Darkest Before Dawn - 133

Chapter 133

[Toru Hagakure]

How had they gone from the peace and quiet of the forest to…

To a warzone?!

She didn’t know, she didn’t want to know, not really. What she wanted was for it all to end already. She wanted to stop seeing blue fire and copies of the same villains. She wanted to stop seeing disturbing blades that came out of some equally disturbing man’s mouth. She wanted to stop seeing people and what looked like a metal beam flying about. She wanted to stop seeing a lizard man slashing at her friends with a katana.

She wanted to stop seeing some crazy girl trying to bleed out Kazuki.

The battlefield continued being what it was, however. Toru’s classmates continued fighting and she continued moving around, trying to help. A punch here would take out a clone, a nudge there would push one of her friends out of harm’s way. She was just an invisible girl though. There was only so much she could do, and she had to be careful not to be hit with an attack that probably wouldn’t even be meant for her.

She still answered every call she could. She moved to support and she moved to cover. Sometimes, if she managed to scrap together a second or two, she’d try to blind a person with her light, but she didn’t risk that too much. She couldn’t afford the chance of blinding one of her classmates, after all.

She made a mental note to ask them all to have sunglasses at hand if possible, and to have her eventual teammates do so too, whenever she went pro. For that though, Toru kind of needed to survive the situation at hand, which was easier said than done. There was no end to them, after all. The flames kept coming, the clones kept appearing and attacks kept being sent out.

‘How long has it been?’ she wondered, growing tired of running around. She’d need to add stamina training to her routine, she decided, which sucked, but getting tired while danger was around sucked even more. ‘Come on, when are reinforcements going to come?!’ she screamed in her mind.

She’d taken a moment, when it all started and she managed to disappear in the woods and take her clothes off – that had been awkward, but there were more pressing things to focus on –, Toru had made sure to send messages to everyone she could think of. Someone was bound to send help, but they were still halfway in the middle of nowhere, which meant it could take a while and she knew it.

They could do that.

Or, most of them could do that.

Kazuki didn’t have all the time in the world though, not while he was bleeding out. He’d looked like he was a minute away from passing out, after all, and he had way less Grimm out and about than he usually did. She had to keep an eye on him too, which was easy when nobody was really looking for her in the middle of all the chaos, but… But it didn’t make it any less nervewracking, because every time she looked, Kazuki would still be there, lying on the ground against a tree.

There were too many villains around for her to not be terrified for her friend.

The one saving grace was when she saw Aizawa make an appearance. She’d worried something might have happened to the man, especially when she didn’t see him for a good while after the attack started. It seemed he’d been kept occupied for a bit, but having an adult, a pro hero, on their side was great. It wasn’t enough though, by the looks of it, but his Quirk had pushed things in their favor a lot.

There’d been some random villains around, villains that reminded her of what her friends said the USJ villains had been like. Weaker, less competent, those were slowly being taken care of, fortunately. Things were getting better on that front. The others thought? The others were the opposite and that meant they couldn’t let their guards down at all. The flame villain in particular was Dangerous with a capital D and Toru was very grateful for the fact that Shoto could keep that guy contained with his ice and his own flames. Especially with some support from Aizawa once he appeared.

“The mist villain!” someone called – Sero, she confirmed when she turned around – and she stiffened.

Because even though she’d just been comparing them to the USJ in her head, there’d been no confirmation. At least none up to that point, because that meant both attacks were related. Not only that, but it also meant someone very dangerous had joined the fray. Someone that could just… spread them about, take away their teamwork and numbers and leave them alone somewhere in the forest for them to take out one by one. With more dangerous villains, Toru really didn’t like their odds in a second round of that.

To make a bad situation even worse though, when she located the mist portal or whatever, it wasn’t just the mist villain that stepped out. No, he was joined by the other big villain of the USJ attack, the one with the hands that could make anything he touched crumble. The one that could erase people with a touch.

‘Those reinforcements can’t come soon enough!’ she cried out in her head, feeling panic coursing through her. All the same though, she needed to move, she needed to act. She was training to be a hero, after all. Even if she couldn’t fight any of the dangerous villains, she could help, she could support.

So, that was exactly what she’d do. She refused to be useless like she’d been at the USJ. She refused to be helpless again. She’d had enough of that already.

And if her body felt a familiar cold reach her from her memories, she pushed that aside.

[}-o-{]

[Shoto Todoroki]

He was acutely reminded of the training he’d just been put through in the camp at that moment.

He needed to keep a balance between his body temperature and his output of both ice and fire. At the same time though, to complicate matters, he needed to keep enough power going to stop the blue flames, which were stronger than his own. He’d even go as far as saying that they were on par with his father’s. That did not make things easy for him.

