First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Fear for the sake of others is powerful. Determination is valuable. And a desire to Protect is just as empowering to a Butterfly Wielder as a desire to fight.
And they make for very effective Kamiko to stop people from being hurt.
Chapter Foreword: It’s now properly Kamiko time. >:3c I have had this in my drafts for so long, you all have no idea~ I am so excited to share it at last.
Also, I think USJ may have actually been an off-campus faculty? I’m going to say it’s barely off campus. Like, outside the walls and used by other schools as well but everyone knows it’s BASICALLY part of UA. I mean, it was made/designed by Thirteen and they’re on the UA staff so… Yeah.
Fun fact: I forgot that a mental image of the Butterfly Wielder appears in the mind of the person they’re trying to Kamikotize/Akumatize. So I had to go back and actually put in a description of Sasakia for Aizawa to see. Had some fun coming up with some other things to sprinkle in that Kamiko apparently get that Akuma don’t. lol
Chapter 11: The Unforeseen Simulation Joint (Part 3)
This should have been a normal heroics class. Shouta had expected it to be one.
All Might getting distracted and screwing up his time limit was irritating, but it was something he thought that he and Thirteen could handle. That just made it a normal Pre-All Might class, as far as he was concerned. (Just without Nemuri or Hizashi giving their own commentary about the USJ.)
They were experienced teachers, and they’d already gone over the plan for the day thoroughly. They were supposed to introduce the students to the USJ, give them a tour of the locations, and explain the kind of things they’d be working on there. Then they’d pick a location and give them all some lessons on rescue and how they could use their quirks to help people in danger. As well as making the kids think about how their costumes might affect their work outside of combat.
Considering how many of the students in his class seemed to focus on Villain Captures, they needed the reality check that Rescue training would give. Forcing them to use their quirks in a situation where there was no direct enemy for them to fight would give them a challenge that they’d been ignoring for too long.
(There were definitely a few who needed that reality check.)
Losing their third teacher due to his inability to manage his time properly was annoying, but it was manageable. At least, for an experienced pair of teachers like Thirteen and himself. The loss wouldn’t even be noticeable to the students. Things should have gone fine.
Then the villains appeared.
He had yelled for the students to run; they were facing real villains and not a simulation or a training exercise. He yelled for Thirteen to get everyone out while he held them off. Then he’d dived in and fought with everything he had.
Shouta hadn’t expected to win. It was unfortunate, but true. And something he would never allow the students to realize. They were young and determined and too sure of their own power and skills. They would try to help him fight, and possibly lose their lives in the process. He had to fight alone and seem confident enough that they would trust his words and try to escape.
The fight was everything he didn’t do. It was a bright day out, all parties were in the open, and he was fighting an entire crowd and not just a handful of villains. He worked in ambush conditions, not open street brawls.
And he was only human; there was a limit to what he could do before exhaustion won out. There was only so long he could fight before he finally fell. His body, his quirk, had limits. It was something he’d known when he jumped in. All he could do was buy the students time to escape. But that had fallen apart the moment the leader had joined the fray. He’d held his own until then, but the moment the leader had displayed just how observant he was, Shouta knew he was running out of time.
And then he commanded the monster to step in.
It was too fast. It was too powerful. He had gathered from its immense form and the way it had stayed back that it was powerful. But the moment it entered the fray, there was no way he could have beaten it.
It had been made to fight All Might, according to the leader of the villains, so how could he have the ability to fight it off? They said it was genetically engineered to kill him…
Then the disintegration villain tried to target his students, who had been unlucky enough to stumble to the edge of the plaza. Despite the pain he was in, despite the crushed arms, the shattered leg, the broken ribs, the cracks in his skull that he was sure were there, there was no way in hell he would do nothing.
(He was a Pro Hero. It was his job not to stand by and do nothing.)
His eyes burned, but his quirk was the only thing that could stop the villain and keep him from killing Asui. (He knew the pain of that quirk’s effect. He’d felt it. He refused to let them feel it too.)
There was a flutter of glowing purple and gold in the corner of his eye, but he didn’t dare try to turn his head. Not that he really could, not with the monster clutching his head in its giant, far too powerful grip.
The hand villain (the mist villain called him “Shigaraki”) was too close to his students. And all of them were out of his reach. His body was broken by the… Thing that the villains brought with them. He would never get to them in time. As much as he wanted to break loose, as much as he wanted to put himself between the villain and the students, as much as he wanted to keep them safe, he simply couldn’t.
His eyes, his quirk, were all he had to keep them safe. But if the thing holding him knocked him out, if something blocked his line of sight…
God no, please no. They were children!
“Eraserhead-sama.”
A voice echoed in his head, a voice that he instinctively knew wasn’t his own, and he felt as though time had slowed to a crawl. There was only one person he knew of (currently) in Musutafu in possession of a quirk with a telepathy element. A certain vigilante informant he’d been working with on and off for the past year, who whispered secrets and warnings to heroes through glowing butterflies smaller than a person’s hand. Shouta had been trying to figure out his identity for a while, if only so he could finally have a face to put to the very useful informant.
(Though his attempts had been half-hearted due to the lack of leads on his possible identity. And his hunch that the young man was barely a legal adult.)
Sasakia had warned the school that rumors were going around in the deepest parts of the underground, hadn’t he? That someone was trying to gather forces, recruiting from various districts. And that they were potentially planning to target a hero school in the area, though he hadn’t been sure which one at the time. He’d warned them that they needed to up their defenses to protect their students.
Yet, despite the warning, they’d only done the minimum to upgrade the school’s defenses for the new school year. Many of them viewing the addition of All Might to the staff as being enough protection already, even if they never put it in those words.
A grave mistake, he now knew.
There was a flutter of light, and the distant sound of someone yelping in pain, and suddenly he wasn’t lying limp in the hand of the monster anymore. A forgotten reflex made him gasp in alarm, his arms scrambling to catch himself before he could hit the ground. He managed it, barely.
It didn’t hurt.
He blinked, staring at his unmangled arms in confusion. It didn’t hurt? What?
Shouta’s fingers dug into the soft green grass underneath him. Soft grass that did not look like the grass in the USJ. Grass that he shouldn’t have been in, considering he had last been over the broken cement of the plaza.
What the hell.
He looked up. This was not the USJ.
It looked like he was in a forest clearing of some kind in the late evening, based on the dim light and thick shadows in the distance. A forest that had been set up for some kind of celebration or gathering, like some kind of high fantasy-themed garden party.
He slowly pushed himself to his feet, eyes scanning his surroundings in a mix of wariness and confusion. Was this some kind of illusion? Something to mess with his head and distract him? (But why employ it on him now? Why not when he had been desperately fending off the horde of villains earlier?)
Several of the trees looked as though they were wrapped in fairy lights, many of them hanging from their branches in glittering strings. Glowing golden and amethyst lanterns hung from lines between the trees and casting a soft glow over the open ground. There were tables set up with golden tablecloths, red and orange colored candles sitting in the center, and fancy chairs with swirling purple cushions neatly pushed in, as if waiting for guests to appear and take a seat.
