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There shouldn’t be villains at the carnival.
They actually got permission from Aizawa-sensei to attend, as long as everyone stayed in small groups. Yuuga’s group of three is the unusual combination of himself, Iida, and Tokoyami. He gets along well with them, at least, although they had some disagreements about which attractions to visit first. It shouldn’t surprise him that Iida wants to ride the supposed “Fastest Roller Coaster On This Half of Japan,” or that Tokoyami wants to tour the Haunted House. Yuuga is content to follow their lead, although some cheesy snacks seem to be calling his name.
There shouldn’t be villains at the carnival.
And yet.
It’s only two villains, at least. One has a light redirection quirk, which is annoying for both himself and Tokoyami. The other’s quirk is unknown.
Somehow, an idea comes to him: the House of Mirrors might cause the first villain some trouble and get the pair away from civilians. Their attention, of course, is fully locked on the immediately recognizable UA students, so leading them off shouldn’t be hard.
Yuuga grabs his classmates’ arms and pulls them into the building, the villains’ laughter trailing behind them. The door slams shut as they cross the threshold and there’s a blinding light-
He blinks, and he’s on the ground, Iida and Tokoyami several feet to either side. The villains hadn’t followed them.
More laughter, this time echoing through the building, bouncing off the walls.
“Well look at that!” says the voice, “The little heroes are right where we want them. What excellent work we’ve done.”
The maze of glass stretches out before them. It almost looks like there are eyes staring out from the panels, but- no. There’s nothing.
Iida stands. “It might seem that way to you, villains, but I assure you that this fight is not yet over!”
He turns and marches back to the front of the building, stopping right where the door…
Used to be.
“Oh, little hero, it’s definitely not over. We have a challenge for you, you see. Make your way through this maze, and you’ll find us at the other end. That is all.”
“We refuse to play your nefarious games,” Tokoyami says. Dark Shadow rears up behind him.
Iida kicks at the mirror where the door used to stand, to no effect. It must be quirk-treated glass.
The fluorescent overhead lights flicker and burst, one by one. Tokoyami and Dark Shadow cover Iida and Yuuga so that they don’t get hit by the rain of falling glass. When the lightbulbs are gone, Dark Shadow retreats, somewhat larger than before.
The only light is from the mirrors in the maze, glowing with an eerie blue haze.
“Well,” Yuuga huffs, “how annoying. I certainly don’t want to play along.”
Iida shakes his head. He pulls out his phone, frowning when it stays dark. “I had nearly a full battery just moments ago. There’s no reason it should be dead.”
Yuuga and Tokoyami check their own phones– dead as well. There’s no way to contact Aizawa-sensei or their classmates to wait for a rescue.
“It appears that the only way out is through,” Tokoyami grumbles, Dark Shadow settling on his shoulders. They turn to face the maze.
The mirror panels are tall, stretching up to the ceiling. They have an inherent light. Yuuga remembers reading an article about radium glass, and the mirrors are reminiscent of the pictures included.
He steps forward to get a closer look-
“Hey!”
He whirls around as another glass panel shoots down from the ceiling, separating him from his classmates.
Shit!
He bangs on the panel, greeted only by his reflection and the panicked shouts of the boys beyond.
“Aoyama!” Iida yells, “Are you alright?!”
“I am fine, mon ami! ”
“Good! Stand back, I’m going to try– Recipro Burst! ”
The mirror shakes with the impact, and Yuuga watches as the few fractures formed glow brighter and heal themselves.
“These aren’t normal mirrors,” he says. “I don’t think we can break them.”
“Can you use your quirk to crack it?” Tokoyami asks.
Yuuga lets himself frown. “ Mon ami , can you perhaps think for a moment and tell me why firing a laser in a room full of mirrors might not be the best idea?”
“...Ah. Excellent point.”
Yuuga turns to inspect the rest of the maze. It seems that he’d inadvertently entered it, and there was a path ahead…
“I’m going to go deeper in,” he says. “Hopefully, we shall reunite at the other end.”
“Be careful,” Iida says. “We don’t know what the villains have planned.”
“Be that as it may,” Tokoyami says, “they do not know what to expect from us, either. Good luck, my friend.”
With a deep breath, Yuuga steps further into the maze.
Tenya doesn’t like this.
First Aoyama gets separated, then he loses Tokoyami as well. His attempts to keep auditory contact are fruitless. He’s the Class President, he should be able to keep track of his classmates. If anything should happen to them, it would be on his shoulders.
