping a hand over the receiver of her phone.
“I’ve been speaking with Nezu while the two of you have been out. That, and looking into the chemical you brought back with you.” She walked over to one of the tables, picking a petri dish off the counter.
“It has the reagents you mentioned, but they’re modified from what you’d usually see in this kind of compound. Diluted, somehow.” She adjusted her visor. “It’s not as fast-acting as its counterpart, and not quite so lethal.”
Toshinori allowed himself a small sigh of relief.
“That’s good...at least, I think it is.” He peered at the sample in her hand. “Anything else?”
“Yes.” She pulled a sheet of notes from the table, squinting through her visor as she looked them over.
“The fact that the mask contained this version and not the original compound might get us closer to finding out who planted it.” Aizawa stepped forward, realization suddenly dawning on him.
“If it’s a knockoff variant, then it was probably made by some criminal group rather than anyone higher up,” he supplied. “Not many villains would have the resources to create that kind of compound at full potency.”
Toshinori’s eyes widened.
“So that would mean we have a lead?”
Aizawa nodded. “If I can trace which organizations have been dealing with this substance, then yes.”
Shuzenji was about to interject when another voice cut her off. She placed the dish down and brought the phone to her ear, listening intently as the other end spoke. After a moment, she held it out to the two men in front of her.
“Nezu would like to speak with you two.”
Toshinoi took the phone and tapped the speaker button. As soon as the icon lit up, a high-pitched voice blasted forth at full volume.
“GOOD EVENING! IT LOOKS LIKE SOME THINGS HAVE HAPPENED SINCE I’VE BEEN GOoo—”
Aizawa wasted no time lowering the volume until it was back to a normal level. He glared at Shuzenji, massaging his temple with his other hand. “Do you seriously take all your calls like this? What are you, deaf?”
Shuzenji shrugged. “I’m old, what do you expect?”
He rolled his eyes and directed his attention back to the call.
“—so imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from your colleague earlier today! Right in the middle of my evening tea.” A sigh carried through from the other end. “These things can’t be helped, I suppose.”
“The plan,” Aizawa intoned. “You called about a plan.”
“Right! Excuse my rambling.” They could make out muted shuffling and the clicks of a keyboard as Nezu spoke again. “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to return to campus for at least another few hours. For now the situation is in your hands. But!” he piped up, “You won’t be working alone, either!”
The three in the office shared a questioning glance.
“I’ll be monitoring the footage streaming from UA’s security system the entire time. If anything moves, you’ll all be the first to know.”
Toshinori passed the phone back to Shuzenji, who accepted it. She held it to her ear, cranking the volume back up as she did so.
“It sounds like a plan.” She looked to the other two for confirmation, who nodded. “We’ll be in touch.”
The other end of the line crackled. “As will I. And before I go,” Nezu added, “I’d like to say that I trust you to bring our student back safely. I’m confident in leaving this in your hands”.
Toshinori straightened, bowing his head quickly. “We’ll find him. I’ll make sure of it.” And with that, the call ended.
Aizawa shuffled across the room, taking a seat at the monitor for the second time that night. He blinked away the glare of the screen as he pulled up every available file on the distribution of nerve agents in the area. Shuzenji resigned herself to a table, poring over the samples laid out in front of her.
That left Toshinori, standing awkwardly in the middle of the office as he wrung his hands together.
Come on, Yagi. Do something. His muscles tugged at him, willed him to move, to act, to do anything that wasn’t standing idly by while his student was still missing.
He weighed his options. Leave, and risk wearing himself out searching before they could get their lead. Stay, and waste valuable seconds doing nothing as Midoriya was out there doing...something. Whatever had driven him out of the infirmary, it was making Toshinori feel more helpless than he had in years. He hadn’t faced such an elusive enemy since…
Toshinori’s breath caught in his throat.
‘Why’d you tell me he was dead?’
‘Why did you say it if it wasn’t true?’
His legs seemed to move on their own as he rushed to Aizawa’s side, gripping the man’s shoulder as he leaned over to the monitor.
“Aizawa. Check the database for any activity attributed to the League.”
The other teacher turned to him, brows furrowed. “The League? I think you of all people know this wouldn’t exactly be their style.”
Toshinori’s knuckles burned white. “I’m not saying it has to be the League. I’m more concerned with whoever might be working through them.”
Aizawa relented, shrugging the hand off his shoulder as he typed. A press of the ‘Enter’ button prompted a list of characters to pop up onscreen. He read through them, pausing here and there until he came to a stop at an input from four months earlier.
“It says here the League of Villains received a small shipment of some of the substances found in our compound. Not all, but some.” He spun in his chair. “Those could have been used for anything in the past months, though.” Aizawa grimaced. “I wouldn’t be surprised, with the Nomus they’ve got running around.”
Toshinori couldn’t tear himself away from the screen, Midoriya’s words on repeat in his head.
“You might be right, but…” He flashed Aizawa a grave look. “It’s a start.”
The searing pain in Izuku’s chest ate away at him with every step. At this point, he wasn’t sure if he was just exhausted from running or if his heart was being cauterized.
The one thing he was sure of was that he couldn’t stop.
All For One was still floating effortlessly ahead of him, slowing occasionally to jeer at the boy before speeding up again. Izuku tried his best to ignore the insults being hurled at him from above—most of them were things he’d heard before, anyways. Despite the pitch dark of the night, he could see right through them.
They were distractions.
Izuku tore his eyes away from the villain every few minutes, gauging their location. Each time he checked, the anxious grip on his chest tightened; he was being led somewhere.
The two sped past the campus directory, All For One simply phasing through it as Izuku ducked his head, missing the bottom of the map by mere inches. Stupid transparency quirk. As he straightened himself, he craned his neck to read the sign behind them.
‘On-Campus Housing: 1 Kilometer’
Shit.
So he was being led somewhere. Somewhere with a lot of people—people Izuku cared about.
People who had no idea what was going on.
He forced himself to check his breathing, dragging as much breath as he could hold into his trembling lungs before releasing it into the night air. Focus. You just have to make sure he keeps his attention on you. He strained to see across the fields, looking for an opening to lead the man away.
A few steps more and he caught sight of the entrance to the education wing, its doors approaching fast in his peripheral. Izuku had lost track of time since leaving the infirmary, but judging by the moon that was resting high above them, it was far past closing hours. The halls would be empty.
He nodded to himself, clenching and unclenching his fists as they swung at his sides. I can do this. No one else needs to get hurt because of him.
He swallowed down the nausea building in his gut.
