Chapter Text
It was the middle of the night when a young woman, no older than eighteen, perched herself on top of the building. Her target was the Japanese commissioner of transportation. A hit, for lack of a better word, really. Making sure her mask was securely over her mouth and nose, she reached under the red sash tied around her waist. It concealed a utility belt and she pulled out a hook attached to a metal wire, strong enough to hold her weight. But just as she was about to secure it to a pipe so she could lower herself to the window, a blast of fire forced her out of the way at the last second. The woman’s eyes immediately focused on a figure as she stood, her hands reaching to a leather holster on her thigh.
Not ten feet away on the roof stood a man no older than she. A mask much like her own covered his mouth and a pair of high tech looking goggles covered the rest of his face. His hair, cropped short, fell partially over the goggles and in the darkness, it was hard to tell if it was silver or red.
But none of that mattered to the woman.
“Well, well, well,” the woman said. “Seems I’ve been caught.”
“Come quietly and I promise not to hurt you,” the man said.
“Cutting right to the chase, huh?” she said. “I thought you hero types were all about that witty banter.”
The boy reached out his right hand, almost like he was about to shoot missiles out of his palms. “And I thought all you villain types were attack first, ask questions later.”
The woman scoffed. “Don’t lump me in with that rabble,” she said and finally unlatched the holster.
She pulled out two small metal tubes and pressed a button concealed on the sides. Instantly they extended to rods, each half her size. Dropping into a fighting stance, she eyed the hero before her.
“Guess neither of us stuck to the stereotypes,” the boy said.
“Guess not,” the girl said and leapt forward.
She took the high road, getting her rods ready to whack the hero as she descended upon him. But she didn’t get the chance. Before she got within a meter of him, the hero crouched on the ground. She barely noticed that ice had started forming on the ground around his right foot, in the middle of August. And when his hand touched the ice and swiped up, a pillar rapidly formed and shot toward her, hitting her square in the stomach and knocking her out of the way.
“Fire and ice, huh?” the woman said, coughing from the impact and getting her breath back. “These days it’s rare to have one quirk and yet you have two.” She took a moment to roll out her shoulder as she stood. “Tell me, what’s your name? Unless you want me to call you Icyhot.”
“My name?” The boy said, almost sounding a little confused.
* * *
“Todoroki-kun! Todoroki-kun!”
The young man looked up from the book he was reading as his friends approached him, clearly with something on their minds. Putting his feet down from where they were propped up, he sat straighter as he slipped the bookmark into the pages.
“Midoriya-kun, Uraraka-san,” he said. “What do you need?”
“If you’re going to be a vigilante, you’re going to need an alias,” Uraraka said, pulling up a chair and plopping down in it.
“She’s right, so we’ve been brainstorming some for you,” Midoriya added.
“What’s wrong with just Shouto?” Todoroki asked.
Uraraka and Midoriya looked at him, wondering if he was serious or not. When he didn’t say he was kidding or amend what he said, they both sighed and slumped forward.
“That’s your first name, Todoroki-kun,” Uraraka said. “It wouldn’t be much of a secret identity if everyone knows your first name.”
“She’s right,” Midoriya said. “So take a look at these names and see what speaks to you.”
He pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. Opening it up, he passed it to Todoroki. Spreading the paper out over the book, he looked down at it and started reading. The first one was Icyhot and honestly, Todoroki would really rather not be called that. Especially because that’s what Bakugou shouts at him when he’s pissed. Burning Ice was next and Todoroki’s only problem with that was it was a mouthful. His problem with the name Phoenix was that his quirk was more than just fire and he couldn’t control his own fire the way phoenixes could. So it honestly just... didn’t sit with him. Snowball, Snowman and Snowflame were honestly just... stupid. There was no sugar coating it. He would never in a million years go by any of those names. Toward the end of the list he saw Alolan Vulpix and he looked up at Midoriya and Uraraka.
“Really?” He said. “You were so strapped for ideas that you put a Pokémon on the list?”
Midoriya held up his hands. “It was Uraraka-san’s idea!”
“Hey!” Uraraka said and slapped Midoriya’s arm. “It’s cute! Who wouldn’t want to be associated with an adorable snow kitsune!”
“Me,” Todoroki said bluntly and looked back at the list.
After Alolan Vulpix it looked like the two of them got serious. The next one on the list was Korikasai. It was good but it literally meant “Ice Fire” and it felt... a little too on the nose. The one after, though, got Todoroki thinking. Turning the paper to Midoriya, he pointed to it.
“What does this one mean?” He asked.
“Cold fire in some Northern European country,” Midoriya said. “Loosely, Anyway.”
* * *
“My name is Kaldbrann,” the boy said and leveled his stare at the villain he was fighting.
“Kaldbrann, huh?” she said thoughtfully. “Norwegian, ain’t it? Sounds Norwegian.”
“I hardly think the origins of my name is the point here,” Kaldbrann said, unamused. Truthfully, he didn’t know which language it was. Just what Midoriya told him about it being from some Northern European country.
