Chapter Text
After a relaxing two hours, one facial, and a pedicure later Tori felt more human than she had in the last twenty-four hours. She walked the streets, deciding to forgo calling her taxi service warp gate and finally take in the world she’d woken up in. Every ten streets a villain would show up, make an ass of themselves and a hero would come and make an even more ass of themselves.
She’d already talked down three people from activating their quirks from anger just because assholes would be assholes.
“Thank you! Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.” The mutant shark man replied as he blushed in his business suit. Tori was more fascinated by the fact that the fucking man’s head was the exact same as a shark yet he could breathe air like he was in water.
“No problem dude. Look, that lady that acted like you were going to eat her just because you bumped into her wasn’t worth getting a ticket and a night in holding. Take that forzenchino and chill the fuck out. Maybe some anger management classes, people already judge you based on your face, I get it. My face ain’t the prettiest either but if we let people like that get to us, we are no better than them. Don’t stoop to that bitch’s level.” She told him, dusting off his suit from the dust of the brick wall he rammed his nose into.
“Hay! That was uncalled for! You can’t expect me to just accept that man isn’t a villain, he tried to ram me into a wall!” Said bitch exclaimed.
Tori turned to the woman and looked at her under her lashes. “I’m sorry madam when you become president of I-give-a-shit-club I would gladly take your grievances then, for now, get the fuck on with your day, no one is hurt, no one is robbed, and-” Tori looked down at her watch and back up to her. “You’ve used up just about all my patience. Go. Away.” She ordered in the calmest voice she could muster.
The woman seemed to take every word as a threat to her person, she hunched into her briefcase and backed away from them with a terrified look on her face. “Y-You won’t get away with this!” She cried alerting other pedestrians. The shark man was starting to look red again so Tori stuffed her second frozenchino in his mouth without a care as to whether he bit her hand off or not and glared at the woman.
“Get away with what? Telling you to leave us alone and mind your own damn business? I know my fucking rights. Do you? Because if you did you accusing and creating a disturbing is a class level one act of aggression. And I’m sure those heroes would love to take you in, quirk discrimination is taken very seriously, ya know.” Tori replied checking her nails and humming. She looked up to see the woman and a few pedestrians watching and she grinned.
The woman skittered away along with half of the crowd that had shown up looking eager for a fight and Tori rolled her eyes. She just bullshitted out her ass as usual but people just ate it up and she ran with it. God she didn’t ask to deal with this today.
“You good big guy?” She turned to the almost weeping shark man.
“Yeah…thanks.” the anthropomorph replied wiping at his eyes. Tori pulled the notepad she had stuffed in her pockets out wrote down Tomura’s phone number and held it out to the guy.
“If you have any more problems, legal or otherwise call me.” She told him, handing over the paper.
“Are you like an underground hero or something?” The man asked.
Tori snorted. “Hell no, god, I’m just a better human being than that bitch was. Take care of yourself okay.” She patted his shoulder one last time, stuffing her hands in her pocket and walking away.
“T-Thank you!” He replied. Tori gave him a two-fingered salute over her shoulder and made her way to the nearest cafe shop. She wants to replace her frozenchino and get something to eat.
‘About damn time.’ Tomura grumbled internally to her. Tori rolled her eyes. It wasn’t her fault people were idiots and she just happened to be there. ‘I know, I know.’ She grumbled back, her stomach grumbling in response.
She had about three hundred thousand yen left in her pilfered funds from the void bank that Kurogiri had given her.
Now, what kind of food did they sell here? She mused, stepping into the cafe and heading to the front to browse the menu.
“The croissants are pretty good.” Someone spoke up from next to her in line.
Tori turned her head, her eyes meeting a chiseled jawline. She followed it up, masculine lips, a narrow nose, deep blue eyes, darker eyebrows shaped like backward arrows, and deep royal blue hair that was dark enough to be mistaken for black in certain lighting.
The man seemed like any stereotypical jock on a pit stop from his five a.m. run. Except it was close to three in the afternoon and he was wearing leggings. Skin-tight black leggings and a blue T-shirt. Her eyes lingered on them for a moment taking in the thick thighs and muscle before Tomura forcefully moved her eyes back up the man's face.
The man smiled at her, and Tori zipped her eyes back to the menu.
Ten seconds later he was talking again.
“And if you don’t like croissants, I hear they make pretty good muffins as well. Then again you seem like the black coffee hold the cream kind of guy. If you’re not hungry their cold brew is pretty good.” The man stated leaning slightly towards her.
Tori frowned deeper and shuffled a step away. Great, she had to be stuck next to a chatterbox while waiting in line to put in her order.
Tori didn’t respond and kept staring pointedly at the menu as if she couldn’t hear the guy.
“Then again, who wants coffee this late in the afternoon? Now sandwiches are where it’s at, they got a pretty good turkey club that’s made with-”
“Can you please stop talking?” Tori groaned. Her head started to ache as Tomura seemed to be throwing a fit over something. ‘What the fuck is wrong with you now? Calm the fuck down.’ She grumbled internally.
“Sorry, just. I saw what you did back there.” The man replied. Tori turned and saw his hand behind his neck as his ears turned red. She noticed he had some sort of engine quirk coming out of his arms and then his bright eyes turned back to her and he smiled.
“That was really cool of you. Not many people would notice that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.” The guy stated.
Tori rolled her eyes. “People have enough shit to deal with, it’s not like I did anything but tell a Karen to fuck off.”
The man laughed, and Tomura seemed to find the noise particularly grating as he sent pointed anger through her temples. ‘ What the fuck is wrong with you?! Stop it you baby!’ She growled, her annoyance leaking through her face as the line finally started moving and she stepped forward at the same time the guy did.
‘You’re an oblivious cunt! Don’t expect me to bail you out when you fucking ruin everything!’ Tomura yelled internally loud enough that she winced and rubbed her forehead in pain.
‘Fuck you asshole, stop throwing a fit for no reason!’
Tomura screamed in outrage mentally before throwing up his baby gate again and she was left with a headache and the knowledge that she had a toddler throwing a tantrum in her mind. Just what she needed today.
“-And it was nice of you to step in.” The man continued as Tori clocked back into reality. “You really had no fear whatsoever. Shoving your drink into his mouth like that. I almost thought you were going to lose a hand.”
Tori looked back over to him and glared, her frown furthering. “Because I’m not an absolute racist, speciesist, what the fuck ever-ist.”
The man laughed. “Yeah, sometimes I forget there are decent people in this world. Thanks for that by the way. I really don’t like working on my day off.”
