FIC - "Kill the Ghost" Chapter 7

A/N: And we're back! Please make sure you didn't miss my recent updates post!!! 🥰 C/W for this chapter: mild animal gore

A/N: And we're back! Please make sure you didn't miss my recent updates post!!! 🥰

C/W for this chapter: mild animal gore (deer)

===

CHAPTER SEVEN

Something swung out of the dark. He threw up his arms and Shoto yanked him back, but that only deflected the blow. The pipe struck Izuku's shoulder. Pain speared through him as he flew backward, skidding across the cement roof. His side smashed against the ledge, gasping as the momentum carried him over.

Izuku's hands scrambled for purchase. His arm and foot caught on the ledge just as he toppled over, and he jerked to a stop.

For long, excruciating seconds, he didn't move. He was afraid to even breathe, every muscle in his body straining to hold on for dear life. Half of him hung off the roof, the open air sneaking up the leg of his pants.

Then Shoto was there, and Izuku heaved in a gasp as Shoto gripped him, fingers bruising, and hauled Izuku fully onto the roof and away from the ledge. Izuku's legs felt like noodles, and he had to brace himself against Shoto's steady strength to keep from collapsing. His entire body trembled, from fear or adrenaline or both.

"You good?" Shoto asked, his voice as unsteady as Izuku.

Swallowing hard, Izuku nodded. "Y-yeah. Thanks."

Nearby, a shadow broke through the curling smoke. Shoto froze against him, and Izuku braced for whatever might emerge.

It was Eri. Izuku immediately reached for her. She was as pale as her hair, and her eyes were huge and red-rimmed.

"Izuku," she whimpered, rushing into his arms. He hugged her close as her skinny arms squeezed his waist. 

"Where's the magus?" he asked, moving toward the spot where she had emerged.

"No, don't look." Eri dragged at his waist, making him stumble.

"Eri, stop," he said, even as he tugged her along with him.

"What the hell happened?" Shoto breathed.

Eri released him with a squeak and hid her face behind her hands, a stream of disconnected words issuing from between her palms.

Looking between Eri's panicked form and Shoto's disturbed expression. Then he took a hesitant step forward to see what Shoto was looking at. 

Up against the base of a chimney stack, the magus lay in the fetal position, knuckles pressed to his closed eyelids. Blood pooled in his ears and ran in red threads from his nose and the corners of his eyes. His mouth moved, but Izuku could make out little more than whispered gibberish.

"Izuku?" Katsuki materialized from the smoke, Sero close behind. They both spotted the magus with visible surprise. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry!" Eri squeaked from behind her hands. Everyone turned as one toward the girl, who was now bent over, the pale point of her horn glowing faintly from between her messy fall of hair. "He hurt Izuku, but I don't know what I did! I-I don't—"

Izuku pulled her into his arms again, patting her awkwardly on the head. His shoulder throbbed where the pipe had struck him, but he didn't think it was broken. "Hey, don't worry about it. We'll figure this out together, okay?"

"Just a magus with a few anima enhancements," Sero said. He crouched next to the magus, forcing him to face them. The magus's eyes opened—they were glazed and bloodshot. Sero fisted his shirt and gave him a rough shake. "What were you planning to do with the kid?"

The magus made a gurgling sound before closing his eyes again, smudging the bloody tear tracks. His limbs jerked as he tried to shake off Sero. "No! No, no, I can't, I can't—it'll be worse than this, worse, worse—"

"I'll show you worse," Katsuki said, stepping forward. 

"No." Izuku snagged Katsuki's wrist, forcing his attention. "Look at him. He's in no condition to talk. He needs medical attention."

"We can't exactly take him to the nearest hospital," Katsuki said, derisively. "He's our best shot at finding out who sent him and why they want the kid, and especially how it connects to you."

"So what? You want to-to torture him or something?" 

Katsuki's gaze didn't waver, but Izuku was relieved to see lips twist with disgust. "Nah. Sero, put in a call to Glasses." He frowned when the wail of sirens sounded in the distance. "He can retrieve this guy from the police."

Izuku gripped Eri's hand and picked his way back to the door. Behind him, he heard a dull thump and the sound of a body slumping against the concrete. He tried not to flinch.

+++

As much as Izuku wanted to immediately turn around and return home—he'd yet to hear from his uncle, which he took to mean Toshinori was still missing—they'd already come this far. There was no reason not to continue the remaining distance and find the sieve.

