Chapter Text
“E-RANK?! Who do they think I am?!” To ask who was screaming would be like asking if the sky is up, it just was a foregone conclusion.
“Chill out man…” Kirishima grumbled, trying to get close to the angry blonde without getting backhanded.
Currently the class were in the locker rooms after having been told about their first training assignment. In other words, their first Quest as a class.
“You heard All Might! He wants to see how we work together and an E-Rank Dungeon is pretty much impossible for any of us to get killed in!”
“Yeah, and some of us almost did get killed the last time we were in a Gate,” Kaminari added, which strangely caused Bakugo to simply grumble and wait for the rest of them to get their Hero Outfits on.
Izuku, obviously, couldn’t use his Monarch Outfit, so he had designed a different one for the school to use.
It was a green and white armor-like outfit, which again, was just an illusion to go over his actual armor, but the design still held. The knuckles, as well as the shins and feet, were heavily armored in appearance to match his gauntlet shape. They kept the claw appendages on his fingers and added talons to his feet. The talons were unfortunately just aesthetic and didn’t add any attack power.
The armor was light around his joints and waist area and armor rose up Izuku’s back to cover parts of his head. He didn’t want a full helmet as the illusion would then obscure his vision slightly. Also it just looked a bit scary. The interlocking plates and minimalist design, allowed by the illusion, made the armor look futuristic. And Izuku believed that the green and white had a calming effect to it. Paired with his lack of a helmet, he looked extremely approachable compared to the other armor sets in the room. Not to mention that since specific parts of his costume drew attention, like the knuckles, people could tell at a glance what sorta Hero he was.
A/N: I’m not going to describe everyone’s outfit, one by one but just imagine more typical armor versions of the MHA costumes. Look up Solo Leveling armor to get a sense of the design aesthetic.
Most of the time, male Heroes chose big scary sets of armor because they thought it looked cool and intimidating, and they were more interested in killing anyways. Meanwhile girls tended to choose cuter or sexier clothes. They liked playing up the media and their stardom more than the guys. That wasn’t to say that either gender was more or less useful inside a Gate, that came down to their Rank and their skills.
Funnily enough, this wasn’t just gender standards enforcing themselves. As it turned out, Takashi himself had done a survey of most of Japan’s Heroes and the statistics leaned heavily towards what would be considered gender standard. It was just how it went. Proving that video games weren’t always wrong. The boys chose the big scary armor, the girls chose the boob armor.
Regardless, by comparison, Izuku’s outfit kinda bridged the gap, offering a functional armor that allowed itself to be more peaceful to look at. It felt more like a police officer walking around as compared to a marching mountain of metal.
Which of course meant that he was the odd one out amongst the men, as they all had very harsh, jagged looking armor, most of them with some sort of helmet or faceplate.
Thankfully, he wasn’t completely left out of the class, as many of the women had similar lighter-armored looks, but many of them were still very practical looking.
The one Izuku focused on was, of course, Momo.
“Woah…” Izuku rapidly blinked his eyes at the outfit in front of him. It was… “A dress?”
Momo looked happy at that. “So it fools even you!”
“Huh?” Izuku looked back at the crimson-red dress waving seductively back and forth… They were, “Pants?”
“I didn’t bother sending the school a Hero Outfit! I’ve been tinkering on my own!” She proudly exclaimed.
Izuku took another look, finaling seeing through the illusion. Her Hero outfit was basically just several patches of thin armoring across her body, exposing things like her stomach, parts of her arms, and parts of her legs. It gave her a Lara Croft adventurer style.
The dress part seemed to be an illusion created by the shimmering pieces of the armor.
“Watch this,” She focused briefly and the dress shimmered at a different frequency.
“Oh…” Izuku took a step back, looking away as his mind became fogged with disorientation. “Please don’t do that.”
“It’s a frequency that affects anything with visual receptors like ours. I figured since I’m more of a long-range fighter, it would be helpful to have a quick stunning ability on hand.”
“You made an illusionary device into a weapon…” Izuku stared at her with both pride and just the tiniest bit of horror. “This girl could absolutely find a way to destroy the world.”