The far side of the clearing had something that looked like a gazebo, but… He squinted slightly. Were those bookshelves inside it? He was pretty sure that was what he was seeing. Maybe it was less of a gazebo and more of an unusually shaped study-shed then.
The bushes around the edges of the clearing were flowering with bright, glowing, crystal-like blooms, despite the darkness and stars he could faintly see in the sky above. They almost didn’t look like real flowers, because of their strange shapes and glow. Yet many of them were being visited by the fluttering shapes of white and yellow butterflies. A glittering floor in purple and yellow swirls was laid out in the middle of the clearing, a bit like a dance floor that had been laid out for the party. And, at its center, a figure stood patiently waiting for him to get his bearings…
There didn’t seem to be anyone else there, which left him with few options other than walking toward the figure.
They were a teenager, he was sure. Possibly eighteen or nineteen years old (twenty if he really stretched it) and definitely male.
The young man was dressed in shades of purple and violet, with the occasional yellow/gold trim adding another layer of color to the getup. It was surprisingly fancy-looking and possibly historically inspired, considering some of the details. He couldn’t place the era, or the country, but something about it looked French or at least French-inspired to him.
(A vague memory of a foreign historical fantasy movie that either Nemuri or Hizashi had insisted he watch with them tickled at the back of his mind, but he just couldn’t recall what it was.)
He was wearing a pale violet flowy shirt with double sleeves, the darker hanging sleeve shimmering with a golden butterfly wing pattern on the inside. The ends of the puffy sleeves of the undershirt were tucked into thick, dark gloves trimmed in gold. A dark, purple vest (was it a vest? Or was it a jacket attached to the outer sleeves?) was being worn over the shirt, gold patterns embroidered into it in the form of flowing swirls. There was a caplet wrapped over his shoulders, pinned closed with a butterfly-shaped brooch with a large gemstone in its center. Fitted pants in the same color as the puffed shirt were tucked into dark boots with small heels, the lace-like decorations on them looking like butterfly wings.
He was wearing a wide-brimmed hat with one side pinned up with a hat-pin shaped like a pale violet butterfly. Long, wavy-looking black hair that was tied back in a simple ponytail at the base of his head. His face was hidden by a mask that was in the shape of a rounded butterfly, unlike the other butterflies on his costume, which had long, pointed wings. Green eyes peered at him from beneath the shadow of the hat’s brim, a cane of some kind clutched tightly in one of his hands.
The young man gave him a strained, tense smile.
“Good day, Eraserhead-sama. I wish we could have had a face-to-face meeting under better circumstances.” He knew that voice. At least, he knew it enough to recognise it.
So this was the mysterious Sasakia. It seemed his initial guesses about the informant’s age hadn’t been too far off the mark.
(And the kid had a theme. Although, considering the form his quirk took, he may not have felt like he had much of a choice on that. Butterflies matched more butterflies.)
“What is this? Where have you brought me?” He wasn’t going to bother beating around the bush. Not after the day he’d already had. Sasakia inclined his head, a quiet chuckle escaping him.
“I haven’t taken you anywhere, Eraserhead-sama. You are still in the USJ, maintaining your quirk to keep the villain called Shigaraki at bay. Physically, at least.” The informant raised an arm, gesturing to the clearing around them. “This is a world of the mind, one that I’ve created for times like this.”
Shouta looked around at the dark clearing in a new light. This place was a mental construct? Sasakia had made it? That explained why he was able to walk around and wasn’t in crippling pain anymore. He didn’t think of his injuries as part of him, so they obviously wouldn’t appear in a place like this. The green-eyed man continued.
“I can only bring someone here under… Specific circumstances, unfortunately. I can’t call someone in whenever I feel like it, not without having called them in previously. But please rest assured, everything here happens at a different rate than the outside. You could spend hours here, and find that less than a millisecond had passed in the physical world.” There was a firm look on his face as he looked up at the underground hero. (The kid was shorter than him, so he was less than six feet tall.) “You’re students are still being protected by your quirk. This isn’t putting them in danger.”
That… That was comforting, in a strange way. But why did Sasakia bring him here? How was be even able to make this?
“Is this the fullest form of your quirk?” He couldn’t help asking. Was Sasakia’s usual telepathy actually an offshoot of this? Being able to create a mental world to converse in secret, at the speed of thought… It was no wonder that no one had managed to figure out his quirk before.
Depending on how much he had known when his quirk was first registered, the scale of what he was capable of might not actually be on record. And they only allowed for the records to be changed a handful of times before they stopped allowing someone to update them. If he had reached the maximum number of times it could be changed, or found the paperwork too much of a hassle to keep doing, then he may not have bothered to register it fully. There were actually more quirks like that than people realized. It would be damn-near impossible to find his identity through that venue.
Sasakia drummed his fingers against the head of his cane, eye sliding around the clearing with an air of quiet nervousness. The action was so small that, if he wasn’t trained to look for such things, Shouta wouldn’t have noticed it.
“Yes and no. This is an aspect of my powers, but it’s not… Well, it’s not the full scope. That-” The young man hesitated, both hands resting on the cane. Then he looked up, green eyes boring into his own. “That is the reason why I have brought you here, Eraserhead-sama.”
Shouta frowned at that. The informant seemed to take the silence as permission to continue.
“The villains that have broken into the USJ… My warning wasn’t enough; I had no idea they had a warper as powerful as the mist-villain at their disposal. If I had realized the extent of their powers, or where they’d intended to strike, I would have pushed harder to help everyone be prepared. The students have managed to fight back well enough. Many of them have even succeeded in their battles in the areas they were scattered to, but I’m not sure how much longer they can last.”
That was both comforting and concerning. He was somewhat lucky, he supposed, that so many of his class were already combat-trained. Even if it made them a pain to keep under control most of the time. He didn’t want to think of what the casualty rate would have been if they had come without any prior training. But he had been mangled by the purple villain. He couldn’t get up and help them. He wasn’t even sure how much longer he would be able to stay conscious once Sasakia severed whatever connection he was using to bring him there. (He wasn’t even sure he would survive this…)
Shouta gritted his teeth in frustration. He was supposed to be keeping those kids safe. He had a responsibility to make sure they were okay.
“Which is why I wanted to speak to you, out of everyone there. I believed that you would at least listen to what I had to say.” Shouta supposed that made sense. He was the only one Sasakia actually ‘knew’ in the USJ, and the only one who knew the vigilante in turn. So if he wanted to do something, the hero would be the most likely to hear him out without accusing him of siding with the villains. “I want to offer you my power, Eraserhead-sama, to fight these villains.”
“Your power?” He asked, brow furrowing in confusion. Sasakia nodded.
“I said that it took special circumstances to bring someone here. That’s because I use a different version of my butterflies to create the connection, and it allows for far more than just thoughts to be exchanged.” He lifted a hand, and one of the glowing golden butterflies swooped down to rest on his fingers.
It was a pure gold, as if it had been crafted from light, like many of Sasakia’s other butterflies in the clearing. And Shouta watched as the tiny, palm-sized butterfly changed.
