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“Hey Green, where you going? You’re not joining the one year anniversary party?”
Izuku looked up from his phone, halting on his way out to find someone had followed him.
“Oh- uh, Jiro. It’s nothing.” He gestured at their classes leaving for town through the school gates. “You know I’m not- really into that stuff.”
He smiled at the commiserate nod. “That, and I’ve wanted to get to the dorms all day.”
Jiro quirked a brow. “The kids are all visiting UA today, right?” She paused, joining him in his walk to the dorms. “Need to grab something from my room anyway. You going to see little Eri?”
Izuku chuckled. “Of course I am,” he confirmed sheepishly. “It’s just- Besides Kota-kun, this is her first time around other kids her age. And we don’t even have a year until we graduate, and then she’ll be…”
He paused when Jiro’s grin grew into a smirk.
“You’re such a big brother, Green,” she teased, much to his embarrassment, and he hastily began making his way across campus.
“She’s a ward of UA—until Mandalay finishes the fostering process, at least, so she’s not really-” He stopped himself at the unimpressed look he was faced with, getting the feeling he was missing the obvious.
Entering the common room, Izuku hadn’t known what he was expecting to find when he opened the door.
Only two of the six kids he knew were on campus right now being here definitely wasn’t it.
“Kota-kun, hey,” he said hastily, seeing the kid perk up. “What’re you up to?”
Kota grinned and pulled his curly blond companion into him at the shoulder. “Me and Katsuma are holding a ‘saved by Deku’ fanclub meeting.” His face soured while Katsuma squeaked from the sudden contact, face red. “But then Eri-chan went up with the girls instead. And Samidare left for his big sis or something.”
Izuku couldn’t help but grin at the classic boyhood derision that came with ‘the girls.’
“No worries,” he said, moving for the stairs. “We’ll go check up on them real quick and then come back.”
Leaving behind a pouting Kota, he began to worry it’d take some time to actually find where Eri and the others had gone.
But that was quickly proven wrong when both he and Jiro began to hear muffled sounds coming from the girl’s side, two floors up.
“We dreamin’ hard, we came so far.”
Jiro’s confused expression gradually lit up as they turned out to be approaching her room, a trio of voices coming through the door. Izuku reached for it.
“Now I belieeeeve-”
The surprisingly sound-isolating door swung open and the two of them were blasted by music.
“We’re goin’ up, up, up! It’ s our moment! You know together we’re glowin.’ Gonna be, gonna be golden!”
Both him and Jiro were bolted at the door as they watched Eri and the two other girls, Satsuki—Asui’s sister, and Mahoro—Katsuma’s, belting into makeshift microphones alongside the music.
As what sounded like the main chorus finished up, it looked like only two of the girls realized they suddenly had listeners, with Eri continuing into the next verse, her eyes closed as she held up a hairbrush, not even noticing the sparks arching off her horn.
“I’m done hidin,’ now I’m shinin.’ Like I’m born to be!”
Izuku and the others shared the sudden shiver from the piercing note. Meanwhile, Eri remained unaware, even as crackling gold washed over her, lighting up the room.
“Oh, our time, no fears, no lies. That’s who we’re born to be!” she repeated, the room ringing with the echoes as she waited for the others to join her in the next verse.
And only when that didn’t come did she finally open her eyes and realize they had onlookers, her voice screeching to a stop, leaving only what was now clearly a karaoke-version of the song playing through the speakers as the gold abruptly fizzled out.
“D-Deku-nnn- san!” she squeaked, cheeks turning rosy.
“Eri-chan!” Izuku returned excitedly, snapping out of his stupor and taking a step forward. “That was amazing!”
“Oi!” Mahoro interrupted, stepping between them with a furious pout. “You get your kicks barging in on little girls in their bedroom, hero boy?”
“Eh?” Izuku stumbled back. “H-Hold on! This isn’t even your-”
“Simmer down, Green.” Jiro’s hand pressed on his shoulder as she passed him. “She’s tryna rile you up.”
Mahoro pouted even more as the two entered the room, caught out in her trick.
“What’s the song?” Jiro asked, sitting down on her bed and pausing the old-looking player plugged into her speaker system. “Don’t recognize that one.”
“Oh, uhm…” A quiet, cutesy voice chimed in—Satsuki. “It’s- I found it in an- uhm, antique shop. Onee-chan bought it for me and it had an album on it, ribbie. I really like it.”
Their eyebrows rose. Izuku in particular, despite not having met Asui’s little sister much, hadn’t gotten the impression the soft-spoken girl would be into more loud and bombastic stuff.
But his surprise was cut short when Jiro loudly exclaimed, “Whoa, this album is old. Like, pre-quirk era stuff.”
“Pre-quirk?” Izuku perked up in an instant, standing near the door one moment and looking over Jiro’s shoulder the next. “From old Korea too. That’s rare.”
But despite his quiet obsession with everything pre-quirk rearing its head, there was something more important.
“But seriously, Eri-chan, those high notes were beautiful. You still want to be a musician, right?” The day she’d declared to the class she wanted to be one instead of a pro hero was the day all of UA breathed a sigh of relief.
He smiled as he watched the girl regain her composure, her cheeks flushing pink as she nodded.
“Yeah, Green’s right,” Jiro added. “Keep up the vocal exercises I showed you, hope puberty won’t screw you over, and you’re gonna be-” She smirked. “Well, golden, I guess.”
Sparing the blushing girl, Jiro instead turned to the other girls. “And you two weren’t half bad either, especially together. You’d probably sound amazing in a couple years if you decided to group up.”
The two girls blinked at the sudden praise, before Mahoro snapped out of it.
“Yeah right.” She huffed and crossed her arms. “Dad’s never gonna let us live away from Nabu for at least another ten years.”
“Uhm, yeah,” Satsuki added, staring down at her lap. “Mom and dad wouldn’t want me- uhm, screwing up my voice. They’re worried for my quirk, ribbie.” Her adorable tadpole tail wagged against the hem of her dress.
Izuku took in the frustrated and defeated looks respectively and countered with a bright smile.
“Hey, you never know. The future’s not set in stone.” He clenched his fist, feeling the dwindling embers within. “And if it is, you smash it right open.”
“For someone so smart, you’re also pretty brute-force,” Jiro joked, getting in one more snipe before addressing the girls. “But hey, any other songs you want to sing? You got me interested in this group now.”
“We don’t really-”
“This is the first song we’ve tried,” Mahoro interrupted Eri, a mischievous glint appearing in her eyes as she grinned. “Actually, this is the first time Eri-chan didn’t get the lyrics wrong.”
“Girls, don’t…” Eri whimpered, but her lips twitching.
“Oh I’m done shinin’,” Mahoro sang, Satsuki ribbing quietly under her breath before joining in.
“Now I’m hiding!”
“Like I’m born to be!” they sang in unison, leaving Eri even redder.
Izuku chuckled along with Jiro as he sat down next to where Eri stood, ruffling her hair as she lost herself to mortified giggles.
As the other girls began to engage Jiro in conversation, her early comment on the way over resurfaced, making him pause.
Okay, maybe he was acting like Eri’s…
But far more importantly, seeing her so happy and open with two girls her age; it made him certain she’d be just fine after he graduated.
And he couldn’t wait to see what the future would hold for them all.
Seven years later
“Give it up for our most heroic civilian of the year!”
Eri sneaked out a yawn as the crowd’s clapping overshadowed every other sound. It was late and she had school tomorrow, but she just had to be here.
Sure, things were never set in stone, but knowing her big brother…
“And now, for our final category, the most anticipated…our top pro hero ranking!”
The crowd’s cheers amped up even further as Eri sat up in her seat. A discreet flash of gold later, masked by the darting spotlights, and her tiredness was gone with the wind.
Obviously she didn’t use her quirk for something like this often. Now her internal clock was off by half a day, and she’d have to repeat it again after getting home, which was a real waste.
Her eyes remained locked to the stage as the announcer, a famous comedian who was returning as host several years in a row now, slowly went up the top ten, going past the old guard like Mt Lady and Kamui Woods, passing familiar faces like Froppy and Uravity and Tentacole, and finally, after revealing Mirko and Nejire-chan as the first entries in the top five, did her heartbeat quicken.
Dynamight would’ve been here too if not for his most recent incident with the press a couple weeks ago.
“With us in number three, he’s had his sweet time at the top for a while, but things are shaking up now. It’s the Comedy Hero: Lemillion!”
Eri smiled as one of the two people who’d personally saved her beamed at the crowd from the podium, giving them all a playful salute.
“Good to be here!” he joked, his voice loud enough to not need a microphone. “Man, two spaces in one go. Guess I really fell off.”
There was a smattering of chuckles at the good-natured self-ribbing, one Eri joined.
But he was not phased with the lacking reception. “Eh, always a dud once in a while,” he said with an unwavering smile.
“Good to have you here, Lemillion,” the host said. “What are your plans for the upcoming year?”
Despite his lips not moving, his smile somehow became even brighter. “Same as always! Continue on the road to achieving my ultimate goal!” He slumped exaggeratedly. “Still dunno what I’ll do after that though. Change my name to Lebillion? Sounds unrealistic.”
This time the entire crowd did laugh. With the current climate, even one million sounded unattainable.
“Let’s hope it never gets to that. Unless anyone’s heard of any large asteroids in the neighborhood?” the announcer joked back, prompting another round of laughter.
“Someone call Uravity then!” someone shouted from the crowd, leaving said woman blushing in tenth place.
“Love having you around, Lemillion!” the announcer continued, turning to the next empty spot. “And now, despite passing the previous number one, he’s remained exactly in second place. Give us a cheer for the Aircon hero, Shoto!”
The wall of a man stood completely aloof as the crowd did just that, his group of fangirls piercing over the rest.
“So, Shoto, got your old man to thank for inheriting his disposition?” the announcer joked, to a mixed reception from the crowd.
There was an awkward pause of silence as the two men stared each other down, before-
“Not really.”
The announcer floundered briefly, but Shoto continued.
“I could have tried harder, but I recently started taking classes on bowl and chopstick making. They take up a surprising amount of time.”
The crowd laughed at his deadpan delivery, but only Eri and Shoto’s former classmates knew he was being entirely serious and earnest.
“Last time I brought one home, my sister got splinters in her lips from sipping from it. I hope to become more proficient at the art of woodworking to prevent this in the future,” he continued, pressing his fist up to his chest as if declaring to rid the streets of all crime.
The crowd continued to chuckle, and the announcer would continue to flounder if not for the fact there was one person left.
And with only number one remaining, Eri knew it was now inevitable. The people sitting next to her gave her side-eyes as she started to jitter in her seat, her horn shimmering along with her in brief flashes.
“And finally, we’ve all known him for years, but only now have we seen him return to the field.” The announcer wagged his finger. “And still he’s been busy in the meantime, enough so we had to worry he’d be a recurring visitor here for ‘most heroic civilian.’ His quick rise to the top is certainly no fluke. Everyone get up and greet our new number one, the One for All hero, Deku!”
Eri shot up from her seat as the crowd exploded in cheers.
From below, the final figure rose up, clad in his suit and a cape billowing from behind, the smile that always flashed in her mind when her thoughts turned dark looking back at her, bursting with joy.
For an extended moment, her brother simply seemed to bask in the moment, his eyes far-off. Something that lasted until the announcer stepped in.
“So, how d’you feel, finally being up here after all this time?” the man asked, entirely serious for once.
Izuku thought it over for a moment, before finally answering with a surprising, “Humbled.”
“Oh?” the announcer asked. “How come?”
Her brother chuckled sheepishly and rubbed his neck, a far cry from his proud stature. “A large part of me didn’t expect the last year to have been possible.”
He sighed, gazing at the audience.
“When…all those years ago—it sometimes still feels like a dream, me managing to get into the UA hero course with power I never thought I’d have, and All Might himself in my corner. Before then, things had been so different, a part of me couldn’t help but forever brace for the other shoe to drop.”
