Chapter Text
Metal slammed against metal and sparks flew.
Clang!
“Who’re you?” the voice was gravelly, eyes narrowed. Emerging from the shadows of the alleyway, into the lights that bled from the nearby shops, Iida fell to the ground after attempting to dodge a sharp slice. Pain shot up his elbow once it slammed against the hard concrete.
The man was a ghost. Ragged red fabric wrapped around his eyes, and in the dim light, he realized that in place of a nose, the man revealed the bone beneath it — it was cut off.
Ernest, sincere, Iida announced, “I’m the — !”
Almost annoyed, like the teen was a fly buzzing in his face, the man dropped the bloodied Hero in his hand like a sack, letting him fall and crumple against the concrete. Coming closer, Stain looked at the boy in front of him.
Gritting his teeth, even from his position, his blood pumped with fury — and rage.
“Your eyes…” Iida’s brows knitted deeper over his eyes. “They’re filled with vengeance.”
His brain may have rattled in his skull, but his heart pumped with adrenaline. He had to do this.
He had to do this.
“I’m the brother of an incredible Hero who you attacked!” Iida announced, trying to rise off the floor. Getting on his feet, he stood before the man and said, “I’m here to stop you…!” Stain raised a brow, irritated.
“Because he can’t anymore!”
. . .
“My name is Ingenium! And I will defeat you!”
“Endeavor!”
Fire crackled around them from leaking gas. The air smelled of smoke, sweat, dust, and debris. Staggering civilians ran past him while small Pros stood around him in a circle like wooden dummies. They were worthless, shaking in their boots.
Screams faintly filled the air from those left behind.
The man turned, finally lifting his gaze off the charred Nomu that laid at the bottom of his feet.
“We just got a report!” the officer told him against heavy breaths. The man paused, trying to steady his rising and falling chest. Glowering, Endeavor looked down at him impatiently, catching the way the surrounding flames reflected off the sweat off the man’s skin. “There was another one spotted two cities over!”
Huffing, Endeavor’s eyes narrowed. Another? It would take him forever to get to two cities away! And from the looks of it, it seemed like everyone else would be worthless to handle it. Who knew the type of damage it would’ve already caused, and what the casualty number was.
“Witnesses say that at around 18:00, a Nomu appeared on the Koruusan Line headed west!” Slowly, the Pro-Hero’s eyes began to widen. He was no idiot. He made sure—he knew where she was at every second of every day.
The dots slowly began to form in his head.
“It’s reported that the girl from the Sports Festival was on the train, and she evacuated everyone into the last train car before she cut it off and rode away with the — !”
Pulling the officer closer by the collar of his shirt, Endeavor said through gritted teeth, “Where is the train headed?”
“I — “ The temperature radiating off the Pro was nearly unbearable, and a bead of sweat dripped off the man’s chin, evaporating in the intense heat almost instantly. Eyes wide, the man’s heart beat, but this time it wasn’t out of exertion. “I-It’s amazing! She secured the situation so that there are currently no reported casualties! We just had a team rescue the civilians, and they’re saying — !”
“The girl.” His fist tightened. “Where is the girl?!”
“They’re tracking the train!” The man fumbled with the phone in his hand, pulling up his resources. “They’re saying the next station is — !”
Dozens of armored men knelt at the platform, guns raised, at their positions.
Sparks flew off the train as it clumsily grinded against the tracks, attempting to come to a stop.
No one knew what could be behind those doors, hidden in that train. From the eyewitness reports, the creatures that were wreaking havoc in their city now were spotted in this train, trapped here with the main girl from the U.A. Sports Festival. There was no communication available, and no one could reach her.
Something was about to be released.
Ding!
Their guns lowered. The men's eyes widened in shock.
Hair a mess, with a dark black stain on her jacket, Raven stood at the middle of the open train doors. Eyes narrowed, a baby was in her arms. Two other children hid behind her legs.
“Hosu,” the familiar female voice announced over the speakers.
His heart was beating.
He knew he was alive.
He knew he was alive — so how come he couldn’t move?
Body laying flush against the alleyway floor, his heart beat so hard, he could feel it pushing back against the concrete ground.
So why wasn't he moving?
His head, straining from exertion just from trying to lift his right hand, started to pulse painfully. Midoriya Izuku managed to fall with his head just barely peering past the grainy, uneven asphalt. His field of vision barely carried down the dark alleyway.
Iida’s still body was on the right. Native’s motionless figure on the left.
The Hero Killer Stain above him.
There was cotton in his ears. Trembling, he lifted his head slowly. The Hero Killer moved his mouth, but he couldn’t hear a thing. He gave the boy one last glance before turning away, forthright, and brandishing his sword.
“N-No…” he mumbled, as soft as a mouse. Shaking, he looked as if he was rising out a sea of rocks, weighing him down, pinning his limbs to the floor. Even as Stain’s steps dragged on the floor, he appeared like a ghoul over Iida’s body.
“S-Stop it…” Shaking, pinpricks hit every inch of skin.
The sword’s blade caught the moonlight.
No!
Crack!
In a flash — a giant stream of ice rose out of the ground, jutting out in large thorns, mere inches from where Midoriya was laying. He couldn’t see past the fogged mirror of the ice, but immediate fluttering fabric told him that Stain wasn’t trapped yet.
