Chapter Text
A whisper of a voice she can’t hear, a sweet melody, a piano it must be. Rough fingernails rushed against the keys, and then a smile. One sweet enough to make her teeth ache.
Red--the color of blood. The musky scent travels fast through the air. Orange hair is now stained red, what happened? What’s going on?
And then with a snap, her eyes open and she sees blue—the sky.
“Dazai-san? Can you hear me? Are you there?” The voice is rough, panicked, and seems so far away. Her head is killing her and all she wants to do is sleep.
She can feel herself doze off for a second, but in a moment of clarity, she sits upright.
Right, she’s supposed to be doing something right now.
Surrounding her are Tsu, Midoriya, and… some purple thing. Her face almost contorts into something unsightly, but she prevails as her role and what she’s doing here flashes through her mind.
“Ah, Midoriya-san?” She asks, keeping her voice sweet as she looks around, taking in her surroundings. They’re on a boat…in the middle of the sea.
Just how’d that happen?
“Dazai-san! Thank god you’re alright! You were passed out on the boat and-and you weren’t waking up, I, I wasn’t sure if you’d—“ Midoriya choked on his words, sniffling a bit.
Trying to fight off a cringe, Dazai smiles as she inspects his body. Distantly, she wonders how she’d let herself be caught off guard in such a way, but that’s pushed out once she notices the three's soaking wet clothing. She realizes all of them have been teleported here, and that the rest of the class isn’t with them. Could it be the purple blob's quirk that scattered them in different areas? It would make sense, for him to separate them.
They must’ve been teleported in the sea.
Looking over the railing on the boat they’re placed, Dazai finds them in the middle of nowhere, only water in sight. She also sees people loitering around, villains it must be.
The water’s part of the USJ, she realizes.
The last thing she remembers is the purple goop transporting them elsewhere.
Ah.
So that’s it.
They’re still in the USJ.
“I’m fine, Midoriya-san, no need to cry.” She softly wipes his tears from his eyes and then goes to pat his head. Funnily, the boy flushes a dark red as he puts his head down.
He truly is too vulnerable.
And funny to mess with of course.
He reminds her of a bunny.
Dazai’s ready to open her mouth again and tease the boy in an unseeable way, but she’s cut off by a screech.
“MIDORIYA! YOU WERE THE ONE TELLING US TO GET SERIOUS, BUT NOW YOU’RE FLIRTING WITH THE NEW, CUTE TRANSFER! I HATE YOU!” The purple midget from before screeches, and Dazai can’t fight off the brief look of disgust that passes her face as she gazes at the thing.
But it’s gone as quickly as it presented itself. Quickly, Dazai looks over at Tsu who’s doing the same with a confused expression. Despite that, there’s understanding in her eyes when she looks at the purple mess, and then back at Dazai.
Dazai smiles at her.
At the comment, Midoriya flushes. “Flirting!? No, no, me and Dazai-san are just friends!” He shakes his head wildly, meanwhile, the gnome only furrows his brows.
“Bullshit!” He frowns.
As the two argue, Dazai once again finds herself gazing at the thing, but this time out of curiosity. Dazai wonders if it’s his quirk making him so short, the literal size of a gnome. She knows quirks can change biology, but this was quite new. His body didn’t hold any signs of being a mutant, so she assumed it was just a genetic thing.
Youch, Dazai thinks, he definitely pulled the short string in the family.
Ignoring him entirely now, Dazai casts a gaze down and over the rail again. The enemies are bunched into groups and seem to be conversing amongst themselves, and as humorous as this might be, Dazai gets motion sickness easily.
It’s a secret she’s kept for a while, the thought of Chuuya finding out one day was horrific. The teasing would be horrible, so disgusting she’d shied from missions on boats with Chuuya altogether. The thought of such a weakness of hers being brought to light so easily made her flush.
So she really wants to get off this boat as fast as possible.
“Excuse me…” she whispers, and all eyes turn to her. “Isn’t there something we need to be doing?” She asks.
And at that moment everyone flinches as if just remembering their predicament.
As much as Dazai wants to call them idiots, she doesn’t.
“Right! As I was saying before we found Dazai, their…” Midoriya points at the villains, “strategy is to overwhelm us with numbers. They don’t know our quirks, after all.” He pauses with a grim expression. “They know they’ve got us beat in numbers and experience, but we’ve got them with the aspect of surprise. So we exploit the fact that they don’t know our quirks! The fact that they’re not trying to get on board only supports my theory.” He glares down at the villains.
Silently standing in the background of it all, Dazai watches the interaction with an amused expression. Such quick thinking is plausible and valuable, there was no overestimation of themselves, nor underestimation of their enemies, just pure facts. Good… Dazai thinks. Such a thing is good for the team when battling an unknown enemy. He’s not only being sure not to underestimate the team with low confidence but also being sure not to overestimate ourselves either, making the team cocky. Not only had Midoriya done all of that, but he’d also made correct evaluations of their enemies and their situations.
Midoriya can truly be a leader and a quick thinker in the most important situations, a smart one at that.
Rocking on the heels of her feet, Dazai smiles. (Oh if Mori were here he would tell her to attempt to bring him into the port.
As if she would, dealing with him would be annoying.)
Looking back down at the villains, Dazai can tell their abilities are water-based, why else would they be sent here, to the water area, to take care of them if not? Most seem to be mutant quirks, so not very strong but still pretty deadly.
She does not share this insight though, more interested in watching the show.
She plans to leave leading to Midoriya, he’ll catch on soon anyway.
“I can jump really high…” Tsu says after a second. “And stick to walls. My tongue can stretch to a max of 20 meters. Also, I can spit out my stomach to clean it. And secrete poisonous fluids, I say ‘poisonous’ but it only stings a little.” She gives a detailed description of her quirk, much to Dazai’s pleasure as she mentally jots down everything for later.
20 meters is quite impressive, about the average length a frog can reach. So it seems she was correct when she assumed her entire ability centered on the frog's anatomy.
How interesting.
Mori would be more than pleased to open up the body of one with a mutant quirk, only to poke and prod at their insides.
Distantly, she can hear the gnome say something, but she drones him out.
“The last two pieces of info aren’t that important, so you don’t have to worry about those.”
Midoriya practically has sparkles in his eyes as he smiles. “Wow, you’re pretty strong! I underestimated you.” He admits, and Dazai finds his honesty funny.
Midoriya then goes on to explain his ability, and she drones him out as well, he says nothing of use anyway. Instead, she starts to wonder about the other parts of the USJ. To her knowledge, the USJ is made up of disasters, fires earthquakes, and such. It doesn’t seem as if the villains have information on everyone's quirks in general, nor names, if they did, Tsu wouldn’t be here. Instead, they’d only received lesson plans. Maybe a rubric.
Looking over the three in front of her, Dazai decides neither of them is a traitor. Too wimpy, too heroic, and too laid back. She can also rule out Bakugou and Todoroki, too prideful and aggressive, and Todoroki’s father is the number two hero. It wouldn’t make sense.
Unless hate for his father drove him to do such a thing?
No, if that was the case the place All Might was supposed to be wouldn’t have been leaked, and they wouldn’t have gone after All Might specifically.
Damnit, she doesn’t have enough information for this. She doesn’t even know if Todoroki hates his father, he’s too reserved, too quiet.