Tori gave the guy a confused frown before stepping up to the counter. “Well, it was…whatever.” She grumbled, turning to the barista. “I want a vanilla, strawberry, frozenchino with whipped cream, made with almond milk and two shots of strawberry syrup, large, please. And a piece of green tea cake.” She told the woman with some type of butterfly eye quirk.
“That will be five thousand twenty-three yen.” Tori reached into her pocket to pull out her cash only for a hand to land on her arm.
“Let me,” the guy interrupted them, giving Tori one of those commercial white smiles, he pulled out his wallet and layed a large bill upon the counter. “Add grape juice and water please.” He told the woman before turning to Tori who he had yet to let go of.
“For the assist.” He grinned.
Tori stared up at him before looking down at his arm and back up at him again.
“Can you let go of my arm…please.” She stated as blankly as she could.
The man’s face turned red before he lifted his hand in the air like he was being arrested.
“Sorry, force of habit.” He chuckled.
“You randomly grab people and invade their personal space often?” She muttered taking her drink and paper bag from the barista.
This made the guy laugh more as he rubbed a hand through his hair. “Actually," The man henged. "You’d be surprised." He chucked before looking back over to her. "I didn’t get your name, do you hang around this side of town often?”
She felt Tomura give a metaphorical facepalm and rolled her eyes again.
“No, and no. Thanks for the free food,” She replied, turning around and digging into her bag to take a bite of her surgery cake.
“Ah-” Some shuffling was heard as the man got his drinks from the barista before he came running up behind her just as she was going to open the door, his hand blocked her once again and he turned and gave her another commercial-worthy smile, and opened it for her.
Tomura pinged the feeling of wanting to vomit in her mind and she finally just pushed the man baby away. ‘For god sake what the fuck is wrong with you?’ She was mentally sent back only to get the image of him flipping her off in return.
‘Rude ass baby.’ She replied.
“After you.” The man told her. Tori raised an eyebrow before walking through the door and out to the sidewalk.
“So…you never answered my question.” The man leisurely jogged up behind her.
“I did. No, you can’t get my name and no I don’t come to this side of town often, too fucking bright for one,” Someone came within inches of bumping into her only for the guy to pull her slightly away and switch sides in one smooth moment she barely noticed until she turned her head to address him again.
“For two, too fucking crowded.” She grumbled, taking a sip of her frozenchino.
The man hummed. “So you’re a mysterious guy. How about Ruby or Rose then? Velvet maybe?” He put his hand under his chin in compilation.
Tori paused, stopping her stride as she looked up at him. “Hah?”
The man looked over to her giving her a grin. “We can make a game out of it. I can try to guess your name and you can try to guess mine, whoever guesses first gets a prize~.” He hummed.
Tori didn’t know what the guy was after. “Why are you so insistent in talking to me?” She blinked at him furrowing her brow.
The man’s smile dimmed a bit before he rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry, I just find you interesting, I thought we could get to know each other a bit more, maybe even go ou-” His sentence was interrupted by someone screaming on the street they were on.
The ground shook as a mutant man with a growth quirk and a mohawk came running around the corner, breaking the concrete and destroying the edge of a building.
“Why don’t you heroes leave me alone!” The man growled carrying what looked like a bag of jewels he probably stole from a store.
“Stop running villain! You're only making this worse for yourself!” A flying hero replied chasing after him.
The giant man came running up the street they were on, destroying cars and throwing them at the hero. Tori blinked and one minute she was watching a car flying towards her, the flash of fire igniting with gasoline surfaced in her mind.
‘Move you idiot!’ Tomura screamed.
Then suddenly she was on the other side of the street, her stomach dropping with whiplash as she felt strong arms around her waist.
“That was a close one.” The guy’s voice hovered next to her ear. “Guess I did have to work on my day off after all.”
Tori looked at him her hands clutching his arms instinctively before reality processed.
“What the-”
Another scream and Tori looked over to see a mother running towards her child just as the building the giant had broken was tiltering down.
It was like in slow motion, her body moved on its own, her hand came up and her teeth snatched the latch of her gloves as she pushed off the guy and she was running.
“Don’t it’s dangerous-” The man’s voice was cut off by the wind rushing to her ears.
‘What the hell are you doing?!’ Tomura growled.
Tori pushed him away. She placed a palm on the ground turning the concrete to dust in minutes making the woman and child fall into the dip she made before she jumped over them and held her hand aloft just as the debris was coming down.
In a matter of minutes, all three of them were standing in the center of ground zero. Tomura’s quirk couldn’t destroy the entire building, but with the hole she made, as more and more pieces fell around them, she was able to keep them from being hit.
Dust and smoke filled and air before the plaster and glass stopped falling leaving Tori shaking as she gasped.
“Mommy-” Tori’s eyes filled up with tears as she blinked and turned around. She had to check on Henry he had to be-
“You’re okay baby. I have you.” The woman held her child as he cried.
Right, he wasn’t Henry. Henry was-Tomura pushed the woman to the void and blocked her train of thought. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She just had to fucking intervene.
‘Are you suicidal? You absolute fucking buffoon! What would we have done if, oh I dunno, one of those metal beams impaled us? You died already, I have no such inclinations!’ Tomura mentally screamed at her.
‘I was protecting them’ She sent back, ‘Give back control why did you suddenly-’
Tomura cut her off. ‘Fuck you no! Do you want a medal for almost killing us? So what if they would get a bit bruised? Or died if you hadn't thrown us in the fray, better them than us. If they die; boo-hoo, big sad. If we die, so does all the knowledge we have and that bastard Sensei gets to do as he pleases!’
‘You are such a baby! Stop fighting me! I need to check on Henry-’ Tomura locked her away once again. God dammit! The woman was going to give him a fucking migraine with how much he had to work to protect her feeble mind from breaking. As it was it was taking him everything he had to keep her from taking control once more.
“Fuck!” Tomura growled raking his left gloved hand through his hair. Sirens blared in the distance.
Tomura looked around them, the debris had fallen in a perfect circle to the top as the woman and kid continued to cry. Growling, Tomura, pulled out his phone and dialed Kurogiri.
“Thank you, young man, for saving us. Thank you-” The woman tried to grab his sweatshirt and he shook her off backing away as far as he could get while in the creator Tori had made.
“Shut the fuck up. I didn’t fucking do shit. Now be quiet.” He growled.
The woman got a fearful look on her face and held her child tighter to her chest as she backed away from him.
“Hello Master Tomura, are you ready to be picked up?” Kurogiri’s voice spoke when the call finally connected.