The good thing was that the guy seemed to be winding down. For whatever reason, they were using less and less fire as time went by… Which was good, because if it weren’t for that and Aizawa giving him breaks here and there, Shoto wouldn’t have been able to last that long either. He’d been half freezing and half burning himself up when things started just trying to push back against those blue flames. And he’d been failing to boot.

Shoto was also aware that things were going on behind him, but he had his hands full with the one villain. If he turned away, he knew the fire would consume him, just like in his nightmares, if with a different color. The idea, the chance, was almost enough to mess up his control, but he’d faced his fears every day for years. This one villain wouldn’t take him out, no way.

Especially not when his classmates, his friends were behind him.

So, he’d have to trust those same friends to watch his back while he kept the flame villain at bay. He still had trouble wrapping his head around the fact that he had friends, admittedly. Not because he doubted them, but because it was… strange a concept. He knew friends existed and all, but those had always been something other people had, like good parents and a nice family.

Yet, there he was, with friends that wanted to hang out with him, that had fun with him, that cared about him. Strange, but not at all unwelcome, Shoto would freely admit. Even with him still learning how to be a friend, how to be a person, he knew he couldn’t falter, because life had been better since he became part of his group, brighter, more colorful even.

So, he’d hold against the blue flames and trust them to take care of the rest. Even with all the battle sounds that came from behind, all the shouted warnings and cries. He needed to trust them, because if he did anything else, he might make things worse. Kazuki had his back anyway, Kazuki and Bakugo and Midoriya and everyone else. They weren’t weak.

Shoto knew they could take care of things, even when he heard about the teleporting villain and someone else being there. There was nothing he could do but persist… But that was when he started truly paying attention, just in case. He trusted his friends, but things weren’t going great for him and he had to assume they weren’t going great for everyone else either.

If worse came to worst, he could let loose and hope for the best, he supposed. The freezing and burning would suck, but that was better than failing. So, he listened and he prepared himself. He really hoped it wouldn’t be necessary though.

“Shoto, behind you!” he heard Eijiro call and he reacted immediately by taking a step back and creating Ice behind him from his foot. The sound of something hitting the frozen shield was all the proof he needed to know that he’d just saved himself. Or that Eijiro had saved him, however indirectly.

That gave him an idea though…

‘I can use my legs to help stabilize my temperature,’ he thought, trying to do just that. It was tricky and not perfect at all, but it was definitely better than nothing. The spread from his legs to his overheated-overfrozen – Was that last one a word? – arms wasn’t ideal, but there was some measure of relief there and that, combined with the flame villain weakening as the fight went on, told him that he had a much better chance. He might even be able to afford paying attention to other things.

‘Trust them,’ he told himself, clenching his jaw and grinding his teeth together as he heard shouts and cries coming from behind him. There were painful ones that sounded like they came from his classmates. Those made him want to turn around, but he couldn’t. He needed to keep to his job, especially because there’d be the occasional clone of the flame villain that he’d have to contain too. ‘Trust them,’ he repeated, feeling dread gnawing at him.

For once though, it wasn’t dread related to him, to what might happen to him. No, it reminded Shoto of the dread he felt when he froze Toru back at the USJ. That dread that meant someone would suffer and he’d be powerless, or that he’d be the reason for it. It made him want to do something. He wasn' t sure what, but something.

Because surely he could do something. He was the son of the Number Two hero of the country. He’d said he’d be Number One. Surely he could do something, help his classmates, save his friends. If he couldn’t, then he’d be a failure, at all of those things. If he failed…

“Do better.”

“This is all you can do?”

“I’m disappointed.”

“This is not enough.”

“My creation can do better than this.”

He could almost hear it at the back of his mind, the voice distorted and even worse than it had been in the moment. The dread in his chest grew nastier, colder and hotter at the same time, in a way that had nothing to do with his Quirk. Shoto Todoroki was afraid, and nervous, and unsure.

But he had to trust his classmates, his friends, all the same.

[}-o-{]

[Izuku Midoriya]

Why wasn’t he enough?

The fight had been going on for… for he didn’t know how long and he still had nothing to show for it. He’d been punching villains left and right, One For All coursing through his body like his life depended on it, which it might, just like his classmates’, his friends’. He’d been fighting alongside everyone else for so long and what had they achieved?

Tiring themselves out and catching the weakest, most inconsequential villains of the bunch.

Izuku had been fighting the muscle villain for most of it, sure, and the match up seemed really poor for him. Their powers were similar enough, but the villain had more experience. He could match him punch for punch and take advantage of his slip ups, and his weaknesses. He’d send attacks that he couldn’t dodge, because there was a classmate of his behind. He’d cause damage in an area, because he knew Izuku would have to stop him. He’d do all sorts of things taking advantage of the fact that he was a hero.

And Izuku was growing frustrated, he’d admit.