Because of me.
Both arms shot up, crackling with energy that lit up the dark. All For One whipped his head around to face him as Izuku’s limbs hummed and glowed, One For All coursing through them. “You want this?”
All For One turned his head. Izuku spat into the grass beside him. He turned on his heel, the turf parting underfoot as he sprinted towards the building. “Then come and get it!”
It wasn't worth looking behind him as the low thrum of Airwalk grew steadily louder, its vibrations buzzing under the soles of his shoes. Izuku sent One For All down to his legs once again, pushing him forward as the entrance stood a few yards ahead. With a final kick, Izuku shot towards the doors, pulling one open as he threw himself inside. His sneakers skidded against the floor, and he whipped his head around just in time to see All For One’s hulking silhouette glide through the open door.
Got him right where I want him...
Izuku stepped back to face the network of halls in front of him.
...I think.
But the villain seemed to have forgotten about his friends, which was good enough. For now.
‘Now’ turned out to be much shorter than Izuku expected as All For One released one quirk in favor of another, touching back down to the ground only for his arms to begin to bulge with energy. His shoes clicked against linoleum as he stepped towards the boy. He chuckled.
“I see what you’re doing here, Nine. Trying to lure me away from All Might and your other attachments.”
The man lunged forward, muscles compacted with kinetic force as he swiped at the air beside Izuku’s head. The Fourth’s quirk called out to him, pulling him to the side as the arm cut through the space next to him.
“But know that this is only a temporary mercy...for them. As for you…” He swung again as Izuku narrowly dodged the fist. “Your time is now.”
Izuku bit his lip as he leapt back. Sure, he was holding up now, but the mounting pressure in his chest and exhaustion from his cross-campus run weren’t doing him any favors. He’d slip up soon enough, and when he did there’d be no one left standing between the villain and whatever he could get his hands on.
All For One’s fist clipped Izuku’s leg, the spurred bones coating the knuckles biting through his skin.
Izuku backed away, one arm raised to strike as the other held his calf. Unfortunately, getting his hands on things was something All For One seemed to be good at. The blood seeping through his fingers and that library of quirks was all the proof he needed.
Airwalk, Bone Blade, Kinetic Fist—Izuku leapt out of the way of another strike—Cloaking, Transparency. He’s used five quirks so far. There’s gotta be more stored away, too. At least one is always activated, but if I can catch him by surprise…
Izuku met the man’s next punch with his own outstretched arm, waiting for the waves of energy to hit. As soon as they got close, he flicked his finger, a blast of air rolling the kinetic pulses back until they collided with All For One.
He took the opening to dart into a nearby classroom. Pressing himself against the wall, he measured the villain’s steps in time with the dull throbs of Danger Sense. As soon as the footfalls got close, Izuku turned and shot another blast of air into the opposite end of the hall. He could see the mask swivel to where the force hit, pulling All For One’s attention away just long enough for Izuku himself to leap out of the room, arm pulled back as he rocketed towards the man.
There was hardly time to shift his weight in midair as he passed straight through All For One, shoulder slamming into the lockers on the opposite wall. Something popped. Dammit! A sneer burned into his back as he peeled himself off of the metal.
“I would say it was a nice try, but…” All For One waggled a finger at Izuku, who cringed. “We’d both know that was a lie, wouldn’t we?”
The boy backed down the hall, eyes darting from one door to the next. The only exit around was the stairwell, its lights flickering dully. Before he could think, Izuku made a run for it, grabbing the railing as he stumbled down to the lower levels. His sneakers squeaked against the rubber surface of the steps, not realizing how many he’d been skipping until he was tumbling onto the basement floor.
All For One followed, floating down leisurely until he was level with Izuku.
“I’m growing tired of this cat-and-mouse game, Nine.” He leaned in. “I’m sure there are easier prey to catch around here.”
Izuku’s eyes widened as he edged away from the face in front of him. Too close. Still too close to everyone else. He looked back up at the stairwell. It had seemed like such a long way down the other day, but now…
With that and Airwalk at his disposal, All For One would be back to the surface in minutes. He’d never catch the man in time. They needed to get farther away, at least far enough where Izuku would have a chance at—
He turned slowly, facing down the dark hall. A familiar door sat nestled into the wall on his left.
The unit.
His brain could hardly catch up to his body as he ran for the door, clasping the handle and turning it with white knuckles. It didn’t budge.
“Keys, keys... shit, I don’t have the keys!” He swore under his breath, panic swelling under his skin. Izuku looked back to see All For One standing stiffly behind him as he raised an arm from his side. Dark shapes sprouted from it, forming sharp points in the dark. One For All’s energy spiked in Izuku’s gut, power mixing with the fear buzzing throughout his body.
“Come on, come on!”
He gripped the handle with a charged fist and wrenched it to the side, snapping the lock on the door. It creaked open and Izuku ducked inside, balancing himself on the stairs as All For One followed close behind. As soon as they were both inside, Izuku slid behind the man and bent the inside handle. The lock dangled crookedly, crushed under his hand.
It won’t stop him from getting out, but…
He whirled around to face All For One on the steps.
It’ll keep anyone else from getting in. At least until I can deal with him myself.
All For One stood tall in the narrow stairwell. Izuku could hardly tell him apart from the dark surrounding them. He looked above him—the dead bulb still hung useless from the ceiling.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Nine? Terribly dim in here.” He turned to the rest of the corridor. “One wrong step, and it’s a long way down. Wouldn’t want these stairs doing my job for me.”
“I...I know. You won’t come out unless it’s dark. So it’s not the best situation, but…”
Izuku raised both arms. Green lighting crackled around them, sending sparks of light into the dark.
“I can still see you.”
The glow caught a trace of the mask’s ghostly smile.
“That’s not enough, Nine. You can’t even touch me.”
Izuku took a final step back, screwing his eyes shut. If he turns off that quirk, I’m dead. I’m gonna run into him and fall down the stairs and die. He took a deep breath. I can’t touch him, but...
And suddenly he was in the air, jumping off the steps and hurtling straight through All For One as he landed on the staircase below them with a metallic clang.
I can use that to my advantage.
His head shot up the second he hit the step, checking behind him for the man’s reaction. All For One simply balanced on the stairs above, hands folded at his back.
“An interesting use of my transparency quirk. Not bad.” He activated Airwalk, floating down the corridor towards him. Izuku matched the motion with his own, racing down the stairs as best he could in the pitch darkness. Just when the platform came into sight, he overstepped, and All For One took the opportunity to strike him from behind. Izuku tumbled down the last few steps, knocking against concrete as he rolled to a stop.