No, he needs to have more faith in them. Aoyama and Tokoyami are both incredibly strong– no matter that the mirrors rendered Aoyama’s quirk more of a hazard and that the glow prevented Dark Shadow from becoming more powerful. It’s not like even Recipro Burst is helpful at this point, unless he runs into a villain– and he sincerely hopes that he doesn’t. Clearly, they have more than a passing control over the maze itself.
He can’t help but feel that he’s being watched.
Every so often he’ll be all but certain that there are eyes upon him, but when he turns around– nothing. If the villain can watch them through the mirrors- ugh. Perhaps he’s simply paranoid.
The silence and isolation are messing with his mind. Sometimes he’s sure he hears screaming and he runs to the source, but when he gets there- nothing. One of these times it’s going to be real and he won’t do anything about it. He can’t let that happen.
Sometimes it sounds too close to Aoyama or Tokoyami, but it could also be Midoriya, Uraraka, Todoroki– he knows they’re not there. He knows . But then again, does he really?
He’ll see flashes of metal in the mirror, spots of red blood or a red mask. He runs even faster.
Yelling again, this time with words he can make out, and he knows it has to be real.
“Stop- stop it! You’re not here, you’re not real! I don’t have to listen to you anymore!”
Aoyama?
He darts through the maze as fast as he possibly can, not caring as he bounces off the mirrors at every turn until-
There! There he is!
“N-no! They’ll never know, shut up! You don’t control me!”
Aoyama is beyond a clear panel of glass, not a mirror this time. Tenya only just stops himself from smacking face-first into it. His classmate is backing away from something or someone, hands fisted in his hair and eyes shut tight. He’s the most distressed that Tenya’s ever seen him, even more than the Licensing Exam when he’d fallen into such despair that he’d nearly given up.
Tenya presses his hands against the glass.
“Aoyama, can you hear me?!”
No reaction.
It hadn’t worked the first time, but Tenya is desperate to reach his friend.
“ Recipro Burst! ”
This time the glass shatters on impact, but–
Aoyama is nowhere to be seen.
Another damn trick of the maze.
Fumikage doesn’t know whether to curse this glow or be thankful for it. Without it, Dark Shadow would be infinitely more powerful, but there’s always that eating fear that he’ll lose control. Even though it’s been months since the training camp, he can’t let go.
He will not hurt his friends.
“Come on, Fumi,” Dark Shadow whispers to him, “I’m better than that!”
He ignores them and continues onward. The sooner he finishes this dastardly maze, the sooner he can find Iida and Aoyama.
He hadn’t expected to need to find Iida, but it was likely the villains’ goal to split them all apart. Whether there would be more trouble ahead, it was almost certain. Three UA students could handle a maze, even if it kept changing around them. There had to be something else.
Dark Shadow isn’t currently strong enough to break the mirrors, nor can they simply fly above the maze entirely. Even if they could break the mirrors, he shudders to imagine the bad luck an entire building’s worth of broken mirrors would bring upon them.
The silence whispers to him like a faux friend, beckoning him deeper and deeper. Occasionally it hits crescendo and even Dark Shadow flinches back. It’s how he knows that his mind isn’t playing tricks on him.
“Fumi, this is pretty eerie stuff,” Dark Shadow says. “I hate that I can’t do nothin’.”
“You’re doing enough,” he says to his eternal companion. “I fear for the others more than anything. They are not as accustomed to the darkness as we are.”
Dark Shadow nods and wraps their arms around Fumikage’s shoulders, mimicking their hero costume’s cloak.
There’s a nearby sound of shattering glass, and it sets his feathers on edge; they are not alone.
Fumikage dares not call out into the darkness– the possibility of friend is great, but foe is still greater. What, exactly, can break a near-unbreakable mirror? He is not eager to meet it.
He holds a steady pace and continues forward. Villain or not, he must keep going. It’s the only way.
Thumping, heavy footsteps grow louder and louder. He nods at Dark Shadow– Be ready!
Something turns the corner-
And slams right into him.
From his new seat on the ground, he stares up at Iida.
“Really,” Fumikage says with a sigh, “Was such alacrity necessary?”
Dark Shadow does not politely hold in their laughter.
“Tokoyami!” The Class President yells, and the whispers are gone entirely. “I’m glad to see you’re alright!” He holds out a hand, one that Fumikage gratefully takes. Iida helps him to his feet.
“Have you seen signs of our other companion?” Fumikage asks.
Iida frowns. “I have, but the maze is playing tricks on me. I don’t know if it was really him. I could see him, but when I broke the glass between us, he was gone.”