She’s brought back when out of nowhere, the gnome detaches his…hair? And sticks it on a wall. “It’s really sticky.” He starts, and Dazai dreads what comes next. “If I’m feeling good, they’ll stick all day. A new one will grow once an old one is used, but if I use too much I’ll bleed. They don’t stick to me and bounce off.” He finishes.
There’s silence for a moment.
Dazai’s shocked to find that a quirk can sound and be perverted. But she can see its use all the same, some situations call for a quirk like that, not to mention how he can cheat his way out of most things.
It’s as plausible as it is disgusting.
In the silence, the gnome tears up. “LIKE I SAID WE SHOULD JUST WAIT FOR BACKUP, MY QUIRK'S HORRIBLE FOR MULTIPLE OPPONENTS!”
The face he’s making is downright sickening, and when Midoriya tries to console him, Dazai has to fight off a laugh.
The boy doesn’t seem to realize his worth, Dazai can bet he’s only tried to use his quirk by sticking someone else or using it in plain sight. It could easily be used for stealth missions or possibly for multiple opponents, that is if he played his cards right. Especially now, with multiple opponents bunched in a close circle.
She doesn’t say this though, only watches.
“I can nullify quirks.” She whispers after a moment. All eyes turn to her and Midoriya’s eyes light up like a thousand stars.
“AH! DAZAI-SAN! I almost forgot you were here with how quiet you are! Your quirk’s so helpful, not sure how I forgot!” Ignoring the semi-insult, Dazai lets out a shy smile.
“I’ll be at your service, Midoriya-san.” She bows, and the boy smiles.
A loud thud interrupts them as a villain shoots into the boat. “Yo, I was getting bored down there, Y’know? Let’s finish this!” Their crude way of speaking reminds Dazai of Chuuya when he’d first become a Mafia member, Dazai finds herself nostalgic for a second.
Dazai is forced to hold onto the rail as the villain splits the boat into two. Fighting off the gag that comes up her throat, Dazai huffs.
As Dazai feels them slowly sinking, she turns to look at Midoriya, then at the gnome who’s now screaming and throwing his… balls…into the ocean towards the enemy.
Now they know your quirk. Dazai muses.
Midoriya must think the same because seconds later he says; “Why’d you panic!? Damn. Now the enemies know your quirk!”
The gnome only cries some more as he points at the enemies. On his part, the villains seem to not want to touch the balls, mostly out of disgust but what works, works.
The villain then tells Dazai what she already knew, that the boat was due to sink in less than a minute and that they’re most powerful in the water.
Despite the warning, Dazai continues to do nothing as her classmates, well two of them, panic. While drowning might not be an ideal death, one with pain, she’s not going to fight it. Not without reason of course.
Dazai’s body still feels sluggish, and she doesn’t want to fight if she doesn’t have to. Seeing her incompetent classmates try to work something out only fuels her want for the sweet release of death.
How boring, is the only thing Dazai can think as she watches the scene play out before her eyes. She feels this feeling intensify when Midoriya starts quoting All Might.
She truly wishes she could whine and complain about her sorrows, but alas, while she hates Mori, this mission is quite serious.
“Dazai-san!” She perks up when her name is called, and she finds it to be Midoriya, halfway off the ledge. “Does your quirk only work with skin contact?” She tilts her head, wondering if she’d told him this before.
“It does, Midoriya-san. Why?” She asks.
“Okay, Tsu, don’t touch Dazai-san, whatever you do, don’t touch her. I’m not sure if her quirk works with mutants, but…” he doesn’t finish his sentence, because he’s then jumping off the ledge with a familiar phrase of: “GO TO HELL!” On his lips.
Dazai raises an amused eyebrow at the aspect of Midoriya copying Bakugou.
She sees as Midoriya uses his quirk and creates a whirlwind, and at that moment he calls all their names. Quickly, she feels herself wrapped in something slimy, and when she finds it to be Tsu’s tongue, she almost gags.
She then sees the gnome throw his quirk in the water and watches as it attaches to the villains.
With a pleased smile on her face, Dazai watches as Midoriya gets snatched up with them.
A plan made on the fly is executed almost perfectly, how interesting.
Slowly, she feels herself smile down at Midoriya. “You did great, Midoriya-san!” And while the saying is nothing but bland flattery, she finds something akin to honesty laced in her words.
And as much as she hates him, and loathes the idiot kid, she can give credit when it’s due.
The smile she receives makes her internally gag.
“Thanks, Dazai-san!”
Slowly, Dazai follows behind Midoriya, Tsu, and the gnome with a grim expression.
They’d been walking for quite a while and Dazai’s frankly sick of it. Can’t they see her body isn’t made for such situations? As much as she hates to admit it, Chuuya’s never been wrong when he’d called her skin and bones!
Dazai can feel herself falling behind as she grumbles about her now wet pants.
If Chuuya were here, she wouldn’t have to walk. Instead, her dog would carry her all the way to the shore. He wouldn’t dare make her walk…well, he would but a little convincing would change his mind quickly. He’d always been a simple canine anyway.
She’s startled when Midoriya suddenly turns to her. “Dazai-san, are you alright?” He asks, and Dazai would think he’d heard her complaining and insults if not for the concerned look in his eyes. “You’re…not the most fit person, no offense.” He cringes, and Dazai nearly sighs in relief.
So he did notice, thank god, she couldn’t take much more of this.
“To be honest,” she mutters as if embarrassed to ask for help. “I’m quite fatigued. I apologize.” She bowed, and Midoriya panicked.
“No, no! You’re fine, I just wanted to ask if you’re good walking the way back—”
Good, now he’ll let us take a break. I just need a second and—
“—if not I can carry you on my back if you like, we’re not that far from land, see?” He points at the now-seeable shore, and Dazai’s eyes widen for a fraction of a second.
Carry her on his back? For what reason? He could easily offer for them to relax instead, but he’s… Gulping, Dazai fights the guilt that furrows in her stomach again. Kindness truly is a curse, especially when people use it for her.
“That would be very kind of you, Midoriya-san.” And when Midoriya crouches, Dazai hops on his back.
Dazai could tell Midoriya had never done this before, and the feeling was nearly sickly for her as much as it was new for him.
“Here they are, flirting again,” Mineta grumbles, a frown on his face.
“Not flirting!” Midoriya says with an eye roll.
Silently, Dazai nods along.
Dazai doesn’t relax on Midoriya’s back. She feels stiffer than before. His smell is not recognized by her, nor is the shape of his back. It feels new and Dazai hates new things. Discomfort rattles in her mind and a distraction is needed.
So she starts talking.
“I’m sorry about what happened before, everyone. I didn’t get to help much.” She whispers, and Midoriya perks up.
“What are you apologizing for, Dazai-san? You did great!” Midoriya sweats, obviously not wanting to upset her.
Tsu doesn’t think the same though. “Kero, what do you mean, Midoriya? She didn’t do much because she couldn’t. Or, it’s more like she didn’t want to.” Dazai blinks a couple of times and fights off an amused huff at being found out so easily, it’s not that she tried to hide it, but still.
“H-huh?” Midoriya and gnome ask at the same time, and Dazai (not so) falsely flushes.
