Alphabet Soup - Aught_Naut - 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia (2024)

Chapter 1: Prelude

Chapter Text

The closer you get to the light, the longer your shadow becomes.

There was one bright star in the pitch black sky. The stained glass beneath his feet was the only other source of light.

He felt a chill and turned around. His shadow lay stretched out before him. As he watched, it peeled itself from the glass and loomed over him. It was almost invisible against the black abyss, save for the wavering streaks of its yellow eyes. Its fingers grew and curved into talons, too large to ignore.

They were still connected by a black stripe on the ground.

He held out his hand, unafraid. Slowly, the great beast extended its talons until one pointed tip met his finger. A light glinted between them, and then the floor shattered.

The door has opened.

***

"Tokoyami Fumikage."

Master Aizawa Shota dropped the application onto the redwood desktop with a careless slap. It was barely midmorning, and he was already exhausted. He laced his fingers and looked up at the person who had handed the sheaf of paperwork to him.

"Is this some kind of joke?"

The man who stood before his desk was large, and that was an understatement. He was well over two hundred centimeters tall and at least two hundred and fifty kilograms of solid muscle. His white teachers' robe was tailor-made, but his thick biceps still looked on the verge of busting out of them.

The morning sunlight that filtered through the gossamer curtains behind Aizawa's chair chiseled the planes of Master Yagi's generically handsome, nigh Olympian face. There were rumors that he was one of Zeus's bastards, which Yagi humbly denounced. According to him, he was born in some version of Nihon to a perfectly normal, human couple.

The stupid grin on that face made it hard for Shota to feel intimidated by his physique, especially when it barely veiled the look of confused chagrin behind it.

"A joke? I assure you, I'm completely serious!"

Shota sighed and rested his chin lightly on his knuckles.

"Have you forgotten all of your Japanese?"

"Er, well, I've been off-world for a while now, and most of the worlds I've been to speak English or..."

That was obvious from his appearance. The different worlds had a way of leaving their mark that was difficult for the mind to fully comprehend. When put into words, the descriptions were often poetical or artistic. For example, Yagi's extended stay in worlds of a certain sphere left him strong in coloration and soft in linework, so to speak, while Shota maintained the desaturated colors and heavy dark contours of his own homeworld, despite living and working outside of it for about a decade.

He rose slowly and pushed the application back toward Yagi in the same motion. It touched the sliver of light at the edge of the desk, which illuminated the name written at the top in tidy characters.

"You just handed me an application that says, given name first: 'Walks Through Shadows, Eternal Darkness.'"

He lowered himself back onto the edge of the leather chair and continued, "Take this back to whoever gave it to you and tell them we need a real name on these applications. That is, if you can even find them. Honestly, a prank like this..."

"It's not a prank. This application comes on my recommendation."

Yagi was serious. He still wore that dumb smile, but he was serious.

X Academy (pronounced "kai") was tiny compared to most high schools. Because keyblades chose their users, the freshman year doubled as a sort of extended entrance exam, meaning that only those who were chosen by year's end continued to the next levels. The first year student body was disproportionately large compared to the other three, which could have as few as five or ten students per grade.

Due to the outright magical nature of the true choosing process, the teachers themselves served as the application review committee. They combed through dozens, if not hundreds of applications per year, and Shota had established himself as the strictest chooser. The school didn't have the time or resources to waste on glory-seekers or starry-eyed hopefuls. As soon as a flaw stood out to him, the application went right past "maybe" and into the trash pile. Yagi was a new hire, so it was no surprise he had brought this application to Shota personally, but now it seemed there might be more to it than that.

Curiosity piqued, he remained silent and allowed Yagi to continue.

"Tokoyami Fumikage is his real name. And, as far as I can tell, it's the name his family gave him. I met him a few months ago and trust me, he needs to be here."

"Cut to the chase." Yagi always did have a flair for the dramatic.

True to form, he glanced quickly over his shoulder as if to check for eavesdroppers, then rested his broad hands on the desk and leaned in conspiratorially.

"He's already Manifested. I saw it."

Okay, that was news. Shota's eyebrows shot up in spite of himself.

"A keyblade?"

"What else?" Yagi said impatiently. "It looks like he's been trying to learn swordplay from internet videos or something, but he put up a decent fight before the Heartless threatened to outnumber him."

"Where?"

"Twilight Town, on the outskirts."

"Did you meet the parents?"

He shook his head solemnly, the grin fading somewhat. He wore the thing like a mask, but his heart was on his sleeve at all times.

"They were separated during the Worldfall. He's in foster care."

A tale as old as time, especially nowadays. A handful of stars had winked out before Master Yagi himself put a stop to the calamity along with a handful of other Masters. The denizens of those worlds did not perish; best case scenario, they were scattered. Worst case, they had sunk into the Realm of Darkness with their world. Recovery was possible, but difficult.

It was the duty of the Keyblade Masters to restore the fallen worlds to the Realm of Light. Unfortunately, the Door to Darkness proved elusive. At present, the search had been ongoing for almost ten years.

Shota felt his own expression soften. Yagi was the open book, but they were both just a couple of bleeding hearts. Regardless of little sob stories, though, a teenage keyblader being targeted by Heartless was not something they could ignore. If he had a keyblade, the Academy was required to take him in. Shota himself had become a non-traditional freshman at sixteen because of that rule.

He would have liked to know more about the "Tokoyami" family, but that investigation would come later. He reached out and drew the application back toward him with the pads of his fingers.

"Fine. I stand corrected. I'll make sure the kid makes it here safe."

He thought Yagi would be relieved, but his massive shoulders were still tense.

"So, um, there's one more thing I wanted to talk to you about. I've already spoken to Master... er, Principal Nezu about it, and he would like it to stay between the three of us."

Master Nezu was out on a mission for the Council of Masters. He promised to continue his duties remotely if the mission overlapped with the rapidly approaching school year, but in the meantime, Shota had made the mistake of offering to pick up some of the slack. He had nowhere else to be, so it had seemed like the most rational decision at the time.

Hence, the worse-than-usual headache and eye-burning sleep deprivation.

"What is it?" he asked wearily.

Yagi put his hands up, palms out in a calming gesture even before he started talking. That did not bode well.

"Now, the Tower of Mysteries is already aware of this, so rest assured that the danger is not outside the realm of our control, but..."

Shota was not prepared for what Yagi said next. Shota's headache was not prepared for what Yagi said next. His felt his eyes widening and his brow pinching, and he was on his feet again before he was even conscious of it, his palms flat to the desktop and his fingers threatening to poke holes right through the mat and into the wood.

"He has a what?!"

Chapter 2: A Dark in the Lightness

Chapter Text

Drifting sakura blossoms stuck to the pond's glassy surface. Tiny ripples brushed the lily pads for a fleeting moment before the water crystallized once again. The sun was golden on the clouds, unbearably bright. The jagged peaks of tall, thin mountains cast long shadows over the blanket of vapor.

Fumikage took a deep breath and collected himself while the other newcomers continued up the mountain path. Complaints about the number of steps echoed down the stones in their wake. They were being herded up into some kind of courtyard or outdoor vestibule, and he needed this moment of solace. The stairs wound up the mountain like a corkscrew, unprotected from the brightness on one side, and he was combating a headache.
Among other things.

"Conceal it," he whispered.

Don't feel it.

He trailed behind the crowd and looked out at one of the massive golden chains that connected the central peak to the other two. Master Yagi told him that this world was perfectly balanced between Light and Dark. It was similar to Twilight Town in that way, but unlike his current homeworld, the Land of Departure had a day-night cycle. He longed for that blazing sun to finally go down. He hadn't experienced "night" since he was a small child.

The top of the corkscrew deposited them at the circular courtyard he was expecting, the "forecourt" according to the map he found online. There, Castle Departure towered above them in all its absurd glory. The architecture was as bizarre as it was ostentatious, an upside-down triangle full of angles and gleaming windows. The wings appeared to be held up only by the walkways that connected them to the rest of the building.

They look like they're going to fall off. It must be some powerful magic...

"Hey, you!"

A girl with long blue hair was jogging toward him. He glanced behind him to make sure he was truly her target. As he suspected, he was the last one up the stairs. She bounced to a halt in front of him, smiling warmly.

"I saw you on the train earlier and I got curious. What kind of bird are you? If you don't mind my asking."

Well. This had to be some kind of record. The girl went on obliviously,

"Oh, but if you're a bird, then..." Her gaze swept him from head to toe and back again. "...what's up with the rest of your body?"

He took a breath to give his usual answer when another, louder voice interrupted him. The guy showed up so fast that Fumikage didn't see him coming. He chopped a hand down into the air between him and the girl. Fumikage blinked at it.

"Excuse me, miss? It is rude to ask someone you've just met what is 'up' with their body!"

The newcomer was tall, though Fumikage was used to looking up at other guys. With his tidy blue-black hair and square glasses, he definitely fit the 'overzealous hall monitor' stereotype. Something in his movements, rather than his appearance, defined him as part of a sphere unlike Fumikage's own.

"It's okay," Fumikage said quickly, before the girl could get an apology out. He really did not need a white knight, especially today. "I have some eagle blood. My family is mostly humans."

That was what his caretakers had helped him determine, anyway. The language he spoke when he arrived in Traverse Town, the site of his first foster home, was very similar to Japanese, but a lot of the words were different, including the names of various birds. They had him look through a book of bird species until he saw ones that were familiar enough.

"Oh, okay! Cool," the girl said. And with that, it was like he ceased to exist in whatever dimension she was living in. "Hey, you're here for the practical, too?" she asked the other kid. "What world are you from? Actually, you look familiar. Do you..."

While she was talking, a boy approached her from behind. He was about the same height as the first, but with short blonde hair that stuck up in front. His face was carefully neutral as he bent his knees, wrapped his arms around the girl's waist, hoisted her up, and simply walked off with her. She laughed, so they were probably friends.

He and the first boy stood together in awkward silence.

"My name is Tenya Iida!" he declared suddenly, holding his hand out.

Linguistic coincidences aside, Japanese names were fairly common ever since the Shibuya Migration. He noticed that Iida put his given name first, but that did not necessarily mean he went by it with new people. With the exception of very English worlds, most followed the Japanese rule of avoiding given names without permission.

"Tokoyami," he replied, accepting the handshake.

He noticed a slight, but telling stillness in Iida's expression in reaction to his surname. Fumikage was not ashamed of his name, despite his elementary and middle school classmates' best efforts. If anything, he insisted on introducing himself as "Tokoyami" for that reason.

The handshake was mercifully brief. One firm up-and-down, then released.

Their next awkward silence was also mercifully brief as a figure emerged from the castle's large double doors. The white robe marked him as one of the teachers, but the shades and high-tech device around his neck made him look more like a disk jockey. Fumikage was in the middle of wondering how much gel it took to hold his hair up when the man's voice belted out across the courtyard.

"Welcome to today's live performance! Everybody say 'hey!'"

He had no hand mic or megaphone, so there must have been a microphone in his neckwear. A better question was where the speakers were. There was some shrubbery at the base of the castle wall, so they might have been hidden there, but it was hard to tell with the echoes thundering off the mountains.

The crowd of teenagers fell silent.

Undaunted, the teacher went on with his speech: the guidelines for the practical portion of their entrance exam. The written exams had been completed at their various middle schools and mailed in the old-fashioned way. Some of the students had traveled a long way for the practical, mostly by train, but Fumikage had seen one or two gummi ships on the way in as well. Wealthy families.

"I hope you aren't too tired from the walk up, because this exam will be taking place on each level of the mountain!"

Some of the kids groaned audibly. Fumikage recalled passing equipment of some kind on the way up and wondered if the exam had to do with those. Each of the level areas between the stairs must be the examination sites...

"You're going to find yourselves surrounded by faux enemies! Defeat them with whatever you can get your hands on to earn points! A variety of weapons will be provided, but feel free to use magic as well! Of course, attacking your fellow examinees is prohibited!"

Provided? Oh, that's right. Not everyone actually had a keyblade yet. He flexed his right hand, hoping he could summon his when there wasn't actually a threat...

"That's all from me! Now, gird thy loins, children, because the final stage of your exam begins NOW!"

Now?

The teacher made a flourishing motion with his hands. An elecric hum filled the air, and a swarm of flying robots rose up from below the cliffs. They ranged in size from "large dog" to "horse." A heartbeat later, clouds of magic burst around the lawn that ringed the stone tiles, revealing crates of weapons that must have been hidden by an illusion spell.

"Well, what are you all waiting for? Break a leg!"

Chaos erupted on the mountaintop.

Top row first, the robots swooped overhead and descended on the forecourt. Elemental spells fired off in all directions. Some were actually fire, others were lightning. One was a ball of water that splashed over a smaller drone. A second splash turned the light on its metal face from green to yellow, but the drone didn't stop.

Everyone else ran for the weapons caches. Iida was gone from Fumikage's side as quickly as he had appeared.

"By the way," the teacher said, amplified voice carrying easily over the cacophony, "if you get zapped, it'll effect your score, so be on your guard!"

The kid who cast the water spell yelped as the robot with the yellow light got a quick zap in. She backpedaled, trying to put distance between her and the faux enemy, but it stayed on her like a mosquito.
Fumikage was the last non-mage in the center of the forecourt. Several robots took notice. He shifted into a stance and held his right hand out to the side. Time to see how this would go.

It was time to reinvent himself.

"Come, Tsukuyomi."

A prickle ran from the center of his chest down to his hand, where it coalesced in a flash of silver light. The keyblade "Tsukuyomi" was deceptively simple in its elegant symmetry. The only contrast was the "teeth" of the key, which had the sharp curve of a crescent moon. A red jewel adorned the hand guard. It resembled the full moon during an eclipse.

His reflexes kicked in as the circling robots made their move. He was used to fending off Heartless by this point, ones about the same size as these enemies, but now his heart was calm, knowing that the only thing at stake were his exam results.

Two blows each from Tsukuyomi turned their lights from green, to yellow, to red. The red ones retreated back over the cliff, probably to reset and attack again. Good way for the school to save munny. He dispatched about five before he realized the rest of the forecourt had gone oddly quiet.

Everyone was staring at him.

The crowd had dwindled as some of the contenders moved downstairs for freedom of movement, but there were still about thirty left in the area. Iida was among them, holding a simple broadsword and gaping like Fumikage had just insulted his mother. Another boy looked like he was trying to make "if looks could kill" a reality. Even the robots had paused, as if wondering why their targets' movements had suddenly stopped.

"Wow! Looks like we've got an early bloomer on our hands, folks! The rest of you had better hurry if you want to keep up!"

One robot finally took the initiative and prodded someone with its taser. That kid's yelp spurred everyone back into motion.

"Excuse me?!" Iida yelled to the teacher, waving the broadsword. "How exactly is this fair? Clearly he's going to get the top score!"

"What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of everyone else disabling robots!"

The kid with murder in his eyes was already taking it out on the faux enemies, screaming "Fira" over and over well after their lights turned red. Fumikage turned on his heel and dashed for the stairs. He would rather find the most remote spot and get swarmed by robots than endure everyone's judgement.

***

"Why are you letting him participate?" Yagi asked.

The feeds from the security drones, which hovered out of reach of the kids' attacks, flashed across the dark room. Shota watched them with rapt attention and responded without turning his head.

"To drive the others forward. If seeing one of their peers with a keyblade is all it takes for them to give up, then they shouldn't be here."

"And what about young Tokoyami? You're using him. The other kids might resent him after this."

"He won't be scored. We can't actually turn him away, after all."

"It's still deception."

Was Yagi pissed at him? Shota continued to watch the screens, irritated. He was trying to concentrate.

"We'll just have to agree to disagree," he said flatly.

Silence. Discussion over.

***

Fumikage chose a seat at the back of the train, away from everyone else. He'd heard how the conversations hushed when he passed by.

Beneath the clouds, the mountains rose up out of the churning sea that covered most of the small world. The tracks flew right over the waves, no support beams needed. He rested his head against the window and watched the view begin to shimmer. With a soft burst like a cloud nebula, the sea was replaced by the Ocean Between, full of colorful mist and distant stars.

He shut his eyes and pretended to nap. Most of the kids got off at the first connection. It was farther to Twilight Town.

Later, he sat on his bed and stared out the window. The world's perpetual sunset shone orange on the town's famous clock tower. His foster parents' house was angled so the light never came into his bedroom-- soon to be someone else's bedroom.

A flutter went through his chest, different from the prickle of keyblade and more familiar. The bedcovers rustled as something moved across them.

"Fumikage?"

"Yeah."

"Are we going to be okay?"

He lifted his hand. A soft weight settled over his left side. He stroked the shadowy beak that rested on his shoulder. It felt slick, almost wet, but nothing ever came off on his hand. For a moment, his palm came to rest on the front curve of the beak, where Master Yagi's hand had been months earlier.

The memory made him wince. He could still feel the collision in his bones.

***

There were just too many Heartless. His heart quailed and Tsukuyomi vanished from his hand.

He ran for the darkness under the trees. His fingers dug into the front of his shirt as his lungs heaved. Screams of fear and rage bounced across his ribs, unheard by anyone except for him.

The remaining Heartless surged after him. If he unleashed Dark Shadow now, everyone in town would hear the roars. A stitch tore at his side as he finally made it into the underbrush. Once he was out of sight of the buildings, he finally let go. The force threatened to pull him off of his feet. Soon, the Heartless were gone, and several trees had fallen.

He was bent double from the effort of standing still. If he could just keep his shadow anchored here a while longer...

Footsteps. Someone was here.

No!

"Stay back!" he cried out.

Too late. Whoever it was startled Dark Shadow. Everything that wasn't Fumikage was a threat. The lunge of his giant shadow stirred a fierce wind through the forest. Her sudden halt was concussive.

Fumikage looked up. The wind carried a flock of leaves past Dark Shadow and the figure before her. He had one empty hand outstretched. One, empty hand, and it was strong enough to stop the rampage in its tracks.
The viscous darkness quivered. Slowly, Dark Shadow sank toward the forest floor, as if deflating. The sense of disbelief was shared between them.

"Easy," the man said gently. His free hand stroked Dark Shadow's forehead. "There you go. Easy, now..."

Fumikage sank to his knees, drained and dumb.

***

"Yeah,” he said quietly. “Sorry to worry you."

Chapter 3: A School for Martyrs

Chapter Text

Until one of his new classmates Manifested, he would be the only freshman in the dorms.

His foster parents offered to help him move in, but he hated long goodbyes and parted ways with them at the train station. His luggage was sparse, anyway, as none of the furniture in his room actually belonged to him. The rest of his possessions-- his clothes, keepsakes, the bedclothes they'd let him pick out, among other things-- fit into two suitcases, his backpack, and a trash bag that he could wrangle on his own.

They were good people, and to say that he was completely unemotional about leaving them would be a lie, but they never really understood him and he, in turn, never fully connected with them. Besides, they had the younger kids to worry about.

Then, too late, he remembered the stairs. He sighed, cursing his foolishness, and began to haul everything up, one suitcase handle in each hand and the trash bag under one arm.

By the time he made it to the forecourt, the place looked a lot like Twilight Town. He had to remind himself that the sunset here was temporary and took a moment to admire it from the mountaintop. The shadows cast by the peaks were incredible, like a mist of darkness between the fingers of sunlight.

The dorms were in one of the castle's seemingly unsupported wings. The place felt solid enough, but the mere thought of how high up they were gave him a touch of vertigo. He could hear some of the second and third-year students socializing and avoided their voices.

His new room was larger than his old one. A single, wood-framed window took up about a third of the outer wall. He spent most of the evening unpacking and realized, suddenly, that the sun had dipped below the horizon.
Heart thudding, he moved to the window and undid the latch. A breath of cool, clean air washed over his face. A crescent moon shone in a glittering indigo sky.

Night.

His dark double slipped onto the windowpane by his side. Her long neck extended out into the whispering breeze. Out on the peaks, it howled, a sound softened by distance. She leaned out even farther, fluffing up, beak parted as if to taste the air.

He remembered summer nights with his parents. They would spend time in the back garden, surrounded by the glow of the crystals, until he started to fall asleep. He knew not to go outside the fence. If he stayed with his parents, he was safe.

A low clicking sound snapped him out of his memories. Dark Shadow was still moving out of the window. She had grown under the dark sky, obscuring the stars. Fumikage's eyes widened. There were other windows around theirs, lit windows.

"Dark Shadow!" he hissed, putting his hands on the cord that connected them. "You must return to me, now! You're too visible!"

Dark Shadow did not seem to hear. He wrapped his arms around her slick, slowly shifting body. His hands barely touched.

"Dark Shadow! Now!"

He pulled. He yanked. Suddenly, he toppled backward onto the floor. Two huge yellow eyes glowed down at him reproachfully. Then they softened, and his shadow retracted into the center of his chest.

Fumikage stared at the ceiling and tried to quash a pang of dismay. Would he have to suppress positive emotions, now, too?

***

He kept his headphones on during breakfast, the universal signal for "please do not talk to me." His barrier for the walk to class was the school pamphlet with the map in it.

The last thing he needed was to get lost on his first day and draw yet more unwanted attention to himself. The interior of the castle had been remodeled several times over the generations to accomodate more students and their general education needs. Shoving modern updates into a building that old resulted in a lot of odd twists and turns.

In a past age, there had been an entire village dedicated to training new Keyblade Masters. That world was destroyed, nearly erased from history. The castle in the Land of Departure had housed several Masters and their apprentices leading up to the modern era. Somewhere along the way, the master-apprentice system had blended with the current school system.

He tried to put his bitterness and unease aside. Dark Shadow had calmed down at sunrise, shy in the full daylight, but his negativity always affected her poorly. He needed to remain neutral if he wanted to salvage his botched first impression. He had childishly intended to be "cool" in a way that would finally let him find his kin, but instead he might have turned the others against him.

Before he knew it, he was the last one in the hallway outside the classrooms. This hallway was one of the updates, but the scrolling on the white walls and gilded room signs made it blend with the general aesthetic.

Why does a historical castle have to be so brightly lit?

It sounded noisy on the other side of the closed door. He took a deep breath and opened it.

"Oh, hey! It's the keyblade kid!"

And with that, all eyes were on him again. He recognized a few of them from the practical, including the redhead who'd spoken. Tenya Iida was there, too. The redhead was grinning, but Iida was not.

Time to be neutral. Unbothered.

"My name is Tokoyami. Pleased to meet you."

"I'm Eijiro Kirishima. Come on over!" the redhead replied, waving.

He walked farther into the room, but Iida intercepted him before he made it to Kirishima's desk. His expression was intense. Fumikage eyed him levelly and internally braced himself.

"I apologize for my outburst during the entrance exam," Iida said, surprising him. He grit his teeth as if the next words pained him. "I failed to percieve the true nature of the test!"

"Don't worry about it," Fumikage said quickly.

What followed was a barrage of questions. The others wanted to know what his keyblade was named, when he Manifested it, how many Heartless he had fought, etc. He answered simply and honestly, but he was beginning to feel crowded.

Then the door slammed open and Murder Eyes stormed in.

With how close they were to the start of class, Fumikage had assumed he was the last to arrive and that Murder Eyes either failed the practical or was in a different homeroom. No such luck. His gaze landed on Fumikage immediately, and he almost expected to be set on fire right then and there.

"You think you're hot sh*t, huh? Think you can look down on the rest of us just because you have a keyblade?!"

Fumikage said nothing.

"Chill, dude," Kirishima chuckled. "He wasn't even scored."

"Who even are you, anyway?" a very pink girl with black eyes chimed in.

"Shut up!" Murder Eyes spat, but he answered the question anyway. He bared his teeth in a grin, or maybe it was a grimace. "My name's Katsuki Bakugo, and once I find my keyblade it is over for you bitches!"

"If you want to be loud, go do it somewhere else."

Fumikage, and everyone else, looked around for the source of the new voice until they found it on the floor just past the threshold. Bakugo hadn't closed the door behind him, and someone was lying in a sleeping bag in the hallway. Fumikage had seen it by the wall before he entered and wrongly assumed it was leftover refuse from before the start of term.

"Maybe if you'd paid attention to your room assignment..." The person wiggled up to his knees and fiddled with the zipper on the bag. "...you wouldn't have had to slam every damn door in the hall."

Finally, he stood up and out of the bag. His touseled black hair was past shoulder length, and he had at least a day's growth of stubble. More importantly, he was wearing a teachers' robe over his plain black clothes.

Bakugo made an irritated noise and stalked to his desk, muttering something about not being lost. Fumikage and Iida quickly took their seats.

The man introduced himself as Master Aizawa, their homeroom teacher, as he dragged the sleeping bag into the room and tossed it behind his desk at the front. A long beige scarf was wrapped around his neck so many times it looked like a cowl. Maybe he had trouble staying warm.

"How many of you, besides the obvious..." He gestured minutely to Fumikage. "...have encountered Heartless before?"

A few students raised their hands, including Bakugo, who looked oddly subdued after his initial aggression. Iida kept his hand down.

"How many of you have been attacked by Heartless before?"

Most of the hands went down. Fumikage took another sly glance at Bakugo. His hand stayed up, and his expression was darker than ever. Noted.

"Some of you may think that having a keyblade will protect you from the Heartless. The truth is just the opposite. The Heartless are drawn to keyblades. They'll come at you out of nowhere, and they won't stop until you've freed their hearts or they've captured yours. Regular weapons and magic can send a Heartless back to the Realm of Darkness, but only a keyblade can truly destroy them."

Fumikage felt eyes on him at that. He kept his forward.

"Relax," Master Aizawa said. "We have safeguards here, and this world is naturally balanced between Light and Darkness. Once you've completed your education, you might even understand what that means.

"You may have passed the practical, but there's more to wielding a keyblade than just fighting well. Only a certain kind of heart can even summon one in the first place. By the end of the term, we'll find out who among you fits the bill. The rest will be expelled."

He smiled suddenly, showing teeth.

"So, if any of you are balking at the idea of wasting an academic year on a future that's not even yours, get out now. If you don't want to spend the rest of your life sacrificing your own security for the sake of world order, get out now! The fun and games end here. Welcome to X Academy. All for one, and one for all!"

***

They had gym class with Master Yagi.

The class buzzed with excitement. Learning to fight was the main draw for a lot of them, and having Master Yagi as their teacher stoked their enthusiasm. Even before he stopped the Wordfall ten years ago, he had won the Platinum Cup in the Olympic Games, meaning he had defeated both literal and figurative titans in combat. The reruns were still popular among the subsequent generations.

Fumikage was more of a Vincent Valentine fan, but he could respect Master Yagi's sportsmanship even before he met him in person. Being that he was a renowned altruist even beyond stopping Heartless, he was hard not to at least grudgingly respect. Some of the other Masters resented him for setting such a ridiculously high standard.

Only Bakugo was immune to the hype.

"Is that you, little Bakugo?" Master Yagi said after his introduction. "Why, I hardly recognized you! I'm pleased to see you doing well after all these..."

"Save it," Bakugo snapped. Several of their classmates gaped in shock. "Don't think we have any sort of relationship just because you saved me back then. It was the other guy who carried us out, anyway."

"I-I see," Master Yagi stammered. "Well, at any rate, I'm pleased to see you healthy!"

Fumikage was surprised Master Yagi let that slide, but rumor had it this was his first teaching job. As their new gym instructor led them across the forecourt and down the mountainside, Fumikage heard Kirishima whispering to his pink friend, Ashido.

"sh*t, dude, I didn't realize he was that Bakugo!"

"Maybe that's why he's so touchy," she whispered back.

Bakugo whipped around.

"Stop talking about me like I can't hear!"

"Fine, sorry," Kirishima said, genuinely.

Fumikage was walking with Iida in the back. He decided to indulge his curiosity, albeit as quietly as possible.

"What are they talking about?"