He laughed wearily, looking down. “And then it did. After I burnt out my power and we all graduated, I thought that would be the end. Y’know, teaching at UA is amazing, but, it was impossible to not feel…adrift, watching my former classmates go on and achieve our dreams, and me staying behind. Those first few years I just expected my friends, the public to eventually stop thinking of me, to let me fade away like my old dreams and leave me in the past.”
The somber mood blanketing the large crowd dispersed as Izuku looked up again, his eyes reinvigorated.
“But they never did. No one did.” He lifted his arm. “And this suit, this moment. It feels like the ultimate proof I don’t need to wait for the other shoe to drop anymore, and to finally give myself fully to the future, of not just myself, but everyone. So…thank you.”
The silence his words left remained for several moments, until the announcer broke the quiet.
“Beautifully said, Deku.” The man’s jokey demeanor had disappeared for a moment. “Any final words to close out tonight?”
Eri only realized something was up when she saw a determined glint in Izuku’s eyes.
“Not words exactly, no,” he denied, smiling while he shook his head. “But, in my first year at UA, I learned there is more than one way to reach a people’s hearts, and I thought this would be the best time to try, so…I asked for some help for this. Just hope I don’t fall flat.”
The new confusion his statement sparked was interrupted when the sound of a soft, echoing piano filled the large room, and Eri noticed Earphone Jack playing just off stage.
Wait, was he going to…
“You're…not alone…”
Despite the rush of irrational second-hand embarrassment, Eri felt herself smile at the soft, breathy voice, a slight waver betraying the shaky confidence.
“There's no doubt…your drift…isn't futile to be…”
So instead she, and the rest of the mass of people, fell quiet to the sound of piano.
“If we stay united
We're stronger as one!
We always carry our hope
Not all for one, but one for all!”
Eri gasped quietly at the much more confident but equally soft-spoken belt.
“Don’t worry ‘bout a thing
We’ll reach out to you
Even if t’s the harder way.
The dark in your lives, that hides
Oh that will be pierced by a helping hand.”
“Remember it’s our pledge that
We’ll be there if you need help
We will cross…the distance
Rest assured our faith in you won’t die…”
Her brother’s steady tenor faded as the piano continued one last repeat of the melody, before that too trailed off.
He gave the crowd a lopsided grin, and then-
“Deku! Deku! Deku! Deku!”
Eri giggled in relief and let her voice join the chant, watching him further rile up the crowd by raising his finger up into the sky.
And then, amidst the chanting and jubilant noises, a flash of gold intruded in her vision.
She blinked, her eyes focusing from the stage ahead to the space between her and the next row of seats.
There, a golden, iridescent string floated innocuously in the air, undulating independently from the noise and vibrations around them, the color shifting tints like a strange, golden-hued rainbow.
In her surprise, her finger dazedly reached out. A spark arching between it and her finger, shooting tingles up her horn, snapped her out of it. It shot off to the side, escaping her gaze.
And then she saw it again. More of it, floating in parallel. Floating over people, between them. Except it didn’t look like separate strings now that she got a wider view, but like beams of sunlight were illuminating motes of dust that had always been floating there, waiting to be revealed.
“What the…” she mumbled, her brother’s triumphant moment on stage briefly forgotten as she watched the shifting lights fade into nothing.
Was nobody else seeing this?
“Sorry I didn’t warn you beforehand, Eri-chan,” Izuku apologized sheepishly, ignoring the bustle of the crews cleaning up after the event. “But when I realized I’d be number one at the time of the rankings, I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“You know, maybe you can join me on the street, just once,” she joked, her mind still halfway on the strange phenomenon, though by now she was starting to wonder if it was just a special effect nobody else was surprised by.
Izuku laughed loudly. “I don’t think I’m cut out for singing. Just holding my voice steady for not even a minute has my throat feeling like sandpaper.”
“You’d get better with time,” Eri rebutted, but she knew she wouldn’t be convincing him to pursue singing. With all his other dreams and aspirations, there was little room for anything like her own, even if hers weren’t as grand or ambitious as his.
As predicted, he shook his head with a grin. “I’ll leave the singing to you, Eri-chan.”
A far-off voice called his hero name from down the hall, taking his attention.
“Sounds like it’s time to face the press, Izu-nii,” Eri said with a smile, watching him return it warmly before he trotted off with a wave.
Oh well, no point in asking him about the special effects without sounding weird. She had to get back home to Sosaki and Kota-kun and prepare for that pop quiz everyone was fearing would-
“You saw it, didn’t you?”
Eri startled at the sudden voice coming from behind, swirling on the balls of her feet and lowering into a combat-ready pose.
Perks of living with the overprotective leader of a veteran hero team and a hero student.
From a dark corner, a figure casually walked out. Before the light even hit, the yellow, cat-like irises captured her attention. Unlike them, the rest of their appearance was far more plain, just a strong deer mutation quirk and some rebellious piercings, along with lichtenberg-like discolorations breaking up the brown of the fur, peeking out from their sleeves.
“What do you mean?” she asked, keeping her posture apprehensive. While the hall wasn’t strictly off-limits, anyone other than staff or people related to the ones who’d made the ranking would’ve needed to come here deliberately for her to run into them.
“The weave,” the person—woman, if their voice was any indication—repeated cryptically. “You saw the golden strings when our number one got his standing ovation.” This time it wasn’t even voiced as a question.
“Didn’t everyone?” Eri asked, sounding more confident than her thoughts about it had been. “They were just special effects.”
The deer woman quirked an unimpressed brow. “‘Special effects,’ sure. So you saw.”
Her certainty was enough to let Eri’s own curiosity beat out her wariness.
“You know what it is?” she asked, untensing her limbs.
“Oh, I know,” the woman answered. “Only seen it myself once or twice though, in a big concert or two. Our number one is one special guy to stir it like this without even meaning to.”
“He is,” Eri agreed warmly, before shaking her thoughts back on track. “So…?”
The woman stared back, before breaking off the gaze with a scoff. “Can’t believe I meet someone and get nerves,” she murmured, before righting herself. “I can tell, but you’ll call me crazy.”
“I’ve seen enough crazy things.”
This time the woman huffed a laugh. “You look like it, somehow. But hey, if you call the number one your big bro…” She exhaled through her nose, ignoring Eri’s realization she’d overheard the last conversation. “You familiar with pre-quirk folktales about demons and spirits?”
Eri nodded. Of course she knew of oni and akuma, and yokai in general. Though nowadays some people thoughts those folktales originated from a unique smattering of very early quirked people from before the actual dawn of quirks—or what those people thought of as a quirk boom, which sounded as implausible as the rat virus theory a certain monster had been obsessed with.
“Ever thought of the possibility they were real, and once roamed the land of the living, stealing people’s souls and leading them astray?” the deer asked further, shocking Eri out of her thoughts.
“Eh?!” In her surprise she found herself backing up against the wall. “How would that be- Nobody’s ever even seen one. How would you know?”
The deer woman rolled her eyes. “Not like anyone would know with quirks around, but you’re right. Nobody’s seen one in a long time. Our world has been shielded from them for centuries.”
Her piercing yellow eyes locked with hers. “And that’s what you saw just now—a glimpse of it, anyway.”
“A shield?” Eri questioned, mostly to herself.
“Not just any shield,” the woman corrected. “A web born from countless souls bridged and weaved together through the emotions spurred by the power of song, before being cast out across the globe—the honmoon. It’s been around for centuries, coming from ancient Korea and being empowered there by generations of demon hunters. It wasn’t until the world became more connected that the honmoon spread over the entire globe.”
Eri had to give it to her. If it was all made-up, the woman had a great imagination.
“So…this is still happening, to this day?” she asked, deciding that at least humoring the woman was the safest option. That, and somehow, she was starting to wonder if it was true. After all, the golden strings—web had been undeniably there.
The deer woman snorted. “No need anymore. You saw what color it had, right? That means the hunters must’ve achieved their ultimate goal. Before this, it was some other color, apparently. But when enough souls were connected together by one group of singers, it empowered the honmoon enough it could sustain itself indefinitely, becoming impenetrable. The demon world has been sealed off from our own permanently for over a century. And its king, Gwi-Ma, has no way to consume our souls or tempt people to him, corrupting them.”
She grinned. “The only thing that can pass through is exactly those people, who want to escape his influence and be free to live again. That’s what my grandpa did, anyway. And that’s what someone in your family did too.”
The woman shrugged, as if she hadn’t just dropped some insane information.
Information that left Eri reeling, and a bit offended, actually.
“Excuse me?” she said, affronted, her horn itching. “Who are you anyway?”
The piercing yellow eyes flitted up to it, and the woman grimaced.
“Don’t think me shallow,” she said hastily. “There are people out there nowadays who look as demonic as Gwi-Ma’s spawn and have no relation to him. I just figured ‘coz you can actually see.” She paused, considering something. “And call me Fujuni. Guess I’m sounding crazy enough without introducing myself.”
Eri dropped her hand, squinting at her.
“There’s only two ways you could see without knowing about it, really,” the woman—Fujuni—continued. “Either you have a demon somewhere in your ancestry like me, recent too, or you were taught by a hunter without realizing. But the last real hunters were the ones who built the new honmoon and turned it gold, and after that the practice must’ve fallen into obscurity. Not like it was needed anymore, and quirks showing up right after didn’t help either…”
Eri startled, something Fujuni picked up on with a smirk.
“Yeah, what a coincidence, hm? A worldwide web connecting basically every living soul spanning humanity is sealed permanently, and not even a few years later fantastical powers start showing up? Not the hardest connection to make.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Eri asked, picking confusion over the shock that was being delivered to her.
“Mostly ‘coz I wanted to get it off my chest,” she admitted shamelessly. “Gramps kicked the bucket a while ago, a free soul, and nobody else would ever believe me. That, and hey, I think I saw one of your street performances back in Korisato. Was great. Maybe you can give things a shot and revive a lost art. Never got to see it in its prime.”
Eri frowned. “Doesn’t sound like anyone needs it anymore.” And indulging someone, no matter how surprisingly believable, was a lot different from…whatever it was she was suggesting.
Fujuni quirked a brow. “You know, I’m not actually so sure.”
A gentle chill spread through the air. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“My gramps didn’t leave immediately,” Fujuni explained. “Too ashamed ‘n stuff to think he could try. But while he stuck around, he got to see what Gwi-Ma was up to in his desperate attempts to breach the honmoon.” Her piercing yellow eyes locked with hers. “And one was bearing fruit.”
And suddenly, what had been a strange but curious out-of-the-blue conversation turned into something more.
Because while Eri had no intention of becoming a pro hero, that didn’t mean she felt no inclination to making sure people were safe.
“Explain,” she demanded, voice hard.
Fujuni registered the change in tone, stiffening imperceptibly. “Remember when I alluded to the idea that quirks are connected to the honmoon?” she asked. “Well, quirks are deeply connected to their owner, so anyone with a quirk is basically pressing their soul right up against the honmoon. And sure, Gwi-Ma has no way to reach through, but that doesn’t mean he can’t press his influence up against his side.”
Eri shuddered, the mental image of some otherworldly demon only one invisible pane of glass away from her sending shivers down her spine.
“And Gwi-Ma found he could nudge at someone’s quirk, make them more…enticing and alluring, more entangling, ensnaring,” Fujuni continued, before shifting the topic abruptly. “You familiar with Melded Attribute Disorder?”
Eri cringed at the deliberately crudely named pop-science term, conversations with Uravity and Satsuki’s older sister flashing in her mind. “Where a person’s personality and mind are too tied up with their quirk.”
And there was no scientific consensus on what causes there were for it. Not even genetics and psychology could explain it consistently. So…
“Yup,” Fujuni said lackadaisically. “Guess who you have to thank. And that was just him dabbling on the side. His big break was also his first, desperate attempt at it. A burgeoning soul with a seed of greed and gluttony that gleefully took every nudge it got, and kept taking until Gwi-Ma was basically dragged along for the ride to Japan instead of doing the pushing.”
