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Tokoyami was a being of darkness and an endless abyss of pain. His soul was intertwined with darkness, the dark corners, and the shadows that served as his refuge, his home, and his safe haven. He prided himself on his carefully crafted aura, which showed everyone who he was and that it was unwise to mess with him and his dark soul. Whenever he could, he would sit in a corner, a cup of black coffee in his hand—strong and bitter, just the way his discerning palate loved it—and read poetry about ruin, death, and pain.
But there was one catch to all of this. His quirk, the powerful and feared Dark Shadow, suffered from one small peculiarity. Even though light paralyzed him, made him weak, and terrified him, after years of fighting side by side and building trust, his fear had turned into fascination, which gradually grew into an obsession. Whenever something glinted, sparkled, or cast rainbow streaks across the room near him, he would appear, admiring every glint like a magpie and, like a raccoon with outstretched hands, rummaging all over the place to find the source of the light and steal it for himself.
***
At first, it was harmless. Tokoyami was glad that the Dark Shadow had begun to fight his fear and hadn’t let it consume him the way it had Tokoyami, but when the Dark Shadow gradually started taking an interest in the people around him—especially his classmates, who made no secret of their radiant abilities—it began to become a problem.
It started innocently, right in the first week at the dorms. Tokoyami was sitting in the common room at the darkest end of the couch, trying to immerse himself in a collection of poems by Edgar Allan Poe.
Just then, Aoyama walked into the room, holding a select French cheese in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other. He was laughing at something Yaoyorozu had said; she covered her smile with her soft palm. “I told her—there’s no such thing as too much glitter,” said Aoyama, turning around, a new purple cloak studded with sequins and glitter draped over his shoulder.
Tokoyami wouldn’t normally have noticed them and would have continued trying to make sense of the darkness on the paper, but then he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. Before he had a chance to wonder what it was, Dark Shadow emerged from his body. It gazed straight ahead, its wings clasped as if in prayer, its eyes glowing and twisted into imaginary hearts. Tokoyami opened his beak in disgust, about to scold him, when Dark Shadow darted forward and stopped in front of Aoyama, who let out a soft squeak as Dark Shadow appeared beside him.
“Glitterrrr,” the Dark Shadow squeaked contentedly and began to touch Aoyama’s cloak with a feather.
Aoyama laughed and turned sideways toward him so he could see the entire cloak, which fell all the way to his calves. “Do you like it?” he asked Dark Shadow.
“I do!” he confirmed. “Glitterrr,” he gasped again and began rubbing his beak contentedly against the cloak, making sounds Tokoyami had never heard before.
Tokoyami blushed. He was glad it wasn’t visible on his black feathers. “Dark Shadow, stop it! Turn away from this radiant madness!” he scolded him, but Dark Shadow wasn’t listening at all. On the contrary, he giggled when Yaoyorozu stroked his head.
“Ah, mon ami,” Aoyama laughed at Tokoyami, “even beings of darkness cannot resist my radiant glow.”
“Disgusting,” Tokoyami choked, trying with sheer willpower to pull Dark Shadow back into his body. It wasn’t working.
Aoyama laughed. Yaoyorozu looked at the cloak and said to the small, black shadow, “Do you see this?” She pointed to a stone. “These are real crystals.”
“Crystaaaals,” whispered Dark Shadow contentedly, trying to peck one of the crystals out with its beak.
Tokoyami slapped his forehead with the book in despair.
***
The second incident was too early after the first one. They were training in the gym, divided into pairs that Aizawa had assigned them beforehand. He was teamed up with Todoroki, and at first, he tried to deflect all of Todoroki’s fire attacks. After a break—during which they both needed to cool off a bit and grabbed some cold water from the vending machine—they decided to switch to ice attacks.
Todoroki had just sent an ice wall toward him to block his attack. Tokoyami leapt into the air, and just as he cleared the wall, rays of light streamed into the room, reflecting off the ice and creating rainbow-colored reflections all over the walls. Without saying a word to Dark Shadow or giving him a new order, Tokoyami fell to the ground. Dark Shadow no longer wanted to fight. Now, something else had caught his interest.
Tokoyami was about to snap at him, shouting for him to fight and obey his orders, when he noticed the fascinated look in his eyes. “Don’t even think about it,” the hero growled at him. Dark Shadow didn’t listen to him and slowly approached the ice, which suddenly shattered in all directions. Todoroki used his fire to break it into several small pieces, which scattered and created a mosaic of colors in the air. “Dark Shadow,” he said warningly.
“Shinyyy, so shinyyy,” he whispered contentedly, looking all around him. He had no idea what to touch first. There were so many of them here! He noticed Todoroki in front of him, holding a large chunk of ice in his hand. His eyes lit up. Without so much as a glance at his master, he darted toward Todoroki, and before the younger boy could react, he wrapped his arms around the chunk of ice and pressed it against his dark chest. He puffed himself up contentedly.
“Dark Shadow!” Tokoyami cried out in despair.
Todoroki blinked in confusion. He studied Dark Shadow for a moment, then turned his attention to Tokoyami, who didn’t know whether he wanted to strangle Dark Shadow or cut him off from him for good. “Is this some kind of new battle tactic?” Todoroki asked honestly.
Tokoyami felt like slapping them both. “It’s a curse,” he growled finally, closing his eyes.