However, familiar swallowed grunts made his eyes fly open.
D-Did it hit Iida?
“...You’re not the thing from U.S.J,” a familiar low voice said from behind him.
Todoroki!
“One after another,” Stain muttered irritably, landing far from the glacier. “A lot of people are getting in my way today.
“Todoroki…?” Midoriya managed to croak out past stiff lips.
Todoroki’s eyes narrowed. She wasn’t here, despite being the one who sent the voice message.
Huffing out frosty air, his heart skipped a beat.
It didn’t matter. She wouldn’t be here to get in his way. Todoroki locked eyes with the Hero Killer past melting ice.
Todoroki expected a Nomu. The creature that Roth managed to stop not just once, but twice, and he heard from over the radio that his father managed to make quick work of another.
After seeing Midoriya’s location share and her voice note, he broke away from his father despite his objections and arrived on the scene.
He would deal with the Nomu, and tell him, tell them both that whatever Nomu they took on, he could take down ten.
Rushing forward, he sent another stream of ice that grew higher and higher, barreling toward Midoriya, barreling toward Iida, so that it could reach Stain who stood just beyond them—no matter who got in the way.
Holding his breath, the chill crept up on his limbs like a wave —
“Don’t!” Before their eyes, the ice that just materialized imploded, showering sparkles and snow on them.
Spinning around with frost catching his hair, Stain’s brows only knitted further over his eyes.
“Another one?!”
Raven had better days. Chest rising and falling dramatically, it revealed her exhaustion. She had just run here after ripping herself away from the policemen, the Pros, and her kids who wanted to keep her back. Her short hair was tousled from the wind, with her jacket only partially zipped up and slipping down one shoulder.
“Why did you stop me?!” Todoroki demanded from down the alleyway. Her.
Always her.
Raven looked at him in disbelief. “You nearly hit the injured.” Turning to Native, she created a telekinetic disc. A large black platform black platform bloomed under him, quickly lifting him up like an elevator before dropping him safely on the neighboring roof.
However, as she turned her full attention toward the boys in front of her, her breath stuttered in the middle of her throat.
SWING!
By a hair, inches away from her head, she ducked, jumping then, and slid toward Midoriya and Todoroki.
“So many idiotic kids…” Stain muttered, examining his blade for any hint of blood.
“Raven!” Midoriya yelled once his vocal cords fully returned to him. His voice echoed between the buildings. She snapped her head to the ground where he laid. “It’s the blood…!” That was the reason why his body felt asleep, heavy, and unwilling to listen to any command to move. “If he cuts you, you’ll be paralyzed!”
Paralysis? Was it a type of poison? she thought.
“You have good friends, Ingenium,” Stain called before jumping at them. Sliding protectively in front of Midoriya, she grit her teeth. Iida was several steps too far away. Raising her arms, her view of the bespeckled boy was immediately blanketed by another wall of ice.
“You’re going to hit Iida!” she shouted. The alleyway was already extremely close quarters.
“He’ll live!” Todoroki barked back, creating more glaciers that grew from under his right shoe.
Her eyebrows made a deep V over dark purple eyes. “His engines…!”
She could feel it — the numbing chill that set on her legs.
“Enough!” As fast as lightning, Stain appeared before them, easily dodging every spike of ice and swinging his sword. Stepping back, she dodged as Stain shattered the frozen pillar in front of him.
Staring at the picture in front of her, she darted her eyes from side to side. Iida and Midoriya on the floor in front of her, the injured above them. She needed to deal with this carefully, even though it felt like her arms were being pulled every which way.
Stain closed the distance, his arm whipped back for a swing —
“Azarath Metrion Zin — hmph?!” Spikes of ice spread across the entire bottom half of her face like a mask, growing after a minute brush of Todoroki’s finger across her cheek before he dashed off.
What the fuck?! she yelled in English past sealed lips, eyes wide with outrage.
A giant ice wall burst out of the ground before them, splitting the alleyway in two.
Turning around to face her, they met eyes. Looking her up and down, he muttered, “I’ll take care of this without you,” before looking away.
“He’s strong…” Todoroki said, continuously dodging and creating more ice structures as Stain jumped, leapt, and cleaved the glaciers until it was gravel beneath their feet.
Hands over her frozen face, she attempted to pry off the mask, but no matter how hard she tugged, it just wouldn’t budge, lest she rip off her lips and skin along with it.
She was like a stumbling deer, staggering back to force this off her or else —
Or else she was powerless.
Her hands slackened in realization, eyes widening.
She was powerless — because he knew.
He knew.
Somehow, Todoroki knew without her incantation — she couldn’t do anything at all.
And he used it on her, right now, in a fight for Midoriya and Iida’s lives against the Hero Killer, Todoroki would rather her be helpless than have her usurp Stain.
Her face was numb, but her rage was burning.
“S-Stop…!” Iida struggled to raise his head. A mad look appeared on his face when the muscles returned. “I should be the one to stop him…! The Hero Killer is mine!”
“You’re calling yourself Ingenium now?” Todoroki said with snark. “Strange. The Ingenium I know would never start fights he couldn’t finish.” Another wave of ice appeared. A look of shock crossed Iida’s face.