Eri’s thoughts came to a screeching halt. “You don’t mean-”
“Crazy that his first attempt was so successful it nearly caused the collapse of all society and the honmoon shortly after,” Fujuni confirmed. “Your big bro and his friend offing the guy was basically a double-edged sword. Gwi-Ma put so much effort and focus into that self-proclaimed demon lord, nearly succeeding too, that losing him must’ve reduced him to picking up the pieces to this day. But on the other hand, now that his prized soul is out of his hands, he’ll have plenty of focus and energy to repeat what he did at a much more diffuse scale, hundreds and thousands of times at once.”
Fujuni leveled Eri one last, cold stare.
“Who knows, eventually a quirk might pop up that’ll make Hunting necessary again.”
And with that she turned around for the exit.
“H-Hey, wait up!” Eri floundered. “You can’t just leave after dropping that!”
The deer woman looked over her shoulder. “Whaddaya want me to do? I don’t really have any stakes in this. But your quirk looked like it meshes well with the honmoon, so it sounds like you have a step up on me.”
She started walking away, speaking up one more time.
“And hey, that fancy weave is more than just a shield. Whether it started out that way or not, it’s literally humanity’s collective consciousness. Figure you can do a lot with it. There’s probably still some surviving videos of that last group of hunters out there too, if you need any references. Some Korean K-Pop group with a name that’s way too on the nose for my tastes. Hunters-X or something.”
Fujuni walked out of the hallway, disappearing around a corner into the shadows.
Eri would’ve chased after her, if not for the fact she was reeling at the last little tidbit that had been so casually dropped.
Those actors and special effects had been real? The light weapons?! The infamous skydive entries without parachutes?!?!
A few months later
“Long hope Philia~”
The last guitar strum fading out was overshadowed by the collective cheering and clapping of the street.
Despite the early January chill, Eri felt thrums of warmth ripple through her at the turn-out as she put down her guitar, even spotting glimpses of gold string being illuminated around her.
After some polite bows, the crowd started to disperse, moving back to their daily routines, but as Eri was putting her guitar back in its case…
“Thought your songs would be less melancholic, Eri-chi.”
Eri’s head shot up at the teasing voice, easily spotting the literal explosion of blonde from the street.
“Mahoro!” she yelled. “You’re really here!”
“Sure am, girl!” she returned with equal enthusiasm, jogging over with a grin. “And guess what.”
“Hey, ribbie,” a cutesy voice croaked in her ear.
In a mix of a startled jump and an excited turn-around, Eri found she’d somehow been snuck upon by someone else, hanging upside down from the tree branch above her.
“Girls, both of you?!” She hadn’t actually seen the two of them together in person for over three years now. Video calls, sure, but like this…
“Hey, finally got to catch a ferry off that terrible island. Of course you two are the first I run off to!” Mahoro said with a grin. “What a late birthday present, aye?”
Eri wondered how she hadn’t spotted the young adult earlier, not when she was wearing black combat boots, baggy, black shorts, a black crop-top with bright orange hems that showed off her freckled shoulders and flashy blond hair styled in two short pigtails, gelled up to the point they looked like two explosions coming from her head.
“Mahoro, how did you somehow become even more of a Dynamight fangirl than before?” she asked, giggling incredulously.
“Says the girl in the Deku-themed getup,” Mahoro rebutted, smirking.
Eri blushed, staring down at her bright red boots, dark-gray tights and forest green sundress with black markings, finished up by an equally red scarf that wrapped several times around her neck before trailing down her back.
Maybe she’d gone a bit too on the nose today.
“She’s got you there, ribbie,” Satsuki chortled as she dropped onto the sidewalk, flipping right-side up effortlessly.
Getting the feeling she was being ganged up on, Eri struck back with a hasty tease of her own. “And how did you somehow get cuter, Tsuki?”
The froggy girl’s cheeks turned pink, her tadpole tail wagging against the underside of her skirt. Though it wasn’t a wrong observation. The yellow rain boots, coupled with green thigh-high socks with froggy faces at the top, the bright yellow pleated skirt, thick woolen green poncho and slick hair braided together, tied up at her head with a large yellow ribbon would have anyone cooing.
“Enough of that,” she croaked out, letting out a full-body shiver. “I’m getting sleepy in this cold.”
Eri smiled, the excitement of her most recent performance easily overshadowed by the surprise visit. “I know a great place.”
You wouldn’t expect a cozy, mountain-cottage styled lunchroom to be located in a quiet back alley, but being the honorary little sister of the now number one hero and ex-ward of UA meant she knew the city as well as the forest estate of the Pussycats. It also helped that the place was built to serve pros and other celebrities looking for some time away from the paparazzi.
Satsuki lay sagged in her chair, the woolen poncho ditched to leave only a turtleneck sweater, content to bask in the warmth while Eri and Mahoro did the talking.
“I know you said you’d leave the moment you turned eighteen, but I really thought you were exaggerating.”
Mahoro grinned at Eri’s remark.
“After eighteen years you’d want to leave too.” She stretched out her arms with a loud yawn. “This girl just isn’t built for the small-time life.” She let her arms drop, her grin turning wry. “Of course, dad tried to talk me out of it, but it’s not like he can talk when he’s on the mainland more than he’s with us.” She shook her head, the spiky pompom-like buns bouncing with it. “Besides, maybe this’ll finally get the old man to abandon the place altogether and find a place for Katsuma to stay with him.”
“And you’re sure Katsuma-kun will be fine on his own for now?” Satsuki questioned, a finger pressed against her lips.
Mahoro waved her away. “Of course he will! He’s grown up a lot, and his future is stacked with that quirk of his. But damn I’m a lot more swamped right now than I thought I’d be. Wanted to go over and see the both of you immediately, but I have to worry about ‘getting a place to stay’ and ‘being admitted into a university program’ and all that stuff.” She groaned loudly, hanging her head back. “I’ll probably apply for a special effects job or something. That’s what my quirk’s perfect for anyway. Did enough training back on Nabu not to have to worry about fancy papers. Perks of no pros around to harass you on quirk use.”
“And what about you, Tsuki?” Eri asked. She was actually quite curious, since the girl remained quiet on the details of her life.
“Yeah,” Mahoro chimed in before she could speak up. “Tried to surprise you at your family home, but had to go and meet you at your older sister’s place instead. Frosty reception too. What’s up with that?”
Satsuki froze, and Eri’s concern began to climb.
“Wait, Tsuki?” she asked worriedly.
“It- It’s nothing,” Satsuki waved off unconvincingly, something she immediately realized herself. “So I- uhm, when I started middle school I just- I just started getting the urge to, y’know, be more active. Fight boredom. So I- I started doing urban parkour in the evening.” She ignored Mahoro’s impressed ‘whoa.’ “And then- uhm, I may have found someone who introduced me into the rap scene, and…done some tags, once in a while too, and- uh.” She pulled at the top of her turtleneck, revealing the white lily tattooed on her nape. This time, Mahoro’s ‘oh hell yeah!’ was harder to ignore.
“And then what happened?” Eri asked, making Satsuki shrink in on herself. This was the first she’d heard of any of it.
“Then I got caught tagging and everything was exposed.”
“Oh.”
“By onee-chan.”
“Oof!”
Eri winced alongside Mahoro’s exclamation.
“And lemme guess, your parents are ‘disappointed’ now?” Mahoro asked, a wince confirming her accuracy.
“Eh forget it,” she moved on immediately. “At least you got a chill big sis to room with. What about you, Eri-chi?”
Eri glanced at Satsuki, seeing the lingering unease, and decided to go along with Mahoro. At least she didn’t have any uncomfortable situations with her family.
In fact, should she…
“You know, a few months ago, at the billboard rankings, I discovered something crazy,” she began, deciding to spill.
“So there’s a spirit juju web of souls keeping out real demons ‘n stuff that only you and a few people descended from actual demons can see, and it was kept going by groups of singing hunters with non-quirk related superpowers from old Korea, and it being finished might be the source behind all quirks, and our favorite idol group was involved?” Mahoro summarized crudely.
She snorted, falling back in her chair. “Man, you’re right.” A pause. “That is crazy. D’you need your head checked?”
Eri sagged with a pout, glaring at Mahoro. “I’m telling the truth, Mahoro.”
“I mean, it explains the special effects. But K-Pop concerts have always been super crazy, quirks or not,” Satsuki pointed out.
“Fair,” Eri conceded quietly. “But! What if- What if I can show you?”
Both her friends straightened in their seats, betraying their skepticism.
Taking it as affirmation, she steadied her breath and closed her eyes, hoping the last few months of idle practice wouldn’t fail her.
With the thrumming inside her horn as a soft background beat, Eri let her thoughts focus on her friends and family, and the bonds she knew tied them together, cherished memories flooding her mind’s eye while she kept that original sight at the billboard charts in the back of her head, and she hummed a tune.
Sparkling warmth trickled from her horn to her fingertips, and then, real sparks sprung to life as her quirk’s energy arched over into what at first seemed like thin air.
The electric gold spread out from her finger, shooting down a string only she could currently see, before arching over to another one nearby. Slowly but steadily, the strings of the honmoon around her sparked brightly with her gold, until the entire room was filled.
The two girls gasped, eyes roaming the space around them.
“I didn’t know you had that much control over your quirk…” Satsuki said in awe.
Eri grinned. “I don’t. Not without help.”
Her two friends’ gazes shot to her, immediately understanding what she meant by it.
“Damn,” Mahoro uttered, before- “Awesome!”
Both Eri and Satsuki startled at the sudden excitement, Eri’s quirk control slipping and the visible honmoon fading from the others’ view.
“Bit of a quick turn-around,” Satsuki muttered, eyeing the fading sparks.
“Hey, just coz I didn’t wanna sound gullible doesn’t mean I can’t be super excited,” Mahoro said, before turning to Eri. “You think you can teach us how to see ‘n stuff? Think of all the cool stuff we could do!”
Eri smiled, but part of that eye-opening conversation she had at the billboard charts stuck with her. “I’m more worried there’s an ancient demon king trying to break through the barrier and manipulating people through their quirks.”
“I don’t think we’ll have to worry if it’s been one-and-a-half centuries, ribbie.”
“But imagine!” Mahoro spoke over Satsuki, grinning wildly. “Going out and fighting literal evil? Being all badass together? Hah, who knows what was and wasn’t special effects with Huntrix. Imagine flying without a quirk, or summoning ancestral spirit weapons! Can’t say even the top heroes of all time have fought ancient evil.”
“I think I prefer not having ancient evil threatening my friends and family,” Satsuki rebutted dryly, but Eri was already wondering.
What if that woman, Fujuni, had been right? What if there was an impending wave of people influenced by the real demon king? Or worse? It sounded improbable that some girls had to do what real heroes like her big brother and his friends couldn’t, somehow, but still, in this world of quirks…
“Remember what Izu-nii and Earphone Jack told us?” she asked, wondering if the others even remembered their first meeting clearly enough.
“Wait, you don’t mean…” Satsuki started, sitting straight, only to be startled by Mahoro slamming her hands on the table and standing up.
“Oh we’re absolutely doing that!”
“I didn’t even suggest anything yet!” Eri shouted back. “What do you mean?”
‘”Hey! Keep it down back there! We got underground pros tryin’ to nap here!”
The trio cringed, muttering apologies as they slouched back in their seats.
“No, but seriously, what did you think I was going to say?” Eri asked again, pushing mortification aside.
“Become an idol group, get world famous and kick ass together, regardless of if evil shows up?” Mahoro answered, leaving out the obvious ‘duh?’ “Because that wasn’t even on my mind until just now, but damn I want to at least try.”
“Not actually what I was thinking,” Eri mumbled. Her main thought had been that, as far as personal experimentation had shown, multiple voices were needed to actually resonate and do anything significant with the honmoon. And they did harmonize really well, even if that was harder to hear through video calls.