“Yeah, kero. In the situation, Dazai couldn’t do much with her katana or quirk, but if she wanted to, she could’ve given us information. At times, I could see a look of clarity pass through her. But she kept quiet.” She says nonchalantly, no anger present in her voice.
There’s silence for a moment.
“ARE YOU SERIOUS!?” Gnome erupts. “YOU KNEW THINGS BUT DIDN’T TELL US?” He asks her, jumping in front of Midoriya to see her.
Midoriya himself looks betrayed as he slows down. “Wait, really? Why?” He asks, suspicion in his tone.
She makes sure to carry a flush down her back as Tsu speaks. “Well, it’s because she felt motion sick.”
Silently, Dazai fights off a groan. When Tsu found her out, she wasn’t capable of reading her completely. With the first strange and confused look from her, Dazai knew she had to be more careful. Which she guesses is good, but why’s this so… embarrassing?
Whatever, she was already motion sick in the first place, so why not use that to her advantage?
Gnome and Midoriya pause with a confused expression. “Eh?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Tsu starts. “She was embarrassed and knew she was going to gag if she opened her mouth. That’s mainly why she stayed silent. Didn’t you all notice she talked in short sentences, only truly speaking when we were off the boat? Kero.”
“Dazai-san, you didn’t speak because you were embarrassed about being motion sick ?” The way Midoriya says it makes it sound as senseless as it is, which only makes her angry and even more embarrassed.
Many girls are embarrassed about smaller things, of course. So it’s easy to chop it up to being a girl going through puberty and scared of being ridiculed.
So she guesses her ‘insecurity’ can be aired out for now. (She can just imagine others finding out the demon prodigy gets motion sick.)
“I-I’m sorry, it was just so embarrassing, I—” She flushes (maybe not so falsely) once more as she stutters.
Tsu cuts her off. “We get it, you don’t have to explain yourself.” She’s trying to save her face, and Dazai now understands what a ‘girls girl’ is.
“NO THE HELL WE DON’T” Gnome screeches again. “WE COULD’VE DIED? WHAT’S SO WEIRD ABOUT BEING MOTION SICK?” He cries.
“You’re a boy, you wouldn’t get it, Kero.” That is all Tsu says.
When they finally reach land and she gets set down, Dazai feels nothing but relief despite agreeing to be carried.
“Thank you again, Midoriya—” She turns, but pauses as she sees her classmates’ expressions.
They’re all mixed with something like fear and agony as they gaze into the USJ. Confused, Dazai looks where they are.
What she finds is Aizawa on the ground with a twisted arm and a creature on top of him.
Wow, is the first thing that crosses her mind as she gazes at the scene, she wonders how Aizawa isn’t screaming right now, his arm is bloodily bruised. It certainly won’t be of much use any time soon. The second is disgust as she looks up at the creature above him. While she isn’t a stranger to mutated creatures, not after she came here, the thing she sees is on a whole different level. How disgusting.
“Canceling out quirks, huh? Pretty cool, but it’s useless against true strength.” As the man with the hand on his face gets done talking, the creature then holds another hand around his shoulder. Anticipating what’s going to happen next, Dazai glances over to her classmates as a scream runs through the USJ.
His other arm was broken.
She can see pure dread pass over her classmates' features, and she’s yet left confused.
As her eyes travel over the creature, she’s still not sure what kind of mutation it is. She’s researched mutant quirks enough to know the basics and be able to tell what they are from just a look, but as she wanders her eyes across it, she comes up with nothing. It has the beak of a bird, but that’s not it. There's something else to it.
Softly tutting, Dazai turns her gaze back to her classmates’ distressed expressions. The scene isn’t the worst she’s seen before, so she certainly isn’t shocked. But...the same can’t be said for these kids.
In different environments, Dazai reminds herself with a smile dancing on her lips.
Her attention gets snapped back to her teacher as his head gets smashed into the stone.
Tilting her head, Dazai lets out a silent sigh.
Aizawa is just getting tortured at this point, and while she doesn’t hold a connection to the man, this isn’t entertaining in the slightest.
She can hear the distressed whimpers of the gnome as Tsu burrows herself deeper into the water. Meanwhile, Midoriya can’t seem to look away.
She sees the purple thing from before return, as he informs the hand man about thirteen being unable to move, and a kid escaping.
But she’s focused on the sudden prickling feeling that travels up her spine. And as the hand villain announces they’re going to leave, Dazai realizes there’s something else to it, a whisper of death in his words as he speaks to the purple blob.
Eyes.
She feels eyes on her.
Dazai sighs because she knows she’ll have to step in now.
She’s proven correct when her classmates’ cheers surround her, and seconds later the hand man is in front of them, his hand out. “How about we kill a few kids, first?” He asks his palm right in front of her face.
It all happens in a second. A hand, an unsheathing of her Katana, and a blade piercing skin.
It all happens in one moment, and through the piercing stares of her classmates, Dazai can hear the screams of the handman.
“SHE STABBED ME, HOW’D SHE STAB ME?” He yowls in agony, and blood drips from his wrist where her Katana had sliced right through. Blood falls to the floor with a quiet drip, drip drip. And yet, nothing happens. The man screams, and her katana stays in place, but no one acts.
It’s as if time’s frozen.
The man lifts his other palm, and Dazai twists the blade into his skin, causing him to howl once more as she slowly pushes the blade lower and lower, bringing him down to the ground with it.
Standing over him, she lets her eyes run dull, and her lips tug into a sinister smirk. “What do you mean?” She asks innocently, and the man flinches a bit at the look in her eyes. “Don’t tell me you don’t understand how weapons work now?” The tone is mocking and only seems to enrage the man further.
As he shakes with rage and writes beneath her, he casts a look over to Aizawa, whose head is now completely down. He grins. “You’re cocky for a kid! But now that eraser can’t erase my quirk, I’ll show you true pain!” He reaches his hand out to expose her ankles and lets out a sinister chuckle.
Slowly, the hand inches toward her skin.
And it lands.
And nothing happens.
The man looks shocked for a second, his dry and scratched skin unpleasantly rubs against her ankle in a desperate attempt to inflict pain, but he comes out with nothing.
At the shocked look on his face, Dazai begins to chuckle, and then a chuckle turns into a laugh. “Aizawa isn’t the only one with a nullification quirk.” She pulls her katana out of his wrist and grips his hand. “Say, I think I remember you now… Shigaraki.” His eyes go wider than before, and she coos mockingly as she pulls him in to whisper in his ear. “Say, don’t tell me you thought you were the only one who got low-level grunts to spill info. Those mutants you sent were…helpful, to say the least.” She can practically feel the man’s blood run cold. He looks her in her eyes at that moment, and they’re dull. They’re empty, not reflecting a single emotion. Shigiraki can feel his blood run dry, and his bones begin to rattle in his chest in fear.
“D-demon!” He cries.
He stumbles out of her grip, calling for something called a Nomu, and Dazai’s forced to let go when a bigger thing clouds her vision and she jumps back.
She can hear Shigaraki screech; “SHE KNOWS, KOMUGI. SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH.” She can also hear noises of something scratching, his skin it must be. “SHE NEEDS TO DIE, SHE NEEDS TO DIE!”
Now about a couple of feet away from the Nomu, Dazai feels for the end of her sword again, if that thing lands a full forced hit on her, she might die. Looking at her surroundings, Dazai huffs. Nothing she can hide behind, nothing she can use to attack.
