Chapter Text
Prologue:
It was getting harder to breathe.
The air felt thick, as time seemed to slow. Every pant, every inhale was sharp and loud in Izuku’s ears as the world seemed to grow, the space around him expanding ever larger, more expansive.
Blood trickled down the boy’s cheek just beneath his eye, as the world tilted dangerously, colors twisting and melting together as dizziness consumed him. Anger beat in his veins, One for All echoing his frustration, pulsing and waiting for him to use the reserved energy.
Fear and confusion twisted in his stomach.
“Did you really think it wasn’t all connected?” The man’s breath was close, near Izuku’s ear, as he tried to inhale, tried to move.
“You can’t tell me that you weren’t to blame for this.”
The comment felt like a slap to the face even though he couldn’t say it wasn’t true.
Izuku stood there trying to stop his legs from trembling, his quirk sparking angrily and out of control as he struggled to see clearly through the dust and the haze, every muscle protesting against being frozen, every particle of One For All straining against the pressure that held him bound.
There’d never been a moment to stop, to breathe , to slow down and just…stand still.
To think .
And now that’s all he could do, even though he didn’t want to. He couldn’t breathe but couldn’t stop the thoughts, couldn’t escape them, couldn’t do anything.
The man in front of Izuku scoffed as he moved away from the boy, a blurred mess of form and twisted contortions the world turned and curled around the pair, a domain of stars and shadows billowing around the, as the words struck hard.
“I didn't take you as stupid though,” The man continued lightly, almost cheerful, in that off-putting way as he continued to move. Izuku wanted to back away, wanted to retreat, as his eyes pooled with angry tears. “But kid I'd have thought you'd figured all of this out. And I’m pretty sure you have but you’re stupidly stubborn and just won’t admit it.”
There was another soft scoff.
“It's why you're here, right? Why you came?”
Izuku wanted to deny it, wanted to say it'd been a mistake.
An accident.
That the man was wrong.
He just wanted to say something , dammit!
But…
The boy’s hands shook, his heart beating loudly in his ears. The words replayed over and again as he struggled to stay upright, struggled to remain still, even as he was bound in place, unable to fall on his knees even if he wanted.
He wanted to say the man was wrong.
But he knew…
They boy did.
Izuku had given everything he had.
He’d listened.
He’d followed , dammit a-a-and…and…
and still... still…through all of it…
‘It was never enough boy ,’ that same voice jeered in his ears, silently slithering through his mind as his vision swam, a flash of silver and black swaying in front of him.
It was never enough…
Izuku swallowed and struggled to clear his throat, curling his hands into his palms as he steeled himself. One for All’s energy continued to flare as the boy lifted his gaze to stare upwards towards the blurred face, his voice buckling beneath his worry.
A droplet of blood splashed from his chin.
And none of it mattered now did it. Because he'd failed.
“Itadori…where…wh-where–”
His voice felt rough, cutting through the vacuumed silence as he struggled to open his mouth, pushing through the pain to take back control.
“Gone,” Gojo-Sensei remarked simply, quietly, far softer than Izuku had ever heard him in the time that he’d known the man. “And it’s good that you can finally speak, kid.”
At that, the world twisted backwards, and forwards, lights and shapes and shadows pulsing together as Gojo-Sensei’s cursed energy flared, and his words drained the energy that Izuku had left in him. He barely remained upright, forced to against his will, as the man stepped closer, heavy boots striking hard against the floor.
Gojo-Sensei was only loud when he wanted to be.
When he wanted to prove a point.
“But you knew that, right? That he was gone,” the teacher continued, seemingly unsurprised, his tone almost indifferent as he leaned closer to the boy, a hand falling on the boy’s shoulder as the world sparked clearer.
Blue pierced through the haze, to catch clarity in Izuku’s vision as the man stared down the boy, studying Izuku, searching for answers.
“You always seem to know those things about him. And about the others. Without having to ask.”
The boy blinked blearily trying to stop his arms from shaking as One for All rejected the world they were trapped in, the domain and the never-ending sea of energy that pulsed and slithered around the pair.
A domain expansion that was impossible to escape from, forcing Izuku to face his thoughts and remember the things he wanted to forget.
Like the other voided mess, the other energy, and all the small things that Izuku wanted to forget, wanted to refuse to remember.
Because he'd been wrong.
And right.
And he'd screwed it all up.
“I-”
“No use trying to defend yourself,” Gojo-Sensei shook his head and blew out a soft sigh as Izuku's ears rang. “It was inevitable.”
The words still echoed.
The laugh still scratched and tore at his ears, stripping away his resistance to the energy that pulsed and burbled and lapped against Izuku, the widening of the domain ever growing as the boy found himself unable to tear his eyes, vision blurred as it was, away from the man.
Blinding-white scored the corners of his vision, as more blood splashed down his chin.
‘I can just tear his heart out, and then where would you be, boy? Standing before a corpse . Both of you so goddamn ideal, and proud , but neither of you capable of actually stopping me! Or anyone else.’
“You knew he was too strong and still you tried,” Gojo-Sensei’s voice reminded Izuku of Aizawa-Sensei in that moment as he spoke, chastising, almost condoning the boy for his actions.
Almost pitying him for his foolishness.
“And it all fell apart. Because of you .”
Yes.
Because of him.
Because of him dammit .
Izuku wanted to say something, do something, blink, shout, cry, anything , but he…couldn’t.
Gojo-Sensei’s domain expansion was always like that for him. Izuku could barely move even if he wanted to. It was sort of like…
‘Not yet, Nine.”
The pulsing of One for All thrummed softly as Izuku stared back at the man who only hummed and paced.
And Izuku had tried to stop everything. He had.
But he'd…
He was to blame.
“And see, I knew that you weren't that stupid to think you weren't here for a reason, Problem Child .”
The man grinned easily; his face twisted into a beautifully bitter sneer as he stared down at the boy in front of him. Cerulean blue warred with the startled bottle-green as each assessed the other, the man patiently–and not so patiently–waiting for the child to respond to his query, and the child too anxious and guilt-ridden, it seemed to make that attempt to hazard a reply.
But Izuku didn’t know how to reply, didn’t know what to say as he stood, awkwardly fidgeting under the man’s scrutinizing gaze, trying to understand what the other expected from him.
His fingers tingled, sparks of lightning crackling as he sucked in a small breath.
“I thought it was just Sukuna at first, you know,” the man continued casually, his voice still as light and careless as it always was. It left Izuku on edge, as his knees shook from the effort of staying upright. “That curse can do a lot of things we don't quite understand. And maybe the reason you are here was because of that ...”
Izuku's vision swam.
The man stepped closer, towering over the boy as he leaned down.
“But then I figured that maybe it was more . Your power is unique. But you're too similar in energy and technique to be a no one , kid. Especially to Suguru. And Sukuna.”
Satoru Gojo was leaning forward, almost eye level with Izuku now as his smile never dipped, intense stare searching the boy's face as he reached forward and jabbed a finger into the boy's forehead.
“But that's the problem,” he murmured as the world slowed and Izuku felt his energy, and One for All screamed in rejection to the invasion of the man's presence to his senses.
Voices lapped against his ears as iced fire tore through his veins. The intense stare sank through him as the man continued to murmur, almost a threat, almost kind.
“I can't tell if this is a curse for you ,”
The world started to melt, vision twisting and coiling into a swirl of stars and swelling reverberations of sound that bounce through Izuku's head as his limbs gave way, fingers, arms legs, losing sensation, and his head pitching forward like a ragdoll, against the man's shoulder.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, a weight lifting off his back as the world pitched dark, a slip into grey, blue, and black.