"Oh, that's right, it may not have been televised everywhere," Iida murmured back. He leaned over to speak even more quietly, cupping his hand around the side of his mouth. "Bakugo was one of the kids Master Yagi saved at the end of the last Worldfall. Jenova's Comet was bearing down on the Destiny Islands, and while everyone else had been evacuated, two little kids got caught up in it somehow. Master Yagi went in to save them, but Master Sasaki carried them out alone. That's why everyone thought he died."

News about the Worldfall had definitely been televised in Twilight Town, but Fumikage was too busy being five years old and recently traumatized to catch it live. He preferred not to mention this to Iida, though.

"Who is Master Sasaki?'"

"He's the steward of the Tower of Mysteries, now. People thought of him as the 'staff' to Master Yagi's 'shield' in their Trinity, even though they didn't actually have a dedicated third member."

The Tower of Mysteries was the central hub of mage affairs. People who worked magic without weilding a keyblade went there to begin their studies, though the steward had, historically, almost always been a Keyblade Master.

"I can hear you!" Bakugo shouted back at them.

***

One of the larger "shelves" on the mountainside served as an outdoor gymnasium. They accessed it via a path that branched off from the main ascent and arched over a natural stream. A semicircle of that strange equipment sat back from the large open space in the middle.

The equipment looked kind of like giant scales, but with golden rings hanging down from the chains instead of trays. The smallest had one hanging ring, the largest had four.

They left the equipment alone that first day. Master Yagi had them running drills with blunted practice swords. The swords were heavier than normal, he explained, so that they could build their strength. He taught them a basic stance and had them shift in straight lines up and down the clearing, over and over, to his count. They didn't even swing the swords, just carried them like weights.

Fumikage was not surprised. His training with Master Yagi had begun four months ago.

***

No one had ever been kind to Dark Shadow before. That was enough to convince Fumikage that Master Yagi's offer of help was genuine. They started meeting in the woods every day after school, and Fumikage would work on the first assignment Master Yagi had given them-- him and Dark Shadow, together.

Part of the forest had become an illegal dumping ground, but none of the local authorities ever bothered with it. People just told their kids to stay away so they wouldn't get cut on the rusty metal scraps and whatever else. There was even the picked-over skeleton of an old car stuck in a ditch.

Master Yagi rented a dumpster and asked them to clean the place up. It was essential that he and Dark Shadow work in tandem.

The forest had been their "secret place" for years now, so his foster family never questioned his change in routine. He and Dark Shadow used to climb trees and swing from branch to branch, pretending to either be ninjas or fight ninjas. It was the only place that Dark Shadow was allowed to be free, where he was allowed to be free.

Instead of using their strength to push, pull, and swing, they used it to lift things and toss them into a dumpster. Only Fumikage needed gloves-- Dark Shadow never got dirty. She never seemed to get tired, either, but Master Yagi forbid her from helping him lift anything. According to him, Fumikage's strength needed to grow to match hers.

Or maybe Master Yagi was just a meathead who thought that working out was the best way to solve a problem. Fumikage sometimes brooded on this when his muscles began to shake and his shirt stuck to his chest and underarms. His dark mood affected Dark Shadow, as well, making her fluff up and chitter, but she was wary of Master Yagi and never acted out.

The sessions also doubled as the strangest counseling he had ever recieved. While he worked, Master Yagi taught him about "core emotions" and now to identify them: joy, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear. Fumikage learned that he was feeling a lot of disgust and anger during those times.

Strangely, identifying those feelings actually helped, which ironically kind of annoyed him. There were plenty of times when he wished Master Yagi would shut up and let them work, especially when things went a bit off-topic.

"So, young Tokoyami. I apologize if this is a sensitive question, but I've noticed that you refer to 'Dark Shadow' as a girl, even though you yourself are a boy?"

Fumikage was in the middle of rolling a metal barrel across the grass. It did not "roll" very well at all. Dark Shadow had her own barrel beside his, and she had to keep stopping to let him catch up. At Master Yagi's question, Fumikage gasped out a breath and slumped forward against the barrel for a few moments. It was autumn, but his personal atmosphere felt like summer.

"I am a boy," he panted.

"But as your Heartless, Dark Shadow should, indeed, be your 'shadow.' You are of one heart and one body."

Fumikage shook his head.

"I have the body and mind of a boy. Soon a man," he corrected quickly, "but Dark Shadow has always seemed like a girl to me."

"In what way?"

He glanced at Dark Shadow, who co*cked her head at him.

"Well... I mean... I don't know," he admitted. He had never confronted it before, but there was no answer he could give that didn't sound at least a little sexist. "I suppose she doesn't really have a gender. But it feels more appropriate than 'it.'"

"Fumikage is the 'he,'" Dark Shadow chimed in, as if to explain one of their childhood games. That basically summed up her opinion of sex and gender, Fumikage realized. Nothing but a game.
Master Yagi looked a bit puzzled, but then he shrugged.

"Well, they say everyone has a feminine side!" he laughed.

***

At the end of the hour, the class had to trudge all the way back upstairs to the castle. Master Yagi walked ahead of them. He had done the drills alongside them, but there wasn't a drop of sweat on him. They had just enough time to shower and change back into their uniforms before lunch.

"Hey, first years! How was training?"

Fumikage looked up from his food. The blonde guy from the practical was standing by their table. The blue-haired girl was with him, and behind her was a guy with black hair he did not recognize.
They replied mainly in groans, and the blonde laughed good-naturedly.

"Wait 'till you start your apprenticeships. That's when the real fun starts."

Iida straightened up suddenly.

"Hold on. With the way you're talking, could it be that you're upperclassmen? What were you doing at the practical, then?"

"Very astute." If he was being sarcastic, he was at least nice about it. "We just started our fourth year."

"We just wanted to come down and watch the event," the blue-haired girl said. "We made ourselves scarce when Master Yamada started talking."

Kirishima was also revived by the conversation.

"So, you guys are going for your Mark of Mastery at the end of the year? Cool!"

As it turned out, the trio weren't just fourth years: they were the fourth years, the only ones in their generation who Manifested. They were an entire class of three.

The blonde introduced himself as Mirio Togata and the other two as Nejire Hado and Tamaki Amajiki. The freshmen had about as many questions for them as Nejire did for each member of their class, and the table soon became very noisy.

Noisy, but... kind of nice.

Chapter 4: Gathering Shadows

Chapter Text

They had general education courses for the rest of the day. The only one that stood out was their foreign languages class with Master Yamada. Traveling across worlds meant encountering more languages than Japanese and English, more than they had time to learn in four years of school. They would learn some Chinese and Arabic, but the main focus of the course was how to communicate across a language barrier.

Eventually, they would learn a magical technique called "listening with the heart," a workaround that involved connecting emotionally with someone who spoke the target language. This acted as a sort of universal translator, but only if one could set aside all preconcieved notions and truly open their heart to a stranger.

Fumikage parted ways with Iida and the others at the end of the day. Every freshman but him headed down to the train station. In all honesty, he was socially drained and ready for some solitude.

He went up to his dorm room and did homework until dinner. Togata and his friends called him over to sit with them, but he contented himself with listening rather than talking. Afterward, he went back to his room, put his headphones on, and did a search on his phone for information about what happened over the Destiny Islands nine years ago.

There were two photos of interest, both scanned from an English-language newspaper out of San Fransokyo. The first was grainy, obviously cropped from a larger image that had been taken at a distance. A tall, thin figure in sleek Keyblade Armor platemail waded through crashing waves. He had a small child in each arm. They hung like ragdolls, obviously unconscious.

The second was much clearer and included a caption:

Keyblade Master Toshinori Yagi (center) reunites with Katsuki Bakugo (left) and Izuku Midoriya (right), the two children he and Master Mirai Sasaki rescued when Jenova's Comet reached The Destiny Islands last year. The boys' families relocted to San Fransokyo after the event. Master Yagi was presumed dead until his sudden reappearance one month ago.

Master Yagi was framed from the waist up, holding both children easily on his shoulders. The photo must have been taken with a cell phone, as the kid on the right, Midoriya, was largely obscured by a motion blur. By contrast, the sparkle in little Bakugo's eyes was crystal clear. His smile could have outshone the sun...

A loud knock at the door made him jump.

"Young Tokoyami? Are you in, kiddo?"

He paused his music, knocked his headphones off and stumbled to the door. His hand landed on the doorknob and he froze.

There was a skull lamp on his dresser. His rug, bedclothes, and curtains were all black. His posters had monsters on them, some from the cartoons he used to watch. His largest poster was on the wall above the dresser and sported a promotional image of Vincent Valentine from the Games. He had not planned to let anyone into his dorm room, so he had decorated it carelessly with his comfort items. At least the plushie Dream Eater bat was hidden under the bed...

He opened the door a crack, slid out, and shut it behind him. Master Yagi looked down at him with a bemused expression behind the usual grin. The silence between them stretched a second too long.

"Good evening!" Master Yagi said easily. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"

"Not at all."

"Well, I'm afraid I would have had to interrupt you anyway! Master Aizawa would like you to meet him in his office. He asked me to escort you there."

A shiver passed through him. There was no way he could be in trouble already, unless...

"Of course. Lead the way," Fumikage said, hoping his anxiety was well-masked.

Master Yagi glanced down.

"You might want to put shoes on, first."

The cold marble floor was chilling his feet through his socks. He nodded stiffly, blushing, and slipped back into his room to get his shoes.

***

Fumikage had to take two steps for every one of Master Yagi's. He could hear some commotion from the dormitory common areas, but once they left that wing of the castle, everything was quiet. The long rugs muffled the sound of their footsteps. There was darkness beyond the tall windows.

At first, Master Yagi asked about his day, how he was adjusting to dorm life, all the normal questions. Then there was a pause. Fumikage kept glancing up at his profile, sensing the elephant in the room. Or, rather, the Shadow. His suspicions turned out to be correct, but he could not have predicted the form it would take.

"Hey, kiddo," Master Yagi said in almost a murmur. "I wish I had more time to go over this with you, but this meeting was sprung on me as well. You know that 'conceal, don't feel' thing you've got going on? Forget it immediately. You need to sit with your emotions. Be still and feel every inch of them. Breathe through it."

Anxiety scratched at his heart and sent cold spikes down his arms. How was he supposed to switch tactics that quickly? On top of that, Master Yagi didn't know that Dark Shadow had reacted oddly to full night.

"Do you understand?" Master Yagi asked, still in that deep, low tone.

"Dark Shadow, at night..." Could he even hear his whisper all the way up there? He was nearly twice Fumikage's height. "She's... different, at this hour."

"I know, and so does he. 'Darkness' may be different from normal darkness, but it has an effect on our emotions all the same."

Sooner than he expected, long before he was ready, Master Yagi stopped in front of a door. Master Aizawa's name was on the brass nameplate. A large hand came to rest on Fumikage's shoulder and gave it a brief squeeze.

"Just breathe. You can do this."

Fumikage took a deep breath. Master Yagi opened the door.

The room was ordinary. The rich wood of the bookshelves matched that of the desk and complimented the warm tones of the floor rug. Gossamer curtains hung still over the large window on the far wall. The new computer and metal filing cabinet contrasted with the historical decor. Other than those things, the room was spartan, devoid of any personal touches.

The leather armchair was vacant. Master Aizawa was in front of the desk and leaning his hips back against the edge. He beckoned them over.

"Welcome. I'd like to check in with you, if you don't mind."

Fumikage stepped onto the carpet. Master Yagi shut the door behind them.

"How are you settling in?" Master Aizawa asked, fiddling with the end of his scarf.

"I'm adjusting well, thank you."

"Hmm."

He looked up from the scarf and directly into Fumikage's eyes. Fumikage met his gaze and held it.

"I'll get right to the point, then. The three of us in this room are the only ones in the castle who know about your Heartless. Master Yagi gave me something of a secondhand report."

He pushed off from the desk and stepped forward. Fumikage lifted his chin to maintain eye contact; Master Aizawa was shorter than Master Yagi, but he was still quite tall. In his peripheral vision, Fumikage saw his hand slowly twining the end of the scarf. There was so much length that the part around his neck didn't seem to tighten, though it shifted like a coiling snake.

"He told me you have a fair amount of control over it."

"I do."

"Show me."

The chilly claws under his ribs turned to ice. He lost the staring contest to glance at the black window.

"Are you going to tell me it's stronger at night?"

"...Yes," he said levelly.

Irritation was beginning to override his fear. Master Aizawa stood before him, still holding onto that scarf.

"Can you control it at night?"

He hesitated.

"Can it come out if you don't allow it?"

Maybe.

His continued silence was his final mistake.

Master Aizawa's hand moved. He was so fast that Fumikage had no idea what was happening until his arms were pinned sharply to his sides. The air was pinched out of his lungs. He was too startled to plant his feet, and the scarf tightened further as Aizawa drew him forward across the carpet. He stumbled and barely remained upright. With a sudden jerk, he was suddenly looking up into his teacher's bloodshot eyes.

"I'm only going to say this once, so let me make it perfectly clear," Aizawa said in a deadly tone. "A Heartless like yours puts every single person in this castle in danger."

He jerked the scarf again. Fumikage grit his teeth as he was forced up onto his toes. Aizawa's face was way too close. A sickly flutter wound around his pounding heart, thawing the ice, warming him with anger. Dark Shadow bristled inside of him.

"Can you tell me, honestly, that you can keep it under control? That it won't sneak out during the night and pick off one of our young keybladers? That it won't make a move on this world's keyhole?"

Show him.

Fumikage squeezed his eyes shut, just for a second. Don't give into the anger. Conceal...

No. Breathe.

He unclenched his jaw and inhaled through his nose. He was pissed. It prickled under his skin, made him lightheaded. He let it race through his bloodstream like tiny needles. They bounced off of his extremities.

He opened his eyes.

"If you truly believed that I was such a risk, why would you allow me to come here? Why not trap me in Twilight Town and attempt an exorcism? No. You believe I can control it, so I believe I can control it. I'm here to learn, so let me learn."

Silence.

Master Aizawa smiled.

"Good answer, kid."

The scarf went slack. Fumikage stepped back as Aizawa rewound the scarf with practiced ease.

"You'll have private lessons with Master Yagi every Saturday night, so plan ahead. The goal is to reunite your Heartless with your body once and for all. If you can't manage that on your own, there's a doctor of metabiology in Radiant Garden who may be able to help, though Master Yagi seems to think that won't be necessary." The statement was weighted. "That's all for now, you can go back to bed. Master Yagi, will you stay in the office for a minute?"

He had nearly forgotten Master Yagi was there. The big man stood like a statue in the back corner. Fumikage, by contrast, was shaking all over.

"You did great, kiddo. Go get some rest."

He felt weightless on his way to the door, untethered rather than jubilant. Master Yagi opened it for him. Their eyes met for a moment. Fumikage found himself searching for a hint of the support he had come to expect, but he could not read minds and the conversation was over.

He left the office.

***

"Well, Master Aizawa, it seems I'm the one you've deceived this time!"

"What do you mean?" he asked, walking around the side of the desk. He let his hand trail along the polished edge of the wood. Its firmness grounded him.

"You had me worried for a minute, but you believe in the boy, too, do you not?"

That was one way to put it. This meeting had gone well. He had pushed the kid's buttons on purpose to see if he would fly off the handle or unleash that Heartless on him. His red irises had gone amber for just a moment, but he had taken a deep breath and quelled it. That was impressive for someone his age.

"Now that he's shown me what he's made of, I guess I can see his potential."

"Come now, Aizawa. Surely you wouldn't have provoked him like that if you didn't think he could handle it?"

Shota stopped in front of his chair, but remained standing as he tapped a key on the keyboard. The computer clicked and whirred to life. He glanced up at Yagi, who was still in the corner.

"Aren't you the one who said the Heartless was manageable?"

"In a world of perpetual twilight, yes. This world may be perfectly balanced, but this was also their first experience with nighttime in ten years. Of course, you knew that already." He angled his head down, just slightly, leveling his gaze with Aizawa's. "You knew this meeting could have ended very badly."

He paused with his hand on the mouse. Now that the meeting was over, there were other things he needed to get done. However, there was a weight to Yagi's gaze that he had never seen before. It made him uneasy in spite of himself.

"And you disapprove."

Finally, Yagi stepped out of the corner and crossed the carpet toward the desk. He came into the lamplight, but it did not quite reach his face.

"I know you've lost someone to the Heartless, Master Aizawa, but that's no excuse for taking it out on the kid."

Shota stiffened.

So that's how you want this to be, you big lug?

"That had nothing to do with this," he said softly, warningly. "You assured me that if Tokoyami's Heartless got out of control, you would be able to handle it. Are you saying you lied to me?"

"I'm saying that for someone with an abundance of caution, you acted a bit recklessly tonight."

"Are you sure you aren't overly sensitive to the boy's feelings? It's like he said, he's here to learn, and we're here to teach. We need to prepare the students for how things are."

All throughout this little exchange, Master Yagi's grin did not falter. It was hard, like the statues he resembled, but Shota could sense the emotions simmering behind it. Not as pure of heart as everyone thought, was he?

"Then I suppose we'll agree to disagree," Yagi said, echoing how Shota had ended their first argument.

It ended their second one, too, and Shota wondered if that meant he had won. But if that was true, had he lost the first time?

***

"No! Don't hurt Dark Shadow!"

They cowered in the corner of their old bedroom, the first one, in Traverse Town. He had his arms around his bristling shadow, holding her down. The adults loomed over them. One of them had a keyblade.

"You have to move away, Fumikage! It's dangerous!" his old foster mother pleaded.

"No!"

The keyblade flashed.

"Don't worry, I won't hit him."

"No! Please!"

They screamed.

***

Fumikage sat on the floor with his back against the bed, his knees hugged tightly to his chest. The incident with Aizawa was the second time he had been attacked by an adult. He had stood up for himself and won, but his insides felt like hot garbage. The sick feeling boiled in him, made the shadows in the room quiver.

The keyblade had hit Dark Shadow that night. She was small then, as small as he was, and the blow nearly destroyed her. The adults didn't realize she had survived and gone back inside of him. When they asked him later if he'd seen the Heartless again, he lied to them.

Something had happened to him the day his world was destroyed. His memories of that night were scattered, as chaotic as the event itself, but he had been alone when Dark Shadow appeared. He remembered that he had been crying, and that he had extended his hand to her. She was his shadow, after all. She had come to life to be his friend.

Maybe that was why he thought of her as "her." They took after his mother, and a mother was what he sorely needed during that time.

The problems started later. Some were simple, like when he got into fights with the other kids over killing spiders and whether bats got caught in people's hair. The worst was a misunderstanding over what he meant by "darkness" not being evil-- the others had lost their families to the Darkness, too, and his frustrated insistence made one of the girls cry. A boy had pushed him over in retaliation.

Dark Shadow had pushed him back, knocking him flat.

When that happened, everyone thought he was possessed. After the incident with the Keyblade Master, she learned to stay out of sight, but that did not quell the temptation to lash out. In Twilight Town, the boy who accused him of faking his name tripped and skinned his knees. Someone who said his teeth were gross and weird had a book fall on her.

His social worker was a nice man who mitigated a lot of his attitude problems, but he could only do so much when Fumikage's biggest issue was the one he could never talk about.

***

"Fumikage?" Dark Shadow whispered over his shoulder.

Her presence buzzed all around him. The black curtains stirred. She feared the Keyblade Masters, but she was stronger now. They both were.

He took a deep breath and released it slowly, lowering his beak between his knees. Everyone grew up knowing what a Heartless was. He was in grade school, in Twilight Town, when he learned that he and Dark Shadow were technically the same person. That meant everything Dark Shadow did was actually something he did.

***

The forest had been cleared of trash. Master Yagi congratulated him on his progress, but Fumikage felt subdued. He was unsure of what he had gained from the whole project other than being a good Samaritan.

"Do you still feel like a monster?" Master Yagi asked.

Fumikage looked up at him. He was blocking the sunset, and Fumikage stood in his shadow.

"You called yourself a monster when we first met," he continued. "Do you still feel that way?"

Fumikage found it hard to meet his eyes. He glanced down at the brown, flattened grass. The leaves would have a chance to soak up some light, now.

"Does cleaning up garbage absolve me of my sins?"

Melodramatic, in retrospect, but he meant what he said. He had told Master Yagi about his history early on, to warn him about what he was getting into, but Yagi had been as undeterred then as he was now.

"That day," Master Yagi began, "the Heartless appeared in the middle of town. I heard the screams of their would-be victims. Before I could spring into action, though, I saw you luring them away with your keyblade. You led them to a back alley where there would be no other victims before you started fighting."

Fumikage looked up. "You saw?"

"I caught the tail end of the actual fight. By the time I caught up, you were already running, and I could see Dark Shadow emerging from your body. I followed you into the forest. You know the rest."

Fumikage was unsure of what to say. Master Yagi stepped forward, and then one huge, surprisingly cool hand enveloped his shoulder.

"You aren't a monster, young Tokoyami. You care about other people. Nuture that inner strength, and you'll be just fine."

You think too highly of me, he wanted to say, but his throat had closed up. This was the most trust and empathy an adult had shown him in his entire life. Before he could think himself out of it, he leaned over and rested his forehead lightly against Master Yagi's solar plexus.

Yagi let him stay like that for a while.

***

"Fumikage?" Dark Shadow repeated.

He raised one of his hands. Slowly, hesitantly, the curve of Dark Shadow's beak came to rest on his palm. The touch made his anger wither into sadness. Sadness meant he needed to recover, not lash out.

Dark Shadow stopped bristling. She deflated, falling over him like a comforting blanket.

Aizawa wanted him to see a doctor. If he failed to get this under control, they would try to fix him, to cut Dark Shadow out like a tumor or cure her like a disease. Even though they were the same person, he always thought of her as a companion, a friend, the one part of his family who would never leave him.

He shuddered with a small sob.

Sit with them. Breathe through them.

You aren't a monster.

You can do this.

Chapter 5: How We Spent Our Summer Vacation

Chapter Text

In the middle of the semester, one of their classmates Manifested her keyblade.

The girl's name was Tsuyu Asui. She was shorter than Fumikage and a bit gawky, with large hands and feet. She had approached him early on to report that her father was a frog who had been turned into a human. That meant the two of them, plus a kid named Ojiro who had a monkey tail, were the only three nonhumans in the class.

It happened at the end of gym. She put her practice sword away, considered her hand for a moment, and just like that, a burst of light heralded the appearance of her keyblade. Its main body resembled twining lotus stems, complete with pink and white lilies on the hilt. The teeth were a lilypad with a pronounced split.

Naturally, there was a commotion.

"What's its name?" someone asked.

"Froppy. I knew it would be."

"Froppy? For real?"

"Yep."

A keyblade's appearance and name were drawn from deep within its weilder's heart. When it Manifested, that name was whispered into the person's mind. Asui's lineage must have been very important to her.

She moved into the dorms shortly thereafter. Even though the halls were separated by gender, they inevitably crossed paths with each other. When she suggested they work on homework in the common room, he had no reason to refuse. She had a calm, steady demeanor, and it was no surprise to him that she had been the first to Manifest during the school year. Spending time with her was not unpleasant.

"Why don't you like Master Aizawa?" she asked suddenly.

He almost put a streak through his math problems.

"Sorry," she said, "I can be blunt sometimes."

"It's fine," he replied without looking up from his algebra. "What makes you think I don't like him?"

She tapped her finger to her lips, a certain tic of hers.

"You get that look on your face whenever anyone talks about him. Is it because he gave you a bad grade on that essay?"

Master Aizawa taught metabiology, which included theories about Light and Darkness and their influence on the metaphysical heart. Naturally, this was the subject that interested Fumikage the most. They had been assigned an essay about "Darkess as substance," and even though he poured a lot of energy into it, Aizawa had deemed his paper "incomprehensible" and made him rewrite it.

As for his other, more practical lessons in metabiology, Aizawa had not mentioned them since that night in his office, even though Master Yagi sent him regular reports.

Their special training area was on the back of the mountain, out of sight of the castle windows. Dark Shadow was larger and more independent than she was during the forest cleanup, often poking around at whatever caught her interest. On the first night, she started pecking one of the gold training rings because she liked the sound it made. They were supposed to be rolling barrels.

Fumikage's first assignment was to keep her focused. When he reminded her of the task at hand, she eyed up the two barrels, picked them up in her large claws and deposited them between the goal posts. Then she went back to pecking.

"That's cheating," Master Yagi said.

Fumikage sighed. How was he going to convince Dark Shadow that the method outweighed the goal?

"Dark Shadow responds to your emotions, young Tokoyami, not your words or your actions."

"So I have to want to push these barrels around..."

He had come to appreciate a good workout, and at least these barrels were wooden instead of rusty metal. While Dark Shadow kept playing with the equipment, he started to push another barrel up the incline himself. She finally took notice when he started on the next one.

She picked it up and set it at the goal again.

"Dark Shadow..." he muttered.

She giggled at him. His eyes widened. She had just pulled a prank on him!

Master Yagi laughed boisterously. It was loud, and Fumikage flinched and glanced up the mountain to make sure nobody heard, even though everyone else should have been inside at that hour.
There really was someone watching them, though, silhouetted against the night sky.

Aizawa, not laughing.

In the common room, he thought about how to answer Asui's question without giving anything away.

"Our personalities clash with one another."

She tilted her head. "Really? I thought you two were kind of similar."

"Oh?" he said unhappily, not seeing the resemblance.

"You're both serious and quiet. I get it, though. Sometimes when you're too similar to someone, they drive you nuts."

He had a hard time thinking of Aizawa as "serious" for how sardonic he could be, not to mention his habit of taking a nap on the floor while they did classwork, but on second thought, he knew what she meant.

"Right..."

She tapped her lips again thoughtfully.

"Master Aizawa must be pretty stressed out these days, too. With the principal still working remotely, he's kind of the one keeping everything tied down around here, at least where us freshmen are concerned. It doesn't really seem fair to me, since our grade is the biggest."

Aizawa did seem perpetually exhausted. Those floor naps in his sleeping bag never seemed to lighten the shadows under his eyes. Iida had been elected class representative, and Aizawa usually let him govern the less important tasks.

Fumikage could grudgingly acknowledge the stress of Aizawa's workload, but he would not forgive the attack in his office so easily. Still, if he was able to prove that he could handle Dark Shadow, and that happened to relieve a little of Aizawa's stress, it would benefit them both in the long run.

"Yeah," he said quietly.

***

And so the semester went. Before they knew it, they were being assigned summer homework.

They spent most of lunch talking about how they were going to spend their vacation, apart from the homework. Some of them were planning beach trips either within their own worlds or to the shore outside Twilight Town. When the latter was mentioned, someone inevitably asked Fumikage what his plans were.

"I haven't decided yet."

"Wait, are you and Asui even allowed to leave? Since you're freshmen with keyblades and all," Kaminari, a friend of Kirishima's who specialized in lightning magic, asked.

"Master Aizawa said my homeworld has enough Masters for me to visit home safely," Asui said. "What about you, Tokoyami?"

"I've run into a lot of Heartless in Twilight Town, but I'd rather not visit home anyway. My old bedroom probably belongs to someone else by now," he said simply.

"Oh, that's right..." Ashido said apologetically.

"It's fine. I don't mind," he told her, truthfully. He didn't want anyone to pity him for his upbringing. He had only mentioned it as a matter of fact.

Iida leaned over the table to look at him.

"Tokoyami, have you ever been to San Fransokyo?"

"I have not."

Kirishima spoke up excitedly. "Oh, man, there's a ton of stuff to do there! You should totally visit this summer."

"It's also pretty safe, from what I've heard," Asui added.

"Of course it is!" Iida said, putting his hand out in a decisive chopping motion. "Besides Keyblade Masters, we also have a number of crime-fighting organizations."

"Idaten Manufacturing is a big donor for one of those, aren't they?" Ashido observed. "Any relation?"

"Well..." Iida adjusted his glasses. "I don't like people to know, so I try to hide it, but, yes. I am the second son of the Iida family."