“It…That does actually sound really cool, Eri-chan,” Satsuki admitted, eyes aimed down at the table but undeniably filled with eagerness.
And thinking about it herself now…remembering that very first time spent together in Jiro’s dorm room, blasting those songs on repeat.
“It- It’s also pretty unrealistic, right?” she returned meekly.
“Oh who cares?” Mahoro said. “Let’s just try and get this singing juju figured out and have some fun giving people cool performances and maybe we hit it big. What more can we ask for?”
“Sounds like a full investment kind of thing though,” Satsuki said. “Trying to make it big. You’d have to dedicate everything to it to have a chance, and if that fails…”
“Well, I’m the only one who’s outta high school, so don’t worry about that yet.” Mahoro smirked. “But if we go Plus Ultra ‘n all. Can you imagine what it’d be like? Forget being the special effects gal backstage, I’ll do my own effects!” She cackled and raised her arms, an intricate display of fireworks shaped like a moving phoenix appearing with loud pops and crackles above her.
“My quirk and puberty gave me a pretty low register,” Satsuki spoke up hesitantly as the hologram faded, with a lower, much throatier voice that was a far cry from the cutesy tone. “Bit self-conscious about that being my most comfortable range now, but with you girls filling up the higher stuff…”
“You’re pretty acrobatic too! And didn’t you get break-dancing lessons with Pinky?” Eri asked excitedly, before pausing when she realized she’d abandoned her reluctance entirely.
Well, maybe…
“See?” Mahoro said with a shit-eating grin, before reaching over and grabbing both of them into sideways embraces. “Just let me do the dumb adulting stuff, take a little advantage of Eri-chi’s insane connections, and figure out the rest along the way, and we’re gonna rock the world by the time we’re ready!”
Eri grinned despite herself, mirroring Satsuki, and already knew her original aspirations of singing and playing the guitar on the streets had stepped aside for something far grander, a feeling of elation she hadn’t known she’d been missing so far filling her to the brim.
“You know what? Sounds perfect!”
Maybe she took after her big brother more than she’d thought after all.
Eight years later
“You heading for the concert too?”
“Nah, didn’t even stand a chance at getting tickets. I’ll watch from here.”
Izuku smiled quietly at the conversation below as he jumped the gap between buildings, his eyes roaming the crowded streets of Shibuya.
The ever-changing mass of billboards and screens around him were always the most interesting part of patrolling this part of Tokyo.
In the corner of his eye, he could spot at least a few sporting his friends, and a couple of himself.
Even after all this time, it was humbling to remain so high up in the public eye. Even when the new generation of heroes entered the scene and the top ten began to shift, he and some of his friends remained up there, and Izuku somehow eventually found himself drifting back up into the top spot, no matter how many times an up-and-comer deservedly passed him.
It really was humbling.
But the attention heroics got was a far cry from what it used to be back when he grew up. Back then, heroes and the products they sponsored were all you could see in downtown Tokyo. Nowadays, pros were only a small portion of what took up the collective screen space.
Though right this moment, the billboards and television screens were all dominated by something else.
“I think we’re all happy to finally welcome our girls back home tonight,” a show host said on the biggest screen. “For those who have managed to stay out of the loop. Here’s our last interview with them, right before their world tour.” He turned to his co-host. “How long ago was that again?”
“Over a year now.”
“How time flies. Let’s watch!”
Izuku felt a melancholic smile spread over his face as footage of over a year ago played out, revealing his little—not so little anymore—sister and her two friends, all geared up in their stage outfits.
The only time he’d ever felt more pride and joy than that moment had been when first holding his little girl.
“Alright, one final lightning round of questions before time’s up,” the interviewer said as he returned his attention to the screen. “One viewer asks, ‘how do you get those ponytails to be so fluffy and bundled up but separate? What’s your routine?’ I think they mean coherent,” they directed to Mahoro.
The blonde smirked, shaking her head. The aforementioned nine separate-yet-combined fluffed up ponytails—their ends bleached pale—swished with her.
“Sorry gals,” she said, snapping her fingers, and the image of the grouped together ponytails shifted into one large, simple one. “This one’s a me special.”
The interviewer laughed, and with another casual snap the unique, thematic hairstyle returned.
“Well, at least you two have more achievable hairstyles,” they joked to the other two young women.
Satsuki’s incredibly long, slick, wavy hair was pulled into a waterfall braid at the top, with the rest of the hair slowly funneling into an increasingly more defined fishtail braid as it stretched down, one that ended around her knees.
Meanwhile Eri’s was the only asymmetric one, brushing up against her shoulder on her horn’s side and pulled in front of her by now incredibly long horn—which had bent back and gained a curved S bend after several inches—just about leaving her eye clear. The other end was pulled back behind her ear and fell down to her waist, with an artificial curl that dotted the mane of hair with small silver ringlets, giving the appearance of silvery flames flowing down.
“On to the next member. Will you ever shed light on what creature your quirk is really based on? Surely not your stage name.”
Satsuki quirked an unimpressed brown, her leathery green tail bumping against the sides of her chair.
“Well, had to try for the viewers, gals. Next up, this one has been wondering about your striking tattoo ever since your debut. Why the dragon?”
Eri chuckled, tossing her hair back to reveal part of it. The serpentine dragon’s tail started behind her ear, below her horn and hairline, its body wrapping around the back of her neck and crossing her collarbone, before trailing behind her shoulder and out of view, only to come back as it spiraled down her right arm, its head finally ending on the back of her hand.
“My quirk comes from my horn, but I can use it best from my hands. I thought it was appropriate to visualize that channel, and- uh…”
“And let’s face it, dragons are way cooler than snakes and vines,” Mahoro interrupted with a grin.
Izuku to this day thought it had to do with her yakuza ties, given that, in his final years, Eri had visited her grandfather quite often, but he could never be sure.
“Girls,” Satsuki spoke up, sighing. “The real reason she got a tattoo is because, well, I got mine first.” She swiped her hair aside to reveal the white lily. “And I got into trouble for it, so they got tattoos of their own to support me.”
The host chuckled. “Must be some old-fashioned folks of yours.” They leaned in to Mahoro. “So you’re saying-”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she quipped. “Unless you want a peak at what they call my big personality?” She smirked, tugging at the already low neckline of her torn kimono.
The host took Mahoro’s playful denial with gusto, sitting back with a laugh and shaking his head. “But the real question is, how do you manage to live a normal civilian life with a tattoo as eye-catching as yours? None of the pros that have ever hit the top 250, bar All Might, have managed to keep their civilian identity as elusive an enigma as you girls have.”
Eri and the girls—though Izuku was one of a small group who actually knew that fact—grinned in unison.
“I think I’ll call that a trade secret,” Eri said cryptically.
“As for your stage names,” the host continued undeterred. “You definitely chose a bold one. The most regal and divine spirit in our ancient mythology, associated with peace and prosperity. Big shoes to fill.”
“And what was my reasoning?” Eri guessed. “Simple. Peace and prosperity is what I want to bring. Of the mind, at least.”
“Why not become a hero group then?” the host questioned. “You three definitely have the quirks and chops for it. And Earphone Jack’s currently charting in the top twenty on both billboards, music and heroics.”
Izuku himself was still very uncomfortable with how open and blatant they all were with their quirk use on-stage, but especially Eri, considering there would always be opportunistic, powerful people who’d be drawn to it, even if they never knew the specifics. Then again, she was a long way from that tormented little girl now, incredibly powerful and skilled in her own right, from years of training with the Pussycats and the old class A. There were even ways she and the other girls used their quirks that he hadn’t thought even remotely possible with what he knew. It was hard for even him to recognize the quirks of Mahoro and Satsuki as the ones on the public registry. Eri’s never even graced that list, for obvious reasons.
“Because I’ve always wanted to be a hero in my own way,” Eri answered, her eyes crinkling. “Long ago, I was in a terrible place. And it was music, an amazing performance, that pulled me out of it. And singing was what first got the three of us together, inspired us.” She smiled, sheepishly rubbing her neck in a fashion that perfectly mimicked his own mannerism. “There’s already so many amazing heroes out there. So the three of us want to be the most amazing idols instead.”
The way Eri’s dreams had become reality were as far removed from what Izuku had imagined back in the day as possible, but seeing the way she so fully owned it when performing, and how well she meshed together with the others, made him as happy for her as he imagined he could be.
Mahoro and Satsuki leaned in, both smirking, though Satsuki’s stylized face mask made it harder to see. “Oh, more than just amazing,” Satsuki began, to which Mahoro added, “We’re aiming for no less than mythical.”
“And that explains your label’s theming,” the host laughed, before turning to the camera. “And looks like that’s our time too! Say goodbye to our amazingly talented guests. Unless you bought tickets for any of their shows abroad, it’ll be a while before we see them in person again.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll hear and see plenty of us,” past Eri said, voice filled with a pride and confidence that was a far cry from the girl who ran into him all those years ago. Her horn sparked gold. “We’re planning on taking the world by storm.”
And they certainly had.
Izuku’s gaze wandered away from the screen as the replay finished, cutting back to the live talk show discussing the upcoming concert, and fished his phone from his suit.
No better time to call and check in.
The phone rang only once before the other side accepted the call.
“Hey, Izu-nii!”
“Eri-chan!” He almost didn’t expect her to pick up this close to a performance, despite the fact she always did. “Good luck with the homecoming show today!” His smile slipped. “Sorry I can’t be in the audience. Was called in to patrol Shibuya to deal with the sudden pop-up villain activity, but it’s quiet right now.” Too quiet.
“It’s okay!” she returned, sounding a little distracted. The makeup people, no doubt. “But since you’re close, you could try to swing by when we wrap up.”
Izuku smiled. Back when she’d performed on her own on the streets, she vehemently did not want him there, unless he was in disguise, afraid he’d take away the spotlight or forcibly aim it at her from his presence alone. Those days were long past them now.
“That these villain hot-spots always pop up around places you’ve picked for touring does not make me feel much better,” he deadpanned. “And please tell Shimano-san not to use her quirk to fake villains attacking you mid-show again. I nearly keeled over when I saw recordings of the Seattle show.”
“No promises!” he heard Mahoro sing in the background, no doubt smirking devilishly.
“Anyway, good luck out there, Izu-nii!” Eri said cheerfully, almost masking a strange grunting and clanging sound. …technicians? “We really need to get moving for the show.”
Izuku blinked, his eyes drifting to the large screen, which had shifted from the talk show to a live feed of the Tokyo Dome. “Wait, you’re not backstage already?” he asked. “But it starts in three minutes. Where are you?”
“Oh, nothing to worry about,” Eri assured him.
Four miles northeast and a couple dozen feet underground
“Just had some delays with our transportation.”
Eri hung up and tucked her phone in her jacket’s inner pocket, glancing at her best friends.
“You heard him. We have three minutes,” she said.
Mahoro smirked, casually swiping her already summoned otsuchi sideways, letting the gigantic wooden war hammer dent the steel of the crashed metro car. Satsuki nodded, ripples of honmoon condensing into her pair of kusarigama, the chains snaking around her forearms.
The loud, impatient growls echoing down the private metro tunnel reminded Eri of their audience, and with a hum backing the beat playing in her head, the dark space lit up in gold as sparks rolled down from her horn, forming lichtenberg figures over her body.
“Let’s blitz ‘em!”
The trio dashed forward. Eri was quickly overtaken as Mahoro slammed the ground with her hammer, flinging herself ahead through its leverage. Satsuki hopped over her, the honmoon on the tunnel’s surface appearing before rippling as she dove through it.
From the pulsing flashes of Eri’s quirk, the mass of demons charged into view.
Whoa. That was a lot.
Their impressive horde didn’t last even a second longer though, when Mahoro finished her leap and reequipped her otsuchi in her hand mid-swing, smashing it down, cratering the concrete and forcing out a wave of golden honmoon, easily ripping apart and splitting up the horde.