“Or if it's a curse meant for me , kid.”
The energy was a thick cloud that hung heavy, suffocating, choking out the light as Izuku leapt into the fray, angling towards the enemy. A twinge of fear spiked against his senses, the world crackling around him as something…felt off.
“Go ahead then, hero . Let’s see how fast you really are.”
He could almost taste the ash on his tongue as light shrouded in grey, lightning crackled and snapped, as a roil of thunder clouded and snapped outward from him. Quirks beat against one another, energy striking outward, vicious and biting.
It was dark, heavy, exhausting.
Wrong. So wrong.
Fury bubbled in Izuku’s veins, as the air flared with blinding showers of light, mixtures of green and gold and red sparks swirling together through and by and around him, distorted by his energy and affected by his power. Braids of light twisted together in a tight coil of energy, snaking around Izuku as he tried to steady his breathing, will his chest to loosen the knots and expand his lungs as he glared ahead of himself.
Not that it mattered if he could breathe. All Izuku really needed to do was see.
And he could. He could see just fine. Perfect, in fact.
Izuku’s eyes trained on the sneering grin, and the narrowed glare in front of him as he sailed forward, hair whipped back, salted tears pricking at his eyes as the world blurred and floated in a mess of distortion.
Izuku had never been this angry before. He’d never really had a reason to be this angry either.
“Shigaraki!”
There was a small peal of laughter from the enemy as his silver-white hair swayed in the breeze, hands lifted outward to gesture towards Izuku mockingly as he sailed closer, ever closer to the enemy.
“You’re just a little too slow, hero!” He jeered his attention aiming on the target in front of him, directly to his left, as the green-haired boy snaked around the blast of rubble and debris, his movements rabbit-quick, a comet-trail of toxic green left in his wake as the enemy continued laughing.
Bakugou was right behind him, turning wider to make his way to the most direct, and open strike point as Shigaraki’s left. Fiery blasts of molten air singed at Izuku’s neck as the blonde shifted around him, a snarl on his lips.
“Don’t get distracted, Deku!”
Which didn't help to temper Izuku's anger, only fueling it further instead.
Because he could see the moment again as he pushed forward, angling to blast at the enemy.
He could see the forest, and the trees and the moment Kacchan had been kidnapped and his heart had been in his throat and bile had been swimming upward, splashing against his teeth as he felt his bones rattle and his knees shake at the thought of staring down All for One of all the villains in the world, to get his friend back.
The wave of power, and the energy and weight of that foreboding evil? God…
He wasn’t so concerned with All for One, not when All Might had been there, not when he knew that everything would be okay.
When he trusted that it would come out right.
And he’d never been this angry when everything had happened with Eri…with Mirio…with Nighteye…All because of one villain, one man.
Chisaki.
Eri had been abused and used…over and over again by this selfish…bastard.
Destroyed to the point that she trusted very few and didn’t even dare to try to free herself at first because she didn’t want anyone else to get hurt because of her.
Because she thought it was her fault.
And then Mirio lost his quirk. Losing that power that was so inherently his own. That thing he treasured, that defined who he was as a hero?
And Nighteye…
Sacrificing everything, everything .
And for what?
For whom?
Someone like Izuku?
No.
But someone like Eri?
Of course that made more sense. It was a more rational and hero-like approach. That’d been a nobler cause, a better reason. And Nighteye had known it. He’d understood it, just like Izuku had. He wasn’t stupid. He knew who’d been most important at that moment.
It still stung though. It still choked him up to let go of someone he’d come to admire. It still made him feel bitter that he couldn’t have done more to save everyone, like he’d promised, like he’d insisted he would do.
But no. He’d not been angry . Not then. Not in any of those instances.
Sad? Hurt? Guilty?
Afraid?
Had he been those things in any of those instances? Yes. God yes.
But not angry. Not fully.
Nothing like this . Facing down the enemy who’d fought so hard to destroy everything that Izuku cared about, everyone that Izuku valued.
A burst of energy erupted, scattering clouds and casting a light through the darkened air as a bottle green glare pierced through the dust and settled on the target.
“Let him go!"
There was a crackle of toxic energy as Izuku rocketed through the sky, wind cutting at his cheeks as debris stung his eyes, tears pricking at the edges as he slammed into Shigaraki head on.
Torn gloves, and broken nails dug into the scarred and mottled flesh of the enemy as a furious snarl tore from Izuku’s throat as he bore down on the cackling opponent.
With little thought for how shitty this could and probably…definitely… would go, the boy's fingers dug into the enemy's arms as he rammed his forehead against Shigaraki's own, emerald and crimson clashing in a war of fury and amusement as the boy tried to overpower the enemy away from his Sensei.
A flare of energy twisted upward and around, spiraling in a tornadoed whirl.
Tomura Shigaraki merely smiled, a snort and a snigger slipping through cracked lips as he leaned closer, his breath ghosting Izuku’s face as a searing heat scorched the air about them.
“So brave as a hero, and so stupid too,” he murmured, “And all for your Sensei . What a joke.” there was another snort, almost bitter as the flicked a gaze past Izuku and back towards the underground hero who’d struggled to stand straight, a glare firmly fixed on his face as he let his quirk remain alive and drawn on Shigaraki, allowing Izuku to get close, to get an elbow rammed into the man’s sternum before the boy swung around a pummeled his arm into the other’s jaw, knocking the other backwards, skittering across the rocky debris. A shower of dirt and rock rained down as the ground cracked, Izuku’s feet pressing hard into shattering earth, as fury pounded through his veins, One for All alight with energy.
A buzzing rang in his ears as cracks splintered outward, lightning kissing his skin, the force of his quirk’s power welling beneath his fingers as Izuku sprang from the balls of his feet and launched upward and outward again.
Something was wrong. Off. Different .
But he didn’t care.
‘It'll go quite well.’
The boy's attention was severed briefly by the intrusion of different voices ghosting through.
‘Perfect energy source.’
The air rippled, waves of energy bending around them, as Shigaraki’s grin grew larger the closer Izuku got.
Izuku had to concentrate. He couldn't let himself get distracted now, dammit!
‘Vessels are all the same–’
The younger boy snarled as he cocked his arm backwards, fingers curling into a tight fist as sparks of green licked at his knuckles and coiled through every fiber and muscle.
“Midoriya!”
It wasn’t like he wasn’t expecting this to happen. In fact, he’d been waiting somewhat patiently…or impatiently because Satoru was rarely patient, for what he saw as an inevitability.
And yet…
The man squinted as his nose twitched, his senses tingling, almost like an electric current had gone live inside his head, buzzing animatedly, almost angrily.
The man let a wry smile twist across his lips.
"Huh. Well now that's interesting."
A ripple of energy shuddered outward through the sky as Satoru lifted his eyes, that small flickering of the smile growing, as the heated pulses of energy sparked across his vision.
Interesting was a loaded word, really.
It was more… not boring than anything else, and as the man's hair swayed with the breeze as another shuddering of light and energy burbled and pulsed, waves of green and red and silver slithered around in a spiraled halo that pulsed and rotated, expanding outward in bands of hues that shimmered and glinted against the sun’s rays.
It was different and beautiful, and Satoru couldn't help but let his thoughts and cursed technique trail into action lazily as his curiosity got the better of him. He began to study everything.