He watched as the little insect seemed to crackle with power, swirls of amethyst mixing in with the gold. It looked like marbled paint, but glowed as bright as a glass figurine placed over a lamp. It radiated light and something else that he couldn’t put into words. It made his breath catch in his chest, almost unable to look away from the otherworldly glow it gave off. An invisible pressure that echoed off the insect resting on the vigilante’s fingertips.
He could practically feel the power radiating from the little butterfly, and he wasn’t even touching it.
“This, Eraserhead-sama, is a kamiko. It has a tremendous amount of power in it, as much as I’ve used to make this place. More, even. And I want to offer that power to you.” He tore his eyes away to look at the teenager himself.
“How- How would this help me? I’m injured.” More power would mean nothing if he couldn’t even stand up to use it.
“Taking the kamiko will trigger a transformation, a temporary one, to let you use the power being granted to it’s fullest. It will change your form to help make the power easier and more effective for you to use, thus bypassing the injuries you’d sustained while fighting,” Sasakia explained while gently cradling the butterfly, the kamiko, in the palm of his hand. It’s wings fluttered, letting off sparks like a tiny campfire. “Both you and I can set criteria for what form the power takes, the form of the kamiko you will become, based on what we think is needed and what you think you can use.”
In any other circumstance, he would have thought it was being made up. There was no way something like this would have that kind of effect. Except, looking at the butterfly, feeling the pressure in his senses just from being near it…
He believed it. He believed that Sasakia was telling the truth.
His jaw set.
“What do I need to know about this? How do we set the criteria?”
“A verbal agreement is enough to solidify the connection and transformation. Of both the goal we want to attain and how much you are willing to allow me to do.” The answer came fast. Strange as it was.
“How much I am…?” Shouta asked, frowning at the teen.
“I can add a great deal of powers and abilities to a kamiko, but I’m limited by what the person being transformed is willing to allow me to give. I’m, well, quite creative about what’s possible with a quirk. And how far one can stretch a definition of a power. But if it’s something you wouldn’t want or don’t think you could work with, then I cannot give it to you.” Sasakia explained, fingers drumming against the cane again. (It looked like he was a fidgeter. He knew several people like that.)
So he could either have total control of how it went, partial input on what would happen, or he could let Sasakia have full creative liberty. Shouta preferred the second option if he was being honest with himself. He wasn’t very creative himself, but he wasn’t comfortable leaving this “kamiko” entirely in the vigilante’s hands. He wasn’t quite comfortable leaving himself entirely in the vigilante’s hands.
(Sasakia gave very good information, but there was a difference between trusting information and trusting raw power.)
“I… Suppose I would rather have something similar to my quirk, but enhanced to a further degree? I’m already familiar with how to use it with my fighting style, and I would prefer to keep my capture weapon as my main tool. Maybe a psychic element that would let me more freely control it?” Something familiar would do the best, he felt. If he already knew the base, then whatever Sasakia added would be easy to adapt to.
Sasakia nodded, frowning slightly in thought. He could practically hear the gears turning in the informant’s head as he plotted.
“Are you against having any kind of armor?”
“I’ve never found any that work well with my fighting style, but if you can think of something, then I’ll take it.” He didn’t expect him to succeed. His style was a very agile one, and he’d never found an armor that he could use comfortably. Not without it being far out of his financial range to acquire, at least. If this could, somehow, make something that would work for the fight though… He would be willing to try it. Even if it was only for a short while.
Actually, while he was on that track.
“You said the transformation was temporary?” Temporary meant there was a limit, either for how long Shouta could withstand it or how long the power would stick around. He’d need to know what that was for this fight.
“Yes. The transformation has a hard time limit, one that’s set by me. There’s a thread of power that I must maintain to ensure the connection is able to work and that you stay a kamiko. There is a way around that limit, but it requires some… Preparation on my end. Which I did not have time for before all this started.” He hesitated, a flicker of something in his face. It was gone too fast for Shouta to catch what it was this time. “At the moment, that limit is, unfortunately, only fifteen minutes. So you must either capture and defeat the villains or evacuate your students in that time.”
That wasn’t much time, but he could make it work. He’d worked under tighter time crunches for a mission before. He’d just have to focus on the students and clearing a safe path to the front doors as much as he could. Trying to capture the villains would come second to their safety.
He nodded. The informant smiled, the smallest waver to the edge of it.
“Eraserhead-sama, will you accept this power that I offer you? The power to become a kamiko, for a short time, to ensure the safety of the students in your care?” Something in Sasakia’s tone sounded different, some new layer to the words that he hadn’t had before.
Right, he said it needed to be a verbal agreement earlier. The change must be him activating that aspect. Shouta took a (probably unnecessary) breath before he answered.
“I accept the power and the conditions set.”
The kamiko that had previously been resting in Sasakia’s hand started fluttering, then seemed to bolt in a streak of light toward him. He’d jolted slightly, taking a reflexive half-step back before it landed on his capture scarf and seemed to merge with the tool he always wore. Cloudy gray eyes met bright forest green ones.
And he was again blinded by swirls of gold and amethyst.
There was pressure against his head (the monster had been gripping his head, hadn’t it), but it was gone just as fast. A strange screech echoed in the air, though he was unbothered by it. He managed to catch himself before he could hit the ground, instinct reminding him of the position he’d been in prior. Villains were shouting in shock and alarm, but it barely registered in his mind.
He could feel the ghost of the pain he’d felt previously returning, but it was quickly washed away by warmth.
It felt like he was lying under the sun on a cloudless spring day, or under the stars on a hot summer night. Everything was soaking in until he could feel it in his very bones, flooding his veins with strength and chasing away the paralyzing pain he had previously been fighting his way past to remain conscious. The pain and sting of his injuries, the weariness and exhaustion of his sleepless nights, all of it was near-instantly burned away by the new light weaving its way through his being.
He breathed deeply in, pushing himself to his feet. Silently relishing in how good he felt as he did. How refreshed and alive he felt as he rose up to his full height.
He felt… Different. Stronger, more rested. There was new input from his body, new sensations registering in his mind, which should have thrown him off. Made him wildly uncomfortable in his own skin, but he felt fine. Almost better than fine. It was the best he’d felt in years.
His eyes snapped open, fixing on the shocked villains and students as they gaped at him. Then they narrowed at the sight of the hand villain still standing so close to the students. (The man was oddly hunched. He must have missed something in the scant few seconds it had taken for the transformation to take hold.)
He lunged forward, lashing out at the villain to properly force him away from Hagakure. He firmly planted his feet between the students and the villains.
“Ai- Aizawa-sensei?” Hagakure’s voice trembled as she spoke. (Because she was scared, because he was a child, because it was too soon for her and her class to face something like this.) He turned just enough for one of his many eyes to shift and focus on her.
“Hagakure, Asui, Minetta, get ready to run. I’ll try to make an opening for you three to get to the front doors,” he said, keeping his voice low to prevent the villains around them from hearing. If they could get to Thirteen, as well as their classmates, then they would finally get the doors open and escape. He could hear the USJ’s alarm finally going off and, with any luck, that meant the rest of the school’s faculty was on its way.
If he were really lucky, though he wouldn’t put his money on it, then the staff would arrive long before the fifteen minutes he had were up. He could feel the mix of relief and determination from Sasakia as he looked at the scene through Shouta’s eyes.