That must have meant something to the San Fransokyo kids, judging by their impressed reactions. The exception was Bakugo, who made a snide remark about Iida being a "rich kid." They ignored him.

"Do you have your own gummi ship?" Kirishima asked.

"Not one of my own, no. I'm still underage, after all," Iida said, poking his food around with his chopsticks. "I do have my learner's permit, however."

"That's so cool! Hey, Tokoyami, you should make him take you flying!"

That seemed presumptuous, especially when neither he nor Iida had committed to any sort of plan. Then Iida looked over at him again.

"In any case, you are welcome to come with me to San Fransokyo at the end of the semester. I'm sure my family would be happy to have you."

"I... well..."

"Do it, man! What's the harm?" Kaminari said.

Iida was watching him earnestly.

"Sure," he said finally. "Thank you for inviting me."

Iida smiled. "It's settled, then!"

***

Aizawa granted him permission to go to San Fransokyo with Iida, though he pointedly reminded them not to neglect their homework. Master Yagi, likely guessing Fumikage's unease, also expressed his approval. He evidently deemed him ready to experience night on an unbalanced world. Indeed, Dark Shadow had become somewhat more cooperative during those hours, or at the very least docile.

Fumikage held his backpack on his lap while they rode the train out of the Land of Departure. Iida had them discussing the homework until their view of the Ocean Between, also called “gummi space,” dissolved into a city skyline. Fumikage shifted around to get a better look. The city was on an island near the shore of a bay. A long red suspension bridge connected it to the mainland. Above the gleaming skyscrapers were what looked like giant paper lanterns that floated on the ends of tethers.

The tracks swooped over the water and into the downtown area. The city was a barrage of light and color, advancement and culture. Here, the sleek white shape of a technology institute. There, a traditional Japanese pagoda.

"So..." Iida said, drawing his attention away from the window. He looked a bit conflicted, almost bashful. "I must confess that I was somewhat dishonest before. In truth, I do have a gummi ship, though it originally belonged to my brother. I've been fixing it up in one of our family's garages." He glanced up. "Would you like to see it?"

It was clear that Iida really wanted to show him the gummi ship.

"I would," he said.

They got off at the next station. Iida led him through a busy underground shopping area and up a flight of stairs to the street. There were too many shops, posters, digital billboards, neon signs, holographic billboards, street art... there was just too much of everything to keep track of. Fumikage followed Iida closely as they wove through the throng to another train station and boarded a normal train, one that did not enter gummi space.

Idaten Manufacturing was this world's leader in gummi block technology. The blocks, Iida explained, could adhere to one another without any connectors or, in fact, any actual adhesive. True gummi blocks were made from the shattered barriers of connected worlds, which is why the ships could travel into gummi space rather than ending up in the void of regular space.

Of course, these were a limited resource. The scientists in San Fransokyo had created artificial gummi blocks that had the same properties as real ones, but without the ability to enter gummi space on their own. Not only could these new blocks supplement gummi ships, they could also be used for smaller, non-gummi vehicles and even buildings. They had passed several such buildings already, but they were painted to look like brick and mortar.

A hundred years ago, travel between worlds was exclusive to Keyblade Masters and other wielders of arcane knowledge. That changed with the foundation of the Council of Masters, whose main goal, aside from keeping the Darkness in check, was to restore what was known as The World, the true sphere from which all other worlds had fractured. The Council's motto was “One Sky, One Destiny,” an excerpt from an old poem.

The Idaten garage was a wide, squarish building near the port. The front was colorful and, well, blocky, likely to show off their speciality, but the workshop behind it was much more subdued and practical. What drew Fumikage's attention was the expansive "airfield" that sprawled against the bay. Gummi ships looked a lot bigger up close. Like the buildings, some of them didn't look like they were made of colorful blocks at all.
Iida led him through the front offices, past the public waiting rooms and into a quiet area in the back. A white corridor led to a nondescript door that Iida unlocked with a card key. Beyond it, the aggressively clean aesthetic gave way to gray walls, girders, and concrete. Iida instructed him to remain in the designated walkways at all times on their way through the workshop.

Most garages were defined by whirring metal and sparks. The gummi garage was filled with the low hum of force. Blocks hovered in midair as if by magic, but he could see mechanics with neuro-link headgear standing on lifts beside each work area. He watched an oddly shaped block dispense from a tube and expand like a sponge in water. It turned over and fit itself into the gap in the side of a ship. The seams vanished instantly.
Iida's workspace was in the back corner, out of the way of the professionals'. The ship had an aerodynamic design with four angular wings. The paint job was done in white and blue. To Fumikage's eyes, there was nothing wrong with it.

Iida chattered on excitedly. His explanation of what remained to be done went largely over Fumikage's head, but it was interesting to see him put his brainpower into something other than academics. He offered to let Fumikage try on the neurotransmitter, which resulted in an awkward moment when the headgear did not fit the avian shape of his skull. Fumikage insisted he was fine with watching Iida use it himself.

Honestly, it was a bit boring. Iida was trying to attach some kind of thruster, but whenever he stuck it somewhere, he just popped it right back off again. Fumikage was looking for a spot to sit down when Iida exclaimed suddenly. He had moved one of the body blocks around and fit the thruster in the gap. In a few minutes, he had another one fitted to the other side.

The lift he was on descended slowly as he removed the headgear, grinning.

"Hey!" a new voice called out.

Fumikage turned to see a young woman coming down the walkway. She was in workshop coveralls with a neurotransmitter under her arm. Her shoulder-length locs were salmon pink. She was smiling brightly.

"Did you get your cute nephew up and running?" she asked.

What a strange way to refer to a ship. Weren't they usually personified after women? Iida's lift reached the floor, and he stepped off carefully.

"Well, I wanted to install the Haste2-G without sacrificing maneuverability, but yes, it should be capable of flight now," he said breathlessly.

The girl clapped her hands.

"Excellent! You should let this baby spread its wings, see how it flies!"

"M-Miss Hatsume, you know I only have a learner's permit! I cannot take the ship flying without a legal adult present!"

She waved a gloved finger at him.

"Only if it's in public airspace. Or space-space. If you stay in the garage's test flight zone, it's all legal!"

"Wait, really?"

"Really! Come on, I want to see how it flies, too! I'll be watching on the radar the whole time. You can count on me."

Fumikage doubted a technicality would be enough for Iida to put his doubts aside. He would probably check the fine print before he made any...

"Well, if that's the case, then I suppose there's no harm in a quick test flight," Iida said. "Would you like to assist me, Tokoyami? You won't have to do anything, really, just keep an eye on the secondary monitors."

"And don't worry about crashing, either," Hatsume added. "The test area has a tractor beam that'll pull you back if anything goes wrong."

He could hardly refuse. Their enthusiasm was contagious.

***

This was his first time in a gummi ship. They were securely strapped in for takeoff, but Fumikage clutched the edges of his seat as gravity released its hold on them. The sight of the city falling away without the feel of a track beneath them made his heart race. He could almost imagine that they weren't in a machine at all.

Once they entered gummi space, the secondary monitors popped up to the side of his chair. Lines of text scrolled by. He gathered that everything was normal, but there was one word in particular that repeated enough to catch his attention.

"What is 'Ingenium?'" he asked.

The co*ckpit seated three people in a triangle formation. Iida was in front, ahead and to the right of him.

"It was my brother's codename. He worked for the crime-fighting organization my family donates to." He paused. "He fell in the line of duty."

Fumikage had noticed the past tense when Iida mentioned his brother before. His own parents were lost to Darkness, but there was a chance that they could return someday. Iida's brother was gone forever. He was living the nightmare Fumikage had only glimpsed.

"You have my condolences," he said, but it felt inadequate.

"He did a lot of good. He stopped dozens of criminals, and more than that of Heartless and Nobodies. He used this ship to reach the mainland quickly when they needed his help."

"Was he a Keyblade Master?"

"No."

Iida finally turned to face him. His smile glowed with pride.

"He was a superhero!"

Fumikage knew as well as anyone that the crime-fighters in San Fransokyo were known colloquially as "superheroes," to the point that some even had comics about them, but hearing Iida say it like that made him actually look their age for once, if not younger.

Something beeped.

"Ah," Iida said, returning his attention to the monitors. "It looks like there's a meteor shower coming. Sorry, Tokoyami, but we'll have to cut this short."

Fumikage looked up through the co*ckpit window, curious to see the meteors in the distance, but there was nothing but stars. No, wait, there was something else out there...

"Look, there. Is that a person?" he said, pointing.

They were small in the distance, but they looked like a humanoid on some sort of personal sailing vessel, the kind that people used at the beach. The most visible parts were the engines on the back of the board and the bluish shimmer of the sail.

"A solar surfer?" Iida said incredulously. He tapped something, and a screen with a closeup of the figure appeared. "No, that's an etherium sail. I've never seen a vessel that small in space before, though, except for the Keyblade Masters' armor extensions."

"The Etherium" was yet another name for the Ocean Between. It was more liveable than outer space-- to the point that several species lived and thrived in it-- but the surfer's brown leather biker outfit seemed like poor coverage compared to a Keyblade Master's armor. At least they were wearing a full helmet.

"Do they know about the meteor shower?" Fumikage asked.

"I'll hail them. They should have a transponder in their helmet."

The beeping that ensued sounded a lot like a phone call. It rang for a while, then fell silent.

"The signal isn't getting through," Iida said worriedly. "Do they have their transponder turned off, or is it broken...?"

Hatsume's voice suddenly filled the co*ckpit.

"What are you doing, Iida? There's a meteor shower coming! Get a move on!"

"Yes, I saw, but there's a person out here with a broken transponder."

"Then signal them manually and get your butts bac-- h--e!"

The signal skipped. Fumikage glanced up again. Now he could see the meteors.

"Iida...!" he said tightly.

"They're coming too fast!" Iida exclaimed. "The surfer won't make it!"

Suddenly, a console emerged from the arm of Fumikage's chair and situated itself in front of him. It looked sort of like a video came controller. Before he could ask what it was for, the ship accelerated, throwing him back against the seat. A holographic screen appeared over his eyes. The tip of his beak clipped through it.

"Tokoyami, I need you to fire at the meteors while I intercept the surfer! Can you do it?"

"What if I hit the surfer inadvertently?!"

"I gave you the starboard cannon. I'm keeping the port side toward the surfer. Get ready!"

He gripped the controls. They were ergonomic enough that a toddler could use them: aim controller, hit button, fire laser. He grit his teeth, his palms already sweating, and fired at the oncoming space boulders. Each meteor needed a few hits before it combusted into stardust, and more than a few were getting past them. A huge shadow flew over the co*ckpit.

Hatsume was shouting at them, her words clipped by the interference. Adrenaline made Fumikage lightheaded. Calm down and aim, damn it!

Iida hit the brakes. The seatbelts over Fumikage's chest dug into his ribs. His hands jerked the controls and sent the lasers flying in all the wrong directions.

"I'm pulling the surfer in! Keep firing!"

A rush of air burst into the cabin. The term "the winds of the Etherium" ran through Fumikage's mind from a book he'd read in grade school. He broke a meteor that was twice the size of the others, but instead of stardust, it shattered into chunks. Seconds later, something struck the side of the ship.

He had never heard Iida curse before, but he did so loudly as the ship turned sideways. It wasn't turned by the blow; he had done it manually. Fumikage's view of the meteors blurred aside.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted.

"Tractor beam's not fast enough!"

The ship flew backwards. Another shout escaped him as he was thrown forward against the seatbelts. He resigned himself to the fact that Iida had completely lost his mind.

The back of the co*ckpit had a ramp that led down into the cargo hold, which they had walked through when they boarded the ship. A deafening clang reverberated through it, followed by the continuing rush of a small engine and grinding metal. The winds of the Etherium were cut off.

"Got them!" Iida whooped.

A meteor filled their view a split second before it struck the bow.

The ensuing whirlwind was unlike anything Fumikage had experienced since the Worldfall. His mind calmly observed this while his lungs lacked the breath to scream with.
After an instant eternity, the rotations slowed, then stopped. His vision took a minute to settle, and he had to force himself to start breathing again.

"Are you okay?" Iida's voice was high with anxiety.

"I... I think so," he gasped.

The cargo hold was quiet. They may have rescued the surfer only to kill them when the whole ship turned into a blender. Before he could put voice to this, the view through the window struck him silent.

It looked like a miniature galaxy. Streaks of blue and purple cloud spiraled slowly into a bright white core. He had seen pictures like this in their science textbooks. It was a wormhole, and the ship was being drawn toward it.
Iida tapped urgently at the controls.

"I can't... the Navi-G must have..."

Their view tilted. The ship was drifting helplessly, gaining speed as it neared the core. Its light filled the co*ckpit.

The last, foolish thought Fumikage had before it all went white was how their first day of summer break could have gone so terribly, terribly wrong.

Chapter 6: Snow White and Blood Red

Chapter Text

One second, they were careening through space. The next, the whole ship vibrated as it skidded across solid ground. Then everything was still.

He opened his eyes slowly and blinked until they adjusted. Weak daylight trickled through the domed window. The shadows of trees shifted softly over the dark consoles. Iida was slumped forward in the pilot's chair, but Fumikage saw him move slightly.

"Tokoyami?" he asked shakily.

"I'm alive. Are you injured?"

"I don't think so. I'm..." Iida's breath hitched. He lifted a hand to his face. "I am so sorry. This is all my fault. I don't know what... I just had to..."

Fumikage's nerves were electrified, but beyond that and some intense soreness, he seemed to be unbroken. He stiffly unbuckled the seatbelt and tried to stand, only to confirm that his chest was bruised. He swallowed the ache and stood up anyway. His legs felt like jelly as he stepped forward to check on Iida. His glasses were missing, and he quickly wiped his eyes.

"There's no use worrying about it now," Fumikage said.

Iida nodded without looking at him and unbuckled his own seatbelt.

Something in the cargo hold clunked. They exchanged a dismayed glance. It finally dawned on them that they might have accidentally killed somebody, and that it was time to go down and find out.

Thankfully, the ship still had enough power for the emergency lights. They crept toward the ramp in the dim yellow light and peered down into the room below. The etherium sail was draped across the floor in faintly gleaming hexagons, still miraculously attached to its board. There were scratches and black scorch stains on every surface.

A sudden flash of green drew their attention to the left. The surfer was sitting against the charred wall and using a healing spell on themself. There was a long crack in their visor, but their limbs seemed to be at the correct angles. Once the spell finished, they fumbled the helmet off, revealing a shock of ash-blonde hair.

"Bakugo?!" Fumikage and Iida exclaimed in unison.

He looked up at them. After a few long moments, his incredulous expression transformed into a more familiar look of absolute fury.

"Were you idiots trying to kill me?!"

"What?" Iida stammered. "We were... the meteors...?!"

"I could have dodged those, you dweeb! My etherium surfer is way more maneuverable than your geriatric gummi ship!"

Iida stepped farther down the ramp, recovering from his shock enough to enter full Class Rep mode.

"What kind of surfer can out-manuever a gummi ship? Or outrun a meteor shower, for that matter? Were you seriously going to bob and weave through a field of giant space boulders?"

Bakugo snarled and jumped to his feet.

"I had it under control! I did not ask you to f*ck everything up by 'saving' me!"

Fumikage shut his eyes and pinched his brow. Bakugo ranked third in their class behind Iida and one of the girls, so there was no way he should be this stupid. Then again, he also outshone everyone in the obstacle courses Master Yagi had them running, so he might truly believe he was capable of surviving a meteor shower with wits and athletics alone.

"Bakugo..." he sighed finally. "What were you even doing out there?"

His expression actually sobered a little. He growled softly and pulled his phone out of a zippered pocket on his pants. He stood with his back to them for a few moments, the blue light shining in his hand.

"There's this loser who stole something from me and bailed. Haven't seen him in almost a year."

A revenge quest?

"Then why not file a police report?" Iida asked in disbelief.

Bakugo shook his head like he was trying to get rid of a fly.

"It's not like that, nerd. His parents reported him missing forever ago. The useless cops haven't found him yet, so I've been searching for him myself."

He walked toward the ramp as he spoke. Something clicked in Fumikage's mind.

"At the beginning of term, were you searching the classrooms for him?"

"Yeah. Going to Kai was his stupid dream. I figured he might be dumb enough to apply anyway after running away from home. I didn't see him at the practical, but I figured he might have been hiding from me."

He held the phone up.

"Have you seen this guy?"

It was a class photo of a boy in a middle school uniform. Despite his aggressively average appearance, Fumikage recognized his large green eyes and dark curly hair. It was as if the blurred photo he saw a few months ago had finally come into focus.

"Izuku Midoriya."

"Yeah. Seen him?"

"I have not."

"Neither have I," Iida said, leaning forward to squint at the image. They hadn't found his glasses yet. "Do you know him, Tokoyami?"

"I..." Oops. "Well, his name is well known, is it not?"

Bakugo glared at him and put the phone away.

"You stalking me, bird brain?"

"...I will admit to a certain curiosity."

"Asshole," he spat. "It's not like I'm in constant need of being saved."

Quite the leap in logic, and the meteors would beg to disagree.

"Bakugo, if this Midoriya had applied to Kai, his name would have come up in a database," Iida said, directing Bakugo's attention back to himself.

"Not if he was offworld, dumbass. Why do you think I was out flying in the first place?"

"You didn't think to take a train? Or chart a flight?"

Bakugo smirked. "Not all of us can afford to book flights willy-nilly. As for the trains, I already went everywhere my school pass could get me to. Now, while you two losers try to do something about your wrecked ship, I'm off to the skies."

He doesn't know about the wormhole.

Iida tried to follow him down the ramp, but Fumikage put an arm out to stop him. Bakugo clicked a lever on the etherium surfer, which caused the sail to fold itself up and retract into the board, then hoisted a large backpack onto his shoulder. He punched the button that opened the back hatch, and a breath of snowy air puffed over him and into the cargo hold.

He stared at the white ground for a moment before he looked over his shoulder at them.

"I am going to murder you both so hard, it'll make your ancestors spit up blood."

***

They were up in the mountains somewhere, not snowcapped, but asleep in the cradle of winter. The forest was a mix of evergreen and bare deciduous. Everything was black and white, ink on crisp paper under a watercolor sky. A trail of broken trees bent outward from a deep scar in the earth that ended at their ship. The ship itself had blocks missing.

Iida was distraught. He had found his glasses (minus one lens) and got a clear view of the damage. Bakugo, meanwhile, was intent on leaving them behind. However, when his heel hit the switch on his surfer, the engines sputtered and died. He continued to stomp on the switch-- and verbally threaten it-- while Iida pulled up an app on his phone.

"The blocks are scattered, but if we can bring them back here, we can still repair the ship," he muttered, half to himself.

Fumikage had changed out of his uniform before they left, and his short-sleeved hoodie was not suited for winter. He rubbed the cold from his arms and peered over at Iida's phone. The app was a radar map of the area with certain points highlighted. They must have been the gummi blocks.

"Maybe we should call for help, first," he suggested.

"Yes, you're right. I need to remember our priorities," Iida said, though it seemed to pain him.

Fumikage did feel for him, but they needed to face the reality of the situation. Bakugo had finally given up on the surfer and retracted the sail again. He was already headed off down the mountain.

"Hold it!" Iida said. "We're supposed to shelter in place!"

"Do whatever you want!" Bakugo yelled back to them.

Iida checked his phone and made a frustrated sound.

"No service. The ship's communicator is out, too. We may have to build a fire."

"Do you have anything to ignite a flame with?" Fumikage asked.

"No..."

They looked toward Bakugo's retreating form.

"He does," Fumikage stated.

The snow forced them to lope awkwardly through Bakugo's footprints. Iida's long legs allowed him to catch up first while Fumikage slipped and slid behind him. Naturally, Bakugo was peeved.

"What the hell are you guys doing? Stay with your broken ship and freeze."

"No way! We need to light a fire!"

"Then rub two sticks together like a normie!"

Fumikage...

Dark Shadow's voice. He suddenly felt anxious and looked around, breath rising in clouds. He saw nothing unusual, just a forest in the winter. Bakugo and Iida were already getting away from him.

"Hey, you two! Wait a second!"

They paused their bickering and glanced back at him. In that moment, the Heartless struck.

The creatures rose up like ink blots against the snow. They were "shadows," the smallest of the natural-born Heartless, often called "bunnies" for their floppy antennae. That being said, they were still about five feet tall.
Natural-born Heartless came straight from the Realm of Darkness. They were the originals, the ones who were truly without hearts. They cast no shadows because they were the shadows. Any Heartless that used to be a person was branded with a red and black emblem and cast a shadow of their own, even though their body was gone.

Dark Shadow had no emblem and no shadow. Master Yagi speculated that because they had never fully separated, she was never fully realized as an "Emblem Heartless."

Bakugo was already throwing fireballs by the time Fumikage summoned Tsukuyomi. After training with the heavy practice swords for so long, its weight felt like nothing. His form had also improved under the guiding hand of a teacher instead of internet videos. He skidded down the slope until he got between Iida and the Heartless and started swinging.

Each time he and Bakugo seemed to eliminate all the Heartless, more appeared to take their place. Iida got into a stance, but he was unarmed and not gifted with magic. Bakugo's mana would run dry sooner or later.
One of the Heartless jerked suddenly as thick icicles burst from its body. The Darkness that composed it scattered. In a rush of freezing air, the other Heartless fell victim to the same spell. Tiny shards of ice stung Fumikage's bare arms. When the wind settled, no more Heartless appeared.

Someone had joined them. He was dressed for the weather in a long coat and plain scarf. A dead rabbit hung on a snare over his shoulder. The coat, Fumikage noticed, did not have modern buttons or zippers. He looked to be around their age, maybe fourteen or fifteen.

The wind had blown the scarf off of his head. The color of his hair was split perfectly down the middle, one half as white as the snow around them, the other as red as blood.

"Thank you for your help!" Iida called out.

The boy's eyes narrowed. It was either a trick of the light, or only one of those eyes was brown.

"I can't understand what you're saying," he said in Japanese.

"Oh, my apologies!" Iida corrected. He had been speaking the Japanese-English hybrid language that had spread among the connected worlds. "I said, thank you for your help."

The boy eyed them cooly, his gaze lingering on Fumikage the longest. He did not seem disturbed or appalled, so they were off to a decent start.

"You're foreigners," he observed.

"Yes, and we're in something of a bad situation," Iida explained. "Our ship crashed, and we have no idea what world we're in."

"Your ship?" The boy glanced up the mountain. "That falling star I saw..."

"Yes, that's the one," Iida said, but there was a trace of uncertainty in his voice now.

After a few moments of thoughtful silence, the boy beckoned for them to follow him down the mountain.

"Come with me, then."

***

"So we're just going to trust this guy?" Bakugo muttered.

"Do you have any other ideas? No one else is around who knows the area," Iida said.

"Like I care about the opinion of a sheltered rich kid with no survival instincts."

"We can trust him for now," Fumikage interjected. "If our trust is betrayed, we can find another option."

"Whatever," Bakugo said. His mouth twisted in a scowl. "And would you two get off me?"

Bakugo had summoned a weak fire spell over his hand. Now that the fight was over, both Iida and Fumikage were huddled close to him for warmth. He walked faster to try to get away from them, but they stuck to him like glue.

The boy led them to an old-fashioned farmhouse in the middle of the woods, with a thatched roof and whitewashed walls. The wooden door slid open on a track. The walls of the inner rooms were wood and paper. Some of the paper was yellowed and torn, while a few patches were obviously new.

He introduced himself as Todoroki Shoto. He lived alone, but the place was impressively well-kept. They left their shoes on the ground level and stepped up onto the floorboards. Todoroki invited them to sit around the square fireplace in the floor while he brewed some tea.

Throughout this process, he only spoke when absolutely necessary. In the light of the fire, what Fumikage had taken for a birthmark over his blue eye was clearly a burn scar. He had a pretty face for a guy.

With the tea served, Todoroki became more talkative, if only to discuss the matter at hand.

"I'm sorry those creatures got involved with you. It's my heart they're after."

"They're after all of our hearts, it's what they do," Bakugo said flatly.

Todoroki looked surprised at that.

"You've seen them before?"

"Of course. The Heartless are everywhere. Also, thanks for the tea."

"What he means," Iida interjected, "is that those creatures, the Heartless, are found on many worlds."

"Heartless," Todoroki repeated carefully. The word was English.

"It means 'creatures without hearts,' which is something of a misnomer, actually, since many of them are created when the Darkness in a person's heart consumes it and forms into a..."

"They're monsters that rip your heart out and use it to make more monsters," Bakugo interrupted. "If your body survives somehow, it becomes a Nobody, another monster. If not, it just disappears."

"I see. I think I understand," Todoroki said pensively. A strange look crossed his face. "You mentioned 'many worlds.' You mean other planets, right? Other stars?"

"That is correct," Fumikage supplied. He held his cup of tea without drinking it. Cups were difficult for him without a straw. It warmed his hands, though.

Again, Todoroki's gaze lingered on him a moment too long. Fumikage wondered how many nonhumans he actually saw around here.

"If I help you fix your ship, will you take me back to your world with you?"

The three exchanged a glance. There were protocols to follow in this kind of situation, but none of them were well-versed in them yet.

"We just told you that the Heartless are everywhere. You won't get away from them by running to another world," Bakugo said. It must have been his version of diplomacy.

Todoroki shook his head minutely. He looked irritated by Bakugo's blunt attitude, but admirably maintained his composure. His posture was quite composed as well, his legs folded neatly beneath him on the straw mat. They must have been going numb. Surely he could relax a little in his own house?

"My mother, the queen, has banished me, and my father the king won't rest until he finds me. That's what I want to escape from."

Ah. That explained the posture. Bakugo arched an eyebrow, and Iida was now trying and failing to speak. Fumikage was uneasy. Taking someone from a possibly unconnected world was tricky enough, but a prince? The consequences could be far-reaching.

"Pardon me, my lord," Iida said hesitantly. Bakugo's lip curled at his change in tone. "If the king wants you to return, does that not supersede your banishment?"

Todoroki's expression darkened.

"My father keeps the kingdom isolated so he can maintain absolute control. The first time a ship like yours came from the sky, he turned them away. When another followed, he set it ablaze." He glared into the smouldering logs. "He is a fire-breathing dragon."

Japanese dragons were usually associated with water, not fire. While this world shared traits with worlds like Shibuya (better known as Tokyo, or just Nihon, by those who were actually from there), there was no telling what its place in the World had been until they had more information. This was one of the Council's challenges: was a place like this derived from the original Nihon, or had it been a different country to begin with? Where would it fit on a normal map? Was there really only one World to start with?

Returning to the matter at hand, the king sounded like a powerful mage. Crash landings aside, gummi ships did not typically land until they returned to their garage. That meant he either shot them down during a flyover or in orbit, both monumental tasks. If he happened to find his son any time soon, they would be in a lot of trouble.

"Even if you won't take me with you, I would ask that you tell your people about our situation. I understand if we aren't trusted after what my father did, but our kingdom is suffering. Every time I disguise myself and go into town, things only seem worse. Our people are going hungry and still he refuses foreign aid.”

Todoroki set his cup aside, scooched back a little, and bowed formally, his hands on the floor and his forehead nearly touching them.

"Please help us."

"Get up," Bakugo said flatly. "No one asked you to beg."

Todoroki lifted his head, puzzled.

"We cannot promise you any results," Fumikage said calmly, "but we are grateful for your help, and we will do what we can."

He never thought he and Bakugo would be on the same page about anything, but here they were. Iida looked conflicted, but he stayed quiet.

Relief washed over Todoroki's face, softening it, and he ducked his head.

"Thank you."

***

The sun was setting already, so their search would have to wait until morning. They helped out in the kitchen, on the ground floor, while Todoroki made rabbit stew. Bakugo was eager to assist with the cooking, in his needlessly aggressive way. Todoroki did not protest. Unsurprisingly, the prince was not used to cooking for himself, though he was obviously a competent hunter.