Her thought process is cut off when Shigiraki yells. “Nomu, kill the demon!” He demands, and the reactions are almost instant when Nomu comes at her at full speed and deals a damaging blow to her stomach.
Dazai can feel blood fly out of her mouth as she crashes into the nearest object, which happens to be a large rock not far from the commotion. She can feel one of her ribs twist painfully as she gasps, definitely a fracture.
So it only responds to commands. She notes through pain.
She can hear the distressed cries of her classmates’ and when she looks over, she finds fear in Tsu's and gnome's eyes. But…Midoriya is looking at her with an odd expression, it's as if he's scared for her and of her. He looks at Shigaraki again as he mouths the words; “demon.” He snaps out of it quickly though as he then rushes towards her, and when Dazai focuses back, she finds Nomu heading straight for her.
She’s prepared to roll out of the way, but she’s cut off by a tongue grabbing her and a burst through the door. A yell of;
“I AM HERE!”
Now in the arms of Tsu with a hand covering her surely damaged stomach, Dazai looks at All Might who’d just smashed open the doors to the USJ.
She finds him to not be smiling.
He moves with speedy quickness as he collects Aizawa in his arms, she’s not even able to keep up with her eyes as he teleports in front of them, picks them up, and moves them away from Nomu.
“Aizawa’s injured. Everyone, go to the entrance. Hurry!” He tells them, still devoid of a smile. At the command, Tsu and Mineta rush off. Tsu carried Mineta and Aizawa on her tongue.
Dazai coughs up another glob of blood as a new shot of pain travels through her body. And when she looks up she finds concerned eyes. “You…you’re a student, you’re coughing up blood.” He says, fear in his voice. “You hurt a child!?” He asks anger in his tone. “Damn villains.” His frown deepens as he turns to them. “Get yourselves to the entrance.”
“That’s no child, that’s a demon,” Shigiraki confesses, pointing to Dazai. Rage consumes All Might as he throws a punch that, even from their spot, knocks Shigiraki off his feet.
No need to tell me something I already know. Dazai thinks dryly.
“How dare you call an innocent child a demon?” He yells, and Shigaraki laughs, even when on the ground.
“If only you’d seen her a second before, that boy, he can vouch for me, can’t he?” He looks at Midoriya who cringes with a sorrowful look. “He’d had the same expression I did!”
Dazai watches as Shigiraki laughs, but she’s forced to turn back to All Might and Midoriya as she can the prickle of a gaze on herself. When she looks at them, they’re wearing the same concerned expression. “Dazai-san,” Midoriya starts. “You’re bleeding pretty bad, are you okay?” He asks, and Dazai can only respond with another cough of blood, when she takes her hand off her stomach, she finds it covered in red.
“Shit.” She hisses.
Midoriya’s concern only worsens as he watches blood paint the floor.
“I’m fine.” She says, a smile on her face. “I can still fight.”
There’s still information to collect. She doesn’t say.
She watches as Midoriya’s face shapes into something soft, and All Might’s shifts to extreme concern. “Fight? In that condition? Not a chance, you should leave with Tsu and Mineta.” He frowns.
Her face contorts, and she’s not sure how to get out of this one.
Something in her mind clicks, and then she’s gripping onto Midoriya. “I won’t leave Midoriya-san behind. We’re friends, so I’ll be his backup.” Her expression hardens, and Midoriya and All Might are caught off guard. She’s never shown this kind of expression, they must be shocked.
Their attention is stolen when Shigiraki groans and goes to pick up a hand, an apology muttered. “I’m sorry, father.” He apologizes to the hand, and Dazai’s eyes widen.
“Father?” She whispers, and Midoriya turns to her.
“Dazai…I appreciate you staying behind, but what happened before, what Shigaraki said, what…” He trails off as he looks at her injured stomach, and then something close to guilt flashes through his features. “Nothing, never mind. I’ll ask later.”
Dazai has to fight a groan of annoyance.
That’ll surely be something to deal with.
And then, the Nomu crash lands in front of them again, and to Shigaraki's command, is in ready position for a fight.
Midoriya comes to stand closer to her at the sight of the Nomu, and he’s watching All Might for something, a signal it might be.
It’s then that All Might give a grand speech, and turns out his master plan is to run into the fight without a plan, fist blasting.
Idiot! Dazai wants to hiss, but even if she weren't playing her character, Dazai doesn’t think she could seethe for long enough to get her point across.
“All Might, you shouldn’t do that, it’s too—” Midoriya tries to warn, but it’s too late as All Might rush in.
The first punch is like a tsunami of wind, fighting to push her down.
The rest are worse, as Dazai has to plant herself into the ground as they exchange blows, the wind almost knocking her off her feet.
Even through the fog of hits, Dazai can see there’s no winning or losing side as of now, they’re equally matched. No wonder that punch hurt so bad. Clenching her teeth, Dazai watches as the supposedly equal fight turns unequal as Nomu uses a second quirk.
It’s when All Might goes to Supplex him, that he’s suddenly taken underground, a portal opening up. And then, the Nomu begins to hold his sides in a bloody grip, nails digging in.
Dazai’s eyes trail over the figure as she notes everything she can about Nomu, attempting to find out his mutation still.
Extremely tough outer skin, multiple quirks, an inhumane form, can’t move on its own without commands.
The structure, the actions, and the way it works. As Shigaraki calls it his creation, it all reminds her all too much of something she’s seen before.
Something she’d heard of before.
Something that’s not a mutation.
An extremely overpowered beast, capable of destruction
It reminds her all too much of…
“Experimentation.” She whispers. “Experimentation with quirks.” She decides. And suddenly she’s being flashed back to the moment with the purple blob, the flash of blue, the screams of pain. “Ah.” She shutters.
They’re performing experimentations with quirks, mashing them together to form an ultimate being. There’s a possibility that they’re not using actual humans, maybe animals or such, but that's unlikely. The brain that nests at the top of Nomu-chan looks exactly as the human’s should.
Midoriya flashes her a confused look.
Through her jumbled thoughts, it comes to her that Chuuya’s with them. Chuuya with a powerful quirk, Chuuya who won’t stand for experiments, Chuuya who’ll no doubt fight to release any captives of the experimentation.
Chuuya who’s been a victim of experimentation, Chuuya who’ll definitely ruin the mission to tear down the LOV at the sight of experimentation.
Groaning, Dazai fists her hair—which’s now frizzy and tangled in its braid—in her hand.
This mission is turning out to be a shitshow.
But they can’t turn back now, not when it’s not finished. And Chuuya certainly can’t just leave the LOV, not now.
But…if any signs of experimentation pop up with Chuuya, if he somehow catches on, it would be smart to formulate a proper plan for his escape…
Her thought process comes to a pause when Midoriya runs straight into the fight between All Might and Nomu-chan.
Her eyes widen as she takes in his stance. He still has an injury from before, she realizes. There’s blood seeping down his hands even as he readies them for a new attack. For a second, her eyes flash with a smile, one from Midoriya, one of innocence he’s given her multiple times before. The days they’ve sat together at lunch, the conversations they’ve had. The ‘friendship’ they’ve claimed. It’s all fake, the smiles, the happiness, the thankfulness, but her heart clenches all the same.