“Watch out!”
Raven’s back was turned — hunched over to get this off! Barely able to whip her head around, Stain was airborne, eclipsing the moon above and casting a shadow over her. Whipping his arm back for a swing —
Midoriya, crackling with green lighting, zipped through the air like a bullet.
In the reflection of Stain’s eyes, a green blur came closer and closer.
Tch…! Must be type-o!
His feet landed a kick directly on the side of Stain’s ribs, carrying them both crashing into the wall before her eyes.
“Move!” Todoroki sent another torrent of ice after them, forcing Raven to hurriedly slam her back against the wall to avoid becoming even more of a popsicle.
“Raven! What’s wrong?” Midoriya skidded to a stop at her side, jumping off walls like a pinball machine. It was all strange. How come she wasn’t attacking? It wasn’t the blood, it seemed like she could move perfectly fine, and there were no cuts that he could see. There were plenty of openings for her —
“Todoroki…” Midoriya whispered, aghast. A chill set in his veins when he looked down at the girl, and it wasn’t due to the melting, scattered ice around them. With the entire lower half of her face imprisoned by a spiky ice muzzle, she could only glare up at them. “What did you do…?” His arms grabbed both of Raven’s biceps.
Her purple eyes pulsed with red.
“WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!”
Todoroki shot both of them an irritated glare. “I don’t need your help. I can deal with the Hero Killer myself.”
“Why does this matter right now?!” Midoriya shouted. “Native — and Iida need our — !”
BAM!
Raven quickly elbowed Midoriya, breaking his hold. Holding her breath, before he could even register the impact and the pulsing in his head, she jumped in front of him.
Stain’s sword came in a flash of silver, a strobe in their vision.
“RAVEN!” the shriek echoed in the alleyway.
“Roth-san!” Iida shouted. Cutting clean up the left side of her face, a spray of blood, as black as ink, shot up into the air. The ice that was previously on her face shattered like glass, then sizzled once it made contact with her blood.
Briefly, against the pain, she heard Midoriya scream.
Finally, Stain and Raven both thought. She exhaled deeply, the frosty hair hitting her clear airways like needles.
“NO!” Midoriya screamed, charging up once more, crouching like a sprinter about to take off.
“...Roth…” Todoroki’s eyes blew open, but lower lip fell delicately. It was nothing more than a whisper. His eyes bore into the splatter of black blood.
What?
Why did she — ? Her blood seeped into every inch of fabric of the collar of her shirt and jacket.
He didn’t plan — he didn’t think —
“SMASH!” Midoriya zipped through the air, ready to slam into Stain. This time, however, the man moved like rapids. Preparing for the impact, he dodged easily, flipping over Midoriya even though the boy was a bullet train.
Midair, he grabbed the back of Midoriya’s collar, twisting, then threw the boy aside.
“I — ” Todoroki was rooted to his spot, frozen. Raven shifted her stance, standing with her left eye shut while a torrent of blood dripped down her face.
No, he didn’t think.
But she made it look so easy before.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Grinning madly, Stain brought the blade up to his lips, keeping eye contact with all of them, and licked.
With feet like lead, Todoroki could only stare at her injured face, horrified.
Unwavering, Raven stood.
Instead of seeing her collapse, stiffening as if there was a jolt through her spine, it was Stain who coughed.
Bending, hacking over and over, he dropped his tongue out of his mouth for reprieve.
With her blurred vision, he caught the sight of blisters forming on his tongue.
“What the — What the hell,” he wheezed.
Calmly stepping forward, she only looked back at Todoroki once. Disappointment.
“You’re just like your dad,” she finally said after a short pause.
His heart dropped past his feet.
Holding her hand out, her single eye began to glow pure white.
“Azarath Metrion Zintos!”
. . .
“I don’t…” Todoroki Shoto, no more than five years old, pressed his face up against his mom’s chest. “I don’t want to be the kind of guy he is…!” Fat tears stained her threadbare shirt.
“I’m not…” Stain flew across the air as if he was thrown with a slingshot, slamming against the wall furthest from them in a large dust cloud. Todoroki’s arms hung at his waist. The temperature around them began to climb. “I’m not…!”
“But I don’t see you trying not to resemble him in the ways that matter,” she told him just several nights ago.
He wasn’t going to hear that from the two people who caused him to break the vow he made to himself! Those who had gotten him to slip up, those who had gotten him so desperate that on instinct — like a wild animal, he had no choice but to use his fire side.
They had him cornered like a dog, and they had no idea of his resolve, everything he had done in order to not be like him.
“You didn’t come here because you thought Midoriya was being attacked by a Nomu,” Raven said in realization. “You came here because you knew I would arrive.”
Stuttered gasps came from Iida and Midoriya.
And she was just someone to usurp.
Grinding rocks sounded beside them when the silence fell on them like a blanket. “And you see what’s wrong with Hero Society now?” Stain asked, coming out of the crater she threw him in. He dragged his blade on the uneven gravel, echoing the sound of nails on a chalkboard.
Snapping her head to the side, she cast the villain an irritable glare.
Why was he cutting into a conversation that didn’t include him?