“Ngh…”
Holding his head with one hand, he straightened back up, leaning against a shelf for support. A dark, broad figure swam in and out of his vision as it walked out of the shadows. Izuku barely managed to dart behind another set of shelves before an armful of rivets collided with the one he’d been leaning on, sending it toppling onto the floor. Its contents spilled out, crates of old gear crushed under the metal rack.
Another rivet tore through the shelf to his right, slicing through a stack of boxes. Izuku ducked.
One For All surged through his skin, and its light showed him the fist loaded with spikes that was bearing down on him. They nipped at Izuku’s arm as he leapt out of the way, bits of lightning trailing behind him as he ran.
He let Danger Sense guide him through the aisles. The small bursts of pain in his head faded in and out as he wove through the unit, eventually leading him behind another row of racks as All For One followed suit.
With a single heave, Izuku pushed over the row of shelves, straining to see as he watched them topple over and phase straight through All For One. The man rose out of the pile of clutter unscathed. Izuku’s heart skipped a beat.
What do I do now? He backed further into the aisle, clutching his bleeding arm. If not even that can touch him, then what—
Two ebony rods shot through the dark, glints of red running through them like veins. Izuku couldn’t see them coming, didn’t even know they’d been released until their edges split his skin, burying their way into layers of muscle. He slammed into the wall behind him, teeth clicking together as he inhaled sharply. Every twitch forced him to feel the presence of the blades that were now inches deep in his abdomen.
Izuku could see All For One grinning through his pulsing vision. He watched as the villain raised his arm ever so slightly.
All For One flicked his wrist.
The blades hiked up in Izuku’s gut, and just as blood began to bubble in the back of his throat he released it all in one long scream. Every nerve ending was like the head of a match that had been struck against the tissue in his body, coming alight as sunspots burned into his eyes. He blacked out, the wildfire dancing along his nerves fading along with his consciousness.
When he came to again, cool mist encased his body, the void from earlier that night returning as shimmering vapors swirled into his vision. Shimura appeared before him for the second time, a single gloved hand outstretched as the vestiges stood solemnly around her, their colors shifting and blurring. Her once firm gaze softened into something impossibly sad, silvery eyes pooling with tears.
“Please, Nine. Let us help you.”
Izuku jerked his head away as her hand came forward to hold his face, the fabric of her glove brushing lightly against his cheek. He squeezed his eyes shut.
“Stop! Let me go!” He craned his neck back, fighting through the mist covering his mouth. “I don’t want your help! You di-didn’t help me before! ” His physical body shuddered in pain. “And you can’t now!”
Shimura pulled her hand away, and the sensation faded. When he opened his eyes again, he could see All For One before him with his arm still outstretched as he pinned Izuku against the wall. The man’s grin grew wider.
“You don’t want to go with One For All then, hm?” His hand twitched.
”Well then, I suppose I’ll have to bring them to you.”
Scarlet light traced through the paths etched into the rods, illuminating the blades in the dark room. In one moment, all Izuku could see was red.
In the next, every color imaginable flooded his vision, a hellish rainbow pulsating in his eyes as the vestiges within his mind swirled and distorted, their vibrant hues burning into his retinas.
Forced...Quirk...Activation? Izuku strained against the blades, blinking furiously at the sudden swell of color. But One For All has multiple—
Unseeing eyes blew wide.
No.
A cry for help died in his throat as Danger Sense morphed into a savage scream, echoing off of Izuku’s skull in a chorus of incoherent wails. Foreign currents of power spiked his bloodstream, thrumming painfully in his veins as One For All exploded in a starburst of violent force. Jade lightning crackled across the surface of his skin, the dormant ache in his bones swelling along with the power shooting through them.
It hurts, but…this is just the base power and Danger Sense. Izuku held a shaky breath. I can handle that.
All For One cocked his head to the side, mask glinting under the dim light.
“Oh? You can, Nine?” He raised his other arm. “Let’s see if you live up to your name.”
A garbled noise tore its way out of Izuku’s chest as a third blade buried into his shoulder. He felt the muscles in his arms pull and contract, then begin to unravel along with the energy being dragged from them. Their fibers seared his skin as tendrils of black static tore out of his limbs, lashing out at the stale air. Others wound tightly around him and Izuku could feel his own erratic pulse beating against them as they constricted.
Another rod shot into his side, and suddenly Izuku was fighting to inhale as wisps of smoke curled out of his open mouth, stealing his breath and rolling off of his skin. A dense fog filled the room as he screamed—or tried to, with the air in his lungs turning to nothing but vapor.
What...what is this?
The world around him paled to a shifting tone of grey.
I can’t...can’t breathe...
He panicked, his hands feeling for the pockmarked concrete behind him and scraping feverishly at the wall. His fingers tensed as his nails dug into the surface, the inky coils bursting from his skin tugging at his ligaments as power continued to spew from them. His arms fell limp at his sides, all of their energy now thrashing outside of his body. Nothing more was holding him up other than the rigid shafts piercing through him.
All For One chuckled. The fifth found his thigh.
As soon as it hit, gravity was drained from him in the span of a second, the blood from his feet rushing up towards his head in a single wave of hot pressure. The soles of his shoes separated from the ground below him, and Izuku felt suddenly weightless as he hovered above the floor. A single faint thought tugged weakly at him.
Shimura…?
He was rising.
The rods lodged in his body were not.
He pulled weakly at the blades, wrapping a trembling hand around one to try and anchor himself. A whimper escaped him as the bottom edge of one of the rods dug deeper into his lower abdomen, threatening to cut him in two. The image of Shinomori’s split face refused to leave his head as Izuku’s shallow breaths quickened.
“Stop.” Smoke flowed in and out of his lungs. “Please, stop.”
All For One stepped through the fog, extended arm closing the distance between them.
“What was that? I’m afraid you sound a bit breathless.” He brought his free hand to the side of his head. “Your mentor destroyed my ears, you know. A bit hard to hear.”
Izuku swallowed the flood of blood and bile building in his throat.
“Ple-ease.”
And then the blood slammed back into his legs as he crumpled to the floor, All For One retracting his rods the moment Izuku slid down the wall. The black whips fell lax, retreating back under his skin as the smoke filling the air dissipated. Izuku took the first real breath he’d had in over a minute, lungs spasming as he coughed up flecks of blood into his palm.
“Do you understand now, Nine? Your power isn’t yours. It never has been. It never will be.” He approached Izuku, his dark form towering above him. “One For All is mine to control.”