He wasn’t really in a rush after all. Or that is he wasn’t in as big of a rush as the rest of the world always seemed to think they were or should be.
Never was. And he never needed to move very quickly anyway, given that he was already moving faster than anyone else around.
No one seemed capable of keeping up with him, though all of them felt like they needed to be going faster, moving more, doing more, being more .
How annoying.
Though, maybe ...the man’s smile still remained as he tried to sort through the dozens and hundreds of thoughts that ignited at the sight…maybe he could admit that he was a little eager to understand this situation, this power.
Not that he really needed anything to really keep his attention lately. Satoru had plenty to deal with, with his dead student who wasn’t so dead anymore (and that was fun enough to figure out, because Sukuna could have something to do with it…or it could be more of Yuji’s fault).
“Hm…maybe it’s both?”
And the whole being a vessel to Sukuna business was another thing entirely. And then actually having control over Sukuna as well? Yeah, lots to consider and lots to care about.
And breaking the news to Megumi and Nobara that their only other first year buddy wasn’t, in fact, dead as a doornail? Yeah, Satoru wasn’t really looking forward to that part. Nah. That could wait, really.
This could wait, especially when Satoru was certain that Megumi specially wouldn’t go off the rails and summon some demon dog to haul after him or something…well maybe not him, but certainly Yuji. He’d definitely summon something to go after Yuji. The flirt.
Nobara too.
And so, Satoru had put it off, and put it off, allowing Yuji time to train, and sit in the basement watching old as shit movies to try to get a handle on his newly founded cursed techniques.
Sort of.
Ah well. Either way it was bound to be a fun reunion . And he was excited for the moment Megumi…though it would probably be Nobara, took a whack at Yuji’s face for fucking them over and keeping them in the dark with his whole ‘dead but not dead, just kidding’ routine.
Yeah…it’d definitely be Nobara to kick the shit out of someone and Megumi to summon the demon dogs.
Not that it was his fault that any of this had happened in the first place. Totally not Satoru’s fault that his kid was a verified zombie at this point, which was fascinating but also kind of…horrifying, and amazing all at once.
Not that that mattered anyway. Minor details really.
And there were too many thoughts going on for Satoru to really want to delve into them any longer. Not when the tantalizing prospect of the present issue was before him and a good enough distraction to keep him focused on a singular thing.
At least for now.
There was a pause as the man set his book down and turned towards the window more fully, fingers mid-turn as a third flicker of energy rippled just beyond the perimeter of the tree line.
Seemed that this time things were going to finally pick up.
Twisting pulses of green and silver and red continued to turn and knot and coil together, spidering outward as the epicenter of the disturbance grew wider and more wound in energy pulses.
A ripple of purple waves of energy washed over the other colors, cascading downward and out, like a tumultuous roiling cloud.
Satoru quirked his head and narrowed his eyes, the smile turning into a grin as the knotted mess of colors bled through and shattered the clouds of purple, sparking flickers of lightning bolts through the hazy view.
Huh.
Odd.
The man had never really seen anything like it before. And he knew for damn sure that no one else had ever seen it either. Talking to others, and doing the fucking research, Satoru understood that this phenomenon was not planned, not expected, not understood.
And definitely interesting now.
"And now there’s another. A second one," he mused, smile growing as his brow quirked upward in curiosity. "That one's new."
Different and unexpected.
It was a feat really, too, that he of all people was even saying that much.
It wasn't every day that Satoru was left feeling surprised like this. Or surprised at all. Nothing was ever unexpected for him. Things rarely changed from what he anticipated and could see. Which tended to make things a little boring and far, far more predictable than he wanted to admit, even when he was a kid. Which was one reason he didn’t mind being a sorcerer so much.
There was still that level of uniqueness that left him somewhat appeased and interested in reality, though most of everything wasn’t so.
And on the off chance that odd things did happen, and the weird shit took place?
Yuji and Yuta were prime examples, for instance. And Satoru was right there, in the thick of it, trying to make sense of it all.
Because it all tended to pique Satoru’s curiosity all the more, make him feel a little more alive, like he had more of a purpose, and an expectation beyond what was tangible to his senses and awareness determined within his cursed technique.
To be a part of something not because he’d been expected to, or because he’d anticipated it happening, but because he’d wanted to, and had the choice to care, and invest his time and energy because of personal interest . That was a treat for Satoru.
Like now, for example.
The book lay forgotten, not that the man had really been reading it, only using the pages as a stand-in for passing the time, as long, languid fingers gently rapping the tome against the desk with a soft clatter. The particulars of War of the Worlds was something that the man just couldn’t find the time to get interested in or really care about, as Satoru Gojo stood and placed his entire focus on the clouds and sky instead. There was a soft ‘pop’, the man’s lower back adjusting, as Satoru stood, staring into the small changes the breeze brought as colors mixed and swirled and washed outwards from the epicenter in the distance.
And echoing on the breeze there was that familiar air and energy that felt just as foreign all at once, with colors only visible to him, only apparent to his ability. The joys and drawbacks of his curse technique, really. Satoru was always privy to things that others couldn’t comprehend or really acknowledge, which always gave him a leg up in battle or understanding situations.
But also made it incredibly frustrating (lonely, perhaps) when he needed or wanted someone to talk to. Which is why the man had developed the ability to simply deal with shit on his own instead of bothering others with his issues.
It’s not like they’d understand anyway.
“At least not most of them,” Satoru replied to himself suppressing the urge to roll his eyes as he pictured Nanami trying to scold him for being too careless or shitty with his behavior, even if his thoughts were true. “Not that he’d care,” he murmured, speaking low into the stillness. The man continued to peer, almost unseeing towards the horizon, watching and waiting for the changes to take place, more energy to accelerate through the air, signaling that whatever had caused the shifts was finally here.
He'd felt it all morning, of course, and seen the inklings painted across the sky as dawn gave way to mid-morning. Rumbling waves of energy grew and rolled, tossing wave after wave of twisting and curling pulses of intense power, as the shifting colors intensified and erupted through Satoru’s vision like a clouded haze of green and blue and yellow and pinks and gold.
And Satoru was intrigued why things hadn’t dissipated like they had every day prior. It's not like it wasn't easy to feel the disturbances. They happened every day, cursed energy pushing and waving and crackling through the breeze.
It wasn't a new feeling, or anything out of the ordinary.
At least for him.
But it hadn't been enough of a disruption to cause Satoru to give it too much thought or shift his attention until now. Every time prior, things had settled, and eased, and ended before they’d really begun. And Satoru was always left wondering…
But now things were more interesting, easier to analyze the longer they curled and rolled and echoed out their energy across the sky.
The small beacon of light was barely visible in the distance. Most people wouldn't have noticed even if they could see it.
'But anyone with half an ounce of awareness will have felt that power,' the man with the six eyes mused to himself hopping up onto the ledge of the windowsill, a trickle of excitement pulsing through his veins as the after breeze from the energy burst ruffled his hair. ‘Which means that someone could or will eventually notice.’
The rim of the man’s glasses caught the setting sunlight as bright sapphire blues hardened to a calculating stare. He knew it wasn’t wholly uncommon that someone would be watching the area either, or planting something to distract some of the more…proficient sorcerers from their main objectives, as it were.
“Either way.”
A smile stretched, almost biting as the sunlight caught on the rim of the man’s glasses, sending a streak of brilliant golden beams across the man’s sightline. Satoru shoved his hands in his pockets and fished for his phone, feeling the gentle buzzing of a solitary message sending his way, before he quickly turned back towards the classroom, and tossed the sleek black device back onto the desk.