He turned out to be a competent handyman, too. It came up during their small talk that he had found the house abandoned and renovated it himself.

"Father wanted me to have these skills. I suppose I should be grateful," he said bitterly.

"All that, and he didn't bother teaching you to cook?" Bakugo groused.

Todoroki tilted his head slightly. "My siblings did that."

Not the staff? Fumikage wondered. While the two of them talked, he snuck a gulp of his lukewarm tea. If he opened his mouth wide enough and tipped it in through the side, he could get it behind his teeth. It was not an elegant process, and he had to pick out the loose leaves.

The conversation was cut short when Iida came in with the firewood. Snow dusted the pelt Todoroki had lent him. He was doing his best not to show that he was cold.

There were no futons, but Todoroki had more pelts for them to sleep on. He set them up in one of the vacant rooms and fell asleep before any of them. They left the door open to get warmth from the low fire. The bright glow of Iida's phone lit up the walls. Try as he might, he could not connect to any kind of network, not even through gummi space.

"Just go to sleep already," Bakugo said in a loud whisper. He was curled up as far away from the other two as possible.

Fumikage wondered if they should take shifts in case more Heartless showed up. He also wondered how the night would go for him and Dark Shadow. Sleep might prove elusive regardless thanks to the bruises on his chest, but he preferred not to ask Bakugo for a healing spell.

However, all the excitement of the day finally caught up to him, and he fell asleep before he knew it. The night passed without incident.

***

The watery pink dawn reflected on a fresh layer of snow. Fumikage and Iida ended up wearing the pelts they'd slept in as cloaks while they ventured out in search of gummi blocks. Fumikage's tennis flats were in no way suited for snow. Iida had a similar issue with his school shoes, but at least he had long pants instead of capris. Bakugo was wearing steel-toed work boots and did not seem bothered in the slightest. Fumikage watched him enviously while his ankles got colder.

Todoroki took the lead with Iida. Iida had shown him the radar app before they left, which resulted in almost an hour of explanation. Todoroki understood that the object was a machine and not purely magical, but it was difficult to describe what a mobile phone was to someone who had never seen a regular phone.

Fortune favored them in the beginning: they found part of the hull within the hour. It had shrunk to a more manageable size, but it still took two of them to carry the heavy blue block. That task fell to Fumikage and Bakugo while Todoroki guided them back to the ship and Iida kept an eye on the radar. Their daily ascent to Castle Departure finally paid off, though this climb was more slippery, and they had some trouble synchronizing their pace.

The ship was just coming into view when they heard it. Fumikage thought it was the wind, but then a jolt of anxiety shot through his chest. Todoroki stopped suddenly and looked skyward.

"Stop! Get under the trees!" he said urgently.

He and Iida obeyed immediately, and Bakugo grunted when the full weight of the block fell on his arms. They crouched together under the boughs of a pine tree as the rushing noise drew nearer.

The tops of the trees swooped and clattered against each other as something long and dark passed swiftly overhead. It twisted through the sky in tight spirals and made a sound like the dull roar of thunder. Fumikage caught a glimpse of bright red and orange through the rattling branches. Then the trees parted in such a way that the creature's sinuous, scaly tail was in clear view. A mane of fire ran the length of it down to a blazing tuft at the end. Then it was gone.

The four crouched in silence until the wind calmed and the trees stilled. Bakugo was the first to move, bursting out from under the pine and whipping around to confront Todoroki, who emerged more slowly.

"Why the f*ck didn't you tell us that your father is an actual goddamn dragon?" he shouted.

"I told you last night," Todoroki countered, ignoring the words that were unfamiliar to him. Bakugo's tone must have conveyed their meaning sufficiently.

"It sounded like a figure of speech! Be more clear next time!"

Iida stood up, visibly shaking.

"A dragon... an actual dragon..." he muttered. "Even if we fix the ship, how are we going to take off?"

Fumikage had the same fear, but the sudden chill that ran through him had nothing to do with the dragon. This time, he summoned Tsukuyomi right away.

"We can talk later. Heartless are coming."

Chapter 7: Death Spiral

Chapter Text

They had more fighters on their side this time, but the Heartless were larger than the shadows they fought yesterday. These were Emblem Heartless in the vague approximation of lacquered leather armor. They carried katana or spears.

Fumikage, Bakugo, and Todoroki formed a triangle around Iida. Gusts of hot and cold air flew around them from the two mages' spells. Fumikage entered close combat with one of the swordsmen. The Heartless's sword looked real, and sharp. The metal clanged and sparked against Tsukuyomi.

Luckily, Heartless were not disciplined warriors. Any skills they had in life had gone dull when they lost their humanity. Even so, Fumikage remained very aware of the cutting edges.

A quick parry opened the Heartless's arms, and a stab to the chest caused its Darkness to burst and its heart to fly free. It glowed a deep pink and drifted like a ghostly crystal before it vanished. The sight always made him feel a little melancholy. He hurried on to the next enemy, determined to free as many hearts as possible before they were returned to Darkness by the magic exploding around them.

They won the fight in about a minute. It put into perspective how long a minute really was. He dismissed Tsukuyomi and took a moment to catch his breath. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but he felt less worn out than he did at the end of gym class.

"This is terrible," Iida growled in frustration, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Without a weapon, I'm just a liability."

"Then quit whining and pick up a stick or something," Bakugo said, but there was a feral grin on his face. Their victory had him pumped up.

One of the Heartless's katana stuck up out of the snow. Iida picked it up hesitantly, but it fell apart like a rotten branch and vanished into the ether. His shoulders slumped.

"Todoroki," Fumikage said. "Do you know anything about the heart of this world?"

He rubbed frost off of his mittens, brow furrowed slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"Heartless do not hunger solely for the hearts of humans. They crave the hearts of worlds, as well. If the door to the heart of the world remains unlocked, they can get in, and the world will fall to Darkness."

There was clearly a lot of Darkness in this world, and Fumikage was concerned about its keyhole. He doubted the Heartless were only tormenting the prince.

Todoroki looked perturbed.

"I don't know of any door, but..."

When he failed to continue, Bakugo broke his short silence.

"If you thought of something, just say it already."

He sighed. "If the kingdom is doomed anyway, I suppose there's no harm in telling you this. There's a sacred mirror that the miko in our family have used for centuries to commune with the spirit world. Despite its age, its luster never dulls. The whole castle was built around it. If the 'heart' of this world is similar to its spirit, then maybe that's what the Heartless are looking for."

"That does sound like a candidate for a keyhole," Iida said. "But how can we be sure?"

Bakugo smirked and nodded at Fumikage.

"Birdbrain points his keyblade at it, and we see what happens."

Fumikage refused to dignify that with a response. Luckily, Iida had something else to say, crossing his arms in an x over his chest like a sports referee.

"Hold it! We need to think about our situation. There's no way a wormhole that close to San Fransokyo will go unnoticed for long, and that's if Miss Hatsume didn't see us go through it herself. Someone will probably come looking for us soon. They might not know about the dragon... er, the king, which means our first priority should be repairing the ship so we can issue a warning to whoever shows up."

"That is to assume anyone will come for us at all," Fumikage said grimly. "If the king is already known to other worlds, they may not risk it."

Iida chopped a hand down in his direction. "That's too dark! Someone will definitely come for us!"

Bakugo turned his back on them and walked toward the ship.

"While you nerds talk in circles, I'm going to borrow a toolbox and repair my etherium surfer."

"We still need to repair the ship!" Iida yelled in exasperation, gesturing at the discarded piece of hull.

While he jogged after Bakugo, Todoroki turned to Fumikage.

"Are they always like this?"

"They are, indeed," he admitted.

***

In the end, Bakugo was convinced to keep looking for the gummi blocks. They managed to hold the hull block high enough to adhere it to its hole before Iida checked the radar. There were four pieces to go, all scattered along the path of their reckless descent.

It took hours of hiking through the mountains to gather the next two. That was without backtracking; the first piece was something like a computer chip and fit into Iida's pocket. The second was a wing that, like the hull piece, required two of them to carry. They ended up dropping it several times when more Emblem Heartless attacked.

Bakugo had some ethers in his backpack for himself and Todoroki. Ether was a glowing blue distillation of mana that could be stored in bottles, but mages didn't drink it so much as huff it. It was probably less concerning than it looked.

After a quick debate, they decided to leave the wing in a safe spot and forge ahead for the next block. Winter days were short and night would bring the joint threats of low visibility, extreme cold, and yet more Heartless.

Todoroki gradually slowed their pace as they continued. Fumikage thought he might be losing steam, but there was a troubled look on his face. Finally, Bakugo asked him what the holdup was.

"We're getting close to the castle," he said.

There had been no sign of the dragon king since that morning, but perhaps their luck was due to run out. Iida showed Todoroki the radar, and they managed to determine that the next block was in the general area of the castle town. They must have flown right over it. Did that mean the king had seen them?

They had come too far to turn back. Todoroki led them to the top of the next rise, and the castle came into view through the bare trees. It was a ways off past stretches of farmland and the aforementioned town, but the stacked white walls of its massive keep and connected towers dominated the scene.

Or, it would have, if not for the swirling dome of gray clouds that churned over the castle grounds. The worlds were full of incredible mysteries, but the architecture it eclipsed did not look as if it had been built with the contained storm in mind.

"Mother's power..." Todoroki breathed.

Before they could ask him for an explanation, the dragon king twisted into view from behind the far-off peaks to the left of the castle.

He circled the mysterious storm, his fiery mane rippling in the wind. The dark clouds twisted suddenly faster. White light glowed out from between the darkest streaks of gray. Before the glow could reach its apex, the dragon king unleashed a stream of fire onto the dome. For a moment, it looked as if the flames would dissipate it entirely, but the inner light receded and the dark clouds curled protectively over the injured spot.
The king's roar whooshed off of the mountains, and he coiled off toward the peaks once again.

Bakugo jabbed a finger at the castle and glared at Todoroki.

"Explain."

Todoroki looked shaken. He stared ahead to where his father had disappeared.

"Has she really banished him, too...?"

"That's not an explanation!"

Todoroki finally snapped his gaze toward Bakugo. The fearful look had frozen over.

"My mother is a powerful miko and a sorceress. That's why my father forced her to marry him. Now it seems she's using the mirror to lock everyone out."

"How does a mirror to the spirit world cause a storm like that?" Iida asked.

"That was never for me to learn, but the storm is coming from the courtyard where the mirror lies," he said, gesturing.

At some point, Fumikage's hand had come to rest over his heart. He quickly dropped it while the others were preoccupied, not wanting them to know how scared he was. He wanted to lock the door to the heart of the world, but the task was proving to be more daunting than he had anticipated. The thought of giving up, however, filled him with a sense of shame.

It's calling to us...

"Is there a way inside?" he asked.

Everyone stopped talking and stared at him. Iida had his phone in his hands again. Bakugo grinned.

"Ha! Birdbrain's got balls."

You're giving me too much credit, Fumikage thought.

Todoroki leveled him with a cool, piercing stare.

"Will locking the door to this world's spirit put a stop to all this? Can your 'keyblade' quell the chaos my family has wrought upon this land?"

Fumikage opened his mouth, took a breath.

"Yes or no question, Birdbrain. Do you have what it takes to wield a keyblade, or are you just a sham?"

He heard Bakugo's words without separating his gaze from Todoroki's. His fingernails bit into his palms. He let the fear buzz in his nerves and fuel his resolve.

"It is the duty of a keyblade wielder to protect the hearts of the worlds from Darkness. I cannot guarantee that it will stop the Heartless from attacking your people, but it will save them the ground they stand on."

Iida came to his side and lightly touched his shoulder.

"You aren't even a Master yet."

Fumikage glanced sidelong at him.

"'Master' is just a title. Tsukuyomi can do its job without it."

"It's been almost twenty-four hours since we disappeared. Someone has to come for us soon. Let the more experienced keybladers handle this!"

"This world may have fallen by then. Consider how many Heartless we've seen in the last two days. I doubt a mere storm can keep them at bay for long."

Iida looked like he wanted to protest further, but he bit his lip and stepped back.

"There's an emergency escape tunnel out of the keep," Todoroki said. "Only members of the royal family can open it. It's the route I took when I was banished. If you mean what you say, I'll lead you there."
Fumikage nodded. His heart was already racing.

"All right. Let's go knock some more Heartless heads," Bakugo said, punching his gloved fist into his other hand. "Normie, you can keep picking up blocks if you want to lose your heart. If not, you're coming with us."

"This is a terrible idea," Iida said. His jaw was set and his broad shoulders were tense. "But I know I'm helpless on my own, so I suppose I have no choice."

I'm sorry, he wanted to say, but he doubted that was what Iida wanted to hear.

***

Bakugo had some water bottles and protein bars, and Todoroki had a waterskin and jerky. They paused to eat and re-hydrate before they ventured out into the farmland.

The king was out of sight, but they stayed under the cover of trees whenever possible. The land was eerily quiet. Emblem Heartless with axes and hoes moved around the farmhouses, and while Fumikage was drawn to destroy them, Todoroki advised against it. The longer they spent in the open, the greater their risk of discovery.

Things were a lot worse here than in the town the prince had visited.

Iida had his phone out. Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore and had them alter their path to pick up the next block. He sprinted the last couple of yards and returned in a few seconds with a blue cube under his arm. It looked too small for a hull part, and it had a hole in one side.

Their pace increased under the eaves of the town houses. Todoroki tied his scarf securely over his hair in case any living people spotted them. However, if there was anyone left in the settlement, they had barricaded themselves indoors. More Heartless appeared like specters in streets too narrow to avoid an encounter. Even the commotion of their destruction failed to draw out any bystanders.

The icy wind from the storm whistled over the rooftops. The cloud wall towered over everything like a living creature that could lash out at any moment.

All at once, a creature of that very description emerged from above the dome. The wind had covered the sound of his arrival. For the first time, Fumikage could see the blazing yellow of the king's eyes.

"Get back!" he warned.

They pressed themselves against the nearest wall. The whole building shuddered as the dragon swooped closer. Fumikage's heart felt like a frightened rabbit in his chest. He was sure they had been spotted somehow. He grit his teeth as roof tiles crashed against the pavement. He could practically feel the king charging overhead, right over the road they were on...

Fumikage gasped. Without thinking, he darted out into the middle of the road and looked up, heedless of the voices yelling for him to stop. The dragon's head had passed them already, and the black scales of his underbelly raced by. Time stood still for a moment when the blackness was interrupted by lines of vibrant red.

An emblem.

Fumikage almost fell over when the heartless king's flaming tail whipped by in a blast of hot air. Then Iida's hand was on his arm, trying to tug him back under cover.

"The king is a Heartless! I saw the emblem!" Fumikage blurted.

That explained the fear he felt every time the dragon appeared, an evolution of the anxiety the Heartless always gave him. Iida stopped tugging. Even Bakugo appeared surprised.

Then they looked at Todoroki.

His expression was shocked, dismayed, too young and at the same time agelessly weary. In a few seconds, his eyes hardened, but the expression did not quite solidify, as if his strength was cracked at the corners.

"He lost his heart a long time ago," he said tightly. "Let's keep moving."

***

He led them around to the back of the keep. The castle complex was surrounded by two moats and a wall, so the keep itself still looked very far away. With another furtive glance at the yellowing sky, the prince led them to the first moat and skimmed along the edge until they came to a large statue of a seated figure. It was sheltered by two willow trees, fronds limp and reedy, their roots pushing up the paving stones.

Carved into the base of the statue was an old symbol of some kind, too archaic and stylized for Fumikage to read. Todoroki pressed his open hand against it. At first, nothing happened, and he realized that Todoroki was stalling. Then the prince took a deep breath, and lines of bright red heat spread from his hand and along the grooves of the symbol.

With a muffled clunk and an unpleasant scraping noise, the section of stone with the symbol on it fell into the ground. Todoroki looked back at them.

"Stay close. The floor in the passage is slippery."

They ducked single-file through the opening and down a flight of stairs. Bakugo brought up the rear. As soon as he was through, that loud scraping noise happened again. All traces of daylight were shut off behind them.
The smell of damp earth pervaded the low passage. Bakugo set a light over his palm. The flame glistened on the walls. It felt colder than it was outside, and some of the moisture was frozen. Under better circ*mstances, Fumikage would have appreciated the atmosphere.

The passage was not a straight line. Todoroki led them through a maze of sharp turns, sometimes seeming to backtrack, and Fumikage quickly lost track of the path. It was hard to tell how long it took to reach a wall with another symbol on it. Like the first, it fell away at the prince's fiery touch.

The door opened into a large basem*nt with thick wooden support beams. Bakugo's light touched crates and barrels. Todoroki co*cked his head.

"It's still too quiet," he murmured.

Upstairs, there was no sign of any castle staff. Their footsteps, particularly Bakugo's as he proceeded with little caution, thumped in the corridor around the outer wall of the keep. Bluish light filtered through the shuttered windows.

"Keep it down, would you?" Iida called out to him in a loud whisper.

"No one's here, idiot."

They went down another flight of stairs to a raised hallway that led toward the grounds. The stormwinds rattled the walls along with the sharp, prickling shush of snow. A loud groan made it seem like the roof was about to fly off.

A few turns later, silence fell. They had entered the eye of the storm.

The group arrived at a small, but ornately structured room that had a door to the outside. There was another hallway opposite the one they entered from. Todoroki jogged quietly ahead to the door and motioned for the others to stand back. Keeping to the side, he carefully slid it open and peered out.

His eyes widened and his lips parted. His posture relaxed, but not in a way that suggested anything good.

Bakugo went first. Fumikage and Iida were close behind. Through the gap, they could see a carefully arranged garden with a large cherry tree in the middle. Its trunk was thick, dark, and twisted with age. Although it was the dead of winter, pink blossoms graced its expansive branches and fluttered here and there to the ground.

The weak daylight caught on something near the base of the trunk, likely the mirror.

In front of the tree was a young woman in the white shirt and crimson hakama of a miko. Her hair was mostly white with a few streaks of red. She looked too young to be Todoroki's mother. Her toes just brushed the ground beneath her. She was suspended in midair, her hands clasped before her and her eyes closed as if in sleep.

Another set of footsteps entered through the second passage. The group whipped around, keyblade and spells at ready.

"Wait!" Todoroki said, stepping between them and the newcomer.

It was a tall young man in a sky blue kimono. His short hair was pure white, and his gray eyes swept over them suspiciously until Todoroki pushed the scarf off of his head.

"Shoto! What are you doing here?"

He sounded shocked but not hostile. Fumikage let Tsukuyomi vanish for the moment. The young man glanced at the flash of light, then at Fumikage's face.

"Natsuo, where's Mother? What's happening here?"

Natsuo's gaze returned to his brother.

"Mother locked herself in her room. If anyone tries to enter, she throws things. As for Fuyumi..." Worry creased his brow as he looked to the door. "She's been like this for days. No one can wake her. She's trying to put a stop to father's rampage. She thinks she can calm him down," he said darkly.

"Your father's a Heartless now," Bakugo said bluntly. "He won't calm down until he's put down."

"What did you say?!" The word must have sounded like a foreign insult, but the second part was unmistakable. "Shoto, who are these people? What are they talking about?"

"We don't have time for this. Birdbrain, the mirror's in there, so let's go."

"Wait!"

Too late. Bakugo shoved the door open and stepped over the threshold, and an unseen force shoved him back so violently that he flew halfway across the room.

While Iida and Fumikage checked him for a concussion (which he protested vehemently), Todoroki filled his brother in on what was going on. The elder Todoroki seemed to take their father's demise in stride until he punched the wall.

"Are you going to let your family drama destroy the entire world," Bakugo fumed, marching up to the brothers, "or are you going to tell your sister to knock it off so we can get to the keyhole?"

"She can't stop until the spell is complete," Natsuo retorted.

"And when exactly will she complete it?"

Natsuo closed the distance between them and glowered down at Bakugo. Bakugo bared his teeth like a threatened wolf.

"What gives you the right to be so insolent?" the elder prince asked.

"They're the only ones who can save us, now," Todoroki said. "Natsuo, is there anything we can do to help Fuyumi complete the spell?"

Natsuo narrowed his eyes at Bakugo, who smirked. Natsuo growled and turned away.

"Every time Father gets close, she starts to cast, but his fire interrupts her and drains the energy."

"She needs a distraction," Fumikage guessed.

"Whoever tries to distract him will surely be killed."

Bakugo unstrapped the etherium surfer from his backpack. The end of it hit the floor with a decisive thud.

"Not if they're too fast for him. Give me an hour to fix the engine, and he won't know what he's dealing with."

"No way!" Iida protested.

"Relax, nerd. The king's a Heartless. He's not smart enough to..."

"Even if that's the case, you're at a type disadvantage. You can't fight fire with fire!"

"Don't interrupt me, normie! Who says I need to fight him? I just need to keep his eyes off of the castle."

Dread pooled in Fumikage's stomach.

"Buzzing around his head like a fly may not be enough to hold his attention," he realized aloud.

"Oh, yeah? So what's your idea?"

He summoned Tsukuyomi and held it up.

"No!" Iida cried. He got in front of Fumikage and grabbed his shoulders. The blue gummi block thumped to the floor. "This is where I draw the line! It's pointless to risk yourself like this! Someone will come for us if we just wait!"

Fumikage stared in shock. He had never seen Iida like this before. The angry, desperate look in his eyes was almost enough to change his mind. He forced himself to respond calmly,

"Wherever the king flies, smaller Heartless rally around him. You've seen how few people are left. How many more will lose their hearts before the Keyblade Masters arrive?"

Todoroki stepped forward.

"I will go. I'm the one Father wants."

"He doesn't even remember who you are," Bakugo said.

Iida shook Fumikage once.

"I won't let you do this!"

"How are you planning to stop him, normie?"

Iida set his jaw. Through the hands on his shoulders, Fumikage could feel the rest of his body start to move. Thanks to their training, he knew he was going for a grapple, probably a sleeper hold. He brought Tsukuyomi up lengthwise and shoved Iida away, hard.

Iida staggered back and almost fell. His body curled tensely around the bruises that matched Fumikage's own. A twinge of regret ran through him at the hurt in Iida's expression, but they both knew Iida had started it.
Bakugo let the backpack fall from his shoulders and sat down with his surfer. He had stowed the tools he needed from the toolbox before they left the ship that morning.

"Why don't you go pick up blocks or something? One more to go, right?"

Fumikage shot him a look, but Bakugo was focused on picking a screwdriver. When he glanced back at Iida, his friend would not meet his eyes.

***

And that was how he ended up racing through the sky on an etherium surfer with his arms wrapped tightly around Katsuki Bakugo.

The sail was in solar mode, orange instead of blue. Bakugo angled it to catch the frigid stormwinds from the dome below. It was like they had become one with the wind itself. Riding in the co*ckpit of a gummi ship was far inferior. Fumikage vowed that if they survived this, he would look into getting a surfer of his own.

He felt the king's presence before he saw him. Without thinking, he squeezed his chest more firmly against Bakugo's back to quell the sting. His face was turned toward Tsukuyomi, warm in his numbing hand. His heels were just off the edge of the board.

"Get ready, Birdbrain!" Bakugo shouted over the wind.

For the first time, he had a good view of the dragon king's face. Most of its features had flattened away. The exceptions were the gaping jaws that sported long black teeth. The wide yellow eyes glared like headlights, devoid of thought.

Those eyes fixated on them almost immediately. An unnatural twitching started up in its scaly hide that preceded a bellow of rage.

Bakugo hit the accelerator. A gush of flame blew right past them. The heat alone threatened to char their skin. The surfer waggled from the disruption of the air currents, and Bakugo adjusted the sail to catch it rather than fight it. The board jerked upward and spiraled over the dragon's head, riding along over its back.

Fumikage looked behind them. The king's limber body was folding over itself to pursue them. He slapped Bakugo's arm urgently to warn him.

Bakugo yanked the board sideways. They tumbled away from the dragon and shot out over the castle town. Fumikage was already getting dizzy. The dragon spouted more flame at them. Bakugo's heel came down over another lever that sent them almost straight upward. Fumikage bent his knees to absorb the shock.

The castle already looked far away. White light was building within the dome.

"Keep him within range of the spell!" Fumikage shouted.

"I know that!"

They banked sharply right. Their pursuer was too agile for serpentine tactics to work, so their best bet was to wait for it to breathe fire again. However, long seconds passed with no further attack. The dragon was already headed back toward the castle.

Bakugo freed one hand to launch a fireball at it. The spell made impact, but the dragon took no notice. The microscopic tongues of flame vanished into its mane.

"Remind it what it's dealing with, Birdbrain!"

By way of explanation, he hit the accelerator again and brought them up under the dragon's belly. He tilted the board to bring Fumikage close enough to strike out with Tsukuyomi. The teeth of the keyblade seemed not to make a dent, but the effect was immediate. A roar blasted through the air and they were nearly taken out by twisting black scales. Bakugo furled the sail and let them plummet out of its reach before he brought it out again.

Those headlamp eyes were on them again. Fumikage thought he might vomit if his throat ever reopened. He ducked his head helplessly as they spun past another burst of fire. When he was able to lift it again, the light within the storm had brightened. Only the thickest stripes of cloud were still dark against it.

The view was sideways. They were going up. Bakugo cursed and let them fall out of the way of another attack. Black jaws snapped shut mere feet away from them. Fumikage managed to land another blow on the side of its neck before they veered off and sped over the top of the dome.

The bottom of the board skimmed the glowing clouds. Up close, they looked like a blanket of fog. The fog parted and they were out in open air again. Rooftops blurred under their feet.
Behind, the dragon was in hot pursuit. It arched over the dome and past it without the spell being cast. Judging from the brightness of the clouds, it could happen at any second. They made a wide left to lead the dragon back to the storm. The sail was almost perpendicular to the ground. Burning heat skimmed their backs. Fumikage had lost his makeshift cloak at some point.

There was little room to maneuver above the dome. Soon every twist and turn was met with another side of the dragon. Each new stream of fire washed over its own caster, but like Bakugo's attack, the flames sluiced off the scales without burning them. The air currents jumbled together and cracked where heat met cold. Bakugo was forced to close the sail, giving him no handholds as they careened around the giant Heartless.

Finally, the light from below burst. The clouds were released and an orb of glittering sparks rose up to encompass the dragon king.

It contained him, but it did not stop him.

Expecting the battle to end when the spell was cast was a mistake. In that moment of negligence, another blast of fire came their way, and they barely dove aside in time. Fumikage thought he smelled burning hair. Then there was a mouth, pitch black, ready to devour them, to send them straight into the Darkness.

An explosion pierced their ears. The dragon's head was thrown aside by the impact of a bright blue beam from the sixth level of the keep.

***

The last block was another hull piece, square, in one of the complex's many courtyards. It was heavy and awkward to carry with the Thundara-G balanced on top of it. Tenya had to feel his way forward with them barring his view. It cut into his speed as he raced up the keep's steps.

Once he was high enough to see over the clouds, he dropped the blocks and began his work. The small blue Thundara-G stuck to the top of the Protect-G and expanded into a cannon as tall as he was. He opened a window, admitting a torrent of wind and snow along with the distant roars of the Heartless.

He pushed the barrel of the cannon through the opening and took the computer gummi out of his pocket. With that stuck to the side, he could link the cannon to his phone and use it as a control pad.

His heart was in his throat while the etherium surfer darted around the dragon, eliminating any hope of a clear shot. But when the dragon's jaws gaped wide, there was no more time to think.

He fired the laser. The sound deafened him, eliminated his hearing to a single high-pitched ring. The cannon recoiled so hard he was afraid it would break the floorboards.

But it worked. The dragon's attention was torn from his friends and honed in on the keep instead. Tenya breathed hard and jabbed the phone to prepare another attack. He clapped his hands over his ears (or one hand, one wrist) a split second too late, but if this was what it took, he would regret nothing.

