Chapter Text
A short teenaged boy ran through a dense, dark forest. He had curly green hair, large green eyes, and small black freckles dotted on his cheeks. You'd think him innocent, until you looked closer. His left eye was injured, his arms were bent behind him, and he was covered in scrapes. His shirt had been completely torn off, and his blue shorts hadn't fared much better. What looked like green electricity flew off of his chiseled body as he sprinted through the trees, searching.
'Kacchan and Shochan went second in the test of courage,' he thought. 'If they didn't go back to camp yet, then they might still be around here.' He looked up, and gasped. A dark, ghostly claw was rushing toward him. He tried to jump back, but felt pain throughout his body.
He had injured himself when he tried to defend a young boy named Koda from a villain. He had overused his own quirk in the process, destroying his body. The villain he'd fought had said something about himself being a decoy to lure the greenette into injury.
He prepared for the attack, grimacing and closing his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw a not unwelcome sight. He was wrapped in the 'arm' of one of his classmates, who had pulled him out of the way of the dark shadow. The newcomer was tall, wore a blue mask covering his mouth and neck, and had long white hair covering one of his eyes. He wore a white tank top, and camouflage-patterned pants. His 'arms' were more like tentacles. 3 arms sprouted from each of his shoulders, connected by a thin piece of skin and ending in nubs. One of said nubs was dripping blood.
The teen gasped. "Shoji, what happened?!" he said, voice cracking in concern for his surprisingly younger friend.
"With those injuries," Shoji said, breathing heavily, "You should be laid up in bed recoverin’. But you wanna save your friends. No matter the cost."
"That thing just now, wait. Don't tell me..."
"Yeah. If we wanna get through here, we'll have to face Dark Shadow first." The two looked into the trees. There, they saw a huge black ghostly crow, with enormous claws and huge red eyes. Inside the beast was another classmate of theirs. He had a crow's head, and wore black clothing. His face was scrunched up in pain, sweating, as he tried to maintain control over the beast. The monster, named Dark Shadow, was the bird boy's sentient quirk. It let out a huge roar.
"Stay away from me! You'll die!" the bird boy cried out. The teen in Shoji's arms gasped.
"Tokoyami, no!" he screamed. As the monster raged on, smashing trees and such, he spoke to Shoji. "But... how did he get this way?"
"Keep it down," Shoji stated. "After Mandalay told us what was happening and that we shouldn't engage, we were both on high alert. Still, one of the villains got the drop on us. I hid in the bushes, and tried to cover Tokoyami, even though one of my arms was cut off."
"Really?" asked the concerned teen.
"It looks bad, but it's not like it's lost forever. My Dupli-Arms are capable of making duplicates upon duplicates. One of those was cut off. Thing is, he couldn't stand seeing me injured like that. The quirk he had been suppressing began to rage and take over."
"The darker it is, the less control Tokoyami has," the greenette added. "I had no idea his quirk could explode like this."
"It's probably fueled by his righteous indignation and regret. He tried to hold it back, but they made it wilder." Shoji stepped back, and crunched a stick. Dark Shadow's eyes widened, and it swiped at the boy. He sprang back, narrowly avoiding the blow. "It started lunging at any sound or movement, a beast lashing out with indiscriminate attacks."
"Forget about me!" Tokoyami grunted as his quirk snapped several trees in half. "Go! Find our classmates. Help them instead." He called to the beast. "Stop this! Calm down, Dark Shadow!"
"His quirk has a weakness to light," Shoji murmured. "If we can lead them to a fire or back to camp, we can contain it. Midoriya. I know this is strange circumstances, but I can't just leave a suffering friend behind. You forced your broken body to get you here because you were worried about Bakugou and Todoroki. If you still wanna save them, I'll distract Dark Shadow for you. And you can run."
"Hold on," Midoriya gasped, "the fire and camp are both pretty far away. You'll be in danger if he--" Dark Shadow launched a claw at the two, causing Shoji to have to jump again.
"I know that," Shoji grunted, "But to save people you have to take risks. That's what makes a hero, a hero." He landed behind a tree. "Will you stay with me and help Tokoyami? Or will you rush to your boyfriend's side? You have to make a choice. Right now.”
Midoriya slowly blinked. As he opened his eyes, he adopted a fierce expression. “I already have,” he said.
————
A gruesome sight was held aloft in the air. A green full-body straight-jacket was wrapped around a deranged looking man with crazed eyes and long, blade-like teeth. His teeth held him high above the trees, looking down at the forest floor. “Fleeeeesh. Pieces of meeeeeaat!” he screeched, his voice low and rough. “FLEEEESSSH!” he yelled again, as his ‘teeth’ grew from his mouth, projectiling themselves towards the ground. Suddenly, a huge wall of ice was thrown, blocking the man’s progress.
The knives stabbed through the ice, nearly hitting someone inside. The ‘someone’ was a tall, thin teen with long red and white hair, split down the middle. On his left, he had a stark blue eye and an old burn scar covering it. On his right, a soft brown eye. The white-haired side had small patches of ice all over his face, as well. He wore a blue jacket over a white t-shirt, and black jeans. He was carrying a ginger-haired boy, who lay unconscious.
“Teeth attacks? Seriously?” growled another boy. He had a poof of blonde hair, spiking out everywhere. It made him look like a pomeranian. His red eyes held a cocky, menacing look. He wore a black polo and pants. “It’s time to blast this freak with everything I’ve got!
“You can’t!” called the peppermint.
“If the trees burn, just cover them with ice, stupid!”
“A big explosion will impair my vision, though. I may not be able to see the fire. And how are you gonna get close to him anyway?”
