Dark Revival: Ch 2
Note: I am going back and retconning something. I'm going to go back and remove any reference to Aldera being a Jr High, and let every audience member just decide for themselves whether they want to abide by cannon and picture the characters as 16, or if you do what I do and just mentally age everyone up to like 18~19 when the Entrance exam hits.
It makes more sense that they can go toe to toe with actual Villains that way, and you know, means they aren't child soldiers.
But at the same time there are probably people who like it the way cannon is, so like, meh, yeah.
*Shrugs and Sips His Chocolate*
You do you, it changes nothing, but makes it a more customizable reader experience. People on the discord kept bringing it up.
-Rain of Sins-
-Dark Revival: Ch 2-
Nighteye stared in horror out the window, at the gigantic form that towered along the skyline. When fully stretched out, the thing stood as tall as some of the smaller skyscrapers.
Things were already looking grim. The Villains in the main assault were being put down so efficiently it was brutal, but instead of retreating or pulling back like any sane person might, Shigaraki had doubled or even tripled down, calling in every scrap of manpower he could to keep the attack alive.
Screams of pain and shouting echoed all around him as the League continued to dump more and more Villains out of their portal and into the meat grinder, crashing into the Heroes, and making progress through sheer unending volume alone.
It was already bad, but now this?
Panic caught in his throat as memories of his visions flickered in his mind.
How were they supposed to deal with that!? Some of the top Heroes were tied up with the League, King had disappeared, and he hadn't seen All Might all day!
How was-??
He- he had to do something!
His hand snapped out to his left, where Mirio usually stood without straying, but his protege was gone, rushed off to help with the Villains.
Nighteye scowled and hurriedly began pushing the wheels of his wheelchair to roll down the halls, nearly tipping over at times with how hard he was pushing the flimsy seat, and crashed head first into someone as they came rushing around the corner.
Ibara yelped as she tripped over the Hero, knocking both of them to the ground. Shoto, who had been leaning on her shoulder for support flailed wildly as he tumbled with them.
"S-Sir Nighteye?" Ibara exclaimed as she pulled herself to her feet. "What are you doing here, you're in no condition to fight! You need to get to safety!"
"No!" He shook his head fervently, sweat running down his brow. "I can't let what I've seen happen! I need to help! I need-"
He reached out and grabbed at Shoto, who was nearest, and activated his quirk,
Visions of the near future flashed through his mind- Hobbling out of the building on Ibara's shoulder, getting rushed to a hospital room, spending the next day recovering in bed with visits from friends.
This- This was useless! How was he supposed to plan anything with this?
"Sir, please, you're injured, bleeding, and starting to hyperventilate." Ibara reached out her hand. "Come with us and we'll get you to help."
But Nighteye wasn't listening, he was entirely trapped within his own thoughts, but his years in the field as a Hero and an investigator was still more than enough for him to catch the light reflecting off a plastic vial on the floor.
It was a trigger shot that had been dropped by a Villain sometime during the fighting.
He hesitated and weighed his options. On one hand he could let everyone carry on the path that they were currently on, the one that had caused the USJ Sports Festival and Coronation attacks, and let Nezu keep spinning his wheels against a foe he was horribly underestimating.
Or… Or he could take a risk, and see what he could do to change this horrible fate that they had all found themselves stumbling to.
Acting more on instinct than thought, he grasped the cheap plastic syringe, stabbed it into his leg, grabbed Ibara's outstretched hand, looked into her eyes, and activated his quirk.
He practically threw himself into his quirk's mind space, grabbing ahold of the rolls of film and pulling himself along, looking for something anything ! It was a risk, he had always hated using his quirk to look far ahead, but he had to prevent this, had to find something that would help! And surely when the Trigger kicked in he would be able t-
His quirk shook around him and the film reel ripped itself from his grasp, it pulled back and began rolling in on itself, tangling into a giant ball of black and white.
Nighteye looked at it in surprise. Trigger was supposed to make your quirk more powerful, but it seemed to be interacting strangely with his.
A volley of film strips shot out from the blob and wrapped around his arms like chains and dragged him in like a fish on a line.