He might die, she realizes with clarity. Why do I care? We haven’t spent much time together. I don’t know much about him and he doesn’t truly know me, so why do I care? She asks herself as his question from before pops back into her mind; /would you like me to carry you?/ That kindness, something so new. She doesn’t need it, not at all but…
Clenching her teeth, and fighting to hiss the word; idiot, Dazai jogs after him, breath labored and stomach aching, yet she still pushes. It’d be a waste if Midoriya got himself killed now, she thinks, it’d be a waste with all his potential, is what she tells herself as an explanation to why she’s pushing so hard to get to him.
An explosion stops her running, and it’s Bakugou blasting the purple blob, who was standing behind Shigaraki, in the face. “GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” He smirks when his hit lands, and soon the rest of her classmates, the decently strong ones, follow behind.
“So I heard you’re here to kill All Might?” Todoroki steps up as he questions, and that’s probably the first time she’s heard him talk. “I don’t believe that, because scum like you could never kill the symbol of peace.”
Alright, Dazai sighs—her muscles now lax as Midoriya takes a step back. Luckily this proves Todoroki is also an All Might frantic, which means he’s not the traitor.
Now standing over the blob with a hand in front of its face, Bakugou grins. “Don’t move! If your body was truly all mist and shit, you wouldn’t have said; ‘that was a close one’ earlier!”
(And once again Dazai is shown Bakugou’s intelligence. Despite looking like such a dolt, one that only focuses on strength, he’s proved himself smart over and over again.
He’s truly one to watch out for.)
As Shigaraki commands Nomu-chan again to take out Bakugou, it rises, then breaks off its limbs and…
Fuck.
It also regenerates, not only that, but the tissues that blend and stabilize are one of humans.
That proves it. Dazai thinks grimly, they’re using humans as test subjects.
“I don’t remember saying that’s all it can do, this is hyper-regeneration.” Then, there’s a blast, one targeted at Bakugou. There’s a flash for a moment that Dazai can see, then Bakugou’s out of the crossfire.
No one saw it happen, but the evidence is there.
“Shut up,” she hears Bakugou say to Midoriya. “I didn’t dodge.”
And across the USJ, there’s All Might who took the blow for Bakugou.
Ah,
Through the blood and terrified stares of her classmates’, Dazai realizes she needs to buy some time.
And with that, she turns to Shigaraki, the most mocking smirk she can muster pulled on her face as she lets go of her injured stomach. “Ah, Shiggy-chan.” She smiles, and the man’s face contorts. “This really is a nice servant you’ve got here.” She motions to Nomu-chan. She can feel her classmates’ stares at the change in her demeanor, but she’ll deal with that later. “It makes me wonder…how’d you do it?” She places a nimble finger on her chin and pretends to think for a moment. “It’s almost as if…”
She beams, but the look in her eyes doesn't match the look. “Nomu-chan was made to be that way.” Her smile falls at the same time Shigiraki starts to scream.
“THIS GIRL, THIS GIRL, THIS GIRL, THIS GIRL! SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH.” He stomps, much like how a child would.
She can hear the voices of her classmates.
“Whoa, Dazai worked him up with just a few words.”
“I’ve never seen her so confident.”
When she looks, she can see Midoriya’s confused and nervous look and Todoroki’s glare. But what prevails over it all is Bakugou’s voice.
“Finally deciding to show your true self, villain?” He mocks, crossing his arms.
Clenching her fist, she almost curses.
She’s trying to save his ass right now but he’s giving her shit?
Seriously?
She hates this school.
She hates this mission.
She hates that she has to stand up for the school she doesn’t like because of said mission.
She bites her lip as she turns to the crowd meekly, and whispers loud enough for them to hear. “I’m sorry you all have to see such a disappointing part of me, I hoped I would have left this in the past. But…my biggest skill was my words, it was with them that I could control my enemy, and…” she trails off, a grim look on her face. “Again, I’m sorry.” She finished before turning back around, not waiting for any reactions.
Suddenly, All Might rushes in front of her, blocking Nomu-chan. “As brave as you are, student, you shouldn’t put yourself in danger to protect your classmates.” All Might swallows, and it’s obvious he forgot her name in the heat of the moment. “All of you, get out of here.” He holds a hand in front of them.
Midoriya’s quick to deny doing so, and Todoroki keeps it real in a bland voice, telling All Might he wouldn’t have escaped without his help.
“Right, you are, Todoroki! So thanks for that, but now it’s time for you to sit back and watch a pro get serious.” He says, and it’s all bull, Dazai can tell. The man’s bleeding profusely and his breaths are labored.
Dazai predicts he can hold out for less than a minute.
Despite this, All Might go in headfirst, even as he spits up blood. ( Why push yourself so hard? She asks, but her mind provides no answer.)
“It’s absorption, not negation! So he must have a limit!” All Might says as he continues his onslaught of attacks. “Built to counter me, you say? Then I’ll just go beyond that!” His punchers get progressively rougher, and Dazai can feel the shockwave, even from where she’s standing.
“I’ll show you, the true meaning of—“ a particularly hard punch knocks Nomu-chan out of the USJ, and probably into some poor woman’s yard. “Heroism!”
“Just like out of the comics…” she hears Kirishima whisper in amazement.
“I’m truly slowing down, back in my old days that would’ve taken five hits. But this time it took over 300.” All Might admits, and Dazai’s left shaking her head at the thought of ever punching more than once for a job.
She leaves that to Chuuya.
“Now what, Villain?” He asks.
“You cheated.” Shigaraki grits, once again like a child. “They lied to me, you aren’t weakened!” He begins to scratch violently.
All Might says he’s ready for anything else he throws at him, but it’s obviously a bluff. Dazai can see him trembling from here, and it’s been exactly 53 seconds.
The purple blob is quick to calm Shigaraki down.
And Shigiraki says something that catches her attention. “Yes, yes. The final boss is right here. Their final boss is right here…ours isn’t.”
And when the purple blob opens wider than before, and Midoriya jumps towards it, with broken body parts and all, Dazai almost facepalms.
A bullet stops it all as it pierces Shigaraki.
Then multiple bullets start to fly. “Sorry, we’re late everyone.” A voice apologized. “I brought everyone I could! Iida, class president of 1A, reporting for duty!” Iida yells, and the bullets continue to fly. And then there’s thirteen sucking the villains in.
There’s a moment of clarity that passes through the class faces, but it’s all cut off when the portal opens wider, and Shigaraki laughs.
And Dazai can feel it, she can feel the titter in her bones whenever he’s near, and she can feel the lightheaded feeling along with it.
As a green hoodie appears from the portal, stopping all incoming bullets, Dazai almost smiles.
“Our final boss is now here.”
“Fucking finally.” This is the first thing that Chuuya says once he’s out of the portal. “It was starting to get stuffy in there, I thought you guys died for a second!” He calls out to the Shigaraki who’s on the ground with bullets through some parts of his body.
The man only grunts, and Chuuya takes his time to scan his surroundings. He whistles at the carnage he sees, but he knows himself that he's looking for one pair of eyes only.
He finds eyes full of tears and fear staring at him, blood on the floor and bodies, but never who he’s searching for.
It irritates him.