(Somehow, he knew the other could do that now. He’d had the vague impression during previous conversations, but now it felt… More certain. Sasakia could see and hear everything he did.)
“What- Who- Who the hell are you?!” One of the villains yelled, stuttering as they did. He could hear Sasakia chuckle in the back of his mind.
“You already know what name to give, say it aloud. It is the final key.” The vigilante’s words echoed through his head, calmer and more confident than he had been before. The name slotted into place in his mind, like it was genuinely meant to be his while in this form. He knew who he was still; he was Aizawa Shouta, the underground Pro-Hero Eraserhead. This was just another name to add to that.
“At the moment? I am Erasure Anansi.” The new name rolled off his tongue with ease, fitting his form and face like it was meant to. His voice then dipped into a growl as he glared at the villains in the plaza. “And you won’t be getting away, not after the danger you’ve put my students in.”
Part of him said he should have felt wildly different. New eyes, new limbs, a new body. He should have been panicking about what Sasakia’s power had done to him. How it had radically changed him in the span of a few seconds, at most. Another part was calm, saying that he was still himself despite it and that he had more important things to put his mind to. Like the villains who had invaded the school grounds and threatened the students under his protection.
He decided to listen to the calm part of himself.
The hand villain stared at him, then started chuckling. There was a hysterical note to the laughter.
“What was that? What was that?! A cheat code? There wasn’t supposed to be a second stage to the miniboss! It’s… A cool upgrade, very cool.” The villain seemed to stop and stare again, still letting out more stilted laughter. Fury started seeping into the strange mix of awe and hysteria in his words. “But you’re not supposed to get upgrades. That’s not how it works. That’s not how it works!”
The shadowy, mist-like villain (Kurogiri, as the leader had called him earlier) hovered by the apparent leader’s side, seeming to eye Erasure Anansi more cautiously than he had before.
“The leader is young, inexperienced and impulsive. He doesn’t care about the army he’s brought with him; they’re cannon fodder as far as he’s concerned. He only cares about keeping the warper and the… Monster on his side by the sounds of it.” Sasakia’s reading came fast, working with rapid observations gleaned through the limited view he likely had so far. (It was impressive how much he could glean on such short notice.) “His quirk looks to be some kind of rapid disintegration. Possibly an extreme dehydration of cells? It seems like he needs all five of his fingers to make contact for it to activate, and he’s not immune to it either. He’s being careful while scratching at the back of his neck. It would be possible to disable his quirk for a longer period, even after his arrest, but… Well, it wouldn’t be pleasant.”
Disable his quirk? He already had Erasure at his disposal. But he said it would be disabled even after the arrest. Had the effect of his quirk been extended? Did it have a time limit on the affected person now? Something told him that wasn’t right. Unless…
Unless Sasakia was suggesting that he should break one of the villain’s fingers? It would probably work, even if he wasn’t fond of the idea. It was a little brutal, as far as most of his fights went, but a valid strategy considering the level of violence the villain had shown he was capable of so far. If he was willing to attack a group of students, there was no telling what he would do to escape an officer who couldn’t suppress his quirk.
“The Warper seems loyal, but highly submissive. He can act on his own, make his own decisions about what he does and doesn’t want to do, but their leader is his priority. He doesn’t care what happens to the others or about going out of his way to target the students. He’s the leader’s servant, that’s the dynamic they have.” A blunt assessment, but he agreed with it. The Warper didn’t seem interested in chasing down the students so much as staying by Shigaraki, he’d admitted that a student had escaped but didn’t seem inclined to try hunting them down. It wasn’t hard to figure out his priority from what little either of them had seen. “Something about him feels strange to my senses, but I can’t tell what it is I’m feeling. Be careful of that one, nonetheless.”
“The Monster is mindless. I can’t sense anything from it, and the only things I can’t sense are ordinary animals and people who are comatose or brain-dead. It has no mind or will of its own. It will do whatever it’s ordered to do, nothing more and nothing less. It can’t retreat on its own or be talked into surrendering. Knocking out the leader may stop it, but only because he won’t be able to give it orders. If there was a way to deafen it, I would suggest that, but…”
He could almost feel the thoughtful frown that Sasakia must have had, but his mind was reeling from the information.
The Monster was mindless. Braindead, according to Sasakia’s powers. Something that only existed to follow the orders given by its master. How horrifying.
“Erasure Anansi…” He properly focused on the hand villain, who was glaring past the severed hand that was on his face. “This won’t matter. The Nomu can handle your second stage. This won’t matter!”
His uppermost arms calmly grabbed hold of his capture scarf, and he dropped into a stance, shielding the students as best he could before the fighting began. As long as he kept the villain’s attention on him, he would give them the chance to escape. That was his priority, above all else. The new strength he had might let him fend off the Monster for a while, though he didn’t think he’d be able to beat it. Not unless he got a lucky shot. Unless the exposed brain was a weak point he could use.
But before he could move or the villain could give new orders, the front doors of the USJ were blown off their hinges. And a familiar, powerful voice bellowed out over the USJ.
“HAVE NO FEAR, STUDENTS. BECAUSE I AM HERE!”
He couldn’t help the small breath he let out. Help had come. And it was one of the strongest members of their staff, at that. (Things were looking up. Just a bit.)
“He’s in pain…” Sasakia’s words came as a whisper at the back of his mind, dripping with concern and worry.
Right, he had a sensory power. He could probably feel the strain of All Might’s injury and the pain it was causing him. Which he was undoubtedly making even worse by forcing his body to work past his time limit. He was likely in a great amount of pain that he was keeping hidden from both the villains and the students alike. And he couldn’t let Sasakia accidentally draw attention to the injury.
“He’ll be alright, you don’t need to worry about his health. Right now, we have other things to focus on,” he murmured quietly. There was a moment of quiet in his head. He needed Sasakia to focus on… Whatever he needed to focus on to help Erasure Anansi, and not on his concerns for the number one hero’s secret injury.
“Yes. Of course. All Might will likely take on the Monst- the Nomu, it may be best to act as support and ensure the other villains don’t have the chance to gang up on him. He’s a capable fighter, but he’s still one man.” Erasure Anansi gave a small nod. A logical course of action after experiencing the Nomu’s power firsthand. The number one hero would need to keep his full attention on the villain. He was better off covering for him and ensuring that the other villains couldn’t try to attack his back.
All Might landed beside him, making the ground shake and knocking out all of the villains between the students and the front entrance of the building, his own fists lifting in defense of the vulnerable teenagers behind them.
(Good, good. That was just what he’d been hoping to do. All Might had saved him the trouble. That helped expand his time limit.)
The man wasn’t smiling, though he couldn’t say he was surprised. All Might had likely rushed in because he felt like something was wrong and found a class of students with minimal training surrounded by villains, and at least one of his coworkers was gravely injured. It was a horrid scene to come in on.
“Thank you for defending the students!” He fought back the urge to flinch at the loud voice so close to him. “It was a great risk to fight back-”
“Of course, it was. But there are more important things to focus on right now,” Erasure Anansi cut him off. They needed to focus on the fight in front of them; pleasantries could be saved for later.
He was rewarded with All Might doing, of all things, a double-take at the sound of his voice.