He crashed into the blob and was pulled into it. Visions, memories and sights not his, began playing in front of him and unlike normal he couldn't skip any. It was a torrent, a seemingly unending wave.
He saw a very young girl growing up in a tiny rural town.
He saw a mother die to illness.
He saw a father turn to grief and rage in alcohol.
He saw a small broken down church offering a blessed break from home every Sunday.
He saw the girl turn to religion as the only grounding thing in her life.
He saw her grow up and mature.
He saw her decide to become a Hero and help people because no one ever helped her.
He saw her applying to UA.
He saw the USJ and Sports Fastival attack.
He saw her friendship and fight with Shoto.
He saw her attending the Coronation.
He saw her fight and lose to the Sovereign of Sin.
He saw her run away trying to get Shoto to safety.
He saw himself lying on the ground, his wheelchair on its side.
He saw himself reach out and activate his quirk and-
He slammed into a brick wall.
Stunned, bewildered at his quirk seemingly stopping under his feet, he looked up in a daze an-
an-
an-
an-
an-an-
an-an-an-an-an-an-an-
an-an-an-an-an-an-an-an-an-an-
anana nnA na n aNann an aa na na N anan an ana naNN A NNNNnn A anaanNA-
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
Nighteye screamed and collapsed.
-Rain of Sins-
An explosion shook the building and Bakugo slid back from the force of the blast, but the cloud of Bees dispersed before the blast could hit them. He had managed to get rid of most of them by now, but the damn things were persistent.
A figure leapt through the smoke, her leg swinging down like the scythe of a guillotine. Bakugo shot his arms up on instinct and caught the boot before it could break open his head, then twisted and hurled her across the room. But the stupid Bug Bitch flapped her wings to reangle herself in the air, so instead of flying off into a wall, she brought her other foot around and kicked him in the jaw before landing on her feet a short distance away.
Kuin was just as battered as Bakugo was, they were both bloody and covered in bruises.
Two bloated bees flew forward forcing Bakugo to jump backwards to avoid them each exploding with slightly less force than a grenade. When he looked back up, Kuin had disappeared into the shadows.
He scowled and backed up against a pillar so she couldn't jump him from behind, and settled into a fighting stance while his eyes scanned the warehouse.
A bee landed on his leg while he was distracted and stung him with another small dose of Entropy. He cursed and crushed it with his hand, but the movement broke his guard for a moment. Kuin slammed into him shoulder first, and the two descended into yet another flurry of punches and kicks.
Bakugo batted a punch away and nailed her in the face with a haymaker, giving her a new black eye. Kuin ducked under an explosion, jabbed him in the stomach, and then kneed him in the groin hard enough to dent the protective cup in his Hero uniform.
"Your quirk gets weaker every time you get stung, just give up and die already!" The Queen Bee sneered as she dug her foot into his knee with a crunch.
"You're the one who should give up!" Bakugo grit his teeth in pain, and used the brief opening to drive his palm into her chest and hit her with a point blank explosion. It was weak thanks to the Entropy, but still more than enough to throw her off of him.
"I'm a fucking Hero, I promised to a friend that I'd be better, and I promised to a piece of shit that I'd never be like him." He put up his fists, sanding unsteadily on his broken knee. "Right here, right now, I'm going to make a Goddamn difference! And I'm not gonna let some fucking bug stop me."
Kuin scowled at him as she got back to her feet, her bees buzzing angrily around her. She needed a way past his guard.
"It doesn't look like you're making much of a difference at all, at least to me." She taunted. "Still playing the part of a Hero, still chasing fame. I've seen what it means to really 'make a difference' from someone who's sacrificed every dream he had in order to even attempt it. You're nothing but talk, just an asshole pretending he wants to help others, when all you really want is a shit ton of money. Just a fucking fraud! Like that piece of shit Endeavor who they promoted to number one."
"WHAT!?" Bakugo roared. "SAY THAT AGAIN YOU FUICKING WHOR- AGGGHH!"
He screamed as Kuin blitzed forward in a flying kick, driving her entire body weight into his broken knee and snapping his leg backwards in the direction it was never supposed to bend.