Picking her first target, Eri sliced her manicured finger through the air, a blade of solid yellow light rushing through the air and slicing it in half, ripping apart two more unlucky demons behind it and splashing harmlessly against the concrete.
A much larger, bulkier demon charged for her, looming over with its fists raised overhead. Eri brought in her arms, pressing her hands together, side-by-side, and the flow of her quirk rushed into her palms. The honmoon lit up and crackled loudly as it solidified into a disk, absorbing the impact of the demon’s fists.
The demon staggered back, yellow eyes wide as its hands rapidly began to dissolve into light, and Eri finished it off with a shove of her hands, the shield pushing forward and slamming into it, pushing it back until the last remains were smushed between it and the wall, fading away in little motes of light.
Further ahead, Mahoro slammed her otsuchi into the front-runners of an incoming cavalry, pile-driving them all into a concrete wall.
Eri steadied herself and let all her energy flow straight from her horn to her palm, engulfing her tattoo, and aimed her fingers.
A bolt of crackling gold obliterated the cavalry with a finger snap, leaving rippling threads of honmoon and rumbling thunder in its wake.
A shadow cast over her, and Eri swirled around a little too late to realize a lanky demon had snuck up on her through the honmoon.
The demon charged, eyes widening gleefully as it lunged, but let out a choking sound when it abruptly stopped, chains whipping around its legs and arms.
From behind, a head of green hair appeared from the floor, a cocky smirk partially concealed by the concrete and her face mask, and Satsuki pulled herself out of the ground by the chains, tugging at them harshly and launching the demon straight at her.
The chains snaked loose and shortened to nothing, but the demon’s momentum was too fast for it to avoid falling into the sickle part of the two blades, tearing it in three.
“Thanks Tsuki,” Eri gasped as the demon disintegrated, berating her own mistake. Just because they’d gotten used to fighting real demons over the past few years didn’t mean she could treat this all so lackadaisically. “Where were you?”
“Swam ahead,” she said, breathing heavily. “It’s not just a weak spot. A huge room. And there’s a Mark up ahead.”
Even Mahoro, who was decimating the stragglers further down the tunnel, froze up, though her hammer continued to do damage to the unlucky demons standing in its way as she let go mid-swing.
“Oh that’s bad.” Up until now, their only encounters had been with only demon spawn and the occasional encounter with spirits. But a former human…
Mahoro broke out of her stupor and ran over, snatching up Eri by the arm. “Let’s go!”
Satsuki nodded and her kusarigama’s chains snaked through the air, wrapping around their wrists and yanking them after her as she dove back into the honmoon.
Eri weathered the unsettling feeling of being dragged through non-existent water that felt like colors turned textures and prepared to return to the action.
The moment they broke through, she fell into a combat-ready stance, her head whipping around the surprisingly immense cavernous space below them, a small outcropping the only stable ground.
“Where are we?” Mahoro questioned. “An abandoned drainage system tank this far downtown?”
What worried Eri more was the tomb-like place’s interior.
Where the golden strings were supposed to be bobbing and weaving, a large emptiness stood instead, encircled by red strings that flailed aimlessly like an unraveled spider’s web in the wind.
Massive hordes of demons were standing at the bottom of the deep room, marching out of the gigantic hole in the honmoon and gathering around massive pillars that stretched up to the ceiling.
“That’s not just a weak spot…” Satsuki trailed off, repeating her warning.
“No shit! That’s a damn tear!” Mahoro shouted.
Eri startled. “Wait!” But her outstretched hand was too late. Mahoro’s shout echoed through the abyssal room, and down below, a lone figure hidden in the crowd stared up, piercing yellow eyes perfectly visible and unnerving under the brim of their hat, despite the near hundred meters of distance, framed by purple scars.
“It really is a marked one,” she muttered, before hell broke lose.
The figure disappeared in a swirl of pink smoke, appearing mere meters before them in the air.
Thankfully, their training had more than honed their reflexes, and the demon was forced to dodge the kusarigama flung at them.
In that time, the girls had already jumped off the small outcropping.
Lightning arched off Eri’s platform boots, forming a solid disk for her to land on.
She tensed her hands, sparks flitting between her fingers, but stayed her hand. “Who are you?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Don’t bother!” Mahoro shouted, floating in the air. Out of the three of them, she was the most proficient at it by far, with Satsuki forgoing attempting it altogether. “They had over a hundred years to flee, and they only come here now through a rift? Some people choose to be evil!”
Eri grimaced, not finding any fault in the cold-hard logic.
“Just leave me to my business,” the demon responded with narrowed eyes. Both Eri and Mahoro stilled, not expecting the distorted but undeniably female voice coming from the short-haired figure.
“Like hell we’ll let you do as you please!” Mahoro yelled, rocketing in the demon’s direction with her otsuchi reequipped.
The demon swiped the hammer aside, floating back from the impact, and only barely dodged one of Satsuki’s chains.
“What’s the plan?” Satsuki asked, sticking to the side of a pillar.
Eri’s eyes flitted down, seeing the hordes of demons starting to climb up the walls and pillars, framed by the inflamed rupture in the honmoon, and the once-human demon floating impassively in the air, giving them calculating stares.
“I don’t think we can fix this without support,” she admitted, dread settling in her stomach.
Except it didn’t have much time to settle, because, through the screams and yowls of the approaching, ascending demon horde, a low but steady, muffled bass could be heard coming from above.
Wait…
“Did they seriously set this up right under the stadium?” Mahoro deadpanned, before gaining a feral grin.
“Trap and overwhelm all the fans in one go,” Satsuki said, her worried expression turning cocky.
Eri breathed in, her heart settling into a steady beat. “It has been three minutes, girls.”
With a brief glance and curt nods, the trio burst into action to the muffled beat above.
“Can you hear the rumble underground?”
Satsuki wrapped one of her elongated kusarigama around a pillar and began to swing as Eri let herself plummet to the center of the room.
Above her, Mahoro remained floating, her body tensing up as her otsuchi began to blow up in size, a faint outline of her own arms and upper torso expanding alongside it around her, the honmoon patterned across it.
“Can you hear the stumble in the sound?”
Eri slammed into the ground, gold sparking to life and forming a ball around her. She winced as she continued to feel her horn shrink and retract into her forehead. Maybe she’d been careless at a few points, but soon her stockpile wouldn’t matter.
Under the demon’s suspiciously still watch, Satsuki swung herself into the space between pillars, chains elongating and whipping through the air like Endeavor’s old hellspider, slicing the concrete above with ease.
“Can you guess who will be breaking out?”
Around Eri, demons lunged at her, instantly rewinding into nothing the moment they breached her quirk. She ignored them and their lack of critical thinking as she lowered herself, letting the honmoon tense up and wrap around her.
Right on time, Mahoro yelled out a battle cry as her hologram construct swung the glowing otsuchi straight upwards at the diced ceiling. Reality stuttered for a moment before an All Might-like blast of air shattered the concrete, stage lights pouring in.
The rushing air pulled the floating Mahoro, Satsuki, the female demon, and several others who’d been mid-climb up and through.
Eri grinned and jumped, the sphere of gold rushing up with her as she shot up and through the hole with her friends, casually undoing the scuffs and tears in their stage outfits—besides the purposefully torn sleeves and bottom half of Mahoro’s kimono.
/“Then go ahead ‘n shout out LOUD!”/ their voices rang out, taking over from the recording.
“MYTHIX!”
Eri shuddered as the stadium-wide chorus of voices reached her, her forehead aching as her previously shrinking horn began to expand.
Izuku stared at the grand screen, watching the arena explode on cue, the silhouette of his little sister haloed in gold erupting from within, arching and engulfing every piece of rubble, slowing it down mid-eruption.
Seeing that there were many more than three people falling and climbing onto the wreck of a stage, he shook his head. Right, no promises.
/“They call us mythical, a little mystical”/
Eri let the weightlessness of the honmoon carry her up to a higher piece of floating debris as they continued to sing, her eyes locking with the demon.
/“Don’t get it twisted though, we’re not that fictional”/
She let her intent ripple through the arching strands of her quirk. Some of the debris slotted back into place, restoring the rim of the stage-turned-arena for the others to land on.
/“Tonight we’ll rise and fly. Your trio of yokai”/
Her feet landed on a larger piece of rubble, eyes locking onto her opponent as they finished up the first verse, readying herself for an aerial battle.
/“To show you what’s. In. Stoooore”/
Satsuki and Mahoro landed on opposite sides of the partly destroyed stage as the beat shifted into a rhythm better suited for rapping, matching grins through the curtain of floating debris taking up the central hole.
“Here we go!”
Mahoro smirked at the crowd of demons that had encircled her and let herself vanish into her surroundings.
/“It’s Kitsune!”/ A swipe at the legs. /“With hits you may-”/ A slam into another several meters away. /“Not even know are there!”/
She reappeared floating in the air, her nine ponytails grown out and floating menacingly- /“For when you dare to cross my path-”/ as she let her solid holograms layer over and buff up her arms and otsuchi, which began cracking, rainbow hues bursting through. /“Best prepare to face my wrath!”/
A collective gulp was taken.
/“Because the line—betwixt my mind, and your world, it’s paper thin!”/
The stadium shook as Kitsune’s hammer hit the ground with a deafening bang, obliterating most of her foes.
/“And there’s no trick that can’t be pulled, by yours truly, from within,”/ she finished, smirking down at the remaining demons and flexing her oversized buff arms as they tried to scurry back down the hole.
Satsuki was unfazed by the tremor, her chains shooting out and wrapping around the nearest debris after smacking some demons around, chaining several boulders together as she picked up where Kitsune left off.
/“And I’m the kappa, that’s no cap, yah?”/
With a wrench, the large boulders shot down at the stage.
/“Might not look the part. ‘Aw, such a sweetheart!’”/
The field of rocks rained down on her opponents, an easy jump into the concrete below letting Kappa avoid their fate.
/“But that’s where you’re wrong! Watch out for my song!”/ The remaining, stunned demons were easily caught off-guard when she jumped out of one of the rocks floating back off the ground, her blades slicing through two before she dived into another rock, only to come shooting out a completely different one.
“/No puddle in my head, thick skin hides my shell/”
The crowd watched as Kappa sped up, her chains trailing behind her as she shot between debris until only a crisscross of shining lines remained.
“/Better watch where you tread, I’m a hoppin’ citadel!/”
Unlike before, Kappa came shooting straight up from the stage, shooting past every opponent and into the sky. Watching the chains trail up, the demons only became aware of how entangled all the floating boulders around them had become with it, and all it needed was a strong tug.
The chains retracted rapidly, pulling all the boulders together and violently smashing the horde of demons together in a rocky cocoon.
/“For when I’m spitting lyrics I’ll drag you under!”/ Kappa shouted, floating high up in the sky, the chains disintegrating and the sickles lighting up in rainbow hues as she swung downwards.
/“No can’t stop this, I’ll steal your thunder!”/ She plummeted back down, gracefully landing in a kneel as the slices carried beyond their blades through the air, pulverizing the bound rocks and leaving nothing behind upon bursting apart.
Meanwhile, Eri had spent the last two verses keeping her full focus on her opponent and the daring demons parkouring up the debris, trying to get in a hit through the looming storm of gold bolts.
Even without putting in any focus, an errant crackle and a flash could make an unlucky demon disappear into thin air. The only bit of knowledge stopping her from comparing every single occurrence to her quirk’s manifestation was that these were all spawn from Gwi-Ma, without even a trace of soul. Unlike-
“Why are you here?” she asked, her microphone switched off to avoid ruining the rapping of her group mates. “You’re not even fighting. Did Gwi-Ma put you in charge of this?” Unlike demon spawn, former humans had additional abilities like levitation and teleportation. That her opponent hadn’t simply teleported away to feast for her master, or even put up an actual fight…
The marked woman narrowed her golden eyes. “I have my own things that need to be done.”