“A-Aizawa-kun?!” A single eye shifted to look at the number one hero.
Ah, of course. Sasakia’s power had changed his appearance. He supposed it was enough of a change that it would take a moment for people who knew him to figure out who he was. He shouldn’t have been too surprised that All Might hadn’t recognized him. (Although Hagakure had figured it out rather quickly…)
It wasn’t very important at the moment.
“The Mist one is a warper, but we haven’t figured out his limits yet. He’s the one who brought all the villains into the USJ. The one with silver hair is the leader; he seems to have a disintegration quirk that works off direct contact with all five fingers of his hands. I’ll keep the two of them busy,” he said calmly. The information was important. He needed to pass it on while he had the chance to. “The creature is called a Nomu; According to the leader, it was genetically engineered to fight you specifically. It has no mind of its own and is fully under the leader’s control. You’ll need to focus entirely on fighting it.”
“Ah. U-understood.” All Might turned to the villain in question, dropping fully into a fighting stance. Good. Any other questions could be saved for later.
“Hagakure, Asui, Mineta, we’ll give you an opening. Get to the front entrance as quickly as you can,” he ordered the still-frozen students behind him. He heard one of the kids squeak, but it sounded like they were finally moving.
The hand villain chuckled as he started muttering to himself.
“Throwing punches to save people… That’s our government-sponsored violence. You’re fast, too fast for my eyes to keep up with. But you’re not as fast as I expected you to be. Could it be true? That you’re getting weaker…?”
What? Several of Erasure Anansi’s eyes widened at the quiet statement. How could he- ?
“Getting weaker? All Might has been an active Pro Hero for decades. Considering the rigors of hero work, it’s possible for age to start affecting him…” Sasakia’s thoughtful mutter helped smooth down his nerves. He’d unwittingly confirmed that, although Sasakia could see through his eyes, he couldn’t properly hear or know his thoughts. If he could, then he would have known what Erasure Anansi knew about All Might. He would know about the injury that they were working hard to keep the public from being aware of. But he didn’t know about it.
Instead, he was using what he did know to make a conclusion of his own. And he had come to a sensible one, as far as Erasure Anansi could tell. Some villains might have come to the same one, in the wake of All Might’s lessening of public appearances and obvious acts of heroism. It was logical for people to think that the man was getting too old for consistent hero work and may have been preparing to retire. It was a reasonable one, even.
(Though only a select number of people knew that it was wrong.)
All Might moved, taking advantage of the momentary stillness on the battlefield.
“Carolina Smash!” He struck Nomu hard. A cross chop directly on its exposed head, one that he’d seen on the news plenty of times and often knocked out large opponents the moment it made contact. But this time, that was not what happened. Instead, the monster lashed out, barely flinching from the hit it had just been dealt by the world’s strongest hero. “Seriously? No effect at all?!”
“Of course there was no effect. Because he’s got Shock Absorption,” Shigaraki snarked at him, falling into the familiar villain pattern of over-sharing information. “If you really want to damage Nomu, you’d be better off slowly ripping him apart piece by piece. Not that he’ll give you the chance.”
He heard Sasakia’s small, sharp inhale.
“Shock Absorption- That was Kana-san’s quirk. From the Ijutsu Hospital case… But how did they… ?” Erasure Anansi’s eyes narrowed. The missing body… Was it a coincidence? Or did they have someone use Kana-san’s organs to enhance the Nomu? Was it a quirk that allowed someone to meld the quirk from an organ into the villain so it could have access despite not being born with it? How did they manage to merge a second quirk into the creature?
“Thanks for the info! I appreciate it!” All Might moved fast, circling around trying to grapple the Nomu. But Erasure Anansi was forced to turn his attention away, instead focusing on a villain who recovered from his shock enough to try attacking while his attention was away.
One arm lashed out, connecting firmly with the villain’s jaw and dropping him in a single hit.
More of the lower-ranked villains that were still conscious started moving, finally shaking off their awe to try and fight back against them. They still outnumbered the two heroes. (Two heroes and one vigilante? Did Sasakia count if he wasn’t actually on the battlefield?) He used the claws on his gauntlets to block a weapon from a villain that managed to get close, easily flipping his grip in a few seconds to toss them with little effort on his part. Using his scarves to snare and hurl another away as they tried to get past him.
It was easy to fall into familiar patterns, a familiar dance of combat despite the previous disadvantage he’d been grappling with before. Sasakia rested at the back of his mind, observing but keeping himself from being a potential distraction as he fought.
There was a surge of dust and smoke, almost like an explosion, from behind him, and a sudden shock across the connection he had with Sasakia.
“All Might’s been hit! His pain just spiked!” His head snapped to the number one hero.
The Warper. He’d opened another portal to prevent All Might from succeeding in suplexing the Nomu and potentially neutralizing it. And the Nomu had gotten a free strike at the blonde hero’s side. His injured side.
Eraser Anansi bit back a swear. Of all the lucky shots the villains could have gotten!
He lunged for the leader, ignoring the rambling speech the young man was giving, in hopes of forcing the warper to change his focus. If he could get them to switch their focus, then maybe he could give his fellow teacher room to escape the creature’s grip. He ignored the flare of cold behind him, assuming it was a quirk missing its target and nothing more.
The leader stumbled back, startled by his new speed and immediately tried to fight back. One of Erasure Anansi’s eyes flashed with his quirk, making the open-palmed strike from the leader harmless. He seized his wrist, twisting the villain’s arm behind him and trying to pin him to the stony ground of the plaza. If he could pin him, then he’d have a chance to knock him out. And if he was out, the rest of the villains might start panicking.
Panicked villains would lose their coordination and be easier to take down as a whole.
An alarm blared in the back of his mind, and one of his legs lashed out in a mule-kick. He shifted enough for a free eye to see a villain crumpled on the ground on the far side of the plaza. It didn’t take much to realize what had happened. A stray villain attempted to blindside him, trying to rescue the leader by attempting to get the hero off of him, and was mule-kicked across the stone platform for his trouble. Part of him was surprised by the strength of his own kick; he could only assume it was a side effect of the transformation.
But it gave the warping villain the chance to free the young man from his grip. Just as he’d hoped would happen, since it sounded like All Might was finally able to get loose from the trap created by the portals.
Another of his eyes snapped to the warper, quirk flaring to life. (He had him!)
The warper made a strange, choked noise as his form started to wildly shrink and flicker. As if he were abruptly losing control of the shadowy mists that made up his form and quirk. But, at the same time, it made it easier for him to see the silhouette of the man himself underneath it. (He was a small man, he’d thought he was taller because of the mist. There was a niggle of familiarity at the back of his mind.)
The eye focused on him widened in surprise.
“It’s the new powers you have as a Kamiko. One of the things I did was enhance how much your quirk could affect, but it seems that… The Warper possesses more than one power as well. Losing access to one seems to be making him lose control of the remaining he must have.” Sasakia sounded anxious. He likely hadn’t anticipated something like this happening from strengthening a quirk. (Erasure Anansi certainly wouldn’t have expected it.) “He may end up hurting himself, depending on what he can do. Someone needs to knock him out, quickly.”