Acting more on instinct than thought, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist tightly before she could jump away, holding her in place for him to shove his gauntlet against her chest, and squeeze the trigger.
Hazily, mere moments before he blasted her into bloody pieces with a full power explosion, Momo's angry expression flashed in his mind. Suddenly a horrible realization forced itself past the pain, and he remembered that this wasn't a training building- that there were people in the many floors above them.
In a panic he let go of Kuin and forcibly ripped half the storage tanks off his gauntlet just a second before it went off.
The explosion was still enough to send her flying across the room and crash through a support beam, which caused the building to shake, and Bakugo to start panicking.
But while he wasn't looking, a small group of bloated bees landed on his leg. But by the time he noticed they had formed a ring around his broken knee.
"Wha-?" And at some unseen command, they all simultaneously exploded.
"Bakugo?"
His leg! It was gone! It was-
"BAKUGO!"
Bakugo jolted with a start, snapping back to reality. His flashback of a fight in a dusty old warehouse was replaced by a dull room with a single wooden desk and a yellow lamp.
He panted, instinctively gasping for air from the flashback, and looked down at his legs.
His pale skin ended just before his right knee, along with all sense of feeling, before going on to be replaced by a mechanical prosthetic that the support department had given him that morning.
"Sorry." He coughed and tried to play it off with a shrug. "What were you saying?"
"We were talking about what happened during the attack." Hound Dog frowned at him. "And your total disobedience of authority."
Bakugo snorted and rolled his eyes. "Villains were attacking, people were getting hurt, of course I fucking ran back in, what the fuck did you want me to do instead?"
"Stay with the evacuated civilians."
"They were safe!" He snapped. "We got them out and delivered them to a shelter that had Pro Heroes who could protect them better than we ever could! Going back was the only way I could help!"
"You disobeyed direct orders, and convinced your classmates to do so as well!"
"You trained me to be a Hero! What did you want me to do!? Not help people who were in danger?!"
"The only thing you did was put your classmates in danger!" Hound Dog slammed his hands on the desk hard enough to shake the lamp. "Your childish want for glory and combat got you to convince everyone else to run back into danger with you, and then abandon them to fight a Villain on your own! Which, if you haven't noticed, got you severely injured."
"That's not what fucking happened!" Bakugo snarled. "I told you what happened! Todoroki told you what happened! Ibara told you what happened! I was tackled out of a fucking window!"
"Putting aside the fact that your friends could just be lying to cover for you, let's say you are telling the truth. Why didn't you disengage and try to get back to the others, who were left alone against the most wanted Villain in Japan."
A piercing Emerald gaze flashed in Bakugo's mind, causing him to flinch.
"I… I don't know…" He admitted with shame.
"I think it's because you wanted a one on one fight, and that you valued that rush of adrenaline and superiority over the wellbeing of your classmates." The teacher huffed. "I'm sorry we have to hold this conversation after you've just suffered a life changing injury, but this has been put off for far too long at this point.
"I'm the student guidance counselor. My job is to not only advise students on their career specialization, but to also understand how they think and identify any disturbing patterns in their behavior." Hound Dog pulled out a stack of freshly printed paper from his desk drawer. "I would like to believe you, that this was just a run of bad luck and you were trying to do what you thought was right, but everything in your file points to otherwise."
"You have a file on me?"
"I have a file on every student, yours is just a lot fuller than most." The mutant said as he began flipping through the pages. "Disrespect towards authority. Disrespect towards your peers. Picking fights. Violent outbursts. Anger issues. Quick to anger. Physically aggressive. Superfluous swearing. Midnight's notes for her first class describes you as having a 'thug mindset'. It's a bad rap, and something that needs to be addressed, but nothing particularly damning. But then we get into the big stuff."
Hound dog licked his finger and turned the page.
"Requested lethal level Hero gear from the support department without a staff member's approval, and when you were rejected you altered the design so that technically all you were asking for was storage tanks. Used support gear weapons in a life threatening attack on a classmate, at point blank, during training exercises even after being specifically warned not to by the support deportment.