“Am I wrong?!” Stain locked eyes with her. Purple and red. “You all are nothing but stepping stones to him! He doesn’t care about helping people! He just cares about getting stronger than you!” Stain accused, pointing his blade at the half-red, half-white boy. “And Ingenium didn’t care about the others I’ve taken down!” Iida grit his teeth at his place on the floor. “He just wants revenge, isn’t that right?”
“Iida-kun,” Midoriya urged, “don’t listen to him!”
The reality settled on Iida’s stiff shoulders.
“Listen to the girl, son of Endeavor, you Ingenium-wannabe,” Stain rattled off. “They’re not Heroes. They’re nothing but frauds who want to chase their own desires."
Todoroki wanted to protest. But how could he lie? How could he tell them that his intentions were golden like All Might when Raven was facing that darkness now?
“Oh, but, honey,” his mother patted his head soothingly. “You still want to be a hero, don’t you?” He trembled in her arms.
“It’s not true…” Todoroki weakly insisted. Raven wasn’t looking at him, but she could feel the tsunami raging inside.
Every word out of Stain’s mouth came out raspy — as if the man had swallowed battery acid. Midoriya gaped, eyes wide at Stain. Pressing her lips together, she did not look prideful.
She had heard, from the brief moment the Titans had met John Constantine, that demon blood, once consumed, was corrosive. But Stain had only a small taste, and the rest dripped down his blade.
It made sense that Stain’s Quirk didn’t work on her, and why instead, his mouth was covered in blisters and burns.
Of course, she never knew. She never knew anyone that would be crazy enough to consume her blood, and she didn’t want to face the truth herself.
Midoriya saw it too.
She was not like one of them.
“You’re the girl from the Sports Festival, right?” Stain was not a watcher, but how could he miss it when it was playing on every TV in every bar, broadcasted on all of the ad space on the skyscrapers?
“You realized it too, didn’t you?” Stain lifted a hand up, almost as if to reach out to her. “That was why you threw the match with that blond kid. You recognized that Hero Society is endemic! Everyone wants more money, everyone wants more fame, everyone wants to be the most powerful.” Iida and Todoroki avoided their eyes.
“Together, we can exterminate the plague in Hero Society. Only those like All Might can remain.”
“Please…! Everyone needs to run…!” Iida shouted, tears in his eyes.
Everyone waited on her.
“You’re putting words in my mouth,” she spoke softly, “I agree with you that there are systemic issues.” Todoroki, Midoriya, and Iida all snapped their heads at her in disbelief.
She didn’t like it. The commercialization, the celebritization, the lack of relatability with the people they saved.
In Jump City, it was never like this.
“But you’re still a murderer, and that’s wrong,” she said simply, as if she was speaking to a child.
And she had her own vows that she kept to her heart. She couldn’t.
“Tch.” Stain grew visibly angry. “You’re a kid after all. How do you expect to change the world if you don’t cut out the rot!?”
“Humans are flawed,” she said, “but we’re all the same; everyone has the chance to be the person they want to be, and someone like you isn’t going to stop that.”
Iida sobbed at his spot on the floor.
“Scum never changes. Looks like you’re young enough to still believe in fairy tales.” His blade faced them. “Very well, I’ll let you face that fantasy land!”
Before she could put up a force field to block, waves upon waves of ice rushed past her. Stain scaled them like a praying mantis, easily jumping from one to another as it grew and spread.
But Todoroki couldn’t stop. Her peripheral vision was shot, even though she cut out pieces of concrete or brick, he easily handled both of their attacks. Relentlessly, glaciers continued to manifest until the alleyway became overcrowded with ice.
It didn’t matter if Raven and Todoroki both dealt him with onslaughts of attacks, he was fast. Easily faster and more nimble than the both of them.
“He’s shaking!” Midoriya shouted to her, crackling with static energy.
“...He’s desperate,” she replied.
All the things they said — he was moving on his own, trying to prove them wrong. Even when his body was quitting.
“Todoroki! You need to stop!” Izuku bounced to the other side of the alleyway, but Stain easily maneuvered past him. From the corner of her eye, she could see frost creep up his clothes and cracks appear on his skin from the extreme, dry temperature.
However, despite shivering like a leaf, he was unceasing.
“You’re going to get frostbite,” she realized, watching how his fingers were starting to change color. “You have to use your left side!”
“Ignore them, Shoto,” Endeavor pulled him along like a ragdoll. Even if his six-year-old body fought back with all his might, it was nothing against his father’s giant body. “They live in a different world than what I trained you for.”
No, he thought. I can’t.
“I refuse…!” Todoroki’s movements were stiff. “I refuse to use my left side…!”
“Every day… the kids are becoming more and more like him…!” his mother whispered hurriedly to the phone.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” Midoriya shouted, making even Raven turn to him in shock. She had never seen him so irritated before. All of his classmates looked in awe at his outburst.
Like a marionette on a string, Todoroki couldn’t move. Stain pushed past the ice defenses, and brought the blade to the boy’s chest, ready to cleave his arm clean off.
These three…are different from me…!
With a sword mere inches away from him, Todoroki saw a blue blur at the corner of his eyes.
“Iida!”