“Stylish and practical!” Kaminari commented. “My type of girl!”
“Oh please, like you give a damn about either,” Jiro bit back, smacking him upside the head. “You just wanna see her with the dress off.”
“Ow! You don’t have to keep hitting- OW!”
“The two of ‘em are dating, so lay off already,” Jiro said, pointing to Izuku and Momo before smacking Kaminari one last time for good measure.
“Damn, really?!” Kaminari looked genuinely shocked. “Oh… um… I’m sorry…”
Momo didn’t seem to care about the situation and Izuku just waved it off.
“Wait… you two?” Iida asked, as if he hadn’t spent any time with them.
“Seriously?” Setsuna rebuked him. “You didn’t notice? Not during lunch? During class? They kept glancing at each other. You people are blind!”
Iida went wide-eyed, as if his whole world view had been destroyed. “I hadn’t noticed…” Many others also stared at the two in shock.
“G-Guys… it’s not that big of a deal…” Izuku stammered, feeling like that E-Rank kid all over again, uncertain and embarrassed.
Momo on the other hand just smiled and took her seat on the bus that the class was meeting at. She decided to take mercy on the green-haired boy and change the subject. “So are we sure this is an E-Rank?”
No one had an answer to that, even as the bus got moving towards their destination.
“They wouldn’t lie,” Yui finally said. “We’ve already experienced the unexpected with the Recursive Gate, so they wouldn’t try to teach us the same lesson twice.”
“Also it’s not like the school can just create Red Gates out of thin air.” Tokoyami added.
“So it really is just an E-Rank Dungeon?” Kaminari sighed, all the talk of Red Gates getting him stressed out.
“Don’t be so pathetic!” Bakugo growled. “If they wanted to test us out they’d give us a C-Rank at least!”
“Maybe they couldn’t get any on short notice,” Momo said, pointedly glaring at Bakugo with no tact at all.
“Oh yeah, I forgot they have to buy ‘em out like an Agency does,” Kirishima said. “That would make sense if it was the only low Rank Gate to show up recently… but low Rank Gates are super common…”
“Maybe Endeavor is getting stingy,” Bakugo said, smirking at Shoto, who remained silent and uninterested.
“Regardless, it would be smart to remain under the assumption that this is a standard Raid. Nothing is certain, and caution must be taken at every turn!”
Iida may have been too dense to notice Izuku and Momo’s relationship, but those who already knew him from the Entrance Exam trusted him to lead a Raid Party. Bakugo and Shoto would be an issue when it came to following his lead, but they’d cross that bridge when they came to it.
*******
“GREETINGS HEROES!!!”
Upon entering the Gate, the class found All Might sitting by a small campfire, roasting marshmallows above the flames. It was a sight that Izuku couldn’t help but smile at. For years, he’d worshiped All Might. Not just as the pinnacle of strength, but the pinnacle of a person.
There was no flashy armor, no intimidating aura, just a big smile and muscle that made you feel safe, rather than threatened. He was one of the five National-Ranks in the world, and he was the only one who acted as such. Here he was, sitting by a campfire, greeting the next generation with marshmallows.
The inside of the Gate was quiet, peaceful. A starry night occupied the sky, hundreds of fusion clusters filling the void to create a galaxy above their heads. In the midst of the dark forest, it truly felt like a camping trip.
“Please! Take a seat!”
Despite the fact that this was a Dungeon, it was still an E-Rank, even the weakest in the class would be physically immune to anything the Villains in the Gate could throw at them.
So the class gathered around, with only Shoto and Bakugo continuing to stand, their arms crossed. But All Might paid them no heed.
“Do you know why I brought you to such a weak Gate?”
“You said it was because this is a great place to show off where we’re at without getting killed,” Kirishima answered, confused by the question itself, or rather, why it was being asked in the first place.