"Medical reports after the USJ state you were 'physically excessive' against the Villains who attacked you, breaking bones and causing concussions, but while that was self defense and we wrote it off it is still worth mentioning, especially in conjunction with this next point.
"The only way I can describe your behavior at the Sport Festival is barbaric. You drew out your final match with Todoroki as long as you could, and then instead of pushing him out of bounds or pinning him once he exhausted his quirk, you proceeded to violently beat him unconscious. You urged him to keep getting back up and taking more hits instead of surrendering. Then you forfeited the entire tournament, making it clear that the medal and accommodations weren't what you wanted, you were only there to win .
"And now you not only disobey direct orders and put your classmates in danger, you abandoned them against the Sovereign of Sins to have a one on one fight with a Villain of your own." Hound Dog scoffed. "Midnight hit the nail on the head. You are a thug."
"And so what if I fucking am!?" Bakugo shouted. "I'm fucked up, I know that! I'm not All Might, I fucking know that ! I had it pushed in front of my face and spat on! I'm not an angel! But this is a mother fucking combat school! Why the fuck do you care if I'm rough around the edges!?"
"Because whether you like it or not, your confidence, strength, and position as the class VP naturally makes you a role model, and your violent behavior is rubbing off on your classmates!"
"Oh boo hoo, I've convinced them to finally grow a spine, wow I'm so devastated." He rolled his eyes and snorted. "Maybe Koda will finally be able to be in the same room as another person, or actually get into a fight, without having a full blown panic attack. Maybe Tokoyami will stop letting his quirk boss him around. Maybe Jiro will start having some self worth. I'm so fucking sorry your wet wipe pushovers are starting to grow up and have a bit more sass towards the teachers! Whoopdie fucking doo."
"OCHACO URARAKA KILLED A MAN!"
Bakugo's breath caught in his throat.
"Ochako Uraraka encountered a villain, and her first instinct was to immediately go for the kill as soon as she could. Momo Yayorosu willingly provided a deadly weapon that Nezu summarized could have seriously injured even All Might when used by Ochako. Ochako is in shock and both are required to attend therapy sessions with a licensed doctor. Neither of their files from before UA ever suggested they might do something like this." Hound Dog growled, his canine teeth showing. "But since they've been here they have both been spending more and more time with you ."
"I-You-" Bakugo leaned back in his seat, completely caught off guard.
Ochako killed someone? He could see some people in his class doing it if it came down to the wire, himself included, but Ochako? The sweet bubblegum girl who got dizzy if she used her quirk too long?
"You're trying to say I'm responsible for that? That's such a fucking stretch its bullshit. She was just defending herself, they both were!"
"And they're not in trouble for it, but you absolutely had some form of influence in this happening, whether you want to admit it or not."
Bakugo shook his head, scowling. "What do you even want? Are you gonna suspend me for something someone else did? For getting attacked by a Villain and not immediately running back to everyone else?"
"No. I just wanted to make sure we're on the same page before I tell you why I really called you here."
Hound Dog leaned back, and crossed his arms.
"I have many, many , complaints about what the Safety Commission is doing around here, but they're at least finally making Nezu take my complaints seriously." His eyes narrowed and he let out an animalistic growl. "I sent over a dozen reports detailing Mineta's behavior, and warnings about how close he had come to things that classify as sexual abuse, but was always blown off because Nezu thought he'd eventually get better somehow, and now he's an outlaw gallivanting with criminals for internet videos."
"What does Mineta have anything to do with me?"
"Because the Safety Commission also cut a lot of red tape, and it's made it possible to do a very thorough background sweep on you."
From his desk drawer, the Hero pulled out a second folder and put it on the table, but instead of the red [UA] stamp on the corner that the other folder had, this one read [Aldera].
A stone cold weight dropped into Bakugo's stomach.
"You know it was strange, usually behavioral patterns like yours don't just pop out of nowhere, they develop slowly over years, and yet your record was completely clean for the years leading up to the entrance exam. Top marks, diligent in class, on time, glowing praise from teachers, and no 'thuggish behavior'. So I decided to take a little trip there myself, thanks to my new lax regulations, and do you know what I found in the principal's office?"