Izuku’s head hung heavy against his chest, still throbbing as he raised it to lock eyes with All For One. Or at least, where his eyes would be.
“Then why...are you d-doing this?”
The man bent forward, the phantom scowl of his mask hovering parallel to Izuku’s own grimace.
“Excuse me?”
The boy stifled another cough. “Why do all this...for a quirk you say is already yours?”
All For One leaned back, hands folded behind him.
“I say this, Nine, because the power has always been mine. It was born from me, and to me it will return.” He stared down at the small form below him. “There’s just one problem.”
Another stray rod bit into Izuku’s upper arm, and he held back a cry as a thick tendril shot out from it. The static yanked at his muscles, unwinding the last dredges of strength left in them as All For One took hold of the tendril and pulled, bringing Izuku to meet the concrete under him.
“You have to want to give it up.”
He used the whip like the string of a puppet, leveling Izuku’s face with his own as he hoisted the tendril into the air.
“So I am going to turn this stolen power against you until you have no other choice.”
“Any trace of them yet?”
Jirou nodded silently as their group ran through the grounds, one jack feeding into the turf below her every few steps. They clung to the side of the buildings as they went. Please don’t let anyone spot us. She turned to the others.
“Two people a few dozen meters up ahead. It’s gotta be All Might and Mr. Aizawa.”
Kirishima pumped a fist in the air. “That’s great! Now all we have to do is follow!” He smiled apologetically at the two behind him. “Sorry, guys. Usually you could use your quirks to give us some light, but…”
Todoroki bowed his head. “But we can’t risk being seen. I understand.” Aoyama nodded along with him.
In front of them, Jirou skidded to a stop, a finger to her lips. The other three crashed into her with a muffled yell.
“Hey, what gives?”
She whirled her head around, eyeing them fiercely. “I picked up a third sound. Someone else is here.”
They all froze, holding their breath as Jirou listened. She perked up before the others did, the soft crunching of grass becoming barely audible as the figure approached.
“What the fuck are you guys doing out here?”
All four jumped, crowding against the building behind them. Kirishima spoke up first.
“Shinsou?”
The boy in front of them dragged a hand through his hair, pushing back the tufts of purple falling into his eyes. “Yeah. Now answer the question.”
Aoyama moved to speak, then clapped a hand over his mouth. Shinsou sighed.
“I’m not gonna use my quirk on you.”
He lowered his hand slowly, then opened his mouth. “How...how did you know we were here?”
“You’re outside of my building, dumbass.”
All four turned to gape at the brick behind them. A sign reading ‘Class 1-C Dormitories’ stood off to the side.
“O-oh. So it seems.”
Kirishima stepped forward. “Still, though! No one else is with you, so how did you know we would be around here?”
At that, Shinsou pulled a phone out of the pocket of his hoodie, dangling it in front of them. It lit up, a string of notifications filling up the screen.
“Maybe next time don’t discuss your plans in the class group chat.” He rolled his eyes, stuffing the cell away. “Your class is predictable. All I had to do was wait around for one of you to start screwing around.” He squinted in the dark. “Or four of you, I guess.”
The huddle shifted uneasily. Jirou stuck a jack into the wall, listening for any teachers that might be nearby. For the moment, it was quiet.
“Listen. This is great and all, but we’ve gotta keep moving if we don’t wanna lose their trail.” She aimed her other cord in the direction of the fields. The others began to move forward with her until Shinsou caught Todoroki’s shoulder.
“You still haven’t answered my question.” He stared at each of them pointedly. “This is about Midoriya, isn’t it?”
Todoroki shrugged out of the hold.
“Maybe so. Why do you ask?”
“Well,” he turned his tired eyes to the ground. “I can’t exactly say I’m not curious, either. Was kind of hoping I would get to fight him today. During the exercise, I mean.” Shinsou’s brows furrowed as he raised his eyes. “If he’s off somewhere doing extra training or something, then I want to know too. I still haven’t gotten to prove myself yet.”
Jirou groaned. “We already have a ‘fated rival’ in this group.” She jabbed a thumb at Todoroki. “Spot’s filled, sorry.”
The other three boys nodded vigorously. Shinsou smirked.
“That’s a shame.” He fished the phone out of his pocket. “I’d hate to have to let the whole dormitory know you guys are out here after curfew.”
That got their attention.
“I mean, um, pleased to have you?” Aoyama waved his hands in front of his face. “Just...don’t call, alright?”
The phone slid back into the hoodie, and the rest of the group sunk against the wall in relief. Jirou straightened herself, a jack already sinking into the grass.
“If we hurry, I can still track them.” She gave Shinsou a final dirty look. “But we’d have to go now.”
“Fine by me.”
With that, all five students set off again, guided by Jirou’s quirk as they ran through the night. Shinsou jogged over to Kirishima, cocking his head to the side.
“So do you Hero Course kids do this all the time? Running after rogue classmates?”
“What?” Kirishima shook his head. “No, of course no—” He paused, his face reddening. “Well, maybe sometimes.”
Shinsou scoffed. “Yeah, sometimes. Aizawa tells me stories about it sometimes, too.” He rolled his eyes, his own small smile peeking out from under layers of exhaustion. “But if that’s what it means to become a hero, then...it doesn’t sound so bad."
Just as Shinsou was stowing his phone away, Aizawa was pulling his out across the grounds. He held it steady to his ear as he ran with Toshinori by his side.
“Oh good, you’ve picked up.” Nezu chirped. “I’ve just received an alert that the entrance to the education wing has been opened.”
Aizawa looked to the wide building sitting a ways ahead of them. “So he’s in there?”
“Yes. I’m monitoring the security footage as we speak.” A pause. “It seems as if he’s passed through ground level and is heading downward. The cameras in the stairwell picked it up for me.”
Toshinori mulled the information over as his long strides carried him over the field. “Downwards? That would mean…” Aizawa locked eyes with him.
“The unit. It would mean he’s trying to separate himself as much as possible.” The image of Midoriya’s small body curled up on the bathroom tile washed over him. “He might just be trying to protect others, but if the trigger you and Shuzenji mentioned is correct, then this could get bad.”
Toshinori’s clenched hands tightened. His steps quickened, and Aizawa ran to match them. Damn those long legs.
A minute later they darted through the open doors, two long shadows spilling onto the linoleum inside. Toshinori was the first to spot the dent on one wall, a section of the lockers caving in on itself. Something had hit it, hard. He gulped.