“Yes, that is true!” All Might handed the first marshmallow to him, taking out another to roast. Kirishima happily bit into it. “But there is more!” Despite his smile, his words became somber. “You are Heroes… That is what society deems you. Do not forsake that name.” All Might gestured to the forest with a free hand. “This is not Earth. It is a different planet, with its own ecosystem, its own life. Life that we call ‘Villains.’ This black-and-white terminology that we have created is unfair. Life is life.”
Iida nodded. “We saw that for ourselves inside of the Recursive Gate… The Ice Elves killed one of their own to save Midoriya…”
All Might handed the next sugary gooey goodness to him. “Indeed. Make no mistake, when it comes to the people, Villains must be put down, for the sake of society. But do not treat these beings as pure evil! They are not!” All Might’s voice shook, emotion welling up within himself. “You and I have both seen their capacity for civility. Their capacity for good. I have brought you to this Gate because I want you to see the possibilities their biology allows for. In many ways, they are beautiful… but misguided.”
He sobered up, his voice returning to its standard tone. “I lied to you about wanting to see your current capabilities. We will save that for another day. First… I want you to experience being human inside of a Gate… not Heroes… humans…” He stood, handing the bag off to Iida. “Defend yourself if you must , but do try to avoid violence. I have no goals for you to complete inside this Gate. Simply exist here until I come to get you. Take in your surroundings. Recognize that this is not the place where true evil dwells.”
With that, he marched back through the swirling portal, leaving the class alone.
Bakugo scoffed. “What a load of shit…”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Izuku wiped a tear forming in the corner of his eyes away. The emotion in All Might’s voice stirred the hearts of most of the class, reminding them that he was not some meathead, but society’s shining star.
Iida set down the bag of marshmallows. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Bakugo asked with loathing in his voice.
“Go take a walk,” He responded.
“Tch,” Shoto broke off from the group, grumbling under his breath.
“That’s the way to the Boss…” Izuku informed him.
Flames erupted from Shoto’s left side. “Why do you think I’m heading that direction?”
“We weren’t supposed to-”
“Heroes exterminate the Villains. That man was wrong,” He said, letting his bloodlust leak out, freezing Iida in place.
With that, Shoto vanished into the forest.
“And I’m not taking some stupid ass walk in the park with you losers,” Bakugo growled, walking off in the opposite direction of Shoto.
No one wanted to follow either, and many looked to Iida as their leader.
He sighed. “If the Gate is to close as the result of Todoroki’s actions, we’ll know and have time to make it back here to exit. I suggest we do as All Might says, and try to take in what this Gate has to offer.”
Whereas Shoto and Bakugo walked off to the East and West respectively, Iida made for the North, so that the rest of the class could enjoy their walk. But what they didn’t notice was a sneaky figure following after Bakugo.
The class walked into the forest… and vanished.
*******
“Uhhh… where’d everyone else go?” Setsuna asked, ending up in the middle of the thicket of trees, with only Izuku and Yui there to keep her company.
“I can sense them… But they’re miles away.” Izuku looked around. They had just entered the thicket of the forest and yet the trees seemed to go on forever in every direction. “It’s spacial magic. I don’t think it’s malevolent… it’s just how the forest works.”
Igris emerged from Izuku’s shadow looking around with caution, but like Izuku didn’t sense any sort of ill-intent. He pointed in one direction, drawing Izuku’s attention.
It was a small furry creature, which could be likened to a capybara mixed with a hyena, with a stout body and dog-like head.
It walked behind a tree, emerging several meters away where it began chewing on a plant of some sort.
Izuku’s guess was spot on. The spatial distortion wasn’t a trap, but just a given for the denizens. Shown by how the creature had no trouble navigating to its food of choice.
“That doesn’t look befitting of the name ‘Villain.’” Setsuna said, struggling against her urge to pet the thing.
“Probably All Might’s point,” Yui mentioned, also wishing to pet the creature.
“You should put away the Summon,” Setsuna said. “If we can be separated by miles in an instant, we can also be reunited in an instant.”
“Good thinking.”
Igris slunk back into the darkness of Izuku’s shadow, leaving them alone.
“Did you see that?” Yui asked, looking closely at the creature.
“Huh? I don’t see anything.”