Bakugo hesitantly reached out and opened the folder, revealing stacks upon stacks of parental complaint forms.
"I found plenty of things suggesting your behavior was purposefully being covered up- for a student of a small low income school like Aldera to have a student be accepted into UA would instantly attract plenty of new investment. But UA has a very strict tolerance policy for who we let in, so there would be no way you would even be allowed to take the entrance exam with such a colorful record, so why not just… forget to submit these to your record?"
Hound dog took back the folder and began to flip through it.
"Verbal abuse. Bullying. Bullying. Unlicensed use of your quirk in a public space. Damage to another student's property. Starting fights. More fights. More bullying. More misuse of quirk. This student wound up transferring after you locked them in a closet for saying they wanted to go to UA. And these are just the written ones from your final year, it doesn't take into account the parents who sent an email, or went and complained in person, or even the three years before that."
Bakugo watched as Hound Dog flipped through the papers, each page bringing back a memory he had forgotten. A shove in the hallway, a burnt notebook, an explosion, a sneer and telling someone they should just give up.
"Why don't you try taking a swan dive off the roof? Maybe then you'll be reborn with a worthwhile quirk?"
"UA has a zero abuse tolerance, the only reason you were accepted is because someone lied to us for you. Everything you've done since arriving at UA has always been concerning but ultimately unconnected, and were dismissed with normal punishment since Aizawa was so adamant on sticking up for you. But in light of your falsified record, well, UA doesn't have a place for you anymore."
"You're kicking me out of the Hero Program?" The blond asked in disbelief, his head spinning. "Thats- I mean, I guess general studies isn't so bad…"
"Did I say General Studies? Let me repeat myself. In light of your falsified record, well, UA doesn't have a place for you anymore."
He felt as if the floor was giving out under his feet, a cold dark shadow encroaching on the edge of his vision and chilling him to the bone, ripping out the flame of pride and defiance he'd held all his life and violently shredding it to pieces.
"Oh…" Bakugo said lamely. What else was he supposed to say as he watched his entire life's dream swirl down the drain. What else was he supposed to say when, deep down, he knew he fully deserved this.
"Aizawa stood up for me?"
"He did. Tooth and nail at every turn."
"...I thought he hated my guts."
"Everyone always does, kid." Hound Dog shook his head and the slightest hint of regret flashed in his eyes for the first time since Bakugo walked in. "I'm going to put these on your record, where they should have been all along, and sign a letter of professional recommendation to anger management sessions, and therapy for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. If you want anyone to ever give you a second glance for hiring, I would strongly suggest you attend it."
"Hiring? Like a job?" Bakugo laughed weakly, a hollow feeling in his chest. "Not enrolment? Or Hero internships?"
"...Get a few years of counseling, and have multiple therapists to sign off that you're better, and one of the smaller schools might be willing to let you in because of your talent. But the main schools that offer the specialized training, competitive scholarships like the one you qualified for, and connections you need to make it big?"
Hound Dog scoffed.
"That's all over. No one's going to train someone so prone to turning into a Villain, kid."
Bakugo stared at his feet, a far away look in his eyes.
"You read through those all right? Was… Could you at least tell me if there were any complaints mentioning someone named Izuku Midoriya?"
Hound Dog gave him a thoughtful look for a moment before shaking his head.
"No. I don't believe there was."
-Rain of Sins-
Bakugo walked through the halls of UA in a daze. Everything was just… over… gone… just like that.
It was strange, it felt like he was floating through a thick fog, like he was in a dream even though he knew he was awake. His desk and locker had been cleaned out while he was with Hound Dog, and all his belongings handed to him in a bag. His Hero uniform had been confiscated, sent back to the support department to scrap and use for parts.
It was over. He didn't even have his student ID anymore. UA… Heroing… his life dream… was over for him.
He wanted to be mad. He wanted to be furious, to get back that fire in his gut that had driven him this far, it would make him march back into Hound Dog's office and demand the decision be reversed. To do something absolutely stupid to get a second chance, to do anything to get a second chance.
…
But he just couldn't muster the emotion. Reading through those reports, it brought back memories. Memories he'd forgotten. The kids he'd bullied, the fights he'd started, the things he'd done, all because he thought his quirk made him better than everyone else.