“Is he in pain from it?” If he was losing control, then there was a real chance that his quirk(s?) could kill him if they started clashing. There was a pause.
“… Somewhat? I can sense pain, but not the sort from a major injury. It’s the type I usually associate with chronic pain that’s acting up, or a sudden migraine attack. I think he’s suffering more from panic at the power loss than pain.”
Well, that certainly added depth to Sasakia’s sensory abilities. He could sense injuries deeply enough to recognize chronic pain, in addition to the various emotions he seemed to use to clock various crimes in Musutafu. It was little wonder why he would make the jump to Vigilantism in the wake of such a strong ability. (At least he stayed off the battlefield and just led heroes and detectives to them.)
“It’s appeared again…” The eye that had been focused on the leader narrowed, watching as he pushed himself to his feet. “Did you know? A glowing outline in the shape of a butterfly keeps appearing over your face. And you keep muttering whenever it appears… Is it a telepath? Just who are you talking to, Erasure Anansi?”
So Sasakia’s telepathy had a visual cue that was important to know. He’d never noticed it before. But, then again, he had never been on the outside watching someone speak with the vigilante. He said nothing to the villain’s question. (He wasn’t about to rat out a valuable informant. Not to a villain.)
“It doesn’t matter who he’s talking to. You should be more worried about who you’re fighting.” That was Todoroki’s voice.
His free eyes started shifting over the battlefield. Three students had arrived and involved themselves in the fight. Because of course they would do that. It looked like he was right that he had a problem class this year, and not just because of the scale of their quirks. Just what he needed to deal with on top of everything else he had to worry about.
He could see Bakugo, Kirishima, and Todoroki all standing ready for combat and not trying to get to the open front doors and to safety.
Kirishima was engaged with a villain trying to get closer to the gates and the prone students there. He was doing a fair job of fighting them off and making use of his hardening quirk to avoid actually being hurt. Good, it looked like he had better priorities than the other two, then. He went to protect the injured instead of trying to take on the apparent leaders of the attack. He’d have to mark that down later; that was a trait that needed to be encouraged.
Bakugo had gone after the warper, trying to pin him while he was panicked by the sudden loss of one of his quirks. Blocking off their potential escape route was good thinking. But approaching someone who may have lost control of their quirk without knowing what that quirk did was dangerous. That kind of recklessness could get him, or another hero with him, killed if he wasn’t careful about it. And the threats he was making against the villain were extreme. (Dammit. He’d have to talk to Nedzu about that.)
And Todoroki had used his ice to help free All Might from the Nomu. He’d managed to freeze its arm and forcibly loosen its grip enough for the teacher to get out without being injured even worse than he’d already been. It showed that he had incredible control over his ice, and he was staying back at the edges of the plaza instead of trying to throw himself into the thick of the fight. The ice half of his quirk seemed better fit for ranged combat, so the distance was smart.
He could see All Might cradling the place he’d been injured by the Nomu, and he could see blood trickling between the man’s fingers. That was a problem, especially with the way he was sure the man was pushing himself beyond his limits.
“Hm… You’ve managed to beat our level, and with full health, too. The new heroes are really something… Our League of Villains should have done more grinding.” He could hear the anger and irritation in the leader’s voice. It looked like they hadn’t been as ready as they believed to handle the quirks in his class. “Nomu. Take out the explosive brat and then Erasure Anansi. We need our escape route back.”
There was an ominous creaking, a tinkling like breaking glass, that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Or, rather, the sound of breaking ice. The thing moved, forcibly shattering the ice over its body and breaking off its own frozen limbs. He could see exposed bone, torn flesh, splayed muscles and tendons… It was horrific.
“Stars, its body’s falling apart but… It’s still moving… ?!” Sasakia sounded sick, and he could hardly blame him. The damage he was seeing looked like something out of a horror movie. It was probably worse, since he knew Sasakia couldn’t sense anything from the creature’s mind to offset the damage he could probably still sense.
“Get back, everyone!!” All Might ordered, arm shooting out to keep the reckless students back. “What the… ?! I thought his quirk was Shock Absorption.”
It must really have more than one quirk. Like I had thought, Erasure Anansi thought, gritting his teeth. He needed to think of a plan. He had to get the students out safely, but he needed to ensure that the number one hero made it out of the fight as well.
“I don’t remember saying that’s all he can do. This is Hyper-Regeneration. Nomu is a super-powered living sandbag designed to withstand everything you’ve got.” The hand-villain’s tone was bland, almost flippant as he spoke. He was far too assured of the Normu’s power. Too assured that the creature would be able to win.
He could see the flesh repairing itself as the creature stumbled to its feet, letting out an unsettling hissing noise as it did. Then it moved. It was almost too fast for his eyes to follow, he could barely catch its afterimage as it lunged at Bakugo.
Erasure Anansi reflexively stepped forward, barely registering the horrified gasp from the other end of the connection he had with the informant. He couldn’t let Bakugo take that hit. It would kill him!
There was a blast of air that nearly knocked him off his feet. He could swear an attack connected, but Bakugo was with his classmates. Which meant…
“Did- Did he dodge that? But he couldn’t be fast enough…”
“He didn’t. All Might blocked it.” The hero was revealed, standing in a blocking position, as the dust from the attack settled. He’d been knocked back a tremendous distance. The number of conscious villains was much lower now, and those still awake had frozen once more.
The Nomu was powerful, alarmingly so. He’d already known that before. But the way it took a hit from All Might, and hit hard enough to knock him back… It just pushed things further. They’d already confirmed that it had more than one quirk. Did it have a strength enhancement quirk as well? (That would make three quirks… What else might have been used?) It clearly hadn’t been holding back with that strike. If it had made contact with Bakugo…
He didn’t want to think about it. Not right then.
“Anything to save a comrade, right? Like the explosive brat. He came at Kurogiri with everything he had. But violence in the name of saving others is admirable. Isn’t it, hero?” He could hear the instability in the villain’s tone. “You know what, All Might? That pisses me off! Heroes and villains both thrive on violence, but we’re still categorized. “You’re good” and “You’re evil.” That’s how it is!!”
The villain snarled, throwing his arms out in his dramatics.
“Symbol of Peace? Hah!! In the end you’re just a tool for violence, made to keep us down! And violence only breeds more violence. I’ll show the world that by killing you!” His eyes betrayed the truth. He could see the glee, the delight that the villain felt from the fight. From the blood that spattered on the plaza ground. He didn’t care about heroes or villains, he just wanted to make people think he did.
There was a flare of fury in his chest that he wasn’t entirely sure it was his own. But it was still very real. Something weighed heavier in his mind, someone else bleeding through for just a moment.
“Stop spewing lies, we aren’t the blind fools you seem to think we are. You don’t believe a word you’re saying, you’re just prattling off so you can wash your hands of blame. You’d rather pin the responsibility of your actions on someone else than admit how you really feel. You want to parade fake superiority over the people around you.” His own voice sounded off to his ears, but it was buried under the Anger and Truth coming out. They Knew they were right. They Knew the kind of person they were facing. “You enjoy the bloodshed you create. You enjoy the fear you cause. You thrive on having power over others and being able to abuse it without anyone being able to stop you. You made this choice of your own accord, no one made it for you.”