“Right… there…”
Izuku craned his neck to see that Yui wasn’t looking at the creature, but something behind it. An unearthly blue shape, transparent, but clear enough to discern, a spirit hiding behind a tree.
*******
[Incorporeal Demolith]
Rank: Unknown
Type: Spirit
Role: Unknown
Proficiencies: Unknown
Skills: Unknown
*******
“Not very helpful…”
A Demolith was a species of sub-human creatures. Many likened them to Golems, but Demoliths weren’t as simple as that. Golems were dolls created by others, given life by Mana. But they didn’t have a soul or sentience. Golems were robots. Demoliths were souls that inhabited materials, such as stone, making them look like Golems. It was a very fine difference, but it was an important one, because it allowed them to manifest after death. When a Demolith chose a material at birth, that was it, that was their life. If that body died, they died.
Since they were born as incorporeal souls, they were more likely to manifest as a type of spirit after death. They were the subject of a long and on-going study into the spiritual essence of all living things.
Regardless, their spiritual forms were a lot less dangerous than the material ones. A magic attack of any kind could easily kill them, whether it be from a magical sword or a spell from a mage. They really had no method of attack aside from some basic forms of magic. So even though it was a somewhat rare encounter, it was about as dangerous as an ant to Izuku.
The spirit itself was more or less a blue ball of energy. It reminded Izuku of an atom as they were typically visualized. A solid mass with many other spheres orbiting around it.
“Can you talk to it?”
Izuku shrugged. “Uhh… can you understand me?”
The spirit briefly glowed brighter, but that was it. It turned around… Well actually it was impossible to tell which way it was facing, but it started moving the direction opposite to the group, suddenly vanishing behind a set of trees.
“Let’s follow it!” Setsuna suddenly cried out, rushing after the spirit and vanishing just as it had done.
Yui and Izuku exchanged a glance, shrugged, and followed closely behind.
*******
Bakugo woke up with a throbbing headache. Not because he had been hit in the head, but because the drugs that Momo had dosed him with had that side effect.
“I… I knew someone was following me…” Bakugo went to stand, but could only attempt to lurch forwards, as his body was tied to a tree with magical rope created by Momo. His hands were encased in metal spheres, preventing him from using his explosives.
“I thought it was that piece of shit… but it’s just his bitch.”
Momo said nothing, staring at him blankly. She knew he’d have a few things to say, so she’d let him say them, and then get down to business.
“I’ve been called a lot worse than someone’s bitch,” She said, taking a leisurely seat up against the tree opposite to Bakugo. “I’ve also seen much worse than the word vomit you spew.”
“Good for you,” Bakugo spat. “Now let me out so I can kick your ass!”
“Here’s the thing. Izuku helped me move forwards, he helped me get away from my parents. He freed me of that burden. I want to do the same for him.” Momo’s eyes lit up with energy. “You’ve been a blight on his life for years. I’ve heard too many stories about what you’ve done to him, the things you’ve said, how you’ve hit him and hurt him. The amount of injuries that you inflicted, the ones I had to heal.”
“So you’re gonna kill me?” Bakugo asked with a smirk.
Momo scoffed. “Izuku, for some reason beyond my understanding, still cares for you. He wants to be friends like before. But you don’t have the capacity to have a mature conversation, so I decided to pull it out of you.”
“He already knows why I hate him! I shouted it!”
“He’s an extra?” Momo giggled, in a way that would’ve reminded someone of her sadistic mother. “You have no idea how special Izuku Midoriya is. He’s far more than a background character.”
“Tch, he must love having a housewife like you. Just spewing bullshit about him all day!”
Momo smiled, creating a small syringe from her Quirk. “Izuku doesn’t know everything about me. My parents taught me a lot of things before I escaped them. Do you know what magically enhanced acid feels like when it's injected right into your veins? Could you handle the pain of me cutting your toes off one by one, only to have me regrow them and do it all over again?”
Bakugo, to his credit, just gave a cocky grin. “You’re insane.”