‘All Might would have ended this already,’ he couldn’t help but think, the familiar feeling of powerlessness filling him once again. In the end, he was still useless. In the end, he was still Deku.

He punched the muscle villain again.

Because that was something he could do. He could fight that one particular villain while everyone else fought the rest, just like Shoto was locked with the blue flame villain. Izuku could fight the muscle villain. Maybe he couldn’t win, but he could fight him and that was enough. That was something.

That meant he wasn’t useless.

And maybe, if he repeated that to himself enough, he’d believe it.

“Midoriya!” a voice called and he turned to see Sato punching away the beam weapon that one of the villains was using. Apparently, the thing had been flying at him.

“Thanks!” he called, but he had his attention almost fully on the muscle villain still. If he got distracted, he could lose, and if he lost, then everyone else could get hurt. Although, admittedly, he was doing a poor job at keeping his focus on his opponent.

The arrival of the USJ villains had shaken him. He could still remember that hand almost wrapping around his neck in the mall. Every time he blinked, he’d be back there, with his life hanging by a thread. He didn’t remember many moments where he’d felt more powerless than he had at that moment. And that wasn’t even taking into account how that had derailed everything, with their school trip getting changed and disappointing everyone and, and…

And Izuku just wished he could get a proper win for once. Not a partial one, not a minor one, a good win, that’s what he wanted. Something that’d let him know that he wasn’t a failure, that he could be All Might’s successor instead of being told he was. Something that’d let him know that he hadn’t just taken the opportunity from someone more worthy.

It wasn’t to be though, not that day by the looks of it.

‘I can be useful still,’ he told himself and that was more than he could say about his past self. He’d grown strong on his own, training to withstand One for All. He’d gotten help at USJ. He’d done well in the Sports Festival. He was holding back a strong villain.

He wasn’t the best, not at all.

He wasn’t the number one.

But Izuku thought he could live with that, because he was getting better, little by little. And maybe… maybe that was enough. That was what everyone was doing, he’d learned. Every day, he saw people training at the facilities of UA. Every day, he saw people studying and brainstorming ideas. Every day, he saw his classmates getting better, and he was doing the same, Izuku knew, deep down.

Just as deep, however, there was a voice whispering to him. It sounded like a mix of voices to him, from Kacchan to his teachers at Aldera, passing through his classmates in that same school. It told him that he should do more, that he still amounted to nothing special, even with the massive opportunity that he’d been given with One For All.

He tried his best not to listen to it though.

He just needed to keep going. He’d do his best, better than his best, actually. He’d go beyond, Plus Ultra, as the school motto said. Izuku would do that and he’d hope that it’d be enough. He’d save people and he’d save them with a smile. He’d inspire hope, drive away evil and fear… and if he wasn’t the Number One, then maybe it’d still be ok.

“I know being third place can feel like a failure, but it's anything but, remember that. You all set out to do one thing in this Festival and that's telling the world you are here. I can tell you, quite proudly, that you managed that and more. You should take this for what it is, a victory.”

All Might had told him that after the Sports Festival, and while he hadn’t taken the words to heart that day, he did while fighting off the muscle villain. Because he didn’t need to be the best to win. He didn’t need to stand above everyone to be enough. And that, more than anything, reassured him. Because he could be good enough. He’d been third, and even if that was two places lower than his goal, it’d been enough.

Izuku had been enough.

And maybe he couldn’t drive away the villains attacking him and his class, but he was good enough to fight back against the muscle villain. He could make sure none of his friends were injured. He could make sure this man wouldn’t hurt them, or worse. He could be a hero for his classmates and he could be the shield that kept them safe.

He could be enough.

[}-o-{]

[Shota Aizawa]

Was his class cursed?

He had to start wondering, because there was no reason for it to be targeted like it was, right? Nezu was sure that the attacks were due to All Might’s presence, but that should draw attention to both class A and B. Shota didn’t wish for 1-B to be attacked, but he certainly had to wonder why they weren’t and 1-A was.

There were guesses though, like Todoroki being Endeavor’s son drawing more attention. Or Endo, who was admittedly a very big public figure, if for different reasons than everyone else. Even Yaoyorozu was bound to pull eyes in their direction, he supposed.

So, yes, Shota understood, but he still couldn’t wrap his head around that. They were students, kids. Things like that just didn’t happen. UA had been attacked before, yes, but never like this. Those cases had been stomped, destroyed and made an example of. And now this group was just… still going? Why? How?

“Sorry for the delay!” he heard and Shota was definitely happy to hear that voice make an appearance. However, Sekijiro wasn’t the back up he was expecting nor the one he wanted. Because if Sekijiro was there, then that meant 1-B was there too. That would be another class of children being put in danger.

They were the closest people that could come to help, he supposed, but he didn’t have to be happy about it.