There was a moment of silence, the villain staring and processing what they’d said. Then he chuckled, something cold and vicious on what little of his face they could see.
“Hah, you got me. Saw right through.” He pointed a finger at them. “So, who are you? Who’s fueling Eraserhead’s second stage?”
They fought back the urge to scoff. As if they would share that with someone like him, after he had led an operation like this. After he tried to kill a bunch of teenagers.
“I have no intention of telling you anything. And you’ll just have to live with that.” The villain hummed, but there was a new weight to his gaze.
“It’s three on five. The odds aren’t in their favor.”
“These are some brutal dudes, but with all of us supporting All Might… We can beat ‘em back!”
A line he didn’t realize had been breached snapped back into place, and Erasure Anansi felt himself jerk at the reminder of his student’s presence. Sasakia’s connection suddenly felt more distant, something anxious and concerned on his end. He knew the informant was still there, but it felt like he was trying to push himself away. He was trying to distance his mind from him.
Sasakia had spoken through him, just then. And he hadn’t meant to do it.
He forced himself back to the task. He couldn’t risk losing focus. Not now, not with the villains in front of him. (But he made a note of that.)
“Todoroki. Bakugo. Kirishima. Help your classmates, stay out of this fight,” he ordered, keeping his tone even. Todoroki frowned at his teacher, something almost rebellious on his normally blank face.
“Things wouldn’t have gone so well if I hadn’t stepped in just now to help All Might-sensei, even with your attacks against the leader. Moreover, he’s bleeding.” Todoroki argued, not-quite-glaring at him for trying to stop the boy. One of his free eyes narrowed at the student.
Stubborn teenagers. He wasn’t licensed to fight villains yet; everything he’d done thus far fell under self-defense.
“No. Aizawa-sensei is right. You helped immensely, and I thank you for it. But fear not!” He knew All Might’s grin was fake, but it projected confidence. “Sit back and watch a pro get serious.”
(There was an ignored squawk from Kirishima about his identity. The students hadn’t recognized him either, it seemed. Hm. He would need to add Hagakure’s observational skills to her file.)
All Might was running out of time, fast. He had maybe a few minutes left before his quirk’s effect would give out. Erasure Anansi braced himself to jump into the fray.
He was still holding back the mist villain’s quirk; it was hopefully enough to keep him from getting them out. He needed to keep that eye focused on the warper, another locked on Shigaraki, which left him three more eyes to fight the straggling villains and keep them off of All Might. They couldn’t let the villains escape or get any more strikes at the students before the police or the rest of the faculty arrived. That meant the two pros had to keep them busy until the rest of the staff arrived.
All Might engaged the Nomu in the same instant that he lunged for the silver-haired villain. The shockwave from the attacks was huge and distracting. It knocked his capture scarf off course, letting the villain dodge out of its path.
But the number one hero didn’t stop at the initial clash.
“A head-on attack? Why would- Of course. It’s “absorption”, not “negation”. That means there must be an upper limit to the blows that it can handle. But what does he plan to do?” Saskia was keeping an eye on All Might’s fight, which allowed Erasure Anansi to focus on the leader. And the few remaining villains who weren’t gaping in awe at seeing someone of All Might’s prowess in a fight. There was an explosion of movement from the corner of his eye. The number one hero was throwing punches faster than any of them could keep up with, going above and beyond what he should have been capable of.
(There was blood dripping from his mouth…)
So this was the kind of power the number one had. It was amazing. It was terrifying. And, as the man himself could prove, it was enough to win.
“PLUS ULTRA!!!” All Might’s voice came as a roar. Fierce and powerful and unwavering, making Erasure Anansi’s ears ring with the volume. The Nomu was sent flying, smashing through the glass of the UJS’s roof at a speed and height that only someone as powerful as the number one hero could manage.
Sasakia let out a startled yelp in the back of his head and all five of his eyes instinctively snapped to the roof, losing his focus on both the leader and the warper, a flare of concern that he couldn’t explain exploding in his chest. And he spotted a small shadow at the very top of the dome.
The sunlight and distance made it impossible for him to glean any finer details, but the reaction in his head… His eyes narrowed at the shape and the small flare of nerves that weren’t his own.
Could it be?
“Sasakia?” He muttered, squinting against the light.
Gunshots rang out, villains screeching in alarm and pain. A bullet whizzed past his ear; he barely dodged it when he flattened to the ground to avoid a swipe from a villain. There was only one person he knew of who actively carried a firearm and would use it on a villain. Snipe.
The other teachers had finally arrived.
The warper acted, his form finally stabilizing after Erasure Anansi’s eye left him. He whisked himself and the leader away before anyone could stop them. The arrogant man wasn’t given the chance to finish monologing at them all before the warper pulled him away. (At least one of them knew how to prioritize.)
Sasakia had distracted him, making him lose focus on the warper, but he didn’t blame the vigilante for it. Neither of them had expected All Might to send the Nomu through the USJ’s roof. He couldn’t begrudge him after the risk he’d taken to help rescue the students.
He didn’t know why Sasakia was on the roof, though. Maybe there was a range limit for his transformations that didn’t apply to the butterflies for communication? That would be logical, considering the care that Sasakia put into keeping his identity hidden.
“Aizawa-kun?” There was a tremor to the other hero’s tone, near invisible to anyone who didn’t have their ears trained for small details like that. A quick glance made him realise what was happening.
All Might’s time was up.
He snapped his head away from the other teacher, all five eyes finding something other than the number one hero to focus on. He couldn’t let Sasakia get a glimpse of All Might’s true form, even if he doubted the informant would abuse the knowledge. Not with the respect he’d picked up from him toward the man. (If anything, Sasakia would probably look into things that could potentially help All Might.)
He stuck out an elbow toward Yagi.
“Use my arm to steady yourself. I’ll keep the students from being able to get a proper look.” He was tall enough to cover for the other hero now. He may as well make use of the height.
What followed was a rush of activity, teachers surging in to rescue students and gather the remaining villains. Cementoss had created a wall to prevent the students from seeing All Might’s true form when he finally lost the grip he had on his quirk. He could hear the number one hero sink to the ground and let go of his arm, letting himself rest now that he was well hidden from prying eyes. By the time he thought to look up and see if Sasakia was still atop the dome, the shadow was gone.
But the connection was still there. And there was a strange warmth flowing through the link, as well. That feeling of laying under the stars on a warm summer night trickled through his veins more heavily than it was before. The vigilante was trying to do something, but he couldn’t tell what it was. (How long had it been since the transformation?)
“Aizawa-kun? Or should I be using Erasure Anansi?” He looked down at the call, Nedzu staring up at him with a fascinated glint in his eyes. The quirked animal’s eyes traced over his form, lingering on the newer features and the weapons at his disposal. “My, my, this seems like quite an interesting situation.”
That was one way of putting it. A long-time underground informant had the ability to trigger a full body transformation and enhancement in addition to being able to sense emotions and pain and create telepathic mental links with others. And he’d only learned he could do that due to being beaten within an inch of his life by a genetically altered villain that very day.