Buses didn't run at that hour, so after a short phone call and a half-hour wait, they were picked up by a private chauffeur dressed in a suit and driving a shiny black SUV. Oh, to be rich.

The back of the SUV was roomy enough for all of them, but Eri had latched herself to Izuku's side and didn't seem intent on moving any time soon. He couldn't blame her, though, after what she'd gone through.

Once they were on the road, Izuku leaned forward so that he could murmur softly, "They knew we were coming."

With a brief glance at their chauffeur, Sero lowered his voice as well and said, "Yeah. There were unfinished sigils drawn into the floorboards in front of the door. They were setting a trap, but we got there before they could finish."

To Eri, Izuku asked, "Did you hear them say anything?"

She shook her head. "They made me drink something, and it made me sleep. I'm sorry I don't remember much."

Izuku squeezed her hand, a fresh wave of guilt making him grimace. "I shouldn't have left you in the first place." There were lots of things he should have done.

"It's not your fault UA's security is incompetent," Shoto said.

Sero had the grace to wince, but Katsuki snapped, "We'll catch the spy. And you wouldn't have stood a chance if those magi had come for you directly."

Shoto rolled his eyes and didn't reply. Instead, he looked at Sero and muttered, "You were going easy on me." 

"What?"

"When we sparred. You were going easy on me," Shoto said again, accusatory. "I saw the way you moved against those magi back there."

A smile tipped Sero's mouth. "I did go easy on you. You're well-trained, but I have real world experience. And using magic would have been cheating." He pushed the sleeve of his jacket all the way up to his biceps. He had warm skin, a shade darker than Katsuki's. 

"Um... You have a nice elbow," Izuku said.

Sero laughed, but Izuku genuinely didn't know what they were meant to be looking at. But then a soft glow began to emanate from under Sero's skin, like a string of lights rising beneath the surface of water. Strange marks circled his elbow like a bracer. They flared against his skin, stark and vivid as if drawn in fire.

"What is that?" Izuku asked. Shoto brushed his fingers against the marks. They didn't appear to hurt him.

"They're sigils burned into my magic. These increase physical strength. The ones on my legs increase speed and agility."

"You're right," Shoto said, dropping his hand and slumping back in his seat. "That would have been cheating."

The marks faded from Sero's skin, no sign they'd ever been there aside from a glowing imprint against the backs of Izuku's eyelids. 

+++

Their chauffeur dropped them off in front of an unassuming hotel. Izuku had expected something ostentatious, but he was grateful for the minor anonymity.

Just as they were about to enter the hotel lobby, Katsuki's phone vibrated. He gestured for them to wait, and then he and Sero stepped away to answer the call in private.

Izuku plucked at his clothes, which smelled like smoke. Eri was even worse off. She was in desperate need of a shower, a comb, and a change of clothes.

It wasn't long before Sero and Katsuki joined them again. Izuku didn't even need to ask what that had been about because Sero explained, "Iida just landed in Sapporo. He'll be here in less than an hour. He wants us to wait for him."

Izuku frowned. "Why?"

Katsuki shrugged and sat on the curb in front of the hotel, arms resting atop his raised knees. "He's got info we don't," was his only answer.

With Iida's arrival, Izuku supposed that meant they weren't getting a hotel for the night. Honestly, that suited him just fine. If Iida knew where the sieve might be, then it could mean getting all of this done tonight rather than continuing to wait and search.

"So what do we do after we find the sieve?" Shoto asked. He shifted the dust around with the heel of his shoe, leaving mindless trails over the otherwise pristine sidewalk. 

"I don't know," Izuku said honestly. Eri's arms tightened around his own.

The hour passed at a slow crawl. Izuku spent most of that time worrying about his dad. His vision was blurring by the time headlights lit up the street, blinding him. The door of yet another black SUV swung open, and Iida peered out from the back. He scanned them with faint aversion. Izuku supposed they looked straggly and didn't smell much better.

When Sero tried to say something, Iida only shook his head once, and the group continued in silence. Izuku wasn't sure where they were going, but their driver took them out of the city onto more rural roads.

After about twenty minutes, the driver switched off his headlights before the car began to slow. Iida pointed ahead. Everyone strained forward to see.

A small village occupied little more than a few blocks of compact, dirt roads. Squat houses with peeling wood exteriors greeted them as the SUV stopped outside the first building. The moonlight lent an eerie glow to the quiet sprawl of buildings. 

"Shouldn't be hard to find someone here," Sero mused.