“Ugh,” the hand-villain, Tomura Shigaraki, groaned. “So annoying, these fucking mobs,” he complained as he desintegrated one of Endo’s Grimm. Shota hadn’t seen the boy yet after coming back from the particular ambush that had been laid on him, pulling him away from the bus and his students when it all started. “This is why I hate this type of quests. Kurogiri, bring everyone!”

Then, in a matter of seconds, the villains disappeared in dark mist before reappearing next to the Shigaraki. The man’s whole posture screamed uncomfortable to Shota, with stiff shoulders and rubbing his neck so harshly he was surprised it wasn’t looking more raw. They had thwarted his efforts well enough, was what it all told him.

“Running with your tail between your legs already?!”

Shota had to wonder how Inui thought this was progress in regards to Bakugo, truly. Then he remembered how the blonde had been previously and yeah, he guessed it was. At least he wasn’t blasting off in a charge at the villains he supposed. There was a long way to go there though, because he didn’t think that was acceptable.

Still, he didn’t expect the barked laugh that came from the villain.

“It’s not cowardice to leave when the quest is done. That’s just progressing the story line,” Shigaraki told them, pulling his hand away from his neck and straightening his posture the smallest bit. “Do you think you’ve won?” he asked them and Shota could feel the unease washing over everyone present. “Dumb NPCs don’t even realize that this wasn’t a skirmish. This was just an annoying escort mission.”

Shota really hated the crazy villains, the one that seemed to have a code or view of the world that only they could understand. He was distantly aware that the villain was speaking in game terms, and he could make some guesses according to some of those words, but they were just that, guesses. As far as he was concerned, he could be talking about anything. Even knowing about what they were talking about – games, in this case – didn’t really guarantee that you’d understand them, because they were just that twisted, generally.

“Do you realize?” Shigaraki asked and the unease grew tenfold when they heard the smile on his voice, hidden under the severed hand that they suspected was real. “Do you realize that you’ve lost already?”

“You’re the one running away, Handjob!”

For as grating, exasperating and very much worrying as Shota found Bakugo doing his recalcitrant thing, he would admit, in the privacy of his own mind, that he appreciated someone speaking up. Because he was getting the nagging feeling that they were missing something and that didn’t like that. The villains shouldn’t look so smug being driven away by students. They didn’t seem concerned by the low level villains that had been defeated and restrained. None of the skilled ones had been taken out, and Shota knew that’d have been more of a victory for them.

But they’d achieved nothing, right? His class was intact around him as they faced the villains and… Shota paused. His class was intact, right? He wondered that as he tried to check, glancing over his shoulder as much as he could without taking his eyes off of Shigaraki.

“Have you realized, Eraserhead?” Shigaraki asked with another chuckle. “A little chaos and smart targeting was all it took,” he continued then, drawing a giggle from a girl by his side with broken equipment on her and a school uniform as his costume for some reason. “Your students even helped out, making things that much easier for us, didn’t they, Compress?” he asked and someone with what looked like a magician aesthetic stepped forward.

“That’s Mr. Compress,” he corrected lightly before chuckling and bowing. “I must say thank you to the invisible lady. So appreciated that you moved him away,” he said, making an exaggerated bow while Shota’s heart plummeted in his chest and an ice cold hand grabbed it. The villain proceeded to show them a small, innocent-looking, cyan marble between his fingers.

‘Who?’ Shota wondered. He’d done his best to keep an eye on everyone. To make sure none of his students were in danger, that none were too injured or in a bad match-up. He’d looked at them all!

Or… had he?

“Kazuki,” he heard Hagakure whimper and his mind seemed to quiet for a second. Suddenly, his dread and his helplessness were pushed aside as his mind seemed to calmly, coldly, almost peacefully, realize that no, he hadn’t kept an eye on Kazuki. He’d seen his Grimm out and about and assumed he was fine. That’d been enough.

Except… it hadn’t.

“I love a sign of a quest well completed,” Shigaraki commented gleefully. “And your face is just that… now, let’s go,” he added and before any of them could so much as try to do something, smoke spread all over the gathered villains.

‘They prepared for me,’ Shota noticed, almost detachedly even as he tried to block their escape all the same. It was useless, just like he’d just been. The villains were gone and his student was gone with them.

He hadn’t seen it, any of it.

He had failed.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Everyone is having fun, huh? I’ll admit, I had fun writing this chapter, although I’m not sure why. Writing different PoVs is usually fun, so that might be it. Or maybe it’s the chance to write something different and get things moving. I know the action fans that managed to stick around will appreciate it… Or, that’s what I hope for, since I’m a little unsure of how well I might have managed.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Where are you at this moment? I’m currently on the backseat of my family’s car on a trip to the city to get my yearly bloodwork done and see how badly I need to eat better. Always the same, but food is just too good, you know? Here’s hoping I didn’t get worse, at least.

See you.