Chapter Text
“I enjoy my coffee as black as the abyss of my soul,” Tokoyami announced one afternoon. The entirety of Class 1-A was huddled in pairs and trios on the couches in the common room of the UA dorms.
“Yes, there’s something about the bitterness of black coffee that makes it the best,” Shinsou agreed.
“YOU’RE CRAZY!” Ashido yelled, slamming her hands down into the beanbag. “Hot chocolate is obviously the best!”
“What’s hot chocolate?” Todoroki interjected. “Is it melted chocolate, like the kind you get at the chocolate fountain, but still hot?”
“...”
Two seconds of shocked silence. That was all the warning Todoroki had before the entire room exploded.
“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT HOT CHOCOLATE IS???”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“It’s basically heated milk or water with cocoa powder,” explained Yaoyorozu, ever the source of calm. “It’s delicious.”
“Ah.”
“It’s the best drink ever!” Uraraka exclaimed.
“I like slushies,” Todoroki stated. “They’re good.”
“We’re talking about hot drinks here, Todoroki,” Jiro told him.
“Oh.”
“I’ve always thought tea was nice and soothing,” Yaoyorozu offered.
“Ooh! I’ve tried iced tea before! It was really cool and refreshing!”
“We. Are. Talking. About. Hot. Drinks.”
“Actually, we should be studying diligently for the upcoming test!” Iida shouted, chopping his arm up and down.
“What is wrong with all of you extras?” Bakugou shouted. “You’re all talking about sweet drinks! Hot cayenne is obviously the best!”
“Hot… cayenne…” Todoroki mused. “Oh! Is it like hot chocolate, but with cayenne pepper instead?”
“Yes,” Midoriya informed him, “but it’s not a real drink.”
“IT IS A REAL DRINK!”
“Only Kacchan can drink it without dying of spice.”
“NOT MY FAULT YOU IDIOTS ARE ALL SO WEAK!”
“Come on, Bakugou, don’t you have any drinks that we can enjoy too?” Kirishima asked.
“Yeah, friends share things!” added Kaminari.
“I’M NOT YOUR FRIEND!”
“He still doesn’t admit it, but he really loves us,” Kaminari whispered, before jumping up and hiding behind Ashido as Bakugou tried to murder him.
As the blond calmed down, he returned to his original spot on the beanbag next to Kirishima. “If you’re all too weak to try hot cayenne, at least try hot paprika.”
“What’s papi-rika?” Uraraka asked.
“pAh-PREE-KAH,” Aoyama corrected. The way he pronounced it made it sound like an Italian word.
“It’s a milder, tamed-down version of cayenne,” Midoriya explained.
“Is it any good?” asked Uraraka curiously.
“Still really spicy,” Midoriya informed her, wincing. “One time I tried it, but I choked after one sip.”
“It’s not spicy,” Bakugou shot back. “I’ll show you!” He stomped over to the kitchen and filled up the kettle with water, but instead of boiling it normally, he used his Explosion quirk to release a blast that had droplets of now-boiled water splashing over everyone on the couch. Then he filled a cup with the water, grabbed the paprika powder, poured an entire tablespoonful in, and shoved the glass at Kaminari.
Kaminari blinked. “Me?”
“Yes, idiot, you,” Bakugou responded.
The yellow-haired boy took the glass hesitantly, as if it was about to explode (which wouldn’t have been surprising given Bakugou’s nature).
“Try it.”
Quickly, Kaminari lifted the glass to his lips and took a small sip.
And immediately set the glass down in a hurry, sputtering and coughing.
“Ah! Spicy!” Kaminari fanned his tongue. “Milk?”
“YOU’RE WEAK IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE A TINY BIT OF PAPRIKA!” Bakugou yelled unsympathetically, although he got up to retrieve the milk carton from the refrigerator.
“It’s not a little bit!” Midoriya argued indignantly. “You dumped in an entire tablespoon!”
“That’s why you stick with coffee,” Shinso said. “There’s no funny business in coffee.”
“But there is caffeine, which makes me do funny things,” Kaminari said, his wide grin implying that he’d had more than a cup of coffee that morning.
At that, Tokoyami rose. “I must depart,” he said. “I have a desire to gulp down a cup of bitter liquid darkness, and I must give into said desire.”
“— What ?” asked Todoroki.
“He wants coffee,” said Shouji.
“Oh.” Todoroki twisted around in his seat to watch as the other boy dumped a tablespoon of coffee powder into his mug.
“Isn’t that a bit much for three o’clock in the afternoon?” Uraraka whispered. “Should we stop him?”
“No,” answered Tokoyami as he sat back down with a cup of coffee in his hand. “I must.” In one swift gulp, he downed the whole thing.
With a concerned smile, Iida tried to redirect the conversation. “Okay, so—”
Suddenly, Tokoyami gasped and five heads turned in his direction.
“Tokoyami? You okay?” asked Midoriya, concerned.
The raven-headed boy fell to his knees, clutching at his head, his eyes narrowed in pain. “There’s a—”
Then he slumped to the ground and lay motionless.
After a beat of silence, Uraraka ran over to where the boy had slumped over, shaking him. “Tokoyami! What happened?”
Her words seemed to shake the others out of their stupor.
“Tokoyami!” called Jiro, rushing over.
“What happened?” asked Kirishima. “Tokoyami was fine just a moment ago—”
“Bakugo’s cayenne pepper—maybe he was allergic to it?” suggested Kaminari.
“He didn’t even drink the cayenne concoction,” scoffed Bakugou, but worry seeped through into his voice nonetheless.
Aoyama began shaking the limp boy. “Tokoyami? Please, please wake up-”
Still no response.
“Somebody should get Aizawa-sensei,” suggested Ochaco. As she spoke, Iida was already dashing off at full speed, engines heating up.
“Does he have a medical condition that we didn’t know about?” wondered Midoriya. “Did he overexert himself earlier during training?”
“Aizawa-sensei will know,” Yaoyorozu concluded, but even she sounded uncertain.
Aizawa-sensei, as it turned out, had no idea. Neither did Recovery Girl or any of the other professionals who tried to discern the inner workings of Tokoyami’s condition.
Perhaps, in time, they could have unraveled the mystery of what had happened to Tokoyami. But one by one, the fledgling heroes of Class 1-A also succumbed to the strange affliction, and after five days, Midoriya was among the only ones left.
After Tokoyami, Todoroki was the next to collapse. Later, Yaoyorozu described being visited by a splitting headache right before Todoroki lost consciousness, and spoke of a strange voice warning of impending doom. When other students also felt the same headache and heard the same voice, followed immediately by one or two heroes collapsing, Class 1-A began to realize it was a precursor to tragedy and hastily tried to piece together the voice’s message before the rest succumbed to the condition.
By the time the majority of Class 1-A had fallen into their unexplainable coma, Midoriya was only able to discern two vague lines from the voice’s declaration:
“Let expanse contract, eon become instant…”
“Throw wide the gates that we may pass!”