Chapter Text
The world is a darker place without All Might.
Chizome always knew it would be, always knew there would never be another like him. He knew that. Chizome knew that. Except, All Might was supposed to leave this world with the gentle hush of a mourning society, not smiling through bloody teeth as the air ran bitter with smoke and fire, screaming and crying; he wasn't meant to leave this world alone with only Chizome for company.
It's not what he deserved.
But life isn't fair. It's nasty and cruel, and without such a bright and shining beacon to chase back the squirming dregs of society, the darkness seeps through the seams. A dark garden tended to by an ancient devil.
Chizome runs a hand through his hair, fingers catching in the tangles, and the tremble abates for just a moment. He clicks his tongue in annoyance. Of course, it's not like he's above it all. No, he's all but drowning in it, but somewhere out there is someone who is and that's all that matters.
All Might believed, and so will Chizome.
Tokyo, however, has seen the worst of it in his opinion. So much of the surrounding wards around Yuuei have fallen low; roving civilian militias and criminal activity alike basically sit upon the school's doorstep, and the tide has not been in its favor. Chizome makes a killing, especially here in Mustafu, but on the bad nights… even to him it feels endless.
How quickly the mighty have fallen, how quickly the cowards and frauds have scattered to the four winds. It's made his job easier in a way, but harder too because of the stubborn fools determined to sully what's left of All Might's name with their lukewarm resolve.
He hadn't been planning to cut through Tokyo, merely fleeing Kyushu after nearly having to skin their prized Hawks for the promise of a shifting power balance in Yokohama but… but apparently the one has appeared. The one who can be worthy.
Chizome doubts it, but he's here anyway, and maybe rid the world of a body snatcher while he's at it.
Barely anyone bats an eye as he slots himself onto the open street. A few people shy away or tug their child closer, but even Chizome knows better than to instigate an open brawl. Denetrat's under the table dealings have picked up quickly in the past four years, and even the oldest hag might pull a black market nail gun on him now. Not to mention the explosion of Trigger after the leveling of Naruhata.
The world's become a powder keg, and it wouldn't take much at all for it to ignite. For everything to go boom.
No, Chizome'll have to watch the side streets and back alleys for his prey, where it hunts and kills, but for now…
Up ahead, the crowd parts like the red sea for his current headache.
Toogata Mirio. Lemillion. A promising young Pro that Sasaki has staked his life on, a daring fool that promises to save one million lives . Bright and capable despite the stumbling start with his less than stable quirk, but the one in that man's eyes. Chizome wonders what he's seen in the boy's future, how far he looked and how golden it must be.
If he truly looked much further than his smile and blond hair.
The boy patrols his beat, trying and mostly failing to build a rapport with the skittish people on the streets. It's working, slowly but surely, but it's irritating to watch Toogata's smile dip into a frown after the children spit at him and scamper off despite it. What does he expect, Chizome wonders.
All Might never stopped smiling, he thinks viciously, shoving his shaking hands into his pockets. Never.
Be fair, an uncompromising thought tells him, and he scowls, because he knows, of course he does, that… the idol on the pedestal is not the man, but.
"Not good enough," he mutters anyway, and lags behind as the kid turns off into a dark corner. "Not him."
He waits a long moment before following, the young Pro gone from immediate sight. Chizome scales the nearest fire escape and drain pipe, and prowls along the rooftops before finding Toogata waiting around the next corner. Waiting for Chizome, clearly, and when he doesn't appear, Toogata hesitantly continues further into the dark.
It's fortunate that the body snatcher's grown lazy from the dwindling Pro Hero ranks. It makes him careless, and the echoing scream lasts much too long if he hadn't wanted to be noticed. Toogata's steady pace turns into a run, and Chizome growls when the boy disappears through the building instead of going around.
Chizome clears the gap to the next roof, and takes a running cat leap at the wall, the spikes of his shoes digging into the brick to launch himself up to the concrete lip above his head. It's almost a maze below him, but this villain likes to ambush prey and then walk it around abusing their quirk, so somewhere even more isolated than these narrow alleyways like… there.
A tunnel bridge.
There's a flash of white and red, and Chizome picks his way to the nearest roof. He settles along the lip of another building just as something comes tumbling out of the gloom. Toogata, just inching up to the tunnel's entrance, catches the body that resolves itself into a damp high schooler with a bright yellow bookbag. His hair is dark and nearly plastered to his head, and he gasps and grasps frantically at the young Pro's uniform as he's pulled upright, bag hanging off one arm.
Are you it? Are you the one? You won't prove me wrong, will you?
From within the tunnel, sludge slides. It rears up, and within coiled purple, Chizome can just spot long white hair and the tiny face of a child. The villain laughs at them, mouth gaping wide. Toogata tugs the kid behind him, arm out.
"Aw, aren't you the newbie on the block?" the villain sneers, sludge wrapping across the struggling child's face. Her eyes go wide with strain. "Think you can handle me? Before she suffocates, huh?"
"H-Help her, please," the other boy gags, purple sludge smeared across his face, his clothes, and he must have been grabbed first. "She, she's scared please—"
Chizome leans further over the edge, intrigued. Why would the body snatcher give him up for an even smaller child?
Toogata darts a look between the two, smile nowhere to be seen, and just... hesitates.