“Yeah,” Tomura rasphed, coughing as some dust got into his lungs. “I’ll send you my pin, open a gate. Right now.” He growled sending his location. His hands shook as the woman’s spirit pressed down on his mind. Fucking Bitch.
“Very well Master Tomura see you soon.” The warp gate replied just as the purple mist started to form to the left of him.
Tomura turned to the woman and child giving a snear. “Fucking yell for the heroes, don’t run under a falling building next time.” He growled walking through the warp gate and into his bar as the screams and sirens silenced behind him.
His control of his body waned as the woman’s stronger spirit pushed him back again. He-Tori blinked, the white space fading from her eyes as she looked around and found herself back at the bar.
Kurogiri was cleaning glasses once again as he looked up and over to her with an unwavering gaze.
“Welcome back Master Tomura. How was the salon?” He inquired.
Tori looked at him and then looked at the blank wall behind her before looking at him again. ‘The fuck, Tomura?’ She mentally sent him. ‘What the fuck just happened?’ The man didn’t reply, but something close to tired annoyance spread threw her chest. She couldn’t tell if it was her or him.
“It was fine.” She mumbled, looking down at her nails just to make sure she didn’t chip them. The last thing she remembered was walking down the street with the weird eyebrow guy and then nothing. Why was she missing a glove?
She was really getting tired of Tomura randomly taking over and blocking her feed. Note to self find a fucking way to get around that.
“I dropped my fucking frozenchino though. Can you make me a glass of water?” She sighed, sitting herself down in Tomura’s favorite bar stool.
“Certainly.” The corpse replied, taking the glass he was shining and filling it up for her.
Tori sighed, blue strands of hair dangling in her face. Her arms felt tired, and her skin prickled with irritation. She’d just taken a sip of water when the bars T.V. screen switched on back to life.
“Ah Tomura, good to see you’re home,” All-For-One stated casually as if Tori hadn’t spent half the day having a panic attack because of him and the rest avoiding the bar for as long as possible. She forcefully swallowed her water and turned to stare up at the faceless man himself.
“Hay Sensei.” She replied as calmly as she could. Tomura seemed to wake up from his lethargic tantrum and she felt him pressing on the sides of her mind. It was like his face was directly next to her shoulder, four fingers tapping upon the wood of the bar while anger and resentment rolled through her stomach.
“Tomura, I took to liberty in gathering the information you were unable to acquire yesterday.” the two-hundred-year-old supervillain told her in the I’m-not-scolding-you-for-your-fuck-up but scolding-you for your fuck up tone of voice.
Tori gritted her teeth and curled her currently ungloved right hand into a fist. She didn’t want to accidentally dust the bar Kurogiri took great pains to keep shining.
“Thank you Sensei.” She replied, bowing her head to give herself a reason to not look at him. For once she was glad Tomura’s annoying ass hair was in her face.
All-For-One sighed. “It was quite the endeavor since we could not rely on a distraction. Tomorrow morning at nine a.m. one of U.A.’s Hero courses will be taken to the U.S.J. and taught rescue training by All-Might himself. I’ve taken the liberty and sending the coordinates to Kurogiri’s phone. Think of this as my gift to you Tomura. I’m sure you can figure out the rest. I know how disappointed you were that you missed out on your debut.”
Tomura seethed internally, his mind pressing up against hers. Tori’s vision started to have black dots as her heartbeat in her chest. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She thought she’d nerfed USJ. God dammit!
“All-Might won’t be number one for much longer,” Tori replied truthfully. The only thing she could think of in response.
All-For-One chuckled, “Do not underestimate him young Tomura. That man has the pesky behavior of a cockroach. Make sure to snuff him out before he can pop back up again. I trust you know what to do. Remember, succeed or fail, I am always here to support you.”
Tori wanted to vomit. “Yes sensei,” she replied as her hands kept twitching. ‘Stop it. Fuck I know but stop it,’ She growled internally to Tomura as his emotions swirled his hands opening and closing as the need to dust something climbed higher. Her skin prickled with thorns.
“Good boy. I’ll leave you to rest. Remember. Nine a.m. tomorrow morning Tomura. Please do not sleep in, I would hate to have all your efforts wasted.” The man warned in the most gentle voice that sent hives down her spine.
The T.V. cut out and the first thing Tori did was let Tomura dissolve the glass, water, and all, with his need to destroy something. It wasn’t as satisfying but it was better than her body or the bar’s counter. She got up and disconnected the monitors and cameras just like that morning. When she was done she went directly behind the bar’s counter grabbed the most expensive whisky and dissolved the cork to take a big swig.
“God fucking dammit.”
' We should kill him.' Tomura grumbled, making her take another swig. The whiskey burned, sending white-hot fire down her throat and warming her chest.
'If you want to end up dead go right the fuck ahead, at this point why the fuck not.' She grumbled back.
Tomura mentally screamed back and she flipped off her reflection in the mirror. ‘Exactly, now fucking stop being a baby and help me make a fucking plan. Or do you want to be a mass murderer to a bunch of children we are emotionally invested in keeping alive for the fucking future. ’ She growled back.
‘Speak for yourself.’ Her twenty-one-year-old gremlin growled back.
Tori rolled her eyes and looked at Kurogiri. The man didn’t so much as move during that whole conversation. Like he was programmed to be an NPC in the background and only knew two functions. Clean glass and listen.
Just to test something she took another drink and waited until the ghost placed his latest glass down. “Obi.” She stated and waited.
Tomura’s curiosity got the better of him as she felt him press back to the forefront of her mind as they watched Kurogiri pause, his hand reaching for the next glass but stopping as if something was forcing him to.
Tori narrowed her eyes. At first, she thought it was just a residual memory, or him just being used to Tomura making up random names for him as he had his entire life but as the man hadn't denied the name her curiosity got the better of her. Five seconds later Kurogiri picked up the next glass and continued to clean it as if nothing had happened.
Tori frowned at him. “Obi.” She stated again this time seeing the ghost's reaction as if in slow motion.
A twitch of the head, a flicker of smoke, and then nothing.
“Master Tomura, I have received the coordinates Sensei has sent me for tomorrow morning. Shall I inform our employees of their duties proceeding tomorrow’s infiltration?” Kurogiri asked not turning around to face her as he continued to clean the next glass on the rack.
Tomura urged her to do it again. Tori didn’t know if it would work. In the anime, it took a combination of Aizawa and Yamada to break a splinter of the man’s memories to the surface. But for the last day, he’d been receptive to her comments.