"Whoops."
How would anyone contact him now ? To tell him of the mysterious energy that they noticed too late and the familiarity of it…and all the things that he had already noticed.
“It’ll probably be Kento,” the man hummed wryly, another glint of light catching on his glasses as he turned back to face the light source and energy waves. “He’s always got a stick up his ass about these types of things.”
And Satoru was always ignoring him about it all, ready to figure it out on his own for the time being and…conveniently leave his damned phone behind.
To protect who he wanted and when he wanted for the time being.
The tragedy of it all…
Satoru let out a small snort, balancing on the balls of his feet for a moment, lifting his hand to his face and covering his eyes from the sun, as he stared straight outward trying to pinpoint the precise location amidst the larger field of energy bursts.
Such a tragedy that no one could contact him, let him know of the energy, the possibility of a threat…
“So sad,” Satoru retorted to himself, before stepping off the ledge and meeting air, falling into the trees.
'Now, to investigate.'
He didn't have long before people realized where he was and what was happening, and frankly Satoru wanted to see for himself what this energy was.
The breeze nipped at his ears and nose and cheeks, as a branch from a nearby tree caught his cheek, as the man’s eyes narrowed from behind his glasses.
Satoru needed some questions answered. He wanted to understand the connections he’d felt before the others figured out there was a problem or a potential problem, that is. He needed to get a read on what the pulsing energy meant, and why it was so familiar.
‘Suguru…’
He wasn’t sure if he believed it.
And yet.
‘Suguru…?’
And yet…
The air around him was…cold? A small biting breeze nipped at the boy’s skin. Everything tingled uncomfortably, aching and twitching, as his senses started coming back to life. Fingertips and palms and wrists livening under the pulse of his senses and the blood flow that curled through his veins.
But it was…strange. His sluggish thoughts tried to make sense of what was going on, tried to catch up to the rest of his senses that were firing up and coming to life, tried to unknot the strange things, and fill the blank spots.
It was…almost shockingly cold compared to what he’d been used to, what he’d recalled the day had been like, how it’d all started.
Or so he’d thought…right? That’s how it’d started, hadn’t it?
How long ago had that been? How…what had happened?
Izuku’s head was pounding as hazy recollections, images, sensations peeked through the filtered veil that dragged over his memory.
A mind-rattling pain pulsed and wavered behind his eyes and wrapped around his head making everything echo in his ears. Izuku could feel his heart in his throat, as nausea rolled, bile crawling up from his stomach as each beat rammed against his skull.
Everything ached, threatening to crumble beneath and within him if he moved too fast, Izuku was sure of it. Yet…he wasn’t sure of anything…he wasn’t…he couldn’t…
Somewhere, in the distance, another warning chimed as the boy arched his back, and tried to move, tried to focus on getting…getting up.
He needed to get up…
“Alright then! Do you think you want to open your eyes?”
The voice was soft, but blaring, too loud and too close, making the boy wince. Izuku’s head gave a hard jolt of stabbing pain that signaled he was alive at least, not that he was certain, right now that he wanted to be as his stomach proceeded to slosh uncomfortably and the swaying sensation rattled his nerves and made his muscles feel weak and unstable.
Maybe that was one small thing to be glad about. He was still able to…to feel?
Izuku blearily blinked, eyes slowly forcing themselves open, joints protesting, his head screaming as he scrambled at a snail’s pace to try to recall…
What had he been doing?
What had happened before now?
Before it’d all gone dark? Muddled? Messy? Before it’d gone…into a voided mess of…of…
“Come on now, you're taking so long for someone so strong. I would have thought you'd be on your feet by now, kid.”
Another bell chimed. A crackling of static prickled in his ears.
“Unless you’re doing this on purpose, eh? You’re just a bit slow because you think you need to be. Which is really stupid.”
The voice was light, laughing, as bottle green orbs struggled to open, a sudden jolt of recollection worming through him at the jibe.
Those words…
‘You're a bit slow!’
Slow.
Slow.
Slow.
A bit slow. He was moving–
Shit!
The boy's reserve of One for All ignited as muted memories finally filtered through the cracks and fissures that collected his thoughts.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Izuku needed to move. He needed to…to end it. He needed to…to stop everything . He’d been trying to do that. He’d been trying to fix it and make it right.
Be a hero.
Be a hero , dammit.
‘Get up!’
A wave of energy snared around Izuku's arms as he pressed power into his feet, eyes snapped open to peer upwards, towards the sky and the blurred, grinning face haloed by silver-white hair.
‘You’re slow!’
Shigaraki.
Shit.
Out of reflex and with a burst of adrenaline, the boy slammed his palms into the ground and blasted a wave of One for All's energy through the earth. The grass disintegrated beneath the wave of light and ignition of power, snapping the brush near his head and cracking rock, and gravel and grassy soil he'd been laying on. Fissures spidered out from his palms, as earth crumbled beneath his fingertips.
Sucking in a small breath, his ears ringing, and vision twisting, Izuku rolled to his left and landed another blow into the earth in order to create a debris cloud for more coverage because the enemy was too close . He needed distance. He needed to think . He needed to assess and launch an attack and get away from the threat.
It was way too close. He was way too close: the enemy, the war, the fight. It was all too close, too looming and too destructive. And he wasn’t capable of holding his own because he couldn’t see , dammit.
But he couldn’t afford to fail right now and let everyone down.
The boy’s feet slid along the loose rubble of earth, the grass and gravel and rock and dirt, giving way at his feet as voices hummed in his ears, the static growing louder, buzzing and crackling. Izuku blinked, trying to clear his vision, renewing sight, before he was turning and angling into a crouch, nearly stumbling as his knees buckled, his head throbbing.
‘Slow down, Nine.’
‘Wait!’
But he didn't have time to wait. He couldn’t stop now. He couldn’t delay anymore. He couldn’t…He couldn’t allow anyone else to die because he’d waited any longer to end this with Shigaraki.
Stop the enemy. Stop the pain…stop…stop all of it.
Where was Aizawa-Sensei? What’d happened in the time that he’d tried to launch that attack and…and…
He had to stop this now.
‘Nine, you need to stop. Think.’
Blinking furiously again, the boy raised his hand and set blackwhip out, his senses guiding him to aim at his target, feeling the energy pulses through One for All’s quirk. He didn’t need to see straight to know where his target was with this quirk. Not always.
The same bell chimed distantly, again and again. Familiar and different.
It was a warning that something was wrong this time, something was different. Something was off.
Izuku grit his teeth and concentrated on pushing One for All into a concentrated wave, feeding into Blackwhip’s stream as the laugh echoed again, making the boy’s head throb painfully, every muscle complaining as he tried to remain upright, and snapped Blackwhip upward into a curve that would wrap around Shigaraki’s arm.
“I don’t think it’s going to work, kiddo.”
Izuku felt his energy fizzle, as blackwhip suddenly…faltered? The tendrils and waves of power slowly slithered to a halt, rebounded and shot backwards in a slow whistle that petered out.
And what the hell? Izuku blinked furiously, straining to understand, straining to see and understand…
The foreign, light laugh that was far too close again, tickling his ear as wind brushed against his cheek had Izuku jeering blearily to his right, arms raised, quirk alight as a smash rippled across his fingertips and knuckles aiming to land with solid surety. He could feel where the opponent was, the enemy’s quirk signature present and focused and powerful. And different than what he remembered of Shigaraki’s quirk and how it’d manifest that first time.