“Erasure Anansi. You should tell him to call over medics, quickly.” The young man’s mental voice sounded strained. His words and tone were concerning.
Huh?
“I’ve- I’ve never made a kamiko with someone as badly injured as you were. I’m not sure what state you’ll be in once my connection breaks. It’s entirely possible you’ll be returned to how you were when I first gave you my power. And I… I think our fifteen minutes is almost up.”
He felt a chill run down his spine. Oh no.
“Nedzu, I was severely injured before this transformation occurred. The time limit is about to run out. Sasakia thinks I may be returned to that condition when I’m changed back.” The principal’s eyes widened, the body language that he’d learned to read showing his sudden alarm at the statement.
“I should have given the warning sooner, but it slipped my mind. I’m so, so sorry, Eraserhead-sama.” He knew the vigilante meant it. He was too genuine and sincere to successfully lie about that.
There was a surge of gold and amethyst light, and the wall of agony hit hard and fast in its wake. All Might let out an alarmed shout from behind him. He heard Nedzu’s unusually shrill scream for an EMT before the darkness overtook him.
Izuku felt immensely guilty. He knew that, because of the nature of his butterflies, his kamiko would change back the moment his time limit with the miraculous was up. Because of the attack, he’d completely forgotten to warn Eraserhead that it was coming up until the miraculous had started beeping.
He had shifted as much of his magic as he could get away with to stretch out his time limit, but there was still only so much he could do. It was one of the few benefits he had from the nature of his magic, being able to turn light and fire into extra energy, and he’d put work into training up that skill. According to Nooroo, his time limit was much longer than most other underage chosen because of that. (Not to mention the extension that came from the Butterfly Miraculous being more of a supporting role than a front liner.)
But that didn’t change the fact that he still had a time limit.
The Miraculous had a hard limit for a reason, and it was one he didn’t want to face the effects of. Not after what Nooroo had told him of them.
It had been a mad flight when he’d heard the miraculous start beeping, trying to get back to his bag and remain hidden before his time ran out and his identity was potentially revealed. He didn’t know if anyone had seen him, but he couldn’t sense anyone moving toward his current hiding spot.
Nooroo gently rested on his shoulder, pressing a small hand into his cheek.
“You did your best, Izu-bocchan. You tried to leave healing magic in his body, but we’ve never had to use a kamiko on someone as injured as Eraserhead-san. We simply couldn’t heal him completely before the connection broke,” Nooroo said, his voice tender as he spoke. Izuku looked up from the forest floor, misty eyes looking at the kind little god. “It’s the drawback of using a butterfly made entirely of magic. Once our magic is separated, it cannot maintain itself. But you did what you could to help as much as you were able to in that brief span of time.”
“But- But he’s still…” Izuku’s voice shook, a weak sob escaping. He remembered the pain he’d sensed from the hero. He could still feel the distant echo of it ringing through his senses. There was still so much pain and fear echoing through the school grounds… It hung like a choking cloud of smoke, despite the sunny skies above.
He was a butterfly, not a ladybug. It was the ladybug that could create and cure. The butterfly transformed and changed.
“Injured, yes. But he’s in safe hands. The school is supplied with everything they need to save him. He can recover. He will recover.” He felt horrible, even with the kwami’s gentle reassurances.
“And I- I forced my voice- !” He didn’t even know he could do that with a kamiko! He didn’t know he could speak through the person he changed.
“You didn’t do it on purpose, Izu-bocchan. You mustn’t forget, he was not an akuma. He was a kamiko. You couldn’t force your will over his own; that is one of the many things that separate a Kamiko from an Akuma,” Nooroo said in a firm tone, frowning as he spoke. “In that moment, your minds and emotions were running on parallel tracks. You fell into sync, that was why he spoke your words aloud. You did not take control of him, do not think that you did. He subconsciously agreed with your words, that was why he spoke them aloud.”
Izuku took in a shuddering breath. The kwami’s face softened, flitting up until he was eye-level with his chosen.
“It’s a lot, I know it is. Feel what you need to feel, Izu-bocchan. You can cry, you can sob, you can let all the feelings inside your heart loose. Everything that’s yours and everything that isn’t. Then, once you’re done, you need to reappear on the school cameras and return home. It will be okay. It may not feel like it now, but it will be.”
The words hit hard. Harder than he’d realized they would. Izuku finally lowered his head and let himself cry in earnest, hidden in the woods on the UA campus.
He still felt guilty for what he had done. And what he hadn’t been able to do.
Afterword: Hahaha, did you really think Izuku was gonna get out of this without trauma? Really? Just because he doesn’t have the terror of knowing that All Might’s body/quirk is fading doesn’t make the attack any less awful. Not to mention being keyed in to the terror that the 1-A class is going through… Yeah, Izuku isn’t coming out fully okay. He’s gonna be sorting through some shit and possibly making use of the student counselors about his feelings. Even if he claims it’s more fear from what happened to his friend/yearmates than his empathetic powers. (Nooroo’s got his work cut out for him behind the scenes.)
I wanted to connect some of the things I’ve heard about Akuma to Kamiko, but I still wanted to mark them as being different in more than name. Mostly, that Aizawa still had a functioning brain and didn’t have the attention span of a toddler that’s just downed 30 pixxie sticks mixed with the self-control of a hyperactive puppy that’s had a bowl of mini-sausages set in front of them. Which, in my mind, makes him (broadly) more dangerous than any Akuma because he can actually PLAN SHIT OUT while he’s working and not get yanked around by his own impulses.
Also, apparently (canonically!) Kamiko gets conversation-at-the-speed-of-thought privileges while Akuma are only allowed conversations-in-real-time. So Aizawa actually has time to chat with Sasakia/Izuku about what kind of powers he could/would give to the hero. And figures out a little more about the vigilante himself while he’s at it. Also, the mental meeting place was fun to come up with. I wanted to lean more towards fantasy than superhero for Izuku’s vibes, and that was just the PERFECT place to do that. Definitely more Mahou Shonen (Magical Boy) than the rest of the world he’s in.
Erasure Anansi seems lower key than Meng Po, at least in terms of mindbending power but that’s because he was made under a slight time crunch. He’s a blend of what Izuku could come up with on the fly and what Aizawa thought he needed/could work with. Because of that, he’s actually going to be put in a different book from the one Meng Po is in. That book is for any Kamiko that Izuku thinks is super dangerous, which is why the title has the little red danger triangle drawn on it. But here are a few things about this kamiko that didn’t make it into the chapter: He’s actually strong enough to chuck a car, but that didn’t get used just because he was already trained to pull his punches for the sake of capturing villains without, like, seriously injuring them. His quirk was enhanced to actually include stopping MAGIC from being used, in addition to stopping emitter quirks. Izuku didn’t tell him that was what he could do, just because he didn’t really think he NEEDED to tell him about it.
This is a special tool that may get used later. Maybe. I haven’t actually made up my mind about whether this particular Kamiko will be making a repeat appearance. (Might be fun tho…)
Anyway, yeah. Now Aizawa knows what Sasakia looks like. There are going to be a lot of false leads and wild goose chases to find the young man he saw in his mind’s eye, who is most-definitely the age Aizawa thinks he is.