“You broke the glass?” Was that the shattering noise from earlier?
Iida pushes his glasses up on his face, and Fumikage notes a scratch along his cheek. “It took a Recipro Burst, but yes. I won’t be able to do it often enough to avoid the maze entirely, not if we want to find him quickly. He seemed to be in great distress.”
Fumikage nods. “One as fond of the light as he must be facing difficulty in the darkness. I fear for him to be alone much longer.”
Yuuga is not having a very good time. Why did he ever think that a mirror maze would be a good battleground? Especially when his quirk is a laser of all things! He’s absolutely useless.
One would think, as someone whose room housed a mirror collection, he would be immune to the uneasiness surrounding him. One would be very, very wrong.
He’s still seeing those eyes, too, out of the corner of his own. Do they belong to the villain somehow? Is he simply going mad?
His footsteps echo around him as he walks, head held high and arms at his sides. He refuses to give those assholes a show. He is calm, he is confident, he is–
He stops. The echoing footsteps do not.
– He is not alone. Shit.
It could be one of his friends. It could be a villain. It could be a minotaur, for all he knows, and here he is without a ball of string or a sword.
He starts walking again, very slightly faster than he had been. The footsteps speed up as well. They’re definitely following him.
He tries to use the mirrors to look behind himself without drawing attention. He sees nothing.
He turns a corner– right into a dead end.
Shit.
The footsteps pause directly behind him. He whirls around to see–
Nothing. No one is behind him.
He refuses to let his guard down. He definitely, most certainly does not jump when he feels a large, heavy hand on his shoulder.
He whirls around again, and no one’s there, except–
There’s a gargantuan, pitch black shadow coalescing in the mirror, positioned right behind him.
Was he right about the minotaur?!
“Yuuga,” says a voice behind him, and his heart stops.
Oh, how he wishes it was a minotaur.
“How wonderful to see you,” All for One says. “Well, metaphorically speaking, of course.”
“Impossible,” Yuuga says. “You’re in Tartarus. All Might defeated you.” He wants to back away, but the mirror shows the devil behind him. He still feels the weight on his shoulder.
“Now, is that any way to greet your Uncle, Yuuga? I must say, I’m disappointed.”
“Stop- stop it!” Yuuga stammers. This is a trick, it has to be, but who in hell would know about this disgusting connection?! “You’re not here, you’re not real! I don’t have to listen to you anymore!”
All for One frowns, and the grip on Yuuga’s shoulder tightens.
“How very rude of you. I thought I taught you better than that. Just wait until your little friends find out just how rude you are. Of course, that’s assuming they’re still your friends, after they find out about your role in everything.”
Yuuga throws himself forward out of the villain’s grasp. He shuts his eyes tight. Maybe if he’s not looking at the illusion, it will go away.
“N-no, they’ll never know.”
“But they will know, Yuuga. I’ll tell them myself. That is, unless you return to doing what I say.”
“Shut up!” Yuuga yells. “You don’t control me!”
“Is that so? My mistake. I’m only the one who gave you everything, after all. And I can take it away, too.”
It’s not real. It can’t be real. There’s no way All for One could escape Tartarus, and he wouldn’t come looking for Yuuga.
Glass shatters in the distance, and all at once, Yuuga can breathe.
He looks up, and the mirror blocking his path is gone.
He’s alone. He never stopped being alone.
Yuuga stands up, dusts himself off, and continues forward.
He finds Iida and Tokoyami at the end of the maze, with three, not two, defeated villains underfoot. They rush over to make sure that he’s alright.
“I’m just fine, mes amis , it was just a maze. Nothing a star like myself couldn’t handle.”
Iida looks unsure, but says nothing. Tokoyami nods.
“I’m glad you’re well,” he says, “I merely wish we could have provided more assistance.”
Yuuga laughs and flips his hair. “There was nothing to assist, I can assure you.” His smile is tight, but still standing.
“There you all are!” Comes the voice of an irate Aizawa-sensei, and sure enough, there he is. “You didn’t show up at the meeting point, you wouldn’t answer your phones, you–”
He pauses at the sight of the villains. He sighs.
“Of course. Of course we can’t have one good day out with no villains. None of you look too injured, at least.”
“No Sensei, none except for a small cut,” Iida says. He points to his cheek.
“Great, Recovery Girl won’t need to lecture you all, at least.”
And with that, they start the exhausting journey back to the bus, cheesy carnival snacks taunting them the entire way.