“Oburo look at me.” She commanded. Her voice felt heavy. Something otherworldly, like it wasn’t a part of her body. Wasn’t a part of Tomura. Tori’s mind was running a mile a minute as the pressure continued. Kurogiri paused again, this time dropping the glass he was holding and it shattered to the ground in a rain of glass.
Kurogiri’s fog flickered. Blue cloud mixing with purple. He turned around towards her. A single human gold eye looked back at her with fear before it was covered again with the gold fog and the purple consumed the clouds.
‘Holy shit.’ Tomura cursed. ‘Is this your fucking quirk? What the hell did you just do?!’
‘I don’t know.’ Tori replied, her body sagging against the counter as her head splintered and panged with pain.
“What the fuck?” She stated aloud.
Kurogiri’s purple clouds wisped and the man turned back around to continue cleaning his glasses.
“Did you say something Master Tomura?” Kurogiri asked turning back to her as if he hadn’t just metorically thrown the known laws of the anime universe in her face.
Tori rubbed her splittering head and groaned. “Yeah, I said we need to get started on the plan.” She replied taking another swig of whisky to dull the pain.
It was fine. Everything was fucking fine. She was not losing her goddamn mind.
‘What did you do?! ’ Tomura demanded again.
‘I don’t fucking know!’ She growled back.
“Plan? Was the current strategy not to satisfaction?” Kurogiri inquired.
Tori shook her head. “Yeah, scattering them around without knowing their quirks is fucking stupid. We need to think of something else….Do you know anyone with a dungeon quirk?” She asked getting an idea.
‘How do you feel about playing dungeon master pg-thirteen style?’ She asked Tomura.
Tori felt her cheeks rise as a sadistic grin started to spread across her face unprompted.
“I do not, but knowing the vastness of the world I’m sure we could find someone with a similar quirk in the registry,” Kurogiri replied.
“Good, put that shit down, and let's get going. We got work to do.” She replied taking one last swig of the whiskey, her head dulling into a warm pool of fuzz that helped keep her headache down and gave her a good buzz.
“As you wish, Master Tomura.” The ghost replied and she looked at him with half-lidded eyes.
“We need to drop by an art store first. Fucking lost my glove thanks to some assholes.” She told him. “Let's get going, Obi.”
“..Of course, Master Tomura.”
“Okay everyone, get on the bus,” Vlad-sensei ordered.
Monoma looked up from his notes of the current quirks he copied. He didn’t know what quirks he would need for rescue training but he wanted to bring as many as he could hold in his arsenal.
“Tsuburaba, can I get your quirk as well? I think I can hold one more.” He asked his classmate as they got in line.
“Sure, let me know if you need any advice. Using Solid Air can be kinda tricky.” Tsuburaba replied letting Neito slap the fellow teen's hand.
“How many quirks can you hold Monoma?” Kendo asked as he sat down in one of the sideways-facing seats.
“Up to five, six if I don’t use it right away,” Monoma replied, notating the time and the limit of his current quirks. Ten if he ate a piece of their DNA, but Neito knew better than to let that side of his quirk out. Not after what had happened with Nee-san.
Instinctively Nieto slid his tongue over his canines making sure they stayed tucked in their sacs. He checked the pockets of his hero uniform once more. Checking that his blood bars were tucked away and out of sight in case of an emergency.
‘I was the lucky one though, If Auntie hadn’t taken me in…I probably wouldn’t be here right now.’ Monoma mused.
“Ahhh, that's pretty useful. What do you guys think we’ll be doing during training today?’ Kendo asked.
“Probably going over drills like we did yesterday. I don’t think Thirteen-sensei is going to drop us in the deep end on the second day of training.” Kaibara replied.
“But what if we have to use the dummy civilians? I don’t think I got the CPR training just right yet. I always put too much pressure on the dummy’s chest.” Shishida muttered.
“Don’t worry bro! I had the same problem yesterday! I know you’ll get it down soon.” Testutestu told him.
“The problem isn’t correctly applying first aid. Our jobs are to evacuate and rescue. We’ll hardly be able to apply first aid if a building is falling down on us. We’ll have to prioritize how to rescue the civilians and get them to safety before applying triage.” Monoma told them.
“Is triage going to be on test?” Tsunotori asked in her broken Japanese. Neito replied to her in English to make it easier to understand. “We must evacuate and rescue civilians first before applying bandaid.” He replied.
“Ah, Thank you,” Tsunotori replied smiling. Neito flipped his hair and smirked. “Twas not problems.” He replied back in English which caused the Tsunotori to laugh. Neito frowned. Did he say it incorrectly? He wondered. Neito made a mental note to add more hours to studying English when the bus driver slowed the vehicle and stopped the bus outside the U.S.J.
Even though they had been to the facility yesterday, it still took his breath away with how large it was.
“Alright everyone, same as yesterday, we’ll be separating you into five groups and going over rescue procedures. At the end of the day, we’ll have a test on how much you remember.” Vlad-Sensei told them as they stepped off the bus.
“Thirteen-sensei will be giving a small lecture before class. Don’t go wondering before then.” He growled giving everyone a stern glare. Neito grimaced and followed the rest of the line as they entered the USJ facility.
“Welcome back everyone! I have three or four or six or seven things to go over before we begin class today.” Thirteen-sensei told his class holding up three fingers. Monoma noticed that the blackhole quirk user had done the same yesterday and had no idea what they meant. Maybe they were counting their points for their lecture?
“Sensei,” Shiozaki raised her hand as they came to a stop at the atrium entrance. “Will we be going over triage rescue today or evacuation drills?” She asked the questions most of the class had been wondering since the previous day.
“That is a very valid question kiddo.” Thirteen-sensei replied, “Remember my points from yesterday's class, all of us are born with incredible and useful quirks. Our quirks are a tool that we use to save civilians from disasters, but just as they can be used to good, they are also dangerous.” Sensei told them raising a finger and popping their suit open as they pointed it at a random potted plant and sucked the plant pot and all into the ether, the matter turning to dust particles in under a second.
“Quirks are not just cool things we can do. Think of them like a gun. A robber goes into a store and holds up five civilians. These civilians are a mother and child, an old guy, a random teenager, and the store clerk. The robber demands the store clerk to empty their register and give them all their money, they do the same with the civilians demanding jewelry and their wallets. Now most civilians all have quirks that could help them in this situation. The mother has a push-pull quirk, the teenager has a radio quirk, the store clerk has a rope quirk and the child is quirkless. What do you think could happen if they took matters into their own hands in this scenario?” Sensei asked.