A laugh stops his search. “A kid? That’s their final boss?” It’s some spiky kid with a dumb look on his face, and almost to contradict his words, he’s in a ready position.
He ignores him when Shigaraki speaks again. “No time for chit-chat! Fuhai, go attack!” He commands, and Chuuya wants to do nothing more but roll his eyes, but he doesn’t.
Slowly, he lifts all the bullets carefully, and it’s at that moment that Chuuya sees a look of realization pass over everyone’s features as someone screams.
“LOOK OUT!” And then he’s sending the bullets flying right back at everyone, he can hear a few grunts of pain but he ignores them.
“I’ve been itching for a good fight, so come at me!” There are looks of disarray and agony passing over kiddish features but he doesn’t care as he rushes towards the closest one, which happens to be some green-haired kid.
He seems to notice he’s going for him because he lets out a screech as he tries to use his quirk, but he’s too late when Chuuya kicks him into a wall. He can hear the loud grunt of pain when he connects, but he ignores it when a kid comes blasting.
He ducks out of the way of the blast as the kid yells; “DIE!”
He chuckles. “Fucking idiot.” And with that, he kicks the kid.
It’s then that more bullets come crashing down on them, and Chuuya lifts them to send them right back toward where they came from, distantly, he can see blood spewing in front of this one kid's eyes, the blood of a hero no doubt.
“Damnit, what’s with this kid? What’s his quirk!” The blonde growls as he stands, cupping his side. “It’s like he’s fucking invincible!”
“Aw, that injury looks like it hurts, I wonder how a kid like me managed to do that!” He mocks, pointing at the wound. And the blonde doesn’t like that as he growls.
A large glacier of ice makes him pause and kick in the area it stems from, the glacier cracks almost instantly, falling into little beads of nothing. At the same time, explosives come his way which he dodges again, this time he floats in the air.
“H-he got a hero!” He hears a scream, and it’s some kid with glasses. He's nursing some hero with a gun.
He’s distracted when he’s forced to look over at the green kid again as he speaks. “H-he looks our age! What’s he doing with the villains?” He asks, limping on one foot.
Chuuya rolls his eyes before blasting in front of the kid. “Why, you ask?” He whispers, and the kid's eyes are wide as he stares into his.
“It’s because life's more entreating this way! On the side of the villains, of course.” He beams, getting into the 'crazed kid' act
“Stop playing around and kill them!” Shigaraki screams again, the kid turns pale. And with that, he’s prepared to hit the kid again.
A voice stops him.
“I-is it really you?” It’s softer, softer than it usually is, but it grabs his attention all the less.
Pretty lady? The god stirs.
When he turns, it’s Dazai, but her eyes are filled with tears. Despite knowing it’s an act, he can feel himself panic. “Eh?” He asks, a surprised tint to his voice.
“Y-you’re alive…” she whispers. “You’re alive!” She cries.
THE PRETTY LADY’S CRYING?!? WHAT’D YOU DO?
NOTHING, I SWEAR! WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON?
He’s frozen stiff when Dazai pulls him into a hug, she then whispers into his ear. He can feel the warmth seeping into his stomach, and the scent of blood weighs heavily on Dazai’s clothes, she’s bleeding. “You, childhood, gang, left. Me, redemption, finding, yearning. Push me.” She finishes, and just like he’s got the memo.
He pushes Dazai roughly with a scared look, one full of shame. “I, Dazai?” He asks, and by the approving tint in her eyes, he’s doing good. “You…” he cringes once he catches a full look at Dazai, she looks sickly pale and there’s an intense amount of blood in her clothing.
HELP HER, SHE’S DYING, HELP HER DAMNIT!
Shut it, I can’t.
He’s cut off by Shigaraki. “KILL THEM, WHAT ARE YOU DOING, FINAL BOSS?”
His eyes switch from Shigaraki to Dazai in dismay.
That idiot thinks we’d choose him.
He ignores the god.
“I, I can’t.” He replies. “I,” he can feel the prickle of an attack on his back, but this time he lets it happen as he’s blasted toward Shigaraki.
He rolls on the ground as dramatically as he can and Shigaraki scowls.
Midoriya falls to the ground once the kid is far away from him, he’s shaking violently and he doesn’t think he can stop. When he casts a look over to All Might, he sees a look of despair on his face.
He can’t do anything, Midoriya realizes.
They can’t do anything.
A kid, just one, came and dominated everyone. With his mere presence, Midoriya could tell he was different from them, something otherworldly. But his pure power just proved it.
He took down a hero with just one move, and not only injured both him and Bakugou but stopped an attack from Todoroki.
“We don’t stand a chance” was what Midoriya realized at that moment. And when he stood over him with the order to kill, Midoriya realized that he was useless to stop it, he realized that if he truly wanted him dead, he was powerless to stop such a thing.
Todoroki and Bakugou must’ve realized the same thing because they’d paused all the same.
I’m going to die. That is what he’d thought before Dazai spoke.
Her timid voice was slightly watery as she whispered to him and hugged him as if they were acquaintances.
And when he pushed her off, Dazai looked heartbroken .
And now, he’s left to do nothing but watch as the purple Villain opens a portal to teleport them all out.
And as Dazai drops to her knees and cries, Midoriya’s left with the truth that he’s,
Really,
Truly,
A useless hero.
Despite it being about the third time Dazai’s had to fake cry like this publicly, it hasn’t gotten any less embarrassing. Through her tears, she can see relief pass over everyone’s features at the threat being gone.
She’s interrupted when a hand fists at her shirt. “OI, WHAT WAS THAT?” Bakugou yells in her face. “THAT PIECE OF SHIT ACTED LIKE HE KNEW YOU, YOU ACTED LIKE YOU KNEW HIM SO WHAT’S ACTUALLY GOING ON HERE?” She responded with a deep sob racking her body instead of a reply.
He’s stopped by Midoriya. “Let her go, Kacchan!” He yells, still on the ground, but his voice carries.
“HAH? LET HER GO? SHE’S OBVIOUSLY WITH THE VILLAINS!” Bakugou shakes her. “THIS BASTARD—“
“Put her down, kid.” Midnight's voice cuts in as she walks towards them, and Bakugou stares at her for a moment then scoffs before dropping her as she cries. “Hey.” She crunches down to her level. “That kid, the crazy strong one that almost killed Snipe, do you know him?” She asks, voice soft with understanding.
She wants to roll her eyes.
“I, yes.” She whispers, tears still in her eyes, and Bakugou motions to her, almost as if saying: see?
Midnight furrows her brows. She seems like she’s about to ask more questions before Nezu stops her.
“I see, was he a friend in the Mafia?” He asks, no filter at all. He gets slightly confused glances from his employees, but they’re ignored.
Covering her eyes with her hands, Dazai looks at Nedzu between them. “He was,” she hiccups. “One of my closest ones, I thought, I thought he’d died.” She cries harder. “I thought Fuhai died.”
She’s shaking, and a hand comes to place on her back. “It’s alright, shush now, you’re okay.” It soothes, and Dazai doesn’t hide an exaggerated flinch.
It’s then that all her other classmates come rushing in, and she drops her heartbeat to almost zero and fakes a blackout.
She needs the rest for her stomach anyway.
She can hear the distressed screams, but she ignores them.
Hopefully, Chuuya got the memo .