Like the sound of pressing on the gas, Iida moved faster than she could see. Delivering a kick straight to Stain’s chest, he sent the man far away from them. Iida flipped and landed beside her.
“IT’S YOURS!”
A short breath left Todoroki. Despite the near-death experience, he carried the shock slowly.
He shouted, with resolve, green eyes boring down at the boy below, “YOU WANT TO SAVE THE PEOPLE HERE?! DON’T HOLD BACK!”
Eyes wide, blue and grey reflected Midoriya’s form.
“You can be the Hero you want to be.”
“IT’S YOUR QUIRK, ISN’T IT?!”
Shit, she realized. There was no time — !
A shaky grin slowly appeared on his face.
The intense heat was immediate.
Midoriya, who had shouted with so much resolution before, had his voice carry down the alleyway with echoes. However, when the orange glow flickered and bloomed, his wobbly smile quickly fell once the heat hit.
“Get behind me!” Raven quickly pulled Iida and Midoriya behind her. Her force field couldn’t go up fast enough — !
“That’s…!” Iida shouted against the bright orange light. “He’s using it!”
The fire blew all throughout the alleyway. Pushing both of them beneath her, she wrapped her arms around them and forced both of them to huddle under her while her back took the explosion of heat.
The fire hit the lingering ice and sent steam curling all around them, hitting them endlessly with licks of flame. The entire alleyway was scorched, melting plastic from the dumpster, charring cardboard, and heating up metal until it left a lasting glow.
It seemed like forever before Todoroki finally let the last of the fire release, dwindling down like a candle flickering.
Breaking out of their huddle, they looked up. Todoroki’s chest rose and fell heavily, but he was no longer shivering. His skin was no longer pallid.
But, as he stood over Stain, he had completely burnt through the left side of his Hero costume. The ice and red glowing eye that was on his left side must’ve gone up in ash, leaving bare skin behind down to his pant leg, held up only by his waistband and meager remains of fabric.
The gear that he had on his back to regulate his temperature fell to the floor, melted.
Midoriya blinked in surprise. Horrified, he expected the worst. He was expecting his friend to have third or fourth degree burns — at the best case scenario. Raven had taken the brunt of the flames, trying to protect him and Iida — shielding them with only her body, but instead — there was not a hint of fire on her skin or hair.
Only the scalded remains of her jacket and shirt fell off her, dropping into charred piles at her feet and leaving her in her cargo pants and sports bra.
Izuku opened his mouth to speak: how was that possible, but Iida cut them off.
“He’s standing…! How is he still standing?”
“Fire and ice…huh?”
Silver flickered in their vision.
They gasped as he moved like lightning, rushing toward Todoroki. Hurriedly, he threw up a torrent of ice that caused the chipped katana to fly up into the air, but as everyone’s eyes turned up to stare at the revolving blade, Stain sprinted.
With a small knife from his pocket, a thin, thread-bare cut appeared on Todoroki’s cheek. Grabbing the boy by the front of the remains of his shirt, his tongue went out —
BAM! A force field came up in between them, cutting the fabric of Todoroki’s costume. Narrowing her eye, she shifted her telekinetic projectile, trying to wrap it around the villain, only for him to leap backward and away before she could close it.
She didn’t want to think about how much he reminded her of Slade. Irritated, a vein popped out from the side of her neck.
Relentless, like a cockroach, she thought. Although Slade was polished and professional, with no movement wasted, as if he was a dancer, Stain pushed himself to gain the same results with nothing but sheer will.
His movements were not as clean, but just as effective, and just as fast. He knew his weaknesses well, and knew the shortcuts for his shortcomings.
Against all four of them, and she was still struggling.
But at least one thing changed: unlike Slade, their onslaught finally got Stain to feel one thing.
He was feeling the pressure.
“Midoriya!” After leaping around the villain, keeping him in check like a bull in a ring, another small knife came out, cutting through the fabric of his ankle as Stain dodged a powered kick.
“Tsh!” Midoriya hissed in pain, slamming against the door. Wide eyed, he stared at how Stain, even with burns all across his body, moved like a striking snake. His movements…are completely different than before!
Stain raised the blade to his lips, and licked it clean. Jolting as if his body was coursing with electricity, Midoriya slumped over, paralyzed, but before Stain could do anything with it, Raven and Todoroki created another wall around him, one black, one frozen.
“Midoriya!” Iida shouted. Pain crossed his face.
“He’s flustered,” Todoroki commented, never keeping his eyes off the villain. “He’s moving sloppier, trying to kill Iida before the Pros come.” Raven glanced at two of them at the corner of her eye. “There’s the uncertainty of the blood type, and he needs to get close for it to work. Also, Roth’s blood doesn’t have any effect, so he’s desperate.”
“This is…this is all my fault…! You three all had nothing to do with this. I apologise.” Iida slumped over. She didn’t know if he tried to bow to them in the typical Japanese way, or if he was folding in defeat.
“It is your fault,” Raven said bluntly, giving him a side eye. Horrified, he looked at the girl beside him. The blood stopped its endless waterfall, but it didn’t look any better.
He caused this. Midoriya — on the floor, her with a large gash in her face.
“What are you going to do about it?” she asked plainly. “We’re already here.”