Ignoring the scene in front of him, he looked past it towards the stairwell. Aizawa was already sprinting towards it, motioning for Toshinori to follow.
“Nezu said he went down here. Let’s go.” He surveyed the hall behind him. “We can deal with the rest of this later.”
They began their descent, Toshinori gripping the railing as he treaded down the stairs. More than once he had to resist the urge to check behind him, the sound of phantom footsteps at his back. He shook his head.
No. I won’t let it get to me. Not when Midoriya’s still in trouble.
They reached the basement a minute later, and as soon as both had paused at the bottom Aizawa whipped his head around. Even though he and Toshinori had stopped, something was still stepping down the stairs. Toshnori listened.
Multiple somethings.
Aizawa brought a hand to his temple, muttering.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
The footsteps paused on the steps above them. Shushing and the sound of shuffling feet echoed throughout the corridor.
“Nice try. You can come out now.”
A few seconds passed before a shock of red hair peeked out from the corner.
“Uh…” It ducked behind the wall, whispering something. Kirishima poked his head out again. “Hey, Mr. Aizawa! Funny meeting you here.”
“You are all going to get down here.” Aizawa pulled at his capture weapon pointedly. “Or I will drag you out myself.”
Four other heads popped out from the corner, eyeing their teachers.
“Now.”
They all stepped down to the floor, one after the other until they stood in what Aizawa decided was the most pitiful police lineup he’d ever seen.
“Kirishima, Jirou, Todoroki, Aoyama…” His brows drew together. “And Shinsou. Disappointed, but not surprised.”
Jirou shrunk back, tapping her jacks together. “Sorry, Mr. Aizawa. We just figured…” her voice trailed off, and Todoroki stepped forward.
“We wanted to know what’s going on.”
Toshinori spoke up. “That’s very admirable of you all, but—” Aizawa cut him off.
“But you all are going to stay right here, and not move. Neither of us can escort you back to the dorms, but we can’t have you coming with us, either.”
“But we came here to help!” Kirishima shouldered his way out of the group. “If something’s wrong, we can fix it!”
Aizawa shook his head curtly. “I understand what you’re trying to do. But this isn’t the kind of situation you should be involved in. There’s a possibility Midoriya won’t register who or what’s around him, even if it’s you. That’s dangerous.”
Shinsou scowled. “And why the hell wouldn't he?” He started to speak again, but Todoroki placed a hand on his shoulder. His intense stare froze Shinsou in place.
Todoroki turned to address his teacher. “I understand, Mr. Aizawa.” Shouta nodded to him. I’m sure you do. Probably more than anyone else.
He cleared his throat, glancing at each of his students one by one. “It’s like your classmate said. All Might and I will handle this. If, and I mean if your help is needed, you will follow my instructions and not go in under any circumstances. Understood?”
Five heads bowed reluctantly. Aizawa moved to place a hand on Kirishima’s shoulder.
“My job as a teacher is to keep you safe. I want that for all my students. Including Midoriya.” He sighed, straightening himself as the hand fell away. “Besides, there is one thing you can do to help.”
Kirishima perked up, eyes widening. “Really?”
Aizawa jabbed a thumb at the mangled lock on the door.
“Mind breaking this open for us?”
His student immediately slumped over. “Are you serious?”
“What?” Aizawa shrugged. “You said you wanted to help.”
Kirishima trudged over to the door, and with a single hardened hit the rest of the handle fell away. The door creaked open. “So unmanly…” he muttered as he rejoined his friends. Toshinori offered him a reassuring grin.
“Don’t feel ashamed, Young Kirishima. You’re doing all you can.” He raised a fist to his chest. “And that is the essence of going Plus Ultra!’
The kid fixed his eyes to the floor, but Toshinori could still make out the edge of a smile. “Yeah, alright.”
Both adults turned back to the now open door, the same dim passage beckoning them from inside. Aizawa stepped down first, the rickety metal shifting under his boot. Toshinori gave one last smile to his students before following suit, forming a thumbs-up with his shaky hand. And with that, both disappeared into the dark of the stairway.
It wasn’t until Toshinori was about halfway down when he heard it. Aizawa’s head shot up in front of him, both tense as they tried to catch the sound echoing in the corridor.
Screaming.
They looked back at each other, Aizawa already tugging at his capture weapon before he and Toshinori were bounding down the steps and landing hard on the bottom platform. Dust billowed up from under their soles, and Aizawa pulled his scarf up as Toshinori swatted it away.
They stood rigidly on the surface, eyeing the room around them. Dull bulbs washed it in a weak light. Toshinori squinted, straining to make out any motion in the dark. He heard before he saw. Footsteps, quick and unsteady. The sharp sound of something hurtling through air. The deafening pop and grating of metal as something was thrown into a shelf to their right. The high whine as the shelf keeled over, rushing to the floor as dozens of containers clattered to the floor.
Aizawa was shoving him away just as he felt the whoosh of air at his side, a thundering ‘BANG’ resonating throughout the room as it hit the concrete less than a meter away.
They both stood, holding their breath.
Someone coughed, and the wreckage of the shelf creaked as a shadow heaved itself up. It rose a bit before falling back into the metal. It whimpered.
“Young Midoriya?”
He rushed over to his boy, Aizawa’s muffled warnings falling flat behind him as he ran. His own heartbeat drowned out every other sound. Maybe that was why he couldn’t hear the guttural noise growing louder as he approached. Not until his outstretched arms were struck aside, a hoarse cry ripping its way out of the boy in front of him.
“Leave me alone!” Midoriya tried to pull himself off the ground a second time. Toshinori stumbled back. The faint light exposed his bloody limbs, gashes running up and down his arms as he brought one up defensively, the other clutching his stomach.
The lightning dancing on his skin flickered as Izuku was flung aside by some unseen force, tumbling to the floor.
Toshinori started forward, then froze. Aizawa walked up behind him, a hand on his arm.
“Don’t.” Aizawa said gravely. “Let me handle this.” He turned to Midoriya, and Toshinori watched the man’s hair rise ever so slightly in the dark.
Now the lightning had faded out completely, the faint glow draining from Midoriya’s skin. The boy stared at his arms, chest heaving.
“No. No, no…” His eyes fixated on the empty space in front of him. “How did you—did I—”
Aizawa almost opened his mouth to answer. He shut it when he realized the kid wasn’t speaking to him.
With a broken cry Midoriya threw himself forward, grappling with nothing as tears streamed down his face.
“Give it back! Give it back, I can’t—I can’t lose it!”
‘I won’t let you take it! He gave it to me!’