The Pomeranian growled. Suddenly, a huge crash sounded from behind them. They turned, and saw a huge cloud of destruction rushing towards them. The teeth villain turned towards the sound as well.
“There! I see ice! They’re fighting!” a high-pitched voice called from the trees in front of them.
As the three looked at the forest, Shoji came rushing out with Midoriya in his arms, Dark Shadow rushing behind them.
“Bakugou! Todoroki!” Shoji yelled, a scared look on his face. “One of you, give us some light! “
The villain’s teeth expanded with renewal. “More FLEEEEEESH!” His blades rushed towards the group, but Dark Shadow stopped the man. It jumped on top of him, its red eyes glowing. Tokoyami gave out another cry as the peppermint and Pomeranian gasped.
“Kacchan!” called Midoriya. The peppermint, Todoroki, felt a twinge of jealousy as he called for the other boy instead of himself, but thought against it. Katsuki Bakugou was Izuku’s best friend in elementary, though they had a falling out for a while. The villains were after Bakugou as they thought he would make a great villain, and Midoriya must have been terrified for Bakugou’s safety.
“Izuku and Shoji,” Todoroki said calmly, “And… is that Tokoyami?” 'Is… is Izuku... hurt? Shoji’s carrying him! His arms look totaled, and… is he squinting?' Todoroki thought, his mind betraying his calm demeanor.
He and Bakugou stared at the Dark Shadow as it raged and roared. It landed on top of the villain, and continued to destroy the forest. One of Shoji’s Dupli-Arms rushed over to meet the two, a mouth on its end.
“We need some light now! He’s out of control!” said the arm.
“He’s attacking blindly. I’ll use my fire,” Todoroki said. He set the ginger boy on his back down gently.
“Not so fast.” Bakugou put a hand out to stop Todoroki.
“Flesh. Slabs of meat,” the villain screeched, rising from the ground. No good. Can’t allow it. I’m the one that gets to slice them open. Don’t steal from me!” He shot his blades out once again, but to no avail. Dark Shadow stopped his blades and wrapped around him.
“You don’t matter. Insignificant bug!” The monster squeezed, and snapped the man’s teeth.
“Now, finish him,” Bakugou growled.
Dark Shadow roared, and slammed the man into a tree. “Not enough! It’s not enough!” it screeched. It dove onto the teens, but then mewled. Flames and explosions drove it back, and it shrank back into Tokoyami. He fell to his knees, panting and sweating.
“And once again, I’m a terrible matchup for you, bird boy,” said Bakugou.
“Thanks. You saved me,” Tokoyami whispered.
Todoroki looked at him, and then at the collapsed figure under the tree. “We could barely defend against that guy, but you beat him instantly.”
Shoji walked over to Todoroki, holding Midoriya. “Do you want to take him?” he asked.
“Of course,” the peppermint said. He set the ginger boy on the ground. Shoji unwrapped Midoriya, and the greenette wobbled over to Todoroki. The smaller boy put his arm around the hot pocket, leaning on him for support. Shoji bent down, and picked up the boy.
“Hey, Shochan,” the greenette said, wincing.
“Izuku. How hurt are you?” Todoroki asked gently.
“Pretty bad. I overused my quirk again.”
Todoroki sighed. “Of course you did. Who did you save?”
“Uh, h-how did you know that I did that?”
“Because I know you, Izuku. That’s just the kind of thing you’d do: put yourself in danger to help even a villain. Who was it? Why did you need to protect them? Who hurt you? Who do I need to kill?” His face darkened with the last question.
“I- Please don’t kill anyone? I was protecting Koda from a villain named Muscular. I think I got him pretty good, I haven’t seen or heard from him since.”
As the two talked, Shoji walked over to Tokoyami.
“My friend. Are you okay? We did what we needed you to,” Shoji said.
“Shoji. I apologize. You too, Midoriya. I’m still far too immature. Anger consumed me, and I let my quirk take over. The influence of the darkness, combined with my fury, spurred Dark Shadow into a frenzy. Until it got so strong I couldn’t contain it, and I ended up hurting Shoji.” Tokoyami’s voice was wavering. He sounded on the verge of tears.
Shoji spoke. “We’ll deal with it later.” Tokoyami gasped. “That’s what you’d say if our roles were reversed.” He looked up. Midoriya gave out a small laugh.
”Okay. I don’t know if you’ve heard Mandalay, but I found out the villains are after Kacchan,” the greenette said.
“Bakugou. Are they trying to kill him? Why?” Tokoyami asked.
“I’m not sure. But I think we should get to camp. It’s the safest place now, so long as Vlad King and Mr. Aizawa have regrouped there.” As the other members of the party had their conversation, Bakugou looked back and forth. He had an unusual expression of confusion on his face.
“I understand. So our mission is to get Bakugou back to safety by serving as his protectors,” Tokoyami said.
The group made a plan of action, best summarized by ‘Let’s go through the woods to get to camp. We can use our quirks to avoid villains.’
“Honestly, with a group like this, we could probably even go up against All Might,” Midoriya said.
“I’d be fine by myself!” Katsuki shouted.
“We’ll surround you as we walk,” said Todoroki.
“I don’t need any of your protection, dammit!”
“Let’s go,” Shoji said. He started walking into the woods, leading the pack.
“Don’t ignore me!” called Bakugou.
“Just make sure you keep up,” said Todoroki. He started after Shoji.
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Katuski growled. He reluctantly followed behind the peppermint.
'We’ll get everyone back safely,' Midoriya thought. 'If we can do that, that’s all that matters'.