“I — “ His brows knitted in conflict.
“One day,” his older brother said, “you’ll definitely become a better Hero than me.”
“You messed up,” she said, but pressure built in his chest. Looking down, his legs began to fill with fire hotter than Todoroki’s. She was harsh, but her face did not show malice.
“A better Hero than you?!” Iida, no more than ten asked. “There is no better Hero than Nii-san!”
Tensei gave him a small laugh and ruffled his hair, despite the protests.
She spoke the truth. Stain was busy trying to dodge Todoroki’s ice and flip over her projectiles. From behind him, in the corner of her eye, she saw a figure in green slowly twitch.
All four of them set their faces with determination.
“You’ll get there one day, Tenya,” his brother said. “You’ll get there when…”
Like a car finally racing off after pressing down on the accelerator —
“You get to look properly at who you want to be.”
“But that means you get to fix it,” she said.
There was the sound of a motor starting, like the rush of electronics getting to full charge.
Izuku’s body began to glow gold, coursing with bright red veins.
Getting in a runner’s stance, blue flames shot from his engines.
“One for All…!”
Blue and green zipped past her, pushing her hair forward with the wind.
“Azarath Metrion…!”
“Recipo…!”
The only way out was through.
“...Have my fist…!” All four of them hit it dead on.
"Zinthos!"
“THAT’S ALL I NEED RIGHT NOW!”
“You’re fucking kidding me,” Raven said in English, surprising the three others around her from the switch. Several Heroes she did know came running toward them, taking three children with them. “I told you to stay at the station with the policemen!”
“Bobby told me you were in trouble!” Melvin said simply, carelessly walking toward her while balancing on only one line of bricks on the floor, holding her hands out by her side. It was hard to continue feeling irritated, and only left worry lingering. Just being near the girl, Raven felt the cut in her face slowly stitch together, leaving only crusty blood on her face. “...How come you’re not wearing a shirt? And what’s wrong with your face?” Raven tried to keep her annoyance in check. These kids never listened to her, and they had to bring the baby too? Teether was in the Pro-Hero's arms while Timmy held on to her hand. As if she didn't have enough on her plate already. Teether seemed to have no thoughts in his head.
The woman who was with them looked at her. “We found them a couple blocks away, and then Endeavor said there was an alert coming from this area, but — “ Her and the other man she was with gasped when their eyes landed on the lump on the floor.
“Don’t tell me…!” Stain, eyes closed in unconsciousness, laid tied up near Todoroki and Iida’s feet. His weapons were confiscated and set out several paces away. “Is that…the Hero Killer?”
“What?! Call the police too!” one of the backups said.
The little old man, the one who arrived only seconds ago and kicked Midoriya the moment he saw him, snapped his head to the side.
“Get down!”
Breath lodging in her throat, she moved before she could think. She took Teether and held him close, pushing down the other kids as a force field went over them. Although the Nomu easily brushed past her shield, skimming over the top with nails like a knife, it didn’t cross her mind —
Until the Nomu plucked Midoriya up and out of the crowd like a hawk and its prey.
“Midoriya!”
In the time she tried to balance where to put the kid down, how to save Midoriya, how to get the other children out of there —
Stain, still with the ropes wrapped around his torso and biceps, licked off the blood that splattered off the Nomu, and brought it down like a crashing plane. It slammed to the ground in a dust cloud, but cleared to show one man standing over it.
It happened so fast the other Pros couldn't even yell out.
“This society overcome with fake Heroes…!” She held all three children closer. “And the criminals who wave their powers around idly…!” A wing was ripped off in a spray of blood while Midoriya skid across the floor once he crash-landed. “Should be purged to create a more just society!”
Eyes wide, Todoroki, Iida, and Midoriya stared at the man. He was starting to resemble more ghost than human, with burns all across his body, tattered clothing, and his slouched over position.
“What’s everyone standing around for?” That familiar voice instantly caused annoyance.
Stain, even as he was braving multiple injuries across his body, began to stand.
Hulking with flames coming off his clothes, Endeavor looked at all of them as if they were gunk at the bottom of his shoe. “The villain would’ve gotten away — “
“...Endeavor…” it was so quiet, she could barely hear it.
But she could feel it.
A wide grin crossed the Todoroki’s father's face, and his flames grew in response. “Hero Killer!” he said, as if he was almost happy to see the man.
Flames grew endlessly from his palm, ready to take him down and take all of the praise and power that came with stopping a serial killer.
“Wait, Todoroki!” the little old man ordered, holding his hand out.
“You fake…!”
The feeling came upon them like an anvil, like being pulled underwater.
Stain, dragging himself up — a dead man walking eclipsing the blood moon, radiating such pure hate — !
“Come!” Stain raged. “Try and take me, you fakes!”
The kids! she thought, horrified. Turning around, all three of them were rooted to the floor, arms limp, eyes wide.
This killing intent petrified the adults around them, drowning them, but for kids, such intense, poisonous rage —
This was not the boogeyman. This was not a monster under their bed. In the real life — they could die. Timmy still held on to his blanket. This could change them forever — for the rest of their lives.
“The one I will let kill me is the one and true Hero — !”