He could sense it there and he’d make contact this time. He knew he would. He knew exactly where to place his blow.
Except…it never did make it.
“I have to say, kid, you've got pretty good reflexes.”
The voice was near his ear, each syllable touching his hearing, slipping against his ears, as Izuku jerked back in surprise at the intrusion.
There was a solid, drawn-out moment of suspended movement, where Izuku felt like he was suddenly floating through water, every limb and pulse of energy dragged to a crawl as the boy slowly pushed his way against the invisible barrier that encompassed him, weighing him down. His hand reached out, trying to grasp towards the energy source he could sense, knowing this had to be Shigaraki.
Because who else could it be? as a hand lightly tapped against his forehead.
Sharp, searing pain lanced through his temples and sank though the aching mess that'd been pounding through Izuku’s senses the minutes prior, silencing thought, quelling the throbbing pulse through his skull until it was nothing but a dull headache simmering in the back of Izuku’s head. A vacuum of silence followed, rattling hollow as jumbled memories and frantic words ceased to create the static in his mind, and all settle to stillness.
The boy’s vision that'd been doubled and blurred now suddenly rearranged. Puddles of color shifted and sharpened, each detail sliding into focus like a puzzle done right, until Izuku was left reeling backwards, head tilted up towards the sunlight that glinted and flared brightly around the downy white head.
“That’s better,” The same condescending voice hummed, sapphire eyes glinted almost happily, though they were calculating and critical as the grinning giant of a man peered down on Izuku, completely unperturbed by the situation and by the boy’s presence and attack. And really, who the hell was he?
Izuku was struck dumb for a moment, uncertain how to…how to react or what to say.
And really, what could he say?
What should he say? And where the hell…?
And who…?
“What?” The man crooned singsong “You crying ?”
Crying?
Was Izuku crying? He didn’t think–
“Is it gratitude that I see there, shining in your eyes?” The man’s voice skipped through Izuku’s ears, as the taller, imposing force leaned forward, peering down on the boy. His easy, sparky smile never seemed to waver as he winked at Izuku, his eyes flashing behind the frames of his tinted glasses as he quirked a brow at the boy. “Gotta say it’s a common reaction when people first meet me so don’t worry. I’m used to it. And I won’t tell.”
There was a laugh, off-putting and almost too happy to be sincere as the man continued to lean his upper body forward, staring down on Izuku who struggled to understand what the hell was going on and where the actual hell he was.
Because this wasn’t the battle.
There wasn’t any destruction, no other members of the league of villains. No...nothing. No one.
The boy’s gaze shifted left, and then right as Izuku took it all in, noting the smooth pathway, the bright greens of the grass and the bushes that lined the wall of the garden where dozens of flowers seemed to be in bloom. More hung from branches in the trees.
Wisteria. Cherry. Apple. All bright and flowered and blooming.
And all… calm . Eerily calm.
And nothing like Izuku recalled. Nothing like the battle he’d been fighting so how the fuck did things end up like this?
And how the hell did he get out of here and away from this…this…
“You’re not going to beat me, so no use in being afraid of what that power of yours can do!”
And…and what?
It took Izuku two solid minutes of silence to fully realize that it hadn't been night when he'd been fighting Shigaraki. It hadn’t been the war. He wasn’t in the middle of a battle.
He wasn’t even home for that matter.
So where…
Who the hell was this guy?
“Where the hell am I?”
And where was Shigaraki? And Aizawa-Sensei? And Kacchan? And Gran?
Where–
One for All ignited again as the boy’s tension reached anxiety levels and he strained to force himself to recall, to understand, to get to the damned heart of the problem. But nothing was piecing together right. Nothing made sense . Nothing looked the same or even felt the same for that matter. It was all just…wrong somehow.
“Nah but that’s such a useless question to ask right now, kid,” The snowy-haired man retorted lightly, his oceanic gaze catching the sunlight as he peered above the rims of his glasses and down on the boy, expectant and amused by the unfolding stupor the boy found himself it.
“Better question kid is why the hell you’re here, and ” the man hummed while shaking his head, “Why you seem to be attracting curses to you like a magnet . Though that would explain the Suguru connections perhaps”
Curses?
Suguru?
The man gave a gentle, dismissive wave before he shoved his hands in his pocket and finally leaned away from the boy who’d stiffened, every muscle tensing at the wave of energy still that roiled of the man, and the looming presence of several shadows nearby, tromping and rolling and slithering through the trees and bushes and grass as they dragged themselves closer to Izuku and his white-haired captor or whatever the hell he was. It was about as terrifyingly tense as All for One had been, the level of power and weight that nearly suffocated and crushed Izuku as he concentrated on the power that was apparent in the man who loomed over Izuku, standing like a stalky giant, with a glint in his endless gaze and a grin splitting his face.
“But I don’t think they want to play nice with you, curse boy,” The man replied tentatively thoughtful, though his tone trended towards amused. “Which, I didn’t really expect them too, though you never know how curses can be, now can you?”
“What?”
The boy was incredulous, as the other person only continued to chatter, pointing a finger towards one of the smaller creatures making its way past a low bush and easily lobbing itself towards the boy.
“Come on, kid, I know you’re not stupid. I can see that much at least,” The man retorted, “You like a challenge and you certainly like fighting. I was just trying to pinpoint what you have to do with all of this supposed mess…and maybe just test to see how strong you actually are.”
What the fuck?
Izuku bent his knees, hands readying in the defensive position as a massive, pock-marked and bulging grey slug-looking beast let out a guttural bellow, throaty and pitching towards Izuku as its eye swiveled on the child. Another, smaller creature, with thin, gossamer wings buzzed above the tree line, dripping green spit from its overly large teeth, muted blue body curved into a hunched ball as tiny hands clawed at the air.
The white-haired man didn’t seem too bothered by the situation though and only stood, watching Izuku’s movements carefully, head tilted in, and eyes trained on the boy. His mouth quirked upwards in the ghosting of a smile as he seemed to analyze and assess.
For a moment Izuku was reminded of Principal Nezu and his…eerily observant behavior, but the boy didn’t want to think on that too hard either because that would also bring about too much anxiety about performance, and about the connection between Nezu and the man standing before Izuku.
And oh god ...
The thought of two Nezu’s running around the world was enough to make the staunchest of supporters draw back from furthering their support.
Though…he supposed and tried to ignore the fact that maybe… maybe he’d also been like that too, analyzing heroes. Which was a fucking weird blow to consider as.
Another, louder screech, like a bird echoed to the boy’s left as he turned with a sharpness that and a narrowed panic on a stalking giant figure, that lumbered forward, overly large arms dragging low and spine protruding upward and humping as a massive mouth chomped from the beast’s…stomach. Eyes along the creature’s arms strayed to study Izuku who let One for All Ignite again, concentrating his energy and panic into assessing the situation, and quelling the uncertainty and fear for the time being.
“Now I know that you can move faster than that!” The call came out, ringing like a sharp lance to Izuku’s head as the boy shifted low and continued assess, waiting for the next attack, his energy ignited a sparking haphazardly as he struggled to make sense of what the hell was going on.
He couldn’t think about it right now as more buzzing, more hissing, more energy swirled around, with three more beasts floating closer. Dollops of dark figures shadowed and peeked through the brush as forms slipped towards Izuku’s vision.
A trio of fish-like creatures, red and scaled with guppy faces and glassy eyes, chortled forlornly, eyes swiveling in circles as they swayed and swished through the air.