“The teenager could radio for help.” Tokage started raising her hand.
“Very good. Then let's say the teenager radios for help, the police and first responders will be at the store in ten minutes. What else can be done?” Thirteen-sensei inquired.
Neito raised his hand. “The mother could pull the gun from the gunman’s hand, and allow the store clerk to tie him up.” He replied.
“I like your critical thinking.” Thirteen-sensei complimented him. “Let’s say the gunman threatens the mother by putting the gun directly into the child's face, he tells the woman to give him all her money or her child will die. The woman is scared, unable to think rationally, and decides to use their quirk to pull the gun and push the gunman away. Then the gun falls to the ground, and the Store clerk gets up and tries to tie up the gunman with his quirk. The gunman, finding themselves without a weapon use their currently unknown quirk to knock back the teenager, mother, and store clerk into the walls of the shop. The only one not affected is the child, who had curled up into a ball from fear. Now everyone is knocked out and help is still five minutes away, the only ones left awake are the gunman and the child. What do you think happens next?” Thirteen-sensei asked.
Neito thought over the scenario. The only option was for the kid to run away. They are currently quirkless so there was nothing the kid would do, the gunman could hurt them and currently, that was the only option he could see.
“I can see you all are perplexed, let me explain.” Thirteen-sensei continued. “This scenario is purely hypothetical but is based on facts. There are three options left as an outcome. The gunman runs off with his pilfered gains, or the gunman kills the child, or the child runs away leaving their mother, the teenager, and the store clerk vulnerable to attack. But that’s not all the options on what could happen. Remember, the mother pulled the gunman’s gun away. So the gun is currently sitting on the floor, within reach of the child. Because hero society is the way it is today, every child grows up wanting to be heroes. But this is not a good thing. Hero’s lives are on the line every day, people are put in more danger because they believe a hero will come and won’t act upon their own. Now the kid, wanting to be a hero and save his mother, picks up the gun and shoots the gunman. The police arrive and everyone is okay, except for the robber. The robber dies in the ICU due to the injuries inflicted upon him by his own weapon. Now, the child uses a tool to commit a crime. And killed the gunman. Should this child face justice and be considered a villain? Was the child evil for using a tool to protect his family? If this case was taken to court should the child be charged full criminal charges for the act.” Thirteen-sensei asked.
Neito felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. This scenario was a little too close to home for him to feel comfortable. Everyone in the class looked uncertain.
“Regardless of age, the child committed a crime and would need to atone for his sins,” Shiozuki stated.
“Violence only begets violence. If we stoop to their level we would be just villains. The child shouldn’t have acted.” Kamikari replied.
“Yeah, what he did was evil,” Komori stated.
“He was just a kid though,” Tsunotori stated. “Kid knows no better.”
“We have to believe he would face justice,” Shoda replied. “That’s why there are rules in place. Yes, he didn’t use a quirk as a result of vigilantism but he did commit an act of violence that resulted in death. He shouldn’t have used the gun and just ran away.”
“He’ll grow up a villain if that incident is left without reprimanding him,” Kendo stated.
“He became a villain in that instance,” Kodai replied, the rest of the class murmuring along with her.
Neito swallowed. His skin felt clammy and hot as his canine sacks throbbed in phantom pain.
“No,” Neito stated, looking down at the ground. “He used a tool to save his mother. He’s not at fault. We can’t blame the kid for using everything he could to defend himself. Just like we can’t blame the gun for shooting the criminal or the kid who had no idea how to use it. It was the criminal who brought the gun into the equation and yet still attempted to hurt the civilians. So no. The kid would need therapy and a heavy explanation of what not to do if that ever happened again but he should not be tried as a criminal. He was a kid, not a villain…he didn’t know any better.” He replied, just like how people shouldn’t have blamed Nee-san for their parents starving them…She hadn’t known any better. Blinking tears back Neito looked up and found the entire class looking at him.
Thirteen-sensei clapped their hands gathering the class's attention again.
“Exactly. Using a tool doesn’t make someone a villain. There are no good, bad, or villain quirks. There are just quirks, just tools people use in their everyday lives that are granted to them. We wouldn’t expect you to know how to drive a car if you were never taught.” Thirteen-sensei explained. “And just like how there are no good or bad quirks, every quirk could be used to hurt someone if not taught to hold back. Today we will be focusing on honing your quirks in disaster situations. You will be given the option of using them or not to save the civilian dummies. You will learn when a quirk is needed in a situation. Not every answer will be the same. Please remember, your quirks are your tools, not what makes you, you. So even if in the future you face villains but encounter a disaster along the way. Always prioritize the rescue first. No matter if someone is a villain, civilian, or another hero. If someone is in danger we do not judge and we save people. That is what being a hero is about. Does everyone understand?” Thirteen asked them.
“Yes, sensei.” The class replied.
“Alright everyone,” Vlad-sensei stated walking up to stand in front of the stairs. “Just like yesterday, I want everyone to pair up into groups randomly. We might not always know who we are working with in the future, so you have ten minutes to get together before I assign you a zone.”
“Yes, Vlad-sensei!” The class replied.
Neito turned to Kendo who was next to him. He wanted to prioritize who would give him the best boost of quirks after his timer ran out. “Kendo-chan, did you want to-” His voice was cut off as the lights of the facility shorted out.
“What’s going on?” Someone cried.
“The lights…Sensei is this part of the training?”
“I don’t like the dark.”
“This is not well.”
“Dark! Why Dark?”
“What’s going on?” Neito exclaimed, grabbing Kendo’s arm and causing the girl to scream. “Stop that’s just me.” He told her.
“Sorry, I thought you were a ghost,” Kendo replied.
“Offense taken.” Neito herald Yunagi grumbled from somewhere behind him.
“Sorry Yanagi-chan!” Kendo replied.
“Everyone remain calm,” Thirteen-sensei’s voice spoke up from the darkness. “A breaker must have gone out. Vlad, can you notify the robots on your phone? We can see about getting them back on. Everyone, please stay in one place while we work on this.” They told them calmly.
“I can’t seem to get the phone to turn on,” Vlad-sensei grumbled somewhere in front of them. “It was fully charged a few moments ago.”
“Hang on,” Thirteen-sensei replied, some footsteps were heard as they moved around. “If I can find the shutter’s switch we can see with the daylight.”
“I don’t think that will work.” An unknown voice spoke up.
“Who is that?!”
“Kamikiri if that’s you trying to make dark edge lord voices again to scare me I swear to god man!” Awase yelled.