Then why didn’t she just…
Sadly for Eri, the last of Satsuki’s rap had come before she could think up a response. The show had to go on and she needed to finish this quickly. She steeled herself as the beat slowed down into something more melodic along with the intensity of her storm. Time for her part.
/“Amidst the storm and fantasy. One member left, the cavalry,”/ she sang as wind whipped around her, the piercing notes not needing a microphone to be heard.
/“Look up upon this apogee. I’ll speak up, close this rhapsody”/
Eri drifted off the floating boulder, the slow beat picking up in pace once more as she let more and more of her quirk out, flashes and rumbles around the dome becoming more frequent.
/“A silver mane, a spark of gold, and crimson eyes. Time to get bold!”/
Her arms filled until they brimmed with gold and she slammed them together, the crackle of electricity swelling into a full-on raging storm
/“My curling horn don’t fit the mold. No lightning rod. Can’t be controlled!”/
The demon winced and brought up her arms to shield herself from the surges, a bolt lashed out at her moments later. Two sizzling streaks of pale skin were left on her forearms, which quickly bled back into demonic purple.
It figured her quirk wouldn’t work the same for a former human.
“You haven’t even pulled out a weapon,” the woman mumbled, giving her a calculating look as the other demons fizzled out into gold below her. “Is this what Hunting has become?”
“I have one. Just not something to be used before the climax,” Eri retorted quietly, feeling a little peeved at the lack of reaction for something she considered an ultimate move.
Around her, the beat had slowed down from its apex. One more verse, and she’d have the opportunity to finish things in one fell swoop.
/“There’s golden thread that binds us all, a bridge straight to the soul,”/ she sang, letting her high notes trail and spread throughout the indoor stadium with the wind as she drifted upward. /“A weave we share, down deep within, a web that makes us whole”/
Gold faded in and out of her vision within the massive crowds surrounding the stage.
/“So watch me shout and let my voice spark up and thrum the striiiing!”/ she belted.
“KIRIN!”
Kirin let out an involuntary gasp as she was hit with the collective voices of the audience, the air around her lighting up with the honmoon as she felt the skin on her forehead stretch taut from her growing horn thickening steadily at its base.
The brief pause in the music ended, and the chorus finally kicked in.
/“Now watch us become mythical! Get lyrical!”/ the trio sang, their voices harmonizing.
/“We’re making this physical, so take it all! (Go on ‘n stay on rhythm)”/ Kappa added as she began to climb up the floating staircase of debris.
/“Hear the siren’s call, of us all!”/ Kirin raised her arm and tightened her fingers, a grip weaving into existence from the honmoon. /“Time to pull off a little miracle. Pass the pinnacle! (Now’s our chance to hit ‘em!)”/
In a burst of light, an opalescent blade sprung into existence, its length easily surpassing Kirin’s and the demon’s height.
Kirin watched the demon startle, her eyes widening, and reoriented herself in the air while pulling in her legs, a platform appearing right above her for her to launch off of, letting the honmoon unwrap around her and return her full weight for extra speed.
/“Beat ‘em up. Seal ‘em up! (Can’t stand up against us!)”/
With a loud grunt, Kirin swung her buster sword overhead—she knew it had a traditional name, but she could never refer to it as anything other than the resemblance to her very first ever Christmas gift.
At the last moment, her grip shifted ever so slightly, and the gigantic blade missed the demon by an inch. A blade of air blasted downwards, pulverizing the lingering debris all the way down to the hole and leaving a straight path to the rift at the very bottom.
/“Windin’ up. Breakin’ the club! (Utterly defenseless!)”/
The momentum of the heavy spirit blade forced Kirin into a roll, one she controlled tightly, only exiting it to directly slam her boots into the demon’s torso, transferring all momentum and sending her plummeting down through the hole at the speed of a bullet.
/“Leave ‘em down, on the floor! (It’s splittin’ open!)”/
Kirin stared down, watching the figure grow smaller and insignificant compared to the angry red of the torn honmoon.
Her eyes scanned the crowds filling the dome, before meeting with her friends, a plan wordlessly agreed on.
/“Take their crown. Show ‘em what’s in store. (Here we go!)”/
Kirin let her blade disappear and kept up her own fall as the song entered its chorus.
/“When we go up, up, up! The rest stays down, down, down!”/
Above, Kappa dove out of a floating boulder, kusarigama wrapping around Kitsune and swinging her around, before flinging her straight down with the crack of a whip.
Her otsuchi returned in her hand, adding several times her weight and increasing her speed. A downward swing was timed perfectly to catch up with Kirin and meet her feet, which she used as a springboard to shoot down even faster.
/“Coz we won’t stop, stop, stop. We run the to-o-own!”/
Kirin shot back into the darkness of the underground chamber, her blade returning in her hand. Her horn thrummed to life, lighting up the vertical drop like a falling comet.
/“You better watch your step-!”/
Her entire body flooded with energy as she turned her quirk output to the max, her horn set ablaze as it all rushed straight into her blade, the opalescent rainbow turning radiant gold.
/“For when you face our tricks-”/
Down below, the remaining hordes of demons paled and tried to get out of the way of the incoming meteor. Kirin shifted the buster sword in her grip, lifting it overhead and aiming it straight down, the rift rapidly approaching.
/“Tangled within the web-”/
The angry tear could ripple only once more before Kirin made impact, the golden blade piercing the ground below and plunging into the weave of the honmoon itself.
/“Spun out by us MYTHIX!”/
Gold engulfed her, the tear, and flooded the entirety of the chamber as it tremored. A moment later, the crowd above startled as a fountain of light burst through the hole, splashing against the dome and flowing out.
Eri breathed heavily as the light faded, observing the static strings of the golden honmoon, the rift completely sealed and the grip the only thing remaining of her sword, embedded in the cratered concrete. From above, she could hear the collective sounds of awe coming from the audience, the excess of her quirk’s full power outburst having formed a fading network on the underside of the dome, like the canopy of a massive tree.
She let go of the grip and let the honmoon wrap around her, taking the burden of her weight off her, and jumped back up in time for the music to return at a calmer pace befitting the bridge.
/“They call us mythical, like we’re unsinkable”/ her friends sang slowly as she returned to the surface, gold washing over the field of debris as the remainder of the stage slotted back together.
/“But when you look at things, that sounds unthinkable”/ Kirin rejoined the others, gracefully stepping down on the fully restored stage.
/“When life feels less than bright, outside of the spotlight, there is something you should know…”/
Eri had no idea if the demon had managed to teleport before launching back through the rift, but with it sealed, the priority was right here, and she was ready to finally give it her full attention.
/“There was a time of, when there was no sign of, it would become us three”/ they sang together.
/“My heart was an island. No one to rely on. A childhood surrounded by sea”/ Kitsune continued on her own, her ripped kimono and ponytails billowing behind her as she turned on her feet.
/“A household misguided. For me they decided. Their vision all I could be”/ Kappa sang, throaty and frustrated even after all these years.
Kirin glanced at her friends walking to join her at the front of the stadium, and breathed in. /“Pain was all I knew of. A wall that blocked the view of, the future that could be me!”/
Their footsteps synced up as the trio stood together, the spotlights lighting back up from their dimmer moods.
/“But when our hearts connected, when our paths intersected. Those walls became nothing more than gates to be broken open!”/ they harmonized, a cheer beginning to build through the audience.
/“‘n here we are now! No need to ask how! It’s time we raise our voice and sing about things left unspoken!”/
As the bridge transitioned into the pre-chorus, the trio shared a nod and prepared for their first planned trick of the show to not be interrupted by a fight.
/“Because there’s golden thread that binds us all. A bridge straight to the soul”/ Kitsune sang, jumping up into the air and unleashing her quirk. Countless rods of shining light made solid through the honmoon zipped across the large space.
/“A weave we share, down deep within. A web that makes us whole”/ Kappa continued, leaping into the air and letting her kusarigama wrap its whip around the nearest rod, her leap falling into a swing as she swung from rod to rod.
Kirin smiled at her friends dazzling the crowd from above, swinging and looping past them, and stepped up on a platform of her own energy, letting it float up and move with her above stage as she danced. /“And it might seem disconnected, by those who feel rejected”/
/“But we promise here to make it known, the simple fact no one’s alone!”/ they all sang together.
/“So watch us shout and let our voices spark and thrum the striiiings!”/
For a moment, the thrilled unified shouting of the crowd overshadowed the final drop in the music.
“SO LET’S BE MYTHICAL! GET LYRICAL!”
Eri thanked herself for sticking to solid platforms in her routine, only years of dance and meditation stopping her from faltering from the insane feedback coursing through her horn. The crowd was treated by an unexpected light show throughout the chorus as large bolts of gold soundlessly flashed in the sky above, connecting Kirin’s horn with the countless rods floating around the dome.
/“Take their crown. Show ‘em what’s in store!”/
Finally, with the last verse arriving, Kirin, Kappa and Kitsune landed back on stage to finish their choreography together.
/“When we go up, up, up!”/
/“The rest stays down, down, down!”/
/“Coz we won’t stop, stop, fstop!”/
/“We run the to-o-own”/
Eri’s eyes widened in shock when she spotted a familiar head of green hair near a maintenance door at the edge of the dome above, her lips tugging into a wide smile.
/“You better watch your step”/
/“For when you face our tricks”/
/“You’re tangled in the web”/
/“Spun out by us-/
“MYTHIX!”
Eri shuddered as they snapped into their final pose, the energy washing over her as the stadium filled with the honmoon.
Deep down, the remaining grip of the buster sword sparked and erupted in a flash, illuminating the sealed up empty cavern before it disappeared, the honmoon breaking her quirk-induced stasis and resuming its weaving as it surged with gold, a wave that rippled outward throughout the city.
The crowd let out a deafening cheer as the three women panted on stage, basking in the brief moment of respite from their fight.
But the show had to go on, and their homecoming concert was the biggest of the tour by far. The music picked up again with a synthy beat, and they split up across the stage again.
/“I know what I have to do now”/ the others sang together in the background, and Kirin smiled as she felt an electric guitar manifest in her hands, courtesy of Kitsune.
/“It’s our life, one and the only!”/ she belted, hands roaming across the strings to strike the first chord.
Despite all the glitz and glamour, nothing could beat playing guitar to a crowd.
Two hours later
The trio groaned as the door to backstage shut behind them, crews bustling around them.
“Eri-chi,” Mahoro whined. “I don’t think I’m gonna make it to our bath. Juice me up!”
Eri winced. “I don’t think I can,” she said, clutching her head as it felt like a spike ran through it. “My horn hurts like- like a-” She groaned, gently letting the honmoon deflect around her to make her presence fade. “Like a motherfucker.”
The other girls startled, despite being the only two who knew how…knowledgeable she was on swearing vocabulary. Not something she advertised to anyone. Not even Izu-nii and Kota-kun knew, though she was certain Dynamight suspected, somehow.
“Damn,” Mahoro whistled. “Bad enough to get you swearing in public. You went way over your stockpile limit, didn’t you?”
Eri nodded, wincing again. She’d rewind her horn if she could to get some relief, but even with the addition of the honmoon, her horn was the sole thing that couldn’t be rewound.
“We did make this last show a live feed,” Satsuki pointed out. “Maybe we should’ve anticipated this. Imagine all the people that joined in beyond the stadium.”
It really was way more than anticipated. This was the first show that left her with a horn larger than when she started, in spite of the insane special effects she’d pulled off with-
Eri stumbled when Mahoro suddenly invaded her space the moment they stepped in an empty hallway.
“Huh, that’s new.”
Her hand slapped away Mahoro’s before it could touch her horn. She winced as she let her finger trail up from its base, reaching the S bend that had shown up the first time it had grown past six inches.
She was surprised to find a sharp point where it shouldn’t have been, branching off the main.
“Was that there since I sealed the rift?” she mumbled in a daze.