This couldn't happen. How could she just sit around? She had to do something so that those kids could continue being kids. Stepping in front of them although the pressure was like chains on her feet, she used her empathy.
Taking their fear, she left them feeling numb.
Then, taking Stain's killing intent for herself, she absorbed the poisoning fury, relieving it from the shoulders of the people around her, and shot it back at Stain.
Sweat dripped down her face, but she stood with her own killing intent blazing from her.
“ALL MIGHT — !” He took one more step, and stopped.
The air around them cleared and left them with the feeling of morning dew, fresh and anew.
It was like a robot winding down.
The whites of his eyes were revealed, his jaw left hanging open.
“I…” Melvin whispered, but she didn’t feel anything at all. “What happened…?”
“...He’s unconscious,” Gran Torino stated.
Raven’s chest rose and fell. Stain’s killing intent was nothing like Trigon’s, so she thought she was familiar, but it was never easy. The feeling was still akin to lava running over her skin.
Before everyone could recover — there was a sound like ripping tendon and snapping bones.
Whirling around, the Nomu that they thought they had dealt with was breaking its back to heal itself, pushing past stretching muscles and ripping skin, slowly rising out of the floor where Midoriya still sat close to it —
“Boy — !” Gran Torino warned.
It rose out of the floor, only to slam back down like a fly being swatted out of the sky.
A teddy bear, giant, bigger than some of the buildings around them and with large button eyes, stood over the Nomu.
“What…” Raven turned side to side, but it seemed like only she could see it, while the others were looking at the Nomu in shock and confusion. Brows knitting in confusion, she stared at it and couldn’t look away.
Pulling on her pant leg, Melvin came closer. “This means he likes you!” she whispered.
Although the bear was made of fabric and visible stitches, when it slapped the Nomu again with a stubby, cloth paw, large claw marks ran across the Nomu, as if it bumped against a shredder.
Then, when it continued to twitch underneath Bobby, the teddy bear made a big leap and stomped over it, shaking the floor under them.
“A-An earthquake…?!” one of the Pros around them shouted, knees buckling from the rumbling.
It jumped on the Nomu over and over, trampling it until the creature was only a paste under the bear’s feet.
Grimacing, Raven threw a force field over the kids’ eyes, hiding them from the gruesome sight.
But when she heard coughing sounds, she whirled around. Raven had left Teether on the ground. The baby was in the middle of eating one of Stain’s weapons — the one the villain had used to cut her.
“OI!” She nearly had a heart attack. Using all of her strength, she tried to wrench it out of the kid’s mouth, but he held on stubbornly. “Drop it!” When she whipped her head to the side, and she saw her classmates only stare at her like a deer in the headlights, her voice nearly dropped several octaves.
“What are you standing there for?! Help me!” she demanded.
“Teether!”
“His Quirk: Matter Consumption!
This little guy can chew through anything and digest it with no problem, even corrosive or poisonous items!”
“Were you able to sleep, Midoriya?”
Almost as if he was afraid to disturb the dust that flitted through the air between their cots, lit from the sunlight that streamed past the drawn curtains of their hospital room, he spoke softly and quietly. Fabric shuffled under his legs when he streched them out. “No…no, I couldn’t.” But the room was bathed in a bright yellow glow of the upcoming noon, and the birds were singing outside.
“I couldn’t either.”
Iida shifted in his bed, hindered by the large cast on his arm.
“Thinking about it now…” Midoriya lifted his head up to stare at the foam ceiling, “we did something amazing, huh?” The blade nearly succeeded far too many times. The heat was too intense, and the walls seemed to close in by every second. It was a blur in his mind, but the adrenaline rush remained settled in his bones.
“...Yeah.” The two other boys bowed their heads.
“Seeing an ending like that really makes it seem like a miracle we’re alive…” Looking down at the thick bandages over his limbs, Midoriya pressed his lips into a fine line. “With my leg like this…he really could’ve killed me if he wanted to.”
Or perhaps it was all from Stain’s will. After all, why would he save Midoriya? If he really wanted to kill them...
Iida frowned. His fingers twitched, then trembled. He tried to clench it into a fist, but it was far too weak. “If it weren’t for Roth-kun arriving…if Todoroki-kun didn’t…”
Slam!
“Raven!” Midoriya perked up.
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Raven threw open the door harshly, but her expression was blank. Although she was dressed in the female hospital robe, there was no injury as far as they could see. Instead of stitches or a scar where Stain’s blade had torn through her face, it was perfectly healed, with not even a faint line to prove it.
How? Midoriya itched to have No. 13 Hero Analysis for the Future in his hands.
Since she was the only girl out of all of them, she was put into a separate hospital room, but had no issue dragging herself here. In the background, Midoriya could see her IV stand floating behind her.
“Are you feeling alright?” Midoriya asked her.
“Fine,” she replied. She didn’t even know why she was admitted to the hospital. She felt like she was just wasting resources. She could heal herself just fine, and being around Melvin, she found, accelerated her healing rate more than ever before.
But it was early in the morning, and she wasn’t here to make casual talk. Despite how much she wanted this conversation to be private, she had to know, and she knew further that it would be plain cruel of her to drag an injured person into the hallway with her for a talk.