The Heartless's head jerked up and backward, but its body kept coming. Its tail swung around to crash into the levels below him. The entire building shook as it sliced through the plaster and wood to the other side.
The floor tilted sharply. The cannon fell forward and smashed straight through the wall and into the dying blizzard. Tenya tumbled after it.

***

"Fuyumi!"

The spell was cast. The clouds fell over the garden, cloaking it in snow and fog, but the mirror's sacred presence made a clear bubble in the center. Fuyumi's eyes remained closed, but her brow was furrowed and she stirred as if in a nightmare. Above, their Heartless father continued to rage.

Shoto had his hands on either side of the door frame as he called desperately out to her.

"Fuyumi, you can't hold him there forever! You have to put an end to him! You have to let go!"

A hollow whoosh preceded the terrible cacophany of splintering wood. Shoto jumped as a shudder ran through the castle. In the room behind him, Natsuo cried out in alarm.

"Shoto..."

Her voice was soft, but somehow it carried over the garden to him. Her eyes were open. Tears floated from them and hung as pearls in the freezing air.

"I'm so sorry, Shoto. I couldn't protect you, even though I promised Mother." She sobbed. "I couldn't hold this family together."

His eyes stung and his vision blurred. His heart swelled with emotions that he had refused to feel for months. His hands flew from the doorway, and the protective barrier gave way in a shower of glimmering, ghostly shards.
Fuyumi gasped as his arms wrapped firmly around her waist.

***

A cloud of dust and debris gushed from the deep wound in the middle of the tower. The top half leaned forward slowly, groaning as the remaining supports bent and broke under the weight.

The dragon was practically tied in a knot. Bakugo had managed to get them out of its coils, but it was only a matter of time before it breathed fire at them again.

Fumikage saw the gummi cannon topple from the window. He saw Iida follow closely behind.

A ray of white light drew a line up from the garden and through the dragon's coiling body. The entire complex was illuminated. When the light faded, Fumikage was airborne, having leapt from the surfer before Bakugo could stop him. A span of writhing tail became a barrier between them.

He reached out his hand. Iida was too far away, falling fast into the choking cloud of plaster and splinters.

Dark Shadow. Ninjas.

The shadow of his arm stretched from his fingers and grabbed Iida's hand. It pulled them together while another clawed hand grabbed a falling support beam. Dark Shadow half swung, half threw them clear of the collapsing keep a fraction before it would have crushed them.

The world spun as Fumikage allowed Dark Shadow to carry them from rooftop to rooftop, her arm shrinking each time until they were finally desposited on the tiles. He and Iida were wrapped around each other, and Dark Shadow's arm was wrapped around them, cushioning their short fall.

Once they were grounded, Dark Shadow retreated back into his pounding heart. He and Iida laid there and breathed together until the crashing behind them stopped.

***

The beam of light connected the earth to the sky. It untangled the dragon, who fell as the keep did. It sprawled across the castle buildings, crushing them. Still its rage was not sated. It stood up on its four legs, a snarl vibrating deep in its throat.

Then, it staggered. Darkness pooled around its feet. Try as it might, it was stuck in the spreading mire. Slowly it fell, roaring in protest, until it was swallowed up and gone.

Chapter 8: Interlude

Chapter Text

Fumikage untucked his head from beneath Iida's chin. They shifted apart enough to see each other's faces. Iida had lost his glasses again, probably permanently.

He felt tired enough to sleep right there on the roof, but their task wasn't over yet. He parted reluctantly from Iida's body heat and staggered upright. Iida followed suit, wobbling on his long legs. They looked out across the complex for any sign of the dragon king.

The keep was at the top of a hill, so the rest of the grounds were laid out in full view from where they stood. The Heartless was gone, and so was the storm. Stray snowflakes drifted around them.

Unlike Iida, Fumikage had excellent far vision. He could see a figure standing on a rooftop near the other end of the complex. They were dressed in a long black coat with the hood up.

A real ninja? he wondered.

Surely the castle had some in its employ. The figure was looking down at some other buildings that had collapsed. Had the Heartless dragon crushed them before it vanished?

Their hooded face turned in his direction.

"What is it?" Iida asked.

Fumikage glanced at him, then back to the figure, who had vanished.

"I saw someone down there."

"Ah! What happened to Bakugo and the others?"

Fumikage immediately scanned the sky for the surfer, but found nothing. What if Bakugo had been taken out by the dragon after Fumikage jumped? Then there was the upper half of the keep. It had broken over everything directly in front of it. The pink boughs of the sakura tree were still visible, and the nearby rooftops were intact, but...

"Did anyone follow you into the keep?"

"No, I don't think so," Iida said. "Where's Bakugo?"

"I... I don't know."

It finally dawned on him that Iida might have seen Dark Shadow. No, he must have. Fumikage studied his face, but his expression was unreadable beyond a general exhaustion and unease.

Iida put a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's check in at the garden. Bakugo might have gone there first."

Fumikage nodded.

***

The path to the courtyard was a maze even without the collapsed walls. It gave Fumikage too much time to imagine Bakugo lying broken on the ground somewhere. Iida held his phone close to his face and guided them as best he could. After a few backtracks, they ended up skirting the edge of the fallen keep to where they had entered the garden before.

They found Bakugo there. He was on his knees by the rubble and staring vacantly forward. Fumikage could see his clouds of breath and the dirt on his gloves and face. When Iida called his name, his gaze snapped toward them. His red eyes were wild until he registered what he was seeing.

Then the glare was back.

"You absolute f*cking idiot!"

Fumikage was tempted to hide behind Iida as Bakugo stormed toward them. He was somehow more terrifying than the dragon king as he ranted about Fumikage jumping off the board midflight.

"And you!" he shouted at Iida. "What the hell were you thinking? You should have stayed out of it, you damn normie!"

"He saved our lives," Fumikage said finally.

Bakugo's gaze snapped back to him. For a moment, he was actually speechless.

"How did you get away with it?" he asked, suddenly breathless. "I saw the tower fall on top of you. How did you get out without even a scratch?!"

Fumikage had no answer.

"It was your keyblade ability, right?" Iida said. He looked a bit sheepish as he continued, "I'll admit that I may have passed out during the fall, but when I came to, we were being guided through the air. Was that Tsukuyomi's power?"

In truth, Fumikage was unsure of what Tsukuyomi's special ability was. If he said yes, he ran the risk of contradicting whatever that ability actually turned out to be. But if he denied it, he would have to tell them about Dark Shadow.

Part of him wanted to. He wanted to trust them, especially Iida, with the secret that weighed so heavily on his heart. Maybe with this good first impression, they would accept her existence instead of fearing her.

"Yes," he lied.

Bakugo sighed heavily. He tried to cover the relief with an exasperated groan, but Fumikage read between the lines.

"Why didn't you just say so, Birdbrain?" he said, but it was as if the venom had finally drained out of him. It would return, like his mana, but for now he was docile.

***

In spite of everything, the garden with the ancient sakura tree was untouched. The three Todoroki siblings were there. Fuyumi no longer floated in midair, and her sleep looked more natural while she was cradled in her older brother's lap. He and the youngest heard their arrival and glanced up.

"You can come in, now," Todoroki Shoto said.

Even so, they stepped warily over the threshold and onto the garden stones. The plots held expertly pruned shrubs and small trees, and running water babbled somewhere. They followed a path to the clearing at the base of the tree, where the siblings had gathered.

The mirror was oval-shaped and embedded into the side of the trunk. The bark's rough contours formed naturally and gracefully around the pane of glass. Their reflections were so clear that Fumikage avoided eye contact with himself. It really did look like a portal to another world.

Tsukuyomi appeared in his hand. Iida and Bakugo moved back as the keyblade tugged itself forward, yanking Fumikage's arm with it.

He augmented his grip with his other hand. A narrow beam of light shot from the end of the blade into the center of the mirror. The shining outline of a keyhole appeared on its surface. A sound like the distant click of a lock echoed through the garden.

And with that, it was done.

***

Tenya heard a sharp intake of breath. Bakugo had the heel of his palm pressed to his forehead, his eyes screwed shut in a wince.

"Are you okay? Did something hit you?"

Bakugo dropped his hand, but he still looked pale.

"It's nothing. Just a headache from the concussion you morons gave me yesterday."

It might have been the truth. Tenya looked ahead at Tokoyami. Tokoyami, who might be hiding something from them as well. Everything happened so fast, and he really had blacked out after his fall from the window, but there was something strange about the presensce that carried them to safety.

Then again, what did Tenya know of keyblade abilities? Despite the hordes of Heartless the others had fought since they came to this world, his own keyblade had failed to Manifest.

Tokoyami turned around. The eagle head made his expressions somewhat difficult to read; his brow ridge hardly moved and his beak didn't really smile, but his eyes were more humanoid and Tenya had gradually learned to see the emotions in them. He looked a bit self-conscious, now, but his posture was straight, shoulders pulled back. He didn't look as tiny as he did when Tenya first met him at the practical.

His questions could wait. For now, he just wanted everyone to be okay. He wouldn't have been able to live with himself if anyone had died due to his incompetence.

Then again, if they hadn't come to this world, the dragon king would still be on the rampage.

Did I do the right thing, Tensei...?

A low thrum sounded above them. Gummi ships had appeared in the red sunset sky. Tenya could barely see them, but he had a hunch from the colors that "SFPD" was printed on their sides.
Bakugo scoffed.

"Told you the cops were useless."

***

Several Keyblade Masters arrived with the cops. They quickly took over the situation, barely giving the three students time to bid their farewells to Todoroki.

As it turned out, the queen's room was in its own house in one of the private gardens, untouched by the destruction. Hopefully, she would get the help she needed to prevent her heart from following her husband's into Darkness.

The commotion awakened Fuyumi. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she must have been dehydrated, but she insisted on standing. Natsuo supported her. It occurred to Fumikage that Natsuo was probably the king, now, unless there was an elder brother no one had mentioned yet.

The three royals bowed deeply to them in front of the cops and the shattered remains of their own castle keep.

Their kingdom was not an empty one, though. Before the cops could beam them up to one of the gummi ships, they heard a crowd of voices and movement. The surviving townsfolk had come to check on the royal family. When they saw the princes and princess alive, they rejoiced, hailing Natsuo as the new king and answering Fumikage's unspoken question.

Just before they left, he could have sworn he saw a smile on the younger Todoroki's face.

***

He, Bakugo, and Iida were transported directly into a closed room. It was empty save for two benches along the walls and a single locked door. It looked suspiciously like they were under arrest.

A police Baymax unit came in to scan them for foreign pathogens. Fumikage felt fine, save for the bruising and muscle aches, so he was unpleasantly surprised when the Baymax reported an unknown strain of flu in all three of them. They would have to be quarantined upon their return to San Fransokyo.

Iida asked about his ship. In short, it was being towed.

Fumikage was already dozing off on one of the benches when they arrived. The ship beamed them into the quarantine unit of a hospital. The three of them would be staying together in a sterile-smelling room with exactly three beds and a connected bathroom. There was a clear wall with a door and a sliding cabinet to transfer items through. A curtain between that wall and the beds would give them some privacy.

Bakugo was livid. Iida sat down on one of the beds with his head in his hands. Fumikage curled up on top of the covers and promptly fell asleep.

***

They gave their statements to the police and attending Council representatives through a speaker in the clear wall. As they feared, the kingdom had been something of a no-fly zone, though Natsuo's ascent to the throne would change some things. They recieved a brief but cutting lecture about protocol that Iida weathered calmly until they were left alone again. To his credit, no tears were shed.

The Iida and Bakugo families came calling as soon as possible. Iida's family talked to their son first while Bakugo and Fumikage waited behind the curtain. Iida was firmly admonished for his recklessness, but there was a quieter conversation in there that Fumikage could not hear and felt that he should not.

Mrs. Bakugo, on the other hand, was not shy about the scolding she gave to her own son. The whole ward could probably hear her asking him how such a smart kid could be so monumentally stupid. Did he think he was invincible just because everyone told him how talented he was? He was not to go off-world on his own again.

"And you're to come straight home every day after school next semester, you got that? No more riding the rails until curfew!"

"All right, all right, I got it!" Bakugo grumbled.

***

The flu set in by the end of the week. It was far from deadly, but none of their immune systems were prepared. They ended up bedridden and miserable as they burned through boxes of tissues. Bakugo literally burned the used ones, and their resident Baymax shuffled over to extinguish the wastebasket. It then proceeded to remind him that fire was dangerous and rattled off the possible fines for damaging hospital property.

Fumikage tried and failed to get comfortable. The plain t-shirt and sweatpants the hospital leant them got tangled up in the white bedsheets. The hair on his face was oily with sweat. He wanted to live in the shower.

When the lights went out at night, he could feel Dark Shadow pitying him. She was lucky not to experience sickness.

You did good back there, he told her, as if she was a separate person.

We did, she replied happily.

***

Their quarantine lasted two whole weeks.

Mercifully, their symptoms passed before then, only for the cabin fever to set in. They spent a lot of time on a free mobile game that none of them were likely to continue once they were out.

They tried to find movies on the room's small television and had trouble agreeing on what to watch. Fumikage was into gothic thrillers or horror, but Bakugo thought they were stupid and hated gore (despite his fixation on murder), and Iida wasn't really interested. In the end, they compromised with a crime drama.

There were some interesting moments, though, like when Fumikage finally asked Bakugo about getting started with solar surfers. They actually had a decent conversation about it. Iida chimed in about how artificial gummi blocks could be used to lighten the board and decrease wear. Naturally, Bakugo's board already had some real blocks in it so it could enter gummi space.

At last, the Baymax that was taking care of them detected no more pathogens, and they were free to go.

Kirishima and the others had been blowing up their phones since the day they disappeared. Iida and Bakugo were both grounded (especially Bakugo), but Iida encouraged Fumikage to give their classmates his regards. Bakugo's mom picked him up at the police station while Fumikage accompanied Iida to the garage, where he picked up his backpack and witnessed some of poor Iida's apology tour.

The others knew where the garage was, so they met Fumikage there. Kirishima was with Ashido, Kaminari, and a punk girl from their class named Jiro who may or may not have been dating Kaminari. Their class's vice rep, Yaoyorozu, was also in attendence, being close friends with Jiro.

The familiar banter was strange without the context of school uniforms and classrooms. They asked him what he wanted to do first, and when he said he had no idea what his options were, the conversation basically turned into them debating it over his head. He didn't really mind, though. After two weeks of being stuck in a hospital room, he was up for just about anything.

He had a similar mindset about food, as it turned out. They decided to get lunch first and ended up at a noodle place downtown. Fumikage was leery about the prices at first, but Yaoyorozu was paying for everyone. She was from a rich family and had been given some funds for their outing.

Over lunch, they wanted to know everything that happened in the other world. Neither the police nor the Keyblade Masters had forbidden him from sharing, so he simply started at the beginning.

"You guys fought a dragon?!" came the inevitable exclamation.

This was where he had to be careful. If he described what happened to the keep, he would talk himself into a corner. Besides that, he was unsure if Iida would want that information shared. He had already glossed over their confrontation before he and Bakugo had taken to the sky, among other things.

He did want to mention Iida's bravery, though. He owed his friend that much.

"Please tell me he still has the cannon?" Kaminari asked.

"I think it was destroyed," Fumikage replied, much to the table's disappointment.

"This is all pretty hard to believe," Jiro spoke up.

"I understand your skepticism. If you want confirmation, you can ask Iida and Bakugo when the school year resumes."

"I'm stuck imagining our class rep firing a laser at a dragon," Kirishima said, leaning back in the booth.

"It was awesome," Fumikage said.

***

They went to a karaoke place afterward.

Kirishima and Kaminari were a menace. They did a duet that was admittedly kind of funny, but very loud. Once that was over, they dragged Yaoyorozu up to the screen. She turned beet red and begged Jiro to switch with her.
Jiro was shy, but Yaoyorozu insisted that she had a great voice. The guys and Ashido encouraged her, and she finally agreed to do a song. Fumikage was glad to have been overlooked thus far. He liked to sing sometimes, but only when he was alone. Dark Shadow actually sang more than he did (and if they got caught, it just sounded like Fumikage was messing with a voice filter).

They were right about Jiro's voice. By the end of the night, they were talking about putting a band together. Fumikage had taken guitar as an elective in middle school, and he warmed to the idea of picking it up again.

***

When his friends' various curfews drew near, they walked him to the train station. The sky between the skyscrapers was black, but it might as well have been midday in the downtown streets. It was worth visiting again sometime, but he found himself in desperate need of dim lights and quiet.

They parted ways at the turnstiles after making sure he knew what platform he was going to. Just like that, he found himself much as he had been when he arrived: in a train station, with his backpack, and in the same clothes (which the hospital staff had kindly washed during their quarantine). It gave him something of a head-rush, as if the whole ordeal had been some sort of dream.

He sat down on a bench to wait for the train. There were a few other travelers around, but the trans-world platforms were rarely as busy as regular ones. He only had a pass himself because he got accepted into Kai. He lowered his head and shut his eyes for a little while, savoring the anonymity and solitude.

"Hey, you."

Fumikage lifted his head and looked around. His bench was right next to a marble support pillar, and the voice had come from a person standing halfway behind it.

"Don't look," the figure said.

Whoever they were (a guy, judging from the voice, though it sounded a bit odd), they may not have realized that Fumikage had a wider field of vision than most humans. He immediately noticed the same black cloak that he had spotted on the rooftop in Todoroki's world.

He obligingly looked elsewhere. He had not made eye contact, so maybe the person was none the wiser.

"I need you to take a message to Master Aizawa. Tell him, 'the League of Nobodies is looking for Princesses.' Nod if you understand."

He did not understand, but that was beside the point. Was this a Keyblade Master, or one of their allies? If so, why the secrecy?

He nodded.

"Also," the person added quickly, "whatever you do, don't tell Master Yagi. You got that? Do not tell Master Yagi."

What?

A regular train had pulled up to the platform behind him. As the crowd of travelers poured out, Fumikage finally got up and turned around. The figure, of course, was gone. He checked behind the pillar and did a visual sweep of the train station, but there was no sign of them within the sea of faces.

Chapter 9: Heart of Darkness

Chapter Text

He took the mountain stairs slowly and mulled over what the stranger had said. The mulling had started before the train ride, and by now his mind was walking in circles. The stranger's request sounded innocuous enough until they mentioned Master Yagi. Were they really on such a time constraint that they were unable to explain the warning to him?

This "League of Nobodies" was new to him, too. It sounded a little like Organization XIII, a group of advanced Nobodies who had terrorized the known worlds a long time ago. By now, though, there was supposed to be a system in place to find those types of Nobodies and bring them into counseling before they did anything harmful to themselves or others.

Only hearts with the strongest wills could leave their bodies intact after falling to Darkness. To let the product of that split run free with no emotions or inhibitions was considered inhumane at best and hazardous to society at worst.

Of course, there was no telling if the "League" was really composed of advanced Nobodies. Some people donned the "Heartless" and "Nobody" labels like the trappings of an edgy subculture rather than a state of being. Considering how many loved ones were lost to actual Heartless and Nobodies, it was widely considered to be in poor taste (Fumikage had drawn an emblem on his chest in marker when he was ten, but at least he had an excuse).

Even with that in mind, a group that ran around calling themselves Nobodies could still be a threat. One of the tragedies of the worlds were people who willingly threw themselves in front of Heartless as an alternative to suicide, just to make their bad feelings stop. So did this League consider themselves jumpers, or pushers?

His worries boiled down to two viewpoints: the more favorable was that this was all a prank (if it were real, why would the stranger seek out a student and not one of the Masters?) The less favorable was that either Aizawa or Yagi were hiding something important, something dangerous.

Following that train of thought, the message to Aizawa was either a warning or a command. If the former, Yagi was hiding something. If the latter, Aizawa was.

"You're late."

Fumikage jumped. He had come to the sakura garden that he had sheltered in before. Unlike the sacred tree in Todoroki's world, these changed with the seasons. Aizawa emerged from the moonlight shadow under a canopy of green leaves. His pale coat and scarf looked like a headless ghost until he stepped into the light of the street lamps that lined the path.

"If you're going to be out after dark, send a text. You have our contact information, don't you?"

"I apologize for my negligence," he said.

A bit of sarcasm dripped into his tone. Of course something like this would slip his mind after everything he and his friends had been through.

"You don't get a free pass for locking a keyhole," Aizawa said. So he heard from the other Masters. "I hope you realize how reckless you and your friends were. You should have waited for help and let the professionals handle it. As your guardian, it's my responsibility to keep you on the right path. So, basically, you're grounded. No more offworlding for you this summer."

Chagrin heated his face. He had been foolish enough to think that not having his parents around meant he would avoid being grounded.

Then there was the indignity. Everyone was so ready to pass judgement for an event they did not attend. Whether their actions were inept or not, no one else was there. They did not understand the pressure he, Iida, and Bakugo were under.

"I understand," he said anyway.

Aizawa nodded.

"Good. Also, you should apologize to Master Yagi next time you see him. He almost had a heart attack when he heard the story."

The statement sounded a little derisive, as if Yagi's mental state was another annoyance on the pile, but Fumikage did feel a bit more guilty for it.

And that was the crux of the matter. He was torn between his bias against Aizawa and toward Yagi. He and Aizawa had their issues, but aside from the office incident, there was nothing to indicate that he was a bad person or even a bad teacher. Likewise, Yagi had been one of the most supportive adults in his life, and that could blind Fumikage to his shortcomings.

"Something on your mind?"

Damn it, he'd been silent for too long. Aizawa was watching him intently. The man could hold a stare for a disturbingly long time.

Fumikage took a breath, failed to speak, then took another.

"Do you still want to see it?"

"...See what?"

"My Heartless."

I'm too indecisive.

Aizawa paused. The night was all around them. A soft breeze rustled the cherry leaves, and the stream from the pools trickled over the cliff.

"Go ahead," Aizawa said simply.

"Come, Dark Shadow."

The flutter went through his back, between his shoulder blades. He felt her sleek talons come to rest on his shoulders. They were big enough to cover most of his chest. He saw Aizawa's head tilt upward to follow her eyes.

"Say hello to Master Aizawa."

"Hello."

Master Aizawa's expression had not changed, but he was very, very still.

"Hello," he replied.

"She saved Iida and I back in that world. She didn't make a move on the keyhole, either, even when I was right in front of it."

"Elaborate."

He took a moment to gather his words. He did not want to mention Iida's cannon and condemn him any more than the adults already had.

"The dragon destroyed the castle keep. We were falling, and Dark Shadow caught us."

"Elaborate better. How did it catch you?"

Dark Shadow wrapped one hand around Fumikage's waist and used the other to push them up off the ground.

"Right. You can put it away, now."

Fumikage nodded. Dark Shadow set him down and consented to return to his heart.

"If you're trying to get out of being grounded, you've failed, but it's good to see you have some control over your Heartless. Just don't forget that it's a part of you. This whole 'she' thing, giving it its own name, needs to stop if you want to reunite with that aspect of yourself."

What if I don't have to? he wanted to say, but he doubted Aizawa was ready to listen. Instead, he nodded.

"Great. Go to bed."

***

The next day, he searched online for "League of Nobodies" and found nothing. There was no recruitment page or social media account. The only results were basic "what is a Nobody?" fact pages on metabiology sites. He tried "the league of nobodies is looking for princesses" and got even less relevant results.

He was contemplating who within the student body would know how to access the deep web when he remembered the castle's private server. There was an archive of information within the castle that was (arguably) only relevant to keybladers. He slipped on his shoes and grabbed his sweatshirt before he set out for the computer lab. It tended to be chilly.

The lights flicked on when he entered. The long white room had four rows of computer tables and no windows. There were posters on the walls with slogans like "Please Do Not Cover the Webcams" and "The Principal Can See Your Searches." The odds of any upperclassmen coming in were slim, but he chose a seat in the back corner just in case he needed time to hide his screen.

The school computers had an assistance widget that looked like an 8-bit rendition of Principal Nezu. It asked what it could help him with, and he typed in "League of Nobodies" again. This time, some articles about Organization XIII popped up. Fumikage skimmed them. Some of the reports were old, having been written by one of the Organization's former members and copied into the database at some point. This member had been restored to full humanity after both his Nobody and his Heartless were destroyed.

One key piece of information caught his eye: the Nobodies had donned black "cloaks" to protect themselves from further degradation by the Darkness. Suddenly nervous, he clicked the associated link and was confronted by the exact image of the coat the stranger had been wearing.

After taking a moment to calm himself, he tried his second query again. There were no exact results, but the first suggested article was titled "Princesses of Heart." He selected it.

The Princesses of Heart, or the Seven Lights, were seven young women or girls with "hearts of pure light." There was supposedly no Darkness within their hearts whatsoever. Given the nature of Darkness, that was incredible. However, when he tried to read on, the little Nezu jumped up to block the screen and asked for an admin passcode.

He cursed under his breath. For a moment, he wondered if he could get Master Yagi to unlock it for him, but that brought him back to square one: who could he trust?

***

The League of Nobodies was starting to seem legitimate. His "prank" theory lost some traction when he considered the stranger's ability to move between worlds, but the coat was another long nail in the coffin. He kept his hands in the pockets of his black sweatshirt and stared sightlessly at the floor on his way back toward the dormitories.

"Young Tokoyami!"

Master Yagi's voice made him flinch. He was on the open walkway above the old throne room that connected the castle's two wings. Yagi had appeared behind him, and his grin and general bearing were as cheerful as ever.

"Good afternoon," Fumikage said.

"Master Aizawa has spoken to you, I take it?"

"He has."

"Ah. I can see that he didn't hold back. Well, I suppose that's appropriate. I must admit, hearing your story gave me a bit of a shock. To think that three students would take on such a burden without help!" He wagged a finger at him. "I hope Master Aizawa impressed upon you the potential consequences of such an action!"

Fumikage bowed his head. "I apologize for worrying you."

Master Yagi sighed softly and crossed his thick arms. "Look, kiddo. I know how it is. You see a world in peril, and you want to help. And..." He glanced around and came a little closer, lowering his voice. "...to be honest, I'm proud of you for following your heart and locking the door. But!" He returned to his usual volume. "If you had given the SFPD and the Masters time to investigate, the issue could have been solved with less destruction, and the king's heart might have been freed rather than subdued."

Fumikage remembered Todoroki's reaction to the news of his father's fate and winced. The royal family had a complicated, if not outright abusive relationship, but if the king's heart had been set free, it might have given his children some closure. Because of their haste, the Heartless dragon might return to haunt them again someday.

"I understand," he said.

"Live and learn, young Tokoyami. Use this experience to move forward."

Whatever you do, don't tell Master Yagi.

Was the message to Master Aizawa a command, or a warning?

Why would a Nobody warn a Keyblade Master about their own plans?

According to the reports, there had been traitors among the Organization. Was the stranger a double agent? Why would a double agent trust a freshman with this?

"Thank you, Master Yagi."

Inaction was also an action. He was deeply aware of this on the way back to his room. Once the door was shut, he wrote an apology text to Iida.

***

For the next few weeks, Fumikage went back and forth between wanting to pass the message along and wanting the Nobody to regret using him as a carrier pigeon for something this potentially important. Between these bouts of mental gymnastics, he passed the time training with Tsukuyomi, reading, or gaming in the dorm's rec room.

He had taken the third option when Asui arrived at the dorms. He removed the adjustable VR helmet and saw her watching him from a beanbag chair. She was wearing a thin green sweater that was long enough to cover her shorts. Her toned legs were criss-crossed in front of her.

"You're pretty good at that game," she remarked.

It must have looked a lot less cool from the outside.

"You've arrived early," he said, avoiding the subject.

"I wanted some time to settle in before classes start. How's your summer been?"

An entire essay piled over itself in his head. He put the headset away to bide time while he got his thoughts in order.

"The first two days were more interesting than the rest."

"Oh?"