He swung at the air, only for his body to jolt as he was pushed back over and over. Midoriya stumbled back into another aisle, bumping into one of the shelves. It was there that he reached between the boxes, pulling out a rusting piece of hero gear. He held it in front of him, the aging chunk of metal shining dully under the faint light.
Not good. Aizawa was quick to pull it out of Midoriya’s grasp, knocking it to the floor with his capture weapon. He kept a few strands wrapped around the kid’s arm, anchoring him. Midoriya clawed at them, managing to rip off all but one. That one, Aizawa pulled back on his own.
These are steel wire alloy. He held the frayed edge in his palm. How did he…?
For the first time, it looked like the kid’s attention was finally on him. Wild eyes drifted across the unit. They were trailing something, finally coming to rest on the corner of the room.
The corner where Toshinori stood. Small blue eyes met dilated green ones.
Midoriya lunged.
Aizawa reacted instantly, his scarf wrapped around the kid in midair, yanking him back harder than he’d anticipated. The force sent Midoriya tumbling. Dammit. That was too much. Even as he moved to check on him, his student was back up in seconds, straining against some invisible enemy. He thrashed at the air, spitting words Aizawa couldn’t make out.
The hero’s eyes stung as he squinted, trying to find an opening where Midoriya wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire. C’mon, kid. Just stay still. He aimed his weapon, only to drop it again. One wrong catch, and he could send another shelf toppling onto him.
Aizaa racked his brain for an answer. Suddenly, his eyes widened. It’s not ideal, but…
He rushed over to the platform, craning his neck to see up the stairwell.
“Shinsou!”
Far above him, a head bobbed into view.
“Yeah?”
Aizawa gritted his teeth. The last thing he needed was to get these kids involved. He shot a glance back at Midoriya, still struggling even as he fell to the ground.
Then again, it might be his only option. He called back to his student.
“Don’t come down! Just ask Midoriya a question, quickly!”
Shinsou cocked his head to the side. “Huh?”
“Now!”
At first, the only sound was the echo of Aizawa’s response. But soon enough, a second voice called down to them.
“Midoriya!” A pause. “Let’s fight!”
From across the room, Midoriya groaned, curled into himself on the concrete. “No…”
Aizawa grimaced. Understandable. It didn’t stop the relief from washing over him when Midoriya’s eyes went blank.
His success was short-lived. A deafening scream tore its way out of Midoriya as his whole body tensed.
"Shit. If the trigger is still active, then—"
Midoriya shuffled backwards into a fallen shelf, arms feeling at the space around him until he took hold of a familiar piece of debris. A metal case laid open on the ground; one Shouta had taken samples from just hours before. He watched, eyes wide as Midoriya thrust it in front of him, the glass inside shattering into a thousand pieces.
Aizawa could hardly tear himself away as he yelled back up the stairs.
“We need some light down here!”
This time no questions were asked as a beacon shot down the corridor, accompanied by a burst of flame. The entire unit lit up, every shadow dissipating into the blinding glow.
Aizawa nodded to himself as the flash faded. Good work, you two.
The moment they could see the floor in front of them again, he and Toshinori hurried forward, dodging piles of boxes as they went. Toshinori rushed in just in time to catch Midoriya’s head as the rest of him crumpled to the ground. His blank eyes gazed listlessly at the ceiling.
“So it’s over, then?” Aizawa looked to his colleague. Toshinori was about to answer him until he withdrew one of the hands supporting Midoriya’s neck. He stared at it a moment before his eyes shot back up to Aizawa.
“I—that was his pulse just then, I think.” He shook his head. “It’s too fast. Way too fast.”
Aizawa shoved down the panic building his gut.
Of course. It can never be ‘over’ with you, can it, Problem Child?
“Alright then. Let’s get moving.”
Everything was going dark.
Everything was going dark and Izuku didn’t want that, couldn’t let it take him because he didn’t know if the light would come back this time.
Maybe he wouldn’t deserve it if it did.
All For One had been right there, finally leaving Izuku alone only to stroll across the room and put a hand around his teacher’s neck. He’d waited, smiling, all the while spurs of bone sprouting further up his arm until one threatened to pierce clean through All Might’s throat. And All Might had just stood there, staring death in the face and doing nothing. So Izuku jumped.
As he’d shot towards All For One, the glow from above hit his mask at such an angle that the ghostly grin looked almost sad. His low voice thrummed through the air, reverberating in Izuku’s chest.
“You’re not well, Nine.”
And then All For One had wrapped those rods around his middle, their cold edge cutting into his stomach, and tossed him aside. And all Izuku had done was fall, head knocking against a pile of crates as he saw a splurt of red in his vision. All Might’s blood, coating the concrete beside him.
Nausea curdled his gut and tainted his throat, making the little air he could take in taste like bile. He could feel himself twitch against the cold floor.
I couldn’t—
He tried to cry out, only for another cough to rack his body.
—save him.
All For One stepped over him, hauling him up by the shirt with a fist that reeked of blood, both All Might’s and Izuku’s own. He could’ve taken One For All already, if only the boy willed it.
I won’t.
Izuku clawed weakly at the arm holding him, tears running into his open mouth as he gasped for air. All For One only pulled him closer.
“S-stop.”
“No, Nine. I won’t stop.” Izuku watched his own warped reflection in the glass as the man spoke. “Not now, not ever. I am the thing that keeps you up at night. The evil that haunts every dark corner of your mind.” All For One dropped him.
“I will never rest. And neither will you.”
He raised a mutated arm, spears of metal and bone puncturing the skin from all sides. Its muscles bulged, ropes of kinetic force charging the fist. “Let’s fight.”
Izuku choked on his own words. “No...”
He saw the sharpened fist boring down on him, the first shards of bone splitting the skin on his face. Izuku screamed. He tried to move out of the way, only to stumble against another piece of debris on the ground. He blindly took hold of it, shoving the case between himself and All For One. Broken glass bit at his skin as the punch shattered the remnants of a mask. Black shards littered the ground, chunks of twisted metal falling away.
All For One paused, his hulking arm still in midair. Izuku stared at his hands, weakly fighting the fogginess that was filling his head. That was...
Just as his vision faded out, an intense glow filled the room, a blend of brilliance and heat that cast the blow barreling towards him in a harsh light. All For One’s arm dissolved with it as it was brought down over Izuku’s head.
For a moment, everything was so, so bright.
Then it all went black.
At first, he almost didn’t recognize where he was. Izuku blinked away the dark clouding his vision.