“Guys I don’t like-” Tsuburaba’s voice was cut off by a scream.
“Hay-” Kodai’s screamed next.
One by one students' screams rang in the air while Vlad-sensei yelled. “Everyone what’s going on?!”
“I don’t know-” Neito’s voice cut off as the floor dropped out from under him and swallowed him whole.
He couldn’t breathe. Darkness surrounded him, and he felt like he was falling through a tube. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t breathe, was this an attack? What was going on-What was happening?!
Just as Neito’s lungs screamed for air, he was shot out of the darkness and landed on the ground with a hard thump. Neito groaned in pain, similar groans from his classmates echoing around him.
“Where are we?” Shoda stated somewhere to his left.
“Where are Thirteen and Vlad-sensei?” Kendo groaned somewhere close to his right.
“Guys? Is everyone okay?” Kodai asked.
Neito grunted, putting his hands under his chest and pushing himself up, his eyes blinking open one hand coming to clutch his sudden headache at making contact with the ground. The room was dim, dark stone in asymmetrical block formations covered all the walls and floor, and the only light given was from the small glass lamps in each corner. In front of them, there was a black stone door with no handle. Neito looked around and found all his classmates in similar states to him, getting up and checking themselves for injuries.
“Is anyone hurt?” Neito asked, pushing himself to his feet before helping Yanagi up a little ways from him.
“Just my pride.” Tsuburaba groaned a little ways from his face planted on the floor as Shiozaki layed on top of him.
“Shiozaki-chan…please get off me….your heavy.”
“How rude,” The vine-haired girl muttered, getting off her classmate and helping him get up. “God saw that I needed his assistance and provided you as a solution. Be honored.”
“Yeah,” Tsubaraba rubbed his face. “Feeling real honored here.” He grumbled.
“Is anyone else hurt?” Kendo asked taking over for Neito as they went from student to student to check for injuries.
“No, I think we’re all mostly winded from the fall,” Awase replied as everyone else murmured their status.
“Were are we?” Komori asked.
“Some kind of…dark room? A teleportation quirk?” Honenuki inquired putting his hand on the wall.
“If we were teleported…then for what purpose? Is this a part of the training?” Testutestu asked.
“I don’t think so-” Neito started only for Honenuki to interrupt him.
“I can’t use my quirk on it!” He exclaimed.
“Weird…doesn’t your quirk soften everything?” Kamikiri asked.
“You try then.” the other blond replied.
Neito watched as his classmate grew a long blade before slashing at the wall only for the blade to bounce off. “I can’t phase through it.” Yanagi cried.
“My punches do nothing either!”
“What’s going on?!”
“Not even a shroom will grow.”
“I’m stuck too. It’s like the shadows have a wall blocking it.”
“Everyone! Everyone! Calm down.” Kendo cried.
“Exactly. It’s no use freaking out before we know what is going on.” Neito replied, looking around the room. “Did anyone try the door?”
“It no budge,” Tsunotori replied, the girl trying to pull and push it to no avail.
“I don’t want to get agro with everyone this close,” Shishida stated. “Otherwise I’d try to punch it open.”
“Maybe I can use solid air between the cracks?” Tsuburaba offered.
“I could try to send a pinky through.” Tokage offered.
Suddenly a crackle of a microphone was heard and heavy loud breaths were echoing all around them. The sound of someone tapping on the mic before a loud noise echoed making Neito cover his ears instinctively as everyone around him did the same.
“Ah, sorry, sorry, don’t fucking know how this shit works give me a minute.” A raspy voice echoed around them. Neito squinted in the dim lighting looking for speakers, finally, he saw one near the ceiling from the wall to his left. If there were speakers then that meant someone had been watching…was it a test from the teachers afterall?
“Hello, testing one, two, Okay It’s working now.” The voice rasphed before the voice cleared its throat and was speaking again.
“Students of class 1-A Hero course.” The voice began.
“1-A?”
“What?”
“We are the league of-Wait a minute…..I know that hair….Monoma is that you?” The voice rasped.
Neito was confused. He was pretty good at remembering people's voices one of the perks of being bullied most of his childhood but he didn’t know this guy. Neito lowered his hands and plastered on a fake conceited smile. “Why who else would it be? I can’t believe you thought we were class 1-A. You must not have gotten the memo from Vlad-Sensei. That is alright, it’ll give us time to show you who the superior class is.” He bluffed, placing his hand near his hairline while hiding the other in his pocket, inside were a few jars of hairs he’d stolen from around the school. He was only able to copy a few quirks but it would do in a pinch after his classmate's timers ran out.
“Fuck. Fuck. God Dammit.” The voice grumbled. “Right fuck whatever wrong fucking class, wrong fucking day, wrong fucking life. I can deal with this. It’s fine. Totally fucking fine. Okay, all of you listen up!” The voice growled growing more unhinged as it went along.
“This is my dungeon. You all are my hostages. I’m a villain blah, blah, boo hoo be scared, shut the fuck up, and stop whining!” The man yelled to his classmates who started to murmur in protest. Neito watched the speaker, looking around the room for cameras. Obviously, the man could see them. But who was he? It didn’t feel like they were being held hostage by a villain who cursed every five seconds and acted like an annoyed overworked teacher. Neito wondered if this was a test Vlad-king-sensei hadn’t informed them of.
“Liston well students of 1-B. This dungeon has ten levels. Each Level gets progressively harder the deeper you go. You can’t leave until all of you clear it. Your my entertainment for the next two days so you better put on a good fucking show. Don’t try to break the walls or phase through them. Not even All-might would be able to bust through them. Much less your baby ass noodle arms. You have forty-eight hours to clear this dungeon or I’ll…fuck what will I do-” Shuffling was heard, a crinkle of paper then the man was speaking again. “Ah yeah, warp you directly into Mount Fuji’s volcano….You really put that…damn okay we really put that-” Another cough then, “You’ve been warned. Now baby heroes show me your resolve to live.” The man replied.
A horn sounded and then the floor underneath Neito dropped out from under them and everyone was falling through some kind of shoot.
“What the hell!?” Neito screamed as more and more of his classmates screamed from the tunnels next to him.
Neito looked over to the glass tube, seeing Kendo trying to stop her descent before darkness engulfed him.
Just who the hell was that guy?!
“I don’t think that will work.” An unknown voice spoke up.
Vlad tensed immediately, blood running quickly through his veins. That voice wasn’t one of his students. The darkness flashed around them he sensed something behind him. Sekijiro activated his gauntlets, feeling the blood rush out of him as the syringes sucked it out, quickly turning on his heel to punch whoever had dared attack his students. He-
“Don’t even think-” Screams pierced the air, sending terror through his veins and then he was falling the sounds of his screaming students cutting off as something black and fog-like engulfed him.