Todoroki examined the Dark Shadow and used his icy side to create another, smaller piece that was even more glittering. The Dark Shadow immediately looked at him with interest, its beak open and emitting melodious tones. “For you,” said Todoroki—still quite confused, but sensing he was doing the right thing—as he handed him the ice ball.
“Beautifulll,” whispered the Dark Shadow contentedly as he carefully took the orb from his hands and quickly returned to Tokoyami so he could show it to him with a satisfied expression on his dark face. Tokoyami felt like he wanted to sink into the ground.
***
If he thought this was just some sort of impromptu, perhaps interesting, “quirky” phase of puberty—could “quirks” even mature the same way they did? That was certainly an interesting question for their teacher to ponder in the future. —Another training session began. This time with Bakugou. Tokoyami enjoyed training with him. Bakugou was loud and shouted a lot, but he always focused on the essentials of the exercises and improving their strength. He didn’t gossip or spread rumors; in fact, nothing interested him except strength and his goal. Tokoyami respected him for that.
Bakugou had just leaped into the air and unleashed his power, which had first manifested during the war. His entire body began to glow, emitting small bursts of orange and yellow light all around him. Tokoyami braced for the attack, while Dark Shadow froze in place. It was like love at first sight. So many colors and lights all at once!
Instead of attacking, Dark Shadow let out a contented squeak and darted into the air after Bakugou. He clamped his wing around Bakugou’s wrist and pulled him toward him. “Spaaaarks!” he purred contentedly.
“What the f—”
“More sparks! More, more!” Dark Shadow exclaimed happily as Bakugou’s palms kept spewing out explosion after explosion.
“Let go of me, you overgrown pigeon!” he yelled at him and shook him off. He fell to the ground and was about to start arguing with Tokoyami that they hadn’t agreed on such a tactic when he noticed his classmate sitting on the ground, his back to him, clutching his head and muttering something about the abyss approaching, the abyss swallowing him up, this is hell; he turned back to Dark Shadow, who was watching him with interest and flitting around him like a firefly. “H-Hey! Tokoyami! Call your pervert back!” He fired another burst of energy at him, but Dark Shadow just chirped contentedly.
“I don’t know him anymore—he’s not a part of me!” Tokoyami cried out in defeat, while Bakugou tried to push the Dark Shadow away from him, but that only provoked it even more and made it beg for more of his sparks.
***
As he grew older and gained more experience, Tokoyami learned to control Dark Shadow better. Yet there were still moments when he would stop and gaze in wonder at the glittering objects and the light that no longer restricted him as much—and he had learned to fight against it. He thought that, with growing experience, Dark Shadow would convince him not to indulge so much in something that could hurt him—even though he himself loved that strange pain that grounded him in moments when he was losing himself in the abyss of his own dark thoughts—but one thing remained. His weakness for the three heroes, who, over the years, had come to see the Dark Shadow as a part of Tokoyami that loved them in its own strange, endearing way. They were beginning to grow fond of him, even though he had grown to massive proportions and was strong enough to swallow them whole with his darkness and crush them into tiny pieces. At first, they brought him gifts or showed him more of their quirks before they realized they enjoyed spending time with this man of darkness, who possessed the philosophy of an old soul and the resolve of someone who could survive even the darkest torments of hell. Just as the Dark Shadow was drawn to their abilities, they began to sink into feelings as dark as Tokoyami’s feathers.
***
Tokoyami’s apartment looked exactly as one would expect from a hero of his caliber A modern Gothic fortress. Heavy velvet curtains the color of the deep night, metal furniture, walls in shades of anthracite, and a huge four-poster bed. It was a temple of silence and shadows.
Well—mostly.
Tonight, it was a sanctuary for the shrine of light.
Tokoyami lay in the middle of the enormous bed, which he’d had custom-made from massive mahogany and which was almost as wide as the entire room—so that it could accommodate the three men who, all at once, meant more to him than he was able to admit to himself.
Todoroki lay to his right, his hand possessively resting on his hip, while he cooled him pleasantly in the dark, shuttered room, which was still saturated with sweat and the excitement of their recent lovemaking—during which the candles around them had nearly burned out and their wax had even set parts of their bodies ablaze.
Bakugou lay on his chest, dozing contentedly, curled up and letting himself be embraced by the man to whom he had given a piece of his inner, natural warmth.
Behind him lay Aoyama, dressed in a silk robe; he held a book in his hand and was reading a new French novel, while his fingers gently stroked Tokoyami’s feathers as he slept.
Above them, on a tall, jewel-encrusted chandelier, the Dark Shadow rested. His eyes were contentedly half-closed, and he was making chirping sounds. He gazed at his master, resting contentedly in the arms of three well-known and respected heroes. He played with the ice rose that Todoroki had created for him, clutching it in his tiny talons. Whenever Bakugou exhaled contentedly and quiet sparks of explosions shot from his palms, he immediately caught them in his beak. Aoyama watched him contentedly, Dark Shadow admired his golden hair, which shimmered like gold in the candlelight.
Dark Shadow no longer needed to fly recklessly around the world, stealing people’s gold watches or coins. Not anymore. Now he simply watched over the three beneath him. He was immensely proud of himself. It had taken a lot of running around and embarrassing situations he’d gotten his master into, but in the end, he’d succeeded. He’d lured the three most beautiful gems in the entire world into his dark nest—and he never wanted to lose them again.