“Bring it back! Where did you put it? Where did you take it? I know you have it!”
“Give it to us! You took it! You took it away!”
“I want to go home. I want to go back! Let me go back! Give it back so I can go home!”
The energy snapped around the boy, green lightning flickering like toxic waves as the air grew denser, dark clouds and energy wrapping overhead, as the man only snorted in amusement. More trees and bushes rustled, voices and noises pricking at the boy’s ears.
‘They’re almost like Nomu,’ His thoughts were churning, as he scanned and strained to understand. ‘But they’re not quite the same. They all…they all seem so…unique and so different from anything that All For One had created. So why…?’
Why did almost feel similar though?
“I figured that you were a curse too you know,” The man remarked, eyes closed as he shook his head lightly, smile wide and easy as he removed his glasses, carefully tucking them into the pocket of his shirt. Izuku started at the comment, an angry burble of shame and a slithering sense of fear prickling through his senses at the comment.
Why should he be afraid though?
He wasn’t a curse, whatever that was…and if it was anything like a Nomu then he really wasn’t anything like that. He had nothing…nothing that would indicate that.
A lazy hand flicked through tendrils of waving white hair as the man sighed and tilted his head before sliding his eyes open. Izuku took an involuntary step back at the intensity of the gaze, the brilliant starlight blue gaze washing over him as the filter of the glasses removed the resistance to the man’s obvious power in his gaze.
White lashes framed the oceanic orbs as the man hummed evenly, sniffing as his fingers continued to thread through his hair, before his pursed his lips.
“But it’s clear that you’re not,” He retorted. “No, you’re something else entirely. Which makes it all the more exciting. And all the more dangerous…for you.”
The man shrugged as the creatures drew closer, and the slug-like creature burbled out tentacles from its mouth, the guttural call echoing through the air as birds scattered and leaves rustled.
“Shit!”
Izuku tore back in surprise as others traipsed forward, gaining speed on the boy as his quirk ignited in a rebuttal of power, his fist coming out to block the strike as he shot out Blackwhip in a thin, coursing stream of energy that allowed him to wrap around a tree branch, hoisting himself away, another arm with spidering threads of blackened energy coursing outward to reach the creature and create a wrap around the beast before Izuku swung his arm, leaping backwards still, off the branch in a hop that created momentum enough to launch the slug-beast upward and over into a nearby bush.
There was a sound crash, the scattering of leaves and vines as branches snapped and the ground gave way.
The buzzing of the flying creature reached Izuku’s ear, to his right as the fish-like creatures angled for a frontal assault both converging at the same time as the largest of the beasts stood and waited, watching.
“Give it back!”
“You took it!”
A spray of water…stung at Izuku’s face, catching the boy off guard as he struggled to maneuver out of the way, as the flying creature caught the boy’s shoulder.
There was a piercing sting as thin talons punctured the boy’s flesh, digging in deeper and eliciting a harsh hiss from the kid as he reached up and clawed at the bird-like monster, trying to force it to dislodge.
The bubble of energy around them was growing more pronounced instead of diminishing, as he thought it might.
He watched the boy rip the cursed spirit from his shoulder, with little hesitation, and no more than a grunt of disapproval as more lobbied for the boy’s attention.
The tension was growing, and it was apparent, judging by the child’s face, that this entire situation was foreign to the boy, despite his apparent capability in identifying cursed spirits and handling them with relative ease.
‘Not to mention his cursed energy.’
Satoru was rarely surprised, even when the situation itself was surprising. The growing energy levels were one of the less surprising moments. Though, the boy at the center of the apparent influx itself was one of the greater.
The real surprise of the entire affair, in truth.
“Very odd,” the man murmured, watching as the kid stumbled awkwardly back to step out of the strike zone of the cursed spirit that’d made it towards the boy, with tongue extended and teeth bared like sharpened bits of knife.
It wasn’t for lack of trying or lack of power, however, that the boy moved a bit more sluggishly. No, that didn’t quite make sense given what he could see using his Six Eyes and his normal deductive observation, the machinations of his mind moving more rapidly than others could often blink.
‘His movements are deliberately slow, almost intentionally awkward,’ he parsed through each stumble, carefully placed, watching the boy’s face contort from surprise to determined refusal as he rebuffed the cursed spirit with relative ease, a solid strike of electrified energy snaking down his shoulder and into his fingertips as he pummeled into the creature’s face-like form, sending it rocketing backwards.
Admittedly, Satoru was somewhat perplexed by the whole situation, though he’d never show it. It was as invigorating as it was confusing though Satoru wasn’t fond of being confused. It was sort of annoying.
More than annoying. It pissed him off actually. He didn’t like not understanding something. Something that should have been so simple given all the clues he’d been handed from the beginning of this whole fucking mess.
The minute the energy had first appeared, he’d been right about everything. Everything .
But then?
This boy of all things? A child ? That was the oddest part of it all. It was a child and not a curse, like he’d been expecting.
An ordinary child, bearing extraordinary power and prowess as the boy’s feet ignited with flickerings of lightning, brilliant cascades of jeweled green wrapping around the child’s being, worming upwards from the boy’s heels and towards the spine as two more creatures squared off against the boy, angling for attention, trying to snap at him and consume the energy he exuded.
Tantalizingly pronounced and vibrant energy that lit up the sky and filtered through his aura like a cascade of pigments, shooting outward to capture other’s attention.
A lure to the others nearby, curses homing in on a beacon of some sort perhaps.
And all of this felt…oddly familiar in all the details too, he realized too soon and perhaps too late, scanning the perimeter for any sign of the familiar signatures he could feel oozing off this kid who stood, back straight and ready for the larger cursed spirit with the gaping mouth and lumbering arms to barrel forward.
This one was clearly the strongest of the lot, by a large margin, as it stomped through the trees and cracked the ground, building up speed, to ram into the child who stood, and listed to the side once in a ghosting of a feint, before he pushed in the opposite direction at a lightning quick speed, the sparks of green and gold, with flecks of red intermixed, trailing behind him like a comet, as his cursed energy coiled tightly around his body and ignited his movements.
‘It’s a bit like Yuji,’
Less like Suguru…
‘Except the curse beacon.’
Yes, except that.
Who the hell was this kid?
“Give it back to us!”
The boy curved a wide berth around the largest of the curses, cutting a larger path to pull behind the enemy as he lifted his leg and swung around into a full-rotated kick that allowed the momentum to cast the weight of the boy’s body into the blow. Satoru carefully noted the way the cursed energy shifted and poured into the boy’s strike connection; the force of the blow energized by the concentration the boy held with landing the strike on the enemy.
At the moment of connection itself, the blow erupted with color, green, gold and red simmering into a swirl of explosive energetic intensity that rocketed into the creature’s side and sent the brute contorting into a sideways flip that sent him into a tree. The boy warily completed his rotation and only missed avoiding the fish-like cursed spirit’s angered bites as he moved to adjust his footing at the same time.
‘Still a kid.’ The man smiled as he shook his head. ‘Of course he’d miss that.’
‘Nine! You have to move. You have to pull back.’
‘Concentrate on your energy levels and use Blackwhip to extract them from you.’
The wind ruffled Satoru’s care as he narrowed his eyes, a spark of renewed suspicion and curiosity igniting behind his gaze as he stared at the scene and the agitated boy who reached up to carefully pull at the fish curses who were hissing and demanding retribution.