"Iida, Bakugo and I got sucked through a wormhole and crash-landed on an unconnected world. We met the prince, fought his Heartless dragon father, and locked the door to the world's heart. Then we were quarantined in San Fransokyo for two weeks because we contracted the flu."

She stared at him blankly.

"You will most likely hear the rest of the story when our classmates return."

"Wait, you were serious?"

"Deathly."

"Wow." A beat passed. "Your summer was a lot more interesting than mine. We mostly went swimming."

That was the least surprising thing he had heard all summer. He perched on a swivel chair and turned it toward the beanbag. There was at least one subject he felt he could talk to her about.

"Have you ever heard of the Princesses of Heart?" he asked.

She tilted her head.

"That's a random question. Is that the subject you picked for the homework?"

...Crap. He had completely forgotten the homework.

"No. It's just a phrase I came across recently."

"Oh. Well..." She tapped her chin. "I think I've heard of them. There's some kind of legend about them, isn't there?"

"They were seven maidens whose hearts were bereft of Darkness. I'm sure that such a pure light made them a target for those with nefarious intentions."

"Yeah, that sounds about right. It's hard to imagine what that kind of person would be like, though. A Princess of Heart, I mean. Did they really have no negative feelings at all?"

"If Darkness is a symptom of negativity, then perhaps that was the case."

"I can't imagine being positive all the time. You have to cool down eventually. Someone who's completely untouched by Darkness would barely even be human, if you ask me."

Somehow, that made his own heart feel a little lighter.

"You're very astute, Asui."

"Call me Tsuyu."

***

The last two weeks of summer were divided between training (with Tsuyu, now) and trying to get the homework done. He almost did choose the Princesses as his subject, but he was worried that it might tip off Aizawa or Yagi or whoever the stranger's message applied to. Sparring with Tsuyu was a good way to clear his head; it was hard to worry about anything else when magic water kept hitting him in the face.

Having four weeks of distance almost let him drift completely into a false sense of security, but once the opening ceremonies arrived, he couldn't shake the feeling that time was almost up.

Iida had returned to his usual strict self, but there was a more relaxed undercurrent to him in his comeraderie with the others. His grounding only extended another week after the quarantine, as his family considered that period to be time served, so he had a chance to meet up with them before summer ended.

Yaoyorozu had gathered everyone at her place to work on the homework at some point. Even Bakugo had shown up, as his mother decided that a study group was an acceptable loophole. According to Kirishima, he was actually a decent tutor if you were okay with him acting more like a drill sergeant.

In his mounting desperation, Tokoyami decided he had questions for him.

It took a while to find an opening, but he finally caught him alone in the locker room after gym one day, once everyone had showered and were back in their uniforms. One of the other boys had Manifested over the summer, and Master Yagi had spilled the beans when he pulled him into a demonstration with Fumikage and Tsuyu. At the moment, the class's attention was still on the new keyblade.

"What changed your opinion about Master Yagi?"

Predictably, the question pissed Bakugo off.

"What makes you think you can just ask that out of the blue?" he retorted. Then, more soberly, "I grew up. That's all."

The lack of insight was disappointing, but not really a surprise. Bakugo had met Master Yagi twice when he was four or five, and never again until the start of the school year. Fumikage probably knew the man more than Bakugo did by now. Feeling stupid for asking, he started to walk away.

"Hey," Bakugo said.

Fumikage turned back to him. He still had that unusually calm, pensive look, but there was a clear intensity in his eyes.

"Have you had any weird dreams since you started going here?"

Weird dreams? He thought about it, but any weirdness in his dreams were within the normal parameters.

"Nothing truly unusual," he said.

Bakugo gave a small grunt and nodded. Fumikage almost asked him to elaborate when he was interrupted by the school's PA system:

"All students and staff, please report to the throne room for an assembly."

They shared a puzzled look before they hurried out to rejoin the others. The hallway was buzzing. No one seemed to know what the assembly was about. Someone claimed that a student had managed to get them all into trouble within a day of their return, but there had been no noticeable disruptions.

Fumikage and Bakugo walked together with Iida as they filed into the main hall and ascended one of the dual staircases to the throne room. Sunlight poured in through the high, narrow windows. Three thrones stood at the far end, roped off like a museum display, which they basically were. A transparent screen was mounted on the wall above them so the principal could address everyone.

However, the screen showed only the wall behind it. Someone asked Master Aizawa what was going on. He looked more frazzled than usual when he told them the school had a surprise guest. Those two words were dripping with the venom of a disrupted work day, but Fumikage noticed him shifting his weight from foot to foot, as if he was nervous, before he walked quickly to his place with the other teachers at the front of the room.

Master Yagi was not among them. Was he still in his office?

The students' standing room was divided in two to form a clear aisle through the crowd. They went silent as the three visitors stepped onto the landing at the top of the double staircase.

"Master Sasaki," Togata, who was standing behind them, whispered.

Fumikage guessed that the tall, thin human in the middle was the one Togata meant. Instead of flowing robes, he was dressed in a loose blue suit held snug from chest to hip by sleek metal plating. Keyblade Master armor moved like a second skin and would expand into a full suit if he pressed the yellow button on the single pauldron. Flanking him was a humanoid woman with blue skin and a gray goose with a pointed hat.

Togata continued whispering as the three made their way up the aisle,

"Geez, this must be serious. I haven't seen him this angry since one of his apprentices flooded the Tower."

Fumikage thought Master Sasaki's face and posture leant itself to strictness. He reminded him of an evolved form of Iida, with any inexperience at leadership sanded away until one feared defying him. That cold aura permeated the room until even Togata gave up his commentary.

Sasaki and his companions stopped in front of the roped-off thrones and turned to face the crowd. He waved his hand, casting a few ghostly green symbols that pulled into a sort of necklace around his throat. When he spoke, his voice carried to every corner of the room. It must have been the magic that prevented it from actually ringing off the walls and deafening those who stood closest to him.

"I apologize for this disruption to your schedules, but there is a matter of grave importance that must be addressed immediately. Normally, I would have informed the acting principal of our arrival, but seeing as a suitable replacement has not yet been established..." He cast a brief, sharp glance at the teachers. Master Aizawa's brow furrowed while Yamada's shot up from behind his shades. "...a surprise assembly proved necessary."

The student body exchanged looks of confusion. Did Master Sasaki not know that Principal Nezu was working remotely? He had led the opening ceremonies in this very throne room only a day ago.

"Our seers have detected that the Land of Departure, if not this castle specifically, is playing host to a powerful Heartless. That its presence here has gone seemingly unnoticed for so long is a failing of the castle faculty that will be investigated. All trains will be halted until the matter is resolved. We ask the students to return to their homerooms and await further instructions."

The words cast an ice spell on his very bones. Even the sweat on his palms felt cold. His vision swam, his brain floating on vapors of dread.

Master Sasaki and his companions were walking back down the aisle. The murmurs had started up again, fearful this time. Fumikage heard his friends whispering, but he could not hear or understand their words. He looked at Master Aizawa again through the crowd of shifting bodies. His face was stony, half hidden in his scarf.

He was out of time. He was out of time.

"Master Sasaki!"

Master Yagi's voice boomed through the throne room. Before anyone could pinpoint his location, he leapt through the air and landed in a crouch in front of the three thrones. He must have jumped from the upper walkway... which was on the opposite side of the room, closer to the stairs. He landed with an impossible lightness for a man his size, facing the crowd, capturing its attention. As he slowly rose, one half of his meticulously styled bangs leaned forward over his face.

He grinned down the aisle at Master Sasaki. The gap widened as the students shrank away from his direct line of sight.

"If you're looking for a powerful Heartless..."

He grasped his lapels and tore his shirt down the middle in one easy motion, revealing the bright red and black emblem on the center of his chest. His eyes burned yellow in the deep shadows under his brows.

"I AM HERE!"

Chapter 10: Chain of Memories

Chapter Text

Master Yagi bent his knees and pushed off from the raised dais, blasting down the aisle toward Master Sasaki. The rush of air crashed over the students like a wave. No one had time to react in Sasaki's defense, not even Sasaki himself or either of his companions.

Then Yagi was past him and Sasaki was on the floor. The crowd blocked Fumikage's view, but he heard the Master's voice, unenchanted now, tell the others to stop worrying about him and pursue the Heartless. Yagi had already jumped from the upper landing.

Beside him, Bakugo doubled over with his hands on his head. Fumikage thought he had staggered from the wind or the shock, but his legs were shaking and his knuckles were white. Fumikage knelt to check on him and saw his teeth bared in a hard grimace, his eyes squeezed shut and his face flushed. It was the kind of look that could only be rooted in deep physical pain.

The others took notice. Fumikage waved them back.

"Keep back! Give him some air!"

What he had just seen, what they had all witnessed within the space of half a minute, hardly seemed real. Master Yagi, the Heartless that masqueraded as him, was merely the afterimage of a nightmare. The pain on his classmate's face, however, was real. Tangible.

Bakugo hit the floor on his knees and curled in on himself. His breathing hissed rapidly in and out through his teeth. In the aisle, Master Aizawa and the rest of the teachers were running in pursuit of Master Yagi. Kirishima jumped up and waved his arms.

"Master! Bakugo's in trouble!"

Aizawa stopped and looked their way. The crowd between them caught on and parted to let him through. Fumikage moved back to give him space at Bakugo's side.

Iida pushed his way forward and stopped at Fumikage's shoulder. "This happened before in the other world, when Tokoyami locked the door," he said, raising his voice so Aizawa could hear. "It wasn't nearly this bad, though!"

This was news to Fumikage. Aizawa was trying to get Bakugo to respond to him. Togata and the other upperclassmen held the onlookers back.

"Let me see him," Master Sasaki said.

A few kids hastened out of his way. He appeared unharmed, though his green and yellow hair was windblown. Fumikage was surprised he was still here. Aizawa stood up and let him kneel in front of his struggling student. Sasaki's face, so stern before, was gentle with calm compassion.

He placed his hands gently on Bakugo's shoulders. As if sensing an adult who could actually help him, Bakugo lifted his head a fraction.

"What is happening to me?!”

"Don't be afraid, young Bakugo," Master Sasaki murmured. He reached up and pressed the pad of his thumb against Bakugo's forehead. "This is my fault."

There was a bright spark of light. Bakugo jerked. The tension flowed out of him, his hands fell to his sides and he slumped forward into Master Sasaki's arms.

"Master Aizawa," Sasaki said, looking up at their homeroom teacher, "would you please tell one of your students to alert the infirmary?"

Iida dashed off at full speed. The three seniors and some juniors were herding the younger students into groups by homeroom. Sasaki's companions and the other teachers were long gone.

Fumikage could not stop shaking.

***

They kept the curtains drawn around the bed in case anyone else came in. Master Shuzenji, the elderly white mage, waited at her desk while Shota and Master Sasaki spoke quietly at Bakugo's bedside. The boy was out cold and would remain so for a while. Without any of his usual fire, he was nearly unrecognizable.

According to Sasaki, he was suffering from a powerful memory block that had cracked when he saw Yagi's true form. There was a flush of fever across his face, his body's frenzied response to a problem it could not solve.

"Memories connect to each other like links in a chain; when you remember one thing, it can lead you to remember something else. We won't know how many links made it through intact until he wakes up," Sasaki explained.

"Is the spell on him broken?" Shota asked.

Sasaki shook his head regretfully. He was seated on a stool while Shota stood with his arms crossed.

"There's no telling, really, but if he can tell us anything about the blocked event, we might get a clue about how to break the rest of the curse. It's been wearing out for ten years, after all."

"It happened during that time," Shota stated.

"Yes."

He stood up and faced Shota directly.

"Before we continue, I would like to perform a memory dive on you, Master Aizawa. This whole matter is more serious than I anticipated, and we need to know that we can trust each other."

"...I understand."

***

Shota took the bed next to Bakugo's, and Master Sasaki laid his hand over his forehead. From there, it was like falling into a vast, dark ocean.

It was hard to say how long the dive lasted. Memories crashed together like a fever dream. At some point, he was back in Shibuya with Hizashi and Oboro at one of those chic cafes Hizashi favored, talking about how cool it would be to go to another world...

"Okay, Master Aizawa. You can wake up, now."

He pulled in a gasp before he could stop himself. Somehow, Master Sasaki had gleaned what he wanted from that mess. Likewise, Shota knew from his own glimpses that Sasaki could be trusted. There was a lot of pain, there. Grief, reopened.

And a locked door. Not large, but ominous. Sasaki's subconscious had been momentarily distracted by it.

Shota got up from the bed while Master Sasaki reclaimed the stool. Bakugo was still fast asleep. He hadn't moved at all.

"Yes. It seems I have been affected by the curse, as well," Sasaki said.

He rested his elbows on his knees and laced his fingers. Shota stayed quiet and let him continue.

"There's a gap in my memories. I remember finding the children and carrying them out, but I don't remember actually speaking to them."

"Weren't they unconscious?"

"They were awake when I found them. I remember the fear in their eyes. And..." He winced slightly and rubbed his temple. "There it is again. There's something I forgot. Given what happened in the throne room today, I'd say it has to do with Master Yagi losing his heart."

"Don't go passing out on us, too."

"I've been trained to manage any magical unrest within myself. This young red mage hasn't, though given the circ*mstances we should consider having him do his apprenticeship at the Tower sooner rather than later."

That would be true even if Bakugo failed to Manifest. A gifted mage like him needed to be whipped into shape for his own sake and everyone else's. The Tower was the best place for that.

"It's shameful," Master Sasaki continued, "how long it's taken me to notice that something was wrong with my memories. It wasn't until today, when his Heartless revealed itself, that the curse finally made itself known to me. I suspect the revelation affected Bakugo more severely because he actually bore witness to the blocked event, whereas I heard about it secondhand from him and Midoriya." He looked up at Shota. "Did you know that the Midoriya boy went missing last year? There was a girl, too. Another middle-schooler."

This whole situation kept getting worse and worse. How could so much have passed right under his nose for so long? Now that was shameful. Shota could feel a headache gathering behind his eyes.

"Speaking of disappearances, I wanted to talk to you about Principal Nezu," Shota said. "Master Nezu has been communicating with us remotely since the school year started. We never heard anything about his disappearance. He, or an image of him, even had us on video calls."

"Mas... The Heartless could have been behind that, but we can't rule out multiple insiders. I'm sorry, Aizawa, but we'll have to keep the school on lockdown until we've searched the hearts of the other staff and interviewed the students."

The parents were not going to be happy about this.

"I understand, and we're prepared to give you our full cooperation. We might be able to trace the emails the fake Nezu..."

He trailed off. A thought, a bad one, had just occurred to him.

"sh*t!"

"Master Aizawa?"

He was already headed out the door. Master Shuzenji glanced up questioningly as he passed. He heard her say something to Sasaki, who must have been following him.

Shota ran down the gleaming halls to his office. He didn't bother shutting the door, knowing that Master Sasaki was probably behind him. He shoved his desk chair aside and woke up his computer. With a few key taps, he was in admin mode.

Before he could get very far, a video call popped up over the lines of code. Principal Nezu smiled at him from the monitor.

"Hello, Aizawa. Would you like to speak with me? You could have just asked, rather than try to dig into my code."

"Who are you?"

Master Sasaki finally entered the office. Shota motioned for him to stay where he was. He didn't want this thing to see him on the webcam. Nezu's voice from the speaker made the other man's eyes widen behind his glasses.

"I'm Principal Nezu, of course. Or, more accurately, a fairly accurate re-creation of him. Now that the cat's out of the bag, you may call me Data Nezu, if that would help to avoid confusion."

He was certainly as wordy as the real Nezu. Shota tried to move the video call aside to get back to the code, but it wouldn't budge.

"I expect you have questions. Unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to answer any of them. In fact, I'm probably going to self-destruct in just a few minutes. Oh, well. Such is life!"

"You were communicating with Master Yagi's Heartless, weren't you?"

"What makes you say that? Do you believe us to be on the same side? Maybe we are. Maybe we aren't. Oh, stop clicking, it tickles."

Master Sasaki walked silently up the computer. It was an all-in-one, as most were, so the CPU was inside the monitor. He held his hand over the panel that covered the motherboard. Magic flickered over his fingers.
Data Nezu's gaze hardened.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Tower Steward. You might get trapped in here with me. Then we'd both be deleted."

Sasaki kept his hand over the computer. The line between his brows deepened in concentration.

"Stop! Don't call his bluff!"

Shota lashed out and wrenched his arm aside. The magic flickered out just as the video call glitched and halted. A color-inverted image of Nezu froze on the screen for a few seconds before the "connection lost" message replaced it.

Shota tried the mouse again. This time, he could move the video call screen. He minimized it and reactivated the admin panel.

"It'll take hours to scan everything. Who knows what else got deleted along with him?" Shota muttered, mostly to himself.

Having a sentient AI in their servers meant that every last scrap of data was compromised. Data Nezu had probably seen Master Sasaki arrive on the security system, along with just about everything else that happened in the castle. Even the private areas with no video or audio feed had scanners. Maybe he could get Hizashi on that while he tended to the lockdown situation...

"Show yourself," said Sasaki calmly.

Shota looked up from the computer. The office door was still partly open, and someone slipped reluctantly out of the shadows and into the room.

Tokoyami.

"The League of Nobodies is looking for Princesses."

...I am going to be up all night, aren't I?

***

Fumikage told them everything about the stranger. This time, Aizawa leant him and Master Sasaki the two chairs in front of the desk. Fumikage studied the wood grains while he spoke, acutely aware of their gazes upon him.
When Aizawa began to interrogate him about Master Yagi, he cast an impulsive glance toward the Tower Steward.

"It's okay, you can tell him. We were under the impression that he knew all along, anyway," Aizawa said darkly.

He thought it would be easier to show him. Fumikage stood up and moved to the center of the room to summon Dark Shadow. Sunlight was pouring through the window, so his Heartless came out smaller, close to his own size, and clung to his shoulder. Master Sasaki stood up from the chair.

"A Dark Guardian?" he said.

"Yagi seemed to think it's his own Heartless," Aizawa answered for him. "Tokoyami almost lost his heart ten years ago, but something happened to cut the process short. This is the result."

"Hello," Dark Shadow said shyly.

Unexpectedly, Master Sasaki slouched forward and hid his face in his hands. They stared at him while his shoulders quivered. Had it startled him that badly, or...?

"Sorry. That surprised me," he said, lifting his head. His stoic expression was back in place. Had he been laughing? "I've never had a Heartless say hello to me before..."

The unintended lie hit them all simultaneously.

"Yeah, that's the thing," Aizawa broke the silence. "How was he able to decieve everyone for so long? Not just you, Tokoyami, but all of us in the castle."

"I shoulder that responsibility, as well, perhaps more than anyone" said Sasaki. "He distanced himself from me after his miraculous return. I pushed for a while, but resentment kept us apart in the end." He looked at Tokoyami. "So he took an interest in your Heartless?"

His heart sank. The stew of emotions made him dizzy. Dark Shadow laid herself over his back.

"Indeed. He said he wanted to help me." His fingers curled into fists. "But now, I believe he was making the Darkness stronger."

Guilt flickered through him. Even now, Dark Shadow felt more like a friend than a facet of himself, his own Darkness, as she molded over his back like a comforting blanket. A sense of confused distress darted under the guilt as if he was also the injured party.

I truly am split into two...

"Rather than bring Dark Shadow and I together, we've been more independent than ever. We cooperate as two instead of one, and he always had Dark Shadow increase her... its strength alongside mine. I never questioned it because I... I wanted it." He bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Master Aizawa. I was foolish."

Even now, the words tasted like bile. It was a ruined promise never spoken aloud. Master Yagi, that thing, knew how he felt about Dark Shadow and nurtured that feeling. To what end, he did not know, but there was no trust left. He reported to these two masters, real people, out of a sense of duty, of biting the bullet and taking the medicine like an adult instead of squirming away like a child.

Fumikage?

"He took advantage of you," Master Aizawa said calmly. "Now we need to find out why. For that matter, we need to find out if this Nobody at the train station targeted you, specifically, or if it was just a coincidence."

Master Sasaki gestured with a device that was probably a phone, but it looked like it was made of nothing. "Yagi's Heartless is no longer on this world. We won't give up the search, but in the meantime, we're going to scour this castle for any more vulnerabilities."

"Of course,” Aizawa said. He glanced at Fumikage. "Go back to your homeroom. You shouldn't have snuck out in the first place."

Nausea coiled in his stomach. He took a deep breath.

"I want an appointment with that doctor in Radiant Garden."

He could not tell if the increase in anxiety was from himself or his Heartless. Aizawa searched his face for a long moment.

"...We'll talk about this later."

Chapter 11: The Waiting Arms of Darkness

Chapter Text

He could see Master Yagi's broken bones and organs. The bones were really white even though there was blood on them. The organs didn't look like anything from Katsuki's book about the body. They smelled really bad.

Master Yagi said something. Katsuki looked at his face. He was still smiling even though there was blood all over his teeth. He lifted the keyblade and held the hilt out to

Deku had his keyblade. The Heartless were gone and Katsuki could breathe again, but Deku was standing there with his keyblade and had the gall to insist, to his face, that he had no magic even though that flash of light had to be

"Katsuki, I promise you won't get in trouble. Just, please, if you know anything, if he said anything to you

The last time he had seen him.

"Kill yourse

Katsuki awoke with a shout. There was a blanket pinning him down and he threw it off. His shirt was drenched.

***

The students were trapped in their homerooms with little to no knowledge of what was going on or what the upcoming interrogations actually entailed. Fumikage had told everyone he was sneaking out to check on Bakugo, and when he returned, he "admitted" to being caught before he could learn anything. It was partly true.

Finally, the three from the Tower came in and instructed the students to follow them, one by one, to one of three emptied classrooms for the interviews.

Fumikage took his turn with the others. The blue-skinned woman asked him a series of questions that seemed nonsensical, but struck him as a sort of bizarre personality quiz. It reminded him a little of the questions on the written entrance exam.

In the end, his classmates' general consensus was that the whole thing felt like a brainwashing sequence in a sci-fi movie. But, to their relief, they were allowed to go home at the end of the day, excusing the boarders.
Bakugo had woken up by then. Fumikage missed him on his way out. Of course, he was probably avoiding everybody.

In the quiet of his dorm room, he left the curtains open and stared out at the twilit sky. His phone rested limply in his hand. He had been scrolling through photos of Master Yagi from their time in Twilight Town, trying and failing to find some hint of his inhumanity. There was nothing to go on except his uncanny knack for spotting a camera: no matter how stealthy Fumikage thought he'd been, the photos always came out with Yagi glancing his way and doing some kind of pose. Not even Dark Shadow... he never managed to sneak one with his Heartless, either.

But Master Yagi was gone. He had been gone long before he even met him.

"Fumikage? Why did you call me 'it?'"

He remembered the sight of Yagi sitting on the forest floor that first day, far enough from Fumikage not to stress him out again after the Darkness receded into his heart. His voice carried over the space between them without seeming loud.

"Is this as bad as it's gotten?" Yagi's Heartless had asked.

Fumikage had nodded mutely. He felt past the point of caring, of keeping all of this locked up for the sake of the greater good. He had a similar feeling now, or lack thereof. Maybe his heart was finally separating from his body after all.

His bedsheets rustled. Darkness spread through the room as the last traces of sunlight dimmed.

"Fumikage? Say something. Why'd you call me an 'it?'"

He lifted his hand for Dark Shadow to rest its beak on. No slick touch came. He put his hand down and sighed.

"I'm sorry."

"Are you?" The Darkness bristled.

"You know I am. You know it's complicated."

"I'm tired of it being complicated. Why does everything have to be about hiding and being complicated?"

The glass rattled. Fumikage shut his eyes and tried to feel empty instead of sad or scared. Normal people could sit with their feelings. His could literally bite his head off, or someone else's.

"We're going to be okay. They're going to make us whole again."

"I want to be a girl."

Silence.

"Fumikage, I don't want to go to the doctor."

He summoned Tsukuyomi. The Darkness shrank back, afraid.

"Do not fear. This isn't for you." He turned the keyblade in his hands until the teeth were pointed toward his face. "It's just a Sleep spell. With Tsukuyomi, I can do some magic now, and I should have the mana for it."
And if he didn't, the attempt would knock him out anyway. He spoke the words.

A light flashed, and his arm fell limp over the side of the bed. Tsukuyomi hit the rug and sparkled out of sight.

***

As he suspected, Shota did not get a lot of sleep that night, or that week. Classes were out until the servers were combed and a new AI was established. Even though the teachers were cleared until further notice, they modeled the new AI after Sasaki so it could alert the Tower immediately if any suspicious activity occurred.

Parents were notified. Counseling was offered. A couple of Class B students were pulled from school entirely unless or until they Manifested. The interworld news weaseled a press conference out of them that Shota had to shave and brush his hair for. The downfall of Master Yagi's good name exploded over the networks. Asinine retrospectives and conspiracies abounded.

Hindsight reared its ugly head. Shota had seen Yagi with food, but he never saw him eat. He never had a reason to see him sleep (though it explained why he was so ready to help grade papers). As an Emblem Heartless, he cast a shadow. The biggest mystery was how he managed to play human in a castle full of keybladers for months on end. Either he was a new, unprecedented type of Heartless, or someone had tampered with him.

This League of Nobodies, maybe? Hard to believe considering their incompetence so far. Perhaps they and Yagi's Heartless, along with Data Nezu, were on opposing sides. In any case, everyone involved was the Council's new priority.

Shota had his reasons to dislike Yagi, but this betrayal still hit him like a punch to the gut. It was a wound on his pride, sure, but his sense of security hurt worse. His students had been up close to that thing for at least a full hour per day. He had been grooming Tokoyami for some unknown purpose, and Shota had allowed it. They had searched Yagi's room (the unused bed, the drawers and closet filled but stagnant, a set dressed for normality) for any missing sections to the reports, but found none.

The appointment with the doctor needed to be handled carefully. Sasaki suggested that Bakugo be checked for any damage caused by the spell cracking; their plan was to schedule Tokoyami's appointment at the same time and craft some excuse for him to be there that wouldn't tip off anyone from the school.

The Academy had a tradition of taking the freshmen to Radiant Garden during the second semester so they could shadow the Masters at work. The board had already decided to continue with the trip as planned. They would set the appointments up to occur during that time and bring the kids in discreetly. It would be easier to include Tokoyami that way instead of putting him on a train with Bakugo instead of Bakugo's own parents.

Shota hit "send" on the umpteenth email of the day, administered some eye drops, and checked the clock. It was past midnight. He probably should have turned his office lights on to dilute the light from the monitor.

Another heavy stone weighed on his heart: Principal Nezu. Although he tended to turn down or heavily edit Shota's revised lesson plans, he was a good boss and a friend. The mouselike man liked to nestle into Shota's binding cloth while they waited for meetings to start. The fabric still smelled faintly of nicotine. Nezu tried to cover it up with his favored shampoo, but the stink of cigarettes was pretty much ingrained in his fur. It was a wonder the white hadn't turned yellow.

Nezu considered himself a principal first and a Keyblade Master second, but this mission had been important enough to draw him away just before the end of the last school year. The Council had finally let Shota know that Nezu, along with a few others, were doing another push for the Door to Darkness. Nezu was the only one who disappeared.

The League of Nobodies is looking for Princesses.

Seven parts of twenty, but the X-Blade was long gone. So, why?

With his legs already tucked up under a throw blanket, he was tempted to just sleep in his chair, but he could exert just enough effort to crawl into his sleeping bag. It would give him better rest in the long run. He was going to need it.

***

The train entered Radiant Garden over an ocean. The world lived up to its name: soft pink sunlight reflected on the water's glassy surface and saturated the splotches of green in the rocky blue hills. A European-style castle jutted up from the central island and glittered with fountain spray. The city had expanded onto the neighboring slopes, and the train curved down toward a granite station at the water's edge.