“Onee-chan!”
Mahoro gasped loudly. “Katsuma!” she cheered.
The trio happily welcomed her little brother, horn revelation eagerly shoved aside in favor of receiving an excited high-five, instant relief coursing through their bodies as they glowed green.
“Have I ever told you how much I wuv and appweciate you?” Mahoro gushed unabashedly, rubbing her face up against his cheek. The sight had turned even more adorable ever since Katsuma had surpassed her in height.
Eri and Satsuki suppressed giggles. If their fans ever found out how lovey-dovey and sweet Mahoro became when woozy and in private… Well, the only one upset would be her. Group cuddles on difficult nights were a frequent occurrence.
“Aren’t you still supposed to be working the night shift at Central Hospital today?” Satsuki asked.
Katsuma chuckled and freed himself from his sister’s snare, rubbing his neck in a to Eri familiar tick. “I left after the first song when I saw how much you were using your quirks,” he said.
“Great, thanks! Now go back and save more lives, dummy,” Mahoro scolded, scoffing.
He nodded, but paused. “Right! Oh, uh, your manager was asking for you.”
The trio nodded, saying their goodbyes and heading out for their private room.
“Yo!” Mahoro greeted as she barged in ahead of the others, jumping straight onto the couch.
“Hey, Pops,” Satsuki and Eri said, making their manager smile.
~~~
Seven years ago
“Alright, so we all know that the worst thing we could do is sign up for a label and get shackled to some scumbag manager and shitty contracts, right?”
Eri and Satsuki exchanged a confused glance as Mahoro paced down to the front door of the apartment she was renting.
“Yes?”
Mahoro grinned. “So I used some of Eri-chi’s many convenient connections and put out a little job opening for up-and-coming J-Pop group manager, and I found the perfect gal for the job!” She came to a stop and slammed the door open. “Introducing Kazuho Haneyama!”
“Did you have to make me wait out here for this?” the newly revealed middle-aged woman deadpanned.
Eri stared at the poor person Mahoro had sunk her figurative claws into. Somehow, the pink hair rang a faint far-off bell.
Satsuki had no compunction with being gentle however. “Who?”
Mahoro’s grin drooped comically, now a perfect mirror to the woman.
“None of you heard of Pop☆Step? Successful solo idol performing illegal shows across downtown Tokyo?”
“Oh, the idol turned part-time vigilante that was mind-controlled into being a villain?”
“Ever heard of tact, girl?” the woman—Kazuho—asked, a vein worryingly visible on her forehead as she tugged on her eye-patch.
Satsuki froze, a mortified grin appearing. “S-Sorry, get it from my sister.”
“Wait, why do you want her as a manager?” Eri asked Mahoro, her memories finally jogged, though she hadn’t exactly been around to hear about it when things had gone down. “She was only an idol for a year or two.”
Mahoro cocked a brow, smirking. “That’s exactly what I asked her.”
Wait, Mahoro had been running the interviews? Eri had to dismiss all the scenes her mind’s eye was conjuring up before it could distract her even further.
“I know I don’t sound like I have a lot of experience,” Kazuho said, her peeved expression having faded. “But hey, I was my own manager, and I think my old popularity speaks for itself.” She sighed. “Even if I had to stop doing the performance part of it all—an idol whose entire shtick is bouncing around the streets can’t exactly keep going with their depth perception shot—getting sent that job application by an old friend of mine, it made me realize I haven’t been doing anything that’s really left me feeling fulfilled.”
“She listed, like, a whole bunch of events ‘n stuff she’s managed for almost half an hour straight,” Mahoro added, making a secret ‘blabbing’ gesture behind Kazuho’s back. Clearly not as riveting as music groups, in her opinion.
It was clear Kazuho didn’t notice it, lighting up at the mention. “But helping to found and manage an entire indie J-Pop record label? That sounds like the kind of challenge I’m up to!”
“You’re sure this is our best shot?” Eri couldn’t help but ask Mahoro. While she was more than up for the ‘form an idol group’ idea, she was still hesitant about the specifics of it all, even if Mahoro had promised to worry about all the messy details for now.
“Look, I had to suffer through a lot of peacocks and all other kinds of nasty idiots looking down on me,” Mahoro shot back, her eyes dazed as if experiencing a traumatic flashback. “So trust me when I say, what better manager for a kick-ass indie idol group than an ex-indie ass-kicking idol?” She sent them a hopeful grin.
“I think maybe I should be asking if you guys are my best shot at managing things,” Kazuho said, sounding less enthused and more skeptical than her prior speech. “Do you even have the finances to start a label, or any shows, to get yourselves out there? The chops?”
Eri met eyes with the others. Shifting from their perspective to hers, she was making a valid point.
“Money’s not a problem,” she admitted quietly. She wasn’t proud of it, but she wasn’t exactly lacking in it. And part of that was due to her now late grandfather, who had, as part of a penance Eri had insisted wasn’t needed, left all his money and estate to her name in his will. The worst part was, there was no way for her or any law enforcement to prove the money had come through less than legitimate means, meaning it was all hers, even though she was sure at least a significant part of it had been laundered.
And though she’d wanted to just gift it to every charity she could find, her foster family had put their costumed paws down and told her to keep it for her own future, something she’d begrudgingly conceded to.
“As for whether we have the chops…” Satsuki began. “We have some songs in the works that are on final draft, right?”
Eri smiled softly. All the afternoons and early evenings spent here in Mahoro’s rented apartment, writing and singing and composing their own songs together, was already proving this entire endeavor to be more than worth it.
“Which one? Chasing Horizons? Make Our Story? Sing to the Sky?” Mahoro asked with an eager grin, projecting a guitar in her hands.
“Well, the enthusiasm is a good start!” Kazuho said, her eye glinting.
~~~
That first meeting had been a rough start, but things had turned out amazingly in the end. What had started out as Eri’s small fortune had become- well, enough to make her realize her original fortune hadn’t actually been that big. And their success in large part had been thanks to Pop’s surprising amount of expertise, despite not having managed an actual idol group before.
And not having a greedy, creepy or power-tripping person calling the shots was a big plus.
“Girls, you know I love your moxie,” Pop began with a sigh, betraying her- “But you really need to clue me in on some of the stuff you’re planning. I know we all decided you would run the shows and things would stay more hands-off from me, but it also kinda feels like you’re running me sometimes instead.” She huffed out a laugh, grinning despite her reprimand.
“See, that’s the great part. We don’t do ‘planning’.” Mahoro grinned unapologetically. “How else can every show be as unpredictable as ours?”
“You can’t convince me your stunts and choreography aren’t planned at least a little,” Pop rebutted, but stopping before things could devolve into a snark-off. “But your quirks do make things much easier for me and the backstage crew.”
Neither Eri or Satsuki knew how, but somehow Pop knew exactly how to play Mahoro, leaving the girl preening at the compliment, unaware she’d lost the exchange.
“Good job with that changed bridge though, fans love vulnerability,” she continued, before standing up. “But I’ll table this for later. Enjoy your break, girls. I sure will.”
She left the trio alone with a final wave.
“Alright.” Mahoro groaned and stretched, standing back up. “Time to get out and-”
“Bath time.”
Eri sighed. “Tsuki, we still have to talk to the reporters before we can go home.”
“Bath. Time.”
“And then I’ll be busy all night with-”
“-bath time, I guess.”
Satsuki let out a happy croak as she jumped into the large bath, somehow having taken off her elaborate magical girl-inspired outfit in under a minute.
“Can’t complain,” Mahoro conceded with a shrug, sliding off her kimono and taking off her sandals and underwear, revealing the strings of the tattooed honmoon wrapping around her torso, chest, and upper arms, before eagerly wading into the steaming water.
Satsuki surfaced from her leap, doing her best kappa expression.
“Join us,” she warbled eagerly, her mouth still underwater, while Mahoro chimed in with, “No rewinding back to being clean!”
Knowing that, if she refused, she’d have to brace for Satsuki ambushing her anywhere in the apartment and dragging her through the honmoon straight into the bath, Eri gave the two girls a half-hearted stink-eye, before shrugging off her fur-lined crop jacket and gold, scale-patterned top, along with the shorts, boots and the rest.
She had to push down an embarrassing noise the moment she stepped in.
But damn, a hot bath after a show always felt like ascending to heaven.
“You girls know I won’t be able to leave and get any work done now,” she whined as she sank down and sagged against the back of the bath.
“Good,” they both said, leaving Eri to sigh and chuckle at the same time.
It was a few minutes of basking in the steam and near-scalding water later that the relaxed silence was broken by Mahoro.
“Speaking of what Pop said though. Was the changed bridge really a good idea?”
Satsuki paused, before nodding. “Yeah. I mean, even just alluding to my childhood wasn’t the easiest, even without any of the details.”
Eri watched quietly as Mahoro responded. “Maybe it’s ‘cause I wrote my own bit, but it was a little hard-hitting for me too. But I thought, hey, if Eri-chi can do her part.”
“Yeah,” Satsuki agreed, looking to Eri. “Getting kidnapped and experimented on by a crazy yakuza mad scientist is way above some disapproving parents.”
Eri smiled weakly, feeling the sliver-thin surgical scars on her arms and legs itch and tug.
“I just don’t want to make people think we’re perfect,” she explained, even though they already knew why. “I know it’s in the name and all, ‘idols.’ But it only did bad things for heroics before the whole field was built back up. The live show at the end of our world tour just felt like the best time.”
They nodded and smiled at her, leaning back to bask in the water, though Eri couldn’t help but press down on the tension knotting in her chest. Even though it contained most of the truth, she couldn’t bring herself to let her best friends know the soul-crushing extent of what she’d been put through. They’d already burst into tears for an entire night the first time she’d told them the adjusted series of events, treating her with a frustratingly light touch for a while after. So them finding out the full extent of it…
There was only a small group of people who knew she’d been put through that torture for nearly four years straight—those who’d attended the raid briefing and survived to tell the tale—and an even smaller one who knew she’d been in that position in the first place by being the granddaughter of Japan’s last real Oyabun. That fact had only been discovered by the lead detective, Tsukauchi, after…Chisaki had been questioned in Tartarus.
And her grandfather…was probably the one person that made her feel the most conflicted.
Shortly after the ‘Paranormal Liberation War’ had ended, she had gotten the news her grandfather, her last remaining birth family, had woken up—though she’d received it by accidentally listening in on a conversation she’d definitely not been intended to participate in.
Eventually, despite some trepidation and reluctance on both her part and the adults around her, after getting fostered by Sosaki she braved a single visit to the low-security prison her grandfather was being held at and taken cared of. And that one visit slowly turned into many more over the man’s last years of life.
Whether it was out of a sense of guilt or genuine familial affection, her grandfather attempted to connect with her, and she hesitantly did so in return, until it was no longer hesitant at all.
Nowadays, she knew that, if someone like Chisaki hadn’t been allowed to have his way, she probably would’ve had a nice, if not unusual childhood. Her grandfather, despite his position and what the organization he’d led for several decades had done under his supervision, had been a morally complex yet upstanding man, who’d stood firm to his morals and vows.
It was strangely conflicting to hear the man waxing nostalgically about the organization that had been her captivity from his youth, but after hearing his stories, she couldn’t help but at least understand why.
Unlike what Chisaki liked to claim, the Shie Hassaikai hadn’t been an actual yakuza family from before quirks. Not even the criminal underworld had survived the complete collapse of the dawn of quirks, including the main families.
Her grandfather had told her of the Hassaikai’s precursor, a family established almost accidentally by a young Buddhist woman who grew up in Japan during the dawn, with a simple but effective healing quirk and an optimistic yet pragmatic outlook, who’d chosen the difficult gray path of consorting with and organizing minor criminals to help establish and protect small communities of those affected by the chaos, quirked or quirkless.