She calmly moved to stand over Todoroki’s bed. Rachel Roth was not a tall girl by any means, but she seemed to tower over Todoroki then, standing in a stance so strong, there was a part of Midoriya that worried whether he might need to break them up soon.
“Todoroki,” she stated, “you knew about my incantation.” She did not look afraid.
She didn’t ask a question, she stated a fact. It was as clear as day: he was the one who froze her lips together, carved ice over the bottom half of her face.
Iida and Midoriya blinked owlishly.
A pause, then, slowly, Todoroki nodded.
“How?”
Blue and grey eyes bore into hers, but they did not waver. Eventually, when the dust settled, his lips parted. “I heard you talk with the guy from the General class.”
Her shoulders sank, and now it was her turn to appear surprised.
Of course. “What about that argument you had with the guy from General Studies? Would he say that you’re any different than me?”
It was just hitting her now: the things he said several nights ago. He overheard. He heard everything.
“You’re not a good friend.”
“I’m sorry.” His soft, calm voice snapped her out of her stupor. But she must’ve been mishearing. Todoroki Shoto would never —
“It’s because of me…you got hurt,” he admitted. Head bowed slightly, his bangs hung over his face. “I put your life at risk. There’s something wrong with me.”
Although he wanted to usurp her then, ever since that fateful Hero Studies class where she tramped over him, his goals, his desires — there was not a moment where he wanted her seriously hurt.
That was not something a hero would do. No, he could only see Endeavor in those actions.
After Midoriya’s words had shaken something inside him, causing the fuel to release his fires, he thought of his mother.
Although it had been almost a decade since he had last seen her, he thought of her sitting in the institution. He did not think she would be proud of the things that he had done, and the hurt he had caused.
But despite his words, she stood there, blinking.
“I’m sorry too, Roth-kun,” Iida spoke up. “To Midoriya-kun and Todoroki-kun…” He unclenched his hand, so weightless that it trembled. “I was blind. I was too busy thinking about what that monster did to my brother…about the life he has to live now…. I was driven by revenge. I wasn’t thinking about the effect it would have on others…! I’m so ashamed…!”
She looked at him past dropping purple bangs.
She’d be a hypocrite if she didn’t accept his apology. How many times had she — had they all taken Robin back after the things he had done, driven by revenge, hidden by some bigger plan that he refused to share with all of them?
After pretending to leave them for Slade, after taking them down as Red X, after hiding secrets from them.
But if there was one thing she was grateful about, Robin never once showed remorse or shame about the wicked plans he pulled behind their back, the contingencies he plotted, because they all worked out in the end: exactly as he had planned.
Even though it ripped the rug under the Titans’ feet.
But looking at Iida, she could tell nothing but regret filled the boy’s body.
“You can’t change the past,” she finally stated, “and everyone’s okay now. You can’t get back what was lost, you can only preserve what you have.”
“Raven…” The voice caused her throat to close up. Everyone was revealing their hearts. Midoriya started, “I’m sorry too.”
Her heart nearly stopped. She didn’t even move. Unlike the other two, Midoriya’s voice caused her spine to go ramrod straight. Anxiety shot up her like ice.
She barely knew Todoroki, and only talked to Iida casually.
But when Midoriya called her, especially when he called her by that name —
She was reminded of their day on the beach.
She didn’t want to hear — she couldn’t look at him. She could remember his face shadowed by the shore’s sun behind him.
Quietly, he admitted, “Our last real conversation together, we argued.”
Because she wasn’t a good friend.
“I implied that you were selfish, and that you didn’t care…” Midoriya looked her in the eye instead of bowing. “I won’t apologize for defending Todoroki.” The aforementioned boy straightened up his spine in the background. “But I listened to your voicemail earlier — “
“Stop.” This was too much.
“I…” What happened to that shy, awkward classmate of hers? He didn't have to go this far for someone like her. “Raven, I’m sorry about the things I said during our fight. I spoke out of turn — “ Although the girl in front of him was stoic, the things he implied: that she was uncaring, unfeeling; it was far from the truth.
At the end of the day, it was her who arrived on the scene like Superman; all from a single location share on her phone.
And it would’ve been so much easier for her if she didn’t have to confront this. She would much rather just be the weapon and the shield, then disappear.
But where was he wrong? she thought. The feeling could nearly cause hives to appear up her arms. He said the things he did, because he thought that she was dismissive of Todoroki’s home life. Although she knew of the truth now — he said it because —
He didn’t know anything about her.
No one here knew a single real thing about her.
Because she was not a good friend.
Against the boy’s attempts to apologize again, she fell against the empty cot in the room, nearly slamming down on the flat mattress. The IV rack fell back down to the ground when she released her telekinesis on it.
She was a damned spirit. She could accept that.
And damned souls did not get apologies for things they did not deserve.
Spine curved and head down, her face was hidden by her hair. She was bent over so far that her chest nearly pressed against her thighs.
“You didn’t know…” It slipped past her lips in a mutter, like a mantra, as a prayer. She stared off at the middle of the room, looking at the empty space.
She was damned, and she was not a good friend.
“Still.” He tried to give her a comforting, wobbly smile. “I shouldn’t — “
Her eyes were distant. “You didn’t know,” she whispered, “that my father is the Devil.”