Memories of green eyes.
…They were right. He didn't belong here. If they made the kid in those reports a licensed Hero-
"The only reason you don't have a perfect grade in combat class is because All Might marks you off for a 'lack of restraint', which goes to show what they know." Endeavor scoffed, and walked forward slowly, towering over Bakugo, "I've seen you at work during this festival, and I don't just approve, I'm impressed ."
-He would just be another Endeavor.
They were tearing his entire life's dream away from him, and he couldn't bring himself to fight back because he knew he deserved it.
It was a strange feeling, like he was laying down in a shallow pool of icy water, but couldn't make himself push upwards just a few inches to the surface. A cold miasma clung his chest, slowing his movements, and pulling every thought he had down into the water to slowly drown without struggling.
"BAKUGO!" A voice shouted from behind him and he turned to see Momo and Ochako rushing towards him.
"I heard what happened, what are you doing?!" Momo ran up and shoved him. At any other time he would have laughed and pushed her back, but now he just let it carry him backwards. Defeated.
"You can't seriously be leaving! You can't just walk away! Come on! Ibara's already arguing with Aizawa about this, I say we go march into Nezu's office and make him tell us exactly what you need to do to stay enrolled!"
"Momo…" Bakugo smiled weakly at the fire in her eyes. "You don't understand. What I did… Ochako-"
"-Did nothing!" The gravity girl snapped, stepping forward with a semi-frantic quiver in her voice. "Ochako did nothing ! Nothing happened!"She took a deep breath and looked up at him with pleading eyes. "But even if it did , you had absolutely nothing to do with it. I promise you. Please don't leave, this isn't right !"
Bakugo looked between the two of them and sighed. "You know, I'm really fucking stupid for not realizing it sooner." He put a hand on both their shoulders and gave them a sad smile. "But you guys are really good friends. I don't know why you decided to stick around an absolute asshole like me, but thank you."
"Stop talking like you're giving up!" Momo shouted and punched his chest- not a dainty slap of some distraught damsel, but a full combat punch that would have him bruised in the morning. "This is bullshit! It's not fair! If you're leaving, then I'm leaving too in protest! My parents will be absolutely pissed and my dad will throw a temper tantrum with his money. UA can't afford another scandal, or more bad press, they'll have to let you back!"
SMACK
Momo stumbled back, a red mark on her cheek. Tit for tat for the new bruise on his chest.
"No!" Bakugo growled. "Never- NEVER give up on your dream for me! I don't deserve it." His eyes slid to Ochako. "That goes for you too."
Ochako winced, an agonizing lance of guilt stabbing through her heart. This wasn't his fault, it was hers, she was the one who had taken that deal and gotten carried away with her new powers. She was the one who should be expelled, not him.
But she kept her mouth closed.
"...Where will you go?" Momo asked weakly, cupping her cheek, not in pain, but in remorse. "Being a Hero is all you've ever wanted, if you give up on that… what will you do?"
Bakugo frowned as his gaze drifted upwards. He stared out the window, and a memory of Green hair and Emerald eyes stared back in his reflection.
"I have some things that I need to set straight, and properly apologize for."
-Rain of Sins-
Toshinori waddled down the hospital hallway with distinguished dignity. Dignity , because no matter what Nezu said, he was NOT pouting!
Recovery girl and Nezu were currently at each other's throats in an argument whether or not he should keep using his Hero form at all. He wasn't sure why they were fighting over it. HE had been entrusted with One for All by Nana, HE decided how it was used, and HE said he still had enough gas in his tank to be a Hero. Japan needed him now more than ever.
He scratched at the itchy spot on his chest where the docs had stabbed his injuries with some sort of super numbing medicine that somehow made him numb to everything but the itching- even the act of trying to itch said itch.
He grumbled unhappily under his breath and continued his waddle. Dressed in a blue medical gown, and leaning heavily on a crutch, no one would have ever suspected he was secretly All Might unless they were one of the small number of people who knew about it beforehand.