When they’re thrown out of the portal, Chuuya’s met with screams.
“WHAT WAS THAT?” Shigaraki asks. “WHY COULDN’T YOU KILL HER?”
This mortal dares to suggest we kill Dazai. The god growls.
Chuuya clenches his fist.
“You never had a moral code before, why now?” Shigaraki spits.
“Anyone but her.” He decides to say. He’s not sure what Dazai’s planning, but it’s something important if she’s making him act. “I can’t kill her.”
Shigaraki scoffs. “Why?”
“She means something.” Chuuya improvises, not sure what to say. “She thought I was dead, having her see me like this, on this side. It’s embarrassing.” He shakes his head, and suddenly a new sound butts in.
“Who’re we talking about?” Toga asks, her shoulders practically flushed to him as she does so.
Arahabaki groans.
“Some girl.” He spits the word girl. “A hero student that Fuhai just couldn’t kill for some reason!” And it just has to be one of the ones we have to worry about!”
Toga’s demeanor turns confused as she looks at Chuuya.
“Really?”
“YES REALLY! That girl knew everything, down to our plans and the—” He cuts himself off. “We need her to join us.” He finishes, and Chuuya perks up. “If we’re not able to kill her, then we need her.”
Of course, the pretty lady knew everything, she’s smart after all. Arahabaki nods. However, I am not amused with the fact that this bum assumes he can kill Dazai. Really, how foolish.
Chuuya sighs.
Just what has Dazai gotten him into this time?
It seems that even in the emergency room, Aizawa can’t catch a break. “So you’re telling me that there may be another student we need to take into the rehabilitation program when the time comes?” He asks his boss, who, even through all the bandages, he can tell is smiling.
“Yes, another one predictably from Yokohama. One that could possibly be related to Dazai’s past.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.”
(Turns out Dazai’s plans always work after all.)
When Dazai ‘wakes up’ she’s in a hospital bed, and Nedzu and Aizawa—who’s wrapped in bandages head to toe—are beside her. Gaze filtering between the two, Dazai sinks in on herself as she fiddles with her fingertips.
Her stomach’s no longer bleeding, and she feels no pain.
The pain meds they fed her worked quite well.
Silence passes through the room until Aizawa speaks. “You were one of the only students who’d sustained injuries.” He starts. “Not only that, but footage shows you provoking the villain to save your comrades.” And while she’s being praised, Dazai can tell by Aizawa’s tone that he’s not satisfied. “While such a thing is noteworthy and makes us believe in your will to change, it was extremely dumb.” He shakes his head. “You put yourself in intense danger standing in front of the Nomu with nothing but a sword, Dazai. You put yourself in danger when you provoked a villain to his face. They’ll surely be after you now.” He lectures, and Dazai wonders if the other kids got this lecture as well, or if it was only her; The weak and pathetic transfer student .
Deep down, Dazai knows that this lecture was passed through everyone, doesn’t make her any less pissed though.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Nedzu speaks up. “We didn’t come for apologies, more like answers.” The rat smiles.
Finally, Dazai thinks, I was starting to think they came here for nothing.
Sitting up, she looks Nedzu in his eyes, which is undoubtedly a first for her character. “Yes.” She nods.
“Good, now. When you were provoking the villain, you seemed…out of character. Your actions, your movements, your speech. It was nothing like the Dazai we know. Why is that?” The rat smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Yes, well during my time in…you know.” Her eyes welled up with tears. “I couldn’t be myself. I was forced to take on different personalities, ones of vengeance and pain. Because if I didn’t, I’d have surely died.” She cries, a sob tearing through her.
Nedzu hands her a box of tissues. “I’m sorry, Dazai. This must be hard for you.” He watches as she takes some and wipes her eyes.
He doesn’t care for her tears.
She’s learned that Nedzu isn’t the most caring soul in the world, when met with complex emotions, he tends to do what seems like it would please the person the best.
It’s understandable, after all, he isn’t human.
“But, please, if you’ll allow me. I have a few more questions.”
She nods.
“You also seemed to know quite a lot about the LOV, before the Nomu came towards you the first time, you whispered something in the villain's ear, which caused him to tumble back with fear. And after that, you spoke about Nomu in an understanding way, which also caused him distress.” He tilted his head. “Would you mind explaining yourself and what drew you to such conclusions?”
Rats(ha), she’d wanted to keep that information to herself, damn her classmates for being so clumsy.
“Yes. Well, I’ve predicted that Nomu-chan is—”
“Nomu-chan?” Aizawa cut her off. “Sorry, but why ‘Nomu-chan’? You speak as if it’s human and needs honorifics.”
She catches Aizawa taking a grim deep breath. “Well, because there’s a possibility Nomu-chan was once a human.” At the statement, she sees something like clarity pass Nedzu’s face, and disgust and fear pass Aizawa's. “I predict Nomu-chan was made from experimentation, and that Nomu-chan was likely a child before they’d gotten transformed.”
Aizawa sways as if he wanted to barf.
“I see, and how’d you come to this conclusion?” Nedzu asks.
“Well, Nomu-chan doesn’t look like normal mutants, first of all. Its figure is disoriented and bulky, yet it somehow still took the form of a somewhat human form. It even had a normal brain, and when Nomu-chan had regenerated, its anatomy was one of a human. Second, Nomu-chan only responds to direct calls from the villain, as if it were designed to act that way. But, here comes the part that steals my resolve.” She leans into the heroes. “Nomu-chan had multiple quirks, yes. But they’d taken a minute to process. About 2 seconds if I’m sure. But, one quirk had come to Nomu-chan by instinct, they’d used it without a doubt in their movements.” She then raises her fingers. “Inhumane features yet with the same anatomy as a human, multiple quirks, responding to only commands, and the villain's reaction.” She then closes her fist. “It’s experimentation, I have no doubt.” Her voice quakes as tears build up again. “I’ve seen such a thing with my own two eyes, I know what experimentation looks like.” Adding a bit of key information on top of the info bomb she’d just dropped, she begs to the lord that’ll finally make Nedzu trust her enough to the point where he doesn’t surveillance her frequently.
“A child…” Aizawa whispers. “Those bastards, a fucking child!” A rare look of anger flashes through him, and Dazai’s surprised to find despair there too. Is Aizawa not an underground hero? Shouldn’t he be used to this?
“This is all just another reason to try and find the LOV.” Nedzu sighs. “How tragic.” He turns back to her. “Thank you, Dazai. You were of much help, then and now. Your provoking saved the lives of your classmates, and even brought us more time. But, I have one more question.”
And here it comes, what she was waiting for.
“Who is that boy? The one with the green hoodie? We would also like descriptions and a name if you have one.”
Dazai sucks in a haggard breath as she begins to tremble. Tears build in her eyes again as she chips at her nail polish. “Fuhai-kun.” And the cringey name sounds disgusting on her tongue, even more at using honorifics with a slug. “H-he was a friend of mine, back at the, you know.” She hiccups as she shakes her head. “He was like a big brother to the rest of us kids, he, he.” She looks up at the heroes, her eyes glazed over, and watches as pity flashes across their faces. “He was the one who got me out of there. He was the one who brought me time, he—” She sobs, “he was my first friend. But I was so weak then, and I couldn’t save him when he needed it, I couldn’t offer my support. And seeing him now, so strong and thriving, I’m sure I couldn’t now.” And then trembles turned to shakes. “He pushed me. He pushed me, he’d never done that before. I was so glad to see him out of there, but now he’s with the LOV. Now he’s stuck in a new place.”