Something happened. All For One was there, and then— He looked down at his hands, half-covered in shadow. I’m here again. Which means I’m unconscious. Nausea rolled in a stomach that wasn’t there. Or dead.
The mist flowing through Izuku’s mouth was a grim reminder of the void. It made him want to gag; it felt too much like the smoke that had filled his lungs earlier. The once gentle ebb and flow of the vapor seemed dizzying now, pulling his eyes in every direction. He hated this place. It tore him away, stripped him of everything he had only to stand before people who wouldn’t listen to a word he said. That was if he was able to speak, anyway.
He raised his head. Anger built up inside of him, pinpricks of heat dancing behind his eyes. All of you did that. He moved from one vestige to the next as they stood off to the side, heads bowed. You hurt me. Maybe All For One started it, but… His gaze came to rest on Shimura’s shimmering form. You let it happen. You helped him!
Shimura refused to meet his eyes, instead floating back to reveal the vestige standing behind her. The eighth’s body swirled and shifted, the same as it always had. But now, its face was turned to Izuku’s own.
“Ah-Might?”
Izuku swiped at the vapors on his mouth.
“...All Might?” The vestige did not answer him. Its golden eyes never left the green ones in front of it. Izuku stepped closer.
“Why couldn’t you…” He searched his teacher’s shrouded face for an answer.
“Why couldn’t you save me?”
He felt himself shiver, phantom pain wracking his body. He saw the blood that had stained his shirt, coated his arms, run down his face. “Why didn’t you?”
He saw the blood that had painted the concrete next to him. The only blood that hadn’t been his own.
“Oh God, why didn’t I—why c-couldn’t I save you?”
Izuku reached out to grasp the hand that hung at All Might’s side, his viridescent mist intertwining with gold.
“I’m sorry.”
The figure didn’t move as Izuku pulled the hand closer, holding it in both of his own. Tears spilled from his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
Izuku let himself fall forward, burying his head in the amber cloud. He pressed against what might have been a shoulder, silent sobs slipping out of his chest.
Distantly, he felt an arm wrap around him. It was pulling him close, and his head was rested on someone’s chest. Izuku closed his eyes, and even in the void he could feel the trace of a heartbeat. In this realm he had nothing but mist, but out there was something real. Something alive.
Izuku waited for the contact to end, to fall back into nothingness. But the warmth didn’t leave him, and he realized that someone was really there. That whoever it was might be able to help him.
That maybe...maybe they would listen.
And so Izuku cried.
Toshinori couldn’t bring himself to look at the body in his arms as he ran up the stairs, his colleague only a few steps ahead. The dampness that clung to his skin and clothes told him all he needed to know about the red stains that would likely never leave his shirt. Or at least, not his memory.
Something else trickled onto the hand holding the boy’s face, and he finally forced himself to look down.
Tears.
Toshinori held back a few of his own, training his eyes on the stairs ahead of him. Not now. Not yet.
His hold tightened as Midoriya trembled again. He could hardly feel the kid’s chest rising against his own anymore.
“Aizawa.” The man looked back at him. “We should let Shuzenji know we’re coming.”
All five heads shot up as their teachers burst through the door, Aizawa leading the way as All Might followed close behind. The former was already on the phone, barking instructions to who she could only assume was Recovery Girl on the other end of the line. Jirou struggled to make them out.
“Trouble breathing...respiratory...yeah. Possible convulsions—”
That was all it took for her to retract her quirk, tearing them out of the wall. As she looked up again, All Might ran past her carrying something in his arms.
She craned her neck to see, only to clasp a hand over her mouth a moment later.
Midoriya’s head lolled back and forth against All Might’s chest as the older man tried in vain to hold it steady. The rest of his body hung limp as it was cradled in his teacher’s arms, twitching here and there as they went. Drops of blood rolled off of him and landed with a soft ‘pat’ onto the concrete. They left a dwindling trail as their teachers ran down the hall.
The five of them could do nothing but watch as Midoriya’s head fell back one final time. His blank eyes were glazed a milky white, and his gaze trailed over to meet them. A thin stream of blood trickled into one eye, a pink cloudburst in a sea of white.
“Shit. Shit.”
Shinsou jerked his head down to stare at the floor, releasing his quirk. Jirou watched as familiar green irises faded back into vision, their dead stare finally falling away as All Might rounded a corner. She shuddered.
Somehow, those were worse.
They stood frozen in place, unsure of what to do. It was Todoroki who eventually moved, motining for them to follow him up the stairs. Slowly, the others gathered themselves enough to start climbing. Jirou traced a jack along the railing, keeping track of her teachers’ progress. After a few dozen steps, she paused.
Jirou looked slowly up at her friends, eyes drawn wide. Her bangs stuck matted to her forehead, and the jacks pulled taut against the rail as she listened.
“There were three people just now. I heard three bodies, three people breathing, but—”
She slowly slid the jacks out of the metal. Somewhere above them, they heard All Might yell something unintelligible. The footsteps got faster.
“Now there’s only two.”
For the first time in days, Izuku thought there was too much light.
He cracked his eyes open bit by bit, taking in the white ceiling, white walls, white everything as slowly as he could manage. The dingy bulbs of the basement had been replaced with clean fluorescents that made the room seem that much brighter.
He took a breath, only for it to hitch in his chest. His whole body felt sore, and too heavy.
Izuku groaned. Am I dead?
“Is this...heaven?”
“No.” A cane tapped his side. “This is my office. I should be so lucky that you’d be anywhere else.”
Izuku shifted his head slightly to see a short gray bun hovering at the edge of the bed. Recovery Girl looked at him, concern written into the lines of her face. “Do you know why you’re here?”
Izuku closed his eyes again, trying to recall the last thing he remembered. All For One had been there, and then—
All Might.
He turned to her, eyes wide with panic. “All Might. Is he…?”
“Calm down, now. Everything is fine.” Recovery Girl sighed as she strolled to the other end of the room, reaching up for the door handle. “I should probably let him know that you’re awake. Maybe then you’ll all leave me alone.”
The moment the door cracked open, a tall figure rushed through it, nearly stumbling over himself as he crossed the room.
“Young Midoriya! Are you alright?”
Izuku’s heart leapt in his aching chest. You’re alive. He dragged himself upright, only for his teacher to put a hand on his shoulder.
“No need for that. How are you feeling?”