“Izuku doesn’t believe that you’re discriminating against him, and I don’t believe in your ‘extra’ argument. So either you tell me the real reason, so we can work this out, or I force it out of you.” Momo didn’t betray a hint of emotion.
“You wanna know why I hate him? That’s it? That’s all you care about?” Bakugo laughed. “I’ve got no problem telling you why he’s a waste. He’s a pathetic parasite who leeches off others to make some cash. He never once apologized for it either. He should still be E-Rank, because no Hero would act like he did. He’s at the bottom of the ladder and he acts like it.”
“And you still think that about him?”
“Of course I do! He may act all tough and he may be stronger now, but people don’t change. The second he’s faced with someone stronger than him, he’ll become the same pathetic mess!”
Momo frowned. “After what you heard yesterday… you still think he’s pathetic? Surviving all he’s been through? Helping others, saving my life twice over? Saving everyone in that Recursive Gate?” She shook her head. “He’s never been pathetic. He’s always had a will equal to yours, if not greater, he just didn’t have the strength to follow it up. If you had been Awakened as an E-Rank, and Izuku had been the A-Rank, how would you feel if he treated you the same way?”
“I wouldn’t be an E-Rank.”
“That’s it? That’s your argument? God, Setsuna was right, you’re the same as all the other Heroes, some pathetic classist dickhead.” She stood, throwing the syringe aside.
“Heh, were you ever gonna actually use that?”
“No,” Momo glared at him. “My parents may have taught me to torture a man till he’s begging to be killed, but I’m not like them, and I’m not like you. I don’t think that I’m different because I have power. I’m human, and I care about those around me, end of story. But you, you’re just a creature, you’re not human. You don’t feel any sort of empathy for those around you. You abuse them and treat them like garbage! I’d like to see you in the same situations Izuku has faced! You’d be a sniveling wreck! He’s gone through more than you ever will!”
“Are we done?” Bakugo asked, starting to look bored.
“I should leave you here,” Momo said. “Just let you sit here until the Gate closes and you’re trapped on a different planet for the rest of your pathetic miserable life.”
“Pathetic? I’m an A-Rank! I’m stronger than most of the world! I’ll be scouted by all sorts of Agencies and-”
“You’re not happy…” Momo stated bluntly. “You scream and bitch and complain constantly. No one wants to be around you so you have no friends. Your parents probably can barely stand you, much less love you. You’re stuck at an A-Rank. You’ll never surpass someone like All Might, not in strength, and not in maturity. You. Are. Pathetic.” She waved her hands and the restraints around Bakugo vanished.
“DUMB BITCH!”
Bakugo launched from his sitting position, explosions from his palms propelling him forwards. Momo took a single step to the left and threw a punch with all her might.
Bakugo’s face practically deformed underneath her fist. She broke his nose, and fractured his cheekbone. She may not have been as physically strong as Izuku, but she was no pushover.
“If you were a National-Rank, then you could act like a king, no one would complain about your arrogance. But you’re not. You’re just a normal man. Even I could kill you.”
Momo pulled back her leg and kicked Bakugo in the stomach. The wind was forced from his lungs as he collapsed, spitting up blood.
“Stand up,” She demanded. “Izuku would’ve already been up. He would’ve had a plan ages ago. He would’ve bit back the pain and come up with something.”
“Kill… you…” Bakugo looked up, wiping away the blood from his mouth. But all he saw was the empty forest. Momo was gone.
In truth, she wasn’t standing very far away. Merely cloaked in Stealth, she retraced her steps, back to the beginning of the spatial forest.
In the faintest corner of her mind, she had the belief that Izuku had perhaps wronged Bakugo in a way that he didn’t even know. That was the only way Momo could see Bakugo being mad at Izuku for any genuine reason.
As much as she cared for Izuku, she had hoped that was the case. Because if Izuku had wronged Bakugo, she knew he would take steps to apologize and make up for whatever he had done. She knew that things could be patched up.
But it was not so simple. Izuku had never wronged Bakugo, and Momo felt stupid for even thinking that in the first place. It was blind hope that she could help alleviate his own mental duress as he had done for her.