Kan couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. His quirk wasn’t responding to him. Whoever was doing this he would-
Kan found himself dropped into sunlight his eyes burning and blinking spots from going from complete darkness to bright light.
“The hell?” He grunted catching himself before he hit the ground, blinking rapidly.
He was in a forest. How the hell did he-
A scream from his right and Kan dodged out of the way as something was shot out to the ground where he had landed.
“Ow…” The familiar voice of his coworker groaned.
“Thirteen!” Kan yelled alerting them to his presence before approaching the suction hero and helping them up.
“What happened? A forest-How?”
“Teleportation or warp quirk. The students! What happened?” He asked already looking around the meadow they had landed in and checking for villains.
“Gone, I saw Tokage-chan get sucked into the black void just like we did before disappearing. Villain attack?” Thirteen inquired also looking around.
“I don’t know, first let's get the terrain.” He replied starting to jog northward. Thirteen followed them, making good pace as they found a cliffside and climbed it to survey their surroundings.
“Is that…” Thirteen asked looking outward from the mountain's cliffside.
“Yeah, Shojuku City. Fuck. They teleported us all the way to Mount Fuji.” Kan growled.
“Well, if we’re here then-” Thirteen pulled up their arm, opening a box and pressing a few buttons of their space suit.
A ringing noise played from the speaker before the call connected. “Thirteen, What is the situation?” Nezu-san’s voice rang over the secured line.
“We’ve been warped to Mount Fuji from some unknown villain attack on the U.S.J, the kids are in danger I don’t know if anyone was still there. The facility shut down moments before the attack.” Thirteen relayed.
“One moment, I’m pulling up video feed now.” Nezu’s voice replied. Kan moved closer to the fellow hero, crowding around their armband as they anxiously waited for the rat’s reply.
“Video feed uploading,” Nezu stated and the screen of Thirteen’s armband lit up revealing the facility back online and devoid of a single person’s presence.
“Fuck.” Kan growled, his fist hitting a nearby tree in anger.
“They took our students.” Thirteen replied their voice also full of rage.
“Not for long,” Nezu replied. “I’m rerouting to the infrared camera support system to check if they got anything while in standby mode it’s a small feature, not a part of the normal subroutine of U.S.J.’s system, not many people would be able-Ahah. Take a look at this.” the screen glitched and an infrared image was played back showing a video feed of the moment the students had been warped away. Two extra blobs of red bodies showing on the other side of the atrium.
“It’ll take a while for A.I. imaging to disclose any features it can pick up. I’m sending a car to pick you up at the bottom of the mountain. You both have one hour. I’m initiating a school-wide lockdown.”
“Understood!” They both replied, Thirteen closing their terminal and looking at Kan.
“Let's go.” Thirteen told them.
Kan nodded, turning on his heel and beginning to run once more.
They had thirty minutes max to get down the mountain and back to the U.S.J.
Lord helped the villains who dared to kidnap his kids. Kan was going to drain them dry.
“So your quirk makes a dungeon based on a person’s memories?” Tori asked the kid Kurogiri had totally kidnapped for her. She was pretending that he hadn’t just grabbed the kid off the street while the kid had run into oncoming traffic to get a ball he’d dropped only to be warped immediately away and then dropped into the private karaoke room she had rented. It was quiet, outside of the bar, and she could lock the door so she saw no problem with going through the registry files Kurogiri would periodically warp to her from whatever registry office he stole it from. All that was fine until they finally found a quirk similar to what she was looking for and it turned out to be some seven-year-old kid who was probably traumatized from almost getting isekaied via Truck-kun.
It was fine. Fucking Fine.
‘You’re not convincing anyone.’ Tomura butted in.
‘Shut up! Let me fucking pretend asshole!’ She mentally growled back.
Tomura flipped her off and went back to watching over her shoulder like the creepy mental stalker he was.
“Hic…yeah.” The kid replied, wiping at his snot-covered face with the napkin she’d given him.
“Cool, that’s so cool buddy. I’m sure all your friends must be jealous of how cool your quirk is.” Tori tried to cheer the traumatized kid up with a smile. The kid’s eyes seemed to get thicker with tears as his terrified face didn’t change.
“...n-not really…hic…m-m-my quirk….makes it h-hard for people. I-I don’t even have control on what the dungeon comes out like…and i-it takes t-two whole d-days to disappear! M-My d-dad’s only takes an hour!” He replied hysterically.
‘Fuck why did you make it cry harder?!’ Tomura whined in annoyance.
‘Shut the fuck up you emotionless troll. He’s just fucking scared and word-vomiting his shit. He is probably thinking we are villains right now trying to hurt him!’ She growled.
‘We are villains dipshit!’
‘I’m fucking not!’
‘You literally killed a guy yesterday!’
‘Overhaul doesn’t fucking count he was not fucking needed for canon!’ Tori growled, mentally shoving him away while focusing on calming the child down.
“That’s so cool!” She cried in false enthusiasm. “That means your quirk is stronger than your dad’s! You could do so many things with it!”
“Y-you think s-so…hic…y-you not just some villain that k-idn-p me?” His replied lips wobbling.
‘We should have let the truck hit him.’
‘Shut up!’
“No! No! No!” Tori replied, bending down and giving the kid her best smile. If it came out looking like a demented demon then she fucking blamed Tomura for not using fucking moisturizer.
‘Bitch!’
“I promise! My purple friend here just wanted to make sure you didn’t get hit by that truck! We’ll take you back home! I promise…I just thought your quirk was so cool! I wanted to see what it could do!” She replied looking over to her table, she picked up one of the wrapped candies from the candy bowl and held it out to the kid.
“See-I even got All-might suckers!” She told him.
‘You're a fucking idiot…I hope you know that.’ Tomura grumbled.
Tori’s eyebrow twitched. Was it possible to strangle someone in her mind? She was very much contemplating it right now. An offended finger was mentally shoved to her in return. Tori shoved that away as well.
“All-might is really cool.” The kid said, his tears petering out as he took the wrapped sucker from her gloved hand.
“Right! He’s so strong! I bet he couldn’t clear your dungeon at all, he’d have no idea what to do!” She replied.
‘Gag me.’
‘Go the fuck back to sleep you annoying insect!’