Eventually, the world settled when quirks became a majority, and the family’s successors had jumped off to return to the old yakuza’s activities. The one that became the Hassaikai had not though, and its first Oyabun had vowed to keep to their founder’s believes and traditions, something her grandfather had tried to hold onto, even though All Might’s era of peace had cracked down on all other groups and made that founding purpose unnecessary, and the Hassaikai had started slipping into more damaging practices to stay above board…until Chisaki performed his coup and turned it into an undeniable villain organization before it was taken down for good to save her.
Izu-nii, Kota-kun, UA staff and the Pussycats had looked at her like she’d been replaced by a shapeshifter when she’d told them of her decision to get a tattoo, sometime after her grandfather had finally passed away during her second year at high school. They’d probably been worried she’d been ‘lured’ into the ways of the yakuza by him. But in reality she hadn’t wanted to honor something like that. No, it was a tribute to him, and that original Buddhist woman who’d done her best to be a real hero in a time where nobody would be one. Where the heroes of today would look unrealistic and flat-out insulting. But she could see how it was strongly correlated to looking up to the yakuza either way.
So, her quiet admiration of that original ideal clashing with the current view of the by now truly extinct yakuza, of shameless criminals and exploiters that were rightfully crushed by heroes, was something to be feeling conflicted and nervous over, and her very real and biological connection to the last yakuza wasn’t something she wanted anyone who didn’t already know to be let in on, not even her closest friends. Not that it had an influence on her in the here and now any-
Eri startled when water splashed over her face.
“Earth to Eri!”
She spluttered away the taste of lingering bath bomb while Mahoro giggled in the background.
“Don’t go dozing off in the bath, Eri-chi. That’s what our ridiculously comfy beds are for.”
“I thought she was being broody,” Satsuki said.
“I’m not brooding!” Eri denied, a little too hastily to not avoid skeptical looks.
She sighed, sagging as her mind raced. “Alright, fine. I was…thinking of that last tear,” she admitted. A half-truth.
The other girls sobered up.
“We talking about this now?” Mahoro asked. “I figured we got rid of the problem for the next year or so with the show.”
“I dunno.” Eri rubbed the base of her horn. “Encountering benevolent spirits and the occasional quirk-mad is one thing. Even small weak spots and a couple demons across the globe wasn’t too concerning, but today…”
“I agree,” Satsuki said, before sending over a worried look. “D’you think we should get others involved?”
Eri paused, a conflicted feeling bubbling up. But Mahoro interrupted before she could voice any of it.
“And what are they gonna do?” she asked. “Without honmoon weapons, the only ones who could actually send a demon back down are Shoto, Dynamight and Pinky, if they aim to kill. And you know what they’ll do first? Stop us from doing anything of worth to take up our battles.” She huffed. “And they won’t be able to put up a real fight. Demons aren’t like villains or criminals.”
“They could if we teach them.”
Satsuki’s comment made both Mahoro and Eri falter for a moment. But then Mahoro scoffed.
“And then what? The real problem isn’t the demons. It’s the honmoon acting up. I know I like to act cocky, but even we can’t hold up forever against endless hordes of demons, and the top heroes can’t either, if they even believe us in the first place. And the only one who can actually tackle the problem at its source?” She jabbed at Eri. “Rewind’s the only thing that can patch things up. Tonight was the clearest example of that. And if her big bro finds out what we’ve been doing, he’ll be obligated to make us stop either way, nevermind how ridiculously overprotective he is of her.”
She paused, her serious frown fading. “Besides, if we’re letting anyone in on this, it’d be Pop first.”
“Biased,” Satsuki coughed.
“And if we have to tell a pro, Dynamight’s been offering to come blasting onto stage mid-show and ravage a drumset live ever since our collab with Earphone Jack, and he’d totally let us keep breaking the law to kick demon ass.”
“Biaaaassssed,” Satsuki sang, earning her a splash in the face.
Eri giggled quietly as the girls started a water wrestling match.
“No, girls, seriously,” she tried to say, but was forced to flashbang the bathroom with her quirk to break things up.
“Seriously,” she tried again, her mirth fading. “You’re both right. Let’s…” She sighed. “Let’s wait on telling Izu-nii and the others until we have a better idea of what’s going on. Maybe this was a one-off, and they were working on this rift the moment we left for our tour.” She lingered on the thought, knowing it was a tad too optimistic.
“But I think this is more than what we’ve been facing up until now,” she continued. “I think- I think Gwi-Ma finally got his hands on what he’s been looking for. I think he’s found a quirk that can destroy the honmoon, somewhere here in Japan.”
She rose up from the bath, her eyes remaining locked with her best friends and partners. “And we’re gonna have to track them down before they can do worse.”
“And kick their ass,” Mahoro agreed gleefully while Satsuki nodded, their eyes glinting with determination.
“Bath time first though.”
“…agreed.”
Fin
Character notes (because the AN won’t fit them)
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Eri Sosaki | Kirin: Leader of the group and the main lyricist and composer. Also plays the guitar whenever Mahoro summons instruments for live playing. She has the power voice of the group, with puberty giving it a soulful quality, and is the most serious about helping others and protecting the honmoon. A good reference for her adult singing voice is this Make My Story cover by AmaLee
Her quirk, rewind, lets her transform any (part of a) living organism into one of its previous states, the step back then becomes the next step forward, allowing her to rewind her previous rewinds. The further back in their personal timeline and the greater the discrepancy in energy, the more her stockpile is used up (stepping a sleepy person back to their bedtime last night takes a bit less energy than rewinding them to when they just woke up this morning, for example). The greater the change in age, the faster the rewound person reverts to their present state at an accelerated rate. The effect is negligible at the small scale, but becomes obvious on the scale of years and decades. The only exception is when she rewinds a living thing to just after their conception, in which case outside factors kill it before it can start reverting, and demons spawned directly from Gwi-Ma, which stop existing entirely
With the addition of the honmoon she can rewind non-living things as well, à lá Crazy Diamond, so long as enough people around her have a clear picture of what said thing looked like in the past (playing on the collective consciousness aspect of the honmoon I introduced). She can also pull new energy being infused into the honmoon into her stockpile instead, or let her quirk travel across it for long-range attacks and movable shields, or infuse her quirk to instantly restore sections of the honmoon at any time, no large-scale performances necessary if her stockpile’s already stocked up
Due to her deeper connection to the honmoon, Eri can also deflect it from herself and those nearby, leaving them disconnected and covered in what’s essentially an ‘ignore me’ shield. It’s the group’s go-to way of going outside in civilian form
Her honmoon weapon is what she lovingly calls a buster sword from Final Fantasy, after Tokoyami’s accidental secret Santa gift which she has hanging on a wall somewhere. She barely uses it in regular combat however, due to its unwieldiness and destructive nature. It can be infused with Rewind however and become the main focus for her quirk, delivering and channeling concentrated finishing blows at groups of enemies or directly into the honmoon -
Mahoro Shimano | Kitsune: Special effects gal and stunt and costume designer, with the occasional chime-in on merch. If she had the time to be a full-on producer alongside singing, she’d go for it. Fans consider her the ‘big sis’ who ties the group together, and is the most assertive and bold both on stage and in interviews, enjoying the idol life the most of the group by far. Though her combative, snarky personality is partly a mask from her time growing up without anyone her own age and a younger brother to protect. When it comes to the ones she’s close to and loves, she’s extra protective and lovey-dovey, and also the most emotionally open when in private
Her holograms normally are purely visual and capable of making sounds, aspects that are completely under her control, but with the honmoon she can turn them solid too, producing a temporary likeness of Yaoyorozu’s quirk, without adding or using real mass. Her holograms can still be destroyed and blown away by a strong enough piercing force or a disruption of focus though, which gets easier the larger and more numerous they get
Her honmoon weapon is an otsuchi, a Japanese war hammer/mallet, which she can enlarge with her quirk. Mahoro’s singing range is smaller than the others, but her voice is the steadiest and most reliable and capable of synergising with the others, overshadowing their faults, if any occur
Mahoro’s favorite trick is projecting a fully functioning guitar in Eri’s hands mid-show for surprise solos/shredding. Fans have betting pools up on if/when in the show this happens -
Satsuki Asui | Kappa: The choreographer of the group and considered the cutest. She enjoys playing into her gap moe gimmick, contrasting cutesy clothes and demeanor with spurts of a delinquent, punk-like personality. She can sing very high, in an airy, cutesy, nasally voice, but her real, most comfortable register is a low alto with a throaty/screamy quality. This original song sung by Kizakoto (just the one I saw while brainstorming/writing and latched onto) is my reference for her low range, especially the chorus
Her frog quirk suffered what the doctors diagnosed as a developmental disorder in her childhood and never developed beyond the froglet state (no camouflage or extendable tongue or anything Tsuyu can do). The main sign is her tadpole tail, which never fell off and developed into a full lizard-like one instead, and her partly changed vocal chords and lacking height. Her ‘inferior’ quirk compared to her big sis left her feeling insecure in the face of her usually absent parents for most of her childhood, and her higher-pitched nasally voice and ‘ribbie’ tic were manufactured growing up to fit in more with the family, though nowadays she use that skill to her own benefit and has dropped them from everyday life entirely
Her honmoon weapon is the kusarigama. Sickles with chains attached at the base, designed to disarm, block and bind opponents, though she can control the length of the chains and its movement telekinetically, and uses it to swing around also, using the blades to cut down demons. Though her underdeveloped frog quirk on its own is closer to a vestigial mutation, she can ‘swim’ with ease through the honmoon wherever it meets physical surfaces, disappearing from the world and transporting herself and anyone trained in seeing the honmoon across short distances at rapid speeds. She can also use the honmoon to stick/anchor herself and others nearby to any surface, or repel herself from one to mimic her sister’s leaps
Additional characters
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Kazuho Haneyama | Pop☆Step: the group’s manager, who sorta got roped into it by Mahoro’s dominating personality, happy to play a part in someone else’s idol dreams after she was forced to retire. She lets the girls do whatever they want on stage and with their songs and focuses primarily on the label side of things, arranging the venues and meet-ups and doing all the paperwork and finances, though Mahoro likes butting in at times. It’s an arrangement both sides are more than happy with, and Kazuho often plans out fun outings for the girls, usually as an excuse to join them in the fun.
She’s also the only one who suspects the girls are more than they seem, thanks to her own past activities -
Katsuma Shimano: often joins the group backstage to restore their stamina and stage injuries between songs for extra long shows. In a big risk to his medical career, he joined the girls on their world tour as their full-time physical therapist. He doesn’t really question them when they come to him with serious injuries late at night, though Eri usually does the healing mid- or post-fight if she has the juice for it
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Izuku Midoriya | Deku: Regularly happens to schedule patrols near venues, much to Eri and the others’ annoyance ‘because we can tell you’re trying to be our bodyguard!’ Couldn’t join them during their world tour and was very anxious about it for its duration. The girls meanwhile were very relieved to not have to worry about him catching them mid-hunt for once
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Kota Izumi and the Pussycats: The rest of Eri’s adoptive family, who are very supportive of her ambitions and happy for her success, though perhaps a bit too happy she’s going all-in on the idol stuff instead of crime fighting. Haven’t really thought about their role beyond that though
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Fujuni | demon descendant: Mystery character that’s a sorta expy, in a way? Guess who. Haven’t made up my mind on whether in this universe she’d have a bigger role or if she’s there solely as exposition dumper at the start to get things going
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Derpy and Sussie: Absolutely appearing in a full version of this story if I ever got the time to write one. Probably chilling out in full view in a zoo for quirked animals for the past century while nothing was happening, with no visitors or staff questioning whenever they do weird shit like phase through the enclosure walls because their antics pull so many visitors
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Marked demon | ???: Antagonist? Truth be told, just a plot hook/character I’m throwing out there to give you guys some jumping off points for how a full story would play out, similar to Eri’s changing horn, her hidden past, and the mystery of the golden honmoon faltering through unknown means, but you’re happy to discuss what you think she is or what role she’d play