“Dazai.”
“And, and I can’t do anything to help again, I can’t do ANYTHING!” She screams. “Not only that, but Chuuya’s strong, his power is yearned for. And with people who practice experimentation so easily. ” She chokes on her words, as if not wanting to say the rest. She begins to labor her breathing and choke on air.
“Dazai.”
“Not again, I can’t—”
“Dazai!” Aizawa stops her with a hand on her shoulder, the touch is light but she makes a move to flinch. “Breathe, in and out, like this.” He motions to himself, telling her to copy his breathing techniques. She falsely does so as she calms down. “We aren’t asking these things to punish him, instead we are hoping to gain information to try and bring him here for rehabilitation.” He nods at Nedzu who then speaks.
“Yes, we’re hoping to bring him in. Which is why we need features, do you know any distinct features of his? A real name?”
She flashes hope over her features as she scoffs internally. As if she’d ever give them all of Chuuya’s features.
But…it would be odd if she didn’t know at least one thing about the kid who ‘saved her.’
“His eyes.” She starts. “He has heterochromia. One’s blue while the other a dark brown.” A pleased look passes Nedzu’s features. “He always had his hoodie on, and I think that was due to his quirk. Some sort of gravity manipulation, it’d stay on even in battle. He’d never told us his real name, either.” There, that should be enough.
Clasping his hands together, Nedzu beams. “Wonderful, such distinct features and an easy-to-spot quirk, if the red that envelopes him is anything to go by!” He nods. “I can see why he was able to injure a hero, and then fight off your classmates with ease. Not only is his quirk powerful, but he has experience.”
Dazai wants to nod dramatically. After all, it was due to her hard work that Chuuya was able to do such things! And maybe Ane-san’s but that was a separate story…
“He’ll truly be a great hero!”
Dazai almost laughs.
EXTRA
WHERE LOVE BLOOMED
Toga Himiko falls in love easily.
She’s known this fact herself for a long time. One sight of a pretty boy who was strong made her heart soar, and a beautiful girl with a charismatic personality made her giggle. Even with animals, such small and soft creatures covered in blood made her want to hold them close.
Toga Himiko falls in love easily.
But it’d never been anything like this, one blue and one brown eye piercing hers. Their stare alone could likely murder a man, such a thing had been shown when they’d first shown up, startling almost everyone into silence with their aura alone.
At that time, Toga didn’t care much. Why would she? It was just some random kid with pretty eyes who honestly scared her a bit.
Another kid her age.
Another kid.
Another person who doesn’t understand—
“You can use my blood.”
A voice, one gruff without a lick of disgust.
Another kid her age.
One who offered his blood willingly.
One who offered the purest part of him with no further explanation.
Toga can still remember how fast her heartbeat was in her chest, how her face flushed, and how her eyes went wide. And as the boy walked up to her, his eyes didn’t waver. Even as she sucked his blood—sweet, fruity, but bitter all at the same time—he continued to stare her down.
He didn’t look scared.
Instead, he looked as if he was ready to challenge her.
Her breath labored.
Fuhai. The name imprinted into her brain.
And in the silence in her new room in the home of her new friends, Toga couldn’t help but stare at the ceiling and wonder.
Why?
She’d expected to be understood here, that’s why she joined the side of villainy anyway. So she wouldn’t be castrated, or treated like a ticking time bomb.
But…
Just like that? He gave his blood so easily.
It took Toga two seconds to decide she couldn’t take it anymore and that she had to ask.
When she burst into Fuhai-kun’s room, he was up, sitting on the edge of his bed texting. At her intrusion, he got up with haste, as if ready to fight.
But when he saw her his guard dropped slightly, a confused expression on his face.
“Toga?” The sound of his voice sent happy shivers down her spine. “What’re you doing here?” He asked, a frown on his lips.
She giggled. “I have a question!” She kept a happy demeanor despite how her heart jumped and screamed as fear coursed through her at the aspect of getting a not-so-great answer.
It could’ve all been a fluke.
“Well hurry up and ask, we don’t have all night.”
She smiled, it was the one that was always ‘creepy’, but Fuhai-kun didn’t react. “Why’d you give me your blood earlier?” She asked.
There was silence for a moment.
“HAH?” Fuhai-kun growled. “That was the question that made you barge into my room?!” He asked, heated.
Toga nodded enthusiastically with a smile, seemingly uncaring.
He groaned. “You made me scared for nothing!” He huffed. “To answer your question…”
And this was it.
This is what she was waiting for.
But why is she so nervous? She wanted an answer, didn't she? Why’s her heart dying?
“Stop it! What’re you doing?!”
“Quit smiling like that, it’s so creepy.”
“It was because you needed it.”
Toga paused, her heart halting and slowing. “H-huh?” She fumbled.
“I said it was because you needed it,” Fuhai-kun grumbled as if it was annoying to repeat himself.
Because she needed it.
Never once in her life had anyone ever given her their blood because; ‘she needed it.’ Despite knowing how her quirk affected her, her mother and father turned a blind eye.
Despite knowing her way of love, no one had ever tried to give her it.
No one had ever loved Toga her way.
Because it scared them.
For so long Toga had wanted to be loved, and now someone’s giving it to her just because she needed it.
“W-what about my smile? Is my smile creepy to you?” She asked before she could stop herself, her voice trembling.
Fuhai-kun looked confused.
“What d’ya mean? It looks like a smile.” He tilted his head. “I mean it’s nice, I guess?”
It’s nice.
Her smile is nice.
Ah.
Not once had Fuhai-kun tried to offer her comforting words. Like how she was beautiful or how she was always smiling. No, he was only speaking how he felt. He didn’t give her comfort, but maybe that wasn’t what she needed.
The truth.
He was telling her his version of the truth.
Fuhai-kun looked startled all of a sudden.
Suddenly, she felt something wet roll down her cheek.
Crying.
She’s crying.
Shoving her head into her hands, Toga bit her lip until blood came out, fresh blood, love.
“H-hey! Are you okay? Shit, did I do something?” Fuhai-kun panicked.
She shook her head. “Thank you, Fuhai-kun. You really are kind.” She cried, slowly sinking to the floor.
(She didn’t notice how Chuuya’s eyes widened slightly at the claim and he tilted his head. A slow frown comes on his face.)
When she was in a position where she wasn’t touching the ground, yet she was squatting, she looked up. “Fuhai-kun.” And her smile was wide this time, true. “May I have one last sip of your blood, please?” She asked. “To be honest, I feel distressed when I don’t drink blood for a while.” She admitted.
Fuhai-kun pursed his lips for a second as if he were debating with a greater force in his mind.
He then sighed. “Fine, just don’t bite too hard this time, and don’t transform into me.” He glared. “And I’m only doing this because you look like a crying kid right now! You’re making me feel bad if I don’t give you any. So don’t take it personally!” And then he squatted as well and extended his arm.
Toga took it happily.
Toga Himiko falls in love easily.
(A/N could’ve added this in notes but some don’t read it, I skimmed over Toga’s BS for this…lemme know if I got anything wrong.)