“Give it back!”
Other shadows simmered close by the child in different hues enrobing the boy as he expended more energy and a different cursed technique to pull the beasts off of himself. Blue and gold billowed around the wielder as dark tendrils of cursed energy snaked out of the child’s fingertips and he struck at one fish-like curse, a long gash on his shoulder trailing blood as he ripped away the toothy hold.
The other though, had latched onto his back, and in the small frenzy of fighting, the bird cursed spirit dove downward and speared against the child’s head, diving hard to strike a killing blow as the boy ducked low and tried to pull the other create off of him.
A screech echoed through the air as the energy still grew, more colors intensifying as the boy continued to figure to get the damned fish curse off of him, sidestepping the largest of the curses with another awkward stumble.
This one far less precise, Satoru noticed as he took a step closer, sensing another presence nearby.
He supposed he should lend a hand.
And test the boy to see what he was worth as another potential student.
And as a threat. The Council wasn't going to like him either was, that was for damn sure. So, Satoru would do...what Satoru would usually do when he was faced with something like this:
What ever he damn well pleased. Fuck the Council. This was a kid. A powerful, potentially dangerous kid, but still a kid. So, this was Satoru's problem.
“Ah well see now that’s not very nice of them,” The man was near the boy’s side, watching as the child stiffened and startled at Satoru’s sudden emergence and proximity. Forest green warred with oceanic, as the man hummed softly and almost sneered towards the curses that circled them, reaching up to point a finger towards the bird. “Nasty little nuisances,” He muttered as a blast of Red zipped from his pointer and erupted into the sky.
So much for subtlety.
There was a rumble as the color engulfed the air and the clouds that surrounded, turning all the living in his path to ash as Satoru then turned his attention towards the largest of the beasts, finger immediately pointed a lock onto the curse as Satoru Gojo tilted his head and grinned wickedly.
“You’re not even a challenge,” He muttered darkly. “Which is shame because then this gets boring.”
Another blast of red demolished the area and carved a long pathway of destruction as trees and brush and curses were reduced to nothing.
Which was as it should be, Satoru decided as he reached out and ripped the other fish-like curse from the boy’s back, more streams of blood oozed from the boy’s new wounds as the man lifted the whimpering fish-creature up towards his face.
“But you stole it. You must give it back!” The beast retorted over and again.
Ugh.
Satoru only rolled his eyes and quirked a brow at the beast.
“And why the hell would I do that?” He replied with a grin. “I have more than you’ll ever.”
There was a brief moment, that the man stared at the beast, gazing into the thoughtless, unseeing eyes of the creature as he noted the vacancy and lack of care that this creature had for anything other than his objective.
Just kind of pathetic really, he decided, tossing the beat up to the sky, and following it with another, deafening blast of his own power, to demolish what remained of the curse’s physical form.
As the others started to back away, as Satoru’s grin widened, a jeering laugh burbling from his lips as he peered down on the child.
Wide, innocent great eyes stared up at him, questioning.
But there wasn’t time for questions–the man grinned again the boy and lifted his hand towards the child.
“Now,” he murmured, “Let’s have a real go, shall we?”
The boy couldn’t even suck in a breath before he was propelled backwards by a gusted blow of energy and air, as the man’s fist collided with his stomach, knocking all wind and sense and energy from him as Izuku struggled to understand what the hell was happening.
‘Izuku!’
The boy was bounced backwards, and then sideways as he struck an uprooted tree and bounced into several broken mounds of earth, rolling into grass and muddied dirt. The boy’s mouth filled with soil as he slid to his knees and warily dragged himself to his feed, keeping a side eye on the man as he let One for All increase in percentage to defend himself against…against whoever the hell this enemy or friend or…or…
“So, your name is Izuku then. That’s somewhat useful…though not really,” The man remarked off-handedly, with another nod of his head as he shifted and moved closer at a more pronounced speed, catching Izuku off guard with a sudden emergence in front of the boy.
“I thought you had it all figured out. Silly me for thinking that kid,” The man’s fist came out to land another punch, but Izuku was ready this time, pulling his hands into a block and leaning down low so that he could strike a hit on Satoru instead of the opposite.
With a low maneuver, tilting his shoulders downward, the boy pulled into a hard strike, trying to gut-check his opponent turned tentative friend turned rejectionist.
“Forty percent!’ The boy, Izuku, was not going to give up so easily as he lifted his fist and rammed it into the man’s stomach.
Only to be rebuffed by an invisible force that physically rejected Izuku’s initial strike and stonewalled against the next blow he tried to land as well.
And the one after that. Even his AirForce kick was recoiled back towards Izuku once more as the man only laughed and sidestepped, doing a small, rotation as he curved into a tight circle leaning his head back to speak into Izuku’s ear as the boy tried to navigate his confusion, and the laughter that continued to echo.
“That’s a shame, there,” The man retorted, not the least bit surprised or upset by the developments. “I thought you’d at least land that hit.”
Izuku pivoted and rotated, swinging another blow around to connect with the man’s face, as the other merely snorted and laughed a little more. Another wide step had the man also turning into a rotated shift and pivot as he wagged his finger towards Izuku who glowered at the respond.
“Such a pity that you think I’d just give you this win,” The man swept out his food and angled to trip Izuku who leapt upward and brought his fist up to do a ‘Smash’ against the smug man’s comfort zone of a face.
Because he didn’t know what the hell was going on, let alone why the hell the man seemed to think he’d want to even start in this situation to begin with. Izuku’s arm snapped backwards, as the rebuff pushed Izuku away, the man’s laughed filling his ears as a prickle of pain erupted the back of Izuku’s head.
“Like I said kid, you won’t be able to beat me.”
“I don’t even…want to fight you!” The boy bit out between a small, gruff inhale, trying to adjust, and maneuver away from the man. “You don’t have to do this. I don’t even want to do this. So just–”
There was another hard moment, a blow nearly snapping hard against Izuku’s chin before he was able to pull back and removed himself to calm down as he watched the man continue to circle Izuku, hands in his pockets and firm grin still in place.
“I never said I gave you a choice, kid.”
“Satoru.”
There was a drawn sigh as the ground rumbled beneath Izuku’s feet, as the man–Satoru–shook his head lightly and rammed an elbow into Izuku stomach, filtering into the boy’s vision before he could comprehend movement had taken place.
The boy twisted out of the way, only taking a minor blow as he reached out and tugged at the man’s appearance, trying to throw him over and backwards, onto the man’s back as he did so.
A firm, bony hand snaked out and grasped Izuku’s wrist as a hard, clear blue gaze leveled on Izuku. The intensity of the world shifted in that look as the man’s smile only twisted between sincere and condescending.
“You’re late Kento. I was expecting you two minutes ago.”
The man struck at Izuku before tossing him backwards, approaching again with a rapid speed and little time for Izuku to maneuver out of the way. A rough shoulder to the boy’s sternum left Izuku wheezing as his eyes watered, and his vision blurred again.
But the boy wasn’t completely helpless, his senses still alert, still brightly firing as he traced the energy and movements around, straining his ability to follow the massive weight of power as it shifted. And–
‘There!’
The boy’s movements were lightning quick, his drive pressing Izuku forward as he brought as fist up in an attempt to punch the man’s stomach, in hopes of landing the blow he’d intended.
With his attention pulled towards the stomach, though, Izuku brought a leg out and rammed it into the man’s kneecap and pressed against the white-haired giant of a man’s knees, arching his back and turning into a flip as he brought the moment into an escape.