Now that Izuku knew where he was, he paused his search around the room to take a look at himself. Itchy bandages wrapped around his arms with a few patches dotting his legs. He brought a hand to his face, the smooth surface of medical tape brushing against his fingers. “It hurts, but…”
He glanced down at his torso. It still flared with the pain of All For One’s blades, but there were no bandages to be seen. He tried not to feel sick as he looked back at his arms. Did I do this to myself? His questioning eyes found All Might’s again.
“What happened?”
All Might turned to Recovery Girl, who was still standing off to the side. She nodded.
“We were able to run some tests on the mask you found the other day. It had traces of a chemical reagent that you were exposed to when you opened the case.” Izuku hung on every word as his teacher spoke. “They can affect your nervous system, putting stress on your body. Causing pain, making you see things that aren’t there. When left to work for a while, they—” All Might caught himself. “—well, that doesn’t matter. What counts is that you’re better now. You should be clear of the agent at this point.”
Izuku blanked. “So none of that...was real?” He fidgeted with the bandages on his arms.
“I’m so sorry, Young Midoriya. From what we can tell, it was planted months ago by some criminals. Chances are, the attack was aimed at me. This was never meant to happen to you.” He lowered his head. “I’m sorry that I let it.”
So you did. Izuku's eyes stung with tears. You did try to save me. He breathed in, trying to shake the last of the villain's words from his memory. All For One told me he didn't. And I believed him. He bit down on his lip, hard.
‘It’s okay.” Izuku hesitated before placing a bandaged hand on one of All Might's own. “I’m sorry, too.”
That startled Toshinori. “What on earth are you apologizing for?”
“I didn’t trust you. I thought—I thought you lied to me. It wasn’t right.” His quiet voice had a bitter edge. “I didn’t tell you what was going on. Not even when—”
A thought tugged at the back of his mind. Or rather, one didn’t.
“The voice is gone.” Izuku muttered it to himself, hardly loud enough to hear. All Might leaned forward.
“What voice?”
Izuku jumped a bit, not expecting his teacher to hear. “I, uh…” He wrapped his hands together. “I guess I didn’t tell you about that.” His voice fell to a whisper. “I didn’t think you would believe me.”
All Might paused, then grinned. He waved a hand at their surroundings.
“After tonight, I think I’d believe just about anything.”
Izuku cast one last glance at him. His eyes were wary and unsure, searching for a lie. When he found none, he relented.
“It was two days ago, I think. While I was in the basement.” He took a breath, the memory of the dust threatening to choke him. “When I opened that case, all that stuff came out, and then I must've blacked out. It felt like my head was splitting. Since then, that voice just didn’t go away. It kept telling me I was in danger.”
All Might suddenly had to fight to keep his balance. He held onto the side of the cot.
“Midoriya, did you see...the vestiges, by any chance?”
Izuku’s eyes brightened, and he nodded fiercely. “Does that mean you believe me?” The look on his face was pleading. Vulnerable. All Might couldn’t bring himself to meet it.
“Yes, I do, it’s just...not something I expected. If that’s true, then you may have just unlocked another quirk within One For All.” He faced his successor. “That’s never been done before.”
Izuku sat up. “So you know what it is?”
“Sort of. I’ve been able to keep a record of most of the predecessors so far. From what you say, it sounds like you’ve met the Fourth’s quirk. It’s able to detect physical threats, heighten the senses…”
The boy nodded with each one. “That’s what he told me, too.” He sighed. “I wish it could turn off, though.”
That got All Might’s attention.
“Are you saying that it’s been going off for two days?”
Izuku flinched back. “I—I’m sorry. I mean, more or less? It was just the same feeling, over and over…” He shifted in his bed. “Is that wrong?”
His teacher shook his head. “There’s no need to be sorry, my boy. I didn’t—there should be nothing to worry about, is what I mean to say. I apologize if I startled you.” He patted the boy’s shoulder.
“We can talk about this more later. For now, you should get some rest.”
Izuku tensed up at the suggestion, wary eyes turning to his teacher. All Might smiled reassuringly.
“You’re safe now, my boy. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Izuku’s gaze softened, some of the tension leaving his body. He nodded, turning away just as Recovery Girl beckoned for All Might to follow.
Shuzenji closed the door behind them and stepped out into the hall. She looked behind
Toshinori.
“And where’s the other one?”
“Aizawa took the kids back to the dorms. They promised they’d visit later.” Toshinori glanced to the side. “Matters concerning One For All aren’t something he should know about yet, anyways.”
Shuzenji shook her head, clicking her tongue. “I can see where Midoriya gets it from. You two and your secrets. This is why neither of you ever get help in time.” Toshinori waved her off, embarrassed.
“That’s...beside the point. What did you need to talk about?”
“I was able to get a few more samples from the pieces your student broke.” She looked pointedly at the room behind her before continuing. “The mask had a trigger mechanism. I had Power Loader look it over to be sure. From what he told me, it would have had to be remotely activated from nearby for the chemicals to release.”
Toshinori could feel his throat closing up. “So what you’re saying is that whoever planted it had to trigger it?”
Shuzenji nodded. Slowly, the pieces fell into place in Toshinori’s mind.
“About what Midoriya said. Fourth’s quirk can’t be deactivated, but it should only be felt when there’s a tangible threat nearby.” His voice wavered. Toshinori could feel his heart drop. “Even with the agent working the way it did, it should never be able to interfere with quirks on the physical level. You confirmed that to me.”
“I did, yes. Is there something you have to say?”
Toshinori wrung his hands together, the dread from the day before rushing back to him.
“I’m not...I’m not saying that what I’m thinking has to be true. But…”
‘It kept telling me I was in danger.’
‘It was just the same feeling, over and over.’
“Someone should get Nezu back on the line.” The pit of dread burned in his gut, his scarred stomach aching with fear.
“We might need to reopen the case on All For One’s disappearance.”
Back in the office, Izuku turned on his side, finally letting his eyes slip closed. He pressed his face into the pillow, bandages shifting against his skin as he took a deep breath.
It’ll be fine. All Might is here. He said I was safe.
He exhaled.
I trust you.
As he let himself fall back asleep, a quiet thought whispered in the back of his mind, a pinprick of pain blooming with it.
danger
Notes:
art for this fic!! Basement Scene Illustration
if you know which of slade's original lines I snuck in this chapter, I respect you shfhdgjfg
an extra thanks to those in the nwa server who helped inspire the quirk activation scene! and to everyone who left a comment, read snippets, etc., you guys have no idea how encouraging it was :,)
please let me know what you thought in the comments so I know what worked well (or didn't)! leaving feedback is *muah* please do. writing this was a new and awesome experience, and I'm so grateful for everyone who enjoyed this fic.
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