It was said that the brightest places had the darkest shadows. That was the point of this excursion; they were going to see the Masters at work. Heartless tended to gather in the waterways beneath the city despite the Council's attempts to light up the tunnels. The students were supposed to keep their distance, but they were in their gym clothes and had been given basic weapons just in case. Borrowed “Protect” chains hung around their hips.

That was what the others were chatting about as they pulled in. Even Bakugo was in decent spirits, declaring how many Heartless he was going to destroy (despite the aforementioned restrictions) after his checkup with the "meta doctor." In the time since Yagi's Heartless revealed itself, he had gotten everyone to stop asking after him by force.

Meanwhile, and despite Fumikage's attempts to carry on as normal, Iida could tell that something was "off" with him. He had stopped prying a while ago, but he tended to stick to Fumikage's side whenever possible. At the moment, he was in the seat next to him, on the window side, talking about the city's hydro-powered electric system.

Fumikage nodded occasionally and tried not to yawn. He bespelled himself almost every night leading up to the trip, but it left him feeling more tired than ever.

They stepped out onto the gleaming tiles of the platform. The colorful wall mosaics depicted water lilies and climbing vines. The entire freshman student body mingled as they followed their teachers down a vaulted corridor and into the soaring main hall.

The Masters were waiting for them in an open space near the center of the room. They were a diverse group, including a rabbit woman and someone who appeared to be a giant centipede. After a brief speech by Master Yamada, the students were sorted into groups for each Master, including the ones who came with them from school (excusing the Class 1-B homeroom teacher, who was a vampire and therefore unable to withstand direct sunlight without shriveling).

"Tokoyami, you're the odd one out, so you're with me and Bakugo," Master Aizawa said.

So that's how he was going to play it. Bakugo's eyes narrowed in suspicion. It would make more sense to add Fumikage as an extra to another party, but the excuse would have to do. Fumikage ignored his gaze and hoped he wouldn't ask any questions.

There were no cars, so the winding cobblestone street was unmarked and suited to foot traffic. It serpentined up the side of the mountain, though a long set of stairs cut straight through to the peak. The houses matched the historical structures in the castle town; whitewashed facades and tiled roofs. Lush green trees blessed them with shade.

Four narrow canals ran down the mountainside, either pouring openly or through large metal pipes. There were maintenance doors on each level. The groups split off as they hiked up the stairs until only Fumikage, Bakugo, and Master Aizawa were left.

"We're going to your appointment first," he told Bakugo. "We won't be able to come in with you, but we'll be right outside."

"Thanks, but I don't need a babysitter for a doctor's appointment, especially not Birdbrain here."

His words weren't as sharp as they might have been. Was he nervous? Fumikage was, but he squashed it down.

The Hands of Gaia hospital complex loomed into view near the mountain peak. Its white cubes and glass window stripes were strikingly modern above the rows of quaint storybook houses. It sat on a manmade plateau, and one of the gushing metal pipes jutted from an artificial stone cliff below the main entrance. Instead of a parking lot, it had its own courtyard garden, still blooming with late summer flowers.

The metabiology wing was in its own building off to the side. It was about three stories tall, not counting the smooth white dome whose purpose Fumikage could not discern. As they passed under the line of young trees that led to the entrance, a bell tolled. It must have been from the train station, as the tower off to their right, beyond the hospital campus, lacked a clock.

The interior was all clean tile floors and disinfectant. To the left was a small waiting area with a pair of vending machines, and to the right was the reception desk. No one was there except the bored receptionist who put a book of crosswords down when they entered. Aizawa showed her his ID and a printed copy of the permission forms Bakugo's parents had filled out.

Fumikage was the one she peered at, though. Considering she was also a bird (a duck, specifically), she may have been put off by his body instead of his face. That, or she knew exactly why he was here.

He caught Bakugo watching him in his peripheral vision and pretended not to notice.

It was a short wait. They may have been the only patients in the research facility that day. A nurse called Bakugo's name, and he got up and followed her silently through a sliding glass door. When it closed, it turned opaque.

"Don't worry. They know we're trying to be discreet, here. No one will tell Bakugo or anyone else that you're being seen today," Aizawa said.

Fumikage kept his hands on his knees and stared at the plastic chair across from him. Too soon, the door slid open again and two people entered. One was a dog nurse with fluffy fawn-colored hair, the other a short, bald man with a bushy mustache. Fumikage recognized Dr. Tsubasa from the research he'd done after the arrangements were made. According to his profile, he had begun his career in pediatrics and took an interest in the metaphysical heart health of troubled youths.

He thought he'd outgrown these types of people, but alas.

Dr. Tsubasa's experience with children showed in his attitude toward Fumikage. He spoke in a gentle, friendly, somewhat condescending manner that made him wonder if the doctor actually knew Fumikage's age. However, even after Fumikage replied to him in the deep voice that puberty had gifted him, the doctor kept up the attitude, so maybe it was habit.

Aizawa was allowed to accompany him through the changing door. Consequentially, the conversation turned into the adults talking over his head as they walked down the sterile white hallways. The doctor sounded excited about the upcoming scan. Fumikage and Dark Shadow were a rare specimen, as it were.

"We'll do a basic scan, and once the results have been analyzed we can see about a followup. With his permission, of course."

Fumikage gripped the insides of his pants pockets and dealt with being blatantly objectified. If he let himself feel one thing, the fear might come back again. He might change his mind.

When they came to the scanner room, the urge to run tugged in his chest. It was sort of like an x-ray room; there was a tinted window to separate the doctor from the subject. What alarmed him, though, was the sight of the lone slab in the very center of the room. There was no equipment that he could see, not even the thing that would scan him. It was just a bare room with a slab.

"Nurse Katy will take care of you," Dr. Tsubasa said. "I'll be right over here in the observation room."

The doglike nurse smiled at him.

"All right, let's get you set up. You can keep everything on, even your shoes. Would you like Mr. Aizawa to stay with you?"

"I'm under obligation to remain by his side," Aizawa said.

Meaning you would sooner choose not to? he thought, not that he would have complained. Of all the people to hang around while he lay prone on a weird slab, Aizawa would not have been his first pick. His second and third picks would be "no one at all."

"That's perfectly fine," the nurse said.

She led him over to the slab and had him lie down. It was not as cold as it looked, but the back of his head felt weird against it. Katy said it was fine for him to keep his face turned to the side.

"Okay, so, the table is going to move a little, so we're going to strap you in. I know it seems weird, but it's just to keep you from sliding off," she said with a chuckle.

He did not like the sound of that, but he nodded anyway, the side of his face rubbing against the slightly textured surface. His heart beat harder as she carefully positioned his arms and legs.

"Here we go," she said as she reached for a switch underneath the slab.

The restraints emerged smoothly from hidden slots and wrapped around his wrists, ankles, and waist. He flinched.

"Doing okay so far?" the nurse asked brightly.

"I'm fine," he said, wanting it to be over.

"We can hear everything that goes on in here, so if you feel any discomfort, just holler. We'll see you in a few minutes!"

She exited through the door next to the tinted window as Dr. Tsubasa had done.

"You all right?" Aizawa asked.

"The point is moot."

"Hm. Yeah."

There was a distant clunk and a soft whirr. The slab rose slowly, then tilted down so that he faced the window at an angle. His weight settled partly on the straps, but mostly on the ledge under his feet. He tried to keep his breathing even, unwilling to show Aizawa how nervous he really was.

I'm scared.

I know, he replied to Dark Shadow.

Nurse Katy's voice came from an unseen speaker,

"Here we go. We're beginning the scan in three... two..."

There was no light, but he could feel the invisible energy press over him in a steady sweep, head to toe, then up to his chest. A few tiny sparks flickered like dust motes.

I don't like this.

Stay calm, they said it won't take long.

Then again, "a few minutes" was a fairly long time. A lot could happen in even a single minute. The pressure on his chest got a little worse, but not enough that he was unable to breathe. He could tough it out.

Fumikage, something's not right.

It's okay...

Fumikage!

His entire body jumped against the restraints.

He hit the slab with a gasp, stunned. Before he could process what happened, his muscles jerked him forward again.

Dark Shadow, what are you--

It's pulling on me!

The next seize pushed a startled grunt out of him. Now it was hard to breathe. He panted for air to call out with, to tell the nurse he wanted out, but his body slammed itself against the slab again before he could speak. It kept happening.

"Turn it off!" Aizawa bellowed.

The back of his head collided with the hard surface. He couldn't inhale anymore. His muscles burned and the restraints bit into his wrists. The one around his waist kept catching his lower ribs.

Fumikage! I can't move! I can't do anything!"

"Turn it off, damn it! Are you blind?!"

His vision was blacking out. He couldn't tell if the floating lights were from the scanner or his eyes.

Then, all at once, it was over. He was resting back against the slab and taking lungfuls of chemical-cleaner air. The darkness ebbed, and he became aware of Aizawa's hand in his. It was warm. When had that happened?

He heard the door open and Nurse Katy's voice, now in a higher pitch,

"I am so sor--"

"What the hell was that?" Aizawa snapped. "Where's the doctor? What happened?"

Dark Shadow?

Here. I want to leave.

It wasn't just his body that was feeling weak. He tried to roll over, already forgetting he was strapped down. Aizawa's hand squeezed his briefly.

Dr. Tsubasa finally joined them.

"Katy, go ahead and unstrap him. Mr. Aizawa, as we discussed, we are treading new ground here..."

"Just tell us what went wrong," Aizawa said, his voice now dangerously level.

The doctor adjusted his glasses. "It was the Heartless. It interfered with the scanner. Perhaps it thought its host was in danger?"

Katy switched off the restraints. As soon as he was free, Fumikage swung his legs over the side of the table and let go of Aizawa's hand. The nurse's handheld scanner blipped and she stammered that his vitals looked fine.

Betrayed. Betrayed, again!

Dark Shadow felt like a drenched kitten huddled inside his chest. The last thought had been his own. He rubbed his sternum.

"Liar," he hissed. "You were trying to remove her. You said it would just be a scan."

Dr. Tsubasa sighed. He looked at Aizawa apologetically, as if Fumikage wasn't there.

"It is indeed a powerful Heartless. It's been gathering Darkness from his heart for ten years, now, after all." He finally turned to Fumikage. "You are a very brave young man for..."

"Don't patronize me," he said, getting to his feet. "We're done. We're leaving."

"I wouldn't advise that! You've held this burden inside you for too long. In here, you could finally..."

Even as he spoke, Fumikage headed for the door.

"You cannot hold me here against my will. I do not consent to this."

"Tokoyami."

His teacher's voice stopped him before he could touch the door handle. He glanced at Aizawa over his shoulder, daring him to say he should remain here.

"I have to wait here with Bakugo. Head back to the train station in the meantime. We'll meet you there."

Relief and gratitude eased some of the lingering aches. He held Aizawa's gaze for a moment, nodded, and pulled the door open, ignoring a final protest from Dr. Tsubasa about this being "against medical advice."

***

The beauty and daylight of the city belied his foul mood as he traversed the courtyard. He didn't slow down until he was off the hospital campus. The thought of returning to the busy station rankled him, so he veered off down a narrow walkway along the bottom of the stone wall.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me, he thought bitterly. How naive was he to fall for betrayal twice in less than a year?

He came to the rushing stream that poured from the metal pipe. There was a paved sidewalk along the shallow canal, separated by a metal fence. He followed it down a flight of damp steps that bunched up against the houses. The plaster had worn off in places to show the stone foundations underneath. It was dark there, the only sound being the echo of water.

He sat on the steps for a minute to catch his breath. He felt a little dizzy. Worried that someone else might come down the stairs behind him, he eased himself up, using the metal railing for support, and continued slowly down toward open ground.

Past the houses was a small park above a scenic overlook. A family with little kids was in the playground. With the last of his anger ebbing to fatigue, he gave the playground a wide berth and headed for a shaded bench near the overlook fence. To his immediate left was an overgrown stone cistern or storage shed. The metal door looked anachronistic against the weathered gray rock. The castle island was visible across the water, reflection glimmering.

Dark Shadow felt less bedraggled in the quiet shade. As his Heartless, she drew strength from his negativity. Fear and anger always made her stronger. And yet, she had a way of comforting him when he was depressed. Even though she fed on his worst emotions, those same feelings tended to distress her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, massaging his sternum.

He could feel her curl against the bone under his hand.

Can I be a girl again?

His eyes stung, but nothing came of it, as if his emotions were still too drained to fully feel after the shockwave in the exam room.

"Yeah."

There was so much they didn't understand. Having a professional should have given them answers, but instead they were attacked.

"What are we going to do, now?" he whispered.

He was tired. They were both tired. He laid down on the bench and shut his eyes.

A twinge of anxiety woke him up. He had no idea how long he had been asleep, but the family was gone. Suddenly alert, he sat up. Out in the bay, a hint of movement caught his eye from the castle's highest tower. It looked like a flock of dark birds taking off. Then it looked like mist.

Fumikage blinked and leaned forward on the bench. Something was emerging from the tower. It twisted into the air, a coil of black and blazing orange.

He leapt to his feet.

"No!"

Heartless destroyed without a keyblade could return, but so quickly? Here?

Had it followed them somehow?

There was a strange sound behind him. He summoned Tsukuyomi and turned, expecting more Heartless. What he saw were thin, grayish figures writhing out of the ether. These were lesser Nobodies, deformed shells without hearts, squirming toward him like skins without bones.

Chapter 12: Hellfire

Chapter Text

Fumikage had never seen a lesser Nobody in person before. Master Aizawa taught them that while Heartless, particularly Emblem Heartless, ran purely on instinct and attacked wildly as a result, Nobodies were more methodical. The lesser varieties lacked most of their original minds, though, so they were often led by one of higher rank.

The stranger from the platform? Someone else from the League? He did not have time to ponder "who" or "why." They were trying to surround him. He darted between two, slashing his way through. The one he struck made a distorted noise as if in pain.

He assumed a stance and watched for their next move. No, he hesitated, and the Nobodies took advantage, gathering in on him at once. He parried the nearest and struck out at another, knocking it back. A third wrapped its tentacle-like arm around his and pulled, but he was able to strike it away.

Once the adrenaline was pumping, muscle memory took over. These Nobodies ("dusks," he now remembered) were fairly weak and went down about as fast as the shadow-type Heartless.

A bolt of electricity came out of nowhere. He jumped back in surprise and saw Kaminari and Iida emerging from the metal door. Kaminari had a simple wooden staff, and Iida had a steel sword that looked a lot like their practice blades. The three of them fell into formation quickly and dispatched the rest of the Nobodies.

"What're you doing here?" Kaminari asked, breathless and frantic. "Where's Bakugo and Master Aizawa?"

He could repeat the first question right back at them. However, his eyes went straight to the sky. His worst fears were realized when he saw the dragon king spiraling toward their side of the city. Screams were ringing out in the distance. Kaminari's joined them when he followed Fumikage's gaze.

The giant Heartless opened its jaws and poured flames over the neighborhood near the base of the slope.

Iida's hand fell on his shoulder and gripped it, hard, while his wide eyes remained transfixed on the dragon. The moment of mutual horror bolstered Fumikage, anchoring him to Iida as much as that hand anchored Iida to him. It allowed him to focus on bringing Kaminari's open panic under control.

"Kaminari! Which Master are you with?"

"Oh, man! You don't even know!" he cried, tugging at his hair.

"We were all separated," Iida said. "We can explain back in the waterway!"

They ran to the metal door. It had swung shut behind them and would not reopen. While Kaminari tried to force it open anyway, Iida continued his explanation. They were very aware of the rushing wind from the dragon that was twisting ever closer.

"A large Heartless appeared down below. The Masters told us to return to the surface while they got it under control." He had to take a breath. "The bulkheads closed. They're trapped down there!"

Sirens were going off. Black smoke poured into the air. The screams and shouts gathered into a cacophony.

"All of them?!" Fumikage asked.

"We don't know. Where is Master Aizawa?"

"Still at the hospital... get down!"

They crouched and huddled against the rough stones as a blast of hot air pounded the trees. The dragon roared over them, and he recognized the terrible rushing noise of its fiery breath. Glass exploded and tile rooftops popped and cracked. When they peered around, the buildings about a block up from them were a wall of fire.

Behind them, across the lookout, white steam joined the black smoke. Through magic or hydraulics, someone was using the city's ample water supply to fight the fires. Their efforts would be in vain if the dragon kept re-lighting them. And the flames would surely spread on their own...

The curve of the main street was up against one side of the park. Heartless appeared there. Some resembled metal plate armor and brandished long claws while others floated in the air, colored by element. They charged anyone who fled the burning houses.

The three students glanced at each other and nodded. Even Kaminari, who looked like he was about to cry, knew that while they could not fight the fires, there was another way they could help the people of Radiant Garden.

***

Dr. Tsubasa had Shota cornered in the waiting room. He was trying to convince him to change Tokoyami's mind.

"Those reports you sent me are very interesting but very concerning, Master Aizawa. Frankly I'm astounded that you and your people didn't bring this issue to me sooner."

Shota took a long swig from the bottle of juice he got out of the vending machine. It had been about half an hour since the botched scan. After Tokoyami left, he had gone to the other exam room to make sure nothing weird was happening to Bakugo. That doctor had been very obliging, letting Shota study the screens in the observation chamber and answering his questions. Bakugo was on a table similar to the one Tokoyami had been strapped to, fast asleep for the study.

He asked that doctor about the probability of the scanning equipment causing repeated muscle contractions. The doctor looked at him in alarm and assured him that it shouldn't be possible.

"Find a new career," Shota said to Dr. Tsubasa.

"I beg your pardon?!"

He screwed the plastic cap back on. "I don't buy your story about technical interference. That kid knows his own Heartless, and he had no reason to lie. He came here because he wanted to."

"Well, surely, as a teacher, you understand that teenagers can be dramatic sometimes..."

If he couldn't differentiate between dramatics and real distress, it was no wonder he dropped out of pediatrics.

"He wasn't faking that seizure, Dr. Tsubasa. Furthermore, why would your scanner be capable of affecting him in that way?"

"That wasn't a seizure. His brain activity was normal. As for the scanner, it is an advanced, multi-faceted tool, Master Aizawa. Like I said, his Heartless must have felt it was in danger and tampered with it. It went against its own interests, but these creatures are mindless, after all."

"Except that this one is still very much connected to its mind. And, like you yourself just said, Tokoyami's was behaving normally."

"Yagi's reports clearly stated that this 'Dark Shadow' can behave independently from its host. Or its body, as it were."

"And always did so intelligently, and with clear physical presence, never magic."

The doctor's face was turning red. His smile trembled under his mustache. Unlike Yagi, he wasn't very good at holding it in place.

"If you are accusing me of medical malpractice, you had better get some legal backing behind you."

He uncapped the bottle again and drained the last of the juice.

"And if you're accusing me of not knowing how Heartless behave, you need to get out of the lab once in a while."

Confidence returned to the doctor's smile.

"Oh, I see. The soldier thinks he can lecture the scientist because his 'lived experience' trumps decades of study! Yes, I see how it is. Well, good luck finding anyone else who can solve this problem for you..."

That was a lot of words for "I can't actually excuse what happened during the scan." If his decades of study held any real explanation for this, he would have used it by now instead of clinging to weak excuses and getting defensive. Shota pulled out his phone and checked the time. As soon as the screen came on, a text message popped up. It was from Yaoyorozu.

"BULKHEADS DOWN. MASTERS TRAPPED."

His skin prickled. Yaoyorozu in all caps with improper grammar was an alarm in and of itself. His first thought was that the Masters had activated the bulkheads to keep the threat away from the students, but surely she would have caught that herself. She could read a room.

He dumped the empty bottle in the recycling bin and ran outside, leaving the doctor befuddled. He hit the call button at the top of the chat log as he jogged across the gardens.

"Master Aizawa?" came her anxious whisper.

"Where are you?"

"Still underground. Something's wrong..."

"Heartless?"

"Y-Yes. Something big. We couldn't get a good look at it."

"How many of the others are with you?"

"Just Jiro, Sero, and Ojiro."

Good. At least one of the keybladers, Sero, was accounted for. He rounded the side of the main building and came to the main entrance. The entire crowd of foot traffic was staring out across the lookout. The campus had an ideal view of the city and the long black dragon that wove erratically over it.

It matched the description the kids had given to the Council. Shota knew what was going to happen a second before it did: a gush of flame over the rooftops. People in the crowd screamed.

"Master?"

Yaoyorozu over the phone. A ruckus of clattering metal nearly drowned her out. The security gates had come down over the hospital doors, locking them out and trapping everyone else in.
This was planned.

"Stay underground and hole up in a utility closet if you can. Don't let anyone in if you can't recognize their voice. Pass the message along. I need to hang up for a while."

As he spoke, he pulled the binding cloth from around his neck and eyed the ledge of the hospital roof. The dragon was coming this way. He stuck the phone in his pocket, ignoring the vibrations of more incoming texts, and took a running start while he activated the shard of materia inside the fabric.

The carbon fibers hummed to life in his hands. He lashed the cloth over the lip of the metal awning and hauled himself up, kicking off a support pole to cover the last few feet. From there it was easy to reach the first roof. The second was higher, and he could afford no pause in his stride as he hooked the clinging fibers against part of the wall and ran up the side. He lashed out with the free end to make it all the way up.

He could feel the heat from the dragon's next attack. People scattered across the campus below. Shota summoned Eraserhead and turned to face the giant Heartless. The keyblade looked like steel pipes wrought together around a single winding tree root-- he was unsure what that was supposed to say about him as a person (aside from the name, unfortunately), and he decided a long time ago that he didn't care. Its ability was more important.

He held Eraserhead up to attract the dragon's attention. Its face jerked toward him. It was so close that he could see its hide twitching, but it needed to be closer to enter Eraserhead's range.
A wall of hot air buffeted him, preceding the dragon's arrival. Its black jaws opened and its throat glowed red. His hair blew back from his face as the heat chapped his skin, but he kept his eyes open and focused on his opponent.

Silence.

The keyblade's wooden teeth flashed. The red glow in the dragon's throat dimmed and died with its mounting roar. Its flaming whiskers dulled to red hair. It pulled up just shy of the building, thundering right over him. The force alone almost knocked him off his feet.

***

"Look, there!" Iida yelled over the commotion.

The fight had taken them to the uphill branch of the curve, up against the wall of fire. Doors were open and personal belongings littered the road as the residents tried to save what they could. Others were trying to save each other.

Waves of heat bashed against them. All he could smell was smoke. It stung his eyes, but he could see a puff of dark cloud hovering over the central staircase a few yards off. It poured orbs of water the size of bowling balls onto part of a collapsed building that barricaded the road.

"That's Asui!" Kaminari exclaimed.

He took off in that direction. There were no more Heartless in their immediate vicinity, so Iida and Fumikage followed. They raced over a bridge, past a group of mages in uniform who drew water from the canal to fight the blaze. Some of the water was going to the neighboring buildings to prevent them from catching.

Tsuyu was there along with Kirishima, Sato, and a girl from Class 1-B named Kendo. They had a group of civilians with them. All were sooty and one was badly burned-- two of the others were carrying him up the stairs. Kendo had a small child on her back.

Kirishima saw the trio approaching and called out to them, asking if any of those mages were red. Iida quickly doubled back and asked, but returned shaking his head.

Sato led the group carefully over the steaming rubble while Tsuyu cast another raincloud over the closest flames. The debris hissed and whistled loudly. She looked pale from the loss of mana already. She was new at magic, having unlocked it only after she Manifested, and her mana well was not very deep yet.

"Wait, where's Aizawa and Bakugo?" Kirishima asked.

"Hospital," Fumikage said.

"Great, we're headed there now, unless that giant freakin' dragon decides to burn it down..."

"Don't even say that, man!" Kaminari groaned.

Tsuyu took point while Fumikage brought up the rear. The other students formed a barrier around the civilians. The trees that shaded them before blazed like giant torches. Each gust of wind poured thick smoke over them. The sky was going dark with it.

They ran under the trees with their arms over their heads. By the time they were through, they had come out the other side of the inferno. The hospital was in view behind a swirling fog of smoke.

Fumikage coughed. His chest felt tight. He thought it was smoke inhalation until he sensed the warning from Dark Shadow.

"Stop!" he shouted. "Tsuyu, dismiss Froppy now!"

Her black eyes met his just before a familiar blast of hot air made the group stagger. The dragon burst out of the smoke and landed heavily in the open space at the foot of the campus. He had almost forgotten how huge it was until its head lowered into their path. Its mouth opened, but for some reason, no sound came out, not even a hiss. And wasn't its red mane made of fire before?

Not that it mattered. Those teeth were almost as long as he was tall.

***

"Damn it!"

Shota stumbled to a halt halfway between the gardens and the old boarding school with the tower. He had been using Eraserhead to lure the Heartless away from the hospital. His plan was to keep its attention and Silence it until any available Masters showed up. Then, suddenly, it had turned away from him and made landfall near the street, obviously on the hunt.

It had to be one of the kids. Either Sero had disobeyed and come topside (unlikely), Asui hadn't gotten the message, or someone else had Manifested during the chaos. Froppy's ability would come in handy during a situation like this.

He sprinted.

***

No one was running. They were all struck paralyzed by the dragon king, unable to process how this could possibly be happening.

Fumikage looked at Tsuyu. She was staring up at the Heartless, Froppy low at her side. She might not have heard his warning or forgot it as soon as the dragon landed. He was still holding Tsukuyomi, too, he realized. The two keyblades in one place might have been what drew the king here.

The realization came as the Heartless reared its head and prepared to strike. Kaminari finally screamed and cast a bolt of lightning at it. It didn't even flinch. The loud snap of electricity finally unfroze Fumikage. He tightened his grip on Tsukuyomi and sprinted toward Tsuyu. He would tackle her out of the way if he had to.

There was a maintenance door next to the steps. It burst open, and a huge figure flew out and slammed a fist into the side of the dragon's head. It cracked sideways, but more blows were coming. A feral roar rivaled the roar of the flames.

Yagi's Heartless looked bigger, if possible. The sleeves of his white robe had finally split at the seams, and the shirt underneath seemed to blend into his skin, or had been part of it all along. The length of the robe trailed behind him in tatters.

That was about all Fumikage could tell through the snarl of movement. The dragon's coils bunched up behind it as it tried to back up. When it lifted its head into the air, Yagi's Heartless swung around to the back of its neck and tried to throttle it. No Heartless needed to breathe, so this did not bode well for Yagi's humanity.

The meeting of the two giants summoned another wave of smaller Heartless. Although small compared to the dragon, they were easily six feet tall with skin like melted armor. Longswords gleamed in their hands. Everyone with a weapon held theirs at ready. One of the civilians had the presence of mind to take the child from Kendo so she could use her sword.

***

He saw the dragon arch back. It slumped to the ground in order to right itself in the other direction, like a stumbling ferret, and scraped the top of its neck against the pavement where the road branched toward the campus. There was something white clinging to it that it was trying to get off, or crush. He saw yellow hair.

Yagi's Heartless. It had gotten its footing and was now slamming the dragon's head repeatedly against the cobblestones. If Heartless had skulls, it would surely have cracked by now. The cobblestones certainly had.

Clouds of steam billowed into the sky. The firefighters had reached the nearest row of burning houses. Some used magic to draw water straight from the canals while others utilized the fire hydrants. That wouldn't matter once the Silence spell wore off. Judging from the embers that sparked along the dragon's red mane, that was going to be soon.

It was hardly a decision. Yagi's Heartless was trying to stop the dragon, and so was he. Shota brandished Eraserhead and cast Silence again, snuffing the embers before they could flourish.

The dragon got its feet underneath it and leapt into the air. Yagi's Heartless was shaken off only to jump back on like a gigantic flea. Shota finally caught a glimpse of his, its face in profile: it looked like it had a black mask over its eyes with flat yellow eye holes. It was not smiling.

***

Metal clanged against metal. Kaminari fell back to huff an ether. His lightning magic proved highly effective against the armored knights, so he and the two keybladers had formed a triangle around the group with the others in between.

The knights were not especially fast, but they were a lot stronger than the average shadow and more numerous than the soldiers from Todoroki's world. Tsukuyomi and Froppy appealed to their instincts, but the fear and despair from the civilians provoked their hunger.

Kirishima yelped. Fumikage saw his sword fall from his hands at the end of a heavy downward blow. A man behind him yelled in terror. The Heartless dove right past Kirishima and chopped through the man's body from shoulder to hip. Fear and horror froze on his face as his form was enveloped in shadow, fading from sight as his heart left his body.

The rest of the group instinctively backed away, breaking their formation and nearly bumping into the ones protecting them. The floating heart fell into Darkness, and a new armored knight was born.

Their formation fell apart completely now that the danger was on the inside. The civilians scattered. The person who held the injured man's legs dropped them and bolted. Kirishima had crouched to grab his weapon and got a knee to the face. Kendo barely managed to block a knight's sword from hitting Sato in the back. Kaminari took care of the newborn Heartless, but the damage had been done.

A woman who made a mad dash for the hospital was cut down. Another knight was created. Every move Fumikage made felt too slow.

Iida was yelling orders, trying to regain control of the situation, trying to get them to form up again. Some of the civilians had not fled. They needed to focus on them, not the ones who were beyond their help. Fumikage took a deep breath of acrid air. Iida was right. They couldn't fall to panic now.

A knight landed behind Iida.

Its blade made a wide arch across his back, bisecting him. A thin string of blood curved in midair and fell as he did.

That was the last thing Fumikage saw before everything went out of focus. An inhuman screech filled his ears. Something slick and cool spread over his skin and snuffed the oppressive heat. Everything left inside of him, the frustration, the fear, the pain, the confusion, the fresh grief that pumped through his heart like poison, all coalesced into a fury, a raucous arson of Darkness.

The next Heartless he attacked was torn limb from limb.

***

The tests came back normal, like Katsuki knew they would. What got him steamed was that the doctors, with all their expertise, could not get him to recall the rest of what happened. His memories of that day were like swiss cheese and he could not for the life of him fill in the holes.

He was not afraid of remembering, like the doctors implied he was. It's just that organs were gross and he hadn't been able to eat meat in weeks. Who needed it when eggs and protein powder existed?

Then some sort of message went out. He could practically feel the tension rise from every doctor, nurse, and Baymax in the vicinity. They must have thought he was an idiot when they told him not to worry, but to please stay in the patient waiting room for now?

Bull. sh*t.

He saw himself out. None of the people in the building were strong enough to stop him and none of the Baymax units were fast enough. They would have to tranq him if they wanted him to stay put. Knowing that the Baymaxes had a gas for that, he went a little faster.

Even the receptionist told him not to go outside. He did slow down on his way through the automatic doors, keeping an eye out for any immediate threats. Either Aizawa and Birdbrain had broken their word, or something had drawn them away.

There was a ton of smoke in the air. People were screaming. He had been shut in for, what, an hour? And everything was going to sh*t. Of course it was. The side doors to the main building looked weird, and he realized that they were shuttered tight. Why the hell would they do that when there were probably burn victims all over the place?

Judging from how fast the fires must have spread to get this bad this quickly, he had an idea of what had shown up in Radiant Garden.

Sure enough, there it was, spiraling low in the sky above the campus, green trees bending under the hot air it used to fly. Even though he knew it was coming, he really, really did not like seeing it again. He didn't even have his surfer with him.

Think about this. If the f*cking dragon wants a rematch, it'll get one, and this time we have the high ground. There are Keyblade Masters all over this city...

What the hell was wrong with it? Its flight was erratic, like it had ear mites or something. Katsuki shielded his eyes from the sun and squinted. There was something on the dragon's head. One of the Masters...?

Yes and no. It was Yagi. He looked different, less human, but it was definitely him. Katsuki grinned. Even as a Heartless, the guy was beating the crap out of a dragon. Too bad the mMsters would have to take Yagi down sooner than later, too.

He had a feeling there were smaller fish to fry. With not one, but two powerful Heartless flying around, others were sure to flock around their ankles. He checked his surroundings for any sign of them and caught a glimpse of black at the edge of the gardens, underneath the boughs of a sparsely flowering tree.

It didn't look like a Heartless. It looked like a guy in a black coat, like some edgy goth too stubborn to wear something lighter in warm weather. He recognized the silver pullstrings and looping chain from the projection they were shown when they came back to school.

This was a bona-fide, highest-rank Nobody. It watched the Heartless pass before ducking out of the shade and following them.

"Oh, no you don't," Katsuki growled through a smirk.

***

The armored knights were gone. Their whole body vibrated with adrenaline. They felt bigger (smaller), their reach longer (shorter), and who needed a sword when they had talons? If only the infernal sun and relentless firelight would snuff out and stop holding them back.

But Iida. What if they had hurt the Heartless that was Iida? No, that was a good thing. If they could find his Nobody and destroy that, too, he would come back to them...

Keyblade. Watch out.

They whipped around and crouched low, ready to defend and spring, but it was just Tsuyu. She was... pointing Froppy at them.

On the ground behind her feet, there was Iida. He was on his stomach, tears streaming from behind his crooked glasses. He was shouting their... Fumikage's name. He was shouting "Tokoyami" over and over. Begging him to listen.

Kirishima was on his knees. His gym shirt was off and bunched against Iida's lower back. His face was twisted in grief.

"It's no good, Iida! He's gone!"

He backed up on all fours and looked at Tsuyu again. At a glance, her face was blank, but Dark Shadow could feel the sorrow and apprehension swirling in her heart. She didn't want to attack them, but she would. Just like nine years ago...

Dark Shadow was gaping like an irate reptile, a predatory bird. She twitched her beak forward, wanting to bite, sizing up the keyblade and its wielder.

No. No, we need to get out of here. We are not cornered.

Another keyblade was coming. Dark Shadow co*cked their heads. Master Aizawa would not hesitate.

...Yes. You're right. We should leave.

The Darkness beckoned them into its embrace. It would help them escape. Like this, Fumikage could go through without getting too hurt. Dark Shadow would protect him.

They took another step back. One foot sank through the cobblestones, then the other.

Then they were falling.

Chapter 13: Frog in a Pot

Chapter Text

Moments like these reminded him to still his heart for the good of the many. He saw Asui fending off Tokoyami-- no, the Heartless that had finally taken over. And then he, it, was gone through a Corridor, likely to haunt them all again someday.

Shota squashed down the sick, murky sense that he, one of Tokoyami's legal guardians, had completely and utterly failed him. He needed to prioritize Iida and the other wounded.

The emergency shutters had finally lifted, and a stream of people were rushing out of the hospital. The guy with the burns was alert and could be carried to the emergency room, but Iida needed to lie still until someone came with a stretcher. Blood was pooling across the pavement.

"Kirishima, hands off," he said calmly. "Iida, you with me?"

The redhead quickly put his hands up. Blood dripped down his wrists, having soaked right through the shirt. Shota peeled it off and examined the wound. Applying pressure was the logical response, but there way no way the blade had missed Iida's spine.

"Y-Yes, Master," Iida choked out, trying to keep a brave face through his anguish, but he was waxen with shock. Then, "I c-can't move my legs."

Without the Heartless around to finish Iida off and claim his heart, a wound like this could separate his soul from his body. There was no coming back from that.

Shota plucked a bright blue materia out of a pouch on his belt. The glowing crystal ball was the about the size of a large marble. It had been in its own compartment, saved for an emergency like this one. Not everyone was gifted in magic-- Shota himself could only do what his keyblade allowed-- but materia could grant spells to anyone who learned how to use them.

He held it over the oozing wound and scraped together the last of his mana. Using Eraserhead's ability on such a powerful opponent twice had drained his reserves. Thankfully, it felt like he had just enough left.

"Curaja."

A soft light curled from the materia like a vine from a seed. It branched out and probed the wound, then spread out in a flash and was gone. Ghostly leaves drifted out of sight. Iida's back was still a bloody mess, but the gash was knitting itself closed. The boy's tension eased and his head relaxed against the ground.

Shota tapped Iida's clammy cheek until his eyes fluttered open again.

"Hey, you can't sleep yet." Then, to the others, "Sato, help carry that man to the ER. Asui, you guard them..."

Asui was missing. He spotted her walking away through the gardens, as if in a trance. There was no way grief would do that to her-- something was very, very wrong.

"Hey! Asui?!" Kaminari shouted, starting after her.

"Stop, Kaminari. You need to stay here and guard Iida and Kirishima. You two, head to the ER. Kendo, run ahead and get help for Iida."

He took off after Asui, Eraserhead in one hand and a length of the binding cloth in another.

***

The orb of green light vanished into a pendant that hung from the stranger's gloved hand. Asui blinked. All of a sudden, following the light seemed like a really bad idea. Where was she?

When she stopped to look around, the wind picked up and billowed dark smoke all around them. It was darker than the smoke from the fires, streaked with purple. This was Darkness, and it formed a wall around her and the person in the cloak. The flowers trembled in their raised beds.

She held out her hand, but Froppy did not appear. A cold shudder ran through her as her gazed fixed on the approaching figure, the Nobody.

"So you aren't a Princess after all? What a waste of time."

"Who are you?" she asked, stalling.

He chuckled. It was a slow, forced sound.

"I'm Nobody, who are you? Are you a Nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us."

He held the amulet up again. The gem glowed green. She couldn't take her eyes off of it, even as her mind screamed for her to run, to do anything other than stand there like a deer in the headlights. With his other hand, he conjured a bloom of blue fire. The light glared across her peripheral vision.

"Shh. Don't tell," he said.

***

He felt the Darkness coming a second before it hit. He took a running leap and rolled on his shoulder. The foul wind brushed his clothes, reached its wavering fingers toward his heart and barely missed.

Shota came up on one knee and spotted Asui and the Nobody. They had her mesmerized by an enchanted necklace while they readied a Fire spell. The flame was blue, the hottest it could be shy of pure white. Their hand was already moving to cast it at her.

His mana was drained, but the binding cloth could do plenty without being fully activated. He held it in a loop and whipped it toward the stranger, knowing that if he hooked Asui, the stranger could simply redirect their flame toward her. He yanked the loop back as soon as it fell over their wrist. This all happened in the space of one motion, including what came next.

The gout of flame blossomed in midair until it was all he could see. On instinct, he bent away and prepared to roll on his shoulder to get out of range. Before that could happen, though, the spell's cruel heat enveloped his entire left side.

There was a moment of bizarre stillness before his body caught up to the pain. A scream tore itself out of his throat. The stink of burning flesh and hair choked out the flowers' perfume. He couldn't even feel his left arm by then, but everything else stung like a thousand poisoned needles.

Asui was staring at him. Her eyes were off the necklace.

"Go! Now!" Shota screamed.

His throat cracked from the strain. The wall of Darkness was still there, but she could at least find a place to hide. As long as she got away from the Nobody.

He didn't see her run; his vision blurred and he bent double to vomit foamy apple juice onto the cobblestones. Eraserhead clattered in his unsteady grip. The binding cloth was a charred tangle across the ground. When he could focus again, the Nobody was pacing unhurriedly toward him. Their hood was back. He could see white hair and pale skin mottled red. Some of the red marks were old wounds, but the ones on his neck were... scales?

"Well, today didn't really go as planned, but at least we got a couple keybladers out of the picture." The Nobody, a young man, lit two fires this time, one over each hand. "Think your heart is strong enough for your body to live on? Oh, wait, these flames will just kill you. Too bad."

Shota's left arm was the numb one, but he couldn't lift his right arm, either. Each breath stretched and pulled the fabric that had melted onto his skin. His vision came and went, turning the hollow person before him into a triangle of lights: one white and dull, two blue and blinding.

Suddenly, the triangle contorted. The white vanished and the blues streaked to the left and faded, leaving a trail of sparks. The sound was like a sack of potatoes hitting the pavement from the top of a skyscraper. Something else was there with him now, something big.

Before he could see what exactly it was, the world tilted sideways and went black.

***

Katsuki lost track of the Nobody in the cluttered alleys above the old private school. He had circled all the way around to the other side, closer to where the second stripe of fire ended, when the dragon crashed into the school's lone spire.

Yagi's Heartless was still on it, beating the life out of its writhing coils as they sank to the ground inside the wall. The tower wasn't as banged up as it could have been, but all the windows on the impact site were broken.

"sh*t, it's just going to come back again at this rate! Where the hell are all those Masters..."

Right on time, the rabbit lady came bounding out of the street and jumped clear over the wall. About a second later, a bright light flashed, and the dragon's arching coils went still. A deep red heart drifted into view just above the wall. Katsuki watched it fade into the ether.

His own heart sank a little. The Masters would go after Yagi next, or what was left of him. He shook his head, reminding himself that it was for the best. A strong guy like him was bound to come back if they got his Nobody, too.

But, would that be a good thing? For him to make a monster like that, he had to have some serious Darkness in him beforehand. Was he really out there fooling everybody for so long? Fooling the kids who looked up to him?

The wind picked up, drawing his attention back toward the hospital garden. A big cloud of Darkness swirled over the trees, almost like the blizzard dome from before.

"What the...?!"

He ran along the school wall toward whatever fresh Hell this was, only to catch a glimpse of the Nobody darting into an alley on the downhill side. He glanced rapidly between both and cursed under his breath.

The Masters could handle the Darkness cloud. If that Nobody thought he could get away now that his dragon was toast, he was dead wrong.

That brief glimpse gave him an idea of where his target was headed. Fortunately for him, there was a yard up ahead that overlooked that part of the street. Katsuki sprinted across the grass, vaulted the fence and landed right in front of the guy. The fire and smoke were a couple houses behind him, so the Nobody would be cut off if he turned tail.

Turns out, it was a different guy. This one was shorter than the one from the garden. In fact, he had the same height and build as

As

"Stop!" Katsuki shouted.

The Nobody had turned sideways and dashed toward an alley. He was fast, but the alley was on a steep downward slope. With a yell of exertion, Katsuki jumped from the incline and tackled the Nobody, taking himself down in the process.

They separated upon impact with the ground. Katsuki rolled over twice, caught himself, and looked up at his quarry. The black leather hood had fallen back.

"No..."

Deku stood up, green eyes resting impassively on Katsuki in simple anticipation of his next move.

"No! You're kidding me!"

This had to be some kind of sick joke. Deku backed up, expressionless. Deku, the guy who broke down in tears at the thought of half a butterfly, was seemingly unaffected by the death and destruction whirling through the city.

Katsuki didn't remember getting up, but he was on his feet now, his nails biting into his palms.

"Are you really, are you really going to tell me that you stole my keyblade just to throw it away? Just to throw your whole damn heart down the drain?!"

A Dark portal billowed up behind Deku. He turned his back on Katsuki and walked into it.

"Stop!"

Deku's hand moved. A metal ball the size of a marble bounced over the pavement and rolled right under Katsuki's foot. He fell like some kind of loser and landed hard on his hands, palms scraping across the pavement. The portal was already closing.

"Izuku!" he screamed.

***

Nausea swam in his stomach like a circling fish, but there was nothing left to throw up. The sky was moving. A bell tolled. He was shivering uncontrollably, but each breath of warm air burned his exposed skin.

Whatever he was lying on was cool, almost textureless. His body formed to it. He blinked, looked up blearily, and saw a face above him. Black mask, yellow eyes. Faded blonde bangs curling forward almost like antennae. No smile.

"You came back," he rasped.

"You aren't the only one who cares about these children," he rumbled.

There were red and gray streaks in his skin like the veins of an infection.

"Sorry I can't heal you," he continued, the words vibrating next to Shota's head. "No materia, and I can't do white magic anyway."

"What are you?" Shota asked through the tearing pain in his throat.

"A Heartless. I wish I could tell you more, but even now, my humanity is on the brink of failing." The arm under Shota's shoulders lifted him gently. He heard a slow inhale, felt the next words against his bared throat. "I can almost taste the Darkness in your heart. The agony, the despair. But there's Light, there, too. Your love. I have to admit, it's hard to resist."

Am I going to die?

His thoughts were vague and far away. He felt above his own pain. There was just the cold.

"When you see young Tokoyami again, please offer him my apologies. My interest in him was selfish. I thought that by understanding Dark Shadow, I might understand myself. The truth is, they are very different from me. Pure, and free. But I will be free soon enough, when my mind has decayed. The next time you see me, I will be your enemy."

Free... from what? His throat moved, painfully, but he couldn't manage the words.

The sky was gone suddenly, replaced by fluorescent lights. A sharp scream rang out in the closed space.

"Take good care of him," Yagi's Heartless said to someone Shota could not see. "He's a hero."

Chapter 14: Outro

Chapter Text

They let Tenya have the news on in his hospital room:

Thanks to the first responders and Master Aizawa, the destruction from the fires was not as extensive as it might have been. That being said, it was wrought so suddenly that half the neighborhood was destroyed in minutes. There was an unconfirmed death toll.

Multiple cloaked Nobodies had been spotted throughout the city that day. One of them had put the hospital under lockdown from the inside. Luckily, Masters Moashi and Mizushima had found themselves in the basem*nt upon their escape from the waterway. They were unable to apprehend the Nobody before it exited through a portal, but they ended the lockdown.

As for the incident in the waterway, the large Heartless that appeared turned out to be Yagi's. The bulkheads were most likely activated by another Nobody. The aim was, apparently, to get rid of a large group of Masters at once. This went awry almost immediately when Yagi's Heartless experienced some kind of duress, tore one of the bulkheads open and left the masters alone.

(At this point, they showed an image of the torn bulkhead. The thick metal was crinkled up from the bottom in the form of hooked fingers.)

The image was disturbing. Tenya sucked in a breath and grimaced. Master Aizawa had saved his life and moved the healing process along by leaps and bounds, but he'd still needed surgery to remove the tiny bone fragments from his lower back.

As for his legs...

"Are you okay? I can ask the nurse if you're ready for more painkiller," his mom said.

"No, it's fine."

His was the worst injury sustained by the visiting students, not counting Tokoyami.

They hadn't really talked about Tokoyami yet.

***

In the immediate aftermath, Tsuyu had avoided everyone. She felt awful in so many ways it was hard to focus.

The interior of the hospital was too stifling to bear. She needed fresh air, but the beauty of the gardens had been sullied for her. Instead, she sat under one of the decorative trees on the opposite side of the complex with her knees hugged to her chest.

She had only been outside for a few minutes. Iida was in surgery and Master Aizawa was getting some sort of treatment for those awful burns. The memory of charred flesh, the rough blackened edges of meat clinging to exposed bone, made her stomach turn. His terrible scream still rang in her ears.

Instead of trying to summon Froppy again, she just followed orders and ran away to hide behind a flower bed. That Nobody would have killed him if Yagi's Heartless hadn't broken through the barrier. She'd heard the impact and seen the Nobody go flying, his body already shedding Darkness before he tumbled limply over the pavement. Then he was gone. Obliterated.

Even after that happened, she could only sit there and watch the Heartless carry Master Aizawa away. That must have been the right thing to do, though, because even when the other Masters showed up, she overheard them warning each other not to intervene in case the Heartless snapped and took Aizawa's heart.

She wanted to apologize, to hold herself accountable for what happened to him. The words burned in her throat like bile with no outlet.

Master Yamada was there. She saw him speaking to one of the nurses before he slipped around a corner and out of sight. Tsuyu followed him, hoping to have her message passed along.

When she turned the corner, though, she quickly ducked behind it again. Yamada was alone in a small waiting area by the windows. He was seated on a chair with his elbows on his knees and his hands in his hair. He was rocking back and forth, and when she heard the barest ghost of a moan, she practically ran out of the building.

Footsteps on the pavement. She hoped they would pass her by. When they paused, she tensed.

"Why're you hiding out here?"

Bakugo's voice. She hadn't really expected that. It made her glance up at him. He looked less fiery than usual. He had missed most of the chaos, but someone might have filled him in.

"If there's something you wanna say to the others, just go inside and say it. Say 'blame me' or whatever."

His hands were in his pockets and his eyes were on something else. The way his voice quieted at the end almost made it seem like he didn't blame her for Aizawa.

But there was Tokoyami, too. In spite of everything, she felt bad for pointing Froppy at him. It was stupid, but there were some confusing things in that whole situation that had her wondering...

She stood up and brushed the wood chips off of her pants.

"Thanks, Bakugo."

He grunted.

***

Katuski envied her. It was easy to apologize for something that wasn't actually your fault.

***

The news cameras had gotten a good look at only one of the Nobodies. He had watched the chaos unfold from the top of the castle tower. When the drone found him, he stayed right where he was. In fact, he looked straight into the lens and let the wind blow his hood back. Silver hair whipped across his chapped smile while he made a hand-heart over his chest.

Before, this mysterious new group was known only to the Keyblade Masters. Now the "League of Nobodies" was on everyone's tongues.

Tenya's family had been involved in local politics for generations, but it was Tensei's participation that conditioned them to watch news reports to the end, no matter how troubling or ill-reported. Media literacy was practically a family value. Even inaccurate or biased information sent a message. That being said, Tenya felt a spark of relief when the nurse interrupted them.

"Hi, excuse me. One of his friends from school is here to see him. Is that okay?"

"Oh, of course!" Tenya said.

Whoever he was expecting, it was not Bakugo.

And yet, there he was, skulking into the room with his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants. His manners toward Tenya's parents would have been impeccable if not for the unnecessary loudness. They looked a little bemused, probably realizing that Tenya's stories about him were not exaggerated, but they let them have the room for a bit.

Bakugo's shoulders relaxed a fraction once the adults were out of the room. His crimson eyes scanned the various monitors, the chart on the wall, the bags on the IV stand. They avoided Tenya entirely.

"Look," he sighed finally, "I'm not gonna ask if you're okay, because it's pretty obvious that you're not. I'm just here because this isn't something I wanna gab on the phone about." He finally looked at him. "Have any of the others told you what they think about Tokoyami yet?"

His heart sank and his arms prickled. Nerves, as he had come to find out, were complex things.

"We've spoken, but not about him, yet," he admitted, curling his fingers into the crisp white bedsheet.

Bakugo tilted his head back and made a sound that wasn't quite a growl.

"Gah, this is gonna sound like some rumor mill sh*t! Asui told the others that the thing, the Heartless, didn't cast a shadow. It didn't have an emblem, either, like it was natural-born or something. And you saw yourself that it just wrecked the other Heartless and ran off, right?"

"That's... that's right."

"I wouldn't give a f*ck about any of this, but it was pretty obvious the other day that Aizawa was taking Birdbrain to the hospital for his own thing at the same time as mine. If he was really the 'odd one out,' they should've just had him as an extra on another team. Do you get it?"

His pulse thumped in his ears. Light and color flashed from the muted television screen. This whole time, he had been kicking himself for not noticing how much weight Tokoyami carried. He had known something was wrong after Yagi's Heartless revealed itself. He didn't understand the connection between them, or if it was a coincidence, and part of him thought he should have pushed harder to find out. Now he hardly knew what to think.

"Are you saying he was a Heartless this whole time? How is that possible...?"

"Yeah, that's the question. Yagi's had a shadow and everything because it's an Emblem Heartless. Tokoyami, though? No idea, but Aizawa knows something. Maybe the whole school does."

A protest died in his throat. He hated to think that their prestigious school was hiding something as serious as this. On the other hand, he had known Tokoyami for months, had practically gone through hell with him in Todoroki's world. He could not bring himself to think that he was a creature of Darkness, of evil.

"There has to be something more to this," he murmured. He met Bakugo's gaze again, steadily. "I trust Master Aizawa. He must have been trying to help Tokoyami with whatever this is. Tokoyami, too, must have been fighting against it until..."

Until he, Tenya, was almost killed. The thought turned his words into a rock that lodged in his throat. It was weird to think that he could have that sort of affect on someone. Well, it would have been the same with anyone else, right? Kirishima, Sato, any classmate being injured like that would be enough to send one of them into a panic.

"So. What are you going to do?" Bakugo asked. "And don't give me any crap about your legs. Birdbrain's your friend, right? So what are you planning to do about this?"

He never would have expected that sort of thing from Bakugo. What did this whole situation mean to him? Come to think of it, the only people who knew about Tenya's diagnosis were himself and his family. Bakugo had an eye for details. He was here for a reason.

"My legs aren't an issue. My spine wasn't completely severed, and Master Aizawa's spell saved more of the neural pathways, so there's a chance I can walk with an exoskeleton instead of relying on a wheelchair. But even if I was completely paralyzed, it wouldn't stop me from reaching out to Tokoyami. One way or another, I'm going to find him. That's how you feel about Midoriya, isn't it?"

He said it as it came to him. Bakugo's face went blank, then slowly turned red as more realizations tumbled from Tenya's mouth:

“The sheer fervor in your pursuit of Izuku Midoriya goes beyond stolen property. This whole time, you've never mentioned what it was that he stole from you, as if finding the person is more important than finding the object. Besides that, who enrolls at a specific high school on the off-chance a missing person might turn up there?”

Bakugo's face twitched, now an ugly shade of puce. Tenya had struck a nerve, and maybe that was low, but Bakugo was the one who came to him with this.

"Bastard. This isn't about me," he snapped.

"Is it not? You cared enough to come here personally. You care about your friend, and you care about Tokoyami, too, don't you?"

His voice rose as he spoke. Bakugo turned away and raked his hands through his mess of ash blonde hair. When he spoke again, it was at the wall.

"I never said that loser was my friend!" he said, as if pained. Tenya wasn't sure which one he was talking about until he continued, "It's none of your business what my deal with him is! But we're both looking for someone and everyone else wanted to dance around your feelings so here I am, gossiping about Tokoyami!"

"So we'll find them together!" he shouted.

Bakugo stared at him. He looked stunned, and, possibly, on the verge of tears. It was an alien expression on him. Tenya, for his part, was slightly out of breath and equally surprised at himself.

The door cracked open. He braced himself for a scolding from the nurse or his parents, but his mom entered hesitantly.

"Sorry to interrupt..." There was a note in the last word that conveyed some skepticism over the yelling, but it was secondary to whatever she was about to tell them. "Some people from the Council of Masters are here. They want to ask you a question about the royal family you met this summer. What should I tell them?"

"What's the question?" Tenya asked.

He felt a little shaky from his moment with Bakugo, who was now silent. It seemed that his being here might have been fate.

"It's about the youngest son, Todoroki Shoto," she said. "His brother says he's gone missing. Since you became close during that time, he was wondering if you'd heard from him."

*~SPECIAL SECRET~*

The moon, hazy in a flat slate sky, turned the slow churning waves into a dark mercury sea. Deformed ribs of black stone framed it low on the horizon. A lone figure sat on the shore, on a nub of those stones, and watched the distant moon, if only because it was the brightest thing in sight. Even then, its light was cold.

He lifted his left hand, and a portal billowed open. The soles of leather boots crunched lightly on the packed sand. The portal closed.

The man on the stone sighed slowly. He turned his head under the black hood.

"Well?"

"The dragon's gone. Master Usagiyama got it."

The man hummed, nodded.

"Good job."

Crunch, crunch, stop. Silence.

"What is it?" the man asked, facing the ocean.

"I saw him. He... found me."

The man's face turned again, more sharply this time.

"I didn't tell him anything. I just stayed quiet. So, it's fine."

A beat passed. The man stood up and met the youth halfway. He reached out, put a gloved hand on his shoulder. The youth lowered his face until only the top of his head was visible.

"It's all right. No one else is here."

A hitched breath, a shuddering exhale. The man's arm gently pulled the youth closer until his forehead rested lightly against his sternum.

"I'm sorry," the boy sobbed. "He called me Izuku. It's been forever since he's called me that. I almost broke the facade... I'm so bad at this." He gave a pathetic half-chuckle and scrubbed the tears from his face.

The man inclined his head slightly. Long blonde bangs brushed the boy's dark curls.

"You're doing fine, kiddo. You're doing just fine."