And that small number of people now included Star and Stripe, to his great embarrassment, since she was the one to pull his ass out of the flooded disaster zone.
He'd been pointedly avoiding Cathleen since he woke up, so he wouldn't have to see her look at him like everyone else did, with those soul crushing pitty eyes.
He could take it from the other teachers. He could take it from Nezu because the rat still respected him. He could even take it from Nighteye, because he'd had almost a decade to get used to it from him.
But Cathleen had always looked up to him, had tried so hard to impress him, and looked for his approval even though she had surpassed him in many areas long ago. If even she were to look at him like he was broken…
He was ALL MIGHT damnit! He didn't need pity! He might have been past his prime, but he was still able to save people! He wasn't some dying dog, he was Nanna's successor!
…And right now there was someone who needed him.
"How is he doing, doc?" He asked as a man came out of a locked medical room.
"Poorly." An old man in a medical uniform sighed, giving Toshinori the same answer that he had given the last five times the Hero had sneaked over. "Nighteye's body is fine, but his quirk's built in limit has always been once a day. He not only went past that, but he used Trigger to do so. He's been muttering nonsense and unable to focus on what's real since he was wheeled in."
"What about the Xray? You said you were going to do a brain scan on him, so you could figure out what to fix."
The doctor sighed and turned to Toshinori. "I'll be blunt with you, since you're a friend of his. He's gone. Everything up here-" He tapped his head. "Is fried. Neurons, synapses, most are dead nerves. It's a miracle he's not brain dead, but even so… I wouldn't give him more than a week."
The top Hero scowled and gripped his crutch so hard the metal bent.
"Can I at least see him?"
The doctor nodded in sympathy and unlocked the door. Inside was a small sterile room with a single medical bed in the middle.
The man on the bed was a far cry from the proud Hero that had fought at All Might's side all those years ago. His hair was dirty and unkept, his arms twitched in their bindings, one eye was half open and glanced around erratically at nothing.
"A thousand eyes of a passing glance. Prophecy spun. Web of lies." He muttered frantically to himself. "Page of book. Rain. Endless night, a world anathema to light."
"Mirai…" Toshinori sighed somberly and stepped up to his old friend's bedside. "I'm sorry I wasn't there… I'm sorry I couldn't save you… But I promise I won't let your vision come to pass, I won't be killed by a Villain!" He clenched his fist tightly and placed it over his heart. "I WILL PROTECT JAPAN!"
Nighteye's twitching froze, and he completely stilled.
"That's not the vision I'm worried about anymore."
Toshinori blinked, his brain taking a moment to process that.
"WAIT! MIRIAI YOU-"
Nighteye's arm ripped out of its binding, grabbed Toshinori by his collar and dragged him down face to face with two wide eyes that were nothing but glowing purple gears.
"Burning snow and frozen ash-
Listen well and listen fast.
Things will walk in skin not theirs-
Protect the child with silver hairs.
Swayed, should she be by the monsters' master-
The world shall fall unto the Rapture.
A rain of sins, an endless night-
An ancient power would be our light.
But one choice made wrong, a hesitation-
Your weapon's maker will take our nation."
Nighteye's grip loosened, and he fell back to the bed with a satisfied smile and glazed eyes.
"Nighteye!? NIGHTEYE! NIGHTEYE!!"
-Rain of Sins-
In a hastily refurbished backup hideout, hidden in the mutant ghettos of Hakone, Eri sobbed as she clutched her right arm protectively. On the outside it was as good as new, without a single scar, but phantom pains carved deep knives of agony into the little girl. The nerves along her entire limb were screaming, still trying to process being melted down into goop and ripped from her shoulder, then melted back together and stabbed back into her nervous system with all the gentleness of a hot branding iron.
Overhaul scowled as his men carried away buckets of fleshy sludge. The recent batches of eraser bullets weren't good enough. They'd lost too much equipment in the HPSC raids, he would never make one capable of permanent removal, at this rate. It was possible, he'd proven it, he had been so close before they raided his old base! He just needed more .
The goons opened the door to carry the buckets out and a familiar white coat slipped inside.