The kid smiled slightly wiping at his face. “He wouldn’t, you can’t even use your quirks on anything but the monsters because the walls are m-ma-made of ab-ab-t-y-tanium or something. Daddy said it had anti-quirk metal in it.” He replied.
“Wow! That means he wouldn’t even be able to punch his way through. That’s so cool!” Tori replied in false enthusiasm before using her best Alabamain guilt trip sigh. “Ah…wish I could see it.” She stated before standing up.
“Well, Namimoto-kun, we best get you home. Don’t want your parents worrying about you.” She replied gesturing for Kurogiri who had been standing silent in the corner to open a portal.
The kid looked over at her, then Kurogiri, and then down to the sucker she’d given him before looking back up at her. “I-I could show you…” He said timidly. “It’s really b-big so…we’d have to go outside.”
Tori pretended to blink and looked surprised. “Really? But don’t you want to go home right away?”
The kid clutched his shirt and shook his head, a flush igniting upon his cheeks. “If-If it’ s just for a little bit I don’t mind.” He replied.
Tori mentally grinned as the kid took her bait before she outwardly gasped. “You’d really do that for me?”
The kid flushed deeper hiding his ears into his shoulders and nodding his head.
Tori smiled bigger. ‘You're a monster…you know that?’
‘Go suck a duck!’
“Okay, it’ll only be a little bit and then My purple friend will take you straight home is that okay?” She asked bending down again.
“Y-yeah. That’s okay.” The kid replied.
Tori took another piece of candy from the complimentary candy bowl the room had come with and handed it to the kid.
“Great let's get going!” She replied turning to Kurugiri. “How about it my purple friend, can you open a portal to a place with no people and plenty of space for Namimoto-kun to show us his super cool quirk?”
“Certainly sir.” The mist man replied.
Tori and the kid walked through the portal hand in glove hand straight into an empty warehouse completely big enough for the kid to go wild in and not cause too much property damage.
“Alright kiddo, how does this work?” She asked looking down at his Cyclops green eye and tilting her head.
“J-Just like this. I hold your hand and y-you think of a dungeon you want. A-And then I touch the ground and the dungeon pops up.” He replied.
Tori felt Tomura mentally grin.
“Okay-dokey, give me a minute to think.” She replied closing her eyes. Tori envisioned the standard Iskekai dungeon, with ten levels, Zelda-like features, and standard monsters like goblins, orcs, skellingtons, and the undead. And a dragon for the boss at the end. “Okay kiddo, have at it. I think I got what I want.” She replied.
Tori felt something draining her energy as the kid activated his quirk. When she felt the pull of energy stop. she opened her eyes and saw the kid bending down, touching the ground. The ground broke apart as it cut itself into boxes and turned black until the entire warehouse was filled with a brick-like structure that had a single door at the end.
“That’s the entrance. You can clear it multiple times and the monsters will respawn. I don’t know what it looks like though. I’ve never been inside one.” He replied.
Tori smiled wider and squeezed the kid’s hand. “That was so amazing! Thank you so much Namimoto-kun! It looks like so much fun!” She replied eagerly.
The kid blushed deeper. “Thanks.” He mumbled.
Tori nodded, turning to Kurogiri and motioning him. “Thanks for your help kiddo. I’ll be sure to send you a card to let you know how I did. You said it would last two days right?” She replied turning them around.
“Yeah, if you’re still in it at the forty-eight-hour mark it will disappear around you and you’ll drop from whatever floor you’re in.” He replied.
Tori made a mental note to make sure everyone was out of the dungeon before that time. “Got it. I’ll make sure to clear it before then. My friend will take you home now, be sure that the kid gets back to his mother okay.” She ordered Kurogiri who nodded taking the kid's hand from her and opening up a new portal.
“Bye-bye Namimoto-kun! It was fun playing with you!” Tori waved to the kid.
“Bye-bye pretty eyes guy!” The kid replied smiling and eagerly walking through the portal with Kurogiri.
Tomura mentally facepalmed and groaned at her.
‘Why the fuck does everyone think our eyes are pretty? They make us look like we’re demented vampires.’ He grumbled.
‘A little moisturizer and a smile go a long way jerk. Also, I tied your hair back, people couldn’t even see your face before I got here. You just looked like a homeless gremlin.’
‘Offense taken.’
“Good, now fucking shut up and help me clear this bitch in the next hour so we can set up cameras and speakers before our operation lets not kill the U.S.J. Kids in two hours begins.” She muttered aloud looking back at the ominous door apprehensively.
Tomura pulled her face into a manic grin and practically pushed her to the door.
At least someone was excited. Tori entered the room, finding the first room a trap that they easily avoided by not stepping on the plates and making it to the door that opened when they pushed an invisible button that hid in the wall.
It opened to a long corridor. Tori checked the time on her phone. It was seven o’clock. They had an hour to clear this and another hour to get cameras up before it reset and ready for the U.A. Kids.
No pressure.
‘Are you going to pussy foot around or are we going to finally get to destroy something?’ Tomura grumbled impatiently next to her. Tori blinked, eyes swiveling to the side and seeing a black mass next to her. Tomura’s single uncovered red eye blinked at her, eyebrow furrowed. Cool, cool. So that was happening. Great, that was totally great. Tori grumbled to herself.
“I want to ask if I’m hallucinating right now but that would be a moot point,” Tori muttered, pulling her hand up to pull the clasp of her gloves with her teeth.
She rotated her wrist and looked back at the Mirage that floated next to her.
“You ready?” She asked.
Tomura’s aura seemed to pulse, annoyance, rage, malice, anticipation, excitement, and other emotions were pushed to the forefront of her chest.
‘Don’t fall behind.’ Tomura told her.
Tori got into a running stance. “I should be telling you that.” She replied.
‘As if.’ Tomura growled and they took off. Weaving through traps and arrows, dusting monsters, falling down level by level. They ran side by side.
A wave of red followed behind them.
Tori felt a grin spread across one side of her face, Tomura’s image hazing and disappearing as his soul was pulled back into her.
“You have nothing on a pro gamer!” They growled. An orc came running around the corner, club raised ready to crush them three times their size. They chuckled, bet out of the way, and placed their entire palm on the side of the beast's arm.
“ You’re too slow !” They crackled, doing a backbend from Tori’s gymnastic days, and with one pinky from the floor, they lifted their legs in an ark and kicked the next monster to materialize next to them. Coins and jewelry clattered to the floor. They ignored it in favor of speed and kept going.
Level by level, room by room, all the way to the final boss, an undead black knight that was reminiscent of Sensei and Darth Vader. No one could stop them. They turned everything. Every enemy.
To dust.