“You’re not going anywhere, kiddo.” The voice was nearby, hissing through his ears as Izuku winced.
“I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me,” The man, Satoru, hummed, near Izuku's’ ear as he reached out again and grasped onto the older man and pulled backwards again, putting a step backwards and a half turn into his movements as he worked into a rotation to throw the other off, neglecting the hand that still remained on his own shoulder.
With a hard pull backwards Izuku felt the man’s footing give way as he pulled more firmly and turned, continuing the momentum before calling on One for All to help him completely dispatch the man away from himself. Izuku was getting a little claustrophobic about the whole situation–
“You won’t let anyone forget about you,” Came the nonplussed reply from the blonde man that caught Izuku’s attention as he sidestepped another one of the taller man’s advancements and strike.
“That’s very true.” There was a laugh as the man circled Izuku, who spied stranger nomu-like creatures beginning to emerge from the bush. Panther-shaped, and bear-shaped, each with dark coats and long, needle-like teeth, strayed every closer, unwary of the man that squared off against Izuku who leapt forward again, and made an attempt to feint to the left and pull around the back of the man, trying to catch the taller, white-haired enemy off-guard as he turned, mid-air and pushed backwards, propelling his shoe into the man’s back, forcing the other into a stumble. Izuku didn’t wait for the other to regain his momentum or his stability and chose, instead to continue the rotation, arching his back and pulling into another flip that twisted Izuku up and overhead the man before landing him face to face with the taller opponent.
Sky and grass clashed as Izuku caught the man’s expression, before his fist collided with the man’s jaw, sending the man into another stumble.
But the gaze, hard and calculating as ever, never shifted, the boy realized too late, as he landed, his knees trembling, feet aching, and thoughts jumbled as he tried to assess what was going on. It set him off as he watched the man stand straight and wipe the blood form his nose.
‘Breathe, Nine.’
‘You have to think this through.”
There was a blink, another step as the man took a moment to adjust himself, before he was back facing Izuku again, eyes flashing, grin in place, as a hard hand landed on
Izuku’s shoulder.
“I don’t think you understand what I meant when I said that you wouldn’t beat me, kid,” The hand on the boy’s shoulder tightened its grip as pressure increased in the boy’s arm, working down through his muscles, and making everything ache , before the boy felt a heavy, looming weight of energy pour over him, as a hand rested on his head, fingers grazing his temple.
“Satoru–”
The world sparked brighter for a moment, all color, light, sound, erupting like fireworks as the boy’s head struggled to keep up with the overabundance of…of everything. Thoughts collided, emotions surged, and the world twisted into a ball of static electricity that exploded before immediately ceasing and dropping Izuku into a void of darkness.
“You…cheated.”
“I agree you did cheat,” Kanto’s voice carried from his position across the field from where Satoru carefully positioned the unconscious boy into a secure hold, tucking his grip under the boy’s arms before turning the child and gingerly wrapping the boy’s left arm over his shoulder.
A sidelong glance towards the bush, where the boy had noticed the curses before Satoru had, gave the man pause as he grinned briefly. The smell of upturned soil was always nice.
Helped him to think.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Kanto,” he retorted, “And would you mind, since, you know I have…” He gently indicated with a tilt of his head as Nanami sighed and shook his head, his own glasses catching in the light as the sun peeked through the branches of the mature trees that hung nearby. Blooming spring was gradually shifting, flowers giving way to the greenery that would lead to summer.
“You also know nothing about your phone mysteriously ending up on the desk instead of with you, hm? You think I didn’t notice?” The man queried, loosening his tie, and readying his weapon, the long, wide blade materializing with a smooth, deliberate and precise fluidity that spoke of Kanto’s years of practice. “I’m not stupid, Satoru.”
Satoru only grinned as he nodded, the smell of the cherry blossoms mixing in with the ash that fell like snow as the guttural groans of more curses swirled around them, materializing with every moment they stood and delayed.
“You still cheated,” Kano Nanami hummed as he leaped and sprinted towards a trio of enemies lumbering towards Satoru and the boy who was now unconscious and clinging to Satoru, even in his unaware state. “He actually got a hit on you.”
And at that…Satoru could only still for a moment, eyes narrowed on the mop of green curls as he studied the boy’s energy signature, noting the way the surplus weight of the boy’s cursed energy had diminished greatly.
As though it wasn’t wholly there…
Another oddity.
The shrieks of dispatched curses filled the man’s ears as he stared at the boy for a moment longer, before turning towards his friend.
“You’ll need to help me when you’re done playing,” He winked towards Kanto. “I still have one more stop to make.”
Kanto only narrowed his eyes in questioning, peering back at Satoru from behind his thicker framed glasses as he frowned, and lifted his weapon to the ready. A large spray of blood slithered downward, bright red gleaming against the polished silver.
“I hate you sometimes when you’re so damn cryptic.”
Satoru only smirked in reply. He rather liked being cryptic, thank you. It wasn’t his fault that no one else understood.
And as it was…
One color was still missing.
“Do you think they’ll notice?” The voice was tentative, though the question was somewhat profound, he would admit. “That they’ll figure it out?”
A stark contrast to what he was used to from these idiotic creatures.
The man only shook his head, bright smile worming across his face as he lifted his menu and peered at the today’s special.
‘Gyoza’
“Oh, he’ll notice alright.” He murmured after a moment, fingers tapping against the edge of the laminated bifold. “He always does.”
He was counting on it.
Shouta was halfway down the tree when he sensed a shift on the breeze.
“Well, you're not quite what I was expecting,” Shouta struggled to right himself pivoting and tugging on the branch that gave way as he felt the air grow heavier the closer the voice echoed to him.
With a grunt, the underground hero hoisted himself up, pulling his leg taut against the trunk of the tree before kicking back and releasing in time to fall towards a lower branch.
How the hell he ended up in this fucking thing in the first place–
"Very acrobatic there, ninja fan. I'm almost impressed!"
Shouta’s quirk flared to life as he turned, capture weapon threaded through his fingers as he twisted and curled into a flip before casting the defensive material outward with a ‘snap’ to meet the grinning man who stood above him, white hair swaying as ocean eyes glittered in amusement.
How the hell…?
The other man’s smile only grew wider as he flicked a hand upward, fingers snapping out to swat lightly at the air, sending a shockwave outward that propelled the capture weapon off course as Shouta stepped back again and jumped off the branch, landing with a crouch, golden gaze flashing as his hair floated around his ears, a wariness growing.
Who the hell was this?
And why wasn’t his quirk working on him?
“But that’s a neat trick,” the other man continued nonchalant, leaning against another tree as he crossed his arms and peered down his nose at Shouta. The broken branch that’d held the underground hero aloft lay in a heap between them, the wind blowing gently, leaves dancing. "Much more interesting than your little flips, my man."
Something felt off .
Wrong.
White hair ruffled gently as the man laughed, his blue eyes reflecting a harder, more critical assessment of the situation by contrast.
Energy rippled around him in a buzzing wave.
“You’re pretty powerful aren’t you. Just like the other one. The green-haired boy . Quite the power he had."
Shouta tensed at the mention of Izuku to which the man’s smile grew, his eyes flashing as he laughed lightly.
“But I think, just between you and me," the man winked, his crystalline gaze shining with an unreadable emotion that left Shouta on edge. "he’s probably the stronger of the two of you.”
The underground readied himself for a fight, jaw clenching as he glared towards the man.
“Where’s Midoriya.”