Chronostasis, Overhaul's right hand man, sighed as he pulled off his mask. Wordlessly he pulled a small metal case out of his coat and held it out to Overhaul.
"You found more." Overhaul's eyes lit up in greed at the case.
"I did, but it's getting harder every day. Everyone wants some, especially after what we saw him do to Endeavor, but the supply that's slipping out onto the black market hasn't increased at all since it started popping up after the festival." Chrono opened the case, and revealed four black glass vials neatly slotted next to each other. "Entropy, pure and undiluted. Not the rebottled stuff that the second hand dealers are giving out after mixing it with water for more product, but straight from the source."
Kai grabbed one of the vials and held it up to a nearby lamp, watching as it absorbed the light like a void, with only slight ominous glimmers making it through.
"Good job Chrono, but there's been a change of plans. Having you snoop around and steal everything we can find from the market is too inconsistent and slow. I want you to find out who's making this and set up a meeting."
"...We're not going to try reverse engineering it?"
"What do you think I've been doing!?" Overhaul growled. "The pure stuff is too powerful to be a normal suppressant, they have to be using some sort of quirk in the creation process. If I can get a hold of that, and combine it with Eri's…"
"Are you sure we should be poking our heads out at all ? The Safety Commission's been on our ass like nothing I've seen before, it seems like every shadow has eyes, and half the people in the underworld are suddenly either feds, compromised, or worse." Chronostasis scratched his neck. "If they track us here…" He hesitated. "We don't exactly have many hideouts left."
"We don't have a choice. The Commision isn't willing to play by the rules anymore, they don't even respect the laws they themselves write. If we keep playing the same game with them, we'll lose. We need to flip the script, and do something that will get us ahead of them."
Overhaul shattered the vial in his hand, his quirk rushing through the liquid and ripping it apart on a chemical level, giving him another preciously brief peek at its fundamental composition, on a level no microscope could ever match.
"And with the League of Villains out of the way, there will be no one to stop the Yakuza's return to power."
-Rain of Sins-
Chitose Kizuki, code name Curious, was approaching a panic attack. Her arms were pinned to her chair by some invisible force, her mouth was clamped shut by the same thing, preventing her from screaming.
"So you're one of the leaders of the Meta Liberation Army, hmm? You know it's always the reporters that get into the worst trouble, no matter what century you're in."
A man with ghost white hair, and hellish crimson eyes, chuckled in amusement as he swirled a glass of wine and took a seat across from her, at her desk.
Her three assistants, sleeper MLA bodyguards who were the equivalent of C rank Heroes, floated down into piles of ash behind him, from where they had been obliterated in seconds.
"You're all about quirk freedom, right? Well I love the idea of me being able to use my quirk freely whenever I want, so you have my attention."
All for One grinned.
"Tell me about this little group of yours."
-Chapter End-
It's always been a headcanon of mine that using Trigger on Nighteye's quirk would be a very bad thing. Either he goes insane, or he fries his brain. (He did both here.)
On another note: poor Bakugo.
Well, not really "poor", he's getting exactly what he deserved all throughout cannon, and is getting punishment for his bullying and suicide baiting, but the fact he didn't get punished for it in cannon (where he is still a shit person), and is getting it here (where he is at least somewhat trying to not be as shit), puts a semi bitter taste in my mouth.
But eh, he deserves it, and that's more of a cannon complaint of mine, anyway.
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
Yeah, you didn't think I was gonna do a slow burn Bakugo redemption without making him address his past fuck ups, did you? For shame. That would just mean he's running away from his problems, and we can't have that. Especially not when he's the only one who knows who the Sovereign of Sins is!
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
First rejecting Izuku, now booting Bakugo despite him having critical info. Man Nezu just cannot stop the L's in this story.
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
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Shout out to my good friends who help me write these chapters, participate in polls, and give background character ideas, so deserve to get their name signed in the credits.
MidnightHydro! (The Mighty!), Eternal Guard (The Emboldened!), Helios (The Heroic!), thegodfather (The Greatest!), 0RB! (The 0pulant!), and Rom Hack (The Rhombus Ravager!)
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Thank you all so much, you make these chapters possible!
I love you glorious bastards! Y'all are great!