They filed from the vehicle, which their driver parked unobtrusively beneath the deeper shadows of a tree alongside the road. Normally, all this subterfuge would've felt melodramatic, except Izuku had only just been saved from falling off a roof, so he couldn't say with any confidence that it wasn't necessary.

As Sero searched the area with his magic, Izuku felt the familiar sweep of discomfort. It was far less unsettling now that he knew what that sensation meant, and already, the pain that accompanied it was becoming less and less sharp.

Without Sero and Katsuki's seeking magic, there wasn't much Izuku could make out with only his eyes. The only sources of light came from dirty, yellowing lamp posts too faint to do much good.

"So this sieve," Izuku said. He'd been wondering about something for a while. "How do you figure out if someone can… do that?"

Iida adjusted his glasses. "Any magus that a sieve touches will immediately feel the tug to their magic, but sieves can only strain magic that is freely given, never taken. As a result, before they learn to control their powers, young sieves often experience side effects such as intense headaches, magical exhaustion, and in extreme cases, seizures or fainting."

Izuku considered this. It sounded miserable, especially since, having no knowledge of magi and magic, he would have attributed the symptoms to a medical condition. "And you're sure this person is a sieve and not just sick?"

Looking down his impressively straight nose at Izuku, Iida said, "My intelligence team is very thorough. I wouldn't make a conclusion based on speculation alone."

"Of course," Izuku said agreeably. 

Katsuki made a small, surprised sound. "There's another magus here. And something else." He shoved at Izuku to move, and they all hurried off the road to duck behind a building.

"Could it be this sieve's family?" Izuku whispered. His eyes had adjusted to the dark, and he could make out Katsuki's ridiculously attractive profile. He'd never considered profiles to be attractive before.

"The boy lives with his grandmother, who isn't a magus," Iida said.

Shoto gave a decisive nod, "I'll take a look around. Maybe figure out what this other magus is doing."

"No," Izuku said automatically.

Even in the dark, Izuku could tell Shoto was scowling as he said, "I'm the only normal one here. If that other magus is a seeker, he might sense you the second you get close."

"He's right," Iida said, sounding approving. "He will go ahead and—"

"No," Izuku said again. "What if you're seen? What if they're dangerous? This place is so small–they'll know right away that you're not from around here." 

Shoto shrugged. "We'll have to take that risk."

"It's an unnecessary one," Sero said. Izuku felt a pang of relief for the support. "We'll confront him and—"

"Enough," Iida said with a stiff chopping motion. "Shoto will go ahead and investigate."

Izuku slapped a hand over his forehead. "This is such a bad idea."

"I might not be a magus, but I'm not useless," Shoto snapped. 

The remark surprised him. "I didn't say you were."

"You didn't have to say it. I'm the obvious choice for sneaking around without notice. It's a simple job, one I can do without magic."

Izuku gave his friend a bewildered look. "O-okay. Sorry."

Shoto turned away, shoulders bunched around his ears.

There was a beat of awkward silence before Katsuki said, "The magus is behind the second building on the left, the shop with the tall windows."

"If you've got enough light, try to get a look at their face," Iida said.

With a nod, Shoto stepped out onto the road. Izuku shuffled forward, peering around the corner to watch him walk toward the shop Katsuki pointed out. Shoto kept close to the walls, skirting around the lamp posts even though their circles of light were almost nonexistent. Then, after another minute, Shoto's figure faded into the shapeless shadows of the night, and Izuku leaned back, his stomach in knots.

Shoto was a capable person, strong and intelligent and discerning. But he was also Izuku's best friend, and seeing him tossed against an alley wall by nothing except a powerful wind had been terrifyingly eye opening.

"He'll be fine," Sero said reassuringly, his hand finding Izuku's shoulder.

"Yeah," Izuku said. Shoto rarely let anything or anyone get the better of him. Despite that he was clearly feeling out of his depth as a normal person among a bunch of magi, Shoto would adapt. He always did.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before the soft shuffle of feet brought their attention to Shoto's return. Izuku broke free from the wall, leaning around to grab Shoto's sleeve and yank him behind the building.

"What happened?" Iida asked.

"It's him," Shoto said in a harsh whisper. He sounded a little winded even though he hadn't been running. "The seeker who attacked us yesterday"

Dread shot down Izuku's spine. "What? You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," he hissed.

"We should confront him," Sero said. Izuku noted the way his hand flexed, as if imagining the grip of his sword.