“No, the point is, I think I prefer Icyhot more,” the woman said.
Kaldbrann rolled his eyes behind his goggles. “So are you going to stop talking or what?”
“I’ll go with or what,” the woman said and then immediately there were three more of her.
Kaldbrann thought they were perfect copies of the woman, but upon closer inspection, as they moved closer, he realized that they were decomposing copies. He didn’t hesitate to lift his left hand and allow his fire to engulf the approaching bodies. When the flames died down, the zombie-like copies were gone and so was the woman. However, before Kaldbrann could so much as utter a curse, he felt something round press against his back and heard a voice whisper in his ear.
“How did you like my Zombie Copies,” the woman said, sounding almost as if she were a lover. “Fun, huh?”
“Who are you?” Kaldbrann asked, his voice dark. He didn’t dare turn to look at her.
“Who am I?” she repeated, sounding thoughtful.
* * *
“Kai-chan!”
The young girl looked up, no older than thirteen, as her brother walked into her room. “Kage-niichan?”
“You okay?” he asked.
The little girl held up her arm. There was a fresh bruise and a few new cigarette burns. “Could you… help me?” She asked, holding up the first aid kit. “It hard to bandage my right arm by myself…”
Kageyama looked down at his little sister and sighed, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “Yeah, sure,” he said. “Just don’t move, okay Kai-chan?”
She nodded and let her brother bandage up her arm all the way so that her classmates wouldn’t see exactly what happened at school the next day. When Kageyama was finished he closed up the first aid kit and set it aside.
“When I turn eighteen,” he said. “I promise I’ll get us both out of here, okay?”
Kai nodded. “I can’t wait,” she said and pulled up her knees. “I don’t wanna live here anymore.”
Kageyama put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. “I know,” he said. “But once we’re out, then you can use your power to put people like him behind bars, all right?”
She looked at him. “You really think so, Kage-niichan?”
Kageyama nodded. “Really,” he said. “And if you’re going to be a hero you’re going to need an awesome alias?”
“Alias?”
“It’s… like a nickname,” he explained. “Something people can call you so you can keep your real identity a secret.”
“Oh! I see!” she said, looking at her brother excitedly. “What should my alias be?”
Kageyama looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully, tapping his finger on his chin. “Hmm… what about… Knightmare?”
Kai made a face. “Knightmare…? That doesn’t sound very heroic,” she said.
“Hear me out,” he said. “It’s Nightmare but with a K. You’ll be the villains worst fear and the knight that saves the people. How does that sound, Kai-chan?”
“Hmm…” she tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. “I think I like it! That’ll be my alias when I’m a hero!”
* * *
“I’m you’re worst fear,” she said. “I’m Knightmare.”
“Fitting name for a villain,” Kaldbrann said.
“Isn’t it though?” Knightmare replied. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“You ready to give up yet, then, Knightmare?” he asked.
“I think I should be asking you that question. I’m the one who has you pinned to the wall, not the other way around,” Knightmare taunted.
“You want to rethink that?” Kaldbrann said and turned his head to look at her. “Looks to me like you’re a little stuck.”
Knightmare tilted her head to the side. “What do you…?”
But then it hit her. She looked down and she noticed her boots were encased in ice that was slowly threatening to cover her entire leg. Growling, she jerked her gaze back up at Kaldbrann. He had turned around now and was staring at her with his arms crossed. He raised an eyebrow at her.
“You bastard,” she spat at him, glaring back.
“Now that I have you pinned, why don’t you answer a couple questions for me, while I wait for the rest of my team to come and bring you to the authorities,” he said.
“Screw you!” she shouted.
Kaldbrann looked unfazed as he stared evenly at Knightmare. “Why are you after the Commissioner of Transportation?”
“Bite me!”
He frowned. “Are you behind the string of mysterious murders these past several months?”
That got Knightmare to grin. “Who says it’s just been the past several months?”
Kaldbrann’s eyes widened behind his goggles but did his best not to show it outwardly where Knightmare could see. “Why?” he asked simply.
“That is none of your business,” Knightmare said and glared she held her rod straight down, toward the ice.
Kaldbrann took a step forward. “Tell me,” he said, more insistent this time.
“Sorry, you need to reach at least level four friendship before you unlock my tragic backstory,” Knightmare said sarcastically.
She jerked her arm down toward the ice encasing her foot and it cracked. Before Kaldbrann could even figure out what she was managed to do, she pulled her foot out of the mangled boot and stepped away. She twirled the rod in her hand, pressing the button on the side and holstered it.
“Well, I’d love to stay and chat with you more, Icyhot,” she said. “But I really ought to go buy a new pair of boots. You wouldn’t want to get between a girl and her shoes, right?”
Before Kaldbrann could so much as think of a reply, Knightmare darted away and jumped off the building. Not mere seconds later, she rose high in the sky and he could just barely make out a pair of bat wings on her back.