Bakugo was just an asshole, nothing more, nothing less. To Momo, he was a lost cause. Neither kindness, nor harshness, would cause him to change. Izuku had shown him kindness for years, and Momo had been sure to thoroughly humiliate him. And still he seemed ready to spit obscenities about Izuku.
Momo had done the one thing Izuku would likely refuse to, so she’d let it simmer for now. She only hoped Izuku wouldn’t disapprove.
*******
“Are these… houses?” Setsuna brushed her fingers against a structure made out of a strange material, like a cross between bone and metal.
*******
[Calcarium]
Description: A material created by Rigs, a creature that has a mutually beneficial relationship with the Demoliths. Rigs have a very dense magical body, causing them to produce magical metal naturally inside of their digestive tract. Demoliths allow Rigs to feed off the bone and bone marrow of their kills. From this, Rigs excrete an incredibly sturdy material, strong enough to build skyscrapers.
*******
“It’s… basically poop…” Izuku said, trying not to cringe as he pulled his hands away from it, explaining the symbiosis to the girls.
However, neither Setsuna nor Yui seemed all that disgusted, and continued to touch it, probably because it looked nothing like poop and because magical creatures tended to not carry bacteria as a result of their altered biology. Some did, some didn’t, so it was kind of a toss-up.
“There’s so many,” Yui said, looking down at the rows of houses. It was like a standard suburban neighborhood you’d find in the USA. There were hundreds of them symmetrically lined end-to-end. But none of them were occupied… well, not by anything living.
“Aww…” Setsuna frowned.
Inside many of the houses were corpses, little more than bones and dust. Ones that resembled the capybara-like creature from earlier, making Izuku realize he hadn’t used Documentarian on it. They were Rigs.
“If they don’t eat enough bone, the metal builds up in their body and it kills them…”
“But the Demoliths… where are they?” Setsuna asked just in time to see the spirit dart behind a house.
“Maybe it has the answer,” Izuku said, thinking back to the living Rig in the forest. He hoped it wasn’t the last of its kind.
“Can you resurrect them?” Yui asked as they ran after the spirit.
Izuku shook his head. “I don’t have their souls.”
*******
[Souls]
Description: The Spiritual Essence of all creatures resides within their Souls. It is what humans call “consciousness.” Souls can linger with their now dead body for days, weeks, months, years, and sometimes far longer. The Shadow Monarch can see these Souls and take them for himself.
*******
Izuku looked around, but found nothing resembling a Soul. It seemed that the Rigs had moved on long ago.
“There!” Setsuna pointed to a central clearing, where the houses encircled the weeds of a once flourishing town. Above it, was the spirit. They approached slowly once they got close, not wanting to startle the spirit, but it made no move regardless.
At the center of the clearing, there was a single corpse. A golden body, once inhabited by a powerful soul. It was a Demolith husk. The more potent the material, the stronger a Demolith was. So despite gold being a rather weak metal, it represented a great deal of potential. Any Demolith inhabiting gold would be an A-Rank powerhouse, at least.
It was bipedal, just like humans, but had four arms and no head, just a torso. One of its arms was outstretched, towards a chunk of stone. It had carved a message, a message in a language that none of the trio could understand. Thankfully, the System was kind enough.
[In war, the losing side shall always be those who fight, and never those who lead their kingdoms into battle.]
Izuku recited the message to the girls.
“That’s why it’s so empty… they fought in a war…” Yui somberly averted her gaze from the Demolith shell.
“What does it mean?” Setsuna sheepishly asked.
“Presidents, kings, dictators. Any sort of leader who starts a war is never the one who suffers. It’s always the people they send to fight. Because those men and women would rather shake hands than kill each other,” Izuku answered, recalling a moment in history when two sides of a warfront called a truce to happily play a game of soccer against each other. They laughed, they joked, they shared their food and drink, because the men they fought were not their enemies by nature.
“This is all so… pointless…” Izuku muttered, tears forming in the corners of his eyes once more. Arcka, Rasaka, Anok, Baruka. Did any of them actually want to fight? The Gates couldn’t truly be as simple as “Us vs Them.” After all Izuku had seen, there had to be more to these creatures they called Villains.