"Not yet," Iida said, his tone leaving no room for argument. "He'll know why we're here—it isn't a big jump in logic to assume why UA would need a sieve, and there's no need to alert him to the fact we have Izuku."

Frustration and disappointment weighed heavily as they returned to the car. Before the driver could turn the car on, though, Katsuki slapped a hand on the back of the driver seat and hissed for him to wait.

Movement outside caught Izuku's eye. From between the nearest buildings, a figure appeared, the faint silhouette of a hat—likely a fedora—on his head. He didn't approach. Izuku wasn't sure he'd even noticed them. What first looked like a hump and then focused into a large birdlike creature sat perched on his shoulder. Shoto whispered a curse, and Izuku swallowed and shrank into his seat.

"Is that his familiar?" Izuku asked, meaning the bird.

"Has to be," Katsuki said.

The anima's eyes glowed in the dark like flakes of ash—similar to the anima at the Crossroads.

They waited until the seeker had disappeared again into the dark of the village, and then waited a few minutes more. Then their driver started the engine—smooth and nearly silent, thanks again to UA's deep pockets—and Izuku released the breath he'd been holding, his head tipping back against the window.

Sometime during the drive back to Sapporo, Izuku began to doze. He tried not to, but it was late and he hadn't yet caught up on all the sleep he'd missed the last several weeks. At one point, as he drifted in and out of consciousness, he thought he felt callused fingertips sweep across his cheek, following a pattern he knew by heart. His freckles were weirdly symmetrical, which he was reminded of every time he looked in a mirror.

He thought he heard a low chuckle followed by a low, "Shut up," in a familiar, gravelly voice.

With a small contented sigh, he fell back asleep.

The next time he woke up was to Shoto roughly shaking him. "Wake up, Izuku!"

Jolting upright and nearly braining Shoto, Izuku blinked rapidly, still dazed. "Wh-what? Are we there?"

"No," came Katsuki's voice from outside the car.

Squinting through the faint overhead light, Izuku could make out the others already standing outside, past Shoto and the open car door.

"What's going on?" he asked, scooting across the seat to join them. His question was instantly answered though when he got a look up ahead.

Something was blocking the road. Several somethings, in fact. Izuku wasn't sure what he was looking at until his gaze fixed on a pair of glinting black eyes, empty beneath the pale moonlight.

"Shit," Izuku whispered, taking a startled step back and knocking into Katsuki. Katsuki steadied him with a strong hand at his waist.

What must have been an entire herd of deer carcasses lay strewn across the road and shoulder, some of them piled atop one another, others lying haphazard, but all of them clearly intended to fully obstruct vehicles from passing.

"Who would do this?" Izuku asked, whirling on Katsuki, disgust and anger rising like bile at the back of his throat.

"It's a message," Iida said, sounding perfunctory despite the curl of his lip. "We've clearly made someone angry tonight, and we're being warned off."

"You think they've gotten far?" Sero asked, his magic like a jolt of electricity as he swept the area for magi.

"I'm not sensing anyone," Katsuki said, his own magic like sparks of heat down Izuku's spine.

Was it unusual that he could discern Katsuki's magic from Sero's? Well, it was definitely weird that Izuku wanted to lean into it, even as it lightly stung.

Shoto surveyed the carnage with a tightly clenched jaw. "What do we do?" 

"We continue on foot," Iida said before turning smartly to skirt the road by way of the woods.

"Wait, what?" Izuku asked, raising his voice. "But the car—"

"I've already instructed the driver to turn back," Iida explained. As if on cue, the car began backing up, and Izuku quickly moved to ensure he wouldn't get clipped. "These are rural roads, and taking an alternate route would extend the drive by nearly two hours. Walking the rest of the way to the nearest bus stop outside Sapporo would only take us one hour."

"The people who did this could still be out there," Shoto protested, gesturing widely at the deer carcasses.

"Unlikely," Iida said. "As I said, this was a message, not an attack."

The man swiftly disappeared into the dark of the trees. Izuku glanced at Sero and Katsuki, the latter of whom grumbled something profane before marching after Iida. Sighing deeply, Izuku rubbed both palms down his face and then reluctantly followed with Shoto and Sero and his heels.

TBC

A/N: This seems like a good idea, right? Also, you guys should know that once we hit the next couple chapters, Izuku and Katsuki are gonna be so fucking horny all the time. They're gonna earn that NSFW rating. I apologize in advance.