* * *
Kaldbrann pressed his ID against the scanner and when the door opened, he walked in. He pulled his mask down and took off his goggles. His two tone red and white hair fell over his eyes, just barely obscuring them. Honestly, he hated wearing those things. He thought it made him look stupid even though it helped with his night vision and a whole bunch of other neat things. It was an invention of Midoriya’s along with a friend of his by the name of Hatsume. It… was Midoriya’s idea to wear them, too. Something about the scar over his left eye being too recognizable.
Walking further into the room, the sound of the radar getting louder, he dropped the goggles on the table before falling into a swivel chair in front of the high tech dashboard. Iida, Uraraka, Bakugou and Kirishima had been sent off, along with him, to patrol the different sectors of Tokyo while Midoriya ran ops back at the hideout. It looked like he was the first one back and Midoriya had… disappeared somewhere. But that wasn’t really a problem. He was glad for the time to himself, to think about what had just happened.
That girl, Knightmare…
There was something about her that didn’t quite seem right. The way her violet eyes pierced at him in the darkness... they looked so familiar. And he was positive he didn’t know anyone with eyes like hers.
Before he got too deep into his thoughts though, he was joined by Midoriya.
“Todoroki-kun,” he said. “You’re back early. Did something happen?”
Todoroki was silent for a moment. “Something like that,” he said.
“What?”
“I stopped the assassination of the Commissioner of Transportation,” he said and sat up in his chair. “Can you do a search on a villain by the name of Knightmare? And mysterious deaths that were ruled as peaceful in their sleep?”
“Er… right,” Midoriya said. He turned to the screen on the dashboard in front of him and then his fingers started flying over the keyboard. “There’s nothing about a villain called Knightmare. But there are at least thirty cases of mysterious deaths that were, after the coroner took a look at them, ruled as peaceful and in their sleep.” Midoriya turned to look at his friend. “Why are you asking?”
“The villain I faced. She called herself Knightmare,” he said. “And when I asked her if she was behind the recent string of deaths the past few months, she… asked if I was sure if it was just the past three months.” Todoroki ran his hand through his hair. “How long ago was the first death?”
Midoriya looked at his screen and squinted at the tiny words. “About four years ago,” Midoriya said.
Todoroki’s frown deepened. That girl couldn’t have been any older than he was. So did that mean she’s been killing people since she was fourteen years old? And why was she doing this? Did she take pleasure in it or something? Or was someone forcing her to do it? So many questions filled his head.
“Print me out those files of the deaths,” he said. “I’m going to look at them during my free time.”
“Don’t take on more than you can handle, Todoroki-kun,” Midoriya said warningly. “What are you thinking anyway?”
“I’m thinking that there’s more to this Knightmare than she wants me to believe,” Todoroki said. “To start murdering people at fourteen, there has to be a reason. And I want to see if there’s any kind of connection. If I can figure out who this Knightmare girl is, then maybe I can stop her before things get too much worse.”
“All right, well,” Midoriya clicked something on the screen, “every thing’s printing out for you.”
“Thank you, Midoriya-kun.”
* * *
The window to the second story bedroom slid open and Knightmare slinked in. Standing at the foot of her bed, she pulled the mask down off her face and started shedding her costume. The armour was first, setting her chest plate and gauntlets in a pile in the corner of her room. The red sash and utility belt were next, joining the armour in the corner. Her remaining boot went in the trash to be taken to the incinerator. Before she peeled the black body suit off, she pulled out a new pair and set them next to the armour.
Once she was out of the costume and dressed in normal clothes, she left her room, leaving her hair in its ponytail. She walked to the kitchen and saw her father there standing over the stove.
“So how did the mission go, Kaida?” he asked.
She hesitated and looked down. “I’m sorry, father,” she said. “A hero got in my way and chased me off before I could so much as enter the building.”
Her father stopped whatever he was doing. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But it sounds to me like you’re telling me that you failed.”
She swallowed thickly. “I’m sorry, father..”
Before she knew it, her father was in front of her and he gripped her ponytail, yanking it back to make her look at him. His expression was hostile and then all of a sudden her vision went black. Fear rushed through her when her sight was cut off. He was really angry. He only ever used his quirk when he was absolutely livid with her. Which was usually when the beatings came.
“You know what I do to failures, Kaida Yoruno,” he said. The fact that he even used her last name was an even clearer sign that she was in deep shit.
“I-I’m sorry,” Yoruno replied. “I’ll do better. I’ll take care of it tomorrow night.”
“You had better,” he said darkly.
And then the beating came. By the time she got back to her room some time later, she was broken. A new bruise was forming on her shoulder and another was on her stomach near her newly cracked rib. That one even went so far as to stretch to her back. Breathing was laborious and her head hurt from where her father pulled at her hair.
She collapsed onto her bed, laying on the side that was mostly uninjured and forced her eyes closed. Quietly, as she did every night, she prayed for someone to rescue her from her hell, to do the thing her brother promised to do but actually go through with it.