Chizome smiles, and it's nasty and dripping with not quite satisfaction or disappointment because he knew this wouldn't be the one. He knew because there is so much more to it than a bright smile, and whatever else Sasaki sees in him. It's not enough. He's not enough, will never be enough, because Chizome can see the uncertainty in his face.
Is my quirk the right match up? I should radio for help. Will help come soon enough?
It's a bad match up, even Chizome knows that, but that shouldn't matter. Not when help won't come soon enough, when there just isn't enough help to share around, not anymore, and it's hard to tell if that's better or worse. But, the fact of the matter is this:
Toogata hesitates .
The other boy, however, does not.
He takes off at a run, dodging around the young Pro's instinctive grab, and immediately flings his bookbag. The sludge recoils on impact, large eye snapping shut, and the boy slams full tilt into the villain with a furious cry. His hands claw and dig into the viscous body, and so unused to prey turning so violent, the boy's able to drag the small child free at the expense of himself.
The greatest sacrifice.
The little girl goes tumbling, hair flying, and finally Toogata reacts, scooping her up and pulling her away, but… what will he do now? Nothing has truly changed, not for Toogata. For Chizome, he feels like every nerve is on fire, but he waits, holds himself back—
"Heh, heh," the sludge laughs, coiling in. "What was the point of that, huh? You're just back where you started."
Again, Toogata hedges, the girl a trembling mess in his arms. Chizome palms his shortest knife as the sludge wraps across the other boy's face, one wide but tired eye rolling in defiance.
The villain grins wide and carefree until he doesn't.
Chizome is on the roof, and then he isn't. Then he's sliding around the struggling boy with a dark crack of light, plunging his blade into the wide, gleeful eye sitting across his neck.
There's a stunned beat, and then the villain howls, withers and screeches. Chizome lets go of the knife as the bleeding and ruined eye is wrenched away. The kid gasps as sludge peels back, revealing more of his drenched form. With a snarl, Chizome grabs fistfuls of the slimy cloth and yanks. They end up further away than he means to go, completely swallowed up by the gloom of the tunnel, and Chizome drops the kid in a heap.
"Who did this? I'll kill you!" the villain roars, weeping bright blood, and the last eye rolls. It falls on Chizome just as he draws another blade, the pupil dilating with rage and pain. Sludge flies. "You! You, I—"
Like a flower to sunlight, Chizome's roiling thirst for the death of this world unfurls. The villain immediately freezes, sludge nearly caressing Chizome's cheek, and wheezes with sudden and tangible prey fear. There's a stifled cry, and just beyond the shuddering waste Lemillion has fallen to his knees, the little girl wrapped in his arms. Chizome's lips peel back in a nasty smile, and—
Like the coward he is, the sludge twists, and arcs wide and shrieking, eyes sinking inward like blood clots in shaking veins. Already the overuse is racking Chizome's body with a throbbing pain, but it's not enough to dissuade him, just enough that if he doesn't do something else he risks breaking something hard to fix.
But, Chizome knows all there is to know about All Might, and this is decidedly simple, if not completely satisfactory, because while he isn't All Might he can make do.
The villain looms, Toogata is too slow, and Chizome is not.
The wind is fierce, a northern and biting howl, and all of the windows of the abandoned buildings lining the sheet
shatter.
Sludge explodes in every direction, the needled air drilling forward along his thrown knife, and the release makes Chrome's hand spasm with torn muscle. There's the echo of a bitten off scream, and then quiet.
The villain slumps, falling scant inches from Toogata's stumbling feet. The knife's burrowed up to its hilt in a far, far wall, something pulpy and red and white pinned dripping beneath it. Chizome slinks forward and into the gray light, the feeling in his fingers all but gone.
Whimpers fill the air, and Chizome plants a foot over the barely exposed knot of eyeball, blood pooling and mixing in with the trembling sludge. He digs in the flat of his boot, and the villian cries out.
"Look away," Chizome says, inhaling deeply as Toogata tugs the little girl's face away, and then leans forward with all of his weight.
The sludge shrieks, cries turning to sobs as his last eye pops like overripe fruit. Chizome clicks his tongue, reeling in the bloodlust, and drags his foot back to more agonized gags. It'll have to be enough. Lucky, lucky heteromorph—
"S-Stop, stop, that's enough," croaks a ragged voice, and hands ball into the back of Chizome's loose clothing, tug hard. " Stop. "
It's electrifying, the shiver that goes up his spine. "Oh?" he says, angling back so he can peer at the boy glaring up at him, barely able to stand on his own two feet. "He would have worn your skin until you fell apart, and you want me to stop?"
That makes the determined expression waver, uncertainty flickering over the kid's face, and Chizome has all of a heartbeat to be disappointed before he glances away. Following his gaze, the boy regards the child watching with big, wide eyes. He smiles, tucking back the fear that has his fingers tremble, curl tighter into Chizome; it barely hides the dark circles and thin cheeks, tattered collar and less than kept hair under the grime and bruises. A sad, beaten little dog, but.
But .
He's smiling for her. Why? Because it must be fine now, right?
Toogata is too busy frowning at Chizome, thinking now how to deal with this, with him, with the girl and the boy and the body snatcher. Utterly disappointing, just like he thought.
Without a word, he steps back, the kid stumbling, and Chizome slips an arm under his, hoisting the boy up and nearly off his feet. Still here when he could have ran, not even a fledgling pro hero — but… maybe, just maybe, a good foundation to build upon.
Only time will tell.