*******
[Secret Quest: The Fate of Innocence has been completed!]
[Rewards:]
- 1. +50 Stat Points
- 2. Any one S-Rank Item from the Store
- 3. Demolith Soul
- 4. Magic Iso-Crystalline Gold Dust
*******
As Izuku received the System message, the blue Spirit orb began to disappear. Like sand blowing in the wind, it was pulled apart, particle-by-particle. Within just a few seconds, it was gone, and checking his Soul List, Izuku found a new name.
“Arise.”
[Demolith Lvl. 1 - Normal Grade]
[Demolith is searching for material to inhabit.]
“Oh!” Izuku quickly opened the store as the girls watched the new floating Shadow Orb zip around. Demoliths in nature could apparently only inhabit natural resources, but this Demolith was under Izuku’s rule, and would listen to his suggestions.
“Uhhh… this one!”
Yui and Setsuna gave Izuku a weird look as he waved and spoke at the air. They knew he had something special going on, but they didn’t know about the System.
[Divine Steel]
“Here! Use this!” Izuku held out the material to the Soul.
It didn’t hesitate to rocket into the metal, lifting it from Izuku’s hands as it began stretching and deforming it. Before long, the Divine Steel had ballooned in size, as if the Demolith was duplicating it.
Within moments, the same shape as the golden husk on the ground had been formed. The only difference being that the deceased golden Demolith was around human size. But this Divine Steel Demolith… it stood taller than the trees.
Shadows raced up the marble-white steel as the soul settled into its new body. Eventually, it looked like a normal Shadow, with white accent lines instead of the typical green.
[Divine Steel Demolith Lvl. 5 - Captain Grade]
The behemoth, as strong as Igris, delicately took a knee before Izuku, its four arms resting their knuckles upon the weeds of his once great town.
There was more to be done with the System, but Izuku decided that, out of respect, it could wait until they had left the new Shadow’s old home.
“Let’s get out of here.”
*******
Thankfully, the newest Shadow of Izuku’s collection was kind enough to point them to an archway of sorts between several trees, leading them to the entrance to the forest, where they had begun. It was easier than stumbling through spatial distortions, for sure.
So Izuku recalled the giant, promising to name him soon, and the trio passed through the arch.
“I AM EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED YOUNG MAN!”
Izuku emerged just in time to see All Might looking down at Shoto with the closest thing to anger he had ever seen in the National-Rank. He always appeared so smiley on television, so this was Izuku’s first time seeing him without the smile.
“Well we were gonna kill it anyways,” Shoto dully said in response.
“But that was not the assignment I gave you!”
Uraraka turned around in time to see the trio approaching. “Oh! There you guys are! That’s everyone then!”
“What’s going on?” Setsuna asked.
“Todoroki is getting chewed out for killing the Gate Boss.” Momo answered with a slight smirk, just as Izuku caught sight of Bakugo.
“What happened to him?” Izuku whispered. His old friend was bruised and just a little bloodied. He stared off into the night sky, his mouth slightly agape and his eyes dull.
“I… happened,” Momo said, wincing as she did so.
But Izuku just chuckled. “Well, now we’ve given him the carrot and the stick, so if he doesn’t come around, it isn’t our fault.” Momo sighed in relief, happy that she hadn’t offended her partner with her actions.
“This is our job. Don’t act so pathetic,” Shoto finished off the conversation, walking back out of the Gate.
All Might stared in shock for a few moments at the retreating sight of Todoroki. “I see… Endeavor… you…” All Might stifled the grumbles under his breath and turned towards the class. “Well, I trust the rest of you followed my directions?” They nodded. “Good! Great even! Tell me all about it on the bus ride back!”
Izuku reached out to take Momo’s hand, not just to thank her for the lesson she taught Bakugo, but because he was still feeling emotional. The small plaque and its message were carved into his mind. The Villains… and the Heroes